Hey everyone!
I know it’s been a lil bit since my last post but I actually have a real excuse this time you guys. So get ready because you’re gonna feel real bad about giving me crap.
I was laid off.
Yup, like so many others during this craptacular time, I currently find myself unemployed.
And you would think – oh cool, so now he can just write blog posts all the time and we can expect steady content from him.
Which was what I thought too. Turns out being unemployed negatively impacts your ability to come up with Disney-related puns and takes some of the joy out of finding gifs that, in the end, I will be the only one that finds funny anyways.
But a little time has passed, not a lot but a little, and while it’s a bit of a roller-coaster in the emotions department, I think now more than ever I need to find ways to maintain joy. Whether it’s spending time with my family, walking the dogs, reading a good book, watching a cheeseball slasher movie, or writing this blog. It’s important to know there are always places of joy. Sometimes, you just gotta look a little harder you know.
Yeah, I know. This isn’t my typical open for one of my blogs but I have always felt a need to be my honest self on here. So, eh, thanks for indulging me.
Now, let’s get on with the fun stuff.
Our 2023 Disney Land and Sea Extravaganza: Day 7
When we woke up on Day 7 at around 6:30AMish, we woke up docked and looking out at this whole situation.
Yup. Our old friend, the Cape Canaveral Cruise Terminal. Which means – womptown – today was debarkation day.
Which might seem like a big blergh. But it’s like not totally a 100% a blergh because the trip was far from over. We are just getting to the “land” portion of the whole “land and sea” situation.
In fact, we were up SO early on account of I had to do the whole virtual queue situation for our party AND set up Genie+.
I know. I am a true hero.
To be fair, I really didn’t do much in terms of Genie+ yet other than tell everyone to buy theirs and ensure we were all linked up. Since we wouldn’t be at the park for a little bit, I was mainly just going to be watching return times right now until one lined up with when we could start hitting attractions.
And hey, don’t go getting all upset about us leaving the ship behind just yet – we still had one more meal left on the Wish, you guys. So don’t go getting all upset.
Seriously you guys.
Relax.
Since we left most of our bags out the night before for pickup, we didn’t have too much we needed to bring with us to breakfast. Which is nice. So we headed to breakfast with our now smaller amount of bags at around 7AM.
Breakfast on Debarkation Day is at the same spot as the last dinner of the trip. So in our case, breakfast today was back at Arendelle.
We were seated quickly and handed a relatively limited breakfast menu. And of course, to start, I ordered a coffee.
And for my main, I ordered a Ham and Cheese Omelet with a side of Bacon.
And I mean, it was a pretty standard omelet.
It was pretty obvious they were ready for us to leave at this point.
Honestly, that’s all I have from breakfast. It was a pretty quick scene, this breakfast. I assume it moved so quickly because I am pretty sure the second-seaters have their sit-down breakfast at 8AM.
After we finished breakfast, we made our way down to exit the ship. However, when we tried to debark, we were stopped and told we had some charges we had to handle still on our account. Which was a bit of a surprise. On account of we thought we settled our bill yesterday. But, unfortunately, the charges we incurred last night at the movies and gift shop happened after we did all that settling.
Sooooo.
So yeah. We were stopped and told we could not leave the ship until this was taken care of. However, for some reason, they didn’t have anyone at the exit to handle something like this. So they had me, Myles, and Owen wait in a separate holding area while Nickie went all the way back up to Guest Services to take care of the rest of the bill.
I’m just saying. There has to be a better way, Disney.
Once this was all handled, Nickie came back down to meet us and we made our way into the luggage area where we grabbed our bags and headed to the bus to take us to Walt Disney World!
But before we get there. I gotta say, it was hard to leave the ship man. When we were planning this trip and in the days leading up to it, we were unsure of how the whole cruise was gonna go. As I mentioned before, we cruised once like over ten years ago and, well, there’s a reason we hadn’t done it again for so long.
This cruise though? Magical. I am so glad we did it because with how amazing it was, it’s opened up a whole new travel avenue – a travenue – for us. Plus, it didn’t hurt that literally everyone in our party proved themselves to be incredible travel companions. It was just a real special trip and it was hard to see that come to an end.
Especially because in addition to having to say goodbye to the Wish, we also had to say goodbye to the O’Learys. As I mentioned way back near the beginning of the trip, they spent the few days prior to us embarking at Universal Studios and were therefore heading home rather than joining us at Walt Disney World. It was a bummer to say goodbye but oof we had such a good time with them.
But.
BUT.
BUTTTT.
We still had so much amazing left in front of us.
Let’s get on the bus, y’all.
Oh Soph? She was excited.
And so was I. On account of we weren’t just heading to any old Walt Disney World hotel, folks. Oh noooo.
We were gonna be staying at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa for the next few nights, you guys.
Yeah. This was obviously pre-laid-off Wayne time y’all.
We arrived at around 9:45AM. Rolled up on this feelin’ like P Diddy.
As we walked into the Grand Floridian lobby, we came upon a Walt Disney World symbol timeless and persevering.
Cinderella Castle?
Nope.
Spaceship Earth?
Nu-uh.
Erm, these two?
Holy crap no.
This.
Yup. The Disney crane. They were remodeling the Grand Floridian lobby. But I mean, I like it just the way it is – crane and all. Has a real big city feel to it.
I mean, it was fine though honestly. So long as we always looked up.
See? Look how pretty.
Also guys. ALSO. We met up with Hannah!!
So exciting.
I should also mention that the Pittmans, the Falzones and us were all staying at the Grand Floridian. As I mentioned, the O’Learys were already on their way back to Boston and the Marquados were going to be staying at Bay Lake Tower.
The Marquados were also, very intelligently, not going to be hitting a park today.
The rest of us? Well, caution to the wind and all that.
We dropped our bags with Bell Services since our rooms weren’t quite ready just yet and we hopped on the monorail.
The girls were all kinds of ready.
And why wouldn’t they be? Today was going to be a day of learning.
On account of today? We were heading to EPCOT!
We were through the gates by 11AM.
Which I mean. Pretty impressive considering we were on a ship that morning eating underwhelming omelets.
Oh, pfft. I totally forgot to mention we had a Boston sports theme going today.
Go sports!
But yeah – we made it there by 11AM. Which is impressive given our morning but we also had a brunch reservation at like 11:15AM in World Showcase so we kind of had to book it once we got through the gate.
And like guys? I know I have said this in like every single post chronicling this trip but oof. It was hot out there today. So “booking it”? Not the best.
Sorry Miguel and Dante, we can’t stop to chat. Though I have to say goodbye, remember me.
Adios Mexico. But hey, I’ll take a rain check on that margarita.
No no. We were heading straight for Norway. On account of we had reservations at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall!
This place has a really complex backstory so rather than I tell it to you, let’s let the book out front lay it all out.
Oh um. Hrm. That’s it? OK then.
We checked in and were seated rather quickly at two tables. Steph, Nickie, Scarlett and me were at one table and Myles, Hannah, Owen, Mikey, Tony, Larissa, and Mia were at another right next to us.
For those that don’t know, Akershus is not only an all-you-care-to-enjoy family style restaurant but it is also a character dining location. This essentially means not only do we get to stuff food in our face, we get to do it while princesses watch and , I assume, judge?
It’s a whole thing.
Belle was lucky this time as she arrived at our table before our food so she wasn’t witness to my breakfast mukbang.
The other princesses would not be so lucky.
I started my meal off with a Viking Coffee (Joffrey’s Colombian, Kamora Coffee Liqueur, and Bailey’s Irish Cream).
Which was lovely. On account of it combined caffeine AND alcohol. Kind of like Red Bull with Vodka.
But much classier.
Now, you may have noticed Scarlett was absent from those earlier pictures with Belle. She was taking a little bit of time to warm up to the princesses today. At the start of the meal, her interactions with them were largely pointing. From a distance.
As I mentioned, this meal was an all-you-care-to-enjoy type of situation. But it’s also family style, so they bring the plates to your seat. Which is good because it offers the gluttony of a buffet without all the exercise.
Our waiter first brought over to our tables trays of pastries and meats and cheeses and what not.
On that plate there were some pastries like croissants and what not plus some meats and cheeses and this salmon spread that was real good stuff. Oh and that jam was lingonberry. I spread a little on my piece of croissant and it added a nice layer of sweetness to an otherwise pretty standard croissant.
He also brought us a bowl of mixed fruit.
Which I remember as being very fresh-tasting. Those blueberries you guys.
But obviously the main event was the hot breakfast platter.
Norwegian Waffles. Scrambled Eggs. Bacon. Sausage. And the star of the plate – Potato Casserole.
We got, I believe, thirds of that Potato Casserole. It was THAT good. So. Much. Cheese.
The food overall is really tasty at Akershus. I feel like we have always enjoyed our meals there. None of this is groundbreaking stuff but all of it was prepared really well.
Tiana visited our table next. And she obviously looked fabulous.
Scarlett continued to enjoy from a safe distance.
But Aurora turned the tide a bit. She took some extra time with Scarlett, talking with her a bit and playing some peek-a-boo.
It was insanely sweet and it did seem to help as it did result in Scarlett getting out of her seat.
Snow White was up next.
And she continued to build on the work Aurora had started with Scar.
Soph, meanwhile, was having absolutely no issues warming up to the princesses.
Nor was Mia.
Ariel would be the last princess we would see today, but she was certainly not the least as she also spent a lot of time interacting with the kids.
Akershus was for sure a great choice for our first breakfast off the ship. Delicious food, great character interaction, and it kept that whole “special” feeling going we had on the ship.
Plus our waiter today? Awesome stuff. He was super attentive and friendly. After we informed him Myles was going to be doing the Disney College Program next semester, he spent some time talking Myles through his experience in the DCP.
And yeah, have I not mentioned that yet? Yup – Myles is doing the DCP!! I know, we are so excited for him. Dude has been talking about doing this like his whole life and he is actually making it happen. So proud of that kid.
We finished lunch a little bit before 12:30PM and our first Genie+ Lightning Lane wasn’t for a little bit so we exited Norway and walked on over to probably my favorite of all the World Showcase pavilions – Mexico!
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating. Mexico just has a whole different vibe than all the other pavilions. I love the whole “we are inside, we are outside…whoa mind blown” situation going on in there.
Once inside the pavilion, we made straight for the Gran Fiesta Tour.
I mean, how fitting right? Our first post-Wish attraction would be a boat ride?
Being that we WERE in Mexico, I was ready to cash in that rain check for a margarita. The original plan was to duck into La Cava del Tequila, on account of its a whole cava dedicated to tequila and what not. Unforch squad, the line at La Cava was all kinds of craptastic.
Thankfully, the Food & Wine Festival started a couple weeks ago so there was of course a Mexico booth right outside.
I opted for the Trouble in Paradise Margarita (Ilegal Mezcal, Watermelon Liqueur, Rosé Wine, Lime Juice and Agave with a Chili-Lime Powder Rim).
Overall, this was a very tasty margarita. It struck a nice balance between the smokiness of the mezcal and the sweetness of the watermelon. I didn’t get a whole lot from the Rosé, but still a relatively well put-together drink. I wasn’t 100% on the rim though. When I did sip from an untouched part of the rim, the chili-lime flavor was kind of all I could taste.
But yeah, overall? Good stuff. Especially when its enjoyed on a day like this.
Amirite?
While we were coming up on our return time for our first Lightning Lane attraction, we still had enough time to squeeze in one more ride before it hit. And the lines were looking pretty ok for Soarin’ Around the World. So I mean, to The Land we went!
Soarin. Flyin.
There’s not a star in heaven we can’t reach.
When we made it to the cast member assigning rows and what not, I requested B1. On account of its the best row. You know, a lot of people say B2 is the best row on account of that’s center of the screen and they created the film to be optimal from that location. But like, in B1? You don’t have anyone’s feet dangling in front of you.
And this paragraph above here? This is evidence that we all have far too much time on our hands.
Anyway though, this is Patrick…
When we boarded, it was made clear that Steph still sees herself as a young child. On account of she put her seatbelt through the extra loop Patrick told us about.
Oh by the way – you guys know how wide the Matterhorn is?
It’s about ten feet.
<rimshot>
And I mean this is why you go for a seat in the middle at the top. This Eiffel Tower? Completely straight. Like you know, the Eiffel Tower is supposed to be.
A heck of a ride on Soarin’ tho. 5/5 recommend.
Before leaving the Land, I wanted to stop at Sunshine Seasons for a snack I had heard legends about, but never actually tried.
Behold. The Turtle Brownie.
Chocolate Brownie. Caramel. Pecans. Chocolate Frosting. Chocolate Chips. And then the girl behind the counter had the AUDACITY to ask me if I wanted her to drizzle caramel on it. I mean, we’ve come this far. No turning back now.
This thing was gooooood y’all.
OK NOW it was finally time to use our first LIghtning Lane for the day. And this Lightning Lane? It was all the way back in Norway. Where we started, guys.
And on the way there, I noticed I didn’t have my Lady and the Tramp Magic Band on anymore. Which caused a slight panic. So I told everyone to keep walking without me and I was going to try and retrace my steps. I walked back to the Land, looked at all the spots where I was, asked the cashier at Sunshine Seasons…no sign. I ended up having to go into MyDisneyExperience to mark my band as lost and walked over to a Guest Relations spot, where they took my information and gave me an old school Key to the World type card I could use in place of my band.
So crisis averted.
I mean. Sort of. This card was no Lady and the Tramp Magic Band. But the Guest Relations staff were very helpful.
I speedwalked back to Norway and met up with everyone before they boarded our Lightning Lane attraction – Frozen Ever After!
It’s always so easy to take pictures on Frozen Ever After.
By the time we left Arendelle, our boarding group was called for Guardians of the Galaxy – Cosmic Rewind.
So we again criss-crossed back to Future World.
We definitely weren’t being the most efficient park-goers today.
Ah well, at least it was insanely hot.
To Guardians!
I really love the Guardians queue. I dig how they made it a pavilion to fit into the whole EPCOT scene, man. But rather than focusing on a country, this one focuses on a planet – Xandar. Just cool stuff. I mean, the overall story of the ride itself is a bit erm…convoluted. But this queue is top-notch.
Steph and Mikey agree.
Like I said, the story behind this attraction is a bit wonk. But it is kind of cool Glenn Close is in the preshow.
I mean, remember when she boiled a rabbit in Fatal Attraction? Now, she’s all, “Hi kids, I’m friendly.”
Still though. She will NOT be ignored, Terry.
Let’s go guardian the galaxy, you guys.
And of course it was a great ride. And this time we got “I Ran” by Flock of Seagulls for our song. Which is obvs squad a banger.
Earlier, while waiting to board our boat for Frozen Ever After, I booked us another set of Lightning Lanes and it was time to head over and use ‘em. This next Lightning Lane had us heading to France.
So come with me, won’t you?
And yeah, I mean….obvs if we were using a Lightning Lane in France, that can only mean one thing. It was Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure time.
Heh. Adventure Time. That’s totally a show.
Let’s rat it up mofos.
What a great picture that is. I am this generation’s Ansel Adams obviously.
Good stuff though, that Ratatouille.
Outside, Myles and Hannah took a super cute romantical picture on “the greatest thing that humans ever made – the Vespa”
And Mia took a super cute Hell’s Angel-vibe picture on her own Vespa.
After we left the Ratatouille area, Mikey and I stopped at the France Food & Wine booth for what started as a Frozen Parisian Cosmo Slush (Vodka, Grey Goose Le Ctiron Vodka, Grand Marnier and Cranberry Juice). But like, on account of we were obviously vacationing in literal Hell, they melted within like a minute of walking away from the booth.
Still though, I mean it was technically a cosmo at this point so that’s like still a good thing. At least according to Carrie Bradshaw.
At this point, it was getting close to 5:30PM. Which meant it was time to get to dinner you guys.
And dinner tonight was in Italy!
Well, I mean. It was in EPCOT. But you guys know what I mean. Come on.
Don’t be an idiot.
Specifically, we were eating tonight at Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria.
Man, it feels like its been a MINUTE since we’ve been to Via Napoli. And I kind of really dig Via Napoli. All EPCOT restaurants kind of suffer from all EPCOT restaurants. In that I mean there are just SO MANY places to eat at EPCOT that it’s hard to not rotate spots.
But like, imagine Via Napoli was in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
And of course I took a picture of the pizza ovens. It’s what you do.
We were split into two tables right next to each other, so that worked out well.
We started things off with a pitcher of Peroni. Which I then poured into a glass.
On account of they wouldn’t let me drink it straight out of the pitcher.
And look who I got seated next to.
We ordered a couple plates of Arancini.
I mean, it’s fried risotto. Doy, of course it’s good.
But wait. There were more apps. We also got some meatballs.
I mean, they’re balls of meat. Doy, of course they’re good.
But seriously, both of these apps were awesome stuff. Larissa actually said these were some of the best meatballs she’s ever had. And Scarlett? Well, she didn’t say much. On account of her mouth was so full of meatballs.
Our table ordered a few different pizzas. We got one Half-Pepperoni, Half-Piccante (Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella, Italian Spicy Sausage).
We also ordered a Prosciutto e Meloni (White Pizza – Fontina, Mozzarella, Prosciutto, Cantaloupe, Arugula).
AND we ordered a Quattro Formaggio (White Pizza – Mozzarella, Parmesan, Fontina, Provolone) but the waitress forgot it at first. Honestly though, when she remembered and mentioned it to us, we were kind of like, “eh…we really don’t need another pizza” but she felt so bad about it she brought one out and didn’t charge us for it.
In keeping with the theme of the day, our waitress at Via Napoli was pretty great. Is what I am saying to you now.
And also? Of course we ate that other pizza. I, however, did not take a picture of it. I am the worst.
Is what I am saying to you now.
Legit EVERYTHING we ate at Via Napoli was incredible. The apps. The pizzas. All of it. If you asked me to pick a favorite of the pizzas we ordered, I honestly think I’d have a hard time doing it. So I am just going to ignore the fact that I, as you, asked me to do such a thing.
On our way out, I stopped off at another of the Food & Wine booths – Coastal Eats.
And got myself a Cape Codder (Body & Blair Potato Vodka with Cranberry, Pomegranate, and Lime).
COASTAL EATS 3 LAND AND SEA DAY 7
Which was a delight.
I brought my Cape Codder into the Creations Shop to meet up with Nickie and the Falzones, who were looking for a belt for Tony and shoes for Larissa. Which I dunno. I feel like this is a common occurrence with the Falzones. Like, we end up shopping at Disney World gift shops for like normal shopping-type items and doing normal non-vacationy things like when Tony gets his vacation haircuts. Which has me thinking every day is like a vacation to the Falzones and their real-life/vacation lines are just so insanely blurred they can’t designate between the two.
It’s nice to be the Falzones is the point.
Unforch, they found neither shoes nor belt at Creations so we decided to call it a day at EPCOT.
We exited the park and jumped on the monorail, switching at the Transportation & Ticket Center (TTC) to get on the Magic Kingdom loop back to the Grand Floridian. Which gave us this passing view of our tomorrow destination.
We were back at the Grand Floridian by around 8:30PM
Which meant we could check into our room! We walked through the main lobby and out the back towards the Villas. On account of that was where we were staying.
Look how pretty you guys.
Room tour time!!
We booked a Resort Studio – Standard View (specifically, we were in Room 9202, if you’re wondering).
The rooms at the Grand though. I mean.
The room slept all 5 of us (me, Nickie, Owen, Myles, & Hannah) in 2 Queens and a daybed.
Off our balcony, we had a nice view of the pool.
We called down for our luggage and spent some time getting unpacked.
Now.
As we were finishing getting our stuff unpacked, Nickie noticed a lot of her stuff was missing. Like, a lot of her clothes. And after going through everything over and over again and calling down to the front, we came to the conclusion that we forgot one of our suitcases at the cruise terminal. Specifically, we forgot the childrens’ Lighthning McQueen suitcase we used to transport our wine onto the ship.
At one point, we considered leaving this suitcase behind but, surprise to me, Nickie actually ended up using this suitcase for some of her overflow clothes.
This wasn’t great news, obviously. Nickie had some outfits in her suitcase but a lot of this she had already worn and, I mean…guys did I mention it was hot? Re-wearing clothing was sub-optimal.
Our plan was to meet Tony and Larissa for a drink before bed so I took that opportunity to walk over to the front desk to see what we could do.
I explained our situation to the woman working the front desk and she asked me to wait for a second as she went back to talk to her supervisor to identify the best course of action. When she returned, she laid out the plan. She said the cruise terminal was closed at this point but she would put a note to reach out first thing in the morning. In the meantime, she generously said she would credit us $200 on our account so Nickie could maybe go out and buy some clothes. Additionally, she offered to give us Uber/Lyft vouchers if we needed a ride to Target or Publix.
Literally? This was insanely above and beyond. I wish I could remember this cast member’s name now because she may very well be the THE BEST cast member I have ever dealt with at Walt Disney World. I did submit a cast member compliment for her, but I tried to go back and find her name through my MyDisneyExperience app to no avail.
But yeah. This cast member. Amazing.
And for now, we were taken care of but the situation wasn’t completely resolved. You guys will have to read the next blog post when I release it in a month or so to see how everything plays out.
But for now, i mean not much more we can do.
So I guess. I dunno. Whiskey?
I walked over to meet up with Nickie and the Falzones at The Enchanted Rose.
I should note it was 11PM at this point. I note this on account of we were obviously rock stars and should be appreciated as such.
Appreciate us.
The girls opted for champagne. And when I say they “opted for champagne,” I mean they made it through a whole bottle of Veuve Clicquot.
Tony and I went the Scotch route. I went with my usual – Lagavulin 16.
And OF COURSE the ice cube was fancypants.
We hung out at the bar, talked about how chafed and sore we all were. It was a good time. We ended up leaving the Enchanted Rose a little bit after 11PM and on the way back to the room, I had to snap a picture of how pretty this place is.
On account of it’s pretty.
So yeah, that was Day 7. It was a lot huh?
And the fun definitely and for sure continues on Day 8. More friends, more fun, more chafing. Get excited.
See you guys then!
Last post – Day 6
Next post – Day 8
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