And where the heck is the Magic Kingdom?
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We slept in just a little today and after having showered and
snacked on doughnuts and leftover goodies out of the fridge, before
we walked to the car and drove over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Since we had missed the rope drop and the mad dash to Toy Story
Mania Fastpasses, all the passes with reasonable times were gone, so
we jumped into the regular line and had a 30 minute wait. |
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After that we went right over to the Tower of Terror and picked up a
Fast Pass for that. The wait time said 13 minutes so we jumped in
line right away and walked right into the library. Two of the
elevators were closed and there still was no line. We got off the
ride and walked around and saw that there still was a 13 minute
wait, so we got in line again right away. There were a few more
people in line now and it took us about 10 minutes to get into the
library. |
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Again only two elevators were working and now they had built up a
line. But nevertheless it was a pretty short wait. Again the right
was a lot of fun and we had a little time to kill before our
fastpass kicked in. Rock’n’Rollercoaster came to mind and we walked
over, but we could see from afar that it was down. So we walked down
over to the shops and browsed for a short while. Then we hurried
back to the Fastpass entrance for Tower of Terror. By that time
there was quite a long queue outside and we were happy to be able to
bypass them all in the Fastpass line. After that third ride on the
Tower of Terror it had become considerably crowded so we decided to
leave the park and have some lunch. Once we were in the car we
decided to drive to Downtown Disney and have lunch at Wolfgang
Puck’s Express. |
We still had to hand out a few gifts, so we went back to the villa
and chilled for a while, then picked up our gifts and went to
Downtown Disney hoping we would be able to deliver them. And we were
in luck, once we entered the restaurant we saw CJ and after we had
placed our order we handed him our presents. He couldn’t believe it,
and thanked us over and over again. We then went in search for a
table, found one and waited for our entrees to come out. It took
only a little time until they were delivered. Tom had ordered the
Meatball & Peppers Wood Fired
Pizza - house-made meatballs, mozzarella, fontina and tomato
basil-garlic sauce. A very "unusual" combination for us Europeans,
but he had had it before and had really liked it, and this time it
did not disappoint either. I wanted to try something new, the
Crispy Chicken Tenders &
French Fries. Well, not really something new to me, but a first
ordering it at WPE. |
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We were just starting to dig in when Mariza arrived, came over to
greet us and offered to get some dipping sauces for the chicken
tenders. While she went to get the sauces we pulled out her presents
and once she got back we handed them to her. She just could not
believe that we had actually brought her presents. She hugged both
of us and showed us a photo of her little son, who would get some of
the cookies we had brought her and she would share the rum cake with
her husband. We were having a fun conversation but after a while she
insisted we finish our meals and chat a little later, so our meals
would not get cold. We did as we were told to and finished our
lunch. Mariza was quick to take away the lunch plates and serve the
Crème Brulee that was
still on order, refill the drinks and then stayed a while to chat
some more. Once we were ready to leave she came over and handed us
one of WPE’s chewy brownies as a return. |
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She was just so sweet and hugged us again when we left. We then
walked over to the Once Upon A Toy store to do some more browsing
and when we were done window shopping we saw some of the Fairy
Godmothers in training of the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique lead a load
of fresh little princesses to the carousel. They all rode it
together and had the greatest fun. We had never seen anything like
it before and it was really
special and sweet. |
We wanted to join Mary Ellen and Joe at the Magic Kingdom in the
afternoon, but before that we had some mail we needed to get to the
Post office, so we drove over to Crossroads and posted everything.
After that we thought we would take a shortcut to the MK, but
realized to late that we had missed the actual road. |
So we looked for a spot where we could stop, stopped, programmed the
GPS and off we went. We had been driving for a while and the
distance to the Magic Kingdom seemed large, but the GPS will be
right. So we drove and drove and drove and ended up at the Cast
Member Entrance right BEHIND the Magic Kingdom. Once we realized how
lost we had gotten we stopped again and this time used the
Contemporary Resort as our point of interest. |
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It took us about 45 minutes to get back to the Contemporary and
during the drive we asked ourselves more than once, “Where the heck
is the Magic Kingdom”. It became a running gag and once we were back
on “known” Disney property we followed the overhead signs. We had
called Mary Ellen and Joe to let them know we were on our way, but
we had gone REALLY wrong. Once we were back at the Magic Kingdom we
parked the car and hurried over to meet with our friends. |
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We were really thirsty so we picked up a
Raspberry Lemonade Slush
and some water and headed inside Cosmic Ray’s. There we sat for a
while, enjoyed our drinks and each others company and since the park
was pretty crowded around mid afternoon we decided to pack up and
leave the park and drive over to our villa for some coffee, drinks
and cookies. Nearly everything was packed by then and we still had a
few yummy treats which we wanted to share. |
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We sat and talked for quite a while and then we got ready for our
dinner at Flying Fish. It was a late dinner and we wanted to head
over to Epcot for Extra Magic Hours. When we arrived at the
restaurant we were told they were running behind and we had to wait
for about 20 minutes. I tried to reach Sophia, whom I met from the
DISboards and who we wanted to meet after dinner. I couldn’t reach
her first time around, but I would try later. |
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We had waited for about 20 minutes when we were called inside and
seated towards the back of the restaurant. Our server introduced
himself and talked us through the menu.While we were still trying to
decide on what to order our server brought a basket of slightly warm
Bread and some
Butter. All of us tried
it and deemed it very nice. Then it was time to order appetizers.
Since we knew it was so much food, we shared with Mary Ellen and Joe
again. |
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So we ordered the Flying Fish Cafe
"Crispy Maine Coast Jonah
Crab Cake" - Savory Vegetable Slaw, Roasted Red Pepper Coulis,
and Ancho Chile Rémoulade and the
Special Thunder Appetizer
- Herb and Fennel Pollen-roasted Maine Lobster Salad, Fennel,
Cucumber, Asian Greens, Yuzu Essence, Lobster Vinaigrette, with
Fennel and Dill Emulsion, which was delicious. And right after we
had ordered our starters I was able to reach Sophia and we decided
to meet after our dinner. For their main course Mary Ellen and Joe
both ordered the Flying Fish Café
"Char-crusted Certified Black
Angus New York Strip Steak" - Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Root
Vegetables, and Pole Beans, with Classic Sauce Foyot. Tom had
decided on the Oak-grilled
Maine Diver Scallops - Artichoke, Fresh and Sun-dried Tomato,
Basil, Pecorino Romano and Mascarpone-laced Risotto di
Carnarolli,with Proscuitto di Parma Cracklins while I ordered the
Citrus Pepper crusted
Yellowfin Tuna "a la Nicoise". Fingerling Potatoes, Haricot
Verts, Nicoise Olives, Artichokes, Fennel and Tiny Tomatoes, and a
rich Vegetable Nage. When it came to dessert our friends chose the
Trio of Seasonal House-made
Sorbets - with Fresh Plant City Berries, and Vanilla-laced
Cookies for dessert. It reminded me very much of various other
sorbets. |
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Tom surprised me with his choice. He ordered the
White Chocolate-Bing Cherry
Creme Brulee. Cherry and candied Fennel Compote, Housemade
Maraschino Cherries and Anise Biscotti while I wanted to try the
Sinful Flourless Dark
Chocolate Creation, Fresh Summer Crop Raspberries, Raspberry
Coulis, and Riesling and Cherry Gelee with Chocolate Accentuations.
We thoroughly enjoyed our last dinner at Walt Disney World and once
we had finished it, we slowly made our way over to the International
Gateway. Extra Magic Hours were in full swing by then and we had to
show our room keys in order to get in. Once inside the park we
called Sophia and she and her family were in line to ride Test Track
so this was where we were to meet. All of us tried to get over there
as fast as possible and we only waited a few minutes and then they
left the ride. There is something really amazing about meeting
DISfriends, there is an instant bond and feeling of friendship with
them. |
We all introduced ourselves, then chatted and hugged and all too
soon our ways parted again. By then it was getting late and we
wanted to at least fit in a few rides but lines were long, so we
walked around, went to visit Nemo and finally went on Spaceship
Earth. When we got off the ride it was time to leave the park and
since we were at the front of the park everyone thought that we
would just take a but to the resorts we wanted to go to. |
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Mary Ellen and Joe easily found their bus to Wilderness Lodge and we
hugged and said goodbye as we did not know if we would see them
again this vacation and we went on to find a bus back to the
Boardwalk. We were pointed to a bus stop that served “all other
resorts” and waited. And waited and waited some more. It was way
past midnight and we were getting nervous when out of the blue a bus
drove up and asked where we wanted to go. We told him that we wanted
to go to the Boardwalk and he told us to hop in. There was another
five minute wait to see if there would be any other passengers and
then we were off. We had the whole bus all to ourselves and a fun
and chatty driver. Once we got off at the Boardwalk we handed him a
tip, which he refused at first, but then accepted as we told him
this had been the largest taxi we had ever ridden in. A quick walk
over to our car and by 1am we were back at our villa. We were far
too tired to do the rest of the packing and left it for the next
morning. |
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