Day Six - Epcot, The Wave (Again), Magic Kingdom, and a Fantastic Cruise
After our evening of indulgence we decided to sleep in a bit. We wanted to try the Contempo Lounge for breakfast. The options IMO were limited. We usually stay at the All-Star resorts, and I was expecting that the Contemporary would at least offer some of the same selections for the breakfast platters. I was very under whelmed by the selection and the automation of our meal. I know the Contemporary is trying to stay cutting edge with the services, but the Contempo Cafe was a fail in my book. The food was decent...
BTW, I had to use a snack credit with my meal credit to get the potatoes with my breakfast sandwich.....hmmmm another fail!
After breakfast, we caught the monorail over to the TTC, and then on to EPCOT. Just for a source of knowledge this is my absolute FAVORITE park, and I was shocked that we had gone so far into the week with out a quick stop into this park. It is usually my first stop. Again, we found a very low wait on everything....oops except for Soarin. Upon entering the park my must do is Spaceship Earth!! We walked right up and got on. Afterwards we ventured over to Soarin to grab FastPasses...when we saw the wait time we could not believe our eyes....
WE HAD TO WAIT A WHOLE.....
WAIT FOR IT.....
WAIT FOR IT......
20 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unbelievable, I know!!! We figured the wait time just had not been updated, but decided to get in line anyways......and we were right the wait time had not been updated. It only took use 15 MINUTES!!!!! I was in Pixie Dust Heaven. When we got off the ride the line was beginning to form, so apparently this was a one shot deal. But one I will take anytime!!!! After riding Soarin, we ventured over to the Land boat ride. Another favorite of mine, I love agriculture and horticulture, and I turn into a major geek to be able to ride through the greenhouses and see what they are working on now. One day I will take the Behind The Seeds tour, but I will have to ditch HB...he just keeps rolling his eyes at my geeky attitude toward this attraction.
My dream job at Disney...hehehe.
Today was another down day for us, and we were in no rush to get anything done. We had cancelled our ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern (I was still full from V&A). After we toured around EPCOT in Future World we decided to ride over to the Magic Kingdom. We knew we had a day coming up just for exploring the World Showcase, and it coincided with the Food & Wine soft opening....
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At the Magic Kingdom I "forced" HB to take me on the Haunted Mansion AGAIN...hehe
. This was a morning after a Hallowishes Night, so the park was like a virtual ghost town (pun intended
). We rode the Train around and were able to see some more of the Fantasyland Expansion, but the biggest shock for me was when we pulled into the Big Top Circus station. I did not realize that it was open already, and I enjoyed seeing some of the new additions.
Around 1pm we realized that if we did not grab a light lunch that we would look like slobs at dinner, so we headed over to The Wave at the Contemporary to see if they could fit us in (first that was not a problem, second I was not going near the Contempo again!)
This was the best spur of the moment choice we had made all week!!!! Let me stress again this place is amazing!!! HB & I wanted a light meal, because we knew that we were going out to another nice dinner tonight. Since we had breakfast here the day before the staff recognized us, and immediately remembered my allergy. The Chef came right out and worked with me to select nice lunch options, and this is one of my favorite lunches of the trip!!!
HB decided to skip on the appetizer (his loss). I chose the Shrimp & Crab Cakes, now they normally come with a slaw, but Chef sent me a creamy salad to compliment them instead...YUMMMMMM!! Now I am not sure which dishes this was suppose to go with, but I told him he needed to start keeping them together!!!
HB had to make me stop eating to get the pic....I LOVE Crab, and finding crab cakes with no onions in them was a HUGE bonus for me.
For our entrees, HB had the Cobb Salad and I had the Steak Salad...
Cobb Salad with Chicken...I love how it is deconstructed.
I felt like neither picture did this salad justice!!
The wave has a cute take on desserts, all of their desserts are in a medley. Which means three miniature versions served together.
Now my curiosity got the better of me and I chose the No Sugar Added Medley. I wanted to know how you can do justice to a Creme Brulee with out adding sugar...
It was a Chocolate Sponge Cake with berry compote, Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee, and Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry Sauce....OMGeeeeeeeee! I do not know how they did it but all three were amazing, I could not pick a favorite.
HB had the Creme Medley...
Chocolate Mousse with Caramel Sauce, Creme Brulee with a Mocha Wafer, and Vanilla Cheesecake with Berry Compote
After lunch we returned to our room for a nap, and to dress for the evening (No where near as elaborate as the prior evening). The plans for the remainder of our evening are for dinner at Citricos, and a private cruise and viewing of Wishes.
Now I am going to stop here for just a moment, up until this point we had been having an amazing and wonderful 2nd Disneymoon. We were feeling like young lovebirds and totally spoiled rotten by our plan and the restaurants, and the CastMembers that we had encountered. Following our dinner these feelings will resume, and our Cruise captain was amazing. Unfortunately I must now report upon a meal which was the biggest disappointment, and almost made me lose my relaxed vacation attitude.
HB & I will NEVER return to Citricos again!!!!! If any of you enjoy this restaurant, I am sure you did not experience what we did. ANd I hope you continue to frequent this establishment for years to come. However, do not expect to find me there!!!
We arrived 30 minutes early for our ADR, and we do not mind waiting. Now if you have ever been to Citricos you know that it is side by side with V&A. While we were waiting our hostess and Maitre De from V&A spotted us, and came over to chat when they were not busy. (VERY Friendly) Now while we were waiting we figured that the restaurant was not opened yet, and we were perfectly comfortable with the wait. However when the hostess said she would "allow" us to go ahead and check in, again I thought she was just being nice because they were not open yet. In reality, they had been open for a while when we got there, but did not want to seat us until our ADR time, even though they had plenty of tables available. I still would not have minded until 40 minutes AFTER our ADR when walk-ins and others who had later ADRs then ours had already been seated. (We knew this because we like to meet others while we are waiting.) Now this seemed strange, but no big deal. We figured since our ADR said we were on our 2nd Honeymoon they had a special table or something they were waiting on. NOPE!!!! When we were finally seated (stuffed in to a corner between to loud large parties, their was no privelege there!!!
Now I am beginning to get a little irratated, when our waiter came by, I reminded him of my allergy and asked to see the Chef. (I was used to this, I had been doing it all week.) The waiter informed me he would check into it, and asked what we wanted to order. I reminded him I could not order until I saw the chef, he ACTUALLY rolled his eyes
! He came back a while later and asked again for our order. Again, I reminded him that I had an allergy. He asked what the allergy was, I told him onions....he had the audacity to look at me like I was joking or making it up. He then told me he would leave the onions off my plate. I said okay, and asked if he knew which sauces the chef made with onions so I can avoid them. At which time I was informed that Chef's do not use onions in sauces.....ummmmmmmm
. He was kidding right????????? I asked him to check with the chef, the response.....you are going to love this.....they will not put ANY sauces on my plate! My response at that point should have been check please!
Long story short (too late), HB & I reviewed the menu and chose options for me that we felt confident would minimize my exposure to onions. AT this point I had reached my boiling point, and any relaxation benefit from my massage went right out the window. I ordered a basic salad with no dressing for my app...btw, there was NO WAY we were photographing this meal!!!!!! Now while we were eating the app I noticed a table not far from ours, and the Chef arriving to great the couple. Confusion crossed my face, and I asked our waiter about it. His response (I am not making this up) "those are friends of the chefs with a real allergy"...and proceeded to walk away!!!!
Boiling point has been breached, then my entree arrives......anyone want to take a guess what was on my plate propped up against my steak???????????
YUP BABY ONIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At this point HB knew it was safer to get me OUT of this restaurant. I pretty much avoided the onion area, but could not bring myself to eat much. We ordered a dessert, and I can still not tell you what I had!!! When HB gave our waiter the card for our meal plan he delightfully explained that the meal was 2 credits each.....umm NO....we have the platinum plan, it is only 1 credit each. At which he responds with a condescending smirk, no theirs was a signature restaurant and all plans use 2 credits. To which HB responded then go ahead and run it. When he returned he refused to look us in the eye, and would not comment on the fact that the receipt showed 1 credit each....hehehehe
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I normally do not like to air dirty laundry, but if you want to try Citricos I hope you do not have allergies!
Now a more pleasant note, we walked down to the dock after dinner, during which time HB worked on soothing my frayed nerves. We sat on a bench near the water and brought our mood back to each other, we were not going to allow 1 bad CM to destroy a trip of a lifetime. When our boat captain was ready for us, she came over and greeted us. We boarded one of the pontoon boats about an hour before wishes, Kristi (our captain) took us on a tour of Bay Lake first, and the the Seven Seas Lagoon. She pointed out several points of interest and was filled with very interesting knowledge of all the resorts along both lakes. She lined our boat up to watch the fireworks from the center of the lake. It was spectacular!!!!!! I have seen the show from the park, I had seen it from our balcony, but on the water it was mystical and magnificent!!! Kristi then offered to drive the boat over to our resort so we would not have to worry about any other transportation for the night. When we were walking up to our room, we had realized that we forgot all about the snacks that the cruise had furnished for us, we were having too much fun being on the boat, and laughing at Kristi's stories.
After our cruise, we changed in to our swimsuits, and enjoyed an evening in the pool. The spa was the perfect end to finish relieving the stress from this evening.
Tune in tomorrow for a fun filled and food filled day at the World Showcase with the soft opening of the Food & Wine festival!!!
Once I was done with the Pedi, it was time to move over to the hair salon portion...now let me stop here...normally I would have felt like I was on an assembly line, like something out of the Jetson's cartoon, but the luxury and personal touches made me feel like I was their only patron and they were there just for me. My stylist took her time and made me feel like a princess...she even offered to sprinkle pixie dust in my hair like at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Bo Salon....Although I was tempted, I did resist!
