May 11th, Part 4
It was now time for dinner! My main goal, food-wise, for this trip, was to eat at several new-to-me places and to return to some of our faves.
So tonight, we start with a new experience for us all....
They brought us some bread and oil and balsamic vinegar but we preferred plain old regular butter
We started with a Caesar salad to share. We didn't even finish this, it was not great. Not terrible but just kind of bland.
But then came our pizza and we were happy
It was delicious! Hard to eat because the crust/bottom is so soft but so very delicious!
Even Kira, who is super picky about her pizza was devouring it. When she first looked at it, she thought she was going to hate it but I knew once she got over the fact that it didn't look like her beloved Little Caesar's Pizza, she would enjoy it! It's similar to the pizza at Via Napoli in Epcot but slightly different.
The worst part of the meal was that there was no Wi-Fi. In fact, the worst part of the trip was the terrible or non-existing Wi-Fi!
Now for most of you, because you're Americans with unlimited data plans, this wouldn't bother you but us Canadians, who are charged data/roaming rates when travelling out of the country, this irks us. If you ask me what the main difference between WDW and DL is, I will say one has much better wi-fi
Now I understand that they can't have super expansive Wi-fi connectivity because they are so close to the outside world and don't want Joe Schmo on Harbor Blvd to be getting free wi-fi but when you're in the parks or in Downtown Disney, you should be able to have decent Wi-Fi. This is soooo not the case. In DL, they have Wi-fi hot spots, which are small areas of the parks where the signal is half-decent but if you wander outside of those small little areas, you are booted out and it's not easy to get back in!
Rob and I always use our data because we need to be online because of work/emergencies and since the wi-fi was so bad and I was using Max Pass and Mobile Ordering the entire week, I definitely chewed through the data. Kira, however, is under strict orders to never remove that airplane mode on our trips, so she relies solely on connecting to that Wi-Fi in order to read her stories and text her friends at home.
There's nothing scarier than a moody pre-teen without internet.
So after dinner, we headed back to the hotel...
Can one really take too many photos of this hat??
It was time to get some dessert....wanna take a guess what we got??
Rob prefers his floats but when sharing, he gets the regular one because Kira and I don't enjoy the juice so we decided to get two.
That's whip # 2
and #3
I think we walked around while eating them because I have this close up of Mickey & his friend welcoming us.
When we were done, Rob decided to go down to the store and ask about shipping costs for my
Disneyland sign. They actually quoted a decent price but then the CM, as they started the motions, realized that they had just stopped shipping to Canada a few days ago.
Seriously Disney? We are your neighbour, very close to you, not some distant, foreign territory.
So, back up in the room we were chatting about options and Rob checked Fed Ex prices and it was only $17 to ship home! Ummm, SOLD!!! I thought it was going to be like $60 or $80, which I would have definitely said no to but $17?
He went back downstairs and bought the sign and brought it to Bell Services where these two lovely gentlemen helped him with getting my sign shipped. And of course, they were big Star Wars fans and Rob made two new best friends
Rob is part of the 501st, which is a world-wide Star Wars costuming group where Star Wars super fans make/buy detailed and amazing costumes and dress up to attend charity functions and such. Rob is a clone trooper and each one has their own designation (
TC-7623 is Rob's) and they all have trading cards and tattoos to hand out to kids and big kids alike and he is always prepared
It took awhile because it got held up in Louisville, Kentucky but it got here two days ago and is now hanging above our bed
Why the heck it went from Anaheim all the way to Louisville to get to Calgary is beyond me
Back in the room, my clumsy kid ended up falling off the bed and just decided to lay there
Once we digested our meal, it was pool time!!! One of my favourite parts of any trip
Rob is always way too cold to join us so Kira and I donned the robes and we all headed down.
Rob took some pics of us then relaxed by the side of the pool enjoying the view and spotting some cats. I love the pool area here, the blues...the palms...the tiki torches...the lights!!!
It could just be perspective but I swear they installed that "s" upside down.
The pool was a little too cold for Kira so she stuck to the hot tub mostly but it was perfect temperature for me and I enjoyed going back and forth from pool to hot tub.
Back up in the room, while getting clothes ready for the next day, I realized I totally forgot to give Kira the gift I had bought her. I always buy her something small to commemorate each trip and give it to her during our breakfast at the airport but I had packed it in our suitcase and totally forgot about it!
She is OBSESSED with the boy band Why Don't We but they have very little merchandise to be found anywhere so I ended up having a t-shirt made for her on Tee Public with all of the boys faces. She was thrilled
I was checking out our view and saw Galaxy's Edge all lit up, it looked sooo pretty!!!
It was only about 9:15pm but we had been up way too long and we were all exhausted and it would be an early morning tomorrow so we got ready for bed and said our goodnights. About 5 minutes later, Rob and I heard a boom and I knew it was the fireworks so we got out of bed and watched them. Kira was snoring and didn't hear a thing
There were way more fireworks than I thought there would be! I had read about it and seen a few clips from Mickey's Mix Magic but I didn't watch the whole thing because I had wanted to see it the first time with my family.
As soon as they were done, we went back to bed and fell asleep (passed out!) in the comfy bed
It was a fantastic first day! So much more fun to come though.