Victoria and Albert's in Disney World

If you are a big Disney World fan, a dinner at Victoria and Alberts might be on your Disney Bucket List! It was certainly on mine. So, last summer, my friend Erin and I hatched a plan for a quick girls' weekend to Disney World on our own. We only went for two nights, but we took the first flight out on Friday morning and came home on the last flight on Sunday to maximize our time. Since we haven't had an adult only trip to the World since before our kids were born, we knew we needed to do as much as possible in our limited time. 

180 days out at 6am, we snagged a dinner reservation at the famed Victoria and Alberts. V&A's is about as far from theme park food as you can imagine! It's located in the Grand Floridian, and it it only has one seating per night. You can choose the main dining room (where we dined), the Queen's table or the Chef's table.  

The main dining room was just gorgeous. Live harp music played the classics (including Disney classics, which was the only touch of the Mouse all night). 

If you have a reservation here, they call you about a week ahead of time to discuss your dining experience. They go over things like what you can and can't eat (so, I was able to tell them that fish is the only meat I will eat, but you can discuss allergies and preferences too), any celebrations (none for us!), and your relationship with your fellow diner. They also go over the options for 7 or 10 course, wine pairings, and pricing (eek!). Bucket list...this is a bucket list thing! So, when we showed up, my menu was personalized! So fun and special!

I chose the 7 course and the wine pairing. I do love wine, and even though I wasn't sure about some of the choices on the menu, I wanted to opportunity to try out the pairing choices. Plus it started with this Pino Noir/Chardonnay sparkling mix, which is pretty much me in a glass.

And on to a MILLION food pictures. IT. WAS. ALL. SO. GOOD. Like work of art good.

Oh, and on top of the 7 courses, there were three bread courses. Each with it's own special butter and salt for the top--can't go wrong with that!

I don't like beets, so the chef switched my beet dish out for this awesome Japanese dish of yummy goodness.

My favorite part of the Grand Floridian in the past has been the flowers. The flowers in their signature restaurant live up to the hype, too! Look at these gorgeous things!

Selfie stop!

Seriously--every course just kept getting better.

And then the truffle bread with truffle butter. OMG. Seriously. Sometimes I dream about this. Our sweet assistant waitress (because you clearly need two) kept saying what a shame it is that truffle season is so short. Gotta admit that I agree.

This noodle dish with butternut squash was insanely good.

On to the fish that I haven't had before--John Dory fish. YUM.

Towards the end of the meal(and I'm talking 3 hours in), the brought out this coffee contraption. They said it was part of the entertainment, and I must say I agree!

When given a choice of a cheese tray or ice cream, we both chose the cheese. And it came in it's own delicious cart of goodness!

Look at all those yummies!

But, just because we did cheese, we still got dessert. In case you were wondering, there is gold on there. Apparently it's "good for digestion." We got a good laugh out of that. And then we ate it!

Oh wait. You think that's it? NOPE. Post dessert, you need truffles of the chocolate variety. Erin was reasonable and asked for one. I said I wanted them ALL. I had to take some home, but I wasn't missing out on this!

That cherry in the middle was soaked for over a year in brandy, and was quite messy!

Quick view of the dining room!

Post dinner selfie!

 And of course, you are sent home with your menu in a gorgeous envelope, a rose, and your chocolates that you just can't manage to eat even though you really tried!

 And you know that someone is a life-long friend when you leave the 4+ hour dinner and she says, "hey, since we are right here, do you want to run into" Me: "yes." Erin: "Yes, what?" Me:"Yes, I will totally go into Magic Kingdom right now." So we ran in for the the last 40 minutes before closing, grabbed a few pictures and rode a few rides!

I would certainly encourage anyone who wanted a really special night to go to Victoria and Alberts! It's such a treat! 

Castaway Cay 5K!

We are home and settling in from an amazing 5 night Disney Cruise on the Disney Magic! I will try to blog about a handful of experiences that were particularly fun and that you can do while you are on your Disney Cruise! The first one of these is the Castaway Cay 5k. 

Castaway Cay is Disney's island in the Bahamas that you visit on my Disney Cruise Line trips. I will write all about it in another post, but the short of it is that it is pretty much the perfect beach. There are ton of things you can do (or nothing at all of course!). The 5k is among a long list of possible activities on that day. Because I have run many Disney races over the years, I knew I had to get this one in! 

The 5k is included as a part of your cruise if you choose to do it. On the day you board, just head to guest services on the ship and tell them that you want to run it. They will sign you up and give you a ticket. On your Castaway Cay day, you will bring that ticket to the assigned location and trade it in for a bib number. 

Then, they went over the route. Because the island is pretty small, there is some doubling up on the course. They were very clear about that in the introduction, though, so it was easy enough to follow.

After going over all of the information on the ship, we headed off and walked over to the starting line. They had the kids club on the island open, so if you wanted to drop off your kids so you can run without worry, they sent those folks off first. George was in a cast from an injury, but I hope the next time we are on CC, we can both run the 5k!

Before we got started, I had to take a quick selfie with this cute Olaf who was enjoying some beach time :-)

Everyone lines up at the start and there is a little box to dump your things if you want. All in all, this is a really low key affair. The director said, "Make sure you look at the clock for your time. If you ask me the time afterwards, I'll say 15 minutes!" So, there is a clock, but there are no results, which is FINE by me!

Here's the fancy start line!

A large part of the race is on the bike path, which thankfully has shade. Even in December, this was H-O-T hot. Like really hot. As in, I might have been running on the surface of the sun. I mean, it is in the Bahamas, so hot is to be expected. They have a water station set up, and you go by it 4 glorious times. (Did I mention it's a little toasty?)

And the finish line! It's the back side of the start line! Note that if they aren't sharing the time, I'm not either! It was so fun, and I am glad I did it. It might be my slowest 5k in history though! But who cares! You're on a Disney Cruise, and you ran a 5k, so you are clearly winning at all things if you find yourself at this finish line!

Let's zoom in on that cute medal! I just love it!

I met George and the boys after the race and had to get a quick shot with Minnie and the adorable painted rocks before we started our super fun beach day!

If you find yourself on a Disney Cruise at Castaway Cay, and are considering running the 5k, I say Go For It! It was a fun way to start the day, and I hope to do it again soon!

If you want help planning your Disney Cruise--send me an email at kacietravelplanner@gmail.com :-)

Sandals Royal Bahamian FAM Trip Report!

At the end of September, I had the opportunity to take a Rising Star FAM trip to the Sandals Royal Bahamian resort. This resort is an all inclusive resort in Nassau. A "FAM" trip is short for familiarization. The basic idea is to bring travel agents to a particular resort or destination so they can become more "familiar" with it so they can communicate and share better with their clients. Count me in!

One great part about Sandals is that the airport transfers are all included. After getting off the plane, you just head to the Sandals desk at the airport and tell them you are here. They will help you take your luggage to the bus, which will take you right to the resort. Easy peasy.

When I arrived, there was a cute sign to welcome us to the resort. Thanks! Happy to be here y'all!

I will bring this up again later on, but one of my favorite parts of this place is that the flight was under 2 hours from Atlanta. It was so short and then you are in an island paradise before you even have time to finish your airplane peanuts!

When you are on a FAM, you don't have choices about room types. That's nothing to complain about of course, but you just never know. My room had this nice view of the ocean, which was great!

My room didn't this amazing swim up feature, but they are sooo pretty...

It didn't have this awesome soaking tub either, but I did hop in one while on a tour! 

Sandals has three levels of room--luxury, club level, and butler level. One of the differences in the levels is what is available in your room. Luxury rooms will have sodas and water in your room and no room service available. Club level rooms have that plus plenty of alcohol and room service during regular hours. I was in a club level room, so you can see that you have those things plus plenty of choices. Butler level rooms will have top shelf level drinks as well as a butler to bring you anything you might want at any time during your trip for room service 24 hours a day.

On my arrival day, I spent some time exploring on my own before the welcome and dinner! So beautiful!

The next day, I had a work session. We spent some time getting updates on all of the Sandals properties and offerings.

We covered construction and remodeling updates and destination weddings, honeymoons, and "weddingmoons." Looks like a SIMPLE way to have a wedding! You pretty much plan out the details before you come and then just show up with your family and friends! I saw a wedding happening over on the private island, and it was just gorgeous.

Non-motorized water sports and SCUBA are part of the all-inclusive part of this place. I played around on some kayaks and paddle boards, which was a blast. I want to work on my PADI certification so I could squeeze in a dive on my next Sandals visit!

There is a quiet pool and a party pool, and they both lived up to their names. The drinks were great and they were plentiful! The party pool has water volleyball, loud music, entertainment, and giant swans....the quiet pool still has a swim up bar, but no music, and is a better place to bring a book or catch a nap.

There is a desk called "Island Routes," and they provide a variety of excursions. I can help you book these ahead of time if you want, or you can book them when you get on site.

They let us pick one on our first morning, and I got signed up for the little submarines ASAP!

The excursion was a blast, and it was so easy. They had a van pick us up at the front of the resort, and then it was a great time on the little subs! I would certainly encourage you to plan at least one excursion while on your vacation. 

Now, on to food and drinks. This resort has 10 full service restaurants and 8 full bars (including 3 swim up bars). In addition to that, you have access to room service all day for club level rooms and 24 hours a day in the butler level rooms.  I was a fan of the hibachi grill! So yummy and fun!

Maybe my favorite thing is that every time I was seated to eat, they asked me about any food allergies. You can of course note any allergies on your check in information, but it is still great to confirm this every time because it's a big deal.

 I also really enjoyed the high tea! It was lovely and a bit of a surprise.

 There is a beautiful gym where the treadmills overlook the ocean if you need to work off some of those treats!

The private island is accesible by boat, and it is a great way to spend the day. It is peaceful and just gorgeous!

There are two spas--one in the main building and one on the private island. Lovely to get the massage on the island by the water. 

Another not-exciting thing that I loved is that there is customs precheck in the Nassau airport! I looooove that (I like the boring things apparently!). You get to skip US customs when you arrive in ATL. It's really nice. When I got off the plane in Atlanta, I just walked right on out to my car! Easy as can be! This location is a wonderful getaway if you want a long weekend or just a limited amount of travel time!

I had a an amazing weekend, and it was a work weekend, which means that you would have an incredible vacation! If you would like help planning a trip, drop me a line at kacietravelplanner@gmail.com