Welcome Home - Day 12: The Redemption of Pecos Bill’s

[Stewboy]

Friday 4th November 2016

This morning we were off to Magic Kingdom again, and this time we were taking the bus. We were up at about 8, breakfasting in the room by 9 and heading to the Congress Park bus stop by 10.


Breakfast

As usual, the buses took a while to arrive and we had the usual “Will we make our fast pass/ADR/rope drop? Shall we take the car?”. After an agonising wait, the bus eventually arrived at about 10:15 and we were finally on our way.


Isabella and Fuli wait patiently for a bus


Wait ages for one..

We arrived at Magic Kingdom and once through the tapstiles, headed directly to Tomorrowland as we had a Space Mountain FastPass booked between 10-11 - hence the bus urgency.

It’s been years since we last did Space Mountain; this was Isabella’s first time as she was now tall enough, and she thoroughly enjoyed it. I on the other hand can state categorically, right now, that I will NEVER ride it again. Ever. I actually felt like my head was going to fall off. Not a fun experience. At all!


Anyone for golf on Mars?!

Our next ride was the Jungle Cruise, which had been restyled as Jingle Cruise for Christmas. The queuing area had lots of fun Christmas touches, they'd even renamed the boats. The CM was really good and made lots of funny Christmas references with a deadpan delivery.




















Jingle Cruise

It was now time for some lunch from Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. With their new Tex Mex menu we were actually pretty excited about going here. I had only visited Pecos Bill’s once before and was underwhelmed by it so had high hopes for the new menu…. and can happily report that I was not disappointed!

We got the following:

• Me - Burrito served with Barbacoa Beef, Cilantro Rice, and Beans
  
• Jo - Fajita Platter served with Barbacoa Beef, Chicken, Cilantro Rice, Beans and Tortillas (although they forgot the Tortillas but Jo was too full to eat them anyway, and just ate it with a fork)
  
• Isabella - Mini Corn Dogs served with Grapes and Carrots

We also got some Churros to share between us.

The food was really good, and there was plenty of it; I think it was our favourite quick service meal of the holiday!














Peco Bill's

[Stewboy]

After lunch we were going to be meeting Rapunzel and Tiana at the Princess Fairytale Hall, so on the way there Jo took Isabella into the toilets at the Tangled themed rest area to change into her Rapunzel princess dress.







We arrived at the Princess Fairytale Hall and met Rapunzel first followed by Tiana. Both interactions were really good; Rapunzel is Isabella’s favourite princess and she likes Tiana too so she was happy

















Now for something we’ve tried to do a couple of times before - meet Merida. There was no queue outside the Fairytale Garden so we made one. After a 20 minute wait outside the courtyard (during which I’d taken Isabella to change out of her princess dress as it was now really hot) we finally got in to meet her.

They let guests in in groups; we had just missed being let in with the previous group (hence the 20 minute wait) and while you wait to meet Merida

“you can practice archery, color your own “tapestry” of Merida as well as her faithful horse, Angus”

See more...

.

It’s here that we realised that being at the front of the next group has its downside as we didn’t get to do any of that


Where does this door lead?






Fairytale Garden









Anyway, despite all that Isabella was pleased to meet her and get her autograph and once we left the Fairytale Garden she wanted to get herself a Merida bow and arrow. There was a cart right there that sold them and we decided we come back and get it before we left the park, rather than carry it round for the next couple of hours.


This is so clever

We decided to head back into Tomorrowland to do Carousel of Progress. I’m sure that in all my years of visiting Walt Disney World I’ve only ever been on this attraction once (I know!). It’s a slightly surreal experience that I suspect is only much-loved because it’s been around so long. However it must have made an impression on Isabella as just the other day she said to Jo: “Remember on Carousel of Progress it took the mummy and daughter days to do the washing and ironing”.














"It's a great big beautiful tomorrow"




Tomorrowland

[Stewboy]

Next was a FastPass for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Where Jo always seems to win at Toy Story Mania, I generally come out on top on this ride, as I did again.





As previously mentioned, it was a really hot day and Jo fancied a Citrus Swirl so we headed over to the Sunshine Tree Terrace. While Jo got her Swirl, I got a Minute Maid® Raspberry-Lemonade Slushy and Isabella got a Soft-serve Vanilla Ice Cream Cup. Some unfortunate and uninformed woman queued for about 10 minutes for a Dole Whip…. oops.







While we sat and ate/drank I witnessed the tragic, accidental death, of an ant. I watched this ant (it was big, I think it was a carpenter ant) wandering around for about 5 minutes until someone walked past and trod on it, he was totally oblivious.

Relieved that I’m not an ant in the Magic Kingdom, we made our way back to the hub and sat on the kerb opposite the castle in preparation for the Festival of Fantasy Parade (another first for us) which was due to start in about 20 minutes. As we had time, I popped to that cart outside the Fairytale Garden to get Isabella her Merida bow and arrow.







The parade itself was excellent, the annoying family that turned up about 2 minutes after it began and tried to push their way to the front were not! The dad of the family had somehow managed to position himself next to me and his elbow was invading my personal space. I endured but the final straw came towards the end of the parade when they asked us if we could move our stroller (which was behind us, away from the front, and had been for the previous 30 minutes or so). I lost my temper and told them no, that they can’t expect to turn up 2 minutes after the parade starts and start pushing in front of people that had been there for half an hour. The parade literally finished right afterwards and after some suitable dirty looks in their direction we left the hub and headed down Main Street, U.S.A.


























































Festival of Fantasy Parade

We got coffee from Starbucks, then Jo went to browse the Disney Pandora charms in the shop. She already knew which one she wanted - the new Disney Park exclusive Food & Wine Chef Mickey charm - I went in to buy it and also got her one for her birthday, eventually choosing a cute Mickey & Minnie kissing charm.


Jo's two new Pandora charms

Time to leave. We walked back to the bus stop and after short wait got a bus back to Saratoga Springs at about 4:45.

We returned to the room to find it hadn’t been cleaned which was really annoying. This seems to happen once on every holiday, and usually at the weekend. I don’t understand why. Anyway, we got changed (no showers), I rang housekeeping, and then we headed straight back out to Disney Springs.


Jo was tired and needed a sit down!

At Marketplace Isabella spied another pressed penny machine and ended up with a Minnie Mouse Disney Springs penny.

Next stop was Dockside Margaritas for a drink (or two). Jo obviously had a margarita and I had a guest craft beer which I think may have been a 70 Degree Winter Weizen by 3 Daughters Brewing (my notes just say Seven Sisters…. ). Isabella occupied herself by playing some of her Disney games on my phone.






Joanne Margarita Sear the Second


My grown up girl


3 daughters... 7 sisters... whatever it was called it was good

[Stewboy]

After a couple of drinks we were ready for dinner and we wanted to try D-Luxe Burger in Town Center. Isabella isn’t really a burger fan, so on the way past Cooke’s we got her some fish & chips and she ate in the stroller as we carried on to the restaurant. Fortunately it wasn’t too busy and we ordered the following:

• Jo & I: Southern Classic Burger - Signature Blend topped with a Fried Green Tomato, Pimento Cheese, Lettuce, and Bacon

We also got one lot of fries to share instead of a dessert.

The burgers were really nice. When Jo ordered the server did ask how we wanted them cooked - the standard is medium - and we went for that, despite reading that medium is too rare. We’re not fans of undercooked burgers but found that medium was fine. Once we'd ordered we found a table and the burgers were brought over to our table along with a selection of a sauces.


Waiting patiently for my burger


Excited!


Looks good...


Tastes good!

After our tasty burgers we browsed in a Uniqlo and then stopped in Goofy’s Candy Company to create our own treats using snack credits.

Our treats were made up of the following (note: that the Caramel Apple is the only one of the four treats not included on DDP and additional toppings cost $1 each):

• Me: Gingerbread Mickey Cookie with White Chocolate Dipping, Peanut Butter Chip topping and Milk Chocolate Drizzle
  
• Jo: Mickey Krispy Rice Treat with Milk Chocolate Dipping, Mini M&M’s topping and Dark Chocolate Drizzle
  
• Isabella: Marshmallow with Milk Chocolate Dipping, Assorted Sprinkle topping and White Chocolate Drizzle

My treat


Jo's treat


Isabella and her treat

Once our treats were made, we ate about half and then took the rest back with us to the resort.

Despite it being 9:45 the woman was there when we got back still cleaning it was super awkward. Her name tag read "Chris, Orlando". This is the name tag of shame that they wear when they have forgotten or lost their own! Once she left we had showers/baths and went to bed.


Rapunzel's parade float by Isabella

Tomorrow: Time to do more Food & Wine at Epcot

[mouselover22]

Isabella did well on Space Mountain. I do love it but like you I get the sensation like I'm going to be decapitated in the dark!

Great pics of the parade People are a nightmare during parades, well done for telling them to do one (in an eloquent English way I'm sure )

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Love the pic of Isabella and Rapunzle hugging

Merry Christmas to you all, and have a fabulous next trip

[Jaty]

Those treats from Goofy's look amazing! I need to use a snack credit or two there for sure! X

[Stewboy]

Originally Posted by mouselover22

Isabella did well on Space Mountain. I do love it but like you I get the sensation like I'm going to be decapitated in the dark!

Great pics of the parade People are a nightmare during parades, well done for telling them to do one (in an eloquent English way I'm sure )

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It's a really great parade, glad we finally got to see it. That family were so annoying :angry:

TFR

[Stewboy]

Originally Posted by HEMANCLOFTY

Love the pic of Isabella and Rapunzle hugging

Merry Christmas to you all, and have a fabulous next trip

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We got some good photos with those Princesses, the PhotoPass guys in there were some of the best we used I think.

Merry Christmas to you too and thanks for reading!

Originally Posted by Jaty

Those treats from Goofy's look amazing! I need to use a snack credit or two there for sure! X

See more...

Jo enjoyed her treat, I wasn't that keen on mine, I think I made some poor choices!

TFR

[margyloveswdw]

The Pecos Bills improvements sound good!