Fun at the Studios and a change of plans

Since we had gotten back a little late we decided to sleep in a little. By 8am we got up and started to get ready. There was lots of food around so we decided to have breakfast in the villa. Tom made some coffee and I stuck to my trusted Diet Coke and we both had some raisin toast with butter.

We sat outside on the balcony for a while we did some laundry and around 9.30am we decided to get going. I needed to pick up some forgotten things from Downtown Disney, so that was our first stop, then we made our way over to the Beach Club resort. We walked to the gift shop, had a good look around, then walked outside and enjoyed the beautiful setting. We wanted to try for a table at Beaches and Cream for an ice-cream treat, but overhearing the wait times, we decided against it. We slowly walked over to the Yacht Club resort, checking out the menu for the Yachtsman Steakhouse and then having a good look around the gift shop.

Once we had enjoyed both resorts we headed over to the lighthouse to take a Friendship to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The next boat that came went to Epcot, and after a 15 minute wait we made it onto the boat. It was pretty full, but emptied out a bit once we made it to the Swan and Dolphin. It was pretty hot inside the boat and we were happy to get off at the Studios. We made it to bag check just before the next tram load of people did and headed to the turnstiles. Once inside the park we fled into the shops and took our time to look around to cool down a bit. We headed over to the tip board and found that most rides had too long a line to be easily done with before our Fantasmic lunch at Mama Melrose.

Fastpass times were either too far out or too close to our lunch time, so we decided to just play it by ear. We headed towards Toy Story Mania and were pleasantly surprised to find an open bar. It was hot, we did not have any rides to get on, so what better idea than to have a nice cool drink. We both opted for a frozen drink. Tom had the Frozen Golden Margarita and I had a Pina Colada. We were lucky enough to score one of the small tables and sat and enjoyed our cold treats. It was quite some time that we sat and people watched until we had finished our drinks and headed over to the Streets of America. We explored New York a little bit, then walked around San Francisco, before we  walked towards Mama Melrose.

We were a little early and they told us we would have to wait until our assigned time, but were given a beeper and told that we could check out the stores around the restaurant. We headed into the store opposite and Tom tried on a few fun hats. There were lots of signs to be read and laughed about and then we finally went across the street to check out the Christmas Store. Window shopping done, we made our way back to the air conditioned restaurant. Again, we were lucky, as after hitting the restrooms we found an empty bench to sit and wait. It took about another 10 minutes, where we saw them turn away all the walk ins, before our beeper went off and we were led to a table. This time we were seated towards the back of the restaurant and our server was a fun young lady. She introduced herself and told us about what to expect when having a Fantasmic Package. Not that we had not known about that, but she was very enthusiastic when she told us all about it. Then she took our drinks order, which were Diet Cokes again and left us to study the menu while she went to fill our order.

When she returned she not only brought our drinks but she brought a basket full of dinner rolls and a plate with some butter. The plate was hot and the butter had already started to melt. We placed our order and started to nibble on the bread. It didn’t take long and our starters arrived, brought out by a food runner. Tom had ordered the Oak-fired Mussels, cooked in a spicy tomato butter with grilled onions and herb croutons, and I got the Fresh Mozzarella and Vine-ripened Tomatoes with marinated sweet onions, balsamic drizzle, basil-scented olive oil and fresh sweet basil. We both enjoyed our choices very much and our empty plates were quickly removed once we had finished. And out came our main courses.

Tom’s was the Wood-grilled Tuna over a seasonal Vegetable Risotto, warm Vine-ripened Diced Red and Yellow Tomatoes, and Olive-Caper Butter and I had ordered the red meat dish, the Charred Strip Steak with five-cheese baked macaroni, aged balsamic-shallot butter, and Chianti Wine Reduction. Again, neither of the choices disappointed and we worked hard to clean our plates. Our server was really busy with larger parties all around us, and we were quite happy not to have to order dessert right away. When our server took the dirty plates away, she informed us that dessert would be two randomly picked dessert items and she was going to bring them right out. It took about 10 minutes for our desserts to arrive, but we did not mind.

A little break between courses felt really good. Our two desserts were the Chocolate Cannoli Cake with cannoli and Nutella filling and the Chocolate Amarettini Cheesecake, Chocolate-flavored Cheesecake with a Cookie Crust, Almond Cream, and Italian Amarettini Cookies. We both picked at the desserts, not that they would not have been good, but we were both really full. Once we had finished our meal and received our voucher to get into the special viewing area for Fantasmic, we paid our bill and headed out into the park again.By then the crowds were really thick and after checking the wait times at the tip board again, we decided to head back to our resort to chill for a while.

Then we stopped at Publix to pick up a few more items, some drinks to take on the cruise and some salad for dinner. Lastly since we were already in Kissimmee we decided to drive to Krispy Kreme. Tom has an app on his mobile, that shows if their “Hot Now” signs is on or not and it was on, so we hit the road. Needless to say that we needed to try some Krispy Kremes right there and then. We ordered a Diet Coke, sat down and while watching the production line we happily munched our doughnuts. Around 7pm we arrived back at our villa and set the table and had dinner. After dinner we started packing and at around 9.30 we sat down in front of the TV, to chill for some more time and watch a little TV. It was around 11pm that we decided to go to bed.