#FrontierFlorida - the Trifecta Trip

[Daysleeper40]

06/05/2015 – Day 5 (Part 2)


“When you wish upon a star...”


In case you’ve not been paying attention – I’ll recap the morning. It basically went:

Creamer in tea – No.
Waiting for bus.
Splish, splash... weeee!!!
“Oh look – sharks!”
“Let’s eat at Magic Kingdom”
Waiting for a bus.

...and we’d arrived back at the lovely Wilderness Lodge. We were on our way to the Magic Kingdom and were in for the long haul - so it made sense to drop off our wet swimmers and generally freshen up before heading off again.

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We were back on the bus again at 14:00 so were actually slightly ahead of the plan – which is good because we badly needed to make a pitstop for food by this point.

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What is it about water parking that makes you soooo ravenous??! Anyway – we’d done our research so knew where we were headed instead of Leaning Palms. In fact the original trip plan had us going here on our first evening and then watching Wishes – this was before we realised our only opportunity to see Fantasmic was that first evening and changed things up to accommodate it. I had been a bit disappointed that we had missed out on Pecos Bills to eat at Hollywood Studios – because the quick service food at Hollywood Studios is a bit uninspiring once Starring Rolls has closed for the day. The point is – I was quite happy to be headed to Pecos Bills because I knew what I would be having: The Southwest Salad.


P1020729 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


M opted for a Chicken Burger – and we both got a Coke / Sprite and completely unnecessary pudding just because you GET IT FOR FREE on the dining plan. Honestly – I know I keep saying it but the amount of food you can chow down in a day on this plan is obscene. I have no idea how people manage the next option up where you get loads of Table Service credits. I just couldn’t do it – and I like my food! Anyway – we managed to find ourselves a table and both enjoyed our lunch. The check came to $39 – all covered by the dining plan.


This was the point that our going ‘off plan’ and spending AGES waiting for a bus a Typhoon Lagoon came to fruition. We ambled out of Pecos Bills and found ourselves quite by chance in an excellent spot to watch the afternoon parade! Honestly, we had no idea it was starting then or that we were in fact very strategically placed... but we were! So we watched the parade...


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It was interesting how into the parades we both got on this trip... I think we truly discovered our inner Disney geek! It was great. There was a dragon breathing fire. Need I say more?


Having watched the parade we were ready for more rides – Pirates of the Caribbean was a walk on as was the Magic Carpets of Alladin. We hung around a bit after POTC to see the Pirate Training too – kids always make me laugh. We then stumbled into ‘weird disney’ territory with the Country Bear Jamboree. It’s weird right – that’s not just me? Nice cool sit down in the AC though!


Having been to the water park in the morning we’d strategically planned some Fast Passes in the afternoon which if I may say so myself – was excellent planning! We hopped on Splash and Big Thunder with minimal wait time... just long enough to witness a rather witty Cast Member telling a misbehaving adult (kicking off because he’d snuck his too small kid into the line and was being told he couldn’t ride) that he would be getting himself ‘a Fastpass right out of the Park sir!’ if he didn’t pipe down.


At this point I could wait no longer. I needed this:


P1020798 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


OMG I LOVE DHOLE WHIP!!!


We meandered around feeling smug about the whip and had a look at the castle. What we mainly discovered was that it is tricky to get a good selfie in front of the castle...


Haunted Mansion was up next and one of our longer queue waits at 20 minutes. Worth it though – and at least you’re under cover. Now the next ride has a bit of special meaning to me. When we were kids our parents took us to EuroDisney and my sister loved this ride and sang the song A LOT. If you missed my intro thread then I should probably mention that my sister had died a year prior to us taking this trip. So riding round ‘It’s a Small World’ and remembering her singing it was a bit emotional tbh. I did cry. In a kind of good way.


Once I’d composed myself it was time for dinnerat Liberty Tree Tavern. Unfortunately Mark was feeling a bit peaky so did not enjoy this as much as he’d hoped to. I don’t know if it was too much sun or something he’d eaten... or possible the sheer weight of food they ply you with on the Dining Plan. Who knows. He did manage to eat a little bit so it wasn’t a complete washout but I felt bad that he felt bad.


Not the easiest to get pictures of but you get the idea:


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I thought this dinner was good – but it would not rank as one of my favourites. I guess I felt a bit bad scoffing it down when M wasn’t really enjoying it so that might have clouded my judgement. Total was $68 – all covered by the Dining Plan.


After dinner we had one more attraction – Philarmagic – before heading off to stake out our spot for the Electrical Parade. The fact that I remember nothing about the Philarmagic probably tells me all I need to know!


And on that note... this seems like a good point to stop and pick up the story in Part 3. Spoiler alert – they’ll be fireworks of more than one kind...

 

[Daysleeper40]

06/05/2015 – Day 5 (Part 3)


“Ooooooh... Ahhhhhh!”


Recap of the recap:
Creamer in Coffee? No.
Splish, splash, sharks
NOM NOM
“oh look – there’s a parade”
Rides.
DHOLE WHIP!!!
More Rides.
Patriots Platter.
What the hell is a Philarmagic?


...and we pick up the story as we avail ourselves of the final fast pass of the day. I’m sure some will think we are silly for using a fast pass for a reserved area to watch the Electrical Parade – but we didn’t want to have to stake it out ages in advance and it worked out great. Of course we had to point out to a few people that you can’t just come and stand in front of the reserved section. Some people are a bit dim though aren’t they.


I really enjoyed the atmosphere leading up the Parade...


P1020829 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr


My inner Disney Geek had broken free again and was dancing around like no one was watching. We both LOVED this parade. Have you heard the music? It is perfect J


Obviously getting pictures is a bit hit and miss but I did my best...


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So happy to be watching the parade!


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My favourite:


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I declare this ‘arty’:


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As the parade ended we tagged onto the back of it and bounced our way down Main Street. This to be frank – was sooooper cool!


We obviously didn’t have far to walk to get to the castle and then wibbled around trying to decide where to stand for Wishes. We picked a pretty good spot and settled in for the wait. While we were waiting a group of school kids obviously on a trip arrived and stood just in front of us – they were well behaved (and short!) so no problems with that... but things were about to get a bit ugly.


The show started and the American guy stood in front of us and several of the school kids promptly picked his own kid up and put him on his shoulders – completely obscuring ours and the school kid’s view. One of the little girls in the group tugged on his shirt and politely stood up for her friend who could now only see his kids butt and this big burly man basically gave her the finger. It was disgusting behaviour frankly... just selfish and entitled. So Mark had a go at him and got responses such as “you’re messing with people you don’t want to mess with” and “I only care about my kid”. Excellent lesson to be teaching your child sir. I’m sure he’ll grow up to be a really caring, sharing kind of person. I know a lot of people do the kid on shoulders thing – but he could have stood about 5ft further back and not obscured anyone’s view.


So we went and stood in front of them and beckoned the other little people over too.


It was unpleasant but I was not about to let it ruin my enjoyment of the show... and what a show it was! I don’t really know what I was expecting as I’m not the biggest fan of fireworks – but I thought the whole thing was brilliant. All the stuff they project onto the castle – very clever!


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Very impressed – and a fantastic end to a fantastic day.


Almost as good – the bus arrived straight away with NO QUEUE. Hurrah!


We were home for 10:30 and I popped down to get some hot drinks. We drank our drinks and reviewed the plan for the following day before falling into bed and dreaming spectacular firework themed dreams.

 

[stephensmum]

Wow, a really busy day, you packed a lot in. Shame about the dad, glad you stuck up for the kids & didn't allow him to spoil your day.

 

[Daysleeper40]

07/05/2015 – Day 6


“Heading for the Trails End”


Unbelievably - after such a busy time the day before - we were up an on the bus at 7:45am... and in Magic Kingdom by 8:00am. The plan had us grabbing a bite to eat at Roaring Fork but I don’t think we did. There is no photographic evidence...

We had some specific rides we’d planned to do but this morning was all about taking in and enjoying the Magic Kingdom ambience before heading over to Animal Kingdom in the afternoon.

Daily Itinerary 07.05 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We had a Fast Pass lined up for the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train for a couple of days later but we laughingly thought we might get it done if we rocked up early enough. No. 45 minute wait first thing in the morning... so we gave that a miss and headed to Space Mountain instead. Not sure anything has changed but we were both wholly underwhelmed by Space Mountain on this visit. It is strange how things differ to how you remember them – this definitely did not live up to the memory I had of it. Undeterred we opted for a pretty safe bet next – Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin. Now... Mark has always won at these games. I’ve been rubbish at them for a long time but this was the turning point. I think you can tell who was victorious on this occasion...

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...and let me tell you – I’ve won again since! We were at Alton Towers a few weeks ago and I thrashed him even though he was cheating by shoving my gun. Not that we’re at all competitive.

It was a good 10 hours or so since we’d experienced ‘weird Disney’ by this time and I was getting withdrawal symptoms – so we boarded the People Mover to try to ward off any serious side effects. It worked.

What followed was an almost perfect series of ‘classic’ rides: Astro Orbitor, Dumbo and the Barnstormer. For the first two I was loving the queue lines – the guy doing the lift thing at the Orbitor was funny. I spent quite a lot of that ride trying to get this photo:

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...and then I got really ambitious with this although it’s a shame Mark appears to be picking his nose:

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As you can see Mark is significantly better at this selfie malarkey than me...

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After that amount of excitement it was time to chill out (literally) in the shop for a bit. They had some awesome looking snacks here – the pineapple stick covered in chocolate was calling me but I managed to resist as we had an appointment at Main St Bakery in the plan. I did stand staring at this collection of delight for longer than strictly necessary though...

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We hopped on the Railroad Train for an easy journey back to Main Street and had a look round the train station. It is crazy looking down the street and seeing all the people – I can’t imagine what it’s like in high season. Having taken the obligatory Main Street photos...

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Our stomachs demanded we stopped faffing about and get some sustenance. We ended up with a Ham & Swiss croissant and a mohoosive Vente Caramel Frap.

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Yup. Massive sugary goblet of yum. That’s what they should call them. 2x Snack credits used saving us $12.

And with that – we were on our way. We left Magic Kingdom at 10:10 and travelled via the Polynesian to Animal Kingdom, arriving at 10:33. I don’t know about you – but that it the quickest we’ve ever managed to get to Animal Kingdom from anywhere. I reckon it was because Mark took on the 'arm in the air tour guide' role like a champ.

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Follow that man people... we’ll pick the story up in Part 2.

 

[Daysleeper40]

07/05/2015 – Day 6


“Heading for the Trails End” (Part 2)


As I was saying – a record breaking journey to Animal Kingdom meant we were well ahead of the plan which can only be a good thing. We made our way through the entrance and I spotted some people giving out booklets and badges. This is the kind of thing Mark loves – souvenirs and booklets to complete etc. So I was dispatched to procure one... and inadvertently became a ‘Wilderness Explorer’.

Mark obviously found this hilarious as I had to go through the initiation but I had the last laugh as I got to wear the badge...

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We had arrived early enough to make a stroll round the Jungle Trek worthwhile – distinct lack of tigers though which was disappointing as they are my favourite big cat. The more observant among you will have noticed that the plan had us going to Tough to Be a Bug if we arrived early but we had managed to get that done on our visit a couple of days earlier. We did however spend some time just looking at the tree of life and being impressed by all the carvings. They are very cool and the more you look the more you see.

By this point we were flagging a bit – it was a super hot day and we needed a drink and some chow. We had really wanted to go to Flame Tree BBQ and somehow in all our planning not realised it was closed for a refurb! Planning FAIL!! So obviously we had to find ourselves a different option and quite unlike us we decided to split up and go to different places! I had a BBQ Chicken Salad from Trilobites with a chocolate pudding, and Mark had a pulled pork sandwich from one of the stands with a cookie.

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We were both pretty happy with our choices. Mine had a good amount of chicken – obviously I didn’t really need another dessert but IT’S FREE! Mark said his sarnie was good and the cookie didn’t last long so no complaints there! We originally had a table in the sun but thankfully a shady one became free quite quickly and we thankfully retreated from the beating sun to finish our drinks. Out bill was $33 dollars – all covered by the Dining Plan.

We had a Fastpass reservation for Dinosaur at 13:05 so despite having just eaten lunch we headed in that general direction and found ourselves on Triceratops Spin. We also encountered this guy:

P1030036 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Character stalking done it was time for the first Fastpass of the day. We have the funniest ride photo from our first go on Dinosaur in 2007 – and I actually don’t think we did it in 2011 so it had been a long time. I just find this ride funny – it is SO bouncy!

We had a bit of a window until our next attraction / Fastpass for the Finding Nemo show so we had another go round the Jungle Trek and this time we found the tigers. Hurrah! Oh my goodness it was hot though. One of those “I could just lie here on the floor if I didn’t think it would burn” kind of days. There was only one thing for it – swap a snack credit for frozen lemonade.

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...which we again found a shady spot to sit and enjoy. Did I mention it was hot?

Rejuvenated we had a browse round the shops and enjoyed some silliness:

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...still proudly wearing that badge! This is about as close to getting married as we ever have...

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Finally it was time to queue up for Nemo and we joined the Fastpass Queue. In all honestly I can’t remember if this was worth it or not. I’ve noted down that we went in early which was nice because we got out of the sun – and I do remember we had a good enough view. We both LOVED this show – really impressed by the quality. We’ve seen a lot of West End shows and this was like a mini one. I love puppetry as well so it was all very pleasing!

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I forgot to mention earlier that we’d walked past the Kali River Rapids and they were down. We were a bit nervous as had our Fastpass booked for 15:40 and we were not going to get another chance to ride – but thankfully it was back in action in time. The standby queue was 45 minutes when we arrived... 90 and counting when we left. We had a tiny little girl in our raft and of course she was the only one that got completely drenched! She took it like a champ though and barely even blinked. She was probably quite happy given how blummin HOT it was! We both enjoyed the ride but tbh I think I would be disappointed if I’d waited 90 minutes for it. So that was everything done that we wanted to do at Animal Kingdom and we waved goodbye for this trip. Here are some deeply flattering photos that show how ruined we were by this time!

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Hurrah for aircon on buses! We did have to wait about 30 minutes for a bus though which was a bit annoying but it’s all luck isn’t it. It was lovely to get back to our resort and freshen up ready for the evening’s entertainment – a boat ride to Fort Wilderness Campground and dinner at the Trails End.

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We arrived at 19:30 and I immediately loved the ambiance. I think I liked it more than Mark but it was so lovely and calm. We had dinner booked for 20:30 so grabbed a couple of beers from Crockett’s Tavern and took them down to the jetty to enjoy the view.

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It was absolutely DELIGHTFUL! It was also quite good fun people watching. We pretty much had the jetty to ourselves other than when a boat was due at which point a load of people came running. There was one poor woman who had to chase a rogue child all the way across the sand and very nearly missed the boat to Magic Kingdom. I probably would have left him behind!

We could not sit there forever though so we moseyed back up the restaurant.

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We were seated pretty quickly and found out that it was our Servers birthday. The dinner here is full on comfort food buffet. Exactly my kind of thing!

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We both went up at least twice and I really enjoyed the ribs. We didn’t get great pictures of the dessert but I can confirm it was goooood.

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Honestly – although this was not the most efficient use of our credits or the fanciest dinner we had, I loved everything about it. The ambiance was really chilled out and because the Hoop de do thingy was going on next door it was nice and quiet - and the buffet was fresh. The server was lovely and we arrived on a boat. What more could you want?! The check came to $51 – all covered by the dining plan.

We took a boat back to Wilderness Lodge at 21:45 and managed to see some of the Electrical Water Pageant on the way. Having crawled our way back to the room we watched Wishes from the balcony and collapsed into bed. Another fun packed day – it seemed ridiculous that we’d been in Magic Kingdom that morning. The joys of Hollywood Studios awaited us in the morning...

 

[Daysleeper40]

08/05/2015 – Day 7

“Superlative Skillets”

We were up and at em bright and early again because... well... why wouldn’t you be when at DISNEY! The plan was for another fun packed adventure of a day – this time at Hollywood Studios:

Daily Itinerary 08.05 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We arrived at 8:55 and hotfooted it straight to Rock n Rollercoaster. Random memory of discussing politics briefly in the queue line before coming to our senses and putting a stop to that! We had only a 10 minute wait and also managed to get this picture of me in front of the guitar with no one else in frame. Skills.

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It was obviously great fun – and actually more ‘thrilling’ than I remember it being. Not sure the kid behind us was enjoying it much...

PhotoPass_Visiting_Disneys_Hollywood_Studios_7351806321 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Is it Disney’s best ride? I’m not so sure... I particularly love Tower of Terror tbh which was our next ride of the day. We had a Fastpass but there was no benefit really – it was not busy at all that morning.

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The plan had Voyage of the Little Mermaid noted if we had time to do it – and happily we did! I love love love the puppetry in this. It is very clever and of course the songs from Little Mermaid are also great – so it is hard to go wrong really. It was a day of shows really as we saw two more... we’ll get to that shortly though. One thing we’d never done is look round the animation gallery so we’d pencilled that in and were very glad we had when this guy showed up:

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Not going to lie – this was the highlight of the animation gallery. It was interesting – but not nearly as enticing as Toy Story Mania which is where we were heading with a Fast Pass next. M won again (I am rubbish at these games) with 139k to my 107k and it was all fantastic fun. Such a great ride! Great use of a Fast Pass too – I think this is a no-brainer in the Fast Pass stakes.

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I have to say, looking back on this day our planning was brilliant. We’d pencilled in Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular for 11:15 and we were bang on time. We got some pretty good seats but didn’t arrive stupidly early. Of course the show was great – we’ve seen it before but it is indeed a ‘spectacular’ and you always manage to see something you hadn’t spotted before.

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Having watched the show we were pretty hungry. I don’t remember having anything for brekky – there is nothing in my notes to suggest either of us did. It would have just been a croissant or something from Roaring Fork if we had. Food is my one complaint at Hollywood Studios. I’m always completely underwhelmed when I look at the places on offer – once you’ve had a massive sandwich and cupcake from Starring Rolls it is all a bit ‘meh’ – particularly on the counter service front. We had noted Min & Bills Dockside Diner as an option though and as there were tables free and the line was short we went for it. I won’t pretend it was the best food I’ve ever eaten – but it turned out to be a good lunch option. We had two sodas, one Italian Sausage sandwich, one San Frank in a pretzel roll and two lots of chips. Dessert was in cookie form.

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Mine is the bigger roll of the two – note for next time to pick the littler one! It was $33 all in and covered completely by the dining plan. I couldn’t quite finish my massive lunch so we fed the ducks with some of the bread while we let our lunch go down. We also thought it was best to do something a bit low key so headed off to see Muppet Vision 3D and then straight over to see Lights Motors Action – as it turns out for the last time ever now it’s closed! Here’s a picture of a man on fire – lest we forget:

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Of course it was a great show and I glad we saw it one last time. We had a Fast Pass for Star tours directly after the show but even so Mark turned into Strider as soon as it finished and flew off on his long legs and at speed that involves me running to keep up. To be fair we had a zero minute wait – I just couldn’t breathe by the time we got there!

This was to be our last ride of the day – and as I’m writing this and seeing what we did next I am remembering why we didn’t have breakfast that morning. We’d seen somewhere that the Writers Stop was good for snacks and thought we’d pick up something there if hungry. Having not done that we still had snack credits burning a hole in our pockets... and it was hot... and well... this happened:

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At a saving of $9 – frozen coffee and a blue slushy thing. YUM!

Having scarfed those down we had a peruse of the shops and then left the park at 15:00. Arrived back at the ranch at about 15:40 and took the opportunity to have a walk round the resort and use the facilities – and randomly saw a racoon in the woods. Obviously not that exciting if you’re American – but we are not so it was! Here is a very bad photo to prove we saw it:

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We’d not put our swimmers on but still went over to the ‘Hidden Springs’ pool – as always on this trip I preferred what would be considered the ‘secondary’ pool to the main one. It was quieter and just a bit less hectic. We sat and dangled out feet in the boiling hot spa pool and used the jets on our knackered feet and blistery toes. It was GOOOOOOOD.

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It was nice to check out the resort a bit more – tbh looking back I kind of wish we’d had more down time there but there is just so much to do it seems a waste! We’ve booked the Poly for 2017 though and I am determined to get the most out of the resort that we can. Anyway – we took a few pictures around the resort and then popped into the Mercantile for a bit of retail therapy. I am hopeless in shops. It takes me so long to make a decision that I generally come away with nothing – which was the case on this occasion too – but Mark got a shirt, mug, pin and a magnet. We then checked in with bell services to check our plan for leaving the cases with them the following morning was good (it was) and then got a coffee and relaxed for a while in the room.

We had booked dinner at Whispering Canyon at our resort and it was lovely to have a relaxed evening where we just had to go downstairs for dinner. We got a fantastic table at Whispering Canyon – out the back where it was quiet (we are not for loudness at all... especially at dinner) and we were in for probably both our favourite dinners at Disney.

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That skillet was EPIC. Five types of meat – and they bring you more... as if anyone actually needs more food than that. Ok – I’ll admit to requesting seconds on a couple of items. I was a bit bummed that they’d run out of chocolate cake for dessert but the apple pie was pretty damn good too. 10/10 for this dinner – it was all delicious. My only suggestion would be to forget the salad! Great use of our dining plan credits too as it came in at £92 – all covered.

The most we could manage after that was to weeble our way down to the beach to watch the full electrical water pageant and then we were back up to our balcony for a last watch of Wishes from a distance. Then I don’t know about Mark – but I fell into a food coma...

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Loving your reports!!! Now I want to switch a meal to WCC in October - arghhhh!

 

[UKDisneyJoe]

I agree. Didnt even come into our thoughts when we looked at places to eat. Has now though and need to look at another shuffle of places to eat

 

[Daysleeper40]

09/05/2015 – Day 8 (Part 1)


“Just how much magic can you pack in after packing up?”


It was our last Disney day... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!! We were heading on over to the Renaissance at Seaworld that afternoon though... yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!

As they say on the reality tv shows... it is a rollercoaster of emotion. They don’t know the meaning of the words.

SO. We had some serious Disney’ing to get done before we bid the place farewell. The plan needed modifying since we’d stumbled upon the Festival of Fantasy parade on a previous day – but the things we were most excited about were food related. We had a 8:15 ADR at Crystal palace and had snaffled a Fast Pass for Be Our Guest lunch at 14:00. Bring it on!

Daily Itinerary 09.05 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Having packed up the night before (just prior to falling into the food coma – it was not what you’d consider ‘good’ packing) we were up by 7:10am. We left the cases and wotnot with bell services, checked out and travelled over to Magic Kingdom, arriving at 7:50am. Perfect timing! It was very strange to be in the park so early – but nice to see the place without the big crowds. We took the opportunity to get a shot in front of the castle and then went straight to Crystal Palace to wait for our table.

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It was a beautiful day – and a great way to spend our last morning at Disney. I had a lot of fun watching the crowds stream past at rope drop – we were having a much more relaxed time!

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We were given a pager but I don’t remember having to wait long at all to be seated. Being early was great – it started out nice and quiet and the food was all fresh and not picked over like it sometimes gets when it is busy. It wasn’t long before the main attractions appeared:

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Turns out I get the most excited for Tigger – and Mark has a bit of a thing for Pooh. But before we get into all that character goodness – let’s talk food. There was a lot of food. I mean loads. Too much to chose from really.

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See! Too many choices!! We both did a reccy though and came away with relatively sensible selections on our plates...

P1030453 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030454 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030455 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030456 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Everything was lovely – particularly the massive doughy sugary thing with the berry compote. We both had tea I think and would not complain about the service at all. It was all lovely and with the character interaction on top it was well worth paying out of pocket for. It was $67 with a tip – which I thought wasn’t bad value at all and better than using dining credits for.

So now we’ve covered off the food – let’s get back to the characters. We had LOADS of interaction and met everyone at least once. It was so much fun. I didn’t know how we’d got on with this sort of thing while eating but it was great!

P1030449 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030452 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030466 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030468 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030437 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030434 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

I also really enjoyed the decor and theming at Crystal Palace. I don’t know what the other meals are like – but I would heartily recommend breakfast.

P1030482 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

What a great start to the day!

 

[Daysleeper40]

09/05/2015 – Day 8

“Just how much magic can you pack in after packing up?”

We’d actually changed our original Fast Pass choice of Haunted Mansion twice – once for Buzz Lightyears’ and then onto the final pick of Splash Mountain. We had a bit of time spare before it was due though so first on the list was Big Thunder. I don’t recall waiting long to get on Big Thunder but I do remember being very glad of the Fast Pass when we got to Splash. It was a hot hot day so this was always going to be popular. After the two mountains we went over to the new Fantasy Land for a look around and used our Little Mermaid ride Fast Pass. We also went old school and had a ride on the carousel...

P1030553 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030556 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Having ridden a few rides and the heat being a touch oppressive we opted for a look around the nice air conditioned shops before giving in to the temptation of the wondrous Dole Whip... again! $11 paid for with snack credits

P1030557 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

I think it was at this point that we realised Jungle Cruise was open. This was unexpected as it was supposed to be closed for refurb. We had a bit of a dilemma though as we were scheduled in for Mine Train Fast Pass and needed to go use it. Hoards of people seemed to have had the same realisation about the Jungle Cruise so if we did the Mine Train would the queue be horrific by the time we got back? We decided to stick with the Mine Train and see if we could get another Fast Pass for Jungle Cruise later on. So off we trundled to sit in the teeny tiny seats on the Mine Train. Seriously – how do the ‘bigger’ guests get on this thing. They had to crowbar us in and while we’re not exactly skinny we’re relatively regular sized. I digress – I thought the Mine Train was poor. Not very excited about the theming and even less excited about the actual ride. I won’t go on about it – but I properly feel for the people who were waiting in the (long) standby line. On the plus side we walked off the ride and managed to get that Jungle Cruise Fast Pass for 14:55. I guess this is the benefit of booking early Fast Passes – and we were always going to be in with a chance given the ride was supposed to be closed.

One of my favourite things to do at Magic Kingdom is the Liberty Riverboat – if you can get a good seat then it is nice and relaxing. If you get a not so good seat though it is HOT AS HELL! Thankfully this was a good seat kind of day so it was a very pleasant trip.

P1030520 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

After this we perused the shops on Main Street and then much excitement ensued on the arrival of the ‘Move It / Shake It’ parade. As you can see I did indeed move it AND shake it. More than strictly necessary really – but look – it’s Baloo dancing in a Hawaiian shirt!!

P1030606 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

That old guy and I were LOVING IT...

P1030607 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

All that moving and shaking meant I was stupidly hot again though and with snack credits burning a hole in my pocket I wasted no time in procuring a frozen raspberry lemonade.

P1030612 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

This was tremendous... $4 paid for with the snack credit and the perfect little treat to sit down with and watch this guy in action:

P1030535 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

Hands down the best character interaction at Disney (not that I’ve experienced that many of them – but he is very funny!) and I just plonked myself down in the shade and chuckled at his antics. Mark also had a look round the shop and got himself a cool T-Shirt. We were in this area because it was almost time for our Be Our Guest lunch at 13:50. I believe now you can even pre-order your food here but back in 2015 you had to line up and they handed you a menu to review before placing your order on a touch screen thing – or there were manned booth things for the hard of understanding. It is amazing how long people can spend standing in line holding a menu and still get to the ordering bit and then seem surprised that they have to pick something. Amazing. Not in a good way. We did finally make it to the front though and Mark ordered the beef baguette and Chocolate Cupcake while I opted for the Tuna Nicoise and strawberry cupcake.

You then have to go in and find yourself a seat. Next time I will have more idea of what is going on and actually pick where we want to sit – but we just kind of pootled around until we saw a quiet corner which happened to be in the ballroom. I think it was the ballroom anyway – I’m sure someone more in tune with the different options can tell from the pictures.

Here is the food arriving by magical Magic Band Location:

P1030622 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

...and here is the actual food:

P1030624 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030626 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We both REALLY enjoyed this. I was happy to be having something a touch healthier after the mounds of food we’d already ingested and Mark said his sandwich was really good. Tbh the cupcakes were nothing to write home about but regardless we’d definitely come back here! It was $35 – all paid for on the Dining Plan.

Mark had spotted earlier that he could get a special cup with Le Freu’s Brew at Gastons Tavern and not buying this did not seem to be an option! $10.64 out of pocket – we had a snack credit left but could not use it to get the special cup.

P1030632 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

I did not like the drink – but he seemed very pleased with the cup. It was now time for that last minute Fast Pass on the Jungle Cruise. Let’s just say we were glad to have ridden it for the first time – but we won’t be rushing back! That was to be out last Magic Kingdom experience of the trip... we waved goodbye and boarded a boat back to Wilderness Lodge for the last time. We had left our things with Bell Services so Mark went to pick them up and ask for a Taxi to our next home from home – the Renaissance at Seaworld. I bobbed into the Lodge one last time and used up our one remaining snack credit on a boring bottle of water for $3.

We arrived at the Renaissance at about 16:45 and the taxi cost $35. We checked into a lovely room overlooking the pool (1050) and immediately got our swimmers on.

P1030646 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030649 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030651 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

P1030652 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

The pool here is fab – massive and deep and with a separate fun area for the kids. They also have several hot tubs which were really hot – and excellent entertainment once the convention people arrived. Do you know how funny it is watching business men try to chat up business women in a hot tub? Very.

We had in mind to go to Panera bread for food and we did in fact set off on this mission – but had completely underestimated how far it was. My stupid shoes also started to give me blisters so we abandoned that plan and headed back to the hotel, grabbed some chips and drinks from the store and snacked on these back in the room.

P1030655 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr

We collapsed in a heap and gazed out over the lovely sunset... it had been another great day.

 

[Daysleeper40]

Loving your reports!!! Now I want to switch a meal to WCC in October - arghhhh!

I agree. Didnt even come into our thoughts when we looked at places to eat. Has now though and need to look at another shuffle of places to eat

Thanks both - and sorry it has taken me so long to reply! I'm curious - did either of you switch over to WCC???

 

[UKDisneyJoe]

Our trip isnt until Dec next year so we have some time however it has been put on our list of places to eat now