The ‘When is the last trip not the last?’ Trip, Day 3

[Scruffette]

DAY 3 – The day I became a princes

We were up early again this morning, this time for early opening at Magic Kingdom. I grabbed a cheese Danish for us to share for breakfast. Yes, this was only our second snack credit. Don’t worry, we did eventually man up and eat some more snacks!

Today was my ‘birthday’. Although my birthday was actually a few weeks before, today was the day I was getting my birthday present from Ollie – lunch at Cinderella Castle. I felt this justified wearing my birthday badge and having a ‘fake’ birthday. Almost everyone we walked past, both cast members and park goers, wished me happy birthday. I wish I could have worn it the whole trip, but I’m not sure having that many fake birthdays would have been right!

Ollie even wore his first visit badge (which the cast member wrote his name on as ‘Hollie’, even after it was spelt out to him)!





We were at MK nice and early and saw the opening show. “Good morning, good morning…”. Another one of those songs that gets stuck in your head. Very cutesy, I was a bit concerned what Ollie would think. He described it as ‘necessarily quaint’, which I think secretly means he really liked it.



Along with most people, we headed straight for Space Mountain. The best part about this coaster is definitely that it’s in the dark and you don’t know which direction you’re going to move in next. We picked up fastpasses for another ride straight away. This soon became one of Ollie’s favourite and we rode many times throughout the trip.

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin was next. Ollie won by a lot, but I know I would get my revenge on Toy Story Midway Mania… Of course, I also had to point out that I once got a perfect score of 999,999. Just saying.

We headed over to Frontierland ready for rope drop for that side of the park. After a bit of a power walk toward Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, we found it was closed and that it wouldn’t reopen until gone midday.

Despite Ollie’s suggestion we passed on Splash Mountain – I had lunch with the princesses and I didn’t want to get soggy!

Backtracking, we tried to ride Pirates for the Caribbean, but that was also down. Not having much luck this morning!

Time for a good chuckle on the Jungle Cruise then! This ride always makes me laugh – I love a good corny joke! Even though the boat got held up waiting for another to finish boarding at the end of the ride our captain kept the one liners coming – he was clearly a seasoned deckhand!

We made our way over to the Haunted Mansion, another classic. The interactive queue was good fun. We jumped into our doombuggy and took a tour of the place, even picking up a couple of hitchhikers on the way round.





We made our way back through Fantasyland towards Space Mountain for our fastpass return time. Just as good the second time – still plenty more rides to come this holiday!

We hopped onto the TTA for a tour of Tomorrowland, hoping to get a peek at Space Mountain.

In need of a chuckle, we caught the next show at the Monsters Inc laugh floor. Some of the displays on the wall have been changed to incorporate Monsters University.



Somehow, I ended up on the end of a row right in the centre of the theatre. Wearing a birthday badge. This was not good. Luckily, the lady in front of me wearing the birthday badge got picked instead! The show was as funny as ever, complete with two headed monsters, dodgy geography and ‘that guy’.

Time for a first for me – I can’t believe I’ve never done Carousel of Progress before. “There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow…” Another song to get stuck in your head. (Maybe I should have done a musical trip report instead…) This became a must-do for me. Although, I thought some of the gadgets the family have seemed a bit high-tech for the era.

[Scruffette]

Our 11.50 ADR time at Cindy’s was fast approaching. We just had time for a (very) quick powerwalk to Splash for fastpasses first.

This is where the Disney Experience app came in really useful – we could check fastpass return times from the other side of the park. You just needed to add on another 15-30 minutes as they took some time to update.

Another powerwalk back to the castle. I forget how big the park is sometimes!

We checked in and joined the queue to have our picture taken with Cinderella. The queue was full of little girls in princess dresses, and I was trying to convince Ollie that adults do come here by themselves!









I even spotted this pair whilst waiting. (I got very excited and said ‘found them’ quite loudly!)




Since meeting Cindy staggers guests arriving in the restaurant, we took the opportunity to get a few photos of the spiral staircase and the view over the ground floor.



The castle was beautiful and we had a table on the balcony with a view of the main window which was ideal.





I could get used to being called princess in all restaurants. Actually, just generally in life from now on.

The table was beautifully laid out and I was presented with my fairy wand and Ollie with his knight’s sword by our server. He was an experienced chap with a great sense of humour, even replying ‘yes my lord’ to Ollie after he requested another drink!



We got a choice of salad or tomato and basil soup to start.
I had the salad



It came with big pieces of parmesan cheese and was nice. Ollie went for the soup on a whim.



It was more tomato and parmesan than tomato and basil and was, in his opinion, cheesier than the soup at Le Cellier – yum! I stole several spoonfuls. Okay, so this took us to Ollie 2: Lucy 1.

For mains we both has the Major Domos short rib.



The parsnip puree was a nice change and the meat had been slow cooked and fell apart. Very tasty. It definitely looked one of the better mains. We heard a server at another table advising someone not to go for the pork sandwich – it did look a bit disappointing.

[Scruffette]

The server took our dessert order, we both went for The Clock Strikes Twelve.

Our server came back to our table with what I thought was our desserts. It actually turned out to be this:



Amazing. Ollie has called Disney and pre-ordered the Cinderella Slipper dessert. The slipper was solid white chocolate filled with a chocolate mousse presented on top of a pillow of angel food cake adorned with masses of fresh berries (the official description!) The picture doesn’t quite do it justice, but this plate was massive! It came with a candle in the top and Ollie and the server both sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. I was beaming at this point. Good boyfriend

Our other desserts also arrived, making 3 desserts on the table.



We asked to take the Clock strikes Twelve to go. The server bought us some plastic containers to transfer the desserts – this was not easy. There is mousse in the middle of the chocolate so it isn’t very robust! The presentation of these was gorgeous. The clock face is dusted onto the plate.



We almost managed it all!

The princesses came round in quick succession just before and during dessert. We had Aurora, Snow White, Ariel and Jasmine. Even Ollie had his pictures taken with the princesses. Ariel (Ollie’s favourite) was good fun, saying we had swum a long way from England. She also said she like my outfit, becoming automatically my favourite too. Jasmine was fun, but a bit less princess-y than the others. She did say that she thought Prince George should have been named Aladdin.

Would we eat here again? Yes – It was a lovely experience, who cares if we were the only people in the place without our own children! Who doesn’t love feeling like a princess?

Now, I had been searching for the traditional black Minnie ears with the red bow. So far the closest I had seen had sequined ears. I got a text from my mum saying she had seen them in a shop in Frontierland. The only problem was we had two very meltable desserts to take with us.

More power walking occurred, ears were successfully purchased and desserts were only partially melted. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make use of our Splash fastpasses.

We got a bus back to the hotel and desserts were put into my parents’ fridge ready for breakfast the next morning. We were greeted by this little addition.



We took an unintentional nap and then got ready to head out to Epcot.

Whilst on the bus it started pouring with rain. We didn’t even have ponchos with us. (At this point Ollie was still insistent that he wouldn’t wear a poncho. This soon changed!).

First stop had to be Spaceship Earth. Partly because it is a classic and partly because it was close and it was raining. And I love Judi Dench’s voice. She should do books on tape.

However, when the ride turns at the end and you get to choose your future, ours didn’t do anything. Hopefully this wasn’t the universe’s way of telling us we have no future. Ollie promised me another ride later in the trip to double check this theory.

Looking at wait times, there was time for a ride on mission space before dinner. I decided to let Ollie brave it alone. I’ve done this ride before and it’s always made me feel a bit funny. Now that I seem to be suffering from motion sickness, this was definitely not a good idea! Ollie was the navigator. Obviously they hadn’t heard about the time he once got us lost completely lost in the forest. I’m always surprised this ride has such a short queue. Maybe because the rest of the park is in the 110 minute queues for Test Track and Soarin.

It was still drizzling at this point, so we arrived slightly soggy for our 7.50 ADR at Le Cellier. As we were short of DDP credits and this meal was a late addition, we were using one lot of credits and the other items were paid for using the gift card we got when booking.

We checked in and waited to be called. The gardens round here are really pretty, just a shame everyone was crammed into the small waiting area as it was raining.

We got taken to our table, which happened to be next to the one me and my mum were sat at on our last visit.

Although a little dark, I really like the inside of Le Cellier. It is much smaller than some of the other restaurants which is a nice change.

We ordered the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup to share to start.



Ollie was in the restroom when this arrived, and was lucky that there was some left when he got back! I love the flavour of this soup, particularly with the pretzel bread. Ollie wasn’t as fussed about the soup or the pretzel bread – weird boy! Oh well, more for me. I don’t think he expected the soup to taste of ale or bacon. Apparently I omitted this when raving about the cheese soup. He looked pretty surprised on his first taste!

[Scruffette]

I also ordered my first ever alcoholic drink in America. After much deliberating, I went for the Magic Star Cocktail.



It was my first time being in America over 21, and I didn’t even get asked for ID. I fully expected to get ID’ed everywhere. I’m 22 and definitely look my age if not younger. I also wanted to test whether they would accept my driving licence as ID or not. I noted on the reservation that it was my birthday, and the server did say ‘Happy 22nd Birthday’, but surely that wasn’t enough? (On a side note, one of my pupils told me I looked 34 the other day. Other times, I get confused for a student!)

Anyway, my drink was very nice. A little boy at the table took a liking to the look of my drink. The Dad was trying to tell him that he wouldn’t like it! The Dad did say it was the best drink he’d seen all night. A little bit stronger than cocktails I’ve had over here, it lasted the whole meal nicely.

For mains, we both went for the “Le Cellier” Mushroom Filet Mignon with the wild mushroom risotto and white truffle sauce.



I should have swapped out the risotto like I did in 2011. I just don’t get risotto with steak. I definitely prefer a potato element, preferably with cheese, with my steak.

On my last visit, I declared the filet the best steak I’d ever eaten. This time, I was a little disappointed. I order my steak medium-rare. Normally steak is pinkest in the middle. For some reason, this steak was pinkest to one side and was more done on the other side. A little odd.

On reflection, the steak was still very good. I think we were both feeling a little under the weather tonight and would have enjoyed it more if we were feeling better.

I wasn’t fancying dessert, but we decided to get one to share as it was included on the plan and we never turn down a pudding!
We got the "No Sugar Added" Strawberry Panna Cotta to share as it sounded the lightest.



It came with a white chocolate ‘Congratulations’ sign. It had a base to it that was almost cheesecake-y made from smashed pecans. It was alright, but nothing special. I suppose that’s what happens when a dessert is “no sugar added!”

During our meal it was interesting to hear the dialogue between the couple on the table next to us and the server. They were clearly real ale buffs and were slowly working through each of the specialist beers on the drinks menu – discussing each one with the server. They got chatting and soon they had the entirety of the bar staff concocting mixtures of ale and ingredients from the kitchen – one of which the waiter gave them to try for free! It’s great when you see this level of service in restaurants, something that you just don’t really see over here in England. Most people over here usually look horrified when a waiter comes over to ask how their meal is!

Would we eat here again? Probably not, there are a lot of other signature restaurants I want to try first. However if it were still to be a one-crediter, it would be a no brainer!

We paid our bill and left the restaurant to find a completely empty park as it was now closed. The rain had stopped so we had a slow waddle (we were very full!) through the park back to the bus stop.



Back to the hotel and straight to bed.

Day 4 - The day I created a shopping monster.

[summersun]

great day

[mick]

A great but busy day

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by summersun

great day

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Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by mick

A grat but busy day

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Thankyou

[abiknox]

Great read again. The food at CRT looks amazing and well done to the BF for ordering the slipper! Amazing.

Love the Hollie name badge too! How funny

Le Celier looks good as usual, shame your steak wasn't as good as it should be and I agree again with the lack of good desserts there. 'No added sugar' and dessert shouldn't be paired up! That would never be my choice

[Michyloulou]

What a lovely day with your birthday at CRT. Everything looks amazing, sounds like a great day.

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by abiknox

Great read again. The food at CRT looks amazing and well done to the BF for ordering the slipper! Amazing.

Love the Hollie name badge too! How funny

Le Celier looks good as usual, shame your steak wasn't as good as it should be and I agree again with the lack of good desserts there. 'No added sugar' and dessert shouldn't be paired up! That would never be my choice

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CRT was one of the highlights of the trip - even if we are two adults with no kids! I felt very lucky with my slipper

It was very out of character for me to order a 'no added sugar dessert'! I promise it's all 'proper' desserts from now on!

Originally Posted by Michyloulou

What a lovely day with your birthday at CRT. Everything looks amazing, sounds like a great day.

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CRT was lovely. I enjoyed my pretend birthday