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Old 4 Jul 15, 01:09 PM  
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gtyrel10
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Day 12 - 16/11/14 The Birthday Tour goes to St Augustine and MVMCP

So we were up rather early this morning, after a bit of a restless nights sleep. The double bed was a bit small so we kept banging into each other haha!

Anyway the plan for today was Alice’s mum would be bringing over fresh bagels then it was bagels and lox all round. Her mum arrived just after 10 and they put out a fab spread of bagels different cream cheeses, salmon and all the trimmings it was fab. This was the first I had met Alice mum and she was fab, she is in her 80s but so lively an active she still works as a teacher and has lived and partied in New York it was so interesting chatting to her. She is really honest and if she doesn’t like you she wont be shy in making it clear, but apparently when I went to the bathroom she said to Maurice "I really like her she is a good one", woohoo!

So we had a lovely brunch then got lots of photos of everyone together, before getting the car packed up.







(maurices shorts proved hilarious for everyone, it was only when we got home and Maurice seen the pictures that he finally agreed they were horrible and sent them off to the charity shop).

Both the boys birthdays are in December and January so I had brought their birthday cards and their Christmas presents with us, those all got handed over which saved on postage (last year we spent £27 on postage).

We finally head off about 1pm and made the short drive to St Augustine, as it was a Sunday it didn’t take us long to find some free on street parking. The difference in weather between Jacksonville and St Augustine was extreme, Jacksonville had been cold dark and overcast St Augustine was blue skies hot and sunny. We were soon boiling hot and loving the walk in the sunshine.



It is such a lovely place and we spent ages wander round, we didn’t do any of the tours as we were restricted for time but we got to see lots on our walk. I was really bad and made next to no notes so here is some pictures to make up for it.



















Oh some people had already started putting up their Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations, I had to take pictures.






We did stop in to one place, Café and Restaurant Sol Brasileirissimo in order to try and get a quick lunch. We found a nice quiet sandwich shop and took a table there was one table that was in the process of paying up and another 2 small tables waiting for their food. We both order some sandwiches and drinks after about 20 minutes nothing had happened. We had asked the server a few times and finally when we were getting closer to waiting 30 minutes we asked what was happening he said the kitchen was back logged and it wouldn’t be much longer. I think we had both had enough we still had to get back to Orlando and we had just wasted time sitting in there. The owner came over and was so rude I pointed out the near empty restaurant and the fact that no one thought to mention that your kitchen was running to a 45-minute delay. She insisted we paid for the drinks we had and then the server came over and said so shall I tell the kitchen not to make those sandwiches, they hadn’t even started making them. Once we paid we left straight away and decided to have another look around before setting off back to Orlando.

This really was our only bad service of the trip (kinda) it just seemed like the end of the trip was a bit doomed.

We started heading in the direction of the car and came across a Kilwins, woohoo so ice cream lunch it was.









As we were heading towards the car I noticed this fab spices and hot sauce shop, so picked up another foodie item to add to my dad and brothers Christmas hamper.



We were really running late time wise and we had an ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern at 6:40 to make and I really wanted to get back to the apartment first to grab my Christmas Minnie Ears that I bought specifically for the party. I had wanted us to be heading into MK at the start of the party time so 4pm but this was before we found out we had to go to Jacksonville the night before. The original plan was they would come to us in Orlando.

Anyway we got back to Orlando, quick stop in the apartment for magic bands, party tickets and Christmas ears and we were finally pulling into the car park at 6:28. All you Disney vets know we were in trouble time wise as we obviously still had to get into the park then find Liberty Tree Tavern.

If I remember correctly we arrived about 10 minutes after our ADR time I will say we wouldn’t have been that late but a CM pointed us in the exact opposite direction to were it was so we had a small detour.

It only took them a couple of minutes to seat us but by now it was nearly 7pm the party was in full swing and we really had missed most of it (including the 3 fastpasses I had booked). Anyway our table was decorated as I had mentioned it was my birthday when making the ADR.



Oh and I ordered my fab Patriots Punch, this was really really yummy!



Bread and salad was first, that bread mix was amazing! The corn bread was like yummy cake I ended up having a bit of every type of bread in the basket it was just so tasty.



Then the good stuff came:



All the meats were brilliant and again even Maurice was impressed, neither of us touched the mac and cheese as I just don’t like it. But everything else was amazing (oh apart from the sweet potato it was cooked in sugar and just a bit to sweet even for me). I think we got extra of the pork and beef as this ended up being both of our favourites.

After dinner was cleared away they brought out desert, I wasn’t a fan of this at all I think it was the cranberries I just didn’t like but the ice cream was yummy.



Overall the service tonight was dreadful it really was, he never checked on drinks and I had to hunt him down to ask for more of the meats. Then when dessert came Maurice had wanted to order a coffee with it, but he literally just dropped it on the table and ran off. I noticed a few other people had the dessert brought out with a candle etc but he clearly wasn’t into that sort of fun.

Don’t get me wrong it was fine and he brought everything out but it was clear he didn’t want to hang around in case you asked for something. The total bill for this set dinner plus my punch which includes the souvenir tankard was $73.67, I know we didn’t tip 20% (as we normally did) but think we still gave him 18% just so he knew I wasn’t totally happy! I have a funny feeling he didn’t care!

Our matching bands


It was 8:30 by the time we left and the pavement outside LTT was packed as the parade had started. We found a space at the back were I could kinda see and tried to watch as best we could. It was really really warm and muggy tonight and we were both full of mash and meat so we weren’t feeling great. To be honest I couldn’t see the parade we had missed most of the party and Maurice really really didn’t want to be there. He sat at the back pretty much looking at his shoes while I tried my best to watch the parade.




(just to be clear I haven’t got freakishly tall all of a sudden, I got Maurice to stand back and hold my iphone high above his head, there was no one behind us) All I could see was the back of that large man in the grey t’shirt).



With the parade over I asked Maurice if he wanted to do some rides, and he wasn’t really saying much a sure fire sign he wants to go home. So I said fine we would go to the hub watch the Christmas Wishes then leave he seemed happy enough with this option, but I think if we could have just left right there and then he would have been much happier.

We got an ok view to the side of the castle





Wishes was lovely as was the fab projections they did in the Christmas theme, I am glad I got to see it but I was really aware of the fact that Maurice was done with Disney today.

We headed down main street and I wanted to pop into Guest relations to get a birthday badge for tomorrow.



You can just about make out the snow falling.

So got to guest relations and asked for a Birthday button, a pretty funny thing happened when the girl asked my name and wrote it on the badge, she then asked my age so I said oh I am going to be 30. At which point she looked at me and said really wow I would never believe it. So I just said oh thanks and she said really 30 that’s amazing so I said again yea 30, so she wrote out my badge handed it to me then said I hope you have a fantastic birthday tomorrow. At which point I looked at the badge to discover she had written 13, I thought she was joking until we spoke to her and nope all along she thought I had said 13 she was saying 13 back to me and she explained how she couldn’t believe I could be only 13 (clearly not as young as I thought I looked!). This obviously proved even more hilarious as we realized she must of wondered who the heck Maurice was as I had called him Maurice when I asked for his 1st visit badge haha!

Anyway badged up we headed back out and noticed the Christmas photo op was quite it was my final party request of Maurice.





With our time at the party over we headed out the park and got on a ferry back to the car park. I didn’t take us long to get back to the apartment and we were straight to bed. Tomorrow was my birthday day and after the rubbish two days we had just had I wasn’t really holding my hopes out for it!

Wow ok sorry guys those really were 2 rubbish days, I had really contemplated just finishing this report early as these do not make for happy reading. But there was some nice things that happened. We did have a lovely meal at LTT, did get to catch up with family (who we had been told weren’t planning on coming over to the UK anytime soon, but have since decided to come over this year and again next). Reading back I am annoyed at how much we let outside things annoy us in these last 2 days, and I really wouldn’t be that bad again.

Only really 1 and a bit days left to go and my Disney trip will all be over.

Thanks to all those that read along.
Gemma xxxxx
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Old 4 Jul 15, 07:07 PM  
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mrsdjh
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Sorry you felt the last two days were spoilt, I'm hoping you had a better day in your birthday. How funny to give you a 13 badge 😆

Wishes looks amazing, shame you didn't get to do everything you wanted to at the party.

Diane
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Old 5 Jul 15, 01:22 AM  
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l33na
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I'm glad you have decide to continue with the report. I enjoy reading them. Hilarious badge incident
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Old 6 Jul 15, 11:45 AM  
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gtyrel10
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Originally Posted by mrsdjh View Post
Sorry you felt the last two days were spoilt, I'm hoping you had a better day in your birthday. How funny to give you a 13 badge 😆

Wishes looks amazing, shame you didn't get to do everything you wanted to at the party.

Diane
Thanks for reading, year they weren't the best of days but i guess a bad day in Disney in November is still better than a bad day in a scottish winter haha! XX

Originally Posted by l33na View Post
I'm glad you have decide to continue with the report. I enjoy reading them. Hilarious badge incident
Thanks for reading. The badge incident totally lightened the mood, Maurice was so concerned about what she must of been thinking of him turning up with some random 13 year old acting all couply

xx
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Old 6 Jul 15, 07:31 PM  
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St Augustine looks lovely

I'm sorry to read things at the party didn't go as well as you'd hoped. Was totally drooling over the Liberty Tree Tavern food- especially the Mac & Cheese, I know you said you don't like it but I love the stuff!

I think it can be hard not to get a bit sad when things don't go to plan on holiday, we spend enough time planning them and they go so quick, can totally sympathise x

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Old 8 Jul 15, 11:44 AM  
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It's a real shame Maurice wasn't up for any rides, the waits are always so short during the Parties and we always make the most of it.

The badge story is hilarious, as is Maurice's shorts story, bless him - the socks weren't helping much either .
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Old 8 Jul 15, 03:13 PM  
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gtyrel10
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Originally Posted by Disneyloverz View Post
St Augustine looks lovely

I'm sorry to read things at the party didn't go as well as you'd hoped. Was totally drooling over the Liberty Tree Tavern food- especially the Mac & Cheese, I know you said you don't like it but I love the stuff!

I think it can be hard not to get a bit sad when things don't go to plan on holiday, we spend enough time planning them and they go so quick, can totally sympathise x

Laughed out loud at the badge incident
Haha my brother is a massive mac and cheese fan it used to be the only thing he would eat! Well its an all you can eat bowl of mac and cheese so you should head to LTT next time, their meat plater was also amazing actually glad i didn't like the mac and cheese so i didn't fill up on pasta.

Originally Posted by collybird View Post
It's a real shame Maurice wasn't up for any rides, the waits are always so short during the Parties and we always make the most of it.

The badge story is hilarious, as is Maurice's shorts story, bless him - the socks weren't helping much either .
I do think we had a missed opportunity at the party, looking back i wish we hadn't bothered with the parade or fireworks and i had just got him on a few rides because i think once he would have got into it and laughing he would have enjoyed it. Was so gutted we missed the jingle cruise as well.

They are awful shorts, i really need to get him out shopping for new ones xx
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Old 14 Jul 15, 11:23 PM  
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Aww, shame you weren't feeling today although as I was reading I felt the familiar feeling of annoyance when you feel like you are chasing your tail all the time! You're right though that a bad day at the Disney Christmas party is better than a bad day at home! Looking forward to your birthday report!
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Old 25 Jul 15, 10:12 AM  
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Ha ha hope you enjoyed your 13th birthday the next day I love the effort they went to at Liberty Inn to decorate your table Shame about the server but the food looks good.
Really feel for you that it wasn't a good couple of days. You put so much time and thought into planning it and then it doesn't always go the way you want. Hopefully looking back on it now the good bits stand out more than the not so good xx
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Old 26 Jul 15, 04:37 PM  
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Originally Posted by Fluzz View Post
Aww, shame you weren't feeling today although as I was reading I felt the familiar feeling of annoyance when you feel like you are chasing your tail all the time! You're right though that a bad day at the Disney Christmas party is better than a bad day at home! Looking forward to your birthday report!
Thank you, yea it wasn't the best day i don't think he would ever go back to disney christmas party but i am glad i got to experience it and see them all christmasfied oh and experience the surreal feeling of feeling like you might melt from heat while listening to christmas music! x

Originally Posted by vanlou View Post
Ha ha hope you enjoyed your 13th birthday the next day I love the effort they went to at Liberty Inn to decorate your table Shame about the server but the food looks good.
Really feel for you that it wasn't a good couple of days. You put so much time and thought into planning it and then it doesn't always go the way you want. Hopefully looking back on it now the good bits stand out more than the not so good xx
I have clearly had a rough paper round for that to have been my 13th birthday! The food was brilliant definitely a restaurant to visit again but i think mid summer i would struggle to enjoy a thanksgiving dinner.

It was a nice time experiencing it all so that will always be my main memory i think.

Thanks again for reading xx
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