Can you guys believe Asa and I have been married for FIVE years? I can. (I've been here the whole time, that seems pretty accurate.) Just go ahead and insert all the mushy I married my best friend stuff here(But, no really, I did and it's awesome), because you know I'm not about to do it. Anyway, Since there was no blog back in 2010 (it was born in 2011 from our trip to Alaska), I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from June 17, 2010.
I was still taller than Calib back then!
Anyway, for our five year anniversary I wanted to do something big. I mean,remember last year? We spent the whole day at Disney, and it was so much fun! A couple of months ago, we decided to see if my mom could come down so we could go away for the week. She might be retired, but she is a busy lady. However, she managed to fit us into her schedule (partially probably because I stole her ipad and blocked out that week for watching the Waterstraut kids! hehe). She could be here Sunday night through Saturday morning, so we started looking around at what we could go do. We thought about going to Vegas, because that was awesome. I considered the keys, and New England or Maine, and even southern California (I got to go there once in my adult life to visit my brother and I really want to go back) but I really want the kids to go those places too. Finally Asa and I settled on "just" going to Disney. We figured with no airline tickets, no car rental, and just an hour and 15 minutes travel time we would maximize our budget and our time. Plus, Disney has SO many things to do. Plus, passholders can get some pretty great deals.
Mom got here around 7 on Sunday, and we headed off to Disney on Monday pretty early in the morning. Our first stop was Trails End for breakfast. We didn't have reservations, because we didn't want to be charged if we decided not to get up so early, so we had to wait a little bit to be seated. But, the view is pretty nice, and in the shade under the fans it wasn't unbearably hot.
Plus, who wouldn't wait for Trails End? Ok, so it's hard to get to this place. You have to either take a bus there, or the boat from the Magic Kingdom, but it is one of our favorite places on property to eat. First off, the value is crazy for Disney. It's like they reward you for coming all the way out. Plus, pulled pork eggs Benedict, and pecan maple syrup on Mickey Waffles, and burnt ends hash? Come on now. And the Moonshine (which is non-alcoholic) is AWESOME, and included. Passholders get 10% off every meal there too. So, go there already.
And you get the lovely trip through Fort Wilderness. It is one of my favorite places at Disney. It's quiet, it's laid back, and they have great access to the Magic Kingdom. We haven't camped here in awhile, and we need to. (Did you hear that Asa Waterstraut? I'm making reservations for the fall!)
We took the bus back up to the front of Fort Wilderness and headed out to Downtown Disney. Mom had very kindly given us some spending money for our anniversary (watching the kids and pets too boot, what a great mom!), and we knew right where to spend it. You get this little card and for the next 12 months (plus a few days- ours won't expire until July 1,2016), and you get 20% off at a whole slew of restaurants around Disney. It's magic! Well, not exactly. You do have to buy it. For passholders, it's $100. So your break even point in $500. But, between our anniversary, our Ohana reservations in a couple weeks and my whole family going in November, we'll easily hit that and then some. (We'll use it for a meal for everyone at Thanksgiving and it'll pay for itself in one meal!) The catch is there are some black out dates for some restaurants. But, other than that it's awesome, and we've always wanted to be Tables in Wonderland members, and now we are!
We walked around Downtown Disney a bit (it was so hot this week!)
And visited the new Super Hero Headquarters.
Then we stopped by Splitsville for some bowling before we could check into our hotel.
Asa's first of many margaritas, because who doesn't have one at 11am on a Monday?
Mickey bowling balls!
In case you're wondering you get an hour for a lane at Splitsville, and passholders get a discount there too. It's a pretty cool set up. We've never been to one before, and we really had a good time. Plus, I won 2/3 of the games.
After bowling we were off to our hotel. Because of the timing in when we were there, we spanned two different promotional deals (spring AND summer), so we couldn't get the hugely reduced rate for all four nights at any of the hotels. Technically the spring deals ended after the first night we were there, but they gave us one extra night on it (Disney is super nice that way). We decided we would stay our first two nights at the Wilderness Lodge.
We were bummed our request for a king bed wasn't granted...
...but we could not complain about the view. It was awesome.
The Wilderness Lodge, like most hotels, had the main pool (the one with the slide you could see from our room), and a "quiet pool" with less frills.
But less frills also means less people, so we swam in that pool first. It's my favorite "quiet pool" on Disney property, it had jets that made it looks like springs coming up out of the water.
After some swimming we took the boat back over to Fort Wilderness..
...because we had Hoop Dee Doo reservations!
So, the Hoop Dee Doo is a dinner show. I think I went when I was like five, but I don't really remember it. When you arrive the menu, some cornbread, and salad is waiting for you on the table.
We had category two seating, yet somehow managed to be right up front, a little off to the side, but still right there!
And all the beer, wine, or sangria you want is included.
The show goes on, and they bring you tons of food. Like, more than anyone should (or could) eat.
There's chicken and ribs, that they put right down in front of you in buckets, plus corn and beans and mashed potatoes.
Eventually there's a fun strawberry shortcake song that will be stuck in your head for hours, and they bring you this MASSIVE dessert. To be fair, every table gets the same size one. The table behind us had 10 people at it, and they got the same thing we did.
Asa had way too much food, and we only took about four bites out of it, but it was really good. And the show was fun too. Corny, but amusing. You know, you really have to be ready to get into the Disney of it all, otherwise you won't find it entertaining. But, we loved it. I wouldn't rush right out to do it again, and I don't think the boys would appreciate it. I am glad we did it once though!
When we got back to the hotel we realized you could catch the top of the Magic Kingdom fireworks from our balcony. How could you not love that?
Tuesday morning we were up somewhat early. We wanted to stay on the get up early schedule for some of the things we had planned, plus Disney in the morning (and late at night) is pretty awesome. I love how quiet it all is. It kind of reminds me Cedar Point before opening.
We got some coffee at the Territory Lounge while we waited for our breakfast reservations.
Thanks to the lovely girl at the Territory Lounge for giving us one of our coffees for free! (Wearing your anniversary button around gets you lots of congratulations and even some free things!)
Whispering Canyon Cafe is 'the' restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge. We'd been there before for dinner (for Peyton's birthday a couple years ago) but never for breakfast. The wait staff there is rude to you, and it's loud and crazy and FUN. I thought they only did the madness for dinner though, but we were pleasantly surprised they now include breakfast and lunch. However, they have these new little disks for your table so you can let them know if you want to participate or not. (Of course we chose to 'jump in and play' as opposed to 'watch from the fence'.)
It's such a good time there, and you get to drink from mason jars just like at trails end and hoop dee doo review. I love it!
You can order an 'all you care to enjoy breakfast skillet', but we went with the omelet and banana bread french toast instead.
Oh, and when you need some ketchup, you just yell for it and ALL the ketchup comes to your table. Some kids with their dad at the table next to us helped us carry it to the next table that needed it.
After breakfast we did some swimming and some bike riding. There is a trail about a mile long that takes you from the Wilderness Lodge over to Fort Wilderness. It's pretty shady, and a really easy ride. (And bike rentals especially for passholders is pretty inexpensive! It was $13 total for the two of us to have our bikes a couple of hours).
We rode the bikes down to check out the ponies. We actually were going to horseback ride, but we thought it was just too hot to put on jeans and ride horses for an hour in the middle of a 105 degree day. We'll get to it during a date day sometime, preferably when it's much cooler.
These little guys are the ones used to pull Cinderella's carriage.
For lunch- more mason jar drinks!
So, we actually came down to Fort Wilderness and we were only going to get these 'potato nachos' they have at Crocketts Tavern (attached to Trails End), not realizing that the Tavern was only open in the evenings. Asa wouldn't let it go, and asked if they could make them at Trail's End. Our wonderful waitress said she would check, and came back and apologized said they couldn't do it. We told her it was ok, no problem, we just thought we'd ask. But, a little while later her and the chef came back out with them, and told us Happy Anniversary and presented us with the potato nachos for free!
Asa and I LOVED them. (I mean, who doesn't love anything with potatoes?) and it was so nice of them to make it for us, and they even gave us the recipe.
We had ordered 'chicken lollipops' too, because we thought we weren't getting the potatoes, and that was more than enough for a quick lunch. (They were delicious as well)
And then we rode our bikes back to the Wilderness Lodge.
And cooled off in the pool with the waterslide this time. I loved their pool. It actually starts as a gyser in the lobby, trickles down a river and empties into the main pool, so it has a small current to it, and this spot where the water rushes into the pool ever so slightly. It might be my favorite spot in all of Disney.
We headed back to Downtown Disney that evening..
...and happened upon House of Blues happy hour..
And tried out the cutest little portobello mushroom sliders.
Then we were off to Disney Quest for a bit for some games.
We had tickets to La Nuba. We saw La Nuba for Asa's birthday in March, but we wanted to splurge for up close seats. We'd never sat in anything but the very last row before. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is a bad seat in the house. But, it was SO different close up. We were in the 6th row, pretty close to the middle, on the end of a row, and it was amazing to see the show like that. I'm really glad I've seen it farther away and close up because it almost seems like there are two different shows going on depending on where you sit. We've decided we have to take Hayden to the show sometime. He would love it.
We went to the early show, so we were back at the Wilderness Lodge to enjoy our last night there.
We took another trip to the pool..
...and had late night snacks at the Territory Lounge (fondue, yum!)
We got our Artist Point berry cobbler to go...
..So we could eat it and watch the fireworks at the same time!
There's more to come, I just didn't want to overwhelm the blog with pictures. I've tried to load the blog about Peyton's trip to see Peyton Manning on my ipad before. It's not an easy task.
Next Up: Discovery Cove!
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