Belle Amy
There's no place I can be, since I found Serenity.
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2005
- Messages
- 399
This will be my first attempt at a trip report, after reading the amazing reports from Vettechick, 1000happyhaunts, and ZZUB, and being inspired to write one of my own. Hopefully I can entertain and make some people smile, just like these prose masters have managed to do...
Cast of Characters
Me, Amy, 24, Disney-a-holic, annual passholder, seasoned drinker, would do just about anything for a chance to drink around Epcot...even view The Making of Me repeatedly (RIP outdated film)
My Fiance, Brian, 27, the man who made this monster, annual passholder, seasoned drinker, would cut off his own arm if promised a Star Wars-esque mechanical prosthetic arm...
We live about 45 minutes away from the park, and for the last year we have been annual passholders, and could not be happier than when we are in a park, people watching, and having a couple beers.
I had only been to Disney twice before I met Brian three years ago. I had no clue the wonder that was Disney. In our three years together we have had many Disney trips, and in the past year we've gone as many days as possible. Brian knows he has created this Disney monster, and the Disboards have added to my obsession, because now I know I'm not the only one in the world that thinks about Disney constantly!! (Last week, I was on my laptop and Brian's laptop at the same time, on four different Disboards threads. It's sooooo addicting!!!)
We are very spontanious. This trip was planned last moment, during the previous week. Brian called me from work to discuss our possibilities...
"We can either get a hotel for Saturday night, which will be very last minute....or we could book a nice dinner somewhere and go on a shopping spree." Brian laid out my choices...I always make the final decision, whether I like it or not....but I can never say that I don't have a choice.
I chose dinner and spending a fortune on Disney merchandise....and beer. There will always be beer.
I called and was fortunate enough to get in Narcoossee's on Saturday night. I've been looking forward to eating at Narcoossee's and was glad to finally be able to put to rest the fear brought on by the varying opinions on the Disboards.
We made plans to leave for Disney midday on Saturday, as Brian had some things to finish up at work. We decided to visit MGM, as by far this is our favorite park. We are addicted to Who wants to be a millionaire and the Disney Animation Studio and attend these things every time we go to the park. This time, however, was different, because we had a shopping spree to attend to....
Making our way into the park, we noticed how empty the parking lot seemed. We've been to MGM more than any other park and can judge pretty well the crowd level by the parking lot. We felt like we were by ourselves!
Our first order of business was beer. Really, we're rather obsessed with having a beer in hand at the parks (Magic Kingdom aside of course.) We decided our route of attack and wanted to get something small to eat. Our big dinner was hours away, and neither of us had eaten yet. We decided on Flatbread Grill, right between the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area and the Backlot Tour.
Before we made it to the food, we passed Star Tours. This is our kryptonite. Have I mentioned Brian is a big Star Wars fan? We cannot pass Tattooine Traders without going in, and with the pending shopping spree hanging in the air, we had no choice.
On this particular day, even though we had gotten dressed completely independantly of each other, we were both wearing Star Wars t-shirts. This never fails to make me feel like a dork on a regular day, but because we were at MGM, it was a little more acceptable.
So we followed our wallet (or his wallet, as it stands) and came out with even more Star Wars shirts to select from when we decide to match.
Onward to food and beer.
We both ordered the Chicken Ceaser Wrap and two large Bud Lights. I struggled between Bud Light and Sangria, but was happy with my choice when the person in front of me was served this tiny glass of Sangria on ice. Bigger is always better.
As an aside here, I'd like to say that I have a big pet peeve about some tourists at Disney. I don't think I will offend anyone on the DisBoards by saying that I hate it when people are not prepared for the parks. I think it is a prerequisite on here to be a overplanner and I certainly like to be prepared for anything new and this is the place to ask questions and be ready for anything. My issue is with people that come to Disney without reading any book, looking at any website, doing any research whatsoever. Especially if you only have a certain amount of time in each park, you have to be prepared for what rides draw the most lines at what time of the day, how to move through lines quickly and efficiently, what times are best to eat, etc. It bothers me. Don't judge. End rant.
The reason I bring this up is because while we were in line at Flatbread Grill, people formed a line on one side of the cashier podium. Lines form on both sides and the cashiers go back and forth between lines. We certainly don't intend to jump in front of people, but the lines happened to be forming far enough back that people could not easily move by behind us. So we started the second line on the opposite side of the podium. This caused the couple at the end of the other line to start making rude comments. Which caused us to not allow them to order before us, which was what we were going to do anyway. See, being rude at Disney never helps anything.
Back to the fun....
We finished our beers as we ate and decided to forgo the line at Flatbread Grill and head straight to the Backlot Canteen to get more beer. Unfortunately the line was also long here, as the day was hot and they also served icee type drinks for kids. The dedicated alcoholics in the line began complaining about the non-alcoholic selections of the people in line in front of us. We suggested to the omnipresent Disney gods seperate lines for non-alcoholic beverages. Anything to appease the drunken masses. But then, when drinkers are without the sweet nectar on which they thrive, no suggestion is too far fetched... Two Yuenglings later...
We headed past Who wants to be a millionaire, stopping briefly at the bathroom just past it (yep, I broke the seal early on...) and on to the Sorcerer's Hat to check out some pins. By this point it was Brian's turn to use the facilities and while I waited I took some pictures.
Next, we headed over to Min and Bill's Dockside Diner to get some more beers. Brian confused the Cast Member selling the beer by tipping her. Apparently it's ok to tip the barman at Backlot Canteen, but a couple bucks at the Dockside Diner gets thrown back in our direction. Who knows.
It was almost time for the parade, so we decided to hang out until it started. While we waited, we played with our new cell phones (which I took all of these pictures on) downloading new ringers. During my search for ringtones, I found an entire section with Star Wars sounds. During the next fifteen minutes, we downloaded every Star Wars sound and set them as our new ringers. Have I mentioned what Star Wars buffs we are?
We found a perfect spot for the parade and I started filming it with my cell phone. Let me preface this by saying that I recorded the entire parade and then the next day accidentally erased it from my new phone. It will be painful to recount what happened because I no longer have it on my phone, but I'll get through somehow....
First, I sounded ridiculous. I transformed into this high pitched, over excited moron, screaming at every character and yelling "yea!" everytime someone I liked rode by. It became grating to my nerves when I was watching it. I named every character that I could, sometimes misnaming them, like yelling "Dora the explorer" when JoJo's circus walked by....I don't have kids, I get them confused...maybe one day I will know the joy of JoJo's Circus, once my children decide they must watch it over and over until I want to scream. Until then, I won't remember the difference...
The best part was when Brian, who is six inches taller than me, spotted R2-D2 over the heads of the people next to us. His excited voice could be heard, asking me repeatedly if I got R2 on video. When R2 stopped feet from us and turned around and beeped, Brian was in Star Wars heaven.
Behind R2, sitting in a car, was Leia and Luke. Brian, if given the option, would fall to the darkside immediately, and has loathed Luke since he was a small child. I won't repeat what he really calls Luke every time he sees him, but it's a deep contemplation of which team Luke bats for, if you know what I mean.
Behind Luke and Leia paced Vader, the badest mofo in the galaxy. This is the only picture we managed to get, aside from the now deleted video.
The rest of the parade participants: (in no particular order) the Muppets, Ariel, Mulan, Toy Story characters, Disney Playhouse, Snow White, and finally Mickey and Minnie....
After the parade, we bought another beer from Dockside Diner and started wandering the stores on Hollywood Blvd. We found numerous items that I wanted, but decided to wait until the following day to make our purchases....we wanted to be able to go all out for dinner at Narcoossee's!
We did see these cute outfits for Pal Mickey which I loved!!!
After leaving the park, we decided to head over to the Yacht Club to hang out before our reservation at Narcoossee's. We walked around the quiet pool by the tennis courts and listened to an older gentleman complain that the hot tub wasn't hot enough and bought more stuff from the Yacht Club gift shop.
Picture by the quiet pool...
Captain Mickey in the Yacht Club gift shop...
Finally we headed to the Grand Floridian. Let me just say that self parking at that resort is INSANELY far from the main entrance. I'm not real fond of allowing someone else drive my vehicle, but I think next time I'll opt for valet, cause yes, I am that lazy...
Couple of pics outside Grand Floridian.
We walked through the gift shop, trying to waste time before our ADR at 8:20pm. We decided to go ahead and check in, figuring we could sit at the bar and wait if we had to. We checked in about a half an hour early and meandered up to the bar. The bar is the cutest thing, with the bartenders sunk down about 3 feet. The chairs are short, only about 3 ft off the ground and when you sit at the bar only then are you face to face with the bartenders. We ordered two Corona's with limes and I proceeded to spray anyone in the general vicinity when I attempted to push the lime in the bottle and mix it. Always against Brian's advice on how to properly and safely insert the lime, I jam and squeeze until I have taken out the eyesight of everyone around me with the citric acid. I'll never learn.
About one sip into our Corona's, the thing signaling when our table was ready began going off. I was shocked and left Brian to pay while I went to the hostess podium. On my way down the ramp, I ran into an elderly CM asking if I was Ms. Amy. Amazed by how fast and impressively attentive this place already was, I nodded and was asked to follow to our table.
We had an amazing dinner, some of which I took pictures of, others I forgot to snap before I dug in. I had the filet minion and Brian had the surf and turf. During dinner, we looked out the window at the castle, watching it change colors and getting all sappy to be able to share this with each other. We were in the second row of tables on the first level and every time we looked at the castle, the girl closest to the windows would seem to take offense as though we were staring at her. It wasn't until we made some severe hand gestures towards the castle that she realized that we weren't, in fact, staring at her, but at the much more impressive view behind her....grrr...I love when people assume things only to make themselves look foolish...
Because we were seated early, we were about an hour early for Wishes. We decided not to wait around for the fireworks, because our full tummies and the couple beers we had hours before were making us incredibly tired and we still had a drive ahead of us.
Before we left though, we had a long talk with our waiter Tom, who was amazing. We've been considering a Disney wedding, and Tom had himself been married at Disney 9 years ago. He was a wealth of information and even gave us the managers number to set up private parties. We were so happy to have such an attentative waiter.....
We had an amazing Saturday and couldn't wait to come back Sunday....
Where will we spend our money?
How many beers will we consume?
How addicted to sushi am I?
What is Pocky and how does it taste?
The answers to this and some prerequisite pictures of us in sombreros in Mexico, in the next post!!!
Cast of Characters
Me, Amy, 24, Disney-a-holic, annual passholder, seasoned drinker, would do just about anything for a chance to drink around Epcot...even view The Making of Me repeatedly (RIP outdated film)
My Fiance, Brian, 27, the man who made this monster, annual passholder, seasoned drinker, would cut off his own arm if promised a Star Wars-esque mechanical prosthetic arm...
We live about 45 minutes away from the park, and for the last year we have been annual passholders, and could not be happier than when we are in a park, people watching, and having a couple beers.
I had only been to Disney twice before I met Brian three years ago. I had no clue the wonder that was Disney. In our three years together we have had many Disney trips, and in the past year we've gone as many days as possible. Brian knows he has created this Disney monster, and the Disboards have added to my obsession, because now I know I'm not the only one in the world that thinks about Disney constantly!! (Last week, I was on my laptop and Brian's laptop at the same time, on four different Disboards threads. It's sooooo addicting!!!)
We are very spontanious. This trip was planned last moment, during the previous week. Brian called me from work to discuss our possibilities...
"We can either get a hotel for Saturday night, which will be very last minute....or we could book a nice dinner somewhere and go on a shopping spree." Brian laid out my choices...I always make the final decision, whether I like it or not....but I can never say that I don't have a choice.
I chose dinner and spending a fortune on Disney merchandise....and beer. There will always be beer.
I called and was fortunate enough to get in Narcoossee's on Saturday night. I've been looking forward to eating at Narcoossee's and was glad to finally be able to put to rest the fear brought on by the varying opinions on the Disboards.
We made plans to leave for Disney midday on Saturday, as Brian had some things to finish up at work. We decided to visit MGM, as by far this is our favorite park. We are addicted to Who wants to be a millionaire and the Disney Animation Studio and attend these things every time we go to the park. This time, however, was different, because we had a shopping spree to attend to....
Making our way into the park, we noticed how empty the parking lot seemed. We've been to MGM more than any other park and can judge pretty well the crowd level by the parking lot. We felt like we were by ourselves!
Our first order of business was beer. Really, we're rather obsessed with having a beer in hand at the parks (Magic Kingdom aside of course.) We decided our route of attack and wanted to get something small to eat. Our big dinner was hours away, and neither of us had eaten yet. We decided on Flatbread Grill, right between the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area and the Backlot Tour.
Before we made it to the food, we passed Star Tours. This is our kryptonite. Have I mentioned Brian is a big Star Wars fan? We cannot pass Tattooine Traders without going in, and with the pending shopping spree hanging in the air, we had no choice.
On this particular day, even though we had gotten dressed completely independantly of each other, we were both wearing Star Wars t-shirts. This never fails to make me feel like a dork on a regular day, but because we were at MGM, it was a little more acceptable.
So we followed our wallet (or his wallet, as it stands) and came out with even more Star Wars shirts to select from when we decide to match.
Onward to food and beer.
We both ordered the Chicken Ceaser Wrap and two large Bud Lights. I struggled between Bud Light and Sangria, but was happy with my choice when the person in front of me was served this tiny glass of Sangria on ice. Bigger is always better.
As an aside here, I'd like to say that I have a big pet peeve about some tourists at Disney. I don't think I will offend anyone on the DisBoards by saying that I hate it when people are not prepared for the parks. I think it is a prerequisite on here to be a overplanner and I certainly like to be prepared for anything new and this is the place to ask questions and be ready for anything. My issue is with people that come to Disney without reading any book, looking at any website, doing any research whatsoever. Especially if you only have a certain amount of time in each park, you have to be prepared for what rides draw the most lines at what time of the day, how to move through lines quickly and efficiently, what times are best to eat, etc. It bothers me. Don't judge. End rant.
The reason I bring this up is because while we were in line at Flatbread Grill, people formed a line on one side of the cashier podium. Lines form on both sides and the cashiers go back and forth between lines. We certainly don't intend to jump in front of people, but the lines happened to be forming far enough back that people could not easily move by behind us. So we started the second line on the opposite side of the podium. This caused the couple at the end of the other line to start making rude comments. Which caused us to not allow them to order before us, which was what we were going to do anyway. See, being rude at Disney never helps anything.
Back to the fun....
We finished our beers as we ate and decided to forgo the line at Flatbread Grill and head straight to the Backlot Canteen to get more beer. Unfortunately the line was also long here, as the day was hot and they also served icee type drinks for kids. The dedicated alcoholics in the line began complaining about the non-alcoholic selections of the people in line in front of us. We suggested to the omnipresent Disney gods seperate lines for non-alcoholic beverages. Anything to appease the drunken masses. But then, when drinkers are without the sweet nectar on which they thrive, no suggestion is too far fetched... Two Yuenglings later...
We headed past Who wants to be a millionaire, stopping briefly at the bathroom just past it (yep, I broke the seal early on...) and on to the Sorcerer's Hat to check out some pins. By this point it was Brian's turn to use the facilities and while I waited I took some pictures.
Next, we headed over to Min and Bill's Dockside Diner to get some more beers. Brian confused the Cast Member selling the beer by tipping her. Apparently it's ok to tip the barman at Backlot Canteen, but a couple bucks at the Dockside Diner gets thrown back in our direction. Who knows.
It was almost time for the parade, so we decided to hang out until it started. While we waited, we played with our new cell phones (which I took all of these pictures on) downloading new ringers. During my search for ringtones, I found an entire section with Star Wars sounds. During the next fifteen minutes, we downloaded every Star Wars sound and set them as our new ringers. Have I mentioned what Star Wars buffs we are?
We found a perfect spot for the parade and I started filming it with my cell phone. Let me preface this by saying that I recorded the entire parade and then the next day accidentally erased it from my new phone. It will be painful to recount what happened because I no longer have it on my phone, but I'll get through somehow....
First, I sounded ridiculous. I transformed into this high pitched, over excited moron, screaming at every character and yelling "yea!" everytime someone I liked rode by. It became grating to my nerves when I was watching it. I named every character that I could, sometimes misnaming them, like yelling "Dora the explorer" when JoJo's circus walked by....I don't have kids, I get them confused...maybe one day I will know the joy of JoJo's Circus, once my children decide they must watch it over and over until I want to scream. Until then, I won't remember the difference...
The best part was when Brian, who is six inches taller than me, spotted R2-D2 over the heads of the people next to us. His excited voice could be heard, asking me repeatedly if I got R2 on video. When R2 stopped feet from us and turned around and beeped, Brian was in Star Wars heaven.
Behind R2, sitting in a car, was Leia and Luke. Brian, if given the option, would fall to the darkside immediately, and has loathed Luke since he was a small child. I won't repeat what he really calls Luke every time he sees him, but it's a deep contemplation of which team Luke bats for, if you know what I mean.
Behind Luke and Leia paced Vader, the badest mofo in the galaxy. This is the only picture we managed to get, aside from the now deleted video.
The rest of the parade participants: (in no particular order) the Muppets, Ariel, Mulan, Toy Story characters, Disney Playhouse, Snow White, and finally Mickey and Minnie....
After the parade, we bought another beer from Dockside Diner and started wandering the stores on Hollywood Blvd. We found numerous items that I wanted, but decided to wait until the following day to make our purchases....we wanted to be able to go all out for dinner at Narcoossee's!
We did see these cute outfits for Pal Mickey which I loved!!!
After leaving the park, we decided to head over to the Yacht Club to hang out before our reservation at Narcoossee's. We walked around the quiet pool by the tennis courts and listened to an older gentleman complain that the hot tub wasn't hot enough and bought more stuff from the Yacht Club gift shop.
Picture by the quiet pool...
Captain Mickey in the Yacht Club gift shop...
Finally we headed to the Grand Floridian. Let me just say that self parking at that resort is INSANELY far from the main entrance. I'm not real fond of allowing someone else drive my vehicle, but I think next time I'll opt for valet, cause yes, I am that lazy...
Couple of pics outside Grand Floridian.
We walked through the gift shop, trying to waste time before our ADR at 8:20pm. We decided to go ahead and check in, figuring we could sit at the bar and wait if we had to. We checked in about a half an hour early and meandered up to the bar. The bar is the cutest thing, with the bartenders sunk down about 3 feet. The chairs are short, only about 3 ft off the ground and when you sit at the bar only then are you face to face with the bartenders. We ordered two Corona's with limes and I proceeded to spray anyone in the general vicinity when I attempted to push the lime in the bottle and mix it. Always against Brian's advice on how to properly and safely insert the lime, I jam and squeeze until I have taken out the eyesight of everyone around me with the citric acid. I'll never learn.
About one sip into our Corona's, the thing signaling when our table was ready began going off. I was shocked and left Brian to pay while I went to the hostess podium. On my way down the ramp, I ran into an elderly CM asking if I was Ms. Amy. Amazed by how fast and impressively attentive this place already was, I nodded and was asked to follow to our table.
We had an amazing dinner, some of which I took pictures of, others I forgot to snap before I dug in. I had the filet minion and Brian had the surf and turf. During dinner, we looked out the window at the castle, watching it change colors and getting all sappy to be able to share this with each other. We were in the second row of tables on the first level and every time we looked at the castle, the girl closest to the windows would seem to take offense as though we were staring at her. It wasn't until we made some severe hand gestures towards the castle that she realized that we weren't, in fact, staring at her, but at the much more impressive view behind her....grrr...I love when people assume things only to make themselves look foolish...
Because we were seated early, we were about an hour early for Wishes. We decided not to wait around for the fireworks, because our full tummies and the couple beers we had hours before were making us incredibly tired and we still had a drive ahead of us.
Before we left though, we had a long talk with our waiter Tom, who was amazing. We've been considering a Disney wedding, and Tom had himself been married at Disney 9 years ago. He was a wealth of information and even gave us the managers number to set up private parties. We were so happy to have such an attentative waiter.....
We had an amazing Saturday and couldn't wait to come back Sunday....
Where will we spend our money?
How many beers will we consume?
How addicted to sushi am I?
What is Pocky and how does it taste?
The answers to this and some prerequisite pictures of us in sombreros in Mexico, in the next post!!!
