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

[MidnightParade]

Rumors, rumors, rumors. Who knows what is true and what isn't. The latest rumor is Echo Lake won't be taken out as part of Star Wars land, but really who knows until it happens. Same thing with BatB - rumors swirl - Villians Show - Tangled Show. I just wish they would go with higher production values. If you haven't been out to DLR, check out "Mickey and the Magic Map" - I'm sure it's available on-line. THAT is the level of quality that should be standard at Disney Parks.

Oooh! I would love to see Echo Lake stay. I always thought it was too close to the main area for Star Wars to start there. And it probably meant 50s Prime Time would go which was very sad! Sigh. Looking forward to seeing what actually happens. And I have heard such great things about Mickey and the Magical map and have seen snippets of it. Perhaps I need to get on that and find a good video of it!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Ch...ch....changes are afoot. It's bittersweet. In a way, it will be nice to see changes at DHS but it comes at the price of losing some of the current fixtures.

Looks like a great morning!

 

[chicita713]

Just found your TR. We are DVC resale owners as well and it's the best thing ever. We are always hesitant on going to EMH especially first thing in the am. Good to know you can get some of your rides done early on to have some spare time later. I just can't stand when people bum rush to a ride as soon as it opens. Looking forward to your Poly part
Of the trip and how smooth your transition from one hotel to the next worked out. We are doing split stay as well this Dec. VGF -> BWV

 

[deannaf87]

Great report so far. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[skier_pete]

Nice update. You got a lot done in that amount of time. I really hope that they put OMD somewhere at WDW. It would be nice, but I havfe a feeling the pieces will either go back to the WDFM or somewhere else.

Yeah - I would be more than a little surprised if they keep it around. As I said, I don't think it's essential to my enjoyment of the parks, but not everyone is a Disney history buff so it would be nice to keep something like that around that everyone can get a chance to look at.

Oooh! I would love to see Echo Lake stay. I always thought it was too close to the main area for Star Wars to start there. And it probably meant 50s Prime Time would go which was very sad! Sigh. Looking forward to seeing what actually happens. And I have heard such great things about Mickey and the Magical map and have seen snippets of it. Perhaps I need to get on that and find a good video of it!!

I have a hard time believing they would want to take on Hollywood and VIne and 50s Prime Time. Both very popular and big money-makers for the park. That's why I think they will keep that echo lake area. (And the Frozen theater/show). My guess is Star Wars land will start just behind the lake - they may use that as part of the transition.

Ch...ch....changes are afoot. It's bittersweet. In a way, it will be nice to see changes at DHS but it comes at the price of losing some of the current fixtures.

Looks like a great morning!

There's very little in DHS that I have such affection for that I would truly miss. Probably the Muppets would be the worst to me if that goes - but even that I wouldn't be too upset. The SCiFi Diner I would miss. Of course RnRC and ToT, but neither of those are going anywhere. Even the GMR to me is in terrible need of a complete overhaul. Hack away Disney.

Just found your TR. We are DVC resale owners as well and it's the best thing ever. We are always hesitant on going to EMH especially first thing in the am. Good to know you can get some of your rides done early on to have some spare time later. I just can't stand when people bum rush to a ride as soon as it opens. Looking forward to your Poly part
Of the trip and how smooth your transition from one hotel to the next worked out. We are doing split stay as well this Dec. VGF -> BWV

Well EHM doesn't change the bum rush very much - there is still a dash for Toy Story. I think by not having a rope drop and just letting people go through the gates to the rides has lessened the stampede itself, but people are still rushing to get there. We do a fast mosey ourselves.

For the split stay - the transfer through Bell Services went great, but the key to the split stay is to ensure you have something to do during the transition. Remember you are homeless for probably about 6 hours. Being prepared for that is the key to it going smoothly.

Great report so far. Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks! I should be posting an update later today!

 

[skier_pete]

So, before I get into my latest update - I just really want to thank everyone that's joined in so far for reading along. I noticed I'm already at 3,000 views just half-way through out first full day - which is a lot for one of my TR. Also especially thank you to anyone that posts feedback on the TR. Writing these take a lot of effort, and it's great to know that people are enjoying reading along!!! I appreciate everyone of you!!!

OK - Onto the continuation of the Day 2 report!!!

We spent several hours back at the hotel room. DD decided she didn’t want to swim again (because basically she wanted her electronic fix), so DW and I went down to the pool for maybe an hour in the afternoon. I will have some pictures of it shortly, but I do have to say even though we’ve seen it before, it’s very impressive! There are really 2 or 3 separate pools. The main pool with the sandy bottom is home to the slide and a large whirlpool area (where the water pushed you in circle), an area where they had a volleyball net with a continuous game going on, a deeper area that was slightly less crowded. The a secondary pool that held a lazy river, and a third pool that’s just for the kids. (As well as a splash pool at the base of the slide that is sort of off on it’s own.) There were also some hot tubs, but we didn’t go near them. I definitely can see why people love the pool! However, my biggest complaint (and the same thing at other pools) is that the pools were all too warm…probably not anyone’s fault, but in the heat of the summer I want a pool to cool me off, and these pools I was still perspiring swimming around in them! We actually found a shady spot in the pool to rest, and that was nice.

After the swim, our evening was planned out for Epcot. While we don’t normally purchase hoppers, we had hoppers this trip thanks to the YES program. With the FP+ system, one of the big advantages I see to hoppers, though I didn’t take advantage of it a ton, is to go to one park in the morning, and then to a second park in the evening, and get your FP+ for the second park. This is what we did today, and so we walked through the hotel to the near end and ducked into the park. First thing we saw was a photopass photographer…so why not!

We headed around the park to Test Track. This has become DDs favorite ride at Epcot. Mostly she likes the part where you get to design the car. The ride part is a blast too, though I do miss the hot and cold rooms, otherwise I think the Tron-ness of the ride in the current incarnation is pretty awesome.

The standby line was showing only 20 minutes (the crowds were non-existent) but we still used our FP+. We designed our car and off we went. As we walked up to the main queue – we saw one of our CM friends Matt (@DarthVader92), who we met on the ABD trip 2 years ago! He was sorting the single rider and the regular rider folks for the main queue. He didn’t let us cut ahead though! Boo on you, Matt. Just kidding! Someday, this kid’ll be running these theme parks. (Maybe then he'll let us cut in line! )


Off to the races! Here’s our photopass shot. No Redneck ride photos with the new memory maker! I kinda love the bonus picks they give you with the ride. Certainly not something you could get on your own.

Though there was only one other car design in our car, DD was excited that her car won in 3 of the 4 categories! She actually played a little in the post-ride area making another car.

After our Test Track FP, we had another FP for Mission Space before dinner. While I still want to try the orange side, this family wants nothing to do with that, so we stuck with the green side. Lieutenant Dan told us to not do the ride several times, and then we were off to Mars. No matter what I do, I always crash! I started flipping all the switches frantically to no avail!!

We then had to head over to the San Angel Inn. I let DD pick one meal that she could pick where we ate, and this was her choice. I am not sure she realized what the menu there was actually like, though! We had a bit of a trial finding her something to eat.

Waiting for our table:

We ended up getting a Table right on the railing overlooking the Mayan temple and the boat ride. A little Disney Magic there!

I’ll drink to that!

So did DD!

A little better shot of our view:

Dinner started out with Tortilla Chips and two different salsas. One was described as mild and the other as hot, but I thought they were both about the same, but pretty mild.

DW and DD ordered off the appetizer menu:

DD decided to try the tortilla soup, as did DW.

DW liked this a lot, but DD did NOT. I ended up eating DDs, and it was actually quite tasty I thought. DD does not like spicy though and it had a little bit of spicy to it.

DD ordered the Quesadillas Rebozadas, while DW got an order of the Tlacoyos de Chilorio. DD is on the right, while DW is on the left.

DD did not like hers at all, and I have to say, I thought it wasn’t very good. The fried quesadilla made it very tough and chewy – and the flavor wasn’t much to write home about. In the end, we asked if we could get a kid’s order of quesadillas for her. The waiter said that would we want the kids portion or the adults, and we said the adults.

What interesting is the cheese quesadilla is NOT on the adult menu anywhere. I understand that they are trying to do “authentic” here, and things like quesadillas aren’t necessarily going to be on a nice Mexican restaurant menu. But they should take into account American tastes, and have some selection of “plain” Mexican dishes. I wonder if this is why the restaurant gets mediocre reviews.

Because if you LIKE the adventurous, I think the meals are generally pretty good.

I was the only one to order off the full menu, and I tried the Lomo de Puerco en Salsa Verde.

I really liked this a lot! It had a lot of flavors that blended well together. It was a generous enough portion, too!

DD really wanted to get the chocolate mousse for desert. She was an expensive date tonight, except they did take off her appetizer that she didn’t eat and none of us liked.

The chocolate mousse I have to tell you was absolutely delicious. It had a hint of cinnamon that made it really tasty. Overall, I would give this restaurant about a 4 out of 5 stars. The meals were generally good, but there was limited options for the less adventurous diner, unless you asked. The location is of course a lot of fun. We kept waving to the boats as they went by.

After dinner, we just HAD to ride the ride – we took the Gran Fiesta Tour! Fiesta HOY!!

For those that read along in our Pre-trip report, I had mentioned that we were going to leave the option for going to Magic Kingdom for a bit tonight. Well, before we made that final decision, we had a FP for Spaceship Earth to use. We headed to the front of the park to SSE, and we got there the skies, which had been threatening since we entered Epcot, decided to open up and start to POUR. We fortunately made it under the great ball and stayed dry. We took a ride off into our future with Dame Judy Dench.

When we got off the ride and had sent our postcards home, it was still pouring, so we decided to reject the whole “head to Magic Kingdom” idea and instead head back to our room. We dug out our ponchos from my bag and headed back. I decided to head to Mousegears to see about getting the watch/MB slider (which appartently was completely sold out – Boo Disney!). At that point I lost DD/DW, so on the walk back I decided to make a slight detour to France and get a Napoleon for us to share. Unfortunately, it didn’t make the journey back to the room very well. (I didn’t realize I tipped the box over! )

So overall, our first full day went pretty well. We got 7 attractions in at DHS which amounts to most of them, and another 4 at Epcot for a total of 11. We did Great Movie Ride as a family for the first time ever, as well as one man’s dream. We got to two parks, and we got a nice long mid-day break. We didn’t stay dry, but heck it’s Disney in August, that wasn’t likely to happen!

Next up - Day 3 is a wet day - but is it from the sky??

 

[rteetz]

Day 2 looks like it was great despite the rain.

Great photopass photo at the beginning. Test Track is probably my favorite Epcot ride. I also want to try orange on mission space but no one ever wants to do it with me so we always do green.

I like Mexican cuisine but have never eaten at San Angel Inn. I have gotten the nachos outside at the QS tho. I agree that they could probably Americanize that menu a bit but I can see why they don't.

 

[BLT BBQ]

Awesome! we love Beaches and Cream!

 

[Tatania]

Thanks for posting the San Angel menus and meal reviews. Always interesting to keep up with the restaurant news. So I'm understanding that DHS is getting a major revamp? New attractions would be good. When I took a friend for a first time visit last year, he was ready to leave after 4 hours. Any plans for the same to the Epcot Future World section? There's not that much to do there either.

 

[MidnightParade]

Lol for me the pool is usually too cold at Disney although we haven't been end of August yet. I can imagine it might not have been nice to be in super hot weather and warm water to swim in. So nice to be enjoying Stormalong Bay though!!

Yay San Angels!! It's so pretty!

 

[NJlauren]

Great first day! I am enjoying following along, and I am rather excited to hear about the YES program!

 

[skier_pete]

Day 2 looks like it was great despite the rain.

Great photopass photo at the beginning. Test Track is probably my favorite Epcot ride. I also want to try orange on mission space but no one ever wants to do it with me so we always do green.

I like Mexican cuisine but have never eaten at San Angel Inn. I have gotten the nachos outside at the QS tho. I agree that they could probably Americanize that menu a bit but I can see why they don't.

If we are ever there at the same time - we'll do Mission:Space together and leave our families in the dust. (Or leave ourselves vomiting in the corner - not sure which!)

We've actually never eaten at the outside Mexican place - only the inside. In fact, I've now eaten there one time in each of the last 4 decades (80s, 90s, 00s, 10s), so guess I'm not due back until 2021 at the earliest!

Awesome! we love Beaches and Cream!

We got to B&C eventually. That place really surprised me! I was glad we went.

Thanks for posting the San Angel menus and meal reviews. Always interesting to keep up with the restaurant news. So I'm understanding that DHS is getting a major revamp? New attractions would be good. When I took a friend for a first time visit last year, he was ready to leave after 4 hours. Any plans for the same to the Epcot Future World section? There's not that much to do there either.

Yes - DHS has been under the rumor mill for several years. They are getting two new lands - Toy Story Land, which is going to go behind TSMM where the backlot tour was, and Star Wars Land - which is still not official where it will go. There's been rumors of just about everything closing except TSMM, RnRC, ToT and Star Tours. Pretty much everything else may or may not go...nothing official yet. There's a good chance at least one if not two additional lands will come in, leading to a complete retheming of the park.

Future World and Epcot in general appears to be getting the short shift thanks to the DAK and DHS work. (And I can't really blame Disney for not wanting three of their four parks ripped apart at the same time.) My guess is Epcot will have to wait a few years to get some serious love.

Lol for me the pool is usually too cold at Disney although we haven't been end of August yet. I can imagine it might not have been nice to be in super hot weather and warm water to swim in. So nice to be enjoying Stormalong Bay though!!

Yay San Angels!! It's so pretty!

It really is a beautiful restaurant. Even if it's not the best food, the atmosphere makes it worth the stop. I read someone compared it to eating at Blue Bayou in DLR, and that's probably apt, though that restaurant I think has a much cooler reputation. (Though the food quality isn't considered great either.)

Too cold at Disney? Are you a Southerner? I've never been to Disney and not swum. Us Northerners just need the water to be warm and that's good enough. Heck, sometimes that's not even required. The pools are typically heated, so as long as the air is above about 65 degrees, we will go for a swim. Our December trip back in 2009 was the least swimming we did on a trip, and even there we went a couple times. (We had some very cold days though.)

Great first day! I am enjoying following along, and I am rather excited to hear about the YES program!

I will definitely provide some details on the YES program, though I have to tell you I was disappointed in the two classes we took. Not a bad experience per se, but below expectations, that's for sure.

 

[Tinker326]

Good review of the Mexican Place. I would LOVE to eat there but sadly my family is not a fan of Mexican much to my dismay... as it's probably my favorite!

And what a GREAT view! Def. Pixie Dust........

Well now.. had I only know... in 2013.. I would have shoved you and Kurt on Mission Space together . I refuse to ride that ride all together and my kids will only do the easy one despite Kurt ALWAYS trying otherwise.....

 

[skier_pete]

Good review of the Mexican Place. I would LOVE to eat there but sadly my family is not a fan of Mexican much to my dismay... as it's probably my favorite!

And what a GREAT view! Def. Pixie Dust........

Well now.. had I only know... in 2013.. I would have shoved you and Kurt on Mission Space together . I refuse to ride that ride all together and my kids will only do the easy one despite Kurt ALWAYS trying otherwise.....

@Tinker326 Next time we go together (oh if only this were the case) Kurt and I will bond over hurling on Mission Space. The girls can take a pod together and you and Ulana can go on your own. Then you can join us at San Angel Inn while the rest of your family eats at Electric Umbrella. In that order - because I don't want to eat Mexican and THEN go on Mission Space.

 

[skier_pete]

Day 3 – Where’s the rain??

We had planned this trip so that yesterday was a early day and also went late, and today was a later day. It was to be our second water park day. But starting the day that was a bit in question.

To tell the story the whole way, I have to flash back to before the trip. While I can handle the usual Florida hellish weather, I worry about a hurricane distrupting our trip, particularly if it might prevent us from arrival. Well, there were two tropical storms leading up to this trip. The first (Danny) might have distrupted our travel, but it broke apart in the Carribean. The second one (Erika) also fell apart and swung towards the gulf, but it was supposed to lead to a couple of rainy days, this day being the first one.

Well, we had planned to go to a water park today, so we turned on the weather forecast in the morning, and they claimed 90% chance of rain, and said, and I quote “there won’t be many places that miss out on rain today”. Of course, the last time we went to a water park in the rain, we had an empty park practically to ourselves, so we decided to stick with the plan to hit the (Blizzard) Beach.

While I had wanted to get there for “rope drop” DW and DD dragged their feet a bit and it seemed like we were going to be late, but we got to the bus stop right as an AK and BB bus pulled up. Much to my surprise, it didn’t stop at Boardwalk, but headed directly for the parks. First stop – Blizzard Beach!

We started by getting a spot under the trees – we were trying to get a spot where our stuff would stay dry should it rain. Spoiler alert – it never rained. All day. The day with the forecast for the most rain. In addition, the water park was VERY quiet today. In fact somehow it was entirely populated with Brits. I don’t know how that happened, but we only talked to two families the whole day that weren’t from the UK. Go figure.

Anyways, we started out by doing two rides on the family raft ride Teamboat Springs. DW loves this ride, and I think it’s a lot of fun. I think she likes it because you don’t really get that wet. This is the only ride that DW and DD did all day. I can’t get either of them to do any of the other rides. DW is getting to the point where she doesn’t like water rides, and DD is afraid of most of the rides at BB. I can’t really fathom why they want to go to the water parks when they don’t want to do any of the rides. Anyways, there was a nice photo op at the end of the ride.

After that, DD wanted to go to the big kids area. I suggested that I take the opportunity to do some slides since I am the only one that wants to. I went around the back of the park and did the Slush Gusher tube rides. I did two of the three – the open one on the left and the closed one. I’ll let you, these rides are LONG – I am NOT in good physical shape, the stairs had me breathing heavy by the 2nd time around. I then went around to the Snow Stormers, which are mat slides. I actually stopped at our stop to drop off my shoes as I didn’t think we could wear them on the ride. When I did the ride, I kind of whacked my head really hard on the side of the slide. (I got water in my face and closed my eyes for a second, and then the ride took a quick turn which lead to the head whack.) So at that point, I was done with slides. (I’ve had back issues over the years too so I tend to be rather cautious with these things!

Afterwards, I went to look for DW and DD, but I couldn’t find them. I went to the kids area, and then the wave pool, but couldn’t spot them. I then went all around the lazy river (which was dumb in hindsight) but still couldn’t find them, so I went back to the chairs. They had been in the wave pool the whole time, and had had enough of it, so I completely missed out on the wave pool. This is a great example of how NOT crowded the park was today.

We then got another round of mini-donuts. This time with dipping sauce. Water park mini-donuts! YUM! This time they gave us extra. We bought a dozen and got a full 18 instead. Bonus food at Disney. This never happens!

DD then wanted to do the lazy river. We were all for it, so we headed over. I really like the lazy river here at BB, there’s lots of shady parts, lots of places to get out, and lots to see.

DD was having fun abusing us. Stealing my hat, and then sneaking up and dumping water on me.

But at least it seemed like she was having a good time. By this time, It was well after noon, so we decided to stop for our lunch. DD wanted a hot dog from Avalunch because they had pretzel dogs.

I got the Hamburger at Lottawatta Lodge. I remembered it was pretty good, and it was, though there was too much bread in the bun.

DW wanted a flatbread pizza, and got the Caprese one, which was very tasty!

We had our refillable mug for drinks. We paid $7 to reactivate it from Friday, and it was well worth it! Probably had about a dozen fills out of it.

After we ate, DD had had enough of the water park, but DW wanted to do Teamboat Springs one more time, so her and I went and did it again and left DD to sit at the chairs. (She promised not to move.) By this point, it was probably 2 pm, and we were ready to go back to the hotel and rest a bit. But not before one last picture!

Up next - parents night OUT!

 

[franandaj]

Sounds like a good meal at San Angel. I'm looking forward to trying it on my December trip. I like the menu since it isn't all tacos and burritos! I enjoy the idea of changing it up and trying something new!

ETA: And you snuck in another update on me! Sounds like a fun time at BB. We haven't been to a water park in 15 years or more! I think Fran is afraid of going in public in a bathing suit. Those mini donuts look really good. I would love to take a spin on a lazy river right now!

 

[LovingDisny]

Enjoying your trip report! Beach Club and Poly are my two favorite resorts. I have visited both for meals, but have not stayed yet at either. It's great to get your take on both resorts. looks like a great start to your trip.

 

[skier_pete]

Sounds like a good meal at San Angel. I'm looking forward to trying it on my December trip. I like the menu since it isn't all tacos and burritos! I enjoy the idea of changing it up and trying something new!

You were posting while I was posting! I think you'll like San Angel! Definitely let them know if there's something you don't like. I don't know if I mentioned it, but they took DDs original order off the bill.

Enjoying your trip report! Beach Club and Poly are my two favorite resorts. I have visited both for meals, but have not stayed yet at either. It's great to get your take on both resorts. looks like a great start to your trip.

Some friends asked us last night why we changed resorts when we normally don't. I was like confounded. "It was the Beach Club and the Poly? Isn't that reason enough?"

 

[Tinker326]

Man, these posts are killing me- I want to be planning a long trip SO BAD!!!!

I have not been to Blizzard Beach in probably 20 years. I know my kids would love it...... and I always say....maybe next time... but I doubt it.

 

[LovingDisny]

Some friends asked us last night why we changed resorts when we normally don't. I was like confounded. "It was the Beach Club and the Poly? Isn't that reason enough?"

Exactly