Mar 1 - off to Disney

Each year Kim Davies manages to book one of Disney's "signature restaurants" and we are invited along.  Last night was no exception.  We've been going to the Magic Kingdom forever, almost 40 years, and the monorail runs from the Transportation and Ticketing Center (TTC) (aka parking lot) through The Contemporary Resort to the park.  From the "express monorail" we've looked down on the concessions, restaurants and people as we move through.

Last night, for the first time, we took the resort monorail to the hotel and ate at the topside restaurant - the California Grill.

We arrived at Disney a little before 2pm, parking at the TTC rather than at Epcot and took the monorail to Epcot.  That too was a first.  We knew where we were going to end up after dinner !  Sandy was hungry ... ok, so was I ... and we worked our way around to Spice Road Table and ordered lunch.  The Davies arrived at the park shortly afterward and joined us.  We wandered around the park, watched the Japanese drummers and Canadian singers from Quebec, did a little shopping and then back out.  Jason et al drove from park to park.  We opted to take the monorail from Epcot back to the TTC then switch over to the resort monorail.  The Contemporary Resort is the third stop before returning to the TTC, hitting the Polynesian Resort and Grand Floridian on the way.  The monorail is a free attraction :).

It's more difficult to get in now, with all the bag searches and body scanners, but that's how it should be.  We were scanned on the way into the monorail, into Epcot and then from the hotel back onto the monorail on the way out after dinner.  Why have the ticket prices soared ... well ... safety is a cost of doing business that we must pay for.

Back to the restaurant ... you either eat before the fireworks or after 8:30.  At 7:55 pm the restaurant lights dim and focus is on the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom.  You can also go outside, which we did.  The view is wonderful from up there both before it gets dark and then during the firewords.  From that vantage point you can see that the fireworks don't really take place over Cinderella's Castle, or at least not the big ones.  It was a good show.

The food was excellent.  I had a very interesting Caesar salad to start and the tuna.  Sandy and Kim had the bison.  Lorraine had the beef and Jason the lobster/pork/ramen.  The beet salad starter got high marks as did the goat-cheese-in-ravioli (I think that's what Kim had).

... and that's it for now.  We were back home before 11pm.  The Davies head north on the weekend and will be back down in a month. 

Another day, a good day, was done.

Onward !