Toffy Family DAY 2- LIVE- MK, CP, LTT *update* AND Jiko

[ToffPrincess]

Day 2
MAGIC KINGDOM, CRYSTAL PALACE, LIBERTY TREE TAVERN​

I wake up first. I can’t stop thinking about how this room has the PERFECT view of the Theme Park for the fireworks. DS and I snuggled in bed with the window open and watched the show and lagoon electric pageant last night. It really was so magical. DS has a 6pm bedtime sometimes 7pm in London and I can’t believe he has hung in there two nights in a row for the fireworks. Love the Grand Floridian it really is heaven in a hotel even if the walls are a bit on the thin side.

Breakfast is Crystal Palace so I wake up DH and we get ready nosily so DS wakes up. We are all good to go at get there for opening. As we are bit early we buy even more ears and pins.

No you have not gone blind.. that is a bum bag. I am more than cool enough to pull it off don't worry. Plus it doesn't mess up and tug my hair extensions which I swear to God are no where near as ratty as they look in this photo!.

Crystal Palace- Breakfast​

We were seated super-fast and had a lovely table and server. The buffet was ok.. standard, limited and nowhere near as good as 1900 Park Fare. The characters (Pooh, Piglet & Eeyore) came around super-fast but seemed so.. cold?! I mean they literally patted DSs head, grabbed his arms to spin him around for a photo and were off. Where is the cuddling? Where is the time? Each interaction was less than a minute with no exaggeration.

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Don’t get me wrong it was lovely for DS and the venue is beautiful.. but I have no desire to go back. None. However, I most probably will as the speed in which the characters come around is great even if the interaction isn’t! For Winnie The Pooh characters if you ever have to choose between 1900PF or Crystal Palace.. 1900PF wins HANDS DOWN for me.

Then it was time for some rides. We managed to do,
Mad Hatters Tea Party
Dumbo The Flying Elephant
Meet Ariel at her Grotto
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Under The Sea
Tomorrowland Speedway
All this before 12 when we just desperately needed to sit for a bit. During the morning between rides we also visited Gaston’s Tavern for cinnamon rolls and LeFou’s brew.

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The cinnamon rolls are HUGE, amazing and so soft and fluffy 9/10 but the brew sucks. So over sweet and over rated.

LIBERTY TREE TAVERN​

Thank you DisUnplugged for this recommendation. By far the best meal we have had so far. Such a cool venue, our server was so so kind. We ordered the platter for us 3. The food came out promptly and was so much better looking than on photos I have seen online where it kind of looks like gloop.

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Salad was amazing. DH DS & myself aren’t salad people but we polished almost all of it off. The dressing is great and DH remarked it was probably the best basic mixed salad he’s had in his life. The main platter.. words can’t imagine. We just kept going in for more. I am a huge stuffing, gravy and mac and cheese person. Turns out so is DS! At 3 he’s never really had a meal like that before but he just kept on eating. DH the only one of us who really likes meat (I’m not a veggie but I limit my meat to bacon and things that don’t resemble slabs of meat as it creeps me out) ate half the platter. He loved it and asked if we have any more reservations there. As for desert.. wow. DH who is not a sweets person polished almost all the desert off by himself. Delicious. 10/10 MUST GO BACK!!!

We exited LTT just in time for prime seats at the parade thanks to the way we had parked DS’s stroller outside. I almost cried when I saw his face as the parade passed and how he identified 90% of the characters. I think that Disney brings the niceness out in all of us. So many people were pushing and shoving. The London me would probably have gotten into about 35 fights just in that particular crowd. One fight with me grabbing someones tantruming child (who had tantrum flailed into my son and knocked him over) and beating him senseless as his parents aren't capable enough to.. but aside from it mentally happening like a cartoon in my head.. I let it all go with a smile. Not like me at all.

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Then it was back on the monorail to the GF where we are having a break and bath (with some bath bombs from that shop in the GF) before we do dinner and fireworks.

*Update* Dinner At Jiko​

It was kind of a last minute thing but after a long nap DS DH and myself were ready to bus it to AKL. I found a Jiko reservation a few hours prior and snapped it up. Another DisUnplugged recommendation. Our main intention was to have a snoop of AKL to be honest and dinner was the bonus. If you are wandering how we could still possibly be hungry? We were!

The bus from GF required a stopover ar AK where we had a long wait as we missed the resort bus by seconds. It took us one hour exactly to get there. We were seated immediately as we were 10min late for our reservation. DH remarked immediately that visually the restaurant was probably the most beautiful restaurant we had been to so far. The theming is so well done. Very African, very luxe and very welcoming if a tiny bit dark! Our server literally went to another restaurant to get us our drinks of choice and stole the show as best server yet. He also gave DS a little Buz Lightyear flashing toy (than he is now sleeping with.) We ordered the ‘Manti’ to start x2 and the lamb tagine to share as a main.
DS had a pizza which was made on african flat bread. The Manti were incredible. INCREDIBLE! 11/10.. that good! The sauce was probably the best sour but not too sour red sauce ive ever had. The mint compliments it so well. Very different to the Turkish manti im familliar but a very delicious version. The lamb was fantastic but DH and I remarked we wish we had stuck to starters and shared as the mains are very large and meat based. Very tasty but in this family we have always been starter/tapas style/sharing dishes fans. I think it comes from eating mostly Asian food if we ever eat out (which is rare in London I like to cook at home!) We prefer smaller bites than a main slab of meat.

AKL is gorgeous. So different to the Magic Kingdom monorail trio for one big reason.. the quiet. It is so peaceful! Very pretty lobby. Again.. very VERY dark! Great shop probably the best hotel shop we have seen yet. I got a crystal and DS played with drums and got a tiger keychain and with that we taxied back to GF as DH was dropping. DH OR granpa as I shall now call him, fell asleep before the water pageant AGAIN!

Tomorrow Hollywood Studios and Epcot!

Next day HERE
Yesterdays report here