faline
05-23-2010, 07:42 PM
At the Magic Kingdom, we are able to board the waiting boat for the Grand Floridian. We arrive about 10 minutes early for our Grand Floridian Tea reservation. Now – mind you – I am NOT a tea drinker. When I was a teenager, my mother would no longer allow me to drink milk with my meals and told me I’d need to have tea instead. I hated having that hot beverage instead of milk. There were times when I have drunk tea – I went through the period of having all the herbal teas. I still like, and sometimes drink, iced tea. However, it has been years since I’ve had a cup of hot tea. Gene, too, will drink iced tea but I have never, ever seen him drink a cup of hot tea. So, it probably seems very strange that I booked afternoon tea. I do like trying new things and put this in that category. Actually, I booked it after I found out you are not required to drink tea at afternoon tea. We are the first party seated. In fact, the gentleman who checked us in said I was the very first to have booked the tea, last November and they didn’t receive another reservation for the tea until January!
We decide to order a la carte. We each have an order of tea sandwiches. Gene also orders the strawberries and cream and I order a different dessert. I don’t recall the name but it is much like a custard with whipped cream. Gene orders a beer in lieu of tea and I have a glass of champagne. I was afraid the champagne might be a bit over the top but I can’t tell you how many glasses I saw being delivered to the various tables around the room! The sandwiches were quite interesting and we enjoyed them. The little girl at the next table did not and her server made her ham & cheese & PB&J instead! Gene was in seventh heaven with his heaping bowl full of strawberries served with a very large dollop of whipped cream! My dessert included slices of strawberry (I am not a strawberry fan) but I was able to eat around them. Overall, my dessert was delicious! We left full and I would not rule out doing this again!
On our way to the monorail, I stopped at the concierge desk and canceled my dinner reservation at Flying Fish. Someone else should be able to pick it up if I’m not going to use it! (I think I’ve made reservations for this location on three different trips and think I’ve canceled each and every one – I’ll get there sooner or later!)
We board the monorail which we take to the Ticket and Transportation Center. The usual go-round to the Epcot monorail is boxed off as being under construction so we needed to go round the other way. We get on an Epcot monorail. Epcot is very crowded. There is a line to get through the bag check. There is a line to get into the park.
Once in the park, we head to the Visa Meet n Greet. (We never did pick up our free picture). We see Pluto and Mickey. Mickey is full of kisses for me and Pluto is very affectionate as well. We walk over to the Living Seas and spend a little time Finding Nemo. From there, we head to the Land. There’s a big sign out front that all the fast passes for the day are gone. The Land ride has a 5 minute wait time. The pavilion is loaded with people.
Chubby Checker is performing today at the American Pavilion. The skies are getting increasing dark and threatening. We walk to the American Pavilion and find seats. Chubby comes out and begins his performance. Ten to fifteen minutes into his performance, the wind whips up. Bark and small branches from a nearby tree fall on my head. We’re in the middle of a row. If the skies open up, we’ll be trapped here and soaked before we can get out. Sorry, Chubby, but I think we’re leaving!
We make our way out and head towards Japan – it’s a larger pavilion and if loads of people duck out of the rain, there’s more space to share. It’s thundering and lightening but the rain has still held off. We decide to see if we can make it to France. I had intended to see the film there the other day but we ended up leaving before we entered the theater. It’s sprinkling but not yet raining when we enter the theater waiting area. It begins to rain now. The theater waiting area rapidly fills up and the theater is surprisingly full for the film.
When we emerge, it is still raining but is beginning to let up. It’s only lightly raining when we leave the pavilion and make our way to the United Kingdom. One of the shops there is closed for refurb but the rest are open. We find Tigger and Pooh with practically no line and in very high spirits so we stop and have pics with them.
From there, we move on to Canada and, after wandering through the shops, we allow Martin Short to show us around Canada including a couple of spots we have actually visited in person. When we exit, it is time to make our way to Japan for our Teppan Edo reservation. We arrive there to find people, and lots of noise, everywhere! We’re told they are running 10-15 minutes behind. In fact, we are seated about 20 minutes later than our dining reservation time.
This was a very fun meal! What made it so? We shared our table with two other families – both of whom were wonderfully friendly! There was a family of five; grandma; grand-dad; dad; mom; and babe; there was also a young couple from Montreal and us. The family of five included a grand-dad from Spain and a grandmom who was from the U.S. but who had been raised in Spain and a babe with an allergy to shellfish. They ended up preparing the baby’s meal in the kitchen (away from the grills where they cook lots of shellfish). The only issue we had was that we were not easily able to converse with this family as they were sitting on the other end of the table and it was far too noisy in this establishment to be able to carry on conversations easily. The young couple from Montreal had been to Disney when they were very young but had not been in years. They spoke excellent English but said, in Montreal, they, and everyone they knew spoke only French – they were essentially practicing their English while here! Wish I could speak such excellent French and say I was only practicing it on a visit to Montreal! Our chef was excellent and Gene had actually been to a city near where he had grown up. At one point, he created a volcano out of onions! Very cool! The food was very good but it was really the willingness of our table companions to interact with us that truly made this special! At the end of the meal, we ran into the grand-dad of the first family in the hallway and he shook our hands!
By time we left Teppan Edo, it was close to 10 p.m.! Of course, Epcot was closed and we were part of the group of stragglers wandering out of Epcot. We waited only a few minutes for a bus which we shared with two other families on our way back to Coronado Springs. Back in our room, I set up a 6:30 a.m. wake-up call. Yikes!
We decide to order a la carte. We each have an order of tea sandwiches. Gene also orders the strawberries and cream and I order a different dessert. I don’t recall the name but it is much like a custard with whipped cream. Gene orders a beer in lieu of tea and I have a glass of champagne. I was afraid the champagne might be a bit over the top but I can’t tell you how many glasses I saw being delivered to the various tables around the room! The sandwiches were quite interesting and we enjoyed them. The little girl at the next table did not and her server made her ham & cheese & PB&J instead! Gene was in seventh heaven with his heaping bowl full of strawberries served with a very large dollop of whipped cream! My dessert included slices of strawberry (I am not a strawberry fan) but I was able to eat around them. Overall, my dessert was delicious! We left full and I would not rule out doing this again!
On our way to the monorail, I stopped at the concierge desk and canceled my dinner reservation at Flying Fish. Someone else should be able to pick it up if I’m not going to use it! (I think I’ve made reservations for this location on three different trips and think I’ve canceled each and every one – I’ll get there sooner or later!)
We board the monorail which we take to the Ticket and Transportation Center. The usual go-round to the Epcot monorail is boxed off as being under construction so we needed to go round the other way. We get on an Epcot monorail. Epcot is very crowded. There is a line to get through the bag check. There is a line to get into the park.
Once in the park, we head to the Visa Meet n Greet. (We never did pick up our free picture). We see Pluto and Mickey. Mickey is full of kisses for me and Pluto is very affectionate as well. We walk over to the Living Seas and spend a little time Finding Nemo. From there, we head to the Land. There’s a big sign out front that all the fast passes for the day are gone. The Land ride has a 5 minute wait time. The pavilion is loaded with people.
Chubby Checker is performing today at the American Pavilion. The skies are getting increasing dark and threatening. We walk to the American Pavilion and find seats. Chubby comes out and begins his performance. Ten to fifteen minutes into his performance, the wind whips up. Bark and small branches from a nearby tree fall on my head. We’re in the middle of a row. If the skies open up, we’ll be trapped here and soaked before we can get out. Sorry, Chubby, but I think we’re leaving!
We make our way out and head towards Japan – it’s a larger pavilion and if loads of people duck out of the rain, there’s more space to share. It’s thundering and lightening but the rain has still held off. We decide to see if we can make it to France. I had intended to see the film there the other day but we ended up leaving before we entered the theater. It’s sprinkling but not yet raining when we enter the theater waiting area. It begins to rain now. The theater waiting area rapidly fills up and the theater is surprisingly full for the film.
When we emerge, it is still raining but is beginning to let up. It’s only lightly raining when we leave the pavilion and make our way to the United Kingdom. One of the shops there is closed for refurb but the rest are open. We find Tigger and Pooh with practically no line and in very high spirits so we stop and have pics with them.
From there, we move on to Canada and, after wandering through the shops, we allow Martin Short to show us around Canada including a couple of spots we have actually visited in person. When we exit, it is time to make our way to Japan for our Teppan Edo reservation. We arrive there to find people, and lots of noise, everywhere! We’re told they are running 10-15 minutes behind. In fact, we are seated about 20 minutes later than our dining reservation time.
This was a very fun meal! What made it so? We shared our table with two other families – both of whom were wonderfully friendly! There was a family of five; grandma; grand-dad; dad; mom; and babe; there was also a young couple from Montreal and us. The family of five included a grand-dad from Spain and a grandmom who was from the U.S. but who had been raised in Spain and a babe with an allergy to shellfish. They ended up preparing the baby’s meal in the kitchen (away from the grills where they cook lots of shellfish). The only issue we had was that we were not easily able to converse with this family as they were sitting on the other end of the table and it was far too noisy in this establishment to be able to carry on conversations easily. The young couple from Montreal had been to Disney when they were very young but had not been in years. They spoke excellent English but said, in Montreal, they, and everyone they knew spoke only French – they were essentially practicing their English while here! Wish I could speak such excellent French and say I was only practicing it on a visit to Montreal! Our chef was excellent and Gene had actually been to a city near where he had grown up. At one point, he created a volcano out of onions! Very cool! The food was very good but it was really the willingness of our table companions to interact with us that truly made this special! At the end of the meal, we ran into the grand-dad of the first family in the hallway and he shook our hands!
By time we left Teppan Edo, it was close to 10 p.m.! Of course, Epcot was closed and we were part of the group of stragglers wandering out of Epcot. We waited only a few minutes for a bus which we shared with two other families on our way back to Coronado Springs. Back in our room, I set up a 6:30 a.m. wake-up call. Yikes!