Chunkymonkey + Chubbyhubby's Mem day weekend at WDW = Updated Day III part 3

[william4192]

Beautiful, loves photography, huge disney fan. I was thinking you were the perfect girl, until you said Yankee fan. I guess everyone has their flaws

Keep up the great TR. No drama is the best way to go through Disney

 

[chunkymonkey]

Beautiful, loves photography, huge disney fan. I was thinking you were the perfect girl, until you said Yankee fan. I guess everyone has their flaws

Keep up the great TR. No drama is the best way to go through Disney

Uh Oh, are you a red sox or a mets fan?? That's ok, I think any sort of sports rivalry keeps the game more interesting, don't you think?

Thank you for the compliments, btw.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Hi there!

Loving your TR. You and your DH are so cute! Hopefully the rain doesn't slow you down too much.

Uh oh, just read that you are Yankee fans. I think I have to unsubscribe now

Hahaha, you are too funny. I see you are from MA. I actually went to college in MA, so I am not too much of a Red Sox hater. I welcome the rivalry and I think it makes the game more interesting.

Thanks for the comments! I started reading your engagement trip report and they look like sooo much fun, I can't wait to read them all. Congrats on the engagement! It must have been amazing to get engaged at the castle.

 

[Jennifer48]

Hahaha, you are too funny. I see you are from MA. I actually went to college in MA, so I am not too much of a Red Sox hater. I welcome the rivalry and I think it makes the game more interesting.

Thanks for the comments! I started reading your engagement trip report and they look like sooo much fun, I can't wait to read them all. Congrats on the engagement! It must have been amazing to get engaged at the castle.

It definately does keep things interesting thats for sure!

Thanks for reading my TR! It was awesome getting engaged there esp since there was a PhotoPass photographer there to capture the experience!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Before heading to Hollywood Studios we decided to go get our free picture taken at the Magical Memories club for the Disney Visa card holders again. We got to the line, and it wasn’t too bad. We waited about 10 minutes before it was out turn. This time the characters were Minnie and Goofy. Yay! I think this pic came out better than the one from the day before.

We had about 20 minutes to kill before we picked up the actual picture. We decided to go on Spaceship Earth again. DH tried to make the silliest faces possible as usual.

Later as you exit the game, we realized that you could email your picture to yourself and a friend. We didn’t know about it the first time, so we didn’t do it before, doh! You can do this in the large area front and center in the interactive area when you exit the ride, where all the large screens are hanging overhead near the ceiling. They have screen up around the area. I thought it was just some interactive game they were playing but you actually can input your information in the kiosk and then it will pull up your pictures from the ride and shows it on the big screen!

Hey everyone, look at us!!

After Spaceship earth, we decided to pick up our picture and leave for DHS. The picture took no time at all to get, it was much easier with no long lines at the photo place! We then exited Epcot and took a shuttle to DHS. The Shuttle was there when we got there, and took about 10 minutes to DHS.

First view of the hat

We ran over to see (doubtfully) if TSM had anymore FPs (they didn’t). Oh Well. It looks like such a fun ride. We had never been on it, so we were looking forward to doing it at some point on our trip. I had read about how all the FPs were gone by noon each day, so I had this weird paranoia about how they would be gone by the time we get there each day. Granted it was about 3:30pm at this point, so I knew there wouldn’t be any left anyways…

Here’s a shot from the gift kiosk right outside TSM. Love the little green aliens!

I also bought DH a shirt (not pictured) of Mr. Potatohead and on it is says, “Please don’t make me put on my angry eyes” It was the cutest shirt ever! I surprised him with it and had it delivered to the Swan so I wouldn’t have to carry it.

We decided to just head to the Brown Derby for our ADRs. DH went to RRC to get an FP for later. And I shopped around and waited at the Brown Derby. It turned out that the FP return time for RRC was for the same time as Fantasmic. Bummer. Since we booked the Fantasmic dining package at the Brown Derby, we didn’t want to skip Fantasmic, because…what would be the point!?

The Fantasmic Dinner package consists of a 3 course dinner at the Brown Derby, and then “reserved” seating at the Fantasmic show that evening at the Hollywood Hills theatre. It’s not really reserved since you still have to get on line early to get a seat, but you do get to sit in a particularly nice section of the theatre towards stage left. I did notice that every seat in the theater is pretty good. I don’t think anyone really gets a “bad” view. But that is just IMO!

This was the first time I had seen Fantasmic at WDW. I had seen it before at DLR a few times, and there, you don’t go into a theater or line up, really. It’s like a parade, you squat your seat a few hours in advance of the show in front of the big lake that borders Adventureland and Frontierland. But most of the time if you happen to be around the area while Fantastmic is going on, you will be able to get a good glimpse of the show. I had only watched Fantasmic twice before in DLR, and I loved it. I am usually not one for shows, but I find that as I get older, I do enjoy all the shows and parades more. Dunno why that is!?!? Maybe my legs just get tired easily so I don’t mind the break…LOL

Here’s the view right outside of the Brown Derby

We checked into the Brown Derby and were seated right away. Our server’s name was Titi and she was from Taiwan (like DH!). She was super sweet, and her recommendations were spot on. For the dinner package, we could order any appetizer, any entrée and any dessert on the menu regardless of price. I think the package was about 46.99 a person, so it’s a pretty good deal considering the entrée prices are already within the 25-36 dollar range.

Titi recommended the crab cake to start, and the NY strip as an entrée, so that was what I got. DH got the scallop appetizer and the grouper entrée. The package also comes with non-alcoholic drink of your choice. I got an iced tea, and DH got a diet coke. We got some nice warm rolls to start with. They were delicious.

Here’s a breakdown of what we got:

Appetizer

Me: Blue Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with Potato Crust, green cabbage slaw, dijon mustard and remoulade sauces. It was really delicious. I don’t like crab cakes with red or green pepper so I asked Titi if there was any of that in the crab. She said there wasn’t, so I ordered it. Glad I did!

DH: Seared Sea Scallop - with butternut squash risotto, apple cranberry compete and a pancetta crisp. He really liked this.

Entrée

Me: Char-Grilled 12 oz. New York Strip Steak with herb-roasted red potatoes, cremini mushrooms, tiny onions and cabernet syrup. Flavor was very good, but my steak could have been a little more tender. But it was tasty.

DH: Pan Fired Black Grouper - With Provencal vegetables, crispy capers, and citrus juices. He really liked this dish too

Here’s a pic of both our half-eaten entrees:

Here are some pics of the inside of the Brown Derby. As we were eating our entrees, it had started to POUR outside. People were running around with and without ponchos. We thanked our lucky stars that we were inside having dinner at that point. It was also thundering and lightening at this point! So we wanted to stay for as long as possible indoors so we ate quite slowly.

DH with the lovely WARM bread rolls!

Sorry the pics aren’t that great. It was really dark in there, and my flash wasn’t very strong so I had to take these under a high shutter speed so they are a bit blurry

Although Titi was a great server, we could see she was very busy so sometimes it was hard to get her attention. We needed drink refills at times, but we didn’t mind it was slow since we were out of the rain!!

For dessert here’s what we got:

Me: Grapefruit Cake - A Brown Derby Original! Light Layers of Yellow Cake with fresh Grapefruit Cream Cheese Icing. This was delicious! I had no idea what grapefruit cake would taste like, but it is a very mild citrus flavor in a cream cheese icing. The cake was nice and moist too.

DH: Strawberry Cheesecake - with shortcake crust, strawberry Grand Marnier vanilla sauce. This was good if you like cheesecake. I find most cheesecakes a little too rich for me, but I did have a few bites and it was good. The crust was nice, it had a nutty flavor. DH really likes cheesecake so he found it to be yummilicious.

I like how they had dusted cocoa with the DHS 20th Anniversary.

Next update…Fantasmic!

 

[chunkymonkey]

It definately does keep things interesting thats for sure!

Thanks for reading my TR! It was awesome getting engaged there esp since there was a PhotoPass photographer there to capture the experience!

That was such a cool story about how he wanted to do it right then and there while posing for the Photopass guy. Super cute.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Yum, love the food pics! Cool anniversary logo on the dessert too. The pics from Spaceship Earth are so cute. I uploaded our video. I'll be sharing it w/ ya'll soon. I made a horrible face in mine, it's so funny.

 

[KathyRN137]

Oooh, fabulous meal! Aren't you glad you ate a light lunch? I've never been to the Brown Derby, so it was fun to see the pix.

It is hard to get good pictures when lights are low.... and they often are in the restaurants and the attractons.

I do hope you eventually got in to play Midway Mania!!

Looking forward to Fantasmic!


Kathy

 

[chunkymonkey]

Yum, love the food pics! Cool anniversary logo on the dessert too. The pics from Spaceship Earth are so cute. I uploaded our video. I'll be sharing it w/ ya'll soon. I made a horrible face in mine, it's so funny.

Cool, can't wait! I really like how interactive the ride is now. It sure beats the spaceship earth back in the day, that was a snooze fest.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Oooh, fabulous meal! Aren't you glad you ate a light lunch? I've never been to the Brown Derby, so it was fun to see the pix.

It is hard to get good pictures when lights are low.... and they often are in the restaurants and the attractons.

I do hope you eventually got in to play Midway Mania!!

Looking forward to Fantasmic!


Kathy

Yes! Thank goodness for the light lunch or else I would have had to roll out of the Brown Derby.

We did get to play midway mania...me and DH are super competitive so we got out our "trigger fingers"

 

[william4192]

Nah, Angels fan here. It is just so fun to hate on the Yankees (except Jeter who is awesome!).

 

[Jennifer48]

That Mr. Potatohead shirt sounds so cute! Did your DH love it when he saw it?

Brown Derby has always been on my to-eat-at list and your pics just make me push it to the top! Mmmm.

 

[scottny]

Hi,
Just found your tr. Loving the pics so far.

Don't follow baseball anymore but I do like the new Yankee Stadium.

Looking forward to hearing and seeing more.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Nah, Angels fan here. It is just so fun to hate on the Yankees (except Jeter who is awesome!).

Jeter IS awesome!

 

[chunkymonkey]

That Mr. Potatohead shirt sounds so cute! Did your DH love it when he saw it?

Brown Derby has always been on my to-eat-at list and your pics just make me push it to the top! Mmmm.

Yes! DH loved it when he saw it - it didn't come until the next day, but he was delighted!

Brown Derby is delish...you must go!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Hi,
Just found your tr. Loving the pics so far.

Don't follow baseball anymore but I do like the new Yankee Stadium.

Looking forward to hearing and seeing more.

Hi Scott! Thanks for visiting my TR! I am working on my next part of the TR and there are some exciting pics to come...

Love the NEW Yankee Stadium, but I wish they added hot water to the bathrooms in levels other than Field

 

[GreatBiscuit]

I believe I'm all caught up now! Brown Derby looked awesome! Looking forward to Fantasmic!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh my goodness, I can't believe I was three whole pages behind. I'm all caught up now. I do have a good excuse for being behind....I started my own trip report. We surprised our son with a trip to WDW last year and I thought maybe some of my fellow disers would like to read about the surprise.

Looking forward to reading more of your Disney adventures.

 

[chunkymonkey]

We were stuffed from our delicious meal at the Brown Derby. If you were ever deciding whether or not to make ADRs at the Brown Derby, my advice is GO. NOW.

We are definitely returning the next time we come! We might even do the Fantasmic! Dinner package again even if we won’t want to see Fantasmic. You can look up their menu and if you are pretty sure you are going to order over $46.99 worth of food per person (ours def was more than that pp) then it’s worth it alone!

After dessert, the rain had lightened a little bit, but it was still very wet. Our server, TiTi returned with our check, and gave us two yellow passes for Fantasmic! Reserved seating. They basically allow you to sit in the special reserved area, but she did tell us to get there early enough, think like 8:15pm for the 9pm show. 45 minute wait?? Even with the Fantasmic reserved seating?? Damn.

Here’s a picture that TiTi took right before we left. I look a little frazzled. I think from looking at all the rain through the windows and worrying about whether or not Fantasmic will still be on!

We asked her if the show would still go on even with this much rain. She said that a lot of times, management waits until the very last minute to cancel the show. They monitor the weather very closely to see if it’s safe enough for the show to go on, and only waits until maybe 20 minutes before the show starts to cancel. Usually people are seated at this time. She also said that if it’s just a light rain, the show will most likely continue and that it would have to be pretty bad for a show to be cancelled. She did mention that the seats in the theater were metal so if there was a lot of lightening it might be dangerous. Um, aren’t there bolts of lightening right outside of where we are seating?

She looked outside the window at the rain and said, “oh, this is nothing, they won’t cancel it” So we were very hopeful as we left the Brown Derby that we would still get to watch Fantasmic that night. (fingers crossed)

There were a lot of people waiting in the reception area of the Brown Derby when we made our exit. Not sure if it was because of people escaping the rain, or if there really was a long wait for a table. There were some empty tables in the restaurant. I would say It was about 80% full when we arrived. So it could be that they are taking in a lot of walk-ins because of the weather.

After a quick pit stop, we put on our ponchos and stepped out into the rain. It had lightened just a little but we made a game plan to try and go on rides that were not going to be very crowded. It was about 6:30 at this point, and we didn’t have to get online for Fantasmic! Until 8:15pm so we had some time to kill. We decided to hit an oldie but goodie, Star Tours. Luckily there was no wait, and were in and out of the ride very quickly. Next we decided to walk over to Muppet Vision 3-D. It was 5 minutes until the next show, so we walked right in. As we exited the show, the rain had lightened to a very faint drizzle. Hooray!

A good tip: I brought along a few large gallon-sized Ziploc bags that I was able to store our used ponchos in. That way, if it stopped raining, we can fold up our ponchos compactly, put them in the bag, flatten it to get rid of all the air, and then seal it and store it in my pocketbook or another bag without creating extra bulk. It also keeps everything else in your bag dry, especially things like cameras and cell phones. Ziplocs are great! They are like instant space bags (the kind on tv where you vacuum all the air out)

Here’s a pic of us outside Muppet Vision. The funny thing about this pic was that I placed my gorilla pod on top of a trashcan as usual, but a group of people walked right in front of it as the flash went off. It wasn’t their fault, but they insisted they take this pic for us.

Now it was time to get on line for Fantasmic. We walked over the Hollywood Hills theater which is near ToT. I asked DH if he wanted to go on ToT by himself since I don’t’ like freefalling, but he decided not to. As we were walking over, the skies cleared up and here’s what we saw:

*cheers*
It was still damp, but at least it wasn’t raining!

As we neared the theater, there were a lot of CMs directing people into which way to go. We wondered if there was some special line or entrance for the “yellow” ticket holders, but after asking a CM we found out there wasn’t. Everyone gets on the same line. It’s funny because we saw at least 10 other people waving their yellow tickets around like it was some sort of special key to bypass the line. Nope, you get on line with everyone else and only when you get to the top of the line do you actually show your yellow passes for the preferred seating area.
So we were on line, and in about 3 minutes we turn around and see this

There were a LOT of people!!! We hung out in line for about half an hour. The line wasn’t moving because they weren’t seating anyone just yet.

Finally the line starts to move at around 8:45pm. You enter the theater at the top. There are restrooms as well as a concession stand selling popcorn and drinks. There are also vendors walking around in case you wanted popcorn or soda without leaving your seats. We flashed our yellow tickets at the top area, and we were shown where our seats were. It is a section of stage left and is situated right as you enter the theater. They are very good seats. There wasn’t too many people in the section but we chose to sit closer to the top than to sit right in front so that it would be easier to exit after the show.

Here’s our view

View of stage right

They rope off the reserved seating area, but honestly it wasn’t closely monitored, so even if you didn’t have passes you can probably just slip in unnoticed.

Then the show starts!! Here are pics of my favorite parts:

I just love the princess barges and the big steamboat with all the characters at the end of the show!!!

The show lasted a whopping 20 minutes. We spent more time on line than we did at the show!!! But was really was fun all the same. I’m glad we saw it once at WDW, not sure if I would be up to waiting on line again for that long though!

When we exited the theater, the park was already closed so we walked out through the exit of DHS, and turned left towards the ferries. It’s so nice to be staying so close to the parks! I admit I am a little spoiled this time staying at the Swan, but next time I really really want to stay at the Boardwalk villas since it’s even *closer* haha.

In about 20 minutes we were back in our room at the Swan. Talk about fast! After watching some TV about the weather (scattered thunderstorms for the next few days…what else is new) we quickly fell asleep to the sound of raindrops beginning to fall…

End of Day 2

 

[chunkymonkey]

Oh my goodness, I can't believe I was three whole pages behind. I'm all caught up now. I do have a good excuse for being behind....I started my own trip report. We surprised our son with a trip to WDW last year and I thought maybe some of my fellow disers would like to read about the surprise.

Looking forward to reading more of your Disney adventures.

Hi Lisa! I have read your TR and it's great so far!! Love the pics. Glad you are caught up with my TR. LOL Now I have to get caught up with yours!!