A royal invitation for dinner
|
We got up around 8am, had some breakfast sandwiches made up with
things out of our fridge and then headed over to Disney’s Hollywood
Studios. We arrived there shortly after rope drop, and made our way
over to Toy Story Mania. |
|
Tom got in line for the Fast Pass and I walked up to have a look at
the current return time. It looked good, but changed rapidly while I
waited and once it was Tom’s turn our return time was between 1 and
2pm! The standby wait was just half an hour so we got in line and
rode right away. We still had some time left before our lunch at the
Hollywood Brown Derby, so we strolled over to the Great Movie Ride. |
|
We
walked inside, just to walk right out again. The line was out the
building. So we walked through the stores and over to the Tower of
Terror. The wait at the Tower said 20 minutes so we hopped in line.
It took us about 20 minutes to get inside the famed hotel and
another 10 to get on the elevator. |
|
The ride was fun and before we walked over to the restaurant we
walked through the stores, watched the street artists and had a lot
of Photopass photos taken. Then it was time to check in at the
restaurant for lunch. Our ADR was shortly after they opened and the
place was empty! We were seated immediately at a small table to the
side of the restaurant. Our server was at hand quickly and
introduced himself. And even though he was very nice and
accommodating, it was a bit of an awkward feeling, sitting there in
your theme park clothes and these overly overdressed waiters waiting
on you hand and foot! We ordered Diet Cokes, but since the server
insisted we had a bottle of water included with our meal we ordered
a bottle of Pellegrino as well. There was a wine list and on it
there was something that caught our eye! |
A glass of Silverado
Vineyards, Chardonnay, Napa Valley ‘08. The Silverado Vineyards
belong to Diane Disney Miller and this is as close to Disney as it
gets. We visited the Silverado Vineyards in 2006 and tasted some
wines, and really loved them. So whenever we can lay our hands on
them we get some! Shortly after our drinks were delivered our
starters came out. Tom ordered the spicy
Sashimi-grade Tuna Tartare
with cucumber, daikon and Pepper Salad, Avocado Wasabi Sauce, and
crisp Lotus Root Chips, which he really liked. I ordered the
Famous Cobb Salad with
finely-chopped greens, turkey breast, bacon, egg, tomatoes, crumbled
Blue Cheese, avocado, chives, and Cobb Dressing. I didn't like it
and I DO like ALL of the ingredients in it! It was badly mixed
(tableside) and I had to do some more mixing myself, but it was very
salty and tasted like there was WAY too much blue cheese and bacon
in it. |
|
Tom had a bit, but most of it was left on the plate. While we were
still eating appetizers we were brought some warm rolls, which were
very pale and your standard little
Bread rolls, which came
with Whipped butter. For
my entrée I ordered the char-grilled
Filet of Beef over White
Truffle Whipped Potatoes, topped with Julienne root vegetables
and a tomato/red wine reduction, while Tom had the
Sterling Silver Pork Chop
topped with Smoked Gouda and Apricot Preserve served over Napa
Cabbage, Bacon, and Potato Hash with Apple Cider Jus, which he
really enjoyed. Up next was dessert. Tom had the
Double Vanilla Bean Crème
Brûlée with Dark Chocolate-dipped Biscotti and I had ordered the
Chocolate Three Ways –
Dark Almond-Buttermilk Cake Layered with Milk Chocolate Truffle
Crème and White Chocolate Chambord. This was a new addition to the
menu according to the server and it sounded good - it was
outstanding. |
After finishing our desserts and drinks we settled the bill and
walked over to the Toy Story Mania ride. Our Fastpasses were good by
then and we walked ride onto it. After the ride we decided to leave
the park as it had gotten rather crowded and drove offsite to shop
at Publix. We needed a few more groceries and a few more drinks and
there were lots of other things to check out. When we had finished
shopping we drove back to Old Key West, hauled everything up to our
villa and crashed on the sofa for a while. Once we felt a bit rested
I started putting things into the suitcases, as there were only a
few more days of our vacation left. All too soon it was time to
leave Old Key West again and drive over to the Magic Kingdom to meet
Mary Ellen and Joe. We made a stop at the Contemporary Resort to
pick up some goodies we had seen there and had them shipped to our
resort. |
|
|
|
Once we had finished shopping we walked over to the Magic Kingdom
and once we had gone through security and the turnstiles we called
Mary Ellen and Joe and they promised to meet us in just a few
minutes. While we waited for them I picked up a box of fresh
Popcorn. There is nothing
that says Walt Disney World like that freshly popped corn. We
watched the Celebrate Parade. Soon after Mary Ellen and Joe had
arrived and we could start our adventures together. |
First off we had some photopass photos taken and then we were off to
help Buzz Lightyear fight the evil emperor Zurg. Tom was far more
successful than I am and we left the battlefield to walk over to the
Carousel of Progress. There is nothing better to relax than an
airconditioned ride in the Carousel of Progress. So this is what we
did and some of us were even able to catch up on some sleep. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our next ride was the Peoplemover. We all love this ride, so nice to
just people watch and take a lot of fun photos from an unusual
angle. We then parted ways for a little time, as Tom and I wanted to
ride Space Mountain and Mary Ellen and Joe don’t ride that. After
the ride we strolled over to Toon Town, using the pathway that goes
along the railroad tracks. We visited Mickey’s House and the Judge’s
tent before it was time to head over to the castle. |
|
|
|
|
We had a royal invitation. An invitation to dinner! We met Mary
Ellen and Joe outside the castle, checked in and were told to wait
outside for about 10 more minutes. Then we were allowed inside and
were waiting to have our photo taken with Cinderella. While we sat
and waited for the princess we watched the many children, all
dressed up as princesses and waiting for their opportunity to have a
photo with Cinderella taken. After a few minutes Cinderella appeared
and it didn’t take long for us to be called and have our picture
taken. |
Then we were taken upstairs to the dining room and seated on the
upper level of the restaurant. Our server appeared and handed the
guys some swords and the girls some wishing wands! We all had a good
laugh and some fun with our new toys. We ordered our drinks right
away and went to have a look at the menu. Our server was quick to
bring out some nice warm
Rolls with butter and took our order for starters and main
courses. Joe had decided on the
Soup of the Day, which
was Beef and Barley, Mary Ellen and Tom had the
Rock Shrimp Cocktail -
rock shrimp with tomato marmalade and I actually surprised myself by
ordering the Royal Tasting of
Cheese - a trio of cheeses with accompaniments, which was
commented by the server that at least two of the cheeses were quite
good! |
|
|
|
After we had finished our starters it did not take long for our main
courses to appear. Mary Ellen and Joe both ordered the
Roasted Beef Tenderloin -
sliced roasted beef tenderloin with Duchess potatoes, asparagus, and
Hollandaise. Tom had the Duck
Confit - duck confit with savory mushroom bread pudding and
Hollandaise sauce and my choice of the day was the
Braised Cobia - braised
on Pomodorro sauce served with vegetables over angel hair pasta. |
|
And then it was time to meet Cinderella’s Royal Friends. Our first
royal visitor was The Sleeping Beauty, Aurora, and next was her
friend, Miss White. They all had a few comments to make and were
gone again fast. Last to visit our table was Belle. She commented on
how honoured she felt with all those people wanting to have their
photo taken with her. Joe commented that they would all too soon end
up on Facebook, to which she answered, with a very serious face,
“Oh, you mean there is a book full of faces?” We all nearly fell
over backwards laughing, but the cute little French Miss perfectly
stayed in character. We said our goodbyes to her, as our server was
bringing out our desserts. Mary Ellen, Joe and Tom all chose the
same dessert, the Seasonal No
Sugar Added Sorbet - with berries, while I needed to have
something different. |
I had the Créme Caramel -
caramel topped with vanilla custard, which I was told, was not a
dessert that was ordered often, but it was very good. We tipped the
server a little extra for making us laugh a few times and then left
the castle. There were only a few minutes of park time left, so we
hurried to the photoshop to have the Dinner package photos added to
our photopass account. |
|
|
It took quite a while to have it done and by the time they were
added, the park had officially closed and we left the park. Our
friends walked over to the boat landing again, while Tom and I made
our way over to the parking lot, to pick up our car. We drove back
to our villa, watched a little more TV and then called it a day.
|
|