faline
05-20-2014, 05:24 PM
Saturday May 10, 2014
Plan for the day:
If needed, head to Disney Studios for morning extra magic hour
Epcot in the afternoon
Fastpasses for Living with the Land; Mission Space; and Illuminations
Dinner reservations for Ronse and Crown
Reseverations for After Hours Wind Down at Tutto Gusto Wine Celler
How the day went:
We didn't feel the need to return to Hollywood Studios so did not get up at any particular time. This morning, we did not eat breakfast at home as we had been doing.
We've decided to go to Downtown Disney and only wait for a few minutes for a bus. Despite an additional stop at the Grand Floridian, we bring no more passengers on board so have a private coach all the way. The Marketplace stops are not being used until after noon so, this morning, we need to disembark at Pleasure Island.
It's 9:45 and the shops do not open until 10 so we pop into Earl of Sandwich for some coffee. We also share a banana nut muffin.
We browse the shops I'm interested in. I do not purchase any holiday ornaments - they seem so pricey to me now - many are around $18 for a Disney themed resin holiday ornament. Really?? Good thing I already have many Disney related holiday ornaments.
I do select two scarves from a rack which indicates buying any two for $21.95 will be discounted to $35. I thought I looked at the price for each but they rang up separately. It appears I selected the one and only scarf priced at $24.95 on the entire rack so the "two for" price did not apply. Even though I noticed this before I left the counter, the cast member told me she was prohibited from correcting the problem and I would need to go to another cast member to get the issue fixed. I select another $21.95 scarf, go to another register where a manager is called in and we get the refund sorted away. Gene wanted some more chip clips so we bought those as well.
Lunch is at Earl of Sandwich - I have never seen the line this long!! Even so, it moves along pretty steadily and it doesn't take us too long before I have my Original (Roast beef with horseradish) while Gene has the Pastrami Reuben. We wander a bit after lunch but decide we have no more shopping to do so head to the bus stop at the Marketplace which is now open.
Lucky us, our Wilderness Lodge bus arrives at the stop at the same time as we do. We relax at home for a bit before bussing over to Epcot. We finish looking at the gardens and do a bit more shopping. Gene buys some beer glasses while I get something for the folks at the office and a shirt for my nephew.
We do not do our fist two fastpass+ options. Dinner is at 5:25 pm at Rose and Crown. We wait a bit to be seated and our table is located right near the pub area which makes it a bit noisier than usual. This type of noise, however, I can handle much more than the screaming child we had been seated near during a prior trip. On that occasion, the child did us a favor as I requested a new table and our new table was out on the patio and we ended up being able to stay at the table through Illuminations. We both have the fish and chips. After dinner, we wander some more and do a bit more shopping. These purchases, we find, we need to take with us. Since they purchased after 7:30 p.m., they will not arrive at the resort until after 1 on Monday (the day we are checking out). Thus, I learned something new about the Disney ship to resort system for purchases.
After getting frozen magaritas at the stand, we get in line for the fastpass+ Illuminations viewing area. I think we were about 25 folks back in line. Though we were located behind a row of bushes with about 10 feet or so of lawn between the bushes and us, our viewing area was decent. I'm not so sure the same could be said of any number of folks who arrived later than we did. It worked out for us but I think we could have managed to get just as nice a viewing area given the same amount of time standing in the line and then waiting for the show without using the fastpass+ option. From a prior experience with special viewing, I also thought the viewing area would be larger. But...we learned that the viewing area was divided into two sections -- the fastpass+ section we were in with the remainder of the space being cordoned off for the Illuminations dessert party viewing.
We had reservations for the After Hours party at Tutto Gusto. It seemed pricey to me from the way it was described but thought we would give it a go. Since we were quite some distance from the Italy pavilion, we were the last to arrive at this party (given we were given the last two seats in the place). I had a flight of bubbly along with a dish that included a supply of bread sticks, a soft cheese, salami and prosciutto. Gene selected a flight of whites along with a dish that included bread sticks, an eggplant option and I'm not sure what else. Since the flights alone were approximately $15 and the food items about the same, it appears that Disney is charging approximately $5 per person in additional cost for the after hours option. The cost did not seem out of line for what we received. Plus, we had the luxury of slowly walking through an almost completely empty park when we finished.
When we arrived at the bus stops, we were asked where we were heading and directed to a nearby stop. Almost immediately, a bus pulled up, we boarded and the two of us were directly chartered to Wilderness Lodge - I think that is the quickest bus ride I've ever had from Epcot to Wilderness Lodge!!
It was late so we went right to bed.
Plan for the day:
If needed, head to Disney Studios for morning extra magic hour
Epcot in the afternoon
Fastpasses for Living with the Land; Mission Space; and Illuminations
Dinner reservations for Ronse and Crown
Reseverations for After Hours Wind Down at Tutto Gusto Wine Celler
How the day went:
We didn't feel the need to return to Hollywood Studios so did not get up at any particular time. This morning, we did not eat breakfast at home as we had been doing.
We've decided to go to Downtown Disney and only wait for a few minutes for a bus. Despite an additional stop at the Grand Floridian, we bring no more passengers on board so have a private coach all the way. The Marketplace stops are not being used until after noon so, this morning, we need to disembark at Pleasure Island.
It's 9:45 and the shops do not open until 10 so we pop into Earl of Sandwich for some coffee. We also share a banana nut muffin.
We browse the shops I'm interested in. I do not purchase any holiday ornaments - they seem so pricey to me now - many are around $18 for a Disney themed resin holiday ornament. Really?? Good thing I already have many Disney related holiday ornaments.
I do select two scarves from a rack which indicates buying any two for $21.95 will be discounted to $35. I thought I looked at the price for each but they rang up separately. It appears I selected the one and only scarf priced at $24.95 on the entire rack so the "two for" price did not apply. Even though I noticed this before I left the counter, the cast member told me she was prohibited from correcting the problem and I would need to go to another cast member to get the issue fixed. I select another $21.95 scarf, go to another register where a manager is called in and we get the refund sorted away. Gene wanted some more chip clips so we bought those as well.
Lunch is at Earl of Sandwich - I have never seen the line this long!! Even so, it moves along pretty steadily and it doesn't take us too long before I have my Original (Roast beef with horseradish) while Gene has the Pastrami Reuben. We wander a bit after lunch but decide we have no more shopping to do so head to the bus stop at the Marketplace which is now open.
Lucky us, our Wilderness Lodge bus arrives at the stop at the same time as we do. We relax at home for a bit before bussing over to Epcot. We finish looking at the gardens and do a bit more shopping. Gene buys some beer glasses while I get something for the folks at the office and a shirt for my nephew.
We do not do our fist two fastpass+ options. Dinner is at 5:25 pm at Rose and Crown. We wait a bit to be seated and our table is located right near the pub area which makes it a bit noisier than usual. This type of noise, however, I can handle much more than the screaming child we had been seated near during a prior trip. On that occasion, the child did us a favor as I requested a new table and our new table was out on the patio and we ended up being able to stay at the table through Illuminations. We both have the fish and chips. After dinner, we wander some more and do a bit more shopping. These purchases, we find, we need to take with us. Since they purchased after 7:30 p.m., they will not arrive at the resort until after 1 on Monday (the day we are checking out). Thus, I learned something new about the Disney ship to resort system for purchases.
After getting frozen magaritas at the stand, we get in line for the fastpass+ Illuminations viewing area. I think we were about 25 folks back in line. Though we were located behind a row of bushes with about 10 feet or so of lawn between the bushes and us, our viewing area was decent. I'm not so sure the same could be said of any number of folks who arrived later than we did. It worked out for us but I think we could have managed to get just as nice a viewing area given the same amount of time standing in the line and then waiting for the show without using the fastpass+ option. From a prior experience with special viewing, I also thought the viewing area would be larger. But...we learned that the viewing area was divided into two sections -- the fastpass+ section we were in with the remainder of the space being cordoned off for the Illuminations dessert party viewing.
We had reservations for the After Hours party at Tutto Gusto. It seemed pricey to me from the way it was described but thought we would give it a go. Since we were quite some distance from the Italy pavilion, we were the last to arrive at this party (given we were given the last two seats in the place). I had a flight of bubbly along with a dish that included a supply of bread sticks, a soft cheese, salami and prosciutto. Gene selected a flight of whites along with a dish that included bread sticks, an eggplant option and I'm not sure what else. Since the flights alone were approximately $15 and the food items about the same, it appears that Disney is charging approximately $5 per person in additional cost for the after hours option. The cost did not seem out of line for what we received. Plus, we had the luxury of slowly walking through an almost completely empty park when we finished.
When we arrived at the bus stops, we were asked where we were heading and directed to a nearby stop. Almost immediately, a bus pulled up, we boarded and the two of us were directly chartered to Wilderness Lodge - I think that is the quickest bus ride I've ever had from Epcot to Wilderness Lodge!!
It was late so we went right to bed.