Charlotte's First Very Merry trip to WDW (Dec 2017) Day 6- Springs, Epcot, Steak and Fireworks

[vics18]

Index is here

Wednesday 6th December 2017


Welcome back!


After last night’s late night Christmas Party festivities we collapsed into bed pretty exhausted at gone 1am. It was therefore very annoying for me that I woke up at half past 6! Sigh. I dozed on and off and had the usual scroll through Instagram and twitter and chatted with people at home on WhatsApp.


Martin and Lottie woke up at 8am, a much more reasonable hour! Now, I have made no specific notes what we did this morning, but I have documented that we only left the room at 10:45! We were having a chilled morning after our busy day and late night yesterday, but that seems ridiculous even moving at a snail’s pace!

Ready!

Anyway, we did our usual split – Martin went to fill the mugs and I hung around the lobby – I finally got around to taking some pictures too! I also called at reception to get a birthday badge, as although it wasn’t my official birthday for another week, when we would already be home, we had booked a meal this evening at Yachtsman Steakhouse which was to be my official birthday meal – so in my opinion totally justified to wear a badge!

This morning we were pretty excited as we were off to see the new Disney Springs for the first time since its renovation. I think its name had officially changed last time we were here in 2015, but there was still a LOT of building work going on so it wasn’t a particularly pleasant place to visit. We parked in the orange parking garage that brings you out near Splitsville. Obviously the major change round this area is the demolition of Disney Quest. I hadn’t been there for a long time, and Martin had never visited. I had read lots of reports that it was feeling quite neglected and was starved of money. Still think it’s a bit of a shame it closed. Although my memoires of it are vague I do remember it being a lot of fun, and I bet if Disney had invested some serious money it could have been really impressive.


Anyway, we walked though past Candy Cauldron and went into the Star Wars store.

They had some cool stuff, I really liked this picture but our resident Star Wars nerd didn’t love it enough to buy it.

We both really liked the new look Disney Springs. It was a beautiful day and it was very quiet, so strolling through (with a now sleeping Charlotte) was very pleasant indeed!

Our strategy was to hit World of Disney hard to pick up a lot of the things we had seen so far that we wanted to buy, and get it all sent back to the resort. We took advantage of Charlotte being asleep to pick up some Christmas presents for her too.

If only luggage allowance wasn't a thing!

I really wanted to get one of the Christmas sweaters but when I tried them on the sizes were all so odd I just couldn’t get one that fitted well. The shoulders and arms were just huge, and to get one that didn’t look like I was wearing huge shoulder pads I had to get an XS which was then a bit too fitted in the body for my liking, and a bit short. I was so disappointed and tried on a loads of different ones but all the styles were the same. They must have changed the manufacturer or something, because I have had Disney jumpers in the past that have fitted really well. Martin could tell I was a bit sad, and was looking all around to find an alternative for me, bless him. I felt mean saying no to all the ones he suggested, but you know when you had your mind set on something and if you can’t get it you don’t really want anything else?!


So, Santa Mickey jumper disappointment aside, we had made a major dent in our credit card in World of Disney and we weren’t done yet. Co-op was next. I got a new toothbrush holder for our bathroom, some postcards from Wonderground Gallery for Charlotte’s room and had a look at the Pandora beads as I wanted the Disney Parks 2017 bead for Charlotte to mark her first visit. (She already has the Dumbo one obviously ) Unfortunately they said it was discontinued as the new 2018 range had already been released, and was out of stock. They suggested we check at the Pandora store itself, and also the new ‘Ever After’ store that had just opened.



We had a chat about what we fancied for lunch, we both wanted to try Blaze Pizza and D-Luxe Burger. It was a tough decision as we had heard such good things about both of them, but we plumped for Blaze in the end, as we knew Charlotte would eat some pizza too. On the way down there we went into Uniqlo. This store is pretty huge! They had so much great Disney stuff, and it was nice to see it all in person as I usually have to order from them online as we have no nearby store. There was a new range in called ‘Sounds of Disney’ and they had a really cute long sleeved Dumbo T-shirt, so I obviously had to buy that for my little Dumbo mad lady. I also got a couple of other shirts for our nieces. Charlotte had woken up by now and was getting hungry so we didn’t really look at the adult stuff, Martin went and paid and we headed off to Blaze. I ran into Ever After on the way to see if they had the 2017 bead but sadly they didn’t. The lady in the store was lovely and checked all the other stores on her iPad and said it was sold out everywhere. There were a couple of others I liked for her so I said I would pop back later.

The "Holiday" charms

This store was really pretty, I made a mental note to come back and check it out more thoroughly another day!

We found Blaze and there was a bit of a queue but seemed to be moving quickly so we joined. There was a lady asking if people were on the Dining Plan and explaining what we could have for our QS credit (a thin 10” pizza with any toppings and a fountain drink). I have no idea why but she shoved us in front of some people in the line, I think because we were a 2? Anyway, we ordered separately but ended up with not dissimilar toppings! Martin ordered from the menu, and got a ‘Link In’ (Italian sausage, roasted red peppers, sautéed onions, mozzarella and red sauce), I ordered from the toppings bar and got Italian sausage, mushrooms, red onion, sautéed onion and mozzarella.

We paid with our credits and got a buzzer and cups to get drinks. There was lots of seating inside but I wanted to sit out as there was a beautiful view and I love having a nice view while I eat! The 3 of us went out and grabbed a table (there were lots free but we ended up on quite a large table as the ones by the water were huge!)

Martin went in and filled our cups and just as he came out our buzzer went off so he went back in for the pizzas. Sorry I had cut some out for Lottie when I remembered to take a pic!

These pizzas were SO good. WE ate every bite, they were so crisp and delicious we were really impressed and such good value for a QS credit. Highly recommend Blaze if you’re at Disney Springs!

An American family were looking for a table and asked if they sit at the other end of our table, of course we said we didn’t mind. They were really nice and were asking how old Charlotte was and if she was enjoying her trip so far. We chatted for a couple of minutes and then made a move.


Happily full we grabbed the stroller and walked back up towards the parking garage. Martin said he would go and change Charlotte if I wanted to go into the Pandora store and see if I could find something for Lottie.

I was torn between the Disney castle with the fireworks on it, or the Animal Kingdom one (as we stayed at AKL). In the end I went for the AK one, purely because I felt like the castle on the other one resembled the Disneyland castle more than the WDW Cinderella Castle. The lady was doing her very best to get me to buy both as you got a free bangle. She almost had me, because I was thinking I could then give Charlotte my bracelet and transfer my charms onto the bangle, however they didn’t have a bangle small enough for me so just went with the one charm! Martin and Charlotte arrived just as I was paying. The ladies in the store were very taken with Charlotte, and as usual she was playing up to them – listing all the characters she had met so far and how she’d been swimming in the pool!

We were done for today at Disney Springs so headed back to the car. It's such a beautiful area, and Charlotte loved having a bit of freedom to walk around as it was nice and quiet.

Having a dance on the "stage"

Back in the car it was onto our next stop – Epcot. We had put clothes in the car to change into for our dinner later on at Yachtsman so I folded them up as carefully as I could and popped he under the stroller. As usual we didn’t bother with the tram and walked up to the entrance. Once we got there we had a VERY thorough security guard who made us completely empty the stroller of everything (except the actual child!) which was a bit irritating as I’d just folded all our nice clothes up! Once we got into the park we stopped off to the side and I reorganised everything and put it all back.

I had bought matching Spaceship Earth T shirts for Martin and Charlotte and popped Charlotte in hers. Obviously we needed a photo in front of it now!

We had a fastpass for it too so took our second ride of the trip. Once again Charlotte really enjoyed it.

We popped into the art shop next as I really wanted a particular piece of artwork – the Herb Ryman original concept art for Epcot.

Loved this bag in the store #disneybagobsession

This is what I was after!

There was a picture on display on the wall but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I asked the CM behind the counter if he knew where I could find it and he looked at me like I was talking absolute rubbish! I decided to just give up and come back another day and see if anyone else knew what I was on about.

Martin nipped to the loo so me and Lottie took some selfies.

Next stop on our plan was to be The Land pavilion, however as we were on the way over there we passed the Character Spot and saw that there was only a 5 minute wait posted. Martin knew I’d been kicking myself over forgetting her autograph book the first time Charlotte met the characters in here, so suggested stopping off to see Micky, Goofy and Minnie as it was such a short wait. Little did we know how emotional this was going to be!


In we went, and walked al l the way through into the room with the characters without stopping once. As we got to the front of the line to meet Mickey next, I noticed that the little baby who was meeting Mickey ahead of us was disabled and Mickey was being so lovely and gentle and taking his time with the little baby and the Mum. Obviously the characters aren’t allowed to hold babies, but after they’d had their pictures as a family, Mickey knelt on the floor so the Mum could sit the little baby on the floor and lean him against Mickey and they could have a photograph just the two of them. The Mum was watching with silent tears sliding down her face, and I just lost it at this point. It was so moving, that Mickey knew how much this would mean to this family and just taking those extra 2 minutes made them feel so special. The family started to move on, to meet Goofy but Mickey stopped them. He walked over to the CM and then turned to us people in line and held his finger up, as if to say “give me 1 minute”. Me and Martin both hold a hand up to try and convey he could take as long as he needed as far as we were concerned. To everyone in the line behind us credit, I didn’t hear a single mumble of complaint so hopefully everyone felt as moved as we did. Let me tell you I was ready to tear a strip off of anyone who moaned! Once Minnie had finished meeting the family she was with, the family had pictures taken with all 3 characters together. The Mum of the baby was so emotional, and I literally had tears trickling down my face by now. Martin had filled up too.

I know I would have always found something like that moving, but now as a Mum of a baby not too dissimilar in age, I just had so much empathy with them and how difficult it must be. I used to work in a children’s hospital, and doing even the smallest trip with a baby with complex medical needs takes such planning and hard work.

Once they’d got all their pics and headed out, it was our turn to meet Mickey. I looked an absolute mess all read and blotchy so sent Martin up with Charlotte and I took the pictures/video! The PP photographer eventually insisted that I went into the pictures too, so as I got up to Mickey, I told him how special what he had just done was, and how much the family must have appreciated it (I’m actually filling up writing this). Well, Mickey was just so sweet and was hugging me loads, making heart signs to me with his hands, then took extra time with Charlotte, and gestured to us what her name was so he could sign a personalised message in her book. Next we met Goofy, who was really lovely too, and playing peek a boo with his ears which Charlotte found hilarious.


Because of the layout of this meet, where you start with Mickey and move down, since the family had had their group picture, Goofy and Minnie hadn’t had anybody with them and were waiting for us. Minnie came to watch Charlotte meeting Goofy, and walked over to collect her when she was done! Charlotte is besotted with her and was really giddy to see her. Realising this, Minnie made Martin take her back over to the far wall while Minnie went back to her meet area, then Charlotte could walk the whole way over to her. I have the cutest video off her striding over then giving Minnie the biggest hug when she gets to her. Once all the pictures were done and her book was signed we gathered our things and left. Walking back outside, we felt like we’d been through an emotional wringer! It was one of the most special memories I have of Disney, and what was so amazing and magical for another family also became magical for us too.
Apologies for my face on all these pictures….

Once done here we went off to The Land , for a little bit of Living with the Land.

We had a fastpass which I was glad of as the standby queue looked quite big! There was a really cute dog in the queue and I took this picture, it makes me laugh so much because it looks like he’s posing for me!

We thoroughly enjoyed our boat ride, Charlotte enjoyed us telling her what the various fruits were (she loves her fruit!) It was lovely and very clever how they had decorated it for Christmas.

[vics18]

Next up was The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

I thought Charlotte would adore this, as she loves watching fish swim around but unfortunately the ride broke down half way through so she got a bit bored. She preferred Living with the Land which wasn’t what I expected at all!

She did enjoy watching the manatees swim around though once we went into Seabase Alpha (I know it isn’t that anymore but it always will be as far as I’m concerned!) We told her what they were called, and she would point and shout “MANTEE” and giggle every time one swam past her.

We passed through the gift shop (naturally) and out to pick the stroller back up near The Land. We had been planning on going over to Imagination next but Charlotte was pretty tired so we decided to walk over to Test Track and see what the single rider time was, via ClubCool!

It was only 5 minutes when we got there so I sent Martin on first and I lowered Charlotte’s stroller back and pulled the sun hood right over (incidentally not sure if I’ve mentioned this anywhere else in the TR but this stroller is brilliant for a WDW trip! Folds with one button, large basket, lies flat and huge sun hood. It’s the City Lite by Baby Jogger – possibly not quite as sturdy as the City Mini but also not as expensive!) Anyway, we went for a stroll but she was too nosey and having none of the “lying down” action and was using the snack tray to pull herself back up so she could see what was going on! |So I walked back to Test Track, at the end of where all the benches run down the side there was a small construction fence so I just pushed her into this corner where there was nothing for her to look at and jiggled her around in the stroller a bit – within 30 seconds she was out like a light! It took about half an hour for Martin to get through the ride, and sure enough as he was walking towards me the single rider time changed from 5 mins to 20 mins. I wasn’t so keen to do it that I would wait that long so decided to leave it, and have a look in Mouse Gear instead while Charlotte napped.

I had seen an Epcot 35 T shirt that I wanted but couldn’t find it in the adult sizes, however they did have youth sizes and the XL fit very nicely, it was roomy and long enough to wear with leggings so it was perfect. It seemed to be a lot cheaper than the adult sized T shirts that I had been looking at too!
Martin had said he wanted to buy me something for my birthday so I thought I would have a look in the jewellery section at the Alex and Ani bracelets, and also at the watches. The CM behind the counter where the watches were was from Leicester, and she was really nice. She lifted a few out for me to look at. The one I liked most was $95 so I decided I would think about it and come back if I decided to get it. Martin was telling me to just get it, but it was a lot of money and I was unsure whether I would use it often enough to justify it – working in a hospital I obviously can’t wear a watch so I’ve got out of the habit of ever wearing one (sure you’ve noticed I never mention the time!)
We were so caught up in these deliberations that we walked out of the shop and had got almost to the fountain before we realised I had the Epcot 35 T shirt hanging on the back of the pram unpaid for! I ran back in and paid for it feeling like a big criminal!


With the risk of jail averted, we headed off to World Showcase and International Gateway as it was coming up to our ADR time for Yachtsman and we wanted to get round to Yacht Club and have time to get changed. It was a really pleasant stroll, hope we can stay in this area (for longer than 1 night!) one day. The Yacht Club lobby seemed very grown up. They had a lovely nautical themed Christmas tree and a model railway scene which was insanely detailed! I would imagine you could look at it many times and always spot something new.

We found the restaurant and there were bathrooms just along the corridor. I had to wake Lottie up to get her changed, and she was not in a good mood despite having a nice long nap. I think it was possibly related to teething as she was pulling on her ears and just wanted to cuddle with me. We all managed to get changed and checked in. We sat in a little room between the restaurant bar/check in area and the Crew’s Cup lounge. There was a room with a glass wall where you could see all the cuts of meat displayed which was pretty impressive. I didn’t need to look as I had decided about 6 months ago I would have the filet! Charlotte was still really whiney and I couldn’t quite believe the one time she was playing up so far was when we were about to eat in a signature restaurant and for my birthday meal too!

We gave her bonjela and calpol and hoped that would kick in soon and help her feel a bit happier! One of the lovely wait staff came and gave her a light up Tinkerbell (think they go on the side of the kids mocktails) and she really liked playing with this. She also offered to take a picture of us by the Christmas tree, which I love despite Charlotte looking less than impressed! Haha.

As we were having the picture they came to get us as our table was ready. Our server was absolutely lovely and couldn’t do enough for us. Annoyingly I haven’t made a note of her name though. She brought some colouring for Charlotte and advised us that we can order certain starters from the menu instead of dessert if we wanted to, and that she would bring me something chocolatey for my birthday so it might be a good option for us to do that. Martin decided to get the Caesar salad and I went for the lobster bisque so we could try a bit of each other’s. She brought us the amazing bread and roasted garlic, which to be honest I could have happily sat and just devoured without any other food! As it was my Disney birthday I ordered a nice glass of wine.

I gave Charlotte some bread but she wouldn’t eat it. We also noticed at this point that she had drawn on the tablecloth with her crayon. Mortified doesn’t even cover how we felt! We apologised profusely and they just laughed and said it was no problem at all, and that it would just wash right out. I really hope that’s true!

Hooligan

Martin polished off his salad and I ate about half the bisque. It was very rich and the portion was huge. I was glad I tried it though, as I would never order if I was paying for it (if you know what I mean!)
For main course I ordered the 10oz Black Angus filet mignon with mashed potatoes, and the server said she would put the cabernet wine sauce on the side so I could share with Lottie. Martin ordered the 12oz NY strip steak but asked for beef fat potatoes with it instead of potato gratin. Both steaks were delicious.

Mine was a tiny bit pink in the centre – purely because it was such a huge lump of steak I think, so the outside was perfect medium but the very centre was more like rare. I still ate most of it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Although Charlotte’s mood had improved significantly she was still not her usual happy self and actually spat out the steak I gave her (yes she spat out filet mignon – eye roll) I asked if they had any bananas that I could give her as I knew without doubt she would eat that. After a couple of minutes one of the managers brought over a banana that I think they had brought over from their quick service shop! Such good service, we really appreciated it.

Once all our plates were cleared away, I was brought a little chocolate cake which Charlotte was very happy to help me eat!

She managed to get it all over her dress, and mine too so we decided to get changed back into our park clothes to go back into Epcot!

We paid $40 for my wine and the tip for this meal. It definitely lived up to our expectations. Although it possibly wasn’t the best steak I’ve ever eaten in my life, it was delicious and the service was brilliant but without feeling in your face or formal. I was glad Charlotte brightened up by the end of the meal too, and the people at the table next to us actually commented how good she’d been when she gave them a little wave (of course they hadn’t seen the table cloth vandalism haha).


We got changed again and headed through Beach Club, and back into Epcot via International Gateway. We went into the shop there and showed Charlotte some soft toys.

We had a little look round the UK pavilion as it was really quiet. We got chatting to a CM in the shop called Ben who was from Manchester. He was really nice and said how much he enjoyed his time working for Disney, which was coming to an end as he was going back to the UK in a few weeks. He commented how he realised how lucky we are to have the NHS as he had broken a tooth while out in the US on his programme and couldn’t afford to get it fixed. He was telling us about the character paloozas they sometimes have in the parks, and told us to look out for a collection of character handlers (he said they call them blueberries because of their blue uniform!) as it usually means one is imminent.

After chatting for a few minutes we had to go as we had a FP for Illuminations. However as we walked round to the viewing area we noticed that the rest of the park was pretty quiet, but when we arrived the FP viewing area was rammed! We went in but I felt a bit claustrophobic in there it was so tight, so we decided to leave and just get a spot somewhere else. We just walked round the side of the shop to the right and stood there.

We stood a little way back so we weren't in the midst of the crowd at the railing and we still had a great view. Me and Martin took turns holding Lottie so we could see her reactions.

She was pointing and clapping and saying “ooooh”. Jo Harding had told me there was a special holiday finale at the end of the normal show, and sure enough at the end of normal Illuminations another little show started, which was themed to “Peace on Earth”. It was about 5 minutes long and I stood a little behind Martin and Charlotte so I could watch them as well as watching the show. They were really lovely fireworks, and then came the last 30 seconds - it was as if the world was ending! I have never in my life heard such loud fireworks, it was as if one of the barges had caught fire and sent them all up at once, it was SO LOUD! Beautiful, and spectacular, they lit up the sky but SO LOUD! I actually winced as Martin turned round to me, I thought for sure that will have frightened her and she will be crying…. Nope, still clapping and saying “wow!” This from a child who as a newborn would cry if you opened a particularly fizzy bottle of sparkling water or opened a can of diet coke within her hearing range!

We turned and made our way back through into Future World, and then out to the car park. It always seems so much farther away then when you arrived! I haven’t noted whether Lottie fell asleep on the way home, I have noted that we wanted to pop into Publix for some more fruit but forgot. Instead when we got back to AKL we nipped into the Mara and made the (looking back on it) astonishing to decision to pay $3.60 for 2 bananas instead of using snack credits! What on earth was going through our minds I’ll never know! You may have noticed we are not doing well at using our snack credits – we were always too full from all the food we were eating at mealtimes!
Anyway, stupidly expensive bananas purchased we headed back to our room, popped Lottie in her jammies, gave her her milk and she was soon in bed fast asleep. Me and Martin ate some of our cookies from the Christmas party that we had brought home, then were also asleep soon afterwards!


As always, thanks for reading! Tomorrow we have our first character breakfast and spend some more time in Epcot, then back to HS in the evening for some festive fun!

Day 7 - Cape May & Festive Fun at Epcot & HS

[Goldia]

After a laid back start this turned into a pretty busy day. Those pizzas do look yummy, definitely on my list! Then the Mickey and pals meet and greet, how swee,t I'm not surprised you were all welling up.

[MrsSilverStar]

That character meet sounds so lovely for all of you, very special.

Love the dog posing for his photo

[Mel49]

Depsite the chilled start another fantastic day with loads packed in. I had tears in my eyes reading about the Character Encounter you saw and then Charlotte's own special moments. Great that she loved the fireworks - only one out of my three did and I remember even when they were slightly older having to take them out and wait in the car while DH stayed with eldest DS.
Look forward to reading more of your adventures x

[eleele]

What a lovely day full of Disney magic.

[Redrach1903]

Aww what a lovely fun filled day!

I would have been sobbing at that Mickey meet as well. What a wonderful memory for that family!

Glad you enjoyed your Disney birthday meal! You looked lovely in your dress!

I hope my niece is as brave as Lottie with the fireworks! Xxx

[Palm trees]

What a lovely read

Your description of the character meet made me a little teary too. Our younger child is disabled and, without exception, the CM throughout Disney were fabulous in their engagement with our whole family on our last holiday. We had a particularly lovely character meet with Russell which I'll remember forever. As I've said all CM were lovely but there just seemed to be a little extra bit of magic that afternoon. It was as if time stood still and my little boy got plenty of hug and high five time.

Since our last trip he's fallen hard for Buzz Lightyear so I'm hoping it'll be more magic memories and possibly happy tears (mine!) when we meet him.

It's also heartening to read that the extra time was met with compassion and understanding from other people queuing behind.

Sorry but I also had to smile at the table graffiti

[vics18]

Originally Posted by Goldia

After a laid back start this turned into a pretty busy day. Those pizzas do look yummy, definitely on my list! Then the Mickey and pals meet and greet, how swee,t I'm not surprised you were all welling up.

See more...

It did - isn't it funny that you don't really realise until you write it all down like this!
Mmm could just eat one now - so tasty!
Yes it was really special and very emotional.
Thanks for reading!

[vics18]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

That character meet sounds so lovely for all of you, very special.

Love the dog posing for his photo

See more...

It was so emotional - we will never forget it!

Isn't he adorable!

Thanks for reading x