Bah, Humbug! Tales of A Disney Scrooge's Conversion Update 7/21

[Ceryssa]

I love parades. Anytime there's an event that has one, I'm there. Not sure what it is, but there's something about watching a bunch of people waving from floats that's just the epitome of celebration to me. So naturally I was excited to see this one; I'd been looking forward to it for a while. This, though, is no ordinary parade. All other parades pale in comparison to Festival of Fantasy. Gorgeous just does not begin describe it. If you're going to Disney, DO NOT MISS IT.

We unfortunately didn't take our good camera with us, so I was working with an iPhone. There are lots of other pictures of the parade out there by now, most with better quality, but for now you're stuck with these!

I probably took as many pictures of this one parade as I did of the rest of the trip, so if you were thinking we didn't take enough pictures up to this point, trust me, we made up for it here!

The costumes alone are stunning. Also, I can't imagine a better way to see this for the first time, than on Main Street, framed by Christmas decorations. Just WOW.

My heart melted right into a big ol' puddle right there.

Perfection.

I love these two. We never got to meet them this trip, which I am definitely going to correct next time.

I love that they added Anna and Elsa. Count me in the minority of people that is not utterly sick of all things Frozen yet.

At this point I started to bounce up and down (and possibly hyperventilate a little), because I knew who it meant was coming up next!

There she was! Best. Princess. Ever. On a float that somehow manages to capture every single bit of awesomeness from the movie.

He may not be a typical prince, but that just makes him more fun if you ask me (obviously, everybody should).

Did I mention how amazing the costumes are?!

These guys were tons of fun to watch.

Guess Wendy wasn't cut out for steering a ship.

Poor Mr. Smee, of course, gets left to outrun Tick-Tock Croc...who looks hungry.

 

[Ceryssa]

Here comes everyone's favorite spirited Scottish lass.

She seems to be having a great time up there.

And the fairies, who look worried...because approaching behind them is the real star of this show. Don't be fooled, the princesses are pretty and the costumes are fabulous and all the characters are just absolutely wonderful. But the dragon steals the show.

Prince Philip doesn't look all that nervous.

Yeah. It's BIG.

And it breathes FIRE. This may have been Aaron's favorite part of the whole trip.

Another look at the pretty Christmas decorations, just because...or possibly a shot where I meant to actually capture the parade and utterly failed. Who knows?

Alice and the White Rabbit seemed quite preoccupied with the trash can over there.

There's my girl!

Our girls and the little girl next to us were thrilled Chip walked right up and said hi

This parade is AMAZING. I just sat there in awe. I don't remember whether we saw a parade on my first trip, so for all I know this was my first Disney parade viewing, and it did NOT disappoint. We loved every bit of it. With that, we were ready for a break, since it had been a pretty long day.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Enjoying your reviews - so many of our favourite things. We love CSR (five trips) and lots of our fave restaurants too. Miss doing the character meals now the kids are older . Some lovely photos and cute outfits. Your little DD looks absolutely bemused by the whole thing.

 

[Chilly]

Loving your report

 

[Chicago Mo]

Another FANTASTIC update!!! i just love your style of writing! YES i have to agree with you.. Daisy doesn't get the love she deserves!!! She is adorable!!

YAY! a ride on 7DMT!!! It's the best. we loved it BUT YOU GOT FRONT ROW!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO! smart thinking of your restaurant choices..if we are hungry we just stop at the nearest restaurant. we can normally find some thing eat! LOL i like your way much better!

OHHH SO happy you were able to watch the parade! IT IS THE BEST PARADE EVER!!!! the colors the atmosphere nothing can top it! the dragon is something isn't she?? cannot describe how wonderful it truly is.. and you had the best seats in the house! Up front and SHADE!!!

I would kill for some chocolate and peanut butter right now...

 

[Ceryssa]

Enjoying your reviews - so many of our favourite things. We love CSR (five trips) and lots of our fave restaurants too. Miss doing the character meals now the kids are older . Some lovely photos and cute outfits. Your little DD looks absolutely bemused by the whole thing.

Thanks for reading! Yeah the restaurants were a huge part of my enjoyment (as mentioned--often--I'm a fan of food!), although I think I did go a bit overboard with them! Loved all the character meals though. I hope my kids don't outgrow them! I'm hoping to do a better job with photos--quantity, if not quality, at least--this next trip. Yes, I don't think she quite knew what to think of it all! She gets overwhelmed really easily, so you can imagine what Disney was like for her.

Loving your report

Thanks for reading along!

Another FANTASTIC update!!! i just love your style of writing! YES i have to agree with you.. Daisy doesn't get the love she deserves!!! She is adorable!!

YAY! a ride on 7DMT!!! It's the best. we loved it BUT YOU GOT FRONT ROW!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO! smart thinking of your restaurant choices..if we are hungry we just stop at the nearest restaurant. we can normally find some thing eat! LOL i like your way much better!

OHHH SO happy you were able to watch the parade! IT IS THE BEST PARADE EVER!!!! the colors the atmosphere nothing can top it! the dragon is something isn't she?? cannot describe how wonderful it truly is.. and you had the best seats in the house! Up front and SHADE!!!

I would kill for some chocolate and peanut butter right now...

It's because I babble. It's endearing. Or at least entertaining, hopefully As for Daisy--I know, right?! What's up with the exclusion?

I really loved 7DMT! I'm not a huge thrill ride fan, so that one is about my speed. I can handle BTMRR but that's about as far as I go!

We are very "moody" eaters--at least one of us is bound to be "not in the mood" for whatever we end up choosing. Maybe we're just difficult people to please lol.

OMG. I could literally go on and on and on about FoF. I have just a ridiculous amount of pictures. I made a photo book and took up 3 full pages just with those pictures!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

I love the CM story at Mine Train. Just another example of why CM's rock! And what a super bonus for Alhanna. Two rides back to back. A little jealous over here.

OK, THAT is adorable.

I cannot agree more Kristina. You know it's a good parade when they can make me rush to get to MK just to see it.

 

[Ceryssa]

I love the CM story at Mine Train. Just another example of why CM's rock! And what a super bonus for Alhanna. Two rides back to back. A little jealous over here.

Yes, they do! I'm totally stealing your CM thank-you card idea for our trip this year--I just love the idea of something tangible that lets them know they've made my day.

She was thrilled! She wanted to ride it again, but of course the line was ridiculous.

 

[Ceryssa]

After the parade went by, we decided we'd had enough for the day. It was warm enough to swim and the girls were ready to check out the pool! We moved on down Main Street, where we got to watch the end of Festival of Fantasy again, then exited the park and hopped a bus back to CSR. Unfortunately for me, being on Day 5 meant I needed to wash some clothes. I don't care what anyone says, doing laundry isn't any more fun on vacation than it is at home--particularly when you have to tote it all back and forth from the laundry room. I had a general idea what building it was in for the Casitas section (building 4, in case you're every staying there) but I kind of wandered around looking for the exact location. I found it eventually, ran back to the room and changed, and went to catch up on the pool fun. Aaron had taken the girls on ahead, and they had fun checking out the hammocks on the way.

They didn't spend too much time lounging around though, because there was a pool waiting!

The pool at Coronado is fairly large, though not particularly imaginative. The scenery is nice and they have a couple of structures squirting water into the pool. The slide, though, is tons of fun. Alhanna went down it over and over and persuaded me to try it out as well. Alyssa was too timid to try it out, so Aaron and I stayed with her for the most part. We played in the pool for a while, and even meandered over to the hot tub area for a few minutes (I don't have a hot tub picture because I'm terrified to get my phone anywhere near water, I'm a total butterfingers and I don't exactly have a good track record with phones...or iPods...or electronics in general). Then it was time to go back to the room and change, because we had big dinner plans!

Look at that, they're both happy at the same time! It's a miracle.

I was VERY excited about our dinner destination this evening, having heard so much about Raglan Road. Our friends would be joining us again, which made it even better. After being dropped off at the bus stop, we found our way through the maze of construction over to Pleasure Island (or whatever they're calling it now). I texted Rachel and she said they were still looking for parking, for which I pitied them. They found us a few minutes later though, so we weren't waiting all that long. We checked in and I realized I'd (again) forgotten to add the baby to the reservation. They were really nice about it though and assured us it wouldn't be a problem. Aaron ordered us a coupe beers from the stand out front to drink while we waited, and the kids proceeded to climb all over everything in sight. Thankfully we didn't have to wait very long and were escorted inside where we could contain the monkeys--I mean children--in a booth.

We didn't get a lot of food pictures here, but once again Aaron had his priorities straight.

We had a decent view of the entertainment, and really enjoyed listening to the live music.

The dancers were a lot of fun to watch, too. Alhanna especially was impressed with them, and spent a lot of the meal dancing along with them in the aisle--which I'm sure the restaurant staff was thrilled about. We REALLY enjoyed this place. I didn't take a lot of pictures of the food, but I remember we ordered the large appetizer to share with the table. I ordered some sort of beer, but through a happy accident our server brought mixed up my beer with one of the ones in Aaron's beer flight, and brought me Innis & Gunn instead, and it turned out to be WAY better than what I'd ordered. I had the Bangers and Booz for my entree, which was really really good. I didn't eat a ton of it because between the appetizer and a few beers I was filling up pretty fast, and there was no way I was missing dessert. Aaron had the Mixed Grill, and the girls had Crispy Shrimp. I can't remember what Rachel or Miguel ordered, because I was over in Food Heaven. Everything was great, and I found myself craving it for months afterward. Fortunately, not too long after we came back we tried Todd English P.U.B. here in Birmingham, and it turns out they carry Innis & Gunn beer and have similar menu items to Raglan Road, so I was happy to discover a local substitute

Finally it was time for dessert, and the main reason I had picked this place (okay, so I pick restaurants based on what's on the dessert menu--specifically whether bread pudding is offered). I was excited about the Irish pub atmosphere and the entertainment and the food, but full disclosure--it was all secondary to the fact they had bread pudding. And from what I'd heard, unparalleled bread pudding.

It lived up to the hype, believe me. I couldn't finish it because there was just no way, but I made a valiant effort. This stuff is SO good. The girls both ordered the kids' Strawberry Delight, Rachel had the Strawberry & Apple Crumble, and the guys, not being big on sweet stuff, both ordered the More Market Street. Why anyone would order yogurt (or anything else, really) when there's BREAD PUDDING available is beyond me, but they both said it was really good. Whatever, I totally win the dessert ordering game.

We were there a WHILE eating and hanging out, and some of us had apparently had enough.

Poor kid. It had been a pretty long day. After we paid the bill and somehow managed to leverage ourselves out of the booth (I considered asking for someone to roll me out in a wheelbarrow--or possibly a forklift; I think there's an entire pound of butter in that bread pudding), we wandered around Downtown Disney for a little while. I wanted to show Aaron some of the sculptures around the Lego Store. I'd seen some when I was down in July and knew he'd love them.

I mean, a fire-breathing dragon made out of Legos? Granted not *quite* as impressive as the one we'd seen earlier in the day, but it's pretty close!

Alyssa was still kind of sleepy, I think.

After checking out the Lego Store, we moved over to World of Disney.

No shortage of Frozen merchandise here.

We discovered the Magic Mirror in the back of the store, which was a hit. We spent a little while playing around with it.

And then it was time to go. We were all really tired, so after sitting at the bus stop for a minute or two, Aaron and I decided we'd rather just grab a cab. Our driver was...interesting, and treated us to a lecture about gypsy cabs. We learned a little more about the cab industry in Orlando than we might have intended to that evening, but she was nice and got us where we needed to go. We headed back to our room and crashed, since we had another big day coming up!

 

[jandlinz]

Just found your trip report. Your girls are sweet! I love your pictures of Festival of Fantasy. We have yet to see it, but I'm really looking forward to it. I'm envious of all the great food you had! Looks delish!
-Lindsey

 

[ariane37]

I've seen FoF 3 times and just now, from your pictures, realized Pinocchio is riding the whale!! Lol so many details, that's why we need to see the parade over and over again

 

[Chilly]

I loved our meal at Raglan Road and can't wait to go again in November the question is do I order the same or try something new. I really like your girls dresses, i've been buying my DD loads of stuff for our trip, at this rate she'll need to change 3 times a day to wear it all.

 

[Chicago Mo]

oh my yum!!! everything looked delish!!! so glad you had a good time - even got a nap in! LOL! what a trooper! Glad you got the wrong beer!!! then SCORE on your local find!!!

DTD is a favorite of ours too.. Love Disney shopping!

 

[Ceryssa]

Just found your trip report. Your girls are sweet! I love your pictures of Festival of Fantasy. We have yet to see it, but I'm really looking forward to it. I'm envious of all the great food you had! Looks delish!
-Lindsey

and thanks for reading along! Oh my, I'm excited for you! It's seriously my favorite parade, ever. Yeah we did some serious eating!! Between Food & Wine and all the restaurants, you'd think we'd never want to eat again. But of course that wasn't the case

I've seen FoF 3 times and just now, from your pictures, realized Pinocchio is riding the whale!! Lol so many details, that's why we need to see the parade over and over again

Oh I know. I could watch it every day! I'm a little bummed we'll only have the chance to see it once next trip.

I loved our meal at Raglan Road and can't wait to go again in November the question is do I order the same or try something new. I really like your girls dresses, i've been buying my DD loads of stuff for our trip, at this rate she'll need to change 3 times a day to wear it all.

I tend to order the same things over and over; I'm a creature of habit. Sometimes it's good to break out of the rut though!

Thanks! I'm so glad I have friends that can sew, it's much more affordable to get cute things made! You might be surprised--we actually changed quite a bit. I pack like the apocalypse is coming, but we ended up going through all our clothes and I had to wash some so we could re-wear them--between the heat and swimming, you end up changing quite a bit!

oh my yum!!! everything looked delish!!! so glad you had a good time - even got a nap in! LOL! what a trooper! Glad you got the wrong beer!!! then SCORE on your local find!!!

DTD is a favorite of ours too.. Love Disney shopping!

So, so good. I can't even tell you how excited I was to find that!

I love shopping anywhere!

 

[Cando86]

I just found your report and I'm loving it! I'm so glad you liked Raglan Road - it was by far one of our favorite restaurants last trip!
Hope you were able to get a good night's rest this night - what a full day!!

 

[ursalita]

Hey! Just followed you over from my TR and realized I'd already started reading yours so I'm caught up. You're right, we have a very similar dynamic with our kids. And yours steal your shrimp, too!

I love Alyssa's Stich costume! It's so cool that she got to meet Stitch wearing it. I have to try to find one. Also, if my kids had seen that huge Stitch we would have been lugging that home. I think we left with 4 new Stitches.

Your AK and Epcot days looked really fun.

That's great that the CM offered the Rider Swap so you could experience 7DMT. It would have been a bummer if you hadn't gotten a chance to ride.

We loved CHH, too. I really want to try Raglan Road if we ever make it back to DTD.

You got some fantastic photos of the FoF parade. They're even better with the holiday decorations.

 

[Ceryssa]

I just found your report and I'm loving it! I'm so glad you liked Raglan Road - it was by far one of our favorite restaurants last trip!
Hope you were able to get a good night's rest this night - what a full day!!

and thanks for reading along!

Ours too! It definitely lived up to the hype. Oh yes we were completely wiped (and STUFFED), I'm pretty sure we fell into bed and were comatose in seconds.

Hey! Just followed you over from my TR and realized I'd already started reading yours so I'm caught up. You're right, we have a very similar dynamic with our kids. And yours steal your shrimp, too!

I love Alyssa's Stich costume! It's so cool that she got to meet Stitch wearing it. I have to try to find one. Also, if my kids had seen that huge Stitch we would have been lugging that home. I think we left with 4 new Stitches.

Your AK and Epcot days looked really fun.

That's great that the CM offered the Rider Swap so you could experience 7DMT. It would have been a bummer if you hadn't gotten a chance to ride.

We loved CHH, too. I really want to try Raglan Road if we ever make it back to DTD.

You got some fantastic photos of the FoF parade. They're even better with the holiday decorations.

Yes they do! Among other things haha...as Alhanna gets older, she keeps trying to steal my clothes...and shoes...and jewelry! She's turned my closet into her personal dress-up box. At least I have a few years before she's able to actually wear most of it.

I found it on EBay I think. I spend a couple weeks scouring the Internet for it! She inevitably asks for an impossible costume, every year!

I had been to Epcot before, so I knew I'd like that one, but I was really surprised with how fun AK was, especially since that's the park I was least excited about.

Thanks! A lot of my pictures didn't turn out great because iPhone quality isn't the best, but most of the parade ones weren't too bad, which is nice because I looooooove it.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

nice to see a positive review of Raglan Road we had a very disappointing meal there last year apart from the bread and butter pudding which was delicious.

 

[Ceryssa]

nice to see a positive review of Raglan Road we had a very disappointing meal there last year apart from the bread and butter pudding which was delicious.

Aww I hate to hear that, you almost never hear bad things about that place. Yay for bread pudding saving the day!!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

It was warm enough to swim and the girls were ready to check out the pool!

Haha, kids. The most magical place on earth, but they want the pool. That's pretty universal though. Plus... Disney pools.

Laundry is one thing I have yet to do in Disney. However, it is not on the bucket list.

Look at that, they're both happy at the same time! It's a miracle.

Good thing you captured it on film!!!

I have to remember to visit that next trip. That is precious. And much cheaper than buying.