Disney: Delicious innards on a sandwich of Panic! A Sept. '11 TR [Completed; Feb. 28]

[teekathepony]

So I was a little fuzzy on last post's Magic Kingdom day but I talked it out with Johnny and figured out most of the rest of it.

First -- a quick backtrack. When we did the jungle cruise, we next did the Enchanted Tiki Room. This is another one I hadn't done since I was 5. Never saw it under new management (not complaining!) It was here that my in-laws went a separate way. I thought the tiki room was appropriately terrible and we moved on to the Haunted Mansion where we accidentally met up with the in-laws! How does that even happen in Disney?

Ok so, HM, then we all went to Tomorrowland, did Buzz and Monsters. Inc.

At this point, it was nearly time for our late lunch/early dinner at Tony's Town Square, so that's where I will start.

Chapter 16: Attenzione! Attenzione!

We had time for one last ride before our dinner so we all decided on Stitch. I hate that ride so much but figured I could handle it. I showed everyone how to stop the shoulder harness before it came too close so no one's shoulders got squashed. Once again I hated that ride, but at least I can say I did it.

We headed down Main St. and checked in at Tony's Town Square. My MIL was excited as she loves Lady and the Tramp. It took a little while to get seated, but we had snagged some benches and were watching the movie.

We had a nice seat and it was fairly quiet. I ordered Chicken Parmigiana and I honestly can't remember what anyone else got! Much pasta, that I know. It was quite good, I remember the breading on the chicken was nice. I got the tiramisu for dessert. Nothing compares to authentic Venetian tiramisu though, so I thought it was just fair. I did love the designs in cocoa on the plate.

On our way into the restaurant we had seen the times to meet Mickey -- only a 5 minute wait! So while the others paid for the meal, I ran to the locker to grab my camera. I came back and we were discussing the plan for the rest of the day. The in-laws were exhausted and headed back to the hotel room for the day. Us young'uns ran to meet Mickey Mouse!

The only other people in the building were off to see the Princesses:

But not us! We were out to see a mouse. We got a pleasant surprise, and met two!

After returning my camera to the locker, we decided to do some hard core shopping. We went into every Main St. shop and looked at every item on every shelf. We got some great things too. I got a wallet that I love and my mother's birthday gift too! We had everything sent back to our rooms.

Next we headed toward Fantasyland. We did it's a small world together:

Then on to the Mad Tea Party!

At this point we decided to part ways again. Melissa and Ron headed to Space Mountain, and Johnny and I headed to Dumbo! I've never done it before. So we waited in the ridiculously long, slow moving line, surrounded by screeching kids and when we finally got there, squeezed into a dumbo, got around once and the ride broke. Can you believe that!? So we were given a fastpass to use on any ride we wanted that day in MK. Ahh well, I wanted to see the fantasy land expansion!

We must have wandered around a little bit, because next in line we have these PP pics:

Bloody crane!

We decided to take our fastpasses and go to Buzz again. The standby line was short, and the fastpass line was a walk on! Once again Johnny kicked my patootie.

We came out of Buzz and looked around for something else to do that we hadn't done yet. Astro Orbiter! I've never done it before!

It was a long, long wait. I think everyone who couldn't ride Dumbo came to AO. But when we got up there I was surprised at how fast it was! I could barely get a look at the expansion. But we had fun.

It was getting close to 8:00pm by this point, and that was our arranged meeting time with M&R, by the locker. We ducked into Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe and had some chicken fingers and fries. We were cutting it close and I had figured that we would just make it on time, but hadn't accounted for the parade that was almost about to start! The streets were jam packed and we couldn't get through! By weaving through the shops, we managed to get to our meet only 10 minutes late.

I retrieved my camera, returned my locker key and we once again (to avoid the parade watchers) hopped on the train.

We got off in Frontierland again.

"We can either camp in a good fireworks spot now and stay there until they start, or we can ride one more ride and then catch a spot wherever we can. You guys pick" I said to M&R, for whom this was their last night.

They looked at each other and then back to me,
"One more ride!" They said

We took a quick vote and decided unanimously on Splash Mountain.

This was the most fun I've ever had in MK. Like children we ran through the completely empty queue. We got to the end and on the ride in no time. I love love love this ride in the dark. We decided to do a funny picture at the drop. Despite the complete darkness, Melissa, Johnny and I put our sunglasses back on. Ron, who had none, put his hat on sideways. We all did the double guns and wore silly looks on our faces. (Melissa and I did the Duckface!) We giggled the whole way through the ride and when it came to the top of the drop we saw the whole of Magic Kingdom lit up. The parade was twisting its way through and it felt like we hovered there forever. We put on our silly faces, flash and drop! We got a little wet, but not too bad. We ran to the picture pick up and were rolling around laughing, what an amazing picture. We all decided it was just too expensive to buy and no one thought to get a redneck pic! Oh well, it's sharp in my memory.

So by this time all the parade watchers had turned into fireworks spot campers and we couldn't find a decent place anywhere, so we watched them from Liberty Square. It was a totally different show from back there and I felt bad that Ron had never seen it before but we all enjoyed it just the same.

After the fireworks, Ron and Melissa headed back to Pop. They had an early day ahead of them. We bid them goodbye and safe travels, and wandered around taking some pictures and visiting PP Photogs.

LOVE that at the end of the day my shirt is a little loose... oops!

After wandering around for quite some time we headed to the busses. It was quite empty but the bus line was long. It took us a while to get back, and when we did we were exhausted. We showered and fell into bed thinking blissfully of the next day -- relaxing at Discovery Cove!

 

[bouncycat]

LOVE it!! Night time in the summer is the best time to do Splash!! We always end up on Thunder Mtn during wishes!! It's always fun!!

 

[teekathepony]

LOVE it!! Night time in the summer is the best time to do Splash!! We always end up on Thunder Mtn during wishes!! It's always fun!!

If it weren't for it being Ron's first time at Disney, I would have liked to skip wishes to do BTM too, I love rides at night, but with friends it was a whole different (more fun!) ball game!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Haha if you thought that of The Enchanted Tiki Room I'm glad it broke down on us!!

I never rode Stitch but have not heard anyone that has actually enjoyed being on that ride!

I'm glad you enjoyed your meal at Tony's Town Square. Love the pic with Mickey and Minnie - I'm pretty sure that queue said 5 mins for the duration of our trip!

Yeah on 'one more ride' getting the vote and going on Splash Mountain! Sounds like a great day followed by a great evening!

 

[MEK]

What a great evening in the MK and you guys got so many cute pictures together. I love Splash (and Big thunder) at night too. They are so much more fun in the dark.

I also love your picture with Mickey and Minnie!

 

[mousescrapper]

Love the last updates w/ all the fun you had at MK...you got some wonderful pictures and wow you did a ton for that full marathon day

Sounds like you had a blast on the rides an meeting Mickey and Minnie too

You deserve that rest day coming up...and yes I agree riding rides at MK in the night is so fun and I love getting those evening pictures by the lit up castle

 

[teekathepony]

What a great evening in the MK and you guys got so many cute pictures together. I love Splash (and Big thunder) at night too. They are so much more fun in the dark.

I also love your picture with Mickey and Minnie!

It was a great evening, we had a lot of fun. Somehow those rides seem a little more intense in the dark! Haha
I was so excited to meet them both at the same time.

Love the last updates w/ all the fun you had at MK...you got some wonderful pictures and wow you did a ton for that full marathon day

Sounds like you had a blast on the rides an meeting Mickey and Minnie too

You deserve that rest day coming up...and yes I agree riding rides at MK in the night is so fun and I love getting those evening pictures by the lit up castle

We had a very full day! It was great though, a lot of fun. But yes we absolutely NEEDED DC the next day! LOL

 

[teekathepony]

Thursday, September 29

Despite the long day yesterday, we all woke up early this morning. We got our bathing suits on, packed a change of clothes and we were off. We grabbed a cab in front of the lobby and asked him to take us to Discovery Cove!

We got there nice and early. We checked in no problem, got our ID tags and dolphin swim time (1:00 at the seahorse cabana!) We got our vests (NOT wet suits.) and got a locker and got changed. We piled our stuff into our lockers, Johnny and I got our cameras ready (he has the Fujifilm Z33WP -- the older water proof one, I have a waterproof case for my Fuji J12) and we went to the restaurant for breakfast. We had a nice big breakfast with fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage and cereal. Then when we were all done, we headed to the new Grand Reef.

We snagged some chairs and waded in.

I don't know if they changed their policy or something, but the park was way more crowded this trip than it had been on my two previous. I felt like I couldn't relax in the lagoon as much because it was crowded and we kept getting bumped into. SO many people didn't even bother to watch where they were going, they'd kick their feet hard to move and didn't seem to care if they knocked others around while they did. Johnny was having a blast though, so after about a half hour of swimming, I just retreated to my chair and relaxed in the sun. Looking back, the lonnnng week might have contributed to my mood. Maybe I really just needed to rest on the beach.

This was my view. I'm going to have this picture printed 4x6 feet and hang it on my bedroom ceiling.

While I sun bathed, Johnny frolicked with the fishes.

It's so beautiful there, the fake coral reef is really gorgeous.

They had just fed the fish (well, the herbivores at least!) and Johnny snagged a piece of lettuce. The fish liked him.

I think one of the reasons the Grand Reef was surprising me with how crowded it was, is that it looks way bigger than the functional swimming area. This is due to the shark enclosure in the middle of it:

Those rays are the softest, smoothest, silkiest things I've ever touched. Even better than the dolphins!

I was in my lounger watching the time and thinking I was hungry and some lunch would be nice, when a figure blocked my sun. I looked up and Johnny was bending over me, dripping on me. "I'm hungry." he said. I mean really, our brains are practically connected. I hate to sound sappy and gushy, but I'm pretty happy to be married to a guy with whom I'm so entirely compatible.

We found his parents and headed back toward the restaurant feeling incredibly warm and happy and relaxed. We tried several different foods from the buffet and I can't remember them all, but the mac 'n' cheese was good and so was the rice. We took our time and when we were done we emptied ourselves of jewelry, cameras, etc. and headed to the seahorse cabana for our dolphin swim!

We were divided into groups and assigned a trainer and we marched to the dolphin lagoon where our flippered friends awaited us. We were "Pod D" and our dolphin was Lester.

Lester is a 40 year old veteran. Pretty impressive when the average lifespan of a bottle nose dolphin is 20 years! Lester is the largest they have, and the dominant male in the park. He's a granddaddy too. But he sure was sweet and he knew the drill. We touched him, learned a bit about dolphins, listened to some of the noises he makes and then we gave him some commands, including an impressive jump. Then in family groups we swam far out in the deep water and one by one were pulled back to shore by Lester. The dolphin experience was about an hour and it's so very very worth it.

My S-FIL did not do the dolphin swim, so he sat on the beach and took a few pictures. Johnny and I didn't buy any of the professional ones since we had bought the disc last year, but his mother got a few.

When we were just about finished we got a little surprise. The trainer sent Lester away and called over their newest recruit! A year old dolphin just starting his training. She had the baby do a few little things with us to practice the interaction part. He was so precious! And he was Lester's grandson too. I don't have any pictures of him, but he sure was something.

(continued in next post)

 

[teekathepony]

...

After our dolphin swim Johnny and I decided to try out the warm fresh water lagoon and the lazy river. We got some pool noodles and floated away, just going with the current. At one point you have to go under a waterfall, and you come out in the aviary.

(Didn't want to get any in my eyes for fear that my contacts would get sticky!)

We decided that since we were in the aviary anyway, we may as well go upstairs and feed the birds. We abandoned our noodles and did just that.

This little guy came to me and wouldn't leave. He stayed with me for almost an hour!

The staff kept laughing at him because he just stayed with me. People kept coming up and trying to entice him to leave me and go with them and still he wouldn't.

Then Johnny got a buddy too.

After a while my buddy finally left. This guy came to see what Johnny had:

And decided my cup looked better:

We left the aviary and got back in the lazy river. We meandered around that a few times and then Johnny wanted to go back to the Grand Reef. Somewhere in all of this we stopped for a snack. It's pretty fun to go up to the counter and order a drink and not have to pay for it, or just take a bag of cookies or chips without leaving money.

So we snorkeled with the fish a little more and then it was time to go. We got showered and dressed, did some shopping on our way out, (I got an awesome sweater for $15, pretty nice!) and got a cab back to Pop Century.

We unloaded our new treasures and went straight for the Epcot bus line. We got to Epcot and went for France where we checked in at Les Chefs de France. We waited at least 45 minutes for our table, despite having a reservation and checking in 15 minutes early. A few "party of 4" who checked in after us got to go in before us too. We were getting upset so Johnny asked the CM if she had perhaps forgotten us. Just as he did, another CM came and announced our names. Finally.

We all ordered the Prix Fixe 3 Courses Menu. For my appetizer I got the Soupe a l'oignon gratinee (French onion soup!) It was delicious and strong and I didn't finish much of it.

At this moment in time, our camera batteries died. So no more pictures for tonight!

My main dish was the Demi poulet fermier roti, pommes rissolees et tomate grillee (half roasted chicken) which was also very good, but I didn't eat much. I was pretty tired and wasn't in the mood to eat. For dessert I had the Profiteroles au chocolat and the waitress made me say profiteroles out loud after she said it first. She was impressed by my accent -- my Acadian grandparents would have been proud! The profiteroles were just ok, not bad but not incredibly tastey.

While Johnny and my in-laws settled the bill, I ran to find a spot for Illuminations. Our favourite spot in Canada was full, but I found a place just next to it. Tiny little me tried to save space for 4, but they came after not too long. We were there at about 8:15 so we had a bit of a wait. We took turns wandering around, but everyone was really tired and we mostly stayed where we were. My S-FIL made friends with a young boy from Argentina who spoke very little English. They played a modified soccer game while we waited and we had a blast (and attracted a small crowd, lol).

Finally the fireworks started and I got chills, so excited to really be there again. Of course it was an amazing show, and my in-laws gushed about it the whole way back to the hotel. I agreed. It's magnificent!

We took a little while getting a bus back to Pop and when we got there we went straight to our rooms and crashed hard. Johnny and S-FIL had an early wake up for their Driving Experience the next day!

 

[bouncycat]

LOVE the Discovery cove pictures!! That's some place I haven't been to as of yet. Not sure how accessable they are, and I'm not too keen on cold water. The body freezes up, and then HURTS! so, we haven't tried that yet. Looks like fun tho!! LOVE the palm tree view, I'm gonna miss that about Florida!! Any word when ya'll are coming back down this way? I think we're moving sometime in June.

 

[PrincessAmongPrinces]

Wow! Discovery Cove looks absolutely amazing

Can't wait to hear about the driving experience!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Wow, Discovery Cove looks so cool. It's been on my "I kinda wanna" list, but now that I've seen your pictures of it, I really want to go.

 

[teekathepony]

LOVE the Discovery cove pictures!! That's some place I haven't been to as of yet. Not sure how accessable they are, and I'm not too keen on cold water. The body freezes up, and then HURTS! so, we haven't tried that yet. Looks like fun tho!! LOVE the palm tree view, I'm gonna miss that about Florida!! Any word when ya'll are coming back down this way? I think we're moving sometime in June.

I think they're quite accessible, I know they provide special chairs that will roll in the sand. The water's not cold! (But then again I swim in the North Atlantic. ) But in all honesty, the warm lagoon is really really warm.
We probably won't be back to Fl until 2015 I missed that you guys are moving! Where are you moving to?

Wow! Discovery Cove looks absolutely amazing

Can't wait to hear about the driving experience!

It really is, it's so beautiful and relaxing! The driving experience was pretty cool, that's next post (whenever I get to it! lol)

Wow, Discovery Cove looks so cool. It's been on my "I kinda wanna" list, but now that I've seen your pictures of it, I really want to go.

In 2007 when I went with my folks, my mom really wanted to go. That was my first time there and it was just so amazing that I've been back two more times! It's just a nice relaxing day.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Great review of Discovery Cove! Having never been I love seeing pics and hearing about different experiences

A shame that it was over crowded but your relaxing view looks awesome! Def something to hang on the ceiling wall.

Love the pics of the birds as well. Your experience of Les Chefs de France sounds similar to that of mine.

 

[teekathepony]

Great review of Discovery Cove! Having never been I love seeing pics and hearing about different experiences

A shame that it was over crowded but your relaxing view looks awesome! Def something to hang on the ceiling wall.

Love the pics of the birds as well. Your experience of Les Chefs de France sounds similar to that of mine.

DC was great, but admittedly it was better the first two times I went. But perhaps I was just having an off day at the same time they were having a busy day.
I know your Les Chefs review looked like I could have just copied and pasted it into mine!

 

[MEK]

You have certainly peaked my interest in Discovery Cove. It looks like a wonderful way to spend the day. How relaxing and you look like you are having a ton of fun with the dolphin swim. It's good to know that one person in your party can do the dolphin swim and the other doesn't have to. I know my DH would never swim with the Dolphins, mostly because he does not know how to swim.

 

[teekathepony]

You have certainly peaked my interest in Discovery Cove. It looks like a wonderful way to spend the day. How relaxing and you look like you are having a ton of fun with the dolphin swim. It's good to know that one person in your party can do the dolphin swim and the other doesn't have to. I know my DH would never swim with the Dolphins, mostly because he does not know how to swim.

In the middle of a Disney vacation, it's a fantastic way to recharge. And yes, you can have everyone in your party doing different things, no one has to do the dolphin swim and it's actually much cheaper without it! My father can not swim, literally just sinks, but on our 2007 trip DC was very accommodating for him because he wanted to swim with the dolphins -- they have them trained to do a shallow water swim, where he just walked over to the side and the dolphin pulled him basically around the lagoon, never going into water over his head.

 

[mousescrapper]

Wow very exciting day and some nice RnR too

I have never seen pictures of the bird aviary before..that is so cool how they would perch on your hand/fingers like that...my DH would have loved that

Sorry about the wait at France and that you weren't too hungry...but so glad you enjoyed Illuminations...and how sweet the story of your inlays w/ the little boy

J

 

[teekathepony]

Good day everyone and welcome to the second last day of my Disney trip. When I finish this TR, I'm starting my next PTR. I've already decided. (Is three and a half years too early to start?? )

Friday, September 30, 2011

The alarm clock was set early for this morning as Johnny had to get up and be at the Walt Disney World Speedway for 7:30am. He and S-FIL got a cab to the track and MIL and I stayed back at the hotel, each cleaning up our rooms and just lounging. I was going to meet them at the track a little later when Johnny estimated he would be actually driving so I could get some pictures of him. Well I got a text from Johnny saying "We're driving at 8:30" and nearly panicked! I knew I had only barely enough time to get to the track! I called MIL and she needed to have breakfast first so she ate while I tapped my food. She finally finished and we ran for the Epcot bus -- shorter line!

Got to Epcot, there was a massive line for bag check. A huge group in green t-shirts, probably 100+ kids and adults were ahead of us! We only needed to get to the monorail! We managed to get to the fastest bag line, got through and literally ran up the ramp for the monorail. The whole time Johnny was texting me and saying "you're going to miss my drive!" Just as we made it to the top of the ramp, the monorail pulled away. We waited nervously for the next one to take us to the TTC, all the while thinking we should have gone to MK instead! Finally another monorail came, we got to the TTC and ran for the phone, calling the shuttle to take us to the track. MIL was insistent that they come now -- we were going to miss our family driving! They came fast and got us there JUST on time, S-FIL was just climbing into the car and Johnny was next. He had convinced the instructors to let him go last. Well, we were out of breath and pulling cameras out of bags, but we had made it.

As S-FIL started his 8 laps, Johnny climbed into his car and started to get adjusted.

S-FIL:

Johnny:

They had a little awards ceremony after the drivers were all done and everyone got their lap times and certificates.

Meanwhile my MIL thought it looked like fun, and decided to try the passenger ride along.

She said it was the thrill of a life time.

Johnny has yet to stop talking about this experience. He loved it so much and wants to do it again, next time he wants to go right to Daytona!

We shopped for some souvenirs a bit and Johnny got a plaque with some pictures of him in the car. I also got two little plush race cars for the dogs!

We left the track, got a shuttle back to the TTC, monorail to Epcot, bus to Pop.

Once back, we headed to our rooms to get changed for the pool. Before we swam though we went to Everything Pop and got some lunch. I had a chicken burrito that was so delicious, Johnny got his favourite pizza. We went back to the computer pool and swam a little. I fell asleep in a lounge chair. I was so tired that I went back to the room for a nap, Johnny came too. We mostly relaxed and did nothing until about 6, when we showered and dressed and headed to DTD.

Once there we did some shopping. I had great luck finding some doggie souvies at Fun Finds

Couldn't get a really good shot of the lego statues! Oh well, next time I'll bring my camera. And maybe a tripod.

We had a late reservation at Paradiso 37. We were seated on the patio outside and at first I didn't want to -- I wanted air conditioning darn it! But I am so glad we stayed there. The evening was perfect, warm with a breeze. There was a singer on stage in front of us. The music was great, the weather was perfect and then came the food!

I wanted a fancy drink, since this one wasn't on the dining plan anyway and we were paying oop. I despise the taste of alcohol, so I got a virgin strawberry daiquiri:

It was super yummy!
Johnny, also a hater of alcohol, got a virgin pina colada.

He found it a little too strong.

We decided to split the Paradiso Nachos, but they were a little small, we should really have ordered one each, but so many huge portions at Disney made us try it this way. I had to convince Johnny saying "We can always order more, but once we order too much it's wasted!" He agreed, but then when he was still hungry he wouldn't order more! Stubborn.

We had a really, really awesome time here and despite it not being a DDP restaurant, I'd go back in a heartbeat. Especially on a warm, breezy evening!

After finishing up there we wandered a little more and did some more shopping. All the way up through the West Side.

When we were too tired to walk any longer we headed to the bust stop and back to Pop where we went straight to bed, thinking about the next day which would be our last.

 

[teekathepony]

Wow very exciting day and some nice RnR too

I have never seen pictures of the bird aviary before..that is so cool how they would perch on your hand/fingers like that...my DH would have loved that

Sorry about the wait at France and that you weren't too hungry...but so glad you enjoyed Illuminations...and how sweet the story of your inlays w/ the little boy

J

Ninja post! Haha you must have posted as I was writing my update.

The aviary is really interesting, especially if you get there early when the birds are hungry. Sometimes you get three or four birds all sitting on you at once! One time I had them on my arms, shoulders and one on my head. Didn't last long enough for a picture though! LOL