We promised Ally much earlier in the week that we'd do a picnic so we made good on that this morning and grabbed a variety of breakfast goodies and took it outside to enjoy the beach of the Beach Club. We sat on a bench while Ally played in the sand. Mission complete, 3 year old happy!
We took some time in the Beach Club lobby to look at the Gingerbread Carousel with chocolate horses and pick out all 12 of the Hidden Mickey's.
Epcot today! We did Ellen's Energy Adventure and then this was the day Ryan had been waiting for...our lunch reservation for Le Cellier Steakhouse in the Canada pavilion! This is usually his only request for our trips, and of course I'm happy to give it to him! We did an earlier lunch at 11:35 since we had another table service meal planned for dinner and wanted to make sure we were hungry for both.
I ordered a martini flight I'd seen on the dessert table on our way in...yes, I had alcohol before noon and very much enjoyed it. ;-) Ryan stuck with iced tea since he wanted to do the martini's for dessert. We both had the Cheddar Cheese Soup of course and Ryan said this was the best part of the trip. HA! Jace loved this soup too. He gave up his pretzel bread for more bites of my soup. I had the Mushroom Filet like always and Ryan had the Chicken Crepe with blue cheese. Yummy all around. Ally was having a tough time and decided she was tired so she cuddled up to Ryan and fell asleep and slept through lunch. Fine by us! It's amazing how peaceful a meal out can be with only one kiddo instead of both to keep happy.
Ryan ordered a chocolate martini for dessert and I had a frozen dessert that was like a meringue made from white wine and came with a yogurt-based sauce. It was very unusual and took me a bit to warm up to the flavor. I'd order it again though. It was refreshing and not heavy. The presentation was gorgeous. Jace really liked the yogurt sauce.
We took advantage of a sleeping Ally to watch O Canada and then walked the opposite direction around World Showcase one last time. We stopped to watch the Voices of Liberty at the America pavilion and then watched The American Adventure. I had to stop at the Mexico pavilion to get a Fiesta Margarita (layered margarita of 3 flavors; lime, strawberry, and mango). These are SO good and I was bummed this was the only day I managed to have one.
I tried to upload a couple videos of the singers but it isn't working for unknown reasons. I'll try again in my extra blog post with PhotoPass pictures and forgotten stories.
We had taken Ally's lunch pizza to go since we knew she'd be hungry when she woke up. Sure enough, she ate the entire pizza in no more than 5 minutes and was asking for more! Some days our kids are bottomless and this was one of those days. They ate ALL DAY LONG. Good thing we were armed with lots of snacks
Off to The Seas with Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush at Ally's request. She decided this time she wanted to sit on the floor up front with the other kids because she wanted to talk to Crush. The show was as cute as ever but Ally was melting as we left. "I wanna talk to Crush! I forgot to raise my hand, I wanna tell him my name is Ally!" Oh boy. After we got her calmed down and consoled, we headed for Spaceship Earth as the finale to our Epcot experience for this trip.
After our final attraction we headed for the main entrance of Epcot to grab the Monorail to our new "special room" (as Ally had been calling our resort room all week) at the Polynesian. We were both really excited to add this resort to our list but were also a bit concerned...we knew we'd love it and then have a hard time staying anywhere else again! We were right. I have to say, it's a good thing we didn't do our Polynesian night at the beginning of our trip because we would've been severely disappointed in the Beach Club Villas after that. We decided the Beach Club just isn't the resort for us. We also noticed a marked and extreme improvement in customer service and general cast member friendliness at the Polynesian. I felt like we should've just been starting our trip since we were finally all healthy and we'd found our way back to the Disney "feeling" we were used to. Our room seemed ridiculously huge and we were in a building immediately next to the Great Ceremonial House (main lobby), Nuie. We were on the main floor with a large patio overlooking lush grounds that partially blocked the view of the pool. My only complaint, and it's nothing Disney can do differently, is I got chewed up by mosquitoes while sitting on the patio that night and I hadn't had a single bite the whole trip. I think it's probably just that there are SO many plants that there are naturally more insects. The Beach Club isn't lush of course and we were on the 5th floor so very few bugs to be seen. The bites were worth it, ha!
We stopped in our room long enough to have our luggage delivered (Disney transfers your luggage for you from resort to resort) and headed right to the Grand Floridian for our dinner. We had reservations at Narcoossee's at 7:05 so we could see Wishes from the restaurant at 8 and then the Electrical Water Pageant after dinner. This restaurant is considered a signature dining experience and we agree. It's pricey but everything was so good. The menu is printed daily so all selections are fresh and in season. Our only bit of disappointment was a miscommunication from the concierge who had made the reservation and the hostess who sat us. We were reserved for 4 adults and they made the change when we arrived to add the kids. When we were sat, it was at a 6 top table on the inside circle of the restaurant with our backs to Cinderella Castle where Wishes could be seen. They apparently thought we had 4 adults AND 2 kids. They had no interest in moving us so we couldn't see Wishes. :-( When the lights dimmed and the music was piped in, the kids (and us of course) wanted to see the fireworks so we left our table to see them on the viewing veranda. Thank goodness the staff is used to this and it's acceptable to walk away from your table to do this.
We enjoyed a bottle of really nice wine and had amazing entrees. Ryan had a filet and I had the ahi tuna with sweet shrimp. Everything was perfectly cooked and tasted heavenly. My dessert was delicious too, I wish I could recall what it was!
After we were done eating, I noticed the floats setting up on the lagoon for the Electrical Water Pageant so we paid and headed out to the veranda again to watch this short water parade. Both kids thought this was pretty cool!
Ally was excited to ride the Monorail again back to the resort. We got settled in and got a crib for Jace who had passed out on the way back and then got Ally to sleep. I went to the Great Ceremonial house to get a package sent from the Beach Club that we didn't get picked up at the Marketplace and hit the lounge bar for a Lapu Lapu to enjoy on our patio. I just couldn't go to the Polynesian and not have a Lapu Lapu!
We turned in about midnight and psyched ourselves up for our early morning of fun! Final Day: breakfast at Chef Mickey's and Magic Kingdom
Some side thoughts on our resort experiences this trip.
We looked into Disney Vacation Club (essentially Disney timeshare for those unfamiliar with it) on our last trip and now we're really happy we didn't decide to "invest". While there are financial savings to it, we feel like we didn't get what we wanted out of our stay while at the DVC Villas. We really appreciate daily Mousekeeping service since the kids are messy with crumbs all over and Ryan MUST have his bed made. We refuse to do this stuff for ourselves while on vacation...not happening. If we need extra towels, we don't expect to pay for them. We did have to pay for a day of extra service after the kids' sick night/day ($30). We felt, well, ignored, passed over, left alone at the Beach Club Villas. Maybe this was an isolated experience but it has stuck with us especially after the EXTREME change upon our arrival at the Polynesian. We'd be willing to give another DVC resort a chance but I'm pretty certain we're done with the Beach Club. The location is absolutely prime, like I've said, but the feeling we got at the Polynesian was so much more Disney that we'd sacrifice the ability to walk to 2 parks in order to have that magic. I know there is a following of lovers for each resort and I think we've discovered our resort style...Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian, Caribbean Beach.
