End of Summer Hoorah! Day 4
Cast:
Me –Denise- 35
DS- Collin- 12
DS- Landon- 10
DMom- Sheila- 60
Tuesday, July 31 –Day 4
We had to be up sort of early (for us) today to make sure we made it to our 9:30 Chef Mickey ADR. We packed the car up and were off in plenty of time. We checked in at CM and were sent to the photographer. We haven’t bought the photo in years so as I was asking the photographer if we could just skip that part our pager went off. Perfect! We were seated and actually had Pluto waiting for us as we sat down! Now that’s service. The characters were all in the same area and we were able to visit with Pluto, Donald, Mickey and Minnie even before we got up to serve ourselves. Not sure if other guests liked them coming all at once, but we thought it was great. Now we could enjoy our meal without worrying we’d be at the buffet when a character came by.
Not sure if I was just hungry, but the food was great today. There seemed to be more options than in the past. The buffet is the same size, but there seemed to be so much more. Maybe there were just different items than in the past, and more of what I liked. Goofy arrived at our table just as we were finishing up! After Goofy they had the little “celebrate parade”! Our timing couldn’t have been more perfect for this meal. It just flowed really well for us today.
After breakfast with our friends we spent some time in the shops at the Contemporary. I love the shops here. We took a spin on the monorail stopping at GF for bath bombs. I get at least two tubes of them on each trip and try to make them last me through my next trip. We stayed at GF for a while. I love the lobby here, so quiet and peaceful, and it smells so good. It’s sometimes hard to believe this resort is on the same monorail as the CR and the Poly. It’s often so loud and crowded at those resorts, then you get off at GF and it’s like you’re in a whole different place completely. We made our way back to CR and back out to the car to head to YC.
Upon arriving at the YC we were greeted by name. I love when they do this. It makes the guest feel special and takes such little effort to do this. We were walked to the check in desk and chatted up by our greeter. He was very sweet and told us all about the YC once we said this was our first stay. He appeared to really love what he was doing. Once again I had done online check in. We checked in and our room was ready! I didn’t make any requests here because I really didn’t know where I wanted to be. We ended up loving our location and I even made sure to keep the room number so that we can request this room, or at least this location, in the future. We were on the first floor, just a little ways down the hall from the check in desk. We had a nice little patio that looked out on the wedding gazebo. There was a nice large area of grass that would be a great place to let kids run off some energy. If we looked to our right we could see the main pool slide and some of the lake. Loved this location. Actually we loved YC altogether, definitely a new favorite!
After settling in our room we couldn’t wait to get in that pool. We’ve stayed at BC once and loved the pool, but that was during a somewhat cold Thanksgiving trip so we didn’t get to enjoy the pool as much as we wanted. We hung out at the pool all afternoon. We went all over the pool, but spent most of our time in the sand bottom area. Since we had a large breakfast we pretty much skipped lunch. I think the kids got Mickey ice cream bars at some point. Once again around 4ish the sky got dark and the temps dropped and we were actually kind of chilly when we got out the pool until we were dried off.
Back in the room we decided to see if we could score another dinner as a “walk up”. After changing we headed down to Captain’s Grille and were there just before they opened. We were standing at the podium when they opened and were told it would be a few minutes and were given a pager. We waited about 2 minutes and the pager went off. As we were walked to our table we were told we had been selected to be family of the day. Our table had a little balloon bouquet on it. Our server took a photo of us which was put into a scrap book with other “families of the day”. We got to sign our page and leave a little note. We were also given a copy of the photo in a nice folder, along with a “family of the day” certificate. The boys each got a plastic Mickey straw for their drinks, as well as a light up Buzz Lightyear clip for their drinks. They sent us off with little “to go” desserts. Those where a wonderful lemon poppy seed cake. As if that wasn’t great enough, the food here was wonderful. Definitely our best new meal of the trip, and such a pleasant surprise. I ordered the 3 course meal so that we could all split the appetizer and dessert. For the appetizer we got the lump crab cakes. They were amazing. So much crab meat! For my main dish I got the Rosemary-brined pork chop. I don’t normally order things like pork chops (I always think “I can make that at home”), but the description of this dish looked great. I’m glad I ordered it. Everything was great. For dessert we had the turtle cheesecake, which was also really yummy. My mom had the chef’s pasta creation, which was also really good, but after a bite of my pork chop, she said she wished she had ordered the pork chop as well. Collin had pot-braised mussels and clams. He is allergic to seafood and poultry, yet can eat mussels, clams and oysters! So he got his fix! Landon’s kid’s meal came with a garden salad, cheeseburger, and a fruit/marshmallow/brownie kabob! Everything here was excellent and the service was among the best of the trip. We really enjoyed this experience and won’t hesitate to eat there again.
After dinner we walked the Epcot loop. We visited the BC for a bit, and then headed to BW. We watched the street performers and just enjoyed a cool July evening. Never thought I’d say that about July in WDW. We ended the night with s’mores at the bonfire and a movie on the beach. Today felt like a vacation within a vacation. As much as we love the MK area, the Epcot area has so much to offer! I feel that the entire Epcot resort area could exist on its own as a vacation destination.
Up next: DHS
