2009 Summer Free Dining Trip

[JerseyJanice]

We returned to WDW at the end of August 2009 for a second free dining trip. Last year (2008), I took my son and his cousin to Pop for FD, then met up with my younger brother (who lives in Florida) and our friends (former neighbors). That trip was fantastic. It was the first time I had ever stayed at Pop (or any value resort), and it was our first time on a Disney Dining Plan (free or otherwise).

I was so pleased with that stay, I would have booked a bounceback trip, except that I didn’t know it even existed while we were there. I did not see a flyer in our room and found out about it on the Dis a couple of weeks after we got back. When I read about it on-line, I called WDW Travel to try to get it, but they were unable to book the offer for me since I had checked out two weeks earlier. So I waited on the general public offer this spring and was pleased to get the same pricing and offer terms that I would have received with the bounceback.

When I booked this trip in the spring, we were supposed to be going with my sister and her husband and meeting up with the same neighbors we saw there last year. Both of those parties had to cancel their 2009 trip. My sister was in a serious accident back in May and was physically unable to make it. Our friends canceled when they found out their kids were starting school before Labor Day this year (a true rarity for public schools in North Jersey prior to this year). So it wound up being just my husband (who decided to come after my sister cancelled), myself, our son and my brother.

We are:

-Me, 40-something administrative assistant working in special education.
-DH, 40-something construction worker.
-DS, just turned 13. I may be biased in my opinion but I think he’s the most wonderful kid in the entire world.

The three of us live in a small suburban town just outside of New York City. DH and I are grateful to have good jobs in this economy and work very hard. We felt like our WDW vacation was well earned and deserved.

-Bro, 40-something IT guy who lives in Tampa. He’s an all around great guy. He’s single and also hard working. (Originally, he was going to stay in my sister’s room, but when she cancelled, we put him on our reservation.)

As I mentioned, we booked a Free Dining package at Pop. It was a squeeze with the four of us in the room, but we managed. Bro drove over from Tampa and used his van throughout the trip. As a result, we didn’t use much Disney transportation this trip. Bro brought a lot of necessary stuff that would have been a real hassle to get if we were relying on only the ME and Disney buses. He brought beer (an essential vacation item for DH), bottled water, a cooler, a twin-sized air mattress for DS, a coffee maker and real coffee, plus a few snacks.

In August 2008, we requested and received a fourth floor, lake view room in the ‘60’s. I thought it was a great location being close to the main building, but Bro wanted something closer to a parking lot. So in August 2009, I requested (and received) a fourth floor, lake view room in the ‘50’s section. We wound up in Building 2, which is as far out from the main building as you can get. It wasn’t a problem for park transportation since we used Bro’s van most of the trip, but we didn’t like being that far from the main building. I asked for lake view because I love water and being able to see fireworks, but for the amount of time we spent in the room, it wasn’t worth choosing a location for the view. If I have the same set of requirements in the future, I’m going to forget about the fireworks view and find something closer to both the main building and a parking lot.

 

[JerseyJanice]

My family and I flew out of Newark on Continental. Our flight left around 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, the weekend before Labor Day weekend. We put our dog (Max) in a kennel near where I work the day before we left. Max stayed there one other time back in February 2008. He needed a couple of days to adjust then, but did fine after that. This time, he did extremely well from the get-go and actually seems to be an improved dog since we got home. I think he missed us and appreciates being back in his house. I guess he didn’t know how good he has it until he didn’t have it, KWIM?

A local car service took us to Newark airport where I expected the crowds to be small since it was so early on a Saturday morning. Boy, was I wrong! The airport was a regular beehive of activity with huge numbers of travelers. The last time I flew, Continental didn’t charge for checked luggage (you were allowed one bag per person). When I booked our flights in March, it was $15 per bag each way so that’s what we paid for the one suitcase DH and I split. (Now the same fee is $20.) We each brought a carry-on bag too.

An airline employee directed us away from the baggage checking counter next to where we entered the terminal. She had us go to another number counter, and on the other side of the building. After checking our bag, we had to walk all that way back past the first counter to get to our gate. How annoying! I’m afraid that sounds lazy, but we were planning to go to Epcot later that day and wanted to save our feet for that. Plus prancing all over the airport with our carry-on luggage and suitcase was not exactly fun either.

Our flight was slightly delayed taking-off as our plane had to wait in a line for the runway—typical at Newark airport. It was an overall good flight, though. None of our ears got badly clogged, and we made good time in the air, landing in Orlando on time.

We easily found the Magical Express counter. Boy, was it crowded! Lots of happy people on their way to Disney World. I got on the check-in line because I didn’t hear a CM telling people who had vouchers to get directly into the bus line for their resort. DH and DS did hear this, and got me out of that line and into the bus queue where a CM was checking vouchers as you entered the line.

We had a lively driver for the ride, but we didn’t go directly to Pop. Both times we were on the ME in 2008, Pop was the first stop. This time, the bus went first to the Caribbean Beach Resort, then to the Dolphin and Swan, and finally Pop. We stayed at the Dolphin in 2/08 and there was no ME for that resort then, so the stops there must be new. I love the Magical Express and would use it if staying at the Dolphin again so I’m glad to see it’s going there now.

There was no line to check-in at Pop which was an improvement from the previous year. We got exactly what I requested--Building 2, lakeview, top floor. DS complained a lot about our room location on the walk over, but I ignored him. Tough luck, kid! When you’re the parent who’s paying for the trip, you get to pick the room.

Our room number was 2441—Building 2, fourth floor, room 41. I like being on the top floor—mainly for the view but also because I think it’s more peaceful with no one over you. The view outside our room was very nice. I love bodies of water and find Hourglass Lake beautiful. Like the previous year, our view included a few nice Disney sights—a slice of Spaceship Earth and the tops of the Tower of Terror and the Dolphin. You can’t actually see the Castle from there, but at night, you can see where the Magic Kingdom is by a big glow of light. Wishes is also visible from there; we caught it a couple of nights this trip.

We stowed our carry-on bags in the room, and I called Bro on my cell to see where he was. He was on the highway about 15 minutes away. It was now around 1:00 p.m., and we were starving. DH and I hadn’t eaten anything yet that day since we were too excited about traveling to eat anything in New Jersey. DS only picked on a McDonald’s breakfast we bought him in Newark airport, so he was hungry too. We told Bro we’d meet him in Pop’s food court and headed over there for lunch.

I wanted to save some appetite for snacking in Epcot so only DH and DS got meals, and I picked off their food. They each got bacon double cheeseburgers, so we had plenty of food. Bro joined us and got himself a yogurt parfait since he wanted to get a meal in Morocco at Epcot. After eating, we unpacked some stuff from his van and brought it up to the room where our checked suitcase was waiting for us. DH is very serious about his cooler set-up, so he had to do that before we could go. We had a slice of tie-dyed cheesecake left from our CS dessert and put that on ice, along with DH’s beer and some waters for me.

Our plan was to tour the World Showcase this first day in the World. I never made it there last trip even though we had a full day there with PM EMH hours. The kids (four of them) were all with me that day and wouldn’t leave Future World, but that’s another story.

We parked the van at the Beach Club so we could enter and exit at the International Gateway. I wanted to walk from there, but Bro wanted to take the boat. The first one that came was going in the opposite direction, but since we thought it would be air-conditioned inside and no other boats were in sight, we got on. This was a mistake since it took forever, and we saw the boat we needed just a few minutes later as we entered the Swan/Dolphin marina. DH was pissed, but the rest of us just decided to relax and enjoy the ride.

After entering the park, we headed over the bridge to France to do a vacation kick-off toast. I got the Grey Goose frozen lemonade drink and DH got the Grand Marnier one. Bro didn’t want one because he was very hungry so we went to Morocco next. At the Tangierine Café, Bro got a swarma platter. He gave us some meat (chicken and lamb) to taste, and it was delicious. I really liked the chicken.

While there, DH got a glass of sangria that was very odd. It was served in a tiny plastic cup with no ice or fruit. That’s not what we’re used to. DH loves sangria from the Spanish restaurants in our neck of the woods and that little cup (looked like a mouthwash cup) left him paranoid that it was the way Disney would serve sangria. He need not have worried since it’s become a popular item on Disney drink menus, and this was the only place that served it that way. He asked a CM for a cup of ice and poured the little cup into it since he didn’t want it warm.

After our lunch break there, we meandered around the World Showcase going as far as Germany before heading back to France for our 5:10 ADR at Chefs de France. We normally eat later, but DS and I really wanted to meet Remy whose last appearance for the day is at 5:20.

We especially enjoyed the Japanese pavilion that afternoon. We were charmed by kids doing the Kim Possible mission. I won’t be a spoiler and say what we saw about that, but it was something pretty neat. We loved the fish pond there and enjoyed looking around the store. I decided I wanted to get a Pick-a-Pearl there, but knew we’d be back, so we didn’t get it this day. We watched a trio of beautiful Japanese young ladies performing with drums on the pagoda. Bro and DS each got Kaki-gori snowcones in rainbow flavor. DS insisted I taste his. I thought all the flavors were delicious, but he said his favorite was tangerine and Bro’s was honeydew melon. I guess if I had eaten most of one, I’d have found a favorite too.

DH and I had drinks as our “treats” in the World Showcase. After the frozen drinks in France and sangria in Morocco, I tried rosa regale wine in Italy. I didn’t love it as much as I had hoped I would from reading descriptions of it on-line. It was sweeter and more winey-tasting than I expected, which was a berry flavor. I consider myself an amateur gourmand, but I have never been able to acquire a taste for wine. I like sangria, kir royales and occasionally, some Chianti with lemon soda in it. “Regular” wine is just not my thing and so I didn’t enjoy my $12 glass of rosa regale.

Over in Germany, DH and I got Beck’s on tap. As it got close to ADR time, we turned back toward France. On the way, we stopped to watch Mo Rockin’ perform with a belly dancer in Morocco. She was someone DH and Bro really wanted to see. “Watching a woman’s naval move is a man thing,” said Bro. DS (who has not yet reached puberty) wasn’t anymore interested in the dancer than I was, so he and I went ahead to France.

We looked in all the shops there, and I saw a Paris handbag I really liked. I debated in my mind whether I wanted one of those or the Pick-a-Pearl for my souvenir. I decided against the handbag since I tend to be tough on pocketbooks, and it looked delicate. (Of course, I regret not buying it now. It was such a cute and different bag.) I sampled some of the fragrances in the perfume shop and considered buying one for my mother-in-law since they had an artist hand-painting bottles when you purchased a certain brand. However, the fragrance prices were higher than what we budgeted for her gift so we got her something else later in the trip.

When Bro and DH met back up with us, it was not quite time for our ADR, and all of us were very hot. We decided to watch the movie in France to cool down a bit before we went for dinner. Bro had seen it before, but the rest of us never had, and we loved it. The young Frenchmen who acted as ushers and announcers at the movie theatre were very handsome and charming.

The guys had the belly dancer in Morocco for their eye candy, and I had the male CMs in France—a fair deal to me! The inner-cougar in me just loved those young Frenchmen. Ooo la la!

When we passed by Chefs on our way to the theatre, it looked mostly empty, but seemed much more crowded when we arrived for our ADR; we were seated immediately though. Our server was named Sebastian, and he was a delight in every way. We all loved him as he had a great personality (and was not hard on the eyes either). He turned out to be the most outstanding waitstaff member of this trip. We asked him about Remy, and at first, he acted like he had never heard of a rat in the restaurant. He feigned disgust at the suggestion. But when Remy appeared in the restaurant, he took my son by the hand into the main dining room and brought him right up to meet Remy.

We were seated in a side room that was like a porch or sunroom with windows all around and a lovely view of the fountain. It could have been better air-conditioned, but other than that, it was a very pleasant place to eat.

One of DS’s favorite things to order when we go out to eat at home is French onion soup, so we ordered that for him and told Sebastian we’d pay for it OOP. DS has yet to develop much of an appetite so I didn’t think he would eat a whole meal. One of these days, I expect him to be eating us out of house and home, but right now, he’s just not much of an eater. So I figured the soup would be enough for him. I was then embarrassed because he kept taking food off mine and DH’s plates. I’d have ordered him his own meal if I knew he’d eat so much!

I ordered the three course meal with French onion soup for my appetizer and the beef short rib dish for my entrée. DH decided on the filet mignon and Bro got the seafood en brochette. For his beverage, Bro got iced tea while I ordered the Chef’s cocktail and DH tried the French beer. I liked the cocktail which was a sparkling wine with cassis, but decided to have a beer on the second round of drinks. I was just so hot and needing something crisper.

Sebastian brought rolls with the first round of beverages. I was mortified to see DS tear into them. It’s so hard to gauge his appetite. Like I said before, if I knew he was going to eat so well this evening, I’d have ordered him his own meal.

The soup came out quickly. DS liked it a lot, but I wasn’t thrilled with it. It didn’t have enough cheese IMO. My entrée was excellent though. The meat was deeply-marinated and braised in red wine. Very flavorful and DS went crazy for it when he tasted it. It came with lightly buttered, homemade looking and tasting noodles that were bland, but a good accompaniment to the strongly flavored meat. DH loved his filet and shared some with DS. He raved over his potatoes, which were a scalloped potato type dish with lots of cheese. I tried some, and they were delicious. Bro said his seafood was excellent, that it was sweet and very fresh tasting. It came with black pearl rice, which he said had an interesting texture.

Remy came into the room while we were enjoying our entrees. Both Bro and DS video recorded him. Remy was adorable! DS’s birthday was a few weeks before the trip, and we got him a Flip video camera that he made good use of it this trip. His video of Remy came out really well.

Our wonderful Sebastian brought us dessert menu’s from which I chose crème brulee and told DH to get the profiteroles. Bro picked the chocolate mousse cake with fresh berries. We sampled from each other’s plates, and all three selections were awesome. My son declared the crème brulee “amazing.” I was surprised he even tried it since it’s basically vanilla pudding, and that is something he’d never eat at home. But he loved it and everything else he ate at Chefs de France. DH, Bro and I all got coffee with our desserts. It tasted a little better than the last Disney coffee I’d had, but really—Disney needs to ditch the Nescafe altogether and get some decent beans brewing at the world. We asked Sebastian if it was Nescafe and he told us it was Columbian coffee. Maybe the beans they used to create the coffee concentrate were from Columbia originally, but it didn’t taste like real brewed coffee.

In spite of non-cheesy onion soup and the only slightly drinkable coffee, this was an excellent meal. Between DS’s soup, four alcoholic drinks and the tip, our bill came to $75 OOP. DH was like, “hey, I thought you said the food was free?” The bill before they charged the three TS credits to it was around $170. The 20% suggested gratuity was $33 and change. I rounded that up to $35 since we enjoyed our server so much. He was really a great young man--sweet and attentive, and as I said before, a joy just to look at. Plus he had a lovely French accent. I tell you—I’ve read that the young men from Italy in that pavilion are awesome, but I gotta give props to the guys in France. Oui, oui! Being around them was a treat.

After dinner, DS told us he wanted to do the boat ride in Norway, which of course, is clear across the lagoon, but another meander around the World Showcase was no problem. On the way, we decided to see the movie in China. We were awed by everything in the China pavilion. We looked at and read the exhibits on the terra cotta army while waiting for the film to begin. We loved it, and I seriously started daydreaming about going to the real China one day.

It was dark when we left China, and we headed to Norway from there. Maelstrom actually had a bit of a wait to get on. There was a man with about 10 young girls in front of us. What an uncle he must be, since the girls were too many and too close in age to be all his daughters. Maybe he was Daisy troop leader extraordinaire? I don’t know—it was kind of unusual to see one guy with so many girls, but all of them were adorable.

That boat ride is fun and wonderfully cooling. Too bad it’s so short. I guess the film they show you at the end was down that day for some reason because they had everyone just exit after the boat ride.

I wanted to try school bread and here I made a dumb mistake by paying OOP for two pieces instead of using snack credits. I’m such a food credit miser and should have learned from my last FD trip. There were no school breads left in the case when I got my turn in the line so the girl went into the back to get more and package two pieces for me, since I told her we were taking them back to the resort. She disappeared for a while. That gave me a chance to check out their other offerings and I must say that the gravlox sandwich looked awesome. Gravlox is one of those things you don’t get everywhere. I would have liked to return there for lunch, but that was not meant to be this trip.

The people who got in front of me while I was waiting for the girl in the back took forever and a day to pay for their stuff. I was pretty annoyed because I ordered my purchase long before they even walked into the shop. Argh! This is one thing I have a hard time with whenever I go outside the NJ/NY area—no one besides us seems to know how to hurry. The girls working there were all Norwegian and after watching them in action in this shop, I’d say Norway must move at the same pace that Florida does.

It was too late to make our way to Germany for Illuminations at this point. We watched it there back in 2/08 and I thought it was the best view I ever had of the show. I found us a spot along the lagoon railing and DH bought us Margaritas from the Mexican kiosk. He got the Fiesta combo flavor and I stuck with lime. These were good as long as we didn’t try to drink them too fast. Brain Freeze City if we did!

Illuminations was as fabulous as ever. I swear I could watch that show every night of my life and not get tired of it. I think it’s the most awesome thing at WDW. I love it—the sights and sounds, its message. So cool!

We continued on our counter-clockwise path to exit out the International Gateway. We searched for those elusive glazed nuts on the way, but we never found them this trip. We stopped in the Beach Club lobby to use the facilities on our way to the van. That is one resort I’d like to spring for one day. There, and the Polynesian. I’m not enamored with any of the other Disney deluxe resort. Been there, done that, not going back to the Contemporary or Wilderness Lodge. The Grand Floridian and Animal Kingdom Lodge do not appeal to me. I’ve stayed at the Dolphin and would go back there in a heartbeat if I weren’t getting the meal plan (free or otherwise, it’s just not available there). The Boardwalk has that scary clown pool, so I’m not keen on trying that. But the Beach Club’s location and pool look totally awesome to me.

Back at Pop, I unpacked my family’s clothes into the armoire and onto hangers while Bro set up a raised twin-sized Aerobed for DS so he could take one of the double beds. DS and Bro ran down to the Hippie Dippy pool. DH played with his cooler, and then he and I joined the others at the pool. The pool water was actually kind of chilly. I swear they must refrigerate the water in that pool when they run it through the flower sprinklers. DH got drinks for us at Petals. I thought the prices there would bug him, but he really enjoyed that place. The bartenders were really nice and we met some friendly people there. I got a “Hula Hoop” drink and he ordered a Captain’s Mai-Tai.

Back in the room later, DS and I checked out Stacey’s latest. They really toned her down. We missed all her funny phrases and thought she was better when she was more hyper. And is it just me, or does she look too skinny now? Plus I don’t like her new hair-do. The guys still thought she was hot, but DS agreed with me that she was more fun to watch when she was sillier.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I was up first and went down to the food court to buy a container of milk. I paid for a pint-sized bottle and made coffee in the room with bottled water. Ah, brewed coffee! That Disney swill is so nasty in comparison.

I used a plastic knife from the food court to cut the school breads in half so we each had a piece. Yum! This was my first time trying it, and it was one item that really measured up to its internet hype. It was like a cream doughnut minus the greasiness. I loved that it wasn’t too sweet.

We took Bro’s van to the Magic Kingdom in spite of reading on-line often that MK is one park you should use the resort bus to go. Bro pointed out that the TTC is part of the experience and I’d enjoy seeing it again since the last time we were there was in the ‘70’s with my parents. We were able to park in Minnie right by the archway you walk under to get into the TTC. Sweet! I love the stainless steel Mickey Mouse’s there. (Or is it Mickey Mice?) I want one in my front yard.

We stopped at the ticket counter to upgrade our tickets to 7 more days. Bro upgraded his into a Florida seasonal pass, then we took our first monorail ride of the trip! How do you not love the monorail? I am a ride chicken, so the monorail is just my speed. Totally charming in every way.

We walked down Main Street and over the bridge into Liberty Square. We walked on that side to check out the tip board. Originally, the plan was to get Pooh fastpasses, but Peter Pan was the only ride listed with a long wait, so we got our FP’s there instead. We hit almost all the Fantasyland rides. That is one piece of advice you read on the internet that it is so true—you have to hit the Fantasyland rides early in the day before the lines build.

We rode Pooh first and finally caught the picture where Mr. Toad gives Owl the deed to the building. I didn’t know where to find it, but DS searched it out on You Tube before the trip so he knew exactly where to look. We did Snow White next. That must be a scary ride for little kids. It scared the heck out of my niece when she was 3, and I can see why. I do enjoy it though. Mickey’s Philharmagic is one of my favorite attractions, and after those three rides, our Peter Pan FP’s were ripe.

After the ride, Bro complained about being hungry so we skipped It’s a Small World and headed over to Cosmic Ray’s. There, my friends, is one of the best counter service restaurants in WDW. We all got the yummy chicken and rib combo. Even the green beans are delicious here. With my meal, I got an iced cappuchino, which was Nescafe, but not awful. Bro envied it and wished he got one too.

My family all got chocolate chip cookies, as I learned from last year it’s the most salvageable CS dessert if you don’t want to eat a dessert right after your meal. Bro ought to have known that, but he ordered the chocolate cake, then gave it to me to put in my tote bag. Just like last year, the thing disintegrated after a few hours in the hot park.

After lunch, we went on Buzz Lightyear. Gotta love that ride! It was uber-hot then, and DH was worried about getting held up by the parade. We were planning on coming back for PM EMH, so we decided to head back to the resort for a swimming break.

Our dinner ADR that night was for 1900 Park Fare at 6:15. Wishes was at 9:00 so I figured we’d have plenty of time to make it back to the park after eating. We took the van to the TTC again and the resort monorail to the GF which appeared to be under some refurbishment. We passed the Basin shop on the way downstairs and noticed that the glass elevator is out of service. I checked us in and got a beeper that they said would work anywhere in the lobby, first or second floor.

Bro and DS plopped themselves into chairs in the lobby, but I wanted to go to the Basin store, so DH came with me. We went up there and I began sniffing the solid shampoo’s, then the beeper went off. Man! We just got there! We went down the regular elevator and couldn’t find Bro or DS any place. Where did they go? They said they wanted to rest their feet!

Finally, they turned up and we went inside the check-in area where they had us wait on line to be seated. Prior to seating, they take photos of guests in front of some wallpaper with a castle printed on it. WTH? No character or anything three-dimensional—just some lame-looking wallpaper with a castle and flowers.

We don’t ever purchase these pre-dinner photos so I refuse to pose for them. They’re a rip-off no matter where, and this wallpaper shot had to be the lamest looking one I’ve ever seen. When it came time to finally seat us—and frankly, if they weren’t ready to seat us, they should have let us stay in the lobby until they had a table—a hostess led us into a room where I spotted a cramped looking table for four next to the kitchen door. I mentally said to myself, “I hope that’s not our table” so of course, it was. I said something to the hostess whose rude and snotty reply totally stunned me.

I remarked that the table looked cramped, and she very curtly answered, “all our tables are cramped. It’s the only one available, so take it or nothing!” After the meal, I wished I took nothing. It was a lousy meal that took far too long. The table was in an awful location next to a busy kitchen door where we had to watch every time we got up or down that we didn’t run into a server.

This was my sixth Disney trip in adulthood, and I had never experienced such rudeness from a CM. What did we do to deserve such a crappy table? Was it because we staying at Pop on Free Dining? Or because we refused to pose for their lame picture?

The food was mighty disappointing too. On all of my Disney trips, one food item that has been consistently good is soup. I truly expected 1900 Park Fare to serve a good soup. Yes, the wonderful strawberry soup was there that night, and I enjoyed a bowl. It was as good as it was at our breakfast there last year. The soup du jour was a cream of asparagus. In my past experiences, Disney cream soups have been excellent and I love asparagus, so of course I expected it to be stellar. Well, frankly, it was horrible. It tasted like cream of grass. Yuck! I couldn’t eat more than a couple of spoonfuls. Nasty!

The characters here are Cinderella’s stepfamily plus Cindy herself and her Prince Charming. For whatever reason, my family was not in the mood for mixing it up with them. I asked DS to take a picture with the stepmother (Lady Tremaine) and he complied, but afterward said, “Don’t ever ask me again to take a picture with a character who can talk!” I have no idea what she said to him, but he was peeved and wanted no part of them after that. The stepsisters came by and joked with us. A plate was dropped in the other room and Drizella yelled, “Cinderella!!! Clean that up!” I thought that was funny. Neither Cinderella nor her prince ever made it to our table.

Two other disappointments were no peel-and-eat shrimp, and worse, no prime rib. It was plain “roast beef” that the carver cut as thick as it should have been cut if it were prime rib. When I got it back to the table, I discovered that the only knives provided were like paddles. They were completely dull and lacking any serration. It was literally like trying to cut into shoe leather, trying to use these butter spreaders on this thick, tough cut of beef. I couldn’t even use this paddle to cut my chicken—that’s how dull it was. The one good main dish I sampled was a coq au vin, but I had to give up attempting to cut it with that useless implement and pulled it apart with my fork instead.

None of the other food was remarkable, save for a decent Caesar salad and the desserts. I was crazy about their little chocolate cups filled with chocolate mousse topped with tiny chocolate cigars. Their key lime tartlets and tiny fruit tarts were yummy, and DS loved the ice cream machine. DH and I ordered one Bloody Mary each. He’d have had a second one, but I stopped him. I wasn’t giving this place any more money than I had to. We tipped the waitress the minimum suggested, not because she was so bad, but because of the rotten table they gave us.

After that huge wait in front of the castle wallpaper, we were too late to make it back to the MK for Wishes. We asked someone in the lobby where we could see them from the resort and they pointed us out to the beach. With trees and construction gear everywhere, it wasn’t a good view.

One small kudo for 1900 PF—I did like the butter. It’s a slab of sweet cream butter with Kosher salt sprinkled on top. Your paddle (those things can not be called knives) mixes the salt as you spread it onto your bread. That was a nice touch, but other than that and the desserts, the food mostly stunk. Easily, this was the worst Disney buffet we ever had, and we won’t be returning to it anytime soon.

That night was PM EMH at MK so even though Wishes was over, we took the monorail back to the park. DS wanted to do Splash Mountain and Big Thunder in the dark, so that’s where we headed. Also did the Haunted Mansion and It’s a Small World. By then, our feet were aching so we called it a night. Back at the resort, we changed into bathing suits and headed down to the pool. DH went to his beloved Petals again and I joined him for a drink. I tried what became my favorite cocktail of the trip. It was a mango mint mojito. Yum! Very refreshing. The fresh mint leaf garnish really made it something special IMO.

When we turned in that night, we all noticed that our feet were aching. No matter how you try to prepare, WDW is tough on your feet.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Originally, I planned for us to go to the Studios today for PM EMH. I made an ADR at the Sci-Fi Dine Inn. Closer to the trip, DS insisted we make it an Animal Kingdom day. Why? Because I promised him I would ride Expedition Everest with him, and he couldn’t wait to torture me with that. I wanted to have one big breakfast during our trip, so I got an ADR at Tusker House for Donald’s Safari Breakfast. It was a hard ADR to get—I tried for days on-line and finally managed to get one on 8/9. (I remember the date because it was DS’s birthday.)

DH and I woke up before the others, and he took a hissy fit about going to any park that day. His feet ached him, he thought the day before was too tiring, and he wanted to lounge out at the resort. I know better than to do a trip with everyone joined at the hip on a trip, but that’s what wound up happening. In hindsight, the rest of us should have left him at the resort, gone ahead to AK for the breakfast, but instead, we all wound up spending the day at the resort.

I called Disney Dining to cancel the two ADRs I had for the day and make something for dinner. Thick-headed DH didn’t get why it would be O.K. to go into a park just for dinner. I tried to explain the MYW pricing, but he just didn’t get it and insisted on having dinner in Downtown or at a resort. So I chose Raglan Road.

Last year, we ate dinner at RR. It was myself, my son, my nephew, my BFF and her son. We loved the food and atmosphere. BFF and DS had ordered the serious sirloin dish, and I knew it was something DH and Bro would like, so I got us a dinner ADR there.

We spent the day at Pop. In the morning, I made coffee that the adults enjoyed. DS ate the chocolate chip cookies I saved from the Cosmic Ray’s meals. We went over to the Hippie Dippy pool and scored a table there. Bro stayed in bed for a long time while I swam with DS. For lunch, I think DS got another bacon double cheeseburger and a large cookie that he saved. I ordered a vegetable calzone and DH got the chicken alfredo. For my dessert, I ordered a sundae and had the cashier stamp my receipt so I could get it later. DH took a slice of tie-dyed cheesecake that we brought back to the room.

DH and I really liked our lunches. The vegetable calzone was really all spinach, which is fine with me since I love spinach. It came with a salad tossed in a delicious balsamic vinaigrette. DH’s meal consisted of a tasty chicken cutlet with a parmesan crust, a freshly baked breakstick, and some penne pasta. The chicken and pasta were covered with an alfredo sauce. As we usually do, I cut a piece of my calzone for DH to try, and he gave me some of his chicken and pasta.

Eventually, Bro got out of bed and joined us at the pool. He ordered the shrimp lo mein for his lunch. I don’t recall what dessert he got that meal. Around then, I was ready for my ice cream, which was awesome. They allow you to choose three scoops of any flavor ice cream you want, then you can have any toppings you’d like—there are caramel, hot fudge and strawberry. For garnishes, they offer sprinkles, chopped nuts, maraschino cherries and whipped cream. I got a scoop each of vanilla, butter pecan and strawberry ice cream, hot fudge and caramel toppings, then whipped cream and a cherry on top. It was a massive dish of ice cream, so I shared it with DS and DH.

We were headed to the room anyway when the weather started looking stormy. While we showered and got ready for dinner, a thunderstorm came through. It was still raining lightly by the time we were ready to leave for Raglan Road. The rain had cooled the air considerably, so that was nice. Bro drove us up to the entrance of Pleasure Island where we could see RR from the parking lot. He spotted a parking spot up front and went to park there, while we went inside.

Looking back, I’m sorry that I didn’t read the menu outside more thoroughly and talked to the guys about going somewhere else for dinner. I didn’t think I saw the steak dish they would want on the menu, but thought maybe it was a trick of the eye. In spite of having brand new progressive lens, I don’t see that well for reading and thought maybe my eyes were just missing it.

We were seated in the middle of the room, next to what was obviously a table used for dancing since it was covered with scoff marks. No bread was ever served to us. Last year, that was the one thing I didn’t like at RR. We were served rock-hard muffins with a saucer of oil. This year, we got nothing, and I think that’s worse. I mean, maybe the muffins aren’t like rocks anymore? Or they give you actual butter or a nice dipping sauce now? The menu was different, so it’s entirely possible that the bread they give out now is different too, but we wouldn’t know since we didn’t get any and forgot to ask for it.

To start out, Bro and I each ordered a pint of draught Harp ale. DH got a sangria. DS said he wasn’t very hungry and ordered a child’s burger, which he barely touched. Too bad we weren’t at home because I would have gotten a true “doggie bag” and fed it to our dog, Max.

Now that we sitting down with time to fully read the menu, I was horrified to see that the serious sirloin was in fact gone and that no other steak was listed as a replacement. So when it came time to order, I steered DH toward the “It’s Not Bleedin’ Chowder” dish as I had it the year before and loved it. Knowing my husband’s tastes, I figured he would enjoy it too. Problem is that instead of it being chock full of crab meat like it was in ’08, it was mainly hunks of salmon that DH didn’t care for.

Bro ordered a dish called “Ribs to the Power of 2” which was a short rib dish that he complained was more fat than meat. I ordered “Kevin’s Ham” based on the menu description that stated it was a “loin of bacon” served with braised cabbage and a potato-apple pancake. Yes, I know it was called “ham” on the menu, so I should have expected actual ham (what I got), but the word “loin” threw me as I was expecting pork loin. Nothing else in the menu description was accurate either.

What would you think “braised cabbage” meant? I was thinking a side order of braised cabbage, but what I got was a single leaf of cabbage. How about a potato-apple pancake? Wouldn’t you think you’d get an actual potato pancake with some apple in it? Well, you’d be wrong, since the “pancake” was a plate full of appley-tasting hash browns. Yuck!

Last year, I had a wonderful Bailey’s Irish Cream Brulee pie. It was awesome, but not on the menu this year so I chose the Ger’s Bread and Butter pudding. DH got a chocolate dessert, called the Dunbrody Kiss. I don’t remember much about it since he and DS were who ate it. Bro ordered something that had a raspberry meringue base which he ate most of since it was fairly light. The Bread and Butter pudding was the best thing I had at that restaurant this night. If you like butter (I do), it’s awesome as the butterscotch sauce has amazing flavor. I couldn’t finish the whole serving, so Bro polished it off for me. He loved its flavor too.

During our meal, two gentleman performed Irish folk songs. A young lady did get up on the table next to us and danced. She was pretty cool because she made her own music with her tapping feet. But all in all, we were quite disappointed in our meals at RR. We dubbed it “Gaggin Road” because the food just wasn’t good.

This made it two nights in a row where we were not happy with our dinners. Last year, we didn’t have one bad meal our entire trip. I was worried walking out of there that all our meals would be as awful, and as a result, I’d never get DH to do a bounceback. Fortunately, these were the only two lousy meals of the trip. (Food-wise, the trip picked up considerably after this meal. Phew!)

We wandered around Downtown after dinner. It was a Monday night, and by far, the most quiet I have ever seen it there. There were so few people around, it was almost eerie. We tried to find the Pick-A-Pearl stand, but the structure I believe it was in was closed. We went into Basin, so I could finish looking at their products. As you may recall, the previous evening I was in the GF one very briefly before being called to wait in front of the castle wallpaper. At the DD Basin, I sniffed nearly every soap, but I was not impressed by any of the fragrances, so I didn’t buy anything. We weren’t wowed by anything in the Disney store either, and they were closing up for the night anyhow, so we headed back to Pop in Bro’s van.

Back at the resort, we changed into bathing suits. Bro and DS went swimming in the bowling pin pool. DH and I headed over to Petals where I had another awesome mango mojito. Boy, could I use one of those now!

 

[JerseyJanice]

As I mentioned earlier, DS made me promise I would ride Expedition Everest this trip so we headed to AK early in the morning. The previous day of rest did us a world of good, and we arrived at AK ready to conquer EE. At the entrance into the park, DH bought himself a pair of sunglasses since he forgot to bring a pair from New Jersey. While he was picking them out, Bro went to a coffee cart for some java. They wouldn’t take a snack credit for it (I guess it wasn’t a Disney cart) and that was fine with Bro since it was genuine brewed coffee.

We went to see the Festival of the Lion King show first. I must say that this is one of my favorite shows in WDW. You just have to feel fantastic after seeing it. We headed to the Safari with the intention of getting Fastpasses, but it was a walk-on, so that’s what we did. As usual, the Safari was awesome. It’s one of those things you can do over and over since it’s always different based on the animals you see and the delivery of the driver you get.

We went into the Pangani trails after the Safari. Most of us enjoyed this exhibit, but it made DH feel impatient. I don’t know why, it’s not like he had anything he wanted to do, but that’s the NJ blood in him. We’re busy, busy, busy up here, you know. Can’t waste time looking at animal exhibits!

We saw It’s Tough to Be a Bug, then headed to Asia, so I could get EE done before eating lunch. I was scared senseless, but I promised DS and knew that no one had died on that ride yet, so I was determined to do it. The line was not long and the queue was interesting. I didn’t quite enjoy it, though, because of the fear I was feeling. DS wanted to ride next to me so he could witness my terror up close. Why scaring the life out of his mother is so entertaining to him, I don’t know. He was the same way down the shore this summer with making me go on Moby Dick.

Well, I survived EE, and dare I say it? I actually kind of liked the ride. I would even ride it again on another trip. It was no where near as frightening I thought it would be. For one thing, it moves very quickly. I was expecting to be tortured by some slow-moving parts, but the whole ride goes at a fast clip. I was worried that my fear of heights would bother me, but the track felt sheltered in most places, so that wasn’t an issue. I was really anxious about the backwards part, but that was so brief and wonderfully cooling, I didn’t mind it at all. The worst part was the big drop, but that was over so quickly, I was fine with it.

Don’t be thinking that EE will turn me into a thrill-seeker. No, I will never be that, but I can handle Everest. It was fun and I will do it again. So I have to say it—if I can handle EE, anyone can.

By then, we were all ready for lunch. I wanted to try the Yak and Yeti Café, but Bro and DS were put out by it being outdoors. They wanted to eat in air conditioning so I suggested we go to Restaurantosaurus. DH was wanting a frozen drink at this point. He had spotted a bar outside the Safari that he wanted to go into, but I steered him away, thinking for some crazy reason that the Y&Y Café was indoors. I got an Emperor’s Margarita and he got??? I don’t remember. Bro ordered a soda and DS got a bag of Lay’s barbecue flavor potato chips. Interesting—Coke products dominate WDW, but Lay’s is the brand of chips they seem to sell everywhere. Unless things have changed substantially from my days of working in product development, Lay’s and Pepsi are hand-in-glove so it surprised me to see Lay’s potato chips for sale at the World.

We found a table near a fountain in the back of the Y&Y seating area. It was a pleasant place to sit, and I was thinking we should get lunch there. However, shortly after we settled in, a bunch of birds started begging DS for chips, so that convinced me we didn’t want to eat lunch there.

We would have ridden Kali Rapids before heading to the Dinosaur area, but it was a 35 minute wait and Bro didn’t want to get wet, so we skipped it. We went over the green bridge into Dino Land and hit the restaurant place where everyone ordered bacon cheeseburgers. Really, I should have split one of these meals with DS since he barely touched his.

Small rant—when I order this meal, it’s because I love the sautéed mushrooms and other toppings offered at WDW. I do not like the whole wheat buns though. They do not taste very good, and I fail to see how using “whole wheat” buns can make two big burger patties with cheese and bacon more healthy. I would personally like to see WDW cut this sandwich back to one patty and use regular sesame seed hamburger buns. It would be better all the way around IMO.

We rode Dinosaur after lunch. One thing I learned on our 2/08 trip is to take my glasses off on rough rides. I am horribly near-sighted, but I enjoy myself more when I’m not anxious about losing my glasses. I saw plenty on this ride—it is pretty dark—and really enjoyed it.

On the walk over to DinoLand, we passed the theatre for the Nemo show. I hadn’t heard much about this show, so figured it might be decent and that’s where we headed after lunch. Back in 2000, DH, DS and I saw a Tarzan show on this site that we really enjoyed. I was surprised to see that the theatre has since been enclosed. It was open-air in 2000, now it’s indoors and air-conditioned so I thought that was an improvement.

The show itself was visually stunning and it was nice to sit in A.C., but man, what a stupid show! The music is horrible, and the storyline is ridiculous. I guess it’s an abbreviated version of the Nemo movie, which I must admit I’ve never sat through entirely. As bad as I thought it was, DH really hated it. Even DS had to admit it was totally lame.

We had enough of Animal Kingdom after that, but I did ask to exit through the Rainforest Café so we could look around. I don’t know why, but I seem to recall seeing a big waterfall there in 1999. Either my recollection is faulty or they have since changed it. There is no huge waterfall out there—just a small one. I noticed some clearance racks on the way through the gift shop and found a nice shirt for myself at only $12.99. DH insisted on paying for it too. Once in a while, he can be pretty sweet.

Our dinner ADR that night was at the Cape May Café. In between AK and going there, we got a swim in before a thunderstorm came through to cool things down. The air after a storm in Central Florida is so refreshing!

Bro parked at the Beach Club and we entered the resort by walking over a little bridge. Have I mentioned that I intend to stay there one day? I believe I have—I’m always impressed by the place and love that it’s next door to the World Showcase.

The line to check into the restaurant was huge. There was a guy at the front of the line who had a beef with the folks at the podium and was arguing with them for some time. I don’t understand why someone didn’t pull him to the side to settle whatever his problem was. After a long wait just to check in and get a beeper, I feared it would take a while before we were seated. DH and Bro plopped into lobby chairs to wait, but DS was on the hunt for pins, so he and I headed over to the gift shop. Interesting that it has a food counter on one side of the shop. That must be a nice convenience for their guests, although it’s hardly Pop’s food court.

We were beeped in a few minutes. It wasn’t a bad wait at all despite how busy it looked in the lobby. We ate dinner here in 2/08 and greatly enjoyed it. Happily, it was just as wonderful tonight, although it didn’t have prime rib either. I sampled the tomato bisque soup du jour and loved it. Ah, yes! Finally a soup worthy of my WDW soup memories. I had to have some clam chowder too and that was as yummy as I remembered it to be.

Everything we tried here was delicious. My husband was very happy and that was a relief. I’d been raving to him about our free food in 2008, and finally, we were at a good buffet. The fish du jour was a salmon baked in teriyaki sauce—and let me tell you—it was one of the most tasty salmon dishes I’ve ever eaten. It was scrumptious. I’ve just about given up on salmon because I’ve had it too many times were it was outright nasty. But this dish, yummy—if only all salmon were that good!

Even the salads here are excellent. They have a wonderful Caesar and something called “citrus salad” which is a tossed green salad with radicchio, endive and toasted almond slices in a citrus vinigarette. I was also pleased to see my DS eat well here. Because of the heat and the excitement, his appetite took a dive since the day we arrived and ate at Chefs de France. Here, he could not get enough mussels (which he enjoyed with tomato butter) and the barbecued ribs.

When it was time for dessert, we ordered coffees that were unfortunately that awful Disney-Nescafe slop. Sigh! The desserts themselves were awesome though. I loved the tiny key lime pies especially.

Following a stroll around the Beach Club grounds to get our digestion going, we headed back to Pop for our usual night time swim and Petals night cap.

 

[JerseyJanice]

This day was originally planned as a rest day, but since we changed everything around, here we were on our way to DHS. Between our 08 experience and everything I read on the boards, we knew that we had to go directly to Toy Story Mania. The Fastpass return time was late afternoon, but the standby line was only 40 minutes, so we jumped on that.

When we first got on the line, there was a woman and a boy around DS’s age in front of us, along with two men and two toddlers. I don’t know what happened to the woman and the boy, but they left even though it appeared that they were with the guys and the toddlers. The little girl with them had no shoes on, so I assumed the woman who walked away had them. They waited with us throughout the snaking queues and the kids were not very happy. Those babies fussed, cried and whined almost the whole time. I’m not saying it bothered us. When you live where we do, you get very good at tuning out noise. Some of the child haters I see posting on-line would have been ripping their hair out, though, if they were there.

Strangely enough, once we got up to the point in the line when you go up the stairs, the guys and the toddlers got off the line. Did it make sense for them to wait all that time with the kids whimpering non-stop just to get off the line without riding? Heck, no! I guess they left to find the woman, the boy and the baby’s shoes. It’s my own hang-up, I’m sure, but I can’t stand seeing barefoot kids in public. The ground and floors are so dirty, I get skeeved. I swear I found it more annoying to look at her bare feet than hear her whine for a half-hour.

I just love busting my son about rides like TSM. I brag to him that I’m going to score much higher than his, which, of course, is something I can’t do. He argues with me as if I even have a chance. LOL!

TSM was fun enough, but DH didn’t see why it’s such a big deal. Said it was a “baby ride.” I explained to him that it’s the type of thing the whole family can do and that’s why it’s so popular.

Following TSM, we saw the Walt Disney One Man exhibit and movie. That was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be. DS loved looking at all the models. I must say this was educational to him. He really read and studied everything there. He might be an Imagineer in the works as he has great admiration for their work and creativity.

We saw the American Idol Experience next. What a hoot! The judges must have a bunch of “stock comments” that they dole out as they see fit. The male judge plays a Simon Cowell type character and insults them. When he commented on the second contestant, Bro yelled out at him. “No! No! No! Are you kidding?!?!” DS and I nearly fell out of our chairs laughing at him. Even the judges were cracking up. It was so much fun, we considered going back for the finale show of the day (but didn’t find time).

A small gift shop was at the exit of the show where DH found a T-shirt he liked on clearance for a mere $6.99. The front has an American Idol logo and the back says “Vote for Me.” He bought one for himself and another for a coworker.

We were hungry and headed over to Pizza Planet for lunch. I’m not a fan of Disney pizza overall, but the pizza meals we got here were decent. For dessert, three of us ordered Mickey Head Krispie Treats that I stowed in my tote bag. They were a nice switch from the generic chocolate chip cookie that we got everywhere else.

Déjà vu from 2000, DH started ranting that he wanted to go on a ride and not see another show. What a pain he can be! We had queued up for the Backlot Tour since the last time we did it was in 2000, but he complained until we got off the line and headed over to the Rock and Rollercoaster. I was really mad at him for being so overbearing, but it was easier to give in than argue with him.

The stand-by line for RnR was listed as 15 minutes, so they went on and I waited for them in the gift shop. No seating, but at least it was air conditioned. I didn’t time them, but it seemed a lot longer than 15 minutes. As it turned out, they told me that the queue was stopped right before they were supposed to get on so that someone in a wheelchair could be loaded into the ride vehicle. That explained why it took them so long to exit.

From there, they wanted to do the Tower of Terror, which is one ride I will never do. RnR, I might try one day. TOT, never. DS was determined to do it because he chickened out of it last year and really wanted to conquer his fear. Bro had done it once before and it really scared him, but he was willing to try it another time. My whacky husband was fearless about it.

I probably should have tried to time it so that I could see the Beauty and the Beast show while they went on TOT, but instead, we walked over to the food court area that’s outdoors. DS and Bro decided to get frozen Cokes while DH and I each got a beer. After their liquid refreshment, they were primed and ready to tackle TOT. I sat at a table there and got another beer then I called a friend while waiting for them to exit. I love my cell phone.

They got off the ride very excited. DS loved it! Said it was intense and frightening, but loads of fun. DH was ready for an adult beverage at this point so I suggested that we find the “Tune In Lounge” I had read about on-line and get a cocktail. Here is when I got a little annoyed with Bro. He’s not much of a drinker. I know he wanted to go on Star Tours and the Backlot Tour so I can not figure out why he didn’t ask to take DS and do those things so DH and I could enjoy drinks together. For whatever reason, he acted like he had to stay alongside DH and me the whole trip.

Anyway, the Tune In Lounge was terrific. It was wonderfully air-conditioned and I loved the décor. It had some items that were in my house growing up and the TVs were hysterical. The barmaid was a lady with a great Midwestern accent. Her name was Karen or something like that. She was a hoot! She kept making funny remarks about her coworker to us.

Bro, DH and myself each ordered a drink while DS rested in the “living room” and watched some TV. I had a grand margarita or something like that. DH wanted another drink, so I suggested to Bro that he take DS to do Star Tours so we could have another round. He do did that, but apparently ran right back to us the split second they got off the ride. I doubt they were gone 10 minutes in total. We weren’t up for walking around in the heat of the Studios anymore, so we left the park after finishing our drinks to go for a swim and a rest before dinner.

We had an Ohana ADR at 8:50—later than I would have liked, but it’s a difficult ADR to get. I thought we could try to show up earlier, but it turned out that we weren’t ready much earlier. It looked quite crowded in the restaurant when we arrived around 9:00, but Wishes was going off, so I figured that a lot of patrons were staying in their seats until the fireworks were over. Of course, I was right and we were seated before we even had a chance to order a drink at the bar.

We love Ohana. We’ve had excellent meals there throughout the years. No matter how they’ve tweaked their menu over time, we’ve always enjoyed the food. The atmosphere reminds me and Bro of Chan’s Dragon Inn, a Polynesian restaurant our parents took us to back in the ‘70’s. In those days, there were a lot of those “Polynesian” restaurants in North Jersey. They are mostly gone now, so Ohana is a sweet, sentimental trip to the past for us.

I ordered a Lapu-Lapu and DH got a Zombie or Mai-Tai or some such concoction. Back in the day when you went to that type of restaurant, they would have funny phrases on the drink menu to describe the fancy drinks. Funny because the English was poor and you could interpret the words more than one way. Well, I noticed this visit that Ohana has similar phrasing on its drink menu. I love it! Someone who works at Ohana must have dined at a Dragon Inn back in the ‘70’s. (“Watch out, sailor! Hurricane Suzie will blow you.” LOL!)

I love the coconut bread they serve. It’s so unique and good even without butter, although the whipped butter they served with it was very nice. Prior to this trip, I don’t recall butter being so different everywhere at the World. Every restaurant served a different type, and a few places didn’t even have any real butter, which I found odd.

The salad is another yummy thing here and my DS loves it. Between the four of us, we polished off the whole bowl. We enjoyed the wings and the dumplings, and then came the meat skewers. The shrimp skewer they brought the first time was burnt. Bro complained to the server about that, and he made sure to bring a fresh skewer cooked the right way. As usual, the steak was awesome, and everything is better dunked in one of the sauces they bring you. I thought the noodles were bland, but DS liked them, so I guess they’re O.K. I even like the veggies here.

And as good as all Ohana food is, nothing beats their bread pudding dessert. Oh, my, my! It is a food for the gods. So incredible! This was a happy meal, the previous night’s Cape May dinner was great, so we were back on track with the food.

We wanted to take a walk around the Polynesian grounds before heading back to Pop, but it was raining quite a bit. Back at Pop, the rain cleared up and we again hit the pools and Petals. Oh, those yummy mojitos!

 

[JerseyJanice]

We needed to do laundry, so DH and I got up early and brought two bags of it down to the laundromat next to the Bowling Pin pool. We met a nice guy from Canada who gave us detergent. He bought a regular sized bottle of detergent at Walmart and wouldn’t be able to bring it back on the plane anyway, so he was offering it to anyone there who needed it. Doing the laundry turned out to be fun because we met such nice fellow guests there.

We went back to the Magic Kingdom this day because I wanted to see Spectro Magic that night. Last year, we were forced to miss a few ADRs then scrambled to use our TS credits. So this year, I booked some extra ADRs and one of those was for lunch this day at the Crystal Palace. We had two extra TS credits from DS not ordering meals at Chefs and Gaggin Road, so we decided to keep the CP reservation.

The CM who checked us in was not too swift. Somehow, her eyes weren’t seeing our name on her computer screen, but we were there and she finally spotted it after DH, DS and I pointed it out to her about 15 times. Phew! We waited on the porch for a few minutes. DS and Bro got some beautiful pictures of the castle there.

I love this place. I would have booked it for a dinner, but DH loves his evening cocktails so much, I chose a lunch instead. We got a nice table alongside a window that faced the same beautiful castle view we saw on the porch. Our waiter was a sweet man who brought us a plate of lemons for our iced teas. The atmosphere is so pleasant here with all the windows that let in the sunlight. The characters are adorable and we got some sweet shots of them with DS and me.

The food here was mostly excellent. They offered some very nice composed salads and interesting side dishes. The carving station had flank steak and pork loin. The steak was fabulous—the best beef dish we had at any buffet this trip. A veal demi-glace was served as a gravy for it, plus they had some nice horseradish cream. Desserts were very good—they had lemon squares which are some of my favorite things. I also had a yummy chocolate walnut square.

Overall, we loved this meal and the restaurant. It is so beautiful in there; even the restrooms are lovely. I did have two small issues that I’ll mention.

One is that when we had dinner here in 2000, they served the most awesome soup. It was that good that I can remember it to this day. It was called “Sweet White Onion” soup. It was a cream soup that was sweet and piquant (hot) at the same time. The soups we ate at the Disney buffets in our 2008 trip were all spectacular. So I went on this trip expecting to be “wowed” again by the buffet soups. Unfortunately, aside from the soups at Cape May Café, the soups were lousy this trip. The Crystal Palace offered a turkey noodle and a cream of spinach. I’m not a big fan of turkey noodle any time, so I tried the spinach. Well, I’m sorry to say it was awful. It was full of un-dissolved chunks of roux and thickened into a glob as it cooled in the bowl.

The other issue was the attitude of the flank steak carver. She cut my slices from the end of the steak and I didn’t want them. When I make flank steak at home, I slice off the ends and feed them to my dog. I don’t eat the ends, and I don’t expect my family to eat them either. So I asked the carver not to give me the ends and boy did she cop a ‘tude! I mean, she was really annoyed and made a snide remark or two about it as she pulled the end slices away. What did she expect me to do? Take the ends and leave them on my dish for the waiter to throw out?

One thing that I think may be worth noting—because no alcohol is served in the Magic Kingdom, you can’t have anything other than the tip to pay at the end of this meal. Everything at this restaurant is covered by the DDP, so it was the most economical TS meal we had this trip. (And yes, I know you don’t have to order drinks, but try telling my husband that!)

After lunch, we headed over to Frontierland to ride Splash Mountain where we got soaked. DH and DS did Big Thunder. I wasn’t riding that one again! Bro and I relaxed near the smoking section while waiting for them. After that, we went to the Hall of Presidents, which was an attraction I put on my “must do” list for this trip. I hadn’t been to it since 1976! It did not disappoint, and I was very pleased to see what a great job they did with the Obama animatron.

When we came out, the area was all roped off for the parade, so we stayed put and watched it. I wish I had an appetite because I wanted to have a Dole Whip float sometime this trip, but I was too full. Following the parade, we went on the Haunted Mansion, then on Philharmagic. It was really crowded in Fantasyland at that point. We were toying with the idea of going to Tomorrowland to do some stuff there, but DH was whining about his feet and wanting an adult beverage. I suggested we take the monorail to the Contemporary and go for cocktails at the Outer Rim Lounge.

Bro and DS went along with the plan because DS wanted to see their big gift shop. When we got to the Outer Rim, we sat in big club chairs next to windows that faced out to Bay Lake and the Contemporary’s pool area. Bro ordered a melon ball, I chose a blackberry mojito, and DH got his usual sangria. My drink was interesting and refreshing with fresh blackberries muddled in it, but the mango mojito’s from Petals were way better. After Bro had his drink, he and DS went to the arcade. DH and I moved over to the bar where I ordered a Blue Moon. I love drinking that beer with an orange slice when I’m out.

The bartender here was a hoot! He showed us magic tricks, and both he and the nice waitress we had over by the big chairs talked quite a bit to us. A couple of guys sat down to have a drink while waiting for their table in Chef Mickey’s. They were from Rockland County, New York and in the construction business, so DH bonded with them. Bro and DS came back from the arcade with some junky prizes they won, including a wire snake in a can. I checked in for our Chef Mickey ADR and got a beeper. We were about to order more drinks when our beeper went off, so we figured we’d order drinks at our table.

As it always is, Chef Mickey’s was awesome. No prime rib and I didn’t love the roast beef they did offer, but there were plenty of tasty things to choose. The two times we ate there in 2008 Chef Mickey’s soup of the day was fantastic, but tonight it was not a good one--minestrone. Not a favorite at home, but I tried it anyway and didn’t care for it. How I wished it were the yummy ham-and-leek they served in 2/08 or the smoked tomato bisque from 8/08.

At the carving station, as I mentioned, the beef was not prime rib. Whatever kind of roast beef it was, it was more tender than the impossible-to-cut meat 1900 PF served, but nowhere near as tasty as the flank steak at the Crystal Palace. Chef M’s other meat that night was leg of lamb so I skipped it—just not a favorite of mine. The mashed potatoes were awesome as usual. My son ate a big plate of them. The salad bar is decent here. It’s not huge, but what they have is fresh and tasty. The desserts are always great here. DS made a sundae out of a dab of ice cream and bowl full of candy. LOL!

Here was another WDW restaurant that served awesome key lime tartlets. It seems like the WDW chefs hook onto a favorite dessert for a while and serve different versions all over the resort. This trip, that favorite would be the key lime tarts. Back in 2008, bread pudding seemed to be “it.” In 2000, it was crème brulee everywhere.

After dinner, we took the monorail back to the MK. We had hoped to do some rides in Tomorrowland, but the park was packed wall-to-wall with people waiting for Spectromagic. I knew if we managed to get to Tomorrowland, we’d never get back into the crowd for Spectro, so we found a spot on Main Street and hung out there to wait for the parade.

The MK was all decorated for Halloween since the following night would be the first MNSSHP of the year. As part of that, the second floor windows on Main Street had adorable jack o’lanterns all lit up. We watched Spectro and enjoyed it although the park seemed incredibly crowded. After Spectro, we walked over toward the rose garden to see Wishes. We went all the way down to an area that had seating on the water. It was a pleasant spot, but did not have the best view of the fireworks as they appeared to be all on the right side of the Castle.

Exiting the park, we saw that the express monorail, which we needed to take back to the TTC to get the van, was packed with people. It looked like it would take several trains to accommodate the crowd. Bro noticed that the resort monorail was nearly empty so we ran for that. Lo and behold, we were on the first train that pulled up. Announcements were being made that there was some kind of delay on the Express track, so we were very lucky to get onto the train when we did.

Back at Pop, we did our usual change into bathing suits and headed over to the Hippie Dippy Pool. DH bought us each a drink during last call while I attempted to get a snack for DS in the food court or gift shop. Both closed at 12 and we couldn’t get anything. That is the one thing I really hate at WDW resorts. I wish they’d keep at least the gift shop open later than midnight with some grab-and-go foods available. I had plenty of stuff to eat in the room, so we took our drinks and went there. I was changing in the bathroom when I heard a terrible scream, then a whole lot of cussing from my DH. DS was fooling around and accidentally shot DH in the eye with the snake-in-a-can he won at the Contemporary arcade.

What a terrible mess! DH’s eye swelled up immediately and got all bloodshot and was oozing. Not a pretty sight at all. Bro wanted to take him to the ER. DS was crying; that poor kid felt so bad! He never intended to hit his father in the eye. He was just joking around and thought it would only startle DH. The last thing he wanted to hurt (or blind) his dad.

DH wanted to see how it would look and feel in the morning, so we went to bed. I caught DS praying as he lay in bed. Poor thing was probably asking God that his father not be blinded in that eye.

 

[JerseyJanice]

DH and I woke up very early. His eye looked pretty bad and hurt him a lot. I called the front desk to see if they had a nurse who could see him. They gave me some information on a service called CentraCare and transferred me to CC where I got more info on their hours and whether they’d take our insurance. Bro would drive DH there if he wanted to go, but he said no, he’d prefer to just take it easy and stay out of the sun to see if it got better on its own. I knew they had hours the next day (Saturday of Labor Day weekend) because I asked when I called, so I let it be.

Our plans for the day were to be at Epcot to take advantage of PM EMH and we had a 5:30 ADR at the Coral Reef. So we decided to stay at the resort all day, then go to Epcot for dinner and hang out there later. We did only the World Showcase on our arrival day and planned to do Future World this day, so we figured we do some of FW that night and make the following day another Epcot day. Plans for Saturday were loose anyhow, so it all worked out.

Since we woke up so early, we were hungry for breakfast. DS and I got Pop waffles with bacon. My waffle was delicious. Very fresh and malty-tasting, but the bacon was not very good. I don’t know how bacon can be sliced thinner than that; it was nearly transparent.

We spent the day at the resort, mainly at the pool. For lunch, I got the chicken, salad and breadstick combo. DH got the chicken with pasta again, and of course, DS got a bacon double cheeseburger that he didn’t eat. I forget what Bro got, but I must say that each time we got Pop’s chicken, it was delicious. Very tasty and not at all dry.

After a pleasant day of camping out at a table near the Hippie Dippy pool, we showered and got off to Epcot for our Coral Reef dinner. DH’s eye had improved a great deal over the course of the day. It wasn’t fully healed, but it was worlds better than it was the night before. Phew! My son was heartbroken over the whole incident. He is a gentle boy and loves his daddy dearly.

When we got to Epcot’s parking lot, the attendants steered us all the way over to one side. We were close distance-wise to the entrance, but far off to the side, if that makes sense. It was annoying. The parking lot wasn’t crowded and I don’t think it’s fair of Disney to expect its guests to hike more in case guests arrive later. Because we were off to one side, we got to see Epcot’s Kennel as we made our way to the entrance. A few people were there walking their dogs so of course we thought of our Max and wished he were there. We do love our doggie and missed him.

It was close to our ADR time then, so we went straight to the Coral Reef, which is off to one side of the Living Seas pavilion. We checked in and I managed to get a seat on a banquette in the waiting area. The guys roved around a bit, then DH and DS wanted to use the restroom. The one inside the restaurant was closed so they had to go outside and use the one in the Seas.

The Coral Reef waiting area is a restful, yet colorful place with cool lighting fixtures. They’re colored-glass tentacles, dangling down about 6 inches from the ceiling. I want these if we ever finish our basement.

We were called for our table after about 20 minutes. They tried to seat us in a horrible table at first. It was a banquette facing to the aquarium just inside the entrance. Two rickety tables were placed there, so if we took it, we’d all be sitting looking at the fish and not each other. Bro spoke right up and said it wouldn’t be acceptable. Fortunately, they were very gracious about it (unlike the nasty witch over in Park Fare), and took us down to the next level to a normal table.

Our waiter was nice enough, but kind of a drip. He pretty much had the personality of a sea sponge (NOT a Spongebob sea sponge, though—that we would have liked). DH’s eye was bothering him and DS was feeling bad about it, so we weren’t exactly a happy group to start with. Of course, all the guys ordered steak. They ordered it everywhere we went this trip. I guess that’s what men do on vacation. We sure as heck don’t eat steak every night at home. I choose the fish of the day, which was grouper, served over scallop risotto.

The guys loved their steaks, but I was so-so on my meal. There wasn’t anything precisely wrong with it; the fish itself just didn’t have much flavor. As usual, DH and I got cocktails. I have no recollection now of what I got, so I guess it wasn’t anything fabulous. Desserts were listed on a separate menu. I ordered the Bailey’s mousse, Bro and DH both got the chocolate wave, and DS ordered the butterscotch crème brulee because he liked the crème brulee at Chefs de France so much. I tasted everyone’s else choice, and they were all delicious. I can’t even say which one was my favorite. Desserts were really good everywhere, but totally outstanding at the Coral Reef.

One wrinkle here--DS complained about being tired. He didn’t sleep well the night before because he was so upset over injuring his father. He asked to try a cup of coffee, so we ordered him one, and the rest of us got coffees too. When the bill came, the waiter charged us for two cups of coffee at $2 a piece. Everywhere else we dined that week, we weren’t charged for any soft drinks that we ordered. At most meals, Bro ordered a soda or iced tea, then got coffee with dessert. I understood the waiter’s reasoning was that DS and Bro both had sodas with dinner, then coffee, but honestly, this was the first (and only) time of the trip when we charged for soft drinks. So between the waiter’s drippy personality and the coffee charge, we went to the low end on the tip scale here.

When we got outside, it was pitch dark already. DS had never seen Honey, I Shrunk, so we headed there next. We had to wait a while to get into the theatre, so it took more time than I would have liked since I wanted to see Illuminations.

It was wall-to-wall people trying to make our way to the Lagoon for Illuminations. Wow! What a crowd! It was as bad as it was in the MK the previous night for Spectro and Wishes. We didn’t get a great spot as the show started as soon as we got into the World Showcase. Oh, well! We did have a great view when we were there the first night of our trip, so I dealt with it.

After the show, we headed over to Test Track and got on the stand-by line. The wait was about a half-hour. Ride chicken that I am, I find this attraction very thrilling. Bro wanted to check out the cars in the gift shop at the exit so we hung out there a while. DS was exhausted, so we decided to head back to Pop. It was a bummer because the wait for Soarin’ was minimal, but we’d be back the next day, so no biggie.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Since our plans had changed, I called WDW Dining when I got up to find us a dinner ADR. I had some good choices—England, Italy, Japan, and Mexico. For the heck of it, I did ask about Canada, but of course, there was nothing available. I couldn’t convince anyone to try Italy since there is so much good Italian food where we live. Bro and DS really wanted Japan, but I wasn’t up for it. Japanese desserts sound horrible, and I wasn’t in the mood to share a table with strangers. So we chose the San Angel Inn in Mexico. DH and I always wanted to eat there, and now we’d have the chance.

We parked near to where we were the previous night, so we passed the doggies again. We love dogs and got to pet a beautiful animal who was out with her owners. I don't know what breed she was, but she looked like a tiny Samoyed.

DS was anxious to do Mission Space, which I am terrified to try because I get claustrophobic. He keeps trying to talk me into it, but I don’t think it’s for me. They headed there after giving me their park passes so I could get us Fastpasses for Soarin’. I also wanted to check out what the deal was for the free photo with a Chase Disney card.

As I was getting our Soarin’ FPs, I took a look at the Sunshine Seasons food court. I had read such wonderful things about it, I wanted to see what they were offering. I must say I was very impressed. At the Asian station, they were cooking something in a huge wok. The pork chops looked right up my caveman husband’s alley. I saw the bakery counter and that sealed it—this is where we were having lunch. I think Bro wanted to try something in the World Showcase, but all the CS there is outdoors, and it was so hot out. Not only did the food look awesome in the Land, but it had A/C.

On the way back to Mission Space, I got the story on the photo. We had to go into one of the Innovention buildings and look for a fire truck. We’d get a Photopass tag, pose for a picture with a character near the fire truck, then go to the camera store at the park entrance and pick out our photo as they do take a few shots.

Even after doing all that, the guys still weren’t off MS. To stay out of the heat, I waited for them in the gift shop at the exit. When we met up, I told them we were eating at the Land. None of them wanted to, but I told them they’d have to see the food to be believers. Our Soarin’ FP time would be in an hour, so I thought it was perfect. We’d have lunch, then go on Soarin’ right there.

Just as I expected, they were impressed by the look of the food offerings in the Land. DH got the pork chop. I don’t know exactly what all his choices were for side dishes, but he got some yellow rice and mashed potatoes with it. (Yes, two starches—I told you he’s a caveman!) Bro and DS both got Asian food. DS got the sweet-and-sour chicken, and Bro got the ginger beef. Both got fried rice and stir-fried veggies for side dishes. I was torn between ordering the seared tuna salad and the deli sandwich. No one seemed to be ordering the tuna so I could get a good look at it, so I went with the ham and salami sandwich. It was huge and came with a side of potato salad that wasn’t very good since the potatoes were undercooked. The sandwich itself was great, though.

The dessert counter was unreal! So many awesome choices that looked gorgeous! I couldn’t decide between the strawberry shortcake or crème brulee. Bro took the shortcake, so I figured I’d get a bite of his and then picked the brulee. DH got the Butterfinger cheesecake, and DS took the chocolate mousse cake.

Everything we ate here was very, very good, except for my potato salad. The portions were very generous too. If I come back to WDW without a meal plan, this where I’m eating on the cheap. I highly recommend it.

After lunch, we cashed in our Soarin’ FPs and enjoyed that attraction. It’s one of my favorites because it’s totally my speed. I just love all the scents they pipe in. Delightful! After that, we went for our photo at the fire truck and had shots taken with Pluto. I don’t know if they have other characters at other times, but Pluto is who we got. The kiosk where you sign up for the Kim Possible Mission is in the same building and seeing the neat effect in Japan on our first day, I wanted to try it with DS. We signed up and heard the CM’s spiel, but the problem is that to start it, we’d have to hike quickly over to Norway. DH was bugging me about getting an adult beverage at this point, and in hindsight, we should have went to Norway and got into Kim Possible, then hit the tequila bar in Mexico.

Instead, we went to the opposite side of the World Showcase. I had read about the English pub in the U.K. and thought it might be like the Tune-In Lounge, which would make DH very happy. This was another time when Bro could have/should have taken DS off on his own. He has no kids of his own, and at his age, isn’t likely to, so why not enjoy the company of his youngest nephew? I’ll say this, too, obviously being his mother, I’m partial, but I so think DS is a delightful kid to spend time with. He really has a great personality. He’s rarely bratty and never hyper or annoying. In fact if he gets bratty, he only does that with DH or me. He’s always an angel to extended family. So honestly, I don’t get why Bro wouldn’t actually seek out one-on-one time with the child.

Anyway, we went into the Pub and it was packed! Worse, there is no seating at the actual bar. They have booths and tables around the room, but no bar stools. This was no Tune-In Lounge. I could tell DH was completely annoyed so we stepped back outside to figure out what to do. We noticed seating in an area behind a beer kiosk. Obviously, it wasn’t air-conditioned, but it was breezy near the water. I suggested Bro and DS go to see the movie in Canada. I really wanted to see it myself, but I wanted to keep the peace with DH so they went to the movie while DH and I got beer and sat in the shade next to the water.

As they did the previous day, those two ran back to us the split second after the film ended. We heard the Japanese drumming girls in the distance and I remembered my Pick-A-Pearl, so we headed to Japan. Along the way, we stopped at a drink kiosk in Morocco. I got a lime flavored frozen concoction that was very good. I don’t know how we missed this spot the previous day we toured the World Showcase. I forget which drink DH got, but he loved his too. These were very good for machine-made frozen drinks, better than the famous slushies in France. You definitely get more.

In Japan, Bro and DS got kaki-gori’s again. We watched those wonderful drummers again. Bro filmed them and said he was going to try to make his footage into a screen saver. Once the drinks and snow cones were consumed, we went into the department store for my Pick-A-Pearl. I wound up with a 7mm golden pearl. I chose to make it into a pendant with a gold bale that has a small crystal at the base. It would take them an hour or so to make the pendant, so we said we’d be back and then we went shopping for a souvenir for my mother-in-law. My in-laws travel a lot and always bring us back souvies, so we wanted to get them something.

I searched Germany and found nothing in our price range. If we wanted to blow a couple hundred bucks, I’m sure she would have loved a cuckoo clock. Heck, I want a cuckoo clock! They don’t do a full Christmas tree anymore, so an ornament wouldn’t do. We walked over to Italy and I found several Murano glass pieces I thought she’d like, but DH balked at that. He didn’t like the corded necklaces because he thought they looked cheap--as if he knows anything about style! Earrings and bracelets wouldn’t work for her for a few reasons, so we didn’t buy anything there. Now that I’m home, I wish I had gotten myself one of those corded pieces. They had a darling animal-print one that I wish I got.

We got my pendant from Japan, then headed to Mexico for our dinner ADR. We were seated quickly and had a wonderful waitress. I don’t recall her name, but she was very sweet and helpful. Drinks--DH got sangria, I got a Dos Equix, DS the usual Sprite, and Bro an iced tea. Of course, DH and Bro ordered the filet mignon. I don’t know why they even looked at menus. Everywhere we went, they ordered the beef dish. This one time I did too, though.

DS said he was hungry, so I let him order a full meal even though I would have liked to save a credit for the next night’s meal at Mama Melrose. He chose the crispy shrimp dish. We were hesitant about this choice because the menu said it was served over “potato relish” and we didn’t know if he’d like that. I thought it was a strange choice as I would have expected rice for such a dish, but let me tell you—it was delicious! The potato relish was similar to a dish of hash browns that we’d get with breakfast at a New Jersey diner. The shrimp itself was awesome. The crispy coating was very tasty. Our filets were very good too, but that shrimp was to-die-for and a generous portion.

For dessert, I ordered the white chocolate mousse with fresh berries, DS and DH both got vanilla ice with Mexican milk caramel sauce, and Bro got some kind of bread pudding with golden raisins. My choice was the stand-out. The mousse itself was a bite of heaven! Totally delicious. It came served in a fried tortilla shell that I was too stuffed to eat. It had raspberries, blackberries and strawberries on top of the mousse. Awesome!

After dinner, I used the restroom and was charmed by the “pump” faucets. A young lady who obviously had been drinking tequila was in the restroom with me. She told me that the tequila bar was a hoot and she appeared to be having much fun. DH observed the tequila bar too and said we should have gone there earlier instead of trying to get into the English Pub.

It was dark out then and we talked about where to watch Illuminations. Bro told me then that he planned to leave after we got to the resort. He wanted to get back home to Tampa and his cat, and I can’t blame him. We were on Day 8 and getting tired. I think he realized too that we used up all but two of our Table Service credits, so he didn’t want to stay and pay for his meal at Mama Melrose the next night.

We wound up seeing Illuminations near Canada. That made it three times this trip we saw this show, which made up for not seeing it at all on the 8/08 trip. We went to the camera shop to pick up our picture. I had to wait on a long line, and DH and I were both struck by the same idea—a photo of us in WDW would be a great souvenir for MIL. We couldn’t use the photo we took in Epcot because Bro was in it, but we figured we’d do the Photopass thing in the Studios the next day and redeem the coupon for a 5 x 7 I got with our travel package. We could buy a nice frame for MIL and that would be her souvenir. We got FIL a golf hat and ball in Pop’s gift shop, so we were all set.

Out at the exit, we ran into some cute dogs, then got back to Pop and helped Bro pack his stuff into his van. He wanted to take his cooler, so DH figured he’d do the old ice in the sink trick for the rest of the beer. Bro had brought a big plastic Rubbermaid storage container and insisted we keep that to use for a make-shift cooler. It actually did the job well.

The previous year, Bro packed up and left while I was at the MK with the kids. He left behind a bunch of things that I took back to New Jersey. He visited NJ in July and I gave him back his stuff then. I wasn’t going through then again, so I made sure he left with everything this trip. We were a little sad to see him go, but I knew everything at Pop was closing at midnight sharp and DH would want to hit Petals, so I was kind of in a hurry to see him off.

 

[JerseyJanice]

We slept very well that night. The room had so much more space with Bro and all his gear gone so it felt relaxing there. We headed out to the Studios on the bus for the first time this trip. DHS is the closest park to Pop, so we got there quickly. DH liked the single bus stop at Pop. When we stayed at Riverside in 2/08, we found the four bus stops there a nightmare. On that trip, we encountered a large number of guests on scooters and wheelchairs. This trip, not so many. I guess if you have the kind of health problems that put you in a scooter or WC, you’d avoid going to WDW in August and September, and go in February instead.

Same as the first day we went to the Studios, we headed straight for Toy Story Mania. We got Fastpasses this time because the return time was an only hour or so later. We missed the Backlot Tour the last couple of times we were at the Studios, so we went there next to make sure we got it in this trip. DS took some good footage with his Flip camera on the tour.

We did TSM, then decided we were hungry. I studied the map to figure out where to eat. We wanted something air-conditioned, but not Pizza Planet again. We went to the Studio Catering Company. DS and DH got their usual bacon double cheeseburger. I ordered the grilled turkey and cheese. I got DS a chocolate chip cookie, and DH and I the marble cheesecake. Everything was pretty good except my sandwich. It was only slightly edible, since it was burnt and the turkey itself was slimey. I really liked the cheesecake and filled up by eating the whole cup of that.

In 8/08, we saw the Lights, Motors, Action Car Show and thought DH might like it, so we caught the next showing of that. They really packed the stadium in! The show seemed to start late because they just kept filling seats. We wound up in seats near the top. I scanned the horizon to figure out our next steps to minimize walking in the heat. I find the Studios to be such a hot park. There’s so much concrete around, the sun just bounces off it, and shade is hard to come by. I spotted the Great Movie Ride’s Asian roof close by, so that’s where we headed after the car show.

We did the Muppets show next, and then DH was ready for a cocktail. Back to the Tune-In Lounge we went. When we got inside, DS complained that he was hot and tired, so he rested in the “living room” while we ordered drinks. Karen the funny barmaid was there again, and she even remembered us. DH got a Bloody Mary that was nearly a salad. It had a cucumber spear, lemons, olives—it looked great. I got a Blue Moon.

While at the bar, I pulled out the park’s map to find a character greeting so we could get a photo taken for MIL’s souvenir. I wondered out loud exactly where we’d find Sorcerer Mickey, and the young lady sitting next to me explained that we should enter the animation store and walk back toward the attraction. She said there were interactive kiosks in there for kids to play with, and we’d find Sorcerer Mickey there. She was wearing a DVC baseball cap so I figured she knew what she was talking about.

We debated on whether to order a second round, so I checked on DS behind me. He had dozed off in one of the living room chairs, so we went ahead and ordered more drinks. About half way through drinking them, he woke up and complained about being in there with nothing to do, so we hurried through the rest of our drinks, than set out to find Sorcerer Mickey. On the way into the park, we had a few Photopass photo’s taken in front of the Sorcerer’s hat, and I made a point of observing where the camera shop was too. MIL would be getting a nice photo; I was determined.

The DVC girl’s advice on where to find the Sorcerer was spot on. DS played at the kiosks while we waited in the line. The photographer got 3 or 4 shots of us with Mickey, and right after we were done, he took a break. We were glad he did that after our photo.

It wasn’t long before our Mama Melrose ADR, so we headed there next. Funny thing was that I didn’t even try for the Fantasmic package. When I called in for my ADRs, the CM just offered it to me. I took it and got excited about it. I was glad DH would be getting some calamari (one of his favorite things) included with our meal. I was also happy about getting the guaranteed seating at the show.

We checked into MM and noticed a lot of people waiting for tables. It was certainly popular. I sat at what looked like a bar; it even had a drink menu. I asked one of the CMs in the area if we could order drinks and the answer was no. That was kind of weird. Where we sat really did look like a bar. A family from Philadelphia sat next to us with beers in hand. We asked where they got them, and they told us the beer was from Pizza Planet. DH went out to get us a round. DS was complaining about being tired again, so I let him lean on me. He felt pretty warm and I started to worry that he might be sick.

DH noticed that people who had arrived later than us were being seated, so he went to the check-in desk to ask about our table. There was some kind of mix-up with our table. They apologized and seated us next. We’d never been here before in any of our previous Disney trips. I liked the décor; they used white Christmas lights to decorate the brick walls. Its look reminded me of an Italian restaurant I know in Greenwich Village.

DS sat on the booth side of our table and put his head down to rest. O.K., now I knew he wasn’t well. It was nothing specific because he wasn’t complaining about anything and didn’t seem to be congested, but for him to be that tired in the middle of the day, I knew something wasn’t right. He is normally a very high-energy kid.

We had a nice young man for our waiter. He explained the dining plan to us, and we ordered a pitcher of sangria and the calamari right away. When he came with the sangria, DH ordered the seafood pasta dish and I ordered the steak with gorgonzola butter. DS squeaked up from his position of laying on the banquette that he wanted regular pasta. I ordered him the child’s meal knowing it would be plenty.

The calamari came out topped with fried onions and peppers. The calamari itself was cut very thin. The coating on it was thicker than the actual meat. NJ is known for its calamari, so I wasn’t expecting it to be as good in Florida, and while it wasn’t, it wasn’t bad at all either. Different, but quite tasty and it was spicy as advertised. We enjoyed the dish and would order it again. The sangria was decent too; a little more tart than usual, but still fruity and refreshing.

When our main dishes came out, I asked for salt and pepper for my steak. I always have to season my meat right before I eat it, even if it was seasoned as it was cooked. This is something I found odd—at the last three restaurants we had dinner at, we had to ask for salt and pepper. This was at the Coral Reef, the San Angel Inn and now Mama Melrose. The waiter had to hunt some down from another table. In NJ restaurants, salt and pepper (at a minimum) is on every single table in every restaurant I can think of. Depending on the place, they might have bottles of ketchup and containers of sugar/sweetener packs. You don’t have to ask for these things. They’re there already. I found this strange in WDW.

Our meals were quite good. I really liked the steak and the polenta cake that came with it. DH was happy with his seafood. I tasted it and thought the sauce it was prepared with was too thick and rich, but DH ate it gladly, so all was good.

DS ate very little of his pasta though. He could have had ice cream for dessert, but said he didn’t want any. I asked him if his throat hurt and he said no, but he did have a headache and wanted to rest on the banquette. DH ordered the tiramisu, and I chose the honey ricotta cheesecake. DH liked his, but let me tell you—that cheesecake was fantastic! Totally delicious. On the menu, it said it came with a blood orange sauce. The “sauce” was more like a swirl decorating plate, yet I could taste it with each bite. It added a tangy contrast to the sweet cake. Yummy!

We don’t order dessert much when dining out at home. We might get one and split it between two or three of us. We ordered desserts this trip because, frankly, they were included. Although we rarely finished them, we enjoyed trying them, and I don’t think there was one dessert we didn’t like. They were all very good with the mousse in Mexican and now this cheesecake being absolutely outstanding. I’d go back to either restaurant just to eat these desserts, they were so delicious.

We dragged our little sleepy head out of there. He perked up when we got outside, and then he and DH decided that they wanted to ride the Rock N Rollercoaster. We walked over there and I noticed some cute shops on the street that leads to RNR. I sent them ahead, telling them I’d meet up with them in the gift shop at RNR’s exit. I wanted to check out the shops.

I looked around a few then ventured into the Candy Cauldron or some such name. We had a lot of snack credits left so I asked at the counter what I could get for them. Basically, it was everything except for their big fancy candy apples. You could get fudge, regular candy apples, lots of assorted chocolates and other things. I got vanilla fudge, a regular candy apple and a hunk of butter crunch candy. Here’s a hint—this store was great for burning up snack credits. Since we were leaving the next day, I figured we could take home whatever we didn’t eat that night.

On the way to the RNR, I noticed a CM checking the yellow Fantasmic tickets you get when you use the dining package. It was at a separate entrance to the Fantasmic stadium so I knew there’s where we’d have to go after RNR. It was getting dark out, so rather than waiting without a seat in the gift shop, I took took one on a bench just outside the shop. I called a friend and chatted a while, then went inside to find my family.

I led them to the separate, special Fantasmic entrance. Some people were trying to enter there, but without the yellow tickets, the CM turned them away. Didn’t we feel like the cat’s meow waltzing through there with our golden tickets? Ha ha!

The previous year, we sat down in the front of the stadium and were amazed at how much better the show is when you’re up close and can see everything. We did the same thing this year and got seats in the second row. I was hoping we’d be sprayed by the mist from the water screens and get cooled off, but there was no breeze tonight, so no cooling mist this year. After a couple of minutes, DS asked for a soda, saying he was very thirsty. DH got all crabby over that, saying that DS should have asked on the way in, so I got up and went to get him one.

There was a huge line for refreshments at the two carts in the main entrance area of the stadium. I got on a line, and everyone around me was complaining because they had only two CMs working the booth. I counted the number of people in front of me and figured that if each person took two minutes to get their order, I’d miss the start of the show that was scheduled in 20 minutes. I got off the line and went to find a soda vendor in the stadium. I found a guy right away and bought a couple of beers while I was at it.

Back at our seats, Mr. Crabby lightened up when I gave him the beer I bought him. The stadium darkened and the show got underway. It was fantastic as usual. When it ended, we noticed CMs standing at the ends of the aisles, garbages in hand, ready to clean up. It was an impressive number of CMs, but I wondered why a few of them couldn’t have been working the refreshment carts before the show. They were on the clock now, right? Really, Disney lost out on cash sales by not properly staffing those carts. The guy on line behind me said it happens all the time.

We went to the camera shop to choose our photo and frame for MIL’s gift. I got on the line for photo’s while DH went to the other side of the store to buy the frame. He got one that had Mickey head cut-outs in the corners that was the same one I would have picked. Of the photo’s we took, I really liked one of us in front of the Sorcerer’s Hat. I looked very good in the shot and I am not at all photogenic—unlike my husband and son who look great in almost photo they take. Unfortunately, the really nice picture also had a stranger’s image prominently to one side, so we wound up taking one from the live Mickey pictures. I didn’t look half as nice in that photo, but we were sure MIL would like it.

At the Pop bus stop, they were having trouble loading a scooter onto a bus. They pulled another bus up next to it and let guests board it. A third bus pulled up behind the wheelchair bus that they were still having problems with. Got to hand it to Disney on how quickly they get those buses back to the resort at the end of the night.

Back in our room, DS laid down on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly. No trip to the pool this night. DH and I stayed up to work on the beers Bro had left behind. We asked him to buy us a couple of cases before we got to Florida, but because DH ran to Petals every night, we still had a lot left. We talked about booking a bounceback trip because of the flyer in the room, and to my surprise, DH said yes! Although I would like to do something different, I figured I had nothing to lose by booking the bounceback. DS will be 14 next year so I feel like our days for Disney trips are numbered.

 

[JerseyJanice]

DS woke me up early, saying that his head was killing him. He felt hot as can be, so I went to the gift shop to buy him some Motrin. Our bill and travel documents were hung on the door outside. If Disney is nothing else, it’s efficient.

We packed up all our stuff, then called Bell Services to help us get it to their storage room. After I called, DH decided he could handle it on his own. I called back to cancel, but they already sent someone. He turned out to be a very pleasant and helpful young man. He made a call from his cell to make sure we were checked in with Continental and took good care of our stuff. DH held onto the Rubbermaid storage container since we still had some beer in it and figured we could have a couple while hanging out to wait for our Magical Express bus at 2:00.

Since DS was feeling a lot better after taking Motrin, we dressed into bathing suits and decided to hang out at the Hippie Dippy pool. We scored a table nearby and DH hit Petals as soon as it opened. I keep writing about Petals, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned that he mostly drank sangria there. They kept single serve bottles of it in their fridge. When he ordered, they poured it over ice and added a little soda and a fruit garnish.

We got lunch from Pop’s food court. DH and I each got the wonderful chicken with alfredo sauce, his with pasta and mine with a salad. DS got another bacon double cheeseburger. On the receipt, it showed that we had used all our meal credits and were down to 5 snack credits so I got 5 small boxes of Minnie/Mickey animal cracker type cookies. It was perfect because I have two coworkers in my small office. One has two young kids, and the other has three young grandchildren. I gave each of them inside a small Disney shopping, as we had amassed a collection of those during the trip.

DH got friendly with a Canadian guy at Petals and offered him the Rubbermaid container as it still had about a 6 pack of beer. Of course, the guy was delighted to take it. DS and I got changed and went to the gift shop to do some last minute souvenir shopping. DS was missing his dog, so we got Max a doggie placemat and a big food bowl. These items are very cute as they have Pluto, Pongo, Lady and the Tramp, and Stitch printed on them.

We got on the Magical Express bus and got back to Orlando airport in what seemed like no time. Like the previous year, I think we could have taken the next bus an hour later and still had plenty of time to catch our flight, but they assign the time—you don’t pick it. And I have read some horror stories on-line about the ME stopping at other resorts on the way and cutting it close.

The flight home was packed to the rafters, but it got to Newark on time. Funny story—there was a large family traveling together. You could tell because they kept switching seats with each other. When we went to baggage claim in Newark, they had the oldest woman in the group waiting right by where the luggage comes out of the chute on its way to the carousel. She used one of those medical canes to stand up—the metal type with four prongs on the bottom. Clearly, she was the grandmother, but they had her waiting to pick up their bags. WTH? When the bags from our plane started coming out, a teenager from her group jumped in front of her, all ready to grab their luggage before it could hit the carousel. Grandma was playing decoy to keep anybody else from taking that spot and getting their bags before this family got theirs. It seemed like a very rude thing to do, but hey--welcome back to Newark, home of the toughest and busiest people on Earth! The weak do not survive here.

I dragged myself to work the next morning, then took the following afternoon off from work to pick Max up from the kennel and take DS to the doctor’s office. His fever worsened after we got home. I feared he had strep throat, but it turned out that he had a bad case of swimmer’s ear that had turned into a raging infection. He missed his first two days of school as a result.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Free Dining is an awesome deal IMO. If you can book value, I don’t think you can get a better deal. Pop is a great resort. It’s well laid out, all of the workers we encountered were really nice, and the food court serves a wide variety of quality food. The grounds and the rooms are very nice and feel new.

Hats off to Disney and Pop for keeping so many people employed in this economy. They have projects going constantly to maintain the resort’s appearance. During our trip, they were refinishing all the Duncan Yo-Yo stairs. Workmen used some kind of machinery (sand blasters, maybe?) to scrape off the outer layers of paint and then repaint them. Landscapers replaced large beds of sod only slightly burnt by the summer sun. Those are two examples; every morning, the pool decks were power-washed too. I was impressed by the dedication of Pop’s staff to keep their resort in tip-top shape.

Housekeeping is awesome. We noticed trams full of housekeepers being brought through a tunnel from where I guess is an employee parking lot. These women were a formidable army of cleaners, and the two assigned to our room were fabulous. We tipped them $5 a day and asked for extra towels nearly everyday for the pool.

We asked for a set of sheets for the Aerobed. We got a full set plus a blanket and extra pillows. The housekeeper made it every day too. We asked for a change of linens the morning after DH’s eye injury. His eye ran a lot during the night on his sheets, and DS cried a lot that night in the other bed. Soon after we called, our housekeeper was knocking asking if we were alright. We explained that we’d had an accident and were concerned that the sheets were no longer clean, so she stripped and replaced everything including the bedspreads.

I have one complaint about the resort, and it’s the same one I had last year. I hate that everything shuts down at midnight. We wish the bar could be open later (1:00 or 2:00 a.m.), and it would be very nice to have at least a grab-and-go food selection available later than 12:00.

Our restaurant meals were mostly very good (with the exception of Raglin Road and 1900 Park Fare). We did miss getting prime ribs on the buffets somewhat. Something to keep in mind if you’re on free dining—the more expensive items you pick, the more in tips you’ll be paying. If you’re really stuffed, you can skip a dessert or two. They may be “free” but you’ll still have to pay the tip for them. We didn’t have one “bad” dessert, though. All of them were well executed.

We liked all the restaurants new to us this trip. I would recommend the San Angel Inn just for their white chocolate mousse dessert, and DS’s crispy shrimp was outstanding too. We really enjoyed Chef’s de France, and Mama Melrose and their awesome honey ricotta cheesecake. The Coral Reef’s main courses were O.K., but their desserts were very good too. As for 1900 Park Fare, we hated it and the horrible way the hostess treated us. We won’t be going back there anytime soon. I'm still kind of stunned by it because I can honestly say she is the only CM who has ever treated us poorly.

I wrote most of this report a few months ago, then believed I lost it since we had a major breakdown on the laptop where I saved it. I couldn't go through re-writing it, but DS found it recently somewhere on the laptop's hard drive. He was actually searching for his ITunes account, and fortunately, found it as well as this report.

I'll be making ADRs for our next trip soon. We asked my nephew who came on the 8/08 trip to join us again on the upcoming trip. My sister has airfare to use up from her cancelled trip last year, so I'm hoping she and her husband will come and ask Bro to stay with them. I love my siblings and appreciate everything Bro did on the trip with buying us stuff and using his van, but let me tell you--trying to please two men on a trip is a very difficult thing to do! I'm not repeating that experience anytime soon. But like I said, I really hope my sister will go and ask him to join us.

 

[Lori77]

Thanks for the great TR! It has been awhile since I have read one and I really liked how your TR was organized and one day was right after another!

Your trip was fun to follow and made me thirsty! Sorry that you did not get to have a Dole Whip! I love those and have to have one each trip!

We are going to try for Free Dining this year, hopefully they will offer it!

 

[JerseyJanice]

Thanks for the great TR! It has been awhile since I have read one and I really liked how your TR was organized and one day was right after another!

Your trip was fun to follow and made me thirsty! Sorry that you did not get to have a Dole Whip! I love those and have to have one each trip!

We are going to try for Free Dining this year, hopefully they will offer it!

Thank you for reading. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

My husband has a job that is very demanding, both mentally and physically. Like any other "bad boy," he just has to drink ABs on vacation. They're all spaced out, so it's not like he ever got worse than pleasantly buzzed. Ditto for myself, so it's all good.

Rereading my report, I see one thing I didn't mention. The last day of the trip with lunch, I got a receipt for a milk shake at the Pop food court's ice cream counter. While I was changing out of my bathing suit, I gave DS the dessert receipt to get me a vanilla shake. It would have been fantastic, except that the guy insisted on putting rainbow sprinkles in it. Those gagged me, and if I ever order a milk shake at WDW again, I'm going to make sure they don't put sprinkles in it. But other than that, it was one of the best shakes I've ever had at WDW, and I've had them at Beaches & Cream, Sci Fi, and the Wilderness Lodge. Pop's shake recipe beats those hands-down.

I hope you get Free Dining if you want it. I've enjoyed it a lot twice now and thanks to bounceback, I'm looking forward to doing it again this coming summer. It falls during the week we normally take vacation, so for us, I think it's a great value.

 

[lindsayp]

love the reviews! don't worry about your son turning 14, im 19 and still love disney world!!!