Meet our tour guide. She's two! March 2012 TR UPDATES 15 APRIL

[DMGeurts]

Awesome update!!!

Congratulations on the APs (very jealous here)... And your dd is precious as usual! The food looks amazing.

The one thing the girls and I discovered - there is an over abundance of bread pudding on Disney property - nearly every restaurant we went to was serving some variation of it. Don't get me wrong - my all time favorite dessert is BP - and Disney's is over the top wonderful for sure... but towards the end of our trip - I was kind of hoping for something other than BP. LOL

D~

 

[Lidian]

I've yet to visit RR -- however, in 2009, I sent my mom and her friend to dinner there and they LOVED it! In the past, I've made a few ADRs there, but always cancel them for something "better".

Sorry that you were on a tight schedule. It's never fun to feel pressure of getting somewhere on "time" -- especially at WDW. I'm glad the staff was able to work with your late arrival!

I'm anxious to hear about your TiW savings! We've always done the DDP -- but considering going OOP for our next trip.

Awesome update!!!

Congratulations on the APs (very jealous here)... And your dd is precious as usual! The food looks amazing.

The one thing the girls and I discovered - there is an over abundance of bread pudding on Disney property - nearly every restaurant we went to was serving some variation of it. Don't get me wrong - my all time favorite dessert is BP - and Disney's is over the top wonderful for sure... but towards the end of our trip - I was kind of hoping for something other than BP. LOL

D~

You didn't eat at the places I did ... because I only saw bread pudding once. (And it wasn't very good.)

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Awesome update!!!

Congratulations on the APs (very jealous here)... And your dd is precious as usual! The food looks amazing.

The one thing the girls and I discovered - there is an over abundance of bread pudding on Disney property - nearly every restaurant we went to was serving some variation of it. Don't get me wrong - my all time favorite dessert is BP - and Disney's is over the top wonderful for sure... but towards the end of our trip - I was kind of hoping for something other than BP. LOL

D~

I've always dreamed of having an AP. I used the TiW and the idea of a second trip to rationalize getting an AP. Now I'm using the AP to rationalize a second trip this year.

There were a quite a few places with a bread pudding dessert. I think I had three different bread puddings. I liked two of them. I agree with you. Any more bread pudding and I probably would have been sick of it.

I've yet to visit RR -- however, in 2009, I sent my mom and her friend to dinner there and they LOVED it! In the past, I've made a few ADRs there, but always cancel them for something "better".

Sorry that you were on a tight schedule. It's never fun to feel pressure of getting somewhere on "time" -- especially at WDW. I'm glad the staff was able to work with your late arrival!

I'm anxious to hear about your TiW savings! We've always done the DDP -- but considering going OOP for our next

You didn't eat at the places I did ... because I only saw bread pudding once. (And it wasn't very good.)

I'm getting better at not planning my family into a situation where we're overly stressed by a tight schedule. I only did that twice this trip. I think our arrival night was unavoidable. The other one, well, we'll get to that.

Where was your bad bread pudding experience?

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Alright, onto the geekery! I am a very analytical person so I actually like analyzing numbers. First, a few assumptions.

1.) The totals I compiled included tip and I don't want to go back through my receipts to get the pre-tip totals. I've got a pretty good ballpark idea of what we tipped. To be a fair comparison to the dining plan, I'll need to use totals without tip. My totals will be with a few dollars of what they actually were. All that to say the OOP cost I give will be post-discount and pre-tip.

2.) We ate at way more TS than we would have had credits on the regular dining plan. As I go through, I'll just count credits and at the end I'll figure out which ones would have been the best use of our credits for the summary.

3.) I'm going to try and compare TiW to regular and Deluxe dining plan. I think our choices this trip put us in the middle of the two where neither would have been a good deal. I guess we'll see.

4.) If you're not familiar, TiW is a discount card available to AP, DVC, and FL residents. It's $75 for AP holders and $100 for DVC and Florida residents. It gets you a 20% discount at most TS and a few QS. For TS, there is an automatic 18% gratuity with a automatic 20% at Victoria and Albert's.

With that out of the way, here are the numbers for Raglan Road:

We spent OOP: $74.99
TiW Discount: $13.95

Dining Plan: 3 TS credits
DDP OOP cost: $6.92
DxDP OOP cost: $6.92


Up next, our first full day!

 

[Lidian]

I've always dreamed of having an AP. I used the TiW and the idea of a second trip to rationalize getting an AP. Now I'm using the AP to rationalize a second trip this year.

There were a quite a few places with a bread pudding dessert. I think I had three different bread puddings. I liked two of them. I agree with you. Any more bread pudding and I probably would have been sick of it.

I'm getting better at not planning my family into a situation where we're overly stressed by a tight schedule. I only did that twice this trip. I think our arrival night was unavoidable. The other one, well, we'll get to that.

Where was your bad bread pudding experience?

I did NOT like the bread pudding at 1900 PF. However, I had never had bread pudding, so I can't compare it. And I can't claim that I just didn't like "theirs" or "all" bread puddings.

I heard there was bread pudding at TH, but didn't notice it.

I'm all about the geeky numbers! (I'm an Accounting major.) So very anxious to hear your overall thoughts at the end!

 

[smellyia]

I can't wait to see where your 2yo Tour Guide steers you!

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

I did NOT like the bread pudding at 1900 PF. However, I had never had bread pudding, so I can't compare it. And I can't claim that I just didn't like "theirs" or "all" bread puddings.

I heard there was bread pudding at TH, but didn't notice it.

I'm all about the geeky numbers! (I'm an Accounting major.) So very anxious to hear your overall thoughts at the end!

We have not eaten at either of those places. I'll have to make a note to try the bread pudding if we go.

I can't wait to see where your 2yo Tour Guide steers you!

Her approach to Disney was definitely different than ours.

 

[Lidian]

We have not eaten at either of those places. I'll have to make a note to try the bread pudding if we go.

Her approach to Disney was definitely different than ours.

In all fairness, I can not willingly recommend 1900 PF to ANYONE. Not even my worst enemy. Yep, not even they I would suggest visiting 1900 PF to.

That said, I beg anyone who will listen to visit TH. Their food was amazing!!! Service was "okay". Worse than I usually get around here, but not so bad I wouldn't go back (unlike 1900PF).

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

In all fairness, I can not willingly recommend 1900 PF to ANYONE. Not even my worst enemy. Yep, not even they I would suggest visiting 1900 PF to.

That said, I beg anyone who will listen to visit TH. Their food was amazing!!! Service was "okay". Worse than I usually get around here, but not so bad I wouldn't go back (unlike 1900PF).

I'll remember your advice when it comes to 1900PF. I hear the character interaction is really good but it might not be worth it if the food is that bad. I hope breakfast is better because we are planning that for our next trip.

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

I left off with our family enjoying that wonderful first night of Disney sleep. A nice benefit of our CSR room was the wooden sliding door between the main room and the sink area. We put DD's pack and play in the sink area and the door instead of the curtain we've had at other Disney resorts made it a lot easier to create a quiet area for her. Now, on to our first park day.

I decided to try a different approach to our Disney trip this time. Instead of our usual commando approach which I naturally lean toward the goal of this trip was to actually try a vacation pace. First step toward that was letting DD sleep until she was ready to wake up. That meant willingly missing rope drop.

We got up at about 7 and started to get ready. DD woke up around 7:30 and we enjoyed a breakfast of cereal and granola bars. Here's DD waiting for the rest of us to get ready.

We were out the door at 9:30. With at 9:00 park opening we were well behind normal for us but we were enjoying the pace. DW still couldn't believe I was supporting the slow pace.

After a short drive, we arrived at our first park....






Epcot! We got a fairly close parking spot and made our way to bag check. We walked past the really long line at the first few turnstiles to the much shorter lines on the right side. I never understand why people wait in the longer lines when some turnstiles barely have a line but it usually benefits us.

We headed toward everyone's first stop at Epcot, Soarin! I ran inside The Land to grab fastpasses while everyone else went toward The Seas to park our stroller.

Fastpasses in hand, we went to visit Nemo. Our last attempt at this ride involved lots of tears from DD. This time was much better. She really enjoyed the ride. DS is happy anywhere so he of course enjoyed the experience. As we exited our clam shell a CM was loudly announcing that we should proceed to Turtle Talk which was about to start. That's what we wanted to do next so we made our way there. We were quickly stopped because apparently the next show was full. Why funnel people over there if the show is full? We made our way to the escalators to check out the aquarium. The same CM was still yelling about Turtle Talk!

At this point we had our first encounter with the different perspective a toddler has when at Disney World. An adult ignores the stairs as he uses them to get to the silly aquarium. The toddler recognizes the stairs and escalators as the E-ticket ride that they truly are.

After four or five trips up and down the stairs/escalator DD let us go check out the aquarium.

DS decided this would be a good time to take a nap.

DD was still working on the running thing this trip and took a spill while running around the aquarium. She got up with only a small rug burn on her face. No big deal. I'd love to say this was her only fall of the trip. Alas, it was not.

After saying hi to the fish it was time to go talk to Crush. DD's favorite part was the trivia game in the waiting area.

DD thought that the trivia in English would be too easy so she chose Japanese. We did really well considering the language barrier. Our score was 2/4. We tried again in English and actually learned a few things. For example a seahorse does not have a stomach.

DD did not want to leave the trivia to go talk to Crush but she humored us. This was our first time going to Turtle Talk and we really enjoyed it. I think it will be a lot more fun when our kids are old enough to interact a little more.

After Turtle Talk it was time to slowly make our way to France for our lunch ADR. We took a few pictures along the way:

We took some random pictures of Canada

and stopped in the UK to make a call.

DD then saw some friends she had to say hi to.

Still, topiaries of her favorite friends could not hold her interest for long and she was more interested in

On our way to France we greeted these lovebirds

and went to check in for our lunch at Les Chefs des France!

Up next, there's a rat in the kitchen!

 

[DMGeurts]

Excellent update Dave!

I totally agree about the Eticket ride - it's an often overlooked attraction. Kudos to your dd for pointing out the obvious to you.

I rofled at the Japanese... That is too funny.

I love that last picture of you and your dd walking - precious!

D~

 

[Lidian]

I'll remember your advice when it comes to 1900PF. I hear the character interaction is really good but it might not be worth it if the food is that bad. I hope breakfast is better because we are planning that for our next trip.

Oh, the food was fine. The characters were fine. The Staff was 100% HORRID!!!! Maybe if you went in wearing tuxedos and evening gowns and looking like you're worth BILLIONS, they MAY consider glancing your way and checking you in (but somehow, I doubt that would even work). Honestly, had I not been charged the $40, I would have left and gotten a burger at McD's or something. It was THAT bad. (And we were all in nice Sunday clothes -- girls in dresses, boys in polos and khakis.)

So enjoy your breakfast -- my fingers are crossed you'll be checked in at a decent time. Pending, the girls at the counter haven't drowned from any rain that may happen. (And pending you get a server.)

I'll be doing my official review of 1900PF sometime this week. I'll link you the post so you can decide if you'd want to consider it or not. While we won't go back, and will willingly state we can't recommend it, everyone has their own tolerances and their experiences may vary from ours.

 

[smellyia]

I love how you didn't push for RD - our upcoming trip to Disney being our first, I feel like RD RD RD RD is a mantra being beaten into my head and would love to see another plan/POV played out like this.

Also, what about Nemo scared DD last time? My DD will be 2.5 by our May/June trip and I have high hopes for Nemo for her....

Great update! Thanks!

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Excellent update Dave!

I totally agree about the Eticket ride - it's an often overlooked attraction. Kudos to your dd for pointing out the obvious to you.

I rofled at the Japanese... That is too funny.

I love that last picture of you and your dd walking - precious!

D~

I think I'll add the escalator to our touring plan from now on. I just love that every trip to Disney with DD is completely new and different.

Oh, the food was fine. The characters were fine. The Staff was 100% HORRID!!!! Maybe if you went in wearing tuxedos and evening gowns and looking like you're worth BILLIONS, they MAY consider glancing your way and checking you in (but somehow, I doubt that would even work). Honestly, had I not been charged the $40, I would have left and gotten a burger at McD's or something. It was THAT bad. (And we were all in nice Sunday clothes -- girls in dresses, boys in polos and khakis.)

So enjoy your breakfast -- my fingers are crossed you'll be checked in at a decent time. Pending, the girls at the counter haven't drowned from any rain that may happen. (And pending you get a server.)

I'll be doing my official review of 1900PF sometime this week. I'll link you the post so you can decide if you'd want to consider it or not. While we won't go back, and will willingly state we can't recommend it, everyone has their own tolerances and their experiences may vary from ours.

I'll keep your review in mind.

I love how you didn't push for RD - our upcoming trip to Disney being our first, I feel like RD RD RD RD is a mantra being beaten into my head and would love to see another plan/POV played out like this.

Also, what about Nemo scared DD last time? My DD will be 2.5 by our May/June trip and I have high hopes for Nemo for her....

Great update! Thanks!

I think there are times where RD can be very important. For us a lot of the bigger headliners weren't a huge push because we couldn't all ride together because of the kids. Also, we've been to Disney enough recently that we didn't have to see everything this trip. Also, we weren't there at a really crowded time.

If you're going at a really crowded time and have a lot on your must do list then I'd suggest trying for rope drop and then doing an afternoon break if you're tired. You can get a lot done in the first few hours.

DD wasn't really scared of Nemo last time. She hadn't been sleeping well and something set her off. I can't even remember what it was anymore. I think your DD will be fine on Nemo.

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

We checked in a little early for our Chefs reservation and I followed DD around as she wandered. Sadly, on one of her stumbles I was not able to catch her and had her second big fall of the trip. This time she drew blood. DW took her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up. She was ultimately okay but had a pretty big scab for the rest of the trip.

DD soon wanted to run around a little more and then our table was ready. We were really looking forward to our meal here since our dinner last trip had gone so well. Chefs did not disappoint.

Once again, we were boring with the drinks. For appetizers we had:

Me - The French Onion Soup. I am a big French Onion soup fan, mostly for the cheese on top. This was pretty good.

DW - Salad. DW liked her salad. There's not a whole lot to say. It's a salad.

For entrees we had:

Me - Macaroni and Cheese. Mac and Cheese is one of my all-time favorite meals. This is what I got last time we were here and I knew I would get it again. The cheese is so gooey and the sauce is really creamy. I highly recommend it.

DW - Quiche Lorraine and Salad. I guess DW really wanted a lot of salad this meal. : DW isn't completely sure but said it had ham, egg, and cheese in it. She liked it and cleaned her plate.

Sis - Vegetable Lasagna. Sis really liked this. I don't remember a whole lot about it.

DD - Chicken Fingers and Pasta. Fairly standard kid's meal fare. DD was not very hungry this meal. The portion was huge for a two year old.

We did not get dessert. I think at the time we were saving room for our dinner ADR. We really enjoyed our meal at Chefs as you can see from these pics

Even now, looking at that scab makes me cringe. Near the end of our meal, our table was surprised by a visit from the chef. Well, actually I was expecting it but everyone else was surprised.

Sorry for the blurry picture. Remember how I said DW's lens made it difficult to take pictures close up. I attempted to take a picture while Remy was at the table next to ours but the CM who follows Remy didn't like that. He accused me of being a health inspector or a paparazzi. I played along but was sad that I couldn't get a good photo. When Remy came over to us I just tried to get a quick picture and it didn't come out very well. It was fun to meet Remy, though.

We would definitely recommend Chefs and will be back on a future trip.

Here are the numbers for our Chefs lunch.

We spent OOP: $81.36
TiW Discount: $15.18

Dining Plan: 3 TS credits
DDP OOP cost: $14.90
DxDP OOP cost: $7.46

I did not include my soup as part of the OOP cost because there is a fixed price menu option at Chefs. It allows you to pick an app, entree, and dessert for one price and it is an option on the dining plan. If we were using the dining plan, I would have taken advantage of this. DW's salad, however, would not have been an option for this.

Our running totals at this point were

OOP: $156.35
TiW Discount: $29.13

Dining Plan: 6 TS credits
DDP OOP cost: $21.82
DxDP OOP cost: $14.38


Up next, DD says hi to her best friends.

 

[DMGeurts]

Oh - your poor dd - her owie looks so sore! You can't save them from every fall Dave - as much as you'd like to. I am glad she was able to enjoy her meal though.

The meal looks wonderful... It does look like a fun place to eat. I will have to check out the menu there one of these days (if I ever have another trip scheduled LOL).

I love that you are doing the price comparisons. And that you are doing a running total!

D~

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Oh - your poor dd - her owie looks so sore! You can't save them from every fall Dave - as much as you'd like to. I am glad she was able to enjoy her meal though.

The meal looks wonderful... It does look like a fun place to eat. I will have to check out the menu there one of these days (if I ever have another trip scheduled LOL).

I love that you are doing the price comparisons. And that you are doing a running total!

D~

DD was such a trooper this trip! She had a few more falls through the week. She's still figuring out the running thing. Every fall she would cry for a couple minutes and then bounce right back.

We really like Chefs. The food has been good both times we've gone and we've gotten really friendly and helpful servers.

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Hi all! I had planned to get an update done yesterday but the boards were down all night. I'm hoping to get a few small updates done today and finally get past our first park day. We'll see.

I left off with us leaving our wonderful lunch in France. For our family, a trip to World Showcase has one absolute must do. We've even made trips to Epcot with the sole purpose of stopping here. That must do is....

So it seems like there's a Pooh and Tigger meet and greet in every park. I can understand how that might be a little bit too much for a lot of people but it works out great for DD. Since her first trip at 6 months old, DD has adored Pooh and Tigger. I think we visited the Pooh meet at the UK at least 5 times on our last trip. This is the first of many visits to Pooh this trip. Expect a lot of pictures.

Unlike our last trip when it seemed like no one knew about the UK Pooh location, there was a long line. DD did her best to patiently wait but didn't really understand waiting her turn.

DD was not shy at all when it was her turn!

She went back and forth, hugging Pooh and Tigger. Finally, we got a few posed photos.

We convinced DD to say goodbye to her friends so that other families could meet Pooh and continued back toward the front of Epcot. We stopped to take pictures of a few more topiaries on the way.

We grabbed some TT fastpasses on the way out, planning to use them before dinner if we had time. Before we walked to our car, we stopped at the coffee stand outside of the turnstiles. We got three iced drinks and paid $16.16. On DDP, it would have been 3 snack credits. I'll update the running totals after I cover our dinner.

We went back to CSR and laid DD down for a nap. Sis went to spend time at the pool and lounging on a hammock. DW and I watched Stacy and chilled. Our bounceback offer was in the room so I began to dream about possibilities for our next trip.

Up next, a little more Epcot and dinner on the Boardwalk!

 

[Lidian]

I love the Pooh and Tigger pictures! How sweet!

 

[DMGeurts]

That's a great update! And such sweet pictures of your dd!

D~