Newsies' Pumpkin-Spiced Trip Report! - Our MNSSHP, MM August '19 Adventure! *DR link 1/27*

[disneyAndi14]

Awesome character meets!

What did you think of the party? I couldn’t believe how crowded it was, probably why I didn’t see you, lol!

 

[Newsies]

Awesome character meets!

We had SO much fun meeting them!

What did you think of the party? I couldn’t believe how crowded it was, probably why I didn’t see you, lol!

Oof. It was a bit of a rough night, I can't lie. Disney had a lot of really great offerings on the table for us this year, and we couldn't experience a lot of them because the crowds were so bad! I ended up being waaaay too exhausted to even last the entire evening. We really enjoyed what little we were able to do, and the family says they had a lot of fun and want to try another one somewhere down the road.

What did you make of it?

 

[ariane37]

Here’s my full outfit for the day:

Adorable! I love the ears!

Overall, I really thought the Wave’s breakfast was “just okay.

We've done breakfast here twice. The first time we absolutely loved it and so I've been trying to get back ever since. We went last month and unfortunately it wasn't as good as we remembered While the buffet isn't huge we felt a few things had been taken off since our first visit including these delicious yogurt parfaits I had like 3 of lol. So it's convenient if you're at the CR and you can basically always get a reservation, but as you said it's "just ok"

Then it was finally time to use our FP+ for Mickey and Minnie! I was so excited to meet them in their celebration outfits, and I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about the character interaction in this M&G!

Yay! I met them with some DIS friends in May and the interaction was fantastic! So much so that I have a FP to meet them again this month with Steve and a DIS friend

BTW your pictures are great!

 

[Newsies]

Adorable! I love the ears!

Thank you so very much!!! They're my favorite pair!!!

We've done breakfast here twice. The first time we absolutely loved it and so I've been trying to get back ever since. We went last month and unfortunately it wasn't as good as we remembered While the buffet isn't huge we felt a few things had been taken off since our first visit including these delicious yogurt parfaits I had like 3 of lol. So it's convenient if you're at the CR and you can basically always get a reservation, but as you said it's "just ok"

Ahh, sad to hear it. This buffet had been lauded by a few of my favorite blogs for a long time, but it sounds like the quality may be diminishing. Such is the life cycle of the humble Disney restaurant!

Yay! I met them with some DIS friends in May and the interaction was fantastic! So much so that I have a FP to meet them again this month with Steve and a DIS friend

BTW your pictures are great!

They are THE best!!!

Thank you very much!!

 

[Anchored]

Following! I loved your PTR and watched a little on Instagram
Can't wait to hear about all of it! Especially the cabana! I want to do that

 

[missangelalexis]

Such adorable character pics!

Your room looks great, and such a nice "standard" view!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Love the pictures with Chicken Little and Abby! So cute!!

OMG VGF looks AMAZING. I need to stay there at some point!! (I know you mentioned the distance to the main lobby but honestly I feel like every outer building at GF is pretty far! Even Sugarloaf and its right next door!)

 

[Newsies]

Following! I loved your PTR and watched a little on Instagram
Can't wait to hear about all of it! Especially the cabana! I want to do that

Thank you so very much, I'm so excited to have you here!!

We LOVED our cabana, I can't wait to tell you about it!

Such adorable character pics!

Thank you so much!!!

Your room looks great, and such a nice "standard" view!

It was such a gorgeous room, we loved sitting on the balcony and watching the monorails go by!

Love the pictures with Chicken Little and Abby! So cute!!

They were SO much fun!

OMG VGF looks AMAZING. I need to stay there at some point!! (I know you mentioned the distance to the main lobby but honestly I feel like every outer building at GF is pretty far! Even Sugarloaf and its right next door!)

I liked VGF, and I probably liked it even more than my family did. The room was nice, and I LOVED the VGF building in general. What killed me was not the walk to the main lobby, but the walk to Gasparilla Island. Now THAT is a nightmare of a walk, especially if it's late at night and you're coming home from the parks and you realize you're starving. But overall, I have a feeling that you would really love it!

 

[chri3060]

Joining in on the fun, better late than never! I love your balloon ears! DH and I were able to meet Minnie and Mickey in their party gear, and it was one of the best Character meets we’ve had. Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your trip!!

 

[afwdwfan]

[WARNING: Break of Character Integrity-ish? As soon as I hugged her, Abby let out the most obvious snort-laugh I’ve ever heard in my entire life. It was GOLDEN.]

That's just awesome!

It was truly an amazing interaction.

Pretty good meet for some lesser known characters!

Every time we went to Gasparilla, we ended up choosing the dessert because we had our resort refillable mugs, which were also included on the DDP!

Good call!

I felt the way the baths were set up were kind of inconvenient. One side has toilet and shower/tub, the other side has a sink and another shower. But you can’t beat that TV built into the mirror! The two “halves” are connected through a sliding door that locks on the toilet side.

That really is kind of a crazy set up.

As for the view? Well, it felt anything but standard to me!

Nope. Not at all. I'll gladly take a monorail view any time!

At first we got in line for Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, but the wait jumped from 20 minutes to 40 minutes as soon as we got in, so we got out immediately. We got some water from the cart across from SRS, then hopped on the PeopleMover! There was about a 5 minutes wait, which is probably the longest I’ve ever waited to get on.

I tell ya... these lines are just crazy.

 

[Newsies]

Joining in on the fun, better late than never! I love your balloon ears! DH and I were able to meet Minnie and Mickey in their party gear, and it was one of the best Character meets we’ve had. Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your trip!!

Yay!!! So glad you have you here, thanks for checking in!!! I appreciate the kind words. I'll update more soon!

That's just awesome!

It was so much fun!!!

Pretty good meet for some lesser known characters!

I think that frequently, the lesser known and harder-to-come-by characters give the best M&G interactions. Character Performers love adding to their list of characters they've worked with, so when they're with a new or rare characters, so they go to their sets naturally excited to be working with different material.

That really is kind of a crazy set up.

It's so bizzarre! Just one more sink and a little more room would go a long way here.

I tell ya... these lines are just crazy.

I can't understand this phase Disney is going through right now where the parks don't look or feel crowded, but the lines are frequently insane.

 

[Newsies]

The Hot Mess Hall
​

We checked in about 15 minute early for our Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen reservation. We were actually seated about 10 minutes after the scheduled time of our ADR, which was not a problem for us. We were appreciative to be sitting under fans and relaxing for a little while.

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Our seater was on his a-game.

“This is the mess hall,” he explained, “But when I’m here, they call it the hot mess hall.”

Same.

Our actual skipper for the evening was lovely. She was into the schtick, but not obnoxiously so. I think she could tell that we had all had a pretty long day already. In any case, she brought our drinks right away.

I’m a Riesling fan, so I opted for the Dr. Loosen “Dr. L” Reisling. This was nice, with just the right amount of sweetness to it. I didn’t drink a lot of it, though, because I could feel myself starting to crash from exhaustion and still had a post-dinner FP+ to Splash Mountain to get to.

​

When our skip came to take our dinner orders, I noticed in the corner of my eye that there was a dish I hadn’t seen before on the menu: the Trader Lamb. For the longest time, I thought I was going to order the “Hardy Har Char” Siu Pork, but I hadn’t had lamb in the longest time. At the skip’s recommendation, I ordered the Trader Lamb instead.

This is where my life got painful for the evening. It took forever for our food to come out. We’re talking at least 40 minutes. At this point, I’m exhausted, so the whole “sitting-down-with-nothing-to-eat” for a prolonged period of time was not great. Especially when I had a FP+ for Splash to get to afterwards.

Anyway, time passes and eventually our food is brought out.

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The Trader Lamb is billed as spice-rubbed lamb chops, roasted vegetables and a brown-butter tomato sauce, drizzled with Ras El Hanout oil.

The lamb was cooked perfectly. It was pink and so, so tender. They were two tasty cuts of meat on their own, but paired with the spice rub and the brown-butter tomato sauce? Even better.

I only have two complaints on this meal. For one, I would have liked a potato side to go along with this dish. This goes hand in hand with my second complaint, the portion size was just a little small for the price of the meal. The lamb chops, though delicious, were on the smaller side. The vegetables were good (I think they were mostly carrots), but it “felt” like there should have been a dollop of mashed potatoes or a few fingerling potatoes on this plate. Does that make any type of sense?

Anyway, we all ordered the same thing for dessert, which was the Kungaloosh! We ended up waiting another 20 minutes for this to reach the table. There had to have been some kind of issue in the kitchen tonight, unless slow service is the norm here, which I don’t think I’ve seen reported on the Dining Boards.

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In any case, the Kungaloosh! is an African-inspired chocolate cake with caramelized bananas, cashew-caramel ice cream, and coffee dust. This was absolutely amazing, one of my favorite desserts from the entire week. The bananas, ice cream, and cake would have all been tasty on their own, but the way they were paired was outstanding. I’m still dreaming about this cake.

All in all, I didn’t have the best night at Skipper Canteen, but I’m willing to give it another shot. Even though the portions are small by Disney’s standards, the flavors are great and the options are a departure from the burgers you’ll find at the Plaza or that god-awful mac and cheese from LTT. I also think if you’re on the DDP, this restaurant is a great use of a TS Credit in Magic Kingdom.

When dinner was over, mom could see I was tired and encouraged me to go back to the hotel and get some sleep instead of going to the Splash Mountain FP+ with her and Grace. But my own words from my very own PTR echoed in my head:

I can sleep when I'm dead or in the car back to NJ, whichever comes first this week.

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And with that, I made my way over to Splash with her and Grace. Grace ended up sitting out Splash Mountain while mom and I went on it. We were seated in the front row.

​

We were subsequently drenched.

Finally, we made our way back over to the front of the park. Getting back to the VGF was relatively easy, though we had to wait for a boat. I will say: the walk from the boat dock to the Villas building was an absolute killer, especially late at night after a big day in the parks.

I took a MUCH needed shower, brushed my teeth, and went to sleep, ready for my big day in my favorite park!

(Click here to continue!)​

 

[afwdwfan]

Our seater was on his a-game.

“This is the mess hall,” he explained, “But when I’m here, they call it the hot mess hall.”

This is where my life got painful for the evening. It took forever for our food to come out. We’re talking at least 40 minutes. At this point, I’m exhausted, so the whole “sitting-down-with-nothing-to-eat” for a prolonged period of time was not great.

That's rough... when it comes to eating, I have little to no patience.

For one, I would have liked a potato side to go along with this dish. This goes hand in hand with my second complaint, the portion size was just a little small for the price of the meal. The lamb chops, though delicious, were on the smaller side. The vegetables were good (I think they were mostly carrots), but it “felt” like there should have been a dollop of mashed potatoes or a few fingerling potatoes on this plate. Does that make any type of sense?

Absolutely. In fact, I might just copy and paste this into my review from CRT.

When dinner was over, mom could see I was tired and encouraged me to go back to the hotel and get some sleep instead of going to the Splash Mountain FP+ with her and Grace. But my own words from my very own PTR echoed in my head:

That's the spirit!!!!

We were subsequently drenched.

As the front row typically does! Way to go all out and finish the day strong!

 

[Newsies]

That's rough... when it comes to eating, I have little to no patience.

It was so rough. Especially since we noticed nobody was getting their food, so the kitchen had to have been backed up to the extreme.

Absolutely. In fact, I might just copy and paste this into my review from CRT.

I haven't been to CRT in a hot minute, but I can imagine the problem would be similar there.

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm sorry it was a rough dinner experience for you Props to powering through and making it to your Splash FP!

 

[Cloe Colton]

That stinks your service was so slow at Skipper Canteen! I get what you mean about the Lamb needing something else. It looked pretty good though!!

 

[Newsies]

I'm sorry it was a rough dinner experience for you Props to powering through and making it to your Splash FP!

It was a little exhausting, but nothing I couldn't work through! I made it to Splash Mountain and back to the room and survived, so things were fine in the end!

That stinks your service was so slow at Skipper Canteen! I get what you mean about the Lamb needing something else. It looked pretty good though!!

We've definitely had more pleasant dining experiences. The lamb itself was great! Very tasty. The dish just needed that extra "oomph" from something, especially since we had been waiting so long!

 

[VeronicaMarie]

I have the worst time waiting for food at restaurants, especially if I am tired and hungry. It is torture and I end up making crazy jealous food envy eyes at all the people around me eating. #awkward. So I feel you! I am glad that it was at least a delicious enough meal. I agree that the dish could use a starch of some sort for sure. Eating at Skipper Canteen is on my list for my next Disney trip so I enjoyed hearing all about it That dessert sounds heavenly.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

“This is the mess hall,” he explained, “But when I’m here, they call it the hot mess hall.”

This is where my life got painful for the evening. It took forever for our food to come out. We’re talking at least 40 minutes.

Ugh this is the worst in a restaurant! Especially when you're already exhausted and now hangry!

Does that make any type of sense?

That makes perfect sense. It seems like the perfect dish to pair with some potatoes and it seems odd that it would just be lamb with a few veggies!

In any case, the Kungaloosh! is an African-inspired chocolate cake with caramelized bananas, cashew-caramel ice cream, and coffee dust. This was absolutely amazing, one of my favorite desserts from the entire week.

This is something I need in my life!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Oh man, good on you for making it to your Splash FP. I definitely feel like I can keep going through exhaustion until I sit for a good length of time. That's when all of the tired floods my body at once.

That dessert sounds divine, though. Maybe that little sugar rush was the push you needed to get through.