We got up just before 7am to make sure we finished packing and got to The Grand Floridian in time for our 9.30am 1900 Park Fare breakfast reservation. My clothes were still soaked through from last night’s rapid ride, so Steve had to take them to the laundry to stick them in a dryer which put us a little behind. Then we got to the lobby to discover neither of us had our magic bands on, but after a rummage through the luggage we found them and were on our way. We stayed at The Grand Floridian for a few nights around 4 years ago and have to say it wasn’t the best experience. Check in was a nightmare and took forever, then we were given the wrong room type, then bell services misplaced our luggage which essentially left us with no room/ clothes at 11pm at night with two tired, hungry little ones which didn’t make us want to return in a hurry. The girls, however, have always asked to go back so when we found a decent price for club level, we decided to give it another try for our last 3 nights (we were planning an 18-night trip, but flights were a lot cheaper for 21 nights).
We arrived at 9.10am so assumed we’d have time to check in before our breakfast thinking check in would be much smoother than last time. But we were wrong. It took forever for them to find our reservation and when they did find it, they said it was in a different name. Me and the girls went for a look around the lobby while Steve tried to sort things and the girls ended up being asked for a selfie with a woman who liked their costumes. They didn’t know what to say, so just smiled for the camera like pros! By now it was 9.30am so we went to tell the restaurant Steve had been held up. They were great and said they’d seat us when he was sorted. He got to us around 9.50am and still hadn’t managed to check in properly but decided to take a break and have our meal.
We have always enjoyed 1900 Park Fare as far as buffets go. The breakfast items all taste fresh and are constantly being replenished and there’s a lot of choice. The characters you meet at the table are Alice, the Mad Hatter, Pooh and Mary Poppins, and you also get to have a photo with Tigger after the meal. Character quality was varied. Both Mary and Alice seemed to have had personality by-passes and just recited lines at lightning speed. Pooh was lovely but clearly a bit honey-drunk as he seemed to be completely confused about which table he should be at. The Mad Hatter and Tigger were both really funny though. I also had a lady ask me to take a photo of her family, which I did. She then made me take more and more saying that I needed to hold the camera higher to fit her tall husband in! She must have thought I’d chopped his head off the first one or something as she just kept saying ‘higher, higher, higher!’ I practically had the phone above my head by the time she’d done. Very odd!
After breakfast Steve went back to try and sort check in again. Finally, he sorted it but there were no magic bands (we’d paid for upgraded ones.) We were told they may be waiting in our block (which is called Sugarloaf, but the girls call it Sugarplum!) As it was early and the room wasn’t ready, we went to the pool for a bit. Winnie was desperate top have a go on the slide, declaring ‘I can’t wait to go find that big boy!’ The girls loved the pool and played happily for ages. Around 1pm we got an email saying our room was ready, so we headed over. The outer club level rooms are all in one block. There is an atrium downstairs with different food/ drink offerings at different times of the day with tables and chairs to sit at although you can take things back to your room/ outside (I’ll explore the offerings more tomorrow and report back). The room itself is cute enough. Maybe a little old fashioned in terms of sockets etc but a lovely view of the lake from the balcony and best of all, a bath! How I loved getting into that beauty tonight! It turns out our magic bands weren’t in the room, but as club level has a concierge on hand all day, Steve went down to ask them and promptly returned with 4 plain bands. I told him that wasn’t what I ordered so he set back off to speak to the concierge whilst I got the girls ready. He returned to tell me that the bands I ordered were out of stock, so they gave us plain ones instead and hadn’t charged us. Except they had charged us! So back he went to reception to try and get it sorted. Finally, he returned saying the bands I’d ordered would be in our room that night. I wasn’t actually that bothered about the bands, but the fact they said I hadn’t been charged when I had did annoy me a bit (it’s a good job I could check my bank statement online as I started to doubt it myself.) Also, we’d now spent around 2 hours of the day sorting out things that shouldn’t have needed sorting. We were given some free fast passes, but 2 hours is a lot of time to lose. Still, I’d managed to get the girls hair up into their required styles which was no mean feat with wet, luggy hair, and we were good to go so I tried to put it behind us.
We had a meal booked at The Crystal Palace to use up the last of our dining credits so got ready to head to the Magic Kingdom. One of the best bits of staying at The Grand Floridian is the journey there as it is only 1 monorail stop away and you go through security at the hotel so you’re inside the park super-fast. However, that’s where anything fast ended. Apparently, Sunday drivers exist in Disney too, except they aren’t driving, they are walking at the speed of a snail who’s having a slow day. It took us forever to get to our first fast pass for Winnie the Pooh (a must for the girls as until Winnie turns 7 it’s one of the only rides they can go on in a row together without an adult!) We then set off for another of Polly’s favourites, the Hall of Presidents. I actually really like this too as its not only interesting, but you get to sit in the cool air for a full 23 minutes. And Steve loves it as it guarantees him time to rest his eyes!
It was now time for our reservation at Crystal Palace. I always love the food here as you can get beef and gravy! The corn bread is also amazing as are the vegetables, so I basically had a full-on Sunday dinner (minus the Yorkshire puddings of course!) I have recently started reacting to black pepper and chilli though, one or both of which must have been in something which did mean I spent the rest of the day bright red! The characters do take a while longer to get around here than in other places, but they were lots of fun and we were still done in just over an hour.
Queues were quite short so we went to meet Cinderella and Elena (Elena was really lovely and full of personality) before our 7 Dwarves Mine Train fast pass (I think we’ve done it 5 times this trip now but could be more! The girls love it). My parents were having tea at our hotel so the plan was to go back and see them for an hour before bed, but Polly really wanted to do Enchanted Tales with Belle (Winnie got to be the beast last trip and unbeknown to us they’d apparently come to an agreement that Polly could go in without Winnie this time to try to get the part herself!) Winnie wanted to shop (that child!) so I took Polly and Steve tool Winnie (fool!) That’s when the evening started to go wrong. We got to the attraction to find that even the fast pass queue was out of the gate. I think someone had been sick inside, but it took ages for a cleaner to arrive, then even longer to get it cleared up. Eventually people were let in, but they stopped just as we got to the front. Polly started crying because she felt bad that she wouldn’t have time to see Granny and Pop-Pops now, but with a bit of a snuggle and words of reassurance she calmed down. We’d been in the fast pass queue around 40 minutes before we even got inside (the only thing stopping my blood pressure boiling over was the thought that Steve was having a more stressful time shopping with the small one!) Luckily though Polly did get picked to be the Beast, so at least the wait was worth it, especially to see how happy she was! It’s a very cute show where all the children get to take part and act out the story with Belle, but we must have done it 20 times now!
By this time, it was getting late, so they had started to rope off areas for the fireworks, so it took forever to get to Steve. We were then told to go to the boat as that was the quickest way home, only to get to the dock and find that the boat isn’t running at he minute. So back we went to the monorail. Now, the journey into the Magic Kingdom is amazingly quick. The journey out, not so much! You have to stop 3 times before the Grand Floridan stop, and each stop takes ages to load and unload. Plus, our monorail had to stop again for a maintenance check (happens a lot!) so it took forever to get back. It took us much longer to get back that the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge would have taken! I actually think the only monorail hotel that does make journeys easier if using Disney transport is the Contemporary as you can walk! Anyway, we finally got back and met my mum and dad briefly before they headed back to their hotel. We got some sandwiches for tomorrow with our leftover quick service meals and spent the 10 remaining snack credits of a few cakes and some sweets. Our refillable mugs are good for our stay here (they renewed them for an extra week at Animal Kingdom Lodge as they initially only lasted 2 weeks and we were there 18 days) but it will feel odd having no dining plan for our last 2 full days.
It was 8.40pm by now and we hadn’t had our luggage delivered from the hotel transfer yet (someone has to be in the room) so the girls and I waited outside and got in position to watch Happily Ever After (they pipe the music in) whilst Steve sorted it out. He actually managed to get done and dusted so we sat and watched them together (well, we sat. The girls danced around in their own unique style!) whilst drinking a Sam Adams courtesy of club level. It was lovely to see all the detail in the fireworks that you miss when you’re looking at the castle projections, and also really interesting to see how far they actually are from the castle.
A much later night than expected, but we have a lazy morning to catch up tomorrow.
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 
Fabulous xx
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