Four Days Off . . . TR Completed 12/2 About This Page:

[ilovedisney247]

Alrighty! I'm back from my whirlwind four days and it really was a lot of fun!

back to where I left off . . .

Day 2 Part 2

After lunch I headed towards Expedition Everest, where I was told the single rider line wait time was 25 to 30 minutes. Thats about 15 minutes too long for the SRL. Of course then I noticed that there were a ton of unaccompanied kids in the SRL and whole families. No love for the actual single rider there. So I moved on. I headed over to Dinosaur, where the wait was supposed to be 20 minutes, but it moved pretty quick. I was reading in line so I really didn't notice. Yes, I can walk and read on my iPhone at the same time--at least in a queue line. I rode with a family of 3 who were pretty jumpy--I of course screamed at the appropriate time when they take your picture. That big Dino really does scare the heck out of me every single time. I also learned that if you brace your hands out in front of you its a lot less jerky. I browsed through the gift shop, but didn't buy anything. I spent a lot of time shopping this trip, but very little time actually buying--I felt uninspired by most of the merch.

After Dino I headed back to EE, where the SRL seemed a little more manageable. I think I waited about 15 minutes. I bought a EE magnet in the gift shop and decided I'd had enough of the park for the day. Just as I approached my bus stop my bus was pulling away . . .oopps too much meandering through the stores, but still no purchases.

A bus for Ft. Wilderness pulled up and I decided it was time for a little adventure. I thought about the time constraints for my dinner reservation and decided I had plenty of time! I forgot about the transportation issues at Ft Wilderness. Oopps! So I ended up at the Outpost and had to look at a map to figure out which bus to get on to arrive at the Settlement. Turns out all of the buses end up there, so I got on the first internal bus that arrived. The purple bus serves both the cabins and the meadows. It was pretty neat to see the cabins. I used to work at a summer camp, so it was all very nostalgic for me. Although most of the cabins I lived in for those 10 summers were not in the shape that the Ft Wilderness cabins were in. (Although, all of the brand new lodge style living at same camp were lovely, with state of the art composting toilets! Unfortunately most of my time was spent in older cabins--anyone read Camp by Michael Eisner? My time at Frost Valley really did shape the person I am today.)
There were tons of teepees set up in the meadows--don't know if some sort of weird gathering was going on or if there are always there--anyway--pretty neat!

I arrived at the Settlement a few minutes later and noticed that a bunch of sites were decorated for either Halloween/Thanksgiving or Christmas. I took a quick look and was pretty amazed. That's something I'd love to do when I retire: book a Ft. Wilderness campsite for a month or two and just live at WDW. I'm sure, with my background, that I could probably do it with a tent and a camping stove--just not in December. (Although it was quite warm for November)

I checked the Settlement Outpost for Ft. Wilderness merch--none to be had besides pins. Sad, Sad

I took a lovely boat ride back to the Contemporary, where I made a not so pleasant discovery. Mousekeeping had appropriated my wine glass, one of the ones I keep in my OL. Now granted, they aren't expensive glasses. I bought them at Target for $2.99 a piece, but they are hard plastic, dishwasher safe, Bordeaux glasses. I called housekeeping to inquire about my missing glass. I discovered something I don't love about Disney service--lack of empowerment. The person answering the phone said--let me go find my manager and have her call you back. I don't need that answer. Even if that is what the person is going to do--tell me--"I'm going to check on that and call you back myself." The manager did call me back and tell me she was going to look for it and she'd call me back with the results. I told her I was leaving for dinner shortly and that she should just leave me a message. She told me they'd deliver it to my room if they found it.

I went out and had a quick dip in the hot tub. I shared the hot tub with two adorable, but unsupervised children who were clearly lacking in the bathing suit department. Both kids, a girl and a boy, were swimming in their skivvies. I did enjoy my 15 minutes of bubbles. I went back upstairs and changed for dinner. There was a message on my phone that my glass had not been located, but $20 had been credited to my room. Okay.

I hopped back on the boat and headed for the Wilderness Lodge. I was about 30 minutes early for my ADR, but was seated immediately. The chef came out to discuss my allergies and let me know that anything I ordered would be personally overseen by the chef. Thanks!

As usual, I over ordered. I had the beet and goat cheese salad, which was not actually a salad, but rather three lumps of goat cheese topped with three beets and microgreens. I was hoping for more greens. I started out with a glass of Evolution to go with my beets. I followed it up with a serving of the lovely smoked Portabello mushroom soup. Its yummy, but its rich. Finally, I had the pork belly appetizer, which came on a butternut squash risotto. The pork belly was perfect, but the risotto was lacking in both flavor and seasoning. Salt people, its not something to be afraid of--pepper either! I've found, when cooking risotto that it needs to be seasoned several times during the cooking process--especially when adding a bland ingredient like squash. I only ate about 1/3. I had a glass of A-Z Pinot Noir with this one. (pretty good memory with no notes eh?)

I ordered the berry cobbler for dessert with a glass of ice wine, sorry I don't remember which one, but it was the one recommended with the dessert. I didn't come anywhere close to finishing it, but that's okay--it was still yummy. I did finish the ice wine.

At this point I was done, exhausted, worn out and just plain sleepy. I headed back to the Contemporary instead of the MK. I was planning on seeing Wishes and the Main Street Electrical Parade, but I just didn't have it in me. I bought a bottle of red in the gift shop and headed back to my room and my extra wine glass. I did hear most of the Electrical Water Pagent through my open window/door as I was drifting off to sleep.

I had an early, awesome morning at Epcot planned so it was good to get the much needed rest. More to come!

Oh just a note, I did check out the WL gift shop and they had tons of resort specific merch--but no regional wines Perhaps I should have checked Roaring Forks, but I didn't think of that until just now.

[Colexis Mom]

Sounds like a great night and a great meal! Sorry about your wine glass!

[tdhc]

Glad you made it home safe. Enjoyed reading about your Day2, look forward to hearing about what came next.

[chezp]

Sounds like a great day - and dinner sounded wonderful!

How disappointing about the merchandise selection everywhere.

[lauriep]

What a great day! I wonder why the WL gift shop has resort-specific merchandise (and I believe AKL still does?), but the others don't.

[disney_duke]

Welcome home! Sounded like a good day at AK; glad you eventually got on EE! Weird about the wine glass. I once had a maid take my pajama shorts when they were mixed in with the sheets. Never did get them back.....

Ft Wilderness sure sounds peaceful. Between your description and (the upcoming description of ) Sharon's future stay, this resort is growing nearer to the top of my wish list for stays! Looking forward to the rest!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

I agree, I'm adding the cabins to my list of places to stay. They sound peaceful and lovely.

I'm sorry about the wine glass... I'm going to make it a point to be very aware of what I leave out and where. I remember reading a TR a year or two ago where someone's little kid lost their "lovey" because it was likely caught up in the sheets. I am sure that "Baby Emmie" will be joining us on our upcoming trip, and it would truly be a problem if she were to disappear.

It sounds like you had a great day! I can't wait to hear more!

[disneydreamer33]

Sounded like a great end to your day, other than your wine glass getting carried away. I don't know why housekeeping thinks that certain things don't belong. I read in someone TR about their plastic souvenir cup getting thrown away by housekeeping.
Dinner sounded delish!

[ilovedisney247]

I got up VERY early on Wednesday morning, quickly showered and headed down to the Contempo Cafe for breakfast. I ordered the breakfast burrito and a diet coke. It was really very good. I highly recommend this stop for a quick breakfast. The Contempo Cafe staff was some of the friendliest hotel staff I've ever met! I headed to the monorail even though I was way too early!

I made it to Epcot in record time and was about an hour early for my tour. I was let in early through the character breakfast entrance. I checked in at guest relations and then wandered around the area near the Fountain of Nations taking people free pictures, which I will eventually get around to resizing and posting. I have to find my upload cable first.

At 9 am I met Jessica, Jason and Jessica's mom who would be joining me on the tour. We were met by Casey, who would be our tour guide for the morning.

I don't want to spoil any of the tour--so I won't share the really interesting things that I learned, but I will tell you that we visited all of the Future World Pavilions, got back doored on one ride, visited several backstage areas, including the cast member building, where all of the laundry and costuming is done. I have to say that I was really impressed with the value of this tour. Using my DVC discount I think I paid $47.50 for the tour, which lasted 3.5 hours. It also included a pin, a 20% discount for lunch at nine dragons and a priority viewing area for Illuminations near Italy. The regular cost is $55. Keys to the Kingdom is now $75. I guess that $20 pays for lunch.

I had lunch with the rest of the tour group at Nine Dragons. I hadn't eaten here before, but it was pretty good. Granted I ordered hot and sour soup and an order of egg rolls, but what I got was tasty. The hot and sour soup was nice and spicy and full of all the things it should have. It did not resemble that gelatinous mess that sometimes arrives from the delivery joint. The egg rolls were shrimp and chicken, which I thought was a little odd--usually find pork in these little guys. They came with two dipping sauces and were large! I think my lunch, which I washed down with iced green tea, was about $14, including tax and tip--less than you'd pay for a Counter Service meal from Lotus Blossom if you ordered a combo and an iced oolong tea!

Be back with more later--mostly because I have to reconstruct the afternoon~

[disneydreamer33]

I was curious about Nine Dragons. Thanks for the good review.
The tour sounded really cool and not a bad price either.

[KMB733]

Back!! Sounds like you had a good time on the tour!

[lazanya]

Great updates! Glad you enjoyed your tour!

[sc507]

Just came across this - signing in to read later

[Trinitys Nina]

Sounds like so much fun!

[Jillybean]

Your tour sounds fantastic! And I love that you're doing just whatever you feel like doing at the moment!

Jill