We're 2 Empty-Nesters on the Deluxe DDP! December 2012 trip to Orlando....COMPLETE!!!!!

[rndmr2]

Fun day at HS so far (I always want to call it MGM...)

LOVE that Butterfinger cupcake!

You scored better on TSMM than I ever do.

I think the Alien ride you are thinking of is at MK. It was "Mission to Mars" back in the day, then Alien Encounter which was the really scary one. Now it is Stitch's Great Escape.

 

[ksromack]

Fun day at HS so far (I always want to call it MGM...)

LOVE that Butterfinger cupcake!

You scored better on TSMM than I ever do.

I think the Alien ride you are thinking of is at MK. It was "Mission to Mars" back in the day, then Alien Encounter which was the really scary one. Now it is Stitch's Great Escape.

Alien Encounter, that's it! Oooh, that was scary, wasn't it? I remember the alien breathing down my neck....I can still feel it I'm 53 now and I'm sure that ride would make me wet my pants if it were still there!

Mission to Mars......I always want to call Mission Space that! I knew it was in my brain from somewhere. I just don't remember it.

 

[ksromack]

When we left off it was getting to be lunch time and we didn't have any particular plans. We knew we needed to be back at Hollywood Studios by 3pm for the Pixar parade because this was the only time we would be able to see that parade. Nothing seemed terribly interesting at DHS so we decided to leave the park.



We are headed here:


And this guy seemed to be full of information but none of us spoke his language:


Taking the Friendship Boat from DHS towards Epcot is a fun alternative transportation. We weren't going all the way to Epcot but instead would be stopping off along the way.




This is our destination:


The menu:


The Deluxe DDP is usually too much food as we get an appetizer, entree, and dessert for every table service meal. Here at Big River Brewing Company I found the dessert part to be difficult.
We started with a beer flight because it WAS a Brewing company after all! We shared this, as we usually do.

I don't remember exactly which beers I liked but I know the darker ones weren't my favorites.

For appetizers I ordered this:

Chicken Quesadilla-a large tortilla with ancho flavor, grilled chicken, peppers, onion, tomatoes and pepper jack cheese. Served with sour cream and guacamole. $10.50.

Steve ordered:

Chicken Nachos-tortilla chips, creamy pepper jack cheese, sliced jalapenos, topped with pico and sour cream $11.99

For entrees I chose:

California Chicken Sandwich-topped with swiss cheese, avocado, lettuce, tomato and ranch dressing $10.99

Steve wanted this:

Big Brew Cheeseburger-grilled to order and served with lettuce and tomato, bacon added $12.50

Impossible to eat all of that food with dessert too but we gave it the ole' college try. Not many desserts on the menu here so we ordered these, had a few bites of each, then called it done.

New York Cheesecake served with raspberry sauce $6.50


Chocolate Confussion-chocolate mousse layered between oreo brownie cake with chocolate sauce and chocolate chips. $6.50

Our meal here was really good and a nice break from park food. We ate outside as it was a beautiful day. Our appetizers were good and so were our entrees. The cheesecake was good but the chocolate cake was truly magnificent. No way could we eat all of that! If we were at home I would have taken a doggy bag and munched on that cake at home with a nice cup of coffee but we were headed back to DHS so sadly we left the rest. After that meal it was wisely decided that we would WALK back to DHS!

We're getting closer to our desination:


And we're here......we keep to the very front of the park which was the end of the parade route:










More to follow

 

[ksromack]

And the parade is over.....and I understand it is also no longer!
The parade started at 3pm and if you remember from earlier we had pulled a FP for TSMM for the 3:40 hour so that is where we headed next.

Queue:



And I actually beat dh:





And after our TSMM ride we head out towards the bus stops:


Getting near to our room:


Look what Mickey and Minnie were doing:


We have some time to kill so now looks like a good time to throw in a load of laundry:


After laundry we head out for dinner but first we want to continue our resort hopping. Tonight we have dinner at O'hana but we have oodles of time. We bus to MK then take the boat to Wilderness Lodge to check out the decorations:


We wait for the bus from WL back to MK


Since we're at MK we might as well pop in and say hi to Mickey.......


It's about time for our dinner ADRs we we head out of MK.....


I think the castle and decorations look so amazing!

Next up, dinner at O'hana!

 

[ksromack]

We're a few minutes early so this happens:


That's right, the infamous Lupa Lupa drink. Delicious and worth every penny of the then $13.25 price tag. This is a strong drink so sip slowly!



The kitchen:


Entertainment:


Our view of the castle from the table:


So let's get to eating, shall we?
We start off with a salad:


Dipping sauces:


Wings and dumplings:

I love both of these dishes! The problem with eating here is that everything tastes so good....but you have to leave room for the rest!

Noodles and broccoli:


And my plate:


We didn't have the best service here tonight. Our server was very rarely seen. I don't know if she was a man-hater or what.....but when she took our beverage order she addressed me but not once looked at dh or spoke to him. I found this very odd but it was very noticable. She maybe came by once during our whole meal. Other people took care of us, though, so we weren't totally ignored. I loved the food but dh was so put off by our server that he doesn't care if we ever go back again.

I was amazed by the dessert....I never thought I liked bread pudding but this dessert was amazing:


We walked back to MK so we could hop on a bus back to POR.....Wishes was just going on so we hurried to the buses in hopes of beating the after park crowd:


Back at our resort:

 

[ksromack]

Next up will be our Day 9.

Our meal plans:
Breakfast-pre-park opening Crystal Palace
Lunch-Via Napoli
Dinner-California Grill

Again, we're up early and going to bed late I always say sleep is highly over-rated!

More updates tomorrow! I only have two more days for this trip report and I WILL have this completed before we leave for WDW in 10 days!

 

[ksromack]

Today is our last full day of vacation since we will be flying home tomorrow. This is always the day I feel like I need to get everything wrapped up and it's always a day of reflection. Tomorrow will be a sad day!

We head out from our room at POR (we're in the Alligator Bayou section, so close to the lobby area). We decide to walk to the front of the resort and take the bus from there.....it's a pretty and quiet walk, as you can tell, i am walking as I snap pics!



No one on the bus to MK. We are allowed in to an empty park. As a matter of fact, @ 8:20am, this must be one of the first ADRs for Crystal Palace for the day.


Some refreshments are already awaiting us:


...and the team is waiting for the fun to begin:


We are let in to an empty restaurant:


We jump on the buffet since no characters are out yet......




that last section grabbed my eye so this was my first plate:


Here's more of the offerings:








My savory plate:

Scrambled eggs, bacon, potato casserole, corned beef hash, and I think another kind of potatoes.....

There is also the option of made-to-order omelets.

It looks like I doctored up my first plate:


Pooh was the first character out to our table:


followed by Eeyore, who is my personal favorite. He reminds me of my dad, who passed away in 1997.


and that cute little guy:


Tigger finished up the act:


After Tigger we headed out but not before capturing some of the pretty topiaries inside the restaurant:



continuted in next post....

 

[ksromack]

Notice the nice addition of the poinsetias, for a holiday touch!

Sufficiently full we are ready to tackle MK. I believe the park had just opened as it was a little after 9am at this point.


Close up of the castle:


Some of the castle mosaics:




The wishing well


We're heading to see Merida and I love how the little ones in line have the opportunity to show their bow and arrow skills:


The area is decorated with family tapestries:



Some more of the queue:


And we're up:


Timing was perfect as this was the line when we left:


We head into Liberty Square:


Decoration inside the Christmas Store, I believe:


Liberty Tree:


Our destination this morning is the Hall of Presidents. I love this attraction although if dh had his way, we'd have skipped it:






I am still amazed at the technology in this show.....and it's also a great way to get some relief from the heat and take a rest!

 

[ksromack]

We felt the need for a little refreshing snack so this fit the bill:


A little about the dole whip floats......apparently the vanilla dole whip was only an option at the Florida parks. In California it's only pineapple dole whip because that is what Walt liked when he visited the plantation in Hawaii. I have read recently that MK is switching over to pineapple dole whip as well, although it has been said that the vanilla is still an option at the Polynesian. At first I wasn't sure I would like the pineapple on pineapple.....but when we were in DL, I decided I did like it! Good thing since that's what we're going to get now!

We head out of the park to catch the monorail to Epcot and see this show is going on:




Decorated City Hall:




Apparently no one is going our way at 10:45am:



And we use those old-fashioned Keys to the World to get into Epcot:


We have lunch ADRs at Via Napoli for 11:30 am so on our way to Italy we see this:


And we're there!


While on the DDP we rarely order a beverage because we love coffee with our desserts but since it was fairly warm out I opted for an iced tea here.....and it was the.best.iced.tea.ever.


Our window side table:


Some outside seating:


For appetizers we ordered these plates to share:

Mozzarella Caprese-vine-ripened tomato, fresh milk mozzarella $9.00

and these beauties:

Arancini-fried risotto balls filled with mozzarella & meat ragu $11.00

Regarding the arancini......my grandparents came over from Sicily and arancini was always a family favorite. Only I had no idea how to spell this item. The way grandma used to say it sounded more like addenchini.....I have only had hers (which she always made closer to baseball sized).....what a treat to find them while we were in Epcot....and they tasted pretty good too! The caprese was just okay and I'm guessing they would have been better if tomatoes were more in season.

Oh, gosh, I almost forgot about the bread!

Delicious! Although growing up we never had oil with bread. I suspect this is something new? Don't get me wrong, I love it but never heard of it until recently.

At this point I must have decided to use the ladies' room so I took pictures along the way:




And the ladies' room:


For entrees hubby ordered

Piccante signature pie-Italian spicy sausage, tomato, mozarella $19.00

and I ordered:

Carciofi signature pie-white pizza, artichoke, fontina, mozzarella, truffle oil. $19.00

I definitely liked my white pizza better but both were pretty good. I guess that's why this place is known for their wood-fired oven pizzas! I highly recommend them!

Like we can really eat dessert.....but you know, we tried!
I'm not sure who ordered what....

Gelato e Sorbeto-vanilla, chocolate, pistachio or lemon sorbet. This is pistachio $7.00


Coppa di Brutti Ma Bruoni-"Ugly but good" Amarena cherry and vanilla gelato sundae $10

Both desserts were good....we were just way too full to enjoy them (which seemed to be the theme of this trip)!

More next post

 

[ksromack]

Looking back at the restaurant:


Some christmas theming:


I find it interesting that Italy's pavilion is themed after Venice only. There are so many iconic structures in Italy....but I suppose Venice was the easiest with San Marco's Square and Doge's Palace......I look forward to our meals here (in Epcot) in the next couple weeks!

More architecture:



We walk around taking in the scenery:








In America looking towards Italy:


And Germany:






And it's Santa Duffy!


Looks like we are headed out!




And it's back to the buses:



We head back to POR......we need a rest.....big night ahead of us with a late dinner at California Grill. We were happy to snag a reservation here as it appears in a few weeks it will be closed down for a major refurbishment. There's another surprise tonight before our dinner.....it's a holiday special event.........and with that I will leave you for now. More later!

 

[ksromack]

Welcome back! We're almost done with this report and I'm so mad at myself for not finishing before we left for Florida again last week! I PROMISE to do a better job at keeping up with THAT report once I'm done with this one......then I need to do one for our Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure report from Dec 2013!

Okay, so we left off with full tummies after lunching at Via Napoli. We got on the Port Orleans bus to head back to the resort for a little rest in preparation for our evening.



Let's check out the gift shop, shall we?


I really like the offerings here at the POR shop. It's pretty big and has a great selection of pins and clothing.....basically anything you could ever need can be purchased here. I don't think I bought anything at this point. We walk down the corridor in an effort to get to our room, which as I mentioned before was in the Aligator Bayou.

This is a sad reminder that we did not get to see his entire show:


Passing the River Roost:


Boatwrights:


Headed to our room:

I have no idea what Steve is carrying......it must be leftover pizza from Via Napoli?

And we make it back to our room only to find Mickey courting Minnie:


Apparently we are sneaking a bite of two of the deliciousness that is Karamell-Kuche! This is a MUST visit on every WDW trip! We used snack credits for these.......

Turtle, price unknown


Milk and Dark Chocolate Caramel with Sea Salt, $5.00ish?

Mansions:


Apparently we are checking out the grounds for one last time. This is the main pool, which sadly we never had the chance to enjoy!


Muddy Rivers, the outdoor pool bar:


More scenery:




Wait a minute.....what is that up above? That isn't part of POR.......that looks like the wedding pavillion? We are on our way to somewhere fun......

We pass this while on our mode of transportation to get to our destination:


Water over the road:





Getting closer:


Do you know where we're going:


Oops, gotta run.....more later!

 

[anniebean]

I'm so glad I found this report!! Husband and I are going in December for our 1 year anniversary. Neither of us have been at that time so don't know really what to expect!

 

[ksromack]

I'm so glad I found this report!! Husband and I are going in December for our 1 year anniversary. Neither of us have been at that time so don't know really what to expect!

I'm glad you are here! Just make sure to double check on menu items if any of these restaurants are on your list for ADRs. Some menu items have changed so I don't want you to be disappointed if something we had is no longer available!

I'll be finishing this up before the weekend......I have another report to start

 

[ksromack]

When I left off we were headed out on a boat and we were approaching the Ft Wilderness campgrounds. Why on earth were we there? We don't have camping gear!

I'll tell you why.....we're going on a sleigh ride! During the holiday season the folks at the campgrounds go all out in decorating their sites with Christmas! And just like neighborhoods, it's sort of a competition? Who can have the most lights? The fun thing to is you are allowed to bring a bottle of wine or champagne, or hot cocoa if that is your preference. The General Store right there by the boat dock is where we bought ours. If you ever want to do this I suggest booking it as soon as you know your plans.....I know I booked through disney so I would just call the Activities line (which I have as 407-939-7529) or just google WDW Holiday Sleigh ride at Wilderness Campgrounds. Goodness, what DID we do before google?

So our boat docks (Wilderness Lodge and the campgrounds share a boat) and we see this. A family playing tetherball. This reminds me of Nappolean Dynamite so I am already in a giggly mood.


Why thank you! We are happy to be here:


Okay, so it isn't a General Store, it's the Settlement Trading Post:


And here is a sign indicating that we are in the right place......


We didn't know how long it would take to get there so we were a bit early. We chose to walk around a bit....


Hoop-de-doo




Map of the place





And here comes our chariot!


Or is one of those ours? I can't remember.......



And we're off! I'm just going to post a bit of what we saw.....there are a ton of decorated campsites. Think the Grizzwald's from Christmas Vacation.








We pop open the bubbly:


More in next post!

 

[ksromack]

So we had just popped open the champagne.....but we still have more lights!
It's getting pretty dark now and my camera tries really hard to take non-blurry photos....














and one more:


And here we are in shorts on a sleigh ride, lol


On our way back to the boat dock:


The whole sleigh ride was about an hour....maybe 45 minutes. We have dinner reservations at a Magic Kindgom resort so we take the boat back to Magic Kingdom. It's a beautiful boat ride at twilight/evening



We wanted to check out the Contemporary from the boatside views......I've never ventured from the monorail or Chef Mickey's.

Pool:






Ok, we just aren't here to check out the resort at night.......we're here for this:

 

[ksromack]

It was Dec 16th and our sleigh ride check in time was 6pm. Our dinner reservations were for 8:50. I wanted to time it so we could see the fireworks. I know you can always come back if you eat at an earlier time but I didn't want to have to do that. We were lucky we could squeeze this in as in less than a month from this time the restaurant would be closed for refurbishment. I had wanted to sneak in a cupcake before our dinner as I've heard such great things about the cupcakes at Contempo Cafe but we didn't time that right. No worries, we'll be getting plenty of food at Cali Grill!

We check in downstairs at the check-in desk and the hostess calls you when it's your turn to get in the elevator to go to the restaurant.

Couldn't you eat with this view every night?


Okay, we're checked in and seated at a lovely window table (pretty sure we were at a window)......we get some warm bread. I was a little hungry so this hit the spot. Remember, we're on the Deluxe DDP so we get appetizers, entree, and beverage......California Grill is a 2 TS credit restaurant. It was worth it! The bread was delicious, crunchy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. I really shouldn't fill up on it but I just can't help myself!


We order our appetizers and for the life of me I can't figure out what this one is. I have the pdf menu saved on my computer at home so i will revise this post once I figure out what this is Okay, I figured it out! This was delicious....I was nervous because sometimes goat cheese is a little too strong for us but this was very mild.

Sonoma Goat Cheese Ravioli-Sun Dried tomatoes, pesto, ****ake mushrooms and basil $14.00

I'm pretty sure I ordered the Cheeseburger flatbread for an appetizer:
Those are pickles on top....and this was absolutely spot on yummy.

No special description....it tasted just like a cheeseburger $13.00

Our meal timing was such that is allowed us to eat our appetizers then go out on the observation deck to view the water pageant and fireworks.....











And the blurry finale:


Whew....that was FUN! Now let's get back to our meal, shall we?

The kitchen times your food so that it is ready when the fireworks are done. I'm sure most of the diningroom cleared out for fireworks and you don't want your food getting cold during that time. It worked out perfectly for us. When we sat back down our meals took maybe 30 seconds to arrive!

One of us ordered this:

Grilled pork tenderloin-goat cheese polenta, roasted mushrooms, zinfandel glaze $37

And the other ordered this:

Oak fired Filet of Beef-with truffle potatoes and teriyaki barbeque sauce-$47

Both entrees were great. We always ordered different menu items, mainly so I can taste more Sometimes one of us prefers the other's food

Time for dessert! Next post!

 

[ksromack]

Dessert at California Grill was spectacular!
We had a bit of a special menu. Hubby LOVES chocolate and peppermint together so this holiday special dessert was especially appealing to him and because we were celebrating our anniversary, it was a treat:

Holiday Chocolate Lava Cake with Peppermint Bark and Peppermint Ice cream

And I ordered:

Bananas and Caramel-Crispy Baked Phyllo squares layered with banana and mascarpone mousse and caramelized bananas

My hubby loves peppermint ice cream so when this was offered he jumped at it......I love caramelized bananas so while it was difficult to choose that over the Valrhona chocolate cake it was easy for us. This meal was special. Much of that had to do with our table location right at the window facing MK......there is something magical about having such a unique view of Wishes.....and they pipe in the music on the observation deck and inside the dimmed restaurant. It's something everyone should experience at least once!

What a great day! This was our last full vacation day as tomorrow we would be flying home........sad face!

 

[ksromack]

Today is our last day of vacation and we fly out in the early afternoon. Our plan is to have breakfast at Kona then have lunch at DTD, most likely Wolfgang Puck Express. I had read such favorable reviews on WPE so that seemed like a nice end to our vacation.....plus, since we arrived a day before free dining started we had already used our park passes (we had one night of room only before the free dining started and we picked up our park passes and started using them on that day). So, we had to find our jollies at places other than the parks today.

We had a late night last night and at the last minute we canceled our Kona breakfast our last day. I had us going rope drop to park closing most nights so this was a reasonable trade off (although I really wanted that Tonga Toast)! We slept in packed up.......then headed to DTD for one last time on the water taxi from POR to DTD. I love this mode of transportation......

We arrive to Wolfgang Puck Express:



And we're given this table tent to help the waitstaff find us when our order is ready....although we are the only people in the restaurant


Hubby orders this:

Cavatappi Chicken Alfredo-peas, bacon, parmesan $15.00


And I order this:
Bacon wrapped meat loaf-mashed potatoes, port wine sauce, crispy onion straws $15.00


I'm a sucker for Creme Brulee:

$6


And we've heard so much about this that we had to give it a try:

Vanilla bean cheesecake $5

This meal really lived up to the hype! Now I wish we had decided to come to DTD more often for this great QS meal. Compared to Disney meal prices this place offers a great value for the money. Since we were on the Deluxe DDP we only dined at 2 Counter Service places (lunch at BOG and WPE). Both are a great value!

So I mentioned we had the deluxe dining plan. This affords 3 table service restaurant meals a day PLUS 2 snacks a day per person. This is an extremely LARGE amount of food. We had several 2 Credit TS meals during this trip so we ended up even with the dining credits....but we did have a large amount of SNACK credits left over. What to do about that? How about stocking up on yummies at Goofy's Candy Co? I mean we're already here at DTD! So that's what we did. I highly recommend this. Not only does it use up your snack credits, it also gives you great souvenirs of the trip and makes great treats for those you left at home!



Look at all of this:





We picked our credits worth and headed back to POR utilizing the same transportion that got us there:



Passing PO-French Quarter:


Passing another boat:


Some of the FQ rooms:


And POR Mansion rooms:


And we're back to POR:


You can rent bikes here!




We had already packed up our things so here we are waiting for the MDE to arrive:


Oh, golly.....sadness awaits inside this bus:


And we're on our way to the airport:

 

[ksromack]

How can such a happy bus become such a sad one when it reverses direction and heads back to the airport?


Now it's time to say goodbye to all our company:



Crappy airport food:


It's hard to deny this beautiful view....


We're home.....so let's review what we got with our leftover snack credits:






Let's face it, the only reason to get a chocolate covered marshmallow is so you can keep the straw:


That's a wrap, folks!

 

[rndmr2]

Great Wrap up! We had lots of snack credits left on our trip in 2011 (granted there were 6 of us in the room/villa) and I went and spent them at goofy's (10 of them!) I got mostly cookies and chocolate pretzels, and I did get 2 of the marshmallows to give the straws to my little nephews, I agree, I love those straws.