Andy & Annabel Return to Disney World - Updated 6/2 - Day 14 Part 2 About This Page:

[Annabel]

As much as I hated missing out on more Epcot and a yummy dinner, it did us both the world of good. We are planning to eat at Les Chefs de France on our next trip so I'll get to sample the french onion soup after all

[Chuck&Michelle]

Annabel, I just found your TR and read the whole thing. I'm loving it!! Thank you...sounds like you guys had an awesome vacation and the pictures were wonderful.
Can't wait for more and now I'm hungry...off to dinner.
Michelle

[Annabel]

Before I start Day 10, I just wanted to share some photos that did actually get taken at the end of our lazy day. Hubby put them in the folder for Day 10's photos which is why I thought none were taken.

We came back from our shopping trip to find our Mickey head towel had some new additions:



During our visit to Walmart, I spotted some Coors Light cans that had made Hubby drool. He bought two of them......I can't remember how much it held but here it is next to a normal sized can:



As you can tell from this photo, Hubby was very happy about the big can:





I was wearing my new slouchy pj bottoms and here's part the pattern of them:



I hope they do more foody things like this. I'm wearing them today and they make me smile whenever I see them. Ok, so on with Day 10!

[Annabel]

Day 10 - Thurs 7 Oct - Trollies, TTA & a Big Steak....Featuring an Appearance From the Cast Member from Hell!

Our alarm was due to go off at 6.50am but we were both wide awake at 6am. I guess that lazy day did us the world of good! We showered and dressed and left at 7.55am, arriving at Magic Kingdom about 8.20. Just as we walked up Main Street USA, the Trolley Dancers had just finished at the top near the hub. I was gutted as I really wanted to catch their show from the beginning We watched the Trolley make its way down Main Street USA and I mentioned to Hubby that I was wondering if they were going to start again. We carried on watching the trolley, walking slowly, and the Trolley came to a halt. I told Hubby they were restarting so he ran to catch up and took out our Flip to record the show for me Oh, this puts a smile on my face. I can't explain why but when I listen to them at home I'm instantly transported back to Magic Kingdom. Let's just say that I watched their performance with tears in my eyes.















After the Trolley pulled away, I wiped my eyes and hubby gave me a huge hug. We walked to Tomorrowland as it was time for us to join Buzz Lightyear in his attempt to bring down the Evil Emperor Zurg! Hubby filmed it while I did the shooting. Sheesh, he was hardly shooting at all and yet he got nearly 10,000 points! I am not saying I whooped his butt as he was the one holding the camera....but yeah, I whooped his butt by getting 115,000 There was no wait as we came out so we went straight back on for a second spin – it would be rude not to, right? We always look at our photo when we come off the ride but this one, we bought as a souvenir.

Hubby joined me for a ride on the TTA – have I mentioned that this is my most favourite ride in the World? Yes I have, several times, I know.















We were heading past Space Mountain when I looked down to my left and I could see a brown furry head. On further inspection I realised it was either Chip or Dale – from this height, I couldn't tell the difference – with their character handler. In my excitement I yelled out “It's Chip!” It was funny because Chip (or Dale) started looking round to see who had called his name. He looked up and saw me and gave me a big wave I waved back and said “Hi Chip” Excited much? Hubby was laughing at me because I was so happy that Chip (or Dale) had waved at me.



As we got off the TTA, Hubby said he was tempted to go on Space Mountain. There wasn't much of a line so I said go for it. Chip and Dale had appeared for meet and greets nearby so I went and joined the small queue to meet them. Unfortunately as I got there, the Photopass photographer walked away. And never returned. However, the Cast Member said he was happy to take my photo. To my surprise, Chip (or Dale) recognised me He waved at me and pointed up to the TTA track. I admitted it was me who had called out and how happy I was that he'd waved back. He pretended to blush and kissed my hand. By end of this meet, I was blushing myself!



I walked away waving goodbye to Chip and Dale with a huge grin on my face. I knew Hubby would be a little while yet so decided to have one more go at helping Buzz Lightyear.





I then wandered around Tomorrowland, taking photos and filming. I adore the music and atmosphere of this place, I listen to the music loop all the time at home. Being there, with the sun on my face, I felt so happy and content.









As I walked by the Carousel of Progress I turned to see Hubby coming towards me. He'd enjoyed his trip on Space Mountain. It was now time for us to walk to Fantasyland. Near the Mad Tea Party, hubby was trying to take photos of the expansion work. He stood on a wall to see over the boarding. A Cast Member walking past us said “hey, I have a secret for you.” “What's that?” we asked. “If you ride Dumbo, you'll be able to see much more!” We laughed. Hubby didn't particularly sit on the Dumbo ride just trying to take photos. I wonder why













There was a big wait for Peter Pan so we picked up Fastpasses. To my surprise, our Fastpasses came out accompanied by a Surprise Fastpass for Mickey's PhilharMagic! We'd never had this happen to us before. I didn't think we'd really need them as there's not normally that much of a wait and there certainly wasn't today.





Speaking of Fastpasses, the machines for Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh have been moved to outside of Mickey's PhilharMagic. All I can say is yikes, this caused so much confusion with some guests! More than a few times while waiting for the doors to open, we heard Cast Members explaining that this isn't Winnie the Pooh and what Mickey's PhilharMagic was. I know they've put the new interactive queue in but putting the Fastpass machines nowhere near the ride is just daft! I have a feeling that by the next visit, the machines will have moved!

Anyway I digress! I wanted to have a look in Sir Mickey's. Hubby joined me briefly but left while I had a bit of spree to take some photos.













We carried on walking towards Haunted Mansion as we wanted to join the 999 Happy Haunts. I don't get sick of this ride at all, it's so much fun.







By the time we'd escaped into Liberty Square we were hungry. Hubby wanted to eat at Cosmic Ray's and I agreed as I love being entertained by Sonny Eclipse. We took a nice stroll to Tomorrowland via the Partners Statue and the hub.























I chose the Angus bacon cheeseburger and hubby had the deluxe chilli cheese dog. I managed to watch the whole show while eating our meal. Hubby laughed at me constantly as I was singing along and knew it off by heart. What can I say, I'm a nerd!

Hubby's:


Mine:


Sonny Eclipse:






After our yummy meal, it was time to fly over London with Peter Pan as our Fastpass was ready.



Either Cast Members weren't doing their job or it was the busiest ride in the park that day but the Fastpass line was huge. 10 minute wait via the 30 minute standby line. It took a lot longer than 10 minutes though. By the time we got on the ride, my back was killing me. We enjoyed our ride but felt we'd had enough by this point. I batted my eyelashes at hubby as we were passing Mickey's PhilharMagic and he agreed we could see it again. We only waited a few minutes for the doors to open.



Back on Main Street USA I stopped at the Emporium to look at the trading pins. They had a Limited Edition Tinkerbell pin that had the months of the year on it and was in the shape of a key. Dangling from the key was the birthstone for that specific month. They had loads of March pins and as I didn't know if I'd find it again I picked one up. I'd originally seen it at Animal Kingdom but they hadn't had any March pins. Hubby waited outside for me as his back was aching too. I paid for my pins and left, spotting Hubby sitting near Town Hall.

I wasn't allowed to cross over though as the Move It Shake It Celebrate It parade was going on. I only caught the last two floats though – Chip n Dale and Mr Incredible.






Once the last float had gone by I was able to cross over to find hubby. I bought us a bottle of Diet Coke so we could both have some tablets. This was our first trip where hubby had suffered so badly with his back I guess neither of us is used to walking so far.

As we walked to the bus stop we passed a bus which said Tigger and Piglet where the destination normally goes. Unfortunately as I took a picture, it changed and I missed it.

The bus to nowhere:


Once at our bus stop we waited 5 minutes for our bus to arrive. We were in our room by 1.30pm. Andy curled up while I rang my brother for a chat. He'd asked me to get him a PSN card (Playstation Network Card) and he'd transferred the money into our account. I'd managed to send him an email with the code on the back and wanted to make sure he'd received it ok. You can't buy these cards in the UK, unless you're prepared to pay a little extra for them on eBay so my brother was very happy that it had worked. After our chat, I rested up. We had to take our rental car back today to Alamo at the Dolphin Resort. We wanted to see the work going on at the Art of Animation Resort so were going to visit Pop Century on the way to take some photos.

Part 2 coming up: I have to stop and cook our dinner

[buzzspal2]

What a great Magic Kingdom morning. Happy Easter to you and Andy, Enjoy your dinner.

[Annabel]

Originally Posted by Chuck&Michelle

Annabel, I just found your TR and read the whole thing. I'm loving it!! Thank you...sounds like you guys had an awesome vacation and the pictures were wonderful.
Can't wait for more and now I'm hungry...off to dinner.
Michelle

Thanks, I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far, I'm loving re-living our vacation. We had an amazing time, even more amazing as it was our first trip in 3 and a half years.

[Annabel]

Originally Posted by buzzspal2

What a great Magic Kingdom morning. Happy Easter to you and Andy, Enjoy your dinner.

Happy Easter to you and your family too Tammy

[Colexis Mom]

Great morning at MK Annabel! Love the pictures!

[chezp]

What a great morning!

[Huntermom]

I always love finding and catching up on your TRs. You and Andy seem like a nice couple and I love the way Andy treats you. Little things like going ahead to tape the Trolley dancers show what a sweet guy he is.

[Annabel]

After our rest we changed and headed back out. We drove straight to Pop Century, the lovely resort that used to be our home away from home.



As usual we pulled up to the security gate. We waited and waited, no one came out We figured there was nobody there so after a whole minute of waiting, we went to pull off. All of a sudden, this female guard runs out the booth and starts yelling “Stop, stop right now, get back here!” at us. We looked at each other, shocked Hubby reversed and well, she went hell for leather at us. Who did we think we were going through the gate without stopping and showing our parking slip? Hubby said to her that we'd been sat there for a whole minute waiting for someone to come out, no one did so we moved on. According to her, we didn't stop and just drove through. Um, no we didn't Hubby said to her if you'd been doing your job you'd have seen us pull up right up to the gate and stop. Our parking ticket wasn't good enough, oh no, now she wanted an ID card and our Key to the World Card. Andy gave her our Key to the World card and said our parking slip was current as we were staying on property and there was no need for her attitude. I was fuming inside but forced myself to keep my mouth shut otherwise I'd have given her a mouthful. I have never encountered this before and as far as I'm concerned, there was no need for what happened. We've been staying on property since 2004 and we know the drill. It's obvious she wasn't paying attention and didn't see us pull in so why was that our fault? She chucked hubby's card back at him and stormed away without a word. Wowzers, I hope we don't encounter her again Both of us were stung, we hadn't done anything wrong.

By the time we'd parked up at the rear of the 60s parking lot, I was still shaking with rage. Some fresh air was definitely needed. We got out and walked to the lake. There was definitely some progress being made. I hope to stay here once it's open. Hubby took some really good photos, including a panoramic view.









It was getting close to our return time for the rental so after 10 minutes, we were on our way again...not without a quick pose with Mr & Mrs Potato Head



Luckily Pop Century isn't a long drive from the Dolphin resort so were were there within minutes. We pulled in to Valet parking and one of the valet workers got our return receipt for us. He actually marked us down as returning the car half an hour earlier than we did.

Bye bye car:


We walked in to the Lobby and I sat down on one of the sofas while hubby went to return the car keys to the Alamo desk.

The Dolphin lobby area:






All in all, our experience with Alamo was great. Being able to pick the car up on property was very convenient and we will definitely do this again. It was nice for hubby to rest on the Magical Express bus with me rather than enduring a 9 hour flight followed immediately by having to drive on the other side of the road. Next visit if the Disney Magical Express is still running we will use it.

Anyway, hubby was back within 5 minutes and it was time to leave for the Yacht and Beach Club. We walked out the back of the resort and wandered to the marina.







A boat was pulling in as we arrived at the dock so we decided to find out where it was heading. Lucky for us it was heading to the Boardwalk, Yacht and Beach Club and Epcot. Yay! We had planned to walk but hey, a Friendship Boat is better! We had a good 3 hours until our dinner at the Yacthsman Steakhouse.

We left the Friendship 1 behind and walked towards the Beach Club. Andy took some photos as we walked.









We hadn't eaten for a few hours and hubby was peckish. It was time for a little visit to Beaches & Cream. Yum! With dinner 3 hours away (and there being only 2 of us) a Kitchen Sink was definitely out of the question! Even 4 of us couldn't finish it There were no tables but we were happy to sit at a counter and watch everyone at work. We had a good look at the menu and I told Hubby I thought it would be best to share a dessert as I know they can be pretty substantial. We eventually decided on the Fudge Mudslide and ordred 2 diet cokes.

I wanted one of these jars:


Hubby told me to turn around and he snapped us:


We watched lots of food being cooked and Hubby started drooling over some thing that looked like a Philly cheesesteak. It did look nice I have to say. After a while, our dessert appeared. Wowzers, it was humungous!



Oh it was so, so good! The fudge was warm and gooey and brownies were divine. It had oreos on top and I have no idea how much whipped cream was in it. I was a little worried I wouldn't have room for my steakhouse feast but I was sure a walk round would hep. I will confess it all went, down to the very last drop of chocolate at the bottom. Delicious!

I love these tables:


We left Beaches & Cream and took a lovely walk around the resort. I really want to stay here one day, it's my dream. Even a couple of nights at the Beach Club would be awesome. We moved to the Yacht Club reception. Andy found this cute cabinet amongst all the furniture.



We ended up sat in the Crew Cup Lounge as we still had a bit of time left. Andy spotted the aging room. Ooh that steak looked darn good!





There was a man chopping up these huge slabs of beef into New York Strip steaks. Hubby was drooling. Andy picked up a couple of menus so we could have a look. I have to say it was a difficult decision to make. Everything sounded so good. My Dad has been a chef for over 40 years and I remember hearing him mention a cut called Porterhouse. Apparently it's considered quite old-fashioned in the UK and no steakhouse seems to serve it. I was a little intrigued by this.

The menu:


The Escargot starter is served with Mangalitsa Pork Sausage and they certainly had a lot of it in the meat room! It looked rather tasty but I'm not a fan of escargot.

Lots of sausage:


Our ADR time was 5.35pm and we checked in a few minutes early. We were shown to our table right on time. The restaurant looked quite busy already, I guess people were finishing their late lunches.

Our menus had a rose and Happy Anniversary printed on the top so we were able to take them home as souvenirs. Cute!



As we had another look at the menu, we were brought hawaiian salt butter with onion bread and sourdough bread. There were some mushrooms, I tried one and they were vile





We both decided we wanted to tackle the 24oz Porterhouse steak. It just had to be done people We asked for them to be cooked well done.

Looking forward to our big steaks:


I'm just tired, not drunk, honest:


The steaks came with roasted garlic butter which kept it juicy and succulent. The accompaniment to this was smoked paprika fries. We had to try a few of these for the purpose of this trip report. They were heavenly! I would honestly pair it with one of the smaller steaks so you could enjoy more of them. As for the Porterhouse? We both came to the conclusion that it was the best steak EVER!

Hubby's:


Mine:


Oh my, it was perfect. Neithe rof us wanted it to end. It was the best meal of our trip, hands down. Another server brought me a refill during the meal but as I tasted it, I realised it was regular coke not diet. Before I could do anything about it however, our regular server came back and said that the other server had realised his mistake and he wanted to rectify it. I said thank you and he brought me a diet coke. As you can see, the service we had was great.

We ordered a side of truffle mac and cheese as hubby is a huge mac and cheese fine and I'm rather partial to it myself.



It was delicious, although hubby found it far too rich and could only eat a few mouthfuls of it. Most of it ended up in my belly, although I couldn't eat it all. I'm shocked that we were able to finish the steak. Even more shocking, we weren't even stuffed. We did leave most of the fries though, it was shame as they were delicious and crispy.

Finished steak:


We still had room for dessert surprisingly. I decided on the chocolate peanut and hubby chose lemon pudding cake. Both were divine. Hubby's dessert came with a type of blueberry smoothie in a little glass. Mmm!

Hubby's:


Mine:


As we waited for our bill to arrive, our server brought a plate with Happy Anniversary on it with 2 fruit jellies and 2 chocolate caramel sweets.



Ooh they were good! Especially the chocolate caramels – they were salted so you had that mixture of sweet and salty. I could've eaten a lot more of those. Nicely full, we sorted out the bill as we paid extra for our side dish. We left a good tip as our server was great.

We waddled, not walked, out of the Steakhouse at 7.30pm. It didn't feel like we'd been there for 2 hours. It had been a lovely relaxed meal and we never felt at all rushed. We walked through the lobby and out to the bus stops. The bus to Downtown Disney came within 5 minutes. We must've been the first stop as we stopped at the Boardwalk, Swan and Dolphin. After the last stop, the bus was full to the brim. We left the bus at Marketplace and again we waited just over 5 minutes for our Port Orleans bus. Sweet! We were back at the resort by 8.30pm. There was live music at Scat Cat's so we decided to have a few beverages there and listen to the music. The singer and band were very good and did some good oldies. Hubby laughed at me as I sang and bopped in my seat to Rockin' Robin :dance: I love that song. We went back to our room around 10pm.

Today's tally: 8 activity points, 6.86 miles and 16,478 steps.





Coming up: 2 Parks, 1 Mouse Chef and the Rain Rain Rain Comes Down Down Down!

[Annabel]

Originally Posted by Huntermom

I always love finding and catching up on your TRs. You and Andy seem like a nice couple and I love the way Andy treats you. Little things like going ahead to tape the Trolley dancers show what a sweet guy he is.

That he is, I'm a lucky girl We've just celebrated our 11th anniversary of being a couple. 11 years ago when Andy first came to visit me, he brought me an easter egg. Friday he got home from work with an easter egg for me and said "just like 11 years ago"

[Cam22]

Great morning at MK! Love your pictures of the castle! What a rude security guard at POP!. And what great eats at both B&C and Yachtsman Steakhouse.

[Colexis Mom]

What a great meal you had at YSH! And the ice cream at B&C looked delish! Sorry about the rude gate attendant!

[chezp]

Wow, I can't believe that woman's attitude at Pop Century! Someone obviously got out of bed the wrong side.

Apart from that, it sounds like a great afternoon and evening.