Coming to you Live from Disney World!-Take 2 AUG/SEPT WINNERS ANNOUNCED

[jabead]

Now for our First Update of the Day sent to us by Rachel (Smiling Cheshire Cat).

Rachel and her family had dinner on Saturday night at Magic Kingdom's...











"I marveled at the beauty of this restaurant. Here's one picture of Brianna beside the stained glass."





"We were seated in the ballroom. Here's a picture of the bread."







"Brian chose the salmon, which was served on a bed of mashed potatoes."




"He said it was delicious and it was a huge portion."



"Chase is a picky eater so none of the entrees appealed to him. Instead he got the Potato Leek Soup."



"Our waitress said this is the best thing on the menu in her opinion. Chase must have agreed since he cleaned his bowl."



"I chose the Shrimp and Scallops in the pastry puff."



"I liked this and it had two huge sea scallops and 6 - 8 big shrimp. But the seafood was cooked just a little too long or it would have been perfect."




"And here's Brianna's sad looking meal..."



"She got the Kids Pasta with butter only and a side of fries. She didn't like the truffle salt that was on the fries so Chase ended up eating most of her food."





"Chase chose this cupcake since it is Belle's favorite. This is for the serious dark chocolate lover. It was too rich for me."





"Brianna and I shared the strawberry cream cheese cupcake. It was good but very sweet."





"And Brian had the lemon curd. This was also good, but I think we all thought the strawberry was best."





"Our server brought us the Grey Stuff. She told us it was generally for celebrations but since it was our first visit to Be Our Guest she wanted us to try it. The kids said they liked this better than the cupcakes. Not me, I didn't think it tasted good at all but love the idea of it."


"Our server was so excellent and the food was good. And I love that Disney had totally recreated dining in the Beast's castle. Another winner for us!"

​

2 July Game Points Earned + 4 Bonus Points for sign, menu, pic of Brianna, and First Update of the Day

 

[jabead]

Our next update today was SwirlyGirly's report from their breakfast this morning at the Dolphin's...










"The buffet had a Made-to-Order egg station and a Mickey pancake and waffle station. They had a ton of pastries. There was also a fruit juice station."



Here was Ellie's plate...





And Anna's plate...





SwirlyGirly's plate...





"We sure missed the fabulous allergy waffles at the Disney buffets! I wish we would have walked over to Captain's Grille."
​

5 July Game Points Earned + 2 Bonus Points for sign and menu pics

 

[jabead]

Sadly SwirlyGirly then sent us the final update of their trip from the...


Boardwalk Bakery







"We ran (literally) to The Boardwalk Bakery and grabbed gluten free beef sliders and gluten free brownie bites."
​

"So that's a wrap for us."

Here are their final thoughts..

SG's Favorite meal: Shula's

Ellie's favorite: CRT

Anna's favorite: Blue Zoo

Fun stuff: Krusty Burger and 50's Prime Time

Biggest disappointment: Il Mulino

Best surprise good meal: Captain's Grille dinner, Tambu Lounge


1 July Game Point Earned + 1 Bonus Point for favorites list

 

[jabead]

Ladies & Gentlemen, may I have your attention please?!?! ​

Since that was SwirlyGirly's final update, it's now time to say...




Thanks so much for being a Live Reporter...Outstanding Job!!!



I didn't think it would be possible to beat AlohaAnnie's fantastic score of 317, but sorry Tina...

YOU HAVE BEEN SWIRLED!!!


SwirlyGirly's Total June/July Game Points Earned = 344
​

 

[daisymomof4]

LOL Barb! AlohaAnnie is going to have to go back for redemption!!!

344 points - well done SwirlyGirly! Loved seeing the fantastic variety of allergy options at WDW

Thanks to everyone who keeps this thread alive and going. It's my favorite escape on the web!!

 

[jabead]

Just a few more updates have been received today, including a couple from nicole0992.

The first was from their breakfast this morning at Epcot's...





She said, "We were hungry this morning and headed to Sunshine Seasons. We shared a child's platter and an adult breakfast platter with scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuit, sausage, french toast and breakfast potatoes. Everything was fresh and very tasty. I loved the potatoes."













Then later she sent this snack update from Germany.















"My daughter saw the candy that was milk chocolate with corn flakes and wanted to try it. She loved it, said it was much better than Nestlé Crunch with the krispies in it."
​

3 July Game Points Earned + 3 Bonus Points for sign and pics of DD

 

[jabead]

We also received this MagicBand update from DonaldDoleWhip...​

Just wanted to share some exciting news about our next Disney trip.

We're returning to WDW in August, splitting our time between AKL and Yacht Club. It turns out that these resorts are participating in the next round of MyMagic+ testing (along with Contemporary and Pop Century), so the WDW site allowed me to reserve FastPass+ times and customize MagicBands.

I found out when I saw this message on My Disney Experience:





Making FastPass+ selections was simple, and you can rearrange the ride times (or even swap out experiences) after making your choices. Another interesting piece of info - MK always seems to offer a "Bonus" FP+ for Pirates of the Caribbean (the bonus will be for Little Mermaid if you've already selected PotC), but you can swap it for anything else in the park.




I used to be against the idea of FP+. After all, how am I supposed to know what I want to ride 60 days in advance? Now, though, I'm starting to see the positives. Generally, my mornings will still be spontaneous, but it's nice to have guaranteed reservations for the headliners without even stepping foot in the parks!






Now for the real update - our MagicBands arrived today! The packaging is reminiscent of an Apple product.









The bands have our names on the inside, which is a nice touch. If you don't customize your bands far enough in advance, I believe you'll receive gray ones (without names) when you arrive at the resort.

We chose green...





pink...





and mine is blue.





The boxes contain some additional info and instructions.














Embrace the band!

​

5 July Bonus Points Awarded

 

[emmysmommy]

Thanks Mr. DDW for sharing the FP+ information. I was able to go through the steps to pick our FP+ experience for our first full day but don't know if I included Em since it didn't let me link her AP for some reason. And it did give us PotC as a bonus.

Also, since you have a split stay did you have to order two different magic bands? I have 4 reservations and only 2 of them showed for the magic bands and neither of them were for the first Disney resort that we will be staying. I'm going to have to go read up some more but THANK YOU for sharing!!! This is perfect!

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Thanks Mr. DDW for sharing the FP+ information. I was able to go through the steps to pick our FP+ experience for our first full day but don't know if I included Em since it didn't let me link her AP for some reason. And it did give us PotC as a bonus.

Also, since you have a split stay did you have to order two different magic bands? I have 4 reservations and only 2 of them showed for the magic bands and neither of them were for the first Disney resort that we will be staying. I'm going to have to go read up some more but THANK YOU for sharing!!! This is perfect!

No problem! I was excited to share this, especially since the MagicBands are here. And yep, we have two sets of MagicBands - one for AKL and one for Yacht Club. Not sure how it'll work if your split stay includes non-testing resorts.

Regarding your FP+ bookings, I would say go ahead and make FP+ selections even if Em isn't included yet. Since this is a limited test, people at IT told me you'll most likely be able to share your FP+ selections with the other people in your party once you arrive at the resort. Another thing - using FP+ is supposed to mean you can't use regular FP, but I'm not sure if that applies to the testing period or not (in the past, it hasn't).

For now, I'm just going with it. Since the FP+ reservations are made and the MagicBands are here, I'm ready to see what happens!

 

[podsnel]

Thanks for posting all that great info DonaldDoleWhip!! I hope we can take advantage of that at Christmas this year!

 

[YCFAN]

DonaldDoleWhip: Do the Magic Bands also have the resort name printed on them? We'll have three different resorts and at one resort two reservations because the room choice wasn't available for all nights.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Thanks for posting all that great info DonaldDoleWhip!! I hope we can take advantage of that at Christmas this year!

I've heard rumors that Disney's hoping for a wider rollout around the time of F&W, so hopefully you'll get a chance to use the system!

DonaldDoleWhip: Do the Magic Bands also have the resort name printed on them? We'll have three different resorts and at one resort two reservations because the room choice wasn't available for all nights.

Nope, no resort name. Each band does have a custom ID number on it, but that doesn't help if you don't know what the ID means (the customization page included this info and I took screenshots of those pages, but the info doesn't seem to be anywhere else on the site). My suggestion would be to keep all your sets separate and then ask at check-in which set is valid at that resort.

 

[ciera321]

DonaldDoleWhip - Great info and pictures....Thanks so much. It does make me feel a little better about the changes coming to FP!

 

[Christine9125]

I've heard rumors that Disney's hoping for a wider rollout around the time of F&W, so hopefully you'll get a chance to use the system!


Nope, no resort name. Each band does have a custom ID number on it, but that doesn't help if you don't know what the ID means (the customization page included this info and I took screenshots of those pages, but the info doesn't seem to be anywhere else on the site). My suggestion would be to keep all your sets separate and then ask at check-in which set is valid at that resort.

You said POP was part of the trial? I am staying at POP during September, I hope I will be apart of the trial

 

[Linda67]

Big thanks to Mr DDW for the great Magic Bands info

It's very cool to see the actual screen shots from the MDE website and the bands themselves!

I'm excited to give this a go in December. The only problem that I can foresee for us will be the fact that we A) have a split stay and B) have 'will call' AP vouchers so I haven't a clue how we will link our tickets ahead of arrival and actually collecting the APS - anyway, we shall see

Can't wait to hear what you think of them, enjoy your trip

 

[YCFAN]

As of right now you cannot use FP+ with AP vouchers. It has to be an activated AP in order to reserve ahead of time. You can only use the feature once the AP has been activated. Unless this changes, I plan to purchase 10 day tickets and upgrade after I enter a park.

 

[Linda67]

As of right now you cannot use FP+ with AP vouchers. It has to be an activated AP in order to reserve ahead of time. You can only use the feature once the AP has been activated. Unless this changes, I plan to purchase 10 day tickets and upgrade after I enter a park.

Shame, I though that might be the case. We've already purchased our APs (there was a great DVC offer)
Kind of annoying that we have paid in full for APs but can't utilise FP+
Oh well - more time to eat and drink

 

[jabead]

Only a few updates received today, starting with our First update of the Day from Cathy (catho72).


She said, "I apologize it's been so long since I sent any updates! I didn't realize how hard this would be. Kudos to those who can find time to consistently send updates live!"

"My daughter and I spent last Wednesday at MK while my husband took the other two to Cocoa Beach. My SIL texted me that they were going to have lunch at Be Our Guest and I wanted to try it since we really enjoyed our dinner there. But my daughter wanted a taco salad instead so off we went to...











"We each had a taco salad and carrot cake..."










"Yum-my! The taco salad is a Catho72 family favorite! My favorite part of the salad is the bottom of the shell....full of the juices of the salad! Delicious! We were so stuffed from our taco salad that we didn't have room to each eat our cakes. We saw another mother/daughter combo lunching together so we decided to spread some pixie dust and give them our (unopened) dessert. They were truly appreciative! Pecos Bill's remains our favorite counter service restaurant at MK!"
​

3 July Game Points Earned + 3 Bonus Points for sign, menu, and First Update of the Day

 

[jabead]

Next we received JintyB's update from her day at

Disneyland Paris



"Greetings from Paris!"







"This is me (Jeanette)."







"And my colleagues (and friends) Ngai Mun, Steve and Corlia."


"We're all teachers and this was a one day school trip (as part of a longer trip to Paris) with 40 fifteen year olds in tow - obviously they won't be featured in any of these photos!"

"I have an annual pass for DLP this year, Steve has been before, but for Ngai Mun and Corlia it was their first ever trip!"



"So, onto the food. The weather in Paris this weekend has been hotter than Florida so what better way to start than with ice-cream from:"









"Corlia had Strawberry and Lemon - verdict was "lovely"






"Ngai Mun had Raspberry, Mango and Lemon."






"Steve had raspberry, mango and chocolate/banana."







"And I had raspberry, chocolate and pistachio. It was perfect."






"Lunch was at Hakuna Matata (this photo is from a previous visit as I forgot to take another)."




"This is a counter service restaurant, but is so pretty and well themed. They pipe in music from the Lion King."















"We had a table in a little room to ourselves off of the main seating area."







"Steve and I both had Chicken Strips and Hakuna Fries - these have a lightly spiced seasoning. Delicious!"






"Corlia had Chicken in an African Sauce with rice. "Wow" was the verdict."






"Ngai Mun had the chicken strips with salad. The dressing on the salad was great."




"Later in the afternoon we grabbed some drinks from the Thunder Mesa popcorn stand."








"Ngai Mun and I had a tropical slush in a souvenir cup."






"Corlia had a coke."







"And Steve had a mix of strawberry, banana and tropical slush. It was sickly sweet!"




"We had an amazing day - students and staff. The newbies completely loved every second and already have the Disney blues. The parade song is currently 'Magic Everywhere', and we've all been singing it ever since."


"Few bonus pics:

In front of Sleeping Beauty's castle...








Pirates...







Waiting for the parade...



"Good times!"







"A Bientot! - see you soon!"



"The best thing about leaving DLP this time in knowing I'll be in WDW in just over two weeks! So excited!"​

5 July Game Points Earned + 15 Bonus Points for signs, pics of Jeanette & friends, and misc. pics

 

[jabead]

One more update sent to us today, this one from Rachel (Smiling Cheshire Cat).


She said, "Here's where we had lunch on Sunday..."














"Brian and I both chose the nachos, mine without sour cream. This used to be a favorite of mine, but it has changed a bit. I miss the black beans."






"And here's the kids choices. Bree had the chicken and nachos and Chase had the tacos de pollo. Both kids enjoyed their meals."






"For dessert Chase got a churro with caramel dipping sauce."






"He says he misses the churro being one big piece, but that didn't stop him from finishing them."



"We like eating outside at the Cantina, but wish something could be done about the ducks and birds. Their droppings are not appetizing!"



Rachel also sent this snack update...




"Brianna chose the Mickey ice cream sandwich for her snack."





"Looks like she enjoyed it!"

​

3 July Game Points Earned + 4 Bonus Points for sign, menu and pics of Chase & Brianna