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

[Ceryssa]

Hi there! This is my first time writing a trip report, but I've read enough of these things that I'm pretty sure I know how they go. And if not, well, just smile and nod, as they say My family and I just returned from our first visit to the Happiest Place on Earth, and I'm suffering from a bit of the infamous Post Disney Depression. As I'm in complete denial about the trip being over, I figured reliving it would be a good (and totally healthy) option. Who wants to deal with reality, anyway?

It's customary to start with introductions, yes? This is us:

That's me Kristina, my husband Aaron (the Scrooge referenced in the title--not to spoil the story for you, but he's been converted; I wouldn't want you to worry this story doesn't have a happy ending!), and our two girls Alhanna and Alyssa. As I mentioned, it was our first family trip, and it was awesome and difficult and magical and frustrating and just completely fantastic. To give you a little bit of history on how this came about, I started planning this trip back in the Stone Age (ok not really but seriously it was about 3 years ago). It took me two years to convince the husband it was time and another year for us to save, plan (I mean the real, actual, "We're really going" planning) and actually get there. At the time I wasn't sure if or when we would go back, as Aaron was less than enthusiastic about going to begin with. So it was going to be The Trip. We were going to do everything there was to do and see everything there was to see and it would be perfect and magical and our Disney vacation would go down in history as the BEST EVER (sound familiar to anyone? Just everyone who's ever taken their first trip to Disney, I imagine). Of course as it turns out we couldn't stay in Disney for 18 months and we didn't find a money tree in our backyard, so I set about planning a more realistic trip! I researched and booked it and changed it and did a little more research and changed it about 17 more times. Thanks to some awesome friendly and super helpful people I managed to get everything just exactly how I wanted it. Until we got down there and I started changing things again. But anyway, let's get started, shall we?

The When: November 1-10
The Where: Coronado Springs and Yacht Club
The Why: It's Disney World, people. Do I really need a reason? It's where all the cool kids go.

Saturday, November 1
We're Here!

Sunday, November 2
Where are we again?
It's a pirate's life for me...just as long as they don't get too close!
We get to eat in a castle?!
Pirates, Boat Rides and Fireworks, Oh My!

Monday, November 3
Feasting with family
Exploring World Showcase
Soarin' and Racing and Acquiring New Furry Friends
Fireworks and Photo Ops

Tuesday, November 4
A Wild Breakfast With a Special Guest
Roaring Like a Lion and Almost Getting Wet
Eating Our Weight in African Food

Wednesday, November 5
Dining With Royalty
Checking out Fantasyland
A Bunch of Crazies at the Circus
Food and Fantasyland Fun
Festival of Fantasy Part 1
Festival of Fantasy Part 2
Swimming like Fish and Eating Like the Irish

Thursday, November 6
Being Fancy and Foreign
Back to the Future (World)
Visiting a Princess and Enjoying the Scenery
Yes, More Eating! And Being Amazed by Illuminations

Friday, November 7
Getting Ready to Par-tay!
Having a Long-Awaited Audience With Arendelle Royalty
Braving Princess Meets and Spinning Rides
Traveling into Tomorrow and Meeting a Favorite From the Past
Enjoying the Party Atmosphere and Trying out a New Favorite
Once Upon A Christmastime Part 1
Once Upon a Christmastime Part 2

Saturday, November 8
Movin' on Up...to the Yacht Club
Keeping Two Kids Afloat in Storm Along Bay

 

[Ceryssa]

Finally, after all the planning and waiting The Day was here! I originally had us flying out of Atlanta (because apparently whoever makes the flight schedules still assumes Birmingham is a hamlet with a population of 5, none of whom want to go to Orlando at any sort of convenient time), due to the prices being way better and LOTS more direct flights. But the more I thought about it, the less appealing a 3 hour drive on both ends of the trip sounded, so I switched some things around and booked a flight out of Birmingham at 5:30 pm on November 1st. Yes, that's a "pm". I was very upset at losing an entire day in Disney, as this schedule wreaked havoc with my plans for lounging around CSR sipping margaritas. You can see why I was distressed. I started second guessing my decision but it was too late, as I'd unfortunately mentioned this to my husband already. As he would be the one driving during our three hour commute, he was on board with a shorter trip to the airport, and alas, he didn't understand the big deal about losing a few hours of Disney time I know, right? He knows better now though. So off we went, and had a blessedly uneventful flight to Orlando. We were a little concerned about how Alyssa would handle the plane--she's, shall we say, a bit high strung at times, and gets motion sickness to boot--but they both did great and before we knew it we were there! I have an appalling lack of pictures from this day because, well, it just didn't occur to me. I'm new at this, ok?

I had booked a car service to pick us up because we were landing later in the evening and since I knew it could take a while for bags to be delivered to the room, and I figured this way we wouldn't have someone knocking on our door in the wee hours of the morning. I thought this would be easier. Our driver was great, he was right on time and very helpful, but all in all I think we'll go with DME next time.

After what felt like an eternity spent waiting for our bags (but was probably closer to 30-45 minutes) we were on our way, and before long we saw this! My apologies for my appalling photography skills.


Yay! Our driver dropped us off at Coronado Springs, where we got in line for check-in along with what appeared to be a thousand of our closest friends. The place was hopping! It didn't take too terribly long to get checked in, and the process was fairly easy since we'd done online check-in. We were directed to bell services to get some help with our bags (since I pack like the apocalypse is coming, we had quite a few, and as we were in Casitas 5--the very back, as it turned out--it was quite a way to lug [undisclosed emmbarrassing number of bags] to our room alone. This was where the evening took a turn for the worse. I'm not sure if it was an issue of being overwhelmed and understaffed, or just an off night, but we waited a loooooong time. I went and picked up/activated our mugs, took the girls on a tour of the lobby, and assured them a couple hundred times we'd eat as soon as we got our stuff into the room. We were all starting to get a little frazzled at this point. After we checked back with bell services a few times, the guy at the desk flagged someone down to help (I have a feeling this might have been influenced by our children growing ever whinier and more wild, and the prospect of fishing one of them out of the lobby's fountain was just more than he could handle). We hopped into the shuttle (aka larger than normal golf cart) and after a stop to pick up our groceries, we were speeding along the walkways in the frigid (well for Orlando anyway) air toward our building.

After dropping our stuff off, we made our way back to El Centro to get our kids some oft-promised food, as they were starving (according to their increasingly loud announcements). It was after 10 o'clock at this point so we weren't really up to checking out all the options and just grabbed whatever was closest. Alhanna and I ended up with pizza, Aaron had some nachos and Alyssa had a kids' meal of some kind that she didn't touch. The food wasn't stellar, but you don't run across gourmet pizza or nachos in a food court very often (or ever, I guess) so we found nothing to really complain about. On the way back we noticed how pretty the resort was, but we were too tired to ooh and ahh much. We were ready to get into bed because tomorrow was our first full day!

 

[AllyinWonderland]

That sounds like a frustrating start. I am glad to hear that your husband ended up enjoying it! My husband enjoyed our first trip more than I thought he would and now I catch him selling other people on Disney vacations. I'm looking forward to following your trip report!

 

[vleeth]

Sounds like a long day...but at least you are/were at Disney.

 

[Fracfam4]

Hey Kristina! Following along.

 

[Ceryssa]

It was our first day! We were in Disney! We were...tired. The late night before had kind of set us back, and my plans for making rope drop just didn't happen. I did eventually manage to drag everyone out of bed and we made our way to the bus stop (Casitas 5 is actually pretty close to Bus Stop 2, in case anyone's thinking of staying there). A bus pulled up within minutes, and we were on our way!


Empty bus! Until the next stop, that is.

Obviously, we were going to the Magic Kingdom. It being our first trip and all, it only seemed right to start there. We arrived around 9:15, but by the time we made it through bag check and past the gate it was after 9:30. We had an ADR at 10:35, and being the overzealous (*some* might say crazy, but we all have our quirks) planner I am, I NEEDED to know where it was now. So we scoped it out, then wandered on down Main Street, where I took this stellar photo:



Because it's a requirement of all first time visitors to take a picture of the castle. It's gotta be true, I read it on the Internet.

I'm embarrassed to say we didn't actually do much during this time. We mostly just wandered around looking like lost tourists. Which we were. We made our way into Fantasyland, and started looking for something quick to do before breakfast. We walked by Peter Pan (not happening), Winnie the Pooh (almost equally ridiculous wait time), and spied a medieval type show going on in front of the carousel. Aaron was fascinated by it, so we watched part of it until Alyssa decided she was bored and wanted to ride the carousel so we hopped in line. She then of course decided she didn't want to wait in line (something that did not bode well given that we're talking about the Carousel here, which usually tops out at about a 10 minute wait) so we hopped right back out. At this point I was a little frustrated, between the late start, the crowds that seemed much heavier than I had expected and the kids' swings back and forth between wanting to ride something, and not wanting to do anything. So we got in line for the very last ride I ever expected to set foot on, much less first thing. Yep that's right the very first thing we rode at Disney World was It's a Small World.

After a terrifying encounter with low-hanging creepy clown dolls (Really?! Why are there clowns in a ride about the world's different cultures?!) we'd worked up an appetite so we decided to check in a bit early for our reservation at Crystal Palace. Not that it did any good. We waited...and waited...and waited...

While we were waiting though I realized we had a great view of Dream Along With Mickey, which just happened to be going on right then!



So after watching the show, telling the girls repeatedly to quit climbing everything in sight and rescuing the flower beds from being trampled under the stampede of impatient children, I was almost relieved when they announced they had to go to the bathroom. I was a little nervous that they'd call us as soon as I left with the girls, but the bathrooms were really close and I figured worst case scenario, Aaron could just go sit down and we'd find him when we got back. Naturally about 90 seconds after we left the pager went off. Aaron went to explain I had taken the kids to the bathroom but we'd be back shortly, which apparently was not well received, as I received a frantic text from him that said "COME BACK NOW". She told him he needed to get us back RIGHTNOW or they wouldn't seat us. We thought this was a little strange but I guess they were running behind and were trying to keep things moving along. So we rushed back and were led in to where they'd been holding the FOOD hostage!

**About the lack of food pictures in this report: between my rarely remembering to take pictures before it was half devoured and Aaron's incredulous "You're going to take a picture of your food? Really???" I didn't get many. Sorry, you'll just have to take my word that we ate! A lot. I never understood what people were talking about when they said they got "sick of food" in Disney. That just doesn't happen to me. Trust me, I get it now.

The characters had just finished up with our side of the restaurant, so we had plenty of time to hit the buffet! We loaded up with a variety of goodies and sat down, then it hit me--I hadn't gotten the breakfast lasagna! I'd been looking forward to it for months. But when I went to go get some, there wasn't any there! I was devastated. No really, I was. Some of you may go places for the attractions. Food IS an attraction, people. Anyway, our server said they must have run out and just not put anymore out, because we were into lunchtime (we weren't seated til around 10:50). Still, the food was really good, and they had Mickey waffles and Puffed French Toast, so I can't complain too much! We were about halfway through eating when someone familiar came strolling down the aisle toward our table. Eyore was paying us a visit! The girls excitedly rushed to bombard him with autograph books and Sharpies at the ready.




The girls though it was hilarious that he signed the autograph books on his nose, and kept cracking up. We complimented him on his tail being attached and the nice bow holding it up, which he seemed to appreciate.



Next up was Pooh:


Sorry Pooh, I ate all your honey since you didn't leave me any breakfast lasagna.

Piglet

Alyssa was ready in case he tried to escape without signing her book.

Tigger took a bit of a detour on the way over to us. He was there one minute, and the next time I looked he'd disappeared. I started looking around for him, wondering what had happened to him because we were done eating and he was the only one we were waiting on. I felt something on my shoulder and about jumped out of my skin when I turned around and found myself nose to nose with a Tigger! The girls thought it was hilarious and the rest of the day kept asking "Do you remember when you turned around and Tigger was RIGHT THERE and you freaked out?" I'm so glad I'm a source of amusement for them. Can't wait til they're teenagers and their embarrassment of me is a source of amusement for me



With our bellies full, we were ready to set off for adventure!

 

[Ceryssa]

We made our way to Adventureland, cause where better to go when you're looking for adventure? Yeah that's corny. Too bad, I'm the one writing this trip report and you're stuck with me and my corny jokes! Muahahaha!

Seeing how Alyssa declared she was scared of It's a Small World, I found my prospects for getting on many rides growing decidedly slim. So I was relieved when she asked to get on the Magic Carpets.




We went flying over Agrabah, and she loved it! Hooray!


We went through the Swiss Treehouse to kill some time before our FP+ time, and I was amazed again at how many people were there that day! I mean, there was a line of people making their way through the Treehouse. I'm pretty sure that's kinda unusual. It had warmed up by then and I figured it was time to try the famous Dole Whip! I got the pinapple float, Aaron and Alhanna got the citrus swirl float and Alyssa lived it up with vanilla soft serve. Full disclosure: I didn't care for the pineapple at ALL. I loved the orange flavor though, and I'd get that one again.

It was time for our first FP+ of the day, so we headed toward Frontierland. I'm really unsure about why I felt like Big Thunder Mountain was a good choice for our kids' introduction to roller coasters, but apparently I did. Aaron was excited to find there were rides he would find exciting in Disney World, and started thinking maybe this whole thing might not be such a drag after all. The girls were nervous (I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous too, I'm a big baby), and I told them if they didn't like it they didn't have to ride it again. Aaron, Alhanna and I loved it. Alyssa, however, was not a fan and spent the rest of the day repeating emphatically that she was NOT going on it again. Poor kid, we traumatized her on her very first day, and getting her on anything even resembling a thrill ride was a lost cause after that. Oops.

I looked at the clock and realized we had three minutes to make it to Pirate's League for the girls' appointment, so we booked it over to Adventureland. We waited in the courtyard for a few minutes and the girls explored, then (of course) said they had to go to the bathroom. I looked at Aaron and we both went I hurried the girls over to the bathroom and back, and fortunately we hadn't missed being called.

They called us back and did a cute little ceremony. Alyssa learned her pirate name was Rose Sharkbite and Alhanna learned about mermaid responsibilities.


Then it was time to go back for their makeovers! The CMs who work there are really fun and make a big production out of it, and the kids just eat it up. If you're considering Pirate's League I highly recommend it! And not just for kids--there was a dad there who said his son had backed out at the last minute so he ended up getting a pirate makeover, and really enjoyed himself! Aaron and I were a little sorry we hadn't booked it for us too!



Alyssa noticed they had a stuffed Skully, and since every pirate needs a parrot, obviously he had to come with us. Alhanna said mermaids have no use for parrots, so she passed.

With the girls all decked out in their pirate and mermaid finest, it was time to check out Pirates of the Caribbean! Another one Alyssa didn't care for (surprise! this would turn out to be the theme of our trip), and getting stuck on it didn't really help matters. But we survived despite her being convinced we wouldn't.



We were all thirsty, so we stopped by Golden Oak Outpost to grab some drinks (do yourself a favor and don't order tea there, it's undrinkable--I'm not sure if it's just this place or the brand Disney uses, because we didn't chance it again, but yuck!). I looked over and there were a bunch of people standing around watching something...it was Festival of Fantasy! I had completely forgotten about it! So we wandered over and caught the last half of it. I was bummed we missed the rest, but what can you do? And then it was time for Splash Mountain--for two of us, anyway. Alyssa dug in her heels and insisted there was no way she was getting on it. So she and I went out the chicken exit while Aaron and Alhanna rode. To my surprise, my adventurous little mermaid didn't like the water ride! So I elected not to use Rider Swap and we made our way over to something a little more tame. Philharmagic is one of those attractions I've heard people mention in TRs and I recognized the name, but I didn't really know what it was, but it had a short wait and I was pretty sure it wouldn't freak either kid out so we jumped in line. They LOVED it! And as a bonus, so did we, so I called it a win. We got in line for the teacups, but the ride broke down right as we were getting ready to get on, which disappointed Alhanna, and she was refused to be consoled with a ride on the carousel. Aaron was hoping the show would be going on again, but no luck.


Pictures like this are why I don't take selfies.

So Alyssa, Skully and I (apparently parrots like going around in circles too) rode the carousel, and then it was time for dinner, according to our stomachs which were all now grumbling audibly in a chorus.

 

[AllyinWonderland]

We were at MK that day as well and it was way more crowded than I anticipated, actually I felt that way about our whole trip. Pirate's League looks so fun, I can't wait until DD is old enough for things like that! I am glad you all enjoyed Mickey's Philharmagic, it is one of our favorites!

 

[Ceryssa]

Our dinner reservation that night was somewhere initially I hadn’t planned on eating, due to the near impossibility of getting a reservation there, but it worked out that someone’s plans changed and had one to give away, and I was able to get it! So it happened that we would be dining at Be Our Guest this evening! We were all really excited because, duh, eating in a castle is always better than not eating in a castle. This was where my first major scheduling mistake happened. There’s not really much I could’ve done about it due to the limited availability, and I’m definitely glad we ate here, but it did make our plans for the evening a bit rushed.

We went to the kiosk to check in and get our pager.


We had checked in a couple minutes early in hopes we might not have to wait too long, and our wishes were granted when they called us at 6:02 for our 6 pm ADR!


They were ready to storm the castle if necessary.


The hostess handed Alhanna a candle to light the way to our table—hey, we know that guy! He probably needed a break after showing us to our table though, since I imagine he was pretty dizzy after the way Alhanna was waving him around. Normally blurry photos are due to my subpar photography skills, but in this case she just wouldn't stop twirling around. After we were seated, Alyssa of course had to have a turn too. Such is life with siblings.


We were seated in the Rose Gallery. I told the girls about the giant music box in the center and the story behind it, and they thought it was so cool. I know a lot of people prefer the West Wing, but we really liked this area. Somehow I failed to get a picture of it. Points off my trip reporting grade, I guess. Lucky for me, my husband and his camera came to the rescue!



It was really quiet, and the dining room looked like this during most of our dinner. Due to the number of people we witnessed being turned away at the check-in desk, I expected it to be packed, but it wasn’t, at least where we were.

I love all of these little details The restaurant is beautiful, of course, and definitely impressive. We didn’t go exploring quite yet, because our server appeared like magic! I wish I’d written down his name, because he was really great. We ordered our drinks and the meat and cheese platter; I’m a little fuzzy on exactly what drinks we chose. I’m thinking I had a chardonnay and I’m pretty sure Aaron had a Chimay. The girls had sodas; they discovered to their delight that “vacation” meant they could order soda more than once in a blue moon (we’re kind of strict about it at home) so they were excited about that! We liked most of the appetizer and the girls tried a couple of things. Alhanna, our adventurous eater, found most of them to her liking; Alyssa was persuaded to try all of two or three items and pronounced a verdict of “thumbs down”. I’m not sure how any child that came from the two of us could possibly dislike cheese, but there it is. After a few minutes I realized I’d forgotten to order the potato leek soup I’d wanted to try, and Alhanna was interested in the French Onion soup, so I asked our server to put it in for us, then took Alhanna to the restroom. On our way back we caught a glimpse of our host!


The potato leek soup was fabulous! I (grudgingly) let Aaron try it, but he was busy stealing some of Alhanna’s so I didn’t have to give too much away They seemed to like theirs, and I refrained from licking my bowl (anyone who tells you differently, there are no pictures to prove it!), then realized too late that I was just about full right as they brought out our entrees.
I had ordered the braised pork, and although I only had room for a few bites, it was really good. I particularly liked the mashed cauliflower that came with it. Aaron had the shrimp and scallops, and although said it was really good, it was “too much pastry and not enough seafood”—particularly since the girls kept trying to steal his shrimp. He’s a good daddy though, so he shared (and more readily than I did haha!). Alyssa had the Beast’s Casserole (aka macaroni and cheese) and Alhanna had the Chicken Brochette. We passed on dessert, since we had somewhere to be soon and we were all pretty stuffed. We paid our bill and explored the restaurant a bit.

Again with the detailed touches that just really make Disney such a special place.


Being from Alabama where we see snow about once a decade, we love the stuff (like anyone who doesn't have to shovel it or drive in it on a regular basis does, I guess). So we are always super excited when we see it somewhere--even when it's not real.



The CM at the library door said Beast would be out in a few minutes and invited us to go ahead and get in line, so we did. About this time Alyssa started acting up and I had to take her out because she was being really disruptive. About ten minutes later Aaron and Alhanna came out and she was giddy over having met the “Master of the Castle”.


We walked back into MK, I looked at the time I realized we had about five minutes to get to our next event—and we were all the way at the back of the park!!! I took a quick photo just because I love anything with lights on it!

And then started out of the park as fast as we could go

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

It's so hard when you have to pull a kid out for acting up isn't it? We almost had to do the same in line for the Beast as well. Love the Pirates league pics! How long did it take? Would love to take DS next trip.

 

[Ceryssa]

It's so hard when you have to pull a kid out for acting up isn't it? We almost had to do the same in line for the Beast as well. Love the Pirates league pics! How long did it take? Would love to take DS next trip.

Oh, man. She was unfortunately going through a "phase" that started a couple weeks before we left, and she was being really difficult. Sadly this wasn't the last time something like this happened on the trip, but like the weather, kids' behavior is one of those things you can't really control, just have to work around!

PL took about 90 minutes for both of them--we waited about 20-25 minutes to get called in, and then another 10 or 15 once we got in the room. The makeovers themselves only took about 20 minutes, but Alyssa started a few minutes after her sister so it was closer to 30 total for those, then they do the Photopass pictures at the end and that was about 5 minutes, and then we paid and left. Not too bad, as long as you have enough time scheduled. I knew we weren't going to get to a ton of attractions this day between the late breakfast, PL, BOG and Pirates & Pals, but it was still a pretty full day!

 

[Celine]

I am absolutely LOVING your trip report!! More! I need more!! There is more, right? Right? LOL

 

[ashnjam]

Loving it!

 

[DisneyJade]

Subscribing! Can't wait to read more. Your report reminds me so much of ME when I'm at Disney - perfectly planned and yet somehow imperfectly executed. Thanks for the honest report!

 

[Ceryssa]

I am absolutely LOVING your trip report!! More! I need more!! There is more, right? Right? LOL

Aww thank you! Yes there's lots more! Christmas has kind of taken over around here so I may be a little slow with the updates for the next little while, I'll be back as soon as I can!

Loving it!

Thanks for following along!

Subscribing! Can't wait to read more. Your report reminds me so much of ME when I'm at Disney - perfectly planned and yet somehow imperfectly executed. Thanks for the honest report!

Glad you're here! Yes that does seem to be the way things go, doesn't it--you can plan and plan and somewhere along the way a kid, or the weather, or something out of your control is going to come along and shred your perfectly planned schedule! LOL

 

[ursalita]

I'm in! I liked reading your review of the Pirates League. I'm thinking about it for my boys in April. Thanks for posting the pics.

 

[vleeth]

I really think I might have to try BOG one of these days.

Your daughter really looks like she enjoyed meeting Beast.

 

[jenn91997]

Really enjoying your report!!!! I like the way you write, as if we are having a conversation.... As for your comments on the snow.. We live in New Hampshire and anytime you are feeling that you would like to experience snow, feel free to come up for a visit and shovel til your heart's content!!!!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Hi Kristina, finally here and all caught up.

 

[Ceryssa]

Whew, it's been a crazy few days. Christmas preparations are in full swing around here, so updates may be a little slow for the next little bit. But you aren't here to hear about that right?

We left off with us sprinting (yes literally, we were those people) out of MK. That huge dinner suddenly wasn't feeling like such a good idea, but we had somewhere very important to be! In keeping with the theme of the day (you may notice I'm a tad obsessed with those as we get further into this story), we had a date with some pirates! As soon as I heard about the Pirates and Pals cruise a year or so ago, I knew it was something we had to do. We like pirates around here. And fireworks. And boat rides. How could you go wrong with all three put together?! Other than run late and miss it, of course. And given Captain Hook's tendency to make people who displeased him walk the plank, it seemed in our best interest to hurry it along. We exited MK and thanks to Disney's excellent signage we only had to stop and ask for directions twice. What can I say, we like to make sure the CMs feel useful.

We burst into the Contemporary, asked where to go, and dashed up the stairs. OK I'll be honest, there was no dashing. We were pretty out of gas at that point. The CM at the check-in desk knew exactly who we were, because of course we were one of the last groups to arrive. No worries though, because we'd made it! We went in and discovered Captain Hook and Mr. Smee were already meeting guests, and the line was all the way to the back of the room! The nice thing about events like this though, is everyone has paid to be there, so they don't cut the line off. The CMs assured us all several times that everyone would get to meet them, so that was good to know!

We looked around and had a total Sophie's Choice moment: do we get in line for the characters or do we descend on the rather impressive array of snacks? We stood there for a minute until it occurred to me, duh, we do both! Aaron and the girls got in line and I ran back and forth handing off drinks and snacks. Well, "ran" may be an exaggeration, as the snacks were set up about five feet from where we were standing.

A piece of advice: if you decide to do Pirates & Pals (and if you can, you totally should!) don't do a big table service meal right before this. There's a lot of food there, and you're going to want to eat a bunch of it because A) Who doesn't want to stuff themselves on Mickey bars, cake and candy and B) You've paid for it anyway. In an epic documentation failure on my part, I didn't get any pictures of the food. I did, however, steal this one from someone's Flickr account, whatever that is (yes I really am that out of the loop):

I was pretty full, but how often do you get to eat an ice cream sandwich in the shape of Mickey's face? It'd be a travesty to pass that opportunity by, really, so I grabbed one and HOLY COW THEY'RE MADE WITH COOKIES AND CREAM ICE CREAM. I can't even tell you how excited I was about this (or why, really), but why aren't all ice cream sandwiches made like this?! Even as stuffed as I was you can bet I polished every bit of that baby off! They also had Mickey bars, cake, chocolate doubloons, pretzels, and a couple other snacks. I'm pretty sure I saw some apples, though I'm not sure what that was all about. Alyssa snagged a bag of cotton candy from somewhere while I wasn't looking, so apparently they had some of that there too. She seemed pretty pleased with herself about it too. They had containers set up with water, tea (*shudder*), lemonade, maybe some soda (?), and coffee. Seeing how we had just raced across half the world to get here I wasn't feeling the coffee but I was wishing for some once we got on the boat!

The line moved pretty quickly, and the girls were up to the front in no time! Or maybe time just stopped while I was enjoying my ice cream sandwich aka food of the Disney gods, I don't know.


Alyssa of course had taken off all her pirate gear by this point and refused to put it back on, and Alhanna's pirate shirt that she just HAD to have to match her sister's was covered up. Yes of course that's what I was paying attention to, because I am Crazy Theme Lady. Everybody's gotta have a thing, that's mine, let's move on.

These guys were pretty fun. I was pretty distracted between taking terrible photos (seriously, buy the Memory Maker, it's worth it if your photography skills are anything like mine), handing off autograph books and markers, and babbling about my ice cream sandwich (yes, STILL, I'm obsessed). I think Alyssa showed them her Skully and Smee seemed to like Aaron's shirt. It was at this point in the day when it clicked why people had been calling him "Smee". I found it pretty funny that the guy who knew nothing about Disney accidentally disneybounded on his first day.

Around this time they gave the last call for anyone who needed to use the restroom, so we figured that was good advice since we'd be on a boat for almost an hour. When we came back they were lined up to board the boats, and we were given this:

It was time to go see some fireworks!! For those who haven't done it, you are split into two groups, one for each boat. Hook takes one group, and Smee takes the other, and everyone proceeds down to the dock to load onto the boats! There's also a cute little ceremony where they choose two kids to be flagbearers and they get to lead the groups, but we kind of missed that part so I'm not exactly sure how that happens. Anyway, we followed Hook and Smee to the dock and met our captains, Patch and his twin brother, who is of course also named Patch. After we all loaded onto the boat I noticed they were nice enough to have provided blankets since it was kind of chilly, and as it turned out we were glad for them! As the boat started out into the 7 Seas Lagoon, Patch performed some songs that would've been cheesy anywhere else, and then introduced each family, making note of those that were celebrating special occasions (which was most of the boat). We had a great view of Wishes, and they piped in the soundtrack of course. Watching from here gives you a really cool perspective on how expansive Wishes is. Of course we didn't get any pictures. But in our defense, it was our first time seeing it and we were just soaking it in. I made the mistake of focusing on taking pictures during the Frozen fireworks earlier this year, and I felt like I missed a lot of it. So this time I just focused on enjoying it

The fireworks were spectacular, naturally, and I absolutely loved every minute of them because I'm not a crazy person. It was over too soon, but fortunately Patch had more fun in store! Disney trivia is always fun, but it's even better when there's prizes! For the last set of questions he let the kids on the boat suggest movies, and my little darlings nominated Tangled, because it is the best movie ever and they are kinda awesome sometimes And then Alyssa got to answer the question! Which was "Who is Rapunzel's prince"? I chose not to take issue with the term "prince" because Alyssa obviously answered correctly, since thanks to me she's seen Tangled about eight thousand times, and I was too busy being excited. And with that, we were back at the dock!



**spoiler** apparently this next part is supposed to be kind of a surprise? At least in the reviews I read while I was planning. So just in case anyone's sensitive to that sort of thing, quit reading






There waiting on the docks for us was Peter Pan! And he looked super excited to be there. (More photo fail on my part, so you'll have to take my word for it.) It was pretty chilly though, so he led all the kiddos inside for pictures and autographs.

I'm not sure what they were talking about, but it seemed like a lively conversation.




And with that, our visit with the Pirates of Neverland came to a close. What a great event! So much fun, from beginning to end. The characters were great, but Patch definitely made the event! And Wishes, what a cool way to experience it. If you're considering trying this, definitely do!

So, this was a really jam-packed day. Somehow in my planning, I overlooked how many events I had scheduled. I can't imagine having not done any of them, so I'm not sure I'd do it any differently. But I wouldn't necessarily recommend 2 TS meals, PL and Pirates & Pals all in one day. Between all that and our late start, we missed experiencing a lot of the park. Which is ok, we really enjoyed everything we did do! And that's how we learn, right?

We took a cab back to CSR because none of us were up to dealing with waiting for the monorail and the bus. We got back to the room and crashed, because we had another big day tomorrow, starting with breakfast with a very special character!