DAY 4 CONTINUED -- MARCH 7TH
We were making our way towards BTMR but as we were passing by the Liberty Belle they were just getting ready to set sail so we decided to take a relaxing cruise around the Rivers of America. We got the chance to watch the CM members search around Tom Sawyer Island ushering everyone back to the rafts so they could close the island. On a side note, I am not a fan of Tom Sawyer Island. We went there a few years ago and we all tried to cross one of the barrel bridges at the same time and practically the whole thing sunk and we ended up with soaking wet feet for the rest of the day. From then on, it has made its way on to our "never again" list.
After a peaceful ride around the river, we were in the mood for something a little more high speed. We headed over to BTMR and A and I jumped in the queue. It should not surprise anyone that this has been retired by my mom. She decided to go over to the Relaxation Station outside of Pecos Bill's to wait. We basically kept moving all the way up until the ramp going down to the loading area. I was also glad to see that the squirrels that took up residence in the queue that we saw back in October were still chittering around the rafters. This is a picture of them back in October.
We were on and off the ride in about 15-20 minutes when the wait time was posted at 35. The line for Splash Mountain was still really long and it was starting to get dark and cool down so we passed and went to reunite with my mom. We had just over an hour until our ADR at Crystal Palace and the wait time for Pirates was posted at 40 minutes. Even if we waited the full posted time we would done in plenty of time to make to CP with time to spare...right?
The line for Pirates crawled along at an excruciatingly slow pace. To add insult to injury, we had a group of four elderly people in line behind us that could not grasp the concept of the distance markers throughout the queue. At times they were so close that I could see them in my peripheral vision. Each of us tried the dirty looks at them and then down at the markers on the ground to see if they would get the point. Spoiler alert, they didn't. Eventually, my mom stopped and said something to them which finally got them to back off most of the time. After she said something, we were able to reinforce the point with just a dirty look. Somewhere in the midst of the personal bubble breaking and glaring, we also hit a cleaning cycle and the line grinded to a halt. The time kept ticking away and it was getting closer and closer to our ADR time. We eventually boarded our boat about 10 minutes before our reservation time.
You can kinda see that I was checking my watch during the most pointless ride photo in WDW. We would be in decent shape time-wise as long as there wasn't a traffic jam at the unloading area.... Luckily, there was only a boat or two back up and it wasn't terrible getting off the ride like it typically can be.
We sent A up ahead because he is the quickest walker of the three of us and the ADR was in his name. The only reason we were worried was because our ADR was at 6:50pm and Crystal Palace closed at 7pm. We didn't want to show up after 7 and have them turn us away. Thankfully, we made it in time and in a few minutes we were seated and ready to dig into dinner.
Originally we had an ADR for Be Our Guest but we decided to change it for a couple reasons. One, we all agreed that lunch was the best meal at BOG and at least my mom and I weren't completely in love with the new Prix Fixe menu. Two, in case you didn't know already, BOG is pretty expensive. I suggested switching it to Crystal Palace because it was about $20+ less per person and the new menu now that it is not a character buffet sounded intriguing.
This meal was the only one that specifically made mention of masks at all. The CM that seated us let us know that now that we were seated that we could take our masks off and that we needed to put them back on if we got up from the table. This seemed to be in contrast to the newly announced mask policy that says you need to wear your mask unless eating or drinking.
We scanned the QR code for the menu while we waited for our server Miss Vickie to come around. The place was pretty empty since it was just past the closing time. It took Miss Vickie a little while to make it over to us because she was closing out checks and getting boxes for her departing tables. Once she arrived, she was delightful and we placed our orders.
If you are not aware, CP has reopened at a pseudo-family style meal. For $39 per person, we got salad and biscuits for the table, each person got their choice of entrée, and then we received a dessert platter for the table. Non-alcoholic beverages were also included and beer/wine were available for purchase. The salad, biscuits, and dessert were also all you care to eat. I completely forgot to take pictures of any part of this meal so I stole pictures from Disney Food Blog.
Miss Vickie returned with our drinks and two plates of salad and two baskets of biscuits for the table. Keep in mind that there only three of us total.
The salad was my least favorite part of the meal but it was still good. The salad is Tomato and Watermelon, Crisp Greens, Blue cheese, Candied Walnuts and Hot Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette. Not mentioned in the description were the onions that were on top.
I am not a fan of onions, raw tomato, or watermelon which is why the salad was my least favorite part of the meal. I picked out a pile of the greens along with a bunch of the blue cheese and candied walnuts to make enough of a salad that I would eat. The pepper jelly vinaigrette was not spicy at all but it was VERY salty. This actually paired well with the sweet walnuts, creamy blue cheese and slightly bitter greens. I am sure it went with the rest of the salad also but I can't speak to that.
Along with the salad we got mini biscuits for the table. There were regular buttermilk biscuits and cheddar bacon biscuits that came with honey butter, caramelized onion butter, and pepper jelly.
As you can guess, I skipped on the caramelized onion butter because, well, onions. The rest of the spreads were really tasty. I liked the pepper jelly on the cheddar bacon biscuits the best. It was a nice combo of sweet, spicy, and salty. The pepper jelly in non-vinaigrette form was not overly salted.
Miss Vickie kept checking in on us and offering us more salad and biscuits every time she came over to the table. She was offering us so much food that we started to joke that she was actually a witch in disguise and was trying to fatten us up to cook us.
For our entrees, A and I both went with the Prime Rib and my mom ordered the Fried Chicken.
They changed the sides that came with the Prime Rib since DFB did their review. It now comes with creamed spinach instead of collard greens and asiago potatoes au gratin instead of the roasted potatoes. The prime rib was delicious, fatty in the best kind of way, and a huge portion to boot. The potatoes were just ok and would have benefitted from some more cheese. The real standout of the meal for me though was the creamed spinach. It tasted just like a bowl of warm spinach dip and was super creamy. It took all of my willpower to not lick the dish clean.
My mom said that the fried chicken was very good but like the prime rib she said that the best part of the meal were the collard greens. They were well cooked and had just a touch of vinegar to cut through the bitterness of the greens. The chicken also came with a hot honey drizzle that I may or may not have dipped a biscuit in.
Miss Vickie came back and again offered us more salad and biscuits which we politely declined. We did not, however, decline the dessert platter.
The desserts (clockwise from the top) were a honey cupcake with raspberry frosting and caramel inside, ricotta fritters coated in powdered sugar with chocolate sauce, a banana cream pie with chocolate crust and Tigger inspired whipped cream, and a hummingbird cake.
We split up the fritters between the three of us. They were tasty but nothing out of the ordinary. My mom and A split the banana cream pie because of my previously mentioned hatred of banana. They also split the hummingbird cake because I was worried it had coconut in it because coconut is right up there with banana for me. I ended up having the whole cupcake to myself and it was delicious. The combo of the raspberry and the caramel was unique and very yummy.
Needless to say, after this massive spread we were all stuffed. That didn't stop Miss Vickie from trying to tempt us with more desserts even offering to box up a whole dessert sampler to go.
We settled up the bill and Miss Vickie came over to thank us for being so patient with her being slow to get to us and thanked us for being such an easy going group. She then started to tell us that the group that was at our table before us were quite the opposite. She was telling us that they were complaining about having to wait for their table to be ready and that they caused such a scene that the manager went and got a stuffed Pooh Bear for the child in the group. We also learned from Miss Vickie that Disney keeps track of guest complaints and how they are resolved because apparently this same group complained about things the day before and were given free things then as well. Miss Vickie was going to spill more tea but got spooked because her manager was heading in our direction.
I have to say that this was the best dining experience we had during the whole trip. Miss Vickie was a great server. Even though we were the last people to leave the restaurant, we never felt rushed or unwanted and the quality of the food did not decline. I would highly recommend Crystal Palace and I really hope that it keeps this family style dining setup and doesn't go back to buffet. I would also highly recommend asking for Miss Vickie if she is working.
NEXT: MK after dark and a last minute change in plans
A must for me. Or a couple of musts. 
