Grand Canyon Concourse: Disney Blog: WDW Trip Report Part Two

Day 4

Sunday, January 4th was our last day without park tickets. We got up a little late this day and headed over to Beaches & Cream for lunch. Beaches & Cream is an old fashioned ice cream parlor at The Beach Club Resort. I got the burger, and it was very good. I think The Plaza Restaurant at the Magic Kingdom, which is similar to Beaches & Cream, has a better burger though. Another member of my party got the grilled cheese and tomato bisque. I got this last time and I loved it. I wish I had gotten it again because it is so good. I did get to have a little of it, though. I got the No way Jose for dessert. It has hot fudge, peanut butter sauce, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, whipped cream, a cherry, and I got it with vanilla ice cream. It's one of the best sundaes anywhere!

The 'No Way Jose'

We also did some more swimming like on Saturday. At night we headed over to Downtown Disney to go to the AMC dine in theater. We went here last year where the bus dropped us off right in front of the movie theater. Because of the construction going on for the new Disney Springs area, the buses only dropped off at the Market Place, and the theater is on The West Side. So we had a long walk to get there. They do have a boat that goes from the Market Place to West Side, but we decided to walk. I took some pics of the construction of Disney Springs on our way down.

The hangar

The hot air balloon

Cool construction wall art

We got to the movie theater around 7:25. The next movie was playing at 7:30, and there wasn't another one until 8. We decided to just see the movie at 7:30. The dine-in theater has four big comfy chairs set up in front of a table. We have a waiter that you can call by pressing a button, like on an airplane. They have real food options at the dine-in like burgers, chicken wings, salads, etc. But we stuck with more typical theater food. We had a large tub of popcorn, chocolate covered raisins, and soda. The soda comes in a glass and the popcorn came with a refill.

New overhangs

After the movie we ended up taking the boat back from West Side to The Market Place. I had never taken the boat before, so it was cool to experience something new. We could see Saratoga Springs Resort across the water.

Saratoga Springs Resort

We then got the bus and went back to our resort. It may seem like an uneventful day, but it was nice to relax and not have to rush anywhere. I was glad to get back into the parks the next day, though.

Day 5

We headed into EPCOT from International Gateway and headed right to France. Today was our first day on the dining plan, so we got lunch using our points. I got a ham and cheese croissant with a lemon meringue tart for dessert.

France was still decorated for Christmas

After lunch I wanted to see Impressions De France- the only opening day attraction still in the park. I don't believe I've ever seen the movie before, I definitely didn't remember it. I think it holds up fine for being made in the early 80's. You can tell by hair styles and clothes that it was filmed a while ago, but other than that it looked good. The sound and picture quality was fine.

Exhibit in the waiting area

The movie screen behind curtains

After the movie, we headed to Fountain View for Starbucks coffee. While we were there I got this pic of the fountain with a rainbow reflected in the water.

We headed out of EPCOT to catch the monorail for our first visit to the Magic Kingdom this trip. After transferring from the EPCOT monorail to the express Magic Kingdom monorail, we were on our way to MK.

Leaving EPCOT

Passing the Grand Canyon Concourse from the monorail

Bay Lake Tower, our home DVC resort

Finally here!

Christmas tree

The new wreath overhang decoration. I think I prefer this over the Garland that used to be here as it would block the castle.

Heading to The Haunted Mansion

R.I.P. Mr Toad!

Off to the people mover...with a line? Oh well it moved very quickly as this ride has an omni mover type of loading

Progress City!

After the peoplemover we headed to the front of the park, because we had reservations at The California Grill in The Contemporary Resort.

New theming being added to the back of Main Street buildings for the new bypass

As we walked out, I took some pictures of the Christmas decor on Main Street U.S.A.

Back to the monorail- the resort monorail this time

We only had one stop to get to the Contemporary Resort from the Magic Kingdom.

Approaching The Contemporary

We got off the monorail and road the escalator down to The Grand Canyon Concourse, where I took a few pics.

Monorail Green going by

After that we took the escalator down to the California Grill check in desk. From there we got the elevator to the 15th floor...the top of The Contemporary. After we were seated I went out to the observation deck. The sun was beginning to set and I got a lot of photos.

Christmas tree inside the restaurant

The observation deck

The Grand Floridian at dusk

The Wilderness Lodge with Spaceship Earth in the distance!

Monorail leaving The Transportation & Ticket Center

The Polynesian on the left and Grand Floridian on the right

I usually get the same items at The California Grill...when I find an item I like at a restaurant, I stick with it. I got the cheese plate to start and The Pork two ways for dinner. It has grilled pork tenderloin with goat cheese polenta, as well as pork belly over an applesauce. For dessert I got warm homemade fritters which has cinnamon sugar, bananas inside and comes with three dipping sauces.

The tree from the top of The Contemporary

We took the monorail back to The Magic Kingdom after dinner.

And enjoyed the rest of our first day at The Magic Kingdom!

Train station decorated for Christmas

Castle reflected in the moat

Seven Dwarves Mine Train

Wishes behind Be Our Guest

Dumbo

We went on Pirates, the ride looked fine when we were there

The dream lights extended to the hub trees

Tomorrowland looks beautiful at night

That's it for day five!

Day 6

Waterfall by the entrance

Christmas tree by our table

I had a croque monsieur for lunch aka ham and cheese sandwich

Strawberry Cream cheese cupcake for dessert

If you haven't been to Be Our Guest for lunch, you usually wait for a kiosk to put your order in. Then you go find a table where eventually the wait staff brings over your meal. I liked my meal, the fries are the standard fries served at quick service restaurants. They have better ones at dinner time for Steak and Pom Frittes. I got my favorite cupcake served there, it has strawberry moose inside a vanilla cupcake with cream cheese icing. The wrapping is pretty hard to get off, so I just use my fork with the cupcake still in the wrapper.

After lunch I had an appointment at The Main Street Barber Shop. It's been a tradition the last couple of years to get my haircut there. The staff is very friendly, it truly feels like another era with quality Disney service. After my haircut we took the train over to Fantasyland.

From the train station

Big Thunder Mountain from the train

We ended up seeing Mickey's Phillarmagic and then decided to head back to the resort to go to EPCOT.

We left through the castle. The stage show in-front of the castle makes it rare to be able to go through the castle.

I got this picture of the new trees on Main Street on my way out

The bus ride back took us by Disney's Polynesian Village Resort

We walked over to EPCOT after the bus dropped us back at our resort. I went on Imagination and then headed through Innoventions West where IBM's exhibits were supposed to have just closed.

IBM's THINK was still opened, so I got a few pics since it's supposed to be closed soon.

Since THINK was opened, I headed to Innoventions East to see if Test the Limits Lab was opened

Test the Limits behind walls

We had a fastpass for Spaceship Earth for around 7, and since it was 6 I thought we could ride Mission: SPACE. It's usually fast to do.

I'd never seen the line this far back before


Stuck in line

It ended up taking us around 40 minutes to ride! Apparently the green version (less intense) was having technical difficulties. Since green is only one bay while orange (more intense with spinning) has three bays, we had a long wait. We still made our Spaceship Earth fastpass though.

Fountain of Nations night shot

For dinner we went to The Land to eat at Sunshine Seasons, the counter service restaurant.

We had the dining plan so I got the porkchops with cheddar mashed potatoes and a side of butternut squash soup. I had never tried the pork chops before, they were delicious! These are my new favorite! The soup had pumpkin seeds and goat cheese added on top. It was very good...I've had it before. For dessert I had the keylime meringue pie, always a favorite! After dinner we went on Soarin' with our fastpass.