Day 2, cont.
Within a few minutes we were pulling up to Wilderness Lodge for our reservation at Whispering Canyon Café.
We had enough time to visit the bathroom before checking in. This was our first time using mobile check in and it was convenient, if a little strange, to not have to go to the desk and speak with a CM. Our table was ready about a minute after we checked in and we were soon greeted by our server, Lauren.
Lauren was amazing. I think she picked up on the fact that we didn't want to get too involved with shenanigans. She didn't, for example, bring us a giant jar of water even though other guests at other tables had them (although that wouldn't have been too unwelcome since it was hot and we were thirsty!). She did subtly drop SIX straws on our table. They all managed to get wet, so since we knew they wouldn't be reused we used ALL of them.
For some reason the plant-based lunch skillet wasn't listed on the menu but Lauren let us know it was, indeed, available. Soon this was delivered to our table:
It contained "chicken," "sausage," barbeque jackfruit, roasted potatoes, corn, peppers, and carrots.
Everything was at least good and some things were great to outstanding. We were surprised by our favorite items: the veggie sausage and the jackfruit. Normally we aren't big fans of jackfruit as a meat substitute because, while it mimics the texture of pork, it doesn't provide any protein in its place. But since there was plenty of protein on the skillet the jackfruit served the purpose of providing texture and flavor. It really delivered on the flavor and had a surprising amount of spice (for Disney). The veggie sausage was also quite good and had a good amount of spice, and didn't taste TOOOO sausage-y (we are both not big fans of sausage).
The potatoes were also very good, the "chicken" was decent, and the vegetables were good but nothing too special.
When Lauren asked if we wanted more of anything we requested sausage and potatoes, but "the amount you would bring for one person." It was more than we were hoping for but we managed to eat most of it. We had plenty of jackfruit left which provided a nice "condiment" for the other items.
We had a nice time chatting with Lauren throughout the meal. She asked what our plans were after lunch and M replied, "We're going to sit in one of those big chairs in the lobby for awhile." She agreed that that was the best plan after a big lunch and said she would ALSO be sitting in a big chair when her shift ended soon. We talked about the parks and being a CM and just Disney in general. When it was time to pay she brought out the check she asked if we were Passholders. I said "Sadly, no, but we used to be." She said, "I'm going to pretend you are," and gave us the Passholder discount! I sent feedback on the Disney site about how outstanding Lauren was, but don't worry, I didn't mention the discount.
After lunch we did indeed sit in big chairs for awhile as we watched the inside/outside stream and watched as guests and CMs walked through the lobby. We noticed a LOT of CMs in "normal" business attire as opposed to costumes on this trip, and we saw at least ten of them while sitting in the WL lobby. Many of them seemed to be in training.
Since we had taken the bus FROM the MK, we decided to take the boat TO the MK.
M didn't realize that Artist Point has Snow White characters at dinner (or...had?) so she was confused by all the Snow White art outside the restaurant. When I told her about the character meal she said that was a silly place to have THOSE characters. I mean, she ain't wrong...
After a quick stop in Roaring Forks for some mug refills (during which I noticed how very SMALL Roaring Forks is compared to other resort QS locations) we made our way outside to the boat dock.
We hung out in the shade rather than standing in the sun where the queue technically is. A boat arrived within a few minutes and soon we were on our way back to MK.
Up next: Transportation
Since the next stop was MK we knew we could just walk back to our resort, but the couple across from us wasn't having it and got off before we departed. We heard a monorail CM ask them what was wrong and they said they would wait for the next train so they wouldn't have to get off at MK and wait, and he told them the train was NOT going out of service and the announcement was wrong. He asked the (very new) monorail driver what happened and apparently she meant to press the button that says the train is being held momentarily, and she had just pressed the wrong button.
Also technically you're not supposed to stand up while the boat is moving so maybe she was just following the rules.
If she doesn’t have a chip and no humans claim her we will keep her.
