Giving Thanksgiving a Whirl (and a Hurl) in WDW COMPLETE! 5/20

xlsm · Feb 3, 2016

My DH is the nice one in our relationship...I'd have sent him down to deal with the situation so I wouldn't get put in Disney jail.
If I moved, and then the bathroom was gross...get the bail money ready.

I'm being a little bit funny here, but DH would probably want me to go down to deal with it and let me be the bad guy.

I hope the room drama ended there!! NOT how you want your morning to go

jandlinz · Feb 3, 2016

OH my goodness, I'm aching to know what happens when you return. I don't think I would have been so nice. We stayed at SSR and requested bed rails that were never brought. I asked when we checked in, called that night, then the following day twice. That night I called twice one of my boys fell out of bed and hit his head on the night stand leaving a significant bruise on his head. I was livid :furious:

and went to the front desk and explained the situation. Before I made it back to the room we had bed rails. :confused3

I think if I was not as polite we could have gotten something from it, but nothing was offered.

ariane37 · Feb 4, 2016

tabrizia said:
I would be super annoyed by their attitude. It wasn't your fault they had a plumbing issue. Yeah I might have gone for the angry option at this point, especially after the must be checked out by 11 and then the not clean shower, ewww!

I really tried not to get mad, because I didn't want to ruin the kids day and they KNOW that when mom gets mad things only go downhill for awhile lol. But when I see that one thing hasn't been cleaned it automatically makes me wonder what else hasn't been cleaned, and I thought the least they could do is give us a clean room! I ended up losing it later on that day. Luckily we didn't have any more flooding!

xlsm said:
My DH is the nice one in our relationship...I'd have sent him down to deal with the situation so I wouldn't get put in Disney jail.
If I moved, and then the bathroom was gross...get the bail money ready.

I'm being a little bit funny here, but DH would probably want me to go down to deal with it and let me be the bad guy.

I hope the room drama ended there!! NOT how you want your morning to go

I do love your humor :goodvibes

and normally I'm the one who loses my cool first; Steve usually takes everything in stride and is the "deal with it and move on" type. But that "out by 11" was it for him, and then the mile walk to the room did not help at all. I tend to go off on people :rolleyes1

which I may or may not have done later that day.......... but we had some fun at HS in between, so that was a plus!

jandlinz said:
OH my goodness, I'm aching to know what happens when you return. I don't think I would have been so nice. We stayed at SSR and requested bed rails that were never brought. I asked when we checked in, called that night, then the following day twice. That night I called twice one of my boys fell out of bed and hit his head on the night stand leaving a significant bruise on his head. I was livid and went to the front desk and explained the situation. Before I made it back to the room we had bed rails. I think if I was not as polite we could have gotten something from it, but nothing was offered.

Ugh, I'm sorry about your son

Those night stand corners are deadly! But it goes to show there can be issues at any resort, and I do still love the BW and this won't stop us from staying there again. I believe it's more a case of the CM's you deal with at the time rather than the resort itself.

And looking back, I'm not sure being polite was the best way to go. Even though we got a credit (or two), I definitely think if we'd started out being less polite the issue wouldn't have gone on as long as it did! Because unfortunately I had to ask for that shower to be cleaned more than once :sad2:

Elevationist · Feb 5, 2016

ariane37 said:
Overall we were happy with our meals. Everything was good, nothing "wow" but a step above CS and very good for the price. Ricky got a chocolate milkshake also and that baby was GOOOOOD! Nice and thick!

I'm so glad to hear this! I've never eaten at the Plaza either, but I'm admittedly kinda curious about it! :scratchin

ariane37 said:
Jungle Cruise isn't normally one of my faves (don't start hating!)

No hate here. I always skip it myself. :laughing:

ariane37 said:
An apple dipped in turkey fat covered in Mickey sprinkles maybe?

I'd eat that.

ariane37 said:
As I said before, this is another ride I prefer going on when it's dark! I love the views and I think you can see into the cottage at the end better.

All of my 7DMT rides have been during the day! I should shoot for a night FP+ in October!

ariane37 said:
and use gondolas as our primary means of transportation here in the Hudson Valley, NY.

ariane37 said:
Since we were the last room at the end of the hallway there was a window there and we did have this nice view

That's kinda cool!

ariane37 said:
Set-up the same, cleanliness of the shower not so much. Someone had.......shaved.....a substantial amount of hair from their body and it hadn't been cleaned out of the shower. There was also dried blue shampoo or shaving cream all over. The dried blue whatever I would've just cleaned up myself; the hair I couldn't stomach. Neil told Steve the room had been clean but apparently the shower was overlooked.

OH HELL NAW. I would have LOST IT at this point.

ariane37 said:
Now I was getting I know things don't always go right on vacation no matter where you are. We've had little blips on other Disney vacations - boys caught a 24 hour bug once, had major MB issues the first trip we used them - so I wasn't about a room having plumbing issues. But things were racking up between the nonchalant attitude from BW staff so far to the be out by 11 to the now blecchy shower.

Dang. Good thing I'm too scared of the Clown pool to stay at BW anyhow. :sad2:

ariane37 said:
2. I stayed pleasant!

You're a better woman that I am! Somebody woulda gotten yelled at! :rolleyes1

ariane37 said:
3. We headed out and began our walk to my favorite park, HS The weather was gorgeous!

HOORAY! HAPPY THINGS!

Whit64130 · Feb 6, 2016

ariane37 said:
Hello my DIS friends! I've wanted to try writing a trip report for a couple years now but just didn't think I'd be funny or cool enough to write one as awesome as the pros But then I decided I AM cool-why not?? So if you decide to follow along please forgive any lameness and chalk it up to a TR newbie, and if I manage to complete this I promise I'll try better next time

Hi again!

I stumbled over here from your other TR. I have been binging on TR's lately. I feel like i learn so much from other's experiences!! I am still a newbie at all things DIS and decided to start a PTR for my November trip. We shall see if it is as much fun to write as to read!

ariane37 said:
For some reason I can't remember we ended up over by the Fire Station. Glad we did, because we listened to the Dapper Dans for like 5 songs! As you can see they were dressed in their holiday finery and were belting out Christmas tunes. I'm not sure what you call the instruments they're playing but they were pretty cool!

The last time I was at WDW during Christmas I was about 8 so I am excited to see it dressed up again!

ariane37 said:

So did not know this existed!

ariane37 said:
Our guide was great and our boat was filled with people experiencing this for the first time. We'd also never ridden in the dark, that makes a big difference, too! If you're ever down while they're running the Jingle Cruise make sure you don't miss it!

I CAN'T wait for this!

ariane37 · Feb 6, 2016

Elevationist said:
I'm so glad to hear this! I've never eaten at the Plaza either, but I'm admittedly kinda curious about it!

All of my 7DMT rides have been during the day! I should shoot for a night FP+ in October!

OH HELL NAW. I would have LOST IT at this point.

You're a better woman that I am! Somebody woulda gotten yelled at!

HOORAY! HAPPY THINGS!

Do you know I haven't learned yet how to separately quote when someone multi-quotes me? I can't handle technology :faint:

Wait! I kind of did now.....my 13 year old showed me :blush:

You should definitely try the Plaza! It was a pretty good meal and now we know it's another decent option in the park :thumbsup2

Plus there's ice-cream......
AND you MOST definitely should go for the night 7DMT FP ::yes::

I was trying my best to keep calm for the kids, especially since Steve wasn't lol. Usually I lose it before him! I was good until we got back from the park, and then someone DID get yelled at more than once.
Oh-pretty sure whoever designed that clown pool did it to freak out those of us who saw the original "Poltergeist" in the theatre :scared1:

ariane37 · Feb 6, 2016

[QUOTE="Whit64130, post: 55121455, member: 554872"]Hi again! :tigger:

I stumbled over here from your other TR. I have been binging on TR's lately. I feel like i learn so much from other's experiences!! I am still a newbie at all things DIS and decided to start a PTR for my November trip. We shall see if it is as much fun to write as to read![/QUOTE]

Hello! Glad you found me here, too! TR's are addicting, aren't they ::yes::

I've learned many good things - and found good things to eat - from TR's and dining reports. And since you're reading mine I will certainly read yours :thumbsup2

Whit64130 said:
So did not know this existed!

Well I guess this is what you learned from my TR today lol!

Whit64130 said:
The last time I was at WDW during Christmas I was about 8 so I am excited to see it dressed up again!

I love WDW in the fall and forgot how much I love seeing it all decked out for Christmas until this trip :goodvibes

ariane37 · Feb 8, 2016

I suggested walking over to HS so I could walk off some of my anger over the hairy shower situation and thankfully everyone agreed. It really is a nice walk from the BW if the weather is pleasant, less than 15 minutes along the path. Soon we saw this in the distance

Here's a better shot

Bag check went quick and soon we were checking out some holiday decorations in my favorite park

This was cool, these "legs" did the Can-Can!

We were headed to Pixar Place to use our first FP for Toy Story. SO glad we'd gotten one for this, which is Chris's favorite ride in the park, because the SB time was 120. Not unheard of, especially at 11:00 and during a holiday week, but there is no way you'd get us to wait for half that long!

Mr. Cool.......at least until his brother beat him at TSMM, then it was Mr. Pouty.

Not so Hidden Mickey on the wall right before you get in the ride vehicle

We had a little time until our next FP after Toy Story so we grabbed some snacks, pretzels for the boys, glazed almonds and pecans for Steve and I. Checked GMR but the wait time was 50. We finally felt the crowds had arrived! Granted it's easier to feel the crowds in HS than in MK since there's so much less to do. Speaking of, I said HS is my favorite park and it (kind of) is. It definitely was and I'm hoping it is again in a few years, even though I'm not a Star Wars fan (I know, I know!!) I just really miss Animation Academy and I still cry over Mulch, Sweat and Shears being gone. We would spend hours in the park between those 2 attractions........I even got to sing and play tambourine with M, S & S 3 years ago. I love the theming/idea of Old Hollywood and I hope that remains when everything new comes in. We still stop to watch the Streetmosphere performers whenever we see them.

Sorry, I promise I'm done lamenting the old days! We were headed down Sunset Blvd. for our next FP, which happened to be for mine and Ricky's absolute favorite ride in ALL of WDW:

We could ride this thing all day! Seriously, I would let Disney use Chris as a dishwasher or garbage collector for the day if they would just not make me get off for a few hours! Weird thing was, when we walked up the wait was 145 MINUTES. WHAT?? Oh, ok, Rock 'n Roller Coaster was down. Guess that explains it!

Very happy for our FP!

There was a 12 year old boy behind us in line, all by himself. He asked me if we'd been on before, how it was, etc., because it was his first time and the rest of his family wouldn't ride with him. He was kind of nervous and asked if he could sit with us, so cute! I said of course, I'd say we were a party of 3 when we got to the elevators. I believe my boy was a little jealous lol. During one of the drops this boy screamed and grabbed my arm, but afterwards he said he loved it. I love seeing kids experience rides for the first time!

Once our elevator delivered us safely from the Twilight Zone, Ricky and Steve got back in the FP line, Ricky with Chris's MB, and I took Chris to Muppets. After that we decided to walk through the Streets of America and check out the Osborne Lights area in the daylight. I'm glad we did, because I saw a few things I think I would have missed at night when we spend most of our time looking up and the crowds are heavy.
(continued in next post)

Elevationist · Feb 8, 2016

ariane37 said:
We could ride this thing all day! Seriously, I would let Disney use Chris as a dishwasher or garbage collector for the day if they would just not make me get off for a few hours!

Bahahaha! That's hilarious! And exactly how I feel about Soarin', if only I had a source of child labor to put up as collateral. :rotfl:

ariane37 said:
Weird thing was, when we walked up the wait was 145 MINUTES. WHAT?? Oh, ok, Rock 'n Roller Coaster was down. Guess that explains it!

Very happy for our FP!

How CRAP. I bet you WERE happy for that FP! Geez! :eek:

ariane37 said:
There was a 12 year old boy behind us in line, all by himself. He asked me if we'd been on before, how it was, etc., because it was his first time and the rest of his family wouldn't ride with him. He was kind of nervous and asked if he could sit with us, so cute! I said of course, I'd say we were a party of 3 when we got to the elevators. I believe my boy was a little jealous lol. During one of the drops this boy screamed and grabbed my arm, but afterwards he said he loved it. I love seeing kids experience rides for the first time!

Awww! Okay, this story is just TOO precious! :goodvibes

ariane37 · Feb 8, 2016

Before we started actually looking at the lights and little areas set up, we stopped and took a picture here

Cute little set up at the beginning of the street. Love how Ricky is trying to look tough in front of a big picture of a snowman and a w Winnebago...Then we started walking up and down and saw some really cool stuff I didn't notice 3 years ago. Or I did notice and just forgot in my old age..........

Can't picnic outside in November in NY!

How adorable is this! The back of Tony's Restaurant, set up for Lady and Tramp

Took this for Chris, one of his favorite characters

We also found this, which I'd heard was here but hadn't seen in March

Once Upon A Time fans, anyone?

At this point we were pretty darn hungry, so we headed over to ABC Commissary. We saw the line before we got to the actual restaurant - the line was down to the check-in podium for Sci-Fi!! Um, nope. Over to Sunset Blvd. to check out Fairfax Fare -HOLY MOLY! No freakin' way, there were lines everywhere spilling out into the streets. CM's were directing people as far as which line was for which food stand, it was craziness. Not worth it for anything on the menus there! We decided to go back to the BW and try ESPN Club. I'd read many positive reviews here and we hoped maybe it wouldn't be overly crowded since it was close to 2:00, so a little after your normal lunchtime.
We checked some wait times before we headed out since it seemed like everyone in the park was on line for food, but nothing was even close to being in our 20 (or even 30) minute timeframe. Luckily the line for the Friendship Boat was almost non-existent because Chris and I were approaching hangry status REAL quick!
ESPN Club was somewhat busy but we were seated right away. It was 2:00 and we had a dinner ADR for 6, so Steve and I didn't want to go too heavy (although at that point I could've eaten one of everything on the menu). We each got a Michelob Ultra, kids got soda. Ricky got a Chicken Caesar salad and Chris got wings. Steve and I decided to split 2 appetizers: the Pulled Pork Nachos I'd heard so much about, and the Cheese Pierogies with caramelized onions and herbed sour cream

These were delicious! Steve makes pierogies at home but we never really order them out anywhere. The nachos were SUPER delicious, except we forgot to ask for them w/o the jalapenos

Did we ask for them without the chili? Lol I don't see it on there but maybe it's underneath with some of the pork? I can't remember but we finished them! Chris helped

There were tons of things on the menu that looked good to us and everything coming out of the kitchen smelled fantastic. I think this is an excellent option if you're on the BW or in HS or EPCOT and not feeling anything they have to eat in the parks. Although how can you not find anything you like in Epcot, really?? I will caution that if there's a big game going on you're likely to find a huge line to get in at ESPN. We've seen this more than once on our stays here.

UP NEXT: ATTACK OF THE HAIRY SHOWER, PART II

ariane37 · Feb 8, 2016

Elevationist said:
Bahahaha! That's hilarious! And exactly how I feel about Soarin', if only I had a source of child labor to put up as collateral.

If we're ever down there at the same time I'd be more than happy to rent Chris to you for the price of a school bread and a grey goose slush :drinking1

xlsm · Feb 8, 2016

I LOVE that you claimed the Tower kid for his first ride :lovestruc

I would totally help you eat those nachos, and you could give me all the jalapenos

I also feel like I need to go through my pictures and see if I got Mr. Gold's sign in any of them...I know L pointed it out and we all got excited, but I'm wondering how I managed to not photograph it!!

I love all the sweet little touches in the lights area!

tabrizia · Feb 9, 2016

We use to have an ESPN Zone restaurant in Baltimore Harbor by the Aquarium. We enjoyed going there after a day at the aquarium, the food was quite tasty. Those nachos look great.

ariane37 · Feb 10, 2016

xlsm said:
I LOVE that you claimed the Tower kid for his first ride

I would totally help you eat those nachos, and you could give me all the jalapenos

I also feel like I need to go through my pictures and see if I got Mr. Gold's sign in any of them...I know L pointed it out and we all got excited, but I'm wondering how I managed to not photograph it!!

I love all the sweet little touches in the lights area!

It was fun having him sit with us and seeing his reaction :scared:

If we ever end up down there at the same time, it's a nacho-date!

Did you find any pictures of Mr. Gold's sign? Because I first learned about it in someone's TR and for some reason, I'm thinking it was yours........

tabrizia said:
We use to have an ESPN Zone restaurant in Baltimore Harbor by the Aquarium. We enjoyed going there after a day at the aquarium, the food was quite tasty. Those nachos look great.

I've never seen another ESPN Zone, but yes those nachos definitely hit the spot :thumbsup2

ariane37 · Feb 11, 2016

After finishing our lunch at ESPN, Steve and I wanted to continue our tour of the holiday decorations at the other BW resorts. Ricky and Chris weren't interested in coming so we all stopped back at the room first. I wanted to make sure the bathroom had been cleaned, anyway.
And, it hadn't been :furious:

Steve and I headed down to the lobby to scream at someone before continuing our décor-tour. Neil was still there - he may not get stuff done but they sure gave him hours - so I approached him AGAIN and told him the room STILL had not been cleaned in the almost 5 hours since we'd last spoken, even though it supposedly had been cleaned BEFORE we moved in. He was surprised; at least I think that was his surprised look. I told him we were heading out to check out the other BW resorts, *the boys were in the room*, and I expected it cleaned by the time we were back. Yes, of course it would be, he assured me :rolleyes1

Whew. OK. We'd already seen the YC decorations so we went straight to the BC. We'd seen their carousel back in 2012 but it still amazed us. I know each year they hold a lottery to decide the order the deluxe resorts are decorated in; thinking BC may have been last since they're all always decorated by Thanksgiving, it was the Monday before and the artists were just finishing up.

Christmas carousel horse and artist/chef checking her work:

t

The BC carousel horse coming up

I think this YC horse is my favorite

We left the BC and were headed over towards the Swan when Ricky called. He said housekeeping came, asked for his parents, and when he said we weren't there they left. Now I suppose this was our fault; we hadn't thought about the fact that they wouldn't go in the room with only minors present. And I'm not sure why I mentioned to no-help Neil that the boys were staying in the room while we went out, but I did. Maybe he could told us the room couldn't be cleaned while the kids were alone in it? I realize that might be too much to ask, but, considering I'd already had to request the room be re-cleaned twice, then throw in the move, I think maybe not.
I wasn't in the mood now to stop in the Swan because this was getting to be a headache. Some people may have just been able to "Let It Go" :crazy2:

but again, after everything that had gone on already I couldn't. So we marched back to BW, now losing more of our time because it had to be put into this issue, and rather than speaking with Neil who apparently they let go home I approached a woman whose CM tag said "Stacey-Manager". I fairly pleasantly recapped EVERYTHING for her, and she felt so bad for us! She called housekeeping right then and there and confirmed someone would be RIGHT UP. Also confirmed they won't go in a room with minors which I did completely understand. And yes I had thrown in how our tour of the other resorts had been interrupted. So after another apology she reiterated that housekeeping would be up momentarily, and that we needed to be in the room when they got there.
WHY?
Because it would be a great help if we could show them exactly what the problem was.
IT'S SOMEONE'S SHAVED PUBIC AREA ALL OVER THE SHOWER. NOT SOMEONE FROM MY FAMILY. AND SOME STICKY BLUE STUFF. EASY TO SEE.
This wasn't our first rodeo and we'd never had to be in the room for housekeeping, you guys know that! And I'd heard her tell whomever she called that the bathroom, especially the shower needed cleaning. I need to give more direction?
I debated this with her a bit and then conceded. I wanted this over. Plus it was 3:40. We had a dinner ADR at Trattoria al Forno right there on the BW for 5:50 with no plans for another park until afterwards. I knew the kids wouldn't want to go over to the Swan/dolphin with us, so whatever.
Here's a quick breakdown of the next 2 hours:
-head to room, expecting housekeeping momentarily so tell both boys to pee
-wait
-wait while cursing
-wait, realize they also didn't leave an extra roll of TP when they "cleaned" and boys used all of what they did leave while we were gone
-4:30, head to lobby to steal TP from lobby bathroom and yell at Stacey. Go ahead and judge!! They most certainly owed us some TP by now! And no way was I asking for some at the desk. We wouldn't get it until check-out day.
Before heading to the bathroom I approached the desk. Stacey smiled at me; I was palms up, shoulders shrugged like, "***?" She asked if everything was fixed and I said "NO! THEY HAVEN'T BEEN IN YET AND WE'RE JUST SITTING AROUND, DOING NOTHING, WAITING FOR NO REASON." She looked at her watch and told me oh yes, they're sending someone up specifically to clean your room at 4:30, and since it's only a few minutes past I'm sure they'll be there momentarily. I said they'd better be because it's now beyond ridiculous. She agreed and asked if we were going back to a park that night; I told her HS and she told me for my patience and cooperation (OK) she was giving each of us 3 anytime FP's to be used only that night.
This eased my frustration somewhat because we hadn't tried to get a 4th FP before leaving the park earlier and I knew there'd be nothing good left when we returned after dinner. Plus with the anytimes we could ride 3 Tier 1's, so I was thinking TSMM again for Chris, RnRC since it had been down earlier, and GMR since we hadn't ridden since the TCM updates.
-grab me some TP
-return to room and fill Steve and the boys in on my conversation with Stacey
-wait
-5:15 start getting ready for dinner and curse ALOT
-5:30 head to lobby for dinner and to rip Stacey a new one
The smile quickly left her face when she saw me coming and I wasted no time getting right to my point for the FIFTH time. Among other things I told her we'd be returning from the park after 10:00 at night, I expected my kids to have a sparkling clean shower to use and if I had to come down a 6th time because nobody could be bothered to ensure someone else's hair was removed from our shower in a room we had to move to because our first room had a major plumbing issue, I would no longer be patient or cooperative and nobody at the desk would be happy. Her response was to give us another monetary credit in addition to the $150 Neil had given us; hers was another $100. That was all well and good but to be honest here, it didn't matter at that point. Our money had been spent. We knew before coming down what we were spending on room and tickets and approx. how much on food, and were prepared and fine with that amount. What we weren't prepared for and what meant more to us was the loss of time and the frustration, so again, whatever. At least we had our anytime FP's to look forward to, which she reminded me of as we headed out to our dinner.

I know what I said to her may have sounded harsh and looking back now it seems like not as huge a deal as it was then. But c'mon guys, really? They can't get this right? Do any of you want to clean this kind of hair out of a shower in your hotel room yourselves? I'd tried being pleasant, really really pleasant and it didn't get us anywhere so I felt I had no choice but to go Steve's route and get kinda' nasty. OMG. Oh, and notice I'm doing all the talking now.......yeah, Steve left it up to me :thumbsup2

We were on our way to try out Trattoria al Forno for dinner before heading back to HS for our newfound FP's and more importantly, to say good-bye to the Osborne Lights. Since you all were so patient reading through all these words I'll leave you with a nice, tranquil picture of the Beach Club I snapped on our way to dinner

UP NEXT: TRATTORIA AL FORNO, WHERE HAVE ALL THE FP'S GONE AND OSBORNE LIGHTS OVERLOAD

xlsm · Feb 11, 2016

Gross.

That is all.

Actually, I have many, MANY more thoughts on this whole situation, but I'm pretty sure you can guess them.

Wow.

I am really, really sorry you had to deal with that terrible service :sad2:

tabrizia · Feb 11, 2016

Honestly your mad sounds much nicer then I would have been. Eww uncleaned hair in the shower, all over in a room worse then my old one, but I had to move to because of plumbing issues on their side, yeah I would not have been as nice. Especially after wasting over an hour waiting for the maid to come to clean!

ariane37 · Feb 12, 2016

xlsm said:
Gross.

That is all.

Actually, I have many, MANY more thoughts on this whole situation, but I'm pretty sure you can guess them.

Wow.

I am really, really sorry you had to deal with that terrible service

tabrizia said:
Honestly your mad sounds much nicer then I would have been. Eww uncleaned hair in the shower, all over in a room worse then my old one, but I had to move to because of plumbing issues on their side, yeah I would not have been as nice. Especially after wasting over an hour waiting for the maid to come to clean!

Thank you both, makes me feel better about being upset and not staying pleasant. Glad I'm not alone in feeling that the service was WAY below what we should expect!

ariane37 · Feb 12, 2016

We always like to do one Italian restaurant each trip, and this time we had Via Napoli scheduled for our last night. However, since we were right on the BW we also decided to try the new(ish) Trattoria al Forno.
We were seated as soon as we arrived which was about 5 minutes before our 5:50 ADR time. Our waiter, who was from Idaho but whose name I've forgotten, came right over and took our drink order. The usual vacation soda for the boys, beer for Steve, and I went for the Sangria

It was okay; not as good as Marrakesh's but after the day we had it hit the spot! We were hungry but not starving so only Ricky got an app: Venetian Mussels

This was his 2nd order of mussels so far on vacation, the first being Marrakesh. He said these were good but Marrakesh's were spectacular!
For our entrees Chris went with the kids cheese pizza; Ricky got the Baked Lasagna, Steve got the Chianti-braised Lamb Shank and I got the Tagliatelle alla Carbonara.

Steve's lamb came with polenta and my pasta had pecorino cheese and pancetta in it. Ricky wouldn't keep his fork out of his lasagna long enough for me to take a picture because he's a 13 y.o. boy, and unless something tastes completely nasty food usually gets shoveled into his mouth at the speed of light.

Unfortunately the food was just "meh" for Steve and I. My dish had very little taste despite the creamy carbonara sauce and pancetta. Although our waiter from Idaho (who suddenly developed a Bronx Italian accent when he found out we were from NY) talked up the lamb shank as being their best dish, Steve thought the sauce lacked flavor and the meat wasn't very tender. Oh, well. I still like to be able to say we've tried places.

We were anxious to leave and get to HS so we all skipped dessert and rolled down to the Friendship boat dock. After eating it would've been good to walk to the park, but why do something healthy on vacation? Chris helped us watch for the boat to pull in with the nifty bulb necklace he purchased earlier that day

We've never found it to be a long wait for boats during any of our BW stays, and once again we were quickly on a boat and on our way. As soon as we arrived at HS we went to TSMM to use our first anytime FP. It was 7:45 and the posted wait time was 145 minutes. We walked up to the FP entrance, Ricky and I scanned our bands first, and (I should have known) the Mickey heads turned blue. UGH! I quickly explained to the CM why we should have fast passes and he called over another CM - management I assume - with an Ipad named Brandyn. Steve was livid and had walked away. I was fuming but calmly explained the situation to Brandyn while trying to hold back tears. Brandyn scanned my band, checked his Ipad and told me no anytime fast passes had been added to our account by Stacey. Thank God Brandyn took pity on me and the boys because if he hadn't my sanity would have left the building right there. He told us to go ahead, so I called Steve over and we went in after profusely thanking Brandyn. I didn't ask him about using more of the anytime FPs we were promised because I was afraid that would be pushing it with him, but we decided we weren't even going to attempt it which sucked.
After Toy Story we made our way to the Great Movie Ride, which luckily only had a 25 minute wait. We really wanted to see the changes that were made after sponsorship went to TCM so we decided we could handle the wait lol. I didn't take any pictures, sorry! We were fans of the new movie clips in the pre-show room and in the montage at the end. What I didn't like was the new voice
over spiel by.......the guy from TCM. I like him on the channel but not on the ride. The CM was still saying some of the old lines but not nearly as much, and in some places the voice over started while the CM was still talking. Overall it's really the same ride just a little different :upsidedow

Since everything else had high waits and the day was just kind of a real bummer, we decided to head over to the Osborne Lights. We'd seen them in 2010 and 2012 but Chris only remembered seeing them once. Steve and I both thought it was such a shame it was the last year. Of all the special holiday things at WDW, the holiday storytellers at Epcot and the Osborne Lights are the 2 things we feel really put you in the spirit and are especially wonderful to experience.
We started down by LMA, where they had the dessert party set up. The area was closed off so Steve asked what it was all about. I told him and he tried to sneak in anyway because he doesn't listen to me......

Osborne Lights picture overload:

I loved this building. I loved that it wasn't covered in too many colored lights. Do you guys know about the cat Disney hides in the lights somewhere? Every night or few nights they move it. I swore that was the cat in the 2nd floor window but then we found him later on.

Here he is!

I'll leave you with one more of Mickey

Driving the Osborne train for the last time :sad1:

So sad! I want to believe the rumors that they're moving the lights somewhere other than HS, but I'm afraid if I put too much stock in that then I'll be disappointed.

We spent close to an hour watching the lights and listening to the music, unsure whether or not we'd get another chance that week to see them again (we didn't). The park was closing at 10 and when we felt we'd had our fill of the lights it was about that time. Ricky and I considered getting in a ride on TOT before leaving but the day had left me rather deflated and Ricky didn't feel like walking ALL the way over to that part of the park (what are these kids going to do when they're in their 40's??? Lazy!) so we headed out. Around park closing at both Epcot and HS the lines for the boats back to the BW resorts are flat out ridiculous so we almost always walk. Epcot is a no brainer since it's like a 5 minute walk from the IG; HS is closer to 15 but still beats waiting forever for a boat and then being squished in. And even though it was 10:00 we were far from the only ones on the path since the park had just closed and it was a busy time of year.

We stopped in Seashore Sweets on the BW to grab some snacks for the room and then headed up. The boys were planning to shower quick, eat their snacks and then we were going to get some sleep. We were FINALLY doing things my way in the morning and planning to make 8 am RD at HS!

We walked upstairs and the first thing I did was check the shower.......

UP NEXT: STACEY AND I GO HEAD TO HEAD ONE FINAL TIME

Whit64130 · Feb 13, 2016

ariane37 said:
-4:30, head to lobby to steal TP from lobby bathroom and yell at Stacey. Go ahead and judge!! They most certainly owed us some TP by now! And no way was I asking for some at the desk. We wouldn't get it until check-out day.

No judgement here. You handled it a lot better than I ever would. Even staying at All Stars this past time I would've not left the front desk until housekeeping or a manager went with me to the room.
On another note...I hate I will miss the Osborne Lights this year. Living through your pictures!

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Giving Thanksgiving a Whirl (and a Hurl) in WDW COMPLETE! 5/20