Bibbidi-Bobbidi-DEUX our own kind of marathon ~ A Nov '14 TR ~ Updated 11/2 ~ THE END

[MrsJamesPSullivan]

OK I'm all caught up now. Congratulations on buying DVC! I'm a heck of a lot older than Donovan and I won't ride Splash or RnR. I think I've turned out OK.
Can't wait for the rest!

 

[amyrose26]

Hello. your family is soooooo cute. Your tr's are adorable. I'm in love with the Disney clothes. OMG I'm jealous of the clothes. I can't wait to read more. I noticed that you will be in Disney in a little over a month I am too. I will be there October 17th to the 23rd.

 

[HikingBelle]

Now that Summer is winding down and I have 3 kiddos back in school, it’s time to get movin’ along with this trip report. Now where were we?

HURRAY!!!! Trip report update!!! Hope that your family had a wonderful summer.

We instantly fell in love and ended up buying points!!

WOW!!! Congrats and welcome home!!! DVC is so tempting.

They were clueless on this one and I couldn’t wait to see their reactions. [insert evil laugh here Mwahahahaha!]

The kids' faces with Beverly are hysterical. What great pictures.

Donald loved the outfits!

Love these outfits! As always.

A wonderful update. It's great to hear more about your trip.

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Amazing! Love the atmosphere of San Angel. And your meal sounds delicious. Cute pics with Donald too. An awesome Epcot day all around

It was an awesome day! We just Love Epcot! I know so many parents with young kids who tend to avoid it thinking it would be too "boring" for the kids but we always find enough to do and have such a great time doing it!

Congrats on purchasing DVC points!

Love those Beverly faces!

So awesome that you got to meet Katt.

Sounds like a busy but fun day!

Thanks!! It's was so very exciting to buy into DVC!

The kids' Beverly faces cracked me up too! And it was funny, Isla said that she actually liked it and asked for more! LOL!

It was great to meet Katt in person!

Such a busy day, as usual but I wouldn't have it any other way! hehe

Yay an update! So since you all have been in Sept and November, which did you prefer? I went last November and loved the Christmas theming but thinking of trying late Sept for Halloween type events, but cant decide because the Christmas castle is the best!

My vote would definitely be for September. It was nice seeing Magic Kingdom decked out for Christmas but it was much more crowded and much cooler in November than I was expecting. We had great weather when we went end of Sept/beginning of Oct and the low-crowds couldn't be beat! Plus the Autumn theming in the parks is great and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party is (in my opinion) way better than the Christmas party. And of course there is the Food & Wine Festival going on at Epcot which we LOVE!

Great update!! Your kids are adorable!!

Aww thank you so much!!

That looks incredible, i have never heard of this before.

It was incredible!!

Looks like such a fun day!

It was a fabulous day!

I'm behind and trying desperately to catch up but I have to say you have become my favorite family by meeting my favorite character *and my favorite princess! It makes me sad that Sulley (and Mike) don't seem to be a priority any more and Merida I guess isn't fancy enough for a lot of the little girls.
On top of them you got to meet Peter! I'm officially jealous!
How cool that your girls got to be part of FotLK! Years ago mine were picked to be King and Queen of the Jungle and opened the old Tarzan show. My youngest is now a freshman in college and my son will be 22 in a few days and they both still talk about it.
Back to reading!

I love that even years later, your kids still talk about those special Disney memories! That's what I'm hoping for with my kids too!

How awesome that you bought into DVC! DH and I are contemplating resale right now. We are using our upcoming stay at AKL as a test run to see how it goes and if it seems worth pursuing further.

Jorie is quite the little daredevil! DS definitely isn't, at least not now, so I can only hope DD will be when she gets bigger! Not gonna lie, I panicked the first time we went on the ride and it was just DH and I. I kept wondering what would happen since there weren't two other people to hit the buttons!! lol

The reactions to Beverly are just priceless!! That stuff is just so nasty!

Oh wow, that ice cream sandwich looks like heaven!!

I am so looking forward to when DD is old enough to do pick a pearl! I hope it's still there by then. What kind of settings can you do in the store?

Oh I hope you love your stay at AKL!
We purchased enough points so that we could use them for a trip once every other year. But now you and I both know that that won't be enough Disney for us, haha! We're hoping in the next couple of years to buy a second contract resale to have extra points at a home resort that is more affordable for our family than the VGF.

Jorie sure is a daredevil!! She wants to go on anything and everything. And she gets so mad if she's not tall enough to ride it. lol She still has an inch and a half to go before she can ride Rock n Roller coaster... I hope she makes it before February. Your DS sounds like my DS. Donovan always has been and still is hesitant to ride everything.

OK I'm all caught up now. Congratulations on buying DVC! I'm a heck of a lot older than Donovan and I won't ride Splash or RnR. I think I've turned out OK.
Can't wait for the rest!

Yay for getting caught up! I purposely start reading TRs towards the end so that I can binge read through them, haha!

Hello. your family is soooooo cute. Your tr's are adorable. I'm in love with the Disney clothes. OMG I'm jealous of the clothes. I can't wait to read more. I noticed that you will be in Disney in a little over a month I am too. I will be there October 17th to the 23rd.

You're so sweet!!! YES! We are going in October too... but just Joe and I! Darn, we JUST miss you ... we'll be there October 13-15. I found super cheap Southwest flights ($62 from Philly to MCO!!!) so I couldn't pass that up and since we still have our APs which are good until November. Our wedding anniversary is Oct 2nd, so we thought why not do a quick getaway to celebrate?, and it just so happens to be Food & Wine AND MNSSHP, whoo hoo!!!!! We're SO excited!

HURRAY!!!! Trip report update!!! Hope that your family had a wonderful summer.


WOW!!! Congrats and welcome home!!! DVC is so tempting.


The kids' faces with Beverly are hysterical. What great pictures.


Love these outfits! As always.

A wonderful update. It's great to hear more about your trip.

We did have a wonderful summer, thanks! It always seems to fly by way too quickly though. Now we're trying to get back in the swing of things with juggling school and activities and work. Yikes!

We are so happy to be DVC owners. It's nice knowing that we'll have Disney trips in our future for many, many years to come!

I'm so glad you enjoyed the update. I hope to get another one posted soon!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Losing some steam here as my memories fade…. sorry if there are more pics and less details….

2 more days to write about…. I think I can….I think I can….


DAY 8 - November 13, 2014

Yes, I’m well aware of the “there’s no sleeping” rule in Disney but after 7 FULL days, I was really looking forward to finally being able to sleep in. After a full week of rope drop to park close, I could not wait to get some extra sleep. But….

I awoke to Bronwyn climbing in our bed, wide eyed and ready to get the day started. I turned over to check my phone for the time and it was 6 AM!!! What the what? I tried to have her lay down with me and fall asleep but she was having no parts of it. It was another day in Disney and she was rearing to go! Maybe her body was getting used to these early mornings, mine on the other hand, was not. Ugh! And soon enough, the other three were up too!

We hung out in our villa, watched some Disney Junior and took our time getting ready since our breakfast reservation wasn’t until 10 and it was just a short monorail ride away.











We were headed to one of my favs, Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort.



We entered the lobby of Great Ceremonial Hall from the monorail on the second floor and wow, what a difference from the year before. The whole lobby was boarded up for construction. And the views out the back window…..



The castle is still there in the distance but the rest was definitely an eyesore. Seeing the Poly grounds all torn up made me so sad.





Our pager went off and it was time for some KONA!!!





I started with some Press Pot Kona coffee and Liliko’i Juice. Yum and YUM!!!



Jorie’s pick was the Goofy Toast - Only Goofy would fry an Egg in the middle of a piece of Toast!










How is it Bronwyn? “Yummy!!”



Joe ordered the famous Tonga Toast.



And I had the Macadamia-Pineapple Pancakes.



OK guys, this is literally heaven on a plate. So SO good!!!!

Our waitress could not get over that my girls were wearing the three stages of Cinderella dresses. She was gushing over them and had the kids get up to show the other CMs in the restaurant. So cute!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

After our amazingly delicious breakfast, we took the resort monorail back to the Contemporary.





It was a picture perfect day!





When we arrived back to the lobby...look what we found! The gingerbread display was all finished! And so adorable! I love how it's an Arendelle meets "It's a Small World" theme.



The lobby smelled delicious! And no wonder, check out what it was made from:



Some of the Bakery Team CMs were out chatting with visitors.





And a news crew was doing an interview with the Pastry chef Jeff Barnes.



I made a mental note that I wanted to stop back between 3-5 for the pin signing.



We then went out behind the Contemporary for some photos.



There’s a stand that you can set up your camera on, so handy! I was able to get some cute shots of the 6 of us!



Love this one!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Then it was up to our room to change into our swimsuits for an afternoon of swimming and lounging at the pool!!























After some fun at the splash area, we headed into the pool and of course the slides!



















Before heading back to our room, I stopped in the lobby to buy the frozen pin.



And I found some cute treats to buy as Thank Yous for some of the sweet customs friends who let us borrow outfits & hair accessories for our trip.





We also picked up some flatbreads from Contempo Cafe to munch on while we were getting changed in our room.

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Soon enough we were ready to head to the park! And just in time, since with our Christmas party tickets, we could get into Magic Kingdom at 4PM





I was SO excited! Although our Christmas party fun would have to wait since the official party didn’t start until 7.

Knowing that we’d be able to get into the park at 4, I made our first fastpass for 3:30-4:30 for Under the Sea- Journey of the Little Mermaid. So once inside, we headed right to New Fantasyland.

And someone was fast asleep by the time we got there.



And I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of it, but at some point between our room and Prince Eric’s castle, Bronwyn had lost a shoe! A true Cinderella lol. Joe back tracked a few steps but we never did find it.



There was a photopass photographer with no wait, so we jumped in for a few pics. But oh the sun was right in our eyes!











Ahh I just LOVE this ride!!





And to make sure that we didn’t miss it like last trip (haha!!), I had made a Fastpass to Meet Ariel in her Grotto (4:30-5:30). And good thing since it had a 40 minute stand-by wait time!



We waited oh about a minute before we were entering the grotto. Eeek!!! I was giddy with excitement. And so were the kids when they saw Ariel with her fin.



But wait, why on earth is Ariel wearing a cover-up?! She’s not supposed to be wearing a cover-up. It was not cold at all! She was supposed to match my girls. Disappointing, but ah well, what are ya gonna do? Things don’t always work out how you plan, right? And it was an awesome meet and greet.














And of course we need an air-plane pose from Bronwyn.





On the way out the kids spotted Ariel’s treasure box and Ariel told them that they could check it out…








What a fun time we had!



We had some time before our third FP+ was good, so we decided to use one of our 3 extra Fastpasses that we received from going to the DVC presentation.

Now to decide what ride to go on? Donovan and Jorie had been bugging to go on Haunted Mansion since they hadn’t rode it on our first trip and Isla had. I wasn’t sure how Bronwyn would do. But as soon as we mentioned maybe going on Haunted Mansion… Bronwyn was like “Yes! I want to go into the “SCARY” house!!” Now this is my kid who is obsessed with all things Halloween. She would watch the Disney SingAlong Songs Happy Haunting DVD over and over again if you let her. And she literally cried when I put away the cd with the music from MNSSHP after Halloween was over.

Soooo…. we decided to try it. (Yes, you may think I’m a horrible parent for taking my 3-year-old onto Haunted Mansion but...) Before we got on the ride we made sure to explain that everything was pretend and that it would be dark but it was just “fun & silly” and you know what?.... all 4 kids loved it!

Then it was time to use our next FP+ (5:30-6:30)... so we headed to Storybook Circus to…. Barnstormer! Which would be a first for all of us!





The theming of this ride is so darn cute!

First aid & second aid. I love it!



Finally a ride that Bronwyn was tall enough to ride. So we could all ride as a family. Now Donovan was NOT thrilled about riding this one. But we promised him that it would be over so quick and he finally agreed to ride it.

OMG, this video cracks me up! Check out Bronwyn holding up her little arms in the back!

Poor Donovan looks scared to death. But Jorie sure loved it and gives it two thumbs up. And Isla exclaiming “That was quick!” haha



Next we stopped in Big Top Souvenirs to see if we could find a pair of shoes for Bronwyn that would be more comfortable for her to wear to the Christmas party than the dress-up Rapunzel shoes that she had on. We bought a cute pair of Minnie Mary Janes that would match her Christmas party dress. And we picked up a couple sweet treats too.

So many choices! I’d like one of each please!



I’ll stop here for now… coming up next time we have the BEST. MEET. & GREET. EVER!! and lots of Christmas party magic.

 

[Kiren]

Finally caught up! I can't wait to read more! Congrats on the DVC! My hubby and I are looking into purchasing into it too! Did you make all your custom outfits? That's some skill!

 

[missangelalexis]

Loving the Cinderella theme this morning! The girls' dresses are so cute!

Love the shots of the 6 of you at the Contemporary! How convenient that they have a stand for your camera.

Sounds like a great afternoon at the pool.

Super cute LM theme that evening! Ariel's winter wear is definitely not one of my favorites, it makes her look so awkward! But the photos with her came out cute! And I had NO idea Ariel hada treasure box in her grotto, how cool!

Can't wait to hear about the party!

 

[HikingBelle]

As always, great updates. I love the Cinderella dresses on the girls.

The picture you took in Under the Sea is my fav scene! Will they kiss... will they... NO! *sigh*

I’ll stop here for now… coming up next time we have the BEST. MEET. & GREET. EVER!! and lots of Christmas party magic.

Oh what a teaser!

 

[amyrose26]

You're so sweet!!! YES! We are going in October too... but just Joe and I! Darn, we JUST miss you ... we'll be there October 13-15. I found super cheap Southwest flights ($62 from Philly to MCO!!!) so I couAND MNSSHP, whoo hoo!!!!! We're SO excited!

MNSSHP, whoo hoo!!!!! We're SO excited!

Aww to bad we are just missing eachother. I love southwest always finding great deals. I'm thinking of doing MNSSHP. My friend and I thought about doing 2 years ago but decided no to. Would you recommend it. We are in our late 20's. Would it still be fun for us.
I'm like isla I love me some Disney villains!

 

[khertz]

Yeah, "sleep in" mornings usually go something like that for us too!! It's like they know!!

Love the Cinderella dresses. So cute! And breakfast looks like it was wonderful. Even though you couldn't sleep in, sometimes it's just nice to know you don't really have to rush around to anything. That's how we were in Disneyland with the parks opening at 10 am most mornings we were there.

Ariel's cover-up looks AWFUL! Seriously, since she's not outside, it seems totally pointless.

Excited to see how the party went!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Finally caught up! I can't wait to read more! Congrats on the DVC! My hubby and I are looking into purchasing into it too! Did you make all your custom outfits? That's some skill!

Thanks!! I love knowing that Disney trips will be in our future for many, many years to come. And if the time comes, which I don't think it will, that we get sick of going to Disney resorts, than there's the option of using our points for places all around the world.

No I did not make the our customs, but the designers that did sure have a ton of talent!

Loving the Cinderella theme this morning! The girls' dresses are so cute!

Love the shots of the 6 of you at the Contemporary! How convenient that they have a stand for your camera.

Sounds like a great afternoon at the pool.

Super cute LM theme that evening! Ariel's winter wear is definitely not one of my favorites, it makes her look so awkward! But the photos with her came out cute! And I had NO idea Ariel hada treasure box in her grotto, how cool!

Can't wait to hear about the party!

I totally agree that Ariel's Winter cape makes her look awkward! I would maybe understand having to wear it if she was outdoors but her grotto is inside, it made no sense to me. hmmmm.....

As always, great updates. I love the Cinderella dresses on the girls.

The picture you took in Under the Sea is my fav scene! Will they kiss... will they... NO! *sigh*


Oh what a teaser!

I love the whole Under the Sea ride but the "almost" kissing scene is my favorite too!

Aww to bad we are just missing eachother. I love southwest always finding great deals. I'm thinking of doing MNSSHP. My friend and I thought about doing 2 years ago but decided no to. Would you recommend it. We are in our late 20's. Would it still be fun for us.
I'm like isla I love me some Disney villains!

This is probably after the fact now, but I do hope that you went to a MNSSHP. I think it would be perfect for the two of you especially if you love villains. The new Hocus Pocus show during the party was awesome!!

Yeah, "sleep in" mornings usually go something like that for us too!! It's like they know!!

Love the Cinderella dresses. So cute! And breakfast looks like it was wonderful. Even though you couldn't sleep in, sometimes it's just nice to know you don't really have to rush around to anything. That's how we were in Disneyland with the parks opening at 10 am most mornings we were there.

Ariel's cover-up looks AWFUL! Seriously, since she's not outside, it seems totally pointless.

Excited to see how the party went!

I know, right?! Bronwyn never, ever, EVER wakes up that early on her own! It was nice not to have to rush around to get to anything though. Wow 10 am park openings, that just seems so late!

Yeah Ariel's cover-up = yuck!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Now that I’ve left you in suspense for like forever, let’s hear about this magical meet & greet!
When I last left off, we just had finished our journey under the sea and then meeting the "real" Ariel in her grotto. So of course, it was right about time for an outfit change…



The Christmas party hadn’t officially started yet, so we had a little bit of time before I wanted us to line up for the M&G, so we needed something to fill the time. How about a nice relaxing ride around Tomorrowland?... sounded like the perfect choice to me… and no wait time made it even better. Well except for when we got stuck. At least we had some snacks to enjoy while we waited for the ride to start up again.





Can you guess who we’re planning on meeting?! “Ra-Run-zel” as Bronwyn says it.

Getting stuck had put us behind schedule so we rushed over to Princess Fairytale Hall, only to find a packed line out the door. So much for getting into the meet right at 7. Whomp, whomp



We hopped in line and waited it out.

Once we were finally in.....First up was Cinderella and Prince Charming.






Before we could even make it over to their area, Rapunzel and Flynn came over to check out the girls’ dresses!



and their braids!




FYI: before our trip I had offered to get a Pascal shirt for Donovan to wear during this M&G, well his answer was a big fat NO. He assured me that he was most certainly NOT going to want to meet Rapunzel & Flynn, so against my better judgement, I did not buy the shirt for him. Annnnd now I was kicking myself for it! Ah well…..




Jorie is always full of questions.... she was curious as to what was in Flynn’s satchel... so she asked him.

And he showed her….



Not only did her show her, but he took it out!....




And not only did he take it out, but he put it on her!!!!



Eeeeek! I almost squealed with delight! Actually I may have actually squealed with delight!

Of course Isla and Bronwyn each got a turn too.





My Mommy heart had completely melted.

Then he put it on himself. How fabulous!!



Then Jorie had to show what she had hiding under a layer of her dress…. a frying pan.



They all had fun taking a turn hitting each other with the felt frying pan. I remember Flynn saying "This may be the strangest thing I've done all day." lol




Flynn then noticed Bronwyn’s Pascal hairclip and he covered his ears. Cause ya know…



It then became a big joke to stick out their tongues like Pascal.





Then it was time to show us the smoulder.




After a ton of smiles and giggles, it was time to leave (we had taken up a ton of their time!)



Lots of hugs to say goodbye...




BEST Meet & Greet EVER!



And how about one more Flynn gif, just because….

 

[TruLovesKiss]

After the crazy long line that we stood in (probably a good 55-60 minutes) and the amount of time that we spent in the M&G (not that I’m complaining) we were waaaaay behind schedule. I had wanted to make it up to the front of MK to the lockers, get changed into our Christmas outfits and be back to the front of the castle for “A Frozen Wish” castle show. Well it was already 8pm and the show was about to start... the viewing areas were packed solid- the walkway to Tomorrowland was as close as we could get. We could hear the whole show and it sounded really cute but we couldn’t see any of the characters. Bummer







So after hearing the show we made our way up Main Street. Once we were decked out in our Holiday outfits, we posed for some pics at the front of the park.

Bronwyn is looking pretty sleepy.





We were going to try to catch the second Mickey’s Once upon a Christmastime Parade knowing that it would be less crowded, but once we entered Town Square, we realized that we were kind of stuck where we were by the train station.



So we ended up watching the first parade as it came by.



















By the time the parade has passed by - it only made sense to grab a spot on Main Street to view the Holiday Wishes fireworks. We also made sure to stop in the Firehouse to pick up our special party version SOTMK card. Love it!


And we did a quick photo in front of the castle before the fireworks started.


I don’t have any fireworks photos but here’s a stock one to give you an idea….




I was excited to see the Celebrate the Season show on the castle stage, so that’s where we wanted to head next.



We made our way down Main Street with our two double strollers and we were getting nowhere fast. It seemed like everyone else was coming at us in the opposite direction trying to get out of the park. It was almost impossible to move, I felt like a fish swimming upstream. By the time we got up to the castle, all four kiddos were fast asleep in the strollers and all of the good viewing spots were already taken, so once again, we sat through a show without being able to see much of it. By now, I was frustrated from the crowds and almost ready to call it a night. But our party tickets weren't cheap, so I was going to make the best of it. We decided to head to Rocketower Plaza stage in Tomorrowland to see the “A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas” show and we scored front row seats, Yay! While we waited for the show to start, Joe ran into Cosmic Rays to grab some Hot Cocoa and cookies to enjoy during the show.

Party Poopers









Since the kids were sleeping in the strollers, we weren't able to ride any rides, so we stopped for a photo with the Tweedles.



and then headed for Gaston’s Tavern for a late-night snack. (This has since become a tradition when we’re in MK for parites/emh)



Look, no crowds!


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We shared a Lefrou’s Brew and a cinnamon roll. So Yummy!! My sweet tooth is a big fan of both!!
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Then the party was coming to an end, so we made our way to the front of the park.



I couldn't get enough of how beautiful the castle looked!



Love that they make it SNOW on Main Street!



We stopped for one last photo on the way out.


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...and then it was back to our hotel room where we packed up what we needed to be ready to check out in the morning. Our last full day in Disney was complete.

So what did we think of MVMCP? The parade was great, the shows (from what we could see of them) were cute and the whole ambiance of the park was amazing, but the main thing that sticks with me from the party was that it was CROWDED. And those crowds definitely put a damper on my mood. For a hard ticket party, I definitely do not think it should have been as crowded as it was. Will we do it again, yeah maybe... but not for a while and especially not til the kids are older and can stay awake through the whole thing.




Coming up… a very Supercalifragilstic Breakfast.

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

 

[missangelalexis]

Oh my gosh what a fabulous meet with Rapunzel and Flynn! I love that Flynn let the girls each try on the crown! So many fun pictures!

I'm glad you were still able to enjoy the rest of the evening, even with sleepy kids in tow! I love the last photo of just the two of you.

 

[KirbyLouWho]

Is the photo with all of you in front of the castle, with Tink at the top a magic shot? My daughter and I will be at MVMCP in a few weeks and I LOVE that photo!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Oh my gosh what a fabulous meet with Rapunzel and Flynn! I love that Flynn let the girls each try on the crown! So many fun pictures!

I'm glad you were still able to enjoy the rest of the evening, even with sleepy kids in tow! I love the last photo of just the two of you.

It was such a fabulous meet! SO much fun and so amazing that Flynn let the girls wear the crown- definitely a highlight of the trip!

At first I was really bummed that the kids had fallen asleep and were missing the party but after such a fast-paced hectic trip it was actually really nice to finally get to slow down and enjoy some quiet as we walked through MK.

Is the photo with all of you in front of the castle, with Tink at the top a magic shot? My daughter and I will be at MVMCP in a few weeks and I LOVE that photo!

Actually no, it wasn't a magic shot, just a regular photopass photo. That Tink image was a sticker in Memory Maker and I just added her to the top of the castle (the same way you would add the character's autographs to your photos) I think it turned out pretty cute!

Yay, you're trip is SO close! I hope you have an amazing time at MVMCP!!!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

I've eaten at 74 out of 271 restaurants at Walt Disney World (27%)
I've eaten at 20 out of 96 quick service/counter service restaurants at Walt Disney World (21%)
I've eaten at 24 out of 77 table-service restaurants at Walt Disney World (31%)
I've eaten at 4 out of 20 signature restaurants at Walt Disney World (20%)
I've eaten at 1 out of 3 dinner show restaurants at Walt Disney World (33%)