I only became a "Disney person" recently, but since beginning to plan my trip, I have spent hours reading trip reports and planning each detail. Therefore, I am hoping my trip report can help someone like the past trip reports have helped me.
I am a teacher, so I wanted to book during the end of summer to get free dining and less crowds, but still be off of school. We stayed at Pop Century from August 24 - September 1.
The cast of characters:
From left to right: V, my 4 year old DD
D, my husband
Me, Rigatoni
S, my 2 year old DD
We also went with my MIL, FIL, SIL, BIL and 3 year old niece.
I hope you will join me for a trip report full of ups, downs, and a black cloud following us around EPCOT.
On the morning of our departure, we were on the road by 3:27 AM for our 7 o’clock flight. We made it to the airport with no problems but it was annoying going to a bigger airport and having to take a PACKED shuttle with 2 kids, a stroller, 4 pieces of luggage and 3 backpacks. The flight was uneventful and we were on the fake monorail by 9:30.
We had a Chef Mickey ADR at 2:00. On the whole trip, my biggest worry was getting to Point A to Point B, so I tried to leave with plenty of time. We went down to the MK stop at Pop at 1:07 and were headed on our way after a 14 minute wait. Upon arrival we walked to the monorail and took a short ride to the Contemporary. From bus stop to Chef Mickey’s took 53 minutes. We were seated 15 minutes after our ADR.
I had heard that the food at Chef Mickey’s was awful but it was better than I thought it would be. I stuck to mostly breakfast foods as I had heard that they were the safest. I thought the frittatas and cheesy potato casserole was the best and I was happy to finally get some Mickey waffles after not having them since our Disney cruise in 2003.
The characters came around pretty quickly and we were able to get autographs and plenty of photos. The only bad experience we had was there was a teenager puking in the sink of the men’s room. Yuck. The bathrooms were pretty grimy looking in general. Overall I feel like I have no need to go back to Chef Mickey’s, but I don’t regret it. It was a fun way to start our trip.
On the way back to Pop, I stupidly told everyone to get off at the TTC so we had an awful time getting back. We took the Epcot monorail and then the Epcot bus back to Pop. It felt like both the monorail and the bus took forever to arrive but the bus ride itself was only 11 minutes. We were back to unpack a little before 5.
I had wanted to go out that night but we were just so tired after traveling that we just unpacked and went in the pool. I was a little worried that we wouldn’t have enough food (HA!) so around 8 we all shared one quick service meal at the Pop cafeteria. If you are on the dining plan and do not get a drink, you are allowed to get 2 desserts. So since we had the refillable mug, we got a giant slice of pizza with house chips, a box of mini brownies, and I was happy to try the tie dye cheesecake.
Despite traveling a lot, I still managed to take 13,469 steps on the first day.
I had a strict time schedule to follow this day, so I wanted to make sure we were at the bus stop in plenty of time. We went down to the AK bus stop at 7:30 and waited 18 minutes to get a bus and get moving. We arrived at the park at 8:04. It was already really hot so we tried to wait in shady areas. They dropped the ropes and began scanning bands at 8:35 .At this point we took a few Memory Maker shots and then waited to the left of the Tree of Life.
At 9:00 they released parrots which was really cool and we hightailed it to Kilimanjaro Safaris. I was majorly stressing because I did not get a fast pass for the safari but I did have a FotLK FP for 9:50. We got on the safari at 9:14. The animals were relatively active and we got to see just about everything. A giraffe came right up to the Jeep which was really cool.
My plan worked perfectly and we got off of the safari at 9:42. We hustled to the FotLK and were sitting with great seats by 9:50.
I remember loving this show the other time I saw it and I still do. I forgot that it gets a little scary though. My 2 year old was not crazy about the Be Prepared song with the smoke. This is still my favorite show in Disney. Everyone in my party kept talking about how great it was.
After this we could relax a little so we did some pin trading and looked for characters. The first date I went on with MH was to A Bug’s Life way back in 1998 so we thought it was pretty cool that we could meet Flik.
We had Tusker House reservations at 11:25 and waited 10 minutes to be seated. The special juice was a big hit at our table. Looking at the menu now, nothing really jumped out at me as something we really loved, although I do remember my kids liked the green beans. I have some picky adults in my party and they didn’t like it here at all. This is another place that I don’t feel the need to go back to and it was rather repetitive after seeing the characters at Chef Mickey the day before, although Daisy was at this one.
After lunch we had FP for Kali River Rapids. I wound up using a Rider Swap on it. Both times were pretty lame. I did not really get wet but there was a rather large drop that I did not know about and that ruined the experience for the 3 and 4 year old in our group.
At this point, the kids were getting tired so we sent some people on Expedition Everest and the rest of us took the kids back to the hotel. The people who went on EE said it was jarring and they didn’t feel great after going on it.
After hanging out at the hotel for a little while, we went down to Disney Springs. There was no wait for the bus and it only took 12 minutes to get there. My main goals for DS were to eat at Wolfgang Puck express and to get a customized treat at Goofy’s Candy Co. WPE was pretty hard to find. When we eventually found it, we were lucky because it was practically empty. We had the chicken meatball pizza, the goat cheese pesto pizza, the plain pizza and the kids macaroni and cheese. MH asked for french fries instead of dessert. First she said she couldnt do that and then she said that we could. All of the food was exceptional. We all really loved this meal. And it $55 for 2 pizzas, 1 kids meal, fries, 2 desserts and 3 drinks, it was a great deal on the dining plan. I would highly recommend checking it out.
After we ate, we went to Goofy’s. I used a snack credit on a Mickey rice krispie treat and I chose to customize it with milk chocolate, butterfingers and dark chocolate drizzle. I ate ir for breakfast the next day and it was awesome. This was our first use of a snack credit, so they definitely started to accumulate.
After shopping a little, we walked around DS. There was a small dance party going on by the Bippity Boppity Boutique. My niece danced with fairy godmothers and since my daughter was being shy, they offered her some pixie dust. We walked around and took some pictures with the different statues and then found another dance party on the main stage. It was a fun night and I wish we would’ve been able to go back another time on our trip.
I would highly recommend Wolfgang Puck's Express. Outside of the experience that comes with Cinderella's Royal Table WPE was the best meal I've had at Disney. The Tie Dye Cheesecake was a disappointment after reading all the hype. Enjoy the memories being made.
I woke up around 7:15 and wandered around with my daughter, eating the rice krispie treat, getting coffee and checking out statues.
We got to Typhoon Lagoon when it opened at 9. There were more Photo Pass opportunities than I expected at this park. I also did not know that Lilo was at this park. With 3 little kids, we did not plan on going on many thrill rides so we grabbed some chairs at Ketchakiddee Creek and spent the morning doing the slides there, the lazy river and the wave pool. That wave pool is no joke. The kids area was good and my kids had a great time there. They could've spent a few more hours.
One of my goals of the trip was to go to Shark Reef. I knew it would be my only opportunity since it’s closing soon and it seemed really cool. Our goal was to leave the water park around noon but Shark Reef did not open until then. So I wanted to get in as soon as it opened and then leave. I went over there at 11:15 and there was not a single soul in line. So I walked all the way back to the kiddie area to get my phone and to tell the rest of our party the plan. My SIL and I walked back to Shark Reef and by this time the line was HUGE. I was so upset because I figured there was no way we would make it in time. About 50 people in front of us it said the wait at that point was 5 minutes, so I figured it would take a really long time to get in. I started looking into the dive that you had to pay $20 for but they said they were short staffed and could not let anyone in until 1:00. I decided to just stay in line to see what happened. A few minutes before 12, they began letting people in. Surprisingly, the line moved very fast. They took huge groups at a time to grab a snorkle and mask, shower, put on a life vest and move over to the reef. In no time, we were in and getting ready to jump in. The water is supposed to be around 60 degrees, but to me it just felt refreshing. You are not allowed to stop or kick, you just have to sort of float from one side to the other. I did not see a ton, just a few fish, a sting ray, and finally a shark. Unfortunately I could not get my phone to take any pictures. But we were out of the tank at 12:15. I was so happy it actually worked.
We got everyone ready and decided to take the bus to Art of Animation for lunch. I had heard that they had a great food court and I wanted to check out the statues. At Landsacpe of Flavors, I chose Mongolian beef with rice, naan, and spinach with paneer cheese. I liked everything except the spinach.
I also got one of the brownies with everything (marshmallows, M&Ms, nuts) on it and it was really good.
After lunch, we walked around the property. My favorite statues were the elephant graveyard area and the giant Ursula. It was really hot and we had plans later, so we made our way around the lake back to Pop.
The one meal my MIL wanted to do was Mickey’s Backyard BBQ, so I booked it 180 days in advance. Yet a few days before our trip, Disney decided to change the rules and create tiered seating where tier one would allow you to enter the venue early and not have to wait in line to see the characters for an additional $10 per person. I sent my travel agent an email about it and she did not respond, so eventually I called Disney and upgraded. I found out AFTER our trip, that the TA supposedly got us upgraded for free, but I had already paid the $80.
Anyway, we had had a busy morning and I was a little nervous about getting to where we had to go on time since Fort Wilderness seemed difficult to get to. I had read that a bus to MK and then a boat to FW was the best plan and that turned out to be the case because otherwise we would've had to take 3 busses if we did not choose the boat. It rained a little while we were on the boat but cleared up right away. The boat let us out pretty close to the BBQ location. We were supposed to arrive at 4:30 but it took us about an hour to get there and we arrived a few minutes late.
We showed our tickets to the people at the entrance and they let us through. But then when we got to the actual pavillon one of the CM’s gave us a major attitude, saying we did not pay for tier one. Another CM was telling him just to let us in, but he kept pushing the issue. He was the only truly unpleasant CM we came across for the entirety of the trip.
Inside the pavilion, there were only about 5 families, including us. We were able to help ourselves to fountain drinks, red sangria, white wine, or beer (Yuengling was one, and something boring for the other. I don’t remember what it was). After a few minutes, the characters came out. Mickey and Minnie on the dance floor and Chip, Dale, and Goofy on the other side. It was nice because we had zero wait and could spend as much time with the characters as we wanted really. We took a bunch of pictures and then the characters went away.
A little after 5:00, they let us start having the food. My favorites were the pulled pork and corn bread, but there was also burgers (with a decent variety of toppings), hot dogs, watermelon, mac and cheese (I was not a fan), baked beans, chicken and some salads.
There was also a freezer full of Mickey ice cream bars, and I believe creamsicle bars and frozen fruit bars. I was too focused on the Mickey bars to care about what else was there. Spoiler alert: white was not a wise shirt choice for those bars, especially because it was HOT in there.
The pavilion is covered but stuffy. I remember reading about how someone was shocked they have not figured out a way to cool it off in there and now I can see why.
At 5:30, they let everyone else in and almost immediately started the entertainment. The band played some songs and then the characters came out to dance with the kids. I thought this was so cool. The kids got a good amount of time to dance with all of the characters and it was nice to spend so much time with them. After this there was a guy who did tricks with a whip and lasso. My kids were too young to enjoy this. The whip was loud and the rest was boring. I did notice that at this time there were long lines to get pictures with the characters. After the lasso show, there was more dancing and then the lasso guy came back out. At this point it was 7:00 and we were sort of burnt out and hot. We decided to beat the crowds and take the boat back to MK.
I will take this time to talk about a problem that I saw quite a few times. Little kids need access to bathrooms. At the bus area for all of the parks, there are no bathrooms. So it was at this bus run that I saw my first kid peeing in the bushes. I saw this 3 times on our trip. So I'm sure it would be a logistical nightmare, but it would be great if there was a bathroom at the bus pickup areas.
When we got back to POP, we took advantage of Flashback Friday and took some pictures at their photo wall.
V thinks the disco ball is a microphone so they spent the rest of the night singing at the tops of their lungs.
Recorded steps for Day 3: 11,975 but that is low because I couldn't not tally the steps at the waterpark.
The day the wheels fell off. The only thing we had scheduled for the morning was a 10:30 ADR at Akershus, so we didn’t really need to the park super early. I did want to get to Character Spot as early as possible though, because I wanted to meet Baymax and Joy and Sadness. So we did wind up at the park a little after opening and went straight there. The line for Baymax was short and we waited only about 5 minutes. I was really excited to hug him and show him my shirt.
He was a really fun meet. We then headed over to Joy and Sadness and waited about 20 minutes. They were a fun meet too and they spent lots of time with the kids.
At this point, we decided to head over to Norway to try and meet Anna and Elsa. On the way there I stopped at Club Cool and grabbed some Beverly to trick my FIL and BIL with. I tried a tiny sip and I swear I could still taste it for an hour afterwards.
We got in line at Anna and Elsa's house and the posted wait was 15 minutes. We waited about 20. I had heard that Elsa was a little cold, but I did not find this to be the case. This was my girls first time meeting a face character though and I think they were a little starstruck. She was trying to get them to talk to her, but they were basically just staring. Same thing with Anna.
After meeting the sisters, we headed over to Akershus to check in for our reservation.
Now at this point, we are 4 days into our trip. It's hot. Our legs hurt. So we start getting a little snippy with each other. The couples in particular. So in line for Akershus, everyone was in a bit of a bad mood. It did not help that we did not sit for our 10:30 ADR until 11:05.
All things considered, the girls were holding up better than the adults and that didn't mind waiting, even in their hot, scratchy princess dresses.
When you first enter, you wait in another line to take a picture with Belle. The CM here was very nice and engaging. We took a picture with Belle and were then shown to our table.
Before even sitting down, the princess processional began. V was in heaven because Aurora took her hand to lead with her.
When it was over, we looked at the buffet. Our server suggested we try some authentic Norwegian food and told us it would have a symbol next to it. The only things I saw were a brown cheese and pickled herring. I tried them both just to say I did, but would not go back for seconds. There were also pastries, muffins and fruit on the buffet. Shortly after, our waitress brought out scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash casserole. The hash browns were definitely my favorite part of the breakfast.
Throughout the meal, we were visited by Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella and Ariel. I had done a quick wardrobe change and asked Cinderella to take a pic with me.
My pictures of the food are lacking because S had decided she needed to be attached to me 24/7 (see: pic above)and I was starting to really get burnt out about having someone on my lap at all times. She started freaking out because I put her down so I eventually just took her out of the restaurant while everyone else finished. Bad mood level increasing.
Since Akershus took so long, I had to rearrange my Fast Passes so now we headed to Turtle Talk with Crush. S fell asleep on my lap about 5 seconds into the show. The show was cute and we were impressed at how well Crush interacted with the audience. We had a Nemo FP in about 20 minutes, so we wandered around the aquarium for a while. Now there are no strollers allowed in there, so this whole time I was carrying S as dead weight and my back was killing me.
We jumped on the Nemo ride and it was such a relief to be able to put her down for a few minutes. She still slept through the whole thing. The Nemo ride was okay, not really worth a FP but there is really nothing on the second tier we wanted to FP.
The rest of the group stayed inside to explore the aquarium some more, but I took S outside to try and find a seat. She is still out like a light.
Love your TR so far! Your daughters are so cute! I like that your DH was able to order French fries instead of dessert - one of my sons does that whenever we dine and the waiter always asks if he's sure he prefers fries rather than dessert lol So fun that a giraffe got so close to your safari vehicle - we had that happen our last trip with a couple of giraffes who sort of refused to leave But made for great photo ops!
We haven't dined yet at Akerhus Restaurant yet but would consider in the future. Looks like a great opportunity to meet the princesses!
I can feel for you regarding carrying your sleeping daughter - when my daughter came to visit to go to Disneyland last year we ended up renting a stroller which was a godsend! My granddaughter usually refuses to sit in one but she ended up loving it by the end of the day to take her quick naps in.
While I was outside, the Epcot curse struck. Do you know how you can get a picture inside Bruce's mouth? Kinda like this:
Well my SIL tried to do a funny picture upside down in his mouth and she wound up smashing her head on one of his teeth. She came out with a giant, bleeding goose egg on her forehead. We asked the nearest CM for directions to First Aid and her response was about 500 words too long so we just decided to go back to the hotel for a while so the kids could rest, SIL could ice her head, and the grown ups could (hopeully) lose the 'tudes.
The goal was to have all of the kids nap, but of course they didn't. Rather, they fell asleep on the bus back to Epcot around 5 and we had to wake them up, which left them in just spectacular moods. No worries, I know what will cheer them up. We headed back to Norway to use our FEA FP. We breezed through the line and sort of scoffed at the poor souls who were still waiting in the gargantuan line. I saw the sign that said something about backwards waterfalls or something and thought, "Huh. That is probably not going to go over too well. But how bad could it be?" Yeah....None of our kids are big on rides. I stupidly thought a Frozen ride would be tame. And for most people it was. But if you remember, the drop on Kali River Rapids was too much for my kids. So I will let the picture speak for itself. I think V's face on the left pretty much sums up how the kids were feeling. You can't tell how the other two are feeling because they are too busy hiding in their mom's shoulders and crying.
So needless to say, the overall mood was not really going that great.
My #1 goal at Epcot was to eat around the world. Now if you recall, I have some really picky eaters in my group, but I figured they would be able to find SOMETHING to eat in the World Showcase.
I wanted to see what the line looked like for Jasmine so I ran ahead. But as soon as I saw the Refreshment Port in Canada, I HAD to get a Cronut. Everyone caught me in line and we all shared it. It was amazingly good. We decided to abandon ship on Jasmine and head the other way. We temporarily skipped over Mexico and went to Norway for some school bread. I have to admit, I was underwhelmed. It was okay, but it left a weird after taste. (It was actually at this point we went on FEA if you are wondering why I am backtracking all over the world)
We stopped at China next. I had planned out all my foods for each country except China. The only thing I was really considering was pork buns, but I never found any. Instead I got a curry chicken pocket. It was actually pretty good. At this point, we knew the kids needed some food, so I went on a hunt to find them some while the rest of the group tried out some beer.
I passed through America, not realizing that there are really no quick service options that were not snacks. I was afraid I was going to have a mutiny on my hands, so I jumped into the Tangierine Cafe. I ordered a chicken shwarma platter and some chicken nuggets for the kids. V gave me an attitude and I was having my "We took you to Disney World and spent all this money to do nice things and you are complaining about something ridiculous" meltdown so basically everyone was upset. The man behind the counter took pity on me and gave the kids some Lay's potato chips. My food was ready and now I had a problem because I had a tray full of food and drinks and two kids in a double stroller. A nice man offered to help me carry my food and we set up shop at the fountain to wait for the rest of our party to arrive.
I stole this pic from someone else, but this is exactly what I had:
The couscous was SO GOOD. To be honest, the chicken itself was my least favorite part of the meal. Loved everything else. It also came with baklava. The kids ate zero nuggets and just subsisted on the free chips.
The rest of our group found us and they had still not found anything they were willing to eat. They went off on another hunt while my FIL stayed behind to rest. I found this a little weird but did not think too much of it. (FORESHADOWING)
We headed to France where I got a Grand Mariner slushie and my SIL got a Grey Goose slushie. I thought the Grey Goose was the best.
Next was the UK for fish and chips and all the reviews were true. The fish is SO good. I am not even a big fish fan, but it was delicious.
There was another argument amongst the cranky adults so me, my SIL and V went back to get dessert. We had some kaki gori with milk topping in Japan. I liked it. V did not care for the topping. We got rainbow which was really just red white and green.
Back to Germany to stop at the Karamel Kuche where we traded a QS for 3 snacks. My SIL got a bacon caramel chocolate thing, I got a sea salt caramel brownie and V got a chocolate caramel cookie. We ate the cookie the next day and it was good. I had the brownie two days later and it was shot by that point. The caramel was still delicious though.
Even though everyone was in a mood, I stopped to get a picture because it was so pretty out.
On the bus back to Pop, I just started feeling sad because we were supposed to be having a great time and yet everyone was cranky. My FIL headed back to the room while everyone else got food since they didn't eat in Epcot.
When we went back up to our rooms, we found out my FIL was really sick. I looked up urgent care centers but everywhere was closed because it was a weekend night. He eventually said he was okay but he and my MIL decided they would skip the parks the following day.
We had an 8:45 ADR for BOG so we were up and out early. When we got off of the bus, I called a quick family meeting to encourage everyone to lose the attitudes from the day before so we could all start feeling a little better. We headed over to BOG and had a minimal wait before being brought in. There was an issue though. My BIL and SIL said they preordered their food but the CM said they didn't. She said only one MDE account can preorder. I wish I knew that ahead of time. But since my MIL and FIL were not there, we just kept their order instead.
I got the open faced egg sandwich which was fine, but nothing special. MH just ate the pastries that came with my meal and my daughters split a kid's French toast. So while the prices are high, it is possible to share. We only used to QS credits for two people.
My plan for the morning was to finish up at BOG and go to Winnie the Pooh before the crowds got big, as I hadn't fast passed it. We were able to run over there and walk on. The only problem was....I had scarred my children from rides! As soon as the honey pot started bouncing they wanted off. Whoops.
After that great experience, I wanted to go meet Merida, as I heard her M&G was cool. It was about a 20 minute wait and the CM there said that it was actually one of her shorter waits. When we got up there, we had an absolute blast. Merida was SO good with the kids. She sat tickling them and playing with them for 5 minutes. I felt bad for the people waiting in line, so I said, "C'mon girls, let's let Merida see some other people." And she yelled at me! She said, "Hey, we're playing here!" and she continued to play with them. The girls LOVED her.
After the M&G there is a cool area where the kids can shoot an arrow and do some coloring pages.
We had FPs for 7DMT that had just opened but we now knew we could NOT take the kids on. So my BIL and SIL ran to do that and while we let the girls color. After a few minutes, Merida needed to take a break, so we walked over to the 7DMT to meet up with them. I figured now was as good a time as any to do something I had been dying to do: meet Gaston. I had heard that he was a really funny M&G and he was the one that was a must do for me. His line was huge and our FP was about to expire, so MH and I ran over and did 7DMT. I am not a roller coaster person, so I liked it. It was just my speed. From the time we scanned our FP to the time we got off the ride was 10 minutes. We ran back to Gaston and they were still pretty far back in the line. But this was actually a good thing because we really enjoyed listening to Gaston interact with the other guests. He was hilarious. I actually started getting a little nervous about going up there, afraid he was going to make fun of me and I would not know what to say. It was finally our turn and I was nervously excited. The girls go rushing up to meet him and NATURALLY S wipes out. She scrapes her leg and is wailing. This is pretty much a daily occurrence for her (we should take stock in BandAid) so while I was bummed that she hurt herself, I was upset that the one M&G I really wanted was ruined.
Gaston saw the whole thing and without missing a beat, he walks over to her calling her by name. He tells her he's going to get her something and then he disappears into his tavern. Now as luck would have it, the Photopass photographer backs up into V and knocks her down. So now both children are crying. Perfect.
After a few minutes, Gaston comes out with BandAids. Trailing behind him were CMs from the tavern carrying 3 LeFrou's Brews. 1 for each girl.
I could not believe how thoughtful the whole experience was. The girls were still rather sour for a while, but I was so impressed by what he went out of his way to do. He said, "everyone thinks I'm such a villain but I'm really good with kids!" and then he proceeded to make fun of MH and my BIL. It was perfect. I could not stop thinking about it for the rest of the day.
After Gaston, we went over to meet Ariel. The plan was to go on her ride, but the kids refused. Sigh. We went to Dumbo where I was kinda confused by the pager thing. I had read that your pager will go off when it is your turn to ride, but while there, the CM said the pager was just holding your place in line and you would still have to wait in line when you decided you were done playing. They did not even care about the pagers.
V could've stayed in the play area for a long time, but after getting kicked in the head twice by the same kid, I was done. Tensions were also rising because we just got a text about my FIL. He still was not feeling well, so the paramedics from Pop came to his room and it was determined that he needed to go to the hospital. So they took him to Celebration hospital by ambulance.
We decided to stay for another hour or so we could then devote all of our attention to that. It was also really HOT. I now had FP for Peter Pan but my niece is CRAZY about Jessie so the plan was to go to her M&G to make sure she got the chance to meet her. I was a little bummed to miss PP so my SIL offered to go on it with me while the others walked over as it takes forever to get anywhere with 3 kids. We walked on the ride and ran over to the M&G. It took a while to get to the front since they took a few breaks, but it was perfect. My niece was thrilled.
The best part was, the CM said that Jessie and Woody had to go check on Bullseye but asked if our girls would like to walk them out. They were on Cloud 9.
The characters at MK were seriously amazing. My girls are still talking about them.
I had a FP for Enchanted Tales with Belle, but we ditched that plan and decided to stop at the gift shop and then head back to Pop for lunch. There was no way I was eating at the Pop cafeteria when I could get something at MK so while the rest of the group shopped, I took S to the Friar's Nook so I could grab some pot roast mac and cheese. Since we were pressed for time, I was going to bring it back to Pop with me. The only problem was, they did not have any sort of take out containers. I came up with the bright idea to dump it into a coffee cup. So now I had a double stroller, a 30lb kid, a huge drink, a diaper bag and a coffee cup full of steaming mac and cheese. My diaper bag had a cup holder net on it, so I put the cup in there, threw it on my back, and started heading back to the bus. The rest of the group texted me that they were heading towards the buses and I knew there was no way I could handle all of that stuff on the bus by myself, so I started speedwalking. It was the hottest day of our trip, I was walking super fast, sweat was dripping down my face, and before long...hot mac and cheese was dripping down my back. Out of the little hole on the lid of the coffee cup. But it was all worth it because I zoomed up as the bus was getting loaded up and I was able to get help from the rest of my group. And while it does not look so pretty, the mac and cheese was totally worth it.
I don't even remember where I first heard about Pirates and Pals, but the more we read about it, the more appealing it sounded. I never experience fireworks at MK and I was nervous about doing it with small children. I didn't want to deal with the crowds and the craziness getting back to the resort afterwards. So instead of buying a Valentine's Day present for each other, MH and I decided to splurge on this. The weather had been iffy so we tried to call the P&P phone number to confirm it was still happening and what time we had to be there but there was never any answer, no matter when we called. The stroller was a little wet so we BRILLIANTLY decided to not bring it with us. We took a bus to MK and then the monorail to The Contemporary. We wandered around for a while trying to find someone who knew where we were supposed to meet. We eventually called the Contemporary who connected us to the marina who basically told us to wander around and we would eventually see people and maybe it was not set up yet. It was really disorganized and no one seemed to know what was going on.
Eventually we found some people dressed as pirates near the entrance to the California Grill so we figured we were in the right place. I don't remember the exact timing but we got there way too early. I think it was something like 7:30 and they weren't going to let us in until 8:45. When I researched this trip, I had read that you should request an odd numbered seat because it was the side of the boat where you could see everything. I called at 180+ days out to make the reservation and asked for an odd row. She told me they do not take requests and that every seat has a great view. When it was time to check in, I was ready to request one, but they handed me 4 bandanas and a slip of paper with my row on it: 10. I was pretty bummed. They had a little scavenger hunt and coloring pages but we had already been up and down all over the Contemporary trying to check in, so we didn't do the scavenger hunt. The girls wanted to take a picture making their best pirate faces:
I had dressed S as Tinkerbell and V as Wendy because 1) I had heard kids that were dressed up got special attention 2) I thought it would be cute when they met Peter Pan and 3) because I am nuts.
I waited directly by the entrance of the ballroom to be one of the first people in. This was one time that I did notice people got a little pushy. When they opened the doors, I immediately got in line for the characters because I had heard some people did not get a chance because there was not enough time. We wound up being first in line and this may have been a bad idea because S was terrified of Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. This picture pretty much sums up the side eye that was going on:
We gave up on a picture and decided to check out the dessert spread. There was cake, chocolate coins, cotton candy, rice krispy treats, fruit, chips, salsa, and ice cream bars. This time they were offering Mickey ice cream sandwiches which were far less messy than the ones from the BBQ. For drinks, there was coffee, lemonade and water. Both the character handler and the man serving the dessert were very very nice.
The line for the characters had completely cleared out, so I decided to give it one more go and this time it went a little better.
They made one last call for the bathroom as there are no bathrooms on the boat. Our pirate host came out and tried to get everyone excited but he was really LOUD and S started freaking out and saying she didn't want to go. We really debated having one of us take her back to the resort but she eventually calmed down and we were able to distract her long enough to go out to the boat. Something I did not expect were the bugs. There were TONS of bugs to walk through on the way to the boat. TONS.
We hopped onto the boat and into our even (grr) row and pretty soon we were off. The pirate host was a riot and I found myself cracking up a lot but it was over my kids heads. We saw a piece of the electrial water pageant which was pretty...old looking. As we went out further, we sang some songs and found out that almost everyone on the boat was from New Jersey. We eventually came to our viewing spot and sure enough, the odd numbered rows were facing the castle while we were facing them. It wasn't that bad though. As I mentioned, I have never seen the MK fireworks so I thought it was great. The music and everything was perfect and everything was perfectly synchronized. I am pretty sure S was asleep before the end of the fireworks and V was out not long after. On the way back to the Contemporary, the pirate asked what everyone's favorite Disney movie was and then asked a question related to that movie. All the kids were able to answer and receive a prize. When we made it back to the dock, Peter Pan was there waiting. We tried to get V up to see him but she was completely out of it. We waited in line to meet him for a few minutes but then decided the kids were just too tired and started to leave. The CM who was with Peter Pan asked us if we didn't want to meet PP. We said we did but the kids were just too tired. She offered to have him sign our autograph book which I thought was really nice. After he signed it, we realized the situation we were in. We had 70+ pounds of sleeping kids and no stroller. And a heck of a walk.
MH said there was no way he could carry V that long as dead weight so he fully woke her and she was eventually with it enough to walk and/or be carried to the monorail. I held a sleeping S for the entire time. The only time I had taken the monorail was to go the Contemporary so it never really occurred to me that we would have to go through several stops this time in order to get back to MK. Then we had a looonnng walk to the Pop bus terminal. In my genius plan to avoid the crowds leaving the fireworks I had not known that we would still be taking a bus with all of the people leaving the fireworks. Although it seemed like an eternity after a long day, we arrived at the bus stop at 11:03 and we made it back to Pop at 11:45. All things considered that was pretty good time. We crashed as soon as we got back to the room.
We knew that with a late night of fireworks that we would want a late start the next day. However, the one thing I really, really wanted to try at a restaurant was Tonga Toast. I was outnumbered by everyone else, so we did not budget in a TS credit for Kona Cafe. Eventually I just decided that we were going all the way there, I was getting it. So I made an ADR for 2 and my SIL and I had an early morning by ourselves to head to the Polynesian. We had planned to pay out of pocket for it, but since my MIL and FIL had missed their meals, we had extra credits.
We took a bus to MK and then found out the monorail was not operating, so we had to take a bus to the Poly. As our bus was pulling away, a man ran after it and tried to pry the doors open with his hands. Even when the bus driver told him to stop he kept arguing. Eventually he had to do the walk of shame back to the depot because the bus driver would (rightly) not budge.
It took 50 minutes, but we got to the Poly ahead of our ADR. After waiting a few minutes, we were seated and ordered the Tonga Toast and the Samoan. We also got a side of macadamia nut butter because I wanted to try it.
The moment finally arrived. I got to try the thing I had been waiting months for: Tonga Toast.
And I have to say, it was a huge disappointment
I was expect something crispy on the outside and soft on the inside like fried french toast I have had in the past. Instead, the whole thing was just spongy and chewy. I did not like the banana flavor at all either. Just completely disappointing. The Samoan was the saving grace though.
We really enjoyed it and I'm glad we decided to split two things to the trip to the Poly want's a total bust. We headed back to Pop on a bus that was completely empty since everyone else was going to the parks rather than leaving them.
We didn't have our next ADR until 2:00 but I wanted to get to Hollywood Studios a little early for another food related thing: the butterfinger cupcake. I knew Starring Rolls closed early so I wanted to get the cupcakes first. The line inside was really confusing and hectic. The person in front of us got really snotty to the CM about Disney not caring about starving children which we found over the top and kept quoting for the rest of the trip. "Won't someone think of the children?!"
We took our cupcakes and went over to Hollywood & Vine for our lunch ADR. We waited about 10 minutes and were then called in. The characters were coming around pretty quickly so it was difficult to get food. We basically waited until the kids were able to see everyone. They really loved seeing Sofia and Doc. Jake and Handy Manny were also there. The food was basic cafeteria food. For some reason, I really liked the shrimp alfredo mac and cheese which seems like a really sketchy thing to eat at a cafeteria, but I went for it anyway. The desserts were all kind of boring so I saved room for these babies:
I really loved the red velvet. It's not at all like a standard red velvet, but I that made it even better for me.
After lunch, we had an ADR for the Disney Jr show. You have to sit on the floor and it was really uncomfortable. The men complained about their backs, so they went to the Star Wars area while the girls stayed for the show. I thought it was really cute. Afterwards, it was pouring so we bailed on our plans to go to Beauty and the Beast and saw the Little Mermaid show instead. Right before the show started a tall guy sat in front of V and proceeded to video tape the entire show on his phone. So all she had a view of was his phone screen. I don't understand people like this. Do you really go home and rewatch the show? The show was ok. I wasn't planning on seeing it but it gave us something to do in the rain.
We had fast passes for the Frozen Sing A Long coming up but I wanted to run over and see what Olaf's wait was like. The posted wait was 5 minutes so I figured we would have time. Wrong. The actual wait was 21 minutes. It was a cute M&G though. He has a cute signature and his handlers were nice.
We dashed over to our FP at the Sing a Long but the FP line was now closed. It didn't matter at all though because there were still seats. I hate the tiered fast pass system.
The show itself was basically just a viewing of parts of the movie, but the hosts made it worth going. They were really funny.
The guys decided to go on Rockin Roller Coaster on the single rider line while we took the girls to go get dinner. We wandered around for a while and then settled at the Backlot Express. We had some wine and burgers and a BB8 lemon cupcake while we plotted our next move. The weather was not so great and we were worried Fantasmic would get cancelled.
Next we went over to our FP at Toy Story Midway Mania. I have to say, I think this was my favorite ride ever. I really enjoyed it. S was sleeping in the stroller so I was able to ride it again using rider swap. V was hesitant because she hadn't liked many rides, but she loved this one too.
The rain was starting a little so we went over to use our Dining Package tickets for Fantasmic. These seemed rather pointless because once you got in it was basically a free for all. I was not a big fan of this show and the girls were scared by it. I wouldn't stay for it again. When it was over, they herded everyone out of the park in a giant group. It took us 20 minutes to get to the bus stop.
Some time earlier in the day, I went to the Writer's Stop to get a carrot cake cookie. Apparently it was a very fattening day. Their computers were down so they let me walk out with it for free. I was really happy to have it when we were waiting with tons of other people to the bus. The lines were huge but Pop had three buses waiting so it didn't take too long to get back and crash.
I had planned on this being an "off" day but since we had park tickets I wanted to at least stop at Epcot to go on Soarin. The last trip to Epcot had not gone well, so maybe this time would be better. Or....not.
My BFF friend home just happened to be staying at Pop the same time as us, so we met them for breakfast at the food court and had the kids play on the playground for a while. We relaxed for a bit and then headed to the Grand Floridian for brunch at 1900 Park Fare. I thought the characters here were an odd assortment but this was my favorite buffet of the trip. I liked the ambiance and I thought the food was good quality. The waitress was also really nice and let us hang out for as long as we wanted, even though we were the last seating. There was plenty of dessert but they still brought cupcakes to the table. If you eat here, don't forget that there is a PhotoPass opportunity in the back of the restaurant. It was not super obvious. The Grand Floridian is really beautiful but I felt like we didn't really fit in there. Too proper.
After lunch, we took the monorail to Epcot. We took a ride on Spaceship Earth and S fell asleep within 2 minutes.
Afterwards, we went back to the Visa Meet and Greet spot and met with Mickey and Goofy. They were nice enough to hold up a get well sign for my FIL. We had plans on heading over to the Figment area after our Soarin fast passes, so the guys started over there with the kids while my SIL & I went on Soarin. We were literally about to get on when my MIL texted me that things had taken a turn for the worse at the hospital and my FIL was in really bad shape. We got off of the ride and I ran to MH and burst into tears. The people around me probably thought I was nuts. MH and my BIL immediately grabbed an Uber and headed to the hospital. We had no way of getting there as we didn't have car seats, so we figured we would try to make the most of it and try to show the girls a good time.
We went to the World Showcase and got a Duffy bear in Mexico.
The girls were super apprehensive thanks to the Frozen ride, but everyone actually loved the Three Caballeros ride.
We saw Donald meeting outside so we got in line. After a few minutes, the CM had us all follow in a big line back inside and wait for Donald. After waiting 10 minutes for him to come out with no sign of him or the CM, we left the line to continue exploring the WS. We slowly walked around and had some snacks and I was actually feeling pretty smug that we were able to handle 3 kids 4 and under by ourselves and still have a good time. And then it started to rain. My SIL kept saying how fun it was. We crowded into a restaurant and tried to put on ponchos but it was like putting a wet trash bag over your head. We were still dumb at that point and thought it would be an experience to walk in the rain. We even stopped for a Cronut which wound up in my hair and everywhere because it just started disintegrating in the rain. And pretty soon, it was no longer rain. It was sheets of water. I was literally spitting water out as we were walking. I don't think this picture does the amount of water justice.
The thunder and lightening started and I began to legitimately get scared. I just wanted OUT. We tried to get the bus stop as fast as we could and I eventually had to just take my flip flops off so I could walk. My feet were sliding around so bad it was nearly impossible to get traction. Yuck. We finally got to the bus and spent the ride home freezing since we were soaking wet in air conditioning. In a display of perfect timing, as I was trying to get my two kids, double stroller and million bags off of the bus in my drowned rat state, my BFF and her husband were waving to me from the Epcot line, all dressed up for their night out.
We brought the girls up to warm up in the bath and soon after MH and BIL came back home. My FIL had stabilized so they were able to get back to the resort for a shower and some food. We had promised the girls a trip to the arcade and since it was still raining, it seemed like a good option for the evening. The arcade at Pop is awful. No one actually works there so when the machine eats your money, there is no one to tell. And there is nothing to win. I think I will skip it next time.
Speaking of skipping, even though I like Epcot in theory, I may skip it next trip, as nothing good seems to happen when we are there.
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But made for great photo ops!
