Pre-Trip Report
Day 0 - The Day Before
Day 1 - Travel Day and Arrival at CBR
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom
Day 3 - Typhoon Lagoon and Bahama Breeze
Day 4 - Epcot and Via Napoli
Day 5 - Pool morning, Downtown Disney and California Grill
Day 6 - Universal Studios
Day 7 - Drinks around the world and Le Cellier
Day 8 - Hollywood Studios and the Hollywood Brown Derby
Day 9 - Girls/Boys Day, Downtown Disney and Raglan Road
Day 10 - Islands of Adventure and Bubba Gump
Day 11 - Animal Kingdom and Teppan Edo
Day 12 - Princesses, World Cup Final and Citricos
We were all really glad of the lie in this morning. There were no real plans for any of us until the afternoon so everyone just spent the morning chilling out. Neil and I did a bit more washing and a bit of the dreaded P word.
In the afternoon, with the World Cup Final scheduled for 3pm, I wanted to be as far away from the main group as possible. I really, really didn’t care who won the World Cup. The whole event had just wreaked havoc on my holiday so I couldn’t wait to see the back of it! So I had arranged for Megan and I to meet Princesses. I’d added in everyone on the Fastpasses, just in case, and I was glad I did because Debsy decided to join us.
So around 2pm, we headed for the Magic Kingdom. First up, we found we had time for a sneaky meet with my absolute fav:
Then it was time for Rapunzel
I will say, I preferred my first meeting with Rapunzel, mainly because she was accompanied by my future husband…
I did ask her where Eugene was, to which she replied, quick off the mark, that he was in the parade (which he had just been as we’d just seen him) and that he came to check on her at lunchtime. Did I want her to say ‘hi’ to him from me? Yes please. While you’re at it, love, take off your wedding ring, he’s MINE.
Moving on, we also met Cinderella.
I loved the beautiful touch of the glass slipper in the glass cabinet before you go into the Princess Hall. As demonstrated by my terrible picture.
After this, we had a little time, so we got Megan a hot dog and went on Philharmagic again and looked around the shops.
Debsy ran into one of her friends from home, as you do, so we chatted to her for a bit Apparently she’s also a member of the Dibb, so she may end up reading this! Haha!
Then, we headed for the BIG meet – Anna and Elsa. I have to say, our Fastpasses worked a treat with these Meet and Greets. They really did work like clockwork. I think the Stand-By was around 90 minutes at the time we went to go and meet them.
As me and Megan had been to see Frozen together over the Christmas holidays, this was a really special meet and greet for us and seeing the look on Megan’s face when we saw them both was just incredible. They were both really in character. Anna said we were more fun than the pictures on the walls and Elsa delighted in telling me and Debsy that she would love to trade with the UK again once things with Lord Weselton were sorted out. Fabulous. Her dress was just stunning as well.
After Anna and Elsa, we headed over to ‘Enchanted Tales with Belle.’
Now I wish I had done more research into this particular experience as I expected more of a ‘meet and greet’ situation as opposed to a show, interactive storytime thing. I knew about the story time thing but I thought that we would get our picture with her. Wrong.
However, I loved the wardrobe.
And I was just gobsmacked with the Lumiere. I’ve never seen anything like it!
When we emerged from Maurice’s Cottage, we saw that familiar look in the clouds.
So we got the hell out of there. We’d planned to meet everyone in the Grand Floridian lobby as we had reservations at Citricos so we were headed on the Resort monorail. Predictably, they’d closed the boats in the light of the oncoming storms. Unfortunately, our trip on the monorail was hardly stress free. We were stuck at TTC for half an hour while they sorted out the monorail in front which had had its electrics go following the lightning. Nightmare.
We finally arrived at the Grand Floridian at about 6.30pm.
We got changed and then chilled in the lobby, listening to the sounds of the amazing band before I suddenly saw Neil heading down the grand staircase…. On his own. He was meant to be with everyone else. It turned out that he’d got to the Aruba bus stop at 6.05, and given that there was nobody there, he thought everyone had left without him. So he got on the next Magic Kingdom bus and then as it pulled away, so everyone else heading to the bus stop. Whoops!
Anyway, everyone made it in time in the end!
We checked in to Citricos, splitting our tables as 7 and 4.
Us girls ordered a glass of Prosecco each.
While the boys went for red wine.
And then….disaster struck. As the waitress was pulling away from the table, after having poured the boys their wine… one the bottles of red wine toppled over, and down the back of my dress.
Mortified does not cover it. For me, or for the waitress. I was wearing one of my favourite dresses. Now it was stained with red wine. The waitress looked as though she was about to cry. She was an older lady, maybe late forties, fifties and she seemed as though she had been working there a long time. And I would venture a guess that that had never happened to her before.
Mum and I headed for the ladies and dabbed down my dress with water. But without really letting the stain dry, we didn’t really know what damage had been done. My back was wet. But I loved the dress and wasn’t about to change into my denim skirt and T-shirt for Citricos. I’d just have to suffer it.
However, I must absolutely 110% commend Citricos for how they handled this terrible accident. On our return to the table, Mum and I were greeted by the restaurant manager and the waitress, who apologised once again for the spillage. The manager said that they would take care of cleaning my dress and that he would come round with a piece of paper so I could let them know my room number so they could take it and clean it for me.
They brought us an amuse bouche for little appetiser for the table and champagne with dessert. Incredible service. And in case you were wondering, my dress was gone when we left for Blizzard Beach the following morning and returned within the day, hung up, stain gone, in plastic sheeting. Impeccable service and I returned to Citricos to thank them when we went back to the Grand on the last night.
Our meal at Citricos was spectacular. I had the steak.
Neil had the venison.
And the chocolate and banana torte.
Which, were it not for the chocolate torte on the last night, would have clinched it as my favourite dessert of the holiday. It really was an incredible meal and even though I had to spend it with a wet back, it was still a magical evening.
Day 13 - Blizzard Beach, Hollywood Studios and Fantasmic is
here