Biscuit's Grand Adventure | An epic tale three decades in the making!

[chicagoshannon]

I'd definitely say it was worth it!

Might have to try to get into Chep Mickey's now. hmm Maybe in Feb when we go with my Parents again.

 

[TillyMarigold]

I handed her only ONE Key to the World card (see I told you I’m trainable) and now considered myself a bona fide dining plan pro. (My card says Key to the World on it, but I’ve always seen it referred to as Key to the Kingdom. Why is that I wonder? I’m digressing again aren’t I?)

The key is your Key to the World. There is a tour at the Magic Kingdom that is called Keys to the Kingdom. They're easy to mix up.

 

[MrsSpratt]

GB -

Seeing the look on your precious little cinammon roll's face made me tear up. At work.

Sounds to me like you had your priorities absolutely straight - what is "precious park time" when you were creating an even more precious memory right then. Would it have been as special without the build up of anticipation? Probably not.

And, as always, your photos are quite something. I love the panoramic shots - not having been to the World since I was three, I get a MUCH better sense of scale from your photos - well done.

I really appreciate the thought and work you are putting into reporting - thank you!

 

[GreatBiscuit]

May I say how very happy I am to hear you say that?! I loved, adored, that salmon when we hit CMs many moons ago. And we're heading back in a couple weeks - I'm having dreams about that stupid salmon! So glad to hear it hasn't lost its spark.

Hey, if you gotta dream about something, Disney Dining is the way to go!

I'd definitely say it was worth it!

Me too!

Might have to try to get into Chep Mickey's now. hmm Maybe in Feb when we go with my Parents again.

I’d highly recommend it. This was one of our favorite meals.

The key is your Key to the World. There is a tour at the Magic Kingdom that is called Keys to the Kingdom. They're easy to mix up.

Thanks and I knew if I threw it out there, somebody would know the answer. Having heard about het Keys to the Kingdom tour multiple times, I should have connected the dots. Thanks!

GB -Seeing the look on your precious little cinammon roll's face made me tear up. At work.

That makes two of us.

Sounds to me like you had your priorities absolutely straight - what is "precious park time" when you were creating an even more precious memory right then. Would it have been as special without the build up of anticipation? Probably not.

I wholeheartedly agree.

And, as always, your photos are quite something. I love the panoramic shots - not having been to the World since I was three, I get a MUCH better sense of scale from your photos - well done.

I really appreciate the thought and work you are putting into reporting - thank you!

Thanks! I am having a ton of fun reliving the vacation.

 

[Kimberly815]

Okay. . . so I have been to Chef Mickey's, but only for breakfast. Those potatoes alone make me want to plan a trip back to Disney World! How have I lived my life this long without them?

Wonderful pictures of the girls with the characters! Their smiles are priceless!

 

[Nana & Papa Biscuit]

Biscuit neglected to tell you that Nana had gone out seeking the whereabouts of Minnie. From my seat I could see her and she was spending a LOT of time in the room we saw "straight ahead" as we came in. I was not about to let my little Cinnamon bun be disappointed. I went over to Minnie and very nicely suggested that she might want to visit with others who had been waiting a lifetime to see her. Surprise, surprise - she showed up at our table about 5 minutes later. Maybe I had nothing to do with it, but I like to think I played a part in that priceless look on Hailee Bug's face !

 

[whogirl'smom]

Looks like Chef Mickey's was a hit! That was nice to hear, as it doesn't always get a lot of great reviews. The kids' faces are just lit up with the characters!

Ok, you have to tell me how you blurred the edges of the character pics--that's a great idea! I always hate all the strangers in the background and usually crop them to death in the scrapbook, but this is even better. I have a Canon S2-IS, do you think there's a similar application in the software compared to your Sony?

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Biscuit neglected to tell you that Nana had gone out seeking the whereabouts of Minnie. From my seat I could see her and she was spending a LOT of time in the room we saw "straight ahead" as we came in. I was not about to let my little Cinnamon bun be disappointed. I went over to Minnie and very nicely suggested that she might want to visit with others who had been waiting a lifetime to see her. Surprise, surprise - she showed up at our table about 5 minutes later. Maybe I had nothing to do with it, but I like to think I played a part in that priceless look on Hailee Bug's face !

Proof positive that I inherited my character harassment gene! At least Alice wasn't there! But I have to say, the results were nifty!

Looks like Chef Mickey's was a hit! That was nice to hear, as it doesn't always get a lot of great reviews. The kids' faces are just lit up with the characters!

We loved it. It seemed like most of the reviews were that it wasn't as good as it used to be. Having never been there before, I had no frame of reference to compare it with so maybe that's the difference.

Ok, you have to tell me how you blurred the edges of the character pics--that's a great idea! I always hate all the strangers in the background and usually crop them to death in the scrapbook, but this is even better. I have a Canon S2-IS, do you think there's a similar application in the software compared to your Sony?

Glad you liked it. I actually did that with Corel Paint Shop Pro X2. (I downloaded the free 30 day trial.) They have a tool called depth of field that lets you blur the background. It's a bit of a pain to use though and took me a few tries to get right. The program is nice, but a bit more advanced than what I need. There are several tools I havent' tried or haven't figured out yet. I will probably not keep it after the 30 days. On others shots where I was using the Nikon N60, the depth of field was accomplished in-camera due to the focal length and apperture settings on the telezoom lens.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Oh! You already answered my questions - I was just about to ask you how you accomplished that short depth of field with a digi on auto mode. I've been thinking about trying psp, but I've heard it has a really steep learning curve. Your pics look awesome!

 

[MKBekka]

WOW! That food looks mouth wateringly good! I really LOVE potatoes, especially mashed potatoes. You've got some awsome pictures of your girls with Minnie!

 

[DisneyMomLiz]

( Sony Cybershot DSC-S700, Auto Mode)

This time, I stuck with the baics: Prime Rib & Parm-Taters, (both with Au-Jus) and Tamarind Glazed Salmon with Pesto and Wasabi Mango Coulis. HOLY STINKING COW that Salmon was good!

Mmmm...yummy Salmon...definitely looking forward to CM now!! Thanks for the great review

Was it worth waiting an extra 30 minutes to see Minnie?

( Sony Cybershot DSC-S700, Auto Mode)

You tell me.

Most definitely worth the wait...precious picture!! The characters are so great with the kids. My DS told piglet last year at CP, "sit down, piglet" and Piglet did as requested and sat down and "chatted" with my son...so cute.

Biscuit neglected to tell you that Nana had gone out seeking the whereabouts of Minnie. From my seat I could see her and she was spending a LOT of time in the room we saw "straight ahead" as we came in. I was not about to let my little Cinnamon bun be disappointed. I went over to Minnie and very nicely suggested that she might want to visit with others who had been waiting a lifetime to see her. Surprise, surprise - she showed up at our table about 5 minutes later. Maybe I had nothing to do with it, but I like to think I played a part in that priceless look on Hailee Bug's face !

Great job, Nana Biscuit

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Oh! You already answered my questions - I was just about to ask you how you accomplished that short depth of field with a digi on auto mode. I've been thinking about trying psp, but I've heard it has a really steep learning curve. Your pics look awesome!

It's definitely not a newbie friendly piece of software. I was hoping it would be a little more similar to the Video FX software I use, but alas, it is not. Not a bad program, I just don't have the time to learn something new right now.

WOW! That food looks mouth wateringly good! I really LOVE potatoes, especially mashed potatoes. You've got some awsome pictures of your girls with Minnie!

Them there Taters were good eats! Minnie was def the highlight of the meal.

Mmmm...yummy Salmon...definitely looking forward to CM now!! Thanks for the great review

NP!

Most definitely worth the wait...precious picture!! The characters are so great with the kids. My DS told piglet last year at CP, "sit down, piglet" and Piglet did as requested and sat down and "chatted" with my son...so cute.

How cute! Piglet was the girls FAV at Crystal Palace as well.

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Episode 54 - Terror in the skies!

Previously on Biscuit’s Grand Adventure, napkins were waved, meat was consumed, and a lady mouse totally made my daughter’s day. Before I forget, I located my stash of receipts and can now say with certainty that our server at Chef Mickey’s was the constantly smiling Charlotte. Also, the CM who inducted me into the Mickey Mouse Dining Club at Everything Pop was Tanya. Excellent job ladies!

After Minnie said her goodbyes, Nana took the girls for a final potty run while I shot a few more photos. (You can see Nana leading the ladies to the powder room in the middle of the panoramic photo in the last episode.) Once everyone was done with business, we all bid Chef Mickey’s a fond and satisfied farewell, then waddled out to locate the monorail.

In an attempt to avoid the dreaded escalator, we took the wrong elevator and wound up on a room floor instead. Which was kind of cool, but not what I had in mind. We quickly returned to the lobby and managed to find our way up to the monorail platform. There was quite a crowd already and the platform operator was repeatedly bellowing out All trains are standing room only! Well isn’t that special? We had about a 10 minute wait to board a train an when we did, it was DEFINITELY standing room only. They’d have needed a shoehorn, a bucket of grease and an angry goat to get one more person in that car.

Fortunately, we lost a whole chunk of folks at the TTC, so I don’t know if maybe the Magic Kingdom Express Monorail platform was sending people over to the Resort Monorail platform or what. We were soon moving again and after a couple of brief stops at the remaining resorts, we finally arrived back at the Magic Kingdom. My goal was to head to Fantasyland and hit up the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. (For some reason, the girls were really anxious to ride the Jungle Cruise.) However, this plan of action was not meant to be.

As we came through the tunnel, we were met by a sea of rear ends. Spectro was in full swing. I knew it would be pointless now to try to get anywhere, so we wound up heading to the left towards Town Hall. We watched the remains of the parade from atop the steps.

Once the show had ended, I rounded up the troops and gave the order to move out. Our first stop was back at the Chapeau where we were thrilled to find the Mickey Ears ready for pickup. We then began the arduous task of swimming upstream towards the castle. Nana advised us that we needed to be inside an attraction at ten as Preston absolutely freaks out when it comes to fireworks. What? No Fireworks? You’re joking right? No? Seriously? We aren’t playing around here? Hmm…okay…let me ponder this a moment…no worries…I got a plan. To Tomorrowland we go!



Then the girls needed to make use of the facilities one more time, so I got everyone’s tickets in order to round us up some Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin Fast Passes. (BLSRSFP’s or as I like to say it, Blisserfips) The girls were gone a while, and in their absence I surveyed the situation, and decided that once they were back, we’d head over to Stich’s Great Escape which had no wait. That’s right. I took a kid who has a massive fear of fireworks, and as an alternative, ensured he’d be harnessed into a seat and subjected to ungodly noises, flashes, odors and darkness. Even though it was clearly marked on my list as a Parent’s Strongly Cautioned ride. Yep. That’s what I did alright.

Things started out relatively calm. We entered the first holding area and halfway paid attention to the little video thingy they had going. Wishes started while we were waiting in line and I congratulated myself on avoiding a meltdown. We next moved to the second holding area and were trained to handle Level 1 alien offenders. The announcement of the dreaded level three escapee was made, and we next entered the chamber of hades. We were on the top row, and I went in first. Tahli and Hailee were next, followed by Tracy, Aunt Jana, Papa, Preston, and Nana.

The terror began almost immediately. It was bad. VERY, VERY BAD. To anyone who sat in front of us, I apologize. To my sister, if Preston is having unexplained nightmares involving laser guns and chili dogs, you now know why. We didn’t realize that there was a way out until near the end when another child and mom were escorted out by a Cast Member. By that time it was too late. I think the poor kid nearly split himself in half. From that point forward, he entered virtually every attraction with fear and trepidation.

As to the attraction itself, I can now say that I’ve been on it, but I am not sure that I want to. It was definitely the most pointless activity of the entire trip. Even those of us who weren’t terrified were still not overly thrilled by the thing. In the words of Tahli, “That was dumb.” Well said baby girl, well said.

Hoping to redeem myself with the Biscuit clan, I assured everyone that Buzz Lightyear would be a VAST improvement. I also prayed silently that it would not scare the bejeebers out of Preston. Fortunately he likes Toy Story and with the Fast Passes, we didn’t have a long enough wait for him to build up any fear factor. While in line, we snapped a few pics of the kids in their new headgear. (It would be the last time they all three had them on.)





As it turns out, Buzz was a roaring success.




I have to say that for a newbie, I think I did pretty well. I was with Hailee so of course I won in my car. I may or may not have beaten the rest of the Biscuit clan.



After we left Buzz, we headed over to one of my favorite classic rides. The Carousel of Progress. The kids couldn’t quite figure this one out at first. They were expecting wooden horses I think. And of course seeing theater seats made Preston nervous again. We assured them all that they would enjoy the show and they actually got quite a kick out of it. Hailee was especially enamored with the side stages. She kept pointing them out and saying “Look Daddy! The room changes!” Ahh...the simple things.

After our journey through the decades, I realized we only had a few minutes before the start of Spectro 2.0. If we’re going to make it to the Jungle Cruise, we needed to boogie on out of Tomorrowland post haste! I gave the order to saddle up and ride, and off we went through the heart of The Hub. I noticed though that Tracy was limping and having a hard time keeping up, so I did my best to keep it slow. It did help that the kids were walking as well, as they served as natural speed regulators.

We managed to get through the parade lines and cut left into Adventureland. Our first stop was Pirates of the Caribbean. I was not sure how the kids would take this one, but figured I’d give it a shot and see. After all, we’d already scared the living biscuits out of Preston. How much worse could it get?

The girls actually liked the queue caves. (Which is STILL fun to say BTW) . There was not much of a line at all so they really didn’t have time to get overly nervous. Within 7 or 8 min we were boarded and ready to sail. I enjoyed the attraction immensely. The girls didn’t quite get it and kept wanting to know why the pirates were being mean. Preston (in his pirate hat) kept his hands over his ears for most of it. We’ll try it again when the girls are older (Lord willing and the creek don’t rise) and hopefully they will grow into it.

After bidding farewell to Captain Jack, we found ourselves conveniently dumped into a gift shop, where I again waited outside the facilities for the ladies. By the end of the week, I didn’t even ask anymore. Whenever we passed a restroom, I just stopped and waited.

Once we were all reunited, it was time to hit up the Jungle Cruise. As I mentioned earlier, the girls were REALLY looking forward to this ride. I’m not sure why as I never talked it up to them, but for whatever reason, it was highly anticipated. There was maybe a 5-6 minute wait and we soon boarded our boat for a cruise on the wild side. Our captain had more of a dry, deadpan delivery than the corny wisecracking type. He reminded me a lot of Ben Stein.



We eventually made it safely through the heart of the jungle and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It was actually a lot of fun at night and seemed to give it more a realistic feel. (Of course I hadn’t been on it in like 19 years, so it’s hard to draw a comparison.)

When the ride was over, I was feeling pretty good. We had managed to have a magical dinner, get some cool hats (which the kids were no longer wearing), and hit up several of the kids “must do attractions”. All in all, I’d say it was a pretty successful first day. But wait! The day is not yet departed! Oh no my friends! There is still plenty of magic in store!

Coming up on Episode 55, an Accidental EMH

 

[Beka]

2 of my 3 favorite MK rides! Your girls are super cute!

 

[eandesmom]

Once the show had ended, I rounded up the troops and gave the order to move out. Our first stop was back at the Chapeau where we were thrilled to find the Mickey Ears ready for pickup. We

SO cute!


Nana advised us that we needed to be inside an attraction at ten as Preston absoultely freaks out when it comes to fireworks. What? No Fireworks? You’re joking right? No? Seriously? We aren’t playing around here? Hmm…okay…let me ponder this a moment…no worries…I got a plan. To Tomorrowland we go!

Then the girls needed to make use of the facilities one more time, so I got everyone’s tickets in order to round us up some Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin Fast Passes. (BLSRSFP’s or as I like to say it, Blisserfips) The girls were gone a while, and in their absence I surveyed the situation, and decided that once they were back, we’d head over to Stich’s Great Escape which had no wait. That’s right. I took a kid who has a massive fear of fireworks, and as an alternative, ensured he’d be harnessed into a seat and subjected to ungodly noises, flashes, odors and darkness. Even though it was clearly marked on my list as a Parent’s Strongly Cautioned ride. Yep. That’s what I did alright.


The terror began almost immediately. It was bad. VERY VERY BAD. To anyone who sat in front of us, I apologize.

Poor Preston! My nephew who is tough as nails and loved Stitch, freaked out at that attraction. We refused to take the kids on it this time.

I noticed though that Tracy was limping and having a hard time keeping up, so I did my best to keep it slow. It did help that the kids were walking as well, as they served as natural speed regulators.

uh oh!

When the ride was over, I was feeling pretty good. We had managed to have a magical dinner, get some cool hats (which Hailee was no longer wearing), and hit up several of the kids “must do attractions”. All in all, I’d say it was pretty successful first day. But wait! The day is not yet departed! Oh no my friends! There is still plenty of magic in store!

Coming up on Episode 55, an Accidental EMH

an accidental EMH? I can't wait!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

woohoo on a good evening! Stitch is going to give Disney a bad name

 

[whogirl'smom]

Maybe Disney will read enough on here how awful Stitch is, and replace him in the near future. Poor Stitch, I love the show, but have listened to much wisdom on other's TRs and never ridden the ride!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I was an updated behind - so I just read about your MAGICAL evening at CM! I'm so glad it was a great meal for you all! The smiles on your girls' faces were precious. We had AMAZING character interaction there - it was an awful night for us, but the characters alone turned that night around. (Not sure if you read that TR, or not?)

And wow! Tons of rides at MK! Smart on hitting the rides between Spectro and Wishes. Poor Preston not liking fireworks and being scared during Stitch though.

I haven't ridden JC at night-I've read many times it's a whole new experience!

 

[burly]

Hi GB, been away for a bit. Just caught up.
First time I experienced the World, I was 24. First character interatction was at O'Hana. When i hugged Minnie I cried. Didn't know she was my fav either. Your pics brought a tear. Your TR a giggle and sigh.
Can't wait for more.

 

[jordanyosh]

I'm getting caught up....

Stitch's Great Escape....How about we want to escape the ride....I agree with you 100 percent....now I gotta go back and read the rest.