Graduation Celebration: HOT days, fun times, and plenty of food

I have only been home for 20 hours, and I am already missing the most magical place on earth, ESPECIALLY the weather. When I left Florida it was 95, and now I'm stuck with a high of 67. What's with mother nature? Anyway, I had an awesome 10 days at WDW, and I am excited to share my vacation with the wdwmagic family!

If any of you haven't read my pre-trip report, you can read it at this link: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=750730

WARNING: There may be some grammar mistakes in this report. I am a very fast typer, and I sometimes skip words or make spelling mistakes. I'm only human. Also, I am no Tom Bricker (WDWFigment), which means my photos aren't fantastic, but I try.

After 5 months of planning, June 11th was finally here. I was supposed to wake up at 4:30 am, but I hit the snooze which caused me to sleep in till 5:30. After getting all of our stuff together, we hit the road. Goodbye boring/cold Illinois! Hello warm/tropical Florida!

Here is a fantastic (sarcasm) photo of me and my disney girls. Don't I just look so alive? At least I'm representing my team.


IMG_0251 by jessicamanning19, on Flickr

Here is our crazy amount of luggage, but hey were women! We need a lot of stuff!


IMG_0253 by jessicamanning19, on Flickr
At 6 am, we hit the road. Because everyone in our group has their license, we were all able to take turns driving. And guess who drove first? The one who has the least experience driving! My 16 year old sister, Jodi. I will admit, she is a pretty decent driver, but she scares me sometimes. With that said, my mom watched her very closely. She drove about 5 hours. Then, my mom took over until the middle of Tennessee.

AHHHHHHHH

IMG_0255 by jessicamanning19, on Flickr

Goofing off in the car:

IMG_0958 by jessicamanning19, on Flickr

Rock on!

IMG_0260 by jessicamanning19, on Flickr

I'm so glad Katie was excited for the car ride. Good thing she doesn't know about this website, or she probably would kill me.

DSC_0447 by jessicamanning19, on Flickr

YAY for Kentucky!

DSC_0462 by jessicamanning19, on Flickr

Hello Nashville! Sadly, I fell asleep, and was not able to take a picture of "Welcome to Tennessee!".

DSC_0469 by jessicamanning19, on Flickr

After driving through Kentucky and a little bit of Tennessee, my mom needed to rest her back, so I took over. I have a fear of driving in the mountains, and I was a tad freaked out about driving through them. Even though there not that bad, the mountains still freak me out. My mom talked me through, and I successfully drove through them. Phew! That was a relief.

Hello Atlanta! Katie took the picture because I was driving. Yes, I missed the Georgia welcome sign, but I was driving.

IMG_0267 by jessicamanning19, on Flickr

After Atlanta, I got tired, so my mom took over. We made it to the border of Georgia at about 11:00. We decided to stay in a hotel for the night. We made our exit in Valdosta, GA. Finding a hotel was a NIGHTMARE. Every hotel was booked because Lady Antebellum was in town for a concert. WOW, we would choose to stay in a town with every hotel booked. It was insane! We were so desperate we even tried staying in this crack motel...


IMG_0959 by jessicamanning19, on Flickr

HA! You gotta love the name. Unfortunately, they were booked, but the guy offered that we could stay downstairs... Oh my gosh. I don't even want to know what goes on downstairs. So we got the heck away from that place. Luckily, the sleep inn had one room left. It was a "suite" with a whirlpool. Woohoo! How fancy! You should have seen this place. It was no suite. Jodi and Katie were forced to sleep on the pull out couch, but they survived.

Stay tuned!!!!

 

[tiaragirl]

I wanna see Cali Grill outfits!

I love this TR =)

 

[Disneygal1]

The heat wasn't too too bad in May, not as humid as in the summer... And when we got FP, the return times were never usually more than an hour out for when we got them, so that was good.

50s is great, especially if you get a waiter/waitress who plays along with you. Last time we went, our waitress was Amy and she kept telling us to put away those "walkie talkie thingys at the table" (cell phones) and she made us set our own places. The atmosphere is great there!

Lucky! I wish I could go around that time, but the rest of my family is usually working around that time.

I really want to go there now! I love it when waiter/waitresses like to give people a "hard" time. It's so funny.

I'm lovin' your trip report! Looks like you all had a great time! I noticed your Mom's Mickey earrings in a couple of pics. Can you tell me where she got those! Thanks for all your pics! They're awesome!

I glad you're enjoying! We had such a awesome time. That is so funny how you mentioned that. My mom had been asked by at least 10 people asking her where she got the earrings. My mom received them as a gift from her friend. She has no idea where they came from. She thinks that they were bought in WDW, but they were given to her several years ago, and she was unable to find them at WDW. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help!

I wanna see Cali Grill outfits!

I love this TR =)

I will post them right now!

Yay! I'm so glad you're loving it!

 

[Disneygal1]

When we got back to pop, my mom decided to look for here phone, which is something I forgot to mention. My mom had been missing her phone the whole trip since we went to typhoon lagoon, which was 4 days ago. She looked everywhere, from our car to under the our beds. She concluded that she must have left it at Typhoon Lagoon. She called the lost and found at Typhoon Lagoon and was transferred to the main office, which was at the Transportation & Ticket Center. She described the phone and they looked for it. Luckily, they had it! She was so happy. Meanwhile, while they were picking up the phone, I decided to catch up on my sleep and took a cat nap.

After that, we got ready. We then headed over to the Contemporary. Our adr was for 9:20. I made sure that the reservations were right before wishes so we could see them. We checked in at 8:30, and we were told to wait upstairs in the lounge. My mom also put in a request for a window seat. I was so excited. I hadn't eaten at the Cali Grill in eight years.

Before we looked for a seat, we took some photos.

After our photoshoot we looked for some empty seats. We were only able to find two. My mom kept a lookout for anyone leaving a table. After twenty minutes of hanging out, a family left a table. So we headed over to the table. All of the sudden, a man (we had noticed his man before walking around the restaurant oddly) confronted us letting us now that he had that certain table reserved. My mom was very confused, and thought that it was impossible to reserve a lounge table. She went up to the check in table and asked one of the cast members if the table was reserved. The lady informed my mom that no one can reserve lounge tables, and that they were on a first come basis. My mom let the cast member know about what this man had told her. The cast member was really shocked and informed him that he could not reserve a lounge table. He was pretty upset and told my mom how it was his daughter's birthday and blah blah blah. So my mom let him have the table, she really didn't care. She just wanted to make sure she was right. The cast member apologized and told us she would compinsate in some way, but we really didn't want her to. It wasn't that big of a deal. She was so nice though. Read on and you will find out what we got taken of our bill!:king:

We were seated at nine. Our table was AWESOME. It was facing the Magic Kingdom. I couldn't stop staring at our amazing view. Also, our waiter was very nice and informative. He explained the sushi to us and every entree.

For the first course, I ordered the cheese plate sampler and the California Rolls, Jodi also had the California rolls, my mom had the Spicy Kazan Rolls, and Katie decided to have nothing.

YUM! I liked the first two cheeses, but the others were a tad too different for me. I did like the cheese plate thought. It was interesting to read how each cheese was made.

YUM YUM YUM. Best California rolls I have ever had by far!

I didn't take a picture of the Kazan rolls, but I thought they were pretty good, but not as good as the California rolls.

Right before our entrees came out, the fireworks started. We stayed inside. Like I said before, our view was awesome. Seeing wishes was awesome as well. This was the highlight of my night.

For the main course, I had the Filet. I liked this a lot. The filet was so tender and the barbecue taste was very unique. The mash potatoes weren't that great, but I could barely tell because of the filet.

Jodi and Katie had the Parmesan Ravioli. Jodi hated it and Katie was not a fan. They did not like the foam at all. Katie liked her noodles though, but Jodi said her noodles weren't fully cooked. To say the least, they were disappointed.

My mom had the Crispy Chicken. She thought it was good, but nothing fantastic. I also didn't take a photo of it.

For dessert, we all had the Espresso Cheesecake. YUM YUM YUM.

When we got the bill, we noticed that two of our sushis and our drinks that we had at the bar had been taken off our bill. That was so sweet of the cast member! We were also shocked to see that our bill was going to be $300. Luckily, we had the dining plan.

My review: Well, I liked Cali Grill, but I was dissapointed in a lot of peoples attire. We all dressed up because that's what we were told to do when we made the ADR. There were so many people in jeans, which made us feel like we were somewhat "overdressed". On the food side, I loved my food. My mom thought her food was good, but she didn't love it. Jodi and Katie were not happy campers. I can understand though. I really don't understand the whole parmesan foam thing, but maybe it's a delicacy? :shrug: I also think that Cali Grill also has some lighting issues. I felt like it was too bright in the restaurant for it being so late. They should consider toning the lights down. Other than that, we enjoyed our experience.

After Cali, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom, which had EMH till 3 am.

More to come!

 

[Steve-B]

Looks like it has rabies.

We were also shocked to see that our bill was going to be $300.

 

[WDW_Emily]

Jodi and Katie had the Parmesan Ravioli. Jodi hated it and Katie was not a fan. They did not like the foam at all. Katie liked her noodles though, but Jodi said her noodles weren't fully cooked. To say the least, they were disappointed.

I saw the picture before I read the review. The ravioli looks like it has soap on it and thats just how I imagined it would taste like, Soapy Ravioli:hurl:
Did they order something else or just eat it?!?

 

[lebeau]

Really enjoying the TR (especially the great pics). Thanks for posting! It's the next best thing to being there.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I totally have this dress except mine doesn't have the band around the middle!! Too funny. I got it at a place called Dots in Rhode Island. I love it!!

I have never eaten at Cali Grille before but I have such high hopes that when I do, it will be amazing. I'm so bummed you guys didn't LOVE it!!

 

[tink65]

I completely get what you mean about people not dressing up! We went to Cali Grill for the first time in '09. We dressed appropriately but so many people didn't. It was like they could have cared less & it showed! I thought it took away for the overall experience somewhat. We enjoyed the food and saw Wishes from the catwalk. That was completely awesome! However, our DD was celebrating her 15th birthday and they did nothing to acknowledge her celebration. Very disappointed!

 

[Disneygal1]

AHH! all my photos on photobucket have been disabled. Sorry guys! Any tips on fixing it?

 

[HollyBelle]

AHH! all my photos on photobucket have been disabled. Sorry guys! Any tips on fixing it?

Ahhh... the dreaded exceeded bandwidth box! You've got two options, pay the price to upgrade your account to unlimited bandwidth ($30 per year) or you have to wait it out until your month is up and it resets itself. That's how they snag people on the free account!

Now on to the good stuff... FABULOUS report, so far! I'm really enjoying your commentary and photos.

 

[Billy6]

Great Report..I was there at pretty much the same time as you and I think I was at Cali Grill on the same night..What day were you there? Me and My fiance were the on the 16th of June. Our ressie was at 750...

 

[Disneygal1]

Looks like it has rabies.

Hahaha! Yes it does!

Yes the total was jaw dropping! We couldn't believe it. Before we received the bill, my mom was contemplating on whether or not she should just pay for it since it was going to be two credits. Her mind changed when she saw the bill...:lol:

I saw the picture before I read the review. The ravioli looks like it has soap on it and thats just how I imagined it would taste like, Soapy Ravioli:hurl:
Did they order something else or just eat it?!?

It was definitely very weird. I can't even imagine a foam tasting like parmesan. I wonder why they opted for the foam instead of normal parmesan...:shrug:

No, unfortunately they didn't. I kind of wish they did. Since they have pretty bad feelings on Cali Grill now. I'm sure the waiter would have had no problem switching it out though.

Really enjoying the TR (especially the great pics). Thanks for posting! It's the next best thing to being there.

I'm glad you are liking it! I totally know what you mean by it's like being there. I always go on here and read everyones TRs when I'm missing Disney.

I totally have this dress except mine doesn't have the band around the middle!! Too funny. I got it at a place called Dots in Rhode Island. I love it!!

I have never eaten at Cali Grille before but I have such high hopes that when I do, it will be amazing. I'm so bummed you guys didn't LOVE it!!

Really?!?! That's so funny! I love my dress. I got it from Forever 21.

I'm sure you will like it! The views are spectacular. I really liked it a lot, I was just kind off bummed because the others weren't.

I completely get what you mean about people not dressing up! We went to Cali Grill for the first time in '09. We dressed appropriately but so many people didn't. It was like they could have cared less & it showed! I thought it took away for the overall experience somewhat. We enjoyed the food and saw Wishes from the catwalk. That was completely awesome! However, our DD was celebrating her 15th birthday and they did nothing to acknowledge her celebration. Very disappointed!

It was pretty disappointing! We felt almost out of place! Wishes is so cool to see from the Cali Grill. It's definitely well worth it. Aww, I'm sorry to hear that they didn't do anything for your DD That stinks. I almost had the same thing happen to me. On the reservations online for the Cali Grill, it asked me if I was celebrating anything, and I said I was and indicated what I was celebrating. I didn't have anybody say anything to me. When our waiter came out to take our dessert order, I had my pin on my dress and I kind of stuck it out so he could notice it. Then he congratulated me and he put the congratulations piece of chocolate on my dessert. I guess you have to tell the waiter what you're celebrating,which I am not a huge fan of...

Ahhh... the dreaded exceeded bandwidth box! You've got two options, pay the price to upgrade your account to unlimited bandwidth ($30 per year) or you have to wait it out until your month is up and it resets itself. That's how they snag people on the free account!

Now on to the good stuff... FABULOUS report, so far! I'm really enjoying your commentary and photos.

Those websites can be so sneaky! I guess I'm going to have to go "pro".

Thank you! I'm so glad you are liking it! I love your honeymoon report! My mom and I have been looking at all of your AMAZING photos.

Great Report..I was there at pretty much the same time as you and I think I was at Cali Grill on the same night..What day were you there? Me and My fiance were the on the 16th of June. Our ressie was at 750...

What a coincidence! We went the day after, the 17th.

 

[Disneygal1]

A little side note to the Cali Grill....

While watching fireworks, we heard clapping. I looked over and a guy was proposing to his girlfriend. It was very cute!



I have to go to a wedding today, so I will write tomorrow.

 

[Billy6]

A little side note to the Cali Grill....

While watching fireworks, we heard clapping. I looked over and a guy was proposing to his girlfriend. It was very cute!

Really? That was my original plan to propose to my GF on our night at California Grill. But she got wind of it and had to change it pretty quickly. The family and I had ADR's at Tutto Italia on that Wednesday(15th) and I did it then by the area near the lagoon that looks like you are in Venice. She was completely surprised and I got it on video too...

 

[Disneygal1]

Really? That was my original plan to propose to my GF on our night at California Grill. But she got wind of it and had to change it pretty quickly. The family and I had ADR's at Tutto Italia on that Wednesday(15th) and I did it then by the area near the lagoon that looks like you are in Venice. She was completely surprised and I got it on video too...

That's so funny! Cali Grill must be the place to propose. The area by the lagoon is a great proposal place. And surprise! I love seeing proposals they are are so cute. Disney is definitely the place to propose.

 

[Disneygal1]

June 17th Continued with Extra Magic Hours at MK

After Cali Grill, we hopped on the monorail to go over to MK. It's kind of weird now how in the near future the monorail will no longer run during extra magic hours. Although this is somewhat disappointing, I trust Disney and I know that Disney knows best. Now back to the Magic Kingdom! We got to the Magic Kingdom at 11:50. Right when we got there, I could not resist taking some castle pictures.

 

[Disneygal1]

After the castle's photo shoot, we went on Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel. I hadn't been on the carrousel in forever!

We then headed over to the Mad Tea Party. Jodi and Katie went on it, but I did not. I wasn't interested on barfing my dinner up... My mom also did not go on it because she gets sick easily on it.

After the teacups, we went on Snow White's Scary Adventure, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Magic Carpets of Aladdin. We really go on Dumbo, but the line was so long so we opted for the Carpets of Aladdin.

Katie was so tired. She usually goes to bed at 9. Jodi and I on the other hand, are late nighters.

As you can see, I was the "caboose"...

Surprisingly, I saw a couple people from my high school. Wow! I couldn't believe it. It was such a coincidence. Also, two of my friends were there too, so I texted them and we met up at Pirates. Right when we were about to go in line, Pirates closed because of technical difficulties. I was so surprised...not. So we then walked around a talked for a while and parted ways. After I caught up with my friends, we went on the Haunted Mansion. After the Haunted Mansion, we decided to give Pirates another try. Luckily, it had reopened. Then we went on Small World and Peter Pan's Flight. Both rides were empty. It was so nice. Small world was kind of creepy though because we were literally the only ones on the ride. It was also really nice to walk right on to Peter Pan's Flight. It's never like that during the day.

Katie and my Mom were very tired after Peter Pan's Flight, so we decided to leave. It was 2:30, so it was about to close. We then headed back to Pop.

Next up, a lazy day!

 

[oommggitskait]

Loving your TR so far. You all look amazing for your cali grill dinner! I love fun summery dresses!
So bummed to hear it didn't really live up to your groups expectations. I'm going in August and am hoping it meets mine! Kind of weird about the lights being so bright; I was expecting romantic candle light! haha

Can't wait for more!

 

[Disneygal1]

Loving your TR so far. You all look amazing for your cali grill dinner! I love fun summery dresses!
So bummed to hear it didn't really live up to your groups expectations. I'm going in August and am hoping it meets mine! Kind of weird about the lights being so bright; I was expecting romantic candle light! haha

Can't wait for more!

I'm glad you are enjoying it! Thank you! I love summer dresses as well. It was such a bummer that my group was not impressed, but the view makes up for it! I bet you will enjoy it! A lot of people do. As long as you don't get the parmesan ravioli:lol:. I was very surprised with the lighting. I too thought the lighting was going to dimmed and candlelit, but it wasn't. It wasn't bad though, I can be very picky at times with the ambiance of a restaurant haha.

 

[Disneygal1]

June 18th: A lazy day!

We were so exhausted from staying up till after 3am, so we decided to sleep in and take it somewhat slow for the day. We woke up at around 11, which felt very good. Since it was getting close to lunch time, we decided to have lunch at Beaches & Cream, which is located at the Yacht and Beach Club. This is one of my favorite restaurants at Disney. We first heard about it when we were watching a Samantha Brown WDW special. She went to Beaches and ordered a kitchen sink. For all of you that don't know what the kitchen sink is, it is basically a bowl (which looks like a sink) full of all of the ice cream and treats at the restaurant. It is very hard to finish. We always get the kitchen sink when were down in Disney. Since Katie had never experienced the kitchen sink, we could not miss out on the opportunity on ordering it!

Before we ordered the kitchen sink, we had some lunch. Jodi, Katie, and I had a cheeseburger. My mom had a side of fries. Our lunch was very good as usual. Sadly, I didn't take any food pictures because I didn't bring my fancy camera with. I did take some kitchen sink photos with my iPhone and Jodi took some with her camera. I wish I knew how to post videos on here because I took a pretty awesome picture of our waitress presenting our kitchen sink to the restaurant. If anyone knows how to, let me know!

Our nice waitress took a picture of all of us!

The outcome of trying to eat the massive masterpiece...

Lazyish...

After Beaches & Cream, we realized that we needed to figure out where we were going to have dinner. Our initial plans for the day was to go to Epcot and eat at the Coral Reef, which I wanted to do, but we were to tired to go to Epcot that day. My mom mentioned how she always wanted to try Cape May Cafe, so I went on my phone and luckily was able to make reservations. The ADR was for 7:10. We then decided to head over to Typhoon Lagoon for a while. We were only there for a few hours, but we definitely got the most out of it. I was in the wave pool most of the time. I had sooooooo much fun. I love the wave pool. The rest of the girls ended up getting sick of the wave pool, so I was in it alone, but I didn't mind. I just blended with the crowd. After typhoon, we went back to pop and got ready for dinner.

At 5:30, we left pop and headed back over to the Yacht & Beach Club. While we were walking to our car, I noticed that a storm was coming...

Jodi took a picture of me and my mom because we were unknowingly matching. Don't worry! I wasn't crying, I was just itching my eye.