COMPLETE 9/29 -10th Anniversary at the Contemporary! - May 2024 TR

[Araminta18]

What a fun day!

It was such a fun day - low key and hot but still so fun.

 

[Araminta18]

Genie Magic and Topiaries - Tuesday, May 7, 2024 (part 3)​

After resting for about an hour, we woke up and were ready to get going again. Well, I was - I was in the corner and comfy with throw pillows, but apparently Trevor didn't get quite as rested as I did. Oh well. We got some snacks and some mint tea (which was weirdly refreshing), and then met the Genie!


This was really fun - Genie was super playful and funny. And the wait was only like 5 minutes, so a super nice perk.

We left at about 5:10, with the plan being to enjoy the food booths and the topiaries, ride Guardians, and head back to the hotel - super leisurely.

First off, we picked up some cherry cookies from the stand in Morocco (these are delicious - if you haven't had them I highly recommend it!), and then started walking. We ran into the Japan booth and got the watermelon strawberry lemonade.

I'm not a big watermelon fan but this was delicious and super refreshing. Also, did you guys all know that watermelon and strawberry is a good flavor combo? I was pleasantly surprised! Trevor also like this - he said it was better than he thought.

We also saw the dragon topiary!

The topiaries really are my favorite part of Flower and Garden.

We kept walking, and running into the fun displays.

I love how this is not just Tiana but a whole setting. She looks so good!

Hi Snow White!

And her dwarves!

I also thought these non-IP dwarves/trolls were super cute:

My mother in law loves this style - she'd love these cute little guys!


This one isn't a topiary but so cute with the little houses/garden thing. Not sure what to call it, but I liked it. More of this please Disney!

This was also where we got some more food - Toasted Pretzel Bread topped with black forest ham and melted cheese.

This doesn't look like much, but I really liked it. Yummy and cheesy. Trevor liked the pretzel bread but didn't love the cheese 'cause he's weird and doesn't like melted cheese.

 

[Araminta18]

More Topiaries and More Snacks - Tuesday, May 7, 2024 (part 4)​

After the hot cheesy bread we needed something cold, so we continued to Refreshment Port and Trevor got the Tangerine Soft Serve in Red Cream Soda.

Now he really got this 'cause it was red cream soda, but adding the ice cream didn't hurt at all! Trevor loves red cream soda but it's not a common flavor around here, so any time he sees it he always gets it. But he said the soft serve was good enough that he absolutely would have gotten it on it's own.

We kept going - look at these adorable panda bear topiaries!

We lost our panda bears at the National Zoo here in DC so I'll take the panda topiaries in the meantime.

Course we had to get food, cause they had House-made Cheesy Crab Wontons and I love cheese wontons. One nice thing about the heat and being a Tuesday is that there were no lines at the food booths!

These were as good as you'd expect - the sauce was a bit spicy, just a hint of crab...yum. We won't think about how you can get cream cheese wontons at panda express, 3 for $2.00 and these were $8.25.

More topiaries!


These are fun! I kind of want these...they seem easy like I couldn't kill them. I'd probably still kill them. My thumb is black.


Hi Donald!

We made it over to Guardians so we tapped in, and I realized just now that we'd used a lightning lane earlier - this was when we used our virtual queue. And the line was ALL backed up.

Backed up basically to the entrance. But it was about 6:15, and we had no plans except to watch fireworks in our room at 9, so meh. Might as well wait. And it was good a/c.

It ended up not being horrible - we were the last people in the first pre-show room, but the first people in the room with the cosmic generator (and no, I didn't push or shove - I just know where to go stand. ) We even waited one extra cycle to get row 9, but we were on the ride at 6:54 - about 40 minutes. Not bad!


Course, then the song we got was September so...*sigh*

Nah I know you all love it, and I don't hate it, but it is one of my two least favorite songs.

On the way out, we of course stopped for pictures!

Picture limit!

 

[Araminta18]

Winding Down - Tuesday, May 7, 2024 (part 5)​

Look at this super cute shot of Groot!


Since it was about 7 and we had a bit of free time, we went looking for a couple more topiaries-

Groot topiary! We got to hear it play "The Pina Colada Song" but the wheels didn't really turn except a tiny bit at the end. Not sure if that's normal or if it's broken?

Still fun to see and hear though.


We also found Buzz - gotta love a classic.

And since we were near Club Cool, we of course had to stop in and get a drink.

The raspberry soda from Moldova is my favorite. I wish they'd sell full size fills of it!

We started making our way out of Epcot, stopping at the stores there on either side of SpaceShip Earth to look around, and then we got sidetracked again by the SuperZoom shot in the front of SpaceShip Earth.

I think the SuperZooms are so fun - I wish they'd add them to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom!

We also got to see the Asha topiary! Too bad it wasn't quite dark enough to see her lighting up.

Super cute though. And the little donkey!

We saw the monorail pulling up right as we started to head up the ramp to catch the monorail. It was a LONG ramp, but we made it! Woohoo! We settled in and despite forgetting that the monorail goes the long way round to the Contemporary from the TTC, we were back in the room by 8:30. We showered and got all ready to watch the fireworks from our room - Trevor even ran downstairs and filled the refillable mug (twice!). We even had the glasses from our DVC tour that turned lights into Mickeys - we remembered them this time.

That added a fun element to it.

You can hear the echo of the "Happily Ever After" post-fireworks.

Now, what else did we have for the night? Bedtime?

HA! Dinner at California Grill! We ate here last year but I was getting a bit of a cold and couldn't really taste anything, so I wanted to go back and see how the food actually tasted. And it was so nice to just go downstairs to check in and upstairs to be seated - no fuss no muss.

We were seated by 9:40 - it was a pretty good view! Would have been nice for the fireworks (but still nicer from our room).


We started with drinks - I got a shirley temple and Trevor got a blackberry lemonade.


I think these are the same drinks we got last time, actually.

(boo picture limit)

 

[Araminta18]

California Grill Redux - Tuesday, May 7, 2024 (part 6)​

The service was pretty fast tonight - I think the staff wanted to go home! And that's definitely not a complaint. We eat fast, so fast service works. They brought us out sourdough bread with butter- delicious and warm. Yum. But super crumbly...I kind of made a mess. There was also a dip of roasted tomato garlic and olive that was good, if a bit too tomatoe-y for me. A good thing to hold us over til our appetizers came out - though again we didn't have to wait long.

I got the goat cheese raviolo:

This was delicious - and I could taste it this time, unlike last time. The dried mushrooms were actually really good (I don't usually like mushrooms). Trevor says that the worst part about mushrooms is the texture, so making them dried maybe fixes that.

Trevor got the surf and turf roll:

Trevor liked this - the red sauce was spicy, and the roll itself had lots of avocado and tuna and shrimp. It was too fishy for me, but he liked it.

Then our entrees. I got the Wagyu, which came with a bunch of accompaniments that they didn't really explain and I'm not entirely sure what they were:

Really I just wanted the wagyu, and the wagyu was indeed delicious. I didn't eat much of the rest.

Trevor got the ahi tuna:

This was good, though there was a bit of a weird crust on the tuna. Well weird crust for me - Trevor liked it. Which is the important thing since it's his dish, right?

While we were waiting for the desserts, the manager stopped by to wish us a Happy Anniversary and ask how we were enjoying the food and such. It was super nice! We're very awkward but it was really nice of him to stop by.

Then dessert! I got the cheese plate:


From left to right, the cheese was Ossau-Iraty, then Valencay, then Fourme d'Ambert (a blue cheese). I liked the Ossau-Iraty and thought it was good. the Valencay is coated in ash and that was good too - well, more interesting than good, but still. The blue cheese was meh - not my favorite. Then there was also an onion torte, a blueberry torte, and then pickled pear. The goat cheese with the onion tart was really good - I enjoyed mixing and matching all of them, really.

Trevor got their chocolate torte:

Super rich, but with some passionfruit jelly to help cut it. So a bit more interesting than just straight chocolate cake. They also brought us a mickey cake to celebrate our anniversary, since we don't drink (otherwise it would have been champagne, which is such a nice touch).

Not so hidden mickey.

Overall a really great dinner! We had fun enjoying the ambiance and the food, though it was a bit louder than I would have liked - there were some very happy people at the bar, laughing and talking VERY loudly. Reminded me of the drunk lady we met in line at GIdeon's the night before - just a ton of very very loud laughter. Glad they're having fun, I guess?

After dinner, it was super nice to take the elevator down just a couple floors and be immediately back in the room, before it even hit 11 pm. Lovely end to a nice day.

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 20038 steps (9 miles)
Ride count: 3 (Guardians x2, Rise)
Savings due to AP discount: $67.35 (merch discount + 10% off at California Grill)
Refillable Mug Tally: 2 fills today (10 total)

 

[VAtink]

Love all the pictures of the topiaries, they do such an amazing job with them. Also love seeing the fireworks view you had from the Contemporary, less than two weeks until we finally get to experience that view!

I think the SuperZooms are so fun - I wish they'd add them to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom!

They actually do have a super zoom at HS (or at least did on our last trip)! It's right at the entrance to Docking Bay 7.

That goat cheese ravioli at California Grill is so good, I tried to make it at home but it wasn't even close to being as good as the one there.

 

[Araminta18]

Love all the pictures of the topiaries, they do such an amazing job with them. Also love seeing the fireworks view you had from the Contemporary, less than two weeks until we finally get to experience that view!

I hope you have an amazing time - can't wait to hear your thoughts on it!!!

They actually do have a super zoom at HS (or at least did on our last trip)! It's right at the entrance to Docking Bay 7.

Oh right! Duh. We haven't done that one in a while, though I kind of think one on Sunset Boulevard or on the main entrance could be fun.

That goat cheese ravioli at California Grill is so good, I tried to make it at home but it wasn't even close to being as good as the one there.

That's impressive! I feel like it would be hard to make. Where'd you find the recipe?

 

[erinch]

Love your reports!
You want to check ride count for May 6! I think that is the date. You did not count any of your MK rides.

 

[Araminta18]

Love your reports!
You want to check ride count for May 6! I think that is the date. You did not count any of your MK rides.

Oh good catch!!! I definitely copy and paste from each day and then update but clearly missed that one. Thanks!!

 

[Araminta18]

Split Day Trip Report - Wednesday May 8th 2024 (part 1)​

Welcome to another split day trip report! Trevor decided to head over to Universal today, so I was doing the day all by myself.

First off though, sunrise timelapse again.

Breakfast was the breakfast of champions - cherry cookies from Morocco and chocolate crumb cake on the balcony!



These cookies are definitely some of our newest favorite treats - they look hard but inside they are super soft and delicious. Highly recommend.


This one was interesting - it's like the coffee cake cookie, but in a cake form. We liked the cake itself, but there was a whole layer of cinnamon in between the frosting and the cake and it was OVERWHELMINGLY cinnamon-y. Too overpowering. Not our favorite. Oh well!

We got ready for the day and then headed downstairs- Trevor to catch an uber and me to head over to the Magic Kingdom. Trevor got suckered by uber again - it said cars were like 4 min away and then when he hit confirm, it was 16 minutes! Boooooo. I don't understand how uber does the algorithm - it looked like the uber who accepted our ride was not even on Disney property yet and still had to drop someone at the TTC, and so it ended up taking a solid 20 minutes. Boo.

Of course, it wasn't 20 minutes for me to get over to the Magic Kingdom. I walked over in about 10 minutes, and was soon passing under the train station! The Omnibus pulled up right as I walked in, so I was like "sure! why not take a ride down to the castle"

I was the first one on, so I got the front row on the upper deck!

I've never ridden this particular main street vehicle before, so it was a new experience to see Magic Kingdom from up above!


Highly recommend, if you ever get the chance.

Makes you feel all sorts of special!

Once at the castle, I decided to head over to Tomorrowland and ride Buzz. That seems to be my go-to in the mornings! Sadly though, Buzz was down, so I veered to the left and headed to the Peoplemover instead.

The peoplemover is so nice in the morning. And you can kind of see our room at the Contemporary there! Trevor says next time we stay theme park view at the Contemporary we should bring something to decorate our balcony to make it easier to spot from the peoplemover.

Right as I was on that last loop of the peoplemover, I saw that they'd let the crowds in a couple minutes early so I was like OH NO! And scurried over as fast as I could to try and beat the crowds to Buzz. I just made it! Phew. Sadly, I didn't make it as a Galactic Hero this time - 916900!!! So close.

But as I was lamenting being so close, the CM was like "just you? go again!" So I got to go around again and this time...

I got it!! 999,999 - and this was justly earned, no convenient stops in front of high value targets. Honestly, what put me over the top was the 25k target on top of the volcano - no one else was aiming for it, so I was able to aim and know exactly which red dot was mine and get like 350k just from that one target. Then I got a couple at the bottom of the ship to put me up to 999,999. Woohoo!

And of course, got my sticker!

But wait....had Trevor made it yet? Was he planning to rope-drop Hagrid's?! Picture limit...find out next time.

 

[MommaKetch]

This one isn't a topiary but so cute with the little houses/garden thing. Not sure what to call it, but I liked it. More of this please Disney!

These little houses were so neat! My DD10 said that they are called fairy houses.

Trevor says that the worst part about mushrooms is the texture,

1000% agree with him!

I got it!! 999,999 - and this was justly earned, no convenient stops in front of high value targets.

Woohooo!!

I'm loving this trip report. Thanks for sharing your anniversary trip.

 

[Araminta18]

These little houses were so neat! My DD10 said that they are called fairy houses.

Oh awesome! Good to know. And yes, they were super cool!

I'm loving this trip report. Thanks for sharing your anniversary trip.

Thank you for reading!!!

 

[Araminta18]

Characters! - Wednesday May 8th 2024 (part 2)​

Yup, Trevor had indeed made it! While I was doing Buzz, he'd texted me:


He wasn't planning to rope drop Hagrid's - one cause he was too late for rope drop and two because the wait was already up to 105 minutes! Woof.

As he was walking in, Villain Con Minion Blast was down, but it came up right as he was walking by, so he decided to do that first!

Trevor likes Villain Con, but for him it's not usually worth the long waits that it has. So jumping in line right as it comes back up is the ideal way to do it. Also, even though Trevor was in Universal Studios (vs Islands of Adventure which is where Hagrid's is), he was keeping an eye on the Hagrid's wait time - and unfortunately it had gone down! Booooo.

Meanwhile, I was back doing Tron! My boarding group had been called while I was riding Buzz, so I finished my second ride, got my galactic hero, and went over to Tron.

This was the line - but it turned out it was only this backed up because people didn't know how to tap in. *sigh* Could have been worse - could have actually been this long!

I decided to wait for the car in the back, and got paired with this adorable little old lady. She told me that she hated roller coasters but the rest of the family loves them, so she was riding to ride with them.

She was awesome - I think she had fun! I definitely did.

Next up, I decided to go to over to Jungle Cruise! As I headed through the hub, I caught a little bit of the Dapper Dans:

They're so fun - I love the Dapper Dans.

Over at Jungle Cruise there was basically no line, so that was awesome.

I got right on:

Yay! I love Jungle Cruise. I love a lot of things in Magic Kingdom, let's be real.

Meanwhile Trevor was enjoying meeting all the characters at Universal Studios.


Hi Betty!


The Scooby Gang!

Meanwhile, I had a fastpass for Big Thunder, but when I got over there, the queue was empty - it looked like the ride had gone down but the app still said it was open and there was a wait time posted, even though the queue was empty and they weren't letting people get in line. I figured cool, I'll wait a minute or two and my fastpass will turn into a multi-experience pass. only it didn't! After 10 minutes the ride still showed as up in the app, even though it was clearly closed in person. So I went to a guest experience umbrella and they turned it into a multi-experience fastpass for me, which was nice but more importantly allowed me to book another fastpass. And what was the fastpass I wanted? Haunted Mansion!

But as I was heading there, I ran into the Adventure and Friends Cavalcade, so that was a fun interlude.

I love seeing Mary and Bert there at the end - they're my favorites.

I moved over to the shady side and the little boardwalk path by the river, and ran into a photographer.

A hitchhiking ghost!

 

[Araminta18]

Cooling Down - Wednesday May 8th 2024 (part 3)​

Haunted Mansion was fun as always



Meanwhile, Trevor was seeing his own scary creatures!

Beetlejuice!

Shrek and Fiona.

But it was definitely time for another ride - after all, he only had one to my 5! So where did he go? Men in Black!

He got 204,025 - no idea if that's good or bad or what!

Next up, he headed into Harry Potter stuff!

The Knight Bus!

Too bad you can't actually go inside the Knight Bus.

Then, he hopped on to ride Gringotts!

After Gringotts, it was time for one of the shows - Trevor watched the Tales of Beedle the Bard:

But then, it was time for a cool snack, cause it was hot!

Butterbeer popsicle!

Trevor and I were definitely on the same wavelength though - I have a picture from about the same timestamp of my own cool treat:

Aurora Cone: Dole Whip Strawberry and Blue Soft-serve topped with White Chocolate Crisp Pearls in a Sugar Cone. Honestly, I mostly got this cause of the name 'cause I'm a sucker for anything Sleeping Beauty, but it was also delicious and refreshing. I'd finished Haunted Mansion, got a Space Mountain fastpass for 11:45, and then decided to go to Fantasyland to look for the Wandering Oaken tote bag that Trevor wanted, but I got distracted by the pretty cone. It was really nice actually, sitting in the shade on the wall there by Winnie the Pooh, eating the ice cream and watching people melt down.

 

[Araminta18]

Avoiding the Heat - Wednesday May 8th 2024 (part 4)​

Trevor also got real food in addition to his ice cream though.

Pasties! He said they were yummy.

Pasties and popsicles - not a bad time!

I liked my view a bit better -

But then anything with a castle in the background is better.

It's a good thing Trevor took the above selfie though, cause that's what he realized that his hat was missing! He had to comb through his pictures to try and figure out where he lost it. You could do the same thing but spoiler alert: he took it off to ride Men in Black, but apparently sat on it and forgot to pick it up. So he headed back there and luckily someone had found it and brought it to the employees, so when he asked they were able to bring it back to him. Phew!

After my snack break, I headed over to Space Mountain, where I was able to get right on as a single rider.

I had no wait at all, which was awesome!

I don't know what I was doing in the ride photo.

Also I think its so interesting how the waits go in waves - there was no wait at all when I tapped in, and as I exited there was a HUGE long line to tap in for the lightning lane.

Trevor was planning to head over to Islands of Adventure, but maybe catch the Animal Actors show first.

The mummy people!


More characters - that's Marilyn there.

He also passed one of the Transformers meeting and greeting:

But then made it over to Animal Actors. He got a pretty good seat:

Meanwhile, I went for Buzz Lightyear again with a fastpass:

Only got 553,200 this time - shameful for a former galactic hero!

But then I decided to enjoy the air conditioning in Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, and cause I like stupid dad jokes.

Seriously, Laugh Floor is very underrated. And has great a/c.

 

[Araminta18]

Food! - Wednesday May 8th 2024 (part 5)​

After Laugh Floor, I was hot and hungry, so I decided to head over to the Poly and see if I could get the Ohana noodles for lunch from the Tambu Lounge. When we were in Trader Sam's on Monday, the couple seated at the next table over had some of the noodles with them and they said they got them at Tambu, and they just sounded so good! So I figured, hey, why not! So I meandered out of the park, doing window shopping and taking my time. I got lucky - right as I walked up to the boat launch, the boat pulled in!

And this is where I'm sure those of you familiar with the Poly and Tambu lounge know what's going to happen - I got there only to find out that the lounge doesn't open until 4 pm. Womp womp - I should have checked! Oh well. I decided to head back to the Contemporary and get some lunch there and take a nap.

In the meantime, Trevor had rested a bit after Animal Actors, trying to recover a bit from the heat, and then hopped on the Hogwarts Express.

It had been posting a 10 minute wait all morning but when Trevor hopped in line it was about 30 minutes.

But he finally made it!

Meanwhile, I'd made it back to the Contemporary and discovered that I could mobile order from Steakhouse 71! So I did that for lunch - got their Gourmet Grilled Cheese: Toasted Brioche, Gruyère, Smoked Gouda, Shredded Pork Belly, Caramelized Onion Jam, Arugula.

It was delicious - slightly cold, but very good. I also got a refill of the mug (#11?). It was so nice to be able to eat in my room and just relax and enjoy the view and the air conditioning. I also ate one of my frankencookies from Gideon's.

Also delicious. Definitely worth the frantic run over there yesterday!

Meanwhile, Trevor rode Velocicoaster cause it was only posting 35 minutes and most of the queue is inside (yay air conditioning!). He ended up having good timing - the ride stopped right before he was supposed to unload, so he was sitting and waiting for like 5/10 minutes, and then when he got off the ride was down. Phew!

Then he did some window shopping as he headed towards Hagrid's - the line was 70 minutes, but most of the outside queue was empty so Trevor figured he'd try it.

It only ended up being 50 minutes!

Trevor waited in the normal line (vs single rider), so he got to choose which seat (motorbike or sidecar). He ended up in the motorbike and in the front row! Woot.

While at this point I was winding down and taking a nap, Trevor was like "ride all the things!" He rode Forbidden Journey, which was posting only 20 minutes, and then the Jurassic Park water ride. He then wandered through the Marvel area and enjoyed looking around. We were meeting up for dinner at Antojito's at like 7:15, but Trevor got hungry so he stopped and got a pizza.


It was the Marvel cafe area, so he was enjoying that ambiance.

After I had a nap, I went to the Disney outlet that's by Universal - ostensibly I had to return pants that I bought for Trevor at my first outlet run that didn't quite fit him, but mostly cause I like going to the outlets. I found some random things (including more hats for Trevor) and a couple art prints for me.

I got dropped off at 6:45 at Universal, just slightly early, but it worked 'cause Trevor was headed out of the parks too. It took him a little bit too find me cause apparently I'm bad at giving directions to where I am. But we found each other and then went into the restaurant!

Really the thing we like at Antojito's is the guacamole that they make at the table, and so we ended up only getting that.


It was delicious, and our server was super nice. We tried to be quick so we weren't taking up the table for too long (and because we wanted to be back in our room in time for fireworks ), and so when we were ready to go and asked for a to go box, she brought us over a whole new to-go box of chips. So nice!

We ended up leaving at 7:50 and were back by 8:30 - plenty of time for fireworks!

 

[Araminta18]

Trip Report Convergence! - Wednesday May 8th 2024 (part 6)​

Back at the room, we had 30 minutes or so before the fireworks, so we decided to take advantage of the bathtub and soak our feet!

Seriously, the bathtub was definitely one of our favorite parts of the room.

Then, time for fireworks!

So good.

Magic Kingdom was having extended evening hours from 10 to 12 midnight, so you know we headed over. Sadly we *just* missed the monorail, but at this time of night, weirdly enough, they run a bunch, so 5 min later we were on the monorail, and 20 minutes later we were at the Magic Kingdom. We could have walked, but meh, might as well enjoy the monorail.

It was fun coming in as everyone was pouring out of the park - we saw one family where the dad was running to try and catch the monorail and the mom was like "nope, not doing that". And I feel those vibes, absolutely.

Where were we going? Tron! We walked to Tomorrowland by way of the Terrace restaurant there and I saw these two posters all lit up -

I've seen/noticed the Tomorrowland Towers one before, but never noticed the "Leonard Burnedstar" one -- made me laugh.

Over at Tron, we ended up waiting about 30 minutes, with 5 of it being the wait for the back row/bucket seats. Trevor rode one in front though, on the motorcycle.


That way we both got to experience it like we wanted.

Trevor went ham on the ride photo!

I did not.

 

[Araminta18]

All the Coasters! - Wednesday May 8th 2024 (part 7)​

Ok that was a lie - I also went ham on the ride photo.

After Tron, we went over to Big Thunder.

Look how pretty the castle is! One benefit of crisscrossing through the hub - you get to see the pretty castle.

The wait was posted at 20 minutes but it was not:

We waited one train. Woot!

It was about 11:30 when we got off, so we decided to head to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, cause why not. We passed Tiana's and saw them testing!

Love that empty view of the castle as we head towards Fantasyland.

We waited about 20 minutes for Seven Dwarfs, which was not bad at all!

We even got row 10, our favorite row.



Not bad at all. We got off at 12:06 am otherwise I would have been tempted to go around again.

Again we headed out through the castle.

So pretty, and so not crowded.

We did take some pics on Main Street:

It was a bit weird - the camera didn't want to connect or something? So we just sat on the curb chilling, waiting for the CMs to figure out what was going on so they could scan our magic bands and gives us the pics. It did work, eventually, as you can see.

 

[Araminta18]

Good Night - Wednesday May 8th 2024 (part 8)​

Isn't it just so gorgeous?

Pretty!

As we headed out, Mickey and Minnie were waving goodnight from the train station, but then they'd blocked us from exiting because Mickey and Minnie were heading backstage. Not a bad view either.

We waited 2 minutes for the monorail - SO NICE to be the first stop on the monorail - but even that was long enough for Trevor to fall asleep.

He says he wasn't sleeping.

We were back in the hotel by 12:37, and Trevor did a quick stop to refill the mug (#12) before we called it an actual night.

A busy day, but a good day. Oh, I forgot Trevor did a sunset timelapse!

Didn't quite work, but still nice.

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 22781 steps (9.4 miles)
Ride count: Tiffany 13: Trevor: 11 (Tiffany: Omnibus, Peoplemover, Buzz x3, Tron, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Space, Monster Inc Laugh Floor; Trevor: Villain Con, Men in Black, Gringotts, Hogwarts, Velocicoaster, Hagrids, Forbidden Journey, Jurassic Park; both: Tron, Big Thunder, Seven Dwarfs)
Savings due to AP discount: $0.00
Refillable Mug Tally: 2 fills today (12 total)

 

[Araminta18]

(sorry guys for all the posts in a row - I want to try and get this one and my Disneyland Paris one done before we go in November, so...yea. Apologies! Feel free to ignore/skip Also, anyone have any thoughts on a rental car for a Disney trip? For our November trip we're doing a couple nights at Universal and then over to Disney, and I'm thinking about getting a rental car vs a bunch of ubers. We usually do rental cars through Costco, but renting from Avis/Budget with the Universal discount code is way cheaper, if you pay in advance. Anyone done that? Any thoughts?

Ok, back to the trip report!)

Steakhouse 71 To Go for Breakfast! - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 1)​

We absolutely slept in this morning - my very first picture of the day is timestamped at 10:29 am. And what was that picture?

Avocado Toast for breakfast!

So we actually had gotten up a bit earlier - probably around 9:30ish. I had told Trevor how impressed I was with Steakhouse71 takeout yesterday with my lunch so we decided to get it for breakfast too. I got the avocado toast, Trevor got the Floridian Eggs Benedict, and then an add-on of chicken sausage. We get our 10% passholder discount even with mobile order, so it makes it super comparable to Contempo Cafe, and I think the food is higher quality, so I was excited (as an example, this breakfast order was $33.75 after our discount; the Contempo Cafe dinner order we placed the other night was $27.23, so not too huge of a price differential).

ANYWAYS! We placed the order at 9:50, and it took a little bit for it to be ready, but we were eating on the balcony by 10:30. I had gone down to pick it up and of course had filled up the mug (#13); I did check and see if Contempo had the cookie croissant, but it wasn't available (womp womp).

Back in the room, my avocado toast was really good. It had an interesting onion jam or something, and of course the avocado was fresh and delicious. It did come with potatoes on the side -


which were nice but I'm not a huge potato breakfast person.

The chicken sausage side was a bit ridiculous -

3 sausages for $5.50. LOL. These were fine, but not worth $5.50.

Trevor got the Floridian eggs benedict:

He said these were delicious - lots of crab, good sauce, freshly poached eggs. The only downside is because they were put in the to go container, the english muffins were slightly soggy/steamed. But that was a small thing, he said.

Honestly, slightly soggy english muffins are absolutely worth it for this:

We'd use this little table and do our little setup.

Trevor says hi!

Only fair for him to get me.

Honestly, so nice to be in the room, lovely breakfast, and amazing view of the Magic Kingdom, and not have to be like in public/all ready to go - we could be more relaxed and informal.

We took our time, and ended up leaving the room a few minutes after 11. Definitely a leisurely morning! Where were we heading? Epcot! We had good timing - I really don't like switching at the TTC to get to Epcot cause we usually have to wait a while, but this time we it pulled in right as we did, so woot!