A Trip of Firsts: How the Farrell’s do a Disneymoon!

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Here in my review of Disney’s AllStar Music resort.

The resort: The check-in process was simple, easy and the staff was very friendly and magical. The resort was set up very nicely, themed, and had easy access to its different areas. It was about a 2 minute walk from Rock in to Melody Hall. I liked that there were two pools and they were open to midnight. There also seemed to be a lot of activities going on for children. I also enjoyed there being a food court with different quick options for us to choose from. Maestro Mickey’s had many bottled beverages along with sundries and souvenirs to purchase.

The room:The room was what I would expect from Disney for a value resort. It was not large in size but it was comparable to a normal “Quality Inn” size room. The sink being on the outside of the bathroom was helpful in getting ready in the morning. I loved that the shower curtain rod bent out so the curtain was not “attacking you” in the shower. There seemed to be plenty of storage for two people, possibly 3 but it would be cramped for 4 adults. The button to flush the toilet was quite weird and if not done carefully it can hurt your finger, this is not ideal for a younger child trying to flush, or apparently a 22 year old female, haha. The curtains were dark enough to shade out most of the sun, so no complaints there. I am not sure if it was the area we were in or being on the bottom floor but it was a bit noisy. If we had been there more than 2 nights I might have asked to change rooms.

We ended up paying 92.66 for each night, so our total with the dinner, breakfast and snacks ended up being $231.30. So all in all I would stay at this resort again. DH thought it was more of a family style and wasn’t fond of it as much for the two of us, but I enjoyed it.

Here are also a few things I forgot to mention in my earlier posts:

1-We had our luggage delivered via Magical Express, the luggage was in our room when we got back the first night. I have been told it can take up to 3 hours, so we made sure to pack a day bag. I have no complaints about this service, in fact I LOVED IT!

2-When we checked in, I had been asked about express check-out, this is where they take a credit card on hold and charge all room charges to that card, and deliver your invoice to you the morning you check out. Everything is done for you and there is no stopping at the desk to checkout. Another service that I love at Disney and worked well for us.

3-Saturday night we had decided to go to CiCi’s for dinner, totally forgot all about this in my last post. We were not sure of the nearest location, but had been there before and loved it. So we approached the concierge desk and ask this wonderfully friendly older man if he could help us. He told us the closest one was on the main highway (I forget the name) and asked if we needed transportation and I said yes. He called a cab for us and it arrived shortly. While waiting we purchased a few Disney Dollars.

When the cab pulled up, it was a large van type, we got in and went on a ride, it was a normal crazy driver cab ride. When we finally got to CiCi’s we paid the driver, a bit more than I thought it would cost, around $25.00 then a tip. And got his number for the ride back. We paid 6.95 for the buffet and added drinks for a bit more. We were not impressed with the food this time, the staff was friendly but a bit odd and the food was just so-so. We won’t be returning to this specific CiCi’s. We paid for the cab again on the way back, then headed to DTD.

4-When we checked into the resort we were given a folder with information guides and maps in it, I just wanted to post a few pictures of it.

This was the folder cover

This was the resort map on the folder

This piece gave you facts about the resort, FAQ’s, provided a directory and a partial menu.

This piece was a schedule for the resort, listing activities and movie times for the week.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

You guys are so cute together! Love your posting! Keep it going!

What are the chances??

I know!!!! It really would only happen to me!

I've never seen this before... definitely good to know this service exists!

Disney has an amazing amount of little services that most people don't know about, I think because the simple things tend to be over looked! But I am one who loves the simple things like that and you will find more throught this trip report!







I am working on the rest of Sunday's, but thought I would post the review since it was done. Hopefully I will have more soon!!!!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Day 3: Sunday December 14th 2008
We woke around 830am, we wanted to get straight to the Poly get checked in and hit the parks!!!! It was our first day really at Disney! We both showered and packed our luggage. I called bell services to transfer our luggage to the Poly. They took our information, mentioned if we wanted to leave a tip, just to leave it under the suitcases and took down the number of suitcases we needed transported. We needed to have 5 bags transported. I believe we left about $7.00 for a tip.


We exited our room at ASMu and headed for the buses. We were trying to decide which way would be the quickest to the Poly. We knew the buses do not run from resort to resort, so we needed to make a connection. DH suggested taking the first bus to arrive and getting the connection, I agreed. Without thinking the Epcot bus arrived and we hopped on. At some point on the bus I realized that Epcot does not run buses to the Magic Kingdom resorts, since they have Monorail access. We arrived at Epcot, double checked the signs to make sure there wasn’t a bus to the Poly and wandered our way through security and onto the monorail.
Here’s a few photos on our way to the monorail…

The sign that reminded us that we were wrong!

YOMD flag

DH thrilled I was taking his picture!

Our view on the mono rail

Us on the Monorail, on our way to the TTC


We hopped on the monorail and I exclaimed to DH that I didn’t want to take the monorail to the Poly because I wanted the whole “walking in” experience, so I talked him into taking the walkway We got off the monorail and I need a coffee, so we stopped at the little coffee stand just outside the monorail entrance. They do not take DDP only cash I believe, so I just got a reg coffee and added the cream and sugar myself. The cost was $2.00. I would say this coffee was average not great but if you need coffee it’s there.

We proceeded down the walk way to the poly and we saw this…

It was gorgeous!!!!! It was lush and tropical! There were tiny lizards EVERYWHERE!!!! We continued our way towards the Great Ceremonial House. We walked up to the entrance way….

There were 2 or 3 waterfalls, tons of plants and trees everywhere. We entered the sliding doors and were greeted by this…

Gingerbread houses! A tradition at the Poly.

And there were more upstairs!

We turned and went straight to the check-in counter. We were greeted by a very friendly cm. We gave her, our information and I mentioned that we would prefer a upper floor room since they are quieter. She said “let me see what I can do.” Now the reason for me requesting an upper level room was mainly because DH and I wanted a balcony, but also the quite. I had hoped to get a room in Tokelau, since it was the perfect location, right in the middle of the resort. The CM replied with “well we do have a 3rd floor room and its ready now.” Great!!! She told us our room was “3941". The package we had included a garden view room, a little part of me was hoping for an upgrade, but no such luck.

Before walking away, I wanted to take some DIS advice. I asked the CM to check our ADR’s. After calling 3 times and changing our ADR’s, I wanted to make sure everything was set. The CM pulled up our ADR’s and printed them off. I quickly reviewed them and noticed that we were booked for Kona twice. Once for breakfast, which was correct, and again for dinner on Tuesday the 16th, this night was supposed to be at Tony’s Town Square. The CM checked the booking but Tony’s was completely booked that night. The CM told us she would check again in a bit and if not call Tony’s and see if she could get us in, since we were only 2 people. We thanked her and headed to our room. But just before we exited the GC we stopped by the DCL desk to check-in. We gave them our names and they requested to view our passports, OOOps! They were in the other suitcase that was being delivered. We explained this to the DCL lady and she told us, not very friendly, that we would need to bring them back by 5pm or at 8am in the morning, as soon as the desk opened. We told her we would and headed out to our room.

A few shots from the resort on our way to our room…

I just thought this garbage can was so cute!





Upnext: Our room at the Poly and what are we going to do with our first day, aka third day at Disney?

 

[kimmylaj]

the poly looks beautiful and wanting to walk in sounds like something i would insist upon. very funny. although i dont think my hubby would be as cooperative, but maybe that means i have been married too long. lol

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

CON’T….

We walked up to the Tokelau building and went in. We got in the elevator and went up to the third floor, and walked down to our room. We opened the door and walked in. It was just as I had seen on the DIS. Here are a few pics of our room:

With DH playing with the flat panel TV.

The view from our balcony. I had heard about some obstructing trees but I really didn’t mind it was still a beautiful view.

And this was left on our bed for us!

The beds are actually queen beds but the comforter design makes them look very small. We ended up using the second bed as place to lay open our suitcases. The room had a small safe, we used to put our passports and extra money in. There was also a small dorm size fridge we kept some bottled water in. There were two good sized closets and a large bathroom. I took some pictures and I noticed a wash cloth hanging over the rod on the shower. GROSS!!!!! So I called in DH and I called down to Mousekeeping. I told them we had just checked-in and found a dirty wash cloth left over from the last guest in our room. They assured me that it would be taken care of right away and apologized.

The dirty towel on the bar…..

We also had a bounce back offer in our room.

This was for 40% off a deluxe villa room or 30% off other rooms, for a bunch of dates. I had thought about doing this offer, but we weren’t sure where we would be financially, so we passed.

At this point DH and I were excited to hit the parks and we decided to head back to Epcot before heading to DHS for the evening. It was around noon I believe, so we headed back to the TTC via the walk way. On our way we encountered many friends. Lizzards….They were everywhere. We even walked by the cutest little boy who had gotten one in his hands and was playing with it. I was terrified to step on one and squish it….. So after the meet n greet with the lizards we hopped the express monorail to Epcot.



Upnext: Our afternoon at Epcot

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

the poly looks beautiful and wanting to walk in sounds like something i would insist upon. very funny. although i dont think my hubby would be as cooperative, but maybe that means i have been married too long. lol

I will say that it seems like its one of those times where once he sees how wonderful walking in the door is, he would have regreted it if I didn't make him!

 

[Brocoloco]

Congrats on the new life together. What a fun way to kick things off. BTW, I love the food picture, review and rating system. I think I'm turning into a Disney foodie! Looking forward to the rest of your TR.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Congrats on the new life together. What a fun way to kick things off. BTW, I love the food picture, review and rating system. I think I'm turning into a Disney foodie! Looking forward to the rest of your TR.

Thankyou! I was always a huge fan of the food porn threads! It one of the best things about Disney!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Hey guys I wanna appoligize for slacking on my TR, DH and I have had alot of things going on lately and I haven't had much time to work on it. We bought a car, but are having trouble with the bank we got the loan through, they don't want to meet with us to sign the papers, so we are financing through the dealership but they have been taking their sweet time on the whole thing, the good news is that they are letting us drive the car in the meantime and on top of all that I have had some bad stuff going on at work

But on a brightner note, we got to do something amazing tonight......We Booked Free Dining for September!!!!!!!!

We will be there for DH's birthday!!! I am so excited to start planning again!!! We will be there for 7 nights at Allstar Movies September 26th-Oct 3rd! I can't wait for the trip!!!


I will be posting the next update very very soon! So stay tuned!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

December 14th Con’t…..

We walked through the security and went through the ticket booth and walked in. I immediately grabbed DH and made him take a photopass pic;

I had warned him this would be a habit throughout our trip since we pre-purchased the DVD and spent $100 on it. After some pictures we decided to check the wait times for Test Track and Mission Space. I believe when we checked TT it said the ride was temporarily shut down. So we decided to try the Cool Club since we missed it last time. DH was very willing to try all of the sodas and even got me to try the Beverly. Here’s some pics of DH when he tried the Beverly…

After our trip to the Cool Club we figured we should stop by the Disney Visa Photopass Meet N Greet. We weren’t sure where it was, so we followed the rush of people who I thought were headed there also. As we got in line the CM asked us a question (I don’t remember now what it was) but we got around to saying the Disney Visa and he told us that was across the street and not to wait in that line. So we headed into Innovations and found the correct line this time and waited. They told us to have our Disney Visas ready and a CM came around and took down our number and gave us a slip to hand to the photographer. When it was our turn we went in and found……Mickey and Goofy! Mickey and Goofy immediately noticed our “Just Married” buttons and my rings, so they had us do a cute hand photo. They were great and took four or five different photos with us, even in such a short period of time.

Once we were done with the Meet N Greet, we headed over to Test Track. After riding Test Track, we headed to Nemo, this was such a cute ride. After Nemo we walked around for a bit then decided to head back to the resort to get our DCL information taken care of before heading to DHS.

We boarded the Express Monorail and walked back from the TTC. When we got to our room, our luggage was not there. But what was still there????? THE DIRTY TOWEL!!!!!!! I called bell services as asked about our bags, they said they had not been delivered yet, I explained our problem and the CM noted to get our bags to us ASAP. After hanging up I called Mousekeeping again. I repeated our request, mentioned I had called earlier and it was not taken care of, and asked if we could receive turndown service for that night also. The CM assured us it would be done, and I hung up.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Con’t Day 3:Hollywood Studios

After a few minutes, I was walking around on our balcony and saw the Cm pull up with our luggage. I told DH and asked him to grab the tip money out of the safe. We waited till our door was knocked on and we answered and was greeted by a nice older CM with our luggage. He brought our luggage into our room and while DH tipped him I torn into the pockets to get our Passports. We scurried out the door and down the walkway to the GCH. We got to the DCL desk and finished checking in with the CM. We were told our two options. We could catch the DCL bus at 11:15am on Thursday to the port from the Poly Lobby or we could spend the morning in AK, get a fastpass to either the Lion King Show or the Flights of Wonder show and get the DCL bus from there at 12:30pm. All we needed to do was call a number and state our choice the night before. We thanked the CM and headed back to the room to drop off our passports. Once we were done with that we hit the buses for DHS.

We arrived at DHS and took a few photopass pictures:

Then we headed over to the RnR. They were out of FPs and the stand-by line was about 45 minutes, “No Way!!!!” We decided to hit the ToT. DH was finally going to get me on it. We walked up and were taken inside. We walked through the service hall way and into the back room, where you first get into the elevator. As we were standing there, we noticed a young male CM who was in costume walked to the middle elevator, which the staff uses, not part of the attraction. He walked up and pushed the button. The doors opened and he turned around to face us and hit a button and the doors closed, then popped open almost instantly and he was gone!!!! Now I know this was some kind of illusion, there must have been a trap door or something, but other CM’s definitely used this as a regular elevator and were gone a normal amount of time. It was just amazing how in costume and perfectly this disappearing act was performed. I noticed a few other couples caught this performance and were talking about it also. I am curious if this is a regular thing or not?

So after the disappearing act, we took our places in our elevator, back left if you’re facing it. I was between DH and another guy with his female friend. We went through and got to about the end and I ask DH when we are going to drop and he said very very soon. I begin to prepare myself and the doors open and boom….. drop….up….drop…up…drop , ok 3 drops I asked DH are we done yet (slightly terrified) he replies “yes its only 33333333” We dropped again. This time I wasn’t ready and the G force lifted me up and my foot went out and smashed the poor guy next me, it must have hurt, good thing I was wearing flipflops! I yelled at DH for lying to me, he swore he only remembered 3 drops! Needless to say I will not be riding this again for a very very very long time!


So after the ToT, almost peeing my pants, kicking the poor guy next to me and being stumped by the disappearing CM, we headed over check the lines for Fantasmic. At this time it was about 7:00pm and we wanted to catch the 8pm . We walked over and noticed a line forming. A cm walked out and started yelling not to line up yet that no one was getting in till 10 of 8 and that we should return then. DH and I decided as long as other people stayed in line so were we. But by this time I was hungry. I asked DH but he said he wasn’t yet, so I decided to run over to Eddie’s and grab a pizza. I waited in line for about 5 minutes, placed my order with a very cute and friendly CM. I made my way to the pick up line and wait and waited and waiting. Apparently they had run out of Cheese only pizzas and only had pepperoni. I noticed a few other people yelling rudely at the counter girl about how they had waited and others received their pizza first. Now to me it was very clear that the only pizzas going out were pepperoni, but some people lack that common sense. I shook my head and just waited my turn. I received my Cheese-Only pizza, toss salad, chocolate cake and orange soda. The total cost was around $13.77.

I started to walk back to DH and noticed the line was wrapping down the road. I slightly pushed my way in line with a few others, trying to balance a huge, very heavy tray, and walk with the crowd. Let me say, people were just as rude to me, a single girl, carrying a tray of food, as they were to the counter girl. I was very disappointed that I was actually being elbowed and shoved, just to get into a show. I called DH from the main entrance to the show, he was navigating me to him, I slowly made my way, behind everyone, as I could not or would not push others out of my way. When I finally made it to DH inside the stadium, I thought my arms were going to fall off from trying to hold the tray. DH has made his way down to the front row. I remembered someone telling me about getting wet so we moved to the second row. I placed my tray in front of me and started eating. Shortly before the show started a couple with a few kids sat in-front of us, however I was pleasantly surprised in the kids behavior. They were quite and minded themselves. We loved the show! And DH said it really brought him back to his childhood. We slowly exited the show and DH was starving so we grabbed him the same, but he wanted pepperoni. Here are his pics:

We would definitely rate this meal an 8. Mostly because it was a counter service, but it was deffinitetly one of our top CS choices. The cost for DH’s meal was a bit more since he got pepperoni on his pizza totaling about $14.07. I am not sure if I mentioned this before but we were on the dining plan, hence the full meals, other wise we never would have ordered so much food.

DH finished eating and we headed over to the Osborne Lights.

They were amazing! The time and talent put into the choreography of those lights was SPECTACULAR! Just one of the many things done the Disney way that no one else could do. We did a few photopasses:

After view the lights for a bit we decided to head back to the Poly for a good night sleep. The next morning we planned on EMH for AK so we were getting up early. We took a bus back and went straight to bed.



Next Up: Our day at AK, another trip to DHS, Dinner at Chef Mickeys, and Illuminations at Epcot…

 

[dischic89]

Love Love Love the Poly! Seems so romantic for a honeymoon!

Where is the Visa meet and greet area? I didn't realize it wasn't with in the building with all the other characters?? Also, can you add all the pics from there onto your photopass account? I wanna go there my next trip!

I've never been on Tot! You're very brave... I do kind of want to walk through the line area so I can see all the theming and then just take the chicken exit though... Did you guys get your ride pic? Bet that would of been a keeper, haha !

And yay on the free dining!!!

Alex

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Love Love Love the Poly! Seems so romantic for a honeymoon!

Where is the Visa meet and greet area? I didn't realize it wasn't with in the building with all the other characters?? Also, can you add all the pics from there onto your photopass account? I wanna go there my next trip!


The Disney Visa spot is not where the normal character meet n greet is, it is however still in the innovations plaza. i can't remember which one tho. It is either the first one on the right or the left after the ball. Its not the one with the cool club in it. I remember it had the fire truck and stop drop and roll program for the kids to do with the house, if that helps. And yes they add your photos onto the photo pass, later that day you can go to the Kodak center near the ball and pick out which photo you want as your freebe. They will also be on your normal photopass, so if you purchase the CD they will be on it!

I've never been on Tot! You're very brave... I do kind of want to walk through the line area so I can see all the theming and then just take the chicken exit though... Did you guys get your ride pic? Bet that would of been a keeper, haha !

It was scary, I kept asking DH where the "chicken out door" was but He never told me! We did not purchase the ride pic. when we first went I was under the impression they could be added to the photopass, but I was wrong. And they are expensive, I didn't think of just taking a photo of our photo while we were there. On that note, we did find 2 rides you can add the photos to your photopass, 1-Test track and 2-Dinosaur!

And yay on the free dining!!!


I do appoligize if I was misleading here, this trip we were on the dining plan, but not free dining, we had purchased it as part of our package. Our upcomming trip in September/October will be the free dining. Not sure which you were refering to!
Alex

I am still working on our AK day, but I promise it won't take as long as this last one!!!!

 

[mickey2minnie1]

Best Wishes!! The TR is so enjoyable. Great job!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

A few notes I missed in the last update.

When we returned to our room the dirty towel was still in place, I called mousekeeping one more time, asked for the manager, but he was unavailable. The lady asked if I wanted him to call me back, of course I said yes. When the manager called back about 45 minutes later around 11:30pm I told him what had happened. He was very nice, and promised us it would be taken care of, however I told him it was too late and we wanted to go to bed, so we would take care of the issue ourselves, however we did expect turn-down service the next night. He assured us we would have it and said he put a note in the computer. At this point we returned to bed.

We woke the next morning around 7am, we wanted to make EMH at Animal Kingdom for 8am. We showered, got dressed and headed for bus stop. We waited for a little bit before a bus pulled up doing to AK, we hopped on. When we got to AK it was actually quite busy, but most of the people were in line for the Donald Safari breakfast (I know this because the breakfast group had a special entrance line). We waited for the rope drop and headed straight for the Safari. I think we had gotten the 3rd or 4th truck to go out, not bad. We had been wearing our “Just Married” pins, so we got lots of reactions from the CM’s. On the Safari we were seating in the very first row, and the CM kept talking to us Newlyweds. I would recommend riding the safari first thing in the morning, as the animals are much more active at this time. We saw a ton more on this ride then the one we took later in the week. After the safari, we got Fastpasses for Everest, walked around a bit and hit a few stores, then we ventured over to Dinosaur. This was a cute ride.

After Dinosaur we decided to head over to Everest to check the line, since we still had over an hour left on our Fastpasses and we were getting bored. When we walked up the stand-by line was at about 45 minutes. We started to get in line and an older CM, grabbed me by the arm, I kind of jumped, unsure of why this guy was grabbing me, and he stuck two rider switch Fastpasses for Everest in my hand and then grabbed DH and pulled him over too. It was very quick and I luckily happened to squeeze out a “Thank you” to him as DH and walked literally on to the ride. It was another “Magical Disney Moment”.

After Everest, we decided to head over to Pizzafari and wait for lunch to start being served. Last trip we eat here and love love loved the breadsticks. We sat in the back and just relaxed while we waited…As soon as we saw someone with a pizza walk out we ran to the counter. We probably waited about 30 minutes. Lunch is supposed to start around 11, but I believe it was about 20 minutes of 11 when they started serving. I ordered the cheese pizza, with a orange soda, and the minute maid frozen lemonade for dessert, another one of my Disney favorite treats. DH ordered the pepperoni pizza, orange soda and a strawberry frozen lemonade, and we paid OOP for the breadsticks to split. We sat down and starting digging in. I’ll be honest I had forgotten to take food pics here, as we were starving. Almost to the end of the meal DH reminded me about the pics (this will become a habit throughout the trip) and I snapped a few shots. The pizza, as I am lacking a shot of them, was the same as Catalina Eddy’s.

The breadsticks

The frozen lemonade

The total bill would have been about $28.00, since we added the breadsticks. We enjoyed the pizza, again the same as before, I liked the breadsticks, although they were not as great as I remembered, but DH was not thrilled at all with them and let me have most of them. The Lemonade was good as normal. We ended up rating this a 6.5, nothing unique, and appears to be going slightly downhill in quality. But still very edible.

After eating lunch we started heading out, but I spotted Stitch and wanted a photo, so DH waited in line with me.

After our photo we headed back to the Poly, to drop off our hoodies, then hit the buses to DHS.

When we returned to the POLY I wanted to stop by the front desk and speak with a manager about the Mousekeeping problem. I was called up by a male CM who asked my name, room number, and why I wanted to speak with the manager. I told him it was a housekeeping issue. He went through a door and returned shortly with a manager. The lady was very pleasant and listened to my story. She apologized for the inconvenience and told me she personally would speak with the housekeeping manager and see what had went wrong. I thanked her and we went on our way to the room.



Next Up: DHS, Dinner with the Chef...Mickey that is, and onto Epcot for Illuminations

 

[mousetravel]

Subbing! Can't wait to hear about the cruise!

 

[lillylynnb]

Cant wait to hear more about the towel !! Bring on the cruise let hear about it!!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Great report, thanks!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Another quick note I forgot before, the night we checked in and the CM was trying to make Tonys ADR’s for us since ours got messed up, when we returned to the resort after Epcot, we stopped by the front desk to check, but the CM was not there. The current CM pulled up our adr’s again and we noticed we had adr’s for Tonys on Tuesday at 4, just what we wanted! We thanked the CM and headed to the room. Once in the room we noticed the light was blinking on the phone, indicating a voicemail, we played it and it was the orginal CM saying she got us in for dinner! This was just one more magical moment from Disney.

Ok onto the next chapter:

We stopped at the room and headed straight back out for the buses. It wasn’t long before we were arriving at DHS. When we got there, we were stopped on our way by this young couple who had four FPs for RNR and were leaving the park, so they gave them to us. Of course we said yes and thankyou. However we were heading straight for the backlot tour. The wait was about 5 minutes, so we got in line. We both enjoyed seeing the props, I especially loved the waverunner from the Vin Diesel Movie The Pacifier. We both loved the special effects part. After this we decided to hop on Star Tours, I must say as a Star Wars fan this ride is neat, but very very outdated. When we finished Star Tours we noticed people were lining up for Lights, Motor Cars, Action, so we followed. We waited a while, but once we got in we went straight to the middle and got very good seats, just above the boxes where the specially picked people sit. Behind us was a dad with his two very cute daughters. I knew DH and I wanted to tape the show, but I wanted to be mindful that the girls behind us were short and it would be hard to see with my arm up, so I tried to keep the camera in front of me. We both loved this show and can’t wait to do it again!

After the show we excited and it was about 4pm, we knew we wouldn’t have time to ride Toy Story, or RNR so we decided it while have to wait for another trip. We looked around for a family of four to give the FPs too. It seemed that at this very time everyone was either 2’s or more. We slowly walked out of the park and saw 2 youngs boys and their mom and I stopped her and asked if they would like them. The boys were so excited to get them and said thankyou, and we were on our way back to the Poly to change for CM and hit illuminations.

We got back shortly and changed. Then we decided to take the Monorail all the way around to the Contempory. Our ADR was for 5:20.

We arrived as planned about 5pm. We decided to check out the stores right in the area, while we waited. At about 5:15 we headed over to check-in. We were given a light up thingy (I forget what they are called) and shortly after we buzzed, saying our table was ready. We walked up and they took our photo in front of the plate, and we were shown to our seats. We were directly to the right the last table near the door way, where the photo people are. We sat down and waited a few minutes before our waiter came over. He was a middle age gentleman, and not very friendly. We order some drinks, “adult” drinks, and he said we could go to the buffet when we were ready. So we hopped up and started. J

ust after sitting down a young couple with two children were seated next to us, not to be rude, I mumbled to DH, I hope the kids aren’t annoying. If you haven’t been here before, the seating is quite close and DH’s booth seat was shared with their table, so if the kids bounced around it would be annoying. But, Before long we noticed Goofy coming around. We took turns taking a photo and then the mother next to us offered to take a photo for us. In turn we took one for them. We continued the photo shoot for all of the characters, and in between we all chatted about our trip and other things.

At some point we noticed that we had not seen our waiter in about 20 minutes, so we flagged down another sever and asked for some sodas. Our waiter returned with them. Shortly after a CM came around with our Dining Plate Photos and offered us the package for like $45.00 we told him we would have to think about it. We ended up passing on it. It wasn’t my favorite photo and it was very expensive. We headed up for dessert. Shortly after sitting back down, we saw our waiter one more time, for him to bring us our check. We handed him our KTTW card and he returned with the papers so sign. Our meal was close to $100.00, good thing we were on the dining plan. The meals alone were $33.99 because we were in the holiday price range, then about $15.00 for our drinks, then tip. I will say we didn’t tip great. We honestly felt like our waiter couldn’t be bothered to serve us, and was not very friendly. Don’t get me wrong I have no problem tipping well, and in a few restaurants to come we tipped at least 20%. Just this time I did not feel he earned it. So we said goodbye to the family next to us, who turned out to be very sweet and the children were amazingly well behaved! And just the cutest things.

So here are some of our food pics:

Just adorable!

Their drink menu!

This was our drink, we got the same, it was a chocolate martini, I think.

I had been looking forward to the Mickey Ravioli.

The rolls were delicious!

A few of the characters came by our table more than once, like Donald, so this time he hugged me!

This was DH dessert plate, the chocolate mouse/cookie things, and some kind of cheesecake thing.

My dessert plate, the chocolate chip cookies were a lot like you would find at a grocery store. But I loved the Chocolate thing! The mouse was on a oreo cookie, then had chocolate wafers for the ears!



So our review of Chef Mickey’s. DH and I both liked the atmosphere. It was fun, the buffet was good, not great. The dessert was good especially that chocolate cookie/mouse thing. We had good interaction with the characters, Donald even tried to fight DH over me. Minnie was jealous of my ring and I told her I would yell at Mickey for her! We both thought the meal was expensive, but you’re really paying for the time with the characters, not the food. And we really disliked our waiter. So we would rate this meal around a 6.5. We would rate this meal again when we have kids but for two adults, once was enough.

After Chef Mickey’s we had plans to head over to Epcot to watch Illuminations. So we hopped the Monorail to the TTC and then over to Epcot. We stopped for a few photopass ops on our way through, rode TT and checked out the dancin’ lights, which were amazing and very well done.

The lights danced to “the carol or the bells” and were timed just perfectly.

I had read on the DIS some good places to watch from, so we walked up towards Mexico and found a spot on the bridge. We sat for a while and I was getting annoyed with the guy standing next to me who kept trying to push me over, but I wouldn’t let him. We were there first, and he was quite a bit taller then both DH and I, so it wasn’t like he wouldn’t be able to see. We loved the special Holiday edition of Illuminations. I think it really was just a bit longer, not really different. So after the show, we headed back to the Poly to get a good night sleep.

When we returned to the room, I bet you can guess what we DIDN’t have….turn down service. I forwent called Mousekeeping since it had gotten us no wheres! As we went to bed we were excited for our day tomorrow, and thought we did a pretty good job of hitting 3 parks in one day.


Next up: A full dat MK, Dinner in the 100 Acre Woods (ok well Crystal Palace), Dinner at Tony's Town Square and MVMCP!

 

[Disneychix]

Wow, excellent day! We are going in early December this year and I"m getting excited for all the Christmas decorations.

Do you ever get this Mousekeeping situation straightened out??