Happily Ever After in the Happiest Place on Earth! My First TR- 9/6-9/12 **COMPLETE 1/23**

[LindseyJo22]

Hello everyone!

My husband (!) and recently returned from a wonderful honeymoon in Disney World from 9/6-9/12. We decided this was going to be a "big" trip. In the past, I've gone to Disney with my family a few times, and once with his family. Both of our families usually do counter service with one or two big sit-down meals, but we wanted to experience some of the character meals and more table service options this time. So food will definitely be a big part of this TR!

We stayed at the Boardwalk with my in-laws' DVC points in a preferred view studio and had 6 day park hopper tickets for this trip.

Before we get to the rest of the details though, it might be good to introduce ourselves:

I'm Lindsey, the author of the report - and the forum lurker and commenter of our team.

Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom of course!
Favorite Character: Winnie the Pooh and all of his friends
Favorite Ride: Too many to count!
Favorite Restaurant: So far, Chefs de France followed by Garden Grill

I'm currently working part-time as a teacher, but looking for something a little more in line with my training as a librarian.

My husband is Will, and he goes along with me taking pictures of all our food and talking about the Disboards all the time! He is a fellow Disney fanatic and I'm super lucky to have found such a great partner in crime

I'd have to ask him about all his favorites , but I'm pretty sure his favorite character is Goofy and he loved the Garden Grill!

We had a great trip full of adventures and some relaxation too, along with some new for us experiences which I'm excited to share with you all

I'm going to add a table of contents below, and hope some of you will join me for this report!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Table of Contents:

Day 1 - Traveling Day!
Garden Grill

Day 2 - Kona Cafe and a Big Decision
Hollywood Studios and Trader Sam's

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom!
Columbia Harbor House, Cosmic Ray's, Contempo Cafe

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom and more EPCOT
Chefs de France, Top of the World Lounge

Day 5 - Magic Kingdom Day 2 and Downtown Disney
Be Our Guest, T-Rex

Day 6 - Magic Kingdom Morning, Resort Day
Crystal Palace, Paradiso 37

Day 7 - Travel Home
Future Disney Plans!

 

[I_Luv_Stitch]

Looking forward to reading your TR

 

[ThemeQueen]

Congratulations on the recent nuptials! Looking forward to reading your trip report.

 

[kristenlees]

congrats on the wedding! looking forward to your trip report

 

[LindseyJo22]

Looking forward to reading your TR

Thanks! I'm excited there are people here to read

Congratulations on the recent nuptials! Looking forward to reading your trip report.

Thanks! The honeymoon was actually a little removed from our wedding in July, but we were still pretty excited!

congrats on the wedding! looking forward to your trip report

Thanks! It was pretty awesome And hopefully I'll have time to add an actual chapter later this week (or at the weekend, depending).

 

[chunkymonkey]

Excited to read more!! You both are really cute. Congratulations on the wedding and Disneymoon!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Day 1: Travel Day

Unfortunately, I have basically no pictures of this day! However, I can tell you that I had a really hard time sleeping because I knew we were headed to Disney!! I already had my alarm set super early (5:00am or so I think), but I'm pretty sure I woke up at 3 because I was so excited!

Once my alarm went off, we worked on getting everything packed and ready to go for the trip. Even though we are only two people, I always feel like we're moving somewhere when we travel However, we managed to pack both our bags, our food and snacks, a cooler, and everything else we needed in the back seat of my car. We also took our cat along, so she hung out in the trunk. Honestly, I was nervous about that part, but she did so well! We used her carrier to put her in the car and take her out, but I'm pretty sure she never moved during the drive. This was infinitely preferable to the drive we just had when we moved - she had two accidents and whined the whole 8 hour drive from North Carolina to Georgia :/

Once we got everything loaded, we were super excited! After a brief pit stop at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, we were on our way!

For the record, the pumpkin cheesecake square from DD is pretty amazing

We were super excited to be on I-75 headed for Florida Between snacking on Munchkins, jamming to our Disney playlist, and generally having fun on the drive, it wasn't long before we were seeing signs for Disney World!

We even got a text around 11am that our room was already ready for us. We didn't expect that at all, and it was a really nice surprise.

We arrived at Best Friends Pet Care around 12:15 - I have to say, if you need to board your pet at Disney, this place is awesome! The staff were friendly and very caring, and the place was clean and adorable. For us, it actually ended up being less expensive than a local place - and less out of the way. We would have had to drive about half an hour in the wrong direction to get to the boarder we found locally, and it didn't cost any more to bring the cat when we were already driving We checked Liadan into her two story kitty condo for the next few days, and by 12:45 we were headed to the Boardwalk!

My first stay in one of Disney's "fancy" hotels was actually on our trip last year - we went with Will's family, and his parents are DVC members, so we ended up staying at Bay Lake. This trip, they had generously offered the use of some of their DVC points, so we got a preferred view studio at the Boardwalk Villas We originally wanted to go for Food and Wine, but booking that 7 months out was obviously impossible. So we ended up with September!

We really liked this room - it wasn't refurbished, so the decor wasn't really to my personal taste, but I'm not generally concerned about that. It was plenty of room for both of us, had a nice fridge and microwave so we could eat easy breakfasts, and everything was clean and ready to go.

The only small complaint was that the bathroom really was incredibly small - it was kind of hard to have a place to put our dirty towels and our swimsuits when they needed to dry, but it wasn't enough of a problem that we were really bothered by it.

Amazingly, our bags came up super quickly, so we both changed into more comfy clothes - it was HOT! So I decided I definitely needed some shorts fo this Florida weather

After we changed, we were pretty excited to see that we were going to have time to make our first fastpass of the day! We hadn't even planned on being able to get to this one, so it was definitely a great way to start the trip

Mission: Space was WAY more intense than I remember! Though part of our problem might have been that we had only eaten donuts all morning Still tons of fun though! We grabbed a Mickey pretzel and some drinks to help fix that issue and headed for Spaceship Earth.

We both love this ride, and love the Judi Dench narration. It is always fun to see how terribly the automated pictures come out - I always end up with a weird chunk sticking out of my head somewhere

Since we had a little time after Spaceship Earth, we headed over to Captain EO to use up the time between our fastpasses. We both love this, and it was just as cheesy as ever! Super fun, super hilarious, and a 5 minute wait

After our adventure with the Captain, we headed over to Soarin' which was also just as wonderful as it always is. I love the orange groves and the fireworks at the end. Can't wait to see what they might update it with in the future, though!

After Soarin' we were going to wander around EPCOT and try to get a fastpass for Living With the Land since it was closing for refurbishment a few days into our trip. However, when we got out of the ride, it was absolutely pouring outside. Tons of people were streaming into the Land pavilion in ponchos, and it looked pretty miserable. We decided to just wait standby and get out of the rain since we had a reservation at Garden Grill later

The line moved quickly, but there was a family in front of us with a somewhat unruly kid - the father turned around and asked us if we would like a child We told him we weren't quite ready for that, but it was a funny interaction!

After our wonderful boat ride about vegetables, we decided to brave the outside for a little bit - we rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends and grabbed a 4th fastpass for Living With the Land, just in case we were able to ride it after dinner.

Then, it was time for dinner at Garden Grill! We were both insanely excited about this - it's in our favorite part of EPCOT, and you get to see the back of Living with the Land!

I'll be back next time with our dinner review (and definitely more pictures)!

 

[disfanforlife]

Congratulations!! Although we are not newly weds -we are going on our first adult only trip next month and also staying at a studio at BWV!! Can't wait for our trip and look forward to reading more sbout yours.

 

[TeamSy]

Congrats!!! We loved Boardwalk!! It's such a great place to be! We were there last year before the rooms were refurbished so I hear ya about the decor!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Congratulations!! Although we are not newly weds -we are going on our first adult only trip next month and also staying at a studio at BWV!! Can't wait for our trip and look forward to reading more sbout yours.

Awesome!! I'm sure it will be wonderful We loved our Studio - for us, it's the perfect amount of room for two people. Plus, the renovations on the studios are really nice if you happen to get lucky and get a refurbished one! But honestly, the non-refurbed ones were still really nice

Congrats!!! We loved Boardwalk!! It's such a great place to be! We were there last year before the rooms were refurbished so I hear ya about the decor!

Yeah, I'm hoping we get a refurbished one for our family weekend trip in January - my in-laws are using their DVC points for a room, and it will probably need to be bigger than a studio so I'm hoping! We went through the model 1BR on the Boardwalk and it was so pretty!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Garden Grill Dinner!!

So I've already told you we were super excited about this meal. It's in the Land Pavilion (our favorite), the restaurant rotates, you get to see the back of Living With the Land, and there are characters! Plus, they actually use food grown in EPCOT which is pretty awesome.

Going into our food reviews, I feel that I should say that we love our food, but we're not really that picky about it. I seem to see mixed reviews about a lot of places at Disney, and I think it may have a lot to do with what your expectations are. We looked at the menu here before we went, and it looked good to us. Nice, homestyle food, plus Disney characters (and Farmer Mickey)!

We got to our reservation a little early since it was still raining outside and we didn't really have anything we were dying to do in EPCOT before dinner. We waited for a little while, but there were benches to sit on and we like just hanging out in the Land Pavilion anyway.

Before long, our buzzer went off! We were seated at the top of the restaurant, which was really nice. We didn't know they had smaller tables, and had been a little worried that we'd be sitting with unknown other people like at the German restaurant. It wouldn't have been a problem, but I really enjoyed being able to sit at our own little table.

They even placed the plates like mouse ears!

Our waitress was really nice and explained the family style format to us and took our drink orders. Before long, we were presented with salad and delicious rolls and honey butter:

I could have eaten so many of these rolls if there wasn't so much other food! They are so delicious, and the honey butter really was awesome.

We had barely munched on our rolls when we were visited by the Mouse himself! I loved the farmer outfit, and the character interaction was great - he noticed our Happily Ever After buttons and made kind of a big deal out of it, which we had fun with!

We definitely started our honeymoon out right!

After our meet & greet, we got to eating the food - we loved the salad. It had good flavor and wasn't dressed too much. Of course, the rolls were delicious! We were pretty excited about the main course though, and in no time it was on our table:

We had a huge plate of turkey and stuffing, fish and rice pilaf, and beef with mashed potatoes. Not to mention sides of macaroni, sweet potato fries, and broccoli:

We happily ate our food and met the characters (about 3 times each!):

The turkey was delicious, but the fish and the beef were our favorites. The beef was cooked really well, had a great sauce, and the potatoes that came with it were awesome! The fish was really flavorful and the rice was well seasoned, which was nice considering I was expecting very plain white rice.

After we had seen all the characters quite a few times, it was on to dessert!

We had a berry cobbler with blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries topped with a sweet crumble and vanilla whipped cream. The cobbler was one of my favorite things we ate this trip - the topping was delicious and crunchy, the berries were awesome, and the whipped cream added a nice sweetness to tone down the tartness of some of the berries. I do think ice cream would be a little bit better, but I certainly wasn't complaining! In addition, they brought out some cupcakes with chocolate frosting - we took them home for later, since it was way too much food for us.

Overall, this was a fabulous way to start a trip - great character interaction, lots of congratulations on our honeymoon, and some really great food. I highly recommend Garden Grill, even though it’s definitely pricey. It was around $80-something for both of us, and about $105 with tip - however, I'm already plotting a way to get back soon!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Kona Cafe and a Big Decision

Our second day started with breakfast reservations at Kona Cafe for 9:15 I had been hearing about Tonga Toast from Will’s family for what seemed like forever! After all that talk, I decided I had to get some for myself - plus, the Polynesian is pretty amazing. We got up a bit early and got ready, and then we drove over to the Polynesian so Will could do a little bit of work and I could get refills in my resort mug. I loved being able to just hang out and get refills, even though we weren’t actually staying at the Poly.

I love love love the new lobby! I know a lot of people were sad about the changes, but it feels so much more open - and I adore this little tiki guy - he's adorable and a nice "mascot" for the hotel in a way.

These little displays were super fun too - I liked seeing the character statues and all the posters.



Captain Cook’s looked super good and was very cute, but we had other plans for breakfast obviously. Good to know that you can get Tonga Toast here for 6.99 though! I will definitely be taking advantage of that in a future trip, though it’s sad you don’t get the strawberry sauce with it.

I explored the resort a little bit while Will worked on some stuff for his classes, and then we checked into the restaurant. After a very short wait, we were seated and had our drink orders in. I ordered more soda, though I think if we did this again I’d stick with water and use the mug for my soda.

I ordered Tonga Toast (of course), and Will ordered the Big Kahuna. The server quickly brought out drinks as well as warm syrup, butter, and cooled strawberry sauce for my toast.

It took a little bit for the food, but nothing unusual. It was fun to people watch and see all the other guests at the Polynesian that morning. Then, our food arrived. So much french toast!

And though Will was initially worried that the Big Kahuna had shrunk in size since he last ordered it a few years ago, those fears were quickly put to rest. Though it’s compacted on a smaller plate, there is still a ton of food in there!

We both loved our breakfasts - the Tonga Toast was delicious, cinnamony and fluffy with a good amount of banana stuffing. The strawberry sauce was so delicious it didn’t even need syrup! The Big Kahuna was also awesome. The eggs were flavorful and yummy, something that is sometimes hard to come by in breakfast restaurants. The bacon and sausage were delicious, and the pancakes were really amazing. Even the breakfast potatoes were awesome! Overall, the food here was amazing. The attentiveness of our server did slack off a little bit after we got food - we both needed a refill on our drinks for a while before we got one, but they were also pretty busy. After devouring our plates of food, we paid with magic band (super easy! I love it!) and headed downstairs.

(Obviously we were hungry and the food was great!)




Now, why were we going downstairs in the Poly and not heading straight for a park, you ask?


Because we were meeting with the DVC! Our wedding present to ourselves was a guaranteed week at the Poly We had some leftover wedding money from my parents, and ran the numbers. Basically, it was not all that much more than we would be putting aside every month for a regular vacation to buy in, at least with our down payment. Plus, we’ve seen some of the benefits of DVC with Will’s parents - we are able to have good family vacations, and also don’t have to pay a fortune for the hotel rooms. We’re really looking forward to being able to do a similar thing - in fact, we already have a trip in May booked with my mom, something that would not be nearly as possible for us without DVC accommodations!



We signed the paperwork in one of the model studios, and man are they nice! I have seen a lot of complaints about the bathrooms (there are two rooms, one with a rainfall shower and sink and the other with a regular shower, toilet, and sink). However, we were really excited about this. It would definitely make staying in a studio with 3-5 people a lot more manageable. We were staying at the Boardwalk for this trip in a studio courtesy of Will’s parents, and were amazed by the size difference. I can’t wait to get to stay in one of the Polynesian units!


After our paperwork was done, we asked about the bungalows. One of them was empty and cleaned, so we got to take a peek inside. We were both pretty much blown away by the awesomeness of this unit. It sleeps 8, but seemed to have plenty of room to hang out when you weren’t sleeping (with fold-out beds and everything, DVC units can be a bit tight for sleeping). The deck and view of the Magic Kingdom were wonderful, and everything about this unit was themed fantastically. There were really cute pieces of art everywhere, one of the fold-down beds even had a drawing of the Water Pageant, which we love. We’re already scheming to see if we can stay in one of these for a short Christmas trip. It would definitely be the kind of place Will’s parents would love, with a great deck and view for just sitting outside and enjoying the atmosphere. Not to mention the Polynesian pool is just a few steps away if you want to swim, and the rest of the resort amenities as well. We were really impressed, and enjoyed the laid-back feel of this resort. I can’t wait to get back!

*And now I'm kicking myself because I forgot to take actual pictures of the studio and the bungalow! We took video, but I was too distracted by the awesomeness to remember to be a good DIS-er and take photos!*

After our excitement at the DVC, we hung around the lobby for a while more - Will still had some work to do, and I enjoyed being in close proximity to a mug refill station.

Eventually, we headed to an actual park!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Hollywood Studios and Trader Sam's


Hollywood studios was on tap for today. We had fastpasses for Toy Story, Star Tours, and Tower of Terror. It was pretty busy, and at first we were confused - September was supposed to be low crowds, right? But then we realized it was the last day of Frozen Summer Fun, not to mention the last day of the Labor Day Weekend, so that made sense. And even though it was a little bit crowded, it still was very manageable.

We rode the boat over from the Boardwalk because the humidity was crazy and uncomfortable. I really enjoyed the boats - it’s nice and relaxing, and I like seeing all the different resorts along the way. We quickly scanned our magic bands when we got to the park and were on our way to Toy Story Midway Mania.

This ride is so much fun! And the fastpass was definitely worth it, because the stand-by line was at 2 hours when we got there! I don’t like much of anything enough to wait for 2 hours for it

As usual, I failed pretty miserably on this ride, but had a lot of fun. Will, on the other hand, was very close to being the top scorer of the hour! He was really excited about that Maybe next time I’ll be somewhere close to his score

After Toy Story it was time to head over to Star Tours. We got to the park toward the end of our first fastpass window, so it was pretty easy to just head to the next one. This ride is so fun - we got to see Hoth and also had a really funny sequence with Princess Leia transmitting us a message - both of which I hadn’t seen. Our ending was the underwater one, but I like it! After our flight through the galaxy, we meandered back to Tower of Terror for our third Fastpass. Again, a quick and smooth (and short) wait, and we were ready to ride. We even got into the front row! Don’t even know the last time that happened. The ride was a little shorter than I remembered before the drop, but it was really fun. There was a lot of suspense and definitely a lot of drops! We also got a hilarious picture and video courtesy of Memory Maker.

I still can't get over Will's faces on rides


After our escape from the Hollywood Tower Hotel, we decided to see what was available in the Fastpass kiosk. We wanted a Rockin’ Roller Coaster fastpass, but they were all gone, so we got one for the Great Movie Ride. After checking the standby line for RnRC (120 minutes - nope), we headed that way.

This was another great ride - we saw a little bit of the new TCM intro, which was really well done and interesting, and then got on the front row of our car for a trip into the movies!

I really enjoyed this - it was nice to be able to see all the stuff without other people’s heads in the way Our first guide was wonderful - super animated, funny, and he paid a lot of attention to a couple of kids behind us, which was awesome. When our car got hijacked, we got a gangster actress who was a little less fun. She definitely spoke pretty quietly and in a crazy “gangster” accent which made it hard to understand. This was still fun, thanks to the scenery and general enjoyableness of the ride, but I was definitely happy to get our original guide back!

At this point, I was kind of hungry. We had tried to stop at Starring Rolls for a Butterfinger Cupcake before the Movie Ride, but they had just closed. That was probably good, since I have a feeling Tonga Toast and a cupcake as my food for the day would have been a delicious but unwise choice. We stopped at the Studio Catering Company - we had thought about Pizza Planet, but Will had a slice of Pizza earlier at the Boardwalk, so more pizza didn’t sound so good.

This was pretty good food for QS in Hollywood Studios! Will got the Pulled Beef Brisket Sandwich, which was “Braised Beef Brisket, Muenster Cheese, Arugula and Horseradish Sauce on a Ciabatta Roll served with French Fries, House-made Chips, or Apple Slices.”

I got the Turkey and Cheese Panini with fries instead of soup: “Turkey, Swiss, Provolone and Honey Mustard on Sourdough Bread served with Tomato Basil Soup”

I definitely think Will’s food was the winner here. I wasn’t super hungry and didn’t want anything really fancy, but I should have gotten the brisket His was very flavorful, the horseradish sauce definitely gave it a good taste, and the beef was delicious. My sandwich had really good cheese, but there was a little too much turkey and not as much cheese, which made the ratio a little off for me. The bread was good though, and the fries were tasty - not bland or mushy. Overall, this was a nice spot and exceeded our expectations for a somewhat random QS stop!

After dinner we saw Muppet Vision 3D, which is always a favorite. I love the effects, and even though it might could use an update, it’s a classic. We headed back to the Boardwalk to get a little more work done and charge our various electronics - no RnRC this trip, but that’s ok! We’ll be back in January and in May

After chilling in our room for a little while, we decided to head over to the Polynesian again. We wanted to check out Trader Sam’s and see about some fancy adult beverages. To get there, we drove to the TTC. We couldn’t find the walkway, so we were about to get on the Resort Monorail, but then I saw the tops of the Poly longhouses right next to us! So we asked a cast member and walked to the DVC side of Poly. It was a super short trip, and we got to the pool area just in time to watch the Water Pageant, one of my favorite little parts of Disney World. I have to say, having the floats go by while you look at the Castle and Space Mountain is pretty amazing!

After the pageant, we headed to Trader Sam’s. I expected a line, but there were a few seats empty. It’s a very small place, but was very fun! I got a Mai Tai in a tiki glass, and Will got the Polynesian Pearl. Both drinks were really delicious - though my Mai Tai was pretty strong, especially for someone who doesn’t drink much! I liked both drinks a lot, but am glad we got different ones so we have different glasses to take home

I love my little Tiki guy! He's now on display at home

We really enjoyed Trader Sam’s - the bartenders were really friendly and attentive, the effects for ordering different drinks were really fun, and it made for a nice end to our evening. We did sit out in the lobby for a while before returning to our room at the Boardwalk and turning in for the night. Next up, a leisurely morning and the Magic Kingdom!

 

[chunkymonkey]

What a fun Disneymoon so far! Love Love Love Garden Grill! Wasn't the food so yummy?
Did you guys purchase DVC? That's awesome! Congrats! Did you choose the poly as your home resort? So excited to stay in a studio next year!
Love Tonga Toast! I think the Captain Cooks one does come with the strawberry sauce...at least from what I remember from 2 years ago.
Your day at DHS sounded like a lot of fun! Can't wait to get the full Trader Sams experience next year!

 

[Cando86]

I love your report! You guys beat us to the World by just a couple weeks!

CONGRATS on becoming DVC members, that's SO EXCITING!

I loved reading about Trader Sam's - we went for the first time in September too and it was definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

Looking forward to more

 

[kastoney]

I'm fashionably late to the party but finally here. Congratulations on your marriage!!!!! Looks like you are off to a great start and can't wait for more

 

[LindseyJo22]

What a fun Disneymoon so far! Love Love Love Garden Grill! Wasn't the food so yummy?

It was so good! We figured we'd be happy with it - we're not super picky about our food in general, so it already sounded good. But we were really surprised by how delicious everything was! I'm already trying to convince Will to go back in May with my mom

Did you guys purchase DVC? That's awesome! Congrats! Did you choose the poly as your home resort? So excited to stay in a studio next year!

Yes!! It was our wedding present to ourselves We thought about the resale route, but we really loved the idea of being on the monorail. With VGF and Bay Lake already sold, this seemed like the last chance at being on the monorail for a while, and after visiting the Poly a few times I was totally sold.

I'll be looking for your studio review! It may end up being a little while before we stay at Poly, but I can't wait!

Love Tonga Toast! I think the Captain Cooks one does come with the strawberry sauce...at least from what I remember from 2 years ago.
Your day at DHS sounded like a lot of fun! Can't wait to get the full Trader Sams experience next year!

I think I may have to get some Tonga Toast nearly every trip now - especially since I know it is available at a quick service place! I'd be super happy if the Captain Cook's one came with strawberry sauce, but I'd also be happy with plain syrup

We loved Trader Sam's a lot - it's definitely tiny, but the atmosphere is great I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

I love your report! You guys beat us to the World by just a couple weeks!

CONGRATS on becoming DVC members, that's SO EXCITING!

Thank you!! One of these days I hope to be in Disney at the same time as some people from the boards - it seems like it would be so fun to actually meet other people as Disney crazy as me

And yes, we are so excited! We've already booked two trips with our points, and I am really happy with the decision, even though I was pretty nervous about it at first!

I loved reading about Trader Sam's - we went for the first time in September too and it was definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

Looking forward to more

I loved it! The drinks were great, bartenders were really attentive and also seemed to be enjoying their jobs, and the special effects were super fun

I'm fashionably late to the party but finally here. Congratulations on your marriage!!!!! Looks like you are off to a great start and can't wait for more

I'm excited to have people reading along, especially other people whose trip reports I've been stalking I'm hoping to get some more updating done over the weekend

 

[Elevationist]

I'm here, I'm here!

So food will definitely be a big part of this TR!

I'm so on-board!

I'm Lindsey, the author of the report - and the forum lurker and commenter of our team.

Ahem. FORMER forum lurker.

Favorite Restaurant: So far, Chefs de France followed by Garden Grill

I'd have to ask him about all his favorites , but I'm pretty sure his favorite character is Goofy and he loved the Garden Grill!

I looooove Garden Grill, too!!!

Mission: Space was WAY more intense than I remember!

Did you ride the Green or Orange side?

I always end up with a weird chunk sticking out of my head somewhere

HAHAHA! I thought I was the only one!

After our adventure with the Captain, we headed over to Soarin' which was also just as wonderful as it always is. I love the orange groves and the fireworks at the end. Can't wait to see what they might update it with in the future, though!

I'm really glad to get it to see it again before it going into refurb, then again when it's all done!

Going into our food reviews, I feel that I should say that we love our food, but we're not really that picky about it. I seem to see mixed reviews about a lot of places at Disney, and I think it may have a lot to do with what your expectations are. We looked at the menu here before we went, and it looked good to us. Nice, homestyle food, plus Disney characters (and Farmer Mickey)!

I run into this a lot, too! I love food, but I'm not at all snobby about it!

I could have eaten so many of these rolls if there wasn't so much other food! They are so delicious, and the honey butter really was awesome.

Oh my goodness, those rolls and that honey butter...

The beef was cooked really well, had a great sauce

I loooooved the beef there. So much so that I requested a second order of it! YUM!

Our second day started with breakfast reservations at Kona Cafe for 9:15 I had been hearing about Tonga Toast from Will’s family for what seemed like forever! After all that talk, I decided I had to get some for myself

Yaaaaassss! I snuck a Kona breakfast ADR into my upcoming trip JUST so that I could finally try it after reading so much about it here on the Dis!

I don’t like much of anything enough to wait for 2 hours for it

You and me both, girl.

Our first guide was wonderful - super animated, funny, and he paid a lot of attention to a couple of kids behind us, which was awesome. When our car got hijacked, we got a gangster actress who was a little less fun. She definitely spoke pretty quietly and in a crazy “gangster” accent which made it hard to understand. This was still fun, thanks to the scenery and general enjoyableness of the ride, but I was definitely happy to get our original guide back!

I'd love to work for Disney, just not actually IN the parks... Unless it was this role. I think being a tour guide/actor on the Great Movie Ride would be a HOOT!!!

This was pretty good food for QS in Hollywood Studios!

This is GREAT information!!! Both sandwiches look great, but that beef brisket is right up my carnivorous alley! Yum!

I love my little Tiki guy! He's now on display at home

I want that glass! It's a goal for my next trip, I think! And rum is best buddy in the liquor world

 

[LindseyJo22]

Day 3: Magic Kingdom!
Food: Columbia Harbor House, Cosmic Ray's, and Contempo Cafe

We decided to sleep in this morning until about 9, and Will actually ended up doing work for a long time - he had to arrange for distance physics labs, and the program he was using wasn’t playing nice at all, so it all took a lot longer than he anticipated. I was all right though, I got to fill up my mug and catch up on trip reports!

Our first fastpass wasn’t until 12:45 or so, and we got to the park close to the later end of the window. MK had late EMHs, so we weren’t really worried about the late start. First up was Space Mountain! The stand-by line said 45 minutes, and they must have had all the snaking queue lines up, because there wasn’t a stand-by line until we got to the loading section. But it looked pretty boring, so we were happy to have a fastpass.

I always look weird on this picture, I don't know why

We obviously take awesome ride pictures


After a thrilling ride in space (where they turned a few of the lights on by the Peoplemover because it was stopped), we decided to try our 7DMT fastpass before lunch. Unfortunately, the ride was down for technical difficulties. However, the cast member said that we could come back any time that day because our fastpass had been bypassed since the ride was down. I looked at my app later, and our fastpass had been replaced with one that was valid until regular park close for a variety of different things - just in case the mine train continued to experience problems.

I have to say, we were really impressed with the MyDisneyExperience system this trip! Everything worked really well for us - magic bands opened the room, we basically bypassed the check-in, and the app was great. I do need to find a portable phone charger, but that's not any problem with Disney's stuff!


We headed over to Columbia Harbor House for lunch - I had been eyeing the lobster roll for a while on trip reports, and this is one of our go-to spots for lunch in the park anyway. We stood in line for a while, since it was a pretty crowded area. When we ordered and got up to the counter, the CM behind the food prep area asked us about celebrating our honeymoon, and we talked for a little bit. He noticed we didn’t have any dessert and asked us if we would like some complimentary ones! Of course we said yes. We got a cobbler and a chocolate cake (I’ve never had Disney chocolate cake, so I was excited). I of course ordered the lobster roll, and Will ordered the chicken and fish combo.

Everything here was really good - was worried about the mayo on the lobster roll, but it was delicious. The roll was really soft, the filling's flavor was good, and the chips were actually great. Way better than those packaged kettle chips. I can't wait to get back and get another one

The cobbler was peach - Will’s favorite! It was really yummy and topped with a nice cream sauce. The chocolate cake was really rich - I mostly enjoyed the frosting. The cake was a little dry, but the awesome icing made up for it. We both really liked these, and were excited to try them

Memory is a little hazy from this point on - I think we went over and rode BTMRR with our fastpass and picked up another one for Buzz Lightyear (another one where I never can get a good picture).

We ended up riding the Peoplemover while we were over there, then did our 7DMT ride and got a Winnie the Pooh fastpass.

(my peoplemover picture skills need some work)

The Mine Train was awesome! We were both really impressed - kind of wish the dark ride aspect was a little longer, but we know that’s not really what they were going for with this ride. I loved our picture and the ride video!

We rode Pooh and popped back over by Philharmagic to get another fastpass for Small World.

One of my favorites!!

Then we did it again and got a fastpass for Haunted Mansion and headed into Philharmagic to wait on our time. I just love this show - the 3D is really good, the music is great, and it’s just a good time! After Haunted Mansion, we planned to grab a Jungle Cruise fastpass and head that way. However, it started to rain pretty hard as we exited HM, so we ended up ducking into the Tiki Room - super cute show and great vintage feel! I loved it! It had stopped raining after that, so we did Jungle Cruise and at some point Country Bear Jamboree too!

At this point, we were getting hungry and it was getting close to Electrical Parade time - we tried a couple of restaurants on Main Street, but they were all full for those who already had reservations. So we ate at Cosmic Ray’s - I got a cheeseburger and fries and Will got the chicken sandwich and apple slices. I have to say, this is a decent burger. It’s nothing special, but they have a good number of toppings and it’s a great restaurant for capacity because it’s got all sorts of ordering terminals.

We really thought about getting the half chicken meal, but figured that would be far too much food. We both thought this meal was probably the least special or delicious of the trip, but it was good for a random “we need food” park stop. We ended up heading toward Splash Mountain after this, since everyone was waiting for the parade. You literally just walked up! We got in the third row so our car would mostly be balanced, and had a great ride with Br’er Rabbit.

After this, I wanted some dessert - I really wanted a caramel apple, but we couldn’t find a good way to sit down and eat it, so we ended up going over to the Contemporary and hanging out, where I got an awesome pumpkin flavored cupcake as big as my head!

After that, we were both really tired, so we came back and basically passed out once we reached the Boardwalk. Great day!