Trip Report 2 broke guys and the deluxe bday trip!

Yes, yes, I know we just got back. We went in the middle of December, then again for Christmas, then again in the middle of January, and now - our third month in a row…

When: Feb 2-4
Where: All-Star Music, and All-Star Music (you’ll see.)
Who:

Tony

And Brian

Wait, wait - that’s not right. Pretty close, but not right. Let’s try again.

Tony

And Brian

OK but those were reject “blooper” pics from our last TR. Here’s one where we’re overdressed:

That’ll do.

And…Mickey.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Where were we again? Oh, yes - waking up on my bday morning!

Brian knows I love Snoopy at least as much as Mickey.

We slept in, and the plan was to hit the gym, then the water park (hadn’t decided which one yet) and then check in to Wilderness Lodge. Woo hoo!

A peek out the window:

Hmm…looks ominous. And 15 minutes later:

Oh, boy.

We proceeded to the hotel gym. While there, my mother & sister FaceTimed their birthday greetings.

After a somewhat lame workout, and no text from WDW, we skipped the water park for now, and went directly to WL about 1pm, hoping to be able to check in a smidge early.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Alas, remember what I said – the place was packed - between D23, Labor Day, and of course, my birthday. There was no chance of early check-in. We looked around a bit.

Cute. But $50.

Hoped to find this design in a Christmas ornament, but didn’t. This was a card holder, slightly bigger than a Christmas ornament and actually much cheaper at only $16.99. I considered getting one and using it as a Christmas ornament, but decided to hold off for now.

Therefore, I had no reason to use one of these.

but I wanted to!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

We decided (which usually means I decided) to visit the much lauded (by @Tuvalu) Roaring Fork.

And we hid in the corner.

I had the pulled pork sandwich (surprise!) and Brian had a salad with grilled chicken. My pork was more enjoyable (read: less fatty) than last night’s, and at less than half the price.

The weather had cleared up, but it seemed more pointless, the longer we waited, to go to a waterpark. It was not to be. Just before 4 PM, we received our room ready text. And we were on our way to the Boulder Ridge Villas.

Loved the corner detail.

Our room was very private, to the left.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

(Continued)

After roughly unpacking, it was time for our traditional patio shot of Crown Royal Vanilla.

And now, to get ready for tonight’s exciting plans!

Not too many posts back, I mentioned that I had booked Citricos for my birthday dinner.

I also mentioned I had been unable to get a reservation for the Beak and Barrel.

You know we aren’t going to the B&B, because we are blocked out from the Magic Kingdom on Sundays.

However, in an attempt to get reservations for the B&B at some point during this trip, I signed up for one month of Mouse Dining ($9) which sends you text alerts when a reservation opens up. While I was making that request, I threw in a few others, no matter how big a longshot I thought they were.

And just two days before our trip, I received a notification for what I believed to be the longest of long shots…

 

[Tuvalu]

Jealous?

 

[Bullseye1967]

I had the pulled pork sandwich (surprise!) and Brian had a salad with grilled chicken.

Is that slaw on that pork? Those are fighting words here! Everyone knows that slaw is a side and not a condiment!

The Villas really look fun. We may consider them down the road.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Is that slaw on that pork?

It is.

Not something I’d do voluntarily, but that’s how it came. Luckily, it was such a thin layer, it made no difference to the sandwich.

I tend to be a purist with my meat dishes - no cheese on a burger, etc.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Thanks to a friend spelling out directions, we knew to take the blue launch to our destination.

Where were we going?

To the Contemporary for “Celebration At The Top: Sip, Savor, Sparkle!”

Woo hooo!!!

The boat ride took 3 minutes.

I could not think of a more special “new to us” event for my bday. I’ve looked at this option for years, but it never lined up right. Apparently, they only do it a few times per month, and I think it may have stopped for awhile.

What is it? Let’s save Tony some typing.

The gratuity added was $25 pp. The whole thing was paid in advance (couldn’t use points) and they didn’t even bring you a bill at the event. I did give some small cash tips (like $5 for each trip to the open bar) and we didn’t see anyone else doing that.

Details to follow!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

We had questions. Would this be filling? (We had canceled our Citricos reservation.) What was available at the open bar? Would there be a long wait?

Technically, the event begins one hour prior to the start of Magic Kingdom fireworks that night. The fireworks were at 9:30 PM, therefore the reservation was for 8:30 PM. Word is they may take you up early, so when we arrived right around 8 PM, there was already a line, and we would have needed to stand there for up to 30 minutes.

Nah. We went up one floor and asked people sitting idly in “our” massage chairs to scram so we could put money in them. We walked through the shops, went back downstairs, and the line had only grown by a few, but hadn’t started moving yet. We had successfully made efficient use of our time!

Why would people stand in line for over 30 minutes? To get a “good seat.“ “Near the window.“

What’s the point of getting a seat near the window when you are going to go outside to see the fireworks? What’s to see beforehand? It’s dark outside. Sometimes people are just dippy.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Somewhere around 8:20, they started bringing groups of us up in the elevator. The folks waiting for a regular California grill reservation were a bit inconvenienced by this. I can imagine certain people were not happy about that. They were using multiple elevators, though.

We were in the next to last Elevator going up. And the last one was nowhere near full. If you’ve ever been to California Grill, you know that you take the elevator to the 15th floor, and exit to the right. For this event, you exit to the left into two private rooms, which are actually Across a hall from each other. One is fairly large and that is where the open bar is.

The other is much smaller, and that is where the food is.

Before you choose a room, you take a welcome Bellini in the hallway, along with your family name card. You place the name card on your table, so you don’t have to worry about losing your seat when you get up to sip or savor.

Where did we sit?

If you guessed near the bar, you would be very predictable! Nope, we liked the much smaller room with far fewer people, right next to the food.

My apologies for my woefully inadequate number of pictures. It’s even fewer than I remembered. The event was private, and pictures felt somewhat intrusive and out of place. I figure a decent description is worthwhile in case anyone is considering doing this event.

Even being in the next to last elevator, we did get a window seat. So if that matters to you, you still don’t need to wait in line for over 30 minutes!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Since we were near the food and already had a Bellini, we started to grab plates. After I took this first picture, Brian continued getting plates, so the table was pretty full. (Use your imagination!)

At the extreme left, you can see we are at the window, seated at a table for two, same as the other five or six tables along that wall. The rest of the room was for food. At first, there were three stations down the center of the room.

I took a picture of a portion of one station.

This one had three different kinds of rolled sushi, a lovely snapper ceviche, raw tuna over rice, and butter poached shrimp.

The table behind it had high quality burger sliders, a meh cross between flatbread and pizza (think almost Sicilian pizza, made like a flatbread) and pork tacos. (there may have been something else, I don’t recall and don’t have a picture.)

If you’re at our table with the window to your left, there was only one table in front of us before the wall. To the right of that table was a manned station with plates of a chicken and vegetable dish with a tortilla base, and the highlight of the evening, the California Grill goat cheese ravioli - served lovingly by one of our favorite people of the evening - one at a time, with some sauce spooned over the top. It’s the midsized bowl in the pic above. But here’s another pic.

I have never been a big ravioli fan. I have never been even a mild cheese fan outside of Mozzarella. These were fantastic. I guess I like goat cheese? All the ingredients came together beautifully. I can’t tell you how many of these beauties ended up “in ma belly” but it was more than a few. It was too easy and too much fun to say from my table (mere feet away) to the server: “Ma’am, I can’t help but notice you look a little lonely. Now, I don’t need another ravioli, but…”

 

[Tiggerish]

That food looks awesome!!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I should mention, once we had eaten most of our first round, we went over to the bar. There were so many more people in this room, it was much louder with chitchat. It was a short line for the bar, and we ordered two old fashioneds, light on the sweetener. They used Maker’s Mark, not exactly my favorite, but hey, it wasn’t “well” alcohol. They basically had one or two choices for each kind of liquor.

And back to the food.

We commented on how strange it was that the mob of people in the other room weren’t filling our room to fill up on the food. Maybe they had taken a huge amount on their first round? I prefer to graze. They didn’t seem to be drinking a ton, either. Weirdos!

On our second visit to the bar, the bartender showed appreciation for our meager five dollar tip with a very nice pour. We tipped again.

By this time, it was almost 9:30 PM. The team pushed the savory dishes from the center of the room over to the empty wall opposite us. In rolled two new stations, full of desserts.

An extra dessert was brought to our table.

A happy birthday, indeed!

“And now the after hours starts.”

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Many of you are probably familiar with viewing the fireworks from outside the California Grill.

This is not that. We attending this event have a private area, separate from the riffraff merely spending $200 pp on a prix fixe menu.

No shortage of pics here. I’ll self-edit as I go.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Back inside, there was no rush to leave. They brought coffee for Brian. They brought ketchup for my second and third slider. (and they didn’t yell about it like they do at WL ) I sampled several desserts, all fantastic.

We did not go for a third round at the bar (!!!) I did not want Rose and Crown problems.

We tipped the ravioli gal, and Brian and I each separately tipped our main CM guy.

If there was any doubt, this was a phenomenal evening. Yes, it is advertised as small bites or appetizers. We were so full, it was bordering on uncomfortable. We got our money’s worth and then some. We got to try many things from the California Grill menu that we never would have tried. I would never in a million years have ordered ravioli from CG. Now, the next time I go sit at the bar and order wontons, ravioli is up next.

This was no Magic Kingdom dessert party. And how much do those cost? This was high quality, savory food, plus an assortment of high-quality desserts. Plus an open bar! With attentive service from start to finish. We loved every minute of the roughly 2 hour event.

And when it was over, back to the dock for a 3 minute boat ride “home.”

Crash?!

Nope.

Bye, CG!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

“Monday, Monday…so good to me…”

It’s now Labor Day, and we’re still blocked out of the parks.

This light fixture above the bed reminded me of Skee-ball.

Before our trip, I received a phone call from DVC. They noticed we were coming, and staying at Boulder Ridge, and offered to give us a 1-hour tour at the location of our choosing - after which, we’d each get a $100 Disney gift card.

Perfect! We had Monday completely free. I scheduled the appointment for the nearby cabins at Fort wilderness at 11 AM.

After last night’s overindulgence, and a bit of a tiff that kept me awake longer than normal, I woke up at…10:05?!

I told Brian to get up and get in the shower. Wheels were turning. We could still make it. It would be very rushed. We might be a few minutes late. We could still make it.

We’d be starving and tired. Read: vulnerable. These guys were going to throw us in a hot box until we caved and signed our lives away, right? No way I was going in hungry.

I called my contact at DVC and asked if we could push it back a little bit. We ended up rescheduling for 3:30 PM right here at Wilderness Lodge. (Copper Creek.)

Since we now had time, and yesterday was a bit of a washout, we went down to the pool. (The quiet pool, of course!)

After a few minutes, it started to drizzle. We hightailed it over to Geyer point for lunch, hoping for some sunshine when we returned.

Why did I take a pic only of the GP roof?

Turned out, it only drizzled for a few moments, and was sunny most of the time we were dining.

I had heard about the bison burger with marionberry jam.

Presto! There it is. Delicious. Bison burgers can be quite dry (they are leaner than beef) but this was not at all. And an old-fashioned.

Brian had a turkey sandwich and abstained from drinking like a chooch.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

When we returned to the pool, it was cloudy and drizzly again. Oh, well.

Woodsiness:

Being in Boulder Ridge was set apart from the main building, but still close enough to not be inconvenient. I appreciated having our own quiet atrium.

Plenty of seating, theming, a fireplace.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

The gym, called Sturdy Branches, has an entrance from the atrium, as well as one from outdoors.

Even the elevators are themed.

Hmm…maybe a little tacky?

After a brief workout alone, B and I went to the main building to meet our tour guide. We were kept waiting for quite some time. (Apparently, the family with the appointment ahead of us were signing.)

You may now compare the refurbished Copper Creek with Boulder Ridge, as we did.

At first we thought it was much bigger, but they were showing us an adjoining 1BR and studio.

It was nice. A little lighter, a little less themed, but not bland. The kitchen cabinets and dressers were fairly plain, though.

We sat while the poor sales guy tried to overcome our objections. What he couldn’t beat: I get most rooms free on points!

Bye, and thanks very much for this!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Actually, those curtains in the first picture are hideous!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

The atrium from the 2nd floor. Why am I fascinated with this?

And then, around 2:00 in the morning, finally!!

Why was I awake at 2am? Never mind.

Mouse Dining sent me no fewer than 15 notifications for Beak & Barrel (often while I was using my phone.) This was the only one I was able to get after clicking through!

It was for 10:20 the next day. We’d have to motivate early.