Why is the rum always gone? We might be responsible! UPDATE 7/13: My photos are back and other stuff

[kristie73]

Way to go on the steps! Yeah my kiddos and I were ready for our jammies after a few long days too. It sounds like you had a great fun filled day! So ambitious to go to all of the parks in one day! The Beach Club definitely looks like a place I'd like to stay. We got that BB-8 cup and popcorn bucket too. I really liked Animal Kingdom all lit up too. I was really hoping for Rivers of Light as well. Oh well, next time.

 

[nikkid1]

What a day!! Super jealous of all you were able to accomplish. Also, amazing job on the magic bands. Your UP one is amazing and I love it! Well done.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

What a day!! Super jealous of all you were able to accomplish. Also, amazing job on the magic bands. Your UP one is amazing and I love it! Well done.

Oh, thank you so much! I had fun with these (this is the third set I've decorated) but I had a really hard time deciding what to do for everyone. We all ended up happy though

(In the interests of full disclosure I did get the ideas for the Death Star, UP, and R2 off the MagicBand decoration thread on the DIS!)

 

[ariane37]

Beautiful Magic Bands! I can't even draw a smiley face that isn't crooked so I will never, ever attempt to decorate our bands lol. Also yay for accomplishing 4 parks in 1 day and lasting until 11pm (well, most of you ). DH and I did 4 parks in a day and didn't feel any stress whatsoever, but the most we've done with the boys is 2. I'd do 3, but I know I'd hear complaints from my youngest if we attempted 4 simply because, well, he likes to complain!
The prosciutto and melon looks so good. I wanted to try that when we ate there last Nov. but it was the day after I came down with my stomach virus and unfortunately I couldn't enjoy anything there.........
You guys had a nice room/view at BC. I'm hoping for a decent view when we check in for our first stay there Saturday

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Beautiful Magic Bands! I can't even draw a smiley face that isn't crooked so I will never, ever attempt to decorate our bands lol. Also yay for accomplishing 4 parks in 1 day and lasting until 11pm (well, most of you ). DH and I did 4 parks in a day and didn't feel any stress whatsoever, but the most we've done with the boys is 2. I'd do 3, but I know I'd hear complaints from my youngest if we attempted 4 simply because, well, he likes to complain!
The prosciutto and melon looks so good. I wanted to try that when we ate there last Nov. but it was the day after I came down with my stomach virus and unfortunately I couldn't enjoy anything there.........
You guys had a nice room/view at BC. I'm hoping for a decent view when we check in for our first stay there Saturday

LOL! I don't know if we'd tackle all four in one day again, but it's kind of fun to be able to say we did it.

I'm so jealous that you're checking in to BC on Saturday! I hope you guys luck on out on your room.

BTW, I am now reading your trip report from last Thanksgiving and FREAKING out over your whole room/shower situation! Unbelievable!

 

[kastoney]

Congrats on making it to all 4 parks. I was getting nervous for your when it was 6 and there was no AK in sight

Glad you all enjoyed SciFi, especially the beer We went to Bear Republic a few years ago so Racer 5 always has a soft spot in my heart.

Dying over the via napoli prosciutto and melon. I'm a sucker for anything prosciutto and somehow never had this there.

Awesome job on the magic bands! From someone who can't even draw a stick person I'm in total awe

 

[alex9179]

I can't believe that day! There is no way we could have all powered through - LOL

Have you tried the prosciutto and melon pizza? It's my very favorite at VN and my family even horns in on my precious. We get a mezzo half & half and an individual p&m (which is for me - not for three), but I had to share too much with other family members last time for that to work.
Prosecco is lovely in warm weather. Yum! I'm getting that next time.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

I can't believe that day! There is no way we could have all powered through - LOL

Have you tried the prosciutto and melon pizza? It's my very favorite at VN and my family even horns in on my precious. We get a mezzo half & half and an individual p&m (which is for me - not for three), but I had to share too much with other family members last time for that to work.
Prosecco is lovely in warm weather. Yum! I'm getting that next time.

I have not tried that pizza, but it's very tempting! I think it would go quite nicely with the prosecco...you'll have to report back to us

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Congrats on making it to all 4 parks. I was getting nervous for your when it was 6 and there was no AK in sight

Glad you all enjoyed SciFi, especially the beer We went to Bear Republic a few years ago so Racer 5 always has a soft spot in my heart.

Dying over the via napoli prosciutto and melon. I'm a sucker for anything prosciutto and somehow never had this there.

Awesome job on the magic bands! From someone who can't even draw a stick person I'm in total awe

Yeah, it was touch and go there for a while, LOL.

How fun that you went to the brewery! I only just discovered their beer when we were in Cars Land at DCA last summer and I had one at Flo's

I'm with you, prosciutto + pretty much anything = win.

And thanks! I think this was my favorite batch of bands so far.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

October 19, 2016-Part One

Rest day! Well, sort of. After our epic four-park day I had planned for this day to be a pretty mellow one. Our agenda was pretty much pool, Food & Wine, and using our 2:00 p.m. FP to ride Soarin’ again.

Nathan and Sean refused to get out of bed that morning so Devon and Dylan and I walked over to the Boardwalk Bakery.







So many yummy options! Devon got a breakfast sandwich on an everything bagel with egg, bacon and cheese, and Dylan got a chocolate croissant. They both enjoyed these, and Dylan ate some of DH’s sandwich after he finished his croissant.




We also grabbed a couple of bananas, a chocolate croissant for Nathan, and a chocolate chip Mickey muffin for Sean who was eating cereal in the room when we got back.



Nathan and Sean were really wanting to just chill in the room but Dylan was up for checking out Food & Wine, so he and DH and I headed over to Epcot around 11:00 a.m. when World Showcase opened. It was another awesome sunny day in the mid-80s.

Our first stop of the day was the Mexico booth for the Taco de Camarón: Battered Shrimp served over a Flour Tortilla with Crispy Purple Cabbage and Chipotle Mayonnaise, and the Barbacoa Enchilada: Corn Tortilla filled with Beef Barbacoa and covered with Oaxaca Mole:



Devon ordered the enchilada and really liked the mole sauce, which I also tasted and liked though I don’t think I’d want to eat a ton of it. I got the shrimp taco and shared a bite with him. We enjoyed both of these, and also the Jalapeno Margarita. It had just enough heat to it, without being overpowering. We were off to a good start!

We checked out the China pavilion and then hit up the South Korea booth again, this time for the Roasted Pork Lettuce Wrap and Kimchi:



I don’t remember anything really standing out about this, other than the fact that we liked it. Next we stopped at Africa. This was a booth I’d really been looking forward to trying. We got both the Buttered Chicken with Micro Cilantro and Naan Bread, and the Berbere-style Beef Tenderloin Tips with Onions, Jalapeños, Tomato and Pap:





Unfortunately, this was disappointing. The chicken was OK, but nowhere near as good as what you would get somewhere like Sanaa. Dylan and I had a couple of bites and DH finished it. The beef tips were a bit tough and totally lacking in flavor. With the onion and jalapeno I was expecting a decent level of spice and there just wasn’t any. Bummer.

I left the boys to finish up the Africa booth food and went in search of the elusive Schofferhofer Grapefruit beer that I’ve read about so many times on the DIS! I had tried the previous two days to get one—the first time the line at the beer counter in Germany was crazy long, and the second time they hadn’t yet opened for the day. Ahem. Today was my day, though, as there had suddenly materialized a cart across from the Germany pavilion that was selling pretzels and beer. Hooray!

I actually have no idea if this cart had been there all along and I’d just walked past it like 3 other times without noticing, but what I can tell you is that it was definitely there that day and was perfect as they had the Schofferhofer Grapefruit on tap. I grabbed a high top table in the shade and the boys joined me and we all shared the pretzel while I enjoyed my nice refreshing beer with a lovely view of World Showcase Lagoon:



There were more booths we wanted to try but we were all full at this point (darn pretzel!) so we just wandered around a bit until we happened to see this guy on one of the paths off to the side of the main walkway:



There was practically no line since he was in such an out of the way spot. I did have to put my beer down to take our picture, which was a little embarrassing since it was all of 12:30 p.m. at that point. Whatever, it’s vacation…don’t judge me, Mickey!

We also popped into the Chase Cardholder VIP Lounge in the American Pavilion (we have a Disney Visa) and the boys had fun playing with the Coke Freestyle machines. At that point, Nathan and Sean were finally ready to leave the room so DH walked to the park entrance to meet them and Dylan and I poked around the Mitsukoshi Department Store in Japan and listened to the awesome drummers.



We picked up some of these rice candies in Mitsukoshi —I remember having these when I was a kid, so it was fun to get them for the boys:



Nathan and Devon grabbed another kakigori when we joined back up with them. Then we all headed to France where I got a Grey Goose Citron Slush, which was totally delicious as usual:



Nathan is in his third year of French and we really wanted to see Impressions de France on this trip. While we waited for the next show to start, DH went to France’s booth and got the Croissant aux Escargots: Escargot Croissant with Garlic and Parsley, and the Boeuf Bourguignon: Cabernet Sauvignon-braised Short Ribs with Mashed Potatoes:





Nathan actually tried the escargot, which I sort of couldn’t believe. I just asked Nathan what he thought of this and he said “it was good, but the snail was practically nonexistent…it tasted like a garlic croissant.” DH pretty much said the same thing. Not sure what they expected the snails to taste like but maybe snails don’t have a lot of flavor? I wouldn’t know and don’t care to find out.

DH thought the Boeuf Bourguignon was “really flavorful and tender” and enjoyed the potatoes it came with as well. He said they weren’t overly mashed and still had some texture to them. Nathan tried the beef but doesn’t remember if he liked it. I had a little taste and thought it was pretty good for having come from a food booth, though nowhere near as good as what I make at home

We watched Impressions de France, which we enjoyed, then went over to Future World and used our FP to ride Soarin’ again. We all really liked the new version, though the original was extra fun for us since we’re from California and have been to and/or lived in almost all of the locations in the original and it was always nice to see home.

On the way back over to World Showcase I stopped at the Islands of the Caribbean booth for the Frozen Mojito:



This was really tasty, though a bit lacking on the alcohol content. It was 3:30 p.m. by then and hot out though, so it hit the spot. I drank this as we walked out of Epcot and back to the Beach Club for some pool time.

Speaking of pool time, as I was hanging out with the boys in the sandy area of Stormalong Bay I dropped my phone onto the top step of the pool into like a half inch of water. It was wet for about 0.376 seconds but that was long enough to kill the camera. Sigh. This called for a cocktail from Hurricane Hanna’s. Hopefully nobody is keeping a drink tally…



This was the Storm Chaser—Skyy Vodka, Bacardi Superior Rum, Blue Curaçao, Sweet-and-Sour and Sprite.

This is as good a time as any to mention that Disney will not let you take your drink in or even *near* the pool. You are supposed to stay four feet away from the edge of the pool. FOUR FEET. Why? WHY??? What do they think is going to happen if I sit with my feet in the water and have a drink? This seriously infringed on my poolside drink enjoyment, but you don’t dare mess with those lifeguards so all the other moms and I sadly obeyed.

Anyway, I wandered around on the sand in front of the Beach Club and enjoyed my drink and pondered the fragility of iPhone cameras. The boys eventually got out of the pool and joined me. This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip:



To be continued in the next post!

 

[kastoney]

Looks like an awesome food and wine day. So glad you finally got to try the Schofferhoffer. It's one of my favs. Speaking of favs, glad to see you are enjoying vacation as it should be and drinking up!!!!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

October 19, 2016-Part Two

So when we left off I had managed to wreck my phone, and was doing my best to keep Disney’s liquor distributors in business.

That night we had a 7:00 p.m. ADR at La Hacienda de San Angel, a new restaurant for us. On our way through World Showcase we hit a couple more food booths. First up was Brazil for the Crispy Pork Belly with Black Beans and Tomato:



Sorry for the terrible picture. We loved this! The pork belly was crispy and not overly fatty, and the salsa was nice and fresh. One of our favorite items from the festival. We also stopped at Morocco for the Spicy Hummus Fries with Cucumber, Tomato, Onions and Tzatziki Sauce:



These were a hit as well. I originally wasn't sure about these but had read several good reviews so we decided to give them a try. DH and I especially liked these—the boys weren’t huge fans because…vegetables.

We then made our way over to Mexico and checked in for our ADR. Well, sort of. I apparently completely missed the CM who was checking people in in front of the restaurant and just charged right on inside. Whoops! The very nice CM at the host stand inside politely pointed this out to me and I of course apologized and turned around to go back outside to check in properly, but instead the manager was like “Oh, don’t worry about it. Party of five? Please follow me!” Um…OK? This was another good karma moment for us, as he led us to a table right next to the window with an absolutely perfect view of World Showcase Lagoon. As he sat us he laughingly said “See? You don’t follow the rules and you end up with the best table in the place!” Works for me! Great lesson for the kids, too

This seriously was the best view ever. First we were able to watch the Star Wars fireworks in the distance at Hollywood Studios while we enjoyed our Classic Margaritas (Exótíco 100% agave premium silver Tequila, orange liqueur, lime mix, served on the rocks with salt on the rim)...



...and chips and salsa:



For dinner, Nathan and Devon and I split two orders of the Taquiza, which is the taco sampler featuring grilled chicken with green tomatillo sauce, grilled steak with roasted Chipotle sauce and rajas poblanos, pork Chilorio served with queso fresco, and battered fish served with a mayo-chipotle sauce topped with cabbage:



We liked all of these. My favorite was the chicken, followed by the steak. Nathan and Devon can’t remember now which were their favorites, but I can tell you that they definitely all got eaten. Our only complaint was that these weren’t very large servings for the price ($25.50), though they do come with rice and black beans:



Dylan and Sean both had the kids’ quesadilla with rice which was nothing remarkable but was perfectly fine:



The cost of their meals helped balance out our expensive tacos. I can also pretty much eat my weight in chips and salsa, so I think we broke even. We actually ordered another basket of chips and salsa (and a second round of margaritas) just to be sure we’d still be at our table when IllumiNations started. We didn’t score that kickass table for nothing!







I know La Hacienda gets mixed reviews, and I was on the fence about this ADR. I am so glad we kept it! The restaurant is beautiful, service was good, we all enjoyed our food, and of course the view was amazing. It’s a bit pricey for the amount of food that you get, but then again it’s WDW where the actual real world value of the dollar has no bearing whatsoever. Our experience was arguably heavily influenced by the timing of our ADR and the awesomeness of our table location, but we would eat here again.

We had originally planned on going to MK for EMH that night (the park was open until 1:00 a.m.). I halfheartedly tried to rally anyone to go with me and was met with a complete and utter lack of enthusiasm. The boys were all asleep before 11:00 p.m. and we weren’t far behind. Having fun is tiring!

 

[kristie73]

I felt the same about Hacienda. We had a great seat too for those fireworks and the food was okay, not exactly worth the money, but it is Disney.

I like the picture with your boys too. Looks like a happy, sort of relaxing day.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

I felt the same about Hacienda. We had a great seat too for those fireworks and the food was okay, not exactly worth the money, but it is Disney.

I like the picture with your boys too. Looks like a happy, sort of relaxing day.

Yeah, absent the fireworks I doubt this would have been a memorable meal.

We had definitely gotten into vacation mode by the time we took that picture!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

October 20, 2016-Part One

We were off to Magic Kingdom again this morning. We rode 7DMT with a FP, then did Haunted Mansion again. Then, in an effort to force my children to actually learn something, we did Hall of Presidents which the boys seemed to enjoy. Maybe they were just happy to be sitting down. While we were waiting for the show to start we filled up our popcorn bucket and I poked around the Christmas shop that is in Liberty Square. So much cute stuff but holy moly are their ornaments pricey! Of course now that it's holiday time I wish I'd bought one. Or ten.

After that, we headed to Adventureland for our 12:10 p.m. ADR at Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen! This is someplace I was really excited to try, though I was little nervous about the boys finding stuff on the menu that they would like.



As I’m sure everyone has seen from the tons of pictures all over the place, they did a great job with the restaurant and really nailed the theming. After a short wait we were seated in the S.E.A. Room—a secret meeting place for the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. We had a nice table that was half booth/half chairs and was sort of tucked away under a cool sea monster mural that Dylan and Sean really liked, so it ended up being perfect for us.

Please pause while I geek out: I consulted the excellent Disney Tourist Blog’s review of Skipper Canteen to make sure I got the name of the dining room right, and Tom actually has two photos of our exact table in his review if anyone is interested in looking. It’s the corner booth/six-top table right next to the “Butterfly Booth.” Here’s a link to Tom’s review and his (incredible as always) photos, provided here with his express prior approval:

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/skipper-canteen-review/comment-page-2/#comment-1677031

Thanks so much, Tom! Your blog is awesome!

Our server here was very good, though not at all into the Jungle Cruise shtick. We were perfectly fine with that, though I suppose if you were looking forward to that part of the experience it might have been a bit of a letdown. Anyway, she was attentive and helpful with suggestions about what to order.

I thought the table settings/dishes were really neat here--just very understated and cool:



We were brought two servings of the bread service, though nobody but DH really ended up being a fan of this:



DH and I decided to try several of the appetizers since so many of them sounded appealing. He went with the S.E.A. Shu Mai, A Legendary blend of Pork, Shrimp, Edamame Beans, and Spices wrapped in Gyoza Skin then steamed:



And the House-made Arepas, a trip down the Amazon with Slow-cooked Beef, Black Beans, Tostones, and Queso Fresco:



He said the tostones were a little dry, but that otherwise everything was really good.

I decided to get the Shiriki Noodle Salad, which is Rice Noodles, Edamame Beans, Mushrooms, Green Mango, and Cucumber tossed with a Sweet Chili Sauce:



This was delicious—it was fresh and light, and pleasantly spicy, and the presentation was lovely. I would absolutely get this again.

I also got the Falls Family Falafel, a secret recipe of Chickpeas, Garlic, Onions, Lemon Juice, and Herbs served with White Bean Dip and Tomato-Cucumber Salad:



I liked this, but didn’t love it. I found it to be a bit on the dry side. It wasn’t bad by any means, but I didn’t end up finishing it.

Nathan surprised me and went with the Char Siu Pork, Marinated Grilled Pork served with Chinese Broccoli and White Rice:



First off, this was a huge portion. It was also delicious! I guess I would compare the marinade to almost a teriyaki flavor. He really liked this and ate it all, minus the broccoli. He said the sauce on the pork was really good and that he enjoyed the rice (yes, the white rice).

Dylan and Sean both got the Chef Tandaji's Crispy Chicken served with White Rice, Seasonal Vegetables, and Sweet-and-Sour Sauce:



I asked our server to just leave off the vegetables and she offered to bring them fries instead, which was nice. Neither of the boys were fans of the sweet-and-sour sauce so they just ate the chicken plain. Dylan says this wasn’t his favorite food, but that he really liked how the restaurant was decorated and “thought it was really cool.” Sean did try one of DH’s Shu Mai and liked it. To drink we had sodas and iced tea.

All in all, this was a success! DH, Nathan and I all really enjoyed our meals and it was nice to be able to have something fresh tasting and mildly exotic while at Magic Kingdom. The atmosphere and décor alone are almost worth eating here, so it’s a nice bonus that the food is actually good as well. Dylan and Sean’s meals weren’t anything exciting, but it’s what I expected them to order and they didn’t complain so I consider that a win. We would definitely return! [Note: I just realized after looking back at the menu that dessert should have been included with Dylan and Sean’s meals. Not a big deal since my kids rarely eat more than a couple bites of plated desserts—they’re happier with a Mickey bar or frozen lemonade—but it still would have been nice of our server to offer. Oh well!]

After lunch we used our FPs for Space Mountain (Buzz for Devon and Sean, who had not yet discovered his love for Space Mountain). We took our traditional Space Mountain selfie:



Then we rode the People Mover...



...used our FP for Splash Mountain, and took the train back to the front of the park and hopped on the monorail back over to Epcot.

We couldn’t walk through World Showcase without stopping for more food though, right?! Sean wanted to hit Club Cool again so he and DH and Dylan went to do that, and Nathan and I visited the Greenhouse Guru booth. This was one of my favorite booths. I ordered the Chilled Tomato Gazpacho with Lump Crab Meat:



This was like the world’s smallest serving of crab, but it was all delicious and nobody wanted to share it with me. Score! Nathan surprised me and asked to try the Duck Confit with Creamy Polenta and Fire-roasted Salsa:



I’m not sure I even got a taste of this. He really liked it. He says the polenta tasted “just like corn” (go figure!) and that the duck and salsa were both “really good.” We’ll work on his food descriptions for the next trip

From there we stopped at Canada. We really weren’t even remotely hungry at this point, but this was our last journey through Epcot for this trip (sniff!) and we couldn’t leave without trying the “Le Cellier” Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon with Truffle-Butter Sauce. I also got a Moosehead Lager for good measure:



We thought the filet was excellent. And, as you can see, it was perfectly cooked:



The mushrooms were a nice accompaniment, and the truffle butter added some richness without being overpowering. This is a pricey item at Food & Wine, but worth trying. That was the end of our Food & Wine dining adventures for this trip. So much fun! We will definitely be back at this time of year again.



Then it was back to the hotel for more pool/chill time. I finally tried out the Stormalong Bay water slide (that sucker is bumpy…consider yourselves warned) and we enjoyed our last beautiful afternoon at this awesome resort. I seriously cannot wait to stay here again someday!

Next up…dinner shenanigans at Disney Springs.

 

[samsteele]

Loving your foodie review! Glad you had a wonderful time at F&W . . . the filet at the Canada Booth was very good this year. Other years, I've been served some tough, over-done pieces so when its good, its very good! I also tried Skipper's for the first time this Fall & loved it. Great decor & different, tasty food. A solid alternative to busy BOG.

 

[kastoney]

Wow, I'm totally impressed with your meal at La Hacienda. We've never been since they don't take TiW, but it looks like its totally worth the trip discount or not. And amazing table too!

Glad you all enjoyed Skippers. It's become one of our favorites. Though I had to laugh as the apps you all shared are exactly the same that we got on our last trip. Should have that review up soon and it will sound eerily similar

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Wow, I'm totally impressed with your meal at La Hacienda. We've never been since they don't take TiW, but it looks like its totally worth the trip discount or not. And amazing table too!

Glad you all enjoyed Skippers. It's become one of our favorites. Though I had to laugh as the apps you all shared are exactly the same that we got on our last trip. Should have that review up soon and it will sound eerily similar

LOL! We must be kindred foodie spirits

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Loving your foodie review! Glad you had a wonderful time at F&W . . . the filet at the Canada Booth was very good this year. Other years, I've been served some tough, over-done pieces so when its good, its very good! I also tried Skipper's for the first time this Fall & loved it. Great decor & different, tasty food. A solid alternative to busy BOG.

Thanks for reading along! I was pleasantly surprised by how good the filet was--we definitely got a good one

 

[lizzyshakuntala]

Following along! So far your food (and drink) choices have had me drooling at my screen