LaLa
Hangs with the Mensas
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2005
- Messages
- 2,096
Okay, so this is the trip that almost wasn't.... Back in June we scheduled (and paid for) this trip for October 8-15th. Along came a little bitty called Katrina and rocked our world. Thankfully our home was okay, just a little flooding in the garage. Due to lots of damage to the schools (and everything else) the kids have been out of school since Aug 29. We found out schools were going to start again Oct. 6 sooooo...it was either cancel or push it back. We decided to push it up and went before schools started back. We felt it was the perfect time for a little normalcy and happiness. And open restaurants without limited menus! Boy, did we eat! I hate to say we actually ate so much we almost made ourselves sick. That dining plan is out of this world. Let me back up and say that the cast members for our trip were:
me, 34, self proclaimed Disney freak
DH, 35, just as bad off as I am
DS, 7, loves anything related to Power Rangers or Star Wars
DD, 4, our beautiful blue eyed princess
and friends, newbies no less, with kids the same age as ours.
We stayed at POR and although we all LOVED the grounds (just beautiful) I don't know if we will stay there again simply because of the buses. They were atrocious. Even during the beginning of the week when the parks were pretty empty, the buses were always absolutely PACKED. One night after EMH at Epcot (note to self: never do this again- WAY too crowded- the main reason we came, Soarin and Test Track, were obviously the main reason everybody else came too) we waited in line for a bus forever. We literally watched 6 buses come and go and were finally able to get on the 7th. And we all know how many people they can squish into one of those buses. But the thing was, there was nobody else in line at any of the other resorts. I swear we thought either everybody that came to WDW decided to stay at POR or that every single person staying at POR decided to come to EMH that night and no one else.
Anyway, like I mentioned before, the dining plan was awesome. We paid for ours because we had already booked in June and bought it then, but knowing what I know, I will not go back to Disney without it. The price of the food we ordered versus the price of the package is no comparison. We figured we made our money back within the first couple of days. The places we ate were: Planet Hollywood- loved it, Chef Mickey's for dinner loved it, 1900 Park Fare w/ Cinderella and gang. We had 3 beautiful little Cinderellas and one very studly looking 7 year old boy that when asked by THE Cinderella if he was the prince, proceeded to turn three shades of red and bury his head in his plate
SO cute!!! I called ahead and ordered 2 Cinderella slipper desserts for our families and they were WONDERFUL! I have a before and after picture of DD with the plate that I will try to post along with some other pics once I figure out how. I went to the buffet for something and DH informed me when I returned that DD was trying to lick the chocolate castle imprint off the plate while I was gone. 
We also ate at BOMA (out of this world, as always), Sci Fi for lunch ( our waiter, Mick, I think was his name, was hilarious with DS. He didn't like his green beans and Mick kept trying to "persuade" him to eat them. He even fed him using the "Airplane method". Kept calling DS Scooter. He'd just walk by and say "Scooter, green beans." Kinda reminded me of Jack Black. He was really funny and the all the kids just died laughing everytime he walked by. Really good meal. We ate at Boatwright's one night. It was okay. The cornbread was really good. We did Biergarten for lunch one day and we all LOVED this place. The food was awesome and the entertainment was great. We timed it perfectly because by the time the show started, we were eating dessert. The kids got up and danced the chicken dance and literally stayed on the dance floor for the rest of the show. We also ate lunch at Chefs de France one day. Although this restaurant was really beautiful, it was probably my least favorite meal there. I just felt sick the rest of the day. Anyway, we also did the Fantasmic Dining Package at Mama Melrose, which was also out of this world. Fantasmic was pretty cool. This was the first time we saw it and I was really excited and just ready to be blown away from all the comments from guide books, etc and although I liked it and am glad we went to see it, I probably would not wait to see it again without the reserved seating from the Dining Package. IMHO, Illuminations just cannot be topped. It seems even better this year. Bar none, I believe it is the best nightime show in the parks. Don't miss it. Grab a funnel cake and a seat and wait to be amazed. One of the coolest parts is when all of the torches around the lake are all "blown out" at once. So cool. Our best meal during our 9 day trip was Kona Cafe, hands down. It was the longest wait, but it was definitely worth it. Everything was SOOO good. After that we caught the monorail and headed to Magic Kingdom for EMH. We really liked it. We were able to ride lots of rides with hardly any wait. Space Mountain, Baby. DD is a little roller coaster junkie and her absolute favorite rides are Thunder Mountain, Test Track and Goofy's Barnstormer, so we have to ride those over and over. Not that we mind.
Our last night, we did the Princess Storybook Dinner in Norway before catching the monorail back over to the MK for MNSSHP. Let me take back what I said earlier about France. I think this was our least favorite meal. The food just was not up our alley. Now, we have eaten in Norway in the past when it was strictly a sit down restaurant and not a princess hangout and we loved it then. Don't know what's up with the food now, but it was not very good. However, it was worth the 4 table service credits just to get that beautiful picture of DD decked out in her Belle gown with the "real Belle" . I just wish she would fix herself up a little more and wear her yellow gown instead of that blue and white number! DS decided not to turn into Anakin Skywalker until after our meal. Wouldn't want to draw any extra attention from those Princesses. After all, they are GIRLS
Belle was very sweet with DD, as was Sleeping Beauty and Jasmine. Alice asked DD if the beast gave her the rose she was carrying. After DD clammed up and wouldn't answer, I attempted a joke, telling her that no, it was actually from Wal Mart. She cut her eyes at me and informed me that the Beast did not come from Wal Mart and was this some far off distant kingdom I was referring to? Yeah, whatever. They all took their pic with Ariel at the beginning as she didn't make it around to the tables. You know with the new legs and all...
So then we all made our way back over to the MK for the first night of MNSSHP. We just love this party. It was pretty crowded but the lines for the rides were almost nonexistent. We rode lots of rides. The kids loved Stitch. By the way, when they say no picture taking during Stitch, believe them. Do not attempt to take a picture of the cool little robot in the beginning, even if you have already carefully turned off your flash. They will catch you. They will interrupt and they will say, "MAAM, I"M GOING TO NEED FOR YOU TO PUT THE CAMERA AWAY!" They will say it very loudly and everyone will turn to look at you. Your husband will act like he knows you not. Just a little heads up.
I was finally able to get a decent score on Buzz Lightyear about the third trip through because I had already taken enough video and photos on previous trips. Me and the camera again. By the way, you can take all the pictures you want on Buzz without the Camera Police calling you out.
One thing I have to say about MGM- DS just HAD to see the Power Rangers. So we go to New York Street or whatever it's called 15 minutes prior to the time they are supposed to show up. We find out where they will be signing autographs and hang out on the corner like we are told. As soon as we see the little vehicle carrying the Power Rangers around, we were literally inundated with adults pushing and fighting to get in front of us in line. I thought I was gonna have to break out some Power Ranger moves of my own just to keep my son first in line. The cast members and the Rangers themselves were really good about informing people that we were indeed first in line and that they would need to go to the back of the line. I have never seen grown people act like this about any other character. Not Mickey, not Minnie, none of them. I mean, mothers were yelling at castmembers, there were dads butting in line left and right. Complete madness. I didn't see people that crazy after the hurricane when we had to wait in line for three hours for the only water and ice in town.
We had to use one of the First Aid stations at AK one day because DD had a infected blister from her water shoes a couple of days before at Typhoon Lagoon. These stations are great. Just like a regular doctor's office. Should any medical emergency come up at any of the parks, make your way to one of these places. They will take good care of you. There was a RN there and an EMT. They gave us some medicine to take home and put on her foot and wrapped it up for us. It cleared up really quickly after that and we are glad we went when we did.
By the way, Typhoon Lagoon...Crush and Gusher was AWESOME!!! We went on the tallest one, The Banana Blaster. DH and I laughed the whole way down. It's like Thunder Mountain on water. Anyway, the crowds that week were really not that bad until the start of MNSSHP and Food and Wine Festival. The heat was pretty bad. It felt more like July to me.
All in all, our trip was great and a much needed break from reality. We can't wait to go back. DD told me the other day "Mommy, I miss Disneyworld." I had to say " Me too, Baby. Me too."
me, 34, self proclaimed Disney freak
DH, 35, just as bad off as I am
DS, 7, loves anything related to Power Rangers or Star Wars
DD, 4, our beautiful blue eyed princess
and friends, newbies no less, with kids the same age as ours.
We stayed at POR and although we all LOVED the grounds (just beautiful) I don't know if we will stay there again simply because of the buses. They were atrocious. Even during the beginning of the week when the parks were pretty empty, the buses were always absolutely PACKED. One night after EMH at Epcot (note to self: never do this again- WAY too crowded- the main reason we came, Soarin and Test Track, were obviously the main reason everybody else came too) we waited in line for a bus forever. We literally watched 6 buses come and go and were finally able to get on the 7th. And we all know how many people they can squish into one of those buses. But the thing was, there was nobody else in line at any of the other resorts. I swear we thought either everybody that came to WDW decided to stay at POR or that every single person staying at POR decided to come to EMH that night and no one else.
Anyway, like I mentioned before, the dining plan was awesome. We paid for ours because we had already booked in June and bought it then, but knowing what I know, I will not go back to Disney without it. The price of the food we ordered versus the price of the package is no comparison. We figured we made our money back within the first couple of days. The places we ate were: Planet Hollywood- loved it, Chef Mickey's for dinner loved it, 1900 Park Fare w/ Cinderella and gang. We had 3 beautiful little Cinderellas and one very studly looking 7 year old boy that when asked by THE Cinderella if he was the prince, proceeded to turn three shades of red and bury his head in his plate
SO cute!!! I called ahead and ordered 2 Cinderella slipper desserts for our families and they were WONDERFUL! I have a before and after picture of DD with the plate that I will try to post along with some other pics once I figure out how. I went to the buffet for something and DH informed me when I returned that DD was trying to lick the chocolate castle imprint off the plate while I was gone. We also ate at BOMA (out of this world, as always), Sci Fi for lunch ( our waiter, Mick, I think was his name, was hilarious with DS. He didn't like his green beans and Mick kept trying to "persuade" him to eat them. He even fed him using the "Airplane method". Kept calling DS Scooter. He'd just walk by and say "Scooter, green beans." Kinda reminded me of Jack Black. He was really funny and the all the kids just died laughing everytime he walked by. Really good meal. We ate at Boatwright's one night. It was okay. The cornbread was really good. We did Biergarten for lunch one day and we all LOVED this place. The food was awesome and the entertainment was great. We timed it perfectly because by the time the show started, we were eating dessert. The kids got up and danced the chicken dance and literally stayed on the dance floor for the rest of the show. We also ate lunch at Chefs de France one day. Although this restaurant was really beautiful, it was probably my least favorite meal there. I just felt sick the rest of the day. Anyway, we also did the Fantasmic Dining Package at Mama Melrose, which was also out of this world. Fantasmic was pretty cool. This was the first time we saw it and I was really excited and just ready to be blown away from all the comments from guide books, etc and although I liked it and am glad we went to see it, I probably would not wait to see it again without the reserved seating from the Dining Package. IMHO, Illuminations just cannot be topped. It seems even better this year. Bar none, I believe it is the best nightime show in the parks. Don't miss it. Grab a funnel cake and a seat and wait to be amazed. One of the coolest parts is when all of the torches around the lake are all "blown out" at once. So cool. Our best meal during our 9 day trip was Kona Cafe, hands down. It was the longest wait, but it was definitely worth it. Everything was SOOO good. After that we caught the monorail and headed to Magic Kingdom for EMH. We really liked it. We were able to ride lots of rides with hardly any wait. Space Mountain, Baby. DD is a little roller coaster junkie and her absolute favorite rides are Thunder Mountain, Test Track and Goofy's Barnstormer, so we have to ride those over and over. Not that we mind.
Our last night, we did the Princess Storybook Dinner in Norway before catching the monorail back over to the MK for MNSSHP. Let me take back what I said earlier about France. I think this was our least favorite meal. The food just was not up our alley. Now, we have eaten in Norway in the past when it was strictly a sit down restaurant and not a princess hangout and we loved it then. Don't know what's up with the food now, but it was not very good. However, it was worth the 4 table service credits just to get that beautiful picture of DD decked out in her Belle gown with the "real Belle" . I just wish she would fix herself up a little more and wear her yellow gown instead of that blue and white number! DS decided not to turn into Anakin Skywalker until after our meal. Wouldn't want to draw any extra attention from those Princesses. After all, they are GIRLS
Belle was very sweet with DD, as was Sleeping Beauty and Jasmine. Alice asked DD if the beast gave her the rose she was carrying. After DD clammed up and wouldn't answer, I attempted a joke, telling her that no, it was actually from Wal Mart. She cut her eyes at me and informed me that the Beast did not come from Wal Mart and was this some far off distant kingdom I was referring to? Yeah, whatever. They all took their pic with Ariel at the beginning as she didn't make it around to the tables. You know with the new legs and all...So then we all made our way back over to the MK for the first night of MNSSHP. We just love this party. It was pretty crowded but the lines for the rides were almost nonexistent. We rode lots of rides. The kids loved Stitch. By the way, when they say no picture taking during Stitch, believe them. Do not attempt to take a picture of the cool little robot in the beginning, even if you have already carefully turned off your flash. They will catch you. They will interrupt and they will say, "MAAM, I"M GOING TO NEED FOR YOU TO PUT THE CAMERA AWAY!" They will say it very loudly and everyone will turn to look at you. Your husband will act like he knows you not. Just a little heads up.
I was finally able to get a decent score on Buzz Lightyear about the third trip through because I had already taken enough video and photos on previous trips. Me and the camera again. By the way, you can take all the pictures you want on Buzz without the Camera Police calling you out.
One thing I have to say about MGM- DS just HAD to see the Power Rangers. So we go to New York Street or whatever it's called 15 minutes prior to the time they are supposed to show up. We find out where they will be signing autographs and hang out on the corner like we are told. As soon as we see the little vehicle carrying the Power Rangers around, we were literally inundated with adults pushing and fighting to get in front of us in line. I thought I was gonna have to break out some Power Ranger moves of my own just to keep my son first in line. The cast members and the Rangers themselves were really good about informing people that we were indeed first in line and that they would need to go to the back of the line. I have never seen grown people act like this about any other character. Not Mickey, not Minnie, none of them. I mean, mothers were yelling at castmembers, there were dads butting in line left and right. Complete madness. I didn't see people that crazy after the hurricane when we had to wait in line for three hours for the only water and ice in town.
We had to use one of the First Aid stations at AK one day because DD had a infected blister from her water shoes a couple of days before at Typhoon Lagoon. These stations are great. Just like a regular doctor's office. Should any medical emergency come up at any of the parks, make your way to one of these places. They will take good care of you. There was a RN there and an EMT. They gave us some medicine to take home and put on her foot and wrapped it up for us. It cleared up really quickly after that and we are glad we went when we did.
By the way, Typhoon Lagoon...Crush and Gusher was AWESOME!!! We went on the tallest one, The Banana Blaster. DH and I laughed the whole way down. It's like Thunder Mountain on water. Anyway, the crowds that week were really not that bad until the start of MNSSHP and Food and Wine Festival. The heat was pretty bad. It felt more like July to me.
All in all, our trip was great and a much needed break from reality. We can't wait to go back. DD told me the other day "Mommy, I miss Disneyworld." I had to say " Me too, Baby. Me too."
