Beauty and Majesty, Shining Magically * Nov '15 TR! UPDATE 2/18

[Gracefulskinny]

We were given a yellow rose and took it up to the register. My curious fiance decided he wanted to open the rose to see what was inside.. Spoiler alert, it's a Magic Band. A few older CMs saw him and said "YOU ARE RUINING THE MAGIC!!!" LOL.. We had a good laugh at that.. Oops.

There is an actual magic band in there?

A few minutes in, she knocks on my stall wall, sticks her hand underneath, and in the sweetest Southern grandma voice, says "Excuse me ma'am, can you spare a square?"

 

[afwdwfan]

We had a quick breakfast of bagels from home and carrot cake cookie from two days before (still good FYI ).

Good to know!

At this point in my trip I had quit caring about my hair - the Florida humidity was going to do whatever it wanted anyways!

And now for the really entertaining PP pictures!

Since Justin has designed the car on our last trip, he let me design the car on this trip.. Well, I picked the body style and color anyways..

Are you sure he didn't pick the color?

We also checked out the Ghirardelli area and were given a free sample.. Gotta love chocolate.

Even better... free chocolate!

We were, so we showed him a Chase Visa and he gave us Priority Seating vouchers which was nice - being a Chase Visa cardholder had some good perks at Epcot this trip.

Cool! I wish they had more Chase Visa perks throughout the year and not just for the special events.

Next we had a FP+ for Soarin' and Justin wasn't feeling like a boat ride, so we started eating not long after that. The booths had just opened up not too long before.

You can't go wrong with more food. Looks like you had some great snacks while waiting for your FP!

There's also a really nice seating area inside. Quite a few times I passed people reading or using their laptops.

Looks like a great place to sit and relax.

Each place setting had the wine glasses, a water glass, and some paper/pencil to take notes.

Ok... I wanted to comment about how entertaining it might be to see the notes taken towards the end of a tasting. But then if you're only getting 3 glasses and those glasses are more like sips...

I'm glad you enjoyed it though. It does look like a fun event and it sounds like it was pretty reasonably priced.

We stopped at Africa for a butter chicken with naan bread.

How does this compare to the holy grail of naan bread at AKL?

I really liked the apple strudel, too.

That looks awesome!

We decided to turn the opposite way and head back towards Mexico, specifically towards La Cantina de San Angel (the quick service place). Justin and I had seen someone with nachos earlier in the day and he was determined to have some during our trip. Little did I know we'd be back TWICE again for these nachos..

Those nachos are my favorite meal/snack at EPCOT. I've been known to have them multiple times during a trip. If Via Napoli had a walk up window, I'm pretty sure the only thing I'd ever eat at EPCOT would be pizza and nachos. And I'd be perfectly happy.

Yeah, not my thing. I really wanted to like these. Justin took one look at them and wouldn't even taste them. I'm not sure what I didn't like about them. I don't think I expected them to be so soft. They were almost soggy in my opinion. I ate half of one and the rest went into the trash.. So sorry, my Zebra Dome loving friends!

Sorry that they were a letdown. I've still never tried them.

and we'll check in to the Poly, during which we informed the staff that we were NEVER leaving.

I feel that way about all Disney resorts!

This day made me sad yet excited at the same time. For some reason on a vacation I'm always like "Today is our halfway mark, that means our trip is halfway over, that means I only have 4 days left til we leave... WAHHHH" instead of "We still have half the trip left!"

I'm always thinking about it that way too....

I guess she was vacationing with her husband and kids, and her parents, and her immediate family was moving to Saratoga Springs, but her parents were staying put at the AKL villa!? So she was instructing the CM's on what to move, what not to move. Basically sounded like she thought they'd do every little thing for her. She was saying "now move this bag, this bag, this bag, not the purple one, that's my parents', I need the baby food and bottles from the fridge, but not the styrofoam container with leftovers..."

And I'm sure they left about a $1.50 tip for all that extra effort.

Anyhow, we were quick and painless and the CM was super friendly!

That's a sign of a great CM if they can deal with a couple of more difficult customers and still turn it on and be pleasant.

And I think they also had just plain english muffins and bagels that you could toast, as well as some muffins and danish. Personally, I don't think this would be worth it on the dining plan. I'd rather grab something at the parks, but it's nice that they have these options available.

I definitely wouldn't waste a dining credit on any of it, but if you wanted to pay OOP for some oatmeal or a breakfast sandwich, the prices are pretty reasonable.

After that was the People Mover, I'm not really sure why we headed over towards Tomorrowland, but I think we had a FP+ for the Mine Train and it wasn't quite up yet. We did Small World next, another favorite of mine that Justin just does to appease me

Ok... Peter Pan, then Peoplemover, then back to IASW... the entrance to which is approximately 15 feet from the exit of Peter Pan???

You must really like the Peoplemover.

5 rides in, and it was time for lunch at Be Our Guest. I was able to grab an 11:20 lunch ADR, which was a little early but fine with us since we were doing Ohana that night for dinner. We tried to check in maybe 15 minutes early, since we were in the area, and we were told we had to come back 5 minutes before our ADR.

We had the same thing happen at BOG...

My curious fiance decided he wanted to open the rose to see what was inside.. Spoiler alert, it's a Magic Band. A few older CMs saw him and said "YOU ARE RUINING THE MAGIC!!!" LOL.. We had a good laugh at that.. Oops.

Cool! I assumed it was some type of RFID chip, but I never imagined it would have an actual magic band inside.

Having had a really good experience here the first time we did lunch, we were really looking forward to it again. We were slightly disappointed. It won't keep us from returning, but with the "stress" of getting a BOG reservation

I felt the same way this last time too. We've had fantastic meals there in the past, but this time the food was just kind of... ok. I felt the same way about my sandwich... it had maybe been sitting for a little too long and the bread was a little bit tough. It wasn't horrible, by an stretch, but it felt like a step down from my past experiences there.

I'll include this little tidbit for those of you who may be skeptical about the parade taping. It did not affect our touring AT ALL. Yes, the hub towards the front of the castle was pretty busy, but honestly we were able to navigate Main Street with no problem. As you can see we did 6-ish rides before 1 pm, and had an hour lunch at BOG, so I really don't think we even noticed the parade taping. The only time we really noticed was when we were in the hub because we could hear the music playing.

I'm glad that it worked out well for you. Your description of it all reminds me of the day we went to MK when they were filming concerts for the parade. I guess more of the "parade" is now filmed the way they filmed the concerts a few years ago since the "parade" is now just a bunch of concerts and warm fuzzy stories with 1 or 2 floats going down Main Street.

I have in my notes after that, that we rode the monorail. I can't remember if maybe we went to get our passports stamped for F&W.. That could be right, otherwise we just rode the monorail to Epcot and back to get out of the sun, which is a possibility, lol. I remember having an empty monorail car to ourselves so we put our feet up and just chilled for a bit!

It is always nice to have plenty of room to stretch out and relax in the monorail.

A few minutes in, she knocks on my stall wall, sticks her hand underneath, and in the sweetest Southern grandma voice, says "Excuse me ma'am, can you spare a square?"

 

[Vernie822]

We monorailed over to the Poly to check in to our room. We could not contain our excitement! Growing up the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian were the quintessential Disney resorts in my eyes.

I grew up in the 90's (I was born in 1990) my first trip was in 1993 (I was 2 and a half and remember nothing). It was just for a few days. My parents always vacationed to Daytona Beach so when we were younger, we'd spend a week or so there, and a few days at Disney, usually offsite. We stayed onsite once, I think it was 1998, at what was the Disney Institute. We went again in 2000 and 2001, and stayed offsite both times. So when we'd see the monorail, the Grand Floridian, and the Poly (and probably even the Contemporary, though I have no recollection of that as a kid), that was a place that was a dream to me. With 7 of us (I'm the oldest of 5), there was no way we'd be staying at the Poly!

So you can imagine our excitement when we found out that, when renting DVC points, this would be an option for us. I may have mentioned before that originally we were going to stay at Wilderness Lodge, but we decided on the Poly at the 7 month mark when we could book through the rental company. We changed our minds because the Poly's studios were pretty new and I had no idea that they'd be open or would be an option, plus the WL was going to have some construction... so we jumped at the opportunity!

We entered the building through the front, where the monorail drops off.. made our way down to check-in.. and were greeted with some leis! Our baggage had not yet arrived (no big deal).

We got our room number, 3922, in the Tokelau building. It really was not a far walk at all, maybe 4-5 minutes tops. Our room was on the 3rd floor on the right side of the hall. The building was perpendicular to the lagoon, so if we walked to the end of the hallway and out the door of the building, we could see the castle. (We paid for a standard studio room, so we were not expecting a castle view).

When we walked in the door, I don't know that we even said a word at first.. we were in awe. We just stood there with our mouths open like "WHAT!?!?!" Sure, the AKL rooms were amazing as well, but this was just surreal.

When we first walked in, to the right, was a bathroom. This bathroom was huge - almost unnecessarily huge. It had a toilet, tub/shower combo, and a vanity with a sink. Seemed like a lot of space for just a bathroom.

Right after that, also on the right, was bathroom #2. Um, our apartment doesn't even have two bathrooms, so we didn't really know what to do with all the space! This bathroom was smaller, with an AWESOME shower, a vanity, hairdryer, etc.

Across from this bathroom was a mirrored door, which I think connected to another studio, and next to that was the a closet, then the kitchenette.

These are the closet doors:

I exclaimed to Justin "JUSTIN THIS ROOM HAS A DISHWASHER!" To which he responded "WHAT? No way!" It was 15 seconds later that Justin opened the "dishwasher" door and informed me that it was not a dishwasher, but a fridge..

The kitchenette was nice to have. We didn't make breakfast here (I discovered that morning that our bagels were moldy, yay!) but it was a nice perk. I did make coffee twice.

Now onto the best part, the room itself.

The bed was nice and big, with a nightstand on either side, and lots of plugs. I liked this better than the setup at AKL, where I was on an end with no nightstand.

Side note, I heard they're doing away with alarm clocks at WDW resorts? What in the world? How expensive is it to have an alarm clock in each room?

Next to the bed was the pull out couch area with the coffee table. The lid on the coffee table opened for storage. I really didn't think of this too much, but it's definitely close quarters if you're using the pull out bed for 2 people.

There was also a table and chairs.. We loved all of the little details and theming here.

The table/counter that the TV was over was really nice. We usually kept our Magic Bands, wallets, hats, right on top of here. It was a nice "dumping ground" that the AKL room didn't really have. The TV was actually pretty neat, it pulled out from the wall a little and you could turn it to angle whatever way you wanted. Justin was in heaven.

A bed also pulled down from this area, which would be great for a kid or teen to sleep on. I tested it out for size. I'm about 5'3" and I had plenty of room!

I loved the Lilo and Stitch details.

We decided to take a peek out on our balcony to see what our view was like. It was what I expected, some paths to get to the different longhouses, some palm trees, and... Justin exclaimed "YOU CAN SEE THE CASTLE FROM HERE! If you look right in the middle of that third tree, you can see it!"

I was thrilled. I really couldn't see it well at all, but hey, it was a 90% obstructed castle view! (For the record they did not bill it as such, so if you're actually paying for the view I'm sure it's better than this).

This was our view looking straight ahead.

It was then that Justin proclaimed "We don't even need to go to the parks, we can just hang out here all day." Er, that might have been after he turned the tv on and saw how awesome it was.. but I agreed. I was in heaven.

We hung out in the room for a bit, just exploring everything and taking it all in. Silly, but it's probably one of the best memories of our trip. It was so surreal that we were staying somewhere that seemed so unobtainable! We work hard, just like all Disney fans, to vacation, so it was a dream come true!

They were showing the 3 pm Festival of Fantasy parade at 5 pm that day, due to parade taping, so we headed back towards the Magic Kingdom to catch the parade.

One of the best parts about the Poly was being SO CLOSE to the Magic Kingdom. We decided, at this point, that we'd already been in WDW for 5 days, so the last 3 days would be relaxing, we'd do whatever, take it easy, and just enjoy it. We didn't take another bus the rest of the trip which was so nice.

Next - pictures from FOF, and dinner at Ohana.

​

 

[ariane37]

(I was born in 1990)

I was in college in 1990 Twenty years from now you may be writing TR's, but I guarantee you won't be stating your birth year in them, Ashley lol!

Side note, I heard they're doing away with alarm clocks at WDW resorts? What in the world? How expensive is it to have an alarm clock in each room?

We noticed this at the BW in November too, what's up with that We used the alarms on our phones but it was annoying to not be able to just glance at a clock when we wanted to know what time it was.

Backing up a bit to that beautiful carrot cake cookie, which I tried for the first time last month. Are you aware Writer's Stop is closing in April? I'm crossing my fingers they start selling the cookie somewhere else!

 

[afwdwfan]

I grew up in the 90's (I was born in 1990) my first trip was in 1993 (I was 2 and a half and remember nothing).

I'm getting old...

We stayed onsite once, I think it was 1998, at what was the Disney Institute.

We stayed there in 1998 also!

and probably even the Contemporary, though I have no recollection of that as a kid

How do you not have any recollection of that? That's the coolest thing ever! You ride a monorail THROUGH the hotel!

Right after that, also on the right, was bathroom #2.

What? 2 bathrooms in a studio??? That's awesome! And kind of overkill.

Side note, I heard they're doing away with alarm clocks at WDW resorts? What in the world? How expensive is it to have an alarm clock in each room?

I saw that too. I'm not really crazy about it. I use my phone alarm, but I also like to have a clock set as a backup. It doesn't happen often, but there have been times I've had my phone change time zones or something. It is pretty rare, but I refuse to rely 100% on it. I always have 2 alarms set at home or when I travel.

I was thrilled. I really couldn't see it well at all, but hey, it was a 90% obstructed castle view! (For the record they did not bill it as such, so if you're actually paying for the view I'm sure it's better than this).

A 10% view is better than the 0% view you paid for!!!!

Could you see any fireworks over the top of that tree?

We didn't take another bus the rest of the trip which was so nice.

The biggest benefit of staying at one of the MK resorts!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

When we first walked in, to the right, was a bathroom. This bathroom was huge - almost unnecessarily huge. It had a toilet, tub/shower combo, and a vanity with a sink. Seemed like a lot of space for just a bathroom.

I think I'd rather have that floor space in the main room area. But then that's me speaking from a Momma in need of space for things like strollers and such.

Right after that, also on the right, was bathroom #2.

2 bathrooms? in a studio? excessive.

I exclaimed to Justin "JUSTIN THIS ROOM HAS A DISHWASHER!" To which he responded "WHAT? No way!" It was 15 seconds later that Justin opened the "dishwasher" door and informed me that it was not a dishwasher, but a fridge..

We decided to take a peek out on our balcony to see what our view was like. It was what I expected, some paths to get to the different longhouses, some palm trees, and... Justin exclaimed "YOU CAN SEE THE CASTLE FROM HERE! If you look right in the middle of that third tree, you can see it!"

Still magical!

It was then that Justin proclaimed "We don't even need to go to the parks, we can just hang out here all day." Er, that might have been after he turned the tv on and saw how awesome it was.. but I agreed. I was in heaven.

Hey if you are going to spend the money to stay at the poly then you might as well enjoy every minute that you can.

 

[Vernie822]

There is an actual magic band in there?

There is! It was just wrapped around the outside. Pretty neat, even if we did ruin the magic a little, hahaha.

Cool! I wish they had more Chase Visa perks throughout the year and not just for the special events.

I do, too! It was nice to have the Chase lounge, and then the priority seating perks for that & the concerts. If the lounge were a year-round thing, that would be awesome.

Ok... I wanted to comment about how entertaining it might be to see the notes taken towards the end of a tasting. But then if you're only getting 3 glasses and those glasses are more like sips...

I'm glad you enjoyed it though. It does look like a fun event and it sounds like it was pretty reasonably priced.

I didn't know what to expect, but I guess I didn't expect that little of pours. We have a ton of local wineries here and you can get 6 samples for $2 and the sample are like 3 times the size of that... so maybe I was expecting the same. I can't imagine what myself and the other patrons would've been like after 3 full glasses though, haha.

How does this compare to the holy grail of naan bread at AKL?

It didn't, at all! We had skipped the butter chicken at Sanaa, thinking we'd try this instead, and while the butter chicken was good, the naan was pretty stale.

Those nachos are my favorite meal/snack at EPCOT. I've been known to have them multiple times during a trip. If Via Napoli had a walk up window, I'm pretty sure the only thing I'd ever eat at EPCOT would be pizza and nachos. And I'd be perfectly happy.

I can't believe it took us so long to get them, now we have to make up for lost time! Justin could definitely get by on VN pizza and those nachos.

I definitely wouldn't waste a dining credit on any of it, but if you wanted to pay OOP for some oatmeal or a breakfast sandwich, the prices are pretty reasonable.

The prices definitely weren't bad and it was nice they had that selection available, but yes I agree not worth a dining credit.

Cool! I assumed it was some type of RFID chip, but I never imagined it would have an actual magic band inside.

I assumed an RFID chip as well.. surprise!

I felt the same way this last time too. We've had fantastic meals there in the past, but this time the food was just kind of... ok. I felt the same way about my sandwich... it had maybe been sitting for a little too long and the bread was a little bit tough. It wasn't horrible, by an stretch, but it felt like a step down from my past experiences there.

100% agree. We'll probably give other places a shot for the time being. It's just so stressful most times to even get a reservation.

I'm glad that it worked out well for you. Your description of it all reminds me of the day we went to MK when they were filming concerts for the parade. I guess more of the "parade" is now filmed the way they filmed the concerts a few years ago since the "parade" is now just a bunch of concerts and warm fuzzy stories with 1 or 2 floats going down Main Street.

Yeah, that's what it was like. I thought there'd be people dancing down main street, floats, etc, but maybe some of that was done on a different day!?

I was in college in 1990 Twenty years from now you may be writing TR's, but I guarantee you won't be stating your birth year in them, Ashley lol!

Lol... ain't that the truth!

We noticed this at the BW in November too, what's up with that We used the alarms on our phones but it was annoying to not be able to just glance at a clock when we wanted to know what time it was.

Backing up a bit to that beautiful carrot cake cookie, which I tried for the first time last month. Are you aware Writer's Stop is closing in April? I'm crossing my fingers they start selling the cookie somewhere else!

I like just waking up in the middle of the night and glancing at the clock. Seems silly that they're getting rid of them.

I saw that they will have the carrot cake cookie at Sweet Spells! I think it's at the end of Sunset Blvd? I'm kinda sad Writers Stop is closing, such a cute little place.

How do you not have any recollection of that? That's the coolest thing ever! You ride a monorail THROUGH the hotel!

I have no idea how I don't remember that! My guess is we probably never rode the monorail since we would always drive and take the boat over.

What? 2 bathrooms in a studio??? That's awesome! And kind of overkill.

The novelty of it was kinda neat, but the second bathroom had no toilet which I think was kinda odd.. I guess it would be good though if one person wanted to shower and get ready while another person showered in the other bathroom.

I saw that too. I'm not really crazy about it. I use my phone alarm, but I also like to have a clock set as a backup. It doesn't happen often, but there have been times I've had my phone change time zones or something. It is pretty rare, but I refuse to rely 100% on it. I always have 2 alarms set at home or when I travel.

Right! And you never know if your phone's going to die or something, sometimes I forget to plug mine in, etc. Alarm clocks can't be that expensive, lol.

A 10% view is better than the 0% view you paid for!!!!

Could you see any fireworks over the top of that tree?

Amen to that! We didn't look for fireworks since we ended up watching them from the end of the hall, or the beach.. but I bet we probably would've been able to see just a slice of them.

I think I'd rather have that floor space in the main room area. But then that's me speaking from a Momma in need of space for things like strollers and such.

I totally agree. The first bathroom was a toilet, tub/shower, and vanity, the second bathroom had no toilet... so kinda seemed excessive and then to not have a toilet was odd.

Hey if you are going to spend the money to stay at the poly then you might as well enjoy every minute that you can.

Hahaha, I agree! He probably would've stayed in and watched football all day if I let him.

 

[Vernie822]

Back to MK we went, it did not take long and with 20 minutes to spare we were able to grab a spot across from Tony's to watch the parade. Typically I've watched it near Frontierland but we didn't want to fight the crowds only to turn around and go back out for our dinner reservation.

There was lots of space, I'm going to assume plenty of people didn't know the parade would be at 5? Or maybe it just wasn't a busy area, I don't know what the rest of the park looked like.

We were seated next to a nice family, mom, her daughter, and her daughter's grandparents. The little girl was behaving really well so her grandma told her she'd buy her one of those huge balloons with a clear outside and a Mickey balloon inside. She was probably 5 or 6 so she was thrilled with this balloon, and her mom was like "you spent how much on this!? How long is this thing going to last?!" FOREVER, I thought.

They had the flag ceremony at 4:45 PM, I think, and since it was Veterans Day, they had some very special veterans there for the ceremony! I'm not sure where they found these veterans, maybe they were just regular park guests, but the whole thing brought a tear to my eye and was very special. They also had a young girl help with the flag ceremony and I think they sang God Bless America. I wish I remembered this better and had taken some more pictures, but it was really nice to see the Veterans Day ceremony.

These are all of the veterans that they recognized. They announced each of their names and when they served, as well as their branch of service. Really nice.

While we waited for the parade to come through, our little friend was playing with her balloon and lost it over the fence. Her mom was not happy, but a CM brought her a new balloon and she was so happy!

After that, the parade came through, and I was in all my glory! That's where the TR title comes from - I am flat out in love with this parade. I have to see it every trip, sometimes I even make sure to see it twice. Everything about this parade is awesome, in my opinion! Totally worth checking out, we had a great spot on the curb and the kids around us were in heaven waving to all of the characters.

Once the parade was over, we monorailed back to the Poly to check out the resort a little bit before dinner. This is the main pool area.

We also stopped back at our room, our luggage had arrived. I took this picture (which I guess I should've put on the post with all of the room pics, but anyways).. I really liked how they had these built into the nightstands. You could just use the USB portion of your charger. You could charge a few things at once.

We've eaten at Ohana every trip we've been on together (which is only 3.. but it's a must for us) and we've always enjoyed it. It was our first meal in WDW together. We started off at the bar with an Island Sunset while we waited for our table.

College football was on in the Tambu Lounge so Justin was happy.

I love the Tambu Lounge, although it does get a little crazy at times since Ohana is such a madhouse. We ended up coming back on our last day before our Magical Express reservation to have a drink and watch some more football (I had the drink - Justin watched the football ).

Our reservation was for 8:10, I believe we checked in maybe 10-15 minutes early since we had planned to have a drink and hang out. By 8:40 we still had not been called, so I checked with the desk at the front of the restaurant just to see. The host told me that "you'll be surprised, but your table is ready!" So I'm thinking.. ok.. does my buzzer not work!? And he said "We have enough tables open, we just don't have enough people to seat everyone right now, but your table has been open for a few minutes.." OK. I assume they had just turned over a bunch of tables and couldn't keep up for the time being. Not 30 seconds after I sat back down, our buzzer went off.

We had a great meal here, we just love every single item! The service that night was outstanding and we really enjoyed ourselves.

First comes the bread, and then the salad with won ton strips, edamame, and pomegranate vinaigrette.

And the dipping sauces..

Potstickers and wings, one of the best parts of the meal.

Noodles and veggies:

Next they bring around steak, chicken, and peel and eat shrimp on skewers. I believe you can ask them for a certain done-ness of steak if you'd like, some of the pieces we were given weren't done enough for Justin's liking so we just switched steak since I like mine a little rarer than he does. The first time we came here was right after they got rid of the chicken and had pork instead - I really like the marinade on this chicken, much more than the pork we had that one time.

And the sole reason I go to WDW, the bread pudding. Kidding, well maybe a little.

Just love it. Our meal was great, the service outstanding, and we were so excited to just roll ourselves back to the room afterwards. I think our meal took about an hour. Wishes was in 30 minutes, so we headed back to the room, put on some comfy clothes, walked to the end of the hallway and out the door, and watched the fireworks from the 3rd floor of Tokelau on the landing right outside the door.

The music is piped in on the beach, so I pulled up a YouTube video and put it on just as the fireworks were starting.. So we had music, even if it was a few seconds off.

And that's a wrap on our first night at the Poly.​

 

[Gracefulskinny]

She was probably 5 or 6 so she was thrilled with this balloon, and her mom was like "you spent how much on this!? How long is this thing going to last?!" FOREVER, I thought.

A month at minimum.

since it was Veterans Day, they had some very special veterans there for the ceremony!

Her mom was not happy, but a CM brought her a new balloon and she was so happy!

AWA!

 

[afwdwfan]

There was lots of space, I'm going to assume plenty of people didn't know the parade would be at 5? Or maybe it just wasn't a busy area, I don't know what the rest of the park looked like.

I've seen the parades in Town Square a few times. It can often be hit or miss on crowds. Sometimes it is packed, sometimes it is fairly empty. Doesn't make a lot of sense.

These are all of the veterans that they recognized. They announced each of their names and when they served, as well as their branch of service. Really nice.

Cool! I'm glad they did something like that for Veteran's Day. They usually have 1 or 2 vets there for the Flag Retreat, but usually not quite this many.

While we waited for the parade to come through, our little friend was playing with her balloon and lost it over the fence. Her mom was not happy, but a CM brought her a new balloon and she was so happy!

I'm glad they helped her out.

I only wonder how long it was before somebody crossed the fence and got a free balloon?

I really liked how they had these built into the nightstands. You could just use the USB portion of your charger. You could charge a few things at once.

I don't like the alarm clock removal, but this is certainly a nice addition.

Just love it. Our meal was great, the service outstanding, and we were so excited to just roll ourselves back to the room afterwards. I think our meal took about an hour

I'm glad that you had such a nice meal, even if you had to wait a little longer than you should have.

Wishes was in 30 minutes, so we headed back to the room, put on some comfy clothes, walked to the end of the hallway and out the door, and watched the fireworks from the 3rd floor of Tokelau on the landing right outside the door.

The perfect end to your first day staying at the Poly.

 

[kastoney]

I'm forever behind, but all caught up now. Love how much of F&W you all got in, especially the wine tasting. What a fun experience.

Looks like you all had a great MK day despite the parade taping. Good to know it isn't crazy busy. I would have expected the exact opposite.

Your Poly room is gorgeous!!!! I had the same thoughts on it from my childhood as well. Definitely a dream come true. We're back at Wildnerness of four next trip, but I'm sure Poly will be in our future again. Casey has already declared it her favorite as she likes the way it smells ; )

 

[Vernie822]

I'm glad they helped her out.

I only wonder how long it was before somebody crossed the fence and got a free balloon?

Haha, I was thinking the same thing! Wasn't too far back in there, so I'm sure someone was happy to take it home.

I don't like the alarm clock removal, but this is certainly a nice addition.

Absolutely! I'm sure larger families with phones/devices to charge would appreciate them.

I'm forever behind, but all caught up now. Love how much of F&W you all got in, especially the wine tasting. What a fun experience.

Looks like you all had a great MK day despite the parade taping. Good to know it isn't crazy busy. I would have expected the exact opposite.

Your Poly room is gorgeous!!!! I had the same thoughts on it from my childhood as well. Definitely a dream come true. We're back at Wildnerness of four next trip, but I'm sure Poly will be in our future again. Casey has already declared it her favorite as she likes the way it smells ; )

Kari, you're back! Hope everything is going well despite the circumstances. So sorry for your loss.

It was definitely a great day, not too crowded at all. I had kind of expected the worst but figured we'd roll with it either way.

Lol, her favorite smell! That kid is too funny. The Poly was such a dream. I'm dying to go back there. Wilderness Lodge is on our "someday soon" list for sure. Love that lobby!

 

[Vernie822]

Day 5 - Thursday 11/12

I was up bright and early at 6 AM that morning. I was really excited to get my day started with a cup of coffee on our balcony. I jumped in the shower and since Justin was still sleeping, headed outside to sit on the balcony with some coffee.

This was a fabulous start to my morning as I listened to the DisUnplugged podcast crew's trip to the first Christmas party of the year. It was nice and I enjoyed some quiet alone time before another busy day.

By 8:45 we were ready to head to Captain Cook's for some breakfast. In hindsight we should've skipped and just grabbed a small snack, since we had an ADR at noon.

(Great view of the GF on our way out of our building!)

Captain Cook's is set up super weird, compared to the other resort food court places I've been to. Perhaps others do it this way but this is the first time I experienced something like this.

Typically, you go up to a food station, place your order, and take your food to the cashier. Pay, and go find a seat. Here, you look at the menu board, then get in line at the cashier, place your order and pay, and take a buzzer to your seat. Once it buzzes, you can go pick it up at the counter. It took forever to get our food and there are only 2 cashiers there. At peak breakfast time, it was pretty busy.

Note the little bottles of wine right before the register.

This is where you pick up the food:

We filled up Justin's mug and picked a spot outside on the patio while we waited for our food.

Justin decided on a bacon, egg, and cheese croissant. A usual breakfast choice for him. I decided on Tonga Toast, since I knew it was available here and at Kona. We'd be going to Kona the next day and I was torn on what to get, so I went with the Tonga Toast at Captain Cooks.

Breakfast was fine, I probably ate 4 bites of the Tonga Toast because I just didn't want to fill up too much before our ADR at noon. It was good, but I really don't like the texture of bananas so I picked around that a bit. I'm glad I ordered this here and not at Kona.

Justin said his sandwich was good, it was a typical bacon/egg/cheese, a combo he loves. At that point he requested that we just cancel our ADR for Saturday morning at Be Our Guest. I was thrilled to hear that because I didn't think he or I would want to get up early after the Christmas party. And, I wasn't crazy about the $22/person price tag. So we cancelled, since Captain Cooks was a great option.

After we finished, we stopped back towards the room before we went to the monorail, passing by the new bungalows.

Due to monorail maintenance and traffic, we waited quite a bit for a monorail to Epcot, and then we waited probably 10 minutes in the air on the way to Epcot. Kinda freaked me out a bit when we weren't moving for so long, but it was all good. I made friends with the little girls next to me.

Then it was forever through bag check..

It was 10:40 once we were through bag check, so we headed towards World Showcase. We stopped at the Chase lounge for a pop, of course.

After about an hour or so wandering through the countries, it was time for our meal at Via Napoli. I know, I know, you're thinking.. BUT YOU JUST ATE. And in response to that, yes, yes we did. More on that later. ​

 

[Vernie822]

Sorry if this sounds like a regurgitation of my dining report. I like to keep things separate so I can elaborate more about our day here for those that aren't too interested in the food!

So yes, we had just eaten 3 hours prior. I ended up taking a majority of my Tonga Toast back to the room and keeping it in the fridge. I know a lot of people gripe about ADR's and not being able to cancel them. While I absolutely understand that Disney does NOT want you cancelling ADR's an hour in advance, because people hoard them and then the restaurant loses out on business and other patrons lose out on a meal. But at this point, I was thinking "good god, why I can't I just cancel this ADR?"

I LOVE Via Napoli. Love. In our corner of Pennsylvania we cannot find good pizza. In Pittsburgh, I never had a problem finding pizza. But since moving 2 hours north, nothing thrills us, so we love to eat at Via Napoli any time we're in WDW. There's nothing like it where we're from! (Different strokes for different folks, I hear plenty of people say VN does nothing for them because they can get great pizza at home).

In this case, we booked the Eat to the Beat dining package. Why? Because I wanted to MMBop with Hanson and I didn't want to wait in line for it. At the time, I didn't know you could FP+ a show, and I didn't know the Chase lounge was giving out wristbands (first come first serve) for the shows. So in the future, we'll probably stick to that, but for this trip, we decided to stick with the dining package.

For $42 per person, you are entitled to one entree, one appetizer, one dessert, and one drink. You also get a priority seating voucher for the show that night. There are 3 shows, the lunch package we did came with the earliest show. I think the dinner packages (which are pricier) come with a ticket to the later show.

I wasn't even remotely hungry here, but since we had this package, we each HAD to get 3 courses. Originally, I thought it was a good idea, but at the moment, I was kicking myself because I didn't need/want all of these courses. We would've done just fine with a pizza to split!

Anyhow, our meal was great, although VERY slow. I think it's the nature of the culture, though.

I started with the calamari. Only ate a handful of these, but they were crispy and light, and the sauce was a decent amount of spicy.

Justin had the arancini (risotto balls). He liked these but wasn't overly impressed.

I ordered the carciofi, my absolute favorite (artichokes, fontina, mozzarella, and truffle oil).

And Justin had his favorite, pepperoni:

For dessert, I REALLY wanted the zeppole, but I couldn't stomach the thought of anything doughy or hot, so I went with pistachio gelato. Justin had vanilla. This was a nice, sweet end to our meal.

Overall, I think we "saved" a little bit by buying the package. Was it worth it for us, to pay $100-ish after tip? Not really, since there are other ways to get reserved seating and we did NOT need that much food. But, it was nice to sample some different things, and now I had some leftovers for the next day.

We also received our priority seating voucher stickers for the show that night. We just stopped at the front desk on our way out and the manager gave them to us.

After that, we stopped at the front of the park to pick up our 2015 passholder port glasses.. cute!

After a little bit longer in Epcot, it was back to the room to relax for a bit.

Tip: 90% of the time we took the monorail to the Poly, we got off at the TTC (stop before). Our room was not far at all from the TTC, definitely a shorter walk than from the Poly drop off area.

This was the secondary pool area construction:

After a couple hours of rest, it was back to Epcot for the 5:30 pm Eat to the Beat show. Having priority seating was nice, I wasn't necessarily concerned about being close, I just wanted to know I had a seat and liked that we wouldn't have to wait in line.

We each grabbed a drink for the show, Justin a Tokyo Sunset and me a Schofferhofer.

We need to find a way to serve this at our wedding!

The reserved seating area was easy to find, and did not require us to get there too much before the show. I think we got there about 20 minutes before. To the left of the pavilion, there was a sign for anyone with reserved seating. We showed a CM our passes, which were stickers, and she had us put them on.

We were seated behind the walkway, in the second area of seats. The seats were good and it was a nice spot.

I was so excited to see Hanson. I think I was in first grade when MMBop came out. I was obsessed with Zac.

Needless to say, Hanson put on a GREAT show, even if they didn't play MMBOP (I'm salty).

They still got it!

It was worth it to get the priority seating, because we had a great view. Not that it mattered too much but I enjoyed it. There were a few ladies behind our row that kept yelling at the people in our row to sit down. Everyone in the theater was standing up dancing and clapping, it was a fun time!

Next up.. we try some more Food and Wine goodies, and eat more nachos! ​

 

[ariane37]

Tip: 90% of the time we took the monorail to the Poly, we got off at the TTC (stop before). Our room was not far at all from the TTC, definitely a shorter walk than from the Poly drop off area.

Yup, did the same thing

Can you stop saying things like the year you were born, and that you were in 1st grade when MMMBop came out? I feel older each time I read your updates lol

 

[Vernie822]

Yup, did the same thing

Can you stop saying things like the year you were born, and that you were in 1st grade when MMMBop came out? I feel older each time I read your updates lol

HAHA!! I will refrain from making you feel old

I loved that the DVC rooms at the poly were so close to transportation!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

There's nothing like it where we're from! (Different strokes for different folks, I hear plenty of people say VN does nothing for them because they can get great pizza at home).

Yeah I could almost walk to our local pizza joint that serves great neapolitan pizza.

Overall, I think we "saved" a little bit by buying the package. Was it worth it for us, to pay $100-ish after tip? Not really, since there are other ways to get reserved seating and we did NOT need that much food. But, it was nice to sample some different things, and now I had some leftovers for the next day.

Well hindsight is 20/20 they say. Live and learn I guess.

I think I was in first grade when MMBop came out.

Lordy! I was in middle school!

 

[afwdwfan]

Captain Cook's is set up super weird, compared to the other resort food court places I've been to. Perhaps others do it this way but this is the first time I experienced something like this.

Yeah, it has been that way for as long as I remember, and it is a different type of set up. Not horrible, but definitely a little confusing if you don't know what to expect.

Due to monorail maintenance and traffic, we waited quite a bit for a monorail to Epcot, and then we waited probably 10 minutes in the air on the way to Epcot. Kinda freaked me out a bit when we weren't moving for so long, but it was all good. I made friends with the little girls next to me.

All these monorail problems recently are just getting frustrating.

After about an hour or so wandering through the countries, it was time for our meal at Via Napoli. I know, I know, you're thinking.. BUT YOU JUST ATE. And in response to that, yes, yes we did. More on that later.

But it is Via Napoli... so I'd be all in for eating some more.

While I absolutely understand that Disney does NOT want you cancelling ADR's an hour in advance, because people hoard them and then the restaurant loses out on business and other patrons lose out on a meal. But at this point, I was thinking "good god, why I can't I just cancel this ADR?"

Yeah... I get it, but it does make it frustrating if you just aren't feeling it or want to change your plans a little bit.

(Different strokes for different folks, I hear plenty of people say VN does nothing for them because they can get great pizza at home).

I can get great pizza at home and I still love it. It might not be the best pizza I've ever had, but it is pretty darn good and I'm always ready to eat there.

I wasn't even remotely hungry here, but since we had this package, we each HAD to get 3 courses. Originally, I thought it was a good idea, but at the moment, I was kicking myself because I didn't need/want all of these courses. We would've done just fine with a pizza to split!

Sorry you weren't hungry enough for the meal, but that pizza is pretty good out of the fridge too!

Tip: 90% of the time we took the monorail to the Poly, we got off at the TTC (stop before). Our room was not far at all from the TTC, definitely a shorter walk than from the Poly drop off area.

Good idea! Makes a lot of sense and you don't have to go to the other line to wait on the resort monorail.

Needless to say, Hanson put on a GREAT show, even if they didn't play MMBOP (I'm salty).

They put on a show without MMBOP???? I didn't even realize they had other songs!

 

[hokieinpa]

Ah, I'm so behind!! I've fallen so far behind on all the TRs but now I'm catching up!

Love the details about AKL. We're staying at Jambo House in a 2 BR DVC in May. I think it's a lock-off, 1 BR and Studio so that should be interesting!

I enjoyed all of your F&W pictures! And that wine tasting does look like fun!

Glad the parade taping didn't interfere with your day at all! And love the pictures of the new Peter Pan queue.

WOW! The Poly looks amazing, of course! Love of the details in the room.

Dinner at Ohana - yum! Trying that for the first time in May!

 

[kpearl]

Caught up on your TR so far!

That's so cool you were there for the taping of the Christmas show! We actually watched that while opening gifts on Christmas day and all I could keep thinking was "My goodness, they must be SO hot!" Like I remember Andy Grammer looked like he was drenched in sweat with that leather coat on. A very eclectic group of musicians. Not really my cup of tea..

Your F&W pictures are killing me. In a good way! I can not wait to experience it this September. I already started making a list based off of last years items, although I'm sure they'll have changes, and I think I may have more alcoholic drinks than food - oops?

Thank you for the pictures of the studio room at Poly! It gave me a great perspective as to what to expect when we go. I can not wait to use that rain shower head faucet. Holy moly. You're too cute with the dishwasher comment!

Yaaay Hanson! I would have been fangirling galore.


Looking forward to reading more!