Really enjoying your trip report. DH & I are going for an adults only 3 day quick trip in a month. First time wo kids since our 2000 honeymoon trip! It's nice to read a trip report from the perspective of two adults. We are also doing a cruise in May! Taking the kids for that trip. ; )
Thanks for writing...saying tuned!
Really enjoying your trip report. DH & I are going for an adults only 3 day quick trip in a month. First time wo kids since our 2000 honeymoon trip! It's nice to read a trip report from the perspective of two adults. We are also doing a cruise in May! Taking the kids for that trip. ; )
Thanks for writing...saying tuned!
Thank you! I think Disney can be fun for all sorts of ages and mixes of ages--you just have to sort of tailor things to what works for you! Have you cruised before? I'm sure your kids will love it! I know I would have when I was little!
Having finished up our ride on Star Tours, we decided to head over to Toy Story Mania, which none of us had done yet this trip.
We stopped for a photographer and to check the times for the Little Mermaid show, which was not going to have another showing until later. (The last one for regular hours was running, and they take a break before they start running shows for EMH.)
I didn't care for this photographer. We didn't want to do a particular pose she suggested, and she got pretty pushy about it. It was a little bit embarrassing. We continued walking toward Toy Story.
The wait wasn't too bad, so we hopped in line.
If you look closely in the last picture, you can see that Mr. Potato Head's ear is missing. I don't know if it just fell out or what happened, but it was really funny because after a little bit, a cast member came in, picked it up off of the ground and popped in right back in, just like with a regular Mr. Potato Head! We really got a kick out of that.
In less time than we would have guessed, we boarded the ride and had a great time. We left the Toy Story area, and headed over to do a quick run through the Tower of Terror.
It only took a few minutes, as it was now EMH, and the lines were pretty short. We were just a bit early for the next show, but decided to head over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid anyway.
We were in the holding area for about twenty minutes, and then it was time for the show!
It may be silly, but I love this show! It really does feel like you are under the sea, and, because the theater is small, the special effects reach everyone. If you haven't seen it, there are bubbles and mist and lasers--it's great! The show itself is pretty simple, but it's still one of my favorites!
Having immensely enjoyed the show, we headed over for a visit with our friends the Muppets. Josh loves the Muppets! They are some of his favorite characters, and I also really enjoy this show, although I feel like maybe they should remaster it or something to make the film and effects a little crisper.
After that, we headed back to Star Tours. The wait was minimal, so we rode it twice!
For our last stop of the night, we had something very special planned. On our 2008 trip, which was the last time he was there, Josh had decided to finish up an EMH night by taking a last minute ride on Tower of Terror. At the time, I was afraid to ride it, so he went by himself. When he got inside, there was pretty much no line, so on a whim, he asked to go by himself. The cast member said yes, and Josh was so excited about it that he bought the picture, and it's hanging in our home. So, on this trip, we decided we would try to reproduce it, only with me in the picture as well. We headed over to the Tower.
There was very little line, and we got to to elevators quickly. In another pixie dust moment, the cast member in charge was awesome! Not only did she get us our own elevator, she was very enthusiastic about it--I wish I remembered her name. When we got off, we went to buy the picture, and Uncle Brad insisted on paying as an anniversary gift. Thank you again, Uncle Brad!
After that, we headed out of the park for the night.
So, we hopped onto a bus and headed back to POR, rather tired from the long hours and the rain. When we arrived back at our resort, we got a special surprise. Remember that broken glass bottle in our suitcase? We had asked for help in cleaning it up, and earlier in the day, a Mousekeeper came by. She didn't speak much English, and when she saw the glitter in our bag, she basically just shook her head and said that they didn't have anything for that, only a floor vacuum. I'm not really sure she understood what we wanted. I found it hard to believe that they didn't have an attachment for their vacuum that could clean out a suitcase, but we decided to just sort of dump out the glitter and do our best with lint rollers, and we figured the whole thing was over--it was disappointing, but no big deal. Imagine our surprise, therefore, when upon entering our room, we were greeted with this:
At first, I thought maybe it was from my mom since she's a Disney fanatic too, and she knew we would be there, but the card said it was from Mickey Mouse, so we were a bit confused. Then we saw these:
What had broken was a glass bottle, larger than these but otherwise very similar, and we had actually seen these exact bottles at the Joann's at home right before we left. It was then that we realized that this was an apology basket, and that they had actually sent someone out to look for a replacement bottle. We were so incredibly impressed! I'm tearing up right now just writing about it and remembering! What other company would take such good care of a customer over an issue that the customer was partly to blame for? (Although we did so very carefully, we did pack glass in our suitcase and were aware that it might not arrive intact.) This was a huge pixie dust moment for us, and just proved yet again that WDW is the best place in the world! Here are a few more pictures of our lovely basket:
We opened our basket, enjoyed a small snack and headed to bed happy! Thank you again, to the wonderful cast members involved in our pixie dust moment. I'm sure you would have made Walt proud!
Just wanted to apologize for the lack of updates. I'm dealing with an impacted wisdom tooth that needs to come out, and I just haven't had the energy or initiative. Hopefully, I will post an update early next week.
A Mystical Monster, A Brave Little Clownfish ans Some Very Silly Monkeys
Tuesday, May 15art One
After another very good night's sleep, we got up bright and early Tuesday morning and headed for the bus stop.
I really did love waiting at that bus depot--it was so quiet and peaceful. As usual, our wait was only about ten minutes or so before a bus arrived to take us to my personal favorite park!
Yes, I know some people really hate the Animal Kingdom, and some are just rather "meh" about it, but I love it. I'm always very anxious to get there. On this particular morning, Josh and I had again decided to get up a bit earlier than the rest of our party, so the plan was to explore on our own, and they would call us when they were ready to meet up. We got through security and the turnstiles as quickly as possible and headed into the park.
We had arrived just a little bit after rope drop, so the crowds were still dispersing. We decided to head toward Dinosaur, because it is one of my favorites, and the lines seem to get long really fast. We headed toward the beautiful Tree:
Then we made a right, and meandered into Dinoland.
We made the turn into the not-Chester-and-Hester part of Dinoland, and soon arrived at our destination.
The wait was very short(less than ten minutes), so we headed on in for our time travel vacation.
I love that ride, but I hate the part where the ride photo is taken--that dino is just so loud!!
Having safely returned from the past, with an iguanadon, I might add, we stopped in the gift shop, where Josh bought a rubber pirate skull/Mickey bracelet-y sort of thing, and headed into Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama.
Primeval Whirl, which I love and Josh gets motion sickness from, had literally no wait at all, so we decided to take a spin on it.
It was great as usual, and as soon as we were finished we headed out of Dinoland--we had to get to Everest before the lines built up!
The line actually wasn't horribly long when we arrived, so we hopped right in and boarded our train to see the yeti!
At this point, we decided that we really needed to have some breakfast. We were getting really hungry and we had a pretty early dinner reservation. When I was checking the AllEars menus before we left, I noticed that Pizzafari had breakfast items, so we decided to try that. We were on our way over there to eat, when we noticed some characters we just couldn't pass up--Russell and Dug from UP! I just love Russell because he reminds me of my younger brother when he was little, and I live pretty far from my family, so I don't get to see them very often. They had a pretty long line, but we ended up being really glad we waited because the photographer and character handler we awesome! These are some of our favorite pictures from the trip!(I will probably say that a lot; I tend to have a lot of favorites)
From our cameras:
Photopass:
Aren't they great? Anyway, on to breakfast. It was at this point that Mom called and said that they had all arrived. Since they had eaten at the resort before leaving, we decided to have our meal and then meet them at Everest before heading on to see the Finding Nemo show. We arrived at Pizzafari, and their breakfast menu looked great! We got in line and placed our order.
Josh had the platter, which had eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, french toast sticks and a biscuit. He loved it because it was a ton of food! The food itself was good but not great, but it was very filling! He also had a Sprite.
I had the panini, which had ham, provolone cheese, egg, tomato and a pesto sauce. It was incredible! It was very juicy and savory, and I just really enjoyed it. My mouth is watering now just thinking about it. I also had an orange juice.
We sat and enjoyed our food and the fun, colorful atmosphere in Pizzafari. While we were eating, a cast member that was cleaning tables noticed our anniversary buttons and said that if we would wait a minute, she would bring us a surprise. She came back with two dainty little cupcakes! We made a note of her name(it was Jean), because we just thought it was so sweet and magical! Only at Disney! The cupcakes, by the way, were great. Just the right size for a little dessert!
Thank you, Jean--you made our day!!
After we ate, we headed over to Everest to meet up with the family.
They were getting Photopass shots done, so we jumped right in and got some, too!
We were out of time to do Everest, so we grabbed a few Fastpasses and walked over to the theater for the Nemo show. We got pretty good seats, way in the back, though, because of the scooter, and sat back to enjoy the show.
I love this show! The first time I ever saw it, I was afraid the puppeteers would be distracting, but they're really not. At some point, you begin to think of them as extensions of the character. It's terrific. I would definitely say it's the best live show at Disney World.
We left the theater,
And headed back to Everest to use our Fastpasses. Mom and Dad didn't want to ride this one, so Josh, Uncle Brad, Beth and I rode it several times in different combinations of people.
After we had finished with Everest, we split up again, with plans to meet in about an hour and a half at the Festival of the Lion King. It was pretty hot, and Josh and I were getting thirsty, so our first stop was at the Royal Anandapur Tea Company for some frozen drinks.
I had a frozen chai and he had a frozen mocha. They were both wonderful, especially on such a hot day!
Next we decided to see another favorite of mine which I have never seen a line at, It's Tough to be a Bug. On the way, we passed by these two:
As expected, the wait for the bugs was short, and we had plenty of time to see it.
We then walked over to Africa, where we did a wee bit of shopping and some sightseeing and had a frozen lemonade(which was also delicious) before it was time to head to Camp Minnie-Mickey.
We arrived at the Festival of the Lion King in plenty of time for the show, and got great seats, right up front. We did have a tiny incident. Since we had the scooter, we were directed to a row of seats that it could park beside, and apparently, a CM on the other side directed another group(without a wheelchair) to the same seats. The other party was not very nice about needing to move so that we could all sit together, but it all got ironed out, and it was time for the show to begin!
We headed out of the show, and Josh and I got distracted by Pocohontas, and decided to get in her line. Everyone else split up into two groups, and we all headed our own ways until dinner. We waited about twenty minutes before our turn behind an adorable and very excited little girl, who had made bracelets at home to give to each of the princesses when she met them. It was so sweet! Soon it was our turn.
Pocahontas was very good, and funny and she asked if Josh was my warrior. I always like it when they really get into their characters!
There wasn't a ton of time left until we needed to head for dinner(we planned on leaving early, because we didn't know how long it would take to get there), so we only really felt like we had time for one more ride, so we settled on Dinosaur and began moving in that direction.
The line was reasonable, and we were soon enjoying a second trip through the toaster into the time of the dinos.
Yes, I totally did stick my tongue out at that stupid, noisy dinosaur! We then decided to head for the front of the park.
We stopped for a photographer or two along the way:
And soon we were outside the park and on our way to the bus stop for our ride to dinner. Where were we going? You'll just have to wait and see!
We hopped on the next bus, and arrived at our destination pretty quickly. We would be dining at the Grand Floridian. I absolutely love this resort! It's so elegant and beautiful! While we were on the bus, we called Mom, and she said that she and Beth had already arrived, but that Dad and Uncle Brad hadn't left the Animal Kingdom yet. We were running pretty early, so we were hopeful that they would make it in time. We exited the bus and headed down the beautiful walkway to the front of the resort.
We entered the magnificent lobby,
And spotted Mom and Beth pretty quickly. We walked over and joined them at a seating area just inside the front door. The day had been pretty hot and humid, so my hair had not survived well, and I knew they would be doing a picture before this meal. I had seen some really pretty bobby pins in several stores already, so I thought I would like to go looking for some and maybe pull my hair back, since we had about a half hour before our reservation. Josh decided to sit and rest(translation:take a nap), and Mom stayed to watch the stuff, while Beth and I went on a search for some bobby pins. We took several pictures of the lobby and all of its lovely details along the way.
I love these inlaid floors!
I also love the live pianist and jazz ensemble.
We headed upstairs to the biggest shop, where I found some gorgeous pink Mickey head bobby pins with crystals on them. I bought them and then went down to the sundries shop, where I found a small, cheap hairbrush. I was thrilled. I ducked into the nearest restroom, where I brushed my hair and pulled it back, as well as used wet paper towels to clean up my eye makeup a bit. I felt much better!
By then, the guys had arrived and it was time for our reservation! We would be dining at one of my favorite character restaurants, 1900 Park Fare.
I really think this restaurant is a hidden gem at Disney World. You get an opportunity to meet and spend time with Cinderella, without having the hastle of trying to get a reservation at the Castle. The food is decent, the atmosphere is beautiful, and the character interaction is a blast! I visit on almost every trip!
We entered the restaurant and posed for the family picture, which I have a physical copy of, but not a digital one. If I get it scanned in later, I will add it in somewhere, as it was a fairly good picture. We were led into the dining room to a table near the front. (This seemed to be a bit of a trend for us this trip--always near the front) We got settled in and headed straight for the buffet. I can't necessarily give you specifics about how everyone liked the different things they took(besides my own food, obviously), but I can tell you that everyone enjoyed their meal, and the food was generally good to great.
Here's my first plate, salad and potato salad. They were both good but nothing special.
My little bowl of the strawberry soup, which was excellent, as usual. It tastes a lot like a thin strawberry smoothie with some kind of dairy(sour cream, maybe?).
Mom's first plate, caesar salad, bread, mashed potatoes and prime rib with horseradish sauce.
Josh's first plate, sushi(he says it was okay), caesar salad, paella(which he really, really liked), cocktail shrimp, prime rib with horseradish sauce(apparently fantastic), and Bourbon Street Chicken(this was just okay).
Beth's first plate, custom pasta, caesar salad and mashed potatoes.
Some strawberries and watermelon:
Uncle Brad's first plate, green beans, broccoli and carrots, turkey, prime rib, some kind of meat, salmon, mashed potatoes, and I'm not sure what that is in the center right.
Dad's first plate, strawberries and strawberry soup in the ears, plus something I can't identify, Bourbon Street chicken and caesar salad on the main part of the plate.
Partway through our first plates, the characters started coming around. First was Cinderella. She was a very good Cinderella and spent a good bit of time at our table.
Then the Prince:
Next came Lady Tremayne. We enjoyed her visit. This character is so much fun! She is always correcting everyone's manners and yelling at people. Sometimes she even yells at her daughters across the room!
Next was Drizella:
Last was Anastasia. She loved that we both had red hair and were wearing pink dresses, and said we needed a picture of just us!
She also celebrated Beth's graduation with her, which, as you can see by our faces, we all got a huge kick out of.
We were actually glad all the characters came through quickly, as we could now go to the buffet without worrying about missing someone.
My second plate. The green pasta was custom, but I didn't like it. I usually love pesto, but I wasn't a fan of theirs. The white pasta came off of the buffet, and it was delicious! I absolutely loved it, and wished I had room for more. I also had some of their excellent mashed potatoes, which I look forward to every time I go to 1900 Park Fare.
I didn't take pics of anyone else's seconds, but here's my dessert plate. It has a fruit tart, cheesecake, chocolate mousse and carrot cake. All of the desserts were good, but not great.
At this time, Cinderella and Prince Charming came out and did their royal waltz, which is always adorable. Unfortunately, we were pretty far from the action, so my pictures aren't very good.
Everyone finished their dinner, and we left the restaurant. Mom, Dad, Beth and Uncle Brad headed straight fir the Magic Kingdom, but Josh and I decided to stay at the Grand Floridian and look around for a while.
After dinner, Josh and I decided to explore the beautiful Grand Floridian a bit before heading to a theme park for the evening. We started by checking out M. Mouse Mercantile.
We stopped briefly to observe the orchestra in the lobby. This is one of my favorite things about the Grand Floridian. It gives the resort such an elegant feel.
Here and here are a couple of rather terrible videos of the lobby and the wonderful orchestra.
We then headed for the small Basin shop. I love Basin! I have an obsession with stuff that smells good. We checked out all of the wonderful bath products.
I love this tiny tub!
I have IBS, and at this point, I began to feel a little yucky, so I headed for the bathroom(which is gorgeous, by the way), while Josh took another short nap.
When I came out and woke him, we realized that it was wet outside, so apparently \, that was the extent of Tuesday's "100% chance of rain."
We noticed this ship model in the Lobby, and it made us excited about our cruise all over again.
Next, we checked out Summer Lace, which had some really lovely displays.
We finished up by checking out Sandy Cove, and then headed for the monorail platform.
The wait for a train was short, and we were soon standing clear of doors and on our way.
On our way, we noticed another bit of pixie dust--a rainbow! It was so pretty, and we loved getting to see a rainbow over our favorite place in the world!
Next up: Extra Magic Hours and an accidental DIS meet.
Having finished our shopping, Josh and I headed over to the only park still open--the Magic Kingdom. Somewhere along the way, I realized I had misplaced my Key to the World card, so after a quick photoshoot at the entrance,
We headed to the ticket window to get me a new one. You may also have noticed that I took my bobby pins out. They were so pretty, and I was afraid I would lose them on a ride, so I just sort of brushed out my hair and hoped for the best. Needless to say, the hairstyle in the rest of this evening's pictures was not "the best." Oh, well. Everyone looks gross and greasy from time to time. Anywho, getting the card was really easy, and we were soon headed into the park.
Our main goal this evening was to see the Magic, The Memories and You, which we had never seen before and Wishes, which we had missed on our previous evening in the Magic Kingdom. Since there was still a bit of time before we needed to get into place for them, we figured we could get one ride in and headed for Jungle Cruise.
We hopped in line for the relatively short wait.
We were just waiting in line, minding our own business, when who should I see but the Frumps(Disneyfreak508 and Disneyfreak616)! I really enjoy all of their trip reports, so I was delighted to run into them. I decided to say "hi" and we held up the line for a minute or so taking pictures. (Sorry, anyone who was stuck behind us). They were really sweet, and it was great to meet someone from the DIS!
We moved on through the line and were soon boarding the ride.
As soon as our ride was over, we booked it over to the Castle to get in place for the shows. The parade was currently running,and it occurred to us that after it was over, the people in front of the Castle would probably move forward to fill in the road it had just run on, so we got in behind them and just waited patiently for the parade(which we had already seen) to be over. While we waited, we both took some pics of the Castle.
As you can see, at this point, there was quite a crowd in front of us. When the parade was over, we surprised to find that the crowd didn't just move forward and fill in the road, it dispersed! We were able to move forward until we were so close to the Castle that everyone was sitting on the ground! We were maybe five feet from the barrier! It was so exciting. I took a few more pics while we waited for the show.
Before we knew it, The Magic, The Memories and You was starting. Here is Josh's video of the show.
After that, it was just a few minutes before Wishes started.
Apparently, I still need practice on my fireworks photography--sorry!
After that, we headed back to our room(Which was quite a chore immediately after the fireworks!), and got a good night's sleep in preparation for a long day!
On Wednesday morning, we were all up bright and early and out the door because we had a breakfast reservation. Where were we going? Well, here's a little hint.
That's right. We were on our way to try the famous Tonga Toast at Kona Cafe. We hopped a bus to the Magic Kingdom and tranferred to the monorail for our quick and pleasant ride to the Polynesian. We headed inside.
We were seated immediately, and most of us started with Lilikoi juice.
I love this stuff. I have had it several times at Ohana, and I'm pretty sure it's my favorite part of any breafast at the Poly!
Then it was time for our meals. Mom and I both ordered the Tonga Toast.
Honestly, I enjoyed this, but it was not as awesome as I was hoping it would be. Maybe I was just overly anticipatory because I've heard so much about it, but I thought it was a little dry and a bit too sweet.
Josh and Beth both ordered the Big Kahuna. (Beth got the pineapple-y stuff on the side.)
They both really enjoyed it!
Dad got the Two Eggs Your Way.
Nothing fancy or anything, but apparently, it was really good as well.
We really enjoyed this restaurant. The food was good, the service was quick and friendly, and for being basically open-air, it was fairly quiet. It's not a must-do or anything, but I would definitely go back!
It's Raining--I'm Getting Wet--This Sucks!
Wednesday, May 16art Two
Having enjoyed our tropical breakfast, Josh and I took the monorail to the TTC, and then hopped a bus to Disney's other tropical destination--Typhoon Lagoon! As usual, getting there was a bit tedious, but we soon arrived and headed in to rent a locker for the day.
We headed straight over to my favorite water park attraction anywhere--the surf pool! We picked a beach chair, and headed in.
As an aside, they really mean this. Those waves are quite violent, and if you didn't swim well and weren't expecting it, you could get into trouble. If you're a parent, I would definitely test it out first before I let my kids get in, and anyone should be careful to stay at a comfortable depth.
Next, we decided to do a few rides on Crush N Gusher, which I also love.
On our way up to our first slide, it started sprinkling, hence this video and the title of this section.
We rode all of the slides and one of them twice. Video evidence is here, here, here and here.
Next up, was the last of my personal favorites, Castaway Creek. We took a leisurely float.
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art Five
I found it hard to believe that they didn't have an attachment for their vacuum that could clean out a suitcase, but we decided to just sort of dump out the glitter and do our best with lint rollers, and we figured the whole thing was over--it was disappointing, but no big deal. Imagine our surprise, therefore, when upon entering our room, we were greeted with this:
What other company would take such good care of a customer over an issue that the customer was partly to blame for? (Although we did so very carefully, we did pack glass in our suitcase and were aware that it might not arrive intact.) This was a huge pixie dust moment for us, and just proved yet again that WDW is the best place in the world! Here are a few more pictures of our lovely basket:
They had a pretty long line, but we ended up being really glad we waited because the photographer and character handler we awesome! These are some of our favorite pictures from the trip!(I will probably say that a lot; I tend to have a lot of favorites)
We then decided to head for the front of the park.
