Monday December 2nd, 2013
I usually choose the earliest flight possible in order to get in the most time at WDW as possible. That was before I had children however. Children I would be leaving for the week who I wanted to make sure I could see that day. This trip was one I agonized over for quite a while due to the fact that it would be the first time I had left my daughter for more than maybe a date night or two. I also agonized over whether or not I should just take her. She is currently 18 months old. But to be perfectly honest, when it comes to WDW I believe myself to be a little bit selfish. I know there will be those of you out there who shout, "They are never too young for WDW! How dare you leave your little one at home?" Well, I thought about it long and hard and decided she was too young. Maybe I needed a little getaway, and c'mon guys she is my first. It was not too long ago that I enjoyed countless trips to the world with adults only, was able to do whatever I wanted, stay out as long as I wanted, drink as much as I wanted....you get the drift. I was having a little trouble saying goodbye to that world. True there would be things at Walt Disney World that would make her laugh which would make me laugh but I imagine there would be more things that would make her cry and then I would cry.....in my non alcoholic beverage....on the way to the room....at 7:00 pm.
As I said before...selfish.
But hey, I am not too terrible. I mean she was home with my husband all week. They needed that bonding. He appreciates me more now.
So back to the flight. The passengers were myself, my mother, and my cousin. Three gals on the town living it up. We were set to arrive in Orlando at around 3:45pm. I usually strive to be in by 9am but as recently explained, I had to make some adjustments to my plans. Our dinner reservation for that evening was at 7:30 at Tony's Town Square. The plan was to rush to the Magical Express, get to Coronado Springs, check in, drop our stuff, and rush over to the Magic Kingdom. I knew we would get to Tony's on time but I still wanted to be able to have some time in the Magic Kingdom that evening before dinner.
Magical Express was a breeze. We scanned our magic bands when we arrived, walked right onto a bus, and were the first stop to drop off. I might just be lucky but in the last 4 or 5 trips that we've used Magical Express I've been the first stop. Lovin' it!
Coronado Springs check in was also a breeze. We were in the one of the business class rooms in building 9B. It was insanely close to the bus stop. So close that we didn't even venture out into the rest of our resort until day 4. It was literally room to bus every day. We didn't even go to the lobby because we had a concierge lounge in our building that offered drinks, breakfast, small snacks. We went there most mornings to grab coffee and a bagel/muffin/etc and hit the road.
Some Christmas decor photos on Main Street that I got before the lights went out.
By now it was getting close to dinner time. We headed over to Tony's to wait for our table. I made the reservation knowing that we would most likely still be in the restaurant during the Main Street Electrical Parade. We all agreed that we didn't really care if we saw it or not, also I had heard if you get a window seat in the restaurant you can watch it go by while you eat. I was hoping to get lucky. When we checked in I requested a seat by the window and we got one! Now it wasn't outside which would have preferable viewing but it was right inside by the windows. A tiny bit of obstructed view, but we could deal. We've all seen it before. Seeing it while eating was just a plus.
I have been concerned about my Tony's choice for a while, but if you've read any of my other blog posts about this fact you would know that this trip was all about firsts. Every reservation (save for the Candelight Processional lunch package at Biergarten) was a new restaurant for me as well as my party. We had the free dining plan and I wanted to use only one credit at each meal so it didn't leave me with many popular choices as I've been to all the popular ones. After experiencing Tony's I will say it was probably my least favorite of the trip but that doesn't mean bad. I just liked the other options more. I would eat here again, but I would not call it spectacular by any means. Nor did I expect it to be, I am realistic and know that the in park meals aren't going to be as great just due to the amount of people they have to shovel in and out.
I had the braised lamb shank, my mother had the New York Strip, and my cousin had the Chicken Parmigiana.
For dessert I had the signature cheesecake which for this particular day was an oreo mint, my mother had the Spumoni, and my cousin had some sort of chocolate cake although I can't remember the name.
After that and Wishes we went back over into Adventureland for Pirates and the Jingle Cruise. I've never liked Jungle Cruise, I don't know, I just never think it's funny. I more feel awkward and kind of feel bad for the Skipper that half the people are laughing awkwardly and half are just staring at him/her cause they don't speak English. It's just not my thing, but I wanted to take a chance on the Jingle Cruise and it can be more fun at night. We didn't want to get too close to New Fantasyland while it was night time. My mom and cousin had not been to it before, and I wanted their first experience to be during the day. We looked around Frontierland but didn't ride anything and then called it a night. Although a short day, I thought it was fairly productive. A nice relaxing way to kick off our vacation.