Beware of Poachers and Look at the Little Gorillas! 3 trips in 1. NEW TR started 8/31/19**

[thumper*]

YAY 2 TR's in one. Just binge read 32 pgs. Didn't want to do that many quotes, but want to make a few comments. Seems like even though your Jan trip was cold and sore you seemed to make the best of it. You always try to have a positive spirit. The little monster spitting on Andi what the hey!!!! Enjoyed reading your plans for May I'm just so heart broken I had to cancel. In the back of my mind I keep thinking I might end up booking a flight down last minute, but doubt I will. Lot's of other stuff going on other than busy real estate. Plus I cancelled my ressy's and am sure I wouldn't find much at this late date. My Magic Bands are still sitting on the kitchen counter and I just don't have the heart to throw them out yet. Sure gonna miss meeting you and having a cocktail or 2.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I wish we had 60s! It got up to 90 today according to my car on the way home at 5:30.

Mmm, Raglan Road would have been an improvement! At least the mozzarella sticks were as they were expected to be!

Glad your cake was good and you did well on your shopping adventures!

I can’t imagine 90 degrees already for you!
Raglan Road would have been way better, oh well I could have tried something else, I may have just picked wrong!
The little cake was very good!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Love this! And you actually have a cover on your bed! Did you bring blankets from home?

I did bring my little blanket from home, Andi always brings hers and I try to steal it, the beds just need a little more than the thin white blanket between the sheets! The Mousekeeping cm left us messages in Spanish everyday, I think she saw Andi’s Spanish book she was reading! Good thing Andi could read it to me!

Haha , typical young adult male response! That's what I get from my three too!

It sure is, the only time I get a little more is when we talk about Game of Thrones, haha!

Too bad about your meals, I had a feeling that's how it would end up!

It was our least favorite of the trip, still a fun and different experience for us!

Your cake looks fantastic!

This was so yummy, I had my doubts but it was great!

I used the same strategy during my trip....it really is the only way to manage the spring break crowds.

That worked well and despite the huge crowds and the few bad people incidents this was a great week of vacation

 

[disneyAndi14]

This is a great attitude to have, and one I should adopt! I try to go during times when the crowds are lighter, but that's not always possible, plus I'm afraid SWL might have other things in mind..

We decided with the crowds and some bad behavior out there spending a little less time in parks was just fine for us!
I am always trying to recapture our trips from 2012 and 2015 these 2 trips were amazing, crowd wise! The parks were empty compared to now! Andi rode EE 9 times in a row with no wait! I could actually count the people we saw in Tomorrow Land one night, ahh miss those days! SWL is just going to make crowds even worse for sure!
I am holding hope for our August trip, crowds will wait until later to show up for the opening!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I'm sorry dinner was disappointing! But looks like you both made up for it with yummy desserts

Well you know, we win some and some we don’t. I did enjoy the experience and dessert was yummy!

 

[disneyAndi14]

There is a T-Rex in Kansas City (which is about 3 to 3.5 hours north of us), and the whole reason we went is b/c my boys were the same!! Sooo into dinosaurs. We went twice when they were younger, which made me glad we could skip it at WDW One time the food was terrible, one time the food was good, so I feel like we got our full experience there!!

I actually laughed out loud at your son's "cool" reply...If I took a screenshot of any of my text conversations with L (the 13 year old), it would be identical.

It's almost exclusively "Ok", "cool", "thanks", "I will" on repeat!

Jack would have been in awe! He was obsessed with Dinosaurs, he would even roar like one, haha!
Those one word texts are just so the norm with Jack, it’s funny when I have him on the phone and we start talking SW and GOT, I can’t get him to stop talking!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I'm sorry your T-REX meal was so disappointing! I'm sure it didn't help when you knew what you were missing out on at Raglan Road for less than tasty food.

We did the same thing with the landrys card on our trip, its definitely super handy when you don't want to wait!

Your nightcap treat looked delish!

I think your plan of fastpasses and atmosphere is the best way to do Disney at busy times! Thats how DH and I handled our December trip and it made it so much better!

I had a meal all picked out at RR so yeah I was a little disappointed!
I love my Landry’s card!
The cake was so yummy!
Less park time this week worked well for us!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Sorry the meal wasn't up to scratch.....but that cake looks so pretty...….

Glad you enjoyed that......and you had the right idea avoiding the crowds too......makes for a more relaxing trip doing things like that.....

Thanks, the meal was lackluster for sure
The little cake was just so delicious and light!
I really enjoy relaxing more and more each trip

 

[disneyAndi14]

OMG Caroline! That cake looks delicious!!!

It was so yummy, made up for the blah dinner!

 

[disneyAndi14]

YAY 2 TR's in one. Just binge read 32 pgs. Didn't want to do that many quotes, but want to make a few comments. Seems like even though your Jan trip was cold and sore you seemed to make the best of it. You always try to have a positive spirit. The little monster spitting on Andi what the hey!!!! Enjoyed reading your plans for May I'm just so heart broken I had to cancel. In the back of my mind I keep thinking I might end up booking a flight down last minute, but doubt I will. Lot's of other stuff going on other than busy real estate. Plus I cancelled my ressy's and am sure I wouldn't find much at this late date. My Magic Bands are still sitting on the kitchen counter and I just don't have the heart to throw them out yet. Sure gonna miss meeting you and having a cocktail or 2.

Hi, I am bummed you had to cancel your trip! I will miss meeting you and having a few drinks! We will hope there will be another time!
Thanks for reading along, love hearing from you! Both trips were really fun despite the few negatives!

 

[GGOOFY1]

We have always had luck with T-Rex. Its one of those hit or miss!

 

[disneyAndi14]

We have always had luck with T-Rex. Its one of those hit or miss!

We have been one other time a few years ago and it was good.

We love Yak and Yeti and use Our Landry card quite often!

 

[disneyAndi14]

3/27/19. Day 3. “A cheesy Day”

We woke up to rain today, it looked like it would be done by 11am, we decided to have a lazy morning in the room and wait for the rain to stop. True to it’s word, the rain stopped by 11am. I had changed our Soarin FP to later afternoon without problems.

We arrived in Epcot at 11:45am, the rain had brought a littler cooler and windy weather. It was around 70 with a wind so not cold by any means, just not in the 80’s like the day before. Epcot did seem a little busier then Monday. Overall, not bad for spring break!

Our first FP was Lwtl, we headed to the land and had a wonderful ride as always. This was at the end of our window so it was time for SE next.



Back to the front of the park, we got in line for SE FP. The cm was, of course, telling a oblivious family they didn’t have a FP for SE, in fact they didn’t have any FP made in the system, ugh! During this time, a guy, carrying a plastic bag and looking rather disheveled, cut right in front of Andi and I and just snuck in the FP line He was a little creepy and made me think, for a brief minute, what was in that plastic bag , scary!
He did sit in front of Andi and I and no harm came to us. We had an enjoyable ride as always.

After the ride, we did a few pictures at the blueberry wall. I actually blended in with the wall today




Club Cool was up next for an Inca cola. Andi gets so mad when people crowd around the machinesShe hates that. People stake claim to those machines and you take your life in your hands trying to get a sample!

We had a lunch reservation at Via Napoli and we started to make our way there. We did stop in Norway for a new to us PhotoPass with the troll. “Disappear Disappear” #maelstrom memories!



Italy was not to busy and Via Napoli was the quietest I have seen it! Our reservation was at 1:30, good time I guess. We were seated quickly in the “sun room” area. It was cheese overload at this meal, side effect of eating with a picky vegetarian

We tried the Mozzarella Caprese as our appetizer. I remember @ariane37 review of how this is not worth the 9 dollars and I wholeheartedly agree. It was really fresh and tasty but wow tiny for the price. We decided on the Quattro Formaggi small pizza. This was really good, however, to much of one note for me. I like more toppings on my pizza and like the thin red pizza sauce used here a little better. I’m glad we tried it but most likely a one and done for us.




We will definitely be back to Via Napoli, it still is one of our favorites!

We headed to France next, Dessert from F&G booths was up next. I wanted to try the Key Lime Tart at Florida Fresh. I had saw pictures of this and read some good reviews. The one we got looked nothing like the ones I saw in reviews. I’m thinking they ran out of something and had to put it in a pre made tart shell. It did taste good but I was not wowed by it!


We headed back towards FW to try the cheesecake at Honey Bistro. This was local Honey mascarpone cheesecake. Andi doesn’t like cheesecake very much so she tried the Honey-Peach cobbler freeze. The cheesecake was so delicious with all the components. I highly recommend. The Freeze was weird tasting. The peach and honey didn’t go well together in my opinion. Andi thought it was “meh” also.




Soarin FP was up next, the cm asked for a party of 2 for B1, yes score!! We had a fun trip Soarin around the world and no evacuation. I always get a kick out of people in here, many have no clue how to buckle up or where to put there belongings People it is not rocket science!

I got an immediate FP for Nemo after Soarin! We headed over to ride and sing “the big blue world” over and over!

We decided to do the Visa meet and greet next. This actually had a fairly long line. The cm at the entrance was a lady from Eau Claire. This is Andi’s new college city, we visited with her about the lovely little town. I was #poundingtheapp while in line and was able to get us a Frozen FP for right after the meet. I also was able to get TT and Soarin for a little later if we wanted.

We got to meet Mickey and Goofy, always such a fun meet in here! The characters are so nice and interactive. I hope this doesn’t disappear like so many other things have!



Andi refused to go on Frozen with me, little stinker! She was not having it! She is boycotting the ride because of getting really wet the last couple times So, after my hard work of getting a tier 1 FP, we didn’t use it I really wasn’t to shook but I would have done it, mostly because of my accomplishment of getting it

We decided to head out and rest some before our new to us dinner reservation! This was the only time we waited about 30 minutes for a bus, ugh! We should have done a Lyft!

Stay tuned for dinner at a newly refurbished resort!!

 

[Terra Nova guy]

One if the CM’s told us this lobby area will be closed when the new resort opens. All check in will take place at Destino. El Centro will be part of the convention area with seating for convention guests.

Interesting. Well, at least you got to see it.

We walked on all the way to the glasses and then had a short wait. I love this ride, as many times as I have been on it, you would think I am an expert.

I've never lucked in to that short of a wait for TSMM! I really like the ride too. But like you, it doesn't help my score much, even when I read about the hints and tricks.

We both wanted to have a raspberry pop tart from Woody’s Lunchbox. The line was short and there was actually tables available. We sat and enjoyed our tarts, I forgot to get a picture, oops!

I had wanted to try those pop tarts, but never did. I've read good things about them.

I changed my shirt in the bathroom like anyone would right? I had to have an AK shirt on now.

I would do the same! It's bad enough wearing a Disney park shirt to a different Disney park, but I really cringe at the people wearing a Universal shirt to Disney!

We got into the park fairly quickly and the first thing we see is Kevin!

Cool! Looks like something fun to see.

We headed to T-Rex and flashed the Landry card and waited about 5 minutes. The regular wait was 90 minutes. Oh my this place is loud, chaotic, and so busy!

Nice that you had the card! My family did T-Rex years ago and the food was just OK. That, coupled with the noise, means we haven't bothered going back.

Andi picked out a caramel apple. I just couldn’t decide so didn’t get anything.

I have always wanted to try a caramel apple but never get around to it. Some are so nice they are almost a shame to eat!

I decided to get a little cake in the patisserie for my night cap. This little cake was so delicious. It was so light with a fresh strawberry flavor. It wasn’t dry at all, perfect consistency. See how I worded this to avoid the word “moist” It really didn’t need the chocolate on it, it detracted from the light strawberry taste.

That cake looks wonderful! And really? No chocolate? There's always a place for chocolate!

We decided on the Quattro Formaggi small pizza. This was really good, however, to much of one note for me. I like more toppings on my pizza and like the thin red pizza sauce used here a little better. I’m glad we tried it but most likely a one and done for us.

I enjoyed the Quattro Formaggi too. But I also liked the red sauce pizza more. I really don't think you can go wring with anything on the Via Napoli menu.

 

[Gina Starr]

Awesome day at Epcot! All the snacks looks yummy and lunch looks good too. Random thought but how is Via Napoli pronounced? I had one thought in my head but then I started watching vlogs and everyone says it differently. In my head it’s like nuh-poli. But I hear people say nap-o-li (like taking a nap)

 

[schumigirl]

Oh the creepy guy!!!! isn't it weird how some folks set off your radar...…..

Glad the rain stopped for you, and you had such a good day......and the food was a real mix for you.....glad you enjoyed most of it....the desserts looked so good!!!

And you did blend into that wall...….lol...…

I`m laughing at Andi boycotting Frozen.....Kyle won`t go on JPRA again as he swears he has a magnet on him to attract the water.....we can be bone dry, and he always gets drenched.....lol.....

Looking forward to reading about your dinner experience!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Sounds like a lovely Epcot morning. The Visa meet us such a nice little add on, I hope it makes the cut, too.

 

[kastoney]

During this time, a guy, carrying a plastic bag and looking rather disheveled, cut right in front of Andi and I and just snuck in the FP line He was a little creepy and made me think, for a brief minute, what was in that plastic bag , scary!

Not sure I would have been brave enough to sit behind him.

After the ride, we did a few pictures at the blueberry wall. I actually blended in with the wall today

I had no idea there were so many "walls" these days. I'm gonna be so behind the Mom curve when Casey is old enough to want to photograph them all.

It was cheese overload at this meal, side effect of eating with a picky vegetarian

I would think cheese would be about the only good part of being a vegetarian! Sorry your pizza disappointed. I can't recall ever eating plain cheese pizza but if you're going to I guess Via Napoli is the place to do it. If they can't make it good no one can.

Yum! Can't wait to try this in 2 weeks!!!!!

I was #poundingtheapp while in line and was able to get us a Frozen FP for right after the meet. I also was able to get TT and Soarin for a little later if we wanted.

I really wasn’t to shook but I would have done it, mostly because of my accomplishment of getting it

 

[Tracy161]

I am holding hope for our August trip, crowds will wait until later to show up for the opening!

I am hoping for the same! Unless everyone else has the same idea and tries to sneak in a before-SWL opening trip too Fingers crossed they won't!

I remember @ariane37 review of how this is not worth the 9 dollars and I wholeheartedly agree.

OMG that was $9?! Overpriced indeed

We decided to do the Visa meet and greet next.

Yay! I sometimes forget to do this... even though I've been a cardholder since 2007 I really hope they don't do away with it either.

Anxious to hear about where you ended up that night!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Great FP score!

We always try to do the Visa meet and we have always gotten Mickey and Pluto.