(Updated 2/11) How Bougie Can We Be? - Nov 2024 TR

[Araminta18]

Not-So-Glimmering Greenhouses - Tuesday Nov 19, 2024 (part 9)​

After about half an hour, we were up and heading to Epcot - we had a Lightning Lane for Guardians, and I wanted to ride Living with the Land with the Christmas lights! We had a dinner reservation at 8:55 pm (guess where!), so had to be a little bit quick.

Anyways, we had another chocolate:

It was yum.


Also cute Christmas tree!

We took the monorail over to Epcot which is I think my least favorite transportation bit - it takes SO LONG to go from the Grand to Epcot. You have to take the monorail completely around the loop, then transfer to the Epcot monorail. But we made it by 6:30, time enough for a photo!

And then hustled over to Guardians. There was no line in the lightning lane so by 6:42 we were in the first pre-show room and by 6:57 we were waiting to get on the ride! We waited for row 9, of course:



What song did we get?

Disco Inferno. I swear we ALWAYS get that one and it is my least favorite. LOL Still an awesome ride.

Time to hustle over to Living with the Land! We crossed through the garden center section though:

So pretty!

Mickey lights!

Living with the Land was an actual 5 minute wait, and we waited one extra round to get the first row!


But then, we got into the greenhouse portion and guys, I felt so dumb - the Christmas lights weren't on!

Most of the lights were up/strung, but they weren't turned off. And when we got off the ride the CM at the exit was just repeating over and over that the lights would start Nov 29th. BUMMER! Also, why not post or announce that at the beginning of the ride. I felt so dumb - rushing us over to ride it only for nothing. Oh well!

 

[Araminta18]

Gingerbread Carousel - Tuesday Nov 19, 2024 (part 10)​

Oh one last Living with the Land picture -

THERE WAS SOMEONE IN THE LAB AREA! I've literally never seen this before - have any of you? I totally thought this was a fake lab but there was someone in there! Almost (almost) made up for the lights not being on.

We got off Living with the Land at 7:40, and the plan was to head to the back of the park and pick up an uber from Beach Club to take us to our dinner reservation, which came with the bonus of getting to see the gingerbread carousel at Beach Club! We did walk through the UK on the way though:

Never seen/paid attention to this diorama before. It made me laugh.

Tea!

Trevor took a quick video as we walked into Beach Club:

Pretty decorations, though somewhat hard to see.

Once inside we had a couple minutes to look at the gingerbread carousel:

It was themed to Mickey's Christmas Carol!

So cute!

Look at the little Scrooge there with the dollar bills!

We grabbed a shingle from the little shop, and then called an uber - it arrived super fast! Only one minute to wait, which was kind of nice. By 8:24, we were back at the Grand. Our dinner reservation - at 8:55 - was nearby, so we had plenty of time to head up to the lounge and see what the desserts were. #priorities

Mini key lime tart and then Hazelnut coconut cake.


Tiramisu shooter.

Closer look - it's got the Grand's logo on the chocolate there at the top!

Trevor got the hazelnut coconut cake:

He liked it. I just got another brownie.

Also, I may have shown this before but I loved this picture:

Belle's castle - if they sold it I would absolutely buy it.

 

[Araminta18]

Narcoosee's Dinner - Tuesday Nov 19, 2024 (part 11)​

Where were we heading for dinner?

Narcoosee's! We figured we should try it since we were staying here and it was the last table-service at the Grand that we had to try.

It was a pleasant walk back there, and we got to see a bit more of the decorations.


Once at Narcoosee's, we had to wait a little bit to be seated, but it worked out - we wandered out to the deck and got to see the Electrical Water Pageant!

The CM actually came out to seat us in the middle of the pageant but saw we were watching the pageant and was like "oh no worries take your time". So that was nice, and a good way to start our dinner.

Once inside we got a great seat, facing the Magic Kingdom.


The only problem is that it was 9:07 pm, and because it was MVMCP at the Magic Kingdom, the fireworks wouldn't be til 10 pm. And we are...not slow eaters. So we were definitely trying to eat slow so we could see the fireworks!

We started with sourdough bread:

The bread was warm, and super crackly - I got crumbs all over me! But it also came with salted butter - my favorite:


As far as drinks, the waiter said the only mocktail they had was the one on the menu, which was slightly disappointing. So I stuck with water and Trevor got the drink: Strawberry Cucumber Spritzer. Strawberry, Cucumber, Lime, Agave, and soda water.

It wasn't bad - it tasted most strongly of strawberry and cucumber, but not really any lime, just the strawberry and then the cucumber. Mostly interesting.

As far as good, Trevor got the Blackened Redfish: chorizo sunchoke hash, southern sweet corn hominy, and red pepper rouille.

He said it was really good and that he especially liked the char. His only critique was that it was ever so slightly dry.

I got the Prime New York Strip Steak, with potato mash, roasted rainbow vegetables, and red wine demiglace:

And because I have no sense of moderation, when I saw that one of the sides was "Loaded Mashed Potatoes: garlic glazed pork belly, creme fraiche, smoked cheddar", I had to get that too.

Both were really good - the mashed potatoes were SUPER cheesy and yummy, and the steak was cooked really well. I probably would have been just fine with the mashed potatoes alone though.

 

[Araminta18]

End the Night with Art - Tuesday Nov 19, 2024 (part 12)​

Then for dessert, Trevor got the Almond-crusted Cheesecake with Lambert Cherry Sauce, Chantilly.

I don't like cheesecake so this was mostly Trevor, but he liked it. He said that with the almond flavor it (logically) reminded him of the orgeat lemonade. Apparently he's an almond person now.

And yes we did manage to eat slowly enough to stretch the food out to the fireworks, but it was a close thing! Trevor did spend some time fidgeting with his camera to set up a recording, only for us to realize that we had guessed wrongly where the main thrust of the fireworks would be! Oops.

The video didn't turn out great, but still fun. And I do like that we got a pretty good recording of the soundtrack. It was a lot of fun to watch - obviously it would have been a better view right at the window but I liked that we were in a booth sitting next to each other and still had a great view.

Dinner over, we slowly (and with very full bellies) walked back to our room. I did make us stop at each level on the way up to the room to take pictures of the art they had!





Love it!

We were back in the room by 10:45, ready to fall into bed and sleep. It had a been a very good day, but a bit of a long one as well. With ALL sorts of snacks and food.

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 21380 steps (8.2 miles)
Ride count: 12 (Haunted Mansion, Seven Dwarfs, Tiana's x3, Big Thunder, Jingle Cruise, Pirates, Buzz, Space Mountain, Guardians, Living with the Land)
Savings with AP discount: $149.51 (I forgot we did a LOT of shopping today - I bought a pillow from Tiana's gift shop, and the Sleeping Beauty jewelry box from the gift shop by Gaston's Tavern, and then in Epcot I swung by the UK pavilion and bought a bunch of Mary Poppins things, and I bought the Belle Dooney and Burke wallet....I have no self control!)