Up early again today, this was our last Disney day. Sad. But, waking up to the view we had on such a beautiful day was more than we could have asked for. We started to get packed and ready for the day, and our breakfast arrived just as I was getting out of the shower. Once again, the high life. It’s a good thing we’re leaving today, I’m starting to get too used to being pampered. I threw on a robe and ate my giant Mickey Waffle (I really do love these things) and lounged in the chair while Rin had a ham and cheese omelet and hash browns. Both were delicious, I feel like they get made at the kitchen for Grand Floridian Cafe and brought over. I was worried that the waffle would get a touch soggy from the trip, but it was still nice and crisp and perfect.
As we were finishing up, we heard something going on out our window. We went onto the balcony, and although we couldn’t see much, we were able to hear the festivities from rope drop. While we never actually made it to a rope drop this trip, it was nice to be able to hear what was happening.
Once we were all checked out, with our luggage stored with Bell Service, we headed to MK to our tour. On tap today was Keys to the Kingdom. Rin was really apprehensive at first about this one, since she was worried it would ruin some of the Magic. After talking to some people on the DISBoards, she decided it would be ok, and we booked it. Am I ever glad we did.
When we checked in for the tour near Town Hall, we got free water, snacks and name badges, along with a backstage pass and a headset. I really like the headset idea, since no matter where you were, you could hear the guide. Again, I can’t remember our guides name, but she was awesome. An elderly lady who seemed like she could have been there from the start (although it turned out she had only been with the company for a few years), she really seemed to love what she was doing.
We started with a tour of Main St, and were shown the opening credits painted all along the windows. I knew about some of these, but there were lots of names I’d never heard of as well. We also learned that Main St is actually sloped, so that when you go in you’re climbing to get in, and when you leave, you have a nice downhill walk to look forward to.
I won’t go into detail about anything else really, since I won’t explain it nearly as well as our guide did. I’ll just mention that throughout the tour we went on Jungle Cruise, with ‘backstage commentary’ instead of the usual commentary, we did Haunted Mansion through the back entrance, we went backstage to several areas, including parade storage, and underground to the utilidoors.
Our lunch was done at Columbia Harbour house, and was delicious. I had the Chicken Finger Platter, while Rin had a Chicken Caesar Salad. While we’ve not done many Quick Service meals throughout our trips, this is probably the best we’ve had to date. And as a bonus, we sat with our guide, and had a chance to talk about everything from Cirque du Soleil to Victoria & Albert’s to Las Vegas. A good lunch with good conversation. What more can you ask for?
Once our tour was done, we headed over to Contemporary for our next activity. We had booked parasailing and an hour or so of jetskiing though Sammy Duvalls. Rin was a bit hesitant of parasailing since she’s afraid of heights (and she really only did jetskiing for me), but when we booked, we were told that there would be no charge for us whether or not she did it, since it would just be billed through the Platinum Plan. Once we got out on the water, there was one lady that would go before us. Rin watched her, talked to the guy in charge of the parasailing and decided to go for it.
This was kind of a surreal experience. Rin freaked out a couple of times, like when we first started going up into the air, and when I shifted so that I wouldn’t come off my little strap, but overall she really enjoyed it. We were able to see most of Magic Kingdom, Spaceship Earth at Epcot and the Hollywood Hotel at HS, as well as the remains of Discovery Island. I think we were up in the air for about 20 minutes. I’m not sure if it’s something I would pay to do again, but it was definitely worth our time on this trip.
After parasailing, we went jetskiing for a bit. I would have preferred to do one of the morning tours, since then you go all around the lake, but in the afternoon, you’re limited to a buoyed off section of water. The jetskis are governed at around 35mph, but that seemed fast enough for what we were doing. Rin was a bit apprehensive, since she’d never been on a jetski, and she kept worrying that I was going to run into her (I was a bit more comfortable on it, so I would get closer to her than she would to me). By the end though, she was going full speed and we were doing a bit of racing up and down the strip. A good time was had, but again, I’m not sure I’d pay full price for it.
Since we were between hotels, we had been very careful on the jetskis not to get too wet, and we were quite successful, so we headed to Downtown Disney. We looked around a bit, but the real reason we were here was for La Nouba. We’d seen it once before in 2008, it was our first experience with Cirque, and we loved it (we’ve since seen 2 other shows,LOVE, in Vegas and Quidam, one of the touring shows, both of which we also loved). Since we had free tickets included with the Platinum Plan, we figured we’d check it out again. The night started with some excitement when the clowns were doing their thing before the show. Someone near the back screamed “Someone help her,” and I think everyone assumed she was referring to the girl ‘selected’ for the preshow. She screamed again, and people realized something was wrong. Turns out someone was choking. So the clowns paused, waited a few minutes, and handled it perfectly, imo. Once it was established that everything was ok, they treated it as a big affront that someone would have had the gall to interrupt them. I still think the clowns are one of my favourite parts of the show.
Now onto the main show. I’m not sure if La Nouba has gone downhill, if it’s just not as good as the other shows we saw, or if they were just having an off night, but we really weren’t impressed. The young Chinese girls with the diabolos dropped the spools a couple of times, and the trapeze artists missed a catch or two, but even apart from that, something just didn’t feel right. I’m not sure why exactly, but I felt as though I was watching a dumbed down version of the other shows I’d seen. Maybe my expectations were just too high, since I had remembered it so fondly.
After the show, we were off to Fulton’s Crab House. I was really only here for Rin, since I don’t eat seafood, but I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience.
We showed up and had to wait a bit for our table, but nothing too long. Kevin, our server, was amazing. He outlined the specials, and it somehow came out that I’m not a seafood fan, and he told me to go with the steak. Like me, he usually won’t get steak at seafood places, since they’re usually not that well done, or of good quality, but he assured me that these were of steakhouse quality, and that the chefs knew how to cook them. He talked to us about a bunch of other things on the menu too, and made the whole experience that much better.
To start, I got the Portabello Fries, and Rin had Conch Fritters. Again, I’m gonna let Rin write about her meal, since most of it was beyond me, being all seafoody.
My Portabello Fries were quite good. I’m not a huge mushroom fan, but these intrigued me, and I’m glad I got them. Some of them were a bit thick, but overall they were cooked really well, and the batter on them was amazing. I’m not sure I would get them again, but I’m glad I got them this time.
The Conch Fritters were really nice, though you couldn;t so much tell it was conch in them as opposed to anything else. Which, I suppose means conch has a nice, light flavour to it? Not sure really, I just wanted to try something new - it's kind of my goal when we go to Disney now. I tried Zife's Portobello Fries, too, and they were also very good.
For my main, I followed Kevin’s advice, and had a steak. Nothing fancy, just a good old New York Strip, with fries. I’ve discovered something about fries: steakhouses and seafood places always have the best fries. I’m not sure why, that’s just the way it is. Since this place was the best of both worlds, I expected damn good fries. I wasn’t disappointed. The steak was really good too. Well seasoned, cook just right, nice and juicy. Not Wagyu mind you, but still a damn good steak, on par with those that I’ve had at many steakhouses in my travels.
Oh. Sweet. Lord. Crab Legs. Can I just say Crab Legs? They were amazing. They were sweet and absolutely gigantic and probably the most amazing crab legs I have ever had. I had been going back and forth between these and some stuffed lobster thing, and Kevin suggested I go for the legs. Thank you, Kevin.
Bless you.
Finally, dessert. I got (gasp) triple chocolate mouse cake, and Rin had Cheesecake. However, we were so full, we took them with us (we actually had a bag of food when we left, I’m pretty sure it was a bit from each course). I had a bit of it the cake the next day, and it was still really good, if somewhat infused with the flavour of steak, from sitting in the fridge with it over-night. I find that the flavour of leftover steak manages to get into anything that it’s in the fridge with, no matter what it is. Odd.
I did manage to eat my cheesecake later - I feel like I might have had a little bit of it there, as well. It, also, was absolutely incredible. I felt so indulgent eating it, even after it had been in a hotel fridge for a few days. It was creamy and rich and not as stiff as some New York Style cheesecakes tend to be, but just absolutely fabulous (to coin a phrase). Might have been better than the crab legs, but I think more data is needed to be sure. We'll just have to go back, I suppose. Oh well.
Final Thoughts
Am I Glad I Ate Here? - Yes. As is Rin, she loves her seafood.
Would I Go Back? - Yes. If it was included on the DDP. Since it’s not (only on Premium or Platinum), probably not anytime soon.
Rating: Me - 8.5/10
Rin - 9/10
Cost - $147.55
After our meal was done, we met up with partypa for a quick chat. Having ‘known’ her for a couple of years on the boards, it was nice to finally meet her in person. For those of you who haven’t met her, she’s exactly like you would expect. Nice, funny and overall just a good person to be around. We met up with her a couple more times during the trip (or was it just once?), and each time was like meeting an old friend. When we met her, we were stuffed from our meal at Fulton’s, so we forwent the usual Ghirardelli’s trip and just sat on the wall out front. She was kind enough to bring us each a TA ballcap, lanyard fan and luggage tags from the earlier gathering that we missed. Next time we’re in Orlando, we hope to get to an actual gathering, but for now, I’m satiated.
With the night coming to a close, we said our goodbyes, spent our last couple of snack credits and headed to our new hotel: Four Points by Sheraton Studio City. I got this hotel free with SPG points, and I’d read mostly good things about it on TA. I’d had enough points to book a top floor suite, and I was amazed by it. The room was large, well appointed and had wall-wall, floor-ceiling windows. And since the hotel is a big circle, the view was fairly panoramic. Rin didn’t realize this until the next morning, but we could even see Hogwarts. When she saw it, she almost started crying.
We got unpacked, settled in, and hit the sack.
As we were finishing up, we heard something going on out our window. We went onto the balcony, and although we couldn’t see much, we were able to hear the festivities from rope drop. While we never actually made it to a rope drop this trip, it was nice to be able to hear what was happening.
Once we were all checked out, with our luggage stored with Bell Service, we headed to MK to our tour. On tap today was Keys to the Kingdom. Rin was really apprehensive at first about this one, since she was worried it would ruin some of the Magic. After talking to some people on the DISBoards, she decided it would be ok, and we booked it. Am I ever glad we did.
When we checked in for the tour near Town Hall, we got free water, snacks and name badges, along with a backstage pass and a headset. I really like the headset idea, since no matter where you were, you could hear the guide. Again, I can’t remember our guides name, but she was awesome. An elderly lady who seemed like she could have been there from the start (although it turned out she had only been with the company for a few years), she really seemed to love what she was doing.
We started with a tour of Main St, and were shown the opening credits painted all along the windows. I knew about some of these, but there were lots of names I’d never heard of as well. We also learned that Main St is actually sloped, so that when you go in you’re climbing to get in, and when you leave, you have a nice downhill walk to look forward to.
I won’t go into detail about anything else really, since I won’t explain it nearly as well as our guide did. I’ll just mention that throughout the tour we went on Jungle Cruise, with ‘backstage commentary’ instead of the usual commentary, we did Haunted Mansion through the back entrance, we went backstage to several areas, including parade storage, and underground to the utilidoors.
Our lunch was done at Columbia Harbour house, and was delicious. I had the Chicken Finger Platter, while Rin had a Chicken Caesar Salad. While we’ve not done many Quick Service meals throughout our trips, this is probably the best we’ve had to date. And as a bonus, we sat with our guide, and had a chance to talk about everything from Cirque du Soleil to Victoria & Albert’s to Las Vegas. A good lunch with good conversation. What more can you ask for?
Once our tour was done, we headed over to Contemporary for our next activity. We had booked parasailing and an hour or so of jetskiing though Sammy Duvalls. Rin was a bit hesitant of parasailing since she’s afraid of heights (and she really only did jetskiing for me), but when we booked, we were told that there would be no charge for us whether or not she did it, since it would just be billed through the Platinum Plan. Once we got out on the water, there was one lady that would go before us. Rin watched her, talked to the guy in charge of the parasailing and decided to go for it.
This was kind of a surreal experience. Rin freaked out a couple of times, like when we first started going up into the air, and when I shifted so that I wouldn’t come off my little strap, but overall she really enjoyed it. We were able to see most of Magic Kingdom, Spaceship Earth at Epcot and the Hollywood Hotel at HS, as well as the remains of Discovery Island. I think we were up in the air for about 20 minutes. I’m not sure if it’s something I would pay to do again, but it was definitely worth our time on this trip.
After parasailing, we went jetskiing for a bit. I would have preferred to do one of the morning tours, since then you go all around the lake, but in the afternoon, you’re limited to a buoyed off section of water. The jetskis are governed at around 35mph, but that seemed fast enough for what we were doing. Rin was a bit apprehensive, since she’d never been on a jetski, and she kept worrying that I was going to run into her (I was a bit more comfortable on it, so I would get closer to her than she would to me). By the end though, she was going full speed and we were doing a bit of racing up and down the strip. A good time was had, but again, I’m not sure I’d pay full price for it.
Since we were between hotels, we had been very careful on the jetskis not to get too wet, and we were quite successful, so we headed to Downtown Disney. We looked around a bit, but the real reason we were here was for La Nouba. We’d seen it once before in 2008, it was our first experience with Cirque, and we loved it (we’ve since seen 2 other shows,LOVE, in Vegas and Quidam, one of the touring shows, both of which we also loved). Since we had free tickets included with the Platinum Plan, we figured we’d check it out again. The night started with some excitement when the clowns were doing their thing before the show. Someone near the back screamed “Someone help her,” and I think everyone assumed she was referring to the girl ‘selected’ for the preshow. She screamed again, and people realized something was wrong. Turns out someone was choking. So the clowns paused, waited a few minutes, and handled it perfectly, imo. Once it was established that everything was ok, they treated it as a big affront that someone would have had the gall to interrupt them. I still think the clowns are one of my favourite parts of the show.
Now onto the main show. I’m not sure if La Nouba has gone downhill, if it’s just not as good as the other shows we saw, or if they were just having an off night, but we really weren’t impressed. The young Chinese girls with the diabolos dropped the spools a couple of times, and the trapeze artists missed a catch or two, but even apart from that, something just didn’t feel right. I’m not sure why exactly, but I felt as though I was watching a dumbed down version of the other shows I’d seen. Maybe my expectations were just too high, since I had remembered it so fondly.
After the show, we were off to Fulton’s Crab House. I was really only here for Rin, since I don’t eat seafood, but I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience.
We showed up and had to wait a bit for our table, but nothing too long. Kevin, our server, was amazing. He outlined the specials, and it somehow came out that I’m not a seafood fan, and he told me to go with the steak. Like me, he usually won’t get steak at seafood places, since they’re usually not that well done, or of good quality, but he assured me that these were of steakhouse quality, and that the chefs knew how to cook them. He talked to us about a bunch of other things on the menu too, and made the whole experience that much better.
To start, I got the Portabello Fries, and Rin had Conch Fritters. Again, I’m gonna let Rin write about her meal, since most of it was beyond me, being all seafoody.
My Portabello Fries were quite good. I’m not a huge mushroom fan, but these intrigued me, and I’m glad I got them. Some of them were a bit thick, but overall they were cooked really well, and the batter on them was amazing. I’m not sure I would get them again, but I’m glad I got them this time.
The Conch Fritters were really nice, though you couldn;t so much tell it was conch in them as opposed to anything else. Which, I suppose means conch has a nice, light flavour to it? Not sure really, I just wanted to try something new - it's kind of my goal when we go to Disney now. I tried Zife's Portobello Fries, too, and they were also very good.
For my main, I followed Kevin’s advice, and had a steak. Nothing fancy, just a good old New York Strip, with fries. I’ve discovered something about fries: steakhouses and seafood places always have the best fries. I’m not sure why, that’s just the way it is. Since this place was the best of both worlds, I expected damn good fries. I wasn’t disappointed. The steak was really good too. Well seasoned, cook just right, nice and juicy. Not Wagyu mind you, but still a damn good steak, on par with those that I’ve had at many steakhouses in my travels.
Oh. Sweet. Lord. Crab Legs. Can I just say Crab Legs? They were amazing. They were sweet and absolutely gigantic and probably the most amazing crab legs I have ever had. I had been going back and forth between these and some stuffed lobster thing, and Kevin suggested I go for the legs. Thank you, Kevin.
Bless you.
Finally, dessert. I got (gasp) triple chocolate mouse cake, and Rin had Cheesecake. However, we were so full, we took them with us (we actually had a bag of food when we left, I’m pretty sure it was a bit from each course). I had a bit of it the cake the next day, and it was still really good, if somewhat infused with the flavour of steak, from sitting in the fridge with it over-night. I find that the flavour of leftover steak manages to get into anything that it’s in the fridge with, no matter what it is. Odd.
I did manage to eat my cheesecake later - I feel like I might have had a little bit of it there, as well. It, also, was absolutely incredible. I felt so indulgent eating it, even after it had been in a hotel fridge for a few days. It was creamy and rich and not as stiff as some New York Style cheesecakes tend to be, but just absolutely fabulous (to coin a phrase). Might have been better than the crab legs, but I think more data is needed to be sure. We'll just have to go back, I suppose. Oh well.
Final Thoughts
Am I Glad I Ate Here? - Yes. As is Rin, she loves her seafood.
Would I Go Back? - Yes. If it was included on the DDP. Since it’s not (only on Premium or Platinum), probably not anytime soon.
Rating: Me - 8.5/10
Rin - 9/10
Cost - $147.55
After our meal was done, we met up with partypa for a quick chat. Having ‘known’ her for a couple of years on the boards, it was nice to finally meet her in person. For those of you who haven’t met her, she’s exactly like you would expect. Nice, funny and overall just a good person to be around. We met up with her a couple more times during the trip (or was it just once?), and each time was like meeting an old friend. When we met her, we were stuffed from our meal at Fulton’s, so we forwent the usual Ghirardelli’s trip and just sat on the wall out front. She was kind enough to bring us each a TA ballcap, lanyard fan and luggage tags from the earlier gathering that we missed. Next time we’re in Orlando, we hope to get to an actual gathering, but for now, I’m satiated.
With the night coming to a close, we said our goodbyes, spent our last couple of snack credits and headed to our new hotel: Four Points by Sheraton Studio City. I got this hotel free with SPG points, and I’d read mostly good things about it on TA. I’d had enough points to book a top floor suite, and I was amazed by it. The room was large, well appointed and had wall-wall, floor-ceiling windows. And since the hotel is a big circle, the view was fairly panoramic. Rin didn’t realize this until the next morning, but we could even see Hogwarts. When she saw it, she almost started crying.
We got unpacked, settled in, and hit the sack.
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