Chunkymonkey and Chubbyhubby Stuff Themselves Silly! THE END..on to the next TR!

[therussells08]

I am so excited to read about your trip with your sisters! DH and I took my sister to WDW in 2009 for her birthday and we had a blast! You all are so gorgeous, by the way!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 5 Part 3

After our delicious lunch at Le Cellier, we were stuffed. I still can’t believe how much we manage to stuff our faces at each meal and yet still manage to roam around and ride all the attractions, but I guess all the walking was good for us after so many indulgent meals.

Our FP for Soarin were right about that time so we walked over to The Land to use them. After Soarin we decided to roam around Innoventions East. We finally saw that the Sum of all Thrills line had no one on it, so we immediately got on line and went straight through. The attraction consisted of a virtual type roller coaster ride that you design yourself. You design your ride using this neat very large touch screen and some other touch sensitive utensils that came with them. It was super cool. We, of course, designed our roller coaster with the highest drops, the most loops and the most dips. NUTS. Although I don’t normally like crazy roller coasters, I guess it didn’t feel so crazy for me because it was “virtual” LOL

After designing your coaster you get to ride it! We get into these things that look like cranes and you sit in these pods and it’s closed by a screen that comes down. The arm moves about to simulate the movement of a coaster and the screen shows you the virtual ”path” you take. It was a lot of fun, and you really do go upside down when you’re doing those loops. We were definitely a bit dizzy after our crazy coaster ride, but I guess it’s our fault since we had a hand in designing it. It was a really neat experience and we’d totally do it again if the lines weren’t continually so long.

This isn’t us but you kind of get the drift of how crazy the ride can actually be! Although if you design a tame ride it probably wouldn’t go crazy, but what’s the fun in that?

Next we passed by Runtime, and DH went off to play some videogames, and I went into the Runtime kiosk. There was no one on line, and no one at any of the stations. I thought to myself, this couldn’t be that fun of a kiosk, but boy was I wrong. This was totally the most ingenious and most fun thing we’ve ever done in Innoventions! The idea was that you can create your own vidogame character by first recording movements in front of a camera, and then the system processes your image and makes you the character in a videogame…how cool is that??? I had so much fun doing it, that I ended up doing it 3 times….twice by myself and then I dragged DH over and did it again. DH ended up doing it twice because it was so much fun. First in front of the camera we did things like run in place, jump and do a little victory dance. I don’t really like seeing my whole body on camera, but I guess I’ll make a little exception here because I’m “virtual,” right? LOL

Here’s DH at the kiosk following the on-screen instructions

Here’s me doing a “jump”

Here’s me and DH “jumping” and apparently surfing

Here’s me doing my “victory dance” at the end of the game.

Here’s DH playing our little “videogame”

This whole process was so cool, and it was only made better by the fact there was no line so we could do it over and over again if we wanted to. But I think after 3 times, I had enough of seeing ourselves. Although I really need to work on my dance/jump skills badly.

We walked around Innoventions and tried different things too. There was one attraction which had to do with the changing weather, and how that weather will affect the houses you have, You watch a presentation in 3D and throughout you answer questions on lightup buttons. The whole thing was fun because it was more like 4D, where sprays of water (rain) and large fans (wind) were blowing through at times.

We also did Spaceship Earth another time because we wanted to see what different scenario we got.

I don’t think we got this one yet!

Looks nice and “beachy”


We also did the game where you answer questions and get this little green truck to push around and act like batteries for each pod where you have a mini game. It’s quite cute. I love the cute little garbage trucks

We called our team the Sushi Dragon Rolls

So after hours at innoventions we went back up to world showcase. DH got his Kim Possible Mission quest and we had quite a lot of fun in france and Britain. We even got a free twinnings chai tea bag!
We of course, had to stop for a picture with Tigger and Pooh

Coming up, we find the best spot for Illuminations!

 

[annmarieda]

I have totally missed out on all inoventions has to offer!! I actually read some of your report to dh..just so he could hear about how cool some of the stuff is. We never have spent much time there. I think because in DL, innoventions traumatized us. See we went there when our first three were a bit younger and we would get into it and they would want to take off running. See..there...you enter through carousel of progress and instead of seats you are on a belt that rotates around innoventions. You try and watch the "show" and the kids are trying to ditch out the back side into invoventions to play with the gadgets. It was kinda stressfull.. It wasn't until this last trip that I even went into COP in WDW...cause I thought it was similar. Next trip...we are going to spend LOTS of time in both East and West!

 

[Tracy161]

Wow, sounds like Innoventions was a blast! The virtual video game sounds awesome and definitely worth checking out next time... though I admit I've never spent much time there but your update makes me want to!

 

[natebenma]

Fantastic update! I loved your very descriptive report of the virtual video game. Like the other posters, I didn't even know that was there. Also guilty of not spending enough time in Innoventions.

We did try Sum of all Thrills- you explained it very well!

What a FABULOUS Day 5- Toy Storia Mania mania, Le Cellier, some major fun at Innoventions and World Showcase...

 

[QuirkyButterfly]

Innoventions looks like great fun. I hadn't really given it much thought in our planning, I have been focused on the "big" attractions. We will definitely have to give this a go. I really like the idea of building your own roller coaster!

The Kim Possible missions look so interesting, we are going to save some time do to some of these.

Can't wait for the next update.

 

[jandm]

Day 4 Part 3: Boma and AKL

We head on the bus towards AKL. It’s only a short ride, thank goodness. Although the bus wasn’t considerably crowded and we were able to find seats.

We reached Jambo house and checked in for our reservation. We still had about 15 minutes to kill so we decided to walk around and check out the animals. Since it looked like it was going to rain, we didn’t venture out too much, but I manage to take these pictures from inside and outside the Lodge. What a beautiful resort! The savannah view is definitely the way to go!

After a while it starts to pour! Hopefully we get seated soon. I checked out the gift store at Jambo house too and saw some cute safari-inspired stuff. I thought their gift store was well-stocked and had lots of things the POFQ store didn’t. I guess it’s one of the perks of a Deluxe resort. Doesn’t matter, we were headed to DTD after dinner, and I was planning on doing most of my shopping there.

So our buzzer goes off, hooray! We went back to Boma and were seated immediately. The buffet looked good, so we were super excited to try many of the different flavors it had to offer. Now, I have had some African food before. I have a good friend who is Senegalese and we have eaten Senegalese food in NYC before. When I described to her the menu from Boma, she scoffed at it saying that it was NOT authentic. (Fufu is not made with sweet potatoes!). So I knew not to expect anything that was terribly authentic, but either way I was looking forward to having an interesting twist on your regular buffet fare. Also, Africa is such a large continent there is bound to be differences between the same dishes in different regions right? An example is when my Senegalese friend sat next to a friend from Ghana at our wedding. They had an argument all night over whose version of the traditional Jolaf rice was the “best” LOL. At Boma, Jolaf rice was called Gilly (sp?) rice, but my friend assured me that it means the same thing. LOL.

Here’s some pics of our food. Overall, we loved it! Everything tasted fresh and flavorful, which is more than what we expected from a buffet. I especially loved the different soups. Although they were a bit salty, I liked how there were 4 different soups, each tasting completely different from the other. I think the choices we had were mulligatawny, wild mushroom, a sort of ham and bean soup, which I thought was the best, and then a version of a chicken and peanut soup which I have had before. Boma’s version was not bad, it was smoother than I thought it would be, the ones I have had before were chunky.

An “aerial” view of my plate

My blue glowtini drink. I liked the pink version better.

We went up several times and tried different things on each round. There were a lot of different choices! One thing that I really loved was the grapefruit, avocado and papaya salad. It sounds weird but it was good! Maybe it’s because I love grapefruit, avocado and papaya as separate foods, and this was the first time I've had them together. Who knew they would mesh so well? The hummus bar was ok, I have had better hummus, but it’s a nice touch to the buffet. The coconut rice was a lot sweeter than I expected it to be. I am used to a more savory coconut rice (I am from Singapore so I eat a lot of spicy exotic foods usually) – but it was an interesting take on it. They also had more basic fare, like prime rib, sausage and peppers, mixed vegetables, pasta and regular salad bar fare, so even the non-adventurous would find something to eat.

At one point during dinner I looked over at DH’s plate, and saw a small breaded patty, and I asked, “Wow, is that some exotic potato pancake that I didn’t see? Is it some special fried dough or some exotic fish?” He looks at me and laughs and replies, “It’s a chicken nugget” LOL. Hahaha.

So here’s the nugget which I thought was something more exotic than it really is. It was good nugget though.

There were a lot of different desserts too! I couldn’t imagine eating any more at this point, but I was just too tempted by all the different offerings. Zebra domes were good. A bit too sweet but I’m not complaining. The passionfruit mousse (the orange dome thing) was good! I love passionfruit!

Wow, were we STUFFED by the time we left. As we departed Boma, we checked out the menu for Jiko. Definitely pricey, but the menu looked great. Maybe next time!

So our plan that evening was to hop on a bus to DTD and then take the ferry from there back to POFQ. It was still raining at that point so it was ponchos on from that point onwards. Since it was already dark out, I didn’t take any pictures at DTD, although I saw these t-shirts which were kind of funny.

I saw a pair of sandals which I really liked! However, I didn’t see anything else in the store that I wanted. The sandals were 39.99, but there was a 50 dollar minimum to get the 10% discount with the Disney Visa. This is kind of what annoyed me about the whole discount, in that certain stores sold different things so you weren’t always able to find everything you want at each store, and you end up spending MORE money just to get the discount. I tried to talk to the salespeople to see if they could combine purchases from another store but the salespeople didn’t want to budge, so I just had to purchase the sandals without the discount. Boo. I also asked if I could combine it with a purchase from ESPN zone next door (the stores were connected) but they said No too.

We then went to World of Disney and I got a few gifts for my friends kids, a Mickey head picture frame, some ice cube trays and boxers for DH. I was able to use my discount there, whew. We ducked into a few more shops and wandered around for a little bit. But the rain really prevented us from doing much more than I anticipated we would.

All in all, a semi-productive evening at DTD. It was still sort of drizzling at that point. We decided we were too tired to make it to EMH at MK, so we just decided to take the water launch back to POFQ. The ride was a lot longer than I expected, but it was a very calm and quiet boat ride. On the way we caught a glimpse of the Illuminations fireworks. Back at the resort, I went to the gift store to buy more water for our room, and then we called it a night!

End of Day 4

I've loved reading your trip report! We will be at WDW in May this year and wondered if you liked 'Ohana or Boma better. We have an ADR for dinner (and breakfast) at 'Ohana, but I keep reading mixed reviews about it. Our kids are 9, 6 & 3. Also, what did you think about being there in May? How were the crowds? We will be there the 7-14th. Thanks!!

 

[onescgirl]

We did 'Sum of all Thrills' & loved it, but we totally missed seeing 'Runtime'!
We have to do that next time! I love your little video game character - too cute!

The KM missions were so much fun, weren't they? That is a great picture of you two with Tigger & Pooh!

 

[Simba22]

I know it's been a while but I am back and all caught up! I wasn't as far behind as I thought!

We walked through the Innoventions building when we were there and it just seemed like nothing was all that interesting to us. We did something similar to The Sum of all Thrills at Disney Quest a few years ago, but I know my DBF would have liked Runtime! I'm sad we missed that one!

And I loved your pics from WS from your Le Cellier day. I have never seen that little cottage in the Canada pavilion! Although if it's down by the entrance to the restaurant, that's why...we've never eaten at Le Cellier before!

I'm really excited to read about your March trip! Sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[oboedm]

Finally caught up after being gone for a couple of months! Innoventions looks like so much fun... I really need to spend time there the next time I go!

As always, your pictures are lovely!

 

[chunkymonkey]

I have totally missed out on all inoventions has to offer!! I actually read some of your report to dh..just so he could hear about how cool some of the stuff is. We never have spent much time there. I think because in DL, innoventions traumatized us. See we went there when our first three were a bit younger and we would get into it and they would want to take off running. See..there...you enter through carousel of progress and instead of seats you are on a belt that rotates around innoventions. You try and watch the "show" and the kids are trying to ditch out the back side into invoventions to play with the gadgets. It was kinda stressfull.. It wasn't until this last trip that I even went into COP in WDW...cause I thought it was similar. Next trip...we are going to spend LOTS of time in both East and West!

Haha, that's so funny you read my report to your DH! I hope that has piqued his interest in returning to WDW hopefully soooner rather than later!

Wow, sounds like Innoventions was a blast! The virtual video game sounds awesome and definitely worth checking out next time... though I admit I've never spent much time there but your update makes me want to!

Totally! It's one of our favorite places to go to. Especially when it's raining outside.

Fantastic update! I loved your very descriptive report of the virtual video game. Like the other posters, I didn't even know that was there. Also guilty of not spending enough time in Innoventions.

We did try Sum of all Thrills- you explained it very well!

What a FABULOUS Day 5- Toy Storia Mania mania, Le Cellier, some major fun at Innoventions and World Showcase...

Yup we had an action packed day 5, it was a lot of fun though!

Innoventions looks like great fun. I hadn't really given it much thought in our planning, I have been focused on the "big" attractions. We will definitely have to give this a go. I really like the idea of building your own roller coaster!

The Kim Possible missions look so interesting, we are going to save some time do to some of these.

Can't wait for the next update.

Yup we really like Kim Possible. Well, DH mostly does he. He'll call me over and show me something cool if necessary. The first time he didn't I wasn't too involved, but this time I thought it was totally fun and got into it too!

I've loved reading your trip report! We will be at WDW in May this year and wondered if you liked 'Ohana or Boma better. We have an ADR for dinner (and breakfast) at 'Ohana, but I keep reading mixed reviews about it. Our kids are 9, 6 & 3. Also, what did you think about being there in May? How were the crowds? We will be there the 7-14th. Thanks!!

Hmm, it was crowded in May, much more so than September. And it was HOT to boot. A lot of rain too, but we had a great time!

We had doubts about Ohana too, either it's been raved about, or not. I think if you focus just on the food, then you either like it or you don't. I don't really like the meats but i love the shrimp, and all the sides, noodles, brocollli and noodles...quite yummy. and the best part...dessert!! It's the best dessert in WDW. Really. Maybe better than the chocolate thing at Le Cellir. Think your kids will like it as they have a lot of activities for kids during the dinner. So it does get a little loud at times, but hey, everyone is having fun, right? Have a great time!!

We did 'Sum of all Thrills' & loved it, but we totally missed seeing 'Runtime'!
We have to do that next time! I love your little video game character - too cute!

The KM missions were so much fun, weren't they? That is a great picture of you two with Tigger & Pooh!

The video game one was super cool! I like those kinds of things though, like seeing yourself in a picture and then sending it back to your friends HEHE.

I know it's been a while but I am back and all caught up! I wasn't as far behind as I thought!

We walked through the Innoventions building when we were there and it just seemed like nothing was all that interesting to us. We did something similar to The Sum of all Thrills at Disney Quest a few years ago, but I know my DBF would have liked Runtime! I'm sad we missed that one!

And I loved your pics from WS from your Le Cellier day. I have never seen that little cottage in the Canada pavilion! Although if it's down by the entrance to the restaurant, that's why...we've never eaten at Le Cellier before!

I'm really excited to read about your March trip! Sounds like a lot of fun!

yes it is! I'm totally figuring out my ADRs now and it's a bit nutty. Sigh the planning processing begins!

Finally caught up after being gone for a couple of months! Innoventions looks like so much fun... I really need to spend time there the next time I go!

As always, your pictures are lovely!

Yes Innoventions is fun and they change their stuff around all the time. Thanks!!

 

[annmarieda]

Haha, that's so funny you read my report to your DH! I hope that has piqued his interest in returning to WDW hopefully soooner rather than later!

Well, returning not sooner...but at least definitely later. We are booked for 12/2011. So far away, but... based on your tr..yes, it piqued his interest and he is definitely gonna try innoventions.

Hmm, it was crowded in May, much more so than September. And it was HOT to boot. A lot of rain too, but we had a great time!

Oh, no! my dd is going in May on her disneymoon. She thinks weather and crowds will be better than they were in September. I just wont tell her what you said.

 

[YukiPhnx]

I loved hearing about your time at Innoventions! It's one place I really want to spend more time at. Those little garbage trucks are adorable!

Ohhh, the video-game creating one is called RunTime. I had no idea! That looks like so much fun, I can't wait to try it.

I think your jumps looked SO GOOOD!

 

[Simba22]

Oh, no! my dd is going in May on her disneymoon. She thinks weather and crowds will be better than they were in September. I just wont tell her what you said.

I think it depends on WHEN in May she's going....If you go in the beginning/middle of the month BEFORE schools start getting out, the crowds aren't so bad. We've gone in May twice (like the 2nd week) and had really good experience with the crowd levels. It was HOT but not any worse than October, IMO.

 

[annmarieda]

I think it depends on WHEN in May she's going....If you go in the beginning/middle of the month BEFORE schools start getting out, the crowds aren't so bad. We've gone in May twice (like the 2nd week) and had really good experience with the crowd levels. It was HOT but not any worse than October, IMO.

She will be going the 16th through 24th... Oh well...it is just the two of them and I am sure they can brave some crowds if they had to.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Hope everyone is having a great week! It’s been snowing and snowing here in NYC and we’ve had the craziest winter so far. Record snowfall! Gosh, I cannot wait until winter is over! Luckily we missed some of it last week as we were in CANCUN, MEXICO!! It was beautiful out there, plenty of sunshine and water! We were there to shoot a wedding for a friend of mine, and she had an amazing wedding at the Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya, which is a beautiful, modern resort. Here’s a little picture of them I snapped walking on the beach.

If you want to see more, you can visit my photography Facebook page here

An update on the planning for our March 2011 trip:

So I’ve included the park hoppers for our trip. We had to shorten our overall trip so we’re not going to be going to WWOHP – work scheduling and timing just didn’t allow for it, but we are still going to be spending 6 days at WDW so that part hasn’t changed. To make up for it, I thought the extra 60 bucks a person to get the park hoppers were a good idea. It would let us mix things up a bit, and this way I can definitely watch a lot of the shows, and also take advantage of EMH where we want.
Our flights are booked too! Jetblue which is great as we don’t have a charge to check in our bags, and this time I get to have ME take our bags for us right to our room! Whoopee! No more late night dashing across terminals with our luggage!
We are going to be on the regular dining plan. I’ve also made some changes to our ADRs and modified our days a bit because of the park hopping, so here is our schedule so far:

Sat March 26:

Morning:
7am Flight from NYC to Orlando
Check in at POFQ

Afternoon:
DTD for lunch, hang out a DTD
Once room is ready, able to go to pool and chill

Evening:
Bus to Epcot
DINNER 6:55 pm Epcot
Coral Reef

Sunday March 27:

Morning:
Breakfast – QS at POFQ
Bus to Magic Kingdom or DHS

Afternoon:
MK
Back to POFQ to swim, rest

Evening:
Bus to MK, Monorail to Poly
DINNER 9:00 pm 'Ohana
Wishes 10pm (watch from ‘Ohana)
EMH at MK

Monday March 28:

Morning:
Breakfast – QS at POFQ
Bus to DHS

Afternoon:
LUNCH 12:25 pm
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater

Evening:
EMH at DHS until 10pm

Tuesday March 29:

Morning:
Breakfast – QS at POFQ
Bus to Epcot

Afternoon:
LUNCH 1:05pm
Le Cellier Steakhouse


Evening:
Go to DHS
8:30pm Fantasmic! Showing

Wednesday March 30:

Morning:
Bus to AK

BREAKFAST 10:00 am
Tusker House Restaurant

Afternoon:
AK

Evening:
Go to Epcot

DINNER Akershus 6:45pm
Illuminations 9pm

Thursday March 31st

Morning:
OPEN

Afternoon:
OPEN

Evening:
Leave for airport on ME ~ 4:30pm
Depart 7:30pm flight to NYC

Background Info:

So I tried to tailor my ADRs to the parks where we will be that day. Since the park-hopping adds another level of complexity, I didn’t want to go too crazy and try to do too much park hopping. I just wanted to be sure to take advantage of EMH as well as shows like Fantasmic! which only run on certain days. So for Chunkytwins, who are Disney “newbies” as I’d like to call them, are not terribly keen on the character dining, I thought I’d ease them into it slowly. At first my plan was the start the vacation off with a bang by going to Akershus for dinner on our arrival day. However, when I first approached them about dining with Princesses, they made faces and said “What?? Eat with the princesses?!?! How WEIRD?!?!” LOL

I had to explain to them that we aren’t actually eating “with” them, they are not sitting on our table or anything, but they are just coming around table to table so you can take pictures. I think that sort of put them more at ease, but still, I can sense their apprehension. Therefore I moved that ADR to our last night at WDW, because by then, they would probably be more acclimated to seeing characters everywhere so they might be more “open” to the dinner. Besides, this dinner is the official Chunkysister B-day dinner, and it was her request. Chunkysister is much more like me, in that she is really excited about this trip, meeting characters, and having a true Disney experience.

So I’ve decided on something a little more tame for our first night, so I picked Coral Reef, as I think they would have fun with it. But I am also thinking about replacing it with Teppan Edo as I know all my sisters like teppanyaki too. But I think there is something really cool about eating in a giant aquarium…I may just ask them to see what they prefer.
The rest of the ADRs are those restaurants which I’ve been to in our last trip which me and DH had a great time at so I’d love to share them with my sisters!

I also am thinking about fitting Cape May Café in there somewhere. We’ll see. I thought about canceling the Le Cellier ADR but since there are no more open ADRs for that entire week for Le Cellier, I thought I’d better keep it for now. The reason I was going to cancel was that I didn't think we would do Epcot that day, and also because 2 of my sisters don't like steak. However they do love carbs, and I think the pretzel bread makes up for it alone.

So that’s the planning so far!

 

[Simba22]

I love your March itinerary!

FYI - you might want to remove your confirmation number for your Tusker House ADR.....I don't know how easily someone could mess with your ressie by having the number, but I'd rather be safe than sorry lol

I would definitely keep your ADR at Coral Reef. If you're already pretty sure they that they would like Teppan Edo, than make them do something out of the ordinary! Where else can you eat in an aquarium?!

And make sure you show them your pics from your September trip where you guys were meeting characters (if they haven't seen them already)! You could even browse other TRs for pics of adults with characters so that they see it's not "weird!" I'm dying to try Akershus...I think I may book it for our Grand Gathering trip we're planning for 2012....

 

[trickiwoo]

I'm finally caught up on your TR!!!!!!!!!

Aww, I really wanted to do the Sum of all Thrills, but we just didn't have time! And that put yourself in a video game thing sounds so cool! I just told The Boyfriend all about it! We'll have to check it out next time we're there!

I'm so jealous that you're going again in March!!! I'm itching to plan another trip!!!!

 

[annmarieda]

Your plan looks great. Your park hoping doesn't look like you will be bouncing too much. I hope your sisters like the characters...I really do like dinning with the princesses, but we didn't do that in September. Going with they guys, I doubt they will want to. And...as far as Coral Reef vs. Teppan Edo... My vote is for Coral Reef.

 

[Simba22]

I just went onto FB and looked at the pics from the wedding! BEAUTIFUL!! And I liked your page so I can stalk your pics lol