Disney World. No Kids. Day 2. Roll Me Out of Here.
After getting a solid 5.5 hours of sleep, we got up for the day. At least there were no kids waking us up in the middle of the night to tuck them in.
We got up around 6:30 AM and managed to get out by about 7:15. We Ubered to the Contemporary Hotel and then walked over to the Magic Kingdom (it was faster than taking the monorail). They don’t actually like people doing that, but they don’t stop you. We were inside the park by 7:35 AM. Pretty good.
It was relatively empty since only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were open, and only for guests of Disney hotels; the park opened to the public at 8:00AM.
We immediately ran to Peter Pan, which is always one of the worst lines. It said it was a 25 minute wait, but I had read a blog last night that said at park opening, even if it says 25 it’s not going to be 25. We were in and out in under 10 minutes. I think that was the first time I’ve done Peter Pan in a decade.
We were hungry since we’d skipped breakfast so we went to Starbucks and grabbed coffees and a bagel, and then stopped at the Cheshire Café and got a Cheshire Cat Tail, which was basically a way-too-sweet long donut with pink and purple glaze. Nourishing breakfast.
From there we ran into Tomorrowland. Tzvi wasn’t ready for anything too fast so he sat drinking his coffee while I rode Space Mountain alone. Then we did Buzz Lightyear (Tzvi won), Astro Orbiter and the People Mover. The voiceover is new on the People Mover and included a narration about the new Tron ride that’s opening soon.
At this point we had already heard from my mom that Hallie had been up all night and had a headache and a red throat. I guess we can’t expect everything to go according to plan.
We then headed to the Seven Dwarves Mine Train, which was cute, hit the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise (which has been slightly rethemed as Jingle Cruise for the holidays), Pirates of the Caribbean, and then made our way to Frontierland for Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. All before noon. I’d say it was pretty crowded in the park, but we really didn’t need to wait on any lines. Every time we used a Lightning Lane we became eligible for another one, and there was always a Lightning Lane available for that time, so we just kept booking Lightning Lane after Lightning Lane and didn’t need to wait on any regular lines.
It was bittersweet riding Splash Mountain, as this was the last time we would be riding before they close it in January and retheme it to Princess and the Frog. I think it will actually come out great, but we will definitely miss Splash Mountain. Luckily I didn’t get too wet, but Tzvi got a little wet.
We saw the parade and then it was time for lunch. By now my mother had taken Hallie to the doctor and confirmed that she was positive for Strep. Could be worse – at least she’ll start antibiotics and be better by tomorrow.
For lunch we went to the Columbia Harbor House, which used to have this great tuna sandwich, but alas, no more tuna. So Tzvi got a fake crab cake sandwich and I ordered the salmon. It comes with string beans and rice, but the rice was inedible and I had to go back and ask for another scoop, which was only moderately better.
After lunch we did Winnie the Pooh, Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Goofys Barnstormer, and finally Small World. We really got everything we wanted to done. Our efficiency was just on point. We didn’t end up doing Carousel of Progress, but I’m okay with that.
We headed to main street for our shopping, but not before stopping to join in some hoola hooping (so random). Tzvi waited online at Starbucks for 20 minutes to buy his Starbucks mug, only to find that they sell it in the other stores on Main Street. I got a bag of popcorn that you specialize by adding different candies and chocolate. I put M and Ms and Twix and white chocolate. Delicious.
We had some time before Shabbat so we left the park (begrudgingly) and took the monorail over to the Floridian again. I wanted to actually buy a gingerbread cookie from the gingerbread house. After that, we went back to our hotel.
With some time to spare before Shabbat, we headed to the spa to sign everything we needed for our massages tomorrow. We also looked around the boutiques on the first floor, but the only thing we ended up buying was Children’s’ Tylenol because everywhere in New York is sold out of it. Then we got ready for Shabbat, which started at 5:13. I’d say a Disney Day well done.
Dinner tonight was a Capa, the Michelin starred Spanish restaurant on the roof of the Four Seasons. We have never eaten there, mainly because there isn’t much for the kids. Also, I can only imagine my father trying to understand that menu. Going in I didn’t think there was much for me either, but I didn’t go hungry.
The only way to describe the meal is ‘flawless.’ Our waiter was Kevin. He seemed pretty young, but he has apparently been working at the restaurant since it opened 8 years ago. He was super knowledgeable about everything and really did a perfect job. When he was describing different dishes he kept saying “chef does…,” or “chef believes…” and I just couldn’t stop thinking about the movie The Menu, which we had seen a week ago. I told him he needs to see it and may never look at fine dining the same way again.
We started the meal with cocktails. Tzvi had an old fashion variation that had a huge ice cube with walnut bitters and other alcohols in it, so as the ice cube melted the drink actually transformed into a different drink. It was cool. I had a gin and tonic that came in a huge glass with lots of fruit floating in it.
The restaurant is mostly small plates (except for the meat entrees that we couldn’t eat). We started with pan con tomate (grilled bread with tomato) and patatas bravas (crispy fried potato chunks with tomato sauce and chipotle aioli). Next we had fried cauliflower that was good but had too much of a curry taste. Tzvi had seared tuna with mango and avocado and truffles. For the main we had arroz sofrito, which had rice and veggies; it was kind of like a vegan paella, served in a hot dish so the rice got crispy. It was delicious. Tzvi also got a side of “maiz,” which was a creamy polenta dish with roasted corn; it looked gross but he finished the entire thing.
There were three desserts that looked good and we couldn’t choose which to get, so of course we got all three. They plated it really nicely on a big board that said Happy Birthday. We had churros with caramel sauce and chocolate sauce, chocolate mousse with coffee ice cream and olive oil cake with berries. All were so good. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t take photos of the best meal of the trip.
One of the special things about the restaurant is that you can see the fireworks at EPCOT and Magic Kingdom from the patio. At 9:30 we went outside and watched the EPCOT fireworks. Tzvi got another cocktail, this time with rum that was a little more desserty. Then we went inside and ate most of our dessert, then went back out at 10 to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks. You can’t hear the music in the parks but it’s nice to see. Just as we went outside we saw a proposal happen as well, so that was cute. After the fireworks we went back inside and finished dessert.
Roll me out of here.
Good day.