Bus roulette and a Disney Fairytale Wedding

There was no way we would roll out of bed early, so we slept until after 9am, when we finally got up, showered and had some breakfast out of the fridge. We thought long and hard what we were going to do, but could not make our minds up, so we decided to just try one of the resort quick service restaurants for lunch. Since we were a little early for lunch we parked our car at the Ticket and Transportation Center, hopped on the resort Monorail and went to the Contemporary to try lunch the Contempo Café.

They had just changed over from breakfast to lunch when we arrived and we used one of their kiosks to order our lunch. We decided to share two main courses, so we ordered the Spice Crusted Mahi Mahi - topped with citrus-apple slaw on a Kaiser roll and the Marinated Beef Flatbread - with oven roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, arugula, and goat cheese. Tom got us two Diet Cokes and we got a Lime Muffin and a Pecan Muffin for dessert. Once we had finished our meal we went over to the stores and looked for new or resort specific merchandise. After a while we walked up to the Monorail and rode over to the Polynesian, to check out their stores and walk around the resort. While we were in the lobby we decided to just take a bus to a park.

So we walked outside and played “bus roulette”. Let’s take the first bus there is. After about 5 minutes a bus to the Animal Kingdom arrived, so we got on. There were very few people on board and we all sat and enjoyed the ride. At the Animal Kingdom we had a few photopass photos taken before we entered the park and then went over to Expedition Everest to pick up a Fastpass, but they were for much later in the day, so we passed on them.

We walked back to the tree of life and enjoyed the air conditioning at It’s Tough To Be A Bug. After the show we slowly strolled to Pizzafari for a little break and some drinks. Tom had a Safari Amber and I enjoyed a cold Diet Coke. Refreshed we walked over to Kilimanjaro Safari and got in line. We had to queue for about 20 minutes and were finally loaded into our Safari trucks. Tom and I were lucky as we got a bench for the two of us right up front behind the driver.

There were lots of animals out and about, and our driver was real funny too. Much too fast we had passed all the animals and were on our way to catch the poachers. By then the park had gotten really packed and we walked through the shops before we slowly walked back out to the bus stop as we needed to get back to the Grand Floridian Resort for our dinner reservation. We had decided to take the bus to the resort that had the shortest way to walk to.

We stopped, watched, took a few photos and right then the bride left the resort and got onto the coach.

Well, the closest bus stop was the one for the Grand Floridian. There were only two people in line ahead of us, so we got in line and after about 5 more minutes the bus arrived. By then we were about 10 people who wanted to go to the Grand Floridian and after about 20 minutes we drove through the gates. We all got off the bus and most of us headed toward the entrance of the resort when we saw the horse drawn glass wedding coach coming towards the entrance.

We watched the bride and her family get into the coach, watched the photographer take a lot of photos and then we made our way into the lobby. We both freshened up a bit before we headed to the check in desk of the Grand Floridian Café. We were promptly seated at a two top by the window and our server was fun to talk to and very helpful. We ordered our Diet Cokes and I got a Pina Colava.

Tom got a Florida Sunshine - Peach Schnapps, Chambord, Skyy Vodka, and a splash of orange and cranberry juices  too, which he enjoyed a lot. While we were still deciding what to order, she brought out a Breadbasket and some Butter with seasalt. Tom ordered the Spice-dusted Tuna - with Warm Roasted Pepper-Garbanzo Purée, Fennel-Spinach Salad, and Kalamata Olives and I had the Salmon - with Asparagus, Julienne Shiitake and Leeks on a Potato-Chive Beurre Blanc. Both looked amazing and tasted even better. It was fun sitting at the window, as we could watch some cast members roll carts with chocolate characters and other treats from one building to another.

Unfortunately right before we finished our main course it started to pour.There was still the decision of what to have for dessert. We had tried most of the desserts at the Grand Floridian Café, but there was one I was dying to try and Tom thought it was a good choice and he ordered it too, the Chocolate Fondue - Dark Chocolate Ganache with Fruit. It was an awesome dessert, the chocolate tasted a lot like a melted Terry’s Chocolate Orange and the fruit went so well with it.

It was still raining hard when we left and before we got onto the Monorail we browsed the shop. We finally made it to the Monorail and rode back to the Ticket and Transportation Center. By then it had stopped to rain so hard, but there was still a light drizzle. We got on the tram and headed back to our car. It was still early evening and we sat in our villa for a while watching TV, Tom had a dip in the Jacuzzi and I was playing on the internet. At around 10 pm we thought we could do with another treat. So we jumped into the car, drove to Downtown Disney and picked up a Rotisserie Turkey Club - avocado, bacon, red onion, plum tomatoes, romaine and remoulade, a bottle of water and a brownie for a Counter Service Credit and a Hearts Of Romaine Salad - parmesan, croutons and Caesar dressing.

Once we got back to our villa we indulged on our sandwich and salad, sat outside on the balcony for a while and by midnight we finally got to bed.