And all at once, everything was different. Literally. *WDW NYE 2019 TR* Updated 4/11x2*COMPLETE*

When we boarded the flight to MCO, I got an alert on the Delta app that our bags had been loaded on our plane!! I was so relieved!! Once we landed at MCO, we grabbed them from the carousel and went to check on the fourth bag - they told us it was already at the Polynesian!! We didn't use the yellow tags, so I have no idea how they knew?? Maybe from the regular luggage tag on the suitcase? It was a Disney tag and had our names on it, so maybe they checked it with Disney reservations when no one picked it up the night before?? Whatever it was, I was happy for that bit of Disney magic!**

Does Delta always send those out or was it just because of the issues you had with the flight? I would feel so much better if the airline texted me that our luggage was on the flight :laughing: I'm glad you got your bags! I was nervous for you :rotfl:

I had two Pago Pago Painkillers: Myer's Original Dark Rum, Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice, and Cream of Coconut

That sounds good!

L had the Lava Smoothie, which was raspberry puree and frozen cream of coconut and pineapple juice. I LOVED this and had my own on our last day.

That sounds good too :rotfl:
 
Following along!!! Glad you made it through that travel day - when I saw your posts on instagram I was worried for you guys!


I know I only ever see them in photos, but it's still so shocking to me that your boys suddenly look so grown up!
 


Thise ears are to die for!!! I've got to get me a pair of those. :bitelip: That's amazing about your bag making it to Poly!! I'm so glad.
I'm also glad y'all were able to finally get in a room and pixie dust for the room you wanted. Relaxing by the pool is the best! It is definitely hard to do at Disney. I have to try to remember to rest at Disney. I'm always like we have to go go go.
 
You must have been so hungry after your exhausting travel day!

My favourite! Hope you enjoyed it! :)

Best. Day. Ever! Glad you were able to relax and enjoy the pool.

Looking forward to hearing all about it!

Oh my gosh, we were starving!! You were my inspiration to order that salad and it did not disappoint.

We were so happy to be there, it definitely felt like the best day ever!


Oof, what a rough start to your trip. Eager to see how it went!

Thankfully it improved by leaps and bounds!!

:lovestruc:lovestruc I should have bought them, too. I have regrets. You made the right choice!

They're just so pretty! I liked the ones with bows representing the countries, too, but I love the pink from the bubblegum bow. Also sequins :rotfl:

Does Delta always send those out or was it just because of the issues you had with the flight? I would feel so much better if the airline texted me that our luggage was on the flight :laughing: I'm glad you got your bags! I was nervous for you :rotfl:



That sounds good!



That sounds good too :rotfl:

Yes, the Delta app sends alerts for everything. It sends one when check in is available, whether (or not :sad: ) your flight is departing on time, and when bags are loaded, transferred, and unloaded. It's my favorite, and is so reassuring to know where the bags are at all times. Unfortunately it didn't help during our awful flight, but it was such a huge relief when we got the message that our bags were being put on our Orlando plane!!

The painkiller was delicious, but the lava smoothie was like frozen slushy creamy coconutty ice cream. I tried the Lava Flow, which is the alcoholic version with strawberry puree instead of raspberry, and the rum ruined it. (Ok, didn't ruin it, but the non-alcoholic smoothie version was so good!!)

Following along!!! Glad you made it through that travel day - when I saw your posts on instagram I was worried for you guys!



I know I only ever see them in photos, but it's still so shocking to me that your boys suddenly look so grown up!

Ugh, I was so stressed!!

they do look so grown up :sad: Neither one of them were particularly into me capturing pictures this trip, so mostly they just look like goofballs, LOL!! X is 6' tall, and L is closing the gap very quickly, and I think he's going to end up being the tallest of the two.

Thise ears are to die for!!! I've got to get me a pair of those. :bitelip: That's amazing about your bag making it to Poly!! I'm so glad.
I'm also glad y'all were able to finally get in a room and pixie dust for the room you wanted. Relaxing by the pool is the best! It is definitely hard to do at Disney. I have to try to remember to rest at Disney. I'm always like we have to go go go.

Well now they have the spirit jersey that matches them and I am dying to get my hands on it!! I have the rose gold one and love it, but purple glitter?? I need it in my life!!

I'm the same, I feel like we always have to be DOING something, so it was nice to step back this time and take it a little easier.
 
Happy Friday!!

SAvimAz.gif


It's kind of a gloomy day here, but I'm so ready for the weekend. I'm still moving slowly and having trouble breathing from this dumb lingering cold, and I'm hoping that some extra sleep will help.
It's raining, and it's supposed to change over to snow and give us 1"-3". I have done no shopping or anything, because we never actually get the snow they say we will. With my luck this will be the time we end up with a foot of snow or something.

I'm going to have DH get our fireplace going this weekend...over the holidays there is so much greenery and decoration on the fireplace we don't even turn the gas on until after it's all taken down so we don't burn our house down :rotfl:

The kids adapted well to being back in school. X had a schedule change for second semester. He had Theater Appreciation for a fine arts half credit, and now has what is technically a PE class. It caused his 2nd and 5th hour to switch, so he moved from one Spanish 2 class into another?? That makes no sense to me. It's the same Spanish teacher, but I think it's weird to change the class period of a full year class to accommodate a PE elective?? But what do I know.

Hey, let's talk about Disney!


Chapter Three: Dinner in the Wilderness

One thing I knew I did not want to change was our dinner reservation for the new character meal at Artist Point! It's no secret that I'm a fan of Snow White, it's like this meal was tailor made for me!

I was DisBounding this night, which I've never really done before, unless you count my Minnie costume for MNSSHP in 2017.

We decided to get to the Wilderness Lodge by taking the boat to MK, and then the boat to WL.

The Polynesian is so pretty in the evening!





We got to the boat dock and the line was pretty long, and then overheard someone say the resort monorail was down. Great. We weren't able to get on the first boat, but the captain said they had an extra one coming along soon to help with the crowds b/c of the monorail.

If you're stuck somewhere, the boat dock isn't a bad place!



We made it on the second boat and then waited for our WL boat and I forced everyone to take selfies







X insisted on making that miserable face in every. single. picture. Even if he was smiling beforehand, as soon as I tried to take a picture he'd frown. I almost threw him into Bay Lake.

Before long we were leaving the Magic Kingdom behind



And arriving at my faaaaavorite place in all of Walt Disney World - The Wilderness Lodge!!



Nothing compares to this for me in all of WDW. Animal Kingdom Lodge comes close, though!

Our dinner was scheduled for 6:15pm, and we arrived a little after 6:00. We checked in, they took my phone number, and said they'd text when our table was ready. We waited maybe five minutes, not long at all.





We were seated toward the back of the restaurant, not far from where DH and I were seated when we ate there alone a few years ago. On our way back, we ran into the Evil Queen as she was heading for a break. She saw my purse and said, "Ah, I see you have brought me the head of the dwarf, good work." :rotfl2:
I loved the little apples attached to our silverware/napkin:



The menu is cool, presented in a leather covered booklet. It was dark in there, so I didn't go crazy with photos, but I have this from the first page:



If you can't read it (it's tiny, I know!) it says:

Long, long ago in a forest enchanted,
the seeds of the story we tell had been planted

They grew from the soil this place that stands here,
where someone like you might be wandering near

With creatures and critters both friendly and foe,
A princess, a Queen, and some friends you might know

We've got merriment, music, and feasting to do
And a place at the table that's set just for you

So gather around, take a seat, settle in -

Your dinner adventure's about to begin!

Cute right??


Our waiter came and took our drink order ( just water for X, unsweetened tea for me and DH, sprite for L) and explained the menu and how the meal would work: Shared apps, individual entrees, shared desserts.

Snow White came around right away:



She was beautiful, as you can see, and was really talking up her gooseberry pie. I assured her I was going to try it, and she skipped away to the next group.

The waiter brought our drinks and took our entree order, and then our appetizers came out. Chicken hand pies, butternut squash soup, and the Wicked shrimp cocktail.



Everything was delicious! The chicken pies were not at all what I expected, they tasted kind of like an eggroll :confused3 We all enjoyed them, and the jam that came with them was amazing, I could have just eaten all of it by itself.

The shrimp cocktail has been called boring by some reviewers, but I think maybe they just didn't put any of the stuff on it. They come in a little jar and the sauces are in the bottom. You have to put the sauce on your piece of shrimp. They were good shrimp and the sauce was GOOD. It's like an avocado crema and some spicy sauce (that isn't all that spicy). Is it life changing? No, but it's tasty.

The butternut squash soup on the other hand, I could have drank a gallon of it. Oh. My. Gosh. It was so rich and buttery, and even though I'm not a superfan of sweet with my savory, the marshmallow really went well with it. I'm not sure what's in the marshmallow, a peppercorn or something?? but it works and we all scraped our tiny cauldrons clean.

Dopey and Grumpy came out back to back:







After the dwarfs left, our entrees arrived.

X and I ordered the veal. Now, in the past I've had not necessarily a moral problem with veal, but there was definitely something along those lines that kept me from ever ordering it. However, with it being the most positively reviewed main, and the fact that I don't *love* gnocchi, I decided to go for it.

It was amazing. Fall apart tender, and the potatoes were perfect with it!



DH got the gnocchi, and it was soooooo good!! The texture of gnocchi is not my favorite, but the sauce was so creamy and perfect, that I'd definitely order it in the future.



We ended up stealing quite a few bites of each other's food.

L ordered the snapper, and it was good, but quite a bit lighter than the other two entrees on our table. I think if I hadn't tasted my veal and DH's gnocchi, I'd have been more impressed with it. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it had a lighter lemony flavor vs. the rich flavors of the meaty veal and creamy gnocchi.



The restaurant was full but not overwhelmingly crowded, but I think they were understaffed. We barely saw our waiter, he had a ton of tables. I never got a drink refill, except for once with water. DH and L both got another tea and sprite respectively, but X was in my boat and only got the one water refill. Since all he had was water, it was annoying. Several management type CMs seemed to be the ones bringing food and clearing tables.

Our entree plates were taken away and dessert arrived not long afterward. I was really looking forward to dessert, and while good, it was the weakest of the three courses.

The little sour apple mousse things were the prettiest



but as far as taste, the gooseberry pies were the very, very best!! I would have eaten all four if I could! The little cake things were kind of gross. I mean, it was fine, but clearly not on the same level as everything else. The frosting was thick and heavy, but had a good flavor. I HATE those little chocolate rock things, and have complained about them before (most recently last year at the Star Wars dessert party, they were on the BB-8 cupcakes), so I tried to scrape them out of the way to eat the cake, but there were so many of them.



The final dessert, the Huntsman's Gift to the Queen, or whatever it's called, came out with our bill. I almost forgot to take a picture, but luckily the server stopped scooping out the popcorn and chocolate so I could get one with stuff still in the box:



The popcorn was just fine, and the chocolate was chocolate, but wow! What a flashy and fun presentation. It really did end the meal on a special note, and put smiles on everyone's faces.

As were were getting ready to leave, a CM came over and said the Queen was getting ready to go on break, so if we wanted to meet her we needed to go up in the next couple of minutes. We grabbed our stuff and hurried up front. She meets in a terrible location, but honestly I'm not sure where else they could put her? Standing in line for her, I felt in the way.

I am only sharing one picture, because I look awful in all of them, but less so in this one:



When she saw me she said, "Ah yes, you were the one who brought me the head of the dwarf, next time why not bring me the whole dwarf? You have three huntsmen with you, it shouldn't be too hard!"

She was wicked and evil and perfect in every way!!

I was so excited to have an opportunity to meet such a rare villain. I think I've mentioned this before, but on my first ever WDW trip, 1900 Park Fair had a villain dinner that I was lucky enough to attend, and it was one of the best things I've ever done. This was a nice call back to that!

After dinner we took the boat to the Contemporary and the monorail to the Polynesian. I managed to take this picture of the gingerbread display:



It was in a terrible spot this year! Way back behind the shops on the main level, in a narrow space where not many people could fit comfortably. The past two years it's been underneath the Mary Blair mural, so I wasn't expecting this.

We went upstairs to the monorail and the line was really long. It always feels backed up here and at the Grand Floridian. I want to stay at the Contemporary sometime, and the monorail is obviously a draw, but the line moves slower here than anywhere else, I swear.

Once we got back to the resort we called it an early night - we were planning to be up early the next day - it would be New Year's Eve!!

So the final verdict on the Snow White dinner?? We would absolutely do this again, and based on food, not just characters. They did a fantastic job of changing Artist Point into the enchanted forest without making it tacky. I loved the twinkling lights in the forest canopy above, and how they transformed the wooden pillars into tree trunks. If the quality of the food stays the same, along with the price (and the similar prix fixe set up at BOG now), I don't expect this to remain a one credit meal for guests who use the dining plan.

That's it for now!! I'm going to try and get the first part of our NYE day up later, but no guarantees. Have a great weekend if I'm not back again to say it later today!!
 


When she saw me she said, "Ah yes, you were the one who brought me the head of the dwarf, next time why not bring me the whole dwarf? You have three huntsmen with you, it shouldn't be too hard!"

She was wicked and evil and perfect in every way!!
That really does sound perfect! And absolutely hilarious!

How did Dopey react to your purse?

I was so excited to have an opportunity to meet such a rare villain. I think I've mentioned this before, but on my first ever WDW trip, 1900 Park Fair had a villain dinner that I was lucky enough to attend, and it was one of the best things I've ever done. This was a nice call back to that!
I wish they did more of those special types of Villains events. I mean, it seemed like Club Villain was so highly regarded, I can't believe they wouldn't want to cash in on it! (This coming from someone who isn't the biggest fan of Villains in the first place)
 
How did Dopey react to your purse?

He didn't even react to it! None of the others did, actually, I was surprised. But the Queen made up for it, LOL.

I agree, Villains events rake in the cash, I have no idea why they won't bring those back. I'd almost make a special trip just for Club Villain if they reintroduced it. It would have been perfect for Hollywood Studios while it was in such a heavy transition period. Now everything new is opening within the year. My hope is that since DHS will be in high demand now with all of the new stuff (ok, with Galaxy's Edge, mainly!!), they'll add on more special events there.
 
It's raining, and it's supposed to change over to snow and give us 1"-3". I have done no shopping or anything, because we never actually get the snow they say we will. With my luck this will be the time we end up with a foot of snow or something.
I say this all the time, that I get more worried when they say it will just be a dusting...




X insisted on making that miserable face in every. single. picture. Even if he was smiling beforehand, as soon as I tried to take a picture he'd frown. I almost threw him into Bay Lake.
Ha. Throw him in...

And arriving at my faaaaavorite place in all of Walt Disney World - The Wilderness Lodge!!

There is just no way to compete, the lobby is just asking for a giant christmas tree in it. I really really want to stay here next December. But $$$ are already kind of high and I can't book yet, until the school releases the schedule. Blah.

On our way back, we ran into the Evil Queen as she was heading for a break. She saw my purse and said, "Ah, I see you have brought me the head of the dwarf, good work." :rotfl2:
Perfect already!!!


Now his face makes sense! ;)

However, with it being the most positively reviewed main, and the fact that I don't *love* gnocchi, I decided to go for it.
I am literally eating leftover gnocchi right now. We love it!!!! The girls call it pillow pasta.




The popcorn was just fine, and the chocolate was chocolate, but wow! What a flashy and fun presentation. It really did end the meal on a special note, and put smiles on everyone's faces.
This does seem more about the presentation. But I love it!



When she saw me she said, "Ah yes, you were the one who brought me the head of the dwarf, next time why not bring me the whole dwarf? You have three huntsmen with you, it shouldn't be too hard!"
Ha! Too funny.

I def want to try this now! My girls are not big on the villians but meeting the dwarfs will be fun. Glad it lived up to the hype!
 
This new character meal sounds awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Wait..1900 Park Fare once had a villain meal?! That's amazing!! I wish they would bring something like that back! (I know they did Club Villain but that disappeared).
 
I love your Snow White Disneybounding! I looked at that same dress for the very same reason! :rotfl:
 
I love your Dis bound outfit and Dopey purse!

We are trying this in January and I loved hearing your review, it sounds really good!

I think I will get the veal shank, the reviews are all good so far.

What a fun interaction with the Evil Queen, I wish there was a villain dinner at Disney, I bet that was really fun!
 
Yikes what an awful travel day but yay you made it
 
Following! So excited to hear about your VIP tour. The artist point dinner looks lovely. If we go around the holidays again I would love to finally stay at WL and try it.
 
Oh my gosh, we were starving!! You were my inspiration to order that salad and it did not disappoint.
So glad you enjoyed it! I really need to recreate it at home. :)

X insisted on making that miserable face in every. single. picture. Even if he was smiling beforehand, as soon as I tried to take a picture he'd frown. I almost threw him into Bay Lake.
Oh my gosh, I am laughing so hard! My almost 17 year old twin boys do the exact same thing! EVERY. TIME. Teenagers!!

Nothing compares to this for me in all of WDW. Animal Kingdom Lodge comes close, though!
Gorgeous!

She saw my purse and said, "Ah, I see you have brought me the head of the dwarf, good work." :rotfl2:
That is perfect!

She was beautiful, as you can see, and was really talking up her gooseberry pie. I assured her I was going to try it, and she skipped away to the next group.
Awesome picture and your outfit is fab!

We ended up stealing quite a few bites of each other's food.
Everything looks delicious!

The popcorn was just fine, and the chocolate was chocolate, but wow! What a flashy and fun presentation. It really did end the meal on a special note, and put smiles on everyone's faces.
I love it!

When she saw me she said, "Ah yes, you were the one who brought me the head of the dwarf, next time why not bring me the whole dwarf? You have three huntsmen with you, it shouldn't be too hard!"

She was wicked and evil and perfect in every way!!
Best interaction ever! That alone would make dinner worth it for me!

So the final verdict on the Snow White dinner?? We would absolutely do this again, and based on food, not just characters. They did a fantastic job of changing Artist Point into the enchanted forest without making it tacky. I loved the twinkling lights in the forest canopy above, and how they transformed the wooden pillars into tree trunks. If the quality of the food stays the same, along with the price (and the similar prix fixe set up at BOG now), I don't expect this to remain a one credit meal for guests who use the dining plan.
Thank you for such a great review! :)
 
Enjoying your report and loved your Storybook review and pictures. Can't wait to try it in February.
 
but as far as taste, the gooseberry pies were the very, very best!!
I guess Snow White was right! ;)

When she saw me she said, "Ah yes, you were the one who brought me the head of the dwarf, next time why not bring me the whole dwarf? You have three huntsmen with you, it shouldn't be too hard!"
:rotfl2:

Sounds like a great dinner! And I loved the selfies beforehand - you look super cute in your bound outfit, too! :goodvibes
 
I'm late, but here. I cannot believe all the trouble you had on your table day. If anyone deserved a day of relaxation after all of that it was you.

I cannot get over how good your meal at Artist Point looks (apologies I can never remember what they are calling it now and I always refuse to learn new names). I have to say I'm still disappointed they turned character, but I'm glad to see they have kept the food quality up.
 
Ooh, I've been looking forward to your review of the Artist Point meal!! We're hoping to go this summer, and it seemed like it was mostly a fantastic experience for you!

Snow White came around right away:


Basically sisters. :lovestruc
 

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