Let me set the scene for you......
The wife and I are in a movie theater with two of our three daughters waiting for the trailers to start. I lean over to my wife and say "You know. Disney shoots the MK 4th of July fireworks on the 3rd and the 4th. You feel like trying to get an ADR at California Grill or Kona cafe for tonight and heading to WDW in a few hours?" I got a resounding "H E double hockey sticks yes!" from my wife. As soon as we got home we went online and secured an ADR. As expected CG was booked solid but there was a 9:55 ADR open at Kona. We packed up the kiddies and headed to the promise land about 4:15
The weather was pretty bad in the sunshine state yesterday. We ran in and out of very heavy rain the whole way down and passed a couple of fender benders. The typical 2.5 hour drive took about 3.25 but we arrived at the poly about 7:30. When we got to the Poly the parking lot was on the typical 4th of July lock down. No entry without an ADR or room reservation. We had an ADR but my wife left the print out of the ADR at home and since we had just made the ADR about 5 hours prior were not on the list the security guard had. We were told to circle around and leave. I opted for hidden option 2....free valet thanks to TiWL.
I was a bit worried about the beach at the Poly already being full but thanks to a fairly steady drizzle the beach was all but deserted. We headed down to my favorite spot between the hill and the TTC and made camp beneath some palm trees.
The thunderclouds were building but it was going to take more than a little water to dampen our pixie dust saturated spirits.
Thankfully the Disney weather control machines kicked on and the skies cleared and the fireworks went off right on time. The video below is about a -4 on a quality scale of 1 to 10 but I am still getting use to this new fangled motion picture machine so be kind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYIqPzJbuEI
http://www.youtube.com/user/macleod57#p/a/u/0/TTaLbfQ-BQ4
After the fireworks we headed to Kona and they were able to get us in about 20 minutes early. Dinner was simply incredible. Kona is very rapidly becoming one of my favorite restaurants on property.
There is no better way to start dinner than with the Kona press pot.
My 16 year old Zoie had the Mickey shaped ravioli
My 9 year old Riley opted for a Claifornia roll and fries (yes. We dropped her a lot as a small child) Just an FYI the California roll at Kona roll is more like a candy roll and as expected Riley did not care for it. In typical Disney fashion they took it off the bill without even being asked to.
My wife had the Pan Asian noodles which were very good.
I tried something different and went with the Tuna Oscar. It was mighty tasty. I had it as rare as they would serve it and it had the perfect balance of spice and flavor.
The wife and I are in a movie theater with two of our three daughters waiting for the trailers to start. I lean over to my wife and say "You know. Disney shoots the MK 4th of July fireworks on the 3rd and the 4th. You feel like trying to get an ADR at California Grill or Kona cafe for tonight and heading to WDW in a few hours?" I got a resounding "H E double hockey sticks yes!" from my wife. As soon as we got home we went online and secured an ADR. As expected CG was booked solid but there was a 9:55 ADR open at Kona. We packed up the kiddies and headed to the promise land about 4:15
The weather was pretty bad in the sunshine state yesterday. We ran in and out of very heavy rain the whole way down and passed a couple of fender benders. The typical 2.5 hour drive took about 3.25 but we arrived at the poly about 7:30. When we got to the Poly the parking lot was on the typical 4th of July lock down. No entry without an ADR or room reservation. We had an ADR but my wife left the print out of the ADR at home and since we had just made the ADR about 5 hours prior were not on the list the security guard had. We were told to circle around and leave. I opted for hidden option 2....free valet thanks to TiWL.
I was a bit worried about the beach at the Poly already being full but thanks to a fairly steady drizzle the beach was all but deserted. We headed down to my favorite spot between the hill and the TTC and made camp beneath some palm trees.
The thunderclouds were building but it was going to take more than a little water to dampen our pixie dust saturated spirits.
Thankfully the Disney weather control machines kicked on and the skies cleared and the fireworks went off right on time. The video below is about a -4 on a quality scale of 1 to 10 but I am still getting use to this new fangled motion picture machine so be kind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYIqPzJbuEI
http://www.youtube.com/user/macleod57#p/a/u/0/TTaLbfQ-BQ4
After the fireworks we headed to Kona and they were able to get us in about 20 minutes early. Dinner was simply incredible. Kona is very rapidly becoming one of my favorite restaurants on property.
There is no better way to start dinner than with the Kona press pot.
My 16 year old Zoie had the Mickey shaped ravioli
My 9 year old Riley opted for a Claifornia roll and fries (yes. We dropped her a lot as a small child) Just an FYI the California roll at Kona roll is more like a candy roll and as expected Riley did not care for it. In typical Disney fashion they took it off the bill without even being asked to.
My wife had the Pan Asian noodles which were very good.
I tried something different and went with the Tuna Oscar. It was mighty tasty. I had it as rare as they would serve it and it had the perfect balance of spice and flavor.
And I think everyone who's responded pretty well agree that if we lived just 2.5 hours away we'd have been right there with the Master and the Yodettes. :lol:
