Canadian Buffoon's Disney With a Teen Vacation - 08/13 - The Wrap

[SnowWhiteOz]

His DW works for WestJet.
WestJet apparently has a promotion out.
40% off flights for friends and family.
Conditions are:
1. Must book on the website using the code provided.
2. Must book by December 8.
3. Must travel by March 4.

Okay. For a second, I did selfishly think:
"Solo trip to the World in February again!!"
But...

So I go home and ask Ruby if there's any way at all
she could take a weekend off.
"Why?" She asks.
So I tell her.
"Well for that kind of a deal,
I'm sure I could take a weekend."

We batted around a few suggestions
and we decided I'd look into the Caribbean.

I looked around and found a few promising destinations.
I told Ruby what I'd found.

"You know what I'd really like." She says.
"Is to go to Hawaii."

I was stunned. I hadn't considered that.

"Well, I can certainly look at that." I replied.

We fly out on Wednesday February 17.
We leave around 4:30pm so she can go right after work.
We arrive Vancouver and spend the night.
Next day Maui, arriving around 2pm.
We then have that evening, all of Friday,
Saturday and Sunday.
We leave Sunday night at 11:30pm.
A quick stop in Vancouver
and home mid-afternoon on Monday.

Quick? Geez, yes!
But better than not going at all I think.

That is definitely one quick trip – but you’re right, as usual, it’s obviously better than not going at all.

We were just walking up to the Monorail at MK
when the doors closed.
Dang! Just missed it!
I couldn't understand how this could happen.
I mean, we had the VIP bus package.
Didn't it apply to all Disney transportation?

Well, of course it does.
We arrived at the platform at 2:24pm.
Just in time to miss our ride.
The next monorail arrived promptly at 2:25pm.
I can only assume that Disney noticed
the most convenient Monorail was fairly full,
so they got it out of the way for us.
So we could have seats, naturally.

Seems logical.

We hopped on the Monorail and were at the TTC at 2:34pm.
And again... We just missed the connecting Monorail!
We watched it pull away as we disembarked.

Five minutes later, at 2:39 another one pulled up.
Five minutes! Five!!
Disney will be receiving a very sternly worded letter.
Let me assure you!

Anyway, we had a little bit of time to kill before our ADR.
"Can we go on that again?" She asked.
I looked and it looked like it was a walk-on, so...
Why not?

We approached the Standby entrance to SE,
which was empty.
There were about 20 people in line
to get their bands scanned at the FP entrance.
We passed them all.
It's fairly rare to walk past people waiting to ride...
in the Standby line.

Don't worry, I held my nose up high.

Soon we were once again riding amongst Egyptians,
Phoenicians, my Dad, the Renaissance,
Apollo 11 and Apple.

I think there is a thing as too much SE you know….

We exited our little oasis, climbed a flight of stairs
and checked in at Teppan Edo for our ADR.
(Hmmm... 17 of you just went "D'oh!"
I could hear it from here.
(Sound carries over snow, apparently.))

Mark my words – one day the answer will be Via Napoli!

I did not... repeat NOT, touch the cooking surface with my finger.
(I'm curious. Let me know if you get (or don't get) that reference.
Bonus points whether you do or don't get it. I just wanna know.)

After dinner we bid adieu to our Jersey table-mates and set out...
For our real dessert of course.
You didn't really think a tiny dish of vanilla ice cream
would suffice, did you?
Did you???

Of course not – that was merely a palate cleanser.

Kaki-Gori!
aka: Shave Ice.

(Aaaaannnndddd... only @SnowWhiteOz guessed that one!
But she's psycho.

Psychic! I meant psychic!

No I didn't.

Love ya still!)

Nine of you celebrating.
Eighteen... not so much.

And with that, we left the park and headed out to the bus stop.
We arrived at the stop at 7:22pm
and the bus didn't show up until 7:27pm.
Really Disney? Five minutes?
That's twice in one day!
This just will not do at all.

Now it's an old game.
The line with the score was kind of... unreadable.
Kay swears I got the high score, I don't know.
She's smarter than I am, so maybe I did.
I was there for quite a long time.
She was duly impressed.

Well done if you did. If not, there’s always next time…

So without any further blather from yours truly,
here are some of the shots I took around Pop.
Hope you enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Beautiful.

I got back to the room around 11pm or so.
"Where were you?" Kay asked.
"I told you." I replied. "Out taking pictures."
"Yeah." She said. "But you were gone for an hour!"

Awwww... the little peanut was worried about me.
Or maybe she was worried how she'd get home without me.
Probably the latter.

Awww – she missed you

Bonus question and answer:
Just say you're astonished!
I'm giving you these things! 4 free bonus points to the following:
Steppesister, afwdwfan, Gracefulskinny, Mrs T 2009,
orangecats2, jandlinz, GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes,
Captain_Oblivious, Saturn23, franandaj,
Curiouser&curiouser!,ForeverDance, irene_dsc,
DizzneyDi, DISNEYMOON10121991

How did I miss this one??!

Saturn23 – 135 points
DISNEYMOON10121991 – 131 points
jandlinz – 131 points
franandaj - 125 points
GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes – 113 points
DizzneyDi – 112 points
ForeverDance – 112 points
SnowWhiteOz – 111 points
Steppesister – 109 points
TheLittleKatie - 104 points
cinderkelly – 100 points
orangecats2 – 97 points
DonnaBeeGood – 96 points
queenbetsey – 96 points
Captain_Oblivious – 93 points
TruLovesKiss – 93 points
Gracefulskinny – 87 points
irene_dsc - 87 points
Mrs T 2009 – 85 points
Curiouser&curiouser! - 80 points
Terra Nova guy - 75 points
afwdwfan – 71 points
MAGICFOR2 – 70 points
Mac Brew – 54 points
chookie94 – 40 points
Mr. lncredible – 40 points
SimplyGoofy - 34 points
BibbitybobityLu – 33 points
vrajewski10513 - 33 points
Kiotzu - 30 points
DisneyAndrew – 28 points
Susan R – 23 points
Thumper_Man - 23 points
TGM - 22 points
misssullyinc - 18 points
Dentam - 14 points
ougrad86 – 13 points
Mrs Thumper_Man - 12 points
Backstage_Gal – 11 points
pookersmom - 7 points
Kiren – 5 points
KathyM2 - 4 points
Dreamer & Wisher - 3 points
MHSweb79 - 2 points
Tracy161 - 2 points

Ok so I’m still in the top 10 – I can live with that.

Bonus questions, round 9!

1. AM or PM? Do we get out of our room in the morning or afternoon?

2. We have an ADR... in Epcot. Third time's the charm? Where is it?
(Hint: Not Biergarten or Teppan Edo)

3. Speaking of Epcot, what's our first ride?
(Hint: Think outside the box.)

4. Of our three Epcot FPs...
a. Which Tier one FP? Soarin', Test Track or The Land?
b. Do we use 0, 1, 2 or all 3 of our FPs?

1. AM - 11:23 to be exact
2. Still sticking with Via Napoli
3. Three Caballeros
4a. Test Track
4b. 2 FPs used.

This will be the last update until the New Year.
I might write it during the Holidays, I might not.
But I won't post it until 2016.
Depends on what kind of time I have.

If we don’t hear from you have a wonderful Christmas and an even better New Year!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

.

 

[orangecats2]

I did not... repeat NOT, touch the cooking surface with my finger.
(I'm curious. Let me know if you get (or don't get) that reference.
Bonus points whether you do or don't get it. I just wanna know.)

Of course I get it-----I was a Neboite for a long time!!! I bet you didn't lay your menu down on the cooking surface either!

 

[queenbetsey]

muwaaahhhaaa cooking surface! I get that reference, tha was our beloved nebo.
galaga! fun game

I am thinking that this time you guys get an early start being your last day.
epcot circle of life ride
I think you use your soaring fast pass for your first tier and think you will use two out of three of you fp+
villa napolini for adr
and I saw this and thought of you right away, I would never do this mind you ..

so thinking you should have your connecting flight to maui in orange county ca, that way you can just pop over to dl, meet your adoring fans out here you know all the really important things. what? you don't want to add days and thousands of dollars to you get away? *sigh* lol
Have a blessed and Merry Christmas

 

[irene_dsc]

Here's the key: Don't plan one.

Maybe I need to try this not-planning plan...

So right now it's still in the unknown stage.

I'm sure by not-planning, something will happen. Or, you'll sleep on the beach. Or something.

It's a nice (air conditioned!!)
little nook that few people seem to visit.

Totally missed that spot in 2 trips! But then, I think I've missed about 90% of the little nooks and crannies in WS, judging by everyone's photos.

(Hmmm... 17 of you just went "D'oh!"

D'oh!

I did not... repeat NOT, touch the cooking surface with my finger.

This reference is totally lost on me. But, I do know better than to touch the cooking surface at a Japanese steakhouse!

Another of Kay's favourite things.
Noodles.

I've just never seen noodles cooked at a Japanese steakhouse, however.

Nine of you celebrating.

Yay!

I thought we'd been sprinkled with pixie dust,
but it turned out to be just sugar.

There is a pretty big similarity between the two. Unless it is a yard of sugar.

you might be familiar with a game called Galaga.

I remember that one! I never was any good at it, however. We had an Osborne 1, with games, so we rarely were tempted to spend our quarters at arcades.

Disney Transportation Wait Time to date
(10 busses, 3 boats, 2 monorails): 30 minutes
Average wait time 2 minutes.

irene_dsc - 175

Yeah, I think it's time to change that guess. We'll go with 44 minutes.

Bonus questions, round 9!

1. AM or PM? Do we get out of our room in the morning or afternoon?

2. We have an ADR... in Epcot. Third time's the charm? Where is it?
(Hint: Not Biergarten or Teppan Edo)

3. Speaking of Epcot, what's our first ride?
(Hint: Think outside the box.)

4. Of our three Epcot FPs...
a. Which Tier one FP? Soarin', Test Track or The Land?
b. Do we use 0, 1, 2 or all 3 of our FPs?

1. AM - it's your last day! Gotta live it up!
2. Sticking with Via Napoli...
3. Nemo?
4. a. Soarin' b. 3 - last day, gotta live it up!

 

[pkondz]

Because
1. Ruby would kill me. Dead. Kaput.
2. I just said I was going to Hawaii. Now you want me to go somewhere else too?
Who do you think I am? You?

Of course it is.

I think there is a thing as too much SE you know….

Yeah. But this was only Kay's second time (maybe... three in total?)

Mark my words – one day the answer will be Via Napoli!

Noted!

Okay. That's 0 for 1.

Of course not – that was merely a palate cleanser.

But of course. What else could it be?!?!?

Well, it certainly didn't hurt!

Do you have that commercial down in Oz?

Well done if you did. If not, there’s always next time…

And since it won't be 35 years in between games... oh, it's on!

Beautiful.

Thanks!

Awww – she missed you

She was missing her comfort zone.

How did I miss this one??!

Only you can answer that.

Ok so I’m still in the top 10 – I can live with that.

So... no more missing the easy give-away points?

1. AM - 11:23 to be exact
2. Still sticking with Via Napoli
3. Three Caballeros
4a. Test Track
4b. 2 FPs used.

Noted.

If we don’t hear from you have a wonderful Christmas and an even better New Year!

Thanks! I'll be around for a bit though.

 

[Steppesister]

We arrive Vancouver and spend the night.

You should have flown in and out of Portland. Just sayin'. Then again, the Spruce Goose, which you'd need to land in the ocean we now call Oregon, is parked not far from my house.

I did not... repeat NOT, touch the cooking surface with my finger.
(I'm curious. Let me know if you get (or don't get) that reference.
Bonus points whether you do or don't get it. I just wanna know.)

I do NOT know where that's from. But I'm glad you didn't do something my kids probably would.

Of course, then she'd develop scurvy.
But still...

Pfffftt. Teeth are over-rated.

to pick up some gifts.

I must be tired. I first read that "grits". I'll finish up reading and replying later- best get back to my houseful of kinfolks.

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

Because
1. Ruby would kill me. Dead. Kaput.
2. I just said I was going to Hawaii. Now you want me to go somewhere else too?
Who do you think I am? You?

Do you have that commercial down in Oz?

We don't have the commercial but we do have the meme

And since it won't be 35 years in between games... oh, it's on!

I'm not good at Galaga. Can we play this instead?

So... no more missing the easy give-away points?

As my mum always said:

Thanks! I'll be around for a bit though.

Well I'll be expecting to see pics of your white Christmas then!

 

[pkondz]

I'm going to try that for my week off in January. I'll keep you updated if that somehow works out for me.

Works like a charm.
Don't know why, and I'm not asking.

Yes, definitely yes.

Thought so!

Im sure that Kay could add in regarding her sore feet for more impact in your letter.

Good idea! I bet they've never had anyone mention sore feet!

D'oh!

Yup. Heard that.

Nope. Nothing. Did I miss something?

Nope. And that's 0 for 2.

Morning - last day excitement?

Via Napoli????

The Circle Of Life

Soarin' - and you use all 3 FP's, because you are a pro.

Noted.

 

[pkondz]

Of course I get it-----I was a Neboite for a long time!!! I bet you didn't lay your menu down on the cooking surface either!

 

[pkondz]

muwaaahhhaaa cooking surface! I get that reference, tha was our beloved nebo.

And that makes it a tie. 2 knew 2 didn't or 2 for 4.

galaga! fun game

He actually said "Galaga"??? I didn't catch that!

I am thinking that this time you guys get an early start being your last day.
epcot circle of life ride
I think you use your soaring fast pass for your first tier and think you will use two out of three of you fp+
villa napolini for adr

Noted.

and I saw this and thought of you right away, I would never do this mind you ..

Yep. I saw that too.
Posted it not that long ago, too.

Evil, evil, evil.

so thinking you should have your connecting flight to maui in orange county ca, that way you can just pop over to dl, meet your adoring fans out here you know all the really important things. what? you don't want to add days and thousands of dollars to you get away? *sigh* lol

Aw, shucks.
Sorry. No can do the stop-over.
At least not this time.

Have a blessed and Merry Christmas

And Merry Christmas to you and Lance!

 

[pkondz]

Maybe I need to try this not-planning plan...

Works for me!

I'm sure by not-planning, something will happen. Or, you'll sleep on the beach. Or something.

Better not! Ruby would kick me out!
She's not... repeat, NOT into roughing it.

Totally missed that spot in 2 trips! But then, I think I've missed about 90% of the little nooks and crannies in WS, judging by everyone's photos.

I've missed most too.
But I've found a couple.

D'oh!

There's that sound again!

This reference is totally lost on me. But, I do know better than to touch the cooking surface at a Japanese steakhouse!

Not just another pretty face, hunh?
That makes it 2 for 5 now.

I've just never seen noodles cooked at a Japanese steakhouse, however.

Now that you mention it.
That was a first for me too!
And I didn't even think of it at the time.

There is a pretty big similarity between the two. Unless it is a yard of sugar.

Mmmmm.... sugar.
Would a yard of sugar be better?

I remember that one! I never was any good at it, however. We had an Osborne 1, with games, so we rarely were tempted to spend our quarters at arcades.

Ooohhh... fancy!
My first computer and first video game console were purchased by me.

Yeah, I think it's time to change that guess. We'll go with 44 minutes.

Noted.

1. AM - it's your last day! Gotta live it up!
2. Sticking with Via Napoli...
3. Nemo?
4. a. Soarin' b. 3 - last day, gotta live it up!

Noted.

 

[pkondz]

You should have flown in and out of Portland. Just sayin'.

Can't. Deal was with WestJet and they tell me to go via Vancouver.

Otherwise...

Then again, the Spruce Goose, which you'd need to land in the ocean we now call Oregon, is parked not far from my house.

Saw some of those shots you posted.
Oh, and was there something else I wanted to comment on?
Hmmmm...
Oh. Right.

I HAD NO FREAKING IDEA THE SPRUCE GOOSE WAS STILL AROUND!!!!
I just assumed it had been dismantled long, long ago.

Well now you've given me three very good reasons to visit Oregon!

I do NOT know where that's from. But I'm glad you didn't do something my kids probably would.

Okay. That makes it 2 for 6.

Pfffftt. Teeth are over-rated.

That's what gums and dentures are for!

I must be tired. I first read that "grits". I'll finish up reading and replying later- best get back to my houseful of kinfolks.

Yeah, because if you're tired, a houseful of kinfolk is just what you need!

 

[pkondz]

I know! But if... IF! I can swing one in 2016 (doubtful),
it would be in the fall.

We don't have the commercial but we do have the meme

Ah.

I'm not good at Galaga. Can we play this instead?

Frogger!! Awesome.

As my mum always said:

Well I'll be expecting to see pics of your white Christmas then!

Funny. I was just thinking of posting some.

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

I know! But if... IF! I can swing one in 2016 (doubtful),
it would be in the fall.

Well there are two beds in each room at OKW, plus a fold out sofa at BCV and VWL.....

And I mean October/November is fall right?

 

[pkondz]

Well there are two beds in each room at OKW, plus a fold out sofa at BCV and VWL.....

And I mean October/November is fall right?

Holy crap! You sure know how to tempt a fella!

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

And yet I'm still husbandless...

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

His DW works for WestJet.
WestJet apparently has a promotion out.
40% off flights for friends and family.
Conditions are:
1. Must book on the website using the code provided.
2. Must book by December 8.
3. Must travel by March 4.

Okay. For a second, I did selfishly think:
"Solo trip to the World in February again!!"
But...

I don't think any of us can really blame you for thinking that way.

"You know what I'd really like." She says.
"Is to go to Hawaii."

I think I say that just about every day.

"Can you take a couple of days off?" I ask.
"We could leave on Thursday and come back Monday."

"For this. I'll just tell them I'm going."
She matter-of-factly states.

Whoa. That's a long flight for such a short trip!

Quick? Geez, yes!
But better than not going at all I think.

Well, yeah. There is that.

Just in time to miss our ride.
The next monorail arrived promptly at 2:25pm.

Because of course it did.

Five minutes later, at 2:39 another one pulled up.
Five minutes! Five!!
Disney will be receiving a very sternly worded letter.
Let me assure you!

It's fairly rare to walk past people waiting to ride...
in the Standby line.

I mean, there's short wait times, and there's just unexplained forces of the universe. You know what I think happened? I think that lady actually DID fart pixie dust on you two.

What?
Well, of course there was one waiting for us.
Sheesh! Did you really think there wouldn't be?

Exhibit A for pixie dust farting.

Crush? Is that you?
I thought you'd be.... bigger.

Obviously, that's Squirt. Rip it, roll it, and punch it!

We exited our little oasis, climbed a flight of stairs
and checked in at Teppan Edo for our ADR.
(Hmmm... 17 of you just went "D'oh!"
I could hear it from here.
(Sound carries over snow, apparently.))

Well, like I said before, you'd think we would do better with so few places in Epcot to randomly choose from.

I asked where they were from.
"A small town in Jersey, just outside Philadelphia."

Probably Eagles fans. Which means amazing people. Your good fortune continues.

When we were at Biergarten
and sat with the honeymooning couple,
they were from...
"A small town in Jersey, just outside Philadelphia."

Probably Flyers fans. Which means amazing people. Your good fortune continues.

I did not... repeat NOT, touch the cooking surface with my finger.
(I'm curious. Let me know if you get (or don't get) that reference.
Bonus points whether you do or don't get it. I just wanna know.)

I'm gonna have to say no, I don't get it. But I've never eaten there.

You didn't really think a tiny dish of vanilla ice cream
would suffice, did you?

Not for a moment. That would be like only having one Dole Whip during your entire stay.

I've mentioned this before,
but for my newer readers:
We fell in love with shave ice
when we were in Hawaii a few years ago.

Interesting. I tried it, and it was fine, but I still felt like in the end it was still a sno-cone. Just a different texture.

Nice one. I don't think I can ever stand there and not take a photo.

Nine of you celebrating.
Eighteen... not so much.

Crappy random guesses...par for the course.

Most of you guessed we'd have a cronut.
Well, of course we did!
Do you think I'm nuts?

Of course you do.
Yet I still wouldn't pass one of these beauties up!

YES!!!! Just tried this for the first time last weekend.

We arrived at the stop at 7:22pm
and the bus didn't show up until 7:27pm.
Really Disney? Five minutes?

I'd send that angry letter straight to Bob Iger.

In some ways she's just like any normal teenager,
but in other ways she surprises me.
"Dad, is there anything you want to play?"

Obviously this can be attributed to good parenting.

If you've been around as long (or longer) than I have
you might be familiar with a game called Galaga.
It used to be one of my favourite games.
This is back when dinosaurs roamed the arcades,
you understand.

Not necessarily. Some of the agents of SHIELD have been known to play a little Galaga now and then.

So without any further blather from yours truly,
here are some of the shots I took around Pop.
Hope you enjoy!

Excellent! Totally justifies packing the tripod.

1. AM or PM? Do we get out of our room in the morning or afternoon?

(flips coin) We'll go with AM. You used up your PM day already on this trip.

2. We have an ADR... in Epcot. Third time's the charm? Where is it?
(Hint: Not Biergarten or Teppan Edo)

Via Napoli, because it eventually has to come up one of these days.

3. Speaking of Epcot, what's our first ride?
(Hint: Think outside the box.)

Does that mean it's shaped like a sphere instead?

I'll say It's A Small Mexico or whatever that ride is called.

4. Of our three Epcot FPs...
a. Which Tier one FP? Soarin', Test Track or The Land?
b. Do we use 0, 1, 2 or all 3 of our FPs?

a) The Land, just because it's the last one I would have guessed and my guesses all suck.

b) 2. Late start means you miss one.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

So I don't know if I can help much with a place to stay on Maui. I stayed at my aunt's house, so that made things awfully convenient and affordable. I could ask her if you could shack up there, but I'm not sure how well she'd take it.

I'm not surprised at the prices of hotels, etc. Everything is expensive in Hawaii, which I'm sure you know. Especially, I'm sure, in February.

As far as the island itself, there's a lot of worthwhile things to see. Haleakala National Park is highly recommended. Amazing views from the top of the mountain. The road to Hana is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to drive, and you can stop off at both a black sand beach on the way (in a state park) and Hamoa Beach, just a couple of miles south of Hana and one of the most breathtaking beaches I've ever seen.

The south side and west side have the most famous beaches/resorts and better weather. Lots of places to enjoy the ocean. Lahaina is a really cool old fishing town with some very good restaurants and nice views of the harbor.

Many of the restaurants offer early-bird or happy hour specials that are worth staying on mainland time for to take advantage of. There is a Monkeypod restaurant (like the one across from Aulani) that is really good. We also ate at a place called Joe's Simply Delicious Bar & Grill but unfortunately that's now closed. Which stinks, because they had a great early-bird buy one, get one entree deal. However, some of their menu items live on at a sister restaurant here: Gannon's Restaurant

The guide book we used was Maui Revealed, and we thought it was well worth the purchase.

Also, if you're a member of Costco, there is one right by the airport that has the cheapest gas (by far) on the island. You can usually get good rental car rates through them as well.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. If you're really, really, really bored and/or out of ideas, I wrote up a TR on our Hawaiian vacation here. There's a table of contents so you can skip to the Maui stuff if that would be helpful at all.

Have fun planning!

 

[Squishley]

This is my first ever post on the DIS!! I just binge-read your entire trip review thus far, LOVE it. Love your sense of humour.
My sister ( @Saturn23 ) recruited me! (Does she get bonus points for that??) She told me about your reviews and that it was a must read. As a fellow Canadian I thought this was the perfect opportunity to finally post something. Can't wait to hear about your last day!