"Babe, I Messed My Pants..." An Oct 2013 TR - FINAL UPDATE! Added 5/24

[Simba22]

So the bus starts moving, and we stop at the Swan&.then the Dolphin&.then were finally off to the Magic Kingdom.

We made it to the MK at 5:20pm. And the line for Will Call wrapped around the ropes three times.

So I asked a CM if we could still get into the park with our regular tickets and he said yes. So we fly through the entrance and finally arrive (at 5:35pm)&



I checked us in, and as I expected, they were running behind by 15-20 minutes. So we waited on the bridge and took some pictures.









Our buzzer finally went off and we were escorted inside the castle!

O. M. G. Its beautiful in there!











They brought us some bread to start. I ordered a glass of wine and Lumar ordered a beer.







I ordered the Potato & Leek soup for an appetizer and it was FANTASTIC! Seriously&SO GOOD!



For dinner, Lumar ordered the steak.



He said it was cooked fairly well and he enjoyed it.

I ordered the salmon:



Sadly, I was a bit disappointed. It was REALLY dry and a bit too salty for my liking. It wasnt TERRIBLE but I only ate about half of it.

For dessert, since we were celebrating, our server brought us free Gray Stuff!



It was really yummy! But Lumar also wanted something out of the dessert cart so I let him pick. He opted for the Strawberry Cupcake:


It was quite good, as well. Not dry or anything which is often my fear when it comes to cupcakes!

Overall, our meal was pretty good but the service was REALLY slow. Our server was VERY nice but we were there for TWO HOURS. I would definitely go back but either earlier or not on a Halloween Party night.

We finally got our check and I used our magic band to pay. It declined. I panicked. I knew we had way more than enough money available on the credit card that it was linked to, so I started thinking that they put a hold on the card since we were in Florida and outside of our usual spending pattern. So I just gave her a different card and took care of it.

We walked around for a minute taking pictures but I felt bad walking around people who were trying to eat.





And then we stopped to meet Beast



Up next: Mickeys Very Frustrating Halloween Party

 

[Simba22]

Mickeys Very Frustrating Halloween Party​

I apologize because this update has almost NO pictures. And as you read, youll see why.


As we made our way to the exit of Beasts Castle, I wanted to stop and take pictures but there was a woman there who insisted on sending her kid to stand in the same place I was clearly trying to photograph. After the 3rd time, I got annoyed and said lets just leave.

But as were exiting, were stopped by two CMs who tell us we have to wait for an escort out of the park because of the Halloween Party. I told her were staying for the Halloween Party. She asks why we dont have wrist bands so I explained the situation to her. I told her I have my confirmation email that shows I have tickets to the party that night. She tells me that because I dont actually have the tickets yet, we have to be escorted to the front gate.

We wait 10 minutes for another CM to arrive. There are two other families with us all being escorted to the front.

Being escorted to the front gate is the WORST thing that could ever possibly happen to you. Because the CM is still required to be a CM. She couldnt swerve around people blocking her path, she had to stop and say excuse me and then wait until they move. If someone stopped her to ask a question, she had to stop and help them. She also did not take short cuts. And since it was now almost 8pm, guess what the means?

Yup. Straight out to Main Street where we then had to stop and say excuse me every three feet because of the crowd of people waiting for the parade to start.

It was AWFUL. They could have easily called someone to confirm that we had tickets to the party. They could have easily called someone and had our tickets BROUGHT to us. They could have had a special CM come to escort us, a non-crowded back way, to the ticket windows. But no. We wasted another half an hour walking at a snails pace to the gate. When we got to the area by The Plaza, we said screw this and just ditched the escort. Its not like she was keeping tabs on any of us& we werent handcuffed together. There was no other CM at the end of the line to keep us in order. So we speed-walked to the entrance and got in the Will Call line, which was still a bit long but moving quickly.

I finally get up to a window. The CM takes the credit card that I used to make my purchase and my ID. She keeps telling me she cant find my tickets. I hand her the confirmation email, which for some reason, does NOT contain a confirmation number.

Come to find out, the address on my ID is the OLD address (hence the sticker on the back which she DID NOT look at) and since the address linked to the purchase on my credit card didnt match the address on my ID, she assumed that it wasnt me. So we finally get that squared away, and she prints me six tickets& two each for all three parties. With just one pretty significant problem. Three are Donald, three are Goofy and not one of them has the party date on the back. So we had no idea which ticket was for which party.

So now were standing at the entrance trying to get back into the MK, and after several attempts, we finally pick the two correct tickets. If the ticket you swipe isnt valid for that date, it wont give you the Green Mickey on the entrance post.

We finally get back inside, just as the parade is looping around that front entrance area. The line for Jack & Sally is not only 3 hours long, but its closed, because in just about 3 hours, the party will be over.

We were absolutely livid, to say the least. I decided that we just go take a seat by the fire house and let ourselves calm down for a few minutes. At that point, Lumar remembered that he wanted to get the special edition Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom card that they were giving away for the party. We had never played the game before and he decided he wanted to try it out, so we went and got our card and had a CM explain it to us and get us all set up. Although she recommended playing on a non-party day because it takes a long time.

But it worked out OK because after that little break, we felt much better and decided to just do what we could with the time remaining.

Since we were still on Main Street, I decided to try and get some pictures of the fireworks:







And we spent a good portion of the night pin trading and looking for those Halloween Ears that I wanted so badly. We stopped in the Emporium and a CM said Yeah we have them! and I excitedly started following her& then another CM says no we dont, those are sold out. I was so bummed!
We stopped at the pin store in Frontierland only to find out that ALL of the limited edition pins were ALSO sold out! The CMs told us that they were required to put out ALL of the limited edition merchandise on the very first night of the Halloween Party, back in September. They said that everything was completely gone by the third party. But they told us that their complaints dont help. If guests dont complain, the people who make the decisions like that wont change anything. So we definitely complained when we got home! How do you sell ALL of your LE merchandise during the first three parties!? So not fair!

So then I saw this clock in the front window of the Confectionary and decided I need one:



We went and got Dole Whip, then rode Pirates. The line for HM was crazy long so we decided to hit up the candy trails and find out who the special character meet & greets were so that when we came back for the next two parties, we'd have some sort of plan.

After collecting a good amount of candy, we headed out of the party at about 11:30pm.

Up next: You have GOT to be kidding me!

 

[RGirl]

Oh no, not a good start to your stay at BWV. How disappointing! I was really hoping it was going to improve for you. I hate to hear of bad experiences at one of our favorite places.

BoG is just one of the prettiest places ever, isn’t it? I keep thinking I should have ordered the salmon and maybe I would have enjoyed our meal more. But it doesn’t sound like it was any great shakes either. But a beautiful place to dine, for sure!

Oh man! I can’t believe you had to spend so much of the Halloween Party at BoG and then being escorted to the front! And to get into the party that late! I would have cried! I’m so glad you were going to more than one party.

 

[Simba22]

Oh no, not a good start to your stay at BWV. How disappointing! I was really hoping it was going to improve for you. I hate to hear of bad experiences at one of our favorite places.

I LIKE the resort. I wouldn't go so far as to say I wouldn't stay there again. But it's not my favorite so I wouldn't make it a priority, you know?

BoG is just one of the prettiest places ever, isn’t it? I keep thinking I should have ordered the salmon and maybe I would have enjoyed our meal more. But it doesn’t sound like it was any great shakes either. But a beautiful place to dine, for sure!

Others have said that they really enjoyed the salmon when they ordered it. So it could have been an off-night or something. But I just wasn't a fan. I would probably order the potato and leek soup as my entree next time and just chow down on bread and butter (because THAT'S healthy... ) but overall we really did have a nice time!

Oh man! I can’t believe you had to spend so much of the Halloween Party at BoG and then being escorted to the front! And to get into the party that late! I would have cried! I’m so glad you were going to more than one party.

We were so upset, we felt like we were being treated like criminals or something! Like I said, they could have easily made a phone call and figured out a better way to get us our tickets. If I'd made a big enough stink while waiting for the escort CM, they probably would have. But that's just not me...I just can't make a scene, you know? But...lesson learned!

 

[freckles04]

Oh my goodness. I'm sorry your Halloween party was such a disaster. I would have cried, but thank goodness it was not your only party. Being escorted by a CM would make me nuts... I can't stand to walk slow!!!

 

[Simba22]

Oh my goodness. I'm sorry your Halloween party was such a disaster. I would have cried, but thank goodness it was not your only party. Being escorted by a CM would make me nuts... I can't stand to walk slow!!!

IT.

WAS.

HORRIBLE!

She was SO slow and the constant stopping to wait for people to decide it was convenient to move out of the way.... Ugh, I wish we had ditched her sooner!

 

[Nermel9]

Man, what a horrible start to your stay at the Boardwalk. We had one of those machines in our room at BLT too, and we had to change rooms because it smelled so chemically and smoky in there. It's strange they just wanted to leave it in there with you...

Isn't BOG pretty? I'm not sure I will eat there for dinner again, it's good, but I almost like the lunch menu better, and now that you can just get an FP for it, I'd rather do that.

OMG I cannot believe the beginning of your MNSSHP!!! Getting escorted through the park like some common criminals, and then wasting all of that time with the tickets? Crazy! I would have been mad too! It's a good thing you had 2 more parties to go to, imagine that was the only one? OMG I would have flipped!

 

[DisneyJo]

What a shame about your room at BWV, I'm glad it got sorted but sorry it took so long!

Your party sounded terrible, I agree there must have been a better way of handling your ticket situation.

 

[Simba22]

Man, what a horrible start to your stay at the Boardwalk. We had one of those machines in our room at BLT too, and we had to change rooms because it smelled so chemically and smoky in there. It's strange they just wanted to leave it in there with you...

It was the weirdest thing! Like, isn't stuff like that supposed to be out of the room before a new guest checks in? He seemed so shocked by the fact that I didn't want it there... and if he said something like "keep it here for a few more hours, to make sure the smell is gone." OK - fine. We're going out anyway. But the fact that he just acted like it was SUPPOSED to be there...didn't give me a time frame, didn't admit that they forgot it was there... It was just so bizarre.

Isn't BOG pretty? I'm not sure I will eat there for dinner again, it's good, but I almost like the lunch menu better, and now that you can just get an FP for it, I'd rather do that.

It's so weird to me that you can have a FP for lunch! It sounds like a good idea but it's just weird! I think I would like to go back to BoG with more people, just to share the experience...but I don't know if we'd go back just the two of us. Maybe if they spruced up the menu a bit more!

OMG I cannot believe the beginning of your MNSSHP!!! Getting escorted through the park like some common criminals, and then wasting all of that time with the tickets? Crazy! I would have been mad too! It's a good thing you had 2 more parties to go to, imagine that was the only one? OMG I would have flipped!

Seriously, we FELT like criminals! Like basically they were saying we didn't have a right to be there! And if someone had just taken three minutes out of their day to see what they could to help, instead of just insisting that we had to leave because we didn't have a wrist band. But, like I said...lessons learned!

What a shame about your room at BWV, I'm glad it got sorted but sorry it took so long!

The room itself was nice. Very clean, bright, spacious, etc. And whatever the smell was...it was gone by the time we got there. But the location and the slow service was just so frustrating!

Your party sounded terrible, I agree there must have been a better way of handling your ticket situation.

It wasn't bad once we let the whole thing go, but it was just so upsetting! Those parties are not cheap and we missed basically the first two hours of it. There were just so many things that both we, and the CMs, could have done better.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Ugh. What a terrible and frustrating experience for you. If I were you and knowing how much extra you have to pay for the parties and the limited the you have each night, I would have been livid.

Very frustrating about the LE merchandise. What Disney should do is put out different LE stuff each week or so. This way everyone can at least get something and encourages repeat attendance

 

[KatMark]

Wow, what a spectacular view, Ali. But that really stinks about the luggage and the thingy in your room.

I'm glad you enjoyed BOG. We've enjoyed all three meals there and the restaurant is just stunning.

What a pain in the you know what on the party! There is no excuse for that at all. I've decided we are done with all of their parties because they oversell them and you can't get half the stuff done. I'm glad you were able to do a few things and plan the outline for the next parties.

 

[Simba22]

Ugh. What a terrible and frustrating experience for you. If I were you and knowing how much extra you have to pay for the parties and the limited the you have each night, I would have been livid.

Very frustrating about the LE merchandise. What Disney should do is put out different LE stuff each week or so. This way everyone can at least get something and encourages repeat attendance

From what the CMs at the pin store told us, this was the first year they did the merchandising this way...just put everything out all once, you know? I hope that enough people complained that they change it for future events. I'd be interested in seeing what happened with the LE merchandise at the Christmas parties?

Wow, what a spectacular view, Ali. But that really stinks about the luggage and the thingy in your room.

I was so irritated! Three people told us our luggage would arrive by 3pm. When I called down to Bell Services the first time, I got the distinct impression from the CM that "it's not here yet," meant "I'm too lazy to go and look for it."

I'm glad you enjoyed BOG. We've enjoyed all three meals there and the restaurant is just stunning.

Aside from taking longer than we expected, it was a very nice meal.


What a pain in the you know what on the party! There is no excuse for that at all. I've decided we are done with all of their parties because they oversell them and you can't get half the stuff done. I'm glad you were able to do a few things and plan the outline for the next parties.

The lines for the attractions were minimal. It wasn't so crowded that we couldn't do anything, we were just frustrated with the way it started out and that really put a damper on our motivation to do anything.

 

[smile4stamps]

Boma looks so good! As does Sanaa!! Maybe maybe maybe I will try and fit in one of them on our upcoming trips!! I’m not a fan of spicy food so Sanaa is a bit scary!

I have the same shirt you wore to AK and it’s what I usually wear there as well!

Fabulous Animal Pictures of the AK animals! The colors are quite vibrant in your photos!

Just as an FYI Bell Services won’t bring your luggage to your room when you do a resort switch. I have no idea why they can when you take ME but now when you move but that seems to be the way it is…

I’m so sorry your Halloween Party was not a good experience!! Hopefully the future parties were better!

 

[Simba22]

Boma looks so good! As does Sanaa!! Maybe maybe maybe I will try and fit in one of them on our upcoming trips!! I’m not a fan of spicy food so Sanaa is a bit scary! You should definitely at least try Boma for breakfast! And then stop at The Mara (which is just outside from Boma) and get zebra domes to take with you!

As long as your avoid anything that says "spicy" you should be OK! The Tandoori Shrimp was REALLY good and not spicy at all!

I have the same shirt you wore to AK and it’s what I usually wear there as well!

I have never seen anyone else wearing that shirt and now I know of like 4 other people that have it! It helped when I called and made them look for my PP pics with Donald!

Fabulous Animal Pictures of the AK animals! The colors are quite vibrant in your photos!

Thank you! I love love love my camera!

Just as an FYI Bell Services won’t bring your luggage to your room when you do a resort switch. I have no idea why they can when you take ME but now when you move but that seems to be the way it is…

Really?! I had no idea! Now I feel bad because I didn't tip the guy! He was kinda hanging around and I was thinking 'if you brought them up before I got here you wouldn't get a tip!' But seriously...that's kinda dumb!

I’m so sorry your Halloween Party was not a good experience!! Hopefully the future parties were better!

The other two were DEFINITELY better!

 

[Simba22]

“Is This For Real?”​

The alarm went off at 7am – it was now Friday October 18th.

Me: C’mon, we gotta get up.

Lumar: No.

Me: Yeah, we have to get to breakfast.

Lumar: Not hungry.

Me: You will be. C’mon, get up.

Lumar: Still no.

Me: I’m gonna cancel our reservation then.

Lumar: OK


So I use the nice little MDE app to cancel our breakfast reservation, which was for the Grand Floridian Café. This is the 2nd trip in a row I’ve canceled that reservation! I really want to eat there for breakfast but we never seem to make it!

I reset the alarm for 9am and rolled over to go back to sleep.



That’s about the time that this happened (clink to play).




So much for our nice, quiet, garden/pool view room!


Lumar: Is that what I think it is?

Me: Do you think it’s yard work, being performed directly under our balcony?

Lumar: Yes.

Me: Then yes, it is what you think it is.

Lumar: Is this for real?

Me: As opposed to… for fake?

Lumar: (loud groan)


At which point, we bury our heads under our pillows and go back to sleep.
At 9am, when I woke up for real, they were STILL out there. How long can you trim the same freaking hedge?! I mean, seriously!

So we get up, get showered and dressed, and head out of our noisy room, at the end of the longest hallway in hotel existence.


And I feel only a little better, when I see this from the window in the hallway:




But today, we weren’t exactly headed in that direction! Instead, it was off to the Magic Kingdom!


After a seven minute walk to the bus stop. Where we waited for a few minutes.





And another however many minutes to the Swan & Dolphin…..


But we finally made it!







Since we hadn’t eaten, we stopped at Main Street Starbucks. This was only the second time in my life I’d been inside a Starbucks. The first time, happened the week before.


I ordered bacon, egg, and cheese (made with gouda!) and a frozen chocolate coffee (Frappuccino, right?)




Lumar ordered ham, egg, and cheddar.



And he got a plain old hot coffee on this day when it was already almost 80 and it was 11:30 in the morning.





We enjoyed our breakfast at a table on the little patio by the water, where I finally saw this:






We didn’t really have a plan for this day, and since we’d been able to most of our favorite rides the night before at the Halloween Party, we decided to try out Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom! So we headed over to Liberty Square to sign up and get our card packs, and I took some pictures along the way.









The thing about this game, is that is there is something like seven missions (and supposedly they change them up every once in a while), and each one takes quite a bit of time to complete, depending on how many people are using the same portals (or randomly blocking them because they have no idea there’s anything special about the place they’re standing). I think the CM from the Halloween Party told us that for her do the whole game from beginning to end took her like 15 hours with bathroom breaks and stops for two CS meals. The good thing, is that you don’t have to do it all at once!

So while we were playing, I didn’t really take a lot of pictures, but I can tell you that we played for at least three hours.

We stopped around 2pm to get lunch at Gaston’s Tavern…but apparently, I didn’t take any pics of our food and I didn’t write it down so I don’t know what we got. Except I remember we got another LeFou’s Brew and it was delicious.










As we were passing by Pooh’s Thotful Spot, I saw a meet and greet opportunity I’ve been waiting for since 2007 so we got in line.



I really, really, really, wanted to meet Rabbit. And the last time I saw him out for meet & greets was in 2007. When we visited with my brother and his (then) girlfriend. But SHE wanted to ride the teacups. So we did THAT instead. And I was silently bitter about it.
Plus, Tigger is one of my favorite characters so I saw this as a double win.

You can’t tell from the picture, but Tigger asked Lumar to bounce with him. So he did.






And I saw this right next door and thought about stopping but they need a more expanded menu.



Plus, I love Cheshire Cat so I had to take a pic of the sign.

Side note: During one of our adventures through AK on this trip, I saw a girl walk by me with an amazing Cheshire Cat tattoo on her arm. It was SO nice, I had to stop and tell her how much I loved it!


We decided, since we were in the area, to play one more round of Sorcerers before heading out.


Continued in next post.....

 

[Simba22]

And on the way out, we stopped for more pics of the castle.

Because, lets face it...you can never have too many!






We were going to take a train ride all the way around the park one time before leaving, but the train was closed for some refurb. So I took this pic of Main Street before we left:




We had a dinner reservation for 5:30pm at Epcot, so obviously the fastest way to get there was the monorail to the TTC, then switch to the Epcot line.

Well as were heading towards the monorail, theres a CM standing at the bottom of the ramp stating its down, and well have to take a boat or a bus.

We opt to take the boat, but the line was so absurdly long (and there was no boat waiting), that we opted to take the resort boat instead. We figured wed get off at The Poly and walk to the TTC from there.

Just as were about to board the boat, we hear someone saying the only the Express Monorail was down, and the Resort Monorail was still working. So we clearly could have just taken the full loop. But nooooo. The CM directing traffic where details are of utmost importance, failed to mention that part.


The boat ride to The Poly was enjoyable, at least. It was quite hot this day.







Since it was quite warm, and we were tired from walking around the MK all day, we decided to just take a bus from The Poly to Epcot.

By the time we got there, it was 5pm. We still had to go through bag check, and get out to World Showcase.

We checked in at San Angel Inn at 5:29pm. Whew!

The lovely view from our table:



The lovely view of my frozen mango margarita:



And Lumars non-frozen pineapple margarita:



For dinner, Lumar ordered the carne asada:



And I had the fish of the day, which was Mahi Mahi.



Our dinner was wonderful, as it always is. We have been to San Angel Inn on each of our last 6 trips and have never been disappointed. Wonderful food, wonderful service, wonderful margaritas!

We had intended to stay for Illuminations but there weren't any good spots left to watch from because it was getting late. We decided to just take our time, strolling around.

And of course, we stopped for a dessert in Norway. You know. Since it's right there.



Some pics from our stroll through World Showcase:







I really love the Italy pavilion. In case you were wondering.





There was a full moon this night and I kept trying to incorporate it into my shot, but it never came out good. I need to play with the settings some more. You can kinda see it peaking over the top here, on the right side.

This is one of my favorites from this trip:



We ended up at the entrance to World Showcase, and we stopped at the food kiosk for Torched Cherry Coladas.



Seriously, I wish somewhere would just sell these, in very large sizes, permanently. So. Good.


I took the obligatory night shot of Spaceship Earth:



Then we got an obligatory PP pic in front of Spaceship Earth:



And then we headed back the BWV via the International Gateway.

Which is, by far, the coolest way to and from Epcot and every park should have an entrance like this from its surrounding hotels. (Im looking at you, Animal Kindgom Lodge!)

Overall, it was a great day! We had a really nice time at MK, doing something totally new for us (and a lot of fun for people looking to do something else. And of course, Epcot was beautiful at night!

Up next: I know! Im An Idiot!

 

[smile4stamps]

Boo on the landscaping waking you up!

I don't understand why the Deluxe resorts don't have a dedicated bus? Sharing bites!

Is the sorcerers game fun?

The train being down was so sad!

San Angel looks good. Contemplating giving it another try since it's been almost 5 years!

Your pictures of Epcot at night are very pretty.

 

[Simba22]

Boo on the landscaping waking you up!

We were so annoyed!

I don't understand why the Deluxe resorts don't have a dedicated bus? Sharing bites!

Me either. I don't care if it's two resorts sharing...but three is a lot. And the Swan & Dolphin aren't even Disney resorts and I think that's why it bothers me so much!

Is the sorcerers game fun?

We had fun, but it is a lot of walking and sometimes you have to wait. And people tend to just hover in the areas you're trying to get to, which can be irritating. Or when we were trying to use a portal and kids would just run up and stand in front of us.... But overall, we had fun! And it was something different to do! They have portals hidden in places that most people don't go to so it's cool to see little details you've missed before.

The train being down was so sad!

Yeah, the train is one of Lumar's favorite attractions so we were bummed. But it did reopen later on during the trip!

San Angel looks good. Contemplating giving it another try since it's been almost 5 years!

We've never had a bad experience! It's one of our favorites!

Your pictures of Epcot at night are very pretty.

Thank you!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[Simba22]

Great pics!

thank you!