The Index


Day 8 - Magic Kingdom, Shopping, the Grand Floridian & Contemporary (California Grill)

Thursday 28 January

Oh today was a mixed emotions day – our last Disney day *cry* but also another great day with so many things planned! It was full of Highs and Lows & we took great pleasure in determining what fell under what category during the day.

The alarm went off just after 6 – hard to believe we are on holiday at those ‘getting up for work’ times – we were in the car for 7 after a few presses of the snooze button… I had remembered to put in my eeyore bow today too for our special breakfast.



Unfortunately, it was once again, hammering it down and still dark as we climbed into the car. Chosen to be a LOW. We had decided to drive today, although the bus was quicker, so we could then head to the outlets again once we were done at MK. Typically a MK bus would have been perfectly timed if we had wanted it.

As we drove through the entrance to MK the lady at the paying booth was the first one not to just wave us through when we flashed our magic bands at her. She did what the others must be supposed to do and scanned our bands before then wishing us a Magical Day HIGH (very technical scoring process as you can see!)



We were the 6th car in the carpark, beating our best place of 7th from 2012. HIGH. I doubt we’ll get chance to beat that again given these spots are now subject to an extra parking fee! They are great and just a very short walk away from the TTC.





We were directed to the resort monorail and were on board within a few minutes. Stopping at the Polynesian, Floridian and Contemporary.



We were in the queue for breakfast reservations by 7.35, so probably about 15 minutes behind the bus and there was a pretty decent sized queue already. We were about half way down it as tons of people joined us shortly thereafter. I wonder if it is emptier to book the ADR for around 8.30 as opposed to 8/8.10am as we had so the initial rush of people would have gone through?



The cast members came along after a while and told us not to line up but just crowd into the section on the left. I’m sure some people weren’t pleased about this giving they were near the front but it did shelter us from the rain which was luckily just lightly falling now.

We were let in just before 8am, taking just a moment to glance at the castle and made our way straight to Crystal Palace as there would be time for photos later. We were excited to be eating at Crystal Palace as it always looked so pretty from the outside and we’d read so many good reviews of the food too.

We were one of the first ones there so checked in at the booth to the left of the doors, which we hadn’t realised was there until we were called over to it. We were only waiting a few minutes and the buzzer we had been given went off and we were taken to our table by our server. We were seated on the right as you entered the restaurant which we were happy with, a decent area for the characters (as we learnt a few minutes later) and the buffet (which we had already seen)!













As the characters hadn’t come out yet we decided to hit the buffet earlier. As I did Pooh was passing by so I took the chance to get a cheeky selfie which is one of my favourites. HIGH.



The buffet selection was plentiful and I loaded up with random things but mostly Mickey waffles! The breakfast lasagne and French toast wasn’t out yet and took a while to come out. I did a few circuits checking for it every five minutes or so tee hee.















Pooh was the first character to make it to us and tried to dance with me which was very cute Then Eeyore, who is my favourite, who seemed delighted with my bow when I showed him and kept pointing at it! Tigger was next up and Rich had a selfie with the fellow ginger (as he was so jealous of mine with Pooh haha) and they had a little jumping competition which is one of my highlights of the trip! HUGE HIGH.

Mid-jump











Last but not least was Piglet who made a very brief stop by. I think his attention was on the little girl a few tables away who kept on following the characters’ round, very cute but slightly annoying for all the other families that wanted their photos taking without the little girl hugging the legs of the characters haha.

Our server was super nice, unfortunately I haven’t written her name down, and kept us topped up with coffee and water, plus orange juice for Richard. We never had to ask.



We made several trips to the buffet to try the different foods. When I eventually got the breakfast lasagne I wasn’t overly taken by it, and the Pooh’s French toast was nice but just tasted like a doughnut really. The winners for me were definitely the Mickey Waffles and the pastries which were delish! We left stuffed!







The breakfast had been $60 plus tip for the both of us but we used two table credits. An experience we hope to repeat on our next trip too, although we’ve never done Tusker house so that may be next. Despite it only being 9 we both agreed we didn’t feel rushed but it had helped that the characters had come round so early leaving us to be greedy and eat! We are quick eaters too! HIGH.

The park had already been open for 10 minutes or so but it didn’t feel too busy. We turned left and headed into adventureland which we hadn’t really done yet, and jumped onto the Jungle cruise. The seats were soaking and the cast members were handing out towels to sit on. This was exactly what we remembered – cheesy! But has to be done. We were then into our first fastpass time for Pirates but it really wasn’t necessary, a complete walk on. It did cut out some of the walking.









We then took the short walk over to Frontierland and the queue for Thunder Mountain was only five minutes so we walked through the standby line right to the front and whilst doing so I cancelled our fastpass for it (it was 45 minutes away yet) and changed it to Winnie the Pooh ten minutes later. Thunder Mountain was great and is equal to the Seven Dwarves in our view! HIGH.





Straight over to Winnie, trying to take our time to look at all the details of the park, and we passed by a meet for Chip N Dale. These two had been on my list to visit as I heard they were really funny, so we jumped in line and a few minutes later they were busy pulling at my Minnie ears and point and shaking their head at my Daisy jumper! HIGH.





Another great ride on Winnie the Pooh and we came off and took a minute to decide what to do.



I wasn’t far from a must have snack on my list so despite not being hungry I decided to go and get it so I didn’t miss out. Well after placing my order for the Cheshire café cupcake (the frosting looked immense on photos!) I was told they stopped selling them last summer. I was really sad about this and a definite LOW. I decided that I wanted a snack nonetheless so made Rich walk back over to the big top with me so I could order a caramel apple! This ordered, they offered to cut it up for me but I told them it would be for later so they popped it into a box and bag and off I went a snack credit lighter.

From here we walked through Tomorrow land heading back to Main Street and it was then that I remembered we were close to the Wishing Well. Unfortunately, when we asked a cast member where it was, they said it was closed at the moment as that’s the area the crane is in. LOW.



We stopped for a photopass instead, it was raining still but the photographer was great and it didn’t seem to bother him.



Taking photos of lots of things, including Walts window, we slowly made our way towards the exit. We had done most things we wanted to and the weather wasn’t clearing up. There was shopping to be done!

I love this pic





There were of course photopasses to be had and I got a few lovely compliments on my Mickey poncho/rain coat which was a Primark special from the year before, saved for the trip!

I stopped in the shop on Main street that sells glasses you can have engraved and they are really reasonable. I had my eye on a tankard for my dad but they then told us they take up to an hour to do and we didn’t really want to hang around for it. Our own fault as we could have asked or had it done a few days ago. LOW.

We saw the Mayor for a snap who was lovely and told us he had both his honeymoons in England and the weather was much like this. Sounds about right! HIGH.

Richard then spotted Mary having a meet by the railroad and knowing we had missed out at Epcot we hotfooted it to her. Only for the line to be closed in front of us LOW.

Coming back down I spotted the barbers and wanted to have a quick look, its very cute but much smaller than I imagined!

Whilst leaving they announced there would be a wet weather version of the Move It! Shake it! Parade so we stayed put to watch that, knowing it would start where we were stood. That was a nice surprise and we watched the three or four floats pass us by with the main guys dancing along. HIGH.







We then finally headed out of Magic Kingdom, I was so sad and did have a few tears in my eyes. Rich reassured me we’d be back and we took one last look at the castle before leaving.





It was midday by the time we got the monorail and walked the two minutes to the car. With the weather being naff we thought we’d do some more shopping to free up some time at the end of the holiday when the weather might be kinder. On the way I dug into my caramel apple, managing a decent dint and saving the rest for later. The caramel was delicious and I’d certainly buy one next time!



We went back to the Vineland outlets to do the section we didn’t finish. First up though was another visit to Kate Spade where I bought a bow bracelet and matching earrings with 40% off.

Michel Korrs was next and I spent a while deliberating finally picking a cute pink backpack and baby blue handbag. Richard’s colleague has a MK bag in the same colour and I’d fallen in love with it. We had a discount voucher from the booklet we picked up previously which gave us a further 20% off.

Chief bag carrier

I bought this in baby pink



Next up was American Outfitters but we weren’t successful here, same with Swarovski (I was on the hunt for another Christmas decoration for our tree after getting one back in 2012). Character Warehouse had clearly had a re-stock since two days ago but we left empty handed.

Converse proved successfully, I picked up a jazzy pair, a pair for Rich and a pair for my godson which were an absolute bargain with 40% off the clearance price.



Richard was also successful at nike with a new pair of trainers and two gym tops. It was really busy in here and so messy so I sat and waited it out by the door.



Last but not least was Ralph Lauren where Rich always does some damage. I did pretty well with a long sleeves striped top for $20 and a classic shirt for $45. I also picked up a shirt that my uncle had asked for reduced to £45. Rich got 3 jumpers, 2 polos and a shirt. It was 20% off and we had a 20% voucher with the booklet, we hadn’t expected to be able to apply the voucher but the cashier seemed happy with it and we came away wishing we had got more!

My uncles shirt

We left at 3pm as planned and drove back to SSR. Stopping at the gift shop to pick up the baubles we had ordered in the Christmas shop a couple of days earlier. Unfortunately, it hadn’t showed up and they offered to go and get someone fetch it but we’d have to come back to pick it up. We told them we had to be out by 5 and needed to finish our packing in the hope it could be dropped off but she simply asked if we wanted a refund. This wasn’t particularly helpful as we knew we’d be back late tonight then wanted to leave before the gift shop opens tomorrow. Anyway, long story short we agreed to come back first thing and went on our way. Lesson learnt to just take it with us at the time!

So final packing, washing, showers commenced and we left the room just after 5 to bouncing rain. Whilst we’d got used to the rain we were on our way for dinner at California Grill so I just hoped Wishes wouldn’t be cancelled. We ran to the bus stop and 5 minutes later a Magic Kingdom bus showed up with just us and one other lady on it. We hadn’t fancied the wet walk to Disney Springs to bus it to the Contemporary hence the MK bus.

We got there quickly and had changed our minds on the bus journey to go and have a drink at the Grand Floridian as we hadn’t been there before. When we got to Mk there was a boat waiting to go to the Grand Flo. We jumped on board and had a pretty dry journey over. The fast-walk/run to the inside unfortunately meant we missed most of the pretty facilities but there were kids in the pool having a great time in the rain. The hotel was as beautiful as we expected and had a lovely charm to it. Rich said he liked it straight away and I was quite taken!



We had a little walk round and then found the bar on the second level. We managed to get a table by the window which on a clear night would have probably shown lovely views.







The service was a bit slow here, both in taking our order and bringing our drink, but we enjoyed the atmosphere and not long after the band started up just outside overlooking the lobby which was a nice touch, playing Frank Sinatra.



I had the Grand Cocktail and Rich had Sam Adams Coldsnap, quite a fitting name really. They came to $18.91 plus tip. We would have probably stayed for longer but we had a reservation to get to. We jumped on the monorail and got the Contemporary at 7.05.

We walked past Chef Mickey to which Rich declared he never wanted to go to (although remembers going as a kid) it was exposed and the noise just travelled.



There was a huge queue waiting to check in on the 2nd floor and it took 15 minutes to get to the front! Soon after we were getting in the lift to the 15th floor where the California Grill is. As we didn’t have a US phone number they said to head to the bar and they’d come and find us when our table was ready. We had literally just ordered our drinks when they came over so it was very fast. A tad annoyingly you couldn’t just carry your tab to your table so Rich settled up whilst I went and sat down about 3 foot away.



We were the first table on the right as you go in. They had put little celebratory mickey confetti on the table which was sweet.

our table is the first on the right of the pic





Our table wasn’t particularly private but we got to see lots of goings-on as people came and went, including many different attires. There was a sign as you checked in asking for smart-casual and we saw everything from trainers, sports gear to cocktail dresses so it doesn’t seem to be strictly enforced. I’d say about a third of people looked smart-casual and the rest just casual. Rich made a joke about just needing to pack his gym gear for our next trip. It is a shame it isn’t a bit more enforced but that’s just our view.





Our server (who’s name I didn’t catch again) was really knowledgeable about the menu and recommended the BLT flatbread which I had wanted to order anyway. This was $16. This was the first place we had managed a starter and it came out really quickly. They must be really popular as most of the tables around us had one – unless the waiter was just extremely pushy on that dish haha. This was really tasty and the perfect amount for the two of us knowing we had two more courses to come. Somewhere during our flatbread we also got delivered our bread. We both had a roll each which was delicious and soft, leaving the harder breads which looked like granary.



It was 8pm by this point so we headed outside to watch Wishes and despite being a bit blowy had stopped raining – YAY! It was late starting about 8.15 and despite there being lots of people out on the terrace/balcony it didn’t feel too busy. This area to watch the fireworks was quite industrialised and for some reason I had pictured something different but it certainly did the job. It was really cool to watch Wishes from here, especially as you get the perspective as how far back they are to the castle. I think you pay more attention to them with the music when its just that and there’s no distractions around too. It felt like a nice goodbye from Disney and I got a bit teary again. God I love Wishes.



Back at our table our mains arrived soon after. We had:

M: Oak fired fillet of beef with tomato risotto, aged balsamic, tiny basil, tomato butter $49 / Butterscotch Crème Brulee $13

R: Same as me / Chef’s selection cheese board – 5 unique cheeses with accompaniments (subbing out the blue for another) $21

The beef was cooked perfectly for me but was a little too done for Rich but he was still happy to eat it. It came with risotto which was really tasty and went well with the beef. Somewhere in between we ordered another drink each. I had a glass of Round Pond Sav Blanc $12 and Rich had a BTL12 season beer $9.







This was all very yummy and we finished every last bit!

Towards the end of our mains Tom and Becky, the Dibbers we had met on our flight out, came over to say hello. We knew we were both eating hear on the same night when we compared our ADR plans on travel day – what are the odds we’d both booked here the same night. We had a quick catch up about what we had been up to, each complained about the weather and wished each other a good rest of holiday. I know they were hoping to get back to Islands of Adventure to do their favourite water rides so I hope you did if you are reading

Our desserts also appeared quite quickly after we had finished. We were both pretty full and I don’t think we would have bothered if we weren’t on the dining plan but needs must eh… I’ve mentioned above what we had and these were both tasty too. I only managed half of mine but Rich polished everything off apart from the jelly which was apparently cough-medicine-esque. I did manage to eat the cute Congratulations chocolate sign that had made an appearance on my dessert.







All together the dinner would have been $180 plus tip, but we just used 2 table service credits each and paid the extra $36 for the starter, drinks and tip. The dining plan coming into its own right there! And we agree we would have been happy with it even if paying OOP, particularly for that view of Wishes!

We headed back down the lift and to the bus stop back to Disney Springs. It was 9.30 and the bus showed us there was one due at 9.36 which we were happy with as it meant we didn’t have to wait too long in the cold. The board then proceeded to change to 9.39, then 9.49 then 9.47 which was a bit annoying but in the end it showed up at 9.35 so great for us but didn’t reflect well on the predicted wait times.

Another quick journey to Disney Springs then a walk back to SSR, for our last night there. We were so sad that part of our trip was over but both pretty excited for tomorrow – time to set sail on the Disney Dream!

Another brilliant day

Another fab day!

Cali Grill looks amazing!

Looking forward to your cruise reports xx

Fab day, a bit of a shame about the weather but it didn't seem to bother you
Your food at California grill looked delicious

great report

Mmmmm Mickey waffles! Sounds like a great day despite the rain. Rich has the typical man carrying shopping bags face on in that photo! Dinner at California Grill looks delicious

That meal at Californial Grill looks amazing! You got so much done, despite the rubbish weather! Can't wait to read all about the cruise x

Not that pesky rain again! Glad it didn't spoil your day as you got loads done. Love your photo's from Crystal Palace

Yet more great shopping buys.

Can't wait to read about your cruise Michelle xx

Those rainy January days are miserable

Jumping competition lol!

Shame there were so many lows in the morning But lots of highs too

Finished off with a lovely dinner

Jo xx

I'm also mourning the loss of the cupcakes at Cheshire Cafe, they looked awesome, perfect for someone like me who usually eats the frosting and not the cake.

What an amazing evening, really nice idea to have a drink at Grand Floridian before dinner. Dinner looks amazing, I'm looking forward to trying the fillet this year.