Characters, Crowds and Cuisine-A Tale of the World at Spring Break!

[wakica]

haha, I figured I was wrong when I guessed Star Tours - I can never remember what they have for the younger kids anymore b/c we don't need that stuff. i'm glad to hear she did end up choosing it though and liked it too!!!

 

[Maestra99]

That picture of Emma with baby Minnie is the cutest! And hooray for the chocolate frozen banana - I don't hear them mentioned much here on the DIS but I always get them as snacks while at WDW, too! They're so refreshing! And at least if I'm going to have a sweet snack, I can feel a little better knowing there's some fruit under all the chocolate. Can't wait to see what you got into after your naps.

 

[smellyia]

Ooooooo - I had no idea they played the Hot Dog song at Disney Jr...so Mickey and co make an appearance?

 

[johnsonginad]

Disney Jr. Live! I love that show! And we missed it this year. We got so busy and trying to keep up with things, I just never made it over to the show. Sigh.

So glad she loved ST! It's one of my favorites! And I love the chocolate covered bananas, too! I think I more more of mine than I ate ...

PJs? At 1:00?? WOW! I usually just plop down in whatever I'm wearing, and if I'm lucky, kick my shoes off.

Yep! PJs at 1:00! We got all snuggled in and SLEPT, girl!

fantastic updates!! Your daughter is sooo precious!! xo

Thank you so much!

I'm in! Great updates so far; you have a beautiful family!

WOO HOO!!! Welcome aboard this crazy ride!

Thank you for reading, and for the nice words!

haha, I figured I was wrong when I guessed Star Tours - I can never remember what they have for the younger kids anymore b/c we don't need that stuff. i'm glad to hear she did end up choosing it though and liked it too!!!

She LOVED Star Tours! It was one of her favorites! We ended up riding it quite a bit.

That picture of Emma with baby Minnie is the cutest! And hooray for the chocolate frozen banana - I don't hear them mentioned much here on the DIS but I always get them as snacks while at WDW, too! They're so refreshing! And at least if I'm going to have a sweet snack, I can feel a little better knowing there's some fruit under all the chocolate. Can't wait to see what you got into after your naps.

Aww, thank you! She sleeps with baby Minnie and a whole host of other "babies" every night! She loves them!

The chocolate covered frozen banana's are my FAVORITE treat in all of WDW! I think I might've eaten one everyday we were there. LOL

Ooooooo - I had no idea they played the Hot Dog song at Disney Jr...so Mickey and co make an appearance?

Mickey and the Gang are all puppets, but they are there! You should totally try to keep little one up during evening EMH's at HS. They have a dance party where Disney Jr. Live is shown, and they really DO make an appearance. Last year, Emma got to dance with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Handy Manny, JoJo, Quincy, and Annie. It was such a blast!!! We spent almost 2 hours in there just letting her dance with the characters. It was great!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

EEEK, I fell behind! Your HS day sounds great so far. We did a very early HS day too. It is amazing how many things you can get done in a short amount of time when the "regular" crowds have not arrived yet! And yes, the frozen bananas are SOOO good!!! YUM! I am so excited that the new Muppets movie has brought a new appreciation for the Muppets to our childrens' generation! My kids were really into the show this time, they had more of an understanding of it. The new Star Tours is great, but we did it twice in a row, and I got nauseous after the second time. We are big nappers while at the World too! It's like recharging your batteries and makes you ready to go again for endless fun!!! Can't wait to hear what kind of fun you had after nap....

 

[JDailey]

Getting all caught up!!!!

 

[jennykay]

It sounds like y'all had so much fun! I love Emma's little photo shoot - too cute!

I am thinking Nashvillians must unite!!! I live just 30 miles east of Nash-Vegas in Lebanon, TN. There are so many of us. Maybe we could work out a mini Dis-meet at the Opry Mills Disney Store in the next month or so. What do you all think?

I'm in! We went to Opry Mills on the grand opening day but we didn't make it to the Disney store. It got crowded fast in there and we don't love crowds. So I'd love an excuse to go to the Disney store!

 

[johnsonginad]

OK...so let's backtrack a little. I finally got the pics downloaded from DH's phone!

As promised, here is a picture of dessert from this lovely place:

First up is the delish yogurt with spoon sweets that I had:

I'm telling ya, this was AWESOME!!!

DH had the Loukimades (wait...did I spell that right??? Oh well...you know what it is ) And don't mind the look on DH's face....We were all EXHAUSTED at this point.

And Emma and her first of many ice cream sundaes:

OK...now that I have delivered those pics...let's move on!

 

[johnsonginad]

OK...now back to your regulary scheduled TR!

When we last left off, we had headed back to the resort for naptime. We slept for a few hours, and when we woke up it had just finished raining. From the looks of it, it must've rained quite a bit, but we slept through it! We got up and got redressed and freshened up, because it was time to head back to HS. We had reservations to make!

Soon, we were back in the park, and it was almost time for dinner. We had reservations for the Fantasmic Dining Package here:

We got to our reservation a little early, but they gladly checked us in, and we only waited a few minutes before we were seated at a table and ready to start in. Our waiter came by, and we ordered our drinks and settled into the menu.

I had added mine and DH's anniversary to our reservation that night, even though our anniversary isn't actually until June. Might as well celebrate while we're in Disney, right?!?! Our waiter brought out two glasses of champagne for our celebration, along with some wonderful bread. We ordered, and enjoyed our champagne while waiting for our appetizers.

First up is DH's. He ordered the Famous Cobb Salad. He is not a fan of blue cheese AT ALL, but he adored this salad, and has been begging for me to find the recipe and make it at home. Yes...It was THAT good...

I ordered the spring rolls, and they didn't disappoint. They were spectacular, and I devoured every single morsel. Well, except for the part I gave DH.

Emma ordered the celery and carrots. As I recall, I believe she ate all of the celery, and a couple of carrots. That girl LOVES her celery!!

After we had some time to settle our tummies after our wonderful appy's, our main courses came out. DH ordered the Charred Filet of Beef. It was served with a red wine reduction and was placed on top of White Truffle Forest Mushroom Whipped Potatoes. One word: SCRUMPTIOUS

Next up is me. I ordered the Duck Two Ways. It was superb! Quite frankly, it was heaven on a plate. The duck was cooked to perfection and the Apple-Rosemary Stuffing was YUM-O. Totally the epitome of comfort food in the fine dining world. I wish I had some right now!!!

Emma loved her dish as well. She ordered the Tempura Battered Fish Sticks. You really couldn't quantify these as fish sticks. They were perfect. Totally not your run-of-the-mill fish stick at all. She loved them. She didn't care for the broccoli that was served with it, but she was on vacation, so I didn't push the issue. Nice Mommy, huh?

Evidently, our waiter saw us taking pictures of our meals, and asked if we would like for him to take our picture at the table. HAHA! So here we are!

Doesn't Emma look thrilled? LOL. He wasn't happy with his first picture, so he took another one:

Emma still looks stoked.

Dessert came next. We ordered our desserts, and then the waiter brought out a celebration dessert for us. Chocolate Mousse! MY FAVORITE!!! It had a lovely raspberry drizzle on it, too. I am a sucker for chocolate and raspberry together or not, but together they are, WHEW, YUMMY!

As if we weren't stuffed enough, our desserts came out shortly after. They were all super, but our favorite was definitely the Banana-White Chocolate Toffee Tower. WHOA, BABY that thing was good!

DH ordered the Grapefruit Cake. We liked it, and would probably order it again. It just wasn't our favorite of the two.

It's a beauty, isn't it?

Emma ordered the Hidden Treasures dessert, and she was in heaven. Here's my sweet girl enjoying her bowl of yuminess:

Once again, a waiter (not ours this time) noticed us taking pictures, and offered to take ours together. We didn't object, obviously.

Did you notice that Emma looks much more enthisiastic in this picture? Well, of course she does! She's got a bowl of ice cream in from of her!

We finished up our meal, and rolled ourselves out of there. It was time to move around so we could walk some of that food off that we just ate.

We really loved The Hollywood Brown Derby. It is safe to say that it has definitely made our list of MUST DO's for our next trip.

 

[dreamerchic33]

great update!!!

 

[Lidian]

Honestly, I think this was really the first review I've read of HBD. It really makes me want to consider dining there sometime!

Loved the pics of your family and Emma is all ... "Ugh, hurry up already!"

 

[smellyia]

That salad looks spectacular! I've been hesitant about the Brown Derby, but that looks excellent....can't wait to hear about your Fantasmic experience.

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Yum! Everything looks so good! That cobb salad looks amazing...and I LOVE blue cheese! Since I am the only one that does love it - no one wanted to share it with me when we were at The Brown Derby (it is made for 2 and we were on the ddp when appys were included and I didn't want to use their credits...now I think I should have!! )
So I passed and it looks that was a mistake!
Can't wait to see more!

 

[jwgm2012]

Hi from one Gina to another

So just joining in and loving it already... can feel the excitement!

Another coincidence is our flight in 36 days will leave at 6:05am too! Not from Nashville though... San Antonio and even more coincidental is we've already bought cinammon rolls for our breakfast too!

These Gina's rock!

can't wait to finish reading...

 

[johnsonginad]

great update!!!

Thank you!

Honestly, I think this was really the first review I've read of HBD. It really makes me want to consider dining there sometime!

Loved the pics of your family and Emma is all ... "Ugh, hurry up already!"

I highly suggest that you go there! We loved it, and can't wait to go back on our next trip!

I was cracking up when I looked at that picture of her. It was our first full day, and it looked like she was already OVER the pictures.

That salad looks spectacular! I've been hesitant about the Brown Derby, but that looks excellent....can't wait to hear about your Fantasmic experience.

The salad WAS spectacular. It was ohmygoshthisisheavenly good. KWIM?

Yum! Everything looks so good! That cobb salad looks amazing...and I LOVE blue cheese! Since I am the only one that does love it - no one wanted to share it with me when we were at The Brown Derby (it is made for 2 and we were on the ddp when appys were included and I didn't want to use their credits...now I think I should have!! )
So I passed and it looks that was a mistake!
Can't wait to see more!

Oh my, you would have LOVED it. I love blue cheese, too, and I could've seriously climbed in that bowl it was so good.

Hi from one Gina to another

So just joining in and loving it already... can feel the excitement!

Another coincidence is our flight in 36 days will leave at 6:05am too! Not from Nashville though... San Antonio and even more coincidental is we've already bought cinammon rolls for our breakfast too!

These Gina's rock!

can't wait to finish reading...

HI GINA!!!!!

All of the coincidences are so neat! I'm glad you're here! And you're so close to your trip too! Can I come over and eat cinnamon rolls with you?

 

[jennykay]

Banana-White Chocolate Toffee Tower? I'll take two! My gosh that thing looks yummy!

Emma just cracked me up - she's like "quit taking pictures and let me EAT!" And about the broccoli, well, she did eat her celery! My kiddos won't touch it!

Love the update!

 

[BobbleClank]

subscribing, looking forward to the read.

 

[johnsonginad]

Banana-White Chocolate Toffee Tower? I'll take two! My gosh that thing looks yummy!

Emma just cracked me up - she's like "quit taking pictures and let me EAT!" And about the broccoli, well, she did eat her celery! My kiddos won't touch it!

Love the update!

OH YES...that dessert was so so SO good! I could eat one right now for breakfast.

Yeah, she was totally over the pictures then. She just wanted to eat! It's funny that I didn't even notice it until I looked at the pictures.

subscribing, looking forward to the read.

Thanks for subscribing! I look forward to having you here!

 

[johnsonginad]

After our delicious meal at The Hollywood Brown Derby, it was time to head out and have some fun! We walked over to the Sorcerer's Hat to decide what to do next. Of course, we were letting Emma choose what our next desitination was, and it was an easy one for her. She was ready to ride Star Tours! We walked over there, and the line was almost non-existant! I was shocked! Before hopping into the queue, I snapped a quick picture.

We literally only waited about 10 minutes before we were being ushered into our position at our bay. Emma was so excited! I had told her about riding this back when I was little, and about how much I had loved it, so she was ready to give it a try.

We hopped on the ride, and we were off! Before they could even tell us "Thank you for choosing Star Tours...Buh Bye!" She was ready to ride it again! She LOVED it!!! So, of course, we got off and got right back in line again. I think we did this 3 or 4 times before we decided to do something different.

We walked around looking at things, and this is when I finally noticed where The Writer's Stop was. It was PACKED, so we didn't go in though. Next, we got in line for the Backstage Tour.

Emma decided she didn't want to do it before we were let in. We exited the line and went to play in the cooling spot right outside. It was HOT!

After getting spit on by a giant Coke bottle, we made our way over to Pixar Place. We wanted to see what the wait time was for Toy Story Midway Mainia. The line for it was SCARY long, so we opted out. Emma settled on doing some pin trading with the 50 million cast members that were walking around Pixar Place instead. She really loved the pin trading. She insisted upon trading with almost every cast member she saw. It was so funny! She's already asked if we have more pins to trade for our next trip, and that trip hasn't even been booked yet!

Before long, it was time to head over toward Fantasmic. Emma and I grabbed a seat (and a coke) outside the entrance to Beauty and the Beast, and Daddy went to ride one of his favorites. Tower of Terror! We only waited for him for about 20 minutes, then we were ready to go on into Fantasmic. We walked through the gates, stopping to do a little pin trading first, then made our way to the theater and to our seats. We still had a little while to wait, so Daddy grabbed us another coke to share, and we settled in to wait.

The time really did go by quickly! They had a couple of cast members with microphones that were helping to keep the crowd entertained while we waited for the show to start. They did trivia games, "remember the lyrics" games and all kinds of fun stuff. There were several school groups there too, and they recognized every one of them. The two cast members were really funny. They would banter back and forth at each other, and it just cracked me up.

Soon, the show started! Emma was hooked right from the very beginning. She saw Mickey, and that was all it took. I don't have any pictures of the show, because they didn't turn out at all, but the show was FANASTIC! I would go back to watch it in a heartbeat! Emma loved seeing all the characters on the boat at the end, and I was so proud that she recognized Steamboat Willie! I'm telling ya guys, this show was just awesome. I loved every minue of it, and so did Daddy and Emma. It was WONDERFUL!

After the show, we didn't want to have to fight the hoards of people that would be waiting for a bus, so we ducked into a shop and picked up something that we had purchased earlier in the day. I don't remember when we bought them, but at some point during our day we had bought new ears. Emma bought the silver "bling" ears, and Daddy and I got our very own monogrammed ears. Don't worry, you'll get to see them soon! We picked up our ears, and wandered around the shops for a little bit before we headed out to the bus stop.

We had a perfect day at Hollywood Studios, but it was time to head back to the room for some sleep! Tomorrow was going to be an even bigger day for us! We early EMH's at MK, and evening EMH's there too! Good gracious! I hope we can hold out for it! MK opens the next morning at 7am, and doesn't close until 3am!

 

[Lidian]

I love F! However, my boys don't care much for it ... so we had to skip it this year.

That's awesome she recognized Steamboat Willy!!!!!