DVCSunDevil
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2020
We just got back from another great WDW trip on Saturday. It was bittersweet, however. My oldest daughter is a freshman in college, so she couldn't go. This was the first time my youngest daughter (a senior in high school) didn't have her partner in crime, but she survived the week of just having mom and dad to pal around with. Like many families, we have our favorite things to do and favorite places to eat...and these things have become somewhat of a tradition. For us it is Hoopty Doo Revue, Raglan Road, Boathouse, and many other places that we always seem to go because we love them. But for this trip, we decided to forego a lot of the "traditions" and try new experiences. My oldest is a picky eater, so a lot of these #newexperiences are places I have wanted to try for a while but haven't because my oldest really didn't like the menu. The rest of us are more adventurous eaters. So this trip became the Trip of New Experiences. Below is a recap of our days with some thoughts. I hope you enjoy the recap:
Friday:
- We landed at MCO around 3:30pm, grabbed our luggage and met our pre-arranged ride outside. On the way to WDW, we stopped at our usual grocery store to pick up the order we submitted on our layover. We normally get water for the week (we do a case per person, which saves a TON of money because we bring a few into the parks with us) and quick breakfast items for the room...as well as some beer for when we want to just chill on the balcony and have a cold one.
- We checked in at the Hilton Buena Vista Palace, which we were only staying at for the night. We typically do Sat-Sat DVC stays if we are doing a full week, but we like to arrive on Friday so we don't have to waste a travel day. This is our 3rd time staying at this hotel and I am not a fan, but it serves its purpose. The rooms are as bland as bland can be...but they do give a $30/day credit that we gladly use on a nightcap before heading to our room for the evening. This time around, our drinks were both terrible but luckily we bought some flavored seltzer with our groceries and we added some to the drinks. It did the trick!
- We changed and headed over to Disney Springs (it is right across the street from the hotel). We walked DS for a while and got our first round of shopping in at the big Disney store. We also checked off the first new experience: Jock Lindsay's Hangar Bar. I heard the vibe and theming were good, as well as having a good drink list. It didn't disappoint. We had a drink there before being notified that our table was ready for dinner...
- We had dinner at the Boathouse, which is one of our go-to dining locations for just about every WDW trip. We love this place. The food is great. The service is always good. And the theming is very fun and lively. We again had a great experience! After dinner we hit a couple more stores that my daughter wanted to visit and then we headed back to the hotel because we were all tired from traveling. On our way up to the room we stopped at the bar to “cash in” our $30 credit on drinks and called it a night.
Saturday:
- We woke up to slight rain that would be off and on all day. We all threw on our rain gear and walked over to Disney Springs. We had a couple more stores to visit and wanted to get that done today since we didn’t plan on coming back to DS over the rest of trip. We also wanted to visit Guest Services to activate our Annual Pass so we didn’t have to worry about it later. This is the first time we have purchased an AP, so we were excited to get it activated!
- We crossed off another new experience for lunch: Morimoto Asia. We didn’t have reservations, but we were still able to get seated. Even though we were getting there a little later than we wanted, the timing was perfect because it started raining really hard just before we got there. The food was amazing! I will say the entire experience took waaaaaay longer than we wanted, though. The wait for a table was much longer than we were quoted upon check in and our server upstairs was also doubling as the bartender, so the service was pretty slow. Our server was great though! He was just slammed. And this place is on the more expensive side, even by Disney standards. Our lunch bill for three was equivalent to many dinner bills for four. But oh well, it was a delicious lunch!
- After lunch, we headed back to the Hilton to check out. We called an Uber to take us to our home for the next week: Beach Club Villas. The trip doesn’t feel like a Disney trip until we check into our DVC resort, especially after staying at the Hilton. We are always super excited when we are pulling up to our resort! We got to BCV around 4:15pm and our room was ready. The check in went smooth/quick and we loved the room we had, which was room 249. It has a view of the “secret walkway” (my kids term for it, lol) that many people take to Epcot. We also loved the new murphy bed. It made things so much easier and was much more comfortable than the old pull out couch.
- That evening we were able to cross off another new experience: dinner at Flying Fish on the Boardwalk. We had to battle the rain to get there, but it was worth it! This was an incredible meal! We also loved our table, which was positioned right next to the kitchen. We could watch the chefs prepare the meals and two of them chatted with us occasionally throughout our time at the table. It was a lot of fun. We will definitely be visiting Flying Fish again in the future!
- After dinner, we checked off yet another new experience before heading back to BCV: drinks at Abracadabar. I had heard the theming at this bar was one of the best on WDW property and it lived up to the billing. The drinks were also really good, but the theming was really cool. I will probably hit here again when we are back at BCV next time. I am adding Abracadabar to the rotation. Now it is back to BCV to call it a night, especially since this pesky rain is off and on.
Sunday:
- We knew all week leading up to vacation that Sunday was going to be the worst of the rain, and boy was that true. It POURED all day. And this was our first park day, so donned our rain gear and headed out to Magic Kingdom via the WDW bus system. My wife and I were up at 6:58am to get our Virtual Queue for Tron, and we ended up getting a semi-early boarding group (16).
- The weather definitely kept the crowds down, so we were able to hit all the usual rides. We were notified that our Tron boarding group was being called around 10:15, so we headed over to board our cycle. We really liked Tron…it is very smooth and not “jerky”. After Tron, we were even able to hit some of our favorite rides again.
- We ate lunch at Columbia Harbor House. My daughter loved the salmon. I thought the chicken fingers were ok for quick service, but I was pushing for us to leave and eat at Captain Cooks. I have that on my list of places I want to try because of their pork nachos. Harbor house was about what you would expect for quick service in a park...meh. Anyway, we ended up leaving MK around 2:00pm (about an hour after lunch) because we were pretty water logged from all the rain. We jumped on the bus and headed back to BCV to dry out and change clothes.
- We headed back to the MK area for a 6:00pm California Grill reservation. Because of the pouring rain and not wanting to get wet before dinner, we took an Uber. This dinner was yet another item checked off of the new experience wish list. We really loved the dinner and we had a table along the window facing MK. It was a terrific view! The dinner was really amazing. That said, it was fairly expensive and I don’t know if it was quite worth the price. One thing I noticed is that the restaurants that tout a dress code don’t really adhere to that requirement. Not that I care, but it is good to know for future trips. We brought a change of clothes with us to MK that morning to change into for dinner, but we could have just wore our t-shirts. We ended up dressing to the dress code because we went back to the hotel first.
- On a sidenote, the Contemporary has really bad options for places to grab a drink. We wanted to grab a drink at the bar at California Grill before dinner, but they weren’t letting people up there. So we went to Steakhouse 71…and that bar wasn’t great nor did the bartender even come over to us. So we went up to Outer Orbit (right next to Chef Mickey’s) and had a drink there. It was mediocre and the bar area is really outdated. Oh well, good to know for the future.
- After dinner we wanted to do a mini “MK Pub Crawl”, so we headed over to Poly to grab a drink there. Trader Sam’s has been on my wish list for a long time, but the line was a mile long and they were quoting a three hour wait. On top of that, Poly in general was PACKED. I think the rain was keeping a lot of people at their resorts rather than being in parks. Even Tambu Lounge was jammed up and we couldn’t get a drink. Soooo, we jumped back on the monorail and headed over to Grand Floridian. The wait for Enchanted Rose wasn’t too long (about 30 minutes), so we waited and got a great table in the main bar area. It was another item checked off the new experience wish list! We had one drink there and really enjoyed the atmosphere. After our drink, we grabbed an Uber back to BCV and called it a night.
Monday:
- The rain was supposed to have stopped in the middle of the night, but it sprinkled until around 9:00am. This was a Hollywood Studios day, so we slept in a little longer and left right around the time the rain ended. We hit all the usual rides (Runaway Railway, Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog, Rise of the Resistance) and grabbed lunch at ABC Commissary. In my opinion, ABC has one of the better quick service food options in WDW.
- After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a little rest and then headed over to Epcot around 6:00pm. Epcot is my favorite park, so I was looking forward to walking through the gates for the first time this trip. We had reservations at Chefs de France, but we cancelled it and just decided to eat at the food booths throughout the World Showcase. It was the last day of Festival of the Arts, so the food options were still in high gear. I had a lobster tostada that was fantastic, and we had a few of the Morocco bread appetizers that were delicious. All told, we probably got food at 8 different booths that night…it was a lot of fun! We were also able to ride Remy’s and Soarin, so those rides kind of completed our fun filled park hopper day.
- No, we didn’t “drink around the world”. I am too old to do that, but we did have cocktails at 4 or 5 different countries. We stayed at Epcot until close and headed back to BCV after. It was a long day and, according to my daughter’s app on her phone, we logged over 25,000 steps. I was ready for bed!
Tuesday:
- The weather for the rest of the week looks perfect! Today is an Animal Kingdom day and the weather looks fantastic, with a high of 68 degrees. I always get up early for coffee before we head out and every morning this week was chilly. On several days I could see my breath while walking outside in the morning. We have had to wear sweatshirts every day, and then we ditch them around 10:30am or so (I always wear a backpack). So to see the temps start to inch up is a welcoming sight. This would be the last day we were sweatshirts to the park.
- After entering the park we head right to Kilimanjaro Safari, since we like to do that early. We were very excited to get a glimpse of Cora, the newborn elephant. We actually ended up doing Kilimanjaro twice today, along with our other AK favorites: Flight of Passage and Expedition Everest. We end up doing several other attractions throughout the day and end the evening with a 2nd ride of Flight of Passage. It was a great day at AK!
- We had lunch at what is, IMO, one of the best quick service locations in WDW: Satu’li Canteen. It was delicious! We had a beer with lunch and just relaxed for a while. I would recommend this spot.
- For dinner, it was another “wish list” new experience checked off the list: Tiffin’s. We had a drink next door at Nomad Lounge and in doing so, you guessed it, checked off another new experience. We all agreed that we probably won’t be visiting either again. The bartended at Nomad was flat out rude to us and other guests, and the bar wasn’t thematically interesting. As far as Tiffin’s, we got stuck in their worst room (the one by Nomad) and our meal was average at best. Our server was fantastic, though, and was happy to replace my daughter’s original meal choice with something far less spicy. Overall, I am glad I tried Nomad and Tiffin’s because they were on my wish list but I won’t be going back to either.
- We ended up taking the bus back to BCV and taking the ultra short walk into Epcot for a nightcap. Have I mentioned that I love Epcot? LOL.
Wednesday:
- The forecast is for low 70s and sun, so no sweatshirts today! We wake up at 6:58 to grab a Virtual Queue for Guardians and we get a boarding group that has an estimated 10:30am boarding time. That is perfect, considering we are doing a Topolino’s Character breakfast at 9:00am. We take the 50 yard walk to the skyliner by BCV and take it to Riviera for breakfast. We have always done Chef Mickey’s in the past, but we have been wanting to try Topolino’s for a while. It checked off another new experience, but I still want to try Topolino’s for dinner sometime. The character breakfast was GREAT! Each character visited our table and both the food and service were outstanding! The food was much better than Chef Mickey’s. Right as we were closing out our bill, we got notified that it was time for our Guardians boarding group. Perfect timing!!
- We jump on the skyliner to Epcot and get to Guardians within a half hour of getting notified. Easy peasy. After riding Guardians I feel confident in saying that it is one of THE top rides in WDW. It is probably my favorite ride. It was so smooth, yet it really kept you on your toes. We all LOVED it! We end up hitting more of the Epcot attractions (Frozen, Remy, Soarin) and just soak up the World Showcase some more. My daughter goes her own way for a bit and my wife and I head to the best margarita at La Cave de Tequila, followed by a beer at Rose and Crown. That is a lot of walking, lol. We end up heading back to BCV around 4:00pm.
- We have 5:30pm reservations at Beaches and Cream today. We own at BCV, so we have hit Beaches and Cream quite a bit. I have to say that the food seems to have gone downhill a little bit. They used to have a really good burger, but now it is just average. The ice cream was still fantastic, though! This place is nostalgic to us, though. I just wish the food would get a facelift...it used to be better.
- After dinner we head back to Epcot for some more attractions (Moana, The Land, etc.) and we stay until the fireworks. After that, we head back to BCV. I love it when we are staying at BCV and walk past the LOOOOOONG line for the skyliner. Those poor people look exhausted and still have a while until they will be back to wherever they are staying, whereas we have a short 100 yard walk to BCV. Love it!
Thursday:
- We wake up and grab Mickey Waffles at BCV before taking the ferry to Hollywood Studios. It’s just my wife and I this morning, since my daughter is choosing to sleep in. Her and I ride Tower of Terror and then we head over to check off another item from our new experience checklist: Oga’s Cantina. We get there around 10:30am and are quoted a 20 minute wait, but it only takes 5 minutes for our name to get called. We both LOVED Oga’s! The theming is…wait for it…out of this world. Our bartender was fantastic too! They have a 45 minute limit, but we leave after our first margarita. Funny enough, after leaving my wife discovers that it is National Margarita Day. Good thing we just had one, lol. I really enjoyed Oga’s and we will definitely go there again.
- Right around the time we are leaving Oga’s, my daughter tells us she is heading over from BCV. We meet her at Baseline for lunch and another #newexperience. Man, I am checking A LOT of these new experience wish items off the list this trip! After lunch, we hit a few rides and attend Indiana Jones. That was an entertaining show and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in a way to kill 30-60 minutes. We decide to hit the Muppets show next before our dinner.
- Dinner is, you guessed it, another #newexperience at Brown Derby. We all thought it was good, but it’s not necessarily somewhere that we need to hit again.
- After dinner we walk back to BCV and take the bus to Magic Kingdom for fireworks and a couple more rides. The fireworks were at 8:00pm and the park didn’t close for another hour after the fireworks were done, so we hit some rides and stay until closing. I was shocked at how small the bus line was to take us back to BCV. I have to say, the we didn’t really have any issues with the buses this trip.
Friday:
- Our last full day in WDW. We decide to make this a three park day. The weather is going to be cloudy with a chance of rain starting in the afternoon. We start at Animal Kingdom to do Kilimanjaro and Everest one last time, so we get there around 9:00am. No Cora on the safari this time, but there is hardly a line at Everest so we ride it twice! Then we take the bus back to BCV and jump on the ferry to HS.
- We do a couple rides at HS and enjoy the park one last time. Our lunch today consists of churros and other assorted snacks while we are moving about….very healthy, I know. We want to be in Epcot by 1:00pm in order to try for the Guardians Virtual Queue, so we leave HS just around noon and take the ferry all the way from HS to Epcot.
- We get into Epcot around 12:45pm and we end up getting a Guardians boarding group for around 4:00pm. We soak up World Showcase one last time before heading over to Guardians when our boarding group gets called. The ride was even better the 2nd time around! Did I mention I love this ride?
- We have our final dinner reservation at 6:00pm at San Angel Inn…it is one of our favorites. It doesn’t disappoint and we have a great meal. I have also not seen the line ever be that long for Gran Fiesta Tour. I hear it is starting to get colder and rainy outside, so that must be the reason for the long line.
- When we get done with dinner, we head outside to moderate rain. This makes the decision to head back to BCV and start packing a little easier. Around Germany we all start running because the rain starts to pick up and none of us were prepared with rain gear. By the time we get back to BCV we are all pretty wet. We change and get our packing done. It’s always sad to pack up at the end of a WDW trip, but my checking account can’t keep taking this beating. LOL.
- We get picked up at 7:30am the following day and it’s off to MCO we go. Back to the cold of Upstate NY. Until next time, WDW!!
All in all it was another great trip, one filled with a lot of #newexperiences. This was the first WDW trip we ever took in which we dealt with rain. We made due, however. Our next trip is a four day trip in October for Food and Wine (just my wife and I), so at least there is another trip on the books. Then we will have the entire crew back in January...so it will probably be back to the old "traditional" stops. But I am glad I was able to get TWELVE new restaurants/bars that I have wanted to experience checked off my list during this trip. And we even experienced new attractions (Guardians, Tron, Indiana Jones, etc.). It was a fun trip.
Friday:
- We landed at MCO around 3:30pm, grabbed our luggage and met our pre-arranged ride outside. On the way to WDW, we stopped at our usual grocery store to pick up the order we submitted on our layover. We normally get water for the week (we do a case per person, which saves a TON of money because we bring a few into the parks with us) and quick breakfast items for the room...as well as some beer for when we want to just chill on the balcony and have a cold one.
- We checked in at the Hilton Buena Vista Palace, which we were only staying at for the night. We typically do Sat-Sat DVC stays if we are doing a full week, but we like to arrive on Friday so we don't have to waste a travel day. This is our 3rd time staying at this hotel and I am not a fan, but it serves its purpose. The rooms are as bland as bland can be...but they do give a $30/day credit that we gladly use on a nightcap before heading to our room for the evening. This time around, our drinks were both terrible but luckily we bought some flavored seltzer with our groceries and we added some to the drinks. It did the trick!
- We changed and headed over to Disney Springs (it is right across the street from the hotel). We walked DS for a while and got our first round of shopping in at the big Disney store. We also checked off the first new experience: Jock Lindsay's Hangar Bar. I heard the vibe and theming were good, as well as having a good drink list. It didn't disappoint. We had a drink there before being notified that our table was ready for dinner...
- We had dinner at the Boathouse, which is one of our go-to dining locations for just about every WDW trip. We love this place. The food is great. The service is always good. And the theming is very fun and lively. We again had a great experience! After dinner we hit a couple more stores that my daughter wanted to visit and then we headed back to the hotel because we were all tired from traveling. On our way up to the room we stopped at the bar to “cash in” our $30 credit on drinks and called it a night.
Saturday:
- We woke up to slight rain that would be off and on all day. We all threw on our rain gear and walked over to Disney Springs. We had a couple more stores to visit and wanted to get that done today since we didn’t plan on coming back to DS over the rest of trip. We also wanted to visit Guest Services to activate our Annual Pass so we didn’t have to worry about it later. This is the first time we have purchased an AP, so we were excited to get it activated!
- We crossed off another new experience for lunch: Morimoto Asia. We didn’t have reservations, but we were still able to get seated. Even though we were getting there a little later than we wanted, the timing was perfect because it started raining really hard just before we got there. The food was amazing! I will say the entire experience took waaaaaay longer than we wanted, though. The wait for a table was much longer than we were quoted upon check in and our server upstairs was also doubling as the bartender, so the service was pretty slow. Our server was great though! He was just slammed. And this place is on the more expensive side, even by Disney standards. Our lunch bill for three was equivalent to many dinner bills for four. But oh well, it was a delicious lunch!
- After lunch, we headed back to the Hilton to check out. We called an Uber to take us to our home for the next week: Beach Club Villas. The trip doesn’t feel like a Disney trip until we check into our DVC resort, especially after staying at the Hilton. We are always super excited when we are pulling up to our resort! We got to BCV around 4:15pm and our room was ready. The check in went smooth/quick and we loved the room we had, which was room 249. It has a view of the “secret walkway” (my kids term for it, lol) that many people take to Epcot. We also loved the new murphy bed. It made things so much easier and was much more comfortable than the old pull out couch.
- That evening we were able to cross off another new experience: dinner at Flying Fish on the Boardwalk. We had to battle the rain to get there, but it was worth it! This was an incredible meal! We also loved our table, which was positioned right next to the kitchen. We could watch the chefs prepare the meals and two of them chatted with us occasionally throughout our time at the table. It was a lot of fun. We will definitely be visiting Flying Fish again in the future!
- After dinner, we checked off yet another new experience before heading back to BCV: drinks at Abracadabar. I had heard the theming at this bar was one of the best on WDW property and it lived up to the billing. The drinks were also really good, but the theming was really cool. I will probably hit here again when we are back at BCV next time. I am adding Abracadabar to the rotation. Now it is back to BCV to call it a night, especially since this pesky rain is off and on.
Sunday:
- We knew all week leading up to vacation that Sunday was going to be the worst of the rain, and boy was that true. It POURED all day. And this was our first park day, so donned our rain gear and headed out to Magic Kingdom via the WDW bus system. My wife and I were up at 6:58am to get our Virtual Queue for Tron, and we ended up getting a semi-early boarding group (16).
- The weather definitely kept the crowds down, so we were able to hit all the usual rides. We were notified that our Tron boarding group was being called around 10:15, so we headed over to board our cycle. We really liked Tron…it is very smooth and not “jerky”. After Tron, we were even able to hit some of our favorite rides again.
- We ate lunch at Columbia Harbor House. My daughter loved the salmon. I thought the chicken fingers were ok for quick service, but I was pushing for us to leave and eat at Captain Cooks. I have that on my list of places I want to try because of their pork nachos. Harbor house was about what you would expect for quick service in a park...meh. Anyway, we ended up leaving MK around 2:00pm (about an hour after lunch) because we were pretty water logged from all the rain. We jumped on the bus and headed back to BCV to dry out and change clothes.
- We headed back to the MK area for a 6:00pm California Grill reservation. Because of the pouring rain and not wanting to get wet before dinner, we took an Uber. This dinner was yet another item checked off of the new experience wish list. We really loved the dinner and we had a table along the window facing MK. It was a terrific view! The dinner was really amazing. That said, it was fairly expensive and I don’t know if it was quite worth the price. One thing I noticed is that the restaurants that tout a dress code don’t really adhere to that requirement. Not that I care, but it is good to know for future trips. We brought a change of clothes with us to MK that morning to change into for dinner, but we could have just wore our t-shirts. We ended up dressing to the dress code because we went back to the hotel first.
- On a sidenote, the Contemporary has really bad options for places to grab a drink. We wanted to grab a drink at the bar at California Grill before dinner, but they weren’t letting people up there. So we went to Steakhouse 71…and that bar wasn’t great nor did the bartender even come over to us. So we went up to Outer Orbit (right next to Chef Mickey’s) and had a drink there. It was mediocre and the bar area is really outdated. Oh well, good to know for the future.
- After dinner we wanted to do a mini “MK Pub Crawl”, so we headed over to Poly to grab a drink there. Trader Sam’s has been on my wish list for a long time, but the line was a mile long and they were quoting a three hour wait. On top of that, Poly in general was PACKED. I think the rain was keeping a lot of people at their resorts rather than being in parks. Even Tambu Lounge was jammed up and we couldn’t get a drink. Soooo, we jumped back on the monorail and headed over to Grand Floridian. The wait for Enchanted Rose wasn’t too long (about 30 minutes), so we waited and got a great table in the main bar area. It was another item checked off the new experience wish list! We had one drink there and really enjoyed the atmosphere. After our drink, we grabbed an Uber back to BCV and called it a night.
Monday:
- The rain was supposed to have stopped in the middle of the night, but it sprinkled until around 9:00am. This was a Hollywood Studios day, so we slept in a little longer and left right around the time the rain ended. We hit all the usual rides (Runaway Railway, Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog, Rise of the Resistance) and grabbed lunch at ABC Commissary. In my opinion, ABC has one of the better quick service food options in WDW.
- After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a little rest and then headed over to Epcot around 6:00pm. Epcot is my favorite park, so I was looking forward to walking through the gates for the first time this trip. We had reservations at Chefs de France, but we cancelled it and just decided to eat at the food booths throughout the World Showcase. It was the last day of Festival of the Arts, so the food options were still in high gear. I had a lobster tostada that was fantastic, and we had a few of the Morocco bread appetizers that were delicious. All told, we probably got food at 8 different booths that night…it was a lot of fun! We were also able to ride Remy’s and Soarin, so those rides kind of completed our fun filled park hopper day.
- No, we didn’t “drink around the world”. I am too old to do that, but we did have cocktails at 4 or 5 different countries. We stayed at Epcot until close and headed back to BCV after. It was a long day and, according to my daughter’s app on her phone, we logged over 25,000 steps. I was ready for bed!
Tuesday:
- The weather for the rest of the week looks perfect! Today is an Animal Kingdom day and the weather looks fantastic, with a high of 68 degrees. I always get up early for coffee before we head out and every morning this week was chilly. On several days I could see my breath while walking outside in the morning. We have had to wear sweatshirts every day, and then we ditch them around 10:30am or so (I always wear a backpack). So to see the temps start to inch up is a welcoming sight. This would be the last day we were sweatshirts to the park.
- After entering the park we head right to Kilimanjaro Safari, since we like to do that early. We were very excited to get a glimpse of Cora, the newborn elephant. We actually ended up doing Kilimanjaro twice today, along with our other AK favorites: Flight of Passage and Expedition Everest. We end up doing several other attractions throughout the day and end the evening with a 2nd ride of Flight of Passage. It was a great day at AK!
- We had lunch at what is, IMO, one of the best quick service locations in WDW: Satu’li Canteen. It was delicious! We had a beer with lunch and just relaxed for a while. I would recommend this spot.
- For dinner, it was another “wish list” new experience checked off the list: Tiffin’s. We had a drink next door at Nomad Lounge and in doing so, you guessed it, checked off another new experience. We all agreed that we probably won’t be visiting either again. The bartended at Nomad was flat out rude to us and other guests, and the bar wasn’t thematically interesting. As far as Tiffin’s, we got stuck in their worst room (the one by Nomad) and our meal was average at best. Our server was fantastic, though, and was happy to replace my daughter’s original meal choice with something far less spicy. Overall, I am glad I tried Nomad and Tiffin’s because they were on my wish list but I won’t be going back to either.
- We ended up taking the bus back to BCV and taking the ultra short walk into Epcot for a nightcap. Have I mentioned that I love Epcot? LOL.
Wednesday:
- The forecast is for low 70s and sun, so no sweatshirts today! We wake up at 6:58 to grab a Virtual Queue for Guardians and we get a boarding group that has an estimated 10:30am boarding time. That is perfect, considering we are doing a Topolino’s Character breakfast at 9:00am. We take the 50 yard walk to the skyliner by BCV and take it to Riviera for breakfast. We have always done Chef Mickey’s in the past, but we have been wanting to try Topolino’s for a while. It checked off another new experience, but I still want to try Topolino’s for dinner sometime. The character breakfast was GREAT! Each character visited our table and both the food and service were outstanding! The food was much better than Chef Mickey’s. Right as we were closing out our bill, we got notified that it was time for our Guardians boarding group. Perfect timing!!
- We jump on the skyliner to Epcot and get to Guardians within a half hour of getting notified. Easy peasy. After riding Guardians I feel confident in saying that it is one of THE top rides in WDW. It is probably my favorite ride. It was so smooth, yet it really kept you on your toes. We all LOVED it! We end up hitting more of the Epcot attractions (Frozen, Remy, Soarin) and just soak up the World Showcase some more. My daughter goes her own way for a bit and my wife and I head to the best margarita at La Cave de Tequila, followed by a beer at Rose and Crown. That is a lot of walking, lol. We end up heading back to BCV around 4:00pm.
- We have 5:30pm reservations at Beaches and Cream today. We own at BCV, so we have hit Beaches and Cream quite a bit. I have to say that the food seems to have gone downhill a little bit. They used to have a really good burger, but now it is just average. The ice cream was still fantastic, though! This place is nostalgic to us, though. I just wish the food would get a facelift...it used to be better.
- After dinner we head back to Epcot for some more attractions (Moana, The Land, etc.) and we stay until the fireworks. After that, we head back to BCV. I love it when we are staying at BCV and walk past the LOOOOOONG line for the skyliner. Those poor people look exhausted and still have a while until they will be back to wherever they are staying, whereas we have a short 100 yard walk to BCV. Love it!
Thursday:
- We wake up and grab Mickey Waffles at BCV before taking the ferry to Hollywood Studios. It’s just my wife and I this morning, since my daughter is choosing to sleep in. Her and I ride Tower of Terror and then we head over to check off another item from our new experience checklist: Oga’s Cantina. We get there around 10:30am and are quoted a 20 minute wait, but it only takes 5 minutes for our name to get called. We both LOVED Oga’s! The theming is…wait for it…out of this world. Our bartender was fantastic too! They have a 45 minute limit, but we leave after our first margarita. Funny enough, after leaving my wife discovers that it is National Margarita Day. Good thing we just had one, lol. I really enjoyed Oga’s and we will definitely go there again.
- Right around the time we are leaving Oga’s, my daughter tells us she is heading over from BCV. We meet her at Baseline for lunch and another #newexperience. Man, I am checking A LOT of these new experience wish items off the list this trip! After lunch, we hit a few rides and attend Indiana Jones. That was an entertaining show and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in a way to kill 30-60 minutes. We decide to hit the Muppets show next before our dinner.
- Dinner is, you guessed it, another #newexperience at Brown Derby. We all thought it was good, but it’s not necessarily somewhere that we need to hit again.
- After dinner we walk back to BCV and take the bus to Magic Kingdom for fireworks and a couple more rides. The fireworks were at 8:00pm and the park didn’t close for another hour after the fireworks were done, so we hit some rides and stay until closing. I was shocked at how small the bus line was to take us back to BCV. I have to say, the we didn’t really have any issues with the buses this trip.
Friday:
- Our last full day in WDW. We decide to make this a three park day. The weather is going to be cloudy with a chance of rain starting in the afternoon. We start at Animal Kingdom to do Kilimanjaro and Everest one last time, so we get there around 9:00am. No Cora on the safari this time, but there is hardly a line at Everest so we ride it twice! Then we take the bus back to BCV and jump on the ferry to HS.
- We do a couple rides at HS and enjoy the park one last time. Our lunch today consists of churros and other assorted snacks while we are moving about….very healthy, I know. We want to be in Epcot by 1:00pm in order to try for the Guardians Virtual Queue, so we leave HS just around noon and take the ferry all the way from HS to Epcot.
- We get into Epcot around 12:45pm and we end up getting a Guardians boarding group for around 4:00pm. We soak up World Showcase one last time before heading over to Guardians when our boarding group gets called. The ride was even better the 2nd time around! Did I mention I love this ride?
- We have our final dinner reservation at 6:00pm at San Angel Inn…it is one of our favorites. It doesn’t disappoint and we have a great meal. I have also not seen the line ever be that long for Gran Fiesta Tour. I hear it is starting to get colder and rainy outside, so that must be the reason for the long line.
- When we get done with dinner, we head outside to moderate rain. This makes the decision to head back to BCV and start packing a little easier. Around Germany we all start running because the rain starts to pick up and none of us were prepared with rain gear. By the time we get back to BCV we are all pretty wet. We change and get our packing done. It’s always sad to pack up at the end of a WDW trip, but my checking account can’t keep taking this beating. LOL.
- We get picked up at 7:30am the following day and it’s off to MCO we go. Back to the cold of Upstate NY. Until next time, WDW!!
All in all it was another great trip, one filled with a lot of #newexperiences. This was the first WDW trip we ever took in which we dealt with rain. We made due, however. Our next trip is a four day trip in October for Food and Wine (just my wife and I), so at least there is another trip on the books. Then we will have the entire crew back in January...so it will probably be back to the old "traditional" stops. But I am glad I was able to get TWELVE new restaurants/bars that I have wanted to experience checked off my list during this trip. And we even experienced new attractions (Guardians, Tron, Indiana Jones, etc.). It was a fun trip.
