The End of our Chunky Year of Disney! Dec 2017 TR - NEW 3/21 THE END of our YEAR OF DISNEY

[chunkymonkey]

Yachtsman looked delicious! It seems like they really made you feel special. :3

It was great! We always have an enjoyable time here.

Hope your father continues to be on the mend at home.

Thank you! He is! He loves being surrounded by all the grand kids. I think without them his spirits were low but now that he can see them regularly he's much happier!

The rest of your Galactic Nights party sounds like fun. The Yoda pepperoni is cute. I was trying to come up with something clever to say but all I've got is

"Chew or chew not. There is no dry"

Hahaha, that is pretty good!!

Everything I've read about Warwick Davis at these events make him sound like a really interesting guy.

He seemed like a really great guy!! I would love to officially meet him one day.

Ewoks and Jawas are my favorites. I guess I identify with the little guys.

LOL that is cute. Ewoks are adorable!

GREAT popcorn bucket.

It's like my favorite bucket ever! That and my tie-fighter...oh and my Cinderella's carriage. I guess I love them all!

Seems like some really intriguing food choices. I wouldn't say no to the crab!

They were quite unique and most of them were very tasty!!

Bummer about the huge crowds and long waits at MK that morning! You had some great Fast Passes to enjoy, though and lunch at my favorite MK dining spot!

Yup that's all we managed to do, our FPs and lunch at CHH before we left! But any day at MK, even a crowded one, is ok with me

Nice resort break followed by a fantastic pre-BD dinner. You know, I have never dined at Yachtsman.

What, really? But you are like the Yacht Club/Beach Club guru...and you also say you haven't been to Beaches n Cream?

Ending with some time at EPCOT for EMH is perfect! Especially on a comfortable night.

My favorite EMH is Epcot EMH...dunno why but I absolutely love it then.

You always make Yachtsmen Steak House sound delisious!

Thanks! It really is delicious so there's not pretending on my part, lol.

We get off the Fantasy on the 1st, so we'll be arriving at Disney the same day. I'm not sure if you have plans already but on the 2nd we're having a potluck party in our Grand Villa for dinner/afternoon meal. I'm not sure if you know Pam or Jill, but I know that you follow Karin and Tom's reports, they're staying with us. I think Karin has invited some of her local friends to partake as well.

Hey that sounds awesome! It'll be me, Steve and Su-Queen...we are scheduled for a morning at Epcot and Food and Wine booths for early lunch, then we can join you guys. We probably won't be eating much if at all because we have an early dinner at Tiffins...I booked a ROL package. Figured with the holiday weekend it might be best to get reserved seating. My sister hasn't seen ROL yet. Would love to stop by and say hi have a drink and meet everyone! We'll bring a bottle of wine

I'm sorry that your day at MK, was less than magical. I hate crowded parks too. So many people just gets on my nerves. I won't wait longer than 20 minutes for even the best rides! Your dinner sounded really nice, and how great for the waiter to know you and all your preferences!

I know...it seems so rare to see an empty park nowadays though...those moments of peace are few and far between. Glad we just did our FPs and left!
Dinner was great as usual!! If you're around later in the week and like to join us for dinner at Yachtsman let me know. David only works Thursday to Sunday I believe. We are having a late dinner there Friday night (Sept 7th)

I have eaten at CHH in ages, but now you have me totally craving some fish and chips. I'd forgotten how good it was. Will definitely have to correct that !

It's not as good as Yorkshire Fish Shop but I still think it's great and it's my favorite QS in MK!

Yikes. I wouldn't have thought the Xmas crowds would have hit yet. Good idea to get out of there.

Yeah, getting a little too crowded for us, but then again, we are just so spoiled, like all DISboarders.

Sounds like the perfect meal. We love Yachtsman too, but service is the one area that isn't always on. Will most definitely have to request David in the future and tell him we're friends of Chunkymonkey

Yes! Let me know if you're dining there again. I can email David

Yachtsman was never on my radar, but I"m wondering at my miscalculation on this. Probably needs to be on "the list". THanks for a wonderful review!

It's just a lovely traditional steakhouse. It feels very much like a home, but with better food, LOL!!

 

[franandaj]

Hey that sounds awesome! It'll be me, Steve and Su-Queen...we are scheduled for a morning at Epcot and Food and Wine booths for early lunch, then we can join you guys. We probably won't be eating much if at all because we have an early dinner at Tiffins...I booked a ROL package. Figured with the holiday weekend it might be best to get reserved seating. My sister hasn't seen ROL yet. Would love to stop by and say hi have a drink and meet everyone! We'll bring a bottle of wine

Is this the 2nd we are talking about?

I know...it seems so rare to see an empty park nowadays though...those moments of peace are few and far between. Glad we just did our FPs and left!
Dinner was great as usual!! If you're around later in the week and like to join us for dinner at Yachtsman let me know. David only works Thursday to Sunday I believe. We are having a late dinner there Friday night (Sept 7th)

We leave on Tuesday after Labor Day weekend. With the whole cruise we're already going to be gone 11 days and that's way too long. Our cats will not be happy with us!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Is this the 2nd we are talking about?

Yes the 2nd, does that work for you all?

We leave on Tuesday after Labor Day weekend. With the whole cruise we're already going to be gone 11 days and that's way too long. Our cats will not be happy with us!

Ah ok, maybe next time!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

December 18th: It's Steve's Birthday!
​

Today was Steve's actual birthday and I celebrated by waking him up early and dragging him to his least favorite Disney place again, Disney Springs! LOL. He's just not much of a shopper at all, he'll really only go to eat and watch movies. However today I had planned something special: we were going to The VOID: Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire Hyper-Reality Experience! This was announced only a few months or so before our trip so I managed to snag a spot the morning of Steve's birthday. It had literally been open only 2 days when we got there so there were no reviews or anything online. I think we ate snacks in the room for our breakfast and we took an Uber to Disney Springs. We got coffees at Starbucks which we had planned on chugging before we arrived at the Void but when we got there there was a bit of a line anyways so we were able to finish our coffees. There was a bit of a backlog/bottleneck since the experience was so new so I think they were all just playing catch up. There were maybe 4 sessions already that morning before our time slot. We waited for about 25 minutes I think, which was fine as we drank our coffees and took some pictures.

You are together in groups of 4 so if your group is less than that you will be combined with other people. We had two solo male travelers in our group. First you have to sign waivers when you check in, and then were taken to watch a video which includes a character from Rogue One. After that you are taken into some sort of loading dock/equipment area. There you will see the VR pack with harnesses and helmets that we'd be donning. It all seemed so weird and cool at the same time as we'd never done anything like this. I must say, the VR pack and helmet were very heavy! But you're really only wearing it for about 20 minutes. The whole VR experience is only about 15 minutes long. The rest of the time is just getting fitted to the harness, instruction, safety checks etc. Once we put the helmet on though, it was like we were in a different world! It was really cool. I won't give too much away but it combines scenes from certain planets in Star Wars, specifically Rogue One, and a very famous villain. You do get a blaster and you do get to use it a lot! Also some elements involved a little bit of escape room/puzzle solving. Nothing too crazy as it's more about speed than it being mind-boggling. You do walk through different rooms as part of the experience and you can feel walls and stuff like that but also some things you saw in VR weren't physically there. It was a very fun unique experience and I'd totally do it again!

Here's a few pics from The Void:

The 2 pictures above, not sure we were supposed to take them since we were already inside the loading area but Steve took them anyways, LOL.

After our exhilarating morning, it was time for some real food. I really was craving Earl of Sandwich so that's where we went. We shared a Holiday Turkey sandwich with double turkey. I didn't know Steve added the double turkey so when I saw the sandwich I thought to myself, wow the sandwiches have gotten bigger, LOL. Our meal came with a drink and a cookie and I selected chocolate chip. The sandwich was really delicious and hit the spot. Yum.

After lunch we got our free totes from World of Disney, we had to make an online shopping list for Disney Springs and show it to them inside WoD in order to get the tote bag. I guess it was till when supplies lasted and we each got one. They were really cute!

We had a few FP+ scheduled for AK today and since buses from DS don't run directly to the parks we had to make a choice of whether to call an uber or take a bus to a resort. When we got to the bus depot though we saw a POFQ bus was arriving, just our luck! So we hopped on that bus which got us to POFQ in no time. The reason I was so happy was because I could get my beloved beignets again!! I've stayed at POFQ twice before and every morning I'd eat beignets so this was a nice treat. I feel like the beignets I got this time were more doughy and thicker than what I had before. They used to be pillow-y and lighter and almost hollow. I loved the older version better, not sure if this is more authentic or not as I've not been to the real Cafe du Monde in NoLa before!

Beignets are some of the few sweet things I still enjoy.

After our second dessert, we went to wait for a bus to AK. I think we waited for a while. It's a good thing I made our FP+ for a little later. At AK, we went to guest relations just to check again to see if anyone found my Magic Band and had reported it in. Still no Magic Band. I kinda confirmed that it was permanently lost now. Oh well. I walked to Garden Gate Gifts across the way and I saw someone purchasing the most amazing Black Praetorian Guard magic band. I asked where they got it and the CM told me that it was just released limited edition The Last Jedi bands and he just sold the last one. I quickly got on my phone to the shop parks app, scanned the tag and lo and behold, they had them available at Discovery Trading Company in AK. We rushed over there, and they had them behind the counter. They were so new the CM that was helping me didn't realize they had them back there, so I bought one and here it is, this awesome black and red magic band:

Maybe these things happen for a reason, if I didn't lose my magic band, then I wouldn't be looking so intently at new magic bands and probably wouldn't have realized this was out (it was kinda put aside away from the rest of the magic band display).

Our first FP+ was for the Safari so we headed there. We had a fun ride through Africa. We tried to go to the Jungle Trek to see the new baby tiger...but the baby had gone back indoors for the rest of the day. They said in the first few weeks they were trying to mix up the schedule a bit so on some days it'll be out in the morning and some later in the day, oh well. We managed to get a few pictures though before we headed to Adventurer's Outpost to meet with Mickey and Minnie. They were in their holiday finest which required an outfit change for us. They were really taken with Steve's t-shirt. He bought it from Disney in 2016 during our first December trip. It was so cute because Mickey and Minnie pretended to skate around like on the t-shirt.

Kilimanjaro Safari:

Hanging out in AK:

Holiday Adventurer's Outpost:

We made it to our next FP+ which was for Flight of Passage. I am not kidding that this ride had more than a 4 hour wait at that time. It was ridiculous! Luckily I am a good DISboarder and made our FP+ 60 days before so we only had about a 25 minute wait, which I think is still pretty long with an FP but beats the heck out of 4 hours. Crazy!

We headed to Steve's birthday dinner...at our favorite non-signature table service: 'Ohana! I was lucky to get these ressies just two weeks before our trip. I initially was going to do Yachtsman today but David does not work on Mondays so I moved that to Sunday and we had a free evening on Monday. So happy I found the reservation. Perseverance pays off.

After dinner we headed to MK for our last evening - We got FP+ for Jungle Cruise and then for Buzz Lightyear. We watched Happily Ever After - which was fantastic as usual but this HEA experience was very interesting. We were off to the side of the castle, in the bridge pathway which connects the main hub to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland right near where Merida meets. We were there about 30 minutes before the show started and we got seats on a bench which was kinda shared with us by another older couple. Right before the show started, there were CMs who basically blocked people from coming through. It was obviously a form of crowd control and if you weren't already on the bridge area then they weren't letting you through at that point. I cannot begin to count the number of times people complained, yelled and tried to sneak past the CMs. Some were even successful. Some lied and said "oh my family's in there" (which they were not), but there was a lot of yelling at the CMs. I felt so bad for them but they kept their cool and composure. If it were me I'd be cussing everyone out and telling everyone I was just trying to do my job before calling it quits and jumping into the lagoon. It's a good thing I'm not a CM in charge of crowd control during the most popular fireworks show. The view on that bridge is not even the best view. If it's your first time seeing the show, you won't get much of a view of the fireworks. You can see some projections and you can see Tinkerbell but it's much better from the front. Also the volume of the music is muted here, so you won't get the full effect. The CMs announced this to everyone but it was like talking to deaf ears. There was a family who kept inching their stroller further and further in, so it was almost on top of the lovely couple sitting next to us. She had to tell them to move back otherwise the stroller would on top of her feet. It really amazes me how people act and react in situations like this, definitely a study on human behavior at Disney that evening!

After the I finally got to ride the Peoplemover! It was a bittersweet moment because I realized it was to be my last visit to MK for at least a good chunk of time (until Sept of this year!).

At Ohana:

At MK:

Poor CM's in charge of crowd control:

A bunch of us who saw the fiasco commended them after the show as over. I told them they did a great job. We asked them how about getting a rope? But apparently ropes do not do much during that time as the CMs told us that people often go under or over the rope anyways! I think they need more CMs to create a bigger barricade LOL.

Goodnight MK, at least for a while!

Coming up, our last moments in the park before we conclude our Year of Disney with lunch at Tiffins!
​

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a great birthday for Steve! The Void VR experience sounds like it was cool. Glad you had a good afternoon at AK and evening at MK!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Ooh Nathan tried the Void and thought it was really cool!! In the group he was in, everyone got pretty excited when they realized they could shoot each other with their blasters. lol

I bought one and here it is, this awesome black and red magic band:

This looks so cool! Something good to come out of a bad situation.

You all look so festive! I love Minnie and Mickey's Christmas outfits here.

If it were me I'd be cussing everyone out and telling everyone I was just trying to do my job before calling it quits and jumping into the lagoon. It's a good thing I'm not a CM in charge of crowd control during the most popular fireworks show.

Oh my gosh, I don't know how they do it! It would be so frustrating and stressful! I can barely handle standing in a crowd of people in this mindset, let alone having to enforce any kind of rules with them.

Coming up, our last moments in the park before we conclude our Year of Disney with lunch at Tiffins!

Sad, but if you had to end a Year of Disney, I can't think of a much better way to do it than with a lunch at Tiffins!

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

The Void experience sounds pretty cool!

The 2 pictures above, not sure we were supposed to take them since we were already inside the loading area but Steve took them anyways, LOL.

Steve is a real hero snagging those shots.

I've stayed at POFQ twice before and every morning I'd eat beignets so this was a nice treat.

Yes. That was the deciding factor for me. I loved those beignets!

It's a good thing I'm not a CM in charge of crowd control during the most popular fireworks show.

So so so true. I know I would feel frustrated being ignored by everyone. As a guest who listens to the CMs, I get frustrated that others ignore them. I follow the rules and then someone who doesn't blocks my view or cuts in line. . . Ugh.

It was a bittersweet moment because I realized it was to be my last visit to MK for at least a good chunk of time (until Sept of this year!).

:'(

Those last days at Disney are hard not to spend wishing you could stay just a little longer.

 

[natebenma]

What, really? But you are like the Yacht Club/Beach Club guru...and you also say you haven't been to Beaches n Cream?

I think the reason I haven't dined at Yachtsman is that my family is too cheap. We haven't been to any signature restaurants. I did go to bluewave with my friends on one trip, but that is the only one I have dined at.

That was true about Beaches & Cream until the anniversary trip in Oct 2016. Mark and I ate there on our arrival night. We didn't have a great experience there- service was poor, our meals were not great- I got the tomato soup and grilled cheese, which was ok- nothing special, but Mark got a seafood sandwich that was weird. It was tangy. We didn't end our meal with ice cream which was a big mistake, I admit. We weren't feeling it at that point.

 

[franandaj]

I won't give too much away but it combines scenes from certain planets in Star Wars, specifically Rogue One, and a very famous villain. You do get a blaster and you do get to use it a lot! Also some elements involved a little bit of escape room/puzzle solving. Nothing too crazy as it's more about speed than it being mind-boggling. You do walk through different rooms as part of the experience and you can feel walls and stuff like that but also some things you saw in VR weren't physically there.

I'm guessing that this probably isn't very disabled accessible.

I really was craving Earl of Sandwich so that's where we went. We shared a Holiday Turkey sandwich with double turkey.

I haven't had EOS in so long! I could even get it from DTD. Must put that on the list.

Maybe these things happen for a reason, if I didn't lose my magic band, then I wouldn't be looking so intently at new magic bands and probably wouldn't have realized this was out (it was kinda put aside away from the rest of the magic band display).

I always believe things happen for a reason!

I am not kidding that this ride had more than a 4 hour wait at that time.

That's insane!

We headed to Steve's birthday dinner...at our favorite non-signature table service: 'Ohana! I was lucky to get these ressies just two weeks before our trip. I initially was going to do Yachtsman today but David does not work on Mondays so I moved that to Sunday and we had a free evening on Monday. So happy I found the reservation. Perseverance pays off.

Good Job! I really need to go back to O'hana again! Or if nothing else, get the Bread Pudding at the Tambu Lounge. Hmmm....we are staying at BLT for the two nights before our cruise. Our plane gets in at 6:15, and I'm planning on our dinner in one of the bars. TOTWL was my first thought, but after looking at the Tambu lounge, we could have sushi, potstickers, and banana bread pudding!

A bunch of us who saw the fiasco commended them after the show as over. I told them they did a great job. We asked them how about getting a rope? But apparently ropes do not do much during that time as the CMs told us that people often go under or over the rope anyways! I think they need more CMs to create a bigger barricade LOL.

People suck!

 

[MeghanEmily]

I'm guessing that this probably isn't very disabled accessible.

I'm currently pretty able-bodied, so I don't have personal experience with this, but my understanding from reviews I've read by wheelchair users is that it's wheelchair accessible, and that individuals using scooters will need to transfer to a wheelchair to participate. They would probably also use this strategy if you're able to walk on your own but not able to support the weight of the VR backpack. (Just a guess??) People have reported being asked whether they'd like the CMs to push them in the chair so they can focus on the VR rather than having to wheel themselves. I've heard that it's not QUITE as immersive from the vantage point of a chair due to the way the visor calibrates with height or something like that, and due to having to wear the pack on the front rather than the back, but that otherwise it was a good experience and fairly accessible. So this gives me some hope for people who want to participate and need accessibility accommodations!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

The 2 pictures above, not sure we were supposed to take them since we were already inside the loading area but Steve took them anyways, LOL.

I know DH would love to do the VOID, but I a kind of freaked out by the whole idea.

Beignets are some of the few sweet things I still enjoy.

How can you go wrong with fried dough and powdered sugar!? I mean really?

Awesome!

: 'Ohana! I was lucky to get these ressies just two weeks before our trip.

Super lucky!

Yum! I want some now! Ohana is def on my list for our trip next year...

A bunch of us who saw the fiasco commended them after the show as over. I told them they did a great job. We asked them how about getting a rope? But apparently ropes do not do much during that time as the CMs told us that people often go under or over the rope anyways! I think they need more CMs to create a bigger barricade LOL.

I always feel so bad for all the cast members during those events.

 

[franandaj]

I'm currently pretty able-bodied, so I don't have personal experience with this, but my understanding from reviews I've read by wheelchair users is that it's wheelchair accessible, and that individuals using scooters will need to transfer to a wheelchair to participate. They would probably also use this strategy if you're able to walk on your own but not able to support the weight of the VR backpack. (Just a guess??) People have reported being asked whether they'd like the CMs to push them in the chair so they can focus on the VR rather than having to wheel themselves. I've heard that it's not QUITE as immersive from the vantage point of a chair due to the way the visor calibrates with height or something like that, and due to having to wear the pack on the front rather than the back, but that otherwise it was a good experience and fairly accessible. So this gives me some hope for people who want to participate and need accessibility accommodations!

Thanks. I think Fran would pass on this then. She's pretty self conscious and I don't think she would be comfortable in a wheelchair with the CM pushing her. I'll have to see if my other friends are interested in doing this while we are all there together in September. We would make a perfect party of four with our group.

 

[wdwnut61]

Perfect birthday gift for Steve...The Void
FOP is still that hard to get FP but it is such an amazing experience.
I had to book FP's for 4 of our days for Spring Break because that's all DD wants to do.
Love your new limited edition MB!
It's really scary and sad at the same time how people act

 

[Monykalyn]

real Cafe du Monde in NoLa before!

Whenever you are ready to remedy this I will happily volunteer to be your travel companion! It has been a few years, but NoLa is amazing.

We tried to go to the Jungle Trek to see the new baby tiger..

My DD is the one who directed us to the trek in January-we got to see the baby play! OMG so cute, and now a baby hippo. Hoping we get to see the new baby on our surprise-totally-unplanned-trip for F&G in 9 days. (*Annual passes are extremely dangerous when you have a former CM DD text you "I miss Disney")

A bunch of us who saw the fiasco commended them after the show as over. I told them they did a great jo

THank you for letting those CM's know that. We momma's get the 3 am phone calls from defeated kids who had guests yell at them all day. Those words of encouragement are their life blood.

I LOVE Steve's shirt too! and you are really tempting me with Yachtman's for my bday dinner, but DD and I want to take in F&G as much as possible-only 3 park days, and she also wants to do MK, and probably DAK on our departure day...
Tiffin's is fabulous end to a great year!

 

[buzzrelly]

I might have to look into The Void for my DS. He is a huge SW fan…he'd get a kick out of that!

Looks like Steve had an amazing birthday! I love how his shirt matched Mickey and Minnie, so cute!

I have never tried beignets, but when we go on the Wonder next month, I plan on trying them at Tiana's. I need to see what all the fuss is about, they look yummy!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

What a birthday!! You packed a lot of fun in there!! I’ve been wondering about the virtual reality experience. It sounds really cool! I’d definitely like to give it a try. I’m so interested in what the immersive experience in the hotel is going to be like.

I haven’t had Earl of Sandwich in so long - it used to be a staple but now just so many options. I need to plan a return visit. Really cute tote bag! I hadn’t heard they were doing that.

Love that you did an outfit change for your Mickey pics. Totally worth it - adorable pics!

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten at O’Hana. How can that be?? I am a frequent Tambu Lounge visitor though.

I also haven’t seen Happily Ever After yet. What is the matter with me??? That crowd experience sounds awful. I swear people just lose their minds sometimes. The pressure to have the perfect Disney experience can be intense. I liked watching Wishes from Top of the World but I’ve heard since the new show is so much about the projections it’s not as great a viewing spot.

So sorry the year of Disney is coming to an end. But so glad to hear you’re going back this year after all.

 

[HumblePie]

So glad to read you Void review - I'll be doing it when we are there for the Dark Side half marathon and had no idea what to expect! Sounds like it will be a fun experience. Can't wait!

 

[natebenma]

What a fabulous BD for Steve!

The VOID sounds neat. I haven't read anything about it, so I appreciate your review of the experience.

Good plan on getting to AK and scoring a yummy treat en route!

Bummer on missing the tiger cubs. We didn't see them on our October trip.

But getting on FoP is a nice consolation prize.

Craving Ohana dinner now. Ben really wants to try it again, we haven't been since 2009!

GRRR on people who think the rules don't apply to them!

Bye Bye MK!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Hi Su-Lynn! Thanks sooooo much for The Void review!!!! Joe, and my brother-in-law, Todd are going to do this experience in a week and a half. As a matter of fact, I'm going to reserve 2 spots as soon as Joe's done watching Gotham...Joe wanted to do this when he moved Timmy in for the Disney College Program, but ran out of time...

 

[Stasieki]

What a fun birthday! And, man... this coming labor day will be the first Labor Day week in 6 years we aren't there. Would have loved to meet you!