Although this was our third trip to Disney World for my birthday, this was the first year where our dates worked out so that Isabelle would celebrate hers as well. Isabelle and I are born 5 days apart (well, 1 year and 5 days). I’m the 22nd of August, she’s the 27th. As a teacher, and due to her return to work at the end of August, we haven’t been able to arrange the trips to allow her to experience the joys of a Disney World birthday. This year; however, the calendar worked with us. She only had to go back to school on the 29th, so we were able to shift the dates a bit to get both of our birthdays in.
The day began at the Polynesian Resort again, but this time at Kona Café. We both had the Tonga Toast. Wow! Was it ever good! What’s Tonga Toast you say?
Thick-cut Sourdough Bread is stuffed with ripe bananas before it’s deep fried and rolled in Cinnamon Sugar. Served with a side of Strawberry Coulis for dipping/pouring. It’s the perfect, decadent start to your Disney Day. And since it’s incredibly hefty, it will keep you going for hours. (source)
After breakfast, we headed to the Magic Kingdom by boat. Much like the day before, this was our second full day at this park, so it was a lot of the same as our first day. One of the highlights for my wife was getting to meet her favourite princess – Ariel. They had a nice little conversation while I took a couple of pictures of them together. Very cute and a special moment for my wife on her birthday.
As this was Isabelle’s special night, not to mention the last night of our vacation, we treated ourselves to a Signature Dining meal. We booked a meal at the California Grill, located on the 15th floor of the Contemporary Resort, next to Magic Kingdom. As we waited for our table, we were seated in a little area with windows looking out towards Magic Kingdom. It’s something quite different to look at it from above.
We were seated at a cozy table for two, decorated with confetti. Very nice touch Disney. Because we were wearing celebration buttons (Isabelle had her birthday pin, and we both had our 5 “ears” anniversary pins), the person checking us in flagged it as a celebration, so we got a little extra touch of magic.
Since we were treating ourselves this evening, I opted to order an appetizer. The Cali Grill is known for it’s sushi, so I went in that direction and ordered a sashimi plate. This was followed by Wagyu steak with potato mille feuille for myself and a fillet mignon over caramelized red onion risotto for Isabelle. The food was absolutely superb! And the plating was beautiful. Dessert was a chocolate pudding cake for my wife and the honey-crunch cake for myself.
Once our meal was over, we headed out onto the balcony to get a view of the Magic Kingdom in the darkening sky. It was fun to be able to view the illuminated park from this vantage point.
After a few minutes of quietly soaking in the atmosphere and the view, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom to watch the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular again. Although we had watched it earlier in the week, we had chosen a spot beside the castle, and didn’t get the full experience of the show. This time, we chose to watch directly from the hub (this is the central courtyard in front of the castle, with roads leading to all of the various land acting as spokes in a wheel, hence the name hub). We managed to find a very nice spot smack dab in the centre of the hub. They had blocked off a walkway in the road in front of us, so we didn’t have to worry about a bunch of people suddenly blocking our view. Plus the Cast Member who was monitoring the area was full of trivia and facts about the parks. He kept the crowd entertained as we waited for the show to start.
Once the fireworks came to an end, the throngs of park goers started streaming towards the exit. Wanting to avoid some of that rush of people (not to mention the LOOOOONG lines for the resort bus) we slowly made our way down Main Street USA, checking out some of the shops, soaking it all in one last time.
This truly was a perfect way to end our magical vacation.
And now we wait for 2018 for our next visit. : )
Musings of A Boxhead 