TheOneWithTheTriplets
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
Park Day Three: Magic Kingdom (cont’d)
We were running little early for our 11:35am ADR at Be Our Guest, but they let us check in and head up at 11:20am. We preordered, so we were able to bypass a moderate line and head straight to a podium to confirm our order. When I had tried to update our preorder the evening before, the system was locking me out, so I did have a few small changes to make with the CM. Given the way we had been eating so far on the trip, we decided to cut back a bit on the desserts and share 3 between us. It turns out the CM would have had to adjust the order anyway because they have to charge meal credits and snack credits on separate orders.
We headed in and had hoped to eat in the castle gallery room, but it wasn’t open yet. Instead, we grabbed a table in the main ballroom with a view of the falling snow. The kids got a kick out of the effect and we were quickly enjoying our lunch. I’m not a fan of beer or wine alone (sacrilege, I know, but so it goes) so I got the Peach Bellini and Hubby got a glass of wine.
My drink was pretty small and weak. I didn’t mind all that much, as it was included on the meal plan, but I would caution anyone from ordering it out of pocket. The wine or beer is a much safe choice, as there’s no risk of it being mixed with more juice than anything else. Hubby and I got the Braised Pork and Croque Monsieur and loved both. The kids tried the kid’s meatloaf and pasta and were less impressed. Honestly, they were so busy looking around that I don’t think they would have eaten much of anything. They all had some noodles and veggies, which was good enough for me. By the time I tasted the meatloaf myself, it was cold, so I can’t give a good judgment on whether it would have been tastier when fresh.
We had ordered three cupcakes, but this is what came.
The CM must have misheard me and we got a chocolate éclair instead of the double chocolate cupcake. Although, it turns out, the éclair was the favorite dessert of the day, so we didn’t mind the mix up. The cupcakes were tasty but small. Worse, the paper around then was extremely hard to remove which made it very difficult for us to cut it up for sharing. Given that we were using snack credits, I wasn’t that bothered by the size of the treat but, again, I would have been pretty upset if we were paying out of pocket and that’s what we got. We ended up feeling satisfied with our meal and our treats, but it wasn’t worth the over $100 that it would have cost out of pocket.
We were done eating at 12:12pm and started peeking into the various rooms on our way out. The West Wing was just as cool as everyone says, although the girls didn’t want to stay in there for more than a couple minutes. They were curious but ended up getting freaked out by the effects. We hit the bathrooms, grabbed some stained glass photos, and headed out.
Our restaurant tour had cost us about 20 minutes and we tapped into our Enchanted Tales with Belle FP at 12:36pm. It was only a 5 minute wait to be let in, but it felt much longer because the FP line was spilling out of the shade and into the direct sun. For the first time on our trip, it was legitimately hot in the sun. I was excited for the warm weather but also glad that we’d decided to travel during a time when it didn’t stay that hot from dawn until dusk. I seriously doubt we would have had such a productive trip if we’d been battling that heat the whole time, instead of just for a few warm hours midday.
This experience was right up the girls’ alley. They love anything that allows for audience participation and were up front and center hamming it up to get themselves parts. C galloped and neighed her way into Phillipe, B shivered herself a job as Maurice, and A sang a glass-breaking high note to get Wardrobe.
From my prior research, I knew that a handful of kids would get name characters with a part in the story and everyone else would at least be given dishes. I did not know that, of the name characters, a few of those also wouldn’t have a real part outside of the dish parade at the end of the experience. Phillipe and Maurice are called up at specific times to neigh and shiver, respectively, but Wardrobe isn’t given her own moment. Since the CMs had told A that Wardrobe had to sing for her role, she took it upon herself to sing throughout the final parade around the room. After Beast and Belle had their dance, the kids were called up for their individual pictures with Belle. My girls misunderstood and thought that it was their turn for a dance with Belle as well.
This whole experience ended up being another one of the girls’ top stories about the trip. They’ll tell anyone who will listed which roles they got to play. I’m not sure this is one we’ll do again when they’re older, but it was perfect for this age. We were done at 1:00pm and, after another bathroom break, we headed down into Tomorrowland.
We had booked our after-lunch FPs to start at 12:30 and 1:30 so that, even if we had a long lunch, we wouldn’t miss Enchanted Tales. Since we were running early after lunch, we had some time before our next FP. There were a few low demand experiences we were hoping to hit in Tomorrowland, starting with the Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor. The walk down from Fantasyland was crowded and we got a little turned around trying to figure out where stroller parking was supposed to be for the show. Then, once again, we had bad line luck because we were heading in just as the doors to the next show were closing. It wasn’t until 1:40pm that we were seated and enjoying the show.
Monsters Inc had been a big hit with the girls recently. There was one story, in particular, in a Disney Christmas compilation book, that they were requesting as a bedtime book every night. After all of their reading about collecting laughs, they came to the show prepared. From they moment it started, they laughed heartily at every joke, no matter how slight. They were going to do everything they could to make sure that enough laughs were collected. Their forced, over the top laughter was so ridiculous that it became contagious in its own right. Once again, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Next on the list was supposed to be Peoplemover, but the line was pretty bad. As in The-Line-Starts-Here-Sign bad. We opted to use our open FP first, even if it required a bit of backtracking, rather than risk missing our window. We headed back to Fantasyland, tapped in at 2:04, and were boarding at 2:10pm.
What a fun ride! The dwarfs were also very popular with the girls on this trip. They were so excited to see the “Heigh Ho guys” on this ride and they sang along for the whole middle section. When we unloaded, A and C loved it but B was on the fence. She loved the animatronics but felt like the coaster “tickled” her stomach too much.
When we tried to decide on the next order of business, all of the girls wanted a treat. Our dinner reservation wasn’t until 4:00pm, so I thought it’d be better to go ahead and eat something now so that they didn’t get overly hungry waiting for dinner. I wanted to try one of the new seasonal treats, so I offered up the two new specialty cones being sold on that side of the park. Hubby is a lemon guy, so he wanted to try the Lost Princess. I was interested in the mango flavor in The Adventure is Out There cone, and the girls just wanted regular soft serve. We folded up the umbrella stroller to put it on top of the double stroller, two of the girls rode, one helped me push, and we all left Hubby in line at Storybook Treats and headed down to Auntie Gravities.
The short walk down into Tomorrowland made me incredibly grateful that we opted to have three stroller seats for the girls this trip. The strollers come with their own hassle, but I much prefer moving between areas without constantly having to remind kids to keep walking and look where they’re going. Despite my oh-so-slow walk, we encountered no line at Auntie Gravities and the timestamps on our photos say that I managed to get my treat a few minutes before Hubby (yes, he took a picture for me).
The girls and I managed to snag a bench which allowed them to surround and devour a hot fudge sundae while I had my cone. The four of us were finishing up when Hubby found us. We all loved our choices, although the girls were disappointed with Hubby’s cone. They were excited to try the edible flowers, but I think they were expecting them to taste like candy, not plants.
Just because something can be eaten doesn’t mean it should be.
We were finishing up at about 2:45 and we needed to get moving if we wanted to be out of the park ahead of the parade. We had a 4:00pm Hoop Dee Doo Revue ADR and I knew that, if we pushed past the parade, we’d be cutting it too close to catch the boat to Ft Wilderness. I thought we’d be able to walk down Main St, since it was before 3pm and we were moving away from the hub, but we only made it down to the Main St Bakery before a CM directed us up to the sidewalk. Despite the congestion, we were able to make it to the boat launch at 2:55pm.
We had a 10 minute wait and were on a boat at 3:05pm. Hubby can sometimes can get motion sickness and, despite being fine on all of the rides throughout the trip, this boat messed with him for some reason. It was totally unexpected, but perhaps it was a combination of the heat, some moderate dehydration, and the motion of the boat. When we arrived, the girls immediately hit the playground while Hubby went to use the bathroom and refill our water bottle. It took him a while and he came back very irritated. Apparently, he had waited a while for a refill at a bar and was told he shouldn’t have been trying to refill there, but that they’d do it just this once. After not feeling well coming off the boat, the hassle of getting fresh water wasn’t making anything better.
We walked over to Pioneer Hall at 3:45 since the confirmation says to be there 15 minutes early. However, they didn’t start seating people until 4pm on the dot. In retrospect, we probably could have stayed at MK longer and planned to catch the 3:30 boat to Ft Wilderness. Then again, leaving then would have put us walking out with the parade crowd and we could have missed the 3:30 boat. Better early than late, right? Plus, while we waited, we bumped into the same family who gave C her pin at Barnstormer. The girls were so excited to show them that they had already traded their pin and gained another.
Leading up to this trip, we had trouble narrowing down exactly how to use our table service credits. We had some that were set in stone, but our plans for ‘Ohana and Hollywood & Vine were more up in the air. H&V has some strong retractors and Minnie would be the only unique character there. ‘Ohana dinner has been doing less of the extras (coconut races, hula dancing, live music) and we a couple of excellent Brazillian steakhouses nearby that are much more affordable for us because kids under 7 are free. As back up, Sci Fi, Storybook Dining at Artist Point, and HDDR had all been floated as options. I eventually decided to give the girls the options and see what they wanted to do. We watched several reviews on YouTube and they settled in on this meal. Hubby wasn’t sure that he would enjoy it, as the food wasn’t his favorite and he hadn’t liked the show when he visited as a teen. However, he agreed that it would something the kids would love, so we went for it. All of that is to say that the kids were really psyched about this meal and, after his less-than-pleasant boat ride, Hubby was certainly not.
Because we were on the dining plan, we were in category two seating. There were two rows of tables behind us on the main floor so we were in the best seats we could have hoped for on the lesser category. Because of the YouTube viewing, the girls new what to expect and they were ready. This was the only meal this trip that I didn’t end up having to fish dropped napkins from under the table because they were not letting them go! Plus, the tables around us who only had adults gave the girls their washboards, so each of them ended up getting to play one.
In terms of food, I enjoyed the meal very much. I was a bit disappointed that the specialty drinks on the menu would still have been an extra cost on the DDP. Given that the show is two credits, you’d think they could toss in a margarita, too. Neither ribs nor fried chicken are Hubby’s favorites, so he wasn’t impressed. In fact, he was so unhappy that he went and grabbed a second dinner at the Boardwalk Pizza Window after we got back to the resort. The girls ate about as well as I expected given how excited they were for the show, which meant not very much was consumed. I even asked for mac and cheese (a tip I’d read here on the boards) but they weren’t eating that, either.
As for the show, the kids had a blast, which was the point. I loved seeing how excited they got, but I’m not sure I would go out of my way to do this if I weren’t with the girls. Hubby was unimpressed; he thought it was fine but not worth the hype and not worth losing MK time and two dining plan credits. It’s funny, this show seems to be one of the most universally loved experiences in WDW and we’re the exception. I’m glad we went, not least because we had so much park time this trip that I appreciated having an activity that pulled us out. However, if I had to do it again, I would have left the park for the Storybook Dining or 1900 Park Fare, instead, and then thrown in a fun lunch at Sci Fi, too.
When we got out of the show, there were buses waiting at the bottom of the hill to take us straight back to MK and Hubby was glad to be able to avoid a boat ride. When we got to the MK buses, there was quite a group waiting for Boardwalk, including a few other large strollers. The Swolphin bus pulled up first and, given the fact that the BW bus would likely be standing room only, we jumped over to the other, nearly empty bus. Grabbing a bus to another Crescent Lake resort was another trick I was happy to have learned from these boards. When we got to Dophin, we got a bit turned around trying to get from the front of the resort down to the boardwalk level but, after asking for help, we found the elevator and took the short walk around to our resort.
The girls were showered and in bed right around their actual bed time (miraculous, I know). Hubby needed some air, so he grabbed a load of dirty laundry, started it downstairs, and then went for a run. He was able to time it so that he ran to HS in time to see the Star Wars fireworks on the path while he was running. After moving the wash to the dryer and grabbing a shower at the health club, he had his second dinner, watched Illuminations on the bridge, and just sat relaxing on the boardwalk for a while. He was out later than he probably should have been, but he needed the time and was ready for a fresh start in the morning.
Our achievement stats for our second MK day included 2 family rides, 1 triple ride swap, 2 shows (is that what you’d call EtwB?), 2 character meets, 1 begrudging trip to the Dumbo play area, and 1 a trip to the country’s longest running dinner theater. We didn’t manage to pack in quite as much on this day, but I had purposefully kept it light in anticipation of our next park day, which was our only planned open-to-close day of the trip.
We were running little early for our 11:35am ADR at Be Our Guest, but they let us check in and head up at 11:20am. We preordered, so we were able to bypass a moderate line and head straight to a podium to confirm our order. When I had tried to update our preorder the evening before, the system was locking me out, so I did have a few small changes to make with the CM. Given the way we had been eating so far on the trip, we decided to cut back a bit on the desserts and share 3 between us. It turns out the CM would have had to adjust the order anyway because they have to charge meal credits and snack credits on separate orders.
We headed in and had hoped to eat in the castle gallery room, but it wasn’t open yet. Instead, we grabbed a table in the main ballroom with a view of the falling snow. The kids got a kick out of the effect and we were quickly enjoying our lunch. I’m not a fan of beer or wine alone (sacrilege, I know, but so it goes) so I got the Peach Bellini and Hubby got a glass of wine.
My drink was pretty small and weak. I didn’t mind all that much, as it was included on the meal plan, but I would caution anyone from ordering it out of pocket. The wine or beer is a much safe choice, as there’s no risk of it being mixed with more juice than anything else. Hubby and I got the Braised Pork and Croque Monsieur and loved both. The kids tried the kid’s meatloaf and pasta and were less impressed. Honestly, they were so busy looking around that I don’t think they would have eaten much of anything. They all had some noodles and veggies, which was good enough for me. By the time I tasted the meatloaf myself, it was cold, so I can’t give a good judgment on whether it would have been tastier when fresh.
We had ordered three cupcakes, but this is what came.
The CM must have misheard me and we got a chocolate éclair instead of the double chocolate cupcake. Although, it turns out, the éclair was the favorite dessert of the day, so we didn’t mind the mix up. The cupcakes were tasty but small. Worse, the paper around then was extremely hard to remove which made it very difficult for us to cut it up for sharing. Given that we were using snack credits, I wasn’t that bothered by the size of the treat but, again, I would have been pretty upset if we were paying out of pocket and that’s what we got. We ended up feeling satisfied with our meal and our treats, but it wasn’t worth the over $100 that it would have cost out of pocket.
We were done eating at 12:12pm and started peeking into the various rooms on our way out. The West Wing was just as cool as everyone says, although the girls didn’t want to stay in there for more than a couple minutes. They were curious but ended up getting freaked out by the effects. We hit the bathrooms, grabbed some stained glass photos, and headed out.
Our restaurant tour had cost us about 20 minutes and we tapped into our Enchanted Tales with Belle FP at 12:36pm. It was only a 5 minute wait to be let in, but it felt much longer because the FP line was spilling out of the shade and into the direct sun. For the first time on our trip, it was legitimately hot in the sun. I was excited for the warm weather but also glad that we’d decided to travel during a time when it didn’t stay that hot from dawn until dusk. I seriously doubt we would have had such a productive trip if we’d been battling that heat the whole time, instead of just for a few warm hours midday.
This experience was right up the girls’ alley. They love anything that allows for audience participation and were up front and center hamming it up to get themselves parts. C galloped and neighed her way into Phillipe, B shivered herself a job as Maurice, and A sang a glass-breaking high note to get Wardrobe.
From my prior research, I knew that a handful of kids would get name characters with a part in the story and everyone else would at least be given dishes. I did not know that, of the name characters, a few of those also wouldn’t have a real part outside of the dish parade at the end of the experience. Phillipe and Maurice are called up at specific times to neigh and shiver, respectively, but Wardrobe isn’t given her own moment. Since the CMs had told A that Wardrobe had to sing for her role, she took it upon herself to sing throughout the final parade around the room. After Beast and Belle had their dance, the kids were called up for their individual pictures with Belle. My girls misunderstood and thought that it was their turn for a dance with Belle as well.
This whole experience ended up being another one of the girls’ top stories about the trip. They’ll tell anyone who will listed which roles they got to play. I’m not sure this is one we’ll do again when they’re older, but it was perfect for this age. We were done at 1:00pm and, after another bathroom break, we headed down into Tomorrowland.
We had booked our after-lunch FPs to start at 12:30 and 1:30 so that, even if we had a long lunch, we wouldn’t miss Enchanted Tales. Since we were running early after lunch, we had some time before our next FP. There were a few low demand experiences we were hoping to hit in Tomorrowland, starting with the Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor. The walk down from Fantasyland was crowded and we got a little turned around trying to figure out where stroller parking was supposed to be for the show. Then, once again, we had bad line luck because we were heading in just as the doors to the next show were closing. It wasn’t until 1:40pm that we were seated and enjoying the show.
Monsters Inc had been a big hit with the girls recently. There was one story, in particular, in a Disney Christmas compilation book, that they were requesting as a bedtime book every night. After all of their reading about collecting laughs, they came to the show prepared. From they moment it started, they laughed heartily at every joke, no matter how slight. They were going to do everything they could to make sure that enough laughs were collected. Their forced, over the top laughter was so ridiculous that it became contagious in its own right. Once again, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Next on the list was supposed to be Peoplemover, but the line was pretty bad. As in The-Line-Starts-Here-Sign bad. We opted to use our open FP first, even if it required a bit of backtracking, rather than risk missing our window. We headed back to Fantasyland, tapped in at 2:04, and were boarding at 2:10pm.
What a fun ride! The dwarfs were also very popular with the girls on this trip. They were so excited to see the “Heigh Ho guys” on this ride and they sang along for the whole middle section. When we unloaded, A and C loved it but B was on the fence. She loved the animatronics but felt like the coaster “tickled” her stomach too much.
When we tried to decide on the next order of business, all of the girls wanted a treat. Our dinner reservation wasn’t until 4:00pm, so I thought it’d be better to go ahead and eat something now so that they didn’t get overly hungry waiting for dinner. I wanted to try one of the new seasonal treats, so I offered up the two new specialty cones being sold on that side of the park. Hubby is a lemon guy, so he wanted to try the Lost Princess. I was interested in the mango flavor in The Adventure is Out There cone, and the girls just wanted regular soft serve. We folded up the umbrella stroller to put it on top of the double stroller, two of the girls rode, one helped me push, and we all left Hubby in line at Storybook Treats and headed down to Auntie Gravities.
The short walk down into Tomorrowland made me incredibly grateful that we opted to have three stroller seats for the girls this trip. The strollers come with their own hassle, but I much prefer moving between areas without constantly having to remind kids to keep walking and look where they’re going. Despite my oh-so-slow walk, we encountered no line at Auntie Gravities and the timestamps on our photos say that I managed to get my treat a few minutes before Hubby (yes, he took a picture for me).
The girls and I managed to snag a bench which allowed them to surround and devour a hot fudge sundae while I had my cone. The four of us were finishing up when Hubby found us. We all loved our choices, although the girls were disappointed with Hubby’s cone. They were excited to try the edible flowers, but I think they were expecting them to taste like candy, not plants.
Just because something can be eaten doesn’t mean it should be.We were finishing up at about 2:45 and we needed to get moving if we wanted to be out of the park ahead of the parade. We had a 4:00pm Hoop Dee Doo Revue ADR and I knew that, if we pushed past the parade, we’d be cutting it too close to catch the boat to Ft Wilderness. I thought we’d be able to walk down Main St, since it was before 3pm and we were moving away from the hub, but we only made it down to the Main St Bakery before a CM directed us up to the sidewalk. Despite the congestion, we were able to make it to the boat launch at 2:55pm.
We had a 10 minute wait and were on a boat at 3:05pm. Hubby can sometimes can get motion sickness and, despite being fine on all of the rides throughout the trip, this boat messed with him for some reason. It was totally unexpected, but perhaps it was a combination of the heat, some moderate dehydration, and the motion of the boat. When we arrived, the girls immediately hit the playground while Hubby went to use the bathroom and refill our water bottle. It took him a while and he came back very irritated. Apparently, he had waited a while for a refill at a bar and was told he shouldn’t have been trying to refill there, but that they’d do it just this once. After not feeling well coming off the boat, the hassle of getting fresh water wasn’t making anything better.
We walked over to Pioneer Hall at 3:45 since the confirmation says to be there 15 minutes early. However, they didn’t start seating people until 4pm on the dot. In retrospect, we probably could have stayed at MK longer and planned to catch the 3:30 boat to Ft Wilderness. Then again, leaving then would have put us walking out with the parade crowd and we could have missed the 3:30 boat. Better early than late, right? Plus, while we waited, we bumped into the same family who gave C her pin at Barnstormer. The girls were so excited to show them that they had already traded their pin and gained another.
Leading up to this trip, we had trouble narrowing down exactly how to use our table service credits. We had some that were set in stone, but our plans for ‘Ohana and Hollywood & Vine were more up in the air. H&V has some strong retractors and Minnie would be the only unique character there. ‘Ohana dinner has been doing less of the extras (coconut races, hula dancing, live music) and we a couple of excellent Brazillian steakhouses nearby that are much more affordable for us because kids under 7 are free. As back up, Sci Fi, Storybook Dining at Artist Point, and HDDR had all been floated as options. I eventually decided to give the girls the options and see what they wanted to do. We watched several reviews on YouTube and they settled in on this meal. Hubby wasn’t sure that he would enjoy it, as the food wasn’t his favorite and he hadn’t liked the show when he visited as a teen. However, he agreed that it would something the kids would love, so we went for it. All of that is to say that the kids were really psyched about this meal and, after his less-than-pleasant boat ride, Hubby was certainly not.
Because we were on the dining plan, we were in category two seating. There were two rows of tables behind us on the main floor so we were in the best seats we could have hoped for on the lesser category. Because of the YouTube viewing, the girls new what to expect and they were ready. This was the only meal this trip that I didn’t end up having to fish dropped napkins from under the table because they were not letting them go! Plus, the tables around us who only had adults gave the girls their washboards, so each of them ended up getting to play one.
In terms of food, I enjoyed the meal very much. I was a bit disappointed that the specialty drinks on the menu would still have been an extra cost on the DDP. Given that the show is two credits, you’d think they could toss in a margarita, too. Neither ribs nor fried chicken are Hubby’s favorites, so he wasn’t impressed. In fact, he was so unhappy that he went and grabbed a second dinner at the Boardwalk Pizza Window after we got back to the resort. The girls ate about as well as I expected given how excited they were for the show, which meant not very much was consumed. I even asked for mac and cheese (a tip I’d read here on the boards) but they weren’t eating that, either.
As for the show, the kids had a blast, which was the point. I loved seeing how excited they got, but I’m not sure I would go out of my way to do this if I weren’t with the girls. Hubby was unimpressed; he thought it was fine but not worth the hype and not worth losing MK time and two dining plan credits. It’s funny, this show seems to be one of the most universally loved experiences in WDW and we’re the exception. I’m glad we went, not least because we had so much park time this trip that I appreciated having an activity that pulled us out. However, if I had to do it again, I would have left the park for the Storybook Dining or 1900 Park Fare, instead, and then thrown in a fun lunch at Sci Fi, too.
When we got out of the show, there were buses waiting at the bottom of the hill to take us straight back to MK and Hubby was glad to be able to avoid a boat ride. When we got to the MK buses, there was quite a group waiting for Boardwalk, including a few other large strollers. The Swolphin bus pulled up first and, given the fact that the BW bus would likely be standing room only, we jumped over to the other, nearly empty bus. Grabbing a bus to another Crescent Lake resort was another trick I was happy to have learned from these boards. When we got to Dophin, we got a bit turned around trying to get from the front of the resort down to the boardwalk level but, after asking for help, we found the elevator and took the short walk around to our resort.
The girls were showered and in bed right around their actual bed time (miraculous, I know). Hubby needed some air, so he grabbed a load of dirty laundry, started it downstairs, and then went for a run. He was able to time it so that he ran to HS in time to see the Star Wars fireworks on the path while he was running. After moving the wash to the dryer and grabbing a shower at the health club, he had his second dinner, watched Illuminations on the bridge, and just sat relaxing on the boardwalk for a while. He was out later than he probably should have been, but he needed the time and was ready for a fresh start in the morning.
Our achievement stats for our second MK day included 2 family rides, 1 triple ride swap, 2 shows (is that what you’d call EtwB?), 2 character meets, 1 begrudging trip to the Dumbo play area, and 1 a trip to the country’s longest running dinner theater. We didn’t manage to pack in quite as much on this day, but I had purposefully kept it light in anticipation of our next park day, which was our only planned open-to-close day of the trip.
