<Insert humorous title here> WDW Jan/Feb 2014: Day 4 - "Don't wanna meet Chip'n'Dale"

[Stewboy]

Index

We woke about 6.15 this morning to discover it was another cold and wet day. Outstanding.

The original plan was to do Animal Kingdom this morning then head to Epcot in the evening for our ADR at Garden Grill. We wanted to avoid our usual AK washout (spoiler - we found later in the holiday that this was in fact an inescapable curse), so instead we decided to get some breakfast at Wolfgang Puck Express at Downtown Disney and then head to Premium Outlets Vineland Avenue to do some shopping.

We left the room at about 9 and drove over. The good thing about going to DTD for breakfast rather than any other meal is that you can actually get a parking space - anyone’s that’s ever tried parking there in the evening will know how much hassle that can be!

We’d really enjoyed WPE when we had lunch there last year and the breakfast menu looked good.

We shared the following:

• Breakfast pizza (scrambled eggs, bacon, mozzarella, cheddar,
  caramelized onions)
• Breakfast pocket (scrambled eggs, ham, roasted peppers, red onions, mushrooms, cheddar)

Breakfast pizza


Breakfast pocket

Both came with herby potatoes, which Isabella took a real liking to and ended up devouring all of them. The food was nice, as were the self-service coffees, which was obviously due to my expertise with a coffee machine - a right little barista I am…. at least I think that’s what people call me...


Downtown Disney Market Place

Once we’d finished, we headed back to the car and drove to Premium Outlets. There were an awful lot of people carrying suitcases either they were planning on buying A LOT of clothes or had taken a wrong turn on the way to MCO!

We were a little more reserved and only got a few bits from Gap, Lululemon, Disney's Character Warehouse & Banana Republic before calling it a day.

On the way back to the resort we wanted to get Isabella some lunch, so we headed to McDonalds because (and I’m slightly ashamed to say this) we knew she’d enjoy it.

We got Isabella a happy meal which came with apple and fries, and the amount of food seemed a much better size for kids than what you get over here (surprise surprise: for once something is smaller in USA!). Don’t know whether that’s all McDonalds, or just this particular location.

After our foray into the outside world, we headed back to the Disney bubble to find that our room had not been cleaned. Fabulous.

This was really beginning to become annoying. We went in the room anyway and put Isabella down for her nap. About halfway through her nap, at about 2.30, the maid turned up. I tried to explain (without much success) that I wanted her to come back in about an hour because we still wanted our room cleaned.


Sleeping beauty

Once Isabella woke up I called Guest Services to tell them what had happened and that we were going out again now (this was about 3.30) and that I’d like the room cleaned please. Then I received a phone call a few minutes later from someone else asking us if the room had been cleaned, then got another call a few minutes later from the person in charge of the maids saying that they’d all gone home (what happened to the maids working 8-5 like the woman on reception told me the other day?!).

By this point I didn’t really know what was going on, and I couldn’t understand why it was becoming such an issue for them to clean our room considering we were out of it for the majority of the day (usually from about 8-1 and then 3-7).

Anyway, that frustration aside we decided to head to Epcot for our dinner at Garden Grill which was at 5.30.

We arrived at Epcot about 4.30, and although we were parked quite a way from the entrance we decided to walk (did I mention that we didn’t use any trams on this holiday?). Thankfully it had stopped raining by this point but was still cold.

We got into the park and made our way over to Spaceship Earth which was walk on. Jo rode with Isabella and I rode on my own - although you’re never alone with Dame Judi whispering in your ear.


I made a friend on Spaceship Earth!


If Jo knew what was about to happen she wouldn't be smiling...

It was then getting close to dinner time so we headed over to the Land taking a quick wander through Innoventions on the way.

We were looking forward to this dinner. We’d heard the food was nice, and thought that Isabella would enjoy meeting Chip’n’Dale and Mickey etc…

She did not.

It was an absolute disaster.

Chip showed up first, almost as soon as we sat down, and Isabella had a meltdown. She was terrified of the characters and even when they weren’t there, she just wanted to sit on Jo’s lap and wouldn’t eat anything. It ended up that one of us had to take her out of the restaurant while the other one ate and then we swapped.


Well I was happy to see Chip...


But Isabella was a bit apprehensive...


And then she was terrified!

The food was so good too but I'm afraid I only managed two photos before the chaos started.


Basket of Warm Bread with Maple Butter


“Living with the Land” Harvest-inspired Farmer’s Salad

It was such a massive disappointment, and even though we shouldn’t have been, it was hard not to be embarrassed. Having said that, I think we’ll definitely have to try it again, although perhaps later in the holiday when she’s gotten used to the characters. In hindsight, not meeting the characters at the Character Spot yesterday may have been a mistake.


At the very end of the meal she showed Mickey her new necklace


But she still didn't want anything to do with Pluto


Jo'n'Dale

After that unmitigated disaster, we all needed some cheering up, so we decided to have a little walk over to the World Showcase.

We love the World Showcase, especially at night, and wandering round really helped calm everybody down. We got round to America and Jo and I got a Samuel Adams to share, and also got Isabella some popcorn.


Beer, popcorn & Rapunzel

We stopped to look at the Fountain of Nations on the way out, which had just started a performance. Isabella really enjoyed it and it looked really cool at night.


Posing in front of "the big giant ball"

It was now time for home. We walked the long walk back to the car then headed back to Saratoga Springs.


Sounds painful

Fortunately the room had been cleaned and after baths and showers all round we had our coffee from Artist’s Palette.

We were in bed by about 9, pleased that we managed to turn the evening around after that disastrous dinner.

[pumpkin]

Ah poor Isabella, I hope she came to love the characters by the end of the holiday x

[Jollymon]

Despite your experience with the characters, would you recommend Garden Grill?

[Happyhaunt1000]

Wait... You mean you stayed up past 8:30!?!
You crazy party animal.

When I'm in the land I always seem to order the wrong thing & never really enjoy it. Your food on the other hand looked really good (as did your breakfast)

I can't believe how calm you're being about the whole 'maid/cleaning' situation. I'd have been kicking off bigtime if that'd been happening to me!

Keep up the good work sir... And as always 'Thanks for sharing'!

[Stewboy]

Originally Posted by Rollercolster

Shame the rain stopped play but I think you made the right decision to postpone AK for another day. That picture of you and chip (or is it dale - I can never tell ) is really cool

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Cheers Col, thanks for reading. It wasn't just the rain either, it was actually cold. I could handle either, but not both at once!

Originally Posted by pumpkin

Ah poor Isabella, I hope she came to love the characters by the end of the holiday x

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She did get a lot better, as you'll see

Originally Posted by Jollymon

Despite your experience with the characters, would you recommend Garden Grill?

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Absolutely. The food was really good, unfortunately didn't get any photos apart from the salad, which was also amazing. The character interactions were good, and also the restaurant rotates and part of it overlooks the Living with the Land ride. So, all in all, definitely give it a go!

Originally Posted by Happyhaunt1000

Wait... You mean you stayed up past 8:30!?!
You crazy party animal.

When I'm in the land I always seem to order the wrong thing & never really enjoy it. Your food on the other hand looked really good (as did your breakfast)

I can't believe how calm you're being about the whole 'maid/cleaning' situation. I'd have been kicking off bigtime if that'd been happening to me!

Keep up the good work sir... And as always 'Thanks for sharing'!

See more...

We've been known to stay up till 10 at the weekends... We like the food options in the land, both Sunshine Seasons and Garden Grill are really good.

To be honest, between the weather, Isabella's character meltdowns and the room cleaning debacle, at this point the holiday was beginning to feel like a massive mistake! Fortunately it improves from here on in.

Thanks for reading

[IndigoSky]

shame about the weather, well done Isabella showing off her necklace to Mickey.

The breakfast pizza looked yum

nice photos of you all

[Jessika]

I can remember my now 18 year old daughter being petrified of the characters at your little girls age, she grew to love them though!

I've booked garden grill so good to know it's getting a good review, also booked saratoga springs, never stayed before, am hoping we don't have too many issues.

Thanks for sharing

[Tarnabanana83]

The breakfast pizza looks lovely... WPE is definitely on the list of places to try when we eventually go back!

Bless Isabella, she really didn't take to Pluto did she, haha. When she's a bit older you'll be able to use those photos for blackmail like my mum did with me!

[Redrach1903]

Bummer the rain ruined your plans! Breakfast looked interesting, never tried breakfast pizza before!

Poor Isabella! I can see why some toots get freaked out by the characters, bless!

Glad you got your room cleaned eventually

[summersun]

great report