Anyone Game? 2 Castles and a Road Trip TR! Last Day and TR Wrap Up! #2796; 10/01

[PrincessInOz]

I'm so sad to be missing F&W this year! I love snacking around the world.

Jill in CO

Sorry you're not going. Never mind....you get to save more money for Australia.

You guys tried a bunch of delicious looking treats!

They were very yummy, Pam. I wish I was back there again.

Nice pics going into AK.
Nice cabin and great views.
3 minutes? I could never. LOl.
Love the rhino pic.
Great animal pics.
Looked like a great time.
Great pics on Everest.
Very nice pics of FOTLK.
Love Yak & Yeti. Nice place to sit.
Nice pics of the animals.
Great pics of the parade. We skipped it in December and now regret it.
The fried rice looks good.
What a nice area for a get together. My meat would have gone back on to. LOl.
Nice pics walking around Boardwalk.
Nice pics around the resort. I love SAB and the sandy bottom.
The crowds for F&W didn’t look too bad.
The waffles look good.
I am so hungry from all the food pics.
Nice pics of Spaceship Earth.
I am all caught up again.

You are definitely all caught up.

3 minute showers are not my thing either. And you and I would have been sitting and eating our meat after a second cooking.

I am surprised that it was not too busy on a Sunday. You managed to sample a lot of different food..

Corinna

It was busy in patches. There were some booths that were completely overrun and others that were empty. And then if you waited 10 minutes or so, the crowds would move round and the ones that were busy were empty and the ones that were empty would be busy.

You forgot to put a warning on that post

All that food looks so delicious, especially the waffles! And I disagree with your DH. Just on the photos of signs that you've posted, I've seen plenty of savoury options.

Ooh! Yes, I did forget the food warning.

DH didn't see the savoury options. He only saw the sweet.

A very nice day at EPCOT where you are able to try a lot of different stands during the F&W Festival. I enjoyed my time during the F&W Festival a couple of years ago and after seeing your pictures, I really want to go back in the near future.

Very nice updates.

Weren't those waffles just wonderful? I'm glad you got to try them. I still liked the chocolate pudding. You got some of the better options, at least as far as I was concerned.

The Chicken Harissa Roll wasn't that great, it was good, but I liked the beef kefta better. The Lobster Fisherman's pie tasted "off" to me this year.

I can't believe you guys went directly to the party after that without a nap!

I didn't get to try the Fisherman's pie to compare it with the version in my memory banks. I figured DH needed a meal he could eat just by himself.

Now my screen is all messed up, I'm drooling over all the great food choices.

You managed to get some really nice family photos on this trip.

Thanks Angela. Yes. The PP+ was well worth it for us.

Oh yummy food porn! Love macaroons they should be their own food group my favourite is lemon. Agreed the berry waffle is just superb! Yum mussels! Love the F & W

Great photos of EPCOT I love the Golf ball too

Macaroons and chocolate and bacon should all be in 3 separate food groups.

Thanks.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Getting to Magic Kingdom




For a Sunday afternoon, it seems remarkably quiet.







With that green monorail looping round, we made our way up to the station. Our timing out of Epcot worked out great. We didn't have long to wait for our ride.







But we hadn't counted on what was occurring at the TTC. The Epcot monorail ran there alright but there no monorails running from the TTC to MK. I never really worked out why; but I had the vague feeling that Disney might have been doing a brief maintenance thing on that line.

We took the other option to get to our destination.







There were definitely a few more people heading to MK than there were at Epcot.







The captain left no one behind.







It's been quite a while since I've taken this form of transport to MK. Usually we take the bus or the monorail because they end up being a lot quicker than the ferry. Still, I took the opportunity to enjoy the moment.







You have to admit....the views from the water are lovely.







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[PrincessInOz]

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The Flaw in the not-so Magic Band




Our experience with the Magic Band had been mostly positive. The bands worked when we needed them to work, let us into parks, got us into our room and kept memory of all our FP+ all week.

But I had discovered on arrival day that there had been one issue looming with the whole system. And as I tend to not look for trouble until I have to, I left this issue sit until now.


We had bought tickets to MNSSHP with a "will call" against the BC concierge. Imagine my surprise when I went to pick up my tickets from concierge and I was told that the tickets had already been picked up. Well.....surprise is probably the Dis-friendly word for how I felt. Believe me. The full range of what-if's ran through my mind.....together with all the possible colourful metaphors in the world.

But most of my concern was around how MY tickets could have been picked up from concierge and if there were any sorts of security issues I needed to watch out for. I even asked if there was a way that Disney could have loaded the tickets against my MB. Concierge at the BC checked my Magic Band and told me that they could only see my normal tickets. Nothing else. Concierge had told me that my best option would be to check with Guest Relations at MK on the day of the party. So, I let the issue sit....until now.



The Flaw in the not-so Magic Bands. Guest Relations at the Parks told me a few interesting things about the new system.


In October of last year, the system did not seem to cope well when you stacked tickets. Having park tickets for normal entry and then having a ticket for MNSSHP resulted in one ticket being 'hidden'.

The reason why Guest Relations at the Parks could see the second ticket and not concierge was because Disney had rolled out differences in the access for Guest Relations and Concierge. Go figure. I can only imagine the frustration that would have caused during that time for the Cast Members and guests alike. After all, I had been one of the guests and I know that the BC concierge could barely keep a calm façade when I asked some curly questions about the band and the system.


Both Guest Relations and Concierge were at a loss to explain why my "will call" tickets were transferred over to my account on MDE without any authorisation from me.


To make matters worse for Guest Relations at the park, after I had been placated about my tickets, I asked them to check on my FP+ for the evening. I don't know what made me ask but I was glad I did.

For the record, my FP+ for the evening were all booked before the 7 pm mark. In October for last year, I couldn't make any FP+ bookings for the night of the party.


We checked all our 3 bands....3 different combinations of FP+ booked. If DH and I had the same rides, DS would not have that ride. And there was one of our timeslots where all 3 of us were on different rides. Again, Guest Relations were at a loss to explain.


They did try and help me out. They sat on the phone trying to get through to their IT HelpDesk for well over 30 minutes. Both the CM helping me and his supervisor really tried their best to escalate. In the end, after standing at the window for close on 45 minutes, the CM put the phone down and wrote me out 4 pink slips. 4 good-for-any-ride, any-time slips of special Fast Passes. That's what I got for my trouble.



I sure hope that Disney IT worked out how to get ticket stacking working better and I sure hope that whatever caused the glitch in my FP+ bookings for this evening got fixed. If this was an example of what guests and Cast Members were treated to in October last year, I completely understand the frustration and derision about the new Disney system.




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[PrincessInOz]

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Re-capturing the Party Feeling





How long did it take me to get back the party feeling?


Not long at all. Despite whatever the system might have shown on-line, we had no problem getting into Magic Kingdom. And once on Main Street, the magic and music was back in the air.







Afterall, we were about to experience a very special party tonight.







No. It didn't take long for us to get back into the swing of things.



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[PrincessInOz]

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It's a Yo Ho Ho Wide sort of Ride




The hold-up at Guest Relations had meant that we missed out on our first original FP+ booking at Space Mountain. Our second booking was for PoTC and after conferring with the boys, we decided that PoTC was higher on the priority list than Space.







I was surprised to see a fairly long queue outside of Pirates.







I headed in towards the FP+ side thinking that I would be using the pink slips.


But would you believe it? When we scanned our MBs, it was a green light for us. Whatever the gremlins are in the MDE system, they were sure having a great laugh today. Seems like my FP+ were still valid and I was left holding 4 good for anytime FP+ for the night. Yes, for those of you counting, this meant that I had my FP+ and 4 additional passes for the night. Feel free to judge me but I didn't go seeking this pixie dust benefit. It came my way.


Anyone else thinks that I might be set for a blast of a party?







But I wasn't counting on anything just yet. It really was a lot like a chess game. Make a move and see what the outcome is before celebrating.








Back to the Pirate ride.








Turns out there was a glitch in the system here as well. The ride was down but the CM at the entrance were still letting people in to the queue.








At least it wasn't so bad in the FP side.








There was a CM near us and they told us that they were hoping to get the ride back up shortly. They did offer the guests listening the option of an early exit.....







.....but as they were not providing any bounce back offers, everyone stayed.



I managed to amuse myself whilst we waited.








Luckily, it wasn't a long wait. All in all, it took them 5 minutes from when we spoke with the CM to them getting the ride back up again.








Dead men tell no tales.








They just let seagulls nest on top of them.








Anyone trying to sell a wench these days will have the book thrown at them!








I had chosen to shoot this ride to get a wider perspective.
















And it was nice having a wider view of this ride.








I must admit. I do prefer my walkabout lens for this ride.







It was time to get moving. We had another ADR to make.








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[PrincessInOz]

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Bella Notte Dinner




One of the most romantic scenes in 1950's Disney.....and quite scandalous for the time.....was in a movie where the two leads shared a meal and ended up kissing each other....on the MOUTH!


Can you believe Disney in the 50's making a movie with explicit Personal Display of Affection (PDA)????


Of course no eyebrows were raised. Afterall, this is Disney and the leads were one Lady and one Tramp. Cartoon dogs. But that scene left an indelible print on me the first time I saw it (quite a few years after it was made, I should add). At the time, I was a mere whippersnapper growing up in an Asian country. And I was to wonder for quite a few years.....what the heck was a spaghetti espaciale? Was it some kind of noodles that I was yet to discover?



Guess where we were eating tonight?







I checked us in and our buzzer went off within 5 minutes.







We were shown to our table where we did our level best to recreate a classic moment.







There was even PDA involved.








Strawberry lemonade, cola and hot tea. Spot the odd one out.








I can confirm that the spaghetti especiale is NOT noodles that I have yet to discover.







DS took the model with extra parmesan cheese.








DH ended up with an appetiser sized AND an entrée sized Ceaser Salad.

Apparently he had ordered the entrée size but the kitchen made an appetiser serve instead. Our server was so annoyed that she went back to the kitchen and promptly marched out with an even bigger serving. She even got the manager to come out to apologise.







It's a classic marketing tag-line, isn't it. So emotive!








More pixie dust. We weren't getting out of here without another freebie birthday celebration for DH. It sure pays to put your celebration event down against every single ADR and booking in the system.







Tony's gets inconsistent reviews with Dis-sers. I'm not sure why. The food we had tonight was decent. I have to admit that I liked my spaghetti with meatballs enough to come back. The service was great and the ambience was....well.....all about the dogs.







It was super comfortable place for us and the food hit the mark for us on this day.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Sorry that it took so long to get into the park, but looks like things smoothed out so far.

 

[franandaj]

That sure was a mess with your tickets! I'm glad it worked out with pixie dust.

Tony's looks good. I may have to try it sometime.

 

[IowaTater]

Sorry you had so much trouble with your MBs That's one of the reasons I'm glad we didn't have them on this trip. So many people were complaining about all the issues and we were able to bypass it all. I did kind of miss not being able to book FP+ but the lines were so short the week we were there, it really didn't make a huge difference.

 

[rentayenta]

Thanks for the Tony's review and photos. We like Tony's and have been during all three of our WDW trips. The food and service have been consistently good and I absolutely love the decor.

We like taking the ferry to MK. There's something about seeing the park while being on the water.

Cute Epcot photos. I didn't realize I was so behind. It's been kinda nutty around here.

 

[dolphingirl47]

What a shame that you had a few technical issues with the monorail down, the issues with the Magic Bands and Pirates being down. I had attached my eticket for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and my Will Call Number for my annual pass to my My Disney Experience account and the first thing they did when I picked up my annual pass is unlink my party ticket as they were worried that this would cause issues.

I am glad that you got into the party spirit very quickly and that the Fastpasses worked after all. Dinner looked delicious and the restaurant is so beautiful

Corinna

 

[zanzibar138]

Ugh. You don't need to waste time like that when you're at WDW! Glad it all worked out in the end, and got a little unintentional pixie dust to make up for all that wasted time

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Sounds like the last day at WDW is ending well despite a few glitches. Interesting to see one year on how we find the MBs and FP+. Noting the pros and cons of the different food stall items in case they are similar this year (I gather they often are?) though your pics from the French Patisserie has me almost won over for lunch -definitely save some space for a visit there!

 

[ACDSNY]

Woo hoo for extra FPs, too bad it wasn't a magical experience to get them. I've never been to Tony's and just might have to try it sometime.

 

[mvf-m11c]

That was very surprising to hear that the EPCOT Monorail line was running while the MK lines were not running. It is nice to ride the Ferry's across Seven Seas Lagoon when the Monorail's are busy or down.

I'm sorry to hear about the issues with the MB's. This is one of the reasons that I will have a problem with the MB's if there was an issue with it. At least it was all worked out.

Tony's looks very nice place to eat. There are plenty of restaurants at WDW that are good. But I will still go with off-site restaurants.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Sorry that it took so long to get into the park, but looks like things smoothed out so far.

Aside from that glitch, it all worked out for us on this night.

That sure was a mess with your tickets! I'm glad it worked out with pixie dust.

Tony's looks good. I may have to try it sometime.

If you're looking to increase your Golden Spoon count, then yes. Put Tony's on your hit list.

Sorry you had so much trouble with your MBs That's one of the reasons I'm glad we didn't have them on this trip. So many people were complaining about all the issues and we were able to bypass it all. I did kind of miss not being able to book FP+ but the lines were so short the week we were there, it really didn't make a huge difference.

Aside from the ticket stacking, the MB worked really well for us. It was the one blip in their near perfect operations for us. (But we need more than 3 FP+ per day)

Thanks for the Tony's review and photos. We like Tony's and have been during all three of our WDW trips. The food and service have been consistently good and I absolutely love the decor.

We like taking the ferry to MK. There's something about seeing the park while being on the water.

Cute Epcot photos. I didn't realize I was so behind. It's been kinda nutty around here.

Don't worry about it. It's been really nutty here for me too. I'm behind in everything right now.

I really enjoyed Tony's and was glad I booked it in.

What a shame that you had a few technical issues with the monorail down, the issues with the Magic Bands and Pirates being down. I had attached my eticket for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and my Will Call Number for my annual pass to my My Disney Experience account and the first thing they did when I picked up my annual pass is unlink my party ticket as they were worried that this would cause issues.

I am glad that you got into the party spirit very quickly and that the Fastpasses worked after all. Dinner looked delicious and the restaurant is so beautiful

Corinna

Seems like ticket stacking might still be an issue for Disney. I hope they've sorted it out since.

Thanks.

Ugh. You don't need to waste time like that when you're at WDW! Glad it all worked out in the end, and got a little unintentional pixie dust to make up for all that wasted time

I had a suspicion that I would be caught waiting at Guest Relations. I had thought 30 minutes....it was longer than I thought.

Sounds like the last day at WDW is ending well despite a few glitches. Interesting to see one year on how we find the MBs and FP+. Noting the pros and cons of the different food stall items in case they are similar this year (I gather they often are?) though your pics from the French Patisserie has me almost won over for lunch -definitely save some space for a visit there!

The Boulangerie is worth checking out. They did have baguettes as well if you're thinking about stopping there for lunch.

Woo hoo for extra FPs, too bad it wasn't a magical experience to get them. I've never been to Tony's and just might have to try it sometime.

Thanks Angela.

I can definitely say I enjoyed my spaghetti and meatballs at Tony's. And the service was pretty decent.

That was very surprising to hear that the EPCOT Monorail line was running while the MK lines were not running. It is nice to ride the Ferry's across Seven Seas Lagoon when the Monorail's are busy or down.

I'm sorry to hear about the issues with the MB's. This is one of the reasons that I will have a problem with the MB's if there was an issue with it. At least it was all worked out.

Tony's looks very nice place to eat. There are plenty of restaurants at WDW that are good. But I will still go with off-site restaurants.

I guess they will have guests parking at the TTC that need transport to-from Epcot.

I think you do get better value for money at some of the off-site restaurants; but if you don't want to travel outside of the Disney bubble, then some of the WDW restaurants are a pretty good option.

 

[PrincessInOz]

DisMeet #15: There’s a Party Going On Right Here



How could we go to WDW in October and not go to a MNSSHP? But even more pertinent.....how could so many Gamer Dis-sers be in WDW at the same time and NOT have a DisMeet at a MNSSHP?




No way! Right?



My DisMeet #15 meeting spot was right here.








We....er....never got round to taking a group shot of all of us. But in attendance was luvchefmic, SunDial and these two.....who got right in the spirit of the night.








When I found out what Fran was going as, I had to google Nice Bass to find out what it was. I'm not a fisherperson (although I can screech as well as a fishwife) and I've never seen a Nice Bass. The funny thing is since my return from this trip, I've seen at least 5 Nice Bass around town. Go figure!







Fran and Alison were completely in-spirit with the other party goers on this night.









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[PrincessInOz]

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Dis-sers Rolling in the Fast Lane



It was a very short DisMeet. With 4 Dissers there, we worked out very quickly that we all wanted to do different things on this night. So, luvchefmic joined the lines for character Meet and Greets. Sadly, we didn't see luvchefmic again after this.

I think Fran and Alison headed towards the Haunted Mansion. They could have taken the scenic route but we agreed to catch up with them there.



Me?



I still had another FP+ booked and 15 minutes of the window still available for us to make it there. SunDial was happy to hang out with us so we made our way there. Picture is a bit blurry.....but it shows that we were in a rush.







It's that old family favourite train ride.







The Magic Bands for 3 of us scanned green, as per my original FP+ booking. SunDial had a MB but didn't have a FP+ booked. I figured that as I was holding pink tickets, we could use one of them to get us all in. I went to give one to the Cast Member on duty and Pixie dust was in our favour. He realised that we were together and overrode the system and let SunDial through. The FP+ line was practically walk-on and it didn't take us long to get on the ride.







Twilight turned out to be a great time to shoot this ride.








The light on the landscaping turned it that rust red colour. It sure reminded me of Arizona.







We sat back and watched the world go by.







This ride is such a real high!








And we all know what goes high....







....must come down.







I think SunDial enjoyed rolling in the fast lane with us.









My only complaint with this ride is that it is too short. Otherwise, I really like the way it rocks and rolls.







Pretty soon we were heading back round to the loading dock.







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[PrincessInOz]

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Meeting the Ghostly Inhabitants on MNSSHP night



We'd arranged to meet with Fran and Alison outside of the Haunted Mansion. So we headed on that way.....briefly stopping to enjoy the Cadaver Dans.







Once again, I tried to hand over a pink slip to the Cast Member but they said the queue wasn't long and to hold on to the slip for later that night.
They were right. The queue wasn't long.


We took our time with Madame Charlotta.







She was definitely playing coy.







What a fantastic ghostly touch!








We also took our time with the Dread Family 'busts.

Bertie - "Avid hunter and expert shot, in the end that’s what he got."







Aunt Florence - "Never did a dishonorable deed, yet found face down in canary seed."







Uncle Jacob - "Greed was the poison he had swallowed. He went first, the others followed. His killer’s face he surely knew. Now try to discover who killed who."






The Twins - "Departed life while in their beds, with identical bumps on their heads."








I seemed to have missed Cousin Maude. Oh No!








Let's just meet some of the other ghostly icons in the mansion, shall we?







I made sure I got all 3 faces of Master Gracey.




















One of the watchful statues. He certainly kept his eye on me!








As did Madame Leota. "Dear sweet Leota, beloved by all. In regions beyond now, but having a ball."








Constance Hatchaway. Now you see hatchet.








Now you don't.








The thing I love about the Haunted Mansion during MNSSHP night is the outdoor lighting.







Such wonderful mood lighting.








And I finally got a shot of the animal cemetery complete with Mr Toad.

 

[kmedina]

Love the Halloween costumes. You got great pictures on the rides. I cannot believe how clear most of them are. Sadly, I broke our DSLR (second one), so I have been using our cell phones for pictures. It's not like I ever learned how to use the DSLR anyway.