It was worth the wait! 8 days at the Contemporary, food & fun! Updated 11/4, Day 7
- Thread starter sbprincess
- Start date
sbprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
Sorry it's been a while since I've updated! Glad you're enjoying it though
I love reading about your trip!!
oooh.... I am soo excited to go to World Showcase!! My daughter and I really want try for pearls too. Completely awesome that you got 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your description and pictures of Edo tempts me to try for an ADR when we go in December! YUM!
I really wish we had gotten more time in World Showcase but I love it! I've already told DH that we're spending more time there in December.
I was so glad I got two also! I think it took about an hour or so for them to set my ring but I couldn't wear it for another 24. I don't regret doing it at all. It's a little pricey with the setting but I'm very happy with the outcome.
We really like Teppan Edo. Like I've said, it's DH's 2nd favorite (behind California Grill now). It's very fun and we love the food. You're going in December too? What are your dates? We're going the 10th thru the 15th!
anxiously awaiting another installment!
I know, I know! I'm about to post day 5 now. Life has just been crazy! How was your trip??? I'll be looking for your report!
sbprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
Wow, getting this days activities written out has been difficult. Work had still been crazy and our weekends are pretty busy too. Im loving the fall weather and cant wait until our trip in December! Im determined to finish this trip by then, hopefully by Thanksgiving.
Wednesday, May 12th
Hi again! So this day was our planned relax day. The schedule only had us going to DTD at some point and to our dinner ADR later. I figured whatever we had the pull for would be exactly what we would do. I didnt set a wakeup call but my body is so used to getting up early we were up by 8:00am. Does anyone else do that? I get so irritated that I cannot sleep anymore like I did when I was a teenager! Anyway, so we got up, watched a little TV and ate breakfast in the room (again, cereal and coffee). I also put in a few loads of laundry down the hall. That little break was pretty nice.
I have that we finally got out of the room at 11:30. Brian had been saying long before the trip that he wanted to play miniature golf at some point so this was our perfect chance. I had researched a little online and decided that the Winter Summerland was our better choice. Fantasia Gardens is described as being much harder so I thought wed ease into our Disney miniature golf experience. Plus, I LOVE all things Christmas so I thought the theming would be very cute. We took the bus to Blizzard Beach because the course is right outside the water park. FYI you dont have to have admission to BB because you dont actually go inside.
You have a choice for which course you want to play, Winter or Summer. Of course, I chose Winter. I know for when we were there, that was the more popular choice because Summer didnt have a wait to play but we had to wait 7 minutes before we could get our equipment for the Winter course. I was right though, I loved the theme!!
Sorry, I cant help myself. Not only do I love Christmas, but its October as I write this part of the report Christmas really is just around the corner!! The course was a lot of fun though. It was a nice change of pace from the parks.
If you havent caught on by now, Brian and I are slightly competitive when it comes to games. Its really just with silly games we play with each other. We both like to win. Setting out, they posted the high score of the day and the record. My two goals were to beat the days high score, which was 44 and to get a hole-in-one. I didnt do my best, but I came fairly close. I did beat my husband though, and thats really all that mattered! And yes, I did get my hole-in-one go me!
And by the way, the record when we were there was 25. That means someone would have to have gotten a hole-in-one on at least 11 of the holes. Props to whoever did it but thats a little insane to me!
Once we completed our round, we decided to head back over to DTD. I knew there wouldnt be a bus going directly there so I thought wed just catch whichever resort bus came first and transfer at the resort. My goal for the next trip is to know a little more about which resorts are closer to which parks/areas. I think this would have helped us here. The first bus that came was for Old Key West. They dropped us off and we waited and waited for a DTD bus to come. At OKW, we waited a little more than 45 minutes! Im not sure if that is typical for OKW, if we simply caught a bad break, if it was the time of day, or what. But that seemed ridiculous to me.
Anyway, when we finally got to DTD, we ate at our new favorite CS location again Earl of Sandwich!! This time I got The Original - fresh roasted beef, cheddar and creamy horseradish sauce and a bag of salt and vinegar chips. YUM!!! Even better than the Hawaiian BBQ, like I had gotten the night before.
Brian decided to get the Meatballs sub - meatballs, marinara sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. He liked his a lot too.
With our bellies full, we had plenty of energy to shop, shop, shop! We went in the Christmas Shop and bought several ornaments, the pin store, World of Disney, and Goofys Candy Co. I had saw all the pictures of the make-your-own treats but decided to wait on this. I never did get to go back and do it maybe in December! We also bought two coffee mugs in WoD. As Ive been telling you, Brian had been irritated that he couldnt find anything to spend his souvenir money on. He had toyed with the idea of getting a few pins but wasnt sure thats what he really wanted.
We strolled all the way down to the AMC theaters. Brian had been asking to see Ironman 2 again if we had time. Since we didnt really have much of an agenda this day I thought wed try. We were too late for the movie though. Next, we went all the way down to where Disney Quest is and went in some other Disney gift shop. Brian saw a Nightmare Before Christmas jar thing that he thought he might want to get. But he still couldnt decide! We walked ALL the way back to the Market side. Brian finally thought he knew what he wanted to get. He was going to take the plunge into pin trading. So we went in the pin store and he bought quite a few pins. At this point, he really didnt know much about how to trade so he bought ones that he liked. He bought a Star Wars set, a Pirates themed pin, ones for Belle, Tinkerbell, the Contemporary Resort, Epcot, a Mickey pin, and a few more I cant remember right now. Here he is, totally geeking out with his purchase.
I was just happy he finally got something! Little did I know, this would become somewhat of an obsession for him the remainder of our vacation days. (Hence the teaser, Why did I let him spend his money??)
continued in next post
Wednesday, May 12th
Hi again! So this day was our planned relax day. The schedule only had us going to DTD at some point and to our dinner ADR later. I figured whatever we had the pull for would be exactly what we would do. I didnt set a wakeup call but my body is so used to getting up early we were up by 8:00am. Does anyone else do that? I get so irritated that I cannot sleep anymore like I did when I was a teenager! Anyway, so we got up, watched a little TV and ate breakfast in the room (again, cereal and coffee). I also put in a few loads of laundry down the hall. That little break was pretty nice.
I have that we finally got out of the room at 11:30. Brian had been saying long before the trip that he wanted to play miniature golf at some point so this was our perfect chance. I had researched a little online and decided that the Winter Summerland was our better choice. Fantasia Gardens is described as being much harder so I thought wed ease into our Disney miniature golf experience. Plus, I LOVE all things Christmas so I thought the theming would be very cute. We took the bus to Blizzard Beach because the course is right outside the water park. FYI you dont have to have admission to BB because you dont actually go inside.
You have a choice for which course you want to play, Winter or Summer. Of course, I chose Winter. I know for when we were there, that was the more popular choice because Summer didnt have a wait to play but we had to wait 7 minutes before we could get our equipment for the Winter course. I was right though, I loved the theme!!
Sorry, I cant help myself. Not only do I love Christmas, but its October as I write this part of the report Christmas really is just around the corner!! The course was a lot of fun though. It was a nice change of pace from the parks.
If you havent caught on by now, Brian and I are slightly competitive when it comes to games. Its really just with silly games we play with each other. We both like to win. Setting out, they posted the high score of the day and the record. My two goals were to beat the days high score, which was 44 and to get a hole-in-one. I didnt do my best, but I came fairly close. I did beat my husband though, and thats really all that mattered! And yes, I did get my hole-in-one go me!
And by the way, the record when we were there was 25. That means someone would have to have gotten a hole-in-one on at least 11 of the holes. Props to whoever did it but thats a little insane to me!
Once we completed our round, we decided to head back over to DTD. I knew there wouldnt be a bus going directly there so I thought wed just catch whichever resort bus came first and transfer at the resort. My goal for the next trip is to know a little more about which resorts are closer to which parks/areas. I think this would have helped us here. The first bus that came was for Old Key West. They dropped us off and we waited and waited for a DTD bus to come. At OKW, we waited a little more than 45 minutes! Im not sure if that is typical for OKW, if we simply caught a bad break, if it was the time of day, or what. But that seemed ridiculous to me.
Anyway, when we finally got to DTD, we ate at our new favorite CS location again Earl of Sandwich!! This time I got The Original - fresh roasted beef, cheddar and creamy horseradish sauce and a bag of salt and vinegar chips. YUM!!! Even better than the Hawaiian BBQ, like I had gotten the night before.
Brian decided to get the Meatballs sub - meatballs, marinara sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. He liked his a lot too.
With our bellies full, we had plenty of energy to shop, shop, shop! We went in the Christmas Shop and bought several ornaments, the pin store, World of Disney, and Goofys Candy Co. I had saw all the pictures of the make-your-own treats but decided to wait on this. I never did get to go back and do it maybe in December! We also bought two coffee mugs in WoD. As Ive been telling you, Brian had been irritated that he couldnt find anything to spend his souvenir money on. He had toyed with the idea of getting a few pins but wasnt sure thats what he really wanted.
We strolled all the way down to the AMC theaters. Brian had been asking to see Ironman 2 again if we had time. Since we didnt really have much of an agenda this day I thought wed try. We were too late for the movie though. Next, we went all the way down to where Disney Quest is and went in some other Disney gift shop. Brian saw a Nightmare Before Christmas jar thing that he thought he might want to get. But he still couldnt decide! We walked ALL the way back to the Market side. Brian finally thought he knew what he wanted to get. He was going to take the plunge into pin trading. So we went in the pin store and he bought quite a few pins. At this point, he really didnt know much about how to trade so he bought ones that he liked. He bought a Star Wars set, a Pirates themed pin, ones for Belle, Tinkerbell, the Contemporary Resort, Epcot, a Mickey pin, and a few more I cant remember right now. Here he is, totally geeking out with his purchase.
I was just happy he finally got something! Little did I know, this would become somewhat of an obsession for him the remainder of our vacation days. (Hence the teaser, Why did I let him spend his money??)
continued in next post
sbprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
By this time, a snack sounded like a good idea. I really wanted to try a sundae from Ghiradelli so thats where we went. We couldnt agree on one to get together so we both got a single scoop ice cream in a cone. I got coffee and Brian got strawberry. These were enormous! Too bad we dont tend to like the same flavor of ice cream. They even bring them to you lying on a tray. Again, these were a single scoop people! But they arent on the dining plan so remember, you have to pay OOP for this place.
Neither of us finished because 1) they were gigantic and 2) we had a dinner ADR later. But they were good!!! It was after this, Brian started catching on to the whole pin TRADING thing. We went back in WoD and a CM explained the process to us. From then on, my husband was eyeing every CM he came across to see if they had something he wanted. Oh, and since he had a little extra money, he wanted to go back across to that store by Disney Quest to get the Nightmare jar. I kind of felt like a ping-pong ball, back and forth and back and forth!
We did more window shopping and finally it was time to head to Wilderness Lodge for our ADR at Whispering Canyon Café! This was a last minute addition to our dining schedule and I was really looking forward to it. I was also looking forward to seeing another resort I had heard such amazing things about.
I really did like this resort a lot. I think if it had monorail access or was within walking distance to Epcot or MK, this would be high on my list of properties to try out. Or I guess if we ever decided to try driving ourselves around, it would also be one to try. I would like to see it during our trip at Christmas with all of the decorations but Im not sure if well have time. We still had a little while to wait until our ADR, plus we werent quite hungry yet. So we wandered the grounds, looked in their gift shop, and what else but look at pins.
We should have asked someone to take our picture together but we just werent thinking.
Our ADR was for around 7:30 so we checked in close to that. We didnt wait long before being taken back to our seats to meet our server, Alley. She was very funny. She started picking on Brian right away and it was cute. Nothing rude at all, just fun. We both ordered the skillet but without the salad. The cornbread came out pretty quickly and man, was that stuff good! Being from the south, I make my own cornbread from my familys recipe quite often but theirs was pretty different. First, theirs had a mildly sweet flavor and the texture was way different. There is more of a crust on the one I make and I do not use sugar either. I loved theirs though!!! I love mine too but it was nice to try something different. I probably could have eaten the whole loaf if I didnt know much more was coming!
Im sure most of you have heard the skillet described before. My favorites were the mashed potatoes, brisket, and of course, the cornbread. Brian really liked the pulled pork, brisket, ribs, and potatoes. I did not care for the corn or the baked beans. The corn was pretty dry and the beans seemed old and had a strange flavor to me. We ate way too much! It was all such comfort food and I had been on a diet for months before our trip. I couldnt help myself. For dessert, Brian didnt want much so he asked for a creamsicle milkshake to go. Im not sure if they only had small cups, but our server brought it out in a childs to-go cup and it wasnt a joke. I should have gotten a picture but I didnt. I was way too full to eat anything else so I got mine to-go also. I had been looking forward to their smores cheesecake after I had read about it on the boards. I ate it in the room later that night.
Honestly, this was kind of a let down. The cheesecake part was good, just not what I was expecting. I guess I expected the actual cheesecake to taste like smores. Instead, it was regular cheesecake with a chocolate glaze on the top and a graham cracker crust. Then just a few marshmallows stuck on the top. The chocolate glaze detracted from the overall taste for sure. It just tasted fake, almost like fake chocolate syrup. I wouldnt get this again. Thinking back, I only really liked one of our table service desserts. I had several snacks in the parks that were great! Maybe I just chose poorly overall.
So after we settled the bill, we waddled out to the buses. I think this was the most full I have been ever. I couldnt believe it. I wish we had thought to take the boat back to the MK just for variety. It didnt take long to catch a bus though and we were on our way back to walk to the Contemporary. We laughed and laughed the whole way back about how full we were. I will never eat that much again!
When we got back in the room, we watched a little tv. I did another load of laundry and we were asleep around 11. It had definitely been a nice and relaxing day.
Up next:
Why in the heck did we eat so much last night?
An embarrassing and painful story, but funny!
Neither of us finished because 1) they were gigantic and 2) we had a dinner ADR later. But they were good!!! It was after this, Brian started catching on to the whole pin TRADING thing. We went back in WoD and a CM explained the process to us. From then on, my husband was eyeing every CM he came across to see if they had something he wanted. Oh, and since he had a little extra money, he wanted to go back across to that store by Disney Quest to get the Nightmare jar. I kind of felt like a ping-pong ball, back and forth and back and forth!
We did more window shopping and finally it was time to head to Wilderness Lodge for our ADR at Whispering Canyon Café! This was a last minute addition to our dining schedule and I was really looking forward to it. I was also looking forward to seeing another resort I had heard such amazing things about.
I really did like this resort a lot. I think if it had monorail access or was within walking distance to Epcot or MK, this would be high on my list of properties to try out. Or I guess if we ever decided to try driving ourselves around, it would also be one to try. I would like to see it during our trip at Christmas with all of the decorations but Im not sure if well have time. We still had a little while to wait until our ADR, plus we werent quite hungry yet. So we wandered the grounds, looked in their gift shop, and what else but look at pins.
We should have asked someone to take our picture together but we just werent thinking.
Our ADR was for around 7:30 so we checked in close to that. We didnt wait long before being taken back to our seats to meet our server, Alley. She was very funny. She started picking on Brian right away and it was cute. Nothing rude at all, just fun. We both ordered the skillet but without the salad. The cornbread came out pretty quickly and man, was that stuff good! Being from the south, I make my own cornbread from my familys recipe quite often but theirs was pretty different. First, theirs had a mildly sweet flavor and the texture was way different. There is more of a crust on the one I make and I do not use sugar either. I loved theirs though!!! I love mine too but it was nice to try something different. I probably could have eaten the whole loaf if I didnt know much more was coming!
Im sure most of you have heard the skillet described before. My favorites were the mashed potatoes, brisket, and of course, the cornbread. Brian really liked the pulled pork, brisket, ribs, and potatoes. I did not care for the corn or the baked beans. The corn was pretty dry and the beans seemed old and had a strange flavor to me. We ate way too much! It was all such comfort food and I had been on a diet for months before our trip. I couldnt help myself. For dessert, Brian didnt want much so he asked for a creamsicle milkshake to go. Im not sure if they only had small cups, but our server brought it out in a childs to-go cup and it wasnt a joke. I should have gotten a picture but I didnt. I was way too full to eat anything else so I got mine to-go also. I had been looking forward to their smores cheesecake after I had read about it on the boards. I ate it in the room later that night.
Honestly, this was kind of a let down. The cheesecake part was good, just not what I was expecting. I guess I expected the actual cheesecake to taste like smores. Instead, it was regular cheesecake with a chocolate glaze on the top and a graham cracker crust. Then just a few marshmallows stuck on the top. The chocolate glaze detracted from the overall taste for sure. It just tasted fake, almost like fake chocolate syrup. I wouldnt get this again. Thinking back, I only really liked one of our table service desserts. I had several snacks in the parks that were great! Maybe I just chose poorly overall.
So after we settled the bill, we waddled out to the buses. I think this was the most full I have been ever. I couldnt believe it. I wish we had thought to take the boat back to the MK just for variety. It didnt take long to catch a bus though and we were on our way back to walk to the Contemporary. We laughed and laughed the whole way back about how full we were. I will never eat that much again!
When we got back in the room, we watched a little tv. I did another load of laundry and we were asleep around 11. It had definitely been a nice and relaxing day.
Up next:
Why in the heck did we eat so much last night?
An embarrassing and painful story, but funny!
DIS_Indoctrination
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2010
Great trip report & fantastic pictures. I wasn't planning an excursion over to DTD on our upcoming trip, but after seeing your lego pics you've sold it - it's on my must do list!
You've also got me thinking about all the different ways to get around bus/boat/monorail. I'm going to go back over our plans & make sure I notate all the ways to get where we're going.
Thank you for the great report, keep it coming!
You've also got me thinking about all the different ways to get around bus/boat/monorail. I'm going to go back over our plans & make sure I notate all the ways to get where we're going.
Thank you for the great report, keep it coming!
sbprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
Thank you and
We really enjoy DTD. Depending on how long your trip is, I would at least plan an afternoon or evening over there, especially on the Marketplace side. Probably try to avoid a weekend if possible though because those are a little more crowded. Although in January, I'm not sure if that would really matter too much for you. And as you've read, Earl of Sandwich is my favorite CS on property! In fact, I ate there once more coming up later in my report! I've also heard good things about Wolfgang Puck Express too though.I would definitely try to be familiar with your transportation options. If you're solely relying on Disney buses make sure you know park times and when the buses start and stop running. I'm not sure where you're staying but having a general idea of how the monorail works would probably be helpful too since you can still use it to get around Epcot, Magic Kingdom, the TTC and all the monorail resorts, even if you're not staying at one of those properties.
Glad to see another installment! Also glad to hear someone went to the minigolf course! We love that one, better than the fantasia gardens...oops, giving away something for my TR! Not sure how to post the link to it...but it's titled CR/YC, no adrs and one killer upgrade! 
sbprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
Glad to see another installment! Also glad to hear someone went to the minigolf course! We love that one, better than the fantasia gardens...oops, giving away something for my TR! Not sure how to post the link to it...but it's titled CR/YC, no adrs and one killer upgrade!
I found you!
We really liked the minigolf too! It may become a tradition if we have time in December. Did you go to Fantasia Gardens?? Ahh, I'll have to wait for your TR, huh? Arg!
sbprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
Well, work has been especially slow the last few days so I was able to write up another day! 
Thursday, May 13th
This is the next to last day of the trip sad. We set a wakeup call for 7 and after Whispering Canyon the night before I really wasnt hungry at all so we skipped breakfast all together. Animal Kingdom was on the agenda for today. As Ive said, this isnt my favorite park but I do enjoy it. But why does it always feel like youre on the surface of the sun walking around this park?!?! I swear, it makes me wonder if even 35 degree weather would FEEL like 95 degrees! On our trip in 2008, every other park was nice and mild weather, sometimes we even needed jackets (we went in early March), but at AK we actually sweated.
Our bus arrived just after 9am. I really wanted to do Kilamanjaro Safari first because Ive heard youre more likely to see animals earlier in the day. Not sure if this is true or not though. One thing I do like about AK is the theming. The queue for KS is excellent!
We were seated on the first row and our guide was pretty into his role. We saw lots of animals out! I didnt get the best pictures but I did my best.
When we got off, I started feeling very strange. Im not sure if it was the food from the night before or if the heat was getting to me. But I almost felt like I was going to pass out.
So we went in several stores out of the heat to pass some time. After a while, I finally started to feel better. I know it sounds crazy now, but we headed over to Expedition Everest next. I really did feel okay by this point though. On the way, we saw Devine! I had heard about her but had also heard people hadnt seen her out for a while. I was so excited to see this! So cool.
Here we are at our destination! We grabbed fastpasses for later and got in the standby line.
Once again, I love the theming! I almost took a trip to Nepal once and still hope to one day. This queue is great and we really didnt wait long until we were almost to the ride!
We wanted to wait for the front car so we told the CM and she stuck us in a separate line. This line took about 10 minutes but I thought it was worth it!
When we came out, we looked at the show times for Finding Nemo and Festival of the Lion King. We had done the Nemo show but never the Lion King show. I knew if we had to pick, I wanted to do FOTLK. It looked like wed be able to catch both though if we hustled! This show was fantastic! The voices were amazing! No pictures because none are worthy to be seen.
Funny side story. I was in the break room at my job the other day and overheard someone talking about Disney, so of course my ears perked up. This lady was apparently giving someone advice about what to make sure and do on their trip. She started telling them about the Lion King show at the Animal Kingdom. She was going on and on about how they bring out live animals during the show and how its like an hour long Broadway production! It was crazy how much this lady was embellishing.
She said some other things that werent correct but I cant remember them right now. She also said their family doesnt even go to Magic Kingdom anymore just the other parks! 
I about had a heart attack. I just couldnt imagine. Ah well, anyway
Like I said, if we hurried we could make the Finding Nemo show. We rushed over there and were pretty much right on time! We got pretty bad seats though. We were in almost the last row of the theater waaaaaaay up top. In fact, our seats were just bleacher seats so they didnt have a back, unlike the other 95% of the seats. It was pretty uncomfortable. And to make things a little worse, about 3/4 of the way through the show, people started getting up and leaving. I guess they were trying to beat the crowd leaving at the end but it was fairly distracting. Since we had already seen the show its wasnt a huge deal but I probably wouldnt do this show again unless we could get seats much closer.
Once we were out, Brian was getting hungry so I asked where he wanted to eat. We had just had barbeque the night before so we decided to try Yak and Yeti (instead of Flametree, of course). I wasnt thrilled with this choice but decided to try something. I wasnt very hungry but knew we had several counter service credits left. Plus, I knew if I didnt eat now I might as well wait until dinner, but didnt want to starve until then.
I ordered the Honey Chicken
Brian got the Orange Chicken
They came with white rice, drinks, and we chose the chocolate cake for dessert
I only had a few bites of my order. The food was okay but there are several things I think need to be addressed here. For one, there is no indoor seating. We were hot and the food was hot not a great combination. Second, the carriers they serve the food in are not really conducive to what youre eating. The rice was on the bottom and the chicken was on the top and it was pretty hard to get a bite with both chicken and rice. Im not sure if we could have gotten a plate but if we ever go back, Ill definitely ask. Third, and the most important to me, the chicken in both dishes was the same. They looked like plain breaded chicken nuggets with their respective sauces splashed over them right before they were served to us. It just wasnt great. But Ill be the first to note I wasnt particularly hungry due to both the heat and from our meal the night before. And come to find out later, having any meal probably wasnt the best choice for another reason but youll have to wait for that.
After lunch we werent feeling Animal Kingdom anymore. I was ready to go. We still had fastpasses to ride EE again but I knew with how I was feeling that it didnt need to happen. So we went to the ride area and gave them to a couple waiting to get fastpasses. They were so happy and almost wouldnt believe us. It kind of made my day.
(continued in next post)
Thursday, May 13th
This is the next to last day of the trip sad. We set a wakeup call for 7 and after Whispering Canyon the night before I really wasnt hungry at all so we skipped breakfast all together. Animal Kingdom was on the agenda for today. As Ive said, this isnt my favorite park but I do enjoy it. But why does it always feel like youre on the surface of the sun walking around this park?!?! I swear, it makes me wonder if even 35 degree weather would FEEL like 95 degrees! On our trip in 2008, every other park was nice and mild weather, sometimes we even needed jackets (we went in early March), but at AK we actually sweated.
Our bus arrived just after 9am. I really wanted to do Kilamanjaro Safari first because Ive heard youre more likely to see animals earlier in the day. Not sure if this is true or not though. One thing I do like about AK is the theming. The queue for KS is excellent!
We were seated on the first row and our guide was pretty into his role. We saw lots of animals out! I didnt get the best pictures but I did my best.
When we got off, I started feeling very strange. Im not sure if it was the food from the night before or if the heat was getting to me. But I almost felt like I was going to pass out.
So we went in several stores out of the heat to pass some time. After a while, I finally started to feel better. I know it sounds crazy now, but we headed over to Expedition Everest next. I really did feel okay by this point though. On the way, we saw Devine! I had heard about her but had also heard people hadnt seen her out for a while. I was so excited to see this! So cool.
Here we are at our destination! We grabbed fastpasses for later and got in the standby line.
Once again, I love the theming! I almost took a trip to Nepal once and still hope to one day. This queue is great and we really didnt wait long until we were almost to the ride!
We wanted to wait for the front car so we told the CM and she stuck us in a separate line. This line took about 10 minutes but I thought it was worth it!
When we came out, we looked at the show times for Finding Nemo and Festival of the Lion King. We had done the Nemo show but never the Lion King show. I knew if we had to pick, I wanted to do FOTLK. It looked like wed be able to catch both though if we hustled! This show was fantastic! The voices were amazing! No pictures because none are worthy to be seen.
Funny side story. I was in the break room at my job the other day and overheard someone talking about Disney, so of course my ears perked up. This lady was apparently giving someone advice about what to make sure and do on their trip. She started telling them about the Lion King show at the Animal Kingdom. She was going on and on about how they bring out live animals during the show and how its like an hour long Broadway production! It was crazy how much this lady was embellishing.
She said some other things that werent correct but I cant remember them right now. She also said their family doesnt even go to Magic Kingdom anymore just the other parks! I about had a heart attack. I just couldnt imagine. Ah well, anyway
Like I said, if we hurried we could make the Finding Nemo show. We rushed over there and were pretty much right on time! We got pretty bad seats though. We were in almost the last row of the theater waaaaaaay up top. In fact, our seats were just bleacher seats so they didnt have a back, unlike the other 95% of the seats. It was pretty uncomfortable. And to make things a little worse, about 3/4 of the way through the show, people started getting up and leaving. I guess they were trying to beat the crowd leaving at the end but it was fairly distracting. Since we had already seen the show its wasnt a huge deal but I probably wouldnt do this show again unless we could get seats much closer.
Once we were out, Brian was getting hungry so I asked where he wanted to eat. We had just had barbeque the night before so we decided to try Yak and Yeti (instead of Flametree, of course). I wasnt thrilled with this choice but decided to try something. I wasnt very hungry but knew we had several counter service credits left. Plus, I knew if I didnt eat now I might as well wait until dinner, but didnt want to starve until then.
I ordered the Honey Chicken
Brian got the Orange Chicken
They came with white rice, drinks, and we chose the chocolate cake for dessert
I only had a few bites of my order. The food was okay but there are several things I think need to be addressed here. For one, there is no indoor seating. We were hot and the food was hot not a great combination. Second, the carriers they serve the food in are not really conducive to what youre eating. The rice was on the bottom and the chicken was on the top and it was pretty hard to get a bite with both chicken and rice. Im not sure if we could have gotten a plate but if we ever go back, Ill definitely ask. Third, and the most important to me, the chicken in both dishes was the same. They looked like plain breaded chicken nuggets with their respective sauces splashed over them right before they were served to us. It just wasnt great. But Ill be the first to note I wasnt particularly hungry due to both the heat and from our meal the night before. And come to find out later, having any meal probably wasnt the best choice for another reason but youll have to wait for that.
After lunch we werent feeling Animal Kingdom anymore. I was ready to go. We still had fastpasses to ride EE again but I knew with how I was feeling that it didnt need to happen. So we went to the ride area and gave them to a couple waiting to get fastpasses. They were so happy and almost wouldnt believe us. It kind of made my day.
(continued in next post)
sbprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
We exited AK and took a bus to the TTC and then the monorail to Epcot. Since we didnt get very far around World Showcase earlier in the week we thought wed spend some time walking around. I am so glad we did! First though, we had to stop and look at pins, of course!
This time, we started in Mexico first. We went in the pyramid thing for a while to escape from the heat.
We strolled through Norway and then to China. We spent some time in the China shopping area. Its one of my favorites. I went to Thailand a few years ago and their shopping reminds me of my trip. I just cant say how much I love WS!
Brian loves Mulan. Shes definitely one of his favorite female characters. We saw her in China and I tried and tried to get him to go meet her. He almost did and then at the last minute he chickened out!
We walked through Germany and then Italy too.
We just had a nice leisurely afternoon. I took so many pictures. So much better to me than being at Animal Kingdom. (Sorry to those who love AK.) Here are a few more I thought were pretty.
I really wanted to take a shower before going to our dinner ADR so we headed back to the room around 4:30 or 5. Waiting for the monorail, I saw this on a girls backpack. I totally agree.
Our ADR was for Kona Café! I was pretty excited to eat here. This was also kind of a last minute switch for us. Brian actually convinced me to settle on this one. I was between going to Grand Floridian Café and Kona. But as he pointed out, the style of food at GFC is something we can get a lot of places whereas Kona is different.
Okay, heres the start to my embarrassing story. Literally right as we were leaving the room to head over there, I had a stomach pain. I know you all know the type. Although it may be TMI, if affects the rest of our night so I have to share. I had gas. But not the let me run to the restroom to deal with it kind. It was the gut-wrenching, painful kind that wasnt passing, if you know what I mean. It would come and go at first. When we finally got to the restaurant, it was pretty constant though. Here I am, trying to put on my happy face.
I wasnt feeling well. Luckily, sitting down helped though. I also have a pretty high pain tolerance so I was determined to get through it. Our server came pretty quickly and took our drink orders and brought out the yummy Hawaiian bread with macadamia nut butter.
Like I said, the bread was yummy. Not the God-sent, best-thing-Ive-ever-eaten, bread Id heard about but good nonetheless.
Brian ordered the Shrimp and Scallops, which are panko breaded shrimp and pan-seared scallops with sticky rice and Ponzu, spicy guava, passion fruit, and wasabi cream sauces; however, he hasnt ever tried scallops so he subbed those for extra shrimp. It may not look like it, but there was plenty of food here.
I ordered the Tuna Oscar which is served with fried green tomatoes, tempura-fried jumbo lump crab, and wasabi hollandaise.
I have to be honest and say my main motivation for ordering this was the fried green tomatoes. Im a southern girl and I love these! I had never had tuna like this before though so I didnt know what degree of doneness to get. Our server suggested I get it medium and if it was too rare/done she would fix it. She said if I liked it this time, I may try going a little more rare next time, since thats really how its supposed to be eaten. Well, I loved it! The tomatoes were great as was the tuna. The asparagus were not cooked enough for me and quite fibrous so I didnt eat those. Everything else was great. I havent had a chance to get anything like this since but Im definitely going to try a little more rare next time. The portion was quite large so I only ate maybe half of it.
Brian really liked his too. I think he should have ventured out and gotten the scallops too but he was happy with his choice. I think he ate it all!
By the end of our entrees, my stomach had started to wrench again. I was started to become miserable. When our waitress came to take our dessert orders, I was just ready to go. Up until this point, I thought she was great. But when I told her we wanted to get our dessert to-go b/c I wasnt feeling great, she started acting weird. She didnt show any concern for me at all. Maybe I expect too much. But when I mentioned not feeling well it was like, Oh, okay, well then what do you want? I dont know. Anyway, Brian got the Banana-chocolate Creme Brulee and I got the Coconut Cream Kiki Tart.
As we left the restaurant, my stomach was killing me! My poor husband. He felt terrible. He went to the Polys gift shop and bought me some form of gas-x.
I quickly took the suggested maximum dose and we got on the monorail. I had wanted to go over to the Magic Kingdom for Wishes on this night because we still hadnt seen it this trip. I hoped by the time we got over there my stupid stomach would have calmed down. Nope! So we walked back to the room. I was so sad. I laid down on the bed and within seconds, my stomach stopped hurting. I laid there for a while and still no pain! It was still only 9:15 or so and Wishes didnt start until 10. Could we make it back over there and get a decent spot? Or could we at least go over to the Contemporary main building and watch from the 4th floor? I started to get up and go but got really nervous. What if we walked all the way over to the MK and my pain came back? I was torn on what to do. 
I wish I could say I was brave and made the trek out of the room. But I was scared. I knew that as long as I was lying down I was okay. So thats what we did. We watched tv, ate our dessert, and called it a night.
Btw, the few bites of my coconut tart were excellent! I didnt care for whatever berry (lychee, or something I think) they put on the side at all but the rest was great. Brian said his dessert was the best of the whole trip so far. He didnt care for the dark chocolate layer on the very bottom though. But hes really strange with chocolate. He only likes milk or white.
Overall, it had been a good day, especially at Epcot. We just had several parts that, in and of themselves, were unpleasant. As much as I really did like Whispering Canyon, if we ever eat there again, Im eating no more than half what I did last time. Im not sure if it was that restaurant by itself that caused my upset stomach, if it was possibly Yak and Yeti, or if it was just all the food wed had all week. I hope to never experience that again though! A little humorous looking back just not at the time! One more day to go boo!
This time, we started in Mexico first. We went in the pyramid thing for a while to escape from the heat.
We strolled through Norway and then to China. We spent some time in the China shopping area. Its one of my favorites. I went to Thailand a few years ago and their shopping reminds me of my trip. I just cant say how much I love WS!
Brian loves Mulan. Shes definitely one of his favorite female characters. We saw her in China and I tried and tried to get him to go meet her. He almost did and then at the last minute he chickened out!
We walked through Germany and then Italy too.
We just had a nice leisurely afternoon. I took so many pictures. So much better to me than being at Animal Kingdom. (Sorry to those who love AK.) Here are a few more I thought were pretty.
I really wanted to take a shower before going to our dinner ADR so we headed back to the room around 4:30 or 5. Waiting for the monorail, I saw this on a girls backpack. I totally agree.
Our ADR was for Kona Café! I was pretty excited to eat here. This was also kind of a last minute switch for us. Brian actually convinced me to settle on this one. I was between going to Grand Floridian Café and Kona. But as he pointed out, the style of food at GFC is something we can get a lot of places whereas Kona is different.
Okay, heres the start to my embarrassing story. Literally right as we were leaving the room to head over there, I had a stomach pain. I know you all know the type. Although it may be TMI, if affects the rest of our night so I have to share. I had gas. But not the let me run to the restroom to deal with it kind. It was the gut-wrenching, painful kind that wasnt passing, if you know what I mean. It would come and go at first. When we finally got to the restaurant, it was pretty constant though. Here I am, trying to put on my happy face.
I wasnt feeling well. Luckily, sitting down helped though. I also have a pretty high pain tolerance so I was determined to get through it. Our server came pretty quickly and took our drink orders and brought out the yummy Hawaiian bread with macadamia nut butter.
Like I said, the bread was yummy. Not the God-sent, best-thing-Ive-ever-eaten, bread Id heard about but good nonetheless.
Brian ordered the Shrimp and Scallops, which are panko breaded shrimp and pan-seared scallops with sticky rice and Ponzu, spicy guava, passion fruit, and wasabi cream sauces; however, he hasnt ever tried scallops so he subbed those for extra shrimp. It may not look like it, but there was plenty of food here.
I ordered the Tuna Oscar which is served with fried green tomatoes, tempura-fried jumbo lump crab, and wasabi hollandaise.
I have to be honest and say my main motivation for ordering this was the fried green tomatoes. Im a southern girl and I love these! I had never had tuna like this before though so I didnt know what degree of doneness to get. Our server suggested I get it medium and if it was too rare/done she would fix it. She said if I liked it this time, I may try going a little more rare next time, since thats really how its supposed to be eaten. Well, I loved it! The tomatoes were great as was the tuna. The asparagus were not cooked enough for me and quite fibrous so I didnt eat those. Everything else was great. I havent had a chance to get anything like this since but Im definitely going to try a little more rare next time. The portion was quite large so I only ate maybe half of it.
Brian really liked his too. I think he should have ventured out and gotten the scallops too but he was happy with his choice. I think he ate it all!
By the end of our entrees, my stomach had started to wrench again. I was started to become miserable. When our waitress came to take our dessert orders, I was just ready to go. Up until this point, I thought she was great. But when I told her we wanted to get our dessert to-go b/c I wasnt feeling great, she started acting weird. She didnt show any concern for me at all. Maybe I expect too much. But when I mentioned not feeling well it was like, Oh, okay, well then what do you want? I dont know. Anyway, Brian got the Banana-chocolate Creme Brulee and I got the Coconut Cream Kiki Tart.
As we left the restaurant, my stomach was killing me! My poor husband. He felt terrible. He went to the Polys gift shop and bought me some form of gas-x.
I quickly took the suggested maximum dose and we got on the monorail. I had wanted to go over to the Magic Kingdom for Wishes on this night because we still hadnt seen it this trip. I hoped by the time we got over there my stupid stomach would have calmed down. Nope! So we walked back to the room. I was so sad. I laid down on the bed and within seconds, my stomach stopped hurting. I laid there for a while and still no pain! It was still only 9:15 or so and Wishes didnt start until 10. Could we make it back over there and get a decent spot? Or could we at least go over to the Contemporary main building and watch from the 4th floor? I started to get up and go but got really nervous. What if we walked all the way over to the MK and my pain came back? I was torn on what to do. I wish I could say I was brave and made the trek out of the room. But I was scared. I knew that as long as I was lying down I was okay. So thats what we did. We watched tv, ate our dessert, and called it a night.
Btw, the few bites of my coconut tart were excellent! I didnt care for whatever berry (lychee, or something I think) they put on the side at all but the rest was great. Brian said his dessert was the best of the whole trip so far. He didnt care for the dark chocolate layer on the very bottom though. But hes really strange with chocolate. He only likes milk or white.
Overall, it had been a good day, especially at Epcot. We just had several parts that, in and of themselves, were unpleasant. As much as I really did like Whispering Canyon, if we ever eat there again, Im eating no more than half what I did last time. Im not sure if it was that restaurant by itself that caused my upset stomach, if it was possibly Yak and Yeti, or if it was just all the food wed had all week. I hope to never experience that again though! A little humorous looking back just not at the time! One more day to go boo!
sorry to hear you didn't feel well! Also sorry about Yak and Yeti. We've never done the counter service, but the table service is one of our favorites! I got sick once like that, and it was after eating at Earl of Sandwich. Convinced it was food poisoning. Hopefully it didn't ruin too much of your trip! Love WS too! We always spend a ton of time at Epcot.
francis6306
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 18, 2010
Poor Shelley... I HATE when my tummy gets upset! And I hate that you missed your beloved Wishes! Seems like Disney should broadcast that on their tvs for people... hmm...
tncmommy
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2010
Love the trip report! Sorry about that lady at Tony's. RUDE! Incidentally, the last time we were at Disney, I had an experience on a bus that made me think common courtesy for most people has gone down the toilet. To this day when I think about it my blood pressure goes up a notch. I am so jealous of your stay at CR. My parents stayed there before I was born (about 32 years ago). I have always wanted to spend at least one night there but with kids POP wins out every time. Can't wait to read more!
sbprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
I know, it was bad! Luckily, I was fine the next day. I'm not convinced that I wouldn't like Yak and Yeti, just under different circumstances. And I really think the hot food coupled with the heat outside didn't help either. I'd be willing to give it another try on a cooler day and probably order something different too.
Awe, Earl is one of my favorites! I'd be heart broken if I got sick there.
Now there's an idea
I am so going to be about Wishes and Illuminations in December. I can't wait! Thanks and
I won't ask you about your experience then if it will get you upset 
But I gotta say, I'm curious 
The CR was great! I know I haven't really mentioned it much but we really did enjoy staying there. Now, if we had the expense of children, things I'm sure would be different. And, we're booked at POP in December to save money. My husband is disappointed we didn't stay in the tower though so he's pulling for that on our NEXT stay. Yes...I'm already talking about our next trip, after the one this December
Thanks for reading along!
tncmommy
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2010
Long story short, my mom took our family for my 5 year old son's golden birthday last March. I told him that we would do astro-orbiter once it got dark but totally forgot until we were steps away from leaving the park after fireworks etc. His little disappointed look and sad eyes just broke my heart even though I was beyond ready to leave so I took him while everyone else went back to the room. By the time we rode the ride and got back to the bus stop, the line was long and it had been a long, long day so he was already falling asleep before we were even close to getting on a bus. He isn't big or anything but a 5 year old fast asleep is a lot to carry around period so when we finally got on the bus and it was standing room only I was getting nervous and the ride back to POP isn't the shortest either. So here I am standing up trying to hold on and not fall with a sleeping child in my arms, obviously struggling, and not a single person offered me their seat. There were men sitting around me, several people in their 20's and a kid maybe 17 right in front of me and not one person moved a muscle. I was on the verge of tears because I kept trying to wake him since I really thought several times I was going to fall but he was just dead to the world at that point. I don't know maybe it isn't as bad as it seemed like at the time (it still makes me mad) but I just thought that people would be better than that you know? Needless to say, we are taking a car next time to avoid a similar situation. Ok sorry to divert the positive vibes from your wonderful trip report hehe. Now back to regularly scheduled magic! 
sbprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
Long story short, my mom took our family for my 5 year old son's golden birthday last March. I told him that we would do astro-orbiter once it got dark but totally forgot until we were steps away from leaving the park after fireworks etc. His little disappointed look and sad eyes just broke my heart even though I was beyond ready to leave so I took him while everyone else went back to the room. By the time we rode the ride and got back to the bus stop, the line was long and it had been a long, long day so he was already falling asleep before we were even close to getting on a bus. He isn't big or anything but a 5 year old fast asleep is a lot to carry around period so when we finally got on the bus and it was standing room only I was getting nervous and the ride back to POP isn't the shortest either. So here I am standing up trying to hold on and not fall with a sleeping child in my arms, obviously struggling, and not a single person offered me their seat. There were men sitting around me, several people in their 20's and a kid maybe 17 right in front of me and not one person moved a muscle. I was on the verge of tears because I kept trying to wake him since I really thought several times I was going to fall but he was just dead to the world at that point. I don't know maybe it isn't as bad as it seemed like at the time (it still makes me mad) but I just thought that people would be better than that you know? Needless to say, we are taking a car next time to avoid a similar situation. Ok sorry to divert the positive vibes from your wonderful trip report hehe. Now back to regularly scheduled magic!
Wow! I know this is a pretty hot topic here on the boards so I hope I don't start anything on my own TR. I can totally see why you would be upset. I understand everyone gets tired and some people may have had serious reasons for not offering their seats (as in, they have some sort of disability that isn't clearly seen), but surely not every single person on that bus needed their seat. I'm with you. Human decency seems to be lacking sometimes...even at Disney. What a shame I am glad you made it back okay though! Oh, and please no one start a debate on my TR about this topic.
Hopefully we're all friends here. There have been plenty of other places for that. I only have one day left to post! I really don't want to get shut down! 
mandas08
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 15, 2010
I have missed os much I guess thats what happens when you go almost a month without logging on
But I m here now! All of your meals looked amazing. Especially Earl I love sandwiches!! We didnt get to end up eating there because we werent hungry during our two DTD trips...maybe next time
Brian had also wanted to putt putt and we didnt. That course looks like so much fun it will be a must do on our next trip for sure!
But I m here now! All of your meals looked amazing. Especially Earl I love sandwiches!! We didnt get to end up eating there because we werent hungry during our two DTD trips...maybe next time
Brian had also wanted to putt putt and we didnt. That course looks like so much fun it will be a must do on our next trip for sure!
francis6306
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 18, 2010
heatherenae71
I fly so high I never land
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2010
I am new to the Dis and your TR is one of the first I've read (in its entirety!!!) I'm taking my first WDW with my family next November (2011) and staying at the Contemporary (my *DREAM* resort - I've wanted to stay here since I was a lil kid!) It still doesn't feel *real* that I will be there in a year
I've *loved* your TR!!! You and your DH are so cute (the pic you took of him with his soda at the beginning of the trip - after telling him you'll be taking pics of the food - is SO something my DH would/will do - LOL!)
I'd never heard about the Pick a Pearl thing at EPCOT til these boards - and seeing your pics - I *get* it...how awesome you that got twins
And seeing all your meals *droooling* - many of the places you ate are on my list to eat at, too! FUN!
I've *loved* your TR!!! You and your DH are so cute (the pic you took of him with his soda at the beginning of the trip - after telling him you'll be taking pics of the food - is SO something my DH would/will do - LOL!)
I'd never heard about the Pick a Pearl thing at EPCOT til these boards - and seeing your pics - I *get* it...how awesome you that got twins
And seeing all your meals *droooling* - many of the places you ate are on my list to eat at, too! FUN!
sbprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
I have missed os much I guess thats what happens when you go almost a month without logging on
But I m here now! All of your meals looked amazing. Especially Earl I love sandwiches!! We didnt get to end up eating there because we werent hungry during our two DTD trips...maybe next time
Brian had also wanted to putt putt and we didnt. That course looks like so much fun it will be a must do on our next trip for sure!
Hi again! Glad you made it back safely. I found your TR and made sure to subscribe.I'm so looking forward to our food in December! Looking back at my own pictures makes me hungry sometimes.
I just can't wait. But I'm definitely finishing this report by Thanksgiving because I don't want to have two reports going at the same time.The mini-golf course was a lot of fun!
This is what your text meant the other night. You had me wondering!
I am new to the Dis and your TR is one of the first I've read (in its entirety!!!) I'm taking my first WDW with my family next November (2011) and staying at the Contemporary (my *DREAM* resort - I've wanted to stay here since I was a lil kid!) It still doesn't feel *real* that I will be there in a year
I've *loved* your TR!!! You and your DH are so cute (the pic you took of him with his soda at the beginning of the trip - after telling him you'll be taking pics of the food - is SO something my DH would/will do - LOL!)
I'd never heard about the Pick a Pearl thing at EPCOT til these boards - and seeing your pics - I *get* it...how awesome you that got twins
And seeing all your meals *droooling* - many of the places you ate are on my list to eat at, too! FUN!
Hello!
Thanks for joining in! We actually might be there in Nov 2011 too - that is if I can convince my husband I know exactly how you feel about the CR and I hope you love it like we did. It was so convenient to Magic Kingdom!My DH is a character but he's also very good at going along with me on my crazy whims. I have to put up with a lot of video game stuff from him so I guess it's a fair trade.
If you're going in November are you going to try and catch part of the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot? It's so easy to get caught up in planning the meals. I did a LOT of research but we were really only disappointed with one (Tony's). Good luck in your future planning!
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