D1 Part 2 New Adventures

If you've been following along, you've got to be on the edge of your seat wondering where we were able to acquire a same day ADR at. (Ok, maybe not quite that excited, but I'd like to think so.) After all, everyone knows you book your ADR's 180 days before your trip to get your times and restaurants! And what crazy fool books one a couple of HOURS before? Can you even DO that? Well, heck ya! But, you might not want to set your heart on a certain restaurant. This is highly unusual for me to fly by the seat of my pants at Disney. I'm a huge planner. But, tonight all I was looking for was a restaurant we had never been to and it needed to be outside one of the parks.

What did I find? Trails End at Fort Wilderness! We had never been to the campgrounds ever, so that also meant we had never eaten there. 

To get to Fort Wilderness, we had to take a bus to Wilderness Lodge which then went to Fort Wilderness. At the bus stop, we needed to wait for an internal bus to take us to the "Settlement" which is where the action is. 

We checked in at the podium and were given a buzzer. The waiting area outside of Trails End is a covered front porch with chairs, and a walk up window to Crockett's Tavern if you are so inclined. (We were.) Soon enough, our time had come and our buzzer went off.

One of my favorite things about a buffet is there something for everyone. Then there's the all you can eat factor...After we placed our drink orders, we were turned loose on the buffet.

Apple Pie Moonshine


Warning! Food Porn Alert!

Some of the cold salad selections

Veggies!

Mmmmm! Chicken!

More yum-ness!

My plate-chicken, mac n cheese, pasta salad, cole slaw, peel n eat shrimp, and a cold salad with tomatos.


And then it was dessert time!

I wish I would have taken a better pic of my dessert plate. I think I just too excited and couldn't contain myself. (This means-nothing but a blurry pic of my dessert.) However, I will tell you do not miss the strawberry shortcake!

After dinner, we headed over to their gift shop and then hopped on the boat to the Magic Kingdom. I cannot even begin ot tell you how hard it was to not take a right to head to the Happiest Place on Earth. Instead, I headed for the monorail to take me to the Contemporary. I was going to check out yet another new thing!!!

A perk for being a DVC member allows you to go to the Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Towers. After showing our credentials, we were told how to get to the lounge. (It almost felt like being in a spy movie with a secret entrance.)

I'm shocked I didn't take more pics of the inside, but I did capture a pic of a cool light fixture in there! The lounge has a big city feel to it (at least for this small town girl) and I found it quite nice.

The cool light fixture

After getting a couple of cocktails, we headed out to the viewing area. From here you have a great view of the Contemporary. We could see people at the Contemporary claiming their spots to iew the fireworks from; and it's always fun to watch the monorail go through the hotel!

Seeing the fireworks from this angle gives it a whole new look! It's truly hard to realize how big a production the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom are when you're in the park.

Once the fireworks were over, we headed back in, grabbed a table and finished our drinks. 

While I can say I was hesitant about not spending time in a park the day of our arrival, I can say it CAN be done! There's Disney Magic to be had all over the property.:) And with that, we called it a night.