And this was our last day in the parks. On Wednesday night, Doc pulled out maps to figure out what we had left to do. We thought we were done with the Magic Kingdom but our hearts were just pulling us back. In retrospect, I wish we had spent more time in the Magic Kingdom. I do not wish that about any other park. We really neglected Main Street. I tried to get the boys to have their hair cut at the barber shop but no one would. I think we pretty much hit up all the important rides - and by the next time we return, Fantasyland may be totally different and I will have totally missed WDW's version of Toontown - but of all the things we did, I wish we had spent more time enjoying Magic Kingdom.
On Thursday we returned to do three things: Re-do Hall of Presidents, Visit Tom Sawyer's Island and shop! As we walked up Main Street, the buildings cast a shadow on the street and I thought for sure the lighting would make a great Main Street Family Photo! Captain Stubborn was being himself and it was not happening. We told him no dessert for the day. I was so tired of CS and his moodiness spoiling so many of the photo opportunitie we had. I was done. D.O.N.E. He, in turn, threw a fight. Oh well!
The Hall of Presidents worked this time and we were able to meet all of the presidents and listen to George and Barack talk. Most people who know me know that I am not a big fan of the president and I'll just leave it at that. I don't hate him. I'm not sure I'd be happy with any president at this point, no matter who he or she was or is. That said, I was raised by a father who did not like every president in office but believes firmly in respecting the office no matter who the President is. I really felt that in the Hall of Presidents. When the Obama animatronic stood up and spoke I got a little choked up. And I have never, ever felt that before about this presidency. It was a lovely patriotic show and I hope that everyone who encounters it can feel that way. We do have a lot to be proud of in this country.
Next we floated to Tom Sawyer's Island. The boys really enjoyed the caves and the fort and the bridges. Our visit was brief but fun!
On our way back to Main Street, the clouds rolled over the sun and I sensed another photo opportunity. This time, CS knew the score. He jumped out of that stroller and smiled. Dessert was restored and we continued on to shop.
I found a cute sweatshirt that I really liked on Main Street. It is light pink, so you know I am sure to stain it shortly. But it is a fun sweatshirt and I am pleased with it. Doc found a sweatshirt he liked but his size was not available. In fact, they only had mediums and 3XLs on the racks. A cast member went to the back but she could not find the size he needed. The one she found was too small.
In an interesting side note, on Tuesday night, we had encountered two cast members on Main Street who gushed on Doc's costume. In speaking to them, they were familiar with a company we are affiliated with and we spoke of that briefly, too. Doc had shared two of his grape soda buttons with them and they actually put them on their clothes immediately, on stage! On Thursday morning, one of them was working in the store we visited first and he spotted us, recognized us, and asked us how we had enjoyed the party.
The boys went to the Toy Shop area. CS found a car he had wanted for over a week. Mr. Genius finally spend the majority of his money in one setting. He purchased a bucket of toy soldiers, a bucket of little green aliens and a Walt Disney World t-shirt. SBS selected a t-shirt as well.
We left the Magic Kingdom via monorail to the TTC. Doc took our purchases back to our car while the boys and I went to a ticket booth so that I might upgrade my Park Hopper to an Annual Pass. The cast member was very friendly and very helpful, but she could not upgrade my ticket because it was attached to my "Key to the Kingdom" which controlled my credit line, our Disney Dining Plan account and was the key to my hotel room. Now, let me say that I absolutely love that one little card could control all of these functions for me. I have no complaints. Amber explained that I would need to go to Guest Relations to upgrade my admission. When Doc arrived, I told him we would have to go back to Magic Kingdom before Epcot. Amber heard this and clarified that any Guest Relations desk could do this for me. And so with that, we went up to the monorail boarding area and took the monorail to Epcot. We traveled in an air-conditioned monorail, the boys stood up and we actually went somewhere. It was fun to travel all around Epcot before arriving at the Epcot station to deboard.
Once inside Epcot, we again had a schedule of the last things we had yet to do in this park. First we went straight to Morocco for lunch. On our way, we saw Marie in France. We had seen Marie several times before but each time her line was long and our time was short or she was going in for a bowl of cream. Finally we found her with only one person in line!!
Off to Morocco and what a great lunch we had! Doc went to Germany to get an order of the Oktoberfest brew he had and enjoyed at Biergarten last week. Mr. Genius and I ordered Lamb Schwarma which came with scoops of tabulleh, hummous, and couscous salad. Doc had three Mediterranean sliders, small pitas with lamb, chicken and falafel on them. He had the hummous, taboulleh and green lentil salad. Because we could not eat the walnut infested baklava, they offered us extra beverages for dessert. We were quite relieved to not have dessert, frankly because our next stop was... FRANCE!
With so many snack credits left over, we blew through five at the French pastry shop. We "purchased" chocolate mousse, chocolate cake, a napoleon, and another thing that was a chocolate chip pastry thing. Yum! Yes, we left some bites uneaten.
At this point, we went back to the front of the park. Doc went to the gift shop to see if Epcot might have the sweatshirt he wanted so much. I went to Guest Relations. Now here is a place where Walt Disney World policy very greatly trumps Disneyland policy. Before I continue, I must defend Disneyland. Disneyland is much more of a "locals" park. I am certain that the percentage of Annual Passholders to short-term guests is very different at Disneyland than it is at Walt Disney World. I do not dispute the Disneyland policy. The Walt Disney World policy worked very very very well in my favor, but, that said, I was prepared to upgrade my pass based on the Disneyland policy. So what happened next was a very pleasant surprise!
At Disneyland, guests can apply the value of their tickets towards the price of an Annual Pass. That said, comp'd and discounted tickets are only worth the value that was paid for them. One special exception seems to be the Birthday passes which Disneyland distributed this year. Otherwise, a comp'd ticket has the upgrade value of $0. A discounted ticket is only good for the amount of money spent on the ticket. When I asked to upgrade my Walt Disney World ParkHopper, I assumed that there was a value assigned to my ticket based on the package I purchased in September of 2008. I knew that the price of admission had gone up since this time and I expected that the value of my ticket would be a discounted price anyway.
But that is not how it works at Walt Disney World.
The Cast Member at Guest Relations first took my Key to the Kingdom and removed the park hopper from the card. Next, she adjusted the value of the park hopper to the present day price.
Read that last line again.
As of this week, an 8-day Park Hopper would cost $304. As part of my package, my ParkHopper was only $200something. But the Guest Relations Cast Member adjusted the value of my ticket so that I would have the full $304 credit! Amber had said to me earlier, it was not "fair" that they raised the price since the time I purchased my package. Well, hello, Amber but if I wanted Fair, I would have planned a trip to Pomona, but if you would like to adjust the value of my ticket, please, do no let me stop you!!
And so for only $213 I upgraded my ParkHopper to an Annual Pass and will save about $50 over the price of a 3-day ParkHopper when I return in March to participate in the Princess Half-Marathon.
At this point I also left compliments for Alisha at Carousel of Progress, who found my cell phone on our first day, Sorcerer Mickey at Hollywood Studios who was amazing with all of his guests, and Mariza at Cool Club who was so kind and friendly every time we visited. The Guest Relations hostess was very charming as well. A young lady from Brazil, she really wanted to know what Disneyland was like! She was very sweet and charming. Her eyes lit up when we talked about Disneyland.
With my flimsy little Minnie Mouse AP in hand, I returned to the gift shop to find Doc and the boys. Doc found his sweatshirt, Captain Stubborn found a Sorcerer Mickey hat (we had purchased his Sorcerer Mickey zipper pull earlier at Magic Kingdom.) Mr. Genius spent just about the last of his money on a Four Parks, One World baseball cap. Sweet But Sneaky polished off his money with a red bouncy ball that makes noise, although he wished he had enough to buy the hat that MG had. And Doc also selected a Walt Disney World coffee mug and the Four Parks, One World cap for himself.
Around this time, our friends re-joined us. We finished our shopping and headed out to collect some Fast Passes. Jennifer and my older boys wanted to ride Mission Space: Orange together. So they collected four Fast Passes. I went to get two Fast Passes for Test Track for me or Doc and Captain Stubborn. When we were there, a gentleman offered us two passes he would not be using, giving us a total of four.
With Fast Passes in hand, we grouped together again at Ellen's Energy Adventure. This is a rather long attraction but Ellen Degeneres's dry humor is just hilarious. I finally "get" the "Stupid Judy" comments I have heard over the years from my friends. Jennifer and Mr. Jennifer have decided to come up with Cruise Line inside jokes to taunt me now. Thank you so much.
When we finished, it was time for our Fast Passes. Jennifer, MG, SBS and Doc went on Mission Space Orange - the fast one. They liked it very much. Mr. Jennifer, CS and I went on Test Track. CS's cap fell off on the fast area, but the man behind us caught it quickly enough, thank goodness!! We re-grouped in the Test Track gift shop and went back to World Showcase to laugh some more!
Martin Short hosts the O'Canada CircleVision movie. My favorite part of this movie was near the beginning when Martin says that the movie will be hosted by one of Canada's most famous and beloved celebrities. The voice-over announcer excitedly asks "Is Celine Dion here?!?!!??" Bwa ha ha ha ha!! I snorted a little bit. Yes, it was funny.
We continued onward, trying to use up more of those snack credits (I will list everything we tried at the Festival in a future post,) and stopped at the sidewalk belly dancer in Morocco.
It was nearing time for our dinner reservation so Jennifer surprised Doc with a birthday gift! At the gift shop, he had seen a fun coffee cup showing the seagulls from Finding Nemo and the words "Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!" We said our good-byes for the evening and proceeded to our much sought after and coveted ADRs for the Canadian restaurant, Le Cellier.
Le Cellier is often cited as an argument against the Disney Dining Plan, especially the Free Dining Plan offers. This lovely restaurant was once a quiet fine dining experience. Now... it is loud and full of families who would otherwise probably never pay to eat there with their young children. With the Dining Plan, it is suddenly affordable, especially with free dining!
I admit, this restaurant was not on my list. Out of pocket, it would have been more money than I wanted to spend on a family meal for this trip. Artist Point fit that need. And because the reservation is so hard to get, I did not want to put myself through the anxiety of trying. But because our ADR window was so big, most people do not stay for 11 nights like we did, we had a better than average chance of securing this reservation. On a whim, in July, we asked if Le Cellier was available for this night and it was.
Despite our reservation, the wait was rather long - over 30 minutes. The hosts tried to entertain us with trivia. They said that we would have a turn to try to stump them, too. The second question they asked was tougher than the first - Can you name 18 fully animated Disney movies with one-word titles? The problem came when someone said "Fantasia" and they said yes. Fantasia is not fully animated. If you're going to offer trivia, check who you're playing with before you bend the rules... I had the opportunity to stump them with the question I once answered to wine a resin Partners Statue replica: What was the last attraction which Walt Disney personally worked on before his death? Do you know the answer? They wanted a lot of hints. Someone guessed Haunted Mansion. I said no. I offered that it was not in the same land at Magic Kingdom as it is in Disneyland. Clearly, the room did not know their Disneyland geography because that was a very big hint given that Haunted Mansion was not the answer... They asked if it was in Fantasyland and I said no. About that time a woman said she KNEW the answer and guessed "it's a small world." Le Sigh. I ended up having to give them the answer because the hosts were so busy trying to figure it out that they had stopped seating guests.
Our server was Courtney and if I'm PerkyMommy, she's a PerkyCanadian. She bounced to our table and said "Hello, my name is Courtney and I will be your Canadian for this evening!" Then she explained where she is from in Canada. I thought that was a lovely touch. No other servers in Walt Disney World had this approach and it was fun to know a little more about our genuine Canadian.
Mr. Genius ordered the inclusive meal with the famous Le Cellier Cheddar Cheese Soup, Prime Rib and Chocolate Mousse. He did not think he wanted the soup but we told him to please order it and share it with us. When it did come, he remembered that he likes the potato cheese soup at Marie Callendar's and we were happy to share it with him, of course. I ordered a tomato stack appetizer that was delightful. It included little crumbs of bleu cheese. There was enough to enjoy with every bite but they were small enough that the flavor did not overpower the tomatoes, cucumbers and vinegar! SBS also ordered the soup with his kid meal.
This restaurant very conveniently offered half-carafes of wine, too. We had an Alexander Valley cabernet. Doc and I each ordered the mushroom topped filet minion with cheese risotto. It was divine. We were surprised that Mr. Genius's prime rib came with the horseradish sauce over the top of the meat. No one warned us and what if he did not like the sauce? I was worried because MG does not, in fact, like creamy horseradish sauce but after scraping the sauce off the prime rib, he was still willing to eat it.
For dessert, I thoroughly enjoyed my maple creme brulee. Doc had the S'mores dessert and, of course, MG his mousse. I missed the opportunity to taste the mouse, sadly, but I did have a bite of a maple cookie 'ear'. The table next to us was very close to ours and we chatted off and on with the couple sitting there. They were in town for the Tower of Terror 13K so we talked about the Half-Marathons and the Coast-to-Coast medals...
As we exited Le Cellier, Illuminations was just starting and we walked quickly to the monorail to avoid the crowds that would be streaming out of Epcot at the end of the show. Back at the TTC, the boys wanted me to take a picture of the four of them in front of the Epcot Monorail sign.
We had to get back to our room because Doc and I had a LOT of packing to do!
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