Saturday, May 4

Although we had told ourselves the night before that we’d sleep in this morning, my internal Disney clock had kicked in and I was up shortly after seven. CP awoke not long after, and we both were ready and out the door of the Crowne Plaza before eight. The one advantage of staying in a hotel so far north on International Drive was that we were conveniently located near a really good Whole Foods, where we stopped just after it opened to grab a quick breakfast of yogurt, fruit, and cold brew coffee. A drive of twelve miles later, we entered Disney property and breathed a sigh of relief – it was good to be home.

Now, it seems that the more trips we take to Disney, the more our park touring flies in the face of all touring plan websites I studiously consult before our trips. Case in point: most Disney visitors in the know would steer clear of the Magic Kingdom on a Saturday, but we couldn’t imagine starting a trip anywhere else.  I wasn’t too worried, though, because not only were we arriving close to rope drop time, but our priorities didn’t involve riding many rides – we wanted the Magic Kingdom for atmosphere, pin trading, and people watching, and so crowd predictions didn’t phase us too much.

With surprising efficiency we parked, walked to the TTC, and took the resort monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Bag check was pretty fast, and in short order we were in the park and ambling our way towards Fantasyland. With no particular agenda, we decided to head toward New Fantasyland, stopping to take in the mosaics inside the castle. With forty or so castle shows a day, it can be a challenge to get up close to these beautiful works of art:

We may not have had an agenda, but that didn’t mean we wouldn’t hop on a ride if given a chance. In fact, CP has become quite enamored with the new Little Mermaid ride, and so that was our next stop.

Why do Ariel’s eyes look so dead on this ride? It’s really creepy.

I mean, Ursula looks healthy and happy by comparison.

Once off the ride, our first impulse thought of the day struck – since we were there, and it was early, and we hadn’t eaten a huge breakfast, why not try to score lunch at Be Our Guest? We wandered up to the restaurant to ask a Cast Member what time we should queue up, and she cryptically replied “When you enter the line, the line begins.” And so I asked, “what time will that be?” To which she again cryptically replied, “Whatever time you decide to start the line is when the line begins.” Okay. Changing my approach, I asked her what time the restaurant opened, and finally got a real answer – 10:30. That left us an hour or so to explore:

Yes! THIS is what the Magic Kingdom was missing – a Visa kiosk by the Haunted Mansion!

More small details – never noticed this plaque in the rose garden before.

A slightly ominous but nevertheless beautiful day.

Taking in the small details.

Presiding over new Fantasyland.

A little before 10:30, CP and I headed back to Be Our Guest to join an already sizable line. I swear, Cast Members manage this line more actively than they control queues for rides – every three or so seconds, a Cast Member would yell ALL MEMBERS OF YOUR PARTY MUST BE IN LINE WITH YOU BEFORE YOU ENTER THE RESTAURANT, or FOUR PEOPLE ACROSS IN LINE, PLEASE, and FILL IN ALL AVAILABLE SPACE. It was kind of stressful and exhausting, honestly. Luckily the line moved fairly quickly, getting us out of the raindrops and indoors, where we joined ANOTHER line to order.

Look, I really like Be Our Guest – while it’s certainly not gourmet or even close to the best food on property, the themeing is amazing and the food is some of the best in the Magic Kingdom. But they really need to work out the logistical kinks. It shouldn’t take that long to order a quick service meal, and the food delivery process – while cute – takes longer than it should. That said, we enjoyed our meal, and I’m glad we did it. Let’s relive the experience:

Castle crest.

Stately.

They sneeze.

Croque monsieur, served with a side of vegetables instead of fries. Really quite good.

Carved turkey sandwich – excellent. Cold, limp fries – not so much.

A tapestry depicting my favorite scene in the movie.

Last November, I had an afternoon to kill on a business trip and stopped by the Magic Kingdom, where New Fantasyland was having a soft opening. I tried out Be Our Guest that day for lunch, and let me tell you, they’ve made some great improvements to the food since then. Again, it’s not gourmet, but if you want something other than a hot dog or greasy hamburger for lunch, you might want to queue up to eat here. All told I think we waited maybe 20-25 minutes from the time we joined the line outside to when our food arrived. This meant we had an early lunch, but since we had eaten a small breakfast and had a big dinner planned, it worked out.

After lunch, the rain was really starting to come down, and we were thus faced with a choice – stick it out in a damp, chilly Magic Kingdom, or make a new plan. Cue impulsive thought number two – why not check out Theme Park Connection, a store offering a varied assortment of merchandise from the Disney parks? CP went for the idea, and we briskly walked through the park, hopped on a monorail, and walked back to the car. Seen on our way out:

A real man.

Theme Park Connection is about half an hour north of Disney, an easy drive up 429. 429 is an interesting drive; you pick up the road near Coronado Springs, but within seconds you’re in an area so remote you’d have no idea there was a major vacation resort nearby. If you want to visit Theme Park Connection, make sure to have a GPS or at least very detailed directions – it’s located in an industrial park with minimal signage, so you wouldn’t intuitively find it.

Theme Park Connection was…interesting. The assortment of things for sale was fascinating – would you like a model of the Disney Fantasy like you’d seen in one of the resort hotels? You can buy it here, for several hundred dollars. How about a piece of a parade float? All yours, if you shell out a couple thousand. Of course, there were plenty of things to be had for a much smaller price – lots of pins for sale, old publications, vintage mugs and buttons and snow globes – but honestly, there wasn’t very much for sale that I’d want for the prices they were asking. That said, I did witness other people negotiating for lower prices, which they got. Theme Park Connection is a place I’m definitely glad I visited once, but will I go back again? Maybe on a longer trip where we have a rainy afternoon to kill. Otherwise, it’s not a must-do for me.

With time to kill before dinner – but not enough time to make a trip to a park worthwhile – we drove back to our hotel for a bathroom/shoe change break.  Our next stop was the Orlando Premium Outlets – not the ones nearest to Disney, but the Premium Outlets that are at the very end of International Drive. This mall was both closer to our hotel than the one on SR535, and also features a much superior Disney outlet. Of course, getting there necessitates driving on International Drive, something I can’t stand. But these are the things we do for a good Disney outlet.

Let’s zip ahead – we did some shopping, had some Pinkberry, went back to the hotel, napped, showered, and got ready for dinner. On tap tonight was dinner at Artist Point, a restaurant we’ve only tried once. We arrived a bit early to the Wilderness Lodge, which was intentional – it’s one of our favorite places to pin trade and browse.

Not a perfect photo, but you get the idea – so pretty.

How can you not love the landscaping here?

Artist Point is kind of like Be Our Guest for lunch, in that logistically it can be a bit annoying when you arrive. Here, you check in at a podium outside of the restaurant, and then you’re either given a pager, or directed up a ramp to a second podium. In our case it was the latter, and so we checked in for a second time at podium #2. The Cast Member at podium #2 directed us to stand off to the side, where we were then greeted a few minutes later by a third Cast Member, who showed us to our table. It just feels like too many steps.

Not a big deal, though, and we ended up really enjoying our meal here – mostly. The chefs were wonderfully accommodating of my shellfish allergy, and both CP and I our server’s wine recommendations. My only complaints? The filet I ordered medium was served a decidedly medium well, and – for some reason I can’t quite figure out – this restaurant attracts a disproportionate number of families with young, rambunctious children who can’t sit well through a long signature dinner. So, the noise kind of detracted from the meal, but we also were eating on the earlier side. Next time, I think I’d schedule this meal for 7:30 or after. In any case, a few pictures:

Pinor Noir flight for me, a Pinot Grigio for CP. Both were excellent.

CP had the winning entree: a “slow cooked crispy ranch chicken served with loaded mashed potato, caramelized broccolini, honey mustard emulsion, and poblano ketchup.”

My allergy-accommodating choice: filet served sans lobster sauce (meh), fresh asparagus (delicious), and truffled mac and cheese (beyond delicious).

We split a chocolate dessert and finished up with dessert drinks – an icewine for me, and a coffee/liquor combination for CP. Stuffed, we rolled ourselves out of Artist Point, and wandered over to the Wilderness Lodge Villas to take pictures and stop in the restroom before heading out to our next destination:

The Carolwood Pacific Room at the Villas, one of the most relaxing places on property.

Up next was our last and most ridiculous impulsive decision of the day, one again made much to the chagrin of touring plan websites everywhere. What better place for an evening stroll than Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which on this night was hosting a “May the Fourth Be With You” Star Wars celebration as part of the Limited Time Magic promotion? Now, neither one of us are Star Wars fans, and we are also not fans of crowds or chaos. But there we were, happy after a big meal, and feeling a little devil-may-care about the whole situation. If nothing else, it would be good people watching.

And oh, it was. The fireworks were good, too. So in all, it wasn’t a bad way to spend an evening, listening to a surprisingly good DJ and watching true Star Wars fans whip themselves into a frenzy. I must say, I enjoyed it.

All I had with me was an iPhone, but you get the idea. Fireworksy!

We may have been impulsive, but we weren’t stupid, either. To watch the fireworks, we positioned ourselves at the very end of Hollywood Boulevard, nearest the exits. So, as soon as the fireworks ended, we were outta there and back to the car in no time. Of course, it took nearly half an hour to exit the park on account of an accident between a Disney bus and a car, but eventually we were back on I-4 and headed to our offsite hotel (sad trombone). Still – a good and full day.

Up next: spontaneity continues, Cinco de Cuatro Mayo is celebrated, and we decide we really hate staying offsite.