The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Thirteen Saturday 21st January 

Saturday 21st January

So we are back at WDW and the cruise is done. Not that my opinion matters but I realised I didn’t summarise our thoughts on our first cruise experience, so here goes.

It was very good.

Now, shall we move on? Oh, OK, some detail….

Well, many folks predicted we would fall in love with it and never want to do any other type of holiday again, and to be honest, we didn’t. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and there were some highlights and things we will never forget, but it did not grab us by the short and curlies.

The ship’s sheer size, scale and impressive nature were mind-blowing. It oozes quality and is relatively new, so everything is in pristine condition. The cast members were awesome and could not do enough for us and Cataway Cay was everything we hoped it would be. A real paradise destination. The entertainment was first class and our evenings in the piano bar were just lovely. We felt privileged to have been able to experience it all.

The bits that weren’t for us…

1. Sharing a table for all our evening meals. I know we sound anti-social and miserable, but that’s probably because we can be. I have to make small talk with people I don’t know or in some cases, really like at work all year so having to do so on holiday felt like hard work at times. Our table sharers were lovely of course and we had no problem with them at all, but the food on our holidays is very important to us and being able to relax in our own company and enjoy it is a big part of our trips.
2. Queues for food. We expected it and this had been a big reason we hadn’t cruised before. It wasn’t too bad at all, but it felt a bit “holiday camp” at breakfast and I am too weak and unfit to be fighting for my food.
3. The food. Honestly, everything we ate was lovely. However, the selection was limited and a bit repetitive over the course of the cruise. You know how much we base our trips around food, so a small menu of basically meat, chicken or a veggie option every night wasn’t perfect for us.

Now, of course, having done one, the next time would be much better as we would have some clue about what we were doing. Would we ever do so? I probably would as having just moaned about it above, I really do miss elements of it and would like to try it again. Louise is less keen and is very Disney’d out after a lot of recent trips so if we do a cruise again it would likely not be a Disney one. Although that worries me as all the other ships we saw looked like second-hand rust buckets compared to The Wish!

I am really glad we did it and feel lucky to have been able to, and if the chance presents itself I would definitely say try it.

Now, where were we?

Ah yes, in bed, having a lie in after a long tiring day yesterday. The plan said today was to be a day by Stormalong Bay, alas the weather prevented that being an option as it was bloody chilly. So we would need a plan B. Whilst Louise stayed in bed, Emily and I went down to the Marketplace and got a couple of breakfast sandwiches and a coffee each and had those in the seating area in the shop. We took breakfast back to the room for Louise who was now up and about.

We weren’t sure what to do and with precious time now left on our holiday we did not want to waste a day. Deciding against shopping, we opted for some mini golf and made a bee line for Fantasia Gardens which was handily placed just over the road.

A mixture of tiredness and incompetence saw us miss the entrance for that and have to carry on down the road for ages before finding somewhere to turn around. As the turning around place was Blizzard Beach we decided just to park up there and do the Winter Summerland course. It did not look too busy…

However, as we checked in we did see a fair few folks waiting to play so we had a wait of around half an hour.

We found ourselves a table to sit at and watched the ants carry huge chunks of food around whilst we chatted.

The game was great fun. It had been many years since we had played over in Florida and we were all glad we did.

Trivial things like who won or lost did not matter. What was important was having fun together and that is all I will say on the matter.

Once we were done and I had snapped my putter over my leg and thrown it in the bin, we drove over to the outlets that are Premium at Lake Buena Vista. As ever parking was harder than a moon landing but eventually we stumbled across a car pulling out and started in Gap, getting Dougie a cute Disney outfit. There weren’t too many shops in this part of the mall (we had parked over the road from what I consider the main bit) so we went over there and again luckily came across someone leaving and parked up.

For reasons nobody can explain Louise bought a handbag. It will look nice sat next to all the other new handbags stuffed into our wardrobe back home.

I was hangry at this point and food was required. I decided that we would go to Ford’s Garage, as I had heard many good reports about it.

I had booked us a table on their website as we pulled into the car park, but we would have been seated immediately anyway. I just couldn’t take that risk in my state of hunger.

We were not messing about here. We ordered an appetiser each, much to the incredulity of our server.

I had the pretzel rolls to start

Emily, the Fried Pickles

Louise, of course, Nachos

Then I had a Burnt Ends Sandwich

Emily the Veggie Burger

and Louise a Chipotle Chicken Sandwich, the most enjoyable part being Louise trying to say Chipotle when ordering it.

Apologies for the blur…

We were so full it hurt and we left short of $170 which included a large tip.

Our planned end to the day was over at Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks. We trammed in during the lovely dusk…

We had no intentions or plans to do anything but the fireworks so we just sat on a bench near the flag at the bottom of Main Street and people-watched. I wandered off over to Joffreys near Space Mountain to get some drinks and I would wager good money that was the longest queue of the whole trip.

Other than that we just watched Main Street be awesome as it went dark.

Our selected viewing spot was 99% due to its proximity to the exit and 1% due to the view, but it still wasn’t bad.

We saw a proposal….

and just enjoyed being here….and thought about those who couldn’t be.

I had a wander into the fire station on the way back from a wee….

And got ready for the show…

Emily is always in bits during these things but I admit that I too got the same way on this occasion, thinking about my Dad, and how much he loved the Magic Kingdom and the fireworks. I missed him a lot at this moment.

We were turned and headed for the exit on the b of the last Bang and were so quick off the mark we could get on the pleb monorail with no wait and did not have to resort to the resort one.

The journey out was subdued yet painless and after getting some water from the shop in the lobby at the hotel, we were tucked up in bed and asleep in no time.

Till the next time……