The Tenth Honeymoon is the Best One of Them All! - May '14 TR - COMPLETED 4/19

[nilla]

That wasn't a bad wait. Don't mind waiting in here, anyway. As for the food, Emily flipped on the usual mac and cheese order with a grilled cheese:



It came with tomato soup! Kristin and I got the strip steak:



Fantastic! And it came with pommes frites! That's "freedom fries" in Belle-speak! Dylan got the braised pork:



Also delicious, but he didn't appreciate it AT ALL. Shame. I ate some, though. And he ate a little. His eating has gotten SOMEWHAT better, but still not great. No clue how he keeps putting on weight. Must be the peanut butter.

For dessert...



...there was no option better than the Gray Stuff (tm)!



And, as the say in the song, "it's really, really good!" Or something like that. I forget. But really. It's amazing. Like "best ever" good.

Wonderful meal! And look, it's Vincent!



Glad he made it out of the catacombs to join us!

Poor dark photos, but we're trying.







Ok, dinner over!

 

[nilla]

We get some more photos on the way out:



Love how it "snows" outside! Love the ceiling paintings, too. There has to be a Mickey in there.







This room is nice, but too cafeteria-ish for me. The next room seems like a bit of an afterthought...



...but it does have that nice Belle n' Beast statue, and a lot of great portraits:











Who painted these? I'm guessing a human who was turned into a paintbrush.





These are all hilarious outtakes from the blockbuster film "Beauty and the Beast". And I intend to shoot every one of them.





That room's pretty secluded, so I guess, if that's you're thing, you'd sit there. Still prefer the other two.

 

[nilla]

Well, for not really liking that room, it did take up about 3% of my Trip Report. Anyway, we're heading out now, but first, there are a few more rooms as we exit.



Boo! Hate the Saints! Still bitter over the 2007 NFC Championship game. But I like the Boy Scouts of America, so I'm conflicted.

This is the smash hit "Be Our Guest" (surely named after the restaurant), in Belle-speak. On the French DVD, at least.



Not sure what you could do with this screen, besides touch it:



Hey, it's the Beast! And us!



What a beast. We still have to pass through one more corridor and one more room to get out, though. The armor is awful chatty today. No problem posing for pictures, though.





On to the next room, where Kristin and I pose by the stained glass window. The photographer has other ideas, however.



Hey, there we are!



And there is that 6-foot-tall castle again:



And here's Ariel's castle:



...but it's not time for that yet. GREAT dinner, and my new favorite restaurant in WDW. An all-around great experience, and some of the best food on the trip.

 

[nilla]

So what's next? Even though we don't have bonus FPs for it this year, we can still hit Philharmagic without worrying about a queue. But first, more photos!





Not ready to leave BoG just yet, either:



Alright, now exiting New Fantasyland, which I must say, is amazing:

 

[nilla]

On the way, Kristin wants to duck into Pinoccio's Village Haus to locate a supposed secret staircase to the balcony outside. Well, it wasn't that secret. Pretty obvious, to be honest.

Nice view, though:



We get some good advice on the way out...





...and then it's off to Philharmagic.

The kids want to sit front and center, but we don't.



Let's hope they don't embarass us! We watch the film, which is still one of my favorites. It's hard to decide which part I like most. Lion King? Fantasia? Be our Guest?

Not sure, but I do know that the show's over. We return our opera glasses, as Goofy instructed, and then hopped on over to Sir Mickey's to get a look at the remaining Frozen stock:



Getting smaller!

One more shot of that-which-must-not-be-ridden...



...and then, it's time for our undersea adventure!

 

[nilla]

Most elaborately themed ride exterior in WDW? Maybe.







The interior's cool, too:



We board our Finding Nemo Doom Buggies and under the sea we go!

Well, not yet.



Alright, now we're under the sea:



Neat effect submerging. Hey, did you hear that the seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake?



Yep. Mind your dreams, though. I know what you're thinking, and it would be a BIG mistake. Let's just enjoy the song, shall we?





You see, the fish up there end up on the plate, where we just end up getting eaten by bigger fish.

But not these fish:



Or this mermaid:



Eventually, we have this to worry about...



...which leads to some almost-nude Ariel action...



...but ultimately, he almost kisses the girl...



...and then BOOM, movie over.



And everyone rejoiced.



After that, we walked over to the least relevant part of the Magic Kingdom:



Hey, who wants to get wet at 9:00 at night?



Some kids actually were. That ain't dryin'!

Remind me again why we're at Dumbo's Circus? Oh, yeah - to get FastPasses! We tell the CMs there haven't been long lines today, and they told us that's because everyone's in line to meet the Frozen girls. I can believe it!

11:15 for Space Mountain. We'll take it! One more photo of the Mine Cart...



...and it's over to Tomorrowland, to kill more time before Wishes!

(next update)

 

[jdd]

Wonderful meal! And look, it's Vincent!



Glad he made it out of the catacombs to join us!

Love this reference!!! No Cathy though, huh?

I had the steak when we dined there (for the first time!) in February - it was fabulous!!

 

[nilla]

Love this reference!!! No Cathy though, huh?

I had the steak when we dined there (for the first time!) in February - it was fabulous!!

Cathy was on a date with Buzz Lightyear. Let's see if you get THAT reference

(hint: play "the six degrees of Linda Hamilton")

Be Our Guest is so good! Sadly, we won't be eating there in 2015. I'll still take 75 photos of the exterior, though.

 

[jdd]

Cathy was on a date with Buzz Lightyear. Let's see if you get THAT reference

(hint: play "the six degrees of Linda Hamilton")

Be Our Guest is so good! Sadly, we won't be eating there in 2015. I'll still take 75 photos of the exterior, though.

Had to google that one (I'm so ashamed ). We're doing lunch at BOG in July, but the dinner was so much better. And meeting Beast was awesome - he kissed my hand

 

[nilla]

Had to google that one (I'm so ashamed ). We're doing lunch at BOG in July, but the dinner was so much better. And meeting Beast was awesome - he kissed my hand

Don't feel bad - I had to go to IMDB to come up with that reference to begin with. "Now, let's see if Linda Hamilton is linked to Disney in any way"

The Beast is a heck of a guy! Um, or, heck of a beast! I think Gaston's all wrong about him. But what isn't he wrong about?

I'm interested to hear how the lunch is. We're skipping BoG, but returning to Le Cellier for the first time since it became a "two", so it's not a total loss!

 

[nilla]

With some time remaining before the nighttime shows, we head back over to Tomorrowland. Hey, there's a party going on!

A DANCE party, to be more specific!

An INCREDIBLES dance party, to be exact!

For all you rasslin' fans out there, the Incredibles having a dance party is similar to when Vince McMahon takes two wrestlers who are only mildly popular and joins them together as a tag team, in lieu of thinking of anything actually interesting to do with them. Yes, wrestling fans, the Incredibles are the Honkey Tonk Man/Greg Valentine combination of Walt Disney World. "Hey, we need someone for a dance party. Whom aren't we promoting at all?"

As for the party itself, we've overlooked it many times. It seemed out of place in the Magic Kingdom, for some reason, and thrown-together. But, as it turns out, it was really, really fun! The girls certainly liked it:



As did Frozone. We hung out there for about 20 minutes, then made our way over to the Wishes FP viewing area. But first, everyone wants ice cream!

Everyone but me, that is. I'm still stuffed from Be Our Guest! You can probably figure out what these are:







Emily's was birthday cake-flavored, or something. All were hits! We entered the special viewing area, photos a-plenty!





This area is great! We're here early, but it never got to full. We could all relax, for instance:



Some of us more than others:



Alright, the show's about to start!

 

[nilla]

See that Castle? Looks pretty normal, right? I mean, for a medieval castle in the middle of the Florida swampland. Now, get ready:















Like how I ran through all those without even bothering to try to explain any of them? That's the best you get in a 11-month-old Trip Report! Next time, tell the jerk writing it to not slack so much, ok?

The show ends, and it was a good one. I was stunned by how amazing it was the first time I saw it, and it hasn't lost a thing since. I see it's being ripped off by NBA arenas now, AND the Super Bowl halftime show. Sure, Disney didn't invent the technology, but still...go, Disney!

We have a few minutes until Wishes starts, and some filthy commoners try to climb over the fence, apparently not realizing this is a privileged folks only area! Well, I never. Harumph! The CMs shove them back over. Outta here.

Alright, now THIS show's about to start!

 

[nilla]

Look, it's Tink!



...and that's it. No fireworks photos! What?

Oh, yeah - got those the other night. Besides, who on the DISboard HASN'T seen Wishes?

One dad 'n daughter shot...



...and we're headed back past the Hub. As you can see, I'm rep'n the Bethlehem Brew Works again. Love that place! Also,I got a lot of BBW t-shirts for Christmas

It's not early enough to ride Space Mountain, so we head up toward Big Thunder. But first, Kristin has another idea. We check to see if Ariel is meetin' and greetin' here, and she is! In we go, and Dylan opts out of the photos. Too old for Disney characters, too young for teenage girls dressed like mermaids.

Emily loves her, though, and Ariel was fantastic. Extremely nice, and very talkative. Didn't rush us, either.







Nighttime shot of the 6-foot-high tower...



...and then, it's to the back of Frontierland, for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Hold on - what? 30 minute standby? Harumph. Our max is typically 20. But it's our last night. And Disney tends to exaggerate on the wait times, in my experience.

But this was a full 30 minutes. However, we saw a lot of things we never saw before in the shortened standby lines:





These things actually did stuff, though I forget what. Eventually, we ride, and since we got 32,000 photos of this ride earlier today, the camera stays in my pocket. Until we exit and see this:



This was on the bridge across from Splash Mountain, next to the dock for Tom Sawyer Island. Love the wet broom art!

 

[nilla]

We still have some time to go for our Space Mountain FPs, so how about one last run on the Haunted Mansion?! Without photos! Wait, without photos? Um...ok, Jon. Whatever. Just...lazy.

Favorite ride EVER in the books for 2014, and it's over to Tomorrowland for the last MK ride of the trip:



Duffy loved it. I like it a lot more now, too, especially since Kristin advised me to hold the backpack in front of me, instead of trying to shove it under my legs for an instant hernia.

As the clock struck 12:00, we made our way back to the Hub...



...and then, out of the Magic Kingdom. The camera got a much-needed rest on this walk as well.

Heads hung low, we moped our way out of the park. Naw, we left happy. "Don't be upset it's over - be happy it happened." Or however that goes.

We board the bus to Coronado at 12:15, and we're spent. Tomorrow, we go home. But not before one last go at Epcot.


(next update)

 

[MEK]

I love this picture. Great perspective!

I had the exact same dinner as you and Kristin at BOG. I don't normally eat a lot of steak, but decided to order it because I heard it was very good. It did not disappoint.

Wasn't that the worst tease - looking at the Mine Train running and not being able to ride it. Cynthia and I saw so many CM's riding. Talk about a tease. Since then I have ridden it twice. It's a cute ride, but BTMMR still rules. Speaking of that - what's up with the 30 minute wait? Yikes

That ice cream sandwich looks so yummy.

Yay for space mountain - now that mine train is running I have gotten more rides on space than ever.

Congrats to making it until midnight on your last night.

 

[jdd]

Don't feel bad - I had to go to IMDB to come up with that reference to begin with. "Now, let's see if Linda Hamilton is linked to Disney in any way"

The Beast is a heck of a guy! Um, or, heck of a beast! I think Gaston's all wrong about him. But what isn't he wrong about?

I'm interested to hear how the lunch is. We're skipping BoG, but returning to Le Cellier for the first time since it became a "two", so it's not a total loss!

A huge thank you!! You reminded me I loved the Linda Hamilton/Ron Perlman B&B, and then I remembered my son has a Netflix subscription, and low and behold, the show is on Netflix!!! I've never seen it in syndication, so this is awesome.

Yes, LOVE the beast! Really want to do a M&G with Gaston, as I've heard he's hysterical - couldn't find him on this last trip though.

BoG lunch was very nice - but couldn't hold a candle (oblique Lumiere reference) to the steak dinner.

 

[Clarf]

Aw, great last day at MK! I love your BOG pics, especially the one of you and Kristen "dancing."

I'm so glad you gave the Incredibles dance party a shot. We were there for the Incredibles and Monsters Inc. parties and had a great time at both! I liked the Monsters Inc. one better, but Sully and Mike W. were there, so that was pretty awesome.

Great fireworks viewing! Silly commoners, trying to break in.

Loved meeting Ariel-with-fin. She was great.

No last ride on Peter Pan saying goodbye to Nana?

 

[Lorelai]

Late to the party, yet I've never read a trip report b4, so technically I believe I am prompt for this one. Anywhoo...currently planning 1st FP+ trip. As a 10 trip former semi-pro (11 if you count Disneyland - but I don't - *gasp*) , I'm back in newbieville. Gone are the days of My Most Extreme Elimination-like race towards Fastpasses (Rocky score on loop in my mind) as the husband & kids groove their way to the first queue. Btw, I feel your pain at losing the coveted May trip to school-friendly summertime. My children dropped that anvil as well (conscientious students trumped WDW-in-May love-goggles). But fear not, in June of 2012 we were the last plane allowed to leave Newark on our departure day as a hurricane barreled toward the east coast. For our first two park days we owned that place, in what can only be described as a tropical-storm-wrapped-in-a-swirling-vortex-of-Armageddon. And it was SPECTACULAR!! Umbrellas? Nope! Ponchos? only for my daughter and I...flip flops on, and rode everything multiple times. At one point, I think my husband & boys rode Space Mtn. 4x in a row...as my daughter & I rode HM 3x in a row. It was positively magical. Then, for the following 7 days, it was all sunshine & Mickey bars.

 

[nilla]

I love this picture. Great perspective!

Shhhh! No one is supposed to know about this "secret" location!

Wasn't that the worst tease - looking at the Mine Train running and not being able to ride it. Cynthia and I saw so many CM's riding. Talk about a tease. Since then I have ridden it twice. It's a cute ride, but BTMMR still rules. Speaking of that - what's up with the 30 minute wait? Yikes

I know! Our next-door neighbors were in WDW the week after us and rode it!

We were stunned by the wait for BTMRR, especially since it was at night. We did get to see queue fun we never knew existed, though!

Yay for space mountain - now that mine train is running I have gotten more rides on space than ever.

That's great to hear! I've come to terms with the fact that we'll be waiting for, well, everything when we go in June, but anything to spread the crowds sounds good to me.

A huge thank you!! You reminded me I loved the Linda Hamilton/Ron Perlman B&B, and then I remembered my son has a Netflix subscription, and low and behold, the show is on Netflix!!! I've never seen it in syndication, so this is awesome.

It's on Netflix? I may have to get Kristin to watch it. She missed it the first time around. I was always partial to the episodes where Vincent was pushed to his breaking point and had to beast out on someone, but that's not surprising for a teenage male viewer, I guess

Really want to do a M&G with Gaston, as I've heard he's hysterical - couldn't find him on this last trip though.

The talking villains are some of the best characters, IMO. Cinderella's stepsisters are our favorites. Haven't met Gaston yet, but we may try to do that on our next trip.

I'm so glad you gave the Incredibles dance party a shot. We were there for the Incredibles and Monsters Inc. parties and had a great time at both! I liked the Monsters Inc. one better, but Sully and Mike W. were there, so that was pretty awesome.

It's so easy to overlooking awesome things at WDW while rushing past them toward other awesome things! And people ask me why we keep going to WDW.

Great fireworks viewing! Silly commoners, trying to break in.

We have FPs for Wishes this year, but my understanding is that it's in a different area. We'll see if it's better or worse. Fortunately, either area features the "keep out the undesirables" benefit.

No last ride on Peter Pan saying goodbye to Nana?

You know, I want to say we did actually ride it one last time, but I'm pretty good at putting in notes (kindly ignore that comment when you read the Day 12 recap), so I'm inclined to trust them. If we did indeed neglect Nana, I hope he (she?) hasn't been too depressed over it.

I'm also thinking I completely omitted a funny/scary story about riding the Jungle Cruise at night, but will go back and re-read the MK days of this TR to see if it actually happened on another night. Note to TR writers: don't slack off, or your TR will suffer from the same amnesia mine is!

Late to the party, yet I've never read a trip report b4, so technically I believe I am prompt for this one. Anywhoo...currently planning 1st FP+ trip. As a 10 trip former semi-pro (11 if you count Disneyland - but I don't - *gasp*) , I'm back in newbieville. Gone are the days of My Most Extreme Elimination-like race towards Fastpasses (Rocky score on loop in my mind) as the husband & kids groove their way to the first queue. Btw, I feel your pain at losing the coveted May trip to school-friendly summertime. My children dropped that anvil as well (conscientious students trumped WDW-in-May love-goggles). But fear not, in June of 2012 we were the last plane allowed to leave Newark on our departure day as a hurricane barreled toward the east coast. For our first two park days we owned that place, in what can only be described as a tropical-storm-wrapped-in-a-swirling-vortex-of-Armageddon. And it was SPECTACULAR!! Umbrellas? Nope! Ponchos? only for my daughter and I...flip flops on, and rode everything multiple times. At one point, I think my husband & boys rode Space Mtn. 4x in a row...as my daughter & I rode HM 3x in a row. It was positively magical. Then, for the following 7 days, it was all sunshine & Mickey bars.

You've never read a Trip Report, and THIS is what you started with? Oh my. That's sort of like never seeing a George Lucas film and starting with Captain EO. There should be a warning label on this report, I'm thinking. I am honored that you're reading this, though. Thanks!

I was typically the designated "run across the entire park to get FPs for that attraction while we wait here" guy. Did you also fight the urge to duck into a different, queueless ride for a quick spin on your journey? I always wanted to return with both FPs AND a story of a new high score on Buzz, but kept concluding that might not be as quick (or well-received) an action as I would hope.

Holding out hope that June will be less offensive than some on the DISboards make it out to be. Rainstorms have benefitted us in terms of ride waits in the past, though. Fingers crossed!

 

[nilla]

Now that our tax returns are finally filed, I should be able to wrap up this TR in the next week.

To the three or four people still reading...stay tuned!