Day 13 - Part 2 - From the Pier to Wine Country
Heading out of Flo's we saw another Photopass opportunity with no line. So of course, we took advantage of it. The spider car is a little spooky, but a fun photo op!
After a quick bathroom break (in which I had to wonder who taught the Disney CM cleaning this bathroom how to replace toilet rolls) we headed back to Pixar Pier.
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! Hehe – I took the picture because Jared is very particular about toilet paper being put on the roll the correct way! Speaking of Jared, he had finally got a chance to wear the t-shirt he bought at Animal Kingdom, that he’d been wanting since he saw it on our 2015 trip!
Anyway, all side bars aside, when we made it to Pixar Pier and our next Maxpass location, Toy Story, we felt extremely grateful. The wait for Midway Mania had jumped to 65 minutes and Fastpasses were already being distributed from after 3pm. We walked on to the attraction pretty quickly and we were happy we’d not had to wait for over an hour. I enjoy Toy Story, but it’s not the kind of attraction I’d ever wait longer than 10 minutes for.
Waiting to be loaded into the next available car we found ourselves chatting with a lovely CM. She was really impressed we’d been to all the Disney parks bar Paris and wanted to know what our favourite park was. I think it pleased her when we said Disneyland, though we did advise her Tokyo Disney is a close second. Anyway it’s a good thing we didn’t have to wait long for Toy Story as the final two games on our ride, including the bonus game, stopped working! Woody was suck on a loop. It was a bit disappointing, as were our scores.
I am the Beaver, Jared was the Bunny
I find this game so exhausting on my arms too, constantly pulling the string! Clearly my arm muscles are not very strong! We didn’t really have much else we wanted to accomplish before lunch. We had just booked a Maxpass for the only other attraction we had planned to get done that day, Grizzly River Run (between 11:30am – 12:30pm), but it wasn’t quite time to use it. So we decided instead to wander around Pixar Pier, take some photos and see if there was a short wait for the fun wheel.
Sadly the fun wheel’s wait had jumped to 30 minutes, and that line moves SLOWLY, so I wasn’t interesting in waiting for it. We did enjoy a stroll around the pier though, taking in all the changes and enjoying the colours and vibrancy of the area.
On our way into Grizzly Peak we wandered past some Green Toy Soldiers, who were leading a group of bystanders in various "pledges of allegiance". In one, the solders stated a pledge, followed by "state your name". When the "pledge" was repeated everyone actually vocalised the line word by word, saying "state your name" rather than actually listing their name. I laughed quite a bit at this, I have to say!
We were very happy with how the morning was going. In three hours we'd gotten 4 Maxpasses, had been on 5 rides (all of them headliners) and were about to get on our 6th. It was a Saturday, and we were worried about crowds but it looks as though we needn't have been.
When we arrived at Grizzly River Run the wait was 50 minutes, so we were pleased to have our Maxpass. Plus it was getting pretty hot (probably why the line was long) so it felt like the perfect time to ride this fantastic river rapids attraction.
I had actually forgotten just how fast this one is. It also manages to maintain it's smoothness, despite it's speed and the jostles and bumps of the rapids themselves.
We were lucky to end up in a raft with a really fun group. We chatted and laughed, and speculated about who would get the most wet. Jared chuckled along with everyone else when, mid sentence, he got a very large splash of water in his completely open mouth! It was pretty hilarious. We all ended up about as wet as each other in the end. Jared, and those on the seats next to the gaps where you enter and exit the raft, had it a little worse though, as the water would come in over the sides of the gaps. I was in a middle seat and as a result didn't get anywhere near as wet. We came off just soaked enough to feel as though we'd been cooled down.
As we waited to unload (which can take some time when a number of rafts are backed up) we had a fantastic chat with our raft mates. They wanted to know where we were from, as they'd guessed it wasn't the US (our accents do give us away). They all wished us a happy 10th anniversary in unison too, which was adorable and so lovely (they had noticed our badges as we rode). I really think riding with fun people in a ride like Grizzly River Run really adds to the experience. It's one of the great things about a rapids ride, that other rides don't really allow you to experience (because of their layout mostly). That sense of "kinship" with the group of people who are about to get as soaked as you!
Once we were done we decided that we'd go and cancel our dinner reservation at Carthay Circle. We decided we needed a bigger afternoon break, and we had decided to avoid Carthay due to it's expense and smaller portions, which wouldn't be as conducive to sharing.
We were worried we'd be charged a cancelling fee, as we weren't able to cancel the reservation online (as we were too close to it) and were told to call the Disney Dining line. We figured just going to the restaurant would be easier, so while Jared did that I took some shots of the beautiful fountain in the centre of Buena Vista Street.
Jared arrived back, reporting that the restaurant CMs had kindly not charged him a cancellation fee. I was not done with my pictures though (Jared got in the way of this one a little).
By the time we were done at Carthay Circle it was time for lunch. We had booked lunch at Wine Country Trattoria at 12:00pm, so we made our way back towards Pixar Pier and towards the restaurant. We had to wait briefly for our table, and I enjoyed chatting with a local local AP who sounded a little tired of being an AP (I could not understand this, but then again, going to Disney is still something of a novelty to me).
We had a great server named Zac, who wished us Happy Anniversary and who bought us the menu and wine list. Jared hadn't drunk much wine on the trip and so he felt he had a very serious choice to make RE which local wine sounded the best. Ironically, we had our passports on us that day, but Jared was not asked for ID!
It was a gluten day for me, and we enjoyed the warm bread that was bought out (it was so fresh and so delicious!). I think I enjoy warm bread served before a meal so much more now that I don't really eat bread!
For appetisers/entree we ordered the bruschetta with mushrooms, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and cheese and it was perfection! Honestly one of the best bruschetta's I've ever had in my life!
As a main/entree we both shared the spaghetti bolognaise, though we aren't quite sure we got what we ordered. The pasta was covered in nap sauce and meatballs, and there was no "bolognaise" mince to be seen. The pasta was delicious though. The meatballs were juicy and tender, though it would have been nice if we got more than 2 (we checked our receipt and we were charged an extra $6.00 for the meatballs!).
After lunch we headed out of the park, satisfied with what we'd accomplished on a Saturday morning. We managed to get to the ART Bus stop at 1:00pm and a bus arrived at 1:05pm, so we got lucky with timing here! The ART App journey planner sort of tells you when to expect the next bus, but it isn't very reliable, and times often change. And if a bus for the line you want (the most direct line) isn't due for a while you'll sometimes only get the times for the next bus on another line that you can catch which will let you connect to the line you want. It would have been nice to have a timetable, like a regular bus service, but the ART doesn't seem to offer this.
Anyway, we made it back to the room in no time and had a great nap, which we really needed. After ordering the Cheesecake Factory for dinner again (we shared a chicken parmesan sandwich and chips, plus the fried cheese of course) we were ready to leave to head back into DCA.
Continued in Next Post...