Day Three: Disney World at Waldorf Astoria, August 2016

[DoubleDisney]

Today was brilliant, it's when I really felt like I was getting into the Disney swing of things. Once again we woke up ridiculously early, too excited to stay in bed another moment so we were up and out by 6:50. Looking at the timetable we noticed there was a bus at 7:05, perfect we thought. Look at the gorgeous weather greeting us at the bus stop.

We jumped on the coach in a haze of excitement. We were planning on meeting our friends in Epcot at 10 so thought we might potter around by ourselves for a bit first. It wasn't until we were on our way that we realised it was a bus for magic kingdom-oops-Disney fail! Not to worry, we could get the monorail from the ttc over to Epcot...back to feeling like Disney experts. It wasn't until we reached the ttc that we found out that Epcot didn't open until 9:00, it was only 7:30. There was only one thing for it...Hello Ariel 😂! Magic kingdom opened at 7:00 this morning, not extra magic hours, just a lovely early morning for everyone to enjoy. This hadn't been announced until very late, and as a result the park was ridiculously quite, the quietest we saw it all holiday. At one point there wasn't another soul in sight in the whole of Fantasy Land. The sun was beaming this morning and there was barely a cloud in the sky. I was beyond happy to be making a surprise trip to the most magical place on earth.

We decided to give Gaston's tavern a go for breakfast. We were the only people in there so had the pick of all of the tables. We chose a large round one in front of the window that was bathed in sunshine. We got a cinnamon bun and a Le Freu's brew. We shared each as we had a big lunch planned later. They were both delicious! However they were also both enormous, we made a good effort with the cinnamon bun managing about half between the 2 of us, but we only made a tiny dent in the Le Frou's brew. Disney portions are HUGE! We were beginning to realise that we had majorly over estimated our food money-hooray, more for shopping!

Feeling stuffed to the gunnels we waddled back down Main Street, stopping for some photo pass pictures on the way. I was beginning to enjoy these now and didn't feel at all silly doing the different poses they tell you to do, that didn't take long!

It was about 9:30 by this point so we got the boat back over to the ttc. It was empty and we chose seats upstairs with the sun streaming in on us-bliss! It was a bit strange seeing boats crammed full of people heading to the magic kingdom whilst we were already leaving. The man at the boat dock jokingly called "you're going the wrong way!" The monorail over to Epcot took longer than I expected, but it was a pleasant journey with plenty to look at.

Once again the entrance was a breeze, we skipped through the no bag lane swinging our trusty lanyards, avoiding the hoards of crowds in the queue for bag check. We were both picked to go through the scanners, I was pleased to find that security was so tight. I found it so strange seeing Space Ship Earth for the first time. I've seen it in so many photos and never imagined that I'd actually go there!

We met our friends in the queue for Mickey and Minnie. It was listed as a 10 minute wait, however after queueing for over 20 minutes and the end still not in sight we began to worry that our fast pass for Soarin' would close so gave up and headed for The Land. I had no idea what to expect with Soarin', oh my goodness, it was AMAZING! What a clever ride. We decided we HAD to do it again at some point in the holiday.

Next we headed over to Mission Space as our fast pass was now open. On the way we stopped to watch The Jammitors for a bit. Everyone was saying that we had to do the orange level, so I gave into peer pressure and we joined the queue. By the time we got to the front I was so so nervous! I'm usually fine with rides and rarely find them too bad, but the way they built the tension up had me petrified! It turns out I needn't have worried. It was a good experience, but definitely not worth all the hype. I'm pleased I did it, but I'm not desperate do it again.

It was now time for lunch. Us girls had a 12:50 booking at Akershus for the fairytale lunch, whilst the boys were heading to Le Cellier. I actually wasn't bothered for this lunch when we booked it and was feeling a bit miffed paying so much money for a character dinner as I felt like I wouldn't like it. Oh how wrong I was! It was wonderful. When we first went in we had a photo taken with Belle, then we were shown to our table. We were handed menus but told that we could also go to the buffet to get starters. I did my usual and got far far too much at the buffet, but after a couple of days of picking and not really eating proper meals it all looked so yummy! There was smoked salmon, cold cooked meats and cheeses, delicious bread, bean salads, different types of potato salad, cold smoked mackerel, grilled asparagus and lots more that I didn't get. I definitely filled up on the starter and was worried that I couldn't fit in my main course. I'd ordered Svinekotelett which is char grilled pork chop , Jarlsberg Potato Gratin, Seasonal Vegetables and Warm Apple and Raisin Chutney. Nothing had really taken my fancy on the menu, so I wasn't overly fussed for it, but when it arrived it was absolutely delicious, much better than I imagined for food at Disney world. I ate every last bit, yum yum!

During our main course the princesses started coming around and we had Snow White and Ariel whilst we were eating. They were wonderful! When we told Ariel that we were doing a girls afternoon she said "oh how wonderful, everyone needs mermaid time!", from then on whenever we needed girly time we referred to it as 'mermaid time'.
Pudding was served on one plate to share. There was a wonderful creamy rice pudding, a chocolate pyramid moosey thing and an apple cake, I was far too full to do it any justice. I never turn down pudding, so I really must have been stuffed! After pudding Cinderella and Arora came around and then Arora led the children in a procession around the restaurant. I thought that the whole princessness would be very cringey and that I'd hate it, but I must have fallen well and truly under the Disney spell because I loved every minute of it and we decided that we had to book more character dinners for the rest of the holiday.

Once we got outside we realised it had been raining whilst we were eating, but we'd missed it luckily.

We then wandered over to the Royal Summer Haus to meet Anna and Elsa. We were expecting to have to wait ages, but it only took 10 minutes. It was really beautiful in there! I loved all the detail and how authentic it felt. The characters were great, they seemed just like the ones in the film. They put you right at ease and we got some great photos. When we exited we went straight into the gift shop, oh my goodness I could have spent a fortune in there for my classroom! The thing we really noticed about the royal summer haus was how friendly and accommodating all of the staff were.

We were flagging by this point but decided to head over to England to try and meet Mary Poppins. We queued for a while, but it was out in the open and extremely hot and threatening to rain so we gave up. On the way back we passed Alice in wonderland with no queue so got some pictures with her. She seemed mad as a box of frogs and her 'English' accent was hilarious! We really had to stifle giggles! She kept on saying "alright?" In a very 'cockney' accent but obviously didn't have a clue what she was saying as she pronounced it 'awrike',she must have said it 10 times during our meet. It soon became the saying of the holiday.

In much need of a rest we headed 'home' for a much needed nap. It was at times like this when I really really appreciated the luxury of The Waldorf! We arrived to more complimentary bottles of water in the room and I fell asleep within seconds of putting on my beautiful robe and laying down on my wonderful bed. Bliss!

We were heading to Disney springs again this evening. I was excited to be there and not be in a fog of jet lag. Once again we were meeting out friends at Dockside Margaritas (where better?!). This time I got a frozen strawberry margarita, yum yum! It was delicious, I really had to stop myself from getting a 2nd but they were so so strong I really didn't need another! It was around this point that the teenage son belonging to our friend was in a full on teenage grump and it was getting to the point that he needed 'talking to' so my sister and I decided to skip off and do some shopping, no one was ruining my tequila buzz-oh the joys of not having children!

We had a good mooch around Uniqlo, I've always wanted to go but never got round to it in the UK. There was lots of lovely stuff, but nothing I particularly wanted to buy. Then we wanted food. After such a big lunch we really couldn't decide what we wanted and ended up sharing some spring rolls from Morrimoto. Nice, but not particularly different to normal takeaway ones.

We then pottered around the beautiful town centre doing lots of window shopping but no actual purchasing. It really is a lovely place to spend an evening.

We got the 11:20 bus home. After a quick stop at the front desk to get some more complimentary water I jumped into the wonderful steaming hot shower. The Salvatore Ferragamo products smelled divine and were such a lovely luxurious treat after trekking around in the heat all day. Again I was asleep within seconds of my head touching the pillow.
Day Four:
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[DonnaD]

I am really enjoying your report. DH played golf at the Waldorf and said the service was exceptional. I have often thought I would rather stay there than the GF. It sounds like you got a wonderful deal as well. I am looking forward to the rest of your report.

[Twinklestar1]

Another great day. I have stayed at the Waldorf in NY. As you say that Ferragamo toiletries and the robes are just divine!