Cafeen takes it slow in Sept (and not by choice) – 23 Sept 2010 – 01 Oct 2010

[MEK]

Ughh....I hate headaches and I can totally feel your pain. Walking around Disney world is the LAST place you want to be saddled with a headache.

Still in all, you got some nice solo time. No worries about the pictures. I am sure there are many to come.

Looking forward to more and meeting your mom!

 

[Cafeen]

Allan, great start. I love seeing pictures of "home" and that quiet pool is calling my name.

I'm glad you are trying POR...you'll have to let me know what you think of it (they will be in the midst of the rehab when you are there); it is the only other moderate we would consider if CSR were not available.

Your first day adventures sound great. You do know that you can get a pretzel in between The Land and Journey Into Imagination, don't you? Mark got one there, along with a beer, when we were there in September.

Sorry about the headache...I get one of those too when I don't eat for a long period of time.

I love your writing style...always have.

As I mention in my PTR (of which you are about half way through), we will be there at the same time so we definitely have to hook up at some point. We will arrive at the AKL for two nights on September 23 and then home to CSR until we leave on the 29th for Marco Island. So we have some days to play with there to hook up.

Thank you. I absolutely loved that location. Quiet, 3 minutes from Bus Stop 2, 5 mins (or, well, 10 in the state I was in) from El Centro. Plus, there was one of my blue squares* only a minute away. If I swam, being right next to the pool would be even better! (I know how to swim, and I'm not afraid of the water or anything, I just typically don't bother swimming much).

The more and more I think about it, the more and more I'm selling myself on POR. I did see the news about the rehab and common consensus is that they should be through with the Mansions side and working on Alligator Bayou by the time I'm there. So will likely try and get into one of the refurbed rooms. It'll be nice being able to walk around POFQ as well (which was actually my first choice, but wasn't available for my stay ).

Um, sure I knew about that location (in fact, looking back, I think I got one there later in the week!). I think I must have still been debating what I wanted when I walked by. Yeah, I'm going to stick with that . (Who knows what was going through my head at the time? Or at any time for that matter!)

The headache was annoying, but it was my own fault. I could have grabbed something in Pensacola, or during my layover in Atlanta or at MCO, or at El Centro. The more annoying thing is, I do that all the time. I'll get distracted on the computer and forget to eat dinner.

I also like my writing style, quite a bit. If I can make myself laugh, then that's all that matters! If I don't enjoy it, then it's not worth doing. Of course, that creative writing class I took in high school along with spending 2 years working on the school's literary magazine helped quite a bit.

Yep, we'll be there at the same time for sure! Trying to keep some time open from constant Dining Reservations (DxDDP = a lot of places ><), I did see mention of the MNSSHP on Tuesday, which I'm certainly planning on, so may be an opportunity there somewhere. Other than that, I'm still working on the reservation puzzle, so there could be other opportunities somewhere as well. Definitely keeping you guys in mind though as I work on the puzzle... which is quite a task as seen below

Ughh....I hate headaches and I can totally feel your pain. Walking around Disney world is the LAST place you want to be saddled with a headache.

Still in all, you got some nice solo time. No worries about the pictures. I am sure there are many to come.

Looking forward to more and meeting your mom!

Yeah, the headache was annoying. Of course, since it's also preventable, it makes it a bit worse as I keep thinking "'darnit', why'd I let it get this bad?".

Beside the headache though, it was really nice to just be there. It was real easy to get into the solo groove for sure.

Mom will be arriving shortly!
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* For those not in the know, the "Blue Square" is the symbol on the Disney Maps for a smoking area. Yes, I'm a smoker, sorry if that offends your sensibilities .

 

[Cafeen]

Day 1 pt 5 – Mom arrives!
When we last left off, our little band of adventurers wa… Erm sorry, wrong story.

So, headache throbbing, I headed back to the Resort. I don't remember what time it was, but it was pushing 4:30 or so and Mom would be coming in soon. I got to the resort, took a couple Advil, laid down for a little bit, and then I heard the sound of a key in the door. Mom was here .

Being the good son that I am (beyond sharing my Disney trip with my mom), I headed down to her car and help her with her luggage, unpacked the snacks she brought, gave my yay or nay to the clothes she bought me (she's a bargain hound and tends to pick up clothes for me cheap when she sees them, she's getting better at picking out stuff I'd actually wear too!), and then just relaxed and caught up a bit.

Around 7pm, I started getting hungry. The headache had faded with the Advil and the almost-nap, so I decided to try and see if we could get seated at Maya Grill a bit early (we had a 7:45). I figured that, if they couldn't seat us, we could still hang around Panchito's (the gift shop) and tool around until 7:30 pretty easily.

So, we got to the restaurant and got our pager thingy and were seated soon enough. Now, for all those that followed my previous trip, you know that I ate here twice then and it was very good. For the appetizer, I was adventurous and ordered the Pan Seared Scallops (or something to that effect). I'm not a seafood eater, but I was on this trip to try new things. I also knew that Mom would eat them if I didn't, so wouldn't be a loss at all. Entrée was the NY Strip Steak and for dessert I had the Chocolate Chambord Cake.

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(Hm, while writing this in Word, I used "steak and cake" as placeholders for the images… that sounds like a restaurant that should open near me! Granted, we have Steak n' Shake already, but cake > shake!)

Ok, so anyway, the food looks nice (and I did forget to take pics before I dug in…), but overall, looks can be deceiving. The scallops weren't my thing at all. I barely managed to choke the half of one or so I tried down. Mom said they were good, but a little rare for her tastes. The steak was meh. Out of all the adjectives in the English language (which "meh" isn't technically one of), that is the best way to describe it. It wasn't bad, but it was bland and didn't really taste like anything. Very far from the yumminess of the meal last year. The saving grace of the meal was the cake. Chocolate mousse with dark chocolate shavings, raspberries and blueberries, raspberry sauce, it was just excellent.

After paying for dinner, we headed back to the room, watched TV and called it a night. The next day was to be Magic Kingdom with lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern followed by dinner at Artist Point (which I was really looking forward to!)

 

[Cafeen]

Day 2 pt 1 – Morning at the Magic Kingdom!
Note: This day has a lot of pictures, as do most of the following days. Apologies to all you dial-up users out there


So, the alarm goes off at some time, I'm not quite sure as I was already awake. It was relatively early though and I start getting ready for Rope Drop at Magic Kingdom. Now, if you remember from the other TR, my traveling companions weren't morning people. Neither am I unless I'm at Disney. My mom on the other hand, certainly is! So, we're both up and ready by around 7am. I toss on my slightly less goofy looking than normal crocs (they had almost a full top cover thingy, instead of being all plastic looking) and forewent (foregoed?) the socks. I figured that if we hit up Splash Mountain like I wanted to, then I didn't want to be walking in squishy wet shoes all day. Grab drinks and head out to the Bus Stop.

We pull up to Magic Kingdom around 7:30-7:45 (not entirely sure) and hang around waiting for the Rope Drop ceremony. They do their little song and dance and in we go! And once again, we're "walkin' right down the middle of Main St. USA!" (+1 internet point for the reference ). Now, this time, I didn't snap away during the whole walk, but I did get this lovely crane picture, but there was a castle in the foreground!

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We headed over to Adventureland first (it's nice to not have little ones and get forced to Fantasyland immediately!) to hop on Pirates as it's Mom's favorite ride. On the way, I took one of my signature breaks (these happen a lot) outside of Aloha Isle

We got to Pirates and what did we see? A rope. It wasn't open yet. We were told that it'd be open by 10am or so, so we kept movin' along. We settled on heading over to Liberty Square and hitting up Haunted Mansion.

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After that, we met with the leaders (past and present, no future though, even Disney can't predict that mess!) of our country. It was one of those things that I missed last year (and that Beth would not have really enjoyed, she's not big on history or anything) that I really wanted to check out again. Even when I was a little kid, I always enjoyed it. At any rate, we hung out in the lobby for a little bit before the next show and then sat through it. It was quite good and the relatively recent updates were done quite well.

After visiting the presidents, we headed back over to Frontierland and hopped on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Now, yet again, this was something we skipped last year (this will be a recurring (and key) theme in this story!) I remember when I was little, I was too scared to ride this (amongst several other rides, including Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, which I do regret very much) but managed to get the courage on our last family trip.

It was still a great ride and I completely failed at even trying to take a single picture. (This is my explanation for this big wall of text since Haunted Mansion). We also grabbed FastPasses for Splash Mountain at this time. We were fast becoming FastPass pros!

Ok, continuity issue coming up. Instead of going back to edit, I'm going to add it here. Hey, if Lisa can do it, so can I right? Ahem, I apparently forgot that we actually did BTMRR before Haunted Mansion as well. At that time we grabbed FPs for it too. The wait was short then, but when we came back (this time that I just talked about in the paragraphs above this one) the line was much longer. Sold Mom on FastPass usage right there .

I also know that we did hit pirates some time during this period. Not quite sure when.

 

[Cafeen]

Ok, thought I had this all written out and saved to my Word doc, but neither my one at home nor my one at work had it. (And I distinctly remember doing it!) I also was going to put this at the end of day 1, but I forgot or something.

By now, you can figure out that I have a new trip booked. I mentioned it enough in my comments and such. If you are the skimmer type and skipped them, and didn't look at my sig, or happen to catch any of the other posts I've made, then you know now . So yup here we go!

Date: 22 Sept 2011 - 01 Oct 2011. This is one day longer than the 2010 trip you're reading about now. Staying at POR on the DxDDP. POR is a new one for me, but it should be nice.

Who's going? Just me again. Mom will be making an appearance for half the trip as well (Thu through Mon most likely). It's almost a direct repeat of last year!

Why? Well, 2010's trip had a big long story to go with it, full of drama and intrigue! This year, not so much. The whole story is simply, "Because I wanna!" I've also been aching for a DSLR since before the last trip, and I picked one up at the beginning of this month, so hey, that's a good reason too right?

Also, last year when we were down there, Mom decided that she wanted to try and get her whole family together on a trip. Would have been around 15 of us total... Unfortunately, after little to no interest from the rest of the family, and my ADR date fast approaching (ok, it's still more than a month away...) that I'd pull the trigger on my own trip.

What's in store?
For some reason, both for here and at work, I'm a fairly obnoxious planner. For everything else in my life, not really. At least it pays off quite well in both these cases. As such, I have tentative plans all ready to go already. I was able to find hours by finding the Travel Agent's calendar. So that helps. How right are they? We'll find out soon enough.

So, with that said, here is my tentative itinerary...

• Thu - 22 Sept
  • Leave Mobile @ ~6am (Make sure to eat something during layover in Memphis!)
  • Arrive MCO @ ~11:30am
  • ME to POR
  • Bus to Epcot
  • Lunch @ CS (Likely Cantina again)
  • Mom to arrive around 5:30ish again
  • Dinner @ Jiko (AKL)
• Fri - 23 Sept
  • HS in AM (RD not required)
  • Mama Melrose for lunch
  • Back to resort after lunch
  • Head to MK around 4
  • Plaza for dinner @ ~5pm
  • MNSSHP at night! (I'm taking Mom this year because I love it so much last year. Shh, don't tell her )
• Sat - 24 Sept
  • MK in AM
  • Lunch @ CS or somewhere else.
  • Dinner at Narcoossee's @ ~7:30pm (Yep, that's timed for Wishes!)
• Sun - 25 Sept
  • Epcot in the AM
  • Coral Reef lunch @ ~12pm
  • Hacienda de San Angel dinner @ ~8pm (Yep, Illuminations timing )
• Mon - 26 Sept
  • AM EMH @ AK (according to my calendar)
  • Tusker House breakfast @ any time
  • Boma dinner @ ~5:30pm
  • Mom drops me off either at POR or DHS or an Epcot resort
  • PM EMH @ DHS
• Tue - 27 Sept
  • Epcot late morning.
  • San Angel Inn lunch @ ~11:30am
  • Head over to Contemporary around 4pm
  • The Wave dinner @ ~5pm
  • MNSSHP at night (and I know a bunch of people from here are planning that night too )
• Wed - 28 Sept
  • DHS in mid-late morning.
  • Lunch somewhere, not sure where yet
  • Flying Fish dinner @ ~7pm
  • Epcot EMH
• Thu - 29 Sept
  • AM EMH @ MK
  • Grand Floridian Cafe lunch @ ~11:30pm
  • Head over to Epcot
  • Le Cellier dinner @ ~7:00pm
• Fri - 30 Sept - If this was 2010, it'd be my departure day (at least going by days of the week)... but it's not!
  • AK AM EMH
  • Tusker House lunch @ ~11:30am
  • Head to GF around 4
  • Citrico's dinner @ ~5:30pm
  • MNSSHP is a maybe for this night (yep, that'd be 3...)
• Sat - 01 Oct - Real departure day
  • Epcot in the AM
  • Marrakesh lunch @ ~11:30am
  • ME to pick up @ POR around 2:30pm
  • 5:30pm flight to Mobile
  • 8:30pm (ish) arrive @ Mobile and head home

Now, it looks pretty full, and I'll admit that it is, but it's quite flexible since a) I haven't made the ADRs yet, and b) I'll be solo for half of that time, so I can just up and change if I want to .

At any rate, thems the plans for now.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I didn't realize until just now that I had missed Monday's installment. Yay for Mama's arrival! The picture of the steak looks like it would have been delish. Too bad it was just meh.

Your Mama is one adventurous lady! I love that she went to all of the attractions with you.

You know I'm not going to say anything about you adding in your "I forgot to say this before" moment at the end of your installment. I am too darned lazy to go back and edit another post. It looks perfectly fine right where it is.

I am likin' your plans for your upcoming trip. You've got some really great restaurants on your list.

Oh, forgot to mention (and I'm not going back up to the top of this post ) that I'm sure you're happy that you are leaving from Mobile this time instead of Pensacola. See...my "forgot to mention" moment looks fine and dandy right here.

 

[KatMark]

Glad mom arrived safe and sound. Sorry your meal at Maya wasn't as good as the two meals there last year. New Chef?

Hooray for making MK for rope drop. I'm not sure why Pirates would not be open--that is kind of odd (I know Jungle Cruise always opens an hour later than everything else). Again

I love the trip plans thus far. We will have to figure out a time and place to meet as we get a lot closer to the dates. Maybe AK the morning of EMH's or perhaps at the MNSSHP (although we will be spending that night with two sweet little urchins).

 

[Cafeen]

I didn't realize until just now that I had missed Monday's installment. Yay for Mama's arrival! The picture of the steak looks like it would have been delish. Too bad it was just meh.

Your Mama is one adventurous lady! I love that she went to all of the attractions with you.

You know I'm not going to say anything about you adding in your "I forgot to say this before" moment at the end of your installment. I am too darned lazy to go back and edit another post. It looks perfectly fine right where it is.

I am likin' your plans for your upcoming trip. You've got some really great restaurants on your list.

Oh, forgot to mention (and I'm not going back up to the top of this post ) that I'm sure you're happy that you are leaving from Mobile this time instead of Pensacola. See...my "forgot to mention" moment looks fine and dandy right here.

It's ok, I tend to post updates fast... until I disappear at least . My Mom was great. Heck, she wanted to do even more than I did! It was even her idea to do Space Mtn (which I think is later). (She also would do ToT, MS:Orange, TT.. no RnRC though, but that wasn't for lack of trying).

I'm looking forward to the plans. I think they're pretty much settled for now. I did shoot a message over to Mom to see if there were any additional Must Do's or Must Not Do's though, so some alterations may be in order.

I'm also happy that I'm heading out of Mobile this time. I'm only about 10 minutes from the airport here (7 mins according to Google Earth.. though I don't think I need to Google those directions ), and it's a straight shot west along the main drag my complex is attached to (not too surprisingly named, Airport Blvd ). It does cost a bit more than flying out of Pensacola ($422, rnd trip as opposed to about $300), but saving the hassle will be well worth it, and when you add in money for a hotel room, plus incentive for someone to drive my lazy butt out there... it's pretty much even.

Glad mom arrived safe and sound. Sorry your meal at Maya wasn't as good as the two meals there last year. New Chef?

Hooray for making MK for rope drop. I'm not sure why Pirates would not be open--that is kind of odd (I know Jungle Cruise always opens an hour later than everything else). Again

I love the trip plans thus far. We will have to figure out a time and place to meet as we get a lot closer to the dates. Maybe AK the morning of EMH's or perhaps at the MNSSHP (although we will be spending that night with two sweet little urchins).

Yep, Mom showed up right on schedule. Of course, I was originally planning to still be at Epcot at that time, but this worked out quite well too. I'm not sure if there was a new chef or not, but I knew ahead of time that the menu had changed. It's a shame really though, it was quite good for a stint there. I actually went twice again this year... once for dinner and once for breakfast. Suffice to say, it's certainly off my list for a period of time.

I'm thinking that whole not saying goodnight to George or something. Most likely some sort of technical difficulties. It happens, we simply moved on and then came back later . No harm, no foul.

Yep, making Rope Drop was a nice thing. Not sure if you all remember, but I tried to make a few last year (erm. year before now...) and it didn't happen. It's nice to be at Disney with an early riser.

Once the hours really come out, it'll be easier to figure out some time. I am looking at a Tusker House breakfast for that morning (we both enjoyed it quite a bit), but that's open to debate. Lord knows that I'll be consuming enough food while I'm down there that skipping that meal and eating CS for lunch isn't going to starve me . I'm not adverse to rearranging the stuff around a bit either, so we can make something work.

My food just arrived (yes, it's 10pm and I'm just getting down to eating dinner...), but I'll be tossing another update in a bit. This one will make you get the story behind the title too!

 

[Cafeen]

Day 2 pt 2 – MMMMMMMM, OUCH!
Moving right along, still without visual aids (though I could fire up Paint, but I think anyone reading this knows what Disney looks like without me hacking it to death with my horrible Paint skills), we roamed over to Fantasyland for some reason (via the Hub rather than under the bridge). I didn't take pictures, we didn't ride anything, but we still went over there. Checking our watches (or my phone in my case), it was nearing lunch time, so we roamed back over to Liberty Square (this time via under the bridge rather than the Hub, we walked in a circle ) and just kinda hung around for a few minutes. I think Mom went to check out a shop while I just watched people.

So, finally we get to lunch and are seated pretty quickly (I think right away, but not entirely sure). I don't know which room we were in, but it was the one just up and to the right of the lobby. We got a nice view at the window too.

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I ordered the Tavern Fried Cheese as my appetizer and the 1/3 pound Angus Chuck Cheeseburger (or whatever it is, I could be remembering the name of the burger from somewhere else… I eat lunches out a lot!) for my entrée. To be honest, I have no idea what Mom had. For dessert, I assume you can guess…

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That's right, it's the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake. It was as tasty as it looks. The toffee cake part tasted like a giant, thick, soft cookie.

So, incoming some not so yummy images for your head (don't worry, I didn't take pictures), but remember how I wore those new Crocs today, without socks (I didn't want to look like a nerd!) Well, I could already feel my feet developing large blisters on the bottoms. I didn't have anything else to wear though, so I just figured I'd tough it out. Mom visited the Christmas shop, and I hung around outside for a bit. Once I sat down, I decided to investigate. Well, one large blister on the bottom of my left foot pretty much the size of half of the ball of the foot. Mirror image on the left, only this one had already broken. YEOWCH!


Mom's shoes were bothering her feet a little bit as well (I guess one of the strap thingies was rubbing against the top of her foot), so we hobbled over (well, I hobbled mostly) to first aid and she got some band-aids. Yeah, they didn't help me much. We're going to just see how much they hurt over this week. I did manage the pain ok, but it really slowed me down a ton. Of course, I was "smart" enough to do this on my first park day, rather than later in the week. That was bright thinking!

At any rate, I hobbled (Mom walked) over to Tomorrowland and I took one of my special breaks, here are some images from along the way…

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Now for some, the cranes take away the magic. For me, that's where the magic happens. Of course, I'm a nerd, so figuring out (and finding out) how things are done is something I enjoy.

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[phabric]

I enjoyed reading your review with the pictures. We will be doing the Deluxe in August and will be doing some of the same restaurants.

 

[rndmr2]

Great update and pics! That toffee cake looks yummy! Sorry about your feet, I had probems with blisters on a WDW trip, a few years ago, when I, brilliant person that I am, decided to wear brand new shoes , add that to a flare up of Plantar Fascitis and you have me in an ECV on our last day.

 

[mickeystoontown]

John said to tell you he feels your pain! You'll remember that we had to purchase the really expensive Disney socks so he could wear them with his Crocs. Thankfully, he caught it before a blister developed.

Your toffee cake looks absolutely delish!

 

[Cafeen]

I enjoyed reading your review with the pictures. We will be doing the Deluxe in August and will be doing some of the same restaurants.

Thanks and welcome . There are lots more pictures and lots more food coming up.

I really enjoyed DxDDP. Would I do it every trip? No, but it was very nice for that one, and by the looks of my upcoming plans, will be very nice again. It does take a lot of time out of the schedule, which isn't too bad without kids and in the less crowded months. I doubt I'd do it with little ones or in busier times though... but maybe. I do like the food... hmm.... (Granted, heavy travel times (summer mostly) are blocked out at work anyway, so it may not be an issue )

Great update and pics! That toffee cake looks yummy! Sorry about your feet, I had probems with blisters on a WDW trip, a few years ago, when I, brilliant person that I am, decided to wear brand new shoes , add that to a flare up of Plantar Fascitis and you have me in an ECV on our last day.

The toffee cake was yummy. It wasn't the best dessert of the trip, but that's only because a few others were just amazing (the previously mentioned Chocolate Chambord Cake from Maya Grill for instance).

The blisters would be the constant thorn in my side for the whole trip. It's why I had to take everything slow . The pain from the blisters coupled with me walking mostly with toes up really made my feet sore every day. It got so bad that I almost picked up an ECV a couple days. I did manage to address them though and they were a bit better later on.

John said to tell you he feels your pain! You'll remember that we had to purchase the really expensive Disney socks so he could wear them with his Crocs. Thankfully, he caught it before a blister developed.

Your toffee cake looks absolutely delish!

It's funny you should mention that. (And I had totally forgotten until you did!).

They were on my feet a few days later . Those socks, while expensive (like $12 for 2 pair expensive), were nice and thick and VERY comfortable. I still wear them quite often.

The crocs that I normally wear (Santa Fe I think) look like beach bum shoes and they're the most comfortable things I've worn. I was kinda expecting the other style to be the same, but I was sorely (no pun intended... maybe... it could have been intended, but now we'll never know) mistaken. I'll have a pick up a new pair like my good comfy ones before the next trip though. I'm starting to wear through the canvas above my big toes ><.

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In other developments. I pulled the trigger (shutter?) on more camera accessories today. Picked up the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens and an inexpensive (but highly rated and praised) tripod kit. The lens will be very nice for the night and interior stuff. I'll be able to go flashless on the rides and get decent (probably not great at both 50mm and 1.8, but still acceptable) shots (because we all know, you don't want me flashing on the rides...). I'm really looking forward to redoing some of the night shots I attempted last trip too. They'll be delivered tomorrow. <3 Amazon Prime membership and the fact that both UPS and FedEx deliver to me on Saturdays if I get overnight shipping on Fridays (which costs me a whopping $3.99 per item, hence the <3 Amazon Prime thing).

I also forgot to call Mom again tonight to ask about restaurants. I know I have time, but I'm kinda obsessed over this stuff. I'm sure she'll say "Whatever you want to do is fine", but I want her input anyway!

 

[sjs314]

Your daily schedule for this Sept upcoming trip looks good, I have to sit down and figure out ours, I am thinking about MNSSHP on Tues the 27th too, that is one thing I do have penciled in so far.

ouchie on the bisters I always wear sneakers with socks even when we have gone in the heat of summer(Aug) and this trip will be no different, I like my crocs for flying easy on and easy off but I wore socks last time with them, dorkie looking or not

We are planning on trying LTT for the first time this trip I was thinking dinner but golly geez that dessert at lunch looks fantastic, maybe we will do lunch instead.

Enjoyed seeing the pics you posted that showed just how low the crowds were, we went spring break in 2009 and it was just a horror show, wall to wall people everywhere.

 

[Cafeen]

Your daily schedule for this Sept upcoming trip looks good, I have to sit down and figure out ours, I am thinking about MNSSHP on Tues the 27th too, that is one thing I do have penciled in so far.

ouchie on the bisters I always wear sneakers with socks even when we have gone in the heat of summer(Aug) and this trip will be no different, I like my crocs for flying easy on and easy off but I wore socks last time with them, dorkie looking or not

We are planning on trying LTT for the first time this trip I was thinking dinner but golly geez that dessert at lunch looks fantastic, maybe we will do lunch instead.

Enjoyed seeing the pics you posted that showed just how low the crowds were, we went spring break in 2009 and it was just a horror show, wall to wall people everywhere.

I'm liking the plans for Sept too, I just have to make sure I didn't miss anything and that it all works with what Mom is planning on. I absolutely loved MNSSHP last year. I didn't do any of the special Halloween stuff (except the fireworks and parade), but the atmosphere was just incredible. I highly recommend it if it fits within the budget. I'm also super excited about the new photography stuff coming in a couple hours (UPS and FedEx both usually arrive by 9:30am on Saturdays) to shoot the parties I go to. Probably won't do much real photography work when Mom is there, but the 27th one, if you see me meandering around loaded down with camera stuff, feel free to say hi .

I also just now noticed I have a minor typo in my title. 23 Sept 2010 - 01 Oct 2011... if only (although, since I'm tossing in PTR bits along with the TR stuff, it's actually applicable!).

I picked up my comfy shoes the day before I left on my 2009 trip. Literally the day before. I wore them that entire trip with no issues (only little blisters on the sides of my heel that developed near the end and didn't really bother me). I guess that's what I was thinking when I got the new ones. The ones I have actually work with socks too , since they just look like slip on canvas shoes. The soles are almost completely flat though, which means serious ice-skating if I encounter wet floors.

LTT lunch is really good. I'm not a fan of Thanksgiving-style food though, so that pretty much means it's only lunch for me. They also have a very good pomegranate lemonade. (I've been obsessed with pomegranate stuff for the past year or so now too, so that helps).

The crowds in Sept have spoiled me. I don't think I could handle a busy time of year anymore. I know when I went as a kid we did some June trips and some Spring Break time (either Feb or Apr breaks). I also know (though I don't remember) that we had gone for July 4th one year. At least now I can control when I go and don't have to worry about little ones and school. That, and summer is right out since that's our super busy time trying to get software updates out the door before school starts again. This year, (while it's still a bit far out), the crowd predictions look pretty amazing. Not going to repeat them here, since they're paid touring plans numbers and people look down on that, but you may be able to find them in that spreadsheet screenie I posted .

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Going to update in a bit. I actually have to write the whole thing since I caught up to where I was in my Word Doc (been too busy at work to keep writing it ><). I do want to share this picture from last year's MNSSHP though. It was kinda an accident (was smoking and the smoke got in front of the camera), but considering the context of a Halloween party, it's kinda spooky.


If you can't see what I'm talking about, look here, then back at that image.

 

[sjs314]

I want to mainly go to MNSSHP for the parade and HalloWishes, but who knows I might just do some trick or treating if I can get DH to go along with me .....I told him he had to dress up but I will be lucky to get him to wear a halloween t-shirt.

I have been toying with changeing our trip dates to October but DH said he rather put up with a little heat and have lower crowds.

That picture is kewl

 

[MEK]

Fun updates that I missed this week.

Your dinner at Maya looks good. Too bad it was just meh. That's disappointing.

You are getting so much done at MK. And you got some beautiful and creative pictures too. I love that one of the windows inside LTT.

Speaking of LTT, I love their lunch food and the dessert looks amazing.

Cool plans for September. I was hoping for a trip around then. I promised some friends a trip with my DVC points and they picked HH. Oh Well. Maybe next year!

Cool ghost pictures!

 

[Cafeen]

I want to mainly go to MNSSHP for the parade and HalloWishes, but who knows I might just do some trick or treating if I can get DH to go along with me .....I told him he had to dress up but I will be lucky to get him to wear a halloween t-shirt.

I have been toying with changeing our trip dates to October but DH said he rather put up with a little heat and have lower crowds.

That picture is kewl

The parade is great, and I'm not a parade fan (I haven't seen a nightly parade since the original MSEP back in the day!) Hallowishes was also great, and I got a few halfway decent shots of it, though this year should be better with the new equipment. I didn't dress up either, at all. Of course, not going with anyone makes dressing up a little strange (at least as a guy), but the atmosphere was great anyway!

Crowds in Oct (with the exception of Columbus Day weekend) aren't historically much worse than Sept. Epcot notably gets crowded on Fri-Sun due to locals coming in for F&W, but overall it's not too bad. Do miss out on the "late summer" discounts though. Heatwise, it's not too bad really. Can be hit or miss. 2009 was horrible, 2010 was great. (Though, in 2009 I had been living in the south for about 5 months, whereas 2010 was about 18... that may have played a role).

I didn't even see the face in that picture until I loaded them onto the computer. At first I almost deleted it, but having other pictures look bad in camera and then not so bad off camera, I decided to wait. Good thing I did.

Fun updates that I missed this week.

Your dinner at Maya looks good. Too bad it was just meh. That's disappointing.

You are getting so much done at MK. And you got some beautiful and creative pictures too. I love that one of the windows inside LTT.

Speaking of LTT, I love their lunch food and the dessert looks amazing.

Cool plans for September. I was hoping for a trip around then. I promised some friends a trip with my DVC points and they picked HH. Oh Well. Maybe next year!

Cool ghost pictures!

Maya Grill was a bit disappointing. It could have been an off night, but breakfast (we'll get to that in a few TR days) wasn't any better, so I'm guessing not. The dessert was excellent at least .

We did get quite a bit done at MK, though one ride less than I would have liked (we skipped Splash, even though we picked up FPs for it). I was also quite happy with my photography on this trip, though I did manage to push my camera beyond its capabilities later in the week (I'll point them out when we get there). But, good came out of that, as it drove me to pick up the new one .

I enjoyed LTT quite a bit. Not being a fan of Thanksgiving food, lunch is pretty much all I'm interested in. The Tavern Fried Cheese and the Burger (both of which I forgot to take pictures of) were great. We did have a large group (I think of CMs) sit down near us as we were finishing up and they were a bit loud and annoying, but oh well, doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the meal.

Pfft, HH. Some people just don't get it!
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Ok, now I will be attempting to write an update. I did one earlier, had it mostly written, and then my new keyboard decides to hit the alt key if I hit the spacebar just right. The next letter was C, so I ended up managing to close Firefox on accident (Alt-Space then C will close the window, same as Alt-F4). Going to return this keyboard next week and get another (I kept the packaging this time ) Seems it's a batch problem with this one and typically fixed by replacing it with the same one. I also got my other new toys today, so that made me happy .

 

[Cafeen]

Ok, for those reading the comments and such, you know I've experienced some keyboard issues. I just resolved this by disabling the right Alt key, so the little bug went away. I don't use this key anyway, so it's a moot point. So, no more worries about accidentally closing the window!

Day 2 pt 3 - Magic Kingdom Afternoon & Artist Point Dinner

So, we last left off with me taking a break near the Tomorrowland Speedway. We were over here with the intentions of hopping on Space Mountain. Well, the line for Space Mountain was about 30 minutes... too long for my liking! So we grabbed some FPs and headed off for other Tomorrowland things.

Of course, the first stop was the Peoplemover. We hopped right on (as always) and took the tour around the land. Some shots from that since you all know the spiel...






See that dark sky... yup, that'll be playing a role here pretty soon.





After we got off of the Peoplemover, we hopped on to the Carousel of Progress. We did our little rotating time travel thing (and I was watching during the rotations as I love finding out how things work) and everything was good.

When we exited, the ground was wet... not a good sign. Our Space Mountain FastPasses were almost ready, so we walked on over and hung out until they were (5-10mins or so). We walked all the way through the FP queue and were quickly at the station.

Now, before I go further. I have to say that I was nervous. This was my first time riding Space Mountain. I was a ride-wuss when I was growing up and it was down when I was there in 2009. I didn't know really what to think about it, as I had since been on other (bigger) coasters, so didn't think it'd be a problem. There's still that anxiety of the unknown though...

Anyway, moving right along we were quickly placed in rows 3 and 4 of the spaceship. The back 2 rows. Of course, Mom grabbed row 3, which gave me row 4, the very back. We rocketed off into space and... it wasn't very fun. They really need to do something with that track. I got off the ride with a very sore back (I don't have real back problems either, though sometimes it acts up.) It really killed the ride for me. I'd try it again if I was in front, but it's not something I'm going to be racing to.

So, after we got out of Space Mountain, the ground was a little wetter than before... an even worse sign. With feet and now back hurting (but still grooving on that Disney vibe ), we decided to head over to the Tiki room before heading back to the resort (it may have been around 3:30-4 by this time, not too sure). As we get to the Rose Garden, I have time to snap one picture...



Then I started to feel a drop. Then another. Then another couple. We hurried back toward the cover of Tomorrowland Terrace just as the sky opened up. Mom made it under cover, but I got cut off so was a few seconds late. At least my shoes didn't matter if they got wet

We hung out under the Terrace for awhile, with her having lived in FL since early '98, and me having visited for many years (along with living in Mobile for the past year and a half (at the time)), we knew how these things worked. So we figured we'd just wait it out. 30 minutes or so went by (with me drying off and re-bandaiding my feet) and it was still going strong. Boredom quickly approaching, we decide to jump around the corner and head into the Monsters Inc Laugh Factory (yep, another thing skipped in 2009...).

It was a cute little show (and Monsters Inc is one of my favorite Pixar movies... though mostly due to the technical detail dealing with Scully's fur. (Hair/fur, cloth, and water are pretty much the 3 most difficult things to animate via computer, so I'm always impressed with it done well). So, we get out of the theater and the rain had stopped! Yay!

We continue our trek to he Tiki room (yep, skipped in 2009... did we even do anything on that trip?) and sit though the little show. It was ok... I do prefer the older one though, but bringing Iago and Zazu into it makes complete sense from a marketing standpoint. So, I understand, doesn't mean I have to be a fan though .

With Tiki room done, it was time to head back to the resort. (And this is turning out rather long... but oh well, we're almost done here!)

We arrived back at the resort and changed for dinner. I put on socks and my older, more comfy shoes and we drove over to Wilderness Lodge, we had a 7pm reservation for Artist Point.

We arrived a bit early, and hung out in the lobby for a bit. What a beautiful resort. (In fact, I priced it out for this upcoming trip, but it was just too much for me to commit to solo ). Snapped a few shots in the lobby as well..





Soon enough, our pager went off and I was off to my first signature dining experience in Disney. Now, when I made my reservations (and first looked at the menu pre-2009) I knew exactly what I wanted for Appetizer and Entree. Venison Pot Stickers and the Buffalo Tenderloin. We sat down and the server did the dining plan spiel and it was time to order. Unfortunately, there were no venison pot stickers on the menu anymore . I settled (at April's suggestion ) on the Smokey Portebello Soup. I'm not a fan of Mushrooms, they either taste like paper or they're too slimy for me. The soup was delicious though. The entree was the buffalo with Kimshi and Fried Rice. I don't remember the dessert, but it had cherries on it. Not sure why I ordered it since I hate cherries (and cherry flavored things)... I suppose if I liked cherries it'd have been good.

Here's the food porn...






The food (other than the dessert as I mentioned) was delicious. I don't remember what mom had (which is pretty much the case now... I don't think I remember a single thing that she ordered for the entire trip...), but mine was great. I even tried the Kimshi (which I was a bit skeptical about after hearing horror stories from my friend about his wife making it at home) and it was alright. Very vinegary, but not too bad.

After dinner, we headed back to the resort and called it a night. We had an early morning AK breakfast to head to the next day.

 

[sjs314]

Overall sounds like a good MK day to me. I love the people mover and I get the award of King Whimp when it comes to rides. My first and last ride ever on space mt was many years ago but I think I said an entire rosary while we hurtled thru the darkness, my eyes closed of course and I could not get the door open when it ended, the CM coming to help upon seeing my shakeing legs was "are you alright maam?"

Forida and rain go together like Minnie and Mickey Mouse, it is something I have come to expect and am very pleasantly surprised when like on our last trip March of 2009 no showers during our park days at all

Your meal at Artist Point looked good, and you should really try to stay at WL sometime, it is beautiful, we stayed there twice and it is DH favorite resort. the promo out there now with 40% off the villas makes a studio quite affordable, just a thought

Enjoying your trip report very much