The AP adventure - THREAD 5 COMPLETE! About This Page:

[luvnwdwgal]

All those lights are so amazing!! I hope to see them for myself someday!!

[chezp]

Sunday 19 December – part six: “we’ve been open for four years – what kept you?”

Although we were early for our priority seating at Boma (it was only 8.20 and we were booked for 8.40), we were seated within a few minutes and this is probably the quietest I’ve ever seen Boma. We had a great server, Jules, who was very good at explaining what the buffet was like to Maureen and Kevan. She kept telling them that they’d been open for four years and asking them why it had taken them so long to get here. As she said “you’ve missed out by not coming here before” and I think by the end of the meal, they’d agree with that statement

I must admit that whenever you take someone somewhere new for a meal for the first time, you do worry that maybe they won’t like it, but that wasn’t the case here. The second Maureen took a mouthful of her soup, the words were “oh boy, that is so good” From that point onwards, I knew we had two more Boma converts.

As always I tried a huge range of things and this time I remembered to take a note of the individual dishes which I usually forget to do. Here’s the list:

Coconut curry seafood soup
Butternut squash soup
Tunisian couscous
Pasta salad
Carrot, coconut and pineapple salad
Kool saali
Fufu
Fafafel
Mustard salmon
Potatoes with afritude
Chocolate mousse crunch
Praline cheesecake
Zebra domes (I had to! )
Cookies

Not bad! Of those, my favourites were the coconut curry seafood soup and the carrot, pineapple and coconut salad. When we got to the desserts, it was time to take a photo:



I must admit that the zebra domes tasted better this time than they had in the past. I’m becoming more of a fan of them. The bill came to $118.64 for the four of us, which I think we all agreed was great value.

Boma:

Appetiser 10 9½ 10 10
Entrée 9 10 8 9½
Dessert 8½ N/A 8 10
Service 9 9 8 8½
Atmosphere 9 9 8½ 10
Value for money 9 8½ 8½ 8½

Average score: 9.14

We headed back to the Beach Club Villas after dinner, well after our five minute trek to the car. We ended up parking so far away from the Lodge when we got there, there were lots of people walking around, looking for their cars and the only way that they could find them was by setting off the alarms, which is never a good sign. They need to do something about the car parking here.

We were home by about 9.45 and decided that we could wait no longer and it was time to open our Christmas presents, so we sat down to do that. About half an hour later, we were all done and had some lovely presents. guys!








Before we headed off to bed, I couldn’t resist another night-time shot from the balcony – this time of Canada at night:



The weather today was dry and sunny with temperatures in the high 60’s.
The best thing today was the Osborne lights and dinner at Boma.
The worst thing today was the state of the Wonders of Life pavilion.
The funniest thing today was the Turtle Talk with Crush.
Today I tried Mission : Space
And the result was I survived it and it’s an amazing experience.
The most magical moment today was walking up to the start of the Osborne lights and taking in the scene.

Next: the girls and guys split up!

[DopeyGirl]

Great update and photos as usual!!!

Looking forward to hearing all about the next day!!!

[LizardCop]

Fantastic update and picture Cheryl... More!!!!

[Annabel]

Mmm Boma! I have such lovely memories from our January trip, we so enjoyed eating there. It is on my list of must-eats for October Looking forward to reading more.

Annabel

[BritDisFan]

Oooh Cheryl Boma sounds wonderful and your picture of the desserts looks delicious . I can't wait to eat there in April .

Karen

[jakenjess]

Your dinner at Boma sounds wonderful! Fantastic pictures. Looking forward to more!!

[DrDolphin]

Great update cheryl and great photos!! More please!

[MegglesMom]

Another wonderful update!!!

[RobinKay6573]

I can't wait to read more Cheryl! Your photos are very cool!

[Luv2plan]

I don't want to cook dinner, I want to go to Boma!!

[pparm]

After reading your report and Maureen's, I think we need to add Boma to our list of places to try! Would you recommend breakfast or dinner?

Paula

[disneyfan4994]

Great update! Your pictures are wonderful!

[chezp]

[ QUOTE ]
After reading your report and Maureen's, I think we need to add Boma to our list of places to try! Would you recommend breakfast or dinner?

Paula

[/ QUOTE ]

I would definitely recommend dinner. There's nothing wrong with breakfast, but we like all the wonderful African dishes and there are far more of those at dinner. I hope you do try it out - and if you do, be sure to let us know what you think!

[chezp]

Monday 20 December – part one: the girls and guys split up!

Original plans:
Morning – girls are going to the Grand Floridian spa for some much needed pampering, while the guys are going on the Magic Behind Our Steam Trains tour and then a round of mini-golf
Lunch – Garden Grill, 12.20 p.m. for Mark and Chez and San Angel Inn, 12.20 p.m. for Maureen and Kevan
Dinner – Beaches and Cream
Evening – another Illuminations cruise and a PassPorter meet with Howard (RocklandRVers), his wife Tracy and son Justin. He’s surprising them with this! Kelly (goofy4goofy) and Alex will also be joining us.
We’ll spend the afternoon at Epcot.

I really did not want to know when Stitch started telling me there was no sleeping in today at 6.00. Why so early? Because today the girls and guys were going their separate ways for the morning. Maureen and I were heading to the Grand Floridian spa and Mark and Kevan would be taking the Magic Behind Our Steam Trains tour and they had to be at the Magic Kingdom for 7.15. I’m really pleased that Mark was able to do this, as it’s really not my sort of thing at all, but he didn’t really want to go on his own, which I can understand.

As usual, we ended up running late (how do we always manage this? ) and we made it to the parking lot at the Contemporary by 7.10. We decided to go there just in case Disney transportation wasn’t running this early - of course it was! The guys headed off to the Magic Kingdom and we walked over to the Contemporary to catch the monorail. I cannot begin to tell you how cold it was that morning – Maureen and I were freezing just walking through the parking lot and at that moment, I was so glad that we were doing the spa and were not going to be out in the cold with the steam trains.

When we got to the monorail at the Contemporary, there didn’t seem to be anyone on board and certainly no-one in the front cab, so we hopped in there and I got some great photos of the Polynesian and Grand Floridian.





We got to the Grand Floridian at around 7.30 and sat in the lobby for a few minutes, before walking down to the spa.



I was completely wrong about where the spa was, as I was convinced it was somewhere near Narcoosee’s. Just as well I had Maureen to point me in the right direction!

We were shown to the waiting area when we arrived and got ready for our treatments. Maureen was having the 50 minutes massage and I was having the head, back and neck massage, a stress relieving facial and the tired legs treatment. I figured that way, most of my body would get the benefit! All the treatments were excellent and the massage helped my back and neck no end. I really need that.

Having the facial straight after the message was great, as it helped to wake me up again, after the massage had practically sent me to sleep, it was that relaxing, but that’s how you should feel after a good massage.
A few more comments on the individual treatments I had – they say in their marketing that the massage I had is designed to give the maximum benefit in a limited time and I think that’s a great way of putting it. There was a lot of work needed to be done on me and at first, I thought she’d never manage to relax me, but she did.

The facial was just a superb way to wake up again, although I really would have liked her to explain more about what she was doing, as she did it. I couldn’t really talk and I wouldn’t liked some explanation, but of course couldn’t tell her that! She did tell me that I had great skin, which made my day and my skin felt even better once she’d finished with me.

The soothing tired legs was lovely and I couldn’t believe how much my legs hurt when she massaged them. I think it just goes to show how much work they’d done so far and how tired they were as a result.

After all the treatments were done, I felt completely relaxed and a lot better than I had done for some time. When I walked back into the waiting area, Maureen was already in there and was completely out for the count – fast asleep - so I headed for the spa, steam room and sauna, which was next door to the waiting area.

I don’t know if it’s just here or if it’s an American thing (sorry guys!) but this sauna was really cool, compared to the ones I’ve been in at home in the UK. I couldn’t believe how cold it was! There wasn’t really much else to do apart from those things and I think that would be my only complaint about the Grand Floridian spa. There just wasn’t enough to do there. I’ve been to spas in the UK and spent a day in there, because they have heated indoor pools and that’s what this place could do with. Trust me, you did need an indoor pool today, the weather outside had only just crawled into the 40’s and let’s be honest, when it’s blistering hot outside in the summer, it would be nice to have an indoor pool as well.

So all in all, the treatments were wonderful, but I thought the overall atmosphere left a little to be desired. You just don’t get enough extra for your money. It cost me $198 including gratuities and for that amount, I can go to my favourite spa hotel and stay there all day, enjoy their facilities and have lunch included. It’s a lovely experience, but I think the next I want to go for a massage, I will either go to the Saratoga Springs spa or go to Ship Shape at the Beach Club.

Next: the quest to find food – and finding something completely different!