"I think I'm in love, and her name is Polynesia..." an Aug/Sept '15 TR (NEW TR link @ end!)

[cynditech]

Just caught up on your trip report - fantastic!!! We stayed at BCV a year ago and were somewhat underwhelmed with the rooms. On my list of must-do's is Poly - your room looked awesome!!! We did the YES program just over a year ago, but it was at HS and all about animation. Though DS did enjoy it, we all felt it lasted a bit long.

 

[DisneyJo]

I'm not a big breakfast eater either (although I can't leave the house without my bowl of cherrios ) so we never schedule brekkies preferring to eat cereal bars etc. However the characters looked fun to meet

Loving your Buzz pose

 

[franandaj]

Sounds like a good morning. You got a lot done even with a breakfast ADR. I noticed in your pictures that Monsters Laugh Floor has the same vending machine as Monster's Inc. Mike and Sulley to the rescue! I took a picture of the same thing!

I don't think I would like the breakfast at O'hana. I'm weird about eggs, and I don't like scrambled eggs that come to me from a plate and I can't see them cooked or as actual eggs. I'm afraid that they are either powdered eggs, or have been sitting for a long time before being served.

Most days, we like a grab it and go breakfast or something easy like cereal and yogurt in the room. We will normally do the 1900 Park Fare buffet because of their excellent strawberry soup, and on our next trip we actually have two breakfast ADRs (which is unusual). I do like to make a nice breakfast in the room at least once on a trip, twice if the trip is as long as a week, but that's only because we rarely take the time to do it at home. Vacation to me is as much about enjoying down time as it is seeing and doing things, but I know that's a foreign concept to you!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I don't go as often to WDW as you do. For me, the quality of food seems to drop significantly between visits. Food and Wine is the exception....and I think that's why I like to visit in September/October.

 

[skier_pete]

Playing trip report catch up! I really like Ohana as a breakfast. I haven't done dinner there yet but hope to soon.

I love Tomorrowland speedway because it has a lot of nostalgia to me. When I was younger it was always my favorite thing to get to drive a car.

That's what's odd about it...I have no memory of EVER having ridden it. There's a pretty good chance I did as a kid. Certain rides have stuck with me from those days - the wonder of 20,000 leagues really stuck with me - but not the Speedway..at all. DD never seemed to care, and so we never encouraged. There were always better things to do. Funny at 12 was when she decides she wants to ride it.

I feel the same way about breakfast in Disney.

Agree and agree!

Just caught up on your trip report - fantastic!!! We stayed at BCV a year ago and were somewhat underwhelmed with the rooms. On my list of must-do's is Poly - your room looked awesome!!! We did the YES program just over a year ago, but it was at HS and all about animation. Though DS did enjoy it, we all felt it lasted a bit long.

Thank you. The BCV rooms are pretty blah - they definitely need an update - though they are scheduled to do so.

I can't help but think back and be disappointed in the YES program. A nice offering but didn't feel it held up to high Disney standards. (Maybe my standard is too high.) Again, wish we'd done it a younger age, not at cynical teenager age.

I'm not a big breakfast eater either (although I can't leave the house without my bowl of cherrios ) so we never schedule brekkies preferring to eat cereal bars etc. However the characters looked fun to meet

Loving your Buzz pose

Thanks! If it weren't for this being DD character meeting choice, I'm sure we would've skipped it. I don't want to be down on it. The food was fine, and the character interactions were good. Just is it really worth the money?

Sounds like a good morning. You got a lot done even with a breakfast ADR. I noticed in your pictures that Monsters Laugh Floor has the same vending machine as Monster's Inc. Mike and Sulley to the rescue! I took a picture of the same thing!

Not surprised! It's easier to design one and build it twice! I was curious which came first. I was curious which came first. I looked it up. The DCA ride (and overlay of the reviled Superstar Limo) opened in Jan 2006, whereas Timekeeper closed in 2006 and the Laugh Floor opened in 2007. (It's really been 9 years?) So likely it was designed for your version and just used for this one. I've also seen some of the same signage at the DHS meet and greet.

I don't think I would like the breakfast at O'hana. I'm weird about eggs, and I don't like scrambled eggs that come to me from a plate and I can't see them cooked or as actual eggs. I'm afraid that they are either powdered eggs, or have been sitting for a long time before being served.

Buffet scrambled eggs are mediocre at best - these were no different. I don't think they were powdered, but couldn't tell for sure.

Vacation to me is as much about enjoying down time as it is seeing and doing things, but I know that's a foreign concept to you!

We had a lot more downtime on this trip than in the past - but yeah - we aren't much for laying around on our Disney Trips!

I don't go as often to WDW as you do. For me, the quality of food seems to drop significantly between visits. Food and Wine is the exception....and I think that's why I like to visit in September/October.

I really don't think the overall quality is down. I think there is an ebb and flow. Some places go downhill, others improve. When we ate at ABC commisary this trip on our first day, the food was very good. In the past, that place has been horrible, to the point we only were willing to give it a try because the word out was that it HAD improved. Overall - we had very good food experiences this trip! And again, I don't want to give the impression that the food was bad. It's just that things like, bacon, sausage, waffles, hash browns are so standard fare there's very little they can do to make them special.

 

[skier_pete]

Here's the second half of Day 10 - there's not a ton of pictures - so it should fit all in one post:

We had a third FP for Haunted Mansion, so the next bit was to get back over in that direction. We also wanted to have lunch at Columbia Harbor House. As usual, as it started to approach noon, the crowds were starting to get very heavy. (Do these people even realize how few people are around those first two hours?? Do they know what they are missing?) We did want to hit the one Fantasyland ride we hadn’t ridden yet. This was Philharmagic, a personal favorite of mine. (It’s in my Top 10 Disney rides.) I just think it’s the perfect use of Disney music / characters / 3D / and live effects. MUCH better than any of the other 3-D movies. (Though I do miss Epcot having HISTA.)



I should point out that even with the crowds, we hadn’t waited more than a few minutes for any of the rides that we’ve taken so far. It wasn’t quite time for our HM fastpass, so we decided to have lunch. Columbia Harbor House is one of our favorite QS restaurants, and pretty much a “if we’re in MK we’re gonna eat there” level of restaurants. It was incredibly crowded in here. Usually you can go upstairs to find a quiet corner, but even the upstairs was just about filled up. We were still able to find a table, but it was just about as crowded as I’ve ever seen it.

DD and I both ordered the shrimp plate. The shrimp here is always very well prepared and the portions are generous.



DW got the Lobster Roll. While she thought it was OK – it wasn’t great. Of course, she’s used to fresh New England Lobster Roll, I warned her it probably wouldn’t compare favorably to that.



The biggest disappointment about Columbia Harbor House is that they used to have a really great apple cobbler dessert. They still have a cobbler, but it is a “seasonal” cobbler, and the last two times we ate hear, it was a Peach Cobbler – which is the grossest of all cobblers. (OK – maybe rhubarb.)

Post lunch – it was now HOT and VERY CROWDED. DD wanted to go back to the room, but we had our Haunted Mansion FP to use. Fortunately, we were right there, so she didn’t put up too big a stink.



999 Happy Haunts later and we were heading out of the park. We stopped for photopass, and though DD was not in the mood for it, she actually played along OK.






We headed back to the hotel – again beating the rain back to the hotel. (I’ve probably said this before – but how do people live like this – I would want to kill myself after living a month of summer hell in Florida.) We didn’t end up going to the pool, but mostly just rested in the room.

Actually, I had a mission – DW had seen a Star Wars shirt that she liked back at DTD. She is not a big Star Wars fan, but she thought this shirt was very cute – and she decided after the fact that she wanted to get it. It had a cartoon of Darth Vader, Han Solo, and Chewbacca on it, and Han saying “Pew Pew”, Darth Vader saying “Voosh” (lightsabre lighting) and Chewie saying “Raarhgrh”. Well – being DW, she can’t just get it when she see’s it – no she has to leave the store and decide AFTER that she wants it. Well, after looking for it at MK earlier in the week – we found out they only sell it in TWO locations – Once Upon a Toy, and the DHS Star Wars store. So – I offered to go to Downtown Disney and pick it up for her. (Not just chivalrous – I was hoping that this would prevent her from taking 5 hours to do more shopping.)

We had left tonight as a “go back to something we wanted to revisit”. Well, DD decided she wanted to go back to Epcot and rides Ellen’s Energy Adventure again! So I left the room at about 4:00 PM with the assumption that I could easily be back for 6 PM to go to Epcot.

Nope! As it turned out, I got on the bus pretty quick (It was raining BADLY.) but the bus immediately hit this MAJOR traffic jam leaving the Grand Floridian. I am not sure what was going on, but it literally took almost an HOUR to get to DTD. (Yes – crazy right?) When I finally got to Once Upon a Toy – it was two days after the big “Star Wars – Force Awakens” Toy Premiere – and the whole store had been taken over by the new Star Wars toys. Armies of Stormtroopers and Kylo Rens.





But nowhere – nowhere – could be found the T-shirt that I was looking for. Fortunately, again I had the Disney Parks merchandise App. This App showed that they had the shirt in the store! So I went to the counter and inquired. Turns out they took a bunch of merchandise off the shelves to make room for the new stuff, and they had the shirts in the back. Thank goodness I asked. DW was able to wear her Star Wars shirt to the new Star Wars movie on December 20th!



But – by this point, it was like quarter to six. I was worried that if I were to try and get back to the hotel it would take another hour – so I called DW and suggested we just meet at Epcot…they take the monorail over, and I would head over to Saratoga Springs to catch a direct bus to the studios. It was about a 5 minute walk and a bus showed up just as I was walking up. In fact, DW called me as I was riding the bus and they hadn’t left yet, so I actually beat them to Epcot. Since it was still raining, we had decided to meet over at Mousegears. My umbrella finally said “Even I can’t take all this rain!”, and broke in half as I was walking. (I am not joking.) So I dumped it in the garbage. I only waited maybe 5 minutes before DW and DD walked up.



We got to Ellen, and they were holding us outside for 8 minutes. Outside? Ellen? I thought you just walked in the middle of the pre-show. At least it had stopped raining. We actually were let in for the LAST showing of the day. Riding this for the second time of the trip, I can tell you while I like it, is not a “twice in one trip” ride. However, it was cool and dry – and after 10 days that was good enough.

We considered a last ride on Test Track, but standby was showing like a 30 minute wait even for single rider. Instead we ended up going back for the second night in a row to Sunshine Seasons because DD wanted to. (Funny that the night before she wanted nothing to do with this.)

She always liked the Chinese noodles with Shrimp – but she also wanted a brownie.



I decided to get the beef with the asian noodles. This is just really excellent.



DW wasn’t that hungry, and so she tried this sliced up wrapped sandwhich and some of the cream soup she had earlier in the week. She really liked both her options.



As usual – thumbs up for Sunshine Seasons! And as we finished up dinner everyone was pretty pooped, but we made yet one more spot – another twirl around our magic spaceship earth!



We again headed out of the park for the monorail. We walked back to the room and spent the evening packing up our crap, though we did again – for the fourth night in a row – watch the fireworks at MK from our resort. This time, we went out on the end of the building and watched from there. An nice ending to our final night.

However, there is still more to come – our last day includes still more time in Magic Kingdom, and so there’s a bit more to be said.

 

[rteetz]

We usually vacation in July and my mom loves the heat so we are in the parks all day long during the summer. We do tend to drink lots of water and stop in places with air conditioning.

I love Philharmagic but missed it this last trip.

I have never eaten at CHH, not much appeals to me there.

Can't believe it took so long to get to DTD/Disney springs. That sounds like a bus ride during marathon weekend when the roads are closed.

 

[cynditech]

Ahhhh we love Columbia Harbor House (though, I agree, the lobster roll wasn't the greatest)! Might be adding Sunshine Seasons to our list of restaurants to try this time around

 

[skier_pete]

We usually vacation in July and my mom loves the heat so we are in the parks all day long during the summer. We do tend to drink lots of water and stop in places with air conditioning.

I love Philharmagic but missed it this last trip.

I have never eaten at CHH, not much appeals to me there.

Can't believe it took so long to get to DTD/Disney springs. That sounds like a bus ride during marathon weekend when the roads are closed.

Not a seafood guy, huh? CCH also has chicken fingers, a few sandwiches, and salads as well. Quite a variety really. But the friend shrimp is excellent.

Actually - the back-up was all between the Grand Floridian and the TTC. It took us almost a half hour to get past the TTC. That's what I didn't get. The rest of the drive was normal slow.

Not that I want to go to Disney when it's 40 degrees out, but anytime it's over 80 I am not a happy camper, even at Disney. I dislike sweating and I sweat a lot. The newer wicking style fabrics really help quite a bit, but it's still just not something I like....I would never go there in the summer if we didn't have to.

Ahhhh we love Columbia Harbor House (though, I agree, the lobster roll wasn't the greatest)! Might be adding Sunshine Seasons to our list of restaurants to try this time around

Sunshine seasons is my pick for best CS in WDW. The variety there is outstanding, and several of the meals are high quality level. They also have a nice selection of desserts. Certainly the best CS in Epcot.

 

[franandaj]

We love Philharmagic and CHH as well! I can't believe you had such a back up on the bus. I didn't realize that they stormtroopers and Kylo Ren came out that long ago. It took us a long time to find them! But we have one of those stormtroopers!

Dinner at Sunshine Seasons looks good. There are just so many great places to eat in Epcot we always overlook that place.

 

[skier_pete]

We love Philharmagic and CHH as well! I can't believe you had such a back up on the bus. I didn't realize that they stormtroopers and Kylo Ren came out that long ago. It took us a long time to find them! But we have one of those stormtroopers!

Dinner at Sunshine Seasons looks good. There are just so many great places to eat in Epcot we always overlook that place.

If we go during F&W we don't get to Sunshine Seasons - but otherwise we always make a point to eat there.

What exactly do you do with a 3-foot tall stormtrooper?

 

[franandaj]

If we go during F&W we don't get to Sunshine Seasons - but otherwise we always make a point to eat there.

What exactly do you do with a 3-foot tall stormtrooper?

When we finally finish moving, he's going to go in our foyer and we'll turn on the sounds so he can welcome our guests!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I'm a CHH fan so it's usually on my dining list.
I like Philharmagic but I don't think DS is a fan.

Love the t-shirt that DW got. It's so fun.

Great food at Sunshine Seasons.

 

[skier_pete]

Trying to wrap things up before our trip in just 16 days. The report is all written for the last day, I'll just post the first part today and the second part later.

Day 11 - This was actual labor day...

Today we played things a little different. Because we knew we were going to have to be checked out of the room long before we were ready to leave, and because you have to get your bags down for airport check-in, we decided to spend the morning packing up the room completely. We then brought all of our bags down to the front lobby (using the convenience of bell services) and also checked our carry-ons with bell services. By the time we were heading to the park – it was probably 10:30 or so. We had another DISmeet to attend – with the fourth member of our photopass group. We chatted for a few minutes and also took a picture at the foot of main street.



We couldn’t stay long, we had a few plans to do – and even though the park was crowded we knew we could get them done. Our first stop was the second ride on the Mine Train.





I find I like this ride more each time. Once you get over how short it is, it really is a fun experience. Hopefully it eventually settles to a more reasonable wait time. DD then decided she really, really, wanted some caramel popcorn. We had to figure out that the best location for this was inside Pooh’s gift shop. We bought – DD was happy! We walked over to It’s a Small World, but the line was mega long (30 minute wait I think), so we decided instead to ride the TTA – we had to head back towards Main Street anyways as we had one last ADR set – with Lunch at Tony’s Town Square.




Believe it or not, in all our trips this was our first time ever eating here. I am usually not one for theme park Italian, but we wanted to try something we hadn’t before. I’ve said this elsewhere, but I grew up in an area with EXCELLENT Italian restaurants being commonplace. I find most everywhere else in the country, Italian food is just sort of so-so, so I wasn’t expecting much from this meal. We put our name in the waiting area – and we had a few minutes to wait before we were seated.





We walked through the main part of the restaurant, but were seated out in the atrium, which sort of looks out onto main street. We weren’t close enough to the windows to “people watch” though.





The menu:






The relationship to “Lady and The Tramp” was not at all subtle in this restaurant.





DW is a big soup fan – and wanted to try the Italian wedding soup. To my tastes, this was fine soup, nothing special. DW enjoyed it.





We were also served bread with oil. The bread was good. Not a fan of the dipping oil.



DD could not resist spaghetti and meatballs. This was just fine. The sauce was surprisingly tasty, and really what’s there to screw up about spaghetti and meatballs. Here’s DD doing her best “Lady” impersonation.



DW had the Shrimp Scampi. Again, it was very good. We have been impressed with how good the shrimp has been at many restaurants this trip.



I ordered the Chicken Parmigiana. This was also quite good. A large portion and again the sauce was pretty good.



Overall – for theme park Italian and the reputation of the restaurant, I was pleasantly surprise by this meal, while I wouldn’t rank it with superlatives, overall the atmosphere and the quality of the food and service were very good, and the prices weren’t terribly expensive, so I was overall very satisfied with the meal. While I wouldn’t run back there, I wouldn’t be afraid to recommend it either.

To be concluded in future post...

 

[rteetz]

I have not eaten at Tony's yet because I find it to have very mixed reviews. Some like you enjoy it or others like the Disunplugged team think it's really bad. I guess it depends on the day. I really enjoy via Napoli and portobello for Italian.

 

[skier_pete]

I have not eaten at Tony's yet because I find it to have very mixed reviews. Some like you enjoy it or others like the Disunplugged team think it's really bad. I guess it depends on the day. I really enjoy via Napoli and portobello for Italian.

Well - I wouldn't give it a rave or anything. It was at the level of "if you want to go there, go, but don't make a special stop" type review. We did Via Napoli earlier in the trip and I liked that better. (Though still wouldn't say it was great.)

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Just finished with your report!!

I had a great time reading.

So jealous of your poly stay.

I kind of wish they provided yes programs for adults (along with the ticket discount as well haha).

You guys really do love sunshine seasons, don't you? I've actually never eaten there. I don't think we've done any future world counter service, we're usually eating in world showcase.

 

[skier_pete]

Just finished with your report!!

I had a great time reading.

So jealous of your poly stay.

I kind of wish they provided yes programs for adults (along with the ticket discount as well haha).

You guys really do love sunshine seasons, don't you? I've actually never eaten there. I don't think we've done any future world counter service, we're usually eating in world showcase.

Thank you very much - I always appreciate feedback. There's one last post to come next week - and then I think it will be wrapped. If you enjoy reading though - I'm gonna keep writing. We actually wrote journals of our trips in 1997 and 2000, so writing this down for public consumption is just an extension of that. I am sooo appreciative of all the folks that take the time to read our TRs! I hope it means I tell it in interesting ways, or my pictures are good, or something!

Heck - I was jealous of our Poly stay. I felt so spoiled, knowing that we probably won't be able to stay there very often. Even if we can get in, it's a lot of points relative to the other resorts. And we really DO want to try out all the DVC resorts eventually. We'll be lucky to be back there again in the next 5 years I think. (At least the next 3 years probably not.)

As far as Sunshine Seasons, I don't honestly think we would've gone there 3 times in one trip...we did the second time, and then the next night DD says she wants to go there after we did. Personally, I would've liked to have gone to Tangerine Cafe in Morocco, but no-one wanted to trudge that far back in the park. That said, the pork chop at Sunshine Seasons is one of my very favorite CS meals at WDW.

 

[Majordis]

Really enjoyed your trip report(s). We also travel with teens so can totally relate to your experiences. Thanks for writing.

 

[franandaj]

OK, I read this from my phone a couple days ago, and hate to comment from the phone so I didn't, but I have an even bigger revelation for you, but first my comments!

Sounds like you got a lot done in your morning at the MK. I too am liking the 7DMT more and more as I ride it. I just wish too that the lines would go down. Maybe eventually when SW land opens. Your meal at Tony's looks even better than other folks who have posted pictures, and I think you warned us that you weren't even using a DSLR camera??? The Chicken Parm and the Scampi both look delectable. I just wish someone would order the Canneloni! That is my all time favorite Italian restaurant dish. I even have quite a few homemade ones in the freezer so I can have them whenever I want because there are hardly any places in Long Beach that serve this wonderful dish!

OK so to the revelation. Remember how your text kept becoming "hot" in your posts? Your write yours in MS Word don't you? I do too, and I had that happen with one of my posts a couple back. I tried to fix it while I was posting and couldn't. So on my update today, it happened again. Determined NOT to let it happen, I copied the text from the post AFTER the linkage started out of the post window, posted the update and then copied the remaining text into a new window thinking that this would fix the problem. I Previewed it and the problem was still there, so I deleted that text and decided to go back to my Word Document, and try to get brand new text for the new post. And then I discovered what had been going on.

You know how when you are writing in the Word Document and you hit the Enter button and the text from your Picture code turns into a hyperlink? Well that is almost "death" for posts on the DIS. When you copy those MS Word posts to the DIS that's when your whole post turns into a link to the photo and no one can quote your text from your post. So you need to make sure that whe you are inserting your links to the photos that you have enough trailing carriage returns after the link to photobucket so that you don't accidentally make your photo links "hot" inside your word doc. That's how those trailing things show up at the end of your pictures!

Yay! We figured it out!