paigenevan3
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2014
So I am usually just a creeper on the boards but I have decided to be a poster. 
I'll start by telling a little bit about myself..because quite frankly by the end of this report if you're still with me, I salute you. I am a 19 year old from southern IL. AKA.. NOT Chicago. I am surrounded by cornfields and oil wells. Black gold is the closest thing to magic I have here. My husband owns his own business & owns some oil production. I am a beauty pageant director, teachers aide, and WDW travel planner. My husband and I have been together 6 years, married tfor almost 1 year. (Yes, you read all of that correctly, and if you did the math you would find that I was 13 when we started dating) No, it was not okay with my parents, but that's another story I have been addicted to all things Disney since I was 4 years old, when my family took me on my first WDW trip. Since then, I have gone to WDW when I was 10, 14, 18, (October 2012 got engaged on Splash Mountain, May 2013 HS graduation present trip, October 2013 honeymooned) This year I took my mother in June for a week. In August I brought best friend (She hadn't been since she was 5), and then from September 14th-28th my husband, Nevan, and I took a WDW trip for 2 weeks full of magic. So that's 9 trips, which doesn't seem like a lot, but from Oct. 2012-Sep. 2014 I have been 6 times. This year we are AP holders. I have been listening to the DIS Unplugged for a year or so, you have probably heard the podcast crew talk a little about me on some shows. The one that stands out is the "Disney Confessions" segment. Luckily, I'm not ashamed of my unusual Disney habits. I got plenty of questions like.. "What do you do at Disney for 2 WEEKS!?" Well I'm about to tell you! I honestly don't read a whole lot of trip reports so if I'm going about this wrong. Ooops. So here we go..
9/14/14 Day 1-
On this morning our flight left from St. Louis at 9am-ish. (Don't expect me to remember everything, it was a long trip!) We live about 2 1/2 hours from STL so we stayed in a hotel the night before. After the short 2 hour flight (that reminded me of my 7 hour flight to Maui--not so short) we arrived to MCO around 12:30pm. My short legs looked like I belonged in an old Jane Fonda aerobics video as I blasted through that airport. Nevan was far behind. One of his strides is about 4 of mine. I am 5'1" ...on a good day. We scanned those MBs and we were off to Pop Century. Not the most glamorous resorts of course, but we are only in the room to sleep and after staying at Riverside 4 times and walking an extra 2.5 miles to a bus stop, a preferred room at Pop was much more appealing to me. (Plus, I'm kind of a pop culture guru, which is why I may refer to things a little beyond my years.. I pretty much raised my own mother so my 19 year old age doesn't match) Anywhoo.. We checked in and found our room on the 3rd floor of the 50's building. (Behind the play-doh!) I had requested a king bed room, and ended up with 2 fulls (or queens, I have no idea... I just know 2 beds, not 1). No big deal! It just gave me extra pillows and a super-sized luggage rack! We left immediately after checking in because we had 7DMT FP's at 3 and Nevan hadn't activated his AP yet. We swiftly made it to 7DMT, and Nev was obsessed. It was his first time on and his favorite immediately switched from BTMRR to 7DMT. We had the Regular DDP, 1 Sn. 1 TBS, 1 QS. We saved our first days Tb service to make room for some of our reservations that required 2 TbS credits. We rode rides for a few hours and ate at Pecos Bills. My taco salad was good and he enjoyed his burger, it was a MNSSHP night so we left MK at 7 and
went back to the room for the night. At some point that day Nevan had his first Brew from Gaston's Tavern!
9/15/14 DAY 2-
We got to MK at rope drop. Our FP's were Splash (MY FAVORITE!!!), Space, & 7DMT again. We did those and everything else in between. We had reservations at Tony's Town Square at 2:45 so that we could watch FOF during lunch. I know, I know... Everyone hates Tony's! But we don't. We've always enjoyed Tony's, probably because I like bland food.. Nothing fancy. Nevan... Now he could eat Mickey excrement and enjoy it. He will eat anything! I ordered the Margherita pizza. (closest thing to a Margarita I will get for the next year! LOL) I always enjoy it! I ordered the Tiramisu for dessert which was also delicious. He had chicken parm & caramel apple cheesecake. He enjoyed everything but thought the cheesecake filling tasted like a canned apple pie filling. My initial thought was how the hell does he know what that tastes like? But after trying it myself, he was right! We didn't do anything real special that day, FOF was perfect as always! This was Nevan's first time watching and he thought Maleficent was awesome. (Boys.. Fire...smh) We went back for a short nap after FOF and then came back to ride more. Park closing was 9, I believe. We stayed until Wishes. We had a late dinner at the food court at Pop. I had the create your own salad. I always ask for a smaller amount of lettuce than they originally give. The first few times (in June) I got the salad they filled the entire bowl over the top with lettuce and by the time you put your toppings on, you can't mix anything up without needing gloves & a bib. He had the create your own chicken sandwich and really liked it! (I'm actually not sure if he ordered anything else from there the entire trip!) For dessert we shared the tie-dye cheesecake and saved a rice crispy for breakfast the next morning. We always fill up our mugs and save bottles of water to take with us to the parks, as well. Overall, I'm really not a fan of Pop's food court. We walked over to Art of Animation's food court often which was much better!
9/16/14 DAY 3-
This day was an Epcot day! FP's were Soarin', Nemo & Spaceship earth. I actually hate the tiering system for Epcot with a passion but I also understand why they do it. Today is the day I started to notice that the crowds were not appropriate for mid September. The lines were not terrible, but the same I had experienced in June & August. (My October trips have always been 20 minute max lines) We rode everything except for Test Track & Maelstrom. TT was over an hour, and we had a FP for it later in the trip. Due to Maelstrom going away for Frozen, the line was over 30 minutes. Sorry, Mae. Not waiting 30 minutes for you, closing or not. On the way out we stopped at Club Cool, because we had never been in there. We tried every kind of soda and HOLY BEVERLY, BLACK CRAYON!!! You must try the Beverly once, but I don't think you'll ever want to again. I found myself licking a napkin to try to get the taste out of my mouth. (Yes, it is that gross!) We headed back for a nap around noon, (we get things done quickly) and I got dressed into "non-park wear", which was a coral dress. We had Garden Grill reservations at 4:40 and left Pop around 3:15, I have seen buses be every 20 minutes, 10 minutes and even 40 minutes.. So I like to always be early and prepared for a late or full bus! We ended up at the GG at 4:00 and asked if we could check in early! The CM told us to wait one moment and they could get us in. We were seated around 4:15. It took until about 4:28 (I only know this because I remember checking my phone) to get our drinks. Again, no big deal for us as we were just talking and enjoying each others company. For those of you that have never dined at the GG, it is a family style menu. All-you-care-to-eat! They offer rolls with honey butter and a salad to start. The rolls & honey butter are SO GOOD!! But.. Bread and any type of carbohydrate is amazing to me. The salad is also very good! It consisted of spinach, bacon, hb egg, tomatoes and... I can't remember what else :/ But for my bland taste it was vibrant! The first buddy to visit us was Dale! In my first Disney trip as a child, I out my yellow scrunchy on Dale's nose. I had the picture on my phone and showed him. I told him i was going to do that again and he got excited! I put my scrunchy on his nose again and remade the picture! Too awesome
For the entrees there is steak & mashed potatoes, tilapia (I think, just think baked fish) with a tomato-ey mixture &mixed veggies, and turkey with gravy & stuffing. I am not a steak person so I didn't try it. It was a tad undercooked for Nevan. The garlic mashed potatoes were delicious! The fish & veggies were great and the turkey & gravy as well. The stuffing was a little dry, but still good. We didn't order any extra of anything because we weren't very hungry after the rolls and salad. Chip came along for a picture as well as Pluto and farmer Mickey. Farmer Mickey is just too precious for words! For dessert there is a berry cobbler with vanilla bean cream on top! YUMMM! Our waitress also brought us the generic chocolate cake you can find anywhere on property to celebrate our anniversary. (October 5th, so early but still magical!) Although we weren't fond of it, it was still very thoughtful and we appreciated it! After that we rode the monorail to MK and rode some rides.
9/17/14 DAY 4-
We were out to the bus at 7am, as I was kind of nervous about the whole "breakfast bus" thing. We had Tusker House reservations at 8am and Animal Kingdom didn't open until 9. Around 7:25 an AK bus came along and we made it to our reservations. We were the first into the park and an empty AK is much more exciting! We were seated around 8:10 in a back corner. I am not one who likes attention so I was very happy with than until the characters came around. Donald's Safari Breakfast is a large buffet with a lot to choose from. They brought our jungle juice out which was okay. This was our first time at TH. (I believe it was passion fruit, mango & orange juice?) The buffet was huge, and did have your basic bacon eggs & biscuits but it seemed to have a lot more exotic dishes than I was into. Also, I like to start my mornings off light with fruit and not much grease as I get nauseous easily. The fruit selection was limited but I did eat a lot of pineapple! The characters didn't start making their way out very quickly. We were finished eating long before they made it out. This is when being in the corner became a problem. Not only had they squeezed in a lot of tables back there, but because it was a buffet, there were people getting up trying to get their food, servers taking dirty plates etc. all at the same time as the pictures being taken with the not-so-tiny characters! It was kind of a mess and made for horrible pictures. BUT... That's not a problem. We still had good interactions with Goofy, Daisy, Donald, and Mickey! All dressed suuuuper cute! It had started to rain before we made it into TH but it had stopped by the time we left. We had FP's for Kilimanjaro Safaris, Everest and Dinosaur. We boarded our jeep for the safari and the animals were SO active!!! I had been on the safari probably 15 times and never seen the animals so out and about! The giraffes were running and playing, it was amazing! After that it started to rain again but we rode Everest anyways. Uhm... Bad idea. We were drenched. Head to toe. We rode dinosaur and then headed back for a break. The lines were getting quite long again. After our break we headed to MK for the night. (We usually determine break time by when the rain is coming) We used a snack at Storybook treats for a brownie sundae thing. YUM!! We sat at a table behind the castle (facing 7DMT) and watched the fireworks. Perfect view of them! Obviously there was no beautiful castle but there was also nobody standing in front of us blocking our view!
9/18/14 DAY 5-
We got to DHS at opening. Due to the FP tiering we didn't have a FP for RRC. We went there first and rode 3 times before our Toy Story FP. (The RRC wait was posted at 20 but was really about 10) The Frozen fun land was very neat, we didn't participate in anything but it was very cool. We rode a lot up until our Sci-Fi reservations at 12:55. The whole atmosphere was so cool! This was our first time there. For those of you that don't know, you eat in a car while watching 50's sci-fi commercials like you are at a drive in. I ordered a burger and fries and Nevan had a steak with blue cheese butter. I wasn't fond of not being able to see what was going in my mouth due to the dim lights. I barely ate any of the burger but Nevan looooved his steak. For dessert we had chocolate shakes. The straws they give you, well.. Just don't work! The shakes were sooo good but my mouth was actually sore from trying to suck the thick shake through a tiny straw. The waitress wasn't great and we couldn't find her to have her bring us a spoon. After lunch we took a break and then came back to DHS. We were waiting in the Fantasmic line at 6:30. Due to an oncoming storm they didn't allow us in until about 7:30! So so so so worth it though! Fantasmic is absolutely amazing! Don't miss it!! I cried and cried and cried.
9/19/14 DAY 6-
We decided to sleep in a little this day! We shared 1 QS at Pop of nuggets & fries. We had a FP for 7DMT at 12:30. We left Pop around 11:50, (I love how you have an hour of FP time! Plus a 15 minute grace period!) We also had FP's for Journey of the LM, and Peter Pan. I could be stopped in the opening bedroom scene of Peter Pan for hours and be perfectly fine with it. I'm not sure why I love the Darling's bedroom so much but I do! We stayed in Fantasyland for the most part that day. We had Be Our Guest reservations at 4:40. I was SO excited! We had been there for lunch a few trips before and I wasn't too fond of it. I hoped dinner would be much better, and it was. We were seated in the ballroom on time. Beauty & the Beast is my favorite Disney animated feature and being in that ballroom made me so happy! The main issue for me was that the menu was very fancy... Far too fancy for my taste but I ordered the Shrimp & Scallop filled pastry without mushrooms. It was actually very good! Nevan again had steak and fries and said it was the best meal he had the entire trip! The desserts were the same desserts they serve at lunch. That, I wasn't too happy about. I ordered the chocolate cream puff and he had the grey stuff. The opened my cream puff and it was a dark chocolate filling instead of the milk chocolate I expected.
Nevan's grey stuff was delicious! (Don't believe me?.. Yeah yeah, you know where I was going with that) Overall I was pleased with the meal! It was a Halloween party night so the park closed at 7 and we went back to Pop.
9/20/14 DAY 7- HALFWAY DONE!!
We has breakfast reservations at Akershus with the princesses that morning. Again, we got to the bus stop at 7am and there was a breakfast bus by shortly. It was pouring rain this morning. We had our umbrellas but the puddles didn't save our shoes or legs! An early monsoon! We were the first guests to step into Epcot! Nevan kept telling me we probably weren't and he was (probably) right.. But let me have my fun! I'm good at pretending! When we arrived at Akershus, soaking wet, we must've had a princess down!! They were stalling all of us out in the rain. The beautiful Norwegian hostess let us know that something had gone on that morning and we would have to wait outside for a while. Reservations were at 8:15 and we were seated around 8:30. Even with the monsoon, I was still so happy to be at Disney that I really wasn't upset. We had been to Akershus for lunch, but not breakfast. For breakfast there is a small buffet of fruits, meats, cheeses & pastries and then they bring out bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage and hash brown casserole family style. (All you care to eat, again!) We didn't try the sausage, but everything else was very very good! The eggs were a little runny, but that hash brown casserole made up for it! So good! We had some great interactions with the princesses! We had a FP for Test Track but because of the rain couldn't use it. But don't worry! If this happens they will accept your FP until park closing for TT and select other attractions in that park. We did get to ride it eventually that day. Now this was the first weekend of Food & Wine Festival.. So it was crowded! We got out of there fast! We went to Magic Kingdom for the 11pm-1am EMH. Or should I say Extra Tragic Hours?!?!? The lines were soo long just to get your MB's scanned! The iphones were not reading the bands and I saw several CM's let people into the lines without a confirmation that they were a resort guest. It frustrated me, to say the least. However, I do understand that technology is hard to deal with sometimes when it isn't working. I felt bad for the CM's.
9/21/14 DAY 8-
We decided to sleep in this day because we knew we would be out late for MNSSHP!!!! We had reservations for Liberty Tree Tavern at 1:00. We were seated around 1:20. This was our first time here. We were seated by a wall with an old quilt that I didn't see and my head bumped it as I sat down. I can't explain to you the amount of dust that came off of that thing into my hair! I ordered the fish & chips, and Nevan had a burger. He really enjoyed his and mine was decent. I can't really pinpoint what exactly I didn't like about mine.. It was just okay. I had the ooey gooey toffee cake for dessert which was extremely good! A very large portion, though. Nevan got the Martha Washington cake or something like that and it was just your usual chocolate cake. Our server gave us one of the LTT cups, packaged up, which was nice! We stayed in Frontierland and Liberty Square that day until it was time to go back and get dressed for MNSSHP! Nevan wore a shirt from Neff brand with Peter Pan on it and I wore a tribal print dress with braids and a headband and called myself Tiger Lily! We arrived at MK around 6 and quickly found a spot in front of the castle to stay for the night activities! First was the villains mix & mingle which is a show with cool music & dancing with the villains. It had not changed much from the year before, other than now the villains don't come down in front of the castle to mingle for pictures anymore. After that it was the Boo To You parade! We were front & center in the most perfect spot! I love this parade! --During the Remember the Magic Parade when I was 4, Cruella came up to me and said "BOO!" My 4 year old self screamed and cried and was terrified of this woman.-- As the parade went on I was searching for Cruella to take a picture of her to send my grandparents. I was going to tell them I'm not scared of her anymore. As I start to take a picture she gets right in my face and screams "BOO!!" I cried again, but for a different reason. This time I cried happy tears. I know Cruella didn't remember me. But it made me really feel as if she did. That is Disney magic. After that it was time for Celebrate the Magic & Hallowishes. Both incredible! After this we went to trick or treat! I had the dreaded flip-flop blow out and had to get a new pair. But we kept trucking on and rode 7DMT before close. We waited about 25 minutes. It was a great night!
9/22/14 DAY 9-
We went to AK at rope drop this day only for it to start raining and we went back to Pop. LOL. We wen't to Magic Kingdom later that day and had dinner at Crystal Palace. It is a character buffet. I wasn't too fond if it last time I was there and this time was no exception. Not a whole lot of choices. Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore & Piglet can be found here! We rode POTC, BTMRR, & Splash several times before heading home.
9/23/14 DAY 10-
We went to Hollywood Studios this day and rode pretty much everything besides Star Tours (makes me sick) and Toy Story because we didn't have a FP for it. That night we had reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table at 5:50. I was all dressed up and so was Nevan. Then we got off the bus at MK and it was storming. The wind was blowing my dress up with the "rainnn that blew in sidewayyys" sticking it to me. This made my dress not so flattering and my hair that I had worked so hard to curl.. Wet. Umbrellas just don't save you from everything. This was my first time in the castle so I was a little teary. We got our picture taken with Cinderella and then proceeded up the red carpet winding staircase to the dining room. (Remember that this meal takes 2 TS per person!) The server was very nice and brought out rolls and our drinks. Both of us got an appetizer. (included in the 2 TS) Again, everything was very fancy and hard to choose from for me. Nevan got shrimp & grits and I got the plate of cheeses. They were very good but they only give you 3 crackers to eat 3 huuuge chunks of creamy cheese with. For the entree Nevan got steak & shrimp, and I got the chicken with the same sides as the steak & shrimp entree. This was mashed potatoes, a tomato and carrots. I actually didn't like the chicken and gave it to Nevan and he gave me a piece of his shrimp. Everything was good!! For dessert I ordered the clock strikes 12 dessert which was beautiful and very yummy! Nevan got the chef's choice set if 3 and wasn't too impressed. I would definitely eat here again, though! It was a MNSSHP night so we headed back after this. This is the night I developed a freaking cough. Hacking, awful sore throat cough that is still full force today. (Today is 9/29/14)
9/24/14 DAY 11-
We went to Epcot again this day. We ate School Bread from Norway for breakfast using snack credits. We rode Maelstrom for the last time. The line was posted at 10 minutes and we definitely waited over 35
I'll start by telling a little bit about myself..because quite frankly by the end of this report if you're still with me, I salute you. I am a 19 year old from southern IL. AKA.. NOT Chicago. I am surrounded by cornfields and oil wells. Black gold is the closest thing to magic I have here. My husband owns his own business & owns some oil production. I am a beauty pageant director, teachers aide, and WDW travel planner. My husband and I have been together 6 years, married tfor almost 1 year. (Yes, you read all of that correctly, and if you did the math you would find that I was 13 when we started dating) No, it was not okay with my parents, but that's another story I have been addicted to all things Disney since I was 4 years old, when my family took me on my first WDW trip. Since then, I have gone to WDW when I was 10, 14, 18, (October 2012 got engaged on Splash Mountain, May 2013 HS graduation present trip, October 2013 honeymooned) This year I took my mother in June for a week. In August I brought best friend (She hadn't been since she was 5), and then from September 14th-28th my husband, Nevan, and I took a WDW trip for 2 weeks full of magic. So that's 9 trips, which doesn't seem like a lot, but from Oct. 2012-Sep. 2014 I have been 6 times. This year we are AP holders. I have been listening to the DIS Unplugged for a year or so, you have probably heard the podcast crew talk a little about me on some shows. The one that stands out is the "Disney Confessions" segment. Luckily, I'm not ashamed of my unusual Disney habits. I got plenty of questions like.. "What do you do at Disney for 2 WEEKS!?" Well I'm about to tell you! I honestly don't read a whole lot of trip reports so if I'm going about this wrong. Ooops. So here we go..9/14/14 Day 1-
On this morning our flight left from St. Louis at 9am-ish. (Don't expect me to remember everything, it was a long trip!) We live about 2 1/2 hours from STL so we stayed in a hotel the night before. After the short 2 hour flight (that reminded me of my 7 hour flight to Maui--not so short) we arrived to MCO around 12:30pm. My short legs looked like I belonged in an old Jane Fonda aerobics video as I blasted through that airport. Nevan was far behind. One of his strides is about 4 of mine. I am 5'1" ...on a good day
. We scanned those MBs and we were off to Pop Century. Not the most glamorous resorts of course, but we are only in the room to sleep and after staying at Riverside 4 times and walking an extra 2.5 miles to a bus stop, a preferred room at Pop was much more appealing to me. (Plus, I'm kind of a pop culture guru, which is why I may refer to things a little beyond my years.. I pretty much raised my own mother so my 19 year old age doesn't match) Anywhoo.. We checked in and found our room on the 3rd floor of the 50's building. (Behind the play-doh!) I had requested a king bed room, and ended up with 2 fulls (or queens, I have no idea... I just know 2 beds, not 1). No big deal! It just gave me extra pillows and a super-sized luggage rack! We left immediately after checking in because we had 7DMT FP's at 3 and Nevan hadn't activated his AP yet. We swiftly made it to 7DMT, and Nev was obsessed. It was his first time on and his favorite immediately switched from BTMRR to 7DMT. We had the Regular DDP, 1 Sn. 1 TBS, 1 QS. We saved our first days Tb service to make room for some of our reservations that required 2 TbS credits. We rode rides for a few hours and ate at Pecos Bills. My taco salad was good and he enjoyed his burger, it was a MNSSHP night so we left MK at 7 and went back to the room for the night. At some point that day Nevan had his first Brew from Gaston's Tavern!
9/15/14 DAY 2-
We got to MK at rope drop. Our FP's were Splash (MY FAVORITE!!!), Space, & 7DMT again. We did those and everything else in between. We had reservations at Tony's Town Square at 2:45 so that we could watch FOF during lunch. I know, I know... Everyone hates Tony's! But we don't. We've always enjoyed Tony's, probably because I like bland food.. Nothing fancy. Nevan... Now he could eat Mickey excrement and enjoy it. He will eat anything! I ordered the Margherita pizza. (closest thing to a Margarita I will get for the next year! LOL) I always enjoy it! I ordered the Tiramisu for dessert which was also delicious. He had chicken parm & caramel apple cheesecake. He enjoyed everything but thought the cheesecake filling tasted like a canned apple pie filling. My initial thought was how the hell does he know what that tastes like? But after trying it myself, he was right! We didn't do anything real special that day, FOF was perfect as always! This was Nevan's first time watching and he thought Maleficent was awesome. (Boys.. Fire...smh) We went back for a short nap after FOF and then came back to ride more. Park closing was 9, I believe. We stayed until Wishes. We had a late dinner at the food court at Pop. I had the create your own salad. I always ask for a smaller amount of lettuce than they originally give. The first few times (in June) I got the salad they filled the entire bowl over the top with lettuce and by the time you put your toppings on, you can't mix anything up without needing gloves & a bib. He had the create your own chicken sandwich and really liked it! (I'm actually not sure if he ordered anything else from there the entire trip!) For dessert we shared the tie-dye cheesecake and saved a rice crispy for breakfast the next morning. We always fill up our mugs and save bottles of water to take with us to the parks, as well. Overall, I'm really not a fan of Pop's food court. We walked over to Art of Animation's food court often which was much better!
9/16/14 DAY 3-
This day was an Epcot day! FP's were Soarin', Nemo & Spaceship earth. I actually hate the tiering system for Epcot with a passion but I also understand why they do it. Today is the day I started to notice that the crowds were not appropriate for mid September. The lines were not terrible, but the same I had experienced in June & August. (My October trips have always been 20 minute max lines) We rode everything except for Test Track & Maelstrom. TT was over an hour, and we had a FP for it later in the trip. Due to Maelstrom going away for Frozen, the line was over 30 minutes. Sorry, Mae. Not waiting 30 minutes for you, closing or not. On the way out we stopped at Club Cool, because we had never been in there. We tried every kind of soda and HOLY BEVERLY, BLACK CRAYON!!! You must try the Beverly once, but I don't think you'll ever want to again. I found myself licking a napkin to try to get the taste out of my mouth. (Yes, it is that gross!) We headed back for a nap around noon, (we get things done quickly) and I got dressed into "non-park wear", which was a coral dress. We had Garden Grill reservations at 4:40 and left Pop around 3:15, I have seen buses be every 20 minutes, 10 minutes and even 40 minutes.. So I like to always be early and prepared for a late or full bus! We ended up at the GG at 4:00 and asked if we could check in early! The CM told us to wait one moment and they could get us in. We were seated around 4:15. It took until about 4:28 (I only know this because I remember checking my phone) to get our drinks. Again, no big deal for us as we were just talking and enjoying each others company. For those of you that have never dined at the GG, it is a family style menu. All-you-care-to-eat! They offer rolls with honey butter and a salad to start. The rolls & honey butter are SO GOOD!! But.. Bread and any type of carbohydrate is amazing to me. The salad is also very good! It consisted of spinach, bacon, hb egg, tomatoes and... I can't remember what else :/ But for my bland taste it was vibrant! The first buddy to visit us was Dale! In my first Disney trip as a child, I out my yellow scrunchy on Dale's nose. I had the picture on my phone and showed him. I told him i was going to do that again and he got excited! I put my scrunchy on his nose again and remade the picture! Too awesome
For the entrees there is steak & mashed potatoes, tilapia (I think, just think baked fish) with a tomato-ey mixture &mixed veggies, and turkey with gravy & stuffing. I am not a steak person so I didn't try it. It was a tad undercooked for Nevan. The garlic mashed potatoes were delicious! The fish & veggies were great and the turkey & gravy as well. The stuffing was a little dry, but still good. We didn't order any extra of anything because we weren't very hungry after the rolls and salad. Chip came along for a picture as well as Pluto and farmer Mickey. Farmer Mickey is just too precious for words! For dessert there is a berry cobbler with vanilla bean cream on top! YUMMM! Our waitress also brought us the generic chocolate cake you can find anywhere on property to celebrate our anniversary. (October 5th, so early but still magical!) Although we weren't fond of it, it was still very thoughtful and we appreciated it! After that we rode the monorail to MK and rode some rides. 9/17/14 DAY 4-
We were out to the bus at 7am, as I was kind of nervous about the whole "breakfast bus" thing. We had Tusker House reservations at 8am and Animal Kingdom didn't open until 9. Around 7:25 an AK bus came along and we made it to our reservations. We were the first into the park and an empty AK is much more exciting! We were seated around 8:10 in a back corner. I am not one who likes attention so I was very happy with than until the characters came around. Donald's Safari Breakfast is a large buffet with a lot to choose from. They brought our jungle juice out which was okay. This was our first time at TH. (I believe it was passion fruit, mango & orange juice?) The buffet was huge, and did have your basic bacon eggs & biscuits but it seemed to have a lot more exotic dishes than I was into. Also, I like to start my mornings off light with fruit and not much grease as I get nauseous easily. The fruit selection was limited but I did eat a lot of pineapple! The characters didn't start making their way out very quickly. We were finished eating long before they made it out. This is when being in the corner became a problem. Not only had they squeezed in a lot of tables back there, but because it was a buffet, there were people getting up trying to get their food, servers taking dirty plates etc. all at the same time as the pictures being taken with the not-so-tiny characters! It was kind of a mess and made for horrible pictures. BUT... That's not a problem. We still had good interactions with Goofy, Daisy, Donald, and Mickey! All dressed suuuuper cute! It had started to rain before we made it into TH but it had stopped by the time we left. We had FP's for Kilimanjaro Safaris, Everest and Dinosaur. We boarded our jeep for the safari and the animals were SO active!!! I had been on the safari probably 15 times and never seen the animals so out and about! The giraffes were running and playing, it was amazing! After that it started to rain again but we rode Everest anyways. Uhm... Bad idea. We were drenched. Head to toe. We rode dinosaur and then headed back for a break. The lines were getting quite long again. After our break we headed to MK for the night. (We usually determine break time by when the rain is coming) We used a snack at Storybook treats for a brownie sundae thing. YUM!! We sat at a table behind the castle (facing 7DMT) and watched the fireworks. Perfect view of them! Obviously there was no beautiful castle but there was also nobody standing in front of us blocking our view!
9/18/14 DAY 5-
We got to DHS at opening. Due to the FP tiering we didn't have a FP for RRC. We went there first and rode 3 times before our Toy Story FP. (The RRC wait was posted at 20 but was really about 10) The Frozen fun land was very neat, we didn't participate in anything but it was very cool. We rode a lot up until our Sci-Fi reservations at 12:55. The whole atmosphere was so cool! This was our first time there. For those of you that don't know, you eat in a car while watching 50's sci-fi commercials like you are at a drive in. I ordered a burger and fries and Nevan had a steak with blue cheese butter. I wasn't fond of not being able to see what was going in my mouth due to the dim lights. I barely ate any of the burger but Nevan looooved his steak. For dessert we had chocolate shakes. The straws they give you, well.. Just don't work! The shakes were sooo good but my mouth was actually sore from trying to suck the thick shake through a tiny straw. The waitress wasn't great and we couldn't find her to have her bring us a spoon. After lunch we took a break and then came back to DHS. We were waiting in the Fantasmic line at 6:30. Due to an oncoming storm they didn't allow us in until about 7:30! So so so so worth it though! Fantasmic is absolutely amazing! Don't miss it!! I cried and cried and cried.
9/19/14 DAY 6-
We decided to sleep in a little this day! We shared 1 QS at Pop of nuggets & fries. We had a FP for 7DMT at 12:30. We left Pop around 11:50, (I love how you have an hour of FP time! Plus a 15 minute grace period!) We also had FP's for Journey of the LM, and Peter Pan. I could be stopped in the opening bedroom scene of Peter Pan for hours and be perfectly fine with it. I'm not sure why I love the Darling's bedroom so much but I do! We stayed in Fantasyland for the most part that day. We had Be Our Guest reservations at 4:40. I was SO excited! We had been there for lunch a few trips before and I wasn't too fond of it. I hoped dinner would be much better, and it was. We were seated in the ballroom on time. Beauty & the Beast is my favorite Disney animated feature and being in that ballroom made me so happy! The main issue for me was that the menu was very fancy... Far too fancy for my taste but I ordered the Shrimp & Scallop filled pastry without mushrooms. It was actually very good! Nevan again had steak and fries and said it was the best meal he had the entire trip! The desserts were the same desserts they serve at lunch. That, I wasn't too happy about. I ordered the chocolate cream puff and he had the grey stuff. The opened my cream puff and it was a dark chocolate filling instead of the milk chocolate I expected.
Nevan's grey stuff was delicious! (Don't believe me?.. Yeah yeah, you know where I was going with that) Overall I was pleased with the meal! It was a Halloween party night so the park closed at 7 and we went back to Pop. 9/20/14 DAY 7- HALFWAY DONE!!
We has breakfast reservations at Akershus with the princesses that morning. Again, we got to the bus stop at 7am and there was a breakfast bus by shortly. It was pouring rain this morning. We had our umbrellas but the puddles didn't save our shoes or legs! An early monsoon! We were the first guests to step into Epcot! Nevan kept telling me we probably weren't and he was (probably) right.. But let me have my fun! I'm good at pretending! When we arrived at Akershus, soaking wet, we must've had a princess down!! They were stalling all of us out in the rain. The beautiful Norwegian hostess let us know that something had gone on that morning and we would have to wait outside for a while. Reservations were at 8:15 and we were seated around 8:30. Even with the monsoon, I was still so happy to be at Disney that I really wasn't upset. We had been to Akershus for lunch, but not breakfast. For breakfast there is a small buffet of fruits, meats, cheeses & pastries and then they bring out bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage and hash brown casserole family style. (All you care to eat, again!) We didn't try the sausage, but everything else was very very good! The eggs were a little runny, but that hash brown casserole made up for it! So good! We had some great interactions with the princesses! We had a FP for Test Track but because of the rain couldn't use it. But don't worry! If this happens they will accept your FP until park closing for TT and select other attractions in that park. We did get to ride it eventually that day. Now this was the first weekend of Food & Wine Festival.. So it was crowded! We got out of there fast! We went to Magic Kingdom for the 11pm-1am EMH. Or should I say Extra Tragic Hours?!?!? The lines were soo long just to get your MB's scanned! The iphones were not reading the bands and I saw several CM's let people into the lines without a confirmation that they were a resort guest. It frustrated me, to say the least. However, I do understand that technology is hard to deal with sometimes when it isn't working. I felt bad for the CM's.
9/21/14 DAY 8-
We decided to sleep in this day because we knew we would be out late for MNSSHP!!!! We had reservations for Liberty Tree Tavern at 1:00. We were seated around 1:20. This was our first time here. We were seated by a wall with an old quilt that I didn't see and my head bumped it as I sat down. I can't explain to you the amount of dust that came off of that thing into my hair! I ordered the fish & chips, and Nevan had a burger. He really enjoyed his and mine was decent. I can't really pinpoint what exactly I didn't like about mine.. It was just okay. I had the ooey gooey toffee cake for dessert which was extremely good! A very large portion, though. Nevan got the Martha Washington cake or something like that and it was just your usual chocolate cake. Our server gave us one of the LTT cups, packaged up, which was nice! We stayed in Frontierland and Liberty Square that day until it was time to go back and get dressed for MNSSHP! Nevan wore a shirt from Neff brand with Peter Pan on it and I wore a tribal print dress with braids and a headband and called myself Tiger Lily! We arrived at MK around 6 and quickly found a spot in front of the castle to stay for the night activities! First was the villains mix & mingle which is a show with cool music & dancing with the villains. It had not changed much from the year before, other than now the villains don't come down in front of the castle to mingle for pictures anymore. After that it was the Boo To You parade! We were front & center in the most perfect spot! I love this parade! --During the Remember the Magic Parade when I was 4, Cruella came up to me and said "BOO!" My 4 year old self screamed and cried and was terrified of this woman.-- As the parade went on I was searching for Cruella to take a picture of her to send my grandparents. I was going to tell them I'm not scared of her anymore. As I start to take a picture she gets right in my face and screams "BOO!!" I cried again, but for a different reason. This time I cried happy tears. I know Cruella didn't remember me. But it made me really feel as if she did. That is Disney magic. After that it was time for Celebrate the Magic & Hallowishes. Both incredible! After this we went to trick or treat! I had the dreaded flip-flop blow out and had to get a new pair. But we kept trucking on and rode 7DMT before close. We waited about 25 minutes. It was a great night!
9/22/14 DAY 9-
We went to AK at rope drop this day only for it to start raining and we went back to Pop. LOL. We wen't to Magic Kingdom later that day and had dinner at Crystal Palace. It is a character buffet. I wasn't too fond if it last time I was there and this time was no exception. Not a whole lot of choices. Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore & Piglet can be found here! We rode POTC, BTMRR, & Splash several times before heading home.
9/23/14 DAY 10-
We went to Hollywood Studios this day and rode pretty much everything besides Star Tours (makes me sick) and Toy Story because we didn't have a FP for it. That night we had reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table at 5:50. I was all dressed up and so was Nevan. Then we got off the bus at MK and it was storming. The wind was blowing my dress up with the "rainnn that blew in sidewayyys" sticking it to me. This made my dress not so flattering and my hair that I had worked so hard to curl.. Wet. Umbrellas just don't save you from everything. This was my first time in the castle so I was a little teary. We got our picture taken with Cinderella and then proceeded up the red carpet winding staircase to the dining room. (Remember that this meal takes 2 TS per person!) The server was very nice and brought out rolls and our drinks. Both of us got an appetizer. (included in the 2 TS) Again, everything was very fancy and hard to choose from for me. Nevan got shrimp & grits and I got the plate of cheeses. They were very good but they only give you 3 crackers to eat 3 huuuge chunks of creamy cheese with. For the entree Nevan got steak & shrimp, and I got the chicken with the same sides as the steak & shrimp entree. This was mashed potatoes, a tomato and carrots. I actually didn't like the chicken and gave it to Nevan and he gave me a piece of his shrimp. Everything was good!! For dessert I ordered the clock strikes 12 dessert which was beautiful and very yummy! Nevan got the chef's choice set if 3 and wasn't too impressed. I would definitely eat here again, though! It was a MNSSHP night so we headed back after this. This is the night I developed a freaking cough. Hacking, awful sore throat cough that is still full force today. (Today is 9/29/14)
9/24/14 DAY 11-
We went to Epcot again this day. We ate School Bread from Norway for breakfast using snack credits. We rode Maelstrom for the last time. The line was posted at 10 minutes and we definitely waited over 35
