Cue the Music: How we MADE money and slept with Ariel! Done!

[jenseib]

I am one of the odd ones who doesn't care for 'Ohana dinner. I don't like the bread at all...coconut in it..and I didn't care for the sauces. I wonder if they have a substitute bread or if you can ask for no sauce on the meats. I really wanted to love it but neither Claire nor I cared for much of it. I did like the potstickers though!

 

[Mommy Poppins]

Ok - all caught up! I had lost you for awhile.....avoiding the DIS with no trip in sight. However, just booked a last minute cruise to Bermuda on the Magic for October celebrating our 25th anniversary so no kids -- 50 days to go! -- so now I'm Disney excited again!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Navychica]

Finally caught up! We have an early Ohana reservation booked in November, on our MVMCP night. I’m regretting it a tiny bit, since we won’t be able to eat as many cookies at the party lol. I’m glad you enjoyed it!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Planes, Trains & Automobiles remake!

Y'all John is picky about his socks, I'm talking picky picky. They have to fit tightly but not too tightly. The seam near the toes has to be smooth and have no bumps at the end. His Mickey Mouse socks that we purchased at Disney a few trips ago are his favorites when it comes to low cut socks. On this trip, we had been looking for more for him but they didn't have any. We looked in almost every store there was but we couldn't find them. Which, if we had thought about it, made sense. Those were socks you would normally wear in the warmer months. We were there in November so we saw longs of long socks. He had brought along all his Mickey Mouse socks and some others but had truly banked on finding more Disney socks and had no real intention of wearing the half dozen other pairs that he had packed.

Sooooooooo, on this morning, John was out of "good" socks and felt the need to wash his socks. Washing them out and rinsing them was no problem. But what about drying them? We improvised and put his socks over the hair dryer and it worked wonderfully. (and that's our personal hair dryer so don't be grossed out). I always travel with a hair dryer because you never know how well the ones at a hotel will work.




All the while he was drying his socks, I thought of the scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles. You know this scene:

And they say women are picky.


Sock shortage crisis averted, we were soon out the door and on our way to the Magic Kingdom where we would spend our last day at Walt Disney World. We were planning on staying until park closing so we slept in a bit and even though it was mid morning by the time we left the resort, it was pretty chilly this morning but it was supposed to warm up so we grabbed our hoodies and were off.

My shirt said Best Day Ever. It was going to be a great day but it was also a sad one because it was our last day at the most magical place on Earth.



Our first Fastpass of the day was for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I must have been suffering from last day at Disney syndrome because my pictures from this day are pretty bad.







Yep those are the only pictures that I took in the queue or on the mine train. Last day syndrome I'm tellin' ya.

Like I have said before, when I make our Fastpasses, I try to make them in one area of the park in order to save our feet a little bit of walking. Not that we mind the walking but, at this point in the vacation, we had been gone ten or was it twelve days? Our tootsies were getting a little tired.

So, our next Fastpass was for an attraction that was just around the corner. We were going Under the Sea with Ariel.








Continued in next post​

 

[mickeystoontown]

Planes, Trains and Automobiles Remake continued













I think that attraction is well done and you ain't a true Disney fan if you don't walk away singing "under the sea, under the sea, darling it's better down where it's wetter...."

**Up next: Awww those fish were cute! Let's eat 'em!​

 

[mickeystoontown]

Awww those fish were cute! Let's eat 'em!

So far on this day, we had washed socks, rode a mine train and dove under the sea with a mermaid, octopus and a whole lotta fishies. Where were we headed next? To dine on the fishies!

As I said before, we didn't leave the resort until mid morning so by the time we had done all of the above, we were ready for some sustenance. Columbia Harbor House was not too terribly crowded so in we went.

Good heavens, this picture is blurry!



Let me try that again. Hum, half blurry ('cause there's only half a picture of the plates) Lawd have mercy!



How about a close up? Maybe those pictures would be better. There you go! That's better. We both got the combo meals that came with fish, nuggets and fried shrimp.





With fries and slaw.



Again, at the time of our visit, desserts were included in the Disney Dining Plan. The choices were slim so we both ordered the chocolate cake that had little pearls on top.


Being from a State that prides itself on great seafood, we were not blown away by the food at Columbia Harbor House but it wasn't bad either. We would return again in the future (and did).

**Up next: We have to! It's a classic!​

 

[mickeystoontown]

We have to! It's a Disney classic!

Once we were done with our lunch, we walked around Liberty Square for a while. Looking in the shop near Haunted Mansion and then the Christmas store. From Liberty Square, we took the bridge (that has since undergone a major overhaul and was widened) to Adventureland. We were going to a Disney classic. The Enchanted Tiki Room.

A few years ago, we took the Keys to the Kingdom tour which, by the way, was fabulous. One of the buildings that the tour guide called attention to was The Enchanted Tiki Room building. She pointed out some details about the building and then told us about Walt's vision for this attraction. Not long before the attraction was suppose to open, Walt came to visit with the Imagineers and they showed him the birds who would be "performing" in the show. Walt's critical eye noticed that the chests on the birds didn't move when they sang so he had them go back in and figure out how to make the chests move. He wouldn't approve them until they did. So, next time you are watching the show, pay close attention to the birds when the sing.









This is another one of the classic attractions in my opinion and I hope that they never do a overhaul like they did when it was "under new management" . I do like Zazu but I didn't care for his screaming and the jungle goddess in the volcano was a little on the loud side for my liking.

I took one last picture as we were walking out and I really like it. For a long time, I had this as my phone wallpaper.



**Up next: Who does that? I mean, there's so much more you can do!
​

 

[pwdebbie]

Yay for updates! But last day? That means you are winding up. Whatever will I read?

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yay for updates! But last day? That means you are winding up. Whatever will I read?

I have our Thanksgiving 2018 trip report title ready to go!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Who does that? I mean, there's so much more you can do!

I found two pictures that were out of order and were from our lunch at Columbia Harbor House.





After the Tiki Room, we looked over at Pirates of the Caribbean and it had a short wait so we hopped in line. I took no pictures. Well, I did take one but it's so blurry that I won't even bother to post it. From Adventureland, we decided to stroll down Main Street USA and do a little window shopping. Again, no pictures. We made a stop in Starbucks and John used a snack credit for one of their holiday drinks. And, then we strolled some more. Strolled and looked at the holiday decorations.







At the end of Main Street USA and near one of the shops, we found a checker board and decided to stop and play a game while sipping on John's Starbucks treat. You can see that we are still in our hoodies. There was a light mist in the air and it was on the cool side. As we were playing our game of checkers, I heard a young boy say "Who does that? I mean, there's so much more you can do!" His dad turned and started talking with us. He wanted to know where we were from, how long we had been there, etc. He was saying that he didn't know that Disney had checker boards in the parks. We told him that there were lots of little things that people just passed by without a second thought. Like the checker boards, the silhouette artists and the glass blower. He was very surprised and told his son that they would be looking for them. And then they stood and watched us finish up our game of checkers. I was beating the snot out of John and he had just a few checkers left while I had almost a full board. That's when John made the remark "it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings" to which the guy laughed and watched the game turn until John beat me.


We were done and handed

the board to the dad and son and wished them a good rest of the trip. On this day, I was really slacking on the pictures and most are really bad. I don't know if it was because I was just taking it all in knowing that it was our last day or if I was just having an off picture taking day.





And because I am lacking in pictures, I truly am not sure what we did next.

**Continued in next post​

 

[Steppesister]

All the while he was drying his socks, I thought of the scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles. You know this scene:

LOL!! Hilarious scene!

Walt came to visit with the Imagineers and they showed him the birds who would be "performing" in the show. Walt's critical eye noticed that the chests on the birds didn't move when they sang so he had them go back in and figure out how to make the chests move. He wouldn't approve them until they did. So, next time you are watching the show, pay close attention to the birds when the sing.

That is fascinating! Thanks for sharing that!

 

[mickeystoontown]

What next? The World!

So, as I was saying in the post above, I was slacking on the picture taking on our last day. Either that or I just can't find any pictures that I took. The next set of pictures that I have seem to be taken quite some time after the last set since it was now dark outside.

I seem to recall that we went to Fantasyland and saw Mickey's Philarmagic and who knows what else. Apparently, we worked up a hunger for a snack at Gaston's Tavern. We ordered one of the cinnamon rolls and a milk. It was really busy inside and even outside in the "courtyard" but we found a spot on the concrete ledge near a popcorn vendor and ate our snack.



I do remember what we did next! We took a spin on the teacups! And the reason that I remember (since there are no pictures) is because we laughed like crazy and I kept telling John not to spin it too fast or we'd lose our cinnamon roll and I didn't want to waste a snack credit.

From there, we made our way over to Tomorrowland. I have a couple of super blurry pictures that I tried to take on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. I won't bother posting them here so you'll just have to take my word for it. After Buzz, we took a spin on the People Mover.






The castle always looks so beautiful from the People Mover but even more so when it's sparkling from the tens of thousands of holiday lights.





Insert a gap of time that can not be accounted for. What can be accounted for is coming up in the next update.

**The last supper minus the apostles!



​

 

[mickeystoontown]

The last supper minus the apostles!

For many years, it has been our tradition to have our last supper at The Crystal Palace. Tonight, we would be dining with Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore. Yes, it's a character meal. Yes, we were an adult couple with no kids in tow. So what! ?!?! Crystal Palace here we come!

I checked us in and we waited out on the porch for just a while before our name was called.




When you have a view like this, you don't mind the wait.







We enjoyed the view of Cinderella Castle until our name was called and were then ushered to our table. Our server came almost immediately and took our drink order. The characters were on the other side of the restaurant so we had plenty of time to go to the buffet and still get back to our table for pictures.

I don't know about y'all but I feel a little weird when I take pictures of buffets. I'll take them if there aren't a lot of people right beside me. And, even then, I take them quickly with my phone because I don't want to hold us the line.

If you have read my trip reports, you may remember that the multi grain rolls were my mother's favorite and I may have tucked a few extra rolls into a ziplock bag and took them home to her.



Salads were next on the buffet. There were caesar salads, pasta salad, and traditional salads.



I think the salad in the back was a salad with beans, slivered carrots and broccoli, on the right was a cucumber and onion salad and then in the front was a tomato, greens and onion salad.


Being a Louisiana gal, I wasn't about to pass up the boiled shrimp.

In our experience, Disney buffets are always so clean and the dishes are usually replaced when they start running low.


Continued in next post​

 

[mickeystoontown]

Eeyore can I borrow your bow?

The first character to come to our table was Eeyore. The humidity was doing a number on my hair and I had my bangs twisted back and clipped with a small barrette I found in my wallet. I really could have used Eeyore's bow right about then. Heavens to Betsy, my body proportions are whack from that angle.




At some point, I made another trip to the buffet. They had just placed another dish of mashed potatoes on the buffet. To the right was green beans. I typically don't like beans when I go to a restaurant because they aren't cooked enough for my liking.



The dish below is worth every cent that we pay to eat at The Crystal Palace. That's the fire roasted corn spoon bread and it is delicious!


On the left in the next picture is rice, in the middle is an entree with roasted meat, vegetables and a light gravy and on the right are roasted carrots.

You can see the roasted carrots in the picture below. I believe the next dish was a roasted pork.

A rice based dish and on the right were a pork dumpling.


A hot pasta

Steak fries on the left and salmon on the right.

Various sauces


**Continued in next post​

 

[mickeystoontown]

The last supper minus the apostles!

I know that I took pictures of the buffet but I also took picture of our plates. Looks like I made a stop at the kids' buffet and got a spoon of mac and cheese.






I am going to post the rest of the food pictures before posting the character pictures. The desserts were decorated for the holidays. Brownies.












Continued in next post

​

 

[mickeystoontown]

The last supper minus the apostles!



Oh John, you know that we have to take pictures before you start eating!







It appears that we tried each of the desserts.

Now that I've posted the food pictures, I'll move on to the character interaction. John was gone to the buffet when Tigger came around so I took a really bad selfie.






Tigger came to the table while John was at the buffet and I tried to take a selfie but it turned out really bad so I deleted it.

Once again, our meal at The Crystal Palace was great and well worth a table service credit. I documented the ticket again so that I could use it as a tool for my clients.





If we are friends on Facebook, you know that John writes me notes all the time. Almost every single day. They may be just an I love you or Have a good day but they mean a lot to me. On this evening, he wrote our waitress a note.



Awwww, I love him!

**Up next: I cry. Every. Single. Time!​

 

[rndmr2]

Nice update, Looked like a yummy dinner. LOVE Winnie the Pooh (and Tigger too! ) I actually had a cat named Tigger (he died in 2014). I really wanted to go to Crystal Palace on our last trip but I had gotten a last minute score of an ADR for Ohana so I had to make a choice...

 

[pwdebbie]

Eeek! Nekkid shrimp! They should be covered with Old Bay.

 

[Mommy Poppins]

It's always so tough knowing it's your last day/meal!

 

[DisneyMichele]

I'm really enjoying binge-reading your trip report!! I read it all the last few days and am excited another will be coming after this one we visited the week after Thanksgiving last year and loved seeing all the Christmas decorations too. And the castle with all the lights at night certainly is breathtaking!