Disney World, Polynesian & DISapalooza - December 2015 Trip Report (with PICS)

[gregf71]

First, allow me to introduce you to our intrepid travelers…myself (44), wife (40), and daughter (9)…Southern California residents (San Diego specifically) and longtime Disneyland Annual Pass Holders. You may remember us from our bestselling DCL Alaska trip report in 2013, but then again maybe not. Check it out though…it is a fun read if I do say so myself…with pictures!

Any-hoo…this would be our second trip to the World as a family. Our first was in October 2011, coupled with a cruise on the Disney Dream. This time, however, we set our sights on Disney World only…with a little night out to Diagon Alley for DISapalooza, perhaps you heard of it? It would also be our longest visit ever at 10 nights; previously we maxed out at 7.

Trip planning began in earnest back in late August 2014, when we plunked down the deposit for our stay at the Polynesian Village Resort. We booked a “Passholder Dining Package” through AAA Travel, which was interesting because at the time we were not actually Disney World pass holders yet. Prior to August, when the notion of the trip first tickled our fancies, we realized that our Disneyland APs were going to expire in mid-2015. After much number-crunching and a recognition that our particular Disneyland AP level was being phased out (evidently not for renewals, but whatever), I concluded upgrading to the Premier Annual Passes for one year made the most financial sense, especially after discovering that I would also have a work conference in Orlando in the Summer of 2016. Initially, we didn’t plan on adding the Dining Plan, but were informed by our travel agent that it was required if we wanted to finance the package with our Disney Visa. Eh, fine with us!

As time passed and the trip inched nearer, we prepped for everything we wanted out of this vacation. February 2015…registered myself and family on My Disney Experience…CHECK! April 2015…tickets purchased for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and (at 5am San Diego time…YAWN….) DISapalooza…CHECK and CHECK! May 2015…flights booked…CHECK!

Finally, we reached June (cue dramatic sound effect and lightning flashes)! Time to make our ADRs! Now, this is not my first rodeo when it comes to making ADRs at Disney. We have traveled to the World several times before and the process is not new to us; in fact, I love being able to manage it all online…when it works (crash of THUNDER)! Weeks prior to our ADR-D-Day, I started seeing posts on the DIS Boards about problems with the online ADR process, specifically regarding early December 2015 dates at restaurants in Epcot’s World Showcase. Being the IT quality control person that I am, I tested the claims and sure enough, “Houston, we have a problem!” Consensus among board members was that it had to do with unreleased virtual holds for Candlelight Processional dining packages, which it most probably was, but you couldn’t get a consistent answer from a CM over the phone, via email, or by instant messaging. It was very frustrating.

Finally, the big day came! My alarm went off at 230am Pacific, my wife, who punched me in the arm (lovingly of course) for not hitting the Off button fast enough, wished me luck and within moments I was out the bedroom door, computer on, priority list ready, logged into My Disney Experience, and set on the Be Our Guest page, date and mealtime pre-selected for immediate searching at the top of the hour! Seconds seemed like minutes! Minutes seemed like hours! The pressure was unbearable! OK, not really, but I did forget to put on my slippers and my toes were a tad chilly…but I persevered! At the stroke of 3am, I initiated the search for Be Our Guest dinner on our preferred evening and I got it! 510pm! Hazzah! I am the GREATEST DAD EVER! One by one, all of our desired dining reservations fell in line…Ohana, Kona Café, Boma, Biergarten, Les Chefs de France, Sci-Fi Dine In Theater, Tusker House, among others! In addition, we got Category 1 tables for both the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review and the Spirit of Aloha dinner shows! By 320am, all was good in the world as I sat back, glowing, reviewing all of the confirmation emails that streamed into my Inbox. Finally, back to bed at 330am because darn it I had to get up for work in 2 and a half hours, my wife groggily asked how it went, to wit I responded joyfully. Lying back down, getting comfy and warm again, I felt another smack in the arm (same spot too)…”Next time, close the bedroom door when you leave, bad man.”

Three days later, I called Sammy Duvall’s and setup parasailing reservations and then in late July we beamed with delight as we trekked up to Disneyland to purchase our Premier Annual Passes. Upon our return, they were summarily linked to our My Disney Experience account and good to go! News then broke about the return of breakfast to the Garden Grill, so we decided to drop one of our Kona Café breakfast ADRs (we had two) and switched to GG on an early entry day at Epcot. We love Chip and Dale!

October 1st…9pm…priority list ready yet again…FastPass+ time! Logged into My Disney Experience and booked everything we wanted. Up to this point, everything, from MVMCP to DISapalooza tickets and ADRs to FP+, worked perfectly! What could possibly go wrong?!

(Cue the dramatic sound effect and lightning again!)​

About a week before the appointed deadline, I called our travel agent to authorize her to initiate the final payment for our trip. She said that she would take care of it with the credit card on file, adding that I would simply need to stop by her office to sign the receipt. A few minutes later she called back…the Disney Travel CM made a slight boo-boo. Our remaining balance due was something-something-something and 4 cents. Unfortunately, the Disney Travel CM charged us something-something-something and 40 cents. “No big deal,” I said, “Do they just credit us back the $.36 difference?” Oh no, they cannot do that! For whatever reason, they had to fully counter the erroneous amount and then charge the correct amount in a new transaction. OK, I thought, that is fine; but what I didn’t realize was how the Disney Visa card processed things. You see, dear reader, apparently they manage credits a tad slower than they do positive charges. So…come that Saturday morning, as we were about to head up north for a family birthday party and a visit to Disneyland, I discovered that we were suddenly over our credit limit! Not only were the two positive something-something-something charges now out of the Pending queue and into the Completed group, there was now a new, very mysterious $5387.51 completed charge from Walt Disney Travel Company!!! Immediately, I was on the phone with the credit card company; not only did I want details about this mystery charge, I wanted to confirm if credits were pending (which you cannot see online) and whether or not we were going to be penalized. After a brief, but annoying, lecture by the card rep about credit responsibility (I think they are required to do it), I confirmed that our account was indeed temporarily frozen, but that credits for the initial error and mystery charges were pending. Thank God for our backup credit card and Disney Visa Rewards points card!

After getting off the phone with Chase, I put in a call to WDTC. I connected with a very nice CM, who was super pleasant, but very limited in what she could tell me. Why you may ask? Well, apparently even though I was the primary named on the reservation, it still effectively belonged to our travel agent, thus per policy they couldn’t really speak to me about it. Thankfully, she provided me with some information, reassuring me that credits were on the way and our vacation was not in any jeopardy of being negatively impacted. Within five business days, the two credits processed and all was right once again. Sheesh!

A little peeved at what happened, I decided to share the tale with our travel agent, asking her to contact WDTC to see if there was anything they could do to make up for the anxiety they put us through. She did and their first response was one bonus FastPass. Ooh…ah…wow! Really?! I wasn’t looking for anything major at all, but for that credit responsibility lecture, I hoped for something more. Believing that FPs were the currency of the conversation, I countered with four…one for each theme park. A deal was struck, I provided dates and parks for the FPs and within a few days they appeared in our My Disney Experience itinerary. Could I have held out for more? Maybe, I don’t know, but we were happy.

Up next…Day 1: Travel Day to Orlando & Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto

Please fasten your seatbelts and return your trays and seats to their fully upright positions. This is going to be a fun ride!

 

[gregf71]

Day 1: Travel Day to Orlando & Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto

Our alarm went off at 3am. A mighty groan emanated from both me and my wife, but we quickly rolled out of bed because we knew that we only had 1 hour before our ride to the airport arrived. Minutes seemed like seconds and before we knew it my Dad was outside our house and we were off! Funny how little traffic there is at 4am.

Dropped off in front of Terminal 2, we thanked our chauffer and headed inside. Having checked in online ahead of time, including paying our baggage fees, we hit the United self-service kiosk, officially “checked in” and dropped off our luggage. Security was a breeze and soon we found ourselves kicking back by our departure gate. As 5am rolled around, all of the dining locations started to open. While my wife and daughter grabbed some goodies at Pannikin, a San Diego coffee and tea institution, I waited anxiously for Phil’s BBQ to open! In my opinion, an icon of San Diego culinary arts, Phil’s, for my money, is simply the best BBQ I have ever had. When I learned that he opened a counter service in Lindbergh Field AND that they offered breakfast items, I was ecstatic! First customer in line, I ordered a pulled pork breakfast burrito with extra BBQ sauce. It was wonderful:

Friends, if you ever get a chance to visit my fair city, do yourself a solid and find a Phil’s! You will not be disappointed.

Flight-wise, everything went incredibly smooth. From San Diego, we flew to Houston and then on to Orlando…we actually arrived a tad early! Upon landing in Orlando, an airport monorail was awaiting us and soon we were in the main terminal, down the escalator, and in the Polynesian’s queue for Disney’s Magical Express. Now, maybe it was the excitement factor of finally being there, but unlike earlier this morning when minutes seemed like seconds, time dragged ever so painfully. We stood there for what felt like an eternity, watching bus after bus arrive to take guests to other Disney resorts while our queue got longer and longer. In reality, it was probably only about 10 to 15 minutes, but man was it killing me. Finally, a CM pushed a mobile workstation in front of our line, everyone was checked in, and we were on the bus!

While en route, I overheard a member of the large group sitting near us ask how their luggage would get to their resort hotel, to wit another one said that “Disney would just grab it and bring it to our rooms later.” Confused, the first person inquired, “OK, but how do they know which bags to pull? I have all of our baggage claim receipts.” Unfortunately, the response I expected the second person to give was not what I heard; instead, it was simply, “Um, I don’t know.” At this point, I politely joined the conversation and asked if they put Disney Magical Express tags on their bags. They had not; in fact, after I pulled up a picture online, they quickly realized that they never received them from their travel agent. Yikes! Begrudgingly, I informed them that their luggage was most probably still sitting at baggage claim. Immediately, they started calling their travel agent and the airport to identify options. They even considered taking a cab back to the airport after being dropped off at the Grand Floridian. In the end, their travel agent took down all of their baggage claim numbers and assured them that she would work with the airport and Disney to get them claimed and delivered. I don’t know how it eventually turned out, but I sure hope it was ok.

Awesomely, the Polynesian Village Resort was the first drop off of our group, which included the Grand Floridian and Wilderness Lodge. Hopping out of the bus, full of energy and excitement, we were immediately welcomed by resort CMs, given leis, and directed towards the lobby. Having already received a text earlier confirming our room assignment, we approached the front desk to 1) reset the MagicBand PINs we forgot and 2) make sure that purchasing was deactivated from our daughter’s band. Strangely, during this process, the CM informed us that they didn’t have a credit card linked to our room reservation and subsequently our MagicBands. I was absolutely sure that I added it during the online check-in process, so why it was not there was a mystery. Moral here…it doesn’t hurt to stop by the front desk upon arrival to make sure that everything is in order. It would have stunk if we discovered the problem when trying to make a purchase later that evening.

We then headed over to Captain Cooks to grab our resort refillable mugs and then to our home for the next 10 days…Fiji 3301! It was exactly what we hoped for! A standard room with a balcony on the third floor, away from the pool construction on the other side of the resort. Our view…from the next morning:

The room itself was beautiful! Compared to our previous WDW Resort hotel rooms at the Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge, and All-Star Sports this space was substantial. Two queen beds, very comfortable, a couch (that I think could be converted into another bed), a six-drawer dresser with a flat screen TV atop it, and a desk. Dual sinks in the bathroom, along with one toilet, below a wall mounted towel rack (which partially came off the wall the first time my wife touched it…fixed the next morning) and a bathtub.

The primary complaint I had was the closet space. It was split into three vertical sections, each of which was essentially subdivided in half. The rightmost section included shelves at the base, which we used to store shoes, and atop them sat the safe. Above the safe was a bar for hanging clothes and another shelf above that. On the left side of this section hung an ironing board. The middle section contained a small refrigerator at the bottom, with three thin pull out shelves to its right (which we never found a use for). Above it sat the coffee maker, ice bucket and drinking glasses. On the left side there were two bars for hanging clothes, one near the top and another half way down; up above them was another shelf. So, what’s the problem you ask? Well, the majority of the clothes hanging space was simply not long enough. In the leftmost section, all of my and my wife’s tops hung down over the mid-level bar and those we tried from the middle bar simply crumpled up at the bottom of the closet. The only space that worked well was the narrow bit between the safe and ironing board, which barely fit my items. My advice to Disney…lose the mid-level bar in the left-side section. Beyond that, the only other thing that mildly bothered us was the building elevator. It’s old, it is beaten up, and it is loud when you ride in it…we took the stairs a lot.

Now around 6pm and our Ohana dinner ADR not until 830pm, we decided to hit Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto for drinks and an appetizer. Since the weather was pleasant and live entertainment was performing we decided to grab a table outside on the Tiki Terrace. Quickly greeted by our waitress, I knew exactly what I wanted…a Nautilus! She confirmed that I wanted it with the mug included, which I did of course! Our daughter ordered the non-alcoholic Polynesian Punch, in her own souvenir sipper, and we added an order of the pan fried dumplings. The Nautilus drink was AMAZING…even my wife, who shared it with me, agreed:

The dumplings were good, not great, but good, especially after travelling all day. What was really nice was our waitress, who we think overheard our daughter ask us about a glow cube when she saw it in another person’s drink and brought her one too. Bill paid, or should I say charged to our room via my MagicBand (which was super easy by the way!), and I received my receipt/claim ticket for my Nautilus mug. While my wife and daughter hit the lobby gift shop, I entered the wonder that is the interior of Trader Sam’s and got my Nautilus! “How the hell am I going to pack this thing?!”

Back to the room to freshen up a bit and store my awesome new mug (yes, it is safely secured in a box)! Thankfully, our luggage had arrived, so we unpacked somewhat before heading back over to the Great Ceremonial House for our 830pm ADR at Ohana. As I approached the Ohana check in station around 820pm, I noticed the masses hanging around in the nearby seating area. I immediately thought back to recent DIS Boards postings that repeatedly mentioned folks being sat well beyond your established ADR time. As I received our pager from the CM, I prepared myself to hear something in the nature of 45 minutes to an hour, but was pleasantly surprised to hear 10 to 15 minutes. Sure enough, our pager went off at right about 830pm!

We were seated on the right side of the dining room, along a wall, halfway down, back behind Tambu Lounge. We were not along the window, but had a decent view of the window and our daughter could see the Magic Kingdom in the distance (my wife and I had a vertical log in our way, but had a partial view). The meal…PERFECT & DELICIOUS! Everything…and I mean everything…was fabulous! I read many a dining review lambasting Ohana over the past year and hoped our experience would be different. It has become a must-do dinner for us over the years and yet again it completely satisfied! From the pineapple-coconut bread, to the mixed greens salad with the delectable lilikoi dressing, to the dumplings and chicken wings, noodles (especially great with the peanut sauce added to it) and stir-fried vegetables, to the skewered meats (of which the chicken was absolutely the best), and finally the bread pudding…the entire meal was sublime! Best of all…we (mainly our daughter) enjoyed watching the Holiday Wishes fireworks from our table, as they lowered the lights and piped in the soundtrack. It was a magical beginning to our vacation!

Dinner over, we decided to go for a little walk and found ourselves in the Grand Floridian. Awestruck by their beautiful Christmas tree, I just stood there looking upwards as my wife and daughter hit the amazing gingerbread house to buy a shingle or two:

After posing for a few shots in front of the tree, we headed back to the Poly and called it a night. It had been a long day.

Up next…Day 2: Animal Kingdom, Boma, and the Magic Kingdom

 

[alohamom]

WOW-you are making me want to go again and I just got back! The Nautilus mug is amazing!!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Joining in - can't wait to hear about your entire trip but especially DISapalooza!

I would be so flipping out if that happened to me with regards to your credit card and the charges - especially the extra "bonus" charge of over 5 grand ..... and then for the credit card company to give you a lecture on CC responsibility - I might have just lost it on them! But hey, a bonus fast pass, so there's that :sigh:

That pulled pork breakfast wrap looks amazing!

Seems like a pretty darn good room - and seeing how rainy and gloomy out it is where I am right now - that view is looking really appealing!

Glad you had such a good meal at 'Ohana - definitely seems to be a place that is inconsistent. Last time we were there the pork skewer was the best part, and others have had complete opposite experiences ... but when it is good, 'Ohana is really good!

 

[gregf71]

Day 2: Animal Kingdom, Boma, and the Magic Kingdom

Early entry day for Animal Kingdom, so the plan was to get up early, grab breakfast at Captain Cooks, and head over for the day. This meal at Captain Cooks presented us with our first opportunity to experience the recent modifications to the dining plan, specifically converting a quick service meal to snack credits. While I excitedly wanted the Tonga Toast (which, like all of the entrees, you have to order with the cashier first, then pay and claim later with a pager), neither my wife nor daughter felt up to ordering a full breakfast, preferring instead something smaller; not that the main dishes didn’t look enticing to them, it was more a matter of personal preference that particular morning. So, as we presented my order and their items to the cashier, the CM immediately asked if we were using the Dining Plan. Completely forgetting about the conversion option, I figured that we would simply use a quick service credit for my meal and then either snack credits or charge to the room for their items. Thankfully, the CM was on the ball and quickly sorted their items into two groups, one of three and one of two, telling us that we could convert a quick service meal allocation for the first group and could do the same for the second if we grabbed another qualifying item (otherwise we could just use two snack credits). Realizing the wonderful flexibility of the new policy, we decided to grab another item quickly and convert another quick service meal allocation. It worked great!

My Tonga Toast was delicious! Sans the strawberry compote accompaniment that comes when ordering it at the Kona Café, it was still perfection on a paper plate! Sure, the presentation was not fancy, but it was crispy on the outside, soft, warm, and savory on the inside, and tasted just right. Drizzle maple syrup on top of it? Heck no! I am a purest!

Tummies happy, we grabbed our things and high tailed it over to the bus stop. This was our first interaction with the new digital signage that identifies when a particular theme park / water park / Disney Springs bus is supposed to arrive. Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about them? Is it more frustrating to sit there not knowing or to watch the expected arrival time reset later and later while you wait? The idea behind them is valid, but we still sat there watching bus after bus come and go for other destinations. That is not to say that the expected arrival times being displayed were always changing…because they didn’t, but it did occur more often than not, which is understandable given unanticipated traffic and guest delays. All said and done, the jury is still out for me on the effectiveness of the signs.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom about 30 minutes before official park opening. My first priority this morning was to purchase a Tables in Wonderland membership, which I quickly accomplished at Guest Services outside of the park (more on that later). Since we were still in the Extra Magic Hour window, we made a bee line to the open stations. As this was the first time we were using our MagicBands for park admission, we had to tap them on the sensor and then have a fingerprint scanned into the system. No big deal…but I quickly realized that it may not have been a smart idea to wear the band on my right wrist and scan my left hand index finger given the positioning of the readers at all of the parks. I suppose that I could have changed it later, but I just dealt with it.

Now inside the park, we meandered through the Oasis and soon found ourselves on the bridge leading towards the Tree of Life. On the right, we noticed a small outpost, kiosk really, where two “Senior” Wilderness Explorers stood ready to entice new recruits to join their ranks! Our daughter was immediately enthralled. After repeating the pledge, obtaining her “field guide”, and earning her first badge (aka sticker), we were off! One down…29 more to go! As the day progressed, she earned about 17 or so; I don’t recall the actual number, but she made some serious headway. And she really enjoyed all of the activities! Some were interactive with CMs, listening to short presentations and answering questions, while others were more problem-solving and task oriented, requiring her to find or translate things, fill in the blanks, etc. and then report her findings. In a nutshell, it was fun, educational, and offered enough variety to keep her interested.

Our first FastPass of the day was Kilimanjaro Safaris, which is still, in my opinion, the jewel of this theme park. I miss the old storyline with Big and Little Red (and didn’t one of the bridges partially collapse at one point too?), but the stars of the show are definitely all of the animals:

Off of the ride, we took our time discovering the sites along the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, stopping at a few Wilderness Explorer spots along the way:

Eventually, we headed towards Asia for our next FastPass… Expedition Everest. When the designated time arrived, we each tapped our bands and then they were off! I said “they” because while not a wimp, I didn’t want a recurrence of the great headache of 2011, when I first rode the attraction. Sadly, as I have gotten older, my head just doesn’t do well with certain types of coasters, particularly those that go upside down or backwards. I realize that I could have swapped my FastPass for another AK attraction or show, but schedule and location-wise nothing seemed to fit, so I just gave it up to ensure that my family could enjoy the ride (that’s them near the end of the train):

Ride thoroughly enjoyed, including the Disco Yeti, and a couple more Explorer badges earned, we then arrived at Yak & Yeti for our lunch reservation. Strangely, even though they were accepting lots of walk-in’s and early reservation arrivals, we stood there waiting in the lobby for a good 10 minutes. Our table was upstairs, along an inner wall, so no view to speak of, but plenty of noise. My wife ordered the Kobe Beef Burger with the ****ake mushroom & scallion compote, which we were warned took a little longer to make, while I requested the Kalbi Steak & Coconut Shrimp; our daughter got the chicken tenders. Completely worth the wait, my wife LOVED her burger. She charitably gave each of us a bite and it was indeed marvelous! I thoroughly enjoyed my steak and shrimp…each bite of steak was enhanced by the pineapple salsa, while the chili plum dipping sauce made the shrimp even better! For dessert, I had to get the fried wontons, which were amazing, while my wife ordered the mango pie and adored it.

Happily content with our tasty meal, we embarked back out into the wild. A quick picture of our daughter with King Louie and then we marched off towards DinoLand USA! Having a little time before our 140pm DINOSAUR FastPass, we hit Primeval Whirl and earned a few more badges. Finally, it was time for my wife to face her fears (she hates dinos) and for our daughter to experience DINOSAUR for the first time. Tap the bands and we were in! About 10 minutes later, including watching the pre-ride film, we were in our vehicle, ready to go back in time! As expected, my wife, who has been on the attraction before and only agreed to do it again for our daughter’s first time, didn’t have a magical time. She agrees that the ride is fun, but that darn Carnotaurus just creeps her out! Our daughter loved the attraction, but admittedly (and we have photographic evidence), she did grab Dad several times along the way.

For the remainder of the afternoon, we just rambled around several more animal enclosures, snapping pictures and earning more badges along the way. The tigers proved very willing to pose for a photo or two:

But, every time that I tried to get a decent bat shot, the little guys decided to start urinating. Final attraction of the day was It’s Tough to be a Bug, which offered more intense theater effects than what we are used to at California Adventure, followed by a visit to the Adventurers Outpost (hardly a line at all) to get a picture with Mickey and Minnie, all decked out in Holiday sweaters (which didn’t quite go with the safari background, but what the heck…MICKEY & MINNIE!).

The character photo highlight of the day though had to be as we exited the park. Br’er Fox himself was just hanging out near one of the ticket booths! Upon seeing our daughter, he took her hand, escorted her over to a nearby bench and well here you go:

This is one of my favorite character shots of our entire trip!

Dinner tonight was at Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge! A quick bus ride to AKL and we were soon killing time checking out their wonderful gift shop, getting pictures of our daughter in front of their Christmas tree, and a bit of wildlife watching on the adjoining savannah. Not too many animals out this night, plus it was raining a bit and a tad chilly, so eventually we found ourselves sitting in rocking chairs in an open covered patio listening to the rain. It was most tranquil.

If you have not made the trek out to Boma for dinner, then you are seriously missing out. Don’t be afraid of African cuisine. Sure, they utilize items and spices that may be out of your comfort zone, but the final products are extremely flavorful and delicious. Admittedly, you may not like everything Boma offers for dinner, but they offer a nice balance of exotic and more traditional buffet items that caters to a wide variety of tastes. And do not forget the Zebra Domes for dessert…oh my!

After we dragged our full stomachs up the stairs from Boma to the main lobby, we headed to the bus stop to catch a ride to the Magic Kingdom. Remember friends, there is generally no direct buses between the resorts (especially between AKL and the Poly), so you need to insert a theme park in between to get from Point A to Point B. Darn it if it had to be the Magic Kingdom, which happened to be open late tonight!

A quick aside…earlier in the day, while still in Animal Kingdom, after using our final initial 3 FastPasses of the day, we decided to see about a 4th one for later in the day. Since the plan was to head to the Magic Kingdom after dinner, I hoped to grab one for there. So, while still in Animal Kingdom, we hit a FP+ kiosk to see what we could do. To my surprise, we could only see availability for Animal Kingdom at their kiosks. I asked the attending CM, who confirmed that yes, the kiosks only provide FPs for the theme park they reside in. Thus, if I wanted my 4th or 5th FPs of the day to be at the Magic Kingdom, I first needed to go there. Honestly, I don’t recall reading about this restriction specifically, but it could have totally been my mistake or misunderstanding. Live and learn, I say!

Arriving at the Magic Kingdom, we knew that we only had a few hours before closing, so we figured that we would make the best of it. Not worrying about FastPasses, we hit some old favorites with small or quick moving lines. The Peoplemover, which we miss terribly from Disneyland, was our first attraction. In fact, we rode it two times in a row (thank you CM)…and we are sure glad that we did because for the remainder of our Magic Kingdom visits during our vacation it was closed for refurbishment. Haunted Mansion was another must-do, but more importantly was a visit to Momento Mori, the awesome gift shop adjoining the attraction! On my shortlist of souvenirs for this trip was a ghostly lenticular portrait of myself; for around $20 it is a steal for a fun and unique memento (see what I did there?)! Once paid for, you are ushered into a small room and seated on a small stool on one side of the room. Across from you sits a very boxy device and several wall-mounted lights. After the CM warning, the lights shine VERY brightly (try not to blink) and the image is taken. You then chill in the shop for several minutes while the picture is created and delivered through a secret door in the opposite end of the store. Great keepsake!

Finally hitting a wall, no not literally, but we were tired, we decided to call it a day. On our way out, while walking through the hub, I snapped this shot of the castle:

Wow! Just wow! While I like this photo, the real thing is just so much more beautiful and awe-inspiring.

Grabbing a boat to the Poly from in front of the park, we headed home for the night for dreams of Epcot in the morning!

Up next…Day 3: Epcot

 

[gregf71]

Day 3: Epcot

Originally, our plan for this morning was to enjoy a fine breakfast at the Kona Café before heading over to Epcot for the entire day. That changed when we heard that the Garden Grill, located in the Land Pavilion, was going to begin offering breakfast service again…and with characters! Joy!

ADR changed (well in advance) and set during the Extra Magic Hour window that morning, we got up early and grabbed the resort monorail to the TTC, expecting to immediately jump on the Epcot monorail and ride it to the theme park. We figured that since it was an early entry day for Epcot that it would be open earlier as well. Unfortunately, it wasn’t…at least not as early as we, and all the other folks with us, hoped. As our group marched down the exit ramp and turned towards the Epcot Monorail access ramp, a CM stopped us, saying that it was not open yet, pointing us towards a bus parking lot instead. We all then trekked over to the designated area to find…no Epcot bus and no marked location to wait. Confused, one of the group members decided to ask at an open customer service window. The CM working there had no clue about Epcot buses (not good), but got on the line and had an off duty bus and driver, who happened to be sitting there in that lot, assigned to the task. As we soon discovered, the Epcot Monorail opened about 5 minutes after we walked away (sure wish that first CM had told us that)! C’est la vie!

Finally arriving at Epcot, we got through the security check quickly then jumped in the first queue to enter the park. I only mention this specifically because I really questioned how they organized this. We had three or four long lines that then each broke into three smaller lines up by the MagicBand readers. Why they didn’t just break us apart earlier, directly in front of each set of readers, is beyond me. It caused quite the traffic jam of bodies.

Once inside the park, it was still a bit before the official early entry time, so they held guests in the area in front of Spaceship Earth. However, since we had an early ADR, we quickly found the special access point off to the right, confirmed out reservation with the CM, and in we went! As we walked in through Future World in the direction of the Land Pavilion, a CM instructed us to walk through the inside of the Innoventions building instead of the open breezeway just behind her. OK, whatever, we took the assigned path, which really puzzled me because on the twisty path within, it sure seemed less direct and took a bit longer. That said, we found out where the Disney Visa photo op location was!

We arrived at the Garden Grill ready for some all-American breakfast goodness! Seated up in the inner ring, our initial view was of the kitchen, but thankfully the restaurant turns, so we didn’t “enjoy” that very long. Now for the food…OH MY GOD…the sticky bun bake! Best part of the meal, hands down! The hodge-podge that was the rest of the all-you-care-to-enjoy skillet was good, pretty basic, but satisfying. The fruit was sweet, the eggs were fluffy, the “Potato Barrels” were tater tots (nothing special), the biscuits were crumbly (but the accompanying sausage gravy was good enough to eat on its own!), the bacon was thin (not thick as advertised), the ham steak was good, but the warm chocolate-hazelnut sauce that came with the Mickey-shaped waffles was wonderful! The meal came with the famous POG Juice (passion fruit, orange, and guava), which we loved, and coffee as well. But, we didn’t just come here for the food! No, while we enjoyed our meal, we were visited by Farmer Mickey, Pluto and Chip & Dale! Swell fellows all!

Out of the Grill around 9ish, we immediately went down the escalator and rode Living with the Land. Really, why is this on the FastPass list? Seriously, I love the ride, I really do, but this is a real waste of a FastPass…and no, we didn’t use a FP on it. Next, we headed over to the Imagination Pavilion and walked right onto Journey Into Imagination with Figment. Another FP question mark for me. Finally, it was time to actually use our first FastPass…on Test Track! We have not ridden Test Track since the current overlay, so I was excited to see this, especially since it is very TRON-esque in its look and feel now. My opinion…not a drastic change at all from the previous version, but I liked the new environments and the ability to create and get ratings for your vehicle:

Test Track completed, my daughter and I decided to give Mission Space a try…the green version of course. While we queued up, my wife, who was not interested in giving it a try instead went Pandora charm hunting. I think she put her time to much for effective use. Frankly, I was disappointed with Mission Space. First of all, the line was horrendous…not long, but slower than a snail crawling through molasses! When we entered the attraction building, the Stand By sign indicated 20 minutes for the green experience. Man, was that WAY off! I am very much accustomed with Disney’s psychological process of posting wait times a little longer than they actually are. You waited, but you come out not only invigorated by the attraction, but also happy that the line moved a bit less than advertised. In this case, it was completely opposite. How it jumped from 20 minutes outside to 60 minutes per the app within a few minutes is beyond me! Anyway, after 30 or so minutes, my daughter and I discussed it, deciding to hold out. After 45 minutes, we talked again and agreed that we already put in 45 minutes, so we couldn’t retreat now! Texting my wife, I told her to find a nice place to relax and grab a nice beverage. We were in for the long haul!

Eventually, we entered, were assigned our roles and entered our capsule. My daughter was the proud pilot and I was the navigator. Door sealed and vehicle contracted, we were ready for blast off! Um…yawn. OK, maybe I am being a bit harsh after that unexpectedly long wait, but it wasn’t anything other than a smaller, more enclosed Star Tours…but hey…we got to push buttons! Maybe the other version is cooler.

By the time we exited Mission Space, it was time for our Spaceship Earth FastPass and then off to the World Showcase. Personally, my favorite part of Epcot, we headed towards Canada. And what did we find along the way?! Cronut! Cronut! Cronut! Time to use a snack credit and use it we did! Splitting the little piece of Heaven, the pastry was devoured quicker than you could blink. Warm and flaky, it was amazing! Best use of a snack credit at Epcot all day!

After exploring Canada, the United Kingdom, France (our daughter fell asleep in Impressions de France) and Morocco a bit, we found ourselves in Japan for lunch. Katsura Grill was our choice today and for a quick service it did not disappoint! Somewhat hidden up and back to the left of the pavilion entrance, Katsura has long been one of our quick service favorites in Epcot. My wife ordered the Tempura Shrimp Udon noodle bowl, while I had the Teriyaki Beef plate, substituting my dessert allocation for a small bowl of Miso Soup, and our daughter the Teriyaki Chicken. Simple and perfect; it was all good and hit the spot. We grabbed a table by the window and just people watched while we ate.

Shopping in the Mitsukoshi Department Store was next (our daughter found a great fan and my wife some much loved Japanese rice candy), then off to check out the Kawaii Cute Culture exhibit inside the Bijutsu-kan gallery:

Realizing that it was time for our third FastPass of the day, we jumped on a Friendship boat and headed over to the Living Seas Pavilion. While I love the Disneyland Submarine Voyage, I really do like the Living Seas version of the attraction (ride portion) a little better. Maybe it is the fact that we are not confined in an enclosed tube, where all sorts of bad things (stinky things) could happen…but I digress! Ride completed, we ended up spending a lot of time in the various aquarium sections. My daughter was ecstatic to find manatees still here. We thought that they all got shipped to Sea World, but were pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise! Later, we watched from below as a presenter worked with two of the dolphins through the glass in one of the tanks. All said and done, we probably spent well over an hour in here. Good times indeed!

Living Seas done, we returned back to the World Showcase and took our time through Mexico (rode the Gran Fiesta Tour), skipped Norway for some strange reason, China, Germany, and then Italy. Eventually, it was dinner time and our ADR this evening was in Germany…the Biergarten! Love, love, love me some German food! Checked in a bit early and then we waited…and waited…and waited. Finally, we were paged, met up with our table-mates (yep, you get to dine with new friends), and entered to the musical sounds of oompah and bells! First things first…the drink orders:

Good thing I ordered the small! Nah, this was the big one and it was zehr gut! The food is served buffet style, so once our drink orders were in, I let my wife and daughter go first. Darn it (yes, I am being sarcastic) if my beer didn’t arrive before they came back with their first helpings! It is amazing how one can drink that entire beer and still have room for two plates of German goodness and a third with a section of one of the best apple strudels I have ever had! The food selections were plentiful and everything I had, particularly the sauerbraten and spaetzle, hit the spot perfectly. Oh, did I mention the apple strudel?!

The live entertainment was wonderful. I think they started a new set on the top and bottom of every hour, and as part of each, kids were welcomed up to dance along, promised a treat (a chocolate coin) if they did so. Our daughter couldn’t pass that up…even though there was a ton of chocolate selections on the buffet.

Dinner thoroughly enjoyed, we then set back out into the World Showcase. A little more traipsing around the pavilions and then it started to rain, not bad enough to ward off the folks claiming spots along the water for Illuminations, but enough that when coupled with our full bellies and tired feet, helped us decide that we should head back to the Poly. We did manage to get a picture taken on the way out though:

Up next…Day 4: Parasailing, More Magic Kingdom, & the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review

 

[gregf71]

Day 4: Parasailing, More Magic Kingdom, & the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review

Of all of the days of our vacation, this was the one I was most looking forward to…sorry DISapalooza. Twice before in my life I attempted to parasail and both times Mother Nature decided that it was not meant to be. In Cancun, in the early 90s, my friend and I stood on a white sandy beach watching riders whipped around in the sky…and the landings were not much better. Come 2011, while on Castaway Cay, I booked the second parasailing excursion of the day! I probably should have reserved the first, for as I listened to riders come off of their boat saying what a “religious experience” it was for them, I noticed the boat drivers notifying attending CMs that it was too windy to continue. Now we come to December 2015! Would this be the day that I would finally soar with the birds?! Or will this be strike 3?!

For at least a week, every day leading up it, I checked the weather reports. One day there was rain in the forecast, then no precipitation expected, then mild winds to thunder storms. Needless to say, the inconsistent reports drove me crazy, but I kept the faith! Finally, the morning arrived and there was no phone call, text message, or email telling me our reservations were cancelled! Opening up the curtains, I saw overcast skies, but there was no noticeable wind and no water on the ground from overnight rain clouds. This was looking good! After a quick breakfast at Captain Cook’s we were on the Resort Loop Monorail heading over to the Contemporary Resort for our 10am reservations!

Arriving a tad early, we surveyed the interior of the resort, making note of the location of Chef Mickey’s, our brunch destination later this afternoon. After perusing the gift shops a bit and one final bathroom break for everyone, we headed out the rear of the main building towards the marina. Warmly greeted at the Sammy Duval’s Watersports Centre service counter, we were introduced to our sailing assistant, who informed us that we were going to be the only fliers this morning, and then took care of all of the official stuff…like paying (ouch…but we did get an AP discount!) and agreeing not to hold them responsible if we were to accidentally fly away during our adventures! Everything all squared away, we were escorted to the boat and met our driver. After introductions and instructions we set out onto the water! It was finally going to happen! Joy!

Or maybe not…as I sat there all geared up, ready to pop up and make my way to the rear of the boat, the driver hit the acceleration, but the parachute became entangled within itself. Stopping the vessel, the driver and assistant then worked hurriedly to unravel all of the intertwined ropes; all the while my wife and I looked at one another, half-laughing, wondering if my parasailing curse would thwart me yet again! Quoting Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings, “Not this day!”

Quickly they had everything straightened out and the boat was accelerating again. The bright yellow chute with a big happy face imprinted on it opened up and eased out. It was time! The assistant summoned me to the back of the boat, whereby I, completely forgetting the instructions I was told, sat down in the designated spot instead of standing tall. Quickly corrected, I stood up and my harness was connected to the chute lines! The line was released and I floated back, up, up and away! It was exhilarating!

Having booked the standard flights for us, I rose to the height of 450 feet…and it was perfect! How would I describe it up there? Well…peaceful…quiet…awe-inspiring…thrilling…windy…and a tad chilly (it was an overcast morning in December after all). Oh, and then there was a few seconds of anxiety (but only once)! You see, the boat basically ran a series of elongated circles along the northern length of the lake. Each time it turned around and sped off in the opposite direction, it powerfully pulled and curved the parachute and me into that direction. The first time that I experienced this change of course was unexpected and a tad jarring…and also exciting! After that, I knew what to expect, and it simply added to the fun!

Nearing the Contemporary, I could see down towards the Magic Kingdom…Tomorrowland to be exact. Funny how things looked so much closer in the park from way up there. Off to the southwest, I could see the majestic Wilderness Lodge; but my personal favorite was soaring along the length of the old Discovery Island. I still hold fond memories of exploring that place with my then girlfriend, now wife, when it was still open. Once my 10 minutes was up, they slowly pulled me back down until I gracefully (ok, maybe not that gracefully, but it was stylish!) landed on the boat’s rear platform. Detached from the parachute lines, I returned to my awaiting wife and daughter. “It was AMAZING,” I yelped, “Are you two ready?!”

Now, before I continue, you must realize that my wife is not a fan of heights. Years ago, when she and I visited Paris, it was all I could do to get her to step to the rails on the Eiffel Tower. And last year, when we went to the Grand Canyon, she continuously fretted about us walking too close to the edges. “What got her to parasail,” you ask? Two words…our daughter. You see, in a perfect scenario, my wife would have sat in the boat, enjoying the ride on the water, while our daughter and I parasailed in tandem. Unfortunately, there are weight requirements and 1) our daughter, while theoretically old enough to fly by herself, was not heavy enough to do so, and 2) well, let’s just say that our daughter needed to fly with my wife. Oh what a mother will do for her child!

Fully connected to the chute lines, they were soon off! I could hear them both squeal as they floated up and up! Grabbing my camera, I tried to grab as many shots as I could (specifically because I knew that I would NEVER see my wife doing this again) and while doing so noticed something funny. Gravity, combined with I suspect the length of our daughter’s upper torso, resulted in the lower half of her face sinking down behind the top of the harness. All I could see were her sunglasses poking over the top. She looked like a long-legged turtle flying in the sky!

Their time up, they returned safely to the boat and extolled the wonders of their flight! My wife, even given all of her fears, enjoyed it very much! She will never do it again…and she has reinforced that with me repeatedly since…but she was so glad that she did.

Returned to the marina, we gave our driver and assistant a cash gratuity and then headed over to the rental boats. Our intention was to take out a boat for about an hour or so until it was time for our Chef Mickey’s brunch reservation. Unfortunately, I soon realized that even though I took my motion sickness medication earlier that morning, our parasailing adventure did affect me a bit; nothing major at all, but we agreed that it might be best to skip the boat rental at that time. So, we decided to take the short walk from the Contemporary over to the Magic Kingdom instead.

After hitting a few attractions (Jingle Cruise!) and enjoying the Holiday ambiance, we rode the Monorail back to the Contemporary for brunch! This was our first ever visit to Chef Mickey’s. As frequent Disneylanders, we love Goofy’s Kitchen and hoped that this would provide us with a similar experience. What we liked…being the brunch service, we enjoyed the mixed variety of breakfast and lunch items on the buffet line; unfortunately though, the quality of the food was average at best, except for the Caesar salad, which for some reason was awesome! We liked the service too; our table server was very nice and very attentive on the drink refills and removing used plates. And you cannot beat getting a pic with members of the Fab 5 in their culinary attire:

What we didn’t like…first thing and most prominently, the physical location of the restaurant. Granted, it was early December and not Florida hot by any means, but it was humid outside and that humidity crept in through the Monorail portals, making the crowded dining environment a tad uncomfortable. Second…our seating location. This was sheer bad luck, and I get that, but having a table directly in front of the kitchen area offered a lot of traffic and not the greatest background for pictures with characters. Third, timeliness…we checked in, received our pager, and were told to queue up for a picture with Pluto. Less than two minutes later, having not yet reached Pluto, our pager went off! Wanting the picture, we just stayed in the line. Soon, the pager stopped and a CM started yelling our name. Fearful that they would give away our table, I waved my arms to get the CM’s attention (failing miserably) and eventually had to step out of the Pluto line to speak to her. Luckily, there was a big group ahead of us posing for pictures, so I was able to communicate with the CM and return in time for the photo. Lastly, the bathroom location. Talk about falling down the rabbit hole! Those of you who have experienced the Chef Mickey’s bathrooms know what I am talking about.

Brunch over, we walked back to the Magic Kingdom for the remainder of the afternoon and into the early(ish) evening. FastPasses du jour included Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and Peter Pan’s Flight! But first, we had to queue up near the Christmas tree on Main Street for a picture with Marie from Aristocats!

While they met the fancy feline, I bought a hat because the clouds were burning off and it was getting bright and sunny. Finally, it was time to experience Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for the first time! Next to Escape from Gringott’s during DISapalooza, this was the attraction I was most looking forward to experiencing on this trip. Entering the FP+ queue, we breezed by the Stand By folks, quickly making our way through the amazingly detailed façade. Soon, we were inside the loading area, where we found ourselves assigned a line seemingly based on whether our group had an odd or even number of riders (which made sense later). Swiftly reaching the vehicle loading CM, we were given our row numbers and I immediately found myself paired with a single rider (no big deal). At last it was time! The safety bars opened up and we entered our mine train! Boy was it snug, almost painfully so. Now, admittedly, I am not a small person, not even medium, ok…somewhere above large, but I was shocked how uncomfortable I was. I think the main issue, at least for me, was my height, specifically the length of my legs. I fit in the seat ok, but once I pulled the lap bar down and squeezed by knees within its frame, let’s just say I felt discomfort in a place a man doesn’t like to feel discomfort. How I found room to put my small backpack and camera bag around my feet is still a complete enigma!

And we are off! Climbs, curves, tilts, the lot…and of course the dark ride portion. Overall, an enjoyable ride. Did it live up to my hopeful expectations? Is it worth, at that time, a Stand By wait time of over 90 minutes? Nope and nope! Honestly, it was a fun little ride, but it certainly left us wanting more out of it. Afterwards, my wife and I concluded that it sits somewhere between The Barnstormer and Big Thunder, but leans more towards the former. We agreed that, in our opinion, it is not worthy of more than a 30 to 45 minute wait.

A quick jump onto Journey of the Little Mermaid, followed by a PhotoPass shot of our daughter in front of Eric’s castle, and then it was time for a bathroom break. Not to be indelicate, but as usual I was out first, giving me pause to look around the adjoining area, specifically Gaston’s Tavern! I had heard tales of the greatness of LaFou’s Brew and had yet to enjoy one, so I used this opportunity to use a snack credit! Wow! Just wow! Sooooo good! Sooooo refreshing! Unlike Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, this lived up to the hype! Soon, my wife and daughter emerged, noticed the beverage in my hand, and the look of exaltation on my face. Smiling and not saying a word, I handed it over to my wife, who immediately asked what it was. I didn’t speak, I simply nodded and continued smiling. With a concerned look in her eye (What?! She didn’t trust me?!), she took a taste and her eye brows perked up. She LOVES just about anything with toasted marshmallows, so this drink was right up her alley! My wife turned and started to walk away with the Brew, but our daughter would not have any of that! She chased, cornering her by Gaston’s fountain, and managed to free the cup from her mother’s grasp. Upon taking her first sip, she too was entranced by the mystical frozen concoction! I looked at my wife, who then pointed back at the Tavern and said, “Go get another one, please!” Methinks we shared about six brews over the course of our vacation.

Since there was a Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party this evening, the Magic Kingdom closed at 7pm. Not a problem…we had reservations for the 830pm Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review! This has been on my WDW bucket list for years and I finally convinced my wife to attend…the all you care to drink sangria helped! As the park closed to the general public, we moseyed out and grabbed the boat to Fort Wilderness. After a leisurely float, we arrived early for the show, giving me time to hit Guest Relations for our Tables in Wonderland discount/refund. Now dark, we watched as the holiday adorned and lighted horse drawn carriages arrived and frankly were shocked to discover the cost of a ride. After checking out the gift shop and chatting with folks on the outside porch, it was finally time to queue up for the dinner show! Doors open, we entered Pioneer Hall and were escorted to our table…second row, dead center (Category 1)! My wife was stunned at how good our seats were. “This is why you get your reservations 6 months in advance,” I replied.

Now to the nitty gritty…the food…served as all you care to eat family style, my wife and I found the food delectable! The fresh baked bread was slightly warm, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The tossed green salad was flavorful. As far as the main courses (and sides), the fried chicken outshined the pork ribs, which were good, but the chicken was much better. The baked beans were my favorite and the corn on the cob was fine. For dessert, we thoroughly enjoyed the strawberry shortcake! Now, our 9 year old daughter, on the other hand, was not a big fan of the selections, which was odd because most, if not all, of these items are things she normally adores. It may have just been one of those days when they weren’t appetizing to her. So, our observant server, quickly jumped in and brought her peanut butter and jelly Uncrustables and fruit! They hit the spot perfectly!

Next, the service…practically perfect in every way! I already mentioned resolving our daughter’s dining dilemma. Beyond that, our server was super attentive, but not to the point of being annoying. She was juggling several tables and managed them all wonderfully. There was a table next to us that arrived late, halfway through the show, and she made sure that they got everything that they needed.

Finally, the show…LOVED IT! And, even though it pained her to admit it, so did my wife! Our daughter too, out of her little funk with the power of Uncrustables in her system, enjoyed the show very much. She even got a wash board and joined in the parade!

Show over, the family was thoroughly exhausted from an awesome day of excitement, thrills, frosty beverages, and wonderful entertainment. Grabbing a boat back to the Magic Kingdom, we simply hopped onto another bound for the Grand Floridian and Polynesian. It was a good day.

Next…Day 5: Studios, Epcot & DISapalooza

 

[gregf71]

Day 5: Studios, Epcot & DISapalooza

Up early, we made our way to the Polynesian bus stop and awaited our transportation to the Studios. We were pleased to initially see our displayed wait time to be only a few minutes, but as usual that darn time kept creeping up little by little. Eventually, the bus arrived and we were off! Arriving at the Studios, we immediately headed over to Starring Rolls for breakfast. The queue was not good…mainly because they had only one cashier working inside. If you are not familiar with this location, it is VERY small and there are no designated lines inside to manage customer flow. A natural line formed, snaking around the perimeter inside and then out the doors. Man, did it move slowly. Claiming our trays, we made our selections as we sluggishly circumnavigated the room. Having read very good things about their cherry turnovers that was my target, while my wife and daughter both chose other pastries. By the time we turned the corner and neared the lone cashier another one magically appeared! Huzzah! It was amazing what a difference that second person made.

Grabbing a table outside, we dug into our meals. For the most part, we were all pleased with our various selections. They were not the most memorable pastries that we have ever had, but they were good and hit the spot. My cherry turnover was flaky and packed with a sweet and tart cherry filling. If it was heated in some manner, I suspect I would have liked it more.

Breakfast complete, we set out for our adventures! Our first FP+ of the day was for Toy Story Mania. En route we found ourselves being waved at by a CM standing directly outside a sound stage door. “You want to meet the Mouse today,” she asked excitedly! “He’s here in his Sorcerer’s Apprentice outfit and there is no line!” Awesome! So, we scurried over and entered the building, where the Apprentice himself waved us in! The timing couldn’t have been any better!

Photos taken, Mouse and CM thanked, we then happily marched out and made our way to Toy Story Mania. Truth be told, this was our first time riding this attraction in Florida. Having enjoyed it many times in California Adventure and knowing that they are essentially identical, we always chose to skip it, especially given the long lines we historically saw during previous vacations. This time though, with FastPass+ pre-scheduling, we decided to give it a try…and I am really glad that we did! Not for the ride itself (because it is virtually a twin of its California cousin), but for the queue. Ours is so tedious and boring and has none of the eye candy like this:

Ride over, we slowly made our way over to Tower of Terror for our next FP+ reservation. I had been telling our daughter for years how much better the Studios’ Tower is compared to ours in DCA, now it was finally time to show her! Why is it better, you ask? Simply…the sequence when your car leaves the initial elevator shaft, moving through I guess the Twilight Zone, and into the drop shaft. Believe me…it makes a huge difference! Oh, and did I mention previously that my wife doesn’t like heights? Again, what a loving mother won’t do for her darling daughter…but we only rode it once.

Our third FP+ took us to a galaxy far, far away…Star Tours! Man, this ride always messes with me, but I still love it! Of course we got the new Force Awakens segment and it made us even more excited about seeing the feature film (which had not yet been released at the time). All of our FPs used, we meandered around the park a bit, checking out the shops as it started to drizzle a bit. Nothing major at all, but it did get me a bit concerned about that evening’s big event. Thankfully, it turned out to just be a rogue cloud and quickly blew over.

Satisfied with our morning Studios adventure (and knowing that we would be back tomorrow afternoon and evening), we decided to begin our trek to Epcot. What a pleasant walk this is. Sure, you can take a boat down the river, but walking along it, especially on a nice, not overly humid day, was very peaceful and relaxing. It also gave us the opportunity to showcase a few of the area resorts for our daughter, namely the Swan, Dolphin, Boardwalk, and Yacht and Beach clubs.

Lunch was planned along the way with an ADR at Beaches & Cream. I know, I know…I was warned. I read a lot of recent reviews of this place that detailed its fall from grace, but I just didn’t want to believe it! We have such fond memories of meals here from previous trips (admittedly 2001 and earlier) and I just had to find out for myself. Yes, I admit it…you all were right…sigh. While the service, ice cream sodas, and flavored Cokes were all excellent, the burgers and sandwiches left a lot to be desired. What I used to describe as the best burger on property was a rubbery, bland shadow of itself. My wife’s turkey sandwich just lacked flavor and was a bit dry. The fries were decent, but the onion rings were a bit over cooked and fell apart as you bit into them. Ok DISboards, lesson learned.

Brushing off our lackluster lunch, we entered Epcot by the World Showcase. The only priority that we had here today was to take pictures at every pavilion to make a calendar for my mom. She very much wished to join us on this trip, but life unfortunately dictated otherwise. So, she asked us to bring her an Epcot calendar…which they don’t sell, so I decided to put one together myself! Our daughter LOVED being the model in each photograph, hamming it up and posing with each land behind her. In between pictures, our daughter got her paper Duffy and World Showcase Passport stamped and decorated, often times with her name written in the local language.

Finally, the time arrived for a little fun...and it went a little something like this…“Um, I think we should head back to the Poly for a nap or something,” I said. “Recharge our batteries. We can just grab dinner at Captain Cook’s tonight and just chill.”

Confused, our daughter responded, “Why don’t we just stay here for the evening?”

“Daddy’s right,” added my wife, “Let’s call it a day and head back to the resort.”

If you have not already figured it out, we had not told our daughter about DISapalooza!

So, we made our way to the front of the park, grabbed the Monorail to the TTC, and walked over to the Poly.

Back in the room, with plenty of time before we needed to meet the party bus, we freshened up a bit and then headed down to Captain Cook’s. Honestly, I cannot recall what my wife and daughter had this evening, but I certainly remember my choice…Pulled Pork Nachos!!! Two types of chips slathered with cheese sauce, spicy mayo, onions, chopped tomatoes, and pineapple salsa with a decent amount of pulled pork on top! Mere words cannot describe how good these were. I dare not think about the calorie count, nor how bad they were for me, but my gosh they were delicious!!!

Winking at my wife, she then nodded. “Hey, I have an idea for what we can do tonight!” Our daughter looked intrigued.

I leaned in and asked, “How would you like to go visit one of the Harry Potter lands for a few hours? Ride a couple rides and try some tasty drinks and ice cream?”

Her eyes immediately lit up and a huge smile. She nodded rapidly. “OK then, let’s head back to the room and grab our stuff!”

“Wait, what,” she exclaimed. “Really?!”

Almost floating back to the room, we grabbed our things and headed for the front of the resort to await the bus. The CM pointed out where charter buses normally pick up guests, so we grabbed a bench over in that area and waited…very impatiently. The time was about 750pm and per the information we received, the bus should arrive anytime between 8 and 830. The minutes passed agonizingly. Around 820 or so, I started getting a tad nervous, checking online to see if any updates had posted. The only thing I found was a post from another DIS Board member, mentioning that they too were waiting eagerly in front of the Poly. Noticing another group huddling together nearby, I approached and asked if they were going to DISapalooza. They were indeed. It’s always nice to meet new folks with similar interests!

Near 830, the bus arrived and we all quietly cheered…at least I did. Names checked against the ledger, we all boarded and then drove to the Grand Floridian to pick up some more. The drive to Universal felt longer than it really was. I am sure that the anticipation added to that. Finally, we arrived and were summarily told what to do and where to go, including when to be back (very important). Walking through the gates, we were greeted warmly and ushered into lines to pick up our party credentials. Just off to the left lay a long red carpet! Our daughter absolutely loved that and strutted down the length of it, all the way to the security check point.

Bags checked, we then followed the guidance of a small army of specially positioned Universal staff members with flashlights, leading us to our final destination. Having never been to Universal Florida before, this was a special treat for us. Walking down these thoroughfares, with only a handful of other guests around us, was awesome! I wanted so much to examine the Simpson’s section more closely, but I knew that it was not why we were here. Bring on London!

As we arrived near our destination, we approached the crowd of other partygoers awaiting entrance. Everyone seemed super excited and very friendly! Soon, the flood gates opened! And where were my wife and daughter? In the restroom of course! Finally out, I beckoned them to come my way and we were in! Our first experience was the London façade as we watched those in the know knock on a certain door that revealed a house elf in an upstairs window. Very cool! Walking by the Knight Bus, we decided to check it out on the way out and headed straight for the Hogwart’s Express entrance! The queue is long! No, not the number of people in it, rather the sheer distance itself! I cannot imagine what a normal wait is like during peak season (I hope to find out this summer!). It is also amazing! The visual effect as you watch people walk through the column and into Platform 9¾ was stunning. Eventually, we arrived:

Passing an owl…

…we were then queued up for our train car and cabin:

We soon found ourselves in the train, seated with two couples. The “conductor” gave us some general instructions and then closed our cabin door. A few moments later, the train began to move and the adventure began! The overall experience, to and from Hogsmeade (which we could not visit), was sensational! On one side of the cabin was the virtual window, allowing us to see what was happening “outside”, but it was the special effects on the cabin door that I thought was incredible! It really looked and sounded like Harry, Ron, and Hermione were out there…and the Dementors…wow, just wow! Oh, and the chocolate frogs and spiders were great gags!

Back from our travels, we exited the station and streamed to Diagon Alley! Upon our entry, we immediately felt enveloped by the atmosphere. There really are no words to describe how completely amazing and immersive this place is. The DIS crew had formed a greeting line on the left, but as there was a deep line of guests already formed, we decided to just head right. First thing we found was a wand shop; not Ollivander’s, but a small, non-attraction type shop. The very pleasant Universal employee showed us all of the wands and helped our daughter and I make our selection. While I chose a non-interactive Sirius Black model, our daughter preferred the interactive Hermione Granger wand. My wife? She wanted an owl!

Wands procured, we made our way to the nearby drink counter line. Within 5 minutes, we had our first frozen Butterbeers! Oh my…oh my!! I rank LeFou’s Brew slightly higher, but they were wonderful! Wands and Butterbeer mugs now in hand, we made our way back to Gringott’s:

After getting our free locker and storing our stuff, we entered the attraction queue:

As you can see in the above image, there was no line! AWESOME!

We made our way through the labyrinthine queue and eventually caught up with other riders. After watching the pre-ride video (there’s no turning back now…sorry, I stole that line), we entered the next room, grabbed our 3D glasses and were on our vehicle lickety-split! Without a doubt, Escape from Gringott’s is one of my favorite attractions ever! The mixture of coaster, spinner, and 3D motion simulator is mind-blowing. It was seamlessly perfect and breathtakingly fun! Disney…you have a hard act to follow!

Out of Gringott’s, we set our sights on getting my wife her owl. While she was inside making her selection, my daughter and I found one of the many spell-casting spots immediately outside. It took a few attempts, but eventually she made the phoenix stop singing and boy did she love it. The next hour took us all around Diagon Alley, including Knockturn, as she wanted to cast as many spells as she could (admittedly some were more challenging than others):

This place was AMAZING!

Unfortunately, time was fleeting. We soon realized that given the line, we wouldn’t get to try any of the ice cream, but that was ok. We chose instead to check out Ollivander’s; we never witnessed the interactive experience, but were blown away by the wall to wall, floor to ceiling selection of wands:

As the final moments of the event neared, I decided that I was parched, so we made our way over to the beverage counter we visited earlier. This time however, I ordered three different drinks: Otter’s Fizzy Orange Juice, Fishy Green Ale, and a Pumpkin Juice. Of the three, the Fizzy Orange Juice, with the cinnamon sugar along the rim, was the winner! It was delicious, especially if you got a bit of the sugar in your sip! The Green Ale was ok, but the overall flavor was a bit weak. Lastly, the Pumpkin Juice was good. I am not a pumpkin person, so my wife drank this one. She enjoyed it, but it didn’t even compare to the Butterbeer or Fizzy Orange Juice.

Sadly, the time had come to return to the bus. Recalling the explicit warnings about being back on the vehicle on time, we made our way with a few other folks and of course our daughter had to strut along the red carpet one more time, waving at her imaginary fans along the way. Entering the virtually empty bus, we had our choice of seats, sat, and waited…and waited…and waited. Yeah, a lot of partygoers didn’t feel the need to return as instructed. Eventually, the last of our bus group arrived, looking happily exhausted, soon followed by John Magi himself, who asked if we all had a good time! Those of us still awake (not our daughter) cheered loudly and thanked John (and the DIS team) exuberantly! A grand time was had by all! Thank you DIS!!!

Next…Day 6: Typhoon Lagoon & Studios

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I was very excited to read about your DISaplooza trip as I was there too!

It is so weird how we all had very different experiences.

I think that orange drink is one of my favorites too, but for me, nothing beats a frozen butterbeer. I'm a bit ashamed at myself, I only had 4 at the party. I was hoping to drink a lot more, hahaha.

So which owl did your wife end up picking? A Hedwig? Or a more obscure variety of owl?

We did the spells too, I think those are great and I've been trying to figure out how Disney is going to combat that. Interactive lightsabers or force gloves? I feel like wands were just the perfect interactive souvenir.

What time did you go back to your bus? We were on the Pop Century/AOA bus. I am usually pretty good at listening to directions, but I don't think our bus was told to be back at a particular time. We stayed until the party ended and were probably back on the bus around ten after midnight. I think there were one or two groups after us.

The rest of your trip sounds really nice! You can of make me want to try the parasailing!

 

[gregf71]

I was very excited to read about your DISaplooza trip as I was there too!

It is so weird how we all had very different experiences.

I think that orange drink is one of my favorites too, but for me, nothing beats a frozen butterbeer. I'm a bit ashamed at myself, I only had 4 at the party. I was hoping to drink a lot more, hahaha.

So which owl did your wife end up picking? A Hedwig? Or a more obscure variety of owl?

We did the spells too, I think those are great and I've been trying to figure out how Disney is going to combat that. Interactive lightsabers or force gloves? I feel like wands were just the perfect interactive souvenir.

What time did you go back to your bus? We were on the Pop Century/AOA bus. I am usually pretty good at listening to directions, but I don't think our bus was told to be back at a particular time. We stayed until the party ended and were probably back on the bus around ten after midnight. I think there were one or two groups after us.

The rest of your trip sounds really nice! You can of make me want to try the parasailing!

My wife chose Pigwidgeon, Ron Weasley's first pet owl.

I like the interactive Force gloves idea. Perhaps a light saber handle or crystal. I didn't realize this until recently, but apparently according to canon the sabers are sort of powered by crystals within the saber handles that are attuned to the Force.

What time did we go back to the bus? I don't recall our bus number (it serviced Wilderness Lodge, the Poly, and Grand Floridian), but we do remember our bus host telling us to be back on the bus at midnight. So, we probably left the party around 1150pm or so. Honestly, we didn't mind the wait at all. We were glad that they didn't leave any folks there.

And yes, try parasailing!

 

[gregf71]

Day 6: Typhoon Lagoon & Studios

After a late night of absolute fun in Diagon Alley, I was glad that we planned a slightly later, less frenetic morning the next day. After a mellow breakfast at Captain Cook’s, we grabbed our cinch sacks, pre-packed with our water park gear, and jumped on the bus to Typhoon Lagoon!

We had hoped to enjoy Blizzard Beach on this trip since we didn’t on our last visit in 2011 and our daughter has yet to experience it, but alas it was scheduled to be closed this time out. C’est la vie!

Locker rented and clothes changed, we headed for our #1 priority…Crush ‘n’ Gusher! Love…love…love these slides! And unlike 2011, our daughter is now old enough and a good swimmer, thus able to join us on the slides! If you don’t already know, CnG is not simply a set of water slides, it is a water coaster that shoots you up (yes up), hurls you around, and speeds you down all of its three fruitfully delicious slides! And we rode all of them…multiple times!

None of us brave (or crazy) enough to try Humunga Kowabunga, we then hit most of the other popular slides as a family: Gangplank Falls, Keelhaul Falls, Mayday Falls, and the Storm Slides. Since this was our daughter's first time enjoying these attractions, it wasn’t a shock to me that she started commenting (or should I say complaining) about the number of steps one must climb to ride them. All in all, we enjoyed them very much. I will say though that I had a heck of time with my feet banging against the slide walls on Keelhaul and Mayday!

Content with the thrilling slides for now, we decided to jump into Castaway Creek, the lazy river. We must have floated around the full length of that thing 3 times, making every effort possible to push each other under a freezing cold waterfall whenever possible. We happily shared lots of laughs. Eventually, the ladies decided to breakaway and hit a couple more slides. I, on the other hand, continued to float down the river, happy as a clam.

Before parting, since it was nearing lunch time, we agreed to meet near Leaning Palms. As expected, since it was really uncrowded (it pays to get there in the morning folks…and go in early December) they finished their slides before I circumnavigated the river one last time, so as I rounded the final curve, I looked to find them waiting. Popping out, we headed up for our feast…ok, maybe not a feast per se, but it was darn good! Both my wife and I ordered the chicken with rice and beans…which also came with sweet fried plantains! Let me tell you…I LOVE me some sweet fried plantains and these did not disappoint! My dear wife, seeing how much I was enjoying my plantains, graciously gave me one of hers! It was a fine meal indeed!

Lunch finished, my wife and daughter chose to hit Crush ‘n’ Gusher one more time, while I decided to dry off, hit the locker, get dressed, and snap a few pictures:

Eventually all dried off and dressed, we left the park to find our bus back to the Polynesian. Unfortunately, by this time of the day (early afternoon), Disney was no longer running direct buses back to the resorts. So, we jumped on one destined for Epcot, whereby we then grabbed the Monorail to the TTC and walked back to our room.

Quick showers to get out the remaining chlorine (it turns my and my daughter’s blond hair a nice tint of green sometimes) and dressed more appropriately for an evening at a theme park, we then headed to the Studios.

First things first…the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular! What a great show! Stunts…humor…action…and explosions! What else do you need?! Perfectly timed, we exited the show just as our Star Tours FastPass window opened. To be honest, this trip offered our first rides on this attraction in Florida (picture below from the day before). Even though the external sets are way cooler than we have in Anaheim, we always felt the attraction was an exact duplicate, so we skipped it. Not this time though, especially with the new guaranteed Force Awakens portion!

(Yes, this photo was from the previous day, but wanted to get it in here somewhere!)

Star Tours thoroughly enjoyed, we evaluated the nearby area, ascertaining where everything would be set up later for the Osborne Lights. Thinking that we had it all figured out, we set out for our second FP of the day…The Great Movie Ride. What a classic! Yes, it is showing its age. Yes, it references films and actors that most park-goers may have never heard of, but it is still a fun attraction. The new TCM sponsorship added a little pixie dust to it, but admittedly it still needs a refresh. Conceptually, it is a great ride through the history of films, but updating some of the rooms with more modern releases may be more attractive.

Content with our ride through the movies, it was time to use our first bonus FP, given to us as you may recall because of that credit card fiasco. The target…Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster! This would be our daughter’s first ride on RnRC…it may not look like it here, but she loved it:

The sun now setting, we made our way over to Muppet Vision 3D to use our third official FP of the day. Why this is on the list of FP+ options is beyond me, but when you have such a limited supply of attractions in the park, I guess you need to tier them the way that they do. Still, this was a waste of a FP, but scheduling-wise all that fit. In any event, we still enjoy the show (love the Swedish Chef portions), especially since the Disney California Adventure version has been hibernating for a while with a Frozen overlay.

Exiting the Muppet Theater, it was now dark outside and the presence of the Osborne Lights was obvious. But, now was not the time to experience them! It was time for dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater!!! On our last WDW trip in 2011, we were on the Deluxe Dining Plan and had lunch here one day. Unfortunately, that experience suffered from a couple tangent issues. First, we were just stuffed. Wanting to take full advantage of the dining plan and all that it offered, for days prior to this meal we enjoyed several table service meals that included appetizers, entrees, and desserts. It was here that we finally hit the gastronomical wall. After enjoying our appetizers, we all realized that the entrees were going to be difficult (which none of us ended up finishing) and desserts were just not going to happen (we ended up getting them to go). Secondly, exhaustion. Sitting in a darkened room, nice and cool, tummies filled to the brim, made it difficult for us to keep our eyes open…in fact, our daughter fell completely asleep halfway through. Now in 2015, a few years older and wiser, we came into the Sci-Fi determined to have a better experience. I opted for the Sci-Fi Angus Burger…topped with pulled pork, sriracha barbecue sauce, swiss cheese, and pickled apple slaw. It was delish (and not nearly as spicy as I expected it to be)! Fries on the side and a cherry Coke…I was a happy man! My wife thoroughly enjoyed the smoked turkey sandwich, while our daughter had (staying awake this time) a simple cheeseburger. The service was wonderful and the ambiance is a treasure. Definitely a better experience this time out!

Well fed, it was now time to witness the spectacle that was the Osborne Lights (yeah, really wish I wasn’t saying “was” there…sigh)! Quickly assessing the traffic flow (and all of the CMs with their directional flashlights waving), we identified the primary access point. We could have gone through the back way via the Studio Catering Co., but would have missed quite a bit, so back around, in between Star Tours and Muppet Vision and passed Mama Melrose’s we marched with the herd! Moo!

Words cannot express the beauty of the Lights, so here are pictures:

This was not my or my wife’s first time enjoying the Osborne Lights, but it was our daughter’s first time. Watching the lights reflect off of her eyes and the jaw dropping expression on her face made for a wonderful memory. I am so glad that we got to visit this one last time.

Next…Day 7: Disney Springs & Magic Kingdom

 

[gregf71]

Day 7: Disney Springs & Magic Kingdom

Up kind of early this morning with visions of breakfast goodness dancing in our heads, we headed for the front of the Poly to grab a cab to the Animal Kingdom Lodge! While trip planning, I scoured the DISboards for good breakfast options and more often than not Boma came up as one of the best! We have thoroughly enjoyed dinners there, including one earlier on this trip, but never breakfast, so this was exciting.

Dropped off in front of the Lodge, we made our way over to Boma and the feasting began! Everything, and I mean everything, was delicious! Offering several standard breakfast buffet items, the main draw for us was the more unique things. My absolute favorite was the corned beef hash and the scrambled eggs with goat cheese. Oh…and did I forget to mention the fried sweet plantains! And my favorite POG juice!! I was in Heaven!

Fed and happy, we rolled out of the resort and grabbed a bus to Disney Springs. After being dropped off at the north end of the Marketplace, we slowly but surely made our way through the shops. In the Christmas shop, I noticed these, um, unusual ornaments:

OK, you tell me what it looks like Pluto is doing! If I saw him on my lawn in that position, I'd be getting the water hose!

All was calm until our daughter spotted the Tsum Tsums inside Once Upon a Toy! Woosh! She ran over and started scanning all of the options. Soon, she cradled one of her arms and started stacking a half dozen of the little things against her chest. Needless to say, she loves these things and were her #1 wanted souvenirs for the trip.

Tsum Tsums purchased, we then meandered through Tren-D and entered the Marketplace Co-Op. LOVED this place! The variety of different sections within the singular larger space was awesome! The selection was eclectic and unusual, but all with a Disney twist, and I ended up coming out with a box of British pub coasters for my brother. Managing then to make it through Arribas Brothers without accidentally knocking anything glass over (always a worry of mine in their shops), we entered…dum, dum duuuuuum…the World of Disney Store. Dang, did this thing get bigger since the last time we were here?! I think I could have used a map because I swear I got turned around a couple times in there. After about a half an hour of looking around and managing not to buy anything, we made our way towards the Landing. I really do miss Pleasure Island, but the Landing is a nice evolution of the space. Walking by the Boathouse, we paused to examine the amphicars. Boy, did I want to ride in one, but those prices are just too steep; they are pretty though:

Nearing lunch time, which we originally planned as a counter service dining plan lunch at Bongos Express, fate instead brought us to the entrance of this fine establishment:

Thankfully, it didn’t take much convincing on my part for us to skip Bongos Express in lieu of drinks and appetizers at Jock’s! Warmly greeted and immediately seated, inside near the rear doors, we perused the entertaining menu. My hope was to enjoy the Cool-Headed Monkey adult beverage and also purchase the mug, but unfortunately I was not the first to have such intent, as our waiter informed me that the mug was temporarily unavailable. I ordered the drink nonetheless and it was sweet and delicious. My wife loved her Bedtime Story, a mix of mandarin vodka, ginger liqueur, hibiscus syrup, fresh lemon juice and iced tea…topped with a completely edible flower! And our daughter, a huge fan of Shirley Temples, got the Jock’s version…an Antidote!

It was the food that proved to be the challenge for us. As we went down the list of options, all of it looked great to my wife and I, but our daughter not so much. Narrowing it down to things that we thought we all could enjoy, we ended up selecting the Air Pirate’s Pretzels and Brody’s Brats:

Both quite tasty, they didn’t really hit a high note for our daughter unfortunately…especially since Jock’s didn’t have plain yellow mustard (her favorite), offering instead more hearty options. Methinks I see a snack coming her way a little later.

Leaving Jock’s, we headed through the corridor of shops, making our way towards the Westside….destination…DisneyQuest! I may be in the minority here, but I am really, really sad to see DisneyQuest closing its doors. It has lost some of its luster over the years, but to me it is still a building full of fun and loads of entertainment (even if the technology is dated):

Starting in the Replay Zone, we played a bunch of old school video games that took me back to my childhood in the ‘80s when I would bike down to the local arcade and spend hour after happy hour escaping into the world of TRON, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Burgertime, and Dig Dug! Next, we had to hit all of our favorite interactive attractions…Buzz Lightyear’s Astroblasters (my daughter and I kicked some serious butt on that one), CyberSpace Mountain (my coasters are always so wimpy compared to my wife’s), Virtual Jungle Cruise (glad I took my motion sickness pill that morning), and of course Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold (pretty challenging with just three of us). I bowed out of Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride, and I am glad that I did because both my wife and daughter came back a tad woozy…it would have killed me! After hitting a few more video games, we called it. Goodbye DisneyQuest! You will be missed!

Interestingly, as we exited the gift shop (which had absolutely no DisneyQuest souvenirs at all…really bummed), my wife was hit up by a CM with a survey. Not an unusual thing at all, but being asked why we came to DisneyQuest that day, what we enjoyed the most, and what we will miss about it was rather intriguing. Hmm…

Walking back to the Marketplace side, as expected our daughter needed a snack, so while she and I hit up Wetzel’s Pretzel’s, my wife popped over to the nearby Starbucks. We grabbed a bench in front of the Waterside Stage and watched multiple kids playing on the stage, completely ignoring the signage asking them to not do just that. It didn’t take long for one of them to run too close to the edge and fall off. Not a long drop if I’m honest, but still landing on concrete hurts. Sorry to get up on the soapbox here, but…parents…watch your kids and mind the signs, please!

Back at the Polynesian, we filled our resort mugs and chilled in our room until it was time for dinner…at Kona Café! Folks…Grilled New York Strip Steak…that’s all I have to say! Let me repeat…Grilled New York Strip Steak! Served with roasted fingerling potatoes, seasonal vegetables, and molasses-bacon butter, this was a highlight meal for me on this trip! Pure carnivore bliss! Order one the next time you are there. You are welcome!

The only negative of this dining experience was the weather. “The weather,” you say! How could the weather impact a meal at an indoor restaurant? Well, our table happened to be right at the front of the restaurant, susceptible as we soon discovered to the rushes of cold wind as the second level doors opened repeatedly. My wife and daughter soon found themselves shivering, so much so that it affected their ability to enjoy their meals, so with a little prodding, they ran back to the room, put on some warmer clothes and returned much happier.

Dinner done, the plan was to visit the Magic Kingdom for the evening, but we now had a choice…take the Monorail over or the boat. We chose the latter and headed over to the dock. Big mistake. Bad luck on our part, we watched a boat leave the Poly dock as we made our way there. Figuring another would be by shortly, we enjoyed the view and lake breeze. After watching Monorail after Monorail after Monorail driving into the Magic Kingdom, we soon realized that we might not make our Mine Train FastPass. After waiting for nearly 30 minutes, a boat finally arrived and whisked us off across the lake. Checking our watches repeatedly, we knew that we were going to cut it really close. Disembarking, getting through security, and tapping into the park, we immediately hit the over flow path on the right side of Main Street. Making it down by the Plaza Restaurant, we hit the evening parade crowds as our FP hour expired. Oh well! We discussed the idea of going over the Mine Train anyway to see if they would take pity on us, but given the crowd level and our next FP for Main Street Electrical Parade viewing, we chose to simply return to the front of Main Street to grab a place for the show. As usual the MSEP never fails to please:

Parade over and a little time available before our Wishes viewing FP, we popped into Tomorrowland and used our Bonus FP for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. To be honest, I like the Disneyland version much better. That said, I am glad that I did my research and knew where all of the high point targets were. My wife couldn’t believe my score!

Fun completed, we returned to Main Street and found the Wishes viewing FP area. Um, maybe hitting that ride wasn’t such a good idea. The viewing area was packed. We got in just fine, but the prime real estate was already taken. C’est la vie! The fireworks were magical from every angle. Even though we stood on the right side of the space, we enjoyed a decent view of the show…and the poor CMs trying to manage the crowds. Do not envy them their job.

Joining the masses, we made our way out of the Kingdom and this time the boat proved the wiser option. After a leisurely cruise back to the Polynesian, we hit our pillows hard, as I dreamt happily about my Kona Grilled New York Strip Steak!

Next…Day 8: More Magic Kingdom & Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party

 

[gregf71]

Day 8: More Magic Kingdom & Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party

The plan for this morning was breakfast at Ohana and then swimming at the resort, but unfortunately Mother Nature basically put the kibosh on the latter…it was too darn chilly! Well, make the best of it I always say! Breakfast at Ohana was as wonderful as ever. The Hua Paka, Uala Kahiki, and Pua’a were hot and hit the spot…and it’s all you care to eat! OK, for those who prefer the mainlander versions of the terms…scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, and pork (sausage links and bacon). The bacon could have been thicker (always my complaint), but it was good nonetheless. And of course, our table was visited by the usual cast of Ohana characters, including Lilo, Stitch, Pluto, and the Mouse himself:

In 2011, we also enjoyed a fine breakfast at Ohana and to this day our daughter, who was 5 at the time, still talks about how Stitch rubbed his ear wax into her hair (no, not really…it was all pretend). Fearing a repeat of that “incident”, leading up to this meal, she kept telling us that she would keep an eye out! Needless to say, though there was some initial trepidation, their new interaction went splendidly:

All said and done, we very much enjoy all of our experiences, be it breakfast or dinner, at Ohana! It will continue to be a tradition.

Since it was too cold to swim (ok, we have thin Southern California blood as evidenced by all of the other folks enjoying the Volcano pool that morning), we decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom for a longer day than expected. Ideally, as we had tickets to that night’s Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, the idea was to sleep in a bit that morning, enjoy a leisurely breakfast, swim and have lunch at the Poly, and then make our way to the Magic Kingdom sometime in the early afternoon for the Holiday party. Ah well…hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to the Magic Kingdom we go!

Boat ride from the Poly enjoyed yet again and with a few hours until our FastPasses activated, we hit some shops, attractions, and Meet & Greets: Tea Cups, Alice and the Mad Hatter, Barnstormer, and Minnie & Daisy at Pete’s Silly Side Show:

Lunch time arrived and we were in an unplanned conundrum! My God, what were we to do! Originally, lunch was going to be during or after swimming at Captain Cook’s, but things changed. Finding ourselves in Fantasyland when our tummies started rumbling, I quickly decided that I had to try one of the famous macaroni and cheese dishes from Friar’s Nook. My wife and daughter, not terribly enthused about mac ‘n’ cheese, chose Pinocchio Village House instead. If this was a competition of cuisines and there had to be a winner, then I was the Champion this day! I must give props to another Walt Disney World podcaster, who shall remain nameless here, but when I listened to his live review of these dishes, I knew that I had to try them. My selection…the Pot Roast Macaroni & Cheese…Heavenly! Rich, flavorful, and full of gooey cheese goodness! My wife and daughter’s lunch? My wife really liked her flatbread pizza from Pinocchio’s and our daughter devoured her chicken Caesar salad. But in the end, mine was better!

After lunch, the first FP of the day brought us to the Haunted Mansion, which we loved as usual, but the FP highlight of the day, for our daughter especially, was next:

Our time with the Frozen sisters over, we popped into Mickey’s Philharmagic and made our way through Tomorrowland to our last FP of the day at Space Mountain. This was our daughter’s first ride on the Disney World version of the attraction! At first, she was a tad leery of riding alone in her seat (two guests ride side by side in Disneyland), but she was brave and loved every second of it!

Exiting Space Mountain, it was now time to get our Holiday party credentials, which we were quickly able to do outside of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Then hey, the line for Buzz was pretty darn short, so:

Nearing the latter half of the 4 o’clock hour, it was time to head to our dinner location du jour…Be Our Guest!

After checking in at the exterior kiosk, we waited on the bridge in front of the Beast’s Castle. After a few minutes, we were summoned and escorted into this marvelous building. Immersive and jaw-dropping is the best description that I can give regarding the interior of this restaurant. As we followed our hostess, she provided us with a brief tour of the building, passed the Castle Gallery, through the Grand Ballroom…

…and into the West Wing, where we would be dining this evening.

The West Wing was dark. There is no other way to describe it. Occasionally, lightning flashes (and associated thunder claps) brightened the room for brief seconds, but mainly this served the purpose of quickly altering the Prince’s portrait:

The centerpiece of the room décor, however, had to be this:

The special effects and technology used to make the petals fall was amazing!

But we didn’t come here for the ambiance alone…we came her to dine! I ordered the grilled strip steak with garlic-herb butter and pomme frites (French fries), while my wife had the pan-seared salmon on leek fondue. Both were exceptional! Service was outstanding as well, but it was the dessert that left we wanting a bit. While my wife thoroughly enjoyed her chocolate cream puff, I thought that I should try the Grey Stuff. “It’s delicious,” right? That’s what they say in the movie! Well, it wasn’t that delicious to me; kind of bland actually, but I had to try it once.

Dinner completed, we made our way to a side room that was pointed out during our initial tour and reinforced by our server. Waiting for us (and other finished diners as well of course) was the Master of the House himself:

So glad that they offered this opportunity! All in all, we loved Be Our Guest. If I had one complaint, excluding the less than stellar Grey Stuff, it had to be all of the looky-loos who came into the smaller West Wing space, where we were dining, to look around and take pictures. I mean I get it…you want to see all that this amazing restaurant offers…but, when you are trying to enjoy your meal and group after group of folks repeatedly march around your table, sometimes getting a tad too close for comfort, it can feel a bit intrusive and take a little away from the experience. I don’t have a solution to this, except to remind people to be thoughtful of others. OK, off of the soapbox!

Dinner concluded, we noticed the line to the Enchanted Tales with Belle was rather short, so we joined the queue! What an awesome…um…attraction. Is it an attraction or a show? Either way, it was super cool! Technologically, the mirror effect was amazing and the Madame Wardrobe and Lumiere animatronics were superb! Once in with Madame Wardrobe, the roles were assigned and of course our daughter jumped (literally) at the chance to play the part of Mrs. Potts:

As we exited Enchanted Tales, we felt a little parched and skipped into Gaston’s Tavern for yet another LeFou’s Brew (love those things!). Finally getting dark, the Holiday party was now in full swing. After hitting a few more attractions, we soon found our daughter’s focus to be on taking pictures with and getting autographs from many of the characters that were out and about. This is where things started going a little south for us that night. It was really a tale of two CMs. CM #1, outside of a Pooh & Friends Meet & Greet, approaches us as we joined the line, kindly informing us that the characters will be meeting guests for the next 15 minutes or so before leaving for a 20 minute break. She added that it was not likely that we would make it to them before the break, so we were looking at a wait time of at least 25 to 35 minutes. We discussed briefly and decided that it was not what we wanted to do, thinking we could pop by later and try again. No worries. Thank you to the nice CM for her honest and forthright communication. CM #2, as we walked away from Pooh, towards Liberty Square by way of Small World and Peter Pan, was handling Peter Pan and Wendy. Seeing the two, our daughter was ecstatic! She very much wanted their autographs and to get a picture with these two. So, we entered the queue and waited…and waited…and waited. Man, did this line move slowly! Upon further review, as we inched closer, we noticed that Peter and Wendy were taking their time interacting with each guest, which is awesome, but it impacted the wait time significantly. All the while, the CM just stood there, arms crossed, looking rather menacing, making no eye contact whatsoever with any of us in the queue. Eventually, after about 40 minutes, we made it up towards the front of the line with maybe half a dozen folks in front of us. It was at this point that we noticed the CM say something quietly to Peter and Wendy, but to no one else. The observant women in front of us immediately asked the PhotoPass photographer what was going on and he admitted to not knowing for certain, but that it might be time for the character’s break. After the next group finished with Peter and Wendy, the twosome waved goodbye and were whisked back stage, with not a word from the CM to those of us in line. The PhotoPass photographer remained, acknowledging that he was a little surprised that the CM didn’t tell us anything, adding that he was scheduled to remain there well into the next hour and that these breaks usually lasted “only 20 minutes.” Well, after already waiting 40 minutes, we were not about to give up (though we were not happy about it). Had CM #2 only communicated with the line like CM #1 did, it may have saved many of us a lot of time…at the very least we could have made an informed decision. In the end, Peter and Wendy ultimately returned and our daughter got to meet them…and that is what really mattered most!

After enjoying a few more attractions, we found ourselves over by Big Thunder Mountain Railroad around 9:20pm. The Holiday Wishes fireworks show was scheduled to launch in 10 minutes and we wanted to get back over by Be Our Guest because our hostess told us earlier that evening that it was one of the best places to watch the spectacle! Unfortunately, poor time management, crowd levels, and tired feet and legs prevented us from making it all the way over. Instead, we made it back over by Liberty Tree Tavern, near Peter Pan, as the explosions began. Truth be told, while we couldn’t see the fireworks shot up directly above the castle, we still had a great view of many others:

Two things to mention about this location though…first, it was LOUD! It seemed that many of them were detonating directly above us! Secondly, when the show began so did the rooftop sprinkler systems. In fact, the one situated on the archway between Fantasyland and Liberty Square, adjacent to the Tangled bathroom area, leaked a lot down onto those less observant guests walking under it. Honestly, it was kind of funny to watch people getting dripped on as they passed by.

Fireworks over, we grabbed a snack and then made our way to Frontierland to find a spot for the 10:30pm Christmastime Parade. Yeah, we should have skipped the snack and gotten there earlier. The parade route was packed. Luckily, we found a single spot for our daughter to sit along the street across from the Country Bear Jamboree, while my wife and I stood behind her. Feet aching we waited eagerly for one of our most favorite Disney parades:

Parade thoroughly enjoyed, we decided to call it a night…but perhaps a little too soon! Turned out, we were not the only ones with that idea. Identifying this fact, we decided to linger a bit and hit one more attraction. Hey! Pirates of the Caribbean is on our way out! Let’s ride that one more time! Entering the show building, the line moved OK, but slower than I thought it would late, during a party night. As we neared the boarding room, we learned that they had been experiencing intermittent issues and yet another one had just occurred. Promising just a few minutes, we stayed and sure enough we were moving again! Approaching the CM assigning rows, I held up three fingers and was then asked if we wanted to sit in the front row. “Sure!,” I said. “You may get wet,” she replied. I looked at my wife and daughter, thinking about our Pirates rides in Disneyland, and said, “If we get wet at all, it is usually just a little bit in the front.” Famous last words indeed!

Yeah, they got wet...me, not so much. And wife and daughter were not pleased with dear old dad! Now, wet (especially our shoes) and tired, and it being a tad chilly outside, it was time to go back to the Polynesian. As me marched through Adventureland with our squishing footsteps, I noticed a special Party photo op! Having purchased the Memory Maker package, I jumped on as many of these as I could, especially this special Christmas party one! After a little convincing on my part, we entered the line and within a few minutes were told that the elf and reindeer needed a break. Groan…here we go again! Thankfully though, instead of a 20 minute break, this one was only 2…truth is, it was a different elf and reindeer that came out! Picture taken:

It was a nice finale for our night!

Next… Day 9: Back to Animal Kingdom & Epcot

 

[heaven2dc]

I've had the best time reading your TR! "You may get wet" had me chuckling I didn't know that you get wet at all on Pirates in WDW - I don't remember a drop back on our last trip in 2010. Love the happy look on your daughter's face meeting Peter and Wendy - so cute!

 

[gregf71]

Day 9: Back to Animal Kingdom & Epcot

Up early yet again, we grabbed a bus to Animal Kingdom for our 8am breakfast ADR at Tusker House! Great food, buffet style, Disney’s famous Jungle (POG) Juice, and safari Fab 5 characters! What could possibly make this better?! Um, how about fried sweet plantains! Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!! Yeah, we (I) LOVE this place!

So, today, we had two primary goals at Animal Kingdom. #1…our daughter needed to finish collecting her Wilderness Explorer badges (currently sitting at 17 out of 30); and #2…I NEEDED a Jungle Juice Slush! If you have not already noticed in previous comments, I am a sucker for this POG juice Disney serves. It is the greatest thing since fried sweet plantains! When I learned that they offered a slush version of it at the Harambe Popcorn stand, I knew that I would need to make this happen. On our earlier Animal Kingdom visit days before, fate dictated that I had to wait. Arriving just as the stand opened, the first batch of the slush was still too liquid; and when I returned later that afternoon they had sold so many that the new batch churning away was also too liquid. Ugh! This day would not be a repeat! IT WOULD NOT, I SAY! You see, the trick was in the timing. Previously, I arrived too early and too late. I needed to show up right in-between, which I did…and let me say, it was transcendent! The repeated brain freezes that I endured with each mighty slurp were so worth it.

Now, off to explore the enclosures and collect the remaining Wilderness Explorer stickers…I mean badges! While most were obvious and well-marked, a few others were a bit more challenging to locate. Word to the wise…if the map indicates a Wilderness Explorer location and you cannot easily find it, try a CM at a retail cart. On several occasions, we discovered that either 1) they could provide us clear direction to where it was, or 2) it was actually them who provided the interaction. Sometimes those darn Explorer signs blended in quite well with the cart décor.

Intertwined around badge collection, and partially because of it (Conservation Station), we hit several attractions and enclosures along the way, using up our morning FP reservation at DINOSAUR (just me and my daughter this time).

An early lunch brought us to Flame Tree Barbecue, which for me is the hands down best counter service location in this park. My wife and I both thoroughly enjoyed our half slabs of St. Louis Ribs (but the baked beans side dish was the highlight), while our daughter very much liked her baked chicken drumstick (though she would have appreciated two of them). Sitting outside, along the edge of the large square shaped water fountain, we relished our meals and the ambiance, while cautiously observing the menagerie (one could say army…is battalion too much?) of fowl giving us and our food the eye! A family at a nearby table began to feed the birds, which brought a number of them closer and closer. I kind of felt weird watching a bird gulp down BBQ chicken. Don’t know why, but I did.

Lunch over, we made our way over to use our second FP of the day at Finding Nemo the Musical. This was our first time seeing this show, focusing previously on the Lion King. Honestly, it was very entertaining and well done. Not to mention…indoors, seats, and full of wonderful air-conditioning!

Now back to real animal exploring:

FastPass #3 brought us back to Kilimanjaro Safaris at around 230pm. We were really looking forward to this ride because all of our others had always been in the early mornings, so we hoped that an afternoon excursion would bring other creatures out and about. Hey…we saw the wild dogs!

After the safari, our daughter collected the last few remaining Wilderness Explorers badges she needed and we made our way back to the Station. Enthusiastically, she presented her completed handbook to the Senior Explorer on duty. After much applause and I seem to recall there being either a quick song or pledge, she was awarded her official Senior Wilderness Explorer badge (another sticker) that she proudly wore:

All of our Animal Kingdom missions accomplished, we departed the wonderful park and headed out to the bus stations to make our way to Epcot for the evening. Bonus FP in hand, we went directly to Test Track and enjoyed another round of twists, turns, and speed (LOVE the speed portion)! World Showcase beckoned, as we returned to the Mexico Pavilion to hit the Gran Fiesta Tour (lately one of our daughter’s favorite attractions) and the glass shop adjacent to it. My wife had been enamored with a set of glass earrings here since our earlier visit and decided that they needed to come home with her. And finally (skipped it the other times) we visited the interior of Norway:

China next and then Germany, where we (and many others) stopped to watch glass Christmas ornaments being made. For a nominal fee, if I recall correctly, you could select up to three colors to be melted into your glass bulb. The ornaments this artisan was creating were beautiful! I immediately decided that this would be a great personalized souvenir for our trip, but realized that given the line and the limited time before our dinner ADR, we should come back after we ate. That said, my wife and daughter had their own agendas before dinner. While my wife wanted to return to the Mitsukoshi Department Store to procure a few things for herself, our daughter wanted to finish collecting the stamps on her Epcot passport and paper Duffy. The problem was that the last one she needed was from Canada…on the complete opposite side from where we were. So, while my daughter and I double-step marched to Canada, my wife went to Japan, eventually meeting up in the France Pavilion for dinner at Les Chefs de France.

Chefs has been on our Disney World bucket list for years. Honestly, I don’t know why we never ate here before, but for whatever reasons we didn’t. Seated fairly quickly after checking in, my wife and I were both very pleased to learn that the 3 course prix fixe menu could be used with our standard dining plan. We both ordered the classic onion soup, diverging on our respective entrees: beef short ribs in a Cabernet reduction for me and broiled salmon with asparagus for my wife. Our daughter requested the Croquette de Boeuf en Brioche avec les Pommes Frites! Yeah, it sure sounded good in French, but it was basically a burger and fries. Glasses of wine for both myself and my wife (we were in France after all; it would be wrong not to order wine) and a Shirley Temple for our daughter, we enjoyed a good meal. I purposely say “good”, not great, because it was just that…good. While the onion soups were perfect, we both found our entrées a bit meh. Don’t get me wrong, they were tasty, but I guess we hoped for more. Now, the desserts! They did not disappoint at all! While both my wife and daughter truly adored their sorbets, I devoured my Crème Brulee! Overall, it was a fine meal and I am glad that we finally came here (the service was top notch), but we will definitely try other World Showcase restaurants before coming here again.

Dinner over, I high tailed it back towards the Germany Pavilion to get that glass ornament made. Having established during dinner our tri-color preference (red, green, and white), I battled my way through the Candlelight Processional crowds while my wife and daughter decided that one final quick visit to Mitsukoshi was in order. Arriving at the stand, I immediately froze, realizing that the glass blower was no longer there. I asked the CM at the register and she told me that his shift ended an hour earlier, but that he would return the next day. Disheartened, knowing that this was our last Epcot visit this trip, I decided to simply look around at the other items for sale, waiting for my wife and daughter to arrive. Then I saw them! On a shelf, in a basket, next to where he had been creating his masterpieces rested maybe eight glass bulb tri-color ornaments. “Did he make these,” I asked the CM.

“Oh yes, before he left,” she replied. “He didn’t have any special orders, so he made several bulbs on his own.”

Was luck on our side?! Leaning in, I scanned the bulbs and thankfully found three with our colors! Each being unique in their own right, I carefully examined them all and settled on one. Purchased and boxed, with extra wrapping for travel, we had our ornament!

Ready to be done at this point, my wife and daughter eventually arrived, as I enthralled them with my adventurous ornament purchase story! Shaking their heads and rolling their eyes at me, we agreed that it had been a good day and that we were done. Strolling towards Future World, we made a point of walking by the Epcot Christmas tree one last time to enjoy the view.

One final ride on Spaceship Earth ended our day, a tradition of mine, as this was our last visit to Epcot on this trip. We will be back someday…June perhaps!

Up next…Day 10: Magic Kingdom & Spirit of Aloha

 

[gregf71]

Day 10: Magic Kingdom & Spirit of Aloha

Final day in the parks…how sad. But, truth be told, we had so much fun to this point that we were a bit warn out and a tad ready to go home, sleep in our own beds, and just crash on the couch for a month. Up early, we enjoyed a nice stroll over to the Grand Floridian for breakfast at the Grand Floridian Café. This is another one of those locations that constantly came up on the DIS Boards as a top breakfast location and they were right! My wife and I both ordered the famous French Toast, brioche with Madagascar vanilla bean-butter and bacon or sausage. Delish!!! Our daughter thoroughly enjoyed her Minnie’s Grand Cake, mouse-shaped pancakes with sprinkles and juice. The service was great and our view of the immaculate grounds on one side and a marina on the other was beautiful.

Hopping on the Monorail at the Grand Flo, we made our way to the Magic Kingdom one last time. Morning FastPasses on Mine Train and Splash Mountain (we really love the side-by-side log seating versus the single-file of Disneyland) and then a mid-afternoon FP for the Festival of Fantasy Parade. Around those, we made a point of hitting Big Thunder and the Haunted Mansion one more time, as well a wonderful cruise on the Liberty Belle Riverboat, which provided us the opportunity to take a few shots of this wonderful area:

Completely unplanned ahead of time, we discussed lunch options and settled on Columbia Harbor House. My selection was the Lobster Roll. I have to admit that I was really skeptical about how good this was going to be, but I was pleasantly surprised. The bread actually overflowed with the crustacean goodness, requiring me to enjoy a bit with a fork before digging into the sandwich itself. The lobster chunks were a decent size and full of flavor. The accompanying potato chips were freshly made, not hot by any means, but you could tell that they were made on site. My wife ordered the Anchors Aweigh Sandwich, white tuna with lettuce and tomato on a toasted multigrain bread, also served with potato chips. She said that it was good, not spectacular, but what would one really expect from a tuna fish sandwich in a theme park? The highlight though was the seasonal cobblers that we both got for our dessert. Very good! Our daughter? Nothing exciting…chicken nuggets.

After sharing one more LeFou’s Brew, it was time to head up to the front of Main Street for the Festival of Fantasy Parade. May I say, if I have not already done so, the FastPass areas for the parades are awesome! And, this being our first time enjoying this parade, the dragon is AMAZING:

Completely blown away by the parade, we had a choice to make. Were we theme parked-out? Did we want to stay and play in the park or return to the Polynesian and take advantage of the warm afternoon weather and hit the pool before getting ready for the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show this evening? We chose the latter, stopping first at the candy shop quickly to use our last remaining snack credits.

Back at the resort, we put on our suits, filled up our mugs, and hit the pool! If you recall, our earlier planned swim day didn’t pan out due to the chilly (for us) weather, so this warmer afternoon was a Godsend. While my daughter hit the water slide repeatedly, I just sort of floated around, frequently positioning myself under the waterfall. I too eventually tried out the slide, which was very fun, even though it was a miniature cousin to those we slid down at Typhoon Lagoon days before. All in all, a wonderful family time was enjoyed at the volcano pool.

As the sun set and the temperature started to cool off, we grabbed our towels and made our way back to the room to shower, relax a bit, pack a little, and get ready for the luau! A couple days earlier, while looking around in the BouTiki gift shop, I happened upon a certain shirt…a shirt that brought together two of my favorite things…Disney and Tommy Bahama. One look at the price tag and I just shrugged, but once my wife saw it, she just smiled and said…”We are on vacation! Get it!” Oh ok, twist my arm! Tonight I would finally wear it!

After arriving at Luau Cove, I immediately popped over to Guest Services to get our Tables in Wonderland refund. Provided my “new” tickets from the CM, she noted, “Oh, you have awesome seats. Front row center!” Really?! I scored even better seats than the ones we had for the Hoop Dee Doo! Awesome! Keeping it a secret from my wife and daughter, I walked behind them, smiling the entire time as we were later shown to our table. They both looked at me in amazement and then thanked me again for getting up at 2:45am over 6 months ago. Yeah, it was worth it…here was our view of the stage:

Fancy drink time! Last night of the trip! Sitting front row center for a luau dinner show! You know that mere soda or beer was not going to happen, right?! Where is the specialty cocktail menu?! And of course, given my failure to obtain a monkey mug at Jock Lindsey’s days before, you know I had to get the monkey coconut here:

Truth be told, neither my wife nor daughter realized when I placed my order that my drink, Pele’s Fire Punch, came served in a hand-carved monkey coconut. In fact, as our waiter approached our table, from behind me but well in view of our daughter, she immediately laughed, pointing at the elevated tray, saying, “Look at what somebody ordered!” Let me tell you, when that splendid coconut (now residing on top of our entertainment center at home) was placed in front of me, the two of them just looked at me, smiled and silently shook their heads while I picked it up and sipped happily away! And it was good…admittedly, in my opinion not as tasty as the Nautilus on our first night, but still quite good.

Phase 1 of the meal soon began, as we received the appetizer service: pineapple-coconut bread, mixed greens with a tropical vinaigrette dressing, honey-lime slaw, soba noodle slaw, and fresh pineapple. All of it was delicious, but oh that bread!!!

Part 1 of the show started soon afterwards, as we were introduced to the primary characters, supporting cast, and the band, all intertwined in a storyline about never forgetting where you are from and reinforcing a sense of friendship, family and especially ohana. It was during this portion of the show that the more comedic and story-driven elements were presented, as well as takes on more modern “Polynesian” songs, such as Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride from Lilo & Stitch. It was fun and entertaining, but honestly the best was yet to come!

Phase 2 of the meal began during an intermission of the theatrical performance. It was now time for the entrees! All you care to enjoy Island pulled pork, BBQ ribs, roasted chicken and a medley of vegetables. While all of it was very good, the hands down winner was the pulled pork. It was AMAZING!!! Full of flavor, prepared perfectly, and seasoned wonderfully. Yeah, we finished off the first batch and requested more!

Part 2 of the show focused on the traditional music and dances of a variety of Polynesian cultures. Drummers, Maori war chants, hula dancers, and finally the fire performer. This guy was spectacular!! In fact, they all were. Overall, a VERY, VERY enjoyable and engaging show!

Phase 3 of the dinner was of course dessert…warm pineapple bread pudding with caramel sauce. Simply sublime! Ooey-gooey perfection!

I must say that this was by leaps and bounds a much better experience than our previous Spirit of Aloha show (or whatever it was called way back when). Occurring well over a decade earlier, my then girlfriend (now wife) and I “enjoyed” the event next to a group with a toddler that, well, let’s just say, didn’t really want to be there. Very loud audible complaints, severe restlessness, chair kicking, and a flying chicken wing were evidence of his sincere feelings. I did learn one important lesson during that meal though…if you see a partially eaten chicken wing coming at your head, override your natural instincts to duck…allow it to hit you instead of flying by you and hitting your girlfriend. They never forget; they might forgive…but they will never forget.

Dinner over, we contently made our way back to our room. Packing proved a challenge. In fact, a few undershirts of mine managed to find their way into the trash bin in lieu of souvenirs in my luggage. Somehow we managed to get it all into our bags and called it a night. It had been a magical vacation-palooza. Tomorrow we head home.

Up next…Day 11: Goodbye Polynesian, Goodbye Disney World, Hello Home!

 

[gregf71]

Day 11: Goodbye Polynesian, Goodbye Disney World, Hello Home!

As our alarms went off, we rolled out of bed, showered, dressed and slowly meandered over the Great Ceremonial House for our final breakfast…at Kona Café! Seated quickly, and thankfully further back in the restaurant versus dinner the other night, we immediately ordered the press pot 100% Kona coffee for my wife and me. For our meals, I requested the Samoan, poached eggs with Hollandaise served over smoked pulled pork hash, my wife had the macadamia-pineapple pancakes, with macadamia nut butter and pineapple sauce and bacon (still paper thin), and our daughter enjoyed Minnie’s French Toast. All of it was delicious! I don’t like runny egg yolk, so I expressly asked to have the poached eggs cooked hard and they did it perfectly. The pulled pork, though not quite as good as that served at the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show, was excellent. My wife found her pancakes to be very good and the pineapple sauce not overly sweet. Served with a little Jungle POG Juice on the side, along with the Kona coffee, and we had a wonderful meal. In fact, we were able to purchase a bag of the 100% Kona coffee directly from our server…a nice thank you present to my Dad for taking us to and soon to be picking us up from the airport in San Diego.

Breakfast over, we headed back to the room to finalize packing, which we did, realizing that (after checking out bags) we had time to walk around and enjoy the resort for a while before we had to meet the Disney’s Magical Express bus to the airport. Time for some pictures (admittedly not all taken that morning):

In and around the lobby:

Views from the beautiful grounds:

Time for lunch! Now, if you recall Day 7 of our tale, we had originally planned to use three quick service meal allocations for lunch at Bongo’s Cuban Café Express in Disney Springs, deciding instead to have appetizers and drinks at Jock Lindsey’s. Now Day 11, we still had those three allocations available. However, after our wonderful Kona Café breakfast, we were all a little hungry at this point, but not necessarily in the mood for a full meal. So what do you do? Well, not wanting to waste what we had paid for via the dining plan, we came to a genius decision…convert two of the meals into six snack credits and then use our last meal credit, accompanied by our resort refillable mugs, for a shared entree from Captain Cook’s!! Up to Moana Mercantile we went, selecting one bagged treat per person. One meal credit (i.e. three snack credits) gone! Next, lunch! Hmm, what could we possibly get at Captain Cook’s that is easily shared and very tasty? (Cue Jeopardy theme song, please)…I know…Pulled Pork Nachos!!! Nachos procured and mugs refilled, we purposely grabbed a table outside of the Pineapple Lanai. Can you guess why? Dole Whip of course!!! Converting our last quick service meal credit to three snacks, our final indulgence at the Polynesian Village Resort (and no, while I hadn’t mentioned it earlier, this was not our first and only visit here during this trip…that would be CRAZY!) was fittingly a Pineapple Float (me), and Dole Whip Soft Serve Swirl (my wife), and a Pineapple Dole Whip Soft Serve (our daughter). It was the perfect final treat.

Thoroughly satisfied with all of our pineapple goodness, it was time. Choosing to abandon our resort mugs (why? Because they are so darn generic and boring! If they were resort specific, then they would be in our cupboard right now!), we set them atop a nearby trash can, hoping that they would be taken by a CM and recycled. Bags claimed, we made that final ambivalent trek out towards the airport bus waiting area. We didn’t want to leave, but it was time to go home. Memories, cherished memories, had been made! Now get us back to San Diego where we can get some real Mexican food!

Final thoughts…we’ll start with the bad and end with the great:

· Most Clueless Person Interacted With – The lady across from me in the queue at Friar’s Nook who mouthed off at the CM, accusing people of cutting in line, when in fact the register, as they do at most every counter service, serviced two lines.

· Most Disappointing Meal – Beaches & Cream (so sad); Chef Mickey’s and Les Chefs de France are also in consideration.

· Most Disinterested Cast Member – Jeff, the Handler CM at the Peter Pan & Wendy Meet & Greet during the Christmas Party. Come on, man, let us know what is going on!

· Most Irksome Things Experienced – Double strollers! While I totally understand and respect the need, parents who drive these things need to be regularly tested and licensed before being allowed to push them in public!

· Most Loathsome Queue – Stand-by line for MISSION Space...we waited so long in that “20 minute” line that my daughter got taller!

· Most Overrated Attraction – Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

· Best All You Care to Enjoy Breakfast – Boma…the selection is eclectic, yet traditional, and oh so delicious! Fried sweet plantains and POG juice!!!

· Best Quick Service Breakfast – Captain Cook’s…Tonga Toast for a fraction of the cost of Kona Cafe!!! Goodness can come on a paper plate!

· Best Table Service Breakfast – Kona Café…food was delicious and the press-pot Kona coffee was awesome!

· Best Quick Service Lunch – Captain Cook’s…Pulled Pork Nachos!!!

· Best Table Service Lunch – Yak & Yeti…best food inside the Animal Kingdom Park…no question!

· Best All You Care to Enjoy Dinner – This one is tough…all three in this category were wonderful meals. So props to them all…Biergarten, Boma, and Ohana!

· Best Quick Service Dinner – Captain Cook’s…Pulled Pork Nachos!!! Yeah, I really liked them!

· Best Table Service Dinner – Be Our Guest…the food, ambiance, and service were all wonderful. I will skip the Grey Stuff next time, but we will be back! Best dining in the Magic Kingdom! That said, Kona Café is a very close second.

· Best Dinner Show – Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review…hands down! My wife was dreading it, but quickly found herself very much enjoying all aspects of it. Great entertainers, great music, great ambiance, great food, and great service…just a great time overall!

· Best Snack – Cronut from the Refreshment Port, World Showcase, Epcot. Get one (or two…I wish we had gotten two!)

· Best Adult Beverage – The Nautilus at Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto wins for both taste and cool beverage vessel, but the Cool-Headed Monkey at Jock Lindsey’s is a close second, especially for taste.

· Best Family Beverage – LeFou’s Brew!!! What…did we have six of these during the trip?! So good! So refreshing!

· Best Holiday Resort Décor – Still has to be the Wilderness Lodge. I know, we didn’t visit here during this trip, but during past Holiday trips we have, and there really is no comparison.

· Best Experience (Disney) – Parasailing! We finally got to fly!! Seconded closely by the Osborne Lights. They will be missed.

· Best Experience (Non-Disney) – DISapalooza! Thank you DIS!!!

· Best Thing That Happened On This Trip (Overall) – Getting my Nautilus mug! No, no…OK…making family memories that will last a lifetime!

· Best Thing That Didn’t Happen On This Trip (Overall) – No one was hit by a flying chicken wing!

So, that is it! That’s all he wrote! I hope you enjoyed our story. It was great to experience and a lot of fun to document here. If you have any questions about anything, please do not hesitate to ask! Cheers!

Get ready Orlando…we will be back in June!

 

[Glam]

Great review! I really loved it. It's clear you all had a wonderful time. Great tips, too!

 

[DLFan123]

Loved this! A little late to the party but with a trip to the Poly coming up in December, I was looking for my Poly fix. Your pics did the trick.

 

[gregf71]

Loved this! A little late to the party but with a trip to the Poly coming up in December, I was looking for my Poly fix. Your pics did the trick.

Glad you liked the report, DLFan123! Have fun in December! We are back in less than 30 days!!!!