chechas
12-20-2013, 10:42 AM
We got a slow start due to DD not wanting to wake up…ahhh the life of a college student. Finally got her up and moving around 11am. Since we did not get a chance to run to the store for breakfast foods we decided to head to Magic Kingdom and Main Street Bakery (AKA Startbucks). Orlando is one of the test markets for a new holiday flavor of coffee called Cherries Jubilee Mocha and I was on a quest to find one!!! The day before we waited a long time for the bus to Downtown Disney and that bus shared with Grand Floridian so everything took forever. It was pretty chilly out so we opted for the bus over the boat to MK. It actually came within about 7 minutes of us arriving at the bus stop and it was dedicated to Wilderness Lodge (thought it might share with Ft. Wilderness)! YAY. We loaded up and were on our way.
The lines for bag checks was short and I needed to make a side trip to Guest Services for my new Tables in Wonderland Card before our 1:10 Tea Time. It was a breeze getting in with our magic bands though I did see a lot of people having issues and not able to figure out how to use them or the entry ways. There are two “stations” at each entry, both can be used at same time by 2 different people. Just either touch your magic band or ticket media to the middle of mickey head. The circle around will start swirling and then the biometric finger scan will start flashing. Put your finger there and when the circle turns green, you are good to go. Anyways we made it in and the immediate area was packed with people, uh oh. Had we been fooled by the almost non-existent lines outside (even at Guest Services there was 1 person in front of me)? Were we to be denied the chocolate cherry goodness of our Starbucks coffee? Would we get squished to death in the mass of swarming humanity? Alas no, we just veered off closer to Tony’s restaurant and edged around the crowd and bam the whole world of Main street opened to us! Turns out there were several characters holding court around the huge Christmas Tree at the front and that is why there were so many people there.
We made it to Main Street Bakery with no further incidents and slipped inside. DD almost bolted when she saw the line but I pointed out that while it is a single point of entry, it fans out to about 6 cashiers. It moved reasonably quickly. Ok it moved pretty quick, just got a bit aggravated by the family in front of us who kept holding up the line to take pictures on their iPad of everything and everyone. Get out of line if you want to do that or pick a less busy time to come. Since we had tea in about 2 hours we just grabbed some apple slices with caramel sauce (because come on duh, apples and caramel? A mating from the gods) and ordered our Cherries Jubilee Mochas. We made a break for the exit after collecting our goodies and found an empty table outside the Plaza Restaurant overlooking the castle. We enjoy part of a castle show, took some pictures and soaked up some sun. Oh and yes the coffee delivered on its promised richness. Hint of cherries over chocolate, yummy. Will definitely be hitting there again for another dose.
Next was Tomorrowland, the lines for Buzz and Space Mountain were nuts. So we just walked around snapping silly pics and sitting and people watching. We saw Snitch working the crowd and he even waved at us as he walked by. Now you need to understand I just lurve (that’s right lurve) me some Stich! No clue why I do and I probably always will but I just accept it as fact and keep it moving. That made my day. DD just rolled her eyes and laughed. Soon it was time to make our way to the monorail and Grand Floridian.
When my daughter was little we started naming the monorails after Disney Characters based on the color of the strip on the monorail. The Aurora monorail was just pulling out when we got there but the Mickey one pulled in not 2 minutes behind it. By the time we left Contemporary, we had to come to a hard stop as the Aurora monorail had broken down ahead of us at the Ticket and Transpo Center and had to be reset. We sat there for what seemed like forever. Finally Aurora got her gown fixed and we were on our way but we had to come to another halting stop before Polynesian due to another glitch with Aurora, though this one was shorter. By this time, we were resigning ourselves to being late for tea…oh the horror! But Mickey kicked it into speed and arrived at the GF at 1:07! As we entered they had cast members informing everyone that the Reedy Creek Fire Dept was going to be conducting a test of the alarm system and not to panic or evacuate as it will only be a test. They had people everyone making sure everyone was aware. I thought that was good. At 1:09 we were checking in at the podium. Ha! 1 minute to spare!
They seated us at a corner table by the window and Patrick was our server. Now DD and I do tea almost every trip to WDW, so we knew Patrick from previous visits and he remembered us. The promised alarm went off after we were seated and startled us as we had forgotten that quick. Man was it loud! It lasted about 7-8 minutes. It was distracting but I was glad to see them do it.
I am allergic to shellfish and several types of fish so they talked to me about options as one of the tea sandwiches is a Salmon one. We both opted for the Grand Tea which comes with Tea Sandwiches (curry chicken salad, egg salad, pear and gorgonzola, cucumber watercress and salmon something or other), an onion tart, a roulade, scone with Devonshire cream, lemon curd, jam, strawberry tart, a glass of sparkling wine (DD got sparkling cider) and a choice of trifle, strawberries and cream or 2 pastries for dessert and of course your own pot of tea. The curry chicken and the cucumber are our favorites and the lemon curd is divine! They used to always have traditional berry trifle but turns out they are now doing seasonal trifles. Patrick said this summer they had a mango something trifle and now they have a poached pear trifle. In the spring they will be doing a bananas foster trifle. Hmmm I see another trip in the near future! The poached pear trifle was good but the pears were not poached long enough for me as they were very crunchy. Added a texture dimension but they would have been better poached longer.
After tea we wandered the resort and checked out the Gingerbread house and then the Basin store on the second floor, love the smells in there but I have found that one is more expensive than the one at downtown Disney. Caught the monorail back to MK so we could hop a bus to WL. Once back at WL, figured it was a good time to do a Winn Dixie run. Grabbed some snacks, drinks, breakfast items etc but when we got back to hotel el kiddo was not feeling well so we rested in the room. She did not start feeling better until that night and by then it was really too late to head back out. BUT we did hear all this music and looked out our balcony and Voila!! Clear view of the Electric Water Pageant. Score!! We always enjoyed catching it when we could. Did not realize at that moment that we would come to cringe at the sound of “Everyone Walk the Dinosaur” as EVERY NIGHT we would be treated to the flashing lights and loud music. But that is a story for another day.
As I unplugged the Christmas tree and pulled the curtains later on, I was able to take a deep breath and finally feel like I was on vacation at the most magical place on earth with my most favorite person in the world.
Tomorrow: EPCOT, Polynesian Luau
The lines for bag checks was short and I needed to make a side trip to Guest Services for my new Tables in Wonderland Card before our 1:10 Tea Time. It was a breeze getting in with our magic bands though I did see a lot of people having issues and not able to figure out how to use them or the entry ways. There are two “stations” at each entry, both can be used at same time by 2 different people. Just either touch your magic band or ticket media to the middle of mickey head. The circle around will start swirling and then the biometric finger scan will start flashing. Put your finger there and when the circle turns green, you are good to go. Anyways we made it in and the immediate area was packed with people, uh oh. Had we been fooled by the almost non-existent lines outside (even at Guest Services there was 1 person in front of me)? Were we to be denied the chocolate cherry goodness of our Starbucks coffee? Would we get squished to death in the mass of swarming humanity? Alas no, we just veered off closer to Tony’s restaurant and edged around the crowd and bam the whole world of Main street opened to us! Turns out there were several characters holding court around the huge Christmas Tree at the front and that is why there were so many people there.
We made it to Main Street Bakery with no further incidents and slipped inside. DD almost bolted when she saw the line but I pointed out that while it is a single point of entry, it fans out to about 6 cashiers. It moved reasonably quickly. Ok it moved pretty quick, just got a bit aggravated by the family in front of us who kept holding up the line to take pictures on their iPad of everything and everyone. Get out of line if you want to do that or pick a less busy time to come. Since we had tea in about 2 hours we just grabbed some apple slices with caramel sauce (because come on duh, apples and caramel? A mating from the gods) and ordered our Cherries Jubilee Mochas. We made a break for the exit after collecting our goodies and found an empty table outside the Plaza Restaurant overlooking the castle. We enjoy part of a castle show, took some pictures and soaked up some sun. Oh and yes the coffee delivered on its promised richness. Hint of cherries over chocolate, yummy. Will definitely be hitting there again for another dose.
Next was Tomorrowland, the lines for Buzz and Space Mountain were nuts. So we just walked around snapping silly pics and sitting and people watching. We saw Snitch working the crowd and he even waved at us as he walked by. Now you need to understand I just lurve (that’s right lurve) me some Stich! No clue why I do and I probably always will but I just accept it as fact and keep it moving. That made my day. DD just rolled her eyes and laughed. Soon it was time to make our way to the monorail and Grand Floridian.
When my daughter was little we started naming the monorails after Disney Characters based on the color of the strip on the monorail. The Aurora monorail was just pulling out when we got there but the Mickey one pulled in not 2 minutes behind it. By the time we left Contemporary, we had to come to a hard stop as the Aurora monorail had broken down ahead of us at the Ticket and Transpo Center and had to be reset. We sat there for what seemed like forever. Finally Aurora got her gown fixed and we were on our way but we had to come to another halting stop before Polynesian due to another glitch with Aurora, though this one was shorter. By this time, we were resigning ourselves to being late for tea…oh the horror! But Mickey kicked it into speed and arrived at the GF at 1:07! As we entered they had cast members informing everyone that the Reedy Creek Fire Dept was going to be conducting a test of the alarm system and not to panic or evacuate as it will only be a test. They had people everyone making sure everyone was aware. I thought that was good. At 1:09 we were checking in at the podium. Ha! 1 minute to spare!
They seated us at a corner table by the window and Patrick was our server. Now DD and I do tea almost every trip to WDW, so we knew Patrick from previous visits and he remembered us. The promised alarm went off after we were seated and startled us as we had forgotten that quick. Man was it loud! It lasted about 7-8 minutes. It was distracting but I was glad to see them do it.
I am allergic to shellfish and several types of fish so they talked to me about options as one of the tea sandwiches is a Salmon one. We both opted for the Grand Tea which comes with Tea Sandwiches (curry chicken salad, egg salad, pear and gorgonzola, cucumber watercress and salmon something or other), an onion tart, a roulade, scone with Devonshire cream, lemon curd, jam, strawberry tart, a glass of sparkling wine (DD got sparkling cider) and a choice of trifle, strawberries and cream or 2 pastries for dessert and of course your own pot of tea. The curry chicken and the cucumber are our favorites and the lemon curd is divine! They used to always have traditional berry trifle but turns out they are now doing seasonal trifles. Patrick said this summer they had a mango something trifle and now they have a poached pear trifle. In the spring they will be doing a bananas foster trifle. Hmmm I see another trip in the near future! The poached pear trifle was good but the pears were not poached long enough for me as they were very crunchy. Added a texture dimension but they would have been better poached longer.
After tea we wandered the resort and checked out the Gingerbread house and then the Basin store on the second floor, love the smells in there but I have found that one is more expensive than the one at downtown Disney. Caught the monorail back to MK so we could hop a bus to WL. Once back at WL, figured it was a good time to do a Winn Dixie run. Grabbed some snacks, drinks, breakfast items etc but when we got back to hotel el kiddo was not feeling well so we rested in the room. She did not start feeling better until that night and by then it was really too late to head back out. BUT we did hear all this music and looked out our balcony and Voila!! Clear view of the Electric Water Pageant. Score!! We always enjoyed catching it when we could. Did not realize at that moment that we would come to cringe at the sound of “Everyone Walk the Dinosaur” as EVERY NIGHT we would be treated to the flashing lights and loud music. But that is a story for another day.
As I unplugged the Christmas tree and pulled the curtains later on, I was able to take a deep breath and finally feel like I was on vacation at the most magical place on earth with my most favorite person in the world.
Tomorrow: EPCOT, Polynesian Luau