Day 7: Saturday February 24: Topolino's Terrace and Return Home (Part 1 of X)
Despite being sick (or maybe also because of it) I woke up overnight and was fairly restless from 12:30am-2:20am. I eventually fell back asleep but then was up to shower by 5:30 or so.
Our flight home wasn’t till the late afternoon, which left us plenty of time for our last planned activity of the trip: breakfast at Topolino’s Terrace. Our ADR was at 9:10, so those of us with kind bodies that allow sleeping in had a bit of time to do so.
I too wish to sleep as peacefully as this painted bunny
DH and DD4 were up by a bit after 7. We did a bit of packing and briefly debated getting everything all the way done before breakfast, but decided against it. We figured we would be back by 10:30 at the latest, so as long as we had things mostly ready to go we could wrap up the last few things by 11am checkout time.
The 5 of us headed to Topolino’s early; after the A&C disaster and the other delays for Sci Fi and Rainforest Cafe we wanted to make sure we were on time.
Besides, to get the 9:10 time for our reservation we’d needed to split into 2 parties, so we wanted to go in plenty of time to see if we could be seated at the same table or at least have neighboring tables.
We left by 8:15. At the Skyliner Riviera station MIL started getting up to get off, only for a CM to yell loudly “Stay on!” Her tone was basically this:
MIL is pretty agreeable and kind of froze, so I started to get up myself and said “We need the Riviera. We have a Topolino’s reservation” and then the CM ceased her Gandalf impression and waved us off.
I highlight this because I also tend to have a, shall we say, rollover personality, and often defer to other people unless I know for sure they’re wrong. (Though even then I will often doubt myself.)
I get the CM was used to numerous guests headed to Epcot who were unaware they had another stop to go. But the level of firmness I felt was a bit excessive, though I do get there’s safety concerns at play, where they want people to stay seated and not risk trying to hop on/ hop off. But also, "Stay on unless you need Riviera" doesn't take that much longer to say.
Anyway, we found Topolino’s much more easily than we had A&C (helped that I knew it was the top of the Riviera, so we only needed to find an elevator, which was also clearly marked with which floor to go to, and arrived a full 30 minutes before the reservation.
The ADRs were under my and DHs accounts so we checked in at the desk together and successfully got our ADRs merged. We got the table-ready text at around 9!
We had a decent view at our combined table. Not right by the windows, but not too obstructed by others’ tables.
We went out to the terrace once but....
...I took no pictures.
Breakfast was tasty overall! I had the sour cream waffle; DH the steak & eggs; DD4 turned down the Mickey dippers and instead selected the yogurt and fruit.
I didn’t take notes on MIL and FIL’s food, and of course I have no pictures of our food anyway.
But again, we weren’t there for the food so much as the characters!
Mickey visited us first. It was a nice interaction! He showed DD4 how to pose like he did. Except she finished posing like he did by the time I got to take a picture.
DD4 likes to draw so I’d tried to prep DD4 for Mickey’s artist outfit and told her she could Mickey she was an artist too, but once again she was a little starstruck and couldn’t say much to him or the other characters. One day!
Donald came next. DD4 was focused on eating and didn’t see him behind her. He tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention—luckily she was fine with this! She liked Donald a lot; one time said he was her favorite, later switched. He, however, scurried away before I could get a picture of him and DD4 together (grandparents and DH were on the other side of the table, all taking pictures, and the characters generally accommodated the three of them first).
A busy sculptor duck
Minnie came next. She pointed out DD4’s dress and indicated she should twirl. I didn't get a shot of that but at least Minnie posed for me to take a picture, too!
And last, Daisy! Daisy had her twirl too,
and then clapped for her!
Later when I asked DD4 who she liked meeting best, I think she said Daisy was her favorite.
Oh, and as shown in the pictures we did have our character book with us and got everyone’s signatures, of course!
I also thought the goodbye dance/march the characters did to “Funiculi Funicula”* was pretty cute. Daisy’s posing/vamping was in our section so that was fun!
Final verdict: I’m so glad we did this! Again, character meals are expensive, but seeing Mickey on our last day was a perfect cap to the week, and Topolino's was easy to get to from CBR. It’s also a gorgeous location. If we could manage a child-free night during a trip, I could see me and DH coming here for a fancy dinner sometime.
Photo limit! I might post again today, but if not will probably need to pause till Thursday.
Footnote
Yes, I did have to look up the title--though I understand some of the lyrics were adjusted specifically for Topolino's? I couldn't tell!