A MouseEars View of Grand Gatherings - Complete with Over 500 Photos!

[dismagiclover]

A Magic Kingdom morning! Not much I like better! And no crowds. I guess July 5 is a day to be at rope drop It's unbelievable they were actually going begging for people to eat with the princesses!

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

"Look at those hippos, they're wigglin' their ears. Same as they've done for the last fifty years." -"Skipper Dan" by Weird Al Yankovic

So. Turns out, as Mom tried to enter the Fantasmic theater, the person just in front of her stopped suddenly. He was wearing big clunky shoes. She was wearing open-toed sandals. She jammed her toe against the back of his heel. And while I enjoyed Philharmagic, as reported previously, in the back of my mind, I was pretty concerned about Mom's wincing and grimacing. As soon as the show was over, we were all gathered around concerned. She was upset that she was throwing off our touring plan and kept telling us all to go to the next ride, even though she thought her toe was broken. We told her to hush, naturally, and enlisted the help of the exit CM. He offered us the option of calling paramedics or borrowing a wheelchair to head to First Aid. We took him up on the second option.

First Aid in the MK is located back by Crystal Palace. The path through the castle was closed, so we took the ramp around, losing some people in the process, but I figured they'd catch up eventually. The CM at First Aid was very nice and explained that she couldn't actually treat anything, but she could give us what we needed to self-treat. We got some ice, a gauze elastic band to hold it on, some pain-killers, and continued on our way at Mom's insistence. It's not the world's most flattering picture, but this is how Mom and I spent the rest of the morning - staying together was actually a bit easier when everyone had her wheelchair to keep in sight!

Meanwhile, the kids relaxed by the fountain just outside of first aid. And with all that running water, had to explore the bathroom there, too. Of course.

Next up on our agenda was Haunted Mansion. I didn't get many pictures, as I was pushing Mom's wheelchair, but Barry took a few of the funny tombs near the wheelchair parking area. I was very surprised how far they had Mom walk. Fortunately, she had all of us to lean on, but it's quite a way from the wheelchair entrance to the actual ride. But maybe that's because we wanted to go through the stretch rooms?

Anyway, wincing and limping, Mom made it through the ride. We hadn't been on Haunted Mansion since the update, and it was FABULOUS. I loved all the new details - the ghostly staircases, the bride and her husbands of the disappearing heads. Scott had a completely different experience. I'll let him tell you about riding with Juli and Cyndy!

We stopped just before the bridge to Adventureland. I wanted to take stock and let everyone know what was still on the agenda. I asked if everyone was ready for lunch since we had been delayed by the trip to first aid, or if they'd like to push ahead and go get a fastpass for Jungle Cruise and ride Pirates. They all voted to keep touring. A CM (Jeff) in business attire was standing nearby. He wished me a happy birthday. That happened many times this morning thanks to my button. I felt a bit weird about it, since it wasn't my actual birthday yet, and I was only wearing the button because it was given to me at check-in. But it was very cool - especially since everyone greeted me by name. Anyway, Jeff asked if we were headed to Jungle Cruise and we said yes. He said he would call over and tell them to let us right on! He told us to just mention his name.

We thanked him and headed to Adventureland. We all felt pretty pixie dusted, and Scott was especially happy to find more Disney magic.

Unfortunately, the CMs at the Jungle Cruise didn't know who Jeff was, didn't have a clue whether he had called, and didn't really care either way. Didn't matter to us whether we got right on, and the line was short, so Mom limped in through the handicapped entrance and we got a few dirty looks from people in the regular line, but really, the lines looked about the same to me.

The Jungle Cruise was just as groaningly funny and slightly dated but charming as always.

Next up was Pirates. The last time we visited, Pirates was closed to add Cap'n Jack. So we were really revved to see the changes.

The kids LOVED trying to spot Jack Sparrow throughout the ride. I didn't remember it being as long as it was, and loved the mist effect with Davy Jones. The last scene with Jack singing was really great. Mom, meanwhile, didn't remember the small drop. And while I warned her,and told her to hang on, she called it a "roller coaster" for the rest of the week and accused us of tricking her onto it. (Never mind she's ridden it at least 4 times before that I know of...) Still, other than Mom and Gordi, the ride was popular with everyone.

On our way out of Adventureland, we saw Jack himself leading the Pirate Tutorial. The new stage was still roped off at that point. By the end of the week, we'd see the same show being performed on the new stage. So that was kind of cool. But we never actually stopped to watch the show. None of the kids wanted to volunteer, and since it wasn't actually Johnny Depp, who cares, right? (Scott's gonna get me for that...)

We headed back across the hub toward Tomorrowland for lunch. There was a small crowd because of the castle forecourt show. We snapped pics from a distance, but didn't stop to watch. We were all too hungry!

And of course, we took more castle pics. It was too bad Mom was in a wheelchair because I would have liked to get some Photopass pictures done while the sky was a perfect blue with pretty white clouds, but there you have it.

We headed to Cosmic Ray's for lunch. We decided our best bet was to sit everyone down and then send three representatives to buy lunch for all. I had the kids' chicken salad and grapes for lunch because Nicky wanted a burger and there isn't one on the kids' menu. It was okay. Nick's burger looked fabulous. I did insist that we trade desserts, so he got pudding and I got a chocolate cake. Grandma got a 1/2 rack of ribs and carrot cake which she thought was delicious, but too much food. Grandpa had a chicken sandwich and a brownie with the same opinions. Kairi, Barry, and Scott also got burgers, although Scott was the only one who took advantage of the toppings bar. (We did try to tell Barry, but he later said he thought we meant condiments, not mushrooms and lettuce and tomato and etc. He was bummed he didn't get toppings.) Cyndy had the half chicken and ate it all, which lent more fuel to the Cyndy is eating all the chickens in Florida joke. She said it was delicious, and so was the chocolate cake she followed up with. Hannah and Faith both got chicken nuggets kids' meals and didn't have complaints, but I don't know whether they liked them. Faith was getting a bit cranky at this point because she's only four and she was very tired.

Juli was much more tired. Cause she didn't eat anything - she was too busy snoozing. We saved her leftover grapes and pudding and food off various plates for later, though.

Isn't she a doll baby? Sorry, couldn't help adding the extra picture...

The total would have come to $122.43, but it cost us 10 CS.

Running Totals: 20 CS, 10 TS, 4 S, and $90 in tips with $0 OOP for food. If we had not been on the dining plan, we would have paid $618.93 so far.

I ate quickly and ran to get fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear for later. When I got the passes, fastpasses for Carousel of Progress popped out, too. Surprise! Actually, I was surprised you'd need a fastpass for CoP, and it turns out later we didn't, but it was still fun to get them. Mom and Gordi headed straight back to the room while we waited for everyone to finish up lunch.

We were all getting pretty tired, so we headed back, too. You can see that tired was taking its toll on Faith as she sat grumpily all the way back on the bus just like this:

As we got off the bus, it started pouring rain. The kids, who had wanted to go swimming, were completely bummed. Cyndy paused under the bus stop, not wanting to get wet, but we were tired and just herded our two right through the rain. After a moment, Cyndy and Barry joined us, and we dragged our wet and tired selves into our room. I turned around after setting down our bags to see the kids sitting at the window staring out at the rain, and wished for a brief, crazy moment that we were at Universal. WHY? What could possibly inspire that kind of craziness?

Well, because the Cat in the Hat is at Universal. And the kids were the perfect illustration for:

The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day.

Next Chapter: Here Comes the Sun

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

Our holidays had come at last
They came real slow and went by fast
Just one week, that's all we had
Then back to work went mom and dad
Happy to be swimmin' in the sea - Gaelic Storm

We made the kids lie down and try to nap for 15 minutes. We didn't think it would actually work this time, but it's worth a try. Sure enough, in 15 minutes they were back up. Fortunately for them, the rain was over, the sun was shining, and it was time to go explore!

When we picked Coronado Springs, a good chunk of the reason had to do with the Dig Site pool. Since we started planning our first trip, I had seen pictures of that pool and wanted to be there. And thanks to the 4/3 deal, we were finally there! We tossed on our suits and headed out. Our room was not too very far away from the main pool, and it was a nice walk. The pool was absolutely EVERYTHING we expected it to be from the photos. My one complaint, and it is minor, was that the water was REALLY warm on the first few days we were there. Like heated indoor pool warm. And since it was already Florida hot, that didn't make for much refreshment. But it was so gorgeous it made up for it. I'm not going to go into details here - the pictures tell the story of what we were up to for the next hour and a half.

After we left the pool, I took some pictures of the resort as we headed back to change for dinner.

Meanwhile, the rest of our group missed the pool but had a much needed nap! Poor little tired out kids!

Next Chapter: 'Ohana Means YUMMY, I Don't Care What Lilo Says

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

"Mahalo Nui Loa"

We regrouped after our nap and swim and headed for the bus stop. It took 20 minutes for an MK bus and I was a bit anxious about time since we were starting later at the insistence of everyone who waited too long for Chef Mickey's. We planned to go to the Magic Kingdom and then board a monorail to the Polynesian. When we got to the bus stop at MK, I heard someone talking about the monorails not running and the bus driver made some announcement about buses to the Grand Floridian and Poly that I didn't quite catch. I headed toward the monorail anyway, figuring I'd get the scoop there, but the area was deserted except for a sign announcing the monorail was closed and apologizing for the incovenience. That's okay, there's more than one way across the lagoon, so I herded everyone to one of the boats. There was a huge line at all of the boats, but if the monorail wasn't working, that made sense to me.

Other than some minor concerns about making it to 'Ohana in time for our reservation, we enjoyed the ride across the lake very much.

I had a bad moment when I didn't know how to find 'Ohana from the dock, and a passing CM didn't know either, but we made our way inside to discover a HUGE line. 'Ohana is on the upper story of the Poly main building, and there is a railing all the way around that lets you look down to the waterfalls and plants in the middle of the lobby. The line went all the way along 2 sides of that railing. I was so worried about missing our reservation time, and I wasn't sure if the line was for people who actually had ADRs or if it was full of people trying to get seats. Turns out, the restaurant wasn't open for dinner yet! We had a 5:10 reservation, and the restaurant opened at 5 with a big "Aloha!" from the staff. We were seated very quickly at a table that had been set up for our group of 11. We were right next to the grill, with its dramatic bursts of flame, which put us right in the middle of the action.

We started with the absolutely delicious bread. I could have just eaten that for dinner and been perfectly happy. It was right up there in the best bread I had all week.

The kids were in seventh heaven because they got umbrellas in their drinks. Give a kid an umbrella drink and they'll finish glass after glass. (Good thing it was diet Coke.) So they visited the bathroom something like three times during the meal.

Everyone was relaxed and happy and having a great time. Our wonderful server Melly calling us cousins amused the kids who had so many actual cousins there.

When the food started arriving, we were all pretty busy! The wings were great and flavorful. I found them a bit sticky, but tasty. The dumplings and various dipping sauces were incredibly delicious. I even liked the veggies and noodles that are often negatively reviewed on the DIS. Everyone else raved about the food that "just kept coming" all week, so I can safely assume they liked it as well. Although Cyndy looks a bit overwhelmed by all that meat!

Barry asked for some well-done pieces of steak for Cyndy and Mom. The meats were good, but the steak was very VERY rare. While we waited for that, we were entertained by a strolling ukelele player with lots of fun activities for the kids.

The Shaka Maraca parade was fun for Faith and Grandma.

But someone forgot to tell Faith it was a coconut RACE as she dawdled along with her broom.

It took some time (and a little berating of the chef from our server - we were right by the grill, so we could hear her telling him off for not knowing how to cook steak well) but eventually, we got some well-done pieces of steak. By then, however, we were all ready for dessert.

I should say up front I never liked bread pudding. Until this trip. And this pudding. It was DIVINE. I especially liked the bananas foster sauce. It was SOOOO tasty - we polished off all the family servings we were given. And the little ones liked their plain ice cream, too!

This was the meal the whole family thought was one of the best we experienced all week. It really was very special - we were happy, having fun, and well entertained and fed. We'll be coming back.

As we were leaving, the ukelele player began to honor couples celebrating their anniversaries. We were waiting for people to get back (from the bathroom, of COURSE) so Hannah and I danced along with the couples for a minute, which made her giggle.

Then they wanted everyone with a birthday this month, so Scott and I were shoved up front by our family. We learned to say happy birthday in Hawaiian, but I forget now.

Our total came to $278.88, plus a $50 tip. We paid 10 TS credits. (Well, okay, we paid more than that because our server accidentally charged us twice, but I got that straightened out with our front desk at CSR later on.)

Running Total: 20 CS, 20 TS, 4 S, and $140 in tips with $0 OOP for food. If we had not been on the dining plan, we would have paid $897.81 so far.

We stopped to browse in the Poly gift shop for a minute...

...and then we were on our way back. Sort of. We walked out the back of the Poly and took some pictures of the beautiful landscaping (and Hidden Mickeys).

But as we got to the dock, the CMs were announcing that the line would take several boats to transport and that it would take 45 minutes or so to get back to the MK. So we turned around and walked back through the Poly as the CM suggested...

...and tried to get on a bus. But no MK buses came by. Finally, Mom asked a driver, who said "I'm going to the Grand Floridian, and then back here, and then to the Contemporary, and then to the TTC, and then to the Magic Kingdom, if you want to just get on and wait. She thought that was a great idea. Me, not so much. But hey, I wanted to let someone else be responsible for transportation choices for a bit and let me off the hook, so away we went. Scott was bumming because of what we had just finally found out - the monorail was closed due to a fatal accident. Everyone was tired. But eventually, we made it back to the Magic Kingdom.

Next Chapter: Is it Tomorrow(land) Yet?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

And Cyndy was STILL off looking for Hannah's money. For 15 lousy dollars.

As it happens, Hannah put her money in her phone clip, which was almost as big of a purse, but with holes in it. The money fell out at the bag checker.

Barry thought of this, talked with security, and found out somebody DID find the money, was was GOING to take it to lost and found, but apparently never did.

Meanwhile, Cyndy is still walking trying to find the money. And she wasn't answerring her phone so we could tell her that she should stop looking. She either didn't have the phone on or didn't have it with her. This became a recurring theme.

Jenn didn't mention the fact that we did get to watch the openning show. Well, some of us did (because of where we were in line). I decided after getting through the turnstyle that I should keep a handle on Faith, the 4 year old. I put her on my shoulders so that 1) she should see the openning show, 2) she could be carried and not fight her sister, Juli (2), for the stroller, and 3) so I wouldn't have to lug her around on my hip. This proved very effective, but I ended up not continuing this tread for the rest of the week. I probably should have.

We did manage to get the sunscreen on in time to make it through the train station with the rest of the mob.

After this day, I made sure to point out to people to put sunscreen on while we were ON THE BUS.

We were on, we were up. Nick despised it, and made me keep our Dumbo down the entire time until it lifts you up automatically at the end. He's really, really, really not a fan of heights.

Although after how much he ended up liking some of the thrill rides later, I think this will not be a problem next time.

I was lucky enough to get plopped into a hunny pot with pretty much all of the kids, so I got to watch their faces as we bounced our way through the Hundred Acre Wood.

I don't remember who I went on this with.

And of course, my Kingdom Keepers fan daughter had to turn around and say, "Mom!! The sun! It's the clue!"

I hadn't read the first book by this point, although I did end up reading it during this vacation. Unfortunately, by the time we got to DHS, I ended up being spoiled. Ah, well.

And then someone had to go to the bathroom.

I can feel the tension creating a knot in the back of my neck just reading this...

Now, at some point this morning, I was stopped in my tracks by a castle employee. I walked past her and heard "Eat with the princesses! Tables are available for breakfast in the castle!" I stopped dead - seriously?? Tables available in the castle??? Really??? But on asking Scott, he looked at me like I had grown an extra head. He didn't want to interrupt our touring.

Through the course of this week, we ended up with 3 character meals, include two with Mickey and one with the princesses. Since Faith loves Cinderella, it was a tempting offer. But I was afraid we were already backed up on our plan, and I didn't want to spend either 2 credits/person or over $500 on a breakfast buffet, even if it was in the castle. Only later did I find that Jenn really would have liked to eat i the castle (I thought she was asking for the girls). Maybe next time...

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

"Oh, that's great, blame it on the little guy. How original. He must've read the schedule wrong with his one eye." - Mike Wazowski

We went straight to Tomorrowland when we got back into MK. We still were not seeing very big crowds, but we were concerned about getting out of the park before fireworks since dinner had taken such a very long time. (We didn't mind the time it took to eat, but it was a long dinner, and the long bus ride after didn't help.)

We bopped off to Buzz Lightyear, where I was reasonably pleased with my score for not having played in 3 years.

But Kairi beat me!! A trend that was to continue distressingly through the trip. At least I still beat Scott. And didn't get trapped with Zurg.

We headed to Carousel of Progress next, as it's one of Scott's favorites. Don't ask me why, as I thought it was REALLY showing its age. But it's nostalgic, and he was happy.

Next we decided to squeeze in the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. We had never seen this particular attraction.

I had heard about the texting of jokes, though, so I quickly looked for the screens and started trying to text in a joke from Nick. I had just gotten a new cell plan that had unlimited texting, and was only beginning to get addicted to texts. (Now I've sent hundreds, maybe thousands, but I literally got this phone a week before we left.) So there I am, trying to hunt and peck my way through "How many princesses does it take to change a lightbulb? None, duh, they have castle servants!" when we're released to the next room. I figure, it's too late, I can't send Hannah's much better joke. Then the screen flashes for texts again. So I try to laboriously type in her joke. Meanwhile, my 12 year old daughter is impatiently bouncing. And making noises of frustration. Now mind you, she's only HAD a cell phone with texting for the same week I've had my new one. I at least texted before that week. So I turn to her and say, "Do you think you can do this faster?" She says "YES!" and grabs the phone out of my hand. In about 5 seconds, she had the entire joke typed and sent while Scott and I just stared blankly at her. It was SOOO funny. The whole family was just busting up, because it's like some pre-teen built in skill or something.

So we waited by the doors, which I had to take a picture of, since I'm not allowed to take pictures inside.

The show was cute, and we liked it - and then Hannah's joke got picked! "Which pets are most musical? A Trum-PET!" Hannah was thrilled at the attention, Kai was thrilled cause her texting skills made it possible, and Nick conceded she had the better joke.

Unfortunately, we cut our time too close again. So when we walked out, the fireworks were getting underway. Grandma hates fireworks, so walking up to see them was out. It was too crowded to try to make our way through. So we hid in Auntie Gravity's so that Grandma could plug her ears and the little kids could get ice cream. Scott had a Cappucino Smoothie he didn't like. Barry had an Orange-Pineapple Smoothie he liked, and recommended the Smoothies to Grandpa, who did not like his Strawberry-Banana one. Hannah had a cone, and the little girls shared one. It cost $18.90, but we used snack credits.

Running Totals: 20 CS, 20 TS, 9 S, and $140 in tips with $0 OOP for food. If we had not been on the dining plan, we would have paid $916.71 so far.

I wanted to wait until the crowd thinned out, but everyone was tired, so as soon as the fireworks were over, we made our way through the traffic jam on Main Street.

We didn't have to wait too long for a bus, and thank goodness again that Coronado's bus stop is so close to the entrance. It was a long day, but we were mostly still smiling on the trip home. Unless we were sleeping.

Next Chapter: Princess Overdose

 

[FlightlessDuck]

So. Turns out, as Mom tried to enter the Fantasmic theater, the person just in front of her stopped suddenly. He was wearing big clunky shoes. She was wearing open-toed sandals. She jammed her toe against the back of his heel. And while I enjoyed Philharmagic, as reported previously, in the back of my mind, I was pretty concerned about Mom's wincing and grimacing.

This is the part where I feel like a jerk. Although I never said it out loud, because that would solidfiy the fact that I was a jerk, I was pretty much thinking "oh, great. Mom's overreacting to a stubbed toe, and it's going to screw up the rest of our day." It's a good thing it wasn't broken, or else I would have felt like a big jerk the rest of the week for thinking that.

First Aid in the MK is located back by Crystal Palace. The path through the castle was closed, so we took the ramp around, losing some people in the process, but I figured they'd catch up eventually.

It was at this time that I discovered that Nick left him Green Bay Packers visor in the theatre. We asked a CM, who looked around a little, but said we would have to wait for the next show to let out. Fortunately, I knew where Crystal Palace was, so he and I hung out and looked at stuff in the gift shop. As the next group of people let out, the CM followed, with Nicky's visor.

Scott had a completely different experience. I'll let him tell you about riding with Juli and Cyndy!

I questioned whether Juli and Faith should go on the ride at all. I ended up sitting with Cyndy and Juli, and Cyndy acted calmly and sweetly so Juli wouldn't get upset. "Ah, look, the pretty ghosts are dancing". And my favorite: "Ah, look, that lady in the picture is going to get married. And she has an axe to cut her cake..."

The Jungle Cruise was just as groaningly funny and slightly dated but charming as always.

The skipper reminded me of someone I used to work with when I worked in an area amusement park 15 years ago.

The kids LOVED trying to spot Jack Sparrow throughout the ride. I didn't remember it being as long as it was, and loved the mist effect with Davy Jones.

I hadn't remembered either. I spent most of my time trying to find the additions. I liked how even in scenes were they didn't physically add Jack, there were references to him.

On our way out of Adventureland, we saw Jack himself leading the Pirate Tutorial. The new stage was still roped off at that point. By the end of the week, we'd see the same show being performed on the new stage.

New stage? What new stage? I barely paid attention to this, and it didn't even occur to me until reading this that they moved from one stage to another over the course of the week.

None of the kids wanted to volunteer, and since it wasn't actually Johnny Depp, who cares, right? (Scott's gonna get me for that...)

I didn't get to go to Morroco at all

We headed to Cosmic Ray's for lunch.

Still one of my favorite counter service places to eat. MmMmMmMm.

We were all getting pretty tired, so we headed back, too. You can see that tired was taking its toll on Faith as she sat grumpily all the way back on the bus just like this

Somewhere along the line, the members of the family who have the body temperature of your average polar bear decided it was a good idea to ride in the back of the bus, where all the heat from the engine is. I never understood this. We're in Florida, it's hot! Bus is cool. Cool good, hot bad!

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

I just read your whole PTR and TR. Very good. What fun I know you had. We had 9 in our Grand Gathering and stayed at CSR also. We loved it there. We had no small children but that is the magic of Disney. It doesn't matter your age at all. Loving all the pics. The children are adorable.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Skipping over the pool post. All I have to say about it was yes, the water was warm, but the slide was awesome!

When we got to the bus stop at MK, I heard someone talking about the monorails not running and the bus driver made some announcement about buses to the Grand Floridian and Poly that I didn't quite catch.

I knew something was up when I heard the monorails were down. It's really sad what happened.

That's okay, there's more than one way across the lagoon, so I herded everyone to one of the boats. There was a huge line at all of the boats, but if the monorail wasn't working, that made sense to me.

I really enjoyed the boatride. Moreso than the monorail the day before, I think.

we made our way inside to discover a HUGE line.

This was weird, and I started to worry. Our ADR was supposed to be at 5:10, and yet there are like 40 people ahead of us in line. But we got seating almost exactly at 5:10, so that was good.

The food was absolutely fantastic. I was not sure how things were going to go this time, because last trip we had breakfast at 'Ohaha and were not impressed. Nothing could be further from the truth this time. Everything was good. The wings, postickers, bread, veggies, noddles, and especially the meat.

The beef was medium rare, but it didn't bother me. As soon as I bit into it, I saw it was rare, and knew this was going to be a problem for Mom and Cyndy. More on that when we get to Le Cellier...

I should say up front I never liked bread pudding. Until this trip. And this pudding. It was DIVINE. I especially liked the bananas foster sauce.

I love bread pudding, and this one was excellent. But it gets outmatched a few days later...

Then they wanted everyone with a birthday this month, so Scott and I were shoved up front by our family. We learned to say happy birthday in Hawaiian, but I forget now.

I was actually one of the ones "indisposed" at this point, and when I came out, people were yelling at me to go to Jenn. I was confused. It wasn't my birthday. Finally someone decided it was a good idea to explain to me that they were celebrating all the birthdays in July. Then it made some sense.

But as we got to the dock, the CMs were announcing that the line would take several boats to transport and that it would take 45 minutes or so to get back to the MK. So we turned around and walked back through the Poly as the CM suggested...

We should have stayed on the boat. I think we ended up wasting an hour by getting on the bus we got on.

Scott was bumming because of what we had just finally found out - the monorail was closed due to a fatal accident.

We heard a CM died, but didn't get any actual details until we got back home two weeks later.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We bopped off to Buzz Lightyear, where I was reasonably pleased with my score for not having played in 3 years.

I don't know what my score was, but she did beat me. Then again, she cheats, just like Pinochle.

We headed to Carousel of Progress next, as it's one of Scott's favorites. Don't ask me why, as I thought it was REALLY showing its age. But it's nostalgic, and he was happy.

Why? Why!?! Because it's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow, that's why!

Next we decided to squeeze in the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. We had never seen this particular attraction.

It was OK to do once, but I doubt we will go back to it. Also, I wasn't really that surprised by Kai's texting skills, but it was still darn funny.

It was too crowded to try to make our way through. So we hid in Auntie Gravity's so that Grandma could plug her ears and the little kids could get ice cream. Scott had a Cappucino Smoothie he didn't like.

The smoothie had a weird aftertaste to it. Can't pin it down. Afterwards, Jenn mentioned that she thinks I got the same thing last time, and didn't like it then, either. I'll try not to repeat this mistake next time.

Also, next time, I am going to make it a point to get on Astro Orbiter. I finally worked up the nerve to ride this, and never had a chance. And I think I want to do it at night, too.

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

Loving the report!!! We are from PA too!!! Can't wait to head to the World next month!

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

"Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale." - Hans Christian Anderson

I left the family sleeping this morning and scooted over to the laundry to wash a few loads of clothes. We were only planning on going to the World Showcase today, and since it didn't open until 11, we could afford a little extra dawdling time. By the time I got back, the kids and Scott were up. We were headed for the Akershus Princess lunch, so I helped Kai and the little girls into their princess costumes, and we took a few pictures outside the room.

We just missed the EPCOT bus, so we had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. The girls got lots of looks and comments as we made our way through the turnstiles at EPCOT, but the whole trip there was a hurry up, wait, hurry up, wait kind of affair. Since the rest of the group was travelling slowly and I was concerned about fitting in everything we wanted to do, I decided to take everyone's tickets and run over to the Land to pick up fastpasses for Soarin'. To my chagrin, the fastpasses being distributed were for 2:00 in the afternoon. I had heard that I would be lucky to get fastpasses by 11 in the morning, and assumed our fastpass time would be around our dinner reservation at the Garden Grill. This was going to throw a kink in our touring plan, but I figured I should grab them anyway. (Yes, I know fastpass return times aren't always enforced, but I'd heard they were at Soarin' sometimes.)

Meanwhile, I told Scott to head right for Mexico, and I'd meet them there. That did not work very well at all. Scott started walking them that way, but the rest of the group wanted to stop at MouseGear and he thought they'd have time, and didn't want to argue with a crowd. So, I called him to say I was walking up to Mexico and he said they were still in the gift shop. AARGH. Fine, fine, no biggie. I'll sit on a bench outside Mexico, catch my breath, take some pictures.

The group finally shows up, and guess what? Someone has to go to the bathroom! Nearest bathrooms are by Norway. So we walk to Norway. Wait by the bathroom. Walk back to Mexico. I'm being told off by people who say they want a chance to shop. Which is great and all. But we still haven't DONE anything this morning. So I promise we'll shop before the end of the vacation and we all get on the Gran Fiesta Tour.

This ride is much cuter than it used to be, now that Panchito and Jose are everywhere looking for Donald. But it's still pretty lame. Fortunately, we just watched The Three Caballeros at home, so the kids have a ball with it - especially Nick, who has a Donald Duck fixation like his dad. Plus, on both this ride and Maelstrom, Grandpa had difficulty getting down into the seat because there wasn't room for his knees to bend without also turning to the side. He had a double knee replacement a year or two ago, so that made it difficult for him.

We headed back to Norway to ride Maelstrom. We saw the stave church, and Mom and Gordi wanted to go in. I wanted to explore, too, but I figured we should get Maelstrom out of the way before lunch. Turns out, I should have left them at the church because they hated Maelstrom. Another "roller coaster" in their estimation.

When we got off the ride, it was time to check in for our lunch. It was very hot, and the check-in is outside, so Grandma wanted to take Faith in the gift shop to get her out of the heat. Fortunately, while we were still debating, they called us in for lunch. Well, they called us in to stand in line for a picture with Belle, anyway.

I think I'll just get this out of the way now, so I don't have to repeat myself for the next hour or so. The princesses? CReeepy. Seriously. Never booking a princess meal again. Really, really creepy. The girls didn't mind, of course. They were thrilled, as you'll see in the pictures. But the big, fake, scary smiles, the unblinking, over-made-up faces, the slightly askew wigs... *shudder* I'm sorry - I know it's the highlight of many a little girl's vacation. But I couldn't get past the "scary smily lady in a bad costume" thing.

Anyway, like I said, the girls had no problem with them. They traipsed up for their picture, but the photopass guy was having camera issues. So they got to talk to Belle for a good long time before their picture. Long enough that you could see she was running out of canned interaction. She kept turning and smiling like if she just held the pose, the camera would start working. Ok, seriously, I'm shutting up. *ahem* The girls were thrilled with Belle.

Juli especially didn't want to let go of her hand, since she considered Belle her personal princess.

The photopass guy got some decent shots. The one we all got printed for free was the worst of the lot - I don't think I even included it here. (It was the first one taken and Juli and Faith weren't even smiling). But these two were very cute, and luckily I was getting the CD anyway.

Next it was time to peruse the menu. We were a bit nervous about the menu choices, but everyone eventually found something they were willing to try.

We headed to the cold buffet and filled up plates with salads, cheese, fruit, and sliced meats. The buffet food was basically what you would expect at a salad buffet. Not bad at all, but nothing stood out to me as particularly delicious. When Grandma brought back a heaping plate to Gordi, he said "That's supposed to be appetizers?" As far as he was concerned, the plate from the buffet would have made a fine lunch all by itself, and he was probably right. Good thing, too, because our food wasn't going to show up for a while. We were right near the front of the restaurant, not in the great hall I had seen pictures of, which was a bummer. But, that put us right on the path from the princess dressing room. So, the next 20 minutes was a parade of princesses. Faith abandoned all pretense of eating from her buffet plate to point excitedly at each new princess that appeared.

The first princess past the table was Aurora. She's a favorite of mine, but as I mentioned, I was kind of creeped out by the princesses. So it was particularly ill-advised of me to joke with Scott that "nobody took MY picture with Aurora". I was kidding because we kept asking favorite characters like Goofy and Donald to pose with adults. But I followed it up by quickly saying I did NOT want a picture with Aurora, I was just teasing. Wish my sister listened to that part. *sigh*

Aurora posed, smiled, and walked away. Cinderella appeared. She posed, smiled, and walked away. (In the interest of fairness, I should point out she was the most personable, and did tell my daughter to not lose her shoes.)

Ariel arrived, moments later. Pose, smile.

Ariel actually paused to give hugs. But Juli didn't care - she was already looking to see who was coming next!

Turns out, it was Snow White, right on the heels of Ariel. She took a few moments to ask Nick if he was being Bashful today. Notice how he's been hiding safely FAR AWAY from the princesses?

She also took the time for hugs, which was nice.

And just like that, the princesses were gone. It was nice, don't get me wrong. The girls were thrilled beyond imagination. It was a fairy tale come true for them. But the character interaction with characters who can't even talk was WAY better everywhere we went all week. Mickey or Tigger or Chip would take time with each kid, make jokes, pose for tons of pictures - this just felt like a princess assembly line. It was worth it because it gave the girls such a rush, but I would not do it again.

All the princesses had passed by and we were still working on our buffet plates. Actually, Faith was paying attention to hers for the first time since she saw a princess.

Then our food arrived. Mom and Grandpa had the Kjottake. Mom thought the hidden mickey presentation was adorable, and they both seemed to like the taste. It was WAY too much food when you had already been to the cold table, though.

I had the Classic Lamb Stew. (Allears says this is only available at dinner, but it was on our lunch menu.) It was tasty, and reminded me of an Irish lamb stew I make. A bit unseasonable, though, as it made me feel very warm. My sister and Kairi both had the vegetable stuffed pasta and enjoyed it. Barry had the chicken breast (also listed on the dinner menu at Allears). I don't honestly know what he thought of it. Scott had the open faced salmon sandwich and LOVED it. Generally, the food was not as different as it sounds on the menus, and it was all pretty tasty. Our server Beate had more personality and charm than any of the princesses, and I think I would eat in Norway again if the princesses would move out!

The kids got typical kids' fare of hot dogs, pizza, and ravioli. They gave Juli a meal choice for free because she's two. No one complained, and Faith looks pretty happy.

So, remember I said I wished my sister listened to me? She went and told the server that I wanted a picture with Aurora. And so Aurora came back to our table to take a picture with me and wish me happy birthday. If I weren't so creeped out by her, it would have been nice that Cyndy did that, and especially nice that the character handler and Aurora went out of their way to arrange it. Since my "smile for the camera" face looks much creepier than hers, I guess I shouldn't be bratty about it!

Dessert was delicious. We were given two or three family plates of School Bread, Rice Cream, and Chocolate Mousse. Hannah grabbed the whole School Bread as soon as the plate landed on the table and I had to make her put it back so everyone got a taste. It was as good as I remembered but still TOO sweet, so Hannah ended up getting 3/4 of it back after everyone tried some. The mousse was divine and easily the best dessert of the three. Scott liked the rice cream, but I despise rice in desserts, so it really didn't work for me. Meanwhile, Belle strolled by and stopped to plant a big lipstick kiss on Juli. Awww!

After I'd already eaten a taste of all the desserts, I was brought another dessert! The waitress wished me a happy birthday and gave me a card signed by all the princesses.

I'm still not sure why there were gummy worms, but whatever! It was a cute cupcake and the bite or two I managed to eat was tasty.

The lunch cost $277.88, and we paid with 10 TS credits, and $50 for tips.

Running Totals: 20 CS, 30 TS, 9 S, and $190 in tips with $0 OOP for food. If we had not been on the dining plan, we would have paid $1194.59 so far.

Then the girls headed into the bathroom to change into park clothes. Nick meanwhile, was revving to get far, far away. Until the server told him this chair was used in the filming of Pirates of the Carribean. Then he decided I could get one picture of him in the restaurant!

Next Chapter: Pretty Froggy, I Make For You

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

A Magic Kingdom morning! Not much I like better! And no crowds. I guess July 5 is a day to be at rope drop It's unbelievable they were actually going begging for people to eat with the princesses!

I know, I was shocked! But while I'd like to eat in the castle, I don't think I really like dining with the princesses, so it's just as well we didn't go. It was a pretty great morning, though.

I just read your whole PTR and TR. Very good. What fun I know you had. We had 9 in our Grand Gathering and stayed at CSR also. We loved it there. We had no small children but that is the magic of Disney. It doesn't matter your age at all. Loving all the pics. The children are adorable.

You're right - age is completely unimportant in Disney. Glad your Grand Gathering went well, too! Thanks for reading and the compliments on the kids!

Loving the report!!! We are from PA too!!! Can't wait to head to the World next month!

OooH! Lucky you! Have a super trip. Glad my report is getting you in the Disney spirit!

 

[DisBride2009]

Hey, I am enjoying your TR so far. The kids are just soooo adoreable . You guys have a wonderful family. I love the T-Shirts you and the kids made. Especially where it says "Mo--om Fineas and Ferb and refurbing Space Mountain." That was so cute. I would have never thought of having a shirt saying that lol. Can't wait to read more. Keep on posting...Lots of love xoxoxoxoxox.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I left the family sleeping this morning and scooted over to the laundry to wash a few loads of clothes.

Thank goodness! It was nice knowing Day 2 was going to be a late-start day at Epcot. We were out much later than we expected yesterday.

To my chagrin, the fastpasses being distributed were for 2:00 in the afternoon.

This was supposed to be a day for World Showcase stuff, but because of this, we ended up zig-zagging back and forth through the park. In hindsight, we should have got the Soarin' passes the next Epcot day instead.

Meanwhile, I told Scott to head right for Mexico, and I'd meet them there. That did not work very well at all. Scott started walking them that way, but the rest of the group wanted to stop at MouseGear

There was some commotion about wanting ears, or wanting time to shop. I thought Jenn would be longer getting the passes, not thinking about how fast she would walk by herself. This problem shows up again later at Animal Kingdom...

Nearest bathrooms are by Norway. So we walk to Norway. Wait by the bathroom. Walk back to Mexico.

At the time, I didn't understand why we just didn't ride on Maelstrom then. It was right there. At least Mexico was right next door, which is funny, because I've seen maps of the globe, and I don't remember Norway being anywhere near Mexico.

This ride is much cuter than it used to be, now that Panchito and Jose are everywhere looking for Donald.

I definitely agree with this. It seems a lot less like a commercial for Mexico tourism than it did before the refurb. I think the four of us got more out of it than the others since we had just watched "The Three Caballeros" a few weeks earlier.

We saw the stave church, and Mom and Gordi wanted to go in.

Nobody pointed this out to me. Seeing the picture, I now know what the others meant, but it wasn't until later in the day somebody say that Mom and Gordi wanted to go back to Norway to see "the church". I had no idea there was a church, let alone that it was moved from Norway.

Turns out, I should have left them at the church because they hated Maelstrom.

I liked it much better this time around. Last time, SOMEBODY (glares at Jenny) told we we actually did go backwards over the falls, so I spent the entire ride in a panic. That person obviously doesn't like me very much . This time, knowing what came when, I enjoyed it.

I think I'll just get this out of the way now, so I don't have to repeat myself for the next hour or so. The princesses? CReeepy.

I cannot get over how creepy it was. I much prefer the mask characters over face characters. The only exception to this are the people who aren't supposed to actually look specifically like anybody (Jedi training academy, street performers, etc). But the princesses looked like zombies. It was really, really odd.

I was also starting to get sick of the character meals (and this was only our second one). I wanted to be able to eat without interruption. I think from now on, I want to limit us to going to one character meal a trip.

Next it was time to peruse the menu. We were a bit nervous about the menu choices, but everyone eventually found something they were willing to try.

I had agonized over the menu months in advance. After seeing a picture of the salmon on one of the food threads, I decided to try that. I am glad I picked it. The fish was cooked perfectly, and the sauce that went with it was wonderful and not overpowering.

So, remember I said I wished my sister listened to me? She went and told the server that I wanted a picture with Aurora. And so Aurora came back to our table to take a picture with me and wish me happy birthday.

I saw Cyndy get up to go do something, and I knew this was exactly what it was. I had found that Jenn didn't really care that much if she got a picture with Aurora or not, so I didn't bother to go ask. Ah, well, it was nice.

Dessert was delicious. We were given two or three family plates of School Bread, Rice Cream, and Chocolate Mousse.

I liked the Rice Cream the best, but then I also like rice pudding. It's a Pennsylvania Dutch thing, I guess.

After I'd already eaten a taste of all the desserts, I was brought another dessert! The waitress wished me a happy birthday and gave me a card signed by all the princesses.

That was nice, and I think Jenn ended up getting two more cards over the course of the week. It's too bad Chef Mickey's didn't do this.

Next Chapter: Pretty Froggy, I Make For You

Please, no! Anything but that!

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” - Jawaharial Nehru

We were now supposed to spend the afternoon exploring the World Showcase. Unfortunately, I had made that Soarin' fastpass run earlier, hoping to get passes near our dinner time since we were eating in the Land pavillion. Instead, as you'll recall, our passes were for 2:00. And after our leisurely lunch with the royals, it was just about time for Soarin'. Grandma and Grandpa had left the restaurant to get a head start on the walk to the Land pavillion while the girls changed clothes. So we headed off to meet them, back into Future World.

Now, we have planned to walk around the World Showcase over and over again. When I was a kid, going with my family, I'm pretty sure I made it around once. But that was so long ago, I'd swear we travelled around on a double decker bus. They did have those to transport guests 18 years or so ago, right? Or am I completely losing it?? Anyway, one way or another, since that childhood trip, I've never managed to actually tour the World Showcase. So this time, we dedicated a WHOLE DAY to it. We thought.

Anyway, as we headed away once again from the World Showcase, I felt justified in the detour by the long wait we were avoiding at Soarin', one of my favorite rides. Nicky had agreed, much to my surprise, to try the ride again. So, while I waited with the two little girls for Grandma and Grandpa to show up, our first group headed into the fastpass line. The girls weren't thrilled with waiting, and were getting a bit antsy. The day before had been all about rides for them, and now they were having to wait while other people rode. Guess we were raining on their parade.

Finally, Grandma and Grandpa showed up, and soon after, the first group came off the ride. Hannah was bouncing and bubbling about how much she LOVED the ride. Nick was miserable, and hated it more than last time, if possible (he's afraid of heights). Kairi really liked it, but when I asked who wanted to go on with me and Grandma and Grandpa (we had an extra fastpass because I had scanned Faith's ticket but she turned out to be a hair too short) she said Hannah could go. (I had actually asked Kairi specifically first because it's one of her favorites, too, and she hadn't gotten to ride anything with me yet.) Well, we headed back on, and I was a bit nervous. I had INSISTED that Grandma and Grandpa ride this, and extolled its virtues. Mom gets motion sick in IMAX theaters and I was afraid she'd hate it and not be happy with me. Then we actually got on.

For the first time all vacation, I saw Grandma and Grandpa COMPLETELY and totally give in to child-like wonder. They were calling out, lifting feet over trees, laughing - and Hannah was giggling on my other side. They were all so completely caught up in the ride - it was purely a joy to experience. Everyone else on the ride was similarly caught up. When the ride stopped, everyone applauded, which is just cool. Grandma and Grandpa found their way back on that ride 3 or 4 times before the end of the trip.

When we got off, Mom headed to the kiosk that looks like a check-in counter and got the complete list of everything we had passed over from a very patient CM who wrote it all down for her out of a binder they kept behind the desk. Did I mention she really loved the ride?

Looking at the time, we realized that once again, we were NOT going to make it around the World Showcase. We decided to cut directly to the other side of the lagoon to walk from Japan to Germany and stop at the American Adventure, since Grandpa is a big fan of patriotic and historical shows, Kairi had wanted to get a pearl in Japan, and Grandma wanted a cuckoo clock in Germany. We took a Friendship across. Those boats are REALLY stuffy and hot in the summer humidity. I was also bummed to see how much trash was floating in the lagoon - especially near the dock by Japan.

When we arrived, we were about 15 minutes before the posted time for Miyuki's first show of the day. I decided that everyone else could go shop in Japan if they wanted, but I was planting myself at the front of the rope and waiting for Miyuki. Kairi, the reason for the trip to Japan, wanted to stay with me, though! So we mostly stayed by the rope, although Grandma and Grandpa went inside to get out of the heat.

They were drawn back outside by the drum show, which happened right before Miyuki arrived. The kids especially liked watching the drummers playing this HUGE drum.

Then Miyuki came out and set up her shop. I'd never seen her show, but I heard about it on the DIS. She started with some rules. Families had to share. Only one kid per family could get a candy. Then she looked right at Kairi and asked what she wanted. It came as no surprise to anyone when Kairi asked for a frog - she is CRAZY about them. Her room at home is wall to wall frogs. With a flick of her wrist, Miyuki went to work.

Kairi was thrilled to be picked, and amazed, just like the rest of the group, at how a lump of rice taffy turned into an adorable animal.

One thing the DIS didn't tell us, though, was the absolutely adorable patter Miyuki kept up while she was crafting. "Pretty Froggy, I make for you, lovely froggy, green froggy, long froggy leg, pretty water, I make for you, shiny pretty candy..." I thought it was too cute. Scott? Well. You can read his report. Let's just say if you want to make him scream, just start saying "Pretty froggy..."

In the wink of an eye, Miyuki was done with the frog. She hung it to dry and started on a sea turtle for someone else. She picked Faith, but we told her we were all one family, so she moved on. Faith, of course, took that personally. But there you have it.

When Kairi got her frog, we took some pictures and then went to look at the pearls. Kai changed her mind about picking a pearl (after months of saying that's the one souvenir she wanted). Still not sure what that was about. So we moved on.

I liked the style of the buildings in Morrocco and wished we had time to stop, but everyone was eager to keep moving, so I had to settle for bad pictures snapped on the way.

When we got to the American Adventure, we were already running low on time. I checked with the person at the door and found out how long the show was. I thought we'd have just enough time to see the show, and asked if everyone wanted to see it. They all agreed, and I moved forward.

That's when some confusion happened. I'm still not sure exactly how this worked out, because as soon as I got to the door, a CM rushed up to me. He said, "What state are you from?" and I said "Pennsylvania" and he said, "Oh, we have a message for a Jean from Pennsylvania!"

I was confused, and quickly tried to explain I was Jenn, not Jean, but he said something about that's what he meant and hustled me over to a wooden box. He opened it to reveal a phone and told me to dial 3333. I did, and ended up getting birthday greetings from Goofy! It was so very cute, and I was revving on it, when I realized that Scott had his mad face on, Grandpa was looking lost, Grandma and Cyndy were nowhere to be seen, and Barry and the girls were already in the next room.

*sigh* I tried to find out what had happened. Turns out, Grandma decided we didn't have time to see the show and go to Germany to get the cuckoo clock she wanted. So, she took Cyndy and took off. She didn't bother to tell Grandpa, who was looking for her, and then wanted to try and find her once we told him where she was, which was a really bad idea. One, trying to find someone else in Disney World when you've never been there yourself is daunting. Two, we were only at the American Adventure because we thought he'd enjoy it. We convinced him to wait with us as the Voices of Liberty wrapped up their performance. They had lovely voices, but I didn't care for their version of Black is the Colour (Of My True Love's Hair).

As for the American Adventure, I think I saw it once before (must have been on that 18 years ago trip) but I didn't remember Mark Twain being such a jerk. He was really negative! But we all liked it, and learned some interesting bits of trivia along with the familiar history. Or not-so-familiar history, as my daughter asked me if Mark Twain was related to Shania Twain.

Gordi did especially like it, and we had a great conversation as we walked about how much of that history he had lived through personally. As we headed back to the Friendship, we got a call from Cyndy and Mom. They were already headed over the lagoon and would save our spot for us at the Garden Grill. Mom had NOT gotten a cuckoo clock because even the very smallest were ridiculously expensive (could've told her that...) and she was disappointed. But between Soarin', Miyuki, and the American Adventure, I enjoyed the afternoon. There was plenty of beauty, charm, and adventure in the World Showcase. Maybe we'll get all the way around it... NEXT TIME.

Next Chapter: Stop the Restaurant, I Wanna Throw Up

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Finally, Grandma and Grandpa showed up, and soon after, the first group came off the ride. Hannah was bouncing and bubbling about how much she LOVED the ride. Nick was miserable, and hated it more than last time, if possible (he's afraid of heights). Kairi really liked it

I believe Barry liked it, but complained about seeing people's feet in front of him (we were in the last row). Cyndy said that she could see the black around the screen and it was a bit distracting. I liked it, but I was also trying to keep an eye on Nicholas, who looked green. I probably would have been happier if Jenn had ridden with us and someone else stayed with the girls.

Looking at the time, we realized that once again, we were NOT going to make it around the World Showcase.

Those boats are REALLY stuffy and hot in the summer humidity.

The boat didn't bother me at all. I don't recall feeling stuffy. Maybe hot, but then, it was Florida.

They were drawn back outside by the drum show, which happened right before Miyuki arrived.

I really liked the drum show, and next time I want to be in a better position to watch it properly. From where we were, it was hard to see the whole thing.

"Pretty Froggy, I make for you, lovely froggy, green froggy, long froggy leg, pretty water, I make for you, shiny pretty candy..." I thought it was too cute. Scott? Well. You can read his report. Let's just say if you want to make him scream, just start saying "Pretty froggy..."

I found it highly annoying. Grandma said something about how she probably doesn't know that much English, but I am probably a little more skeptical of this. It seems this act was on purpose. It drove me crazy. I'm glad Kairi got her frog, but I never want to do this again. There must have been something else going on in the Japan pavilion of interest.

When Kairi got her frog, we took some pictures and then went to look at the pearls. Kai changed her mind about picking a pearl (after months of saying that's the one souvenir she wanted).

I wanted to buy a souvenir in Japan, but didn't really get enough time to look around and really pick something out I wanted. Although I did like the swords.

I liked the style of the buildings in Morrocco and wished we had time to stop, but everyone was eager to keep moving,

I liked the dress in the picture. Very Princess-Leia-on-Jabba-the-Hutt's-barge-esque. Also, if I remember correctly, I wasn't allowed into Morrocco because of the belly dancers.

I thought we'd have just enough time to see the show, and asked if everyone wanted to see it. They all agreed, and I moved forward.

This is the key thing to this incident. I was in the back of the group, and was the last one in the building. As far as I could understand, nobody said they didn't want to go into the American Adventure, but then Cyndy and Grandma promptly turned around and walked off to look at clocks. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out why Jenn is on the phone while I am trying to make sure she knows that we lost a couple people. It seems weird that in the American Pavilion they would waste the time to set up a phone just for birthday greetings.

We convinced him to wait with us as the Voices of Liberty wrapped up their performance. They had lovely voices, but I didn't care for their version of Black is the Colour (Of My True Love's Hair).

I don't remember what else they sang, but I wasn't impressed either. But then, I am used to the Gaelic Storm version, so that might have something to do with it.

I wish we sat more in the middle of the room for the American Adventure. We sat pretty much in the front row and all the way over to the left. It was annoying having to watch everything from other there. But I liked the show, and I am pretty sure I saw it before, too.

Next Chapter: Stop the Restaurant, I Wanna Throw Up

Or: Who Let All The Crickets In Here?

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

“I seem to you cruel and too much addicted to gluttony, when I beat my cook for sending up a bad dinner. If that seems to you too trifling a cause, pray tell for what cause you would have a cook flogged?” - Marcus Valerius Martialis, Roman poet (1st century B.C.)

No, I am not going to physically abuse the chef of the Garden Grill in today's installment. But this is going to be a rather negative review, so consider yourself duly warned.

We were seated at a table on the top level of the two revolving levels of this restaurant. Our waitress took our drink orders, and brought back Evian for Barry, who had asked for water. That did turn out to be on the dining plan, but I was a bit annoyed about the $6+ I thought it was going to cost us. (Mainly because Evian sells for about half that at home.)

The characters started arriving the second we were seated, and I missed the rushed, rehearsed recital by our waitress of what we would be eating. Several baskets of bread were plopped down on the table, and the waitress took off again, returning to dump salads in a big communal bowl. (I had seen pictures of individual salads with Mickey shaped cucumbers, so that was kind of a bummer). Meanwhile, I was noticing that the decor on the second level of this restaurant leaves a lot to be desired. Twice a rotation, we'd go past alcoves like the one you can see here. The alcoves had doors leading to the kitchen, but were also being used as catch-alls for anything someone might need in a restaurant. You can see there's a fire extinguisher, stack of high chairs, booster seats.... What you can't see is the bucket full of garbage, the dirty mop resting against the wall, a crate of produce that hadn't been hauled in. It was, in a word, nasty.

But the characters were much more engaging than the princesses had been, and I sat back and tried to enjoy their interaction with the kids. The bread turned out to be oatmeal cluster rolls and they were very delicious. I wish I had simply filled myself up on those and not tried to eat anything else, but I was feeling a bit queasy. (Ominous music...) But Chip was loving on the kids, so who cares, right?

And then along came Farmer Mickey, who delighted everyone.

It was hard to take pictures without chopping off character heads or ears because you could only get so far back from the table since we were bumped right against the railing to the second level. It was a very narrow seating arrangement.

But upclose and personal with the characters if you were sitting on the outside of the table.

Unfortunately, I was on the inside of the table, and I was starting to feel like I might need to throw up. That wasn't helped by the swift arrival of our food. As Pluto charmed the kids...

And Dale teased them by playing with hair...

Coloring on menus...

And pretending to walk away without seeing them, and then running back to give them attention...

The waitress moved in front of pictures, reached over tables and around characters to dump plates on the table. She dropped off a platter of macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets and said "for kids" and then dumped one platter of turkey, stuffing, vegetables, potatoes, fish and beef on the table. Again, she took off. We had 7 "adults" and one plate of food piled on top of itself like someone's messy buffet plate.

Everyone started eating fairly happily enough, although with super small portions. You'll see I'm not in this photo, though. A few bites of dry turkey with greasy stuffing and I KNEW I was going to throw up. I took off to the bathroom, which required me to climb over and around the table and then leave the restaurant entirely, since the bathrooms are off in the Land pavillion.

When I thought my stomach was settled, I returned. I tried to eat again, but the beef was ridiculously over salted. The potatoes had already been eaten, and when a second serving of just potatoes and veggies was ordered, it came back with parchment paper stuck to the potatoes, which a chef came out to explain when Mom called the waitress over. He said it wouldn't hurt her, basically. Which, fine, it won't. But shouldn't a chef make sure he's only sending the edible material off a baking sheet out to guests? The rest of the family complimented the freshness of the vegetables, but they had absolutely no flavor whatsoever. I steam fresh vegetables all the time, but these had all their natural flavor leached out and no seasonings to enhance their flavor either, unless you count the drippings from the stuff piled on top of them. The turkey was nearly inedible, and so dry I think they roasted the individual slices. I love stuffing, and I don't even want to think about that greasy, nasty, liquidy stuffing. And all of that was on just a few bites of each. No one else complained about the food, but that tiny plate they had given seven adults turned out to be enough. Most of the adults ended up eating the kids' chicken fingers.

I ended up back in the bathroom hoping my stomach would settle if I could just stop moving.

While we ate, the kids liked watching the rotation, but the adults could only see the wall behind them, and the alcoves full of junk. The characters had barely left the first time when they were coming around a second, and third time. Each time, they posed for pictures like they weren't sure they had seen us before. We felt bad taking up all their time, but I think the restaurant is so small they actually did see everyone twice.

Still, we got some cute pictures. The chipmunks are such cut-ups! I will miss them if we only go to Chef Mickey's next time (and no Liberty Tree Tavern like previous trips, and DEFINITELY NO Garden Grill).

Nicky got some attention to make up for the Princess morning.

And Juli and Dale certainly hit it off.

And Grandpa got quite a lot of attention the second time the characters travelled, too.

The waitress again mumbled something about dessert and wanted a count of how many wanted blueberry buckle and how many were "kids". We explained that 3 were technically kids, but that Kai would also like a kid dessert. And apparently, Grandpa said something about why can't he have pudding. Because when the "Worms In Dirt" dessert came out, he got one too. That was nice.

Everyone else had some kind of blueberry thing I'll let Scott describe because I don't eat blueberries and I was back standing outside the restaurant trying to not throw up. Unsuccessfully. (TMI. Sorry.)

The dinner cost $285.38, and we paid with 10 TS credits, and $52 for tips.

Running Totals: 20 CS, 40 TS, 9 S, and $242 in tips with $0 OOP for food. If we had not been on the dining plan, we would have paid $1479.97 so far.

We left the restaurant, with Grandma feeling guilty because she had picked the place and it was fairly evident no one had really liked it. She and Grandpa headed off to use their second set of fastpasses for Soarin'. (They picked them up earlier - they really LOVED the ride.) The rest of us tried to leave, but Cyndy insisted on going back to MouseGear because my call that morning had interrupted her shopping. (Um... I just threw up. Half of the kids still haven't gotten in the pool, and were promised they could tonight. Could we just freaking leave??)

But we sat in the Innoventions plaza.

And took pictures cause we were there.

And watched the fountain.

And finally, Faith and Cyndy came back with their all important purchase of pink mouse ears. Can't get those ANYWHERE else. (Sorry. Bad food makes me grouchy, can you tell?)

When we got back to the hotel room, we were greeted by this guy and a ton of his brothers, all over our room doors and walls. Good thing we like frogs, huh?

Scott took the kids out to the pool, where they met up with their cousins and had a reportedly great time, with Nick finally braving the water slide - and then doing it again 5 times.

I stayed in the room until I felt less nauseous and then meant to join them to at least take pictures when I noticed that our TS credit count was off for two of the rooms. After about 30 minutes on the phone with the front desk, I got it sorted out, and by then everyone returned and we all called it a night. ('Ohana had double charged us, if anyone cares.)

Next Chapter: Hooray for Hollywood!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

“I seem to you cruel and too much addicted to gluttony, when I beat my cook for sending up a bad dinner. If that seems to you too trifling a cause, pray tell for what cause you would have a cook flogged?” - Marcus Valerius Martialis, Roman poet (1st century B.C.)

When I saw the quote, I knew Jenn was going to get more vicious than I would have about Garden Grill. Sure, I never want to go back there again, but wow...

Meanwhile, I was noticing that the decor on the second level of this restaurant leaves a lot to be desired. Twice a rotation, we'd go past alcoves like the one you can see here.

These were really kind of off-putting. The entire restaurant seemed to be designed poorly. I've been in rotating restaurants before, but this one was just set up badly. Having those alcoves open and having the upper level so narrow were bad design choices.

But the characters were much more engaging than the princesses had been, and I sat back and tried to enjoy their interaction with the kids.

This was one of the few saving graces of the place. I thought the characters came around too many times, which made the dinner seemed rushed, but I did like that they played with the kids more than the creepy princesses.

The waitress moved in front of pictures, reached over tables and around characters to dump plates on the table. She dropped off a platter of macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets and said "for kids" and then dumped one platter of turkey, stuffing, vegetables, potatoes, fish and beef on the table. Again, she took off. We had 7 "adults" and one plate of food piled on top of itself like someone's messy buffet plate.

This was also annoying. There were 11 of us, on the cramped upper level, with a waitress who didn't seem to know how to not get in the way. Maybe she never had to deal with such a large group before.

As for the food itself, I ended up swiping one of only two piece of Mahi-Mahi that was served the 7 adults, and quite enjoyed it. I didn't mind the veggies or potatoes, but I didn't like anything else.

I ended up back in the bathroom hoping my stomach would settle if I could just stop moving.

Jenn gets queasy sitting in a car and reading at the same time. I'm not sure if the movement of the restaurant, which actually was quite slow, was causing the problem or not.

While we ate, the kids liked watching the rotation, but the adults could only see the wall behind them, and the alcoves full of junk.

One of the things Jenn failed to mention was the sheer noise of the place. You could hear the soundtrack of the Living with the Land ride. You could hear the damned crickets the entire time. It was really highly irritating, and very loud.

Everyone else had some kind of blueberry thing I'll let Scott describe

Um, it was this blueberry cake thing in a tray and I liked it very much. Since it was a month ago, that's all I really remember about it. Probably the best thing I ate at Garden Grill.

The dinner cost $285.38, and we paid with 10 TS credits, and $52 for tips.

I am so glad I didn't have to pay cash.

When we got back to the hotel room, we were greeted by this guy and a ton of his brothers, all over our room doors and walls. Good thing we like frogs, huh?

They turned into a bit of annoyance after awhile, because we had to make sure they didn't get in the room. But they were still cool. If you go to CSR and end up somewhere facing the center area, the frogs probably don't show up around your room.

Scott took the kids out to the pool, where they met up with their cousins and had a reportedly great time, with Nick finally braving the water slide - and then doing it again 5 times.

I didn't go on the slide this time, but spent a good amount of time making sure Nick actually stood up and didn't drown to death after each one of his trips down the slide. He isn't a strong swimmer, although he has shown a lot of improvement this year. By the time we go back next year, I won't worry about it.

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

"Hollywood is where if you don't have happiness, you send out for it." - Rex Reed

Tuesday dawned sunny and bright, and it was time for the day that scared us most planning-wise: Hollywood Studios. HS is often dissed on these boards, but we love it. We could happily spend the majority of our trip time between the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Which is why it was seriously bumming us out that we only had one day there. We had yielded to Grandma who wanted two EPCOT days and three Magic Kingdom days, so what are you gonna do? In fact, Grandma was so disinterested in Hollywood Studios that she and Grandpa planned on getting a late start and extra sleep, then having a leisurely breakfast at Pepper Market. They promised to join us around dinner time and stay through Fantasmic! but it was a smaller group that headed out to make rope drop at the Studios.

We were lucky in our buses this morning, and I had stressed the importance of rope drop due to the (new to us) Toy Story ride. I had heard all the horror stories, and didn't want to ruin our morning touring plan. Unfortunately, we were at the turnstiles _45_ minutes before they opened. So we had a nice view of all the employees walking in past deserted park buildings while everyone got antsy and cranky. Ooops.

Finally, the turnstiles opened and we headed in. We were still close to the front of the rope, but the crowd was pretty massive and I was starting to worry about whether TSM could possibly be worth being trampled. But our way ahead was still clear...

Until Tootsie DuJour rolled up and started the opening show. I had never seen this particular opening show somehow, but it was cute and funny. Most of the crowd just ignored it and anxiously awaited their release into the park.

Finally, the rope dropped. It really was midway mania. People were shoving and pushing to an extent that I tried to just slow our group up. But Barry and Cyndy were into it now, and didn't want to give up the position we had waited so long to get. Still, with a sleeping baby on Cyndy's shoulder, and 4 other kids in tow, we got jostled back pretty far. Didn't matter though, because the line was still really short when we got to the ride - everyone was in the fastpass line.

We headed past all the awesome theming...

Passing and repassing our own group in the winding empty queue...

Waving at high speed to Mr. Potato Head...

And finally getting on the ride. It was GREAT! It was so much fun! I had no idea about the way it swung you from screen to screen, and I loved the constant surprise about which way you'd turn next. The games were fun, though my score was atrocious. As soon as we got off, I grabbed everyone's cards and hustled for the now empty fastpass machines and got us fastpasses for about 2 that afternoon. I thought that was pretty good, considering.

Next on our agenda was some splitting up. Nick was an absolute NO on Tower of Terror and Rock and Roller Coaster. Faith and Juli were too small. Cyndy wanted to go to Playhouse Disney with Faith and Juli, and though I had wanted to try ToT and RnRC, I decided to stay with her rather than saddle her with Nick and her own two girls. I was a bit bummed, but I'm also a chicken, so I wasn't completely heartbroken.

So while we took our picture with a rocket that's apparently also a character...

And sat through the most inane and boring show in Disney... (I think it has subliminal messages behind the poorly designed stage that sends preschoolers into a state of rapture. Cause I can't explain why it keeps playing otherwise.)

Scott, Hannah, Barry, and Kairi headed for ToT. That's when Kairi chickened out. She'd been making noises about not wanting to ride, so it wasn't entirely surprising. Scott decided she could sit out on her own and headed into the ride. Hannah, our daredevil, didn't care and happily waited in the hotel lobby with her Uncle Scott, who I believe was also pretty nervous.

Scott didn't buy the picture at ToT. I have conflicting reports about whether he was hiding his face or "holding on his hat" but he decided it wasn't flattering.

Oddly, he DID buy this picture on RnRC. It only LOOKS like he's having a heart attack. Really.

Meanwhile, back with the shorty and chicken group, Nick wanted a picture with Sorceror Mickey in topiary form. I should probably explain that he didn't know at this point that you could get a picture with the actual Sorceror Mickey. I should also explain that he is a certifiable Fantasmic! junkie. He asserts that there would be no point at all in a Disney trip without Fantasmic. In fact, I rearranged our entire park schedule to accomodate Fantasmic because he loves it that much. So whenever he saw anything at all with Sorceror Mickey or brooms and buckets, he wanted pictures.

Dragging Nick away from the topiary, we decided breakfast was in order. So we stopped by Starring Rolls to use some snack credits. This place is SOOOOOOO good. The baked goods are phenomenal, and the dessert case was calling my name before 10 in the morning. I was good (relatively) and got a croissant instead of one of the desserts in the case.

So what if it was a chocolate croissant?

Juli obviously approved!

But the only thing Nick loves more than obscure versions of Mickey Mouse is cinnamon rolls, so that's what he headed for.

The two croissants, a juice, a chocolate milk, and a cinnamon roll cost $13.15, and we paid with 5 Snack credits.

Running Totals: 20 CS, 40 TS, 14 S, and $242 in tips with $0 OOP for food. If we had not been on the dining plan, we would have paid $1493.12 so far.

When we finished eating, the rest of the family caught up with us. Hannah had made a detour to buy these adorable sparkly teal Mickey deely-boppers.

We headed for one of our favorite attractions, the Great Movie Ride. Yes, it's old, and the movies are out of date. But the thing is, good movies are never out of date - they just become "classics". So, we stopped for pictures outside of the Grauman's facade...

And headed in for our journey into the movies. Unfortunately, we ran into our longest line to this point and waited about 10-15 minutes to board. But it was worth it. Our tour guide (and I so want this job, of all the jobs in Disney) whisked us under the marquee, and into magic.

We just saw Mary Poppins on Broadway, so the kids probably remember that more than the movie, but it's a favorite and the closest we got to Mary Poppins on this trip. (Which is a good thing, too. Much like the dancer in Morocco, Scott's not allowed too close to Mary.)

The kids were astounded by the exploding bank building, and really got into the whole storyline, which was fun. We were right up front, too, so I think at least the little ones thought we actually were being hijacked by an escaping bank robber.

Even though we had just eaten breakfast, the rest of the group was ready for lunch, and our next chance to eat might conflict with the times for our TSM fastpass and the Indiana Jones stunt show. Not to mention the fact that dinner was slated for 3:50 (thank you Fantasmic package - sigh) So we headed back to Starring Rolls. At this point, the little girls were starting to get a bit thirsty and cranky, and Cyndy was losing patience. It didn't help that as we tried to get into the bakery, the skies opened up in a torrential downpour. Fortunately, Scott snagged us a spot under the umbrellas that kept our food and fronts very dry - although run-off from the umbrella still got our backs wet.

Fortunately, the food was good, although I wouldn't order the ham sandwich again because it had spicy mustard on it, and I am not a spicy mustard fan. You can't make changes because the sandwiches are pre-made. That's okay, though, because the turkey was great so I can have that next time. The sandwiches were massively huge, and I wasn't very hungry, so I didn't come close to finishing mine. Still managed to do justice to the fabulous dessert selection, though! I had this beautiful banana split dessert, which was like a creamy layered banana trifle. It was heavenly. Scott had a tasty tiramisu - not the best tiramisu we've had, but not shabby. Kai had the cheesecake, and enjoyed it very much. Cyndy and Barry both had gigantic, delicious cupcakes. The kids all enjoyed PB+J for lunch and had bites of all the desserts going around. Most of our bags of chips went in bags for later. The non-dessert selection is somewhat limited, but the great flavors and out of this world desserts certainly make up for it.

Lunch cost $95.65, and we paid with 8 CS credits. Meanwhile, Grandma and Grandpa went to the Pepper Market at CSR and spent $31.43, and paid with 2 CS credits.

Running Totals: 30 CS, 40 TS, 14 S, and $242 in tips with $0 OOP for food. If we had not been on the dining plan, we would have paid $1620.20 so far.

After lunch, it was time to go back and rock Toy Story Mania again.

Nicky insisted on riding with me again, and I tried to get him to help me with strategy, but he just wanted to shoot things. Still, we did better than the first time.

We took a shot of the giant Scrabble board for Grandma, since she loves Scrabble. But the clear blue of the sky had given way to some serious cloudiness.

Fortunately, everything was sunny again for the moment with our personal emotional rollercoaster, and while poor Scott hustled to find the stroller, a passing CM offered to take a shot of us that turned out to be one of my favorites. I love the angle he used to try and get us and the TSM sign. Someone ought to sign him up for photopass! Wish I had his name, but thank you, CM!

Next Chapter: And The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down...