Two Weeks - Two Stays

We spent three nights at the Riviera resort from February 1-4 and one night at the Polynesian from February 7-8. This was our first visit to the Riviera. We had reservations to stay at this location two years ago but Disney shut down due to the pandemic just before our scheduled stay there.

Tuesday, February 1st - We drove over to the resort. Our room wasn't ready yet. We visited the quick service location where we both had specialty coffees and the french bread pudding. The pudding was quite good but also quite filling and I could only manage to eat half of mine. With breakfast completed, we headed over to the Skyliner for a trip to Epcot. This was our first ride on the Skyliner and we enjoyed our smooth glide over traffic to the park entrance. Epcot crowds on this day were quite manageable which was a pleasant surprise. We visited Frozen Ever After with about a 45 minute wait, went to Reflections of China, enjoyed the Voices of Liberty performance (we preferred the period dress they use to wear), attended the American Adventure and ended with Test Track with a line that was actually shorter than the posted wait time. After our breakfast, we weren't hungry until mid-afternoon and were able to snag a reservation at the Rose and Crown where we both had the Fish n' Chips. We got our second Skyliner ride on our return to the resort. We collected our bags from our car and got settled into our room. We wandered around the resort and headed up to Topolino's for a nightcap.

Wednesday, February 2 - Today we order Danish and coffee from the little coffee shop/lounge and then take a bus over to the Magic Kingdom. We manage to ride Aladdin's carpet, Pirates, Big Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan, and Little Mermaid. Along the way, we stop for a flatbread (which we shared) from Pinocchio Village House. This evening, we have reservations at Topolino's. We arrive early so get drinks at the bar and bring them out to the outdoor Terrace. What a lovely spot!! For a little bit, we had the whole place to ourselves. By time, we went back inside to check in for our dinner, the terrace had really begun to fill up. This was a pricey but, very delicious, dinner. I chose octopus for my appetizer while my spouse had salad. While I've eaten calamari often, I'd never had octopus prepared like this. It was quite good. For dinner, I had the sole meuniere while my spouse had scallops. The sole was so good, I just couldn't stop making little yum sounds while I dined!!

Thursday, February 3 - We were both so full from dinner the night before, we didn't bother with any breakfast this morning. This was our longest wait for a bus. When we arrived at Animal Kingdom, the park had already been open to the general public for at least 15 minutes but all the entrance turnstyles were all backed up as though the park had just opened that minute. We finally made it into the park and headed to the safari. This was, by far, the longest we have ever waited to get on the safari. There was a steady stream of folks walking through the lightning lane and the standby line seemed to back up more and more. By time, we got to the point where we could enter the loading docks, the cast member on duty there was literally encouraging us to hurry through before more folks approached in the lightning lane!! The wait had been so long that I really wasn't interested in the ride any longer!! After the safari, we went to Pizzafari and had sandwiches. We walked through the Maharajah Jungle Trek. At that point, we were either too late, or too early, for any of the show performances and decided to just leave the park and hang out at our resort for a bit. We had dinner reservations at San Angel Inn in Epcot with plans to stay for Harmonious. However, when we were ready to leave, the Skyliner was down. Buses were being shared with Caribbean and it took us a full hour to get over to Epcot. We went directly to dinner which was pleasant. After dinner, we took a walk around World Showcase. We could see the Skyliner was still down so just went back to the bus stop and returned to the resort as I did not want to deal with buses at closing time!! On Friday morning, we packed up and returned home.

Monday, February 7 - Today, we drove over to the Polynesian. Our room wasn't ready so we had breakfast in the quick service, walked over to the Ticket & Transportation Center and caught the monorail to Epcot. What a difference from the week before!! Crowd levels, in my opinion, were on a level one might usually see on a weekend in the middle of the Food & Wine festival. Still, we were pleasantly surprised that the posted 50 minute wait for Soarin' really only took about 40 minutes. We also saw the Pixar films, and the Gran Fiesta Tour. Along the way, we stopped for a drink in the United Kingdom. For lunch, we got lobster bisque bread bowls at Les Halles Boulangerie. The line here was really long - out the door long. I was able to snag a table while my husband waited in line - that took in excess of half an hour. We took the monorail back to our resort and changed for dinner. This time, we walked to the main building and boarded the monorail for the Contemporary where we had dinner reservations at Steakhouse 71. Dinner was good but I wouldn't rate it as fantastic. There was no bread service. I had a filet mignon while my spouse had prime rib. With each steak, you can pick one side dish and one sauce. I had the Au Gratin Potatoes and Bernaise sauce. My spouse had the Garlic Mashed Potatoes and horseradish sauce. We monorailed back to the Poly and had a lovely view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks from our room. On Tuesday, we headed home again.