Another night ends with a bang - Part 1

The early night had paid off, we were up and ready for breakfast by 8am. 

Tom isn’t a huge fan of sweet breakfasts, so he prepared our breakfast items, while I went to do the morning snack credit run. I made my way over to the food court and started to pick up a few items for breakfast. 

They were out of Chocolate Croissants but  there was a perfect treat that I always love, some Carrot Cake. Tom had asked for Chocolate Milk and the Mandarin Oranges had tickled my fancy as well as some Donut Holes. 

Once I had picked up all this stuff I walked over to the cashier. There were lines and just when I had moved forward enough to not change lines they changed the cashier and who should appear? The girl, who had struggled so much the day before. Surely she must have mastered the cash register by now. Well, no, she hadn’t. Same thing as the day before, she had no idea what she was doing. And after we had been stuck for quite a while, another CastMember took pity and helped her working the till. Once I had paid with my snack credits, I filled our drink mugs with coffee and marched back to the room, where breakfast was already waiting. 

We took our sweet time to enjoy breakfast and only headed out around 10am. 

Remembering our experience with waiting for busses we decided to drive to the Magic Kingdom. About 20 minutes later we arrived at the gates, scanned our Magicbands for free parking and drove in. We were surprised to find parking close to the beginning of a row and headed for the tram. We were so surprised to see people walking, but didn’t give it a second thought. The tram went 

and after about 30 seconds it stopped again and we were to get off before the underpass to the Transportation and Ticket center. Okay, this was why people were walking. So we got of the tram and made our way through the underpass and over to bag check. 

And then we had to decide if we wanted to use the Monorail or the boat. Well, the line for the Monorail was all up the ramp, so the boat it is. This is when we realized that they had just closed the gate. So we turned around again and up the ramp to the resort Monorail. And here we got lucky as within a minute of us getting up to it a Monorail pulled in and we were even able to snag a seat. It takes a while longer to take the resort Monorail, but it is way more comfortable. Finally we had made it to the Magic Kingdom and were getting off. Down the ramp and soon we were scanning our Magicbands and walked into the park again. 

Again, it was crowded, 

but we had time to stop for some Photopass pics on Main Street

Click for video

and then we headed to our first FassPass, Buzz Lightyear. There was quite the FastPass line, but it moved very quickly and soon enough we were seated and on our way to fight Zurg. Somehow I never can make out where to shoot, so I really suck at this ride. 

Once we got off we still had time for a ride on the Peoplemover. 

That is one ride that never gets old. So relaxing. 

But while we rode it, we could see the skies getting more grey by the minute. We were hoping it was passing, as we had a lunch reservation, but it was a Festival of Fantasy Parade Viewing package and we were hoping that the parade would not be cancelled because of the weather. 

By then it was time to head to Tony’s Town Square for our lunch package . 

We signed in and were told to take a seat until our table was ready, but the minute we had actually sat down we were called and led to our table. It was a small table towards the back of the restaurant, but it was clean and the view was nice. 

Our waiter came to greet us and explained that even though we were on the regular Dining Plan we could choose a starter, main course and dessert and he left us with the menu to go and fetch us some ice-water. And while he was gone we decided on food and drink and when the water was served we put in our order and enjoyed the air conditioning. 

The waiter was fast. 

He quickly came back with our drinks, 

a  

Stella Artois Belgian Pilsner for Tom and a glass of the 

Benvolio Pinot Grigio for me. He also brought out some fresh warm 

Focaccia Bread and some Olive Oil with dried herbs for dipping. Tom tried a piece, but I really liked it and kept munching on it. 

Would have been better to stop myself, because I was getting full on the bread and there were three more courses to come. 

Thankfully our starters didn’t take too long to come out. Tom had ordered the 

Fried Calamari, Spicy House-Made Pickles and Herb Aioli while I had gone for the 

Fried Mozzarella, Hand-Breaded Slices of Herb-Marinated Fresh Mozzarella, With Creamy Tomato Sauce. 

What’s not to like about that. 

It was delicious. 

We quickly cleaned our plates and all too soon our main courses arrived. Tom had ordered the 

Roman-Style Steak, Balsamic-Glazed Beef Tenderloin, Topped with Bacon Marmalade, Local Vegetables, and Truffle-Scented Mashed Potatoes. I had done my research and seen pictures of the 

Italian Trio, Chicken Parmigiana, Fettuccine Alfredo, and Spaghetti with a Pork-Beef Meatball. It had looked good, so I went to order it. 

The plate of food was huge. 

And while it was really tasty, it was way too much food for one person and I needed to leave room for dessert. 

I had ordered the 

Tiramisù, Espresso-soaked Sponge sheet layered with Sweet Mascarpone Cream and served with Chocolate Sauce, which was far off to what an Italian Tiramisu is supposed to be. Tom wasn’t very adventurous and had ordered the 

Gelato, an Italian Style Vanilla Ice-Cream. Both desserts were the letdown of the meal, but we were so full from starter and main that we didn’t mind too much. Soon our bill arrived, and with it our tickets for the special parade viewing. 

But when we left the restaurant it was raining.