August 6, 2015

 

 

 

 
 

Two for the price of one!

 

Our first moving day had dawned. Again, we were up early, still not having quite adapted to the time change. So, after taking showers, we brewed some coffee and finished the leftovers in the fridge and shared the rest of Tom’s cake, before packing up the last few items and then calling bell services. It did not take long at all and all our luggage was tagged and on its way to the Yacht Club. We took our carry-ons with us to the car and put them in the trunk on our way to the Magic Kingdom. We arrived at the Security checkpoint shortly after 9am and joined the long line.

It was only about 10 minutes later we went through the scanners and then scanned our Magicbands and headed into the park. It was a picture perfect morning with the train in the station when we entered and a beautiful blue sky above. Another wonderful day at Disney. We slowly strolled up Main Street, peeked into a shop or two and finally walked up and through the castle right into Fantasyland. We still had a few minutes to kill so we stopped and watched people trying to retrieve the Sword in the Stone. The actors were out and finally a little girl was selected to try to pull the sword from the stone. It was a really cute scene.

The little girl was pretty surprised when she was the one to pull out the sword. We all clapped and bowed to the little girl before heading over to Peter Pan’s Flight, which had a line that started even before the scanners. But it moved quickly and soon we were flying over London and on to Neverland. After the ride we did not have to walk far for our next ride, just across the street we literally walked onto It’s a Small World. Once we got off the ride our next FP was just kicking in and we walked right over to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and hopped on the next train out. Needless to say we had a great time, and far too soon we had to get off again.

We had plenty of time before our next FP ride, so we walked towards Tomorrowland and since The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh only had a 10 minute wait, we got in line and rode that ride as well. Next stop Peoplemover. We both love that ride, so relaxing just sitting there and people watch. Now, all those rides made us thirsty, so off to Starbucks we went again. But we did not get far, as we walked right into the Move It, Shake It Parade. We stopped for a while to watch, but then went straight to Starbucks. We had really enjoyed our drinks the day before, so we went for repeats, Tom again ordered the Iced Caramel Macchiato, while I went with the Iced Black Tea Lemonade again.

We started walking with our drinks in hand, but were happy to find some benches behind the Christmas Store and we sat down and enjoyed our drinks. Drinks finished we slowly walked over to our last Magic Kingdom ride for the day, Big Thunder Mountain. The standby line was very long as the ride was about to go down for refurb in just a day or two, so we were happy to quickly move through the FP line. Again we were granted last row and enjoyed to ride in the best seats in the house. Once we got off it was time to leave the park. We walked back to the car, waved goodbye to Bay Lake Tower and drove over to Disney Springs.

We had not been there since the second garage had opened and once we had found the right garage we drove around in search of a spot to park the car. Took us quite a while and once we had finally parked our car we hotfooted it over to the Boathouse for lunch. We made it with 5 minutes to spare and signed in. It took quite a while until we were called and a table was ready. No problem, as it had given us time to catch our breath again. Now we were following a greeter to a table and were not happy. There were several “regular” dining tables, but we were led to some of the “high chair” tables. I don’t really feel comfortable in these bar seats, so we asked the greeter if it was possible to get a regular table.

We got a really funny look and were told that this was the table that was assigned to us. Yip, we know, but I’d rather …… It took a while, but they were able to seat us at a regular table. There we quickly settled in, a server handed us menus and took our order for drinks and we were left to study the menu. It took us a little time to decide on something, but there were a lot of yummy things on the menu, so we decided to share a starter and then have a main course each. After ordering the food, the server brought some soft dinner rolls and butter and we started munching on them, while we waited for our food. It did not take long and our starter, the Firecracker Shrimp, Sriracha mayo, serrano chili and sweet peppers was brought to the table. The helping was huge, but so tasty and quite hot. We both kept eating and eating and soon felt a bit full and we had yet to tackle our main courses. Tom had ordered the Wild Caught Surf Clam Strips with fresh cut fries and tartar sauce and lemon served in a dockside bucket. My main were the Coconut-Fried Wild Pacific White Shrimp with fresh cut fries and orange-chili sauce served in a dockside bucket. We were still working on the starter, when the main courses came out and the starter and bread had filled us up already, but we did our best working on the main courses as well. We were not able to finish it all, but most of it was consumed. The server asked if we wanted to think about dessert and we were way too full to even think about it. So we just asked for the bill. Once it came I asked if they would accept a Disney gift card and they did. So I handed her our gift card and she looked at me funny. Guess what, what I just gave you IS an actual gift card, even if it is shaped funnily. I had bought a flower shaped gift card during Flower and Garden. She went to process it and was gone for quite some time. Turns out that she did not know how to process it and it had taken several servers and attempts to get it to work. But in the end we were able to use it to pay for our meal and then we headed back out again.

We strolled through some of the new areas before heading back to the car at around 2.30pm. Our next destination was Disney’s Yacht Club Resort and shortly before 3pm we arrived, passed the security booth and self-parked the car. Not sure if the room would be ready we left our carry-ons in the car and headed towards the front desk. No one ahead of us, so we told the cast member that we had done online check in and were just here to pick up our Magicbands. Didn’t take long and we had our new Magicbands and our room was ready as well. Yeah! We walked over to the elevator, went up and went to check out our room. We walked and walked and walked some more and found that it was at the very end of a corridor.

We opened the door and the room was really nice and after taking a few photos I called to ask if our luggage had already arrived and Tom went to the car to get the carry-ons. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door and our luggage was delivered. The bellman was very helpful, explained about everything in the room and let us know that we should definitely ask for him specifically if we needed some help. When Tom arrived with the carry-ons he was pretty surprised that the rest of our stuff had already arrived. We took a little break, freshened up a bit and then we walked all the way back to the lobby and outside to walk over to Epcot. It was another beautiful day and even though it was very hot and humid we enjoyed the walk along Cresent Lake. Soon we had made it to Epcot with no wait at all for bag check and were inside the park. Again, there were quite a lot of guests, but it was still very manageable. We had booked another FP after we had been on the initial 3 ones in the Magic Kingdom, but we still had a little time until then. So we strolled through the countries, then worked our way up to the fountain and finally we had a good look around Mousegear. Then we headed over to Mission Space. My Disney Experience had been right, there was just a 10 minute wait and we grabbed an orange ticket and hopped in line. Well, the wait was even shorter than those 10 minutes, because the only time we stopped was after we had been divided into teams. Score.

Our mission to Mars was as fun as always and in the meantime our FP had opened up. No long walk, as it was for Test Track. When I had checked in the morning, I had been very surprised to find a FP for it in the afternoon and had grabbed it immediately. Test Track still had quite the line, but we walked through most of it until …. there was lightning in the area and they had stopped the ride. We waited and waited and waited some more and many of the other people in our holding area just left but we stayed and while we waited I booked another FP, this time for Spaceship Earth. After about 25 minutes the ride was opened again and the line moved quickly. Soon we found ourselves in one of the cars and off we went to test the vehicle.

Once we got off we scanned the Magicbands for the ride photo and checked our car’s efficiency and then slowly walked towards the exit, where Tom checked out all the new cars. Next stop Spaceship Earth. We soon made it over and even though the regular line was pretty short, why not use our FP and soon we found ourselves in one of the ride vehicles, just to discover that they were very uncomfortable for Tom’s knee, which he had hurt the day before we had left on vacation.

There was nothing we could do once the ride had started, so we tried to make him as comfortable as possible and enjoy the rest of the ride. We took a few photos of our future and after we had gotten off, we watched our photos fly home to the heart of Europe on the big screen. By now it was early evening and we needed to get back to our resort. It did not take long and we were back in our room. We had a drink, rested for a while on the balcony and freshened up again before we were already a bit late for our next appointment.We headed down to the lobby and outside to the Yacht Club Marina. I had found a family on the DISboards that wanted to share an Illuminations cruise and it had all worked out. Once we made it close to the marina, I could see someone get up and walk towards us and yes, it was the person from the DISboards. We quickly got finances out of the way and then walked right over to our boat, which was all decked out for a birthday. Turns out it was the mom’s birthday and she had gotten decorations as well. Our skipper was a young lady, who had been working for Disney for a few years and was super knowledgeable. First we started to drive along Cresent Lake, along the Beach Club and past Seabreeze Point over to the Boardwalk, then we crossed underneath the bridge and past the Swan and Dolphin and we were on our way to Hollywood Studios. There were four adults on the boat and three teenagers, who seemed to be very occupied with their phones, but the adults enjoyed the comments and the sights very much.

Once we had enjoyed the sight of the Studios and heard about what was new and that the new Starwars fireworks were absolutely breathtaking, it had gotten dark and it was now time to return to Epcot. Our skipper told us that she wanted to be one of the last boats to arrive at the viewing spot so we could be towards the middle of the canal and would have the best view. So we headed back to Cresent Lake and finally crossed under the bridge that divides Britain and France and there were already a few boats moored. Our skipper tied our boat to the other ones and we were right in the middle of the canal. We still had a little time and so she explained on how they prepare for the fireworks, and what was going to happen. Soon the fireworks started and it was definitely an awesome spot to view Illuminations.

We really enjoyed it, sitting there, having a drink in hand and nibbling on snacks. Once Illuminations was over our skipper asked if we had a little more time and Tom and I had nothing else on our list, but the other family had a reservation for Beaches and Cream. Luckily it was late enough and we all agreed to take our skipper up on her offer of taking us to Hollywood Studios again to watch those fireworks as well. Two fireworks for the price of one. Score. It took about 10 minutes to get to Hollywood Studios and when we arrived, she positioned our boat so we would be able to have a perfect view. It was funny to see that all but one of the other boats had done the same and we were now all at the Studios.

I think we were not sitting there for more than three minutes and the fireworks were going off. We had seen the Starwars fireworks in March and they had been stunning but the new edition took our breath away. We had been told about them but they were absolutely amazing and lasted for quite a long time. Being outside the park we could only imagine what they must be like from in front of the Chinese Theatre. It got us all excited for the Starwars Fireworks dessert party we had signed up for for later in the trip. After the fireworks we made our way back to the Yacht Club at full speed, as the other family needed to get to Beaches and Cream.

Once we arrived at the Yacht Club we tipped the skipper, said goodbye to the other family and then walked back to our resort and back to our room. We watched a little more TV, had some snacks and I had some of the Coconut bar I had bought earlier in the day. But it had been a long day and around 11pm we were ready to call it a day.

 

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