I guess I will put a little spoiler alert here and say that if you ever want to do the
Keys to the Kingdom Tour and want to go in with absolutely NO previous knowledge of the tour, skip down about 5 or 6 paragraphs. I will bold the start of the report that is after the tour report. Otherwise, read along and enjoy!!
We decided on taking the absolute earliest tour possible. We grabbed a quick bowl of cereal in the room (thanks Garden Grocer!) and headed out early. We did this for a few reasons, not the least of which was we wanted to be on Main Street USA with NO CROWDS!! This was almost worth the price of admission alone! We took a few shots of Main Street like this - I think it is a must have!
After checking in to the tour (and getting a complimentary bottle of water) we had about 20-30 minutes to kill and I cannot think of a better place to go wandering around than an almost completely empty Mainstreet USA. We were able to enjoy some of the sounds of Mainstreet that get lost in the crowds - I won't spoil those here but know that there is definitely some fun things happening down those side streets!
Our tour started at 8:30 when our tour guide Devan gathered the group together in the atrium next to City Hall. She took us all through Mainstreet giving us a little history on the names and places indicated on the windows, concepts and designs of the street, and basic premise of what working for Disney is like.
One of our favorite windows is:
Devan said that this window is the only one window with a person's name facing the castle (the others have company names on them). She also spoke of a light that is turned on in the evening illuminating this window, but we never saw it. If anyone knows if this is true or false, let me know!
We continued through the central hub and headed towards Adventureland where we were able to cut the line and get on Jungle Cruise. This wasn't the normal Jungle Cruise ride - Devan commandeered a boat and took the microphone to give us history, insight, and even turned on the light in the tunnel to allow us to see all of the detail there. She pointed out the "first ever hidden Mickey" and some other Imagineers musings (I think the native's name is King Name (pronounced - Na-Meh) and he grunts jibberish and then proclaims "I love Disco!")
We went backstage and saw where they keep parade floats, other decorations, got a behind the scenes look of Splash Mountain, a fascinating garbage vacuum thing, and other workings of the park. Again - I don't want to spoil too much, but one thing we enjoyed was that the sightlines for "on stage" and "off stage" for cast members are very well marked so that they know at all times if guests in the park can see them. Also, DW loved that there was a test platform where they tested the durability of paints on the ground surface. Another cool feature was old signs (Mickey Mouse Club sign, Donald's Birthday, the old Mickey's Birthday Land sign) hung up in the float hangars. No pictures allowed!!
We went to Columbia Harbour House for lunch. You pre-order your lunch when you check in and they have the upstairs prepared and pre-set for lunch so no time is wasted. We both ordered the Lighthouse Sandwich - hummus and broccoli slaw on multi-grain bread. Thought I had a picture, but I can't find it. Trust me - it was great!
After lunch we went to the Haunted Mansion - kind of weird that it was basically just get on the ride and go. Nothing really special - but fun none the less. She did tell us to look for 5 Jack Skellingtons in the ride - two are barely visible and the other three are impossible to see. She did point out Toad in the Pet Cemetary at the Mansion.
During our walk through Liberty Square, she explained why there is brown pavement/bricks running through the middle of the walkway. I am not sharing why - you'll have to learn this one on your own! (trust me - I am sparing you from the truth. Think Colonial American History of indoor plumbing)
She also talked about the leather hinges on the shutters (metal was used for bullets during the Civil War) and addressed the internet rumor of the marble doorstep - it is not really George Washington's or Thomas Jefferson's marble doorstep even though they do have a black wrought-iron fence around it! This was to prevent people from chipping at the stone (which they were doing when they thought it was really a historical artifact).
We saw the Presidential Seal on the Carpet (and got relief from the heat) at Hall of Presidents. It is one of only three in the USA - Oval Office and Air Force One are the other two.
We finally went into the Utilidors and she shared more history of Disney. A short video is shown and a small tour is given of the underground. It is cool to experience and see how quickly they can get from one end of the park to the other. Can you believe that the Carousel of Progress and Tony's Town Square share a parking lot?? She did confirm that the "TinkerBill" rumors are just that - rumors. Any Tink has to be FEMALE, 5' - 5'2" and around 110 lbs. The fellow DISer who created the TinkerBill photo is very good at photo shop! During this conversation, a cast member, who shall remain nameless, was asked about the "Bay Lake Tower" at the Contemporary and whether this was going to be a DVC resort. This cast member said the following (while nodding vigorously)"There has been no official email or any other form of confirmation from the Disney Company that this new construction will be DVC" (nod - wink, etc)
A keepsake is given at some point during the tour (very cool!) and we finished up back where we started - next to City Hall. Throughout the tour people shared where they were from, what we did for work, our WDW experiences, etc. One gentleman described himself as working in Orlando with a non-specific job title that made him sound like he could be in entertainment. He stood up at the end of the tour and said," I have to make a confession....I am not really who I said I was. My name is ?????? (we forgot - sorry) and I work for Disney" We thought we had just won a Year of a Million Dreams prize!! My brain was racing to come up with what it could be - a dream fast pass, free dinner, Castle Suite!! I would have taken a free set of Ears or a blue cupcake!! Alas, the prize wasn't for us. In fact, there was no prize - well, except for Devan. If you have ever seen the Guest Relations cast members' costumes, they strongly resemble an equestrian outfit, right down to the "whip" they carry. The gentleman continued, "It is amazing to see that even 37 years since the opening of the park, that the Spirit of Walt Disney is still carried through its cast members today. Especially with Devan. I am proud to announce that Devan just completed her first KTTK tour, and would like to award her with this!" He handed her the "whip" and shook her hand. She was teary eyed with emotion (a little misty as DW likes to say). I couldn't believe it was her first tour - she did a FANTASTIC job! The tour was 4.5 hours in length, and worth every step of the roughly 6 miles we walked (I wore a pedometer). Devan did a nice job of giving rest breaks, getting us to shaded or seating areas, etc. intermittently througout the tour. We finished up by 1:00-1:30, so this doesn't take up the whole day and is worth the time spent.
After the tour, DW and I took a trip around Tomorrowland and through Buzz Lightyear (where, honest to goodness, I scored 999,999 and was a "Galatic Hero", I'm not sure how it happened, but feel like i should have gotten a sticker coming off the ride!). We picked up a snack at
Cosmic Rays of Chicken Nuggets (wow are they great!), fries, and apple slices:
As an aside - I really like the nuggets. I hate reading all the complaints about the "missing" chicken strips. I get that these are smaller, but they taste just as good. If you are arguing value, I get the idea. If you are arguing that these aren't good, you aren't giving them a chance!! After this really yummy snack (gotta love Ken's Honey Mustard) we headed over to watch the
Share a Dream Come True Parade, and it was better than we remember! Knowing we were going to be heading back to BCV, we headed toward the exit and watched from the Train Station.
Mickey_Chic chiming in: When we returned to the resort, we opened the door to the Villa and WOW!! there was a chocolate cake sitting on our "living room" table! DH (Mickey_Man) had contacted guest services and arranged for an anniversary cake to be delivered to our room while we were out. They plussed it by adding colorful balloons. Being a chocoholic, i was thrilled and really surprised. Needless to say, we dug right in and saved the leftovers in our fridge. This is a really nice thing that is easy to arrange if you are celebrating something in WDW. A little bit of history...every time we have been in WDW for our anniversary, DH has a cake made and delivered to our room, at times even replicating our wedding case (we were married at the wedding pavillion). !
Anniversary cake July 2008
Mickey_Man here, and now it is on to dinner. That night we meandered over to one of our favs, The Dolphin, for dinner at
Todd English's bluezoo. We have been to bluezoo before, dining both in the bar and in the restaurant. DW recalls really loving it and i couldn't honestly remember if I liked it that much - I recall it being good, but I couldn't remember where I would rank it. The restaurant is elegant and beautiful, a bit of a "New York Chic" style. We were seated quickly and our waiter Eric came over to take our drink order. DW had a grapefruit cosmo while I ordered a Kirkland - Tanqueray 10, frest mint, lime juice- while we looked over the menu. One thing I do recall from our first time at bluezoo is that this is where I first ordered oysters at a restaurant. We did so again, and they did not disappoint. We like east coast oysters - less briny, a little sweeter. DW also ordered a beet salad, and wow was that a surprise. I can't believe how good it was. It had red and golden beets, candied walnuts, goat cheese or goat cheese foam - I have forgotten which. I decided to indulge a bit and order the scallops appetizer. Oh YUM! Braised short ribs and cauliflower puree! That is one of my favorite appetizers anywhere. For dinner, DW ordered the miso glazed chilean sea bass (her new favorite fish) and I had the slow roasted double pork chop. DW is still raving about the dish, so I reckon it was good, but I couldn't get past the 3 inch thick pork chop cooked perfectly, and served atop sweet potatoes. Because it was our anniversary, we pretended we were grown ups and behaved ourselves- thus no food porn on this meal. Trust me though - bluezoo is a MUST DO! It must be better than it used to be, because my previous meals here do not stand out nearly as much as this meal does! We decided to split dessert: warm chocolate cake with liquid ganache center, maracaibo chocolate cream pudding, peanut ice cream. It was great, and big enough to share, especially after a big meal and knowing that we had cake back in the room! Our waiter -we had gotten friendly with him and he was now Rick to us- is one of the best servers anywhere. I would actually request him and I am recommending you do the same when you go.
It was great to go back to the Dolphin. You can tell from my signature that we love it there, and bluezoo is one of the reasons why. After all, we did change our ADR from V&A to here and were really happy we did!! bluezoo is simply the best seafood restaurant on Disney property - better than Narcoossee's or Flying Fish - and it is arguably one of the five best restaurants period. Yes, we liked it that much!
Next Report: Pizza Planet, Kona Cafe, the best cannoli on property, and some old favorites at MK.
) Well, given that we had just gotten in and we were at the Beach Club, we decided this was the right time to go to B&C. Guess what? We walked right in!!!! No lines, no waiting!! 
). I won't bore you with details of MK - you either have or will experience it yourself. We didn't quite beeline for Space Mountain but we did make that our first ride. We wandered through the park for a while, enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells along the way. We did snap a shot of one of my favorite Hidden Mickeys ever:
Are you serious? There are 73 available tables and we cannot be seated right now?
Anyway, our pager went off in less than 5 minutes, and we enjoyed hanging around the Yacht Club lobby. 
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Tomorrow's dining reports are strictly the commentary of DW. I ate a total of 1 leaf of lettuce, 2 oz of chicken and three pieces of pita from Boma. UGGH!
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