A Polynesian Birthday: March 6th - 12th! *Updated and completed 6/10*

[SweetSerenity]

I'm in! Loving the pictures!

 

[paradesintherain]

Great pictures so far! How's the porg?

Thank you! The Porg is doing great - I actually brought him along but he was more into lounging in the room this trip. Been there, done that

I'm in! Loving the pictures!

Welcome! And thank you so much!

 

[buteraa]

Great trip report so far!

 

[starousse]

Joining in too

 

[paradesintherain]

Great trip report so far!

Joining in too

Thanks for joining in you two! Hope I can keep you entertained!

 

[paradesintherain]

Day 3 - Thursday, March 8th - Magic Kingdom, part 2



After our grand circle tour we killed some time admiring the castle and Fantasyland.

Any picture is instantly improved with cherry blossoms!

So, I really don't know why I keep booking Be Our guest, other than the fact that it's so hard to book that it feels like an accomplishment when I can score an ADR. I had told myself I wasn't going to book BOG for this trip, yet here we are.

The restaurant is certainly beautiful, but the food leaves something to be desired.

We placed our orders and picked a table in the main ballroom by the windows. It was a pretty nice location away from the chaos.

While waiting for our meals I tried for some closeups of the chandeliers.

The server delivered our food and the sandwich looked seriously disappointing. I requested some extra arugula topping, but he never returned with it. Seriously, why can't this place customize orders? OR, not even customize, but actually put more than 2 pieces of arugula on the sandwich? And forget about tomatoes, there was maybe one little tomato. All in all a pretty pathetic meal. Shame on me, though, because I should have learned my lesson by now.

Carved Turkey Sandwich - Carved Turkey Sandwich served warm on a Baguette with Dijon Mayonnaise and Pommes Frites.

I also ordered a Master's Cupcake, but didn't bother to take a picture in the terrible lighting. This cupcake is reliably delicious and moist, and I love the grey stuff. It's definitely way too small for the money and hard to get out of the wrapper, and absolutely not compelling enough to entice me to return.

I took a few more pictures on the way out.

After our super disappointing lunch the park was pretty busy. Since we had tickets to Disney After Hours we weren't terribly concerned about getting on the rides. We ended up at the Tangled restrooms, and I think Dad had a work matter to deal with so I had a great time trying to track down the Pascals. This is a super cute activity and Pascal is SNEAKY.

It didn't seem like there were many Pascals on the actual Tangled building, most of them seemed to be across the walkway by that little stream. Or he could have just hidden really well.

I love his little stubborn face!

Whew, that was a lot of photos of a very small area! But it was a really beautiful day and it was nice to be going at a more relaxed pace where I was able to really pay attention to the details.
​

 

[disneyAndi14]

Joining in. Love all the pictures of Pandora and the Tangled area.

We stayed at the Poly last August in Rarotonga, this longhouse was close to everything.

I can’t agree more about the pre show for FoP, ugh! That guy is so annoying. They went overboard making it look like it is real time. My dd hates this part. I wish we could skip it.

Your wait time was not bad for it, in February we saw a 4 hour wait time one day, yikes!

I am the same way with BoG, I love the accomplishment of getting the adr more than the lunch, ha!

 

[SweetSerenity]

I agree with you about BOG. It's beautiful! We have eaten there for lunch and dinner, and while we thought our dinner was very good our lunch wasn't great. I'm so disappointed they are going to a 2 credit prix fix menu as we likely won't eat there again. The experience of carrying in Lumiere, sitting by the snow, hearing the announcement of the Beast, and getting to meet him at the end was wonderful. I'm sad to see it change.

Love your pictures of Pascal. I've never taken the time to look for him.

 

[richmo]

I have to agree with you that the detail in Animal Kingdom, especiallly in Africa/Asia/Pandora, is just stunning. More so than the other parks..maybe because it's the newest (?).

I'm glad you hit Satu'li Canteen. Its my favorite quick service in WDW now...I managed to go there 3 times over a week, twice for lunch and once for dinner. I've been going mostly with the chicken bowls. Delicious, filling and surprisingly priced pretty well compared with other Disney QS. I didn't get to do mobile ordering (but never had to wait more than 5 minutes or so). I would have but they're not allowing Disney gift cards as payment for mobile ordering yet. That's the enhancement I'd like to see.

I had the exact same experience you had with Flight of Passage. I had finished up my 3 FP's for the day at AK and had scheduled another at MK for early evening. I was having lunch at Satu'li and was getting ready to leave the park. I had done a lot of AK a couple nights previous (hadn't been there at night before), so I was just walking thru Pandora on my way out about 1:30 and saw the FoP line was listed as 95 minutes. There must be something psychological about seeing 2 digits wait time instead of 3. Since I didn't need to be anywhere for the rest of the afternoon, I got in line. I think it took about 90 minutes total. I wonder if there's an early afternoon lull in the line about then. By the time I got off sometime around 3:15, the line was back up to 110 or so

 

[RoliePolieColie]

YAY, we're birthday twins!! Happy belated birthday!! I was also there on my birthday this year and last year and I can't imagine spending my birthday any other way now! I can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[cajunfan]

Enjoying your report. I agree with lunch at BOG (and nothing at breakfast looks appealing to me for the price). I will say, the last time I was there I had dinner there and it was realy good. (but that was in 2016, and i know some things have changed there)

 

[paradesintherain]

Joining in. Love all the pictures of Pandora and the Tangled area.

We stayed at the Poly last August in Rarotonga, this longhouse was close to everything.

I can’t agree more about the pre show for FoP, ugh! That guy is so annoying. They went overboard making it look like it is real time. My dd hates this part. I wish we could skip it.

Your wait time was not bad for it, in February we saw a 4 hour wait time one day, yikes!

I am the same way with BoG, I love the accomplishment of getting the adr more than the lunch, ha!

Welcome! Thanks for joining in and thanks for the compliments on the pictures!

I wish we could skip the preshow too, or just wait in a regular line. ANYTHING but that guy. And yeah the wait time was pretty manageable for that ride, at least.

My next trip I really am skipping BoG (except a friend invited me to their ADR, so )

I agree with you about BOG. It's beautiful! We have eaten there for lunch and dinner, and while we thought our dinner was very good our lunch wasn't great. I'm so disappointed they are going to a 2 credit prix fix menu as we likely won't eat there again. The experience of carrying in Lumiere, sitting by the snow, hearing the announcement of the Beast, and getting to meet him at the end was wonderful. I'm sad to see it change.

Love your pictures of Pascal. I've never taken the time to look for him.

I've never eaten at BoG for dinner, and now that it's changing to Prix fixe I doubt I ever will.

Thank you! The Pascal search was pretty fun!

I have to agree with you that the detail in Animal Kingdom, especiallly in Africa/Asia/Pandora, is just stunning. More so than the other parks..maybe because it's the newest (?).

I'm glad you hit Satu'li Canteen. Its my favorite quick service in WDW now...I managed to go there 3 times over a week, twice for lunch and once for dinner. I've been going mostly with the chicken bowls. Delicious, filling and surprisingly priced pretty well compared with other Disney QS. I didn't get to do mobile ordering (but never had to wait more than 5 minutes or so). I would have but they're not allowing Disney gift cards as payment for mobile ordering yet. That's the enhancement I'd like to see.

I had the exact same experience you had with Flight of Passage. I had finished up my 3 FP's for the day at AK and had scheduled another at MK for early evening. I was having lunch at Satu'li and was getting ready to leave the park. I had done a lot of AK a couple nights previous (hadn't been there at night before), so I was just walking thru Pandora on my way out about 1:30 and saw the FoP line was listed as 95 minutes. There must be something psychological about seeing 2 digits wait time instead of 3. Since I didn't need to be anywhere for the rest of the afternoon, I got in line. I think it took about 90 minutes total. I wonder if there's an early afternoon lull in the line about then. By the time I got off sometime around 3:15, the line was back up to 110 or so

Animal Kingdom is just the best (though I do remember not being enthralled with it as a teenager before Everest was built).

Satu'li is delicious, I recommend it to everyone now. Mobile ordering has a lot of limitations still, but it's great when everything aligns and you can use it!

Maybe there is an afternoon lull! That was the only time I ever saw it in single digits. Not sure if I'd ever wait that long again... but it is a really great ride, so if I was really feeling it I might.

YAY, we're birthday twins!! Happy belated birthday!! I was also there on my birthday this year and last year and I can't imagine spending my birthday any other way now! I can't wait to hear about your trip!

Aw yay! Happy late birthday to you!

I've spent the last 3 birthdays there and it's honestly the best!

Enjoying your report. I agree with lunch at BOG (and nothing at breakfast looks appealing to me for the price). I will say, the last time I was there I had dinner there and it was realy good. (but that was in 2016, and i know some things have changed there)

Breakfast at BOG seems SOOO overpriced for what you get. And I'm not a morning person so the pre-park opening perk would be hard for me to do.

Dinner does look good, but guess we'll see with the change to Prix fixe. Maybe I just need to give up on the turkey sandwich and try other lunch entrees!

 

[paradesintherain]

Day 3 - Thursday, March 8th - Magic Kingdom, part 3


After finding all the Pascals we headed on to Splash Mountain. It was a colder day, but I couldn't miss my favorite ride since it had been closed during my last visit.

Apparently it was 2:49 when we used our FP

They tried to put us in the front seat, but I noped out of that one. Willing to ride my favorite ride, but not in the front seat, no way.

Praying we pass the water jet in time. (we did)

This is the best phrase

And here's the ride photo. I pulled an Elsa cause the cold never bothered me anyway. Or never bothered me enough to keep me off Splash Mountain.

Since I had failed to find the sweatshirt I really wanted I decided to buy the Splash Mountain sweatshirt.

Apparently I am terrible at noticing stuff because I had never noticed Brer Rabbit's little house in the dump shop. How cute!

Our next FP was at Space Mountain (smart planning, Kara) so we took a leisurely stroll all the way across the park.

We caught a little bit of the Jack Sparrow show. Adventureland was pretty empty with the closure of Pirates.

Time for a ride through space!

Poorly planned FP completed we decided to head out of the park and rest before the After Hours event. I ended up napping until about 7:15, and I'm very glad I did or I wouldn't have made it long.


Next post: Day 3 - Thursday, March 8th - Disney After Hours​

 

[paradesintherain]

Day 3 - Thursday, March 8th - Disney After Hours


Once I woke up from my nap we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for the Disney After Hours event.

We arrived right as the fireworks were ending and it was a madhouse, but I am an expert crowd dodger. We veered to the left because I wanted to check out Sleepy Hollow.

Sleepy Hollow had a really long line and it was really cold, so I nixed that idea. While we were in the area we popped in Hall of Presidents. I honestly can't remember the last time I was in that building so I enjoyed seeing all the historic presidential things.

This was Teddy Roosevelt's!

These buckles belonged to George Washington.

We didn't actually sit through the Hall of Presidents - not interested in that torture. We did ride Haunted Mansion, which was a walk-on. I have no photographic evidence of this, though. At the exit of Haunted Mansion was an ice cream cart so we had our first ice cream of the night.

This was my first time having a Mickey bar and it did not disappoint. The fact that it was free (or included in the cost, whichever) made it even better.

I took this photo to show off just how empty the park was during this event. It was a really cold night, so I don't know if they're usually busier.

Our next ride was Big Thunder - another walk on. Splash Mountain was running empty. I wanted to ride but it was actually too cold. Maybe if it had been later in the event I'd have gone for it, but I didn't want to be wet the whole time.

We strolled back through Adventureland and I had to stop at Magic Carpets. This ride is one of my favorites, but really isn't worth waiting in line for.

Dad and I got our own carpets. It was a fun ride, but the camel wasn't spitting so it was a little less fun than usual. Half the reason I like it so much is trying to dodge the camel spit!

So at this point I stopped taking notes. From the looks of it we kept walking past the castle again.

There was another ice cream cart so we grabbed some more treats. Pretty much every time we saw a cart we grabbed some water and Diet Coke to take back to the room.

This time I got a Mickey ice cream sandwich which was also really good. I enjoyed that it had cookies and cream ice cream in it.

Looks like we then walked through the castle.

Empty Fantasyland!

I think we wanted to ride Peter Pan, but the line was still pretty substantial so we jumped on it's a small world instead. I'm one of the weirdos who likes the song.

We continued through the empty park to Storybook Circus. I wanted to ride Barnstormer while there was no wait!

This coaster is really cute and fun, and I love getting the opportunity to ride it without waiting cause it's really not worth any sort of wait since it's about 10 seconds long.

To be continued!
Next post: Day 3 - Thursday, March 8th - Disney After Hours, part 2​

 

[paradesintherain]

Day 3 - Thursday, March 8th - Disney After Hours, part 2


Tomorrowland was next on the agenda.

We rode Space Mountain with no wait. I look tired.

Then we rode Astro Orbiter. The line for this is usually intolerable as it's just an outdoor switchback that moves super slowly. And I'm not sure about the ride itself, it's definitely the scariest of the spinners.

Since we were right there we rode Space Ranger Spin.

I'm super concentrated - it didn't pay off, I only scored 77,000.

Even though PeopleMover is easy to get on most days we decided to ride it anyway.

We looped back around to Fantasyland.

Peter Pan's Flight still had a decent wait time listed but we decided to get in line anyway. Neither of us had seen the new interactive queue yet.

The interactive queue was super cute! I love when Tinker Bell was glowing through the key hole. While in Fantasyland I think we also rode Winnie the Pooh.


Then we went back to the front of the park.

We each grabbed another treat before we left the park for the night. I got the Mickey sandwich again; guess I liked it better than the bar!

After our final treats we left on a bus (the monorail was down) right around midnight.


So, all things told, I thought Disney After Hours was a great event. There were no crowds anywhere, and the longest wait I saw was 30 minutes for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (and possibly for Peter Pan) but I doubt it would have really been that long of a wait. There was also decent value to be had with the treats. We each had 3 ice cream treats, and Dad also had a popcorn. We left loaded down with about 6 bottled drinks per person. The carts did seem to run out of water, and at first I thought that was just it, but I actually saw them restock.

I think I liked this event more than the Christmas party, and maybe more than the Halloween party. It's a bit cheaper and you get to just focus on the rides. At the parties it seems like a waste of time to ride the rides, so I guess it just depends on your priorities. For me, the Christmas fireworks and the parade (and that horrible song) aren't enough value to feel like I get my money's worth.




Next post: Day 4 - Friday, March 9th - My Birthday!​

 

[richmo]

I had forgotten Pirates was still closed when you were there. It wasn't scheduled to reopen until after my visit, but I checked in with one of my daughter's friends that was working in the college program at MK and she said to go check it out. I guess it was in soft opening since they still weren't taking FP's; anyway, I'm glad she told me as I probably wouldn't have walked back there otherwise. Sorry you just missed it -- gives you an excuse to go back!

 

[disneyAndi14]

We did the DAH event in February 2017 and it was also very cold that night. We loved it and plan on doing it this summer on 8/11. I am going to try the Mickey ice cream sandwich, I have yet to try that, yum. My plan is like you and your dad, ride as many things as we can and stock up on Diet Coke and water!

I love the back row of Splash as well!

 

[missangelalexis]

Yay glad you've started another TR!

I'm sorry you weren't feeling well the day before the trip

Your first day sounds nice and low key!

Love the Lion King ears you purchased, those are so cute!

Your day at AK sounds so fun! I just love all your Pandora pics! And so fun that you could end the day at Sanaa!

Sounds like a relaxing day at MK! I'm sure the nap was needed before your long night! I'm glad you enjoyed the After Hours event- all the reviews seem so positive about it!

 

[RoliePolieColie]

We were at the same After Hours event and my husband and I loved it! I think it's some of the best money I have spent in Disney. It was so nice to be able to wonder around with nobody there, and ride every single ride without much of a wait. We did wait maybe 15-20 minutes for Peter Pan, but even 7 Dwarves we were able to ride, then go back around and ride again (we ended up doing it 4 times in a row with the wait just having to do with walking through the queue again). The "free" drinks and snacks also make it even more worth it!

 

[paradesintherain]

I had forgotten Pirates was still closed when you were there. It wasn't scheduled to reopen until after my visit, but I checked in with one of my daughter's friends that was working in the college program at MK and she said to go check it out. I guess it was in soft opening since they still weren't taking FP's; anyway, I'm glad she told me as I probably wouldn't have walked back there otherwise. Sorry you just missed it -- gives you an excuse to go back!

I had forgotten too, honestly!

So you were some of the earliest to see the new redhead scene!

We did the DAH event in February 2017 and it was also very cold that night. We loved it and plan on doing it this summer on 8/11. I am going to try the Mickey ice cream sandwich, I have yet to try that, yum. My plan is like you and your dad, ride as many things as we can and stock up on Diet Coke and water!

I love the back row of Splash as well!

The first summer DAH event is the day I leave, so sad I won't experience it again. Was kind of thinking about doing the Typhoon Lagoon after hours event, but I'm not sure.

The Mickey sandwich is fantastic, I feel pretty confident that you'll enjoy it! It's such a nice bonus to be able to stock up on water and Diet Coke, and the CMs didn't have any problems handing out extras.

Yay glad you've started another TR!

I'm sorry you weren't feeling well the day before the trip

Your first day sounds nice and low key!

Love the Lion King ears you purchased, those are so cute!

Your day at AK sounds so fun! I just love all your Pandora pics! And so fun that you could end the day at Sanaa!

Sounds like a relaxing day at MK! I'm sure the nap was needed before your long night! I'm glad you enjoyed the After Hours event- all the reviews seem so positive about it!

I almost didn't start this TR, but I'm glad I did too!

Yeah, the day before vacation was rough, but I'm glad it didn't happen on the travel day.

Thank you, I love the Lion King ears too. Knew I had to buy them when I saw them announced.

Thanks!! I loved taking pictures of Pandora - which is pretty obvious haha. I was super happy that we were able to get a walk up at Sanaa.

The After Hours event was surprisingly great, even my Dad liked it and he tends to think the upcharge events aren't really worth it.

We were at the same After Hours event and my husband and I loved it! I think it's some of the best money I have spent in Disney. It was so nice to be able to wonder around with nobody there, and ride every single ride without much of a wait. We did wait maybe 15-20 minutes for Peter Pan, but even 7 Dwarves we were able to ride, then go back around and ride again (we ended up doing it 4 times in a row with the wait just having to do with walking through the queue again). The "free" drinks and snacks also make it even more worth it!

That's awesome you were able to ride Mine Train so many times! We didn't even try since we'd ridden it earlier, but I kind of wish we had now.

I agree the drinks and snacks up the value of the event. I think I'd definitely repeat it in the future.