A Grand Family Vacation to see the Fountains; an April 2019 Trip Report Completed 3/1!!

[tbholc81]

We quickly got back to the hotel and changed. Into the pool for another fantastic swim.

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We finished up at about 4:30 changed and then headed over to Wilderness Lodge for our dinner with the Dwarves. We thought the best way to get there would be to take the Monorail over to the Contemporary, and then a boat to Wilderness Lodge.

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Onto the red monorail we went then stopped for some pictures on our way to the boat.

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Fun Stuff! We arrived at about 5:55 for our 6:05 reservation. We were seated very quickly and settled in.

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The restaurant was very well themed and the atmosphere great. The waiter was also great and he let us know that the first thing to do after we ordered was to meet the queen. So we waited until the line was short and headed up to meet her. Our timing was spot on because as soon as the kids got up there Dopey decided to interrupt which made for some great laughs.

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The queen was perfectly perturbed, but Dopey just loved her cape! He eventually left to cause trouble elsewhere and we got our pictures.

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The queen was perfect! We went back to our table and got our drinks.

Next up our meal!

 

[tbholc81]

Happy Holidays to everybody, with a week and a half off I might get through the rest of this report!

We returned to our table and got our drinks.

I ordered: The Smoking Mirror; Johnnie Walker Black, Wildberry, Lime, Rosemary Smoke

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This was definitely smokey, I wish I got a picture of it when it was served to me. The server brought it on that stump with the glass upside down and filled with smoke. Then he turned it over and poured the drink in. It was really tasty!

Deb ordered an: Enchanted Apple; Skyy Citrus Vodka, DeKuyper Pucker Sour Apple, and White Cranberry Juice

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She enjoyed this, and the kids got lemonade. Next our appetizers came, the real winners here were the kids, theirs looked awesome!

From the Garden; Fruit, Vegetables, Cheese, and create-your-own Honey Butter

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The adult apps were really good as well:

Mushroom Bisque; Crispy Mushroom

Hunter’s Terrine; Chicken, Black Truffle, Stone Fruit Preserve, House-made Pickles

Wicked Shrimp Cocktail; Soy, Miso, Avocado, Thai Chili, Greens

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Sorry it's sideways, I can't get it to rotate . Oh well.... with just two of us eating the adult apps, we each had a double serving.

The characters started joining us, and for some reason we don't have a picture with Snow White. No idea why, maybe I just didn't upload it or something. Anyway, Grumpy was first...

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We was definitely grumpy and didn't want to sign autographs, but he eventually did. Kids loved him and M was doing her best impression.

The food came and it was excellent! Both kids got: Royal Prime Rib Roast; Roasted Potatoes, Broccolini

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I think I grabbed a few of the potatoes, neither D or M ate the broccolini, which was not a surprise.

I ordered: Magic Mirror Slow-braised Pork Shank; Celery Root Mashed, Wilted Winter Greens, Jus

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It was really good, fell off the bone with just a fork and really delicious. I'd for sure get it again.

Deb ordered: A Stroll through Nature; Asparagus, Leeks, Arugula, Gnocchi, Sage, Parmesan

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She really enjoyed this as well, it was a lot of food though so she didn't finish it. While we were eating Dopey came by.

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He was great and the interaction with the kids was phenomenal. Dessert came out when all the characters came by and we finished eating.

It was: Miner’s Treasures; Sponge Cake, Chocolate Gems, Berry Panna Cotta


'Poison' Apple; Dark Chocolate-Apple Mousse, Sour Center


Fairy Tale Gooseberry Pie; Meringue, Gooseberry

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For me the dessert was the weakest part of the meal. I guess I'm more of a ice cream or just plain chocolate cake or something is fine. The presentation, however, was awesome!

When we come back, one last dessert from the Huntsmen and the rest of the evening!

 

[tbholc81]

For the very end of the meal the server brought us a special gift from the Huntsman, it was pretty cool.

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Then he dumps the contents out onto a plate....

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Some chocolate hearts and caramelized popcorn. It was pretty tasty, but by this time we were all stuffed. After we paid we explored WL for a little. It's one of our favorite resorts, and on our list to stay at again.

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The plan from here was to take the boat back to the Contemporary and then the monorail back to the GF. Peter Pan was playing for Movies Under the Stars which is M sna D's favorite. It was late though so we thought we would let M watch some while Deb snuck by with D so he could go to bed. It was a nice night and we caught the sunset.

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Back at the GF I got M settled at the movie and Deb took D to get water and then go up to the room. Unfortunately Deb needed to pass right by the movie to get back to the room and D yelled as loud as he could (so everybody could hear him) "LOOK NANA!"

So he got to watch the movie......

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Very serious about his Peter Pan watching. It was pretty late when the movie was over, and in case anybody ever asks how tired kids are after a full day at Disney, they are this picture tired,

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Note they started under the blankets with heads on pillows.

Dining Plan recap. (I'm rounding here)
- BOG Breakfast: $106.00
- Artist Point: $172.00
- Starbucks(Snack Credits): $14.00
- Outpost snacks (2 Credits) $14.00
- Days total $306.00

Initial cost $1,449.00
Used- $1,478.25
Left to break even- +$29.25

Needless to say we got our money's worth out of the DDP now being $30 over with a full day left to go.

When we come back our last full day at AK.

 

[tbholc81]

Day 7: A Rainy Day with Animals
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After a later than planned night we "slept in" until 7:45, and got moving pretty quickly. We didn't get breakfast at the GF because our plan was to get to AK for rope drop. So after some snacks like granola bars etc... in the room we left for the bus. Our plan for the day was AK most of the day and then finish up the trip with some time in EPCOT.

FastPasses:
9:15-10:15; Avatar Flight of Passage
10:25-11:25; Kilimanjaro Safaris
1:40-2:40; Kali River Rapids

ADR:
1:00pm; Tusker House

Nighttime show:
Illuminations

I'm pretty short on pictures before about 10:30 am because it ended up raining for most of the morning. We got to AK right on time and our priority was to ride Navi River. As everybody else sprinted by us and ignored CM's requests to walk we took our time getting into Pandora. Navi River was walk on so we were able to do that no problem. We got off and M and myself used our FP for FOP. Also it was now raining, so Deb and D got a quick breakfast snack in Pandora while we rode. M did not like this ride! Too many drops for her she said, and the majority of the time on the ride was me telling her to close her eyes. Oh well, maybe she'll like it more a she gets older. We switched and the kids ate while Deb rode, it by the way was not just raining now but pouring.

Once Deb finished we walked over to the Starbucks and got coffees and tried to seek cover for a while. Eventually it started to lighten up, M traded some pins and we went over to the safari for our FP. At some point we stopped and grabbed some Wilderness Explorer books too. Finally, the rain was letting up as we did the safari.

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The village was pretty deserted with the rain, here are a few pictures from the safari. The animals were fairy active that day....

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Once we got off the safari we decided to just go over to the gorilla trail and spent some time in there. We got a great view of the hippos.

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And the gorillas were exciting as always.

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There as a photopass photographer on with the gorillas and we got a nice picture form in there. I was hoping he'd be able to get some of the gorillas in the background but he didn't.

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When we got finished we went to grab the stroller and bumped into Deb's favorite imagineer, Joe Rohde!

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Joe was giving a tour to some corporate people but when we saw us looking at him he waved us over and said hello. He was nice enough to take a quick picture which, of course, D was not having any of. He was exhausted, but would have to hold on till after lunch for his nap.

So after that treat and telling Joe how much we appreciated everything we decided to check in at Tusker House. Sneak preview, not my favorite meal.....

Come back for more of the last day,

 

[Megan138]

This is a great trip report! I started reading today and we were there around the same time. I really like that time of year at Disney. The weather is great!

 

[tbholc81]

This is a great trip report! I started reading today and we were there around the same time. I really like that time of year at Disney. The weather is great!

Thanks for reading! We have done an April trip the last two years, it works out great for our schedules. We are going back down this year but mostly for Universal.

 

[tbholc81]

Moving along our day to finish up our week we got to Tusker House and checked in for our 1:00pm ADR. After a short wait we were seated and got our meal started. This was not my favorite meal of the week. The kids liked it and so did Deb, but I wasn't much impressed with the selections on the buffet. Not my type of food I guess, but other people tend to rave about this place.

I did get good drink, can't remember what it was though....

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Along came the characters, each one was a great interaction. We started with Daisy,

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Then everybody's favorite (ok just mine), Goofy!

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The kids made sure I got a big hug...

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Then Donald and Mickey, I think Mickey took a while....

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The meal didn't take too long and we were done in time for our next FP at Festival of the Lion King. In fact I think we had a few minutes to kill before heading in. Usually we manage to greet a CM and get into the front row, but since the dining package is offered now I think that trick doesn't work anymore. There was time to stop for a picture.

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Apparently someone stole my hat at some point on the way over there.

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Great show as always and the our seats were nice and high so we could see everything!

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Totally worth the use of a FP. Now it was time for D to take a nap, so I started the pushing him around to get him to fall asleep, which didn't take long.

Next post, finishing off AK, and heading to EPCOT!

 

[Ivonne Cante]

I just caught up on your whole trip report and am really enjoying it! Can’t wait to hear how it ends and how you made out on the dining plan and what your thoughts are overall!

 

[tbholc81]

I just caught up on your whole trip report and am really enjoying it! Can’t wait to hear how it ends and how you made out on the dining plan and what your thoughts are overall!

Thanks! we're getting there slowly!

 

[disvisitorkim]

Sounds like a great trip! Can’t wait to read the rest!

 

[tbholc81]

Sounds like a great trip! Can’t wait to read the rest!

Thank, for sure a little more to come!

 

[tbholc81]

It's a snowy snowy day here in Northern VT. We are expecting 12-18 inches, so no better time to remember the warm Florida weather.

After FOTLK D was exhausted and needed a nap. So we started our long walk to get him to sleep in the stroller. We had to stop and see the snakes by where the train to Rafikis' Planet Watch used to be.

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Ok now time for that nap and we went towards Dinoland. As D fell asleep we ran into Kevin just on a walkabout.

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Deb and M went to meet Pocahontas, which gave them something to do. I found a spot in the shade near the Dinosaur Ride.

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Deb and M also stopped for some magic shots!

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Fun stuff, they eventually met us and we couldn't decide what to do. Should we stay at AK and try to score some more FPs? Or head out? We decided to head out and try to see Illuminations one last time. We couldn't decide if we did a lot this morning or almost nothing, but I think the rain really threw us off. We spotted this on the way out, it was made of old garbage.

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We were back at the GF at 5:30 and we had some dinner. I completely neglected to take any pictures or anything but I think we reprised things from earlier in the week. Once we were done eating it was off to EPCOT.

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This guy was pumped and feeling better after the nap. On the way to EPCOT M traded for more pins. Here's a couple she picked up today.

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We got to EPCOT at about 7:30 and are ready to explore some more of Flower and Garden!

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More to come this Weekend because we are snowed in!

 

[tbholc81]

Welcome back! Our final tally of snow was 15 inches and today started off at a balmy -6 degrees. Needless to say we are looking forward to our April trip this year...... If only it wasn't 10 weeks away.

Once we got into EPCOT M decided she wanted to ride Spaceship Earth and there was no line so on we went.

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Gotta remember not to wear a blue hat on there again. In the meantime Deb took D over to see the Cars topiaries.

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He's a big fan, and those cool! We took a quick look at the wait time for Test Track but it was too long and we couldn't snag a FP. We stopped off in Mouse Gears for some shopping, and silliness.

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M got herself a charm bracelet, and D picked something, I think a bus. He did not get the giant Mickey Bar even though it was hilarious.

From there we decided to head over to England for some pictures, really we were just trying to waste time before Illuminations. We got a FP so we could get into the front section. We started visiting more topiaries on our way.

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Then got to England for the kids favorite.....

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Then got some Winnie the Pooh.

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More to come next post!

 

[tbholc81]

After exploring for a few minutes we asked the kids if they wanted ice cream from France, but they did not and were asking for Mickey bars. Oh well, with about 20 snack credits left we almost got both. But we didn't, instead we had the kids get the Tinkerbell Lantern picture. One of our favorites from this trip.

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Then we went and got a spot for Illuminations. We almost decided to hang out around Canada, but we didn't. I ran over to Mexico and got 3 Mickey Bars and a Mickey sandwich (for M).

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We had a great time seeing Illuminations for the last time. We'll miss that show, hopefully the new one is just as good. Once it was over we booked it out of there to the Monorail. M traded another pin and we were back at the Grand Floridian at 10:03.

Quickly everybody was asleep, and all we had left was our last day......

Dining Plan recap. (I'm rounding here)
- Breakfast: Out of Pocket at AK
- Starbucks(Snack Credits): $14.00
- Tuskerhouse): $204.00
- Mickey Bars (4 Credits) $23.00
- Days total $241.00
Initial cost $1,449.00
Used- $1,719.25
Left to break even- +$270.25

Essentially we ate for free today.

 

[tbholc81]

Welcome to the end of this fantastic trip and the last post of the report. We had mid morning flights, so we were not in any rush to get going, but we had to be on the bus around 8:15. We let everybody sleep in a bit (like till 7) and then got breakfast.

We had at least 1 QS meal left which we used on Mickey Waffles. Then we used some snack credits on things to go home, and then donated some snack credits to some other people in line.

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We had already made sure everything was ready to go so we weren't in a rush getting to the bus. We were right on time for Deb to take her "I hate leaving" picture.

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It was a pretty harmless trip to the airport and everything was smooth getting to our gate. With DME leaving 3 hours early and no traffic we had a ton of time to kill at MCO.

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Pants were back on for our trip to a cooler and rainier VT. After a long trip the kids were exhausted on the plane.

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We landed in Hartford and started our long trek back up to VT. It was dark when we got home, which made for a needed ending to a long day traveling.

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Finally my watch had to go out of vacation mode and back to work mode.

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36 and cloudy about summed up most of the spring up here, and with that our trip was over.

Here are some thoughts about the week.

Overall our week was fantastic, we couldn't have asked for better weather. This was the second year in a row we have gone the last week of April, and the weather was fantastic both times. The crowds were also very manageable given that it was the week following Easter. Sunday and Monday seemed like the busiest days with each day after declining in crowds. We also tried to avoid parks with Early Magic hours and generally that worked for us.

We have debated since this trip whether or not we would get the Dining Plan again. We for sure got our money's worth out of it, but only because we spent a good deal of time researching where it was most beneficial for us to eat. We also made sure to always get a drink or beer at meals. So if we got 4 QS meals and 2 were for the kids we were still allotted 2 beers to go with those meals which we saved for later at night. They have changed that now, so it's something to take into account. If the drinks weren't paid for ahead of time we may not have had so many which would have saved money. Also some restaurants we wanted to eat at, like Via Napoli (we almost always eat there), we didn't because it was such a terrible use of the credits. So will we do it again? I would vote yes I liked just ordering and not worrying about it, Deb would probably say not to.

All of the food we had this time was fantastic. My favorite was the Grand Floridian Cafe, I would still say hands down one of the best meals I've ever had at Disney. The kids really enjoyed Tusker House, but it was my least favorite buffett I've had so far. CRT was great to do once, but I'm not sure we need to do it again, and Skipper Canteen we'd for sure go back to. The Polite Pig continues to be another of my favorite meals on property, and it was a great use of a QS credit.

Coming up? A shorter trip this year during the same week. Deb and M are running the 5K at the rival run and are spending a couple days by themselves in the parks. D and I are joining them for the weekend, spending at day at Galaxies Edge, then we are off to Universal for a few days to explore all the Harry Potter stuff.

We'll be ready to return to a full Disney trip in 2021!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us! It was fun to read about!

 

[tbholc81]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us! It was fun to read about!

Thanks for reading! Glad you enjoyed it!

 

[emmysmommy]

I loved reading your trip report as well! Looks like the Easter festivities at the resort were much fun for the kiddos. Happy planning for your next trip!