Day 2 (cont.) - Crews Cup and Grand Floridian Cafe Dinner
Thanks to everyone following along and for all the kind words! It's snowing here and every morning while I'm brushing 6in of snow off my car, I mutter to myself about being in Disney the week before
Writing this trip report is helping to remember what it feels like to see the sun! Ok, so we left off with my very hot and tired family heading back to Beach Club for a swim and a rest.
I have to say, we had really good luck with the buses during our trip. We didn't wait very long for them, and although it was crowded and standing room only people were very kind about offering seats to my kiddos. After a quick bus ride, we ran up to the room, changed into our swim gear and hit up Storm Along Bay.
First stop for Mommy: Hurricane Hanna's for a cocktail. I ordered this delightfully refreshing drink:
Cucumber & Mint Vojito
Kettle One Botanical Cucumber and Mint Vodka, Lime Juice and Pure Cane Sugar topped with Soda Water
This was VERY refreshing and VERY strong. Thankfully the lime and mint took up a bunch of real estate in that small cup! I pulled up a lounge chair and watched the kids swim in January
It was very nice and relaxing. After about an hour, I was starving and my blood sugar was majorly crashing. I hadn't really eaten since breakfast and was on the verge of hangry. We decided a visit to Crews Cup was definitely in order.
We arrived at around 4:40pm all set to get some apps and a drink before dinner.....AND THEY DON'T START SERVING UNTIL 5!!!!!!!! I mean, I was like crying to the waitress.
She was SUPER great and said that she could get us the yummy onion rolls that they serve over at Yachtsman right at 5pm. Praise be! I ordered a Paloma, Tequila and grapefruit juice and Scott ordered the Blood Orange Margarita and to have the Everything Pretzel put in ASAP. The Paloma was actually pretty sweet...which is not typical for a paloma. It's almost like they splashed some sour mix in there? I mean, I drank it. But I had one later in the trip that didn't taste like that at all. Scott's margarita was delicious and strong.
At exactly 5:02, our server came over with our apps. You get a really big serving of rolls. Onion, plain dinner rolls and a side of roasted garlic. We all DOVE in. I can't believe I even got a pic to be honest. I remembered all of you and knew y'all would appreciate the Yachtsman Onion Roll shot. We were enjoying our rolls when the server came out with literally the biggest pretzel I have ever seen. SO MANY CARBS. I mean, it was delicious, but there was no way we would be able to finish that bad boy after eating 2-3 rolls AND have dinner. I kinda wish the server gave me a heads up but that's ok. I will tell all of you that if there's a pretzel app on a menu---IT WILL BE HUGE. It encompassed the entire kids dinner menu/placemat for reference.
The pickled veg was awesome, beer cheese was great and so were the two mustards (spicy brown and I think a honey mustard?). Our server was great and gave us a couple of boxes to go. We thought maybe we could have them later in the trip (we did not) so Scott ran to the room and met us over at the bus to MK. We had a tight turnaround for our Grand Floridian Cafe reservation. Our plan was to have dinner from 6:30-7:30pm and then zip over to Main Street to catch our very first Happily Ever After fireworks show. In previous trips our kids were so little we never got past the Electric Light Parade before the kids had mega meltdowns. I couldn't wait for them to experience Magic Kingdom fireworks!
We took the bus and hopped on the monorail to GF and it took longer than I had anticipated. I forgot that you go to all the other resorts first. Rookie mistake lol. We were already cutting it super close, so I was starting to stress a bit about having enough time to eat and then get to MK.
We checked in and waited for another 10min or so. Walked around and enjoyed GF at night. I would LOVE to stay here some day. So posh and fancy!
GF was jamming that night. Almost every table was occupied. I always read that this was a chill restaurant but that was not the case on this night. We had a fantastic server that night---I told him we were trying to get to the Fireworks and he was great about helping us get out of there in an hour.
Scott ordered the Sirloin and Scallops and a glass of Simi Cabernet Sauvignon, I ordered the buttermilk fried chicken with a glass of Conundrum Chardonnay. I was really surprised to find out that GF allows you to order any wine by the glass along with your meal plan. Conundrum is a nice oaky buttery chardonnay that's usually around $16-18 a glass so I was pretty pumped. Rowan got spag and meatballs and Alice ordered the pizza along with the glowy light drinks (not included in
DDP, but I was kinda buzzed at this point and didn't care lol)
Scott said his scallops were cooked very well (he's super picky about seafood) but his steak was NOT good. Overcooked and not great quality. I really enjoyed my fried chicken--very crispy and it had a really tasty spicy honey glaze on top. The mashed potato and spinach was VERY salty but I was pretty full at that point and just had a bite or two.
The kids enjoyed their standard kid fare, and the real show stopper was the kid dessert! Worms in dirt. They brought out a small flower pot filled with chocolate mousse, cookie crumbs and gummy worms. The kids were very pleased.
So, we were really itching to get out of there. Server came as soon as he could to ring us out and right about 7:35 we were racing out of the hotel. This is where things went sideways.
I forgot that the monorail hotels have security before you actually get on the monorail. I fully support security efforts and am HAPPY to participate. Scott and the kids didn't have bags so they just kinda sailed on through while the monorail was loading the last of the passengers. I went through the purse line and the metal detector and was rushing to meet my family already on the monorail at this point and another security guard started shouting "MA'AM! MA'AM! YOU NEED TO GO THROUGH SECURITY!! MA'AM STOP!" and I was like "I already went through! My family is already on the monorail!" and she told me I needed to go BACK through. Scott and the kids had to get off and then the monorail took off without us.
Kay....so, here is my emoji that best represents my internal dialogue at this point
. I must have looked visibly annoyed because the monorail operator came over and said "I saw that whole thing and I'm really sorry. I saw you go through security. Here is a FP for you guys to use tomorrow" awww! So nice and not necessary and very much appreciated.
The next monorail came pretty quickly and somehow we were through security and half way down Mainstreet and got a great view with only a few minutes missed of the fireworks.
You guys...it was super magical. I cried, Alice cried. Scott and Rowan did NOT cry, lol but they enjoyed them very much. It was just like, a super beautiful moment that I'm glad I really pushed for us all to have.
Amazingly, after the show we were able to get out of MK without too many stepped on toes and our bus was out there waiting for us! We hopped on and all hit the hay as soon as we got to the room. It was a very LONG, wonderful, magical day.
We had a chill morning ahead of us and Animal Kingdom to look forward to!!! That's next