Phase One - Grand Floridian Day Two
Friday, October 24, 2014
First stop today is Gasparella's for a quick breakfast. A short boat ride brings us to the Magic Kingdom gates. We head directly to Pirates but it is closed and we are told they are experiencing "rough water" this morning and do not know when they will open. We literally walk onto the Jungle Cruise ride. The Haunted Mansion is a similar walk-on. When Pirates opens with a listed 10 minute wait time, we are able to walk right onto that ride as well. Pooh is listed as a 15 minute wait time but, by time we walk there, it is listed as 30 minutes. We never do end up riding this. I don't remember the exact order and which rides came before or after lunch but we also ride (or see) It's A Small World (practically a walk on)); Mickey's Philharmagic (about 5-10 minute wait); The Little Mermaid - listed as 20 minutes; more like 10; Tomorrowland Transit Authority (walk on); Buzz Lightyear's - - our longest wait of the day -- listed as 20 minutes and might actually have been a bit longer; and Monsters Inc - this was about 20 minutes though it was listed as 5. At Monster's, Gene was featured on the screen for being so safety conscious that he wears a seat belt at all times (his camera strap was draped across his body)! All of these rides were done without fastpasses.
All our fastpass+ rides were done after lunch and worked well. We rode Peter Pan; Big Thunder Mountain and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. All of these rides had lengthy standby waits of 30 minutes or more (Seven Dwarfs was around 70 minutes) and we were able to quickly get on each. This was our first time riding Seven Dwarfs and, while it is quite cute, it is not 70 minutes in line worth of cute!
The weather on this day was perfect!! Sunshine with some passing clouds and low to no humidity. Temperatures in the low 80s.
Lunch was at the Plaza Restaurant where chef Ken made me a non-dairy Tofutti vanilla milkshake. (I've been having more issues with dairy so have been avoiding some but not all dairy products but have definitely been staying away from milk and ice cream so had been disappointed that I might not get the milkshake I had been looking forward to). The substitute provided was quite good and made me happy! Gene had a tuna sandwich with chips while I had the turkey sandwich with chips.
(Prior to arrival, I had received an e-mail invitation to fastpass lunch at Be Our Guest. With all of our dining reservations already made and our fastpass+ in order, I decided not to respond to this invitation. We've already dined at this location twice for dinners so don't feel like we are missing out on anything.)
Our last fastpass of the day brought us to right around 3 p.m. We exited the park just before the parade made its way through. A boat ride brought us back to our resort where we hung out for a while before changing for dinner.
At one point during the day, we were making our way across the hub. I looked up and saw a bird flying. I pointed the bird out to my husband so we both watched the beautiful bald eagle fly right across in front of the Castle. Pretty cool!!
We walked over to Mizner's to listen to the band for a bit. I've never seen this place so crowded!! Before we left, all the tables were taken and most of the bar seats were also full. Our waiter said he had been pulled over to Mizner's from Citrico's as it was so busy. He also told us budget cuts had done away with the mixed nuts they used to provide to those who were having a drink at Mizner's.
After a bit, we made our way to the monorail and disembarked at the Contemporary. We checked in about 1/2 hour early for our California Grill reservation. We were seated immediately - our buzzer went off while we were still on the elevator on the way up. We were seated in a room at the back of the restaurant which contains only eight tables and has lovely views all the way out to Epcot. I didn't even know this room was there but it was quite nice as it is much quieter than the main dining room. At times, there were only 2 or 3 other parties seated here though all tables were full by time we left. We started with goat cheese ravioli and moved on to bison for our entree. Too full for dessert, we did have a specialty coffee before we left. Bill was our server - assisted by Ryan. We did not lack for anything we needed during the meal.
With dinner finished, we headed back over to Top of the World at Bay Lake tower. It was really busy there - the busiest I'd ever seen it. Still, we were able to snag a table with a view over the Magic Kingdom and Amy once again took good care of us. Once again, we watched Hallowishes and then took the monorail back to the Grand Floridian.
Watched the monorails speed by our patio for a bit and then went to bed.
