Updated: Feb Trip plans "It's a Bit Less Humid Today, Right?" - a September 2018 Trip Report

[Dis_Yoda]

Happy to help!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I am seriously loving your report. You guys look so happy together! Great pics!

We are doing our first BWV trip next month and we also rented points. I really liked your reviews of Yak and Yeti and Flying Fish since we are going to try them for the first time too.

 

[Araminta18]

I am seriously loving your report. You guys look so happy together! Great pics!

We are doing our first BWV trip next month and we also rented points. I really liked your reviews of Yak and Yeti and Flying Fish since we are going to try them for the first time too.

Thank you!

That's awesome--I hope you love it! Renting points and knowing you're getting a deluxe for cheap is a great feeling. Hope you enjoy the restaurants--glad my reviews could be helpful!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I fell way behind! I just got caught up. All of your trip sounds great so far! Loved your halloween costumes. I tried the hummus fries at food and wine also and I really liked them as well.

 

[Araminta18]

I fell way behind! I just got caught up. All of your trip sounds great so far! Loved your halloween costumes. I tried the hummus fries at food and wine also and I really liked them as well.

Thanks!! The hummus fries...mmmmm. I got an email from jet Blue about $31 fares from here to Orlando and a part of me was like “yes! Food and wine round 2!” But decided to be a responsible adult and didn’t book it. Lame.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Thanks!! The hummus fries...mmmmm. I got an email from jet Blue about $31 fares from here to Orlando and a part of me was like “yes! Food and wine round 2!” But decided to be a responsible adult and didn’t book it. Lame.

This is what scares my husband about agreeing to Annual Passes this coming trip! I am going to be scoring for cheap flights!

 

[Araminta18]

This is what scares my husband about agreeing to Annual Passes this coming trip! I am going to be scoring for cheap flights!

For sure!! I was *this* close. And I already got DH to agree that I should go back for Festival of the Arts--just waiting for them to announce the Broadway concert lineup and I'll be booked.

 

[Araminta18]

Tuesday, September 18, 2018 (part 1):
Early Morning Magic (MK)
​

My birthday!! I turned 31...I had mixed feelings about this birthday, not cause of the age but because I can no longer use all the "30 and under" discount programs to get cheap theater tickets to all the theaters back home! Oh well.

No sleeping in, as we had booked Early Morning Magic at the Magic Kingdom. This was the only day of our trip it was offered, and I love Seven Dwarves Mine Train (and since I don't really sleep in at Disney anyways....), so I booked it. We got up at 6:30ish and were down at the bus stop around 7:05, but no Magic Kingdom bus was showing on the board. So we grabbed an Uber at 7:12 and were on our way to the Contemporary. This uber driver was clearly more familiar with Disneyworld--he even asked us if we were going to the Contemporary or going to be walking to the Magic Kingdom, and dropped us off right at the walking path when we said we'd be going to the Magic Kingdom. That was really nice, after our debacle the other day. Alleviated any stress about losing EMM time!

The walk over was pretty pleasant, but there was quite a large clump of people eventually forming into the line where you can check in if you have early ADRs, tours or anything of the sort. We joined the clump, but were accused of cutting in line by the people behind us. Ok. Hard to cut in line when there isn't a line yet, but ok. Disney is stressful, I get it.

We checked in, got our wristbands, rented a locker to stick our bag with our nice clothes (for our fancy dinner tonight), and were back waiting by the left-hand gate to be let in. I don't have the exact time written down for when they let us in, but we were right at the front of the group. We stopped and got some castle pictures.

We were still among the first across the bridge there by Liberty Square and back into Fantasyland, which was neat to see.

Original plan was to go to Peter Pan or Pooh first and let the SDMT line die down a bit, but since we were at the front, we gave up the plan and just went for Seven Dwarves. We got on at 7:54 (no real wait), and were back off at 7:58. They had the rope open so that as you left the cave you could immediately get back into the fastpass line right outside the cave and go right back into the cave. Which was awesome!

We waited for the back row, and were back on for ride #2 at 8:00am. We were off at 8:03, were accused of "cutting a 4 year old!' as we got back in line. This lady was like 10/15 feet back from where the rope was open, so rather than waiting, we went through the cut off and she apparently felt we'd committed a mortal sin and loudly proclaimed how tacky it was to cut a 4 year old. Ok. Except that was the normal and expected path for re-riders? *shrugs* Chalking it up to Disney is stressful again. We got on for ride #3 at 8:09 (with that lady and her 4 year old sitting behind us in the cart...hee). This was the first instance of any kind of line, as well--5 minute wait.

We were off at 8:12 and immediately back in line, where we waited 6 minutes and were on for ride #4 at 8:18. Back in line at 8:21, and on for ride #5 at 8:23 (the lines got shorter from here). Back in line at 8:26 and on for ride #6 at 8:30. Back in line at 8:34 and on at 8:34 for ride #7 (no line! ). Back in line at 8:37 and on at 8:38 for ride #8. Back in line at 8:41 and on at 8:41 for ride #9.

(I would post our ride pictures here, except apparently the camera had technical difficulties so we have no pictures from the ride that morning )

Cute little door in the queue that I only noticed on our like our 5th ride.

We were off at 8:44, and decided to take advantage of the other offerings, so we speedwalked to Peter Pan (passing some of the early ADR crowd lining up for Peter), to get on at 8:47. We only did one ride, but it was nice to have the ride practically to ourselves. We were off at 8:50, and speedwalked back to Pooh. We got on Pooh at 8:53, were off at 8:57, ran over to SDMT and did our 10th and last ride at 8:58. We were off at 9:01, and the rope drop crowd was in full force. I think they actually let the rope drop crowd in a little early, but by going through the fastpass line at 8:57 we were still ahead of them for our last ride.

(very excited Winnie the Pooh selfie)

(adorable Winnie the Pooh door that I'd never noticed before! Super cute! Also apparently I was on a door kick this morning )

We then ditched Fantasyland and the rope drop crowd for the allurements of Tomorrowland. I thought about doing Space Mountain, but the rope drop line seemed excessive, so what did we do instead?

Exactly! I know you all guessed right--Astro Orbiter! LOL, I know it's a "low priority", but by doing it early, there isn't the chance for the crowds to build up, and we got the nice breeze from being up so high to cool us down a bit. Also Trevor's first time riding it! It was a good slow down from the chaos of the first hour of the morning. We were done by 9:15, I'm pretty sure.

After Astro Orbiter we suffered through the 5 minute wait for Buzz Lightyear (ie, walk on, so much so they blocked off the extra queue in front of the Buzz animatronic and were telling us to move along). We both did dismally, but had fun.

(saving the galaxy is SRS BIZNESS)

The galaxy saved, we were off to breakfast! I was really pleasantly surprised by the breakfast--quite a good spread, and they were still bringing out new pans of french toast, etc, when we arrived around 9:30. We got a table by the windows that look over Small World, and dug in. I really appreciated chicken apple sausage too. Yum. I also entertained myself by waving at the Small World riders going by. It was a delicious breakfast.

(french toast, chicken apple sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs and chives and cheese...yum)

(More scrambled eggs and cheese and chicken apple sausage)

We also stopped by the Blue Fairy's wish book, but neither of us had a pen, so we couldn't write down our wish. Had to settle for a picture!

Overall, Early Morning Magic was a definite win for us. I'd been wary by some of the more recent negative reports I'd seen on here, but while we did have some waits for SDMT, the longest was 6 minutes, not anywhere near the 15 minutes occasionally reported. It felt uncrowded, and the breakfast was delicious. It was also nice because for the most part the people were happy and unstressed--we had fun introducing the fact that the mine carts rock to several families, and we saw some adorable outfits (including two little girls in matching Toy Story dresses--one girl was Slinky and one was an alien). Definitely worth it. Dunno if the new expanded offerings will be quite as worth it, but as it currently is, we wouldn't hesitate. The one downside was that the ride picture was down. It flashed, but the pics never showed up and emailing Photopass got me a "technical difficulties, tough cookies" email. That's a bit of a bummer, but oh well.

Final EMM Ride Summary:

• Ride #1: SDMT, front row, no wait (7:54-7:58)
• Ride #2: SDMT, back row (#10), 2 min wait (8:00-8:03)
• Ride #3: SDMT, front row, 5 min wait (8:09-8:12)
• Ride #4: SDMT, row #9, 6 min wait (8:18-8:21)
• Ride #5: SDMT, row #8, 2 min wait (8:23-8:26)
• Ride #6: SDMT, row #2, 4 min wait (8:30-8:34)
• Ride #7: SDMT, row #9, no wait (8:34-8:37)
• Ride #8: SDMT, row #8, 1 min wait (8:38-8:41)
• Ride #9: SDMT, row #7, no wait (8:41-8:44)
• Ride #10: Peter Pan, no wait (8:47-8:50)
• Ride #11: Winnie the Pooh, no wait (8:53-8:57)
• Ride #12: SDMT, row #3, no wait (8:58-9:01)

Up next: Magic Kingdom birthday continues!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

That is a lot of rides on SDMT!

Looks like EMM worked out well for you guys and you totally got your money's worth!

 

[Araminta18]

Tuesday, September 18th (part 2):
Magic Kingdom birthday!
​

After finishing breakfast at 10, we looked in the Beauty and the Beast gift shop (I really don't remember why?), getting some photopass pictures on the way.

We then headed to ride the Little Mermaid 'cause there is never a line there. We waited 4 minutes, all of which was walking through the queue. Ariel at the end *always* looks stoned to me, but its a fun ride.

We headed towards Tomorrowland Speedway for our fastpass (from 10 to 11am), but were sidetracked by the lack of a line at the teacups. We did it with the MNSSHP overlay, so we had to do the regular version!

Then we made it to the Speedway. We only waited 3 minutes 'cause they opened up a new side right as we got to the merge point, so that was nice. Trevor was bummed 'cause it meant we were behind each other rather than side by side, so no racing. We also got stuck behind a car that was randomly stopping. Like full on stopping--I assume the little kid they were letting work the pedals wasn't quite tall enough and kept taking her foot off the gas. Oh well.

Done with the Speedway, we had a Buzz Lightyear fastpass from 11 to noon, so we rode that. I did a bit better this time--got a lucky shot at one of the 100k targets, but that was about it! Oh well.

Afterwards we decided to do a new ride: Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress! Some of it was for the air conditioning, but also because we'd never actually done it and I wanted to check it off our list. Likewise, we were doing the Marceline to the Magic Kingdom tour on Thursday and I'd read/heard that sometimes you ride that and the guide gives fun facts and stuff while you ride, so I wanted to be sure we'd done the original first. It was cute! Obviously a little dated (even the "updated" last scene), but cute. And who doesn't love "It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow"?

(this is Trevor being very excited about seeing the Carousel of Progress)

Afterwards we had a little bit of time til our 12:15 ADR at Be Our Guest, so we rode the peoplemover. I got Trevor to give a passing car a high five! LOL I'm too chicken to do it myself but I'll encourage him to!

Then lunch! We'd gotten lucky and scored at 12:15 ADR at Be Our Guest! I knew we wouldn't likely be super hungry after EMM, but I really wanted to eat there and oh well. It's my birthday/Disney Vacation/Tuesday, eat all the things!

(Trevor is imitating the gargoyles, and his "Harumph" Grumpy pin)

We'd pre-ordered our meal, which was definitely the way to go, considering the length of the lines to order. We didn't really have a problem getting a table up by the windows, and our food came pretty quickly. My one real complaint is the noise in there. It is *so loud*. It didn't help that the table next to us had kids watching (2 different) tv shows on their tablets with the sound *all* the way up, and the mom holding a phone conversation on speaker (dunno how the person on the other end could hear, but I could certainly hear their whole conversation). One of my favorite parts of Be Our Guest is the beautiful instrumental arrangements of the movie and musical songs they play, and you really couldn't hear it. It's just so loud in there. They need to do something to fix that--don't know how, but it is *ridiculous*. (Also PSA: never ever have the sound on your phone or tablet up in public if you're not using headphones. Good grief. Consideration for fellow humans please).

The food was good though! I had the french dip sandwich:

Trevor got the tuna Nicoise.

We were both still a bit full from breakfast (only downside to doing all of these in one day!) so we didn't eat everything, but still good. We also got the Master's cupcake 'cause I like chocolate, and the Grey Stuff 'cause you have to.

After lunch we headed over to ride the Haunted Mansion using our last pre-scheduled fastpass. Then, I was on a mission. After leaving MNSSHP the other night, I realized that I did indeed want the exclusive MNSSHP shirt, with the Haunted Mansion ballroom dancers and the headless horseman....so I decided to try my luck at buying it outside of MNSSHP by showing my band.

We were headed to The Emporium, but on our way, we walked by the gazebo in Liberty Square and found Mary Poppins doing a meet n greet! The line was super short, so we decided to meet her (as you may have guessed, I'm a big fan). Unfortunately, we left the picture we were having characters sign back at the resort, since we weren't planning on meeting any characters today. That was too bad--I could have kicked myself. We didn't even have a pen or anything else for her to sign, so we just enjoyed the interaction. She was great--we told her that we'd dressed as her and Bert for Halloween and she liked that. She also told me that (since I was practically her height) that I was already measuring up to essentially being practically perfect in every way. It was really cute. The only downside being that I didn't get her autograph! Oh well.

After that, we made it to the Emporium where they were setting merchandise out (it was like 1:40), and were willing to let us buy with our band from the other night, but we couldn't buy it until 2 pm. So Trevor (being the stellar husband/person that he is) was like "I'll wait, you go play Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom!" So I left him and headed up to Fantasyland to play a round. On the way, I got some fun castle shots. And a trip report can never have too many castle pictures, right?

Of course I didn't have too long, cause at 1:47 Trevor texted that he got it! He's awesome. Apparently he talked to one of the other workers who was totally fine with grabbing him the shirt early. Woot! He then met me up in Fantasyland where we took pictures with the Sword in the Stone.

We then decided to do Mickey's Philharmagic. We both enjoyed it (it was Trevor's first time!)--air conditioning, fun 4-D effects, Donald going through a wall...I love the funny posters on the wall. The only thing I don't like is the 3-D animation is a bit dated now..the human characters are very much in the middle of the uncanny valley!

From there, we headed to the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor 'cause we really like it. It's funny! We were the first people up on the screen, with the caption that we "just came for the scare conditioning" which was pretty accurate. They even used one of my jokes that I texted in!

(this was a few seconds before they flashed us up on the screen as "just here for the scare conditioning"--super accurate, right? Trevor especially...poor guy!

After that, it was about 3:20ish, and Trevor was flagging, so he decided to go back to the resort and rest. I decided I wanted to stay and play Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, and that I could rest at our dinner that night. So, we split up. I actually had picked up an immediate use Space Mountain fastpass, so I hopped in line for that at 3:27. It was listed as a 15 minute wait, but it was a walk on. I did not need the fastpass. Guess it helped they were running both sides? I was surprised the line was so short, but I guess it was a party night.

Trevor got lucky and caught the Dapper Dans on Main Street on his way out of the park!

After Space Mountain, I did some *dedicated* playing of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. I thought I only had to play once in all 4 lands and then I would beat the game, and I'd already done two. But no. There are 9 rounds--9 villains to defeat--so you do each land multiple times. Once I realized that, I was already determined to defeat the game that day. I managed to beat the game about 15 minutes before the park closed for those of us not attending the party that night. I was pretty stoked. There was a lot of back and forth, but luckily it didn't send me to any broken portals and all the cameras were working so it didn't fail to read my spell and make me redo any portals. Phew! Unfortunately the portal where I ended was in the sun so I couldn't really take a picture of the "Congratulations! You beat the game!" screen. Bummer.

I did take a break around 4:15 to ride Splash Mountain. I picked it up as an extra fastpass for a party of one--huzzah! It was a nice cooldown in the midst of my gameplaying. I was still trying with the poses on the ride photos...so sleepy!

But anyways, after beating the game, I headed to the firehouse, where I encountered a lovely CM whose name I sadly forgot to get. He gave me like 7 or 8 packs of cards (cause I hadn't gotten my pack for the day yet) and had me sign the "I'm a Master Sorcerer!" book, and gave me an "I'm Celebrating" button. He asked if I was going to the party that night, and when I said no, he slyly handed me a MNSSHP Orange Bird card "for beating the game". It was a really nice gesture; I wish I could have gotten his name for a cast compliment! Oh well.

From there, I exited the park and grabbed our fancy clothes out of the locker to make my way to meet up with Trevor at the Grand Floridian for dinner! However, it was starting to get stormy, and so the boats weren't running due to lightning in the area. The only other option was the monorail. So I went up to the platform and had to wait a while for the resort monorail to come--I think it was like 15 minutes? It was a very crowded monorail when it did eventually come! But I was lucky enough to get a seat, so I sat down and just enjoyed the ride. I think this was my only monorail ride of the trip--it seems like more trouble than it's worth as a transportation system, considering all the delays/breakdowns, so we don't ride it often.

On the monorail I opened a bunch of the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom packs I'd been given for beating the game--I was missing one card in my set, and got lucky to find it in one of the packs! There was a little girl (maybe 7 or 8) sitting next to me who was very interested in what the cards were so we ended up talking for a little bit about the game and the cards, and I gave her all my extras, cause I didn't have any use for them. It was fun to talk to her, and made the constant stopping of the resort monorail not seem to take too long!

Up next: Birthday dinner at Victoria and Alberts!

 

[QueenJen]

SDMT and did our 10th

I was wondering if you would go for 10 and figured no when you switched to PP - great job.

Astro Orbiter!

You guys were smarter than DH and I - We tried to fit in one rocket.....ummm....not so comfy. Super cute that you were both in the 'selfie' pic.

Final EMM Ride Summary:

That is a fantastic start to the day.

sound *all* the way up, and the mom holding a phone conversation on speaker

It's their world, you're just living in it.

He then met me up in Fantasyland where we took pictures with the Sword in the Stone.

I like this - I don't think I've seen a couple doing this - I am totally stealing this idea when we finally make it back.

I was still trying with the poses on the ride photos...so sleepy!

You nailed it.

Birthday dinner at Victoria and Alberts!

Whoa! Fancy - can't wait to read all about it.

 

[Araminta18]

Tuesday, September 18th (part 3):
Dinner at Victoria & Albert's​

Trevor and arrived at the Grand Floridian slightly before me around 6:30. He took an uber from the Boardwalk (and it was quicker than taking the resort monorail from the Magic Kingdom apparently) so he met me when I got off the monorail and we found a restroom to change clothes in. That was easy--the bathrooms were nice and clean and quiet, and we were done changing pretty quickly.

This was our first time at the Grand Floridian, so when we realized we had about half an hour til our reservation, we started exploring the main building a little bit. A very little bit--we were pretty excited about our dinner, which didn't lend itself well to just quietly sitting or exploring. We looked in all the little shops they had around, and got some pictures taken. The photographer was super nice and did lots of shots with us.

We saw one of the chocolate eggs (I almost said Easter Eggs but it's September, so no...), and enjoyed listening to the live band and then the pianist. It's a beautiful resort. I would love to stay there one day. We'll have to see!

Around 7:15, we got in line at the desk to check in. I think it's the Citrico's desk, but it seemed like the most logical place! Anyways, we were only in line for about 30 seconds before a lady came out of Victoria and Albert's, and greeted us by name. That was very impressive!

They took my bag and led us to our table, which if you're facing into the main dining room was off to the right side, next to the wall.

I think we were one of the last groups to be seated, as several of the groups around us finished up before we were even halfway through our meal. The ambiance is very luxurious--a little stool for ladies' purses, lovely full length tablecloths, the harpist playing live music...we were a little overwhelmed and felt a little awkward. We're not that fancy!

We had three waiters, whose names I was a bit too overwhelmed to catch. Two of them were lovely, and the third was nice, but seemed a bit less attentive/more condescending than the (seemingly) authentic kindness/friendliness of the other two. The other two were very aware of our dietary restrictions (no alcohol, and we don't drink coffee), while the one asked at the beginning of the meal and then would ask other questions later that indicated he didn't remember our previous answers. Which I normally wouldn't care about, but V&A's sells themselves (and indeed all three servers indicated) as an experience where they pamper you, and the lack of attention/care where we had to remind him of our restrictions didn't feel that way--made me feel a bit awkward. Unfortunately as the meal wound down he seemed to become the primary server, which was a bit of a bummer. All of which sounds really negative, but overall we loved the service. It's just that with an experience like this (both what they present themselves as and the price point for the dinner), anything "off" is going to make more of an impression that it might otherwise. And I'm not that great of a writer, so I run out of superlative adjectives pretty quickly!

They seated us and gave us the menus to look over, to comment on and see if everything looked ok. It all looked fine to us; our mindset was to basically trust the chef's expertise. I don't like seafood (of any sort), but figured if I was ever going to like it, this was the place to try it. So our only food restrictions were that we don't drink alcohol and don't drink coffee, and our menus were the same (since Trevor loves seafood). And we loved that the menus were personalized and we were able to take them home.

Since that is super hard to read:

Chef's Degustation Menu
Amuse Bouche: New Zealand Langoustine with Imperial Caviar, Avocado, and Lime Nuage

Alaskan King Crab with Sun Kissed Melons and Pink Peppercorn Yogurt

Virginia Black Bass with Poppy seed and Lemon Ravioli

Dover Sole with Petite Squash and Tomato Water

Roasted French Quail with Corn Pudding and Spinach

Kurobuta Pork Belly with Pineapple and Peanuts

Australian Kobe Style Beef with Potato Pinwheel

Selection of Cheese from the Market

Chocolate Bar

Coffee/Tea​

We were excited! We did end up ordering "Spiritfree cocktails". They had 6, and you could order all of them at a slight discount, but we decided to just get one each. I got the Pear Sour (pear nectar, lime juice, ginger ale, hibiscus), and Trevor got Paradis (pineapple juice, grenadine, blood orange). Both were really good, and different--interesting flavors. Mine was sweeter than Trevor's but we liked both of them. I wish I could remember more about them but it's been a month! Oh well.

(The Paradis is on the left with the candied blood orange on top; the Pear Sour is on the right)

The wait between courses was just a *tad* too long, especially the first few courses. We were seated at 7:18, we ordered cocktails at 7:23, and the cocktails came out at 7:36. I also (mostly for my own entertainment, and from the time stamps on my pictures) noted the time each course came out, which also gives an idea of pacing and time to spend here. But the lag between the first few courses is another small nitpick, highly personal. Feel free to ignore.

7:49 pm: Course #1, the amuse bouche, consisting of New Zealand Langoustine with Imperial Caviar, Avocado, and Lime Nuage

So I had no idea what most of those words meant. I appreciated how the servers would explain what each dish was as they presented it! Langoustine are basically tiny lobsters, or something that tastes like lobsters? Not sure, but, irrelevant! This was a fantastic opener. Light, but with interesting (complex for me) flavors. And I loved the pop of salt from the caviar. Having all the flavors in one bite...yum. It wasn't fishy at all, and I was a bit worried that it would be. But I ended up enjoying it a lot.

7:59 pm: Bread #1: Baguette. This was hand rolled and other fancy things per the waiter, but it was a basic baguette roll, just really well done. Yum. The butter was fancily molded like an egg, and then there was pink himalayan sea salt (I think? it was pink salt) in a salt cup! We enjoyed that little touch, and I definitely salted my butter.

8:07 pm: Course #2: Alaskan King Crab with Sun Kissed Melons and Pink Peppercorn Yogurt.

I don't remember what all the server said about this dish, but it was another home run. We both weren't quite sure how to go about eating it, but eventually just dug in. This was so light and refreshing, and so interesting with the different citrus flavors and the crab. It was Trevor's favorite dish of the night.

8:21 pm: Course #3 Virginia Black Bass with Poppy Seed and Lemon Ravioli

This was well executed, but had a bit more of the fishy flavor than I care for. I liked the ravioli more than the fish--I think the sauce underneath was buttery? If I'm remembering right? I do remember liking the sauce. Trevor enjoyed this course a lot.

8:35 pm: Course #4 Dover Sole with Petite Squash and Tomato Water.

This was one of the more interesting presentations. Once the plate came out the server poured in the tomato water and it mixed with the green stuff (I know...I didn't take notes on what exactly it was) and it was SUPER YUMMY. I hate soup. But this was really good. The Sole was fine, not too fishy, but really the star here was the tomato water. I did my best to drink every drop, shy of literally holding the plate/bowl to my mouth. Yum.

8:47 pm: Course #5 Bonus Course of lamb shoulder that had some fancy Japanese (?) mushrooms on a potato puree with potato glass on top, and dill sprinkles.

The lamb was super tender, and very delicious with the potato puree--another fantastic dish. The potato glass looked interesting but was just kind of weird to try and eat. I also really like this bowl, isn't that a weird thing to comment on? But it's true.

8:54 pm: Bread #2 Brioche with herbs baked in, and a trio of fine herbs in the butter.

All three of the servers talked up this bread, that it was amazing and more cake than bread, but it wasn't very impressive (to me at least). It was a bit dry, and I couldn't really taste the herbs. Not bad, just not amazing like they were saying it was. I preferred the baguette.

8:59 pm: Course #6: Roasted French Quail with Corn Pudding and Spinach.

I don't really have any memory of this course, therefore I'm sure it was good but nothing mind-blowing. Which is a bummer 'cause I remember being excited to try quail, but apparently it didn't make a big impression.

9:11 pm: Course #7: Kurobuta Pork Belly with Pineapple and Peanuts

This was my favorite dish of the night. Pork and Pineapple and peanuts all go together well, but this was just so well done--the pork was ridiculously tender and the pineapple beautifully caramelized. In the picture, there are two rectangular pieces--the one on the left is pineapple and the other is pork, so a good portion of both. Just amazing, and I don't like peanuts. But here it worked. So yummy.

9:17 pm: Bread #3: Austrian (maybe Australian?) multigrain bread.

Very delicious--Trevor liked it a lot. The butter came in this little pyramid dish and was presalted, but I added more salt.

9:26: Course #8: Australian Kobe Style Beef with Potato Pinwheel

Look, it's smiling at you! I crack myself up. Anyways, the green sauce was a chimmichurri, which was delicious. The beef itself was underwhelming--no real flavor? It was very tender and cooked well, but the taste seemed a bit lacking. I was grateful for the chimmichurri. The potato pinwheel was interesting--basically the chef thins out the potato, runs it through a pasta maker to make it really thin, then rolls that thinned potato into the pinwheel. More interesting to look at than to eat--the taste was fine, but nothing special. The white powdery stuff was something made using molecular gastronomy--I don't remember the flavor but they basically turned an herb or a seasoning into a powder. I liked the flavor but the texture of the powder was a bit off-putting. Overall this was a good course, but coming after the home run of the previous course, I wasn't super impressed.

After that we were asked to choose a tea, and they recommended the Harmony, but we were also intrigued by the Vanilla Rooibos. When our server asked which we'd like and Trevor told him we were trying to decide, he served us both! That was lovely--exactly the type of service we'd heard about from their reputation. They had the same type of vacuum infuser for tea that they had for brewing the coffee, so we also got to enjoy that whole scientific experiment!

9:50 pm: Course #9: Cheese from the Market

This was brought out while the tea was brewing. I'll apologize because I have absolutely no memory of what the cheeses were. Trevor doesn't like cheese, but decided to try it anyways, rather than ask for a substitute. I got one of everything, and Trevor got everything except the bleu cheese one. He ended up liking it! I of course liked it as well. I didn't end up eating the nuts on the cheese tray, but I loved the honey and the fruit. There was one cheese in particular (semi-soft) that I really liked, but I didn't remember what it was and I didn't get a chance to ask the server about it.

We got our tea while we were eating the cheese and that was delicious as well. I liked the Harmony best, but Trevor liked the vanilla rooibos, so it was nice we had gotten both.

(Vanilla Rooibos on the left with milk/sugar added; Harmony on the right)

I think it was here that the harpist played a song we requested. The harpist was fantastic, by the way. It was lovely having the harp music in the background, and I'll be honest, playing "what's that tune". She played "On the Street Where You Live" from the musical My Fair Lady, she played "For Good" from the musical Wicked twice (once early in the evening and once near the end when another table requested "something from Wicked", "How Far I'll Go" from Moana, "Remember Me" from Coco, "A Million Dreams" from The Greatest Showman, and "The Prayer". So we requested the song "If I Can't Love Her" from the Broadway musical version of Beauty and the Beast, because it's one of my absolute favorites. And she was able to play it! That was a nice touch. I don't go to fancy places where you can request a song and they play it.

10:08: Course #10 Bonus Course! Creme Brulee.

This was the first course I couldn't completely finish. Creme Brulee is just too rich for me, though this was smoother than any other I've ever had. I think I would have liked it better with more fruit to cut the richness. Even so, delicious. And I don't really like Creme Brulee. (I also find it awkward to eat with the hard crust and the soft cream underneath, but oh well)

10:18 pm: Course #11 Chocolate bar.

So they undersell this a bit by calling it "chocolate bar". So good! I'm a sucker for chocolate + raspberry anyways. I almost wished I would have had this boxed to take home. It was absolutely delicious but just so rich, and kind of a big portion for such richness. After finishing it (cause I didn't want to leave any of it on the plate!) I felt *so full*. So good though.

10:31 pm: Chocolates!

After that our server came by with chocolates for us to choose from. We were both absolutely stuffed at this point and remarked so to the server, but he didn't mention anything about being able to box these up for us to take home, and we didn't want to not try them, so we pushed through the fullness. The white chocolate was raspberry, the speckled was banana, and the last one was mimosa, I think? Trevor got the same as me but rum caramel instead of the mimosa (bottom picture). Again, delicious. But SO FULL.

At that point our server was kind enough to take a picture of us, and gave us a bag with our commemorative menus and date bread, and dinner was over!

It was interesting being one of the last tables seated--I think we were the last group in the restaurant? There was no one at the front or anything either. There was a table that finished maybe 10 minutes before we did--a group of 3 or 4, but one of the gentleman was very drunk. And very loud about it. It was kind of ridiculous. I don't know why you would get that drunk at this kind of a restaurant. It was a bit detracting from the nice atmosphere, but Trevor and I found it slightly amusing (which I know isn't a nice reaction, but it was awkward. Oh well). After they left one of the servers even commented on his drunkenness to us, in the vein of "wow, can you believe it?"

Because we were one of the last groups though, we were able to see other groups leaving, and how all the women were given these beautiful long-stem roses. So as we were walking out, Trevor realized that I hadn't been given one, so he went back in to ask for it (I had gone to the ladies room). That was super sweet of him--I would have felt too awkward to ask! But the rose was beautiful--I took it home with me on the plane and everything. It was a bit awkward that we weren't given it like every other group (the server who Trevor asked for the rose wasn't one of the three who had been working with us, and seemed very surprised we weren't given one, saying that it must have been an oversight), but lovely to have.

Since we were so full, we decided to take an Uber back to the Boardwalk. Good choice! 10 minutes and we were back at the hotel, happy and full. It was about 11:15 pm--our dinner went from 7:15 to 11 pm!

Overall, we really enjoyed Victoria & Albert's. The food was delicious, and we enjoyed the atmosphere a lot. I don't think I'd eat here this late if I were to do it again: as the dinner wound down and people left, it felt a tiny bit like we might be overstaying our welcome. Nothing in particular I can point to, just a slight vibe of "we're here too late", as they started cleaning and the waitstaff started to disappear (Trevor commented that for most of the meal there was at least one person just standing around, looking to see how it was going and if anyone needed anything, and towards the end there was less of that). I recommend an earlier seating, not the 7:30 one! Definitely come hungry, even though each course is small, it's a lot of food (Trevor says don't come starving, because they do space the courses out a bit). And based on other reviews I've read, you can certainly ask for them to box up food for you! Again, were I to do it again, I'd ask for the chocolates to be boxed up, even if the server didn't offer. I also recommend asking the harpist to play a song (especially if it's a Disney one); that was a real treat, and she was very sweet about talking with us afterwards. And if there are any non-coffee drinkers out there, don't feel you have to have coffee to see the neat vacuum brewing thing they do, since they steep the tea the same way. It is expensive, but it was definitely an experience we were pleased with overall, even if there were things I would have preferred done differently (the rose being the main one, that was an awkward way to end the meal).

Overall, a great day. Early Morning Magic was awesome, I loved playing way too much Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, and dinner at Victoria and Albert's was fantastic. Great way to celebrate turning 31!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps Walked: 22,742 (9.5 miles)
Total AP discount: $6 (Victoria & Albert's doesn't give an AP discount, sadly enough!)
Ride Total (Tiffany): 25 (10 on Seven Dwarves, then Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Astro Orbiter, Buzz Lightyear x2, Little Mermaid, Teacups, Speedway, Carousel of Progress, People Mover, Haunted Mansion, Philharmagic, Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, Space Mountain, and Splash Mountain)
Ride Total (Trevor): 23 (all except Space Mountain and Splash Mountain)

 

[Araminta18]

That is a lot of rides on SDMT!

Looks like EMM worked out well for you guys and you totally got your money's worth!

So many rides! It was a lot of fun--I'm almost bummed they're expanding the offerings 'cause I'm sure its an excuse to up the number of tickets sold and that won't end well, you'll just have a longer line at SDMT. *shrugs*

I was wondering if you would go for 10 and figured no when you switched to PP - great job.

You guys were smarter than DH and I - We tried to fit in one rocket.....ummm....not so comfy. Super cute that you were both in the 'selfie' pic.

That is a fantastic start to the day.

It's their world, you're just living in it.

I like this - I don't think I've seen a couple doing this - I am totally stealing this idea when we finally make it back.

You nailed it.

Whoa! Fancy - can't wait to read all about it.

We weren't sure about going for 10, but we were so close, we decided to run for it after Pooh and were successful! Huzzah!

LOL we thought about doing one rocket, but mostly it was too hot to try and get that close together! And yea! Trevor's selfie game is better than mine--that one turned out really well.

I think this was the only time I saw a photographer stationed at the sword. He didn't have any line at all though, which is the only reason we did it. That was one of the nice things about these low crowds (and an upside to the crowds, I guess?)--very rarely did any of the photographers have a wait. You should definitely do it next time you go!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

We were off at 8:12 and immediately back in line, where we waited 6 minutes and were on for ride #4 at 8:18. Back in line at 8:21, and on for ride #5 at 8:23 (the lines got shorter from here). Back in line at 8:26 and on for ride #6 at 8:30. Back in line at 8:34 and on at 8:34 for ride #7 (no line! ). Back in line at 8:37 and on at 8:38 for ride #8. Back in line at 8:41 and on at 8:41 for ride #9.

I can't believe you guys were able to ride 10 times!!! That is amazing! And tempts me to give it a try some time. We have never been able to ride 7DMT once a trip!

Exactly! I know you all guessed right--Astro Orbiter! LOL, I know it's a "low priority", but by doing it early, there isn't the chance for the crowds to build up, and we got the nice breeze from being up so high to cool us down a bit. Also Trevor's first time riding it! It was a good slow down from the chaos of the first hour of the morning. We were done by 9:15, I'm pretty sure.

We did Astro Orbiter during the Halloween Party and it's not a must do but that is a perfect time to do it.

We also stopped by the Blue Fairy's wish book, but neither of us had a pen, so we couldn't write down our wish. Had to settle for a picture!

I didn't know this existed! I will need to find this next time.

My one real complaint is the noise in there. It is *so loud*. It didn't help that the table next to us had kids watching (2 different) tv shows on their tablets with the sound *all* the way up, and the mom holding a phone conversation on speaker (dunno how the person on the other end could hear, but I could certainly hear their whole conversation).

Ugh. I get letting kids watch and play sometime but not at DISNEY! I mean you are in the beasts castle!!!! What more do you need! I know, you never know the family's situation ... Oye!

From there, we headed to the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor 'cause we really like it. It's funny! We were the first people up on the screen, with the caption that we "just came for the scare conditioning" which was pretty accurate. They even used one of my jokes that I texted in!

That is so perfect!

Up next: Birthday dinner at Victoria and Alberts!

Fancy!!!!

I got the Pear Sour (pear nectar, lime juice, ginger ale, hibiscus)

This sounds so refreshing.

I also really like this bowl, isn't that a weird thing to comment on? But it's true.

I love some of the dishes that Disney uses! I wish you could buy the actual dishes sometimes.

I don't really have any memory of this course, therefore I'm sure it was good but nothing mind-blowing. Which is a bummer 'cause I remember being excited to try quail, but apparently it didn't make a big impression.

I feel like some of the more "Unusual" meats actually end up being very pedestrian. Just unusual to us.

nd Trevor got everything except the bleu cheese one. He ended up liking it! I of course liked it as well. I didn't end up eating the nuts on the cheese tray, but I loved the honey and the fruit

Sounds like you guys went into this with the right attitude. Try everything!

 

[SweetSerenity]

Wow, I'm getting dizzy from your 10 seven dwarves rides!

Victoria and Albert's looks just amazing! I'm glad you enjoyed.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

How you go from open to close each day is amazing. I just can't do that anymore!

Your meal was very similar to mine although you did have a very different second meat course (I had lamb that was blacked out) and a different 'surprise' dessert course. It at least sold me that I'm truly ok not doing the meal again so soon. Their non-alcoholic cocktails are rather creative as well which is a nice option for those that don't drink. Glad you loved the lemon ravioli as well! That was the star of that dish.

I'm glad you got to enjoy the experience! Interesting you had three servers as you should have only had 2.

 

[kclark9830]

What a full but awesome day! It definitely sounds like Morning Magic is a hit. I'm glad the day went smoothly!

I also want to stay at Grand Floridian. Dreamy! We ate at 1900 Park Fare a couple different times over our previous trips, and I fell in love.

We have not done V&A. But we did eat at a similar restaurant on our honeymoon. We were pretty uncomfortable the whole time. Of course, we were pretty young so that might have contributed . Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it overall!

 

[Araminta18]

I can't believe you guys were able to ride 10 times!!! That is amazing! And tempts me to give it a try some time. We have never been able to ride 7DMT once a trip!

We did Astro Orbiter during the Halloween Party and it's not a must do but that is a perfect time to do it.

I didn't know this existed! I will need to find this next time.

Ugh. I get letting kids watch and play sometime but not at DISNEY! I mean you are in the beasts castle!!!! What more do you need! I know, you never know the family's situation ... Oye!

That is so perfect!

Fancy!!!!

This sounds so refreshing.

I love some of the dishes that Disney uses! I wish you could buy the actual dishes sometimes.

I feel like some of the more "Unusual" meats actually end up being very pedestrian. Just unusual to us.

Sounds like you guys went into this with the right attitude. Try everything!

Oh definitely do it! As you can tell, we loved EMM And Astro Orbiter during the Halloween Party would have been cool too! I want to try and do it during the fireworks sometime.

The Wish Book is off to the left in Pinnochio Village Haus--definitely bring your own pen, 'cause they don't have one, but you can write down your wish for the Blue Fairy.

The Pear Sour was really good--and interesting, more complex than most mocktails. And I agree about "unusual" meats--like you said, pretty pedestrian, it's just not something we use all the time.

Yep! That would be my main recommendation, I think--try things you don't think you like, cause you're in the hands of an expert chef

Wow, I'm getting dizzy from your 10 seven dwarves rides!

Victoria and Albert's looks just amazing! I'm glad you enjoyed.

It's kind of fun to do it so many times in a row, you start paying attention to little details you weren't able to catch before. It was awesome!

How you go from open to close each day is amazing. I just can't do that anymore!

Your meal was very similar to mine although you did have a very different second meat course (I had lamb that was blacked out) and a different 'surprise' dessert course. It at least sold me that I'm truly ok not doing the meal again so soon. Their non-alcoholic cocktails are rather creative as well which is a nice option for those that don't drink. Glad you loved the lemon ravioli as well! That was the star of that dish.

I'm glad you got to enjoy the experience! Interesting you had three servers as you should have only had 2.

Adrenaline, pure adrenaline! It caught up with me the next day, but overall we did pace ourselves pretty well.

Yes, it was pretty similar to yours--I'm planning to re-read your review now that I've actually eaten there. We definitely appreciated the more interesting non-alcoholic cocktails. I also thought it was interesting what we ended up liking the most (the pork, the crab salad, the lemon ravioli) versus what we expected to like best (the steak).

As far as waiters, all three introduced themselves at the beginning, but for the first half it was mostly a lady and a younger man, and then about halfway through we didn't really see the younger man again and it was the lady and an older man. Maybe the younger one was training? Or filling in? I dunno. I would have preferred the first two for the whole night--the older guy wasn't our favorite.

What a full but awesome day! It definitely sounds like Morning Magic is a hit. I'm glad the day went smoothly!

I also want to stay at Grand Floridian. Dreamy! We ate at 1900 Park Fare a couple different times over our previous trips, and I fell in love.

We have not done V&A. But we did eat at a similar restaurant on our honeymoon. We were pretty uncomfortable the whole time. Of course, we were pretty young so that might have contributed . Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it overall!

for EMM! Highly recommend it.

Oooh, I want to eat at 1900 Park Fare but we haven't made it yet. But the atmosphere at the Grand Floridian...dreamy indeed!

I will give props to the servers: for the most part they were fantastic at making us feel comfortable and we did relax a bit as the evening went on. But it was certainly overwhelming at first!

 

[Araminta18]

Wednesday, September 19th (part 1):
Animal Kingdom and lunch at Sanaa
​

We woke up around 8, still slightly full from our dinner the night before! We ended up splitting a pack of pop tarts for breakfast, and were totally fine until we ate lunch later.

We were on a bus to the Animal Kingdom at 9 am, but we stopped at the Swan and Dolphin so we didn't get there til 9:30. When we arrived there was a photographer out front so we got some fun pictures.

Then we were into the Animal Kingdom, where we headed towards Expedition Everest! Our fastpasses were from 9 to 10 am, but I stole Trevor's band and rode twice, while he headed over to the monkeys by Kali to watch them. I had fun on Everest, and Trevor seemed to enjoy the monkeys--it didn't take me long on Everest. I probably didn't even need the fastpasses but hey, I had them, so might as well. And I even managed to catch a picture of Trevor's name on the posters! (Since I had his band...)

We then headed over to our 10 am fastpass on the Safari, passing the adorable statues of Russell and Dug on the way. Super cute!

Luckily the fastpass line for the safari wasn't as backed up as it was last time, so we were on the safari pretty quickly, though Trevor did enjoy one of the signs in the queue....

We got to see the month old baby giraffe! Adorable. She's off to the left of the big giraffe in the middle...probably kind of hard to see. She was hard to photograph. Apparently she'd only been out for a week!

Also got to see the baby elephant, who was less shy than the baby giraffe. Though she did hide behind the trees, so maybe more shy than I though.

The lions were also out and about--I don't think I've ever seen the male lion moving around before, so that was exciting.

I also really liked these zebras standing right by the road, just chilling, as if they were posing.

Once our safari was done, we took some pictures in Africa. You can see the tired in our faces, even though we were having fun.

After that, it was time to see Pandora during the day. We got a snack from Pongu Pongu: the Pongu Lumpia and the Night Blossom! There was a long line at one window, but the other window had no line and looked to be open, so I asked the CM there if he was open, and he said yes, so we ordered right away! No line for us. Lesson? Don't just get in line!

I really liked the Lumpia--it was bigger than expected too. The Night Blossom was interesting--not quite what I was expecting, though I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting. I would have liked fewer boba balls, but it was cold and sweet and not bad at all.

While we were eating/drinking, we explored and took a bunch of pictures. A bunch.

I particularly liked the pond that sprayed you with water, though I did admittedly make a fool of myself waving my arms around in front of the pond. Trevor liked the drums

Soon though it was time for our fastpass for Flight of Passage. This was our last ride on it, and we were a bit sad, as we both really loved it. I'm more intrigued by the mechanics of the ride itself, but it's still amazing. And luckily we didn't have any drunk people in our theatre this time! It was a good way to end our time in the Animal Kingdom.

So, where were we heading now? Lunch at the Animal Kingdom Lodge: Sanaa! We hopped on a bus to AKL at 11:55--the bus was waiting when we got there, and we left at 11:58. We checked in to Sanaa at 12:05--our ADR was at 12:30 but we wanted to request a window seat and were willing to wait for it. The CM quoted us 45 minutes, so we went to explore the hotel a bit.

We first stopped in the gift shop, because I remembered an article I read in one of the disney blogs about how you could buy the serving set for the Sanaa bread service, so we headed there to buy that. Yes, admittedly a bit premature, but we were certain we would enjoy the bread service and also it looked cool. However, this was quite the ordeal. The poor CM was so confused! They had the board up for sale, but they only had the "for display only" booklet with the recipes and and the "for display only" little ramekin. We asked the CM if they had more booklets/ramekins for sale too, and he seemed confused and went in the little back room and looked at the display and then back in the backroom and eventually another CM gave him the ok to sell us a board and the display ramekins/recipe booklet. It was more expensive than we were expecting (and no AP discount, bummer), but we were successful! We've used it already for some dips with vegetables, but I do look forward to making some of the bread dips.

That took much longer than anticipated, so we had only just gotten to the balcony with the rocking chairs and sat down to watch the animals when we got a text from Sanaa that our table was ready. We watched the animals for maybe a minute or two? Still nice though. Might have to add AKL to our list of resorts we want to stay at. Our long list.

We were seated at 12:25, at a lovely window seat--only a 20 minute wait! Unfotunately, even as we were seated there were workers outside putting up a temporary fence. Per our waiter, there was a leak in the building that they needed to fix? Not quite sure how that necessitated putting up a fence, but it did. We obviously were a bit disappointed, but oh well. Things happen.

Once seated, we obviously put in an order for the breadservice (all the breads and all the dips--trust me on this, that's what you want), and then looked at the menu a bit. We weren't super hungry (heat man, it gets you), and we didn't want to have the bread service and entrees, so we decided to each get an appetizer and share them.

So, the bread service arrived while Trevor was in the restroom washing his hands. I tried to be good and wait for him, but it was too tempting. I gave in. SO YUMMY. Luckily Trevor came back soon, so there was still some for him. Not that I would have eaten it all. Never. No.

It actually worked out well, as he likes the spicier sauces and I like the milder ones, though we did try them all. The breads were

• Traditional Naan
• Garlic-Ginger Naan
• Spiced Naan
• Onion Kucha
• Paneer Paratha

The sauces were (starting at the white one on the top right and going around counterclockwise):

• Cucumber Raita: Very cooling and yummy, like tzatziki
• Mango Chutney: I also really liked the sweetness of this one
• Tamarind Chutney: yum
• Tomato-Date Jam: yum, and I don't like ketchup
• Roasted Red Pepper Hummus: YUM! The red pepper was just a hint, not very spicy
• Garlic Pickle: meh, I love garlic, but would be better mashed up as a paste rather than whole cloves of garlic
• Coriander Chutney: yum
• Spicy Jalapeno Lime Pickle: also too spicy for me, but Trevor was a fan.
• Red Chile Sambal: too spicy for me, but Trevor liked it

The pacing here was great--just as we were winding down and about done with digging in to the bread service, our other dishes arrived. I got the Boerewors and Spiced Eggs (Traditional South African Sausage, Curry-Spiced Eggs, and Cape Malay Onions)

Trevor got the Lamb Kefta Skewers (with Tunisian Couscous Salad and Peppadew-Goat Cheese.

Both were good. The spiced eggs were apparently something a CM from Africa taught to the chefs, who modified it a bit and put it on the menu. I was a little confused by the noodles underneath it, but the flavors were good. And how can you go wrong with Lamb Skewers? Yum.

Our waiter was super nice. He didn't hover and wasn't overly attentive, but he gave us the Buzz Lightyear glow cube ('cause we'd kind of started a collection ), and then had the drum circle come over and sing to me for my birthday. That was embarrassing, but fun. They did sing to several people, and I enjoyed watching it more when it wasn't directed at me! But it was super nice of our waiter.

It was during lunch that I got really sleepy. Not sure why (well, probably the lack of a nap yesterday!), but it just all kind of caught up with me for a bit. So after lunch we grabbed an uber back to the Boardwalk for a nap, arriving back in the room at about 2 pm.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Glad you had a great lunch at Sanaa! That bread service is amazing. The Red Chili Sambel is my favorite and I'm happy I get to have it in 2 weeks time!

Successful morning in AK!

Now to find out how long you nap for