The Brits at the Beach Club RE-VISITED! THREAD 2 COMPLETE! About This Page:

[chezp]

Thursday 26 December (Boxing Day / the day after Christmas) - part one: a magical moment at the Princess Storybook breakfast

Well, before I start, I’d better explain the two titles to this. I discovered that you guys don’t have Boxing Day in the States, when I was trying to make our Priority Seatings for the Princess Storybook breakfast and I told the Cast Member on the phone that I wanted Boxing Day. There was this pause and then she asked if I meant New Year’s Day. I quickly discovered you guys call it the day after Christmas, which is pretty sensible. We call it Boxing Day, I believe, because in olden days the masters would take presents in boxes round to their servants on the day after Christmas, not (as I believed when I was younger) because you end up having boxing matches with your family, having put up with them on Christmas Day! There you go, useless facts as well as a trip report!

Well, it was a case of another day, another character breakfast. This one was the Princess Storybook Breakfast in Norway.

It wasn’t too early a start for us though, as our booking was for 10.00 and of course Epcot wasn’t that far away. We left the Beach Club just after 9.30 and wandered through the World Showcase and then got to the rope just as you head towards Mexico. We had to give our names and be checked off the list for breakfast. I thought as the Cast Member checked off our name that it was a bit odd, as our name seemed to have a star by it. I couldn’t work out why, but later it would become apparent.

Having already been to Cinderella’s Royal Table earlier in the vacation and not been overly impressed it, we weren’t sure what to expect from this, but it was far better. The Princesses had more time to chat and were a lot more attentive. The only downside was that it was exactly the same Princesses as the ones we saw at Cinderella’s. I was hoping for some variation, perhaps to see Jasmine or even some of the Princes, who just aren’t around for photos / autographs. Another example of characters which Disney could use, but aren’t. (I’m glad that Disney have changed that over the last couple of years and some of the Princes are now seen out and about at character meals )




The food was wonderful, even though the scrambled eggs and potato casserole were served up on the same plate as the bacon, something Disney needs to start thinking about a bit more. Vegetarians may want to ask for the non-meat dishes to be separate.

Our server, Bjorn, was great fun, especially as they’d been told it was my birthday today. I don’t know how it happened, I know I told the Cast Member when I booked a heap of meals all in one go that it was my birthday while we were in Disney, but I wasn’t expecting her to note that down for all the meals I booked that night! It quickly became apparent that’s what the star by our name had been.

At the end of the meal, Bjorn brought out a complimentary dessert to celebrate my birthday, a shortbread Christmas tree, with green, yellow and red food colours, so that I could colour in my Christmas tree! By the time I’d finished my artistic creation, I was too full to eat it, so they boxed it up for me, so I could take it back to the Beach Club and have it later.



The Cast Members also sang Happy Birthday to me and then presented me with a Magical Moment certificate – the first (and to date the only!) one that I’d ever had. It was lovely and I was suddenly glad that the Cast Member I’d spoken to that night when I was making all my bookings had made a note of the fact that it was my birthday.

The meal came to $53.38. This was another one where the 15% gratuity was added in automatically, although we thought Bjorn was so good, we added an extra $5 to the total. Ironically, the total for this bill turned out to be just $2 cheaper than the lunch we’d had at Akerhaus two days earlier, so it probably wasn’t very good value for money, but we loved every minute of it and we will certainly be returning here. That’s more than we can say for the Princess breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table.

Princess Storybook breakfast
Food 9 9
Service 10 9.5
Atmosphere 9 9
Value for money 7 7.5

Average: 8.75

Next: what do you do when you’re missing a couple of crucial photos?

[Colexis Mom]

What a great breakfast Cheryl I love your birthday treat More please

[lauren-roxy]

Another great installment Cheryl!! Your pictures from the breakfast are wonderful! I love that cookie!! Can't wait for more!!

[Cinderbrella]

I'm just getting caught up again, Cheryl. I how you guys are able to pop back to your resort, especially from EPCOT. We can't wait to stay there on our upcoming trip. Great pictures from EPCOT and The Candlelight Processional. I can't wait to see this!! Your Christmas and Boxing days sounded wonderful; it's neat that they continue to shower you with birthday surprises. We enjoyed our meal at PSB, too. Looking forward to more.

[chezp]

Thursday 26 December (Boxing Day / the day after Christmas) - part two: what do you do when you’re missing a couple of crucial photos?

We then walked back to the Beach Club and I was able to get some great photos of the countries as we walked through them, as it was so quiet. The best shot, as told by an official Disney photographer who took photos of us on our honeymoon, is to get Spaceship Earth through the Japanese gateway. If you stand in the right place, you can get a shot of the gateway framing Space Earthship. I was so pleased to see no-one sitting on the bench in front of the gateway, meaning I could get the perfect shot.




Once back at the room, I noticed that I was missing a couple of what I’d decided by then were crucial shots from the Animal Kingdom – crucial that is to the continuity of my photo album when we got home. So what’s a girl to do about that? Well there really is only one thing that you can do… so off we went to fill up the photo album.

When we got to Animal Kingdom, taking photos was about all we did on what turned out to be a very quick visit there. Our first stop was the Maharajah Jungle Trek to get some tiger shots – and what superb tiger shots I managed to get:




We were going to go on the Kali River Rapids when we got there, but we were in jeans and the forecast had predicted highs of just 57°F. We thought it was warmer and perhaps we should’ve worn shorts. I think if we had, we’d have done the Rapids, but we had to make the decision when we left the room, so instead we enjoyed watching those who were braver than us!



We walked over to Africa, as it did seem like a shame to come over to this park and not do very much here apart from get some photos, but Kilimanjaro Safaris wasn’t an option either, as the Fastpass return was an hour and a half away and we didn’t really have anything else left to do during the wait

We did go and see the new attractions in Dinoland USA. I have to say we hated the new look of this area. It seemed like a very tacky theme park and was obviously aimed at children, with all its bright colours. To us, it just didn’t seem to fit into the overall theme of Animal Kingdom and seemed very out of place. It wasn’t one of our favourite lands to begin with, as we don’t like any rollercoasters or really jerky rides and I think the changes reinforced that feeling. I think we’ll be avoiding Dinoland altogether in future trips.

(And to date we have, as there’s just nothing here to lure us over. I must admit though that looking back at these photos, Triceratops Spin does look like fun – and perhaps with my new found bravery, having now tried Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Mission : Space, maybe I’ll pluck up courage some day soon and try Dinosaur again )





Next: we find the hidden savannah and what goes into the Kitchen Sink!

[kimdisneynut]

Another great very detail update.

Thanks

kim

[lauren-roxy]

Great update Cheryl!!!! Those pictures are so beautiful, especially the one of Spaceship Earth!!

[Colexis Mom]

Another great update

[Jillybean]

That shortbread Christmas tree looked scrumptious -- hope you had the chance to eat it!

Jill

[DawnDenise]

Just got caught up on your latest two updates!!! Love the picture of Spaceship Earth. I'll have to remember that on future trips. Looking forward to more!

[chezp]

Thursday 26 December (Boxing Day / the day after Christmas) - part three: we find the hidden savannah and what goes into the Kitchen Sink!

From Animal Kingdom, we headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our second visit of this vacation. There we found the hidden savannah at the front, full of giraffe and wildebeest. I say hidden, as we had to wander down one of the corridors to the rooms to find it. It’s not immediately accessible to visitors, like the one at the back is.

What a wonderful sight watching two giraffes eating really close to the Lodge and then to watch a giraffe shooing the other animals away from where it was. This savannah seemed to have a lot more activity than the other one, where we’d so far spotted one zebra and a lot of birds and I certainly got the impression that everything happening in front of us was completely natural and we were just lucky enough to be looking in on it.



Animal Kingdom Lodge certainly has lots of atmosphere. We had a quick look at the pool, which seemed to be well themed and great fun, as is usual with Disney - obviously not in the same league as Stormalong Bay, but no other Disney is.

Then we had a wander round inside. I was impressed with the menu at Jiko, another definite possibility for the future. (And so it turned out – on our very next visit to Disney, we had a meal here)



We set off from there to Wal-Mart to pick up yet more photos that we’d put in for developing. Then it was time to decide where to go for dinner – there was really no contest. We opted for another dinner at Beaches and Cream.



If you get the chance to eat here, always go for a seat at the counter, rather than a table. It’s such great fun to see them preparing the dishes and we had the honour of seeing them put together the “kitchen sink”. That dish is scary when you see what actually goes into it!



I was struggling at the time with my fudge mud slide, which I went for instead of my usual veggieburger (well I’d been good and not eaten too much ice cream up until that point!). I made it more than halfway through it, but I just couldn’t finish it.


Making a valiant attempt to finish my fudge mud slide!

I certainly couldn’t eat the Kitchen Sink – definitely not on my own and probably not even with a lot of help! As we left, we took great pleasure in telling the three girls who’d ordered it exactly what was in it. They suddenly got very excited at the prospect of the bananas at the bottom and started digging down to try and find them!

Beaches and Cream
Main course N/A 10
Dessert 9 N/A
Service 7 6.5
Atmosphere 8.5 8.5
Value for money 8.5 9

Average: 8.38

Next: SpectroMagic in the busy season – a wise decision?!

[lauren-roxy]

That ice cream looks so delicious Cheryl!! I think ice cream for dinner sounds very good once in a while!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great update of my two favorite places

More please

[Cinderbrella]

I enjoyed your updates, Cheryl. We hope to make it to B&C this time around.

[chezp]

Thursday 26 December (Boxing Day / the day after Christmas) - part four: SpectroMagic in the busy season – a wise decision?!

We decided to make tonight the time to go and see Spectromagic, as still hadn’t managed to catch it, despite all our previous trips to the Magic Kingdom so far this vacation. Now you may be thinking that we’re mad to head over to the Magic Kingdom on the night after Christmas, as the crowds must be at their worst, but we hadn’t really noticed that they’d built too much over the last couple of days, so we thought we’d risk it… and it was deserted when we got there! Well, obviously it wasn’t completely deserted, but we arrived with about an hour before the parade and there were still plenty of places to sit – to me, on 26 December, that’s deserted!

SpectroMagic was certainly worth the special trip over to the Magic Kingdom. I always love the evening parades at Magic Kingdom, they look so wonderful and although this one didn’t feature that many characters, the floats more than made up for that. They were real works of art! (Actually looking back at these photos, I’m not sure how many more characters I wanted, as there seem to be a fair few in these shots! )




The only thing which spoilt Spectromagic was that Cast Members kept letting people cross during the parade. Normally once the parade starts, you’re stuck where you are and that’s it and I think that’s a fair way of doing it.

Incidentally, since we’ve been back, I found the video of our 1996 to WDW with my mom and dad and my dad had videoed Spectromagic on that trip. Was there any difference between that one and the one that’s currently operating? Not that I could see – they looked to be exactly the same to me! The funny thing was, when I was watching Spectromagic, only a little of bit seemed familiar and until I saw the video, I was convinced that they had changed it since 1996! Odd how your memory can play tricks on you….

As soon as the parade was over, we made for the exit and headed for the resort launch to the Polynesian, which was pulling in as we walked up. There were only six of us on it! We were at the Poly in plenty of time to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the beach and finally catch the Electric Water Pageant, at last! It was great fun and I’m glad we finally got to see it. The fireworks weren’t as impressive as during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parade, so if you’re ever down at Disney when the Parade is on, then do try and catch the fireworks from the Polynesian, as then you’ll be able to see them in all their glory and you can’t see them fully from the Magic Kingdom.

After a quick stop at guest services to call Joy (Grumpygal) to check she’d arrived OK (she had! ) we caught the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom. The wait for the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Centre had been horrific, so I was dreading the queue for the bus back to the Beach Club, but again there were only about six people waiting and the bus arrived within five minutes. This system couldn’t be anymore efficient and I do love the way Disney planned the bus stop at MK, so that the stops for the deluxe resorts are the closest to the park entrance. Has anyone else noticed that?!

Once back home, it was off to bed to prepare for a busy day tomorrow – our first ever behind the scenes tour at Disney.

The weather today was sunny, but not too warm, with temperatures in the low 60’s and a mild evening.
The best thing today was Spectromagic.
The worst thing today was the crowds at Animal Kingdom.
The funniest thing today was watching the Cast Members at Beaches and Cream make the Kitchen Sink and the look on the faces of the girls who ordered it when it arrived at their table!
Today we tried the Princess Storybook breakfast
And the result was it was a lot better than Cinderella’s Royal Table and I had my first ever “official” magical moment there.
The most magical moment was my “birthday” at the Princess Storybook breakfast and the magical moment that I enjoyed there.

Pedometer: 8.7 miles

Next: going behind the scenes of Future World in Epcot…