DukeStreetKing
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2004
- Messages
- 2,644
Blondie1bn and I left Palm Harbor at 4:30 for a hopefully short trip to WDW. It was GFs turn to pick the restaurant so I didnt know exactly where we were going, even though I was driving. She did hint that you need someone fun to go with, so I immediately thought of Whispering Canyon Café, but didnt say anything. There is just no way to escape Tampa quickly on a Friday afternoon so the drive to I-4 was just a tad slow.
We took the Disney/Celebration exit off I-4 and pointed the Mustang toward the parks. I asked if we were going to the Wilderness Lodge and she said yes. Aha, Watson, score one for deductive reasoning!
The hostess took our name and said it would only be a few minutes before our table was ready. Wow, I expected a little bit of a wait with a PS. Within 5 minutes we were shown to our table and Kate Coyote was taking our drink order. A couple of glasses from the water trough and a few yards of adult beverages, please. We also ordered the Wild West Wings as our appetizer. Wow, these could have been our meal! 5 large, complete chicken wings with an awesome Ancho chile glaze. A side basket of wonderful corn bread accompanied the wings. We started with the knife-and-fork routine with the wings, but gave up after a bit of a struggle and just dug in with our fingers. Our meals came shortly after we finished the wings, which was perfect timing. I ordered Jeffros Glazed Pork Chops and GF ordered Doc Williss Roasted Chicken. My meal came with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes (potatos, Mr. Quayle?) and an ear of corn. Blondies chicken also came with smashed spuds and cinnamon apples. My pork chops were very good but I think I would have enjoyed them more with the Ancho chili glaze instead of the unknown glaze they came with. The spuds were very good and I just love corn on the cob! The chicken was very moist and quite tasty and the apples reminded me of Swansons TV dinners, which is ok. Kate Coyote was a very nice waitress. The whole restaurant was pretty subdued. Only a few calls for ketchup and one horse race for the kids, other than that there werent too many shenanigans. It might have a tiring week for the servers or maybe just one of those nights. Either way, we enjoyed our meal and had a very nice time. We were sitting at the railing looking out on the Wilderness Lodge lobby and the view outside the window, towards the rear of the lobby, gave us the impression of being surrounded by trees. The designers did a great job on this resort. Alas, there was no room for dessert, so we paid the bill ($72.00), gathered up our souvenir glasses, made a quick stop to remove the evidence of our food handling, dropped the glasses in the car and then back to the lodge for a little after dinner stroll.
It was a bit muggy out but not oppressive. We walked past Silver Creek Falls near the pool and noticed a rabbit was checking us out while eating his dinner. GF was able to get very close to Thumper and took a few pics.
After stopping at the Hess station to gas up, $1.89/gal which was just a few cents more than I pay in Palm Harbor, and we were off to Downtown Disney. I missed the exit somehow and ended up across I-4, but a quick u-turn set us straight and into the West Side parking lot.
Man, there was a BUNCH of people at DD! Ive almost forgotten what the crowds can be like during the summer. Suddenly the heat and humidity factor got kicked up a notch. We strolled through the West End and noticed the lower path to the Marketplace was blocked off and Pleasure Island was open for free. This was at 9:00 PM. There was a band called Fifth Year Crush playing on the West End stage. They were playing some cover tunes and a couple of original numbers. If anyone knows these guys, tell them to stick with the original songs. They are good and dont need to rely on someone elses stuff. There were many, many kids at Pleasure Island and Im not sure I like this idea of opening it up for free. There is alcohol everywhere and not a great place for all these kids, IMO. Although the Marketplace now has kiosks serving alcohol and we saw a woman smoking and drinking with her little boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old, staring up at her taking it all in.
Anyway, we checked out some of the shops, grabbed a bottle of water and headed back through the crowd towards our car. We got back on the road at about 10:30 and managed a quick 15 minute ride before the I-4 construction traffic started. It took us 1-½ hours to travel about 20 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Once we got through that mess, it was smooth sailing and we arrived home at about 1:30, very tired but very happy and already planning our next adventure.
Stay tuned .
We took the Disney/Celebration exit off I-4 and pointed the Mustang toward the parks. I asked if we were going to the Wilderness Lodge and she said yes. Aha, Watson, score one for deductive reasoning!
The hostess took our name and said it would only be a few minutes before our table was ready. Wow, I expected a little bit of a wait with a PS. Within 5 minutes we were shown to our table and Kate Coyote was taking our drink order. A couple of glasses from the water trough and a few yards of adult beverages, please. We also ordered the Wild West Wings as our appetizer. Wow, these could have been our meal! 5 large, complete chicken wings with an awesome Ancho chile glaze. A side basket of wonderful corn bread accompanied the wings. We started with the knife-and-fork routine with the wings, but gave up after a bit of a struggle and just dug in with our fingers. Our meals came shortly after we finished the wings, which was perfect timing. I ordered Jeffros Glazed Pork Chops and GF ordered Doc Williss Roasted Chicken. My meal came with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes (potatos, Mr. Quayle?) and an ear of corn. Blondies chicken also came with smashed spuds and cinnamon apples. My pork chops were very good but I think I would have enjoyed them more with the Ancho chili glaze instead of the unknown glaze they came with. The spuds were very good and I just love corn on the cob! The chicken was very moist and quite tasty and the apples reminded me of Swansons TV dinners, which is ok. Kate Coyote was a very nice waitress. The whole restaurant was pretty subdued. Only a few calls for ketchup and one horse race for the kids, other than that there werent too many shenanigans. It might have a tiring week for the servers or maybe just one of those nights. Either way, we enjoyed our meal and had a very nice time. We were sitting at the railing looking out on the Wilderness Lodge lobby and the view outside the window, towards the rear of the lobby, gave us the impression of being surrounded by trees. The designers did a great job on this resort. Alas, there was no room for dessert, so we paid the bill ($72.00), gathered up our souvenir glasses, made a quick stop to remove the evidence of our food handling, dropped the glasses in the car and then back to the lodge for a little after dinner stroll.
It was a bit muggy out but not oppressive. We walked past Silver Creek Falls near the pool and noticed a rabbit was checking us out while eating his dinner. GF was able to get very close to Thumper and took a few pics.
After stopping at the Hess station to gas up, $1.89/gal which was just a few cents more than I pay in Palm Harbor, and we were off to Downtown Disney. I missed the exit somehow and ended up across I-4, but a quick u-turn set us straight and into the West Side parking lot.
Man, there was a BUNCH of people at DD! Ive almost forgotten what the crowds can be like during the summer. Suddenly the heat and humidity factor got kicked up a notch. We strolled through the West End and noticed the lower path to the Marketplace was blocked off and Pleasure Island was open for free. This was at 9:00 PM. There was a band called Fifth Year Crush playing on the West End stage. They were playing some cover tunes and a couple of original numbers. If anyone knows these guys, tell them to stick with the original songs. They are good and dont need to rely on someone elses stuff. There were many, many kids at Pleasure Island and Im not sure I like this idea of opening it up for free. There is alcohol everywhere and not a great place for all these kids, IMO. Although the Marketplace now has kiosks serving alcohol and we saw a woman smoking and drinking with her little boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old, staring up at her taking it all in.
Anyway, we checked out some of the shops, grabbed a bottle of water and headed back through the crowd towards our car. We got back on the road at about 10:30 and managed a quick 15 minute ride before the I-4 construction traffic started. It took us 1-½ hours to travel about 20 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Once we got through that mess, it was smooth sailing and we arrived home at about 1:30, very tired but very happy and already planning our next adventure.
Stay tuned .
