CrazyDisneyMan Does Disney

[crazydisneyman]

I am writing this trip report for all of you!

It is because of all of you that we are able to take this trip. I have planned this trip using advice from the podcast team and all the DISers. Thank you Thank you Thank you!

We leave at 7am Saturday morning for 8 nights of unbridled fun at the Poly Concierge Lagoon View. Woo Hoo! I will provide details when we get there. I will be updating this report each day, so feel free to ask questions and travel along with us as we celebrate our third anniversary.

"We're too excited to sleep!"

 

[disneyholic family]

woo hoo!!

i love live trip reports !!

have a magical time!!!!

 

[kab407]

Have a great time Chris! Looking forward to the report and details.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

Oh, goody! Now we get to stalk Chris!

 

[JimFitz]

8 nights........Poly.........Concierge.........lagoon view. Enjoy!!!!!

 

[cocowum]

Holy Mackerel Chris, 8 nights Poly concierge...

I can't wait! Don't forget the food porn!

I'm ready!

Happy Anniversary!!!!

 

[SamSam]

Very Nice!!!!

 

[bcvdreamer]

Live trip reports are great! Have fun and Happy Anniversary.

 

[crazydisneyman]

Day 1:
Magical Express
Poly Concierge Check-in
Purchasing Anual Passes at MK
Blizzard Beach
'Ohana
Special Fireworks
Wishes

We made it!

We left Indy at 7am on Southwest Airlines and had a great flight. It was a girl's birthday on our flight, and the flight attendants made her a birthday cake and a crown out of the things they had (snacks, drink sticks, etc). It was really cool, and it demonstrates the step beyond that great companies like Southwest do for their customers. We landed at OIA at 9:20am, and we proceeded to Magical Express. We waited about 10 minutes to check in at the desk and to be loaded onto the bus. Very Fast! We were at the Poly in about 40 minutes. I thought that everyone was very professional, and they took good care of us. Timing might be everything, however, because a cast member told us that if we had been one hour later we would be taking a taxi to Disney. Yikes!

At the Poly, we were greeted with leis when we got off the bus, and the valet desk had someone whisk us away to the Hawaii building. Our driver gave us a wonderful tour of the grounds, and dropped us off at the Hawaii building. This was a wonderful way to start our vacation!

We checked in at Concierge. David was the Cast Member who checked us in, and he could not have been better! He was very professional, and the model cast member. Our room was not ready, but he told us that it would be ready by 3pm. That was fine because we were going to Blizzard Beach anyway. We sampled the yummy Guava juice and we couldn't get enough. This is almost worth staying Concierge!

We are leaving now for the House of Blues Gospel Brunch, so I will finish this later with pictures from 'Ohana.

 

[disneyholic family]

sounds great so far!!
can't wait to hear more (i'm greedy)

 

[~Fisharefriends~]

cant wait to read all about your trip as it happens.

 

[ADP]

Glad you made it Chris!

Have a great time. With all the food you will be enjoying watch out for that bloated feeling you can get while touring the parks.

Definately enjoy the Poly club lounge!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[cccm]

Wow! That sounds like my dream vacation......have fun.

 

[cocowum]

Sounds like the start of a great trip!

 

[crazydisneyman]

Okay. My brother was here Sat and Sun so we have been very busy.

We are off to do the Segway Tour, so I will give you updates for Day One and Two when I get back!

Thanks for all the great messages.

 

[crazydisneyman]

Day One (cont):

Okay.

I have pictures of Day One's activities:

Magical Express

Red Carpet Treatment to get on the bus

Our cue line for the bus

Woo Hoo we are on property!

The Polynesian

Poly entrance

Where we caught the golf cart back to Hawaii

The view from our room (notice the castle in the middle

Some magic waiting for us

Concierge Food Saturday evening

Kona Cafe Sushi Bar

We stopped by to see the offerings at the new Kona Cafe Sushi Bar. I took some pics of the different samples available.

'Ohana

So despite Kevin and Pete's advice, we decided to try 'Ohana to see what it is really like as we had never eaten there before. We approached the podium early to see if we could get a table before our ADR, but we eventually were seated right at our ADR time. A cast member welcomed us at the podium and walked us past the kitchen where they had set out samples of the food we were about to recieve including the Bread Pudding with the Banana's Foster Sauce. We were sat at our table, and our waiter told us how the dinner worked. We would receive bread, appetizers, the skewers of meat and then dessert. He took our drink orders and returned quickly with our drinks and the Pineapple Bread. The Bread was good and had pineapple and cocnut baked into it.

Shortly after that the appetizers arrived. We had the following:

Salad - had a nice sweet vinager dressing on it.

Kona Sticky Wings - these were okay but the ones at Concierge were much better.

Broccoli - basic broccoli

Pork Dumplings - OMG these were soooo good. I could have eaten bowls of these. The sauce was very yummy!

Noodles - These had a nice flavor to them, but basically noodles.

After this they brought out the meat. We had Pork, Steak, Shrimp, and Turkey broght to our table on these skewers. The waiter would come and place chunks of meat on your plate. Every piece of meat had a spicy seasoning on it and they were all moist and hot. They gave us three bowls of sauce to dip the meat.

Sauces: Sweet and Sour, Teriyaki, Pond Scum (Olive Oil with Spinich, I think)

The first two sauces were good, but the pond scum was not great tasting so it remained untouched.

After dinner, they brought out the dessert. It was really good and they actually brought out another dessert for us. (It is all you care to eat!)

The entertainment was a nice gentleman who sang about every thirty minutes or so. We saw him twice and he did one show for the kids and one without. It actually was a very laid back meal, and the sound level was not too bad.

We would probably go back again. We all enjoyed the experience. They have added the shirmp back on the entree list so I think that helps, and our shirmp were jumbo shirmp. Huge! Everything was hot and moist and the staff was attentive to our needs.

Fireworks

We went back to the concierge lunge to watch the fireworks. We saw the special Pirotechnics display that they mentioned on the podcast. It was AWESOME! They demonstarted the new advances in fireworks technology, and it was amazing.

We also saw Wishes from the lounge and went back to the room to call it a night.

 

[crazydisneyman]

Day Two:

House of Blues Gospel Brunch
Downtown Disney
Fantasia Gardens Mini Golf
The Wave
Magic Kingdom EMH

So we started the day out with the House of Blues Gospel Brunch. This was really awesome! They took our tickets at the door and gave us a tour of the food offerings. They sat us in the middle of the floor right in front of the stage with two other couples. The bruch offerings consisted of basic breakfast foods: fruit, danish, eggs, bacon, sausages, biscuits and gravy, waffles with syrup, etc. They also had lunch foods with a cajun theme: a carving station with prime rib, roast beef, jumbalaya, red beans and rice, catfish, etc. They had a nice sampling of desserts as well: apple crisp, bread pudding, and parfaits.

The music was awesome. They had special group perform, and they really got the crowd into the gospel music. I felt like I got a taste of New Orlean's during this interactive show. I would highly recommend that everyone go to this at least once!

Downtown Disney

We decided to go see a movie after this with my brother, so we walked over to AMC and saw the Mummy movie with Brendon Frasier. It was good, but wait for the DVD.

After this we went to World of Disney, but along the way we walked by the Adventurers Club.

We finished shopping and had our purchases shipped to someone back home for a birthday and back to our room at the Poly. This service was wonderful!

Fantasia Gardens

We then went to play minature golf at Fantasia Gardens. I not very good at minature golf, and I came in last. It was a fun time, though.

The Wave

We went to the Wave restaurant for dinner. This is a beautiful restaurant, and Kim remarked that it was a very calm and peaceful experience.

We had the following selections for our meal:

Appetizer: Tomato soup with grilled cheese. This was very yummy! It is seasonal, so when our waiter told us it was available we jump at the chance.

Bread: It was good. It had a fresh taste to it.

Pork Tenderloin: I got the Pork Tenderloin, and it was very good. The carrots tasted different, almost like they were just harvested.

Beef Tenderloin: Kim got the beef tenderloin. It was also very good, and the meat tasted extremely good. It was juicy and cooked very well.

Dessert: I got the Decadent Flavors
Blueberry Compote with Yogurt Gelato, Lemon Cornbread with Vanilla Panna Cotta, Chocolate Mousse with Salted Carmel Sauce

It was very good. The Mousse was the best though.

Dessert: Kim got the Freshly Crafted Sorbets
Lemon Basil Sorbet, Pineapple Sorbet, Strawberry Sorbet

The Sorbets were very good. The Pineapple was the best.

The Wave was a very nice restaurant and we will definately go back there.

Magic Kingdom

We went to the Magic Kingdom for EMH. We rode TTA and Buzz Lightyear.

Whew.

We went back and colapsed. More to come. Thanks for reading along!

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

sounds like a fantastic start I cant wait to hear the rest!!!

 

[SamSam]

Oh,my gosh! My mouth is watering, the food porn is fantastic. We leave in 8 days and I can hardly wait to start EATING! Yes, dining is a huge part of our Disney trips.

 

[crazydisneyman]

Day Three:

Epcot Segway Tour
Le Cellier
Beach Club Villas
Narcooses
Wishes

Epcot Segway Tour

Well we started the day at Epcot with the Segway Tour Around the World. You start by getting introduced to the Segways in Innoventions. They have setup a practice area for you to try them out, and they have you do basic moves like going up and down ramps and weaving in and out of cones. When you first get on the thing, it is a different feeling, and you learn to balance yourself pretty quickly. Think about when you first tried to ride a bike.

They then take you through the different exercises, and your feet discover that you have muscles that you have never used. By the end of the practice time, our feet were a little sore. After this they take you out and you ride over to Italy. One the way we stopped in China and Germany for some info about those two countries. Once we got to Italy, we had some free time to scoot around and play with the Segways a little bit. After that we went back and stopped in Morroco, Japan, France and England before returning to Innoventions. We both agreed that this was an awesome tour, and we would definately do it again.

Le Cellier

We walked over to Le Cellier for unch. We had never eaten there before so this was a new experience. We were greeted at the front and gave the hostess our reservation. We were seated shortly after that, and our waiter was Joel. He was wonderful, and he really knew his menu. He was very attentive to our needs and was always there right when you needed something. I will detail the food later, but the experience was very good. At the end of the meal he came out with a certificate signed by all the staff congratulating us on our anniversary. That was really cool, and something that we will cherish. The overall dining exerience was excellent.

Beach Club Villas

After lunch we headed over to the Villas to look at the property was just purchased. Kim and I were very impressed as the Beach Club staff gave us a guided tour of a two-bedroom villa. We were very impressed with the property, and we would recommend that everyone give DVC a shot. Call up the Timeshare Store.

Narcooses

We had dinner at Narcooses. This was one of the best meals that we have ever had. Our waiter was Joey, and he was wonderful. He was very attentive to what we needed and made the evening special. I will post food info later, but one of the highlights was the dessert. He brought out plates with Happy Anniversary in chocoloate on each plate. Then he came back with a special Champaign toast for our celebration. The meal could not have been better and we now understand why Kevin and John like it so much.

Wishes

We rode the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom to see Wishes. This capped off a wonderful evening, and really made my day. I haven't seen Wishes that close before so that made it extra special.

Day Four:

Crystal Palace
Magic Kingdom (Woo Hoo!)
Poly Rest
Magic Kingdom
Victoria and Albert's Chef's Table

I will have pics and details.

Thanks for reading!