Meat Sweats are Good Sweats
November 25th
We slept soundly after the weight of our harrowing Uber journey was removed. I can confidently say I had never been more excited to see the front gates of Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort! I was feeling anxious to go out and photograph the new areas of the resort so I got up before the rest of the crew to run around. Long story short, I love the direction that Disney has gone with Caribbean Beach. I love that it feels light and airy everywhere around the resort. It feels like we could be in the Caribbean (which is saying something since it was mostly below 40 degrees and rainy during our trip). If you haven’t see the updates yet, here you go!
Honestly, these updates move CB much closer to the top of my favorite resorts list. However, I am not sure that Sarah would put it above the other excellent Moderate resorts. It will never eclipse Disney’s Port Orleans Resort - Riverside for us.
After my running, it was time to jump on the bus to get to our Be Our Guest pre-park opening reservation. Most importantly, it was time to see Sarah’s parents’ eyes light up when they saw Cinderella’s Castle for the first time. The only problem with this plan was that you could barely see the castle from Main Street, USA because of the dense fog. We decided to take family pictures with the faint outline of the castle in the background anyways.
After our pictures were done it was time to head back to Fantasyland for our breakfast. We arrived at the front desk and checked in for our meal.
Hot tip: pre order your breakfast or lunch at BOG! This saved us a massive amount of time.
We arrived at the kiosk and all we had to do was ask for a change to our beverage request. We were not able to order alcohol so we needed to just make sure the CM changed our drink order. Because how can you exist without alcohol at 8am?!
After our order was in, Sarah walked her parents through the immaculately themed dining rooms while I grabbed a table in the corner. They picked their jaws off the floor just in time for the food to arrive and for us to dive into mediocre breakfast food.
Really, this place seems to get worse and worse every time we eat here. If it stopped being a great value on the Disney Dining Plan or did ceased giving early access to Magic Kingdom, it would disappear from our plans. If you do order something from here, go with the Croque Madame. It is a game-changing dish. We both really love it.
After our meal (including mimosas, of course!) was done, it was time to dive into some attractions. The first stop on our tour was Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. This popular kiddie (ok, maybe slightly harsh) coaster was a hit with Sarah’s dad. Ron is 240 pounds of pure old-man muscle so he was able to single-handedly swing our car back and forth with ease.
After we were done, it was time to journey into the Hundred Acre Wood with Pooh Bear. Sarah’s mom loves Winnie the Pooh more than life itself so we were incredibly disappointed to find the ride out of operation so early in the day. Instead of meandering through the wood in a honey pot, we flew on the back of an elephant.
Sarah’s parents needed to use the restroom and I needed to call Disney to change our dining reservation for that night at ‘Ohana. I did not have high expectations for this call. Before this phone call I had been attempting to change our dining time from 9pm to something closer to normal human dinner time for 180 days.
However, I was able to easily change our dining time to 6pm in the space of this 5-minute phone conversation.
Hot tip: never give up! Keep hounding Disney if you do not get the dining reservation you want. I have been able to change reservations with relative ease every time. Calling the same day never hurts. Sometimes other parties cancel 24 hours in advance and they have availability, even for difficult locations like ‘Ohana!
After my successful call, it was finally time for our ride with Pooh! Sarah’s mom was so excited we even got her to pose in Eeyore’s house! We were all slightly less excited as the pounding of various garden-related noisemakers droned on and on as we waited. I see the value of these interactive queues, but I also see the value of earplugs! One may or may not be required to experience the other in this case.
After Sharon’s favorite attraction came Sarah’s. We had not experienced Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid yet that day, so clearly it had been too long. Surprisingly, we could hear Sarah’s dad the loudest. He always does enjoy putting on a show for his oldest child!
After we emerged from under the sea, it was time to use our Fastpass+ for Peter Pan’s Flight. This visit to Neverland reminded us just how much we treasure the California iteration of this attraction. Every aspect (other than the queue, to be fair) is better at Disneyland. The Florida version is in desperate need of an overhaul. It is a timeless attraction in need of some love.
After our flight landed, we walked away from Fantasyland and towards Haunted Mansion. I snapped photos while we waited in the queue. I have not done a lot of work in black-and-white, but I was excited to dabble a bit into the monochromatic world with these busts.
The attraction was excellent as always and we exited in just enough time for me to get a snack. It was time for ice cream! I walked to the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor while Sarah and her parents watched Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire. I waited for them to arrive while I ate my All-American Sundae. They all ordered ice cream and we gave our aching feet a rest. At this point, it was sunny and beautiful so we sat in the shade and gorged ourselves on ice cream.
Begrudgingly, we needed to get up and walk. It was time for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! We all discussed the merits of eating a large sundae before riding a roller coaster, but we decided to just grin and bear it. Always best to just ignore your body and soldier on! We survived the twists and turns of the wildest ride in the wilderness and emerged victorious over our better judgment. Take that common sense!
After our scrape with revisiting our ice cream, it was time to slow things down a bit. We figured that Pirates of the Caribbean would hit the spot. Also, Sarah’s dad had been obsessively singing, “Yo, ho, yo, ho, a pirate’s life for me!” over and over and over again in his most pirate-y voice. We quenched his pirate thirst and emerged with the song removed from his head.
I figured it was probably time for a snack (it had been an hour, after all!) so I swung by Golden Oak Outpost. I don’t even remember this location being open during any of our previous trips. However, after we ate here I wish it was open more often! We ordered two helpings of the Chili Queso Fries and we melted into caloric bliss. The fries were crispy, the chili was flavorful, and the queso was creamy deliciousness!
After our stop to eat our fries it was time for a couple more attractions. Being that chili and Space Mountain was a step too far even for me, I figured we could head in to watch Mickey’s PhilharMagic Concert, which was excellent. The food settled in just enough time for us to blast through the farthest reaches of space and then chill out on Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover.
After we exited the attraction, we got a chance to see the Festival of Fantasy Parade! Sarah’s parents loved every princess-filled second of the parade and I wandered around and grabbed some pictures on my long lens.
After the parade finished, Sarah’s dad napped while we waited for the bus to take us back to Caribbean Beach.
When we returned to the resort Sarah and I felt slightly restless so we wandered while her mom and dad slept. They were tired after such a full day of touring! While we walked we decided we would become Disney Vacation Club members! Honestly, I am surprised it has taken us this long to reach this decision. It seems like a logical next step into Disney madness for Sarah and I.
We grabbed a drink from the Banana Cabana on our way back to our room to celebrate our continued dedication to the Mouse.
After our break time, it was time to head over to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort for our dining reservation at ‘Ohana! This was a meal Sarah and I had been looking forward to since we left
during our November 2017 trip. It was definitely the first meal on our list. We jumped on a bus to Magic Kingdom, then boarded the ferry boat across to the Transportation and Ticket Center, then walked to the Poly. Sarah, her parents, and I arrived just in time for our dining reservation.
We walked up and were seated almost immediately. All of us were so excited to eat we almost couldn’t stand it!
We have done a full review of ‘Ohana here, so I won’t go into all the details. We were pretty disappointed by this visit. Sure, the food was good. It just did not live up to the previous experience. We sat in the middle of the restaurant in incredibly close proximity to the tables next to us.
Another problem with this table was that we were seated under blinding spotlights. This only increased our sweating.
Hot tip: asked to be placed on the exterior of the restaurant. They will not guarantee that you will be placed there, but best to try. The food was not bad, but it was inconsistent. The first few dishes (bread service, salad, and appetizers) were really good.
The meat was not up to the quality that I would expect from ‘Ohana. Sure, I left the restaurant with a belly full of tasty steak, chicken, and shrimp. Sure, I considered never eating again because I was so full. I just wanted better! The meats were just sporadic. Some were good and tender and cooked correctly and some were chewy or overcooked.
I also didn’t appreciate that the service was slow getting us our shrimp. By the time they got to the table, no one had any room to eat them. Fortunately, the bread pudding saved the day by being the best thing in human history. Also, our server completely messed up our bill. We looked at the receipt and she gave us the bill for the table next to us (which was a party of 8).
After we were done, we took the monorail back to Magic Kingdom and then headed back to our resort for the night. We needed to rest up to brave Pandora the next morning!
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