Wildflowerz
Can't Wait to See the Mouse Again!
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2008
- Messages
- 206
Hi. /wave I thought I'd do a little trip report here. I did a full one at my blog, so I'm going to link those below, followed by a link to all our pictures. Here, I'm just going to hit the high points of things we particularly liked or didn't like, including all the food.
We originally planned on doing Disney when our daughter was in PreK. I lost my job and the trip was postponed. Now she's in 1st grade and we decided to take her out of school to do it. Her birthday is 1/21 and MLK day is the same week, so that's the week we went. We wanted to do a week when she already had off school, but we don't do heat very well and wanted to go when it wasn't too busy. So, that's why we picked that week.
Here are the players:
Chris - 37yo computer programmer and all around geek. Loves Disney, particularly Pixar, Star Wars, and Harry Potter.
Jenn - 34yo sahm and geek. SUPER into Harry Potter, loves Disney
Emily - 6-7yo (turned 7 while we were there) girl who likes the Princesses, loves the Fairies, LOVES Harry Potter, and loves roller coasters.
We stayed at the Pop Century, in the 90s section close to the buses and the computer pool.
Day One - Travel Day
Day Two - Epcot
Day Three - Magic Kingdom
Day Four - Universal
Day Five - Hollywood Studios
Day Six - Animal Kingdom
Day Seven - Magic Kingdom
Day Eight - Travel day
All Pictures on Flickr
Pop Century
-We were in the 90s one, but you couldn't tell from the room. The bedspread was custom and had all the decades listed. There was an 80s poster on the wall.
-The room was small, but clean and big enough for us.
-I thought the pool was supposed to be heated? Because it REALLY wasn't.
Downtown Disney
-We were going to do the "make your own" Mickey hats at that first store when you get to DtD, but all the bases our Little wanted had a snap in the middle, but nothing to put on it, so it looked silly. We ended up doing a premade instead.
-Build-a-Bear Dinos at TRex?! We always get our daughter one for her birthday, so this was perfect.
Epcot
-Test Track was the favorite ride.
-Em was bored by Innoventions.
-We were disappointed in the Kidcot stations. I thought there would be something different in every country. I also thought there might be some educational stuff at each, but there was nothing really going on except for the silly Duffy fans.
-I was disappointed in the UK. I've become a bit of an anglophile, so I was looking forward to getting something cool here. I thought it would be neat to pick a soccer/football team and get a tee. They had $80 jerseys (which I wasn't willing to buy since I'm not a real fan) and that was it for soccer gear. As for regular teeshirts, they all either had Guinness, band tees, or were for Rose & Crown. I didn't want that at all. They did have some cute UK ones in women's cut, but I'm a plus size girl and the biggest they had was the XL, which was TINY in the women's cut. So, that was disappointing.
-Captain EO - Chris saw this the first time around. It was just awful.
-Turtle Talk with Crush - Crush talked to Emily and it was so cute.
Magic Kingdom
-Both times we did MK, it rained, so that put a damper (haha) on our days there.
-Hall of Fame in Mickey's Toontown: We first waited in line for the fairies and it took FOREVER while the princess line was almost always empty. We waited about 45 minutes to get in. I'm not sure why it took so long except that the fairies were much more talkative. We came back later and saw the princesses.
-Rides: Favorites were Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. Splash Mountain was closed. Country Bear was just as awful as it's always been. Emily didn't like the Haunted Mansion though we'd warned her what was going to happen. That's about the only ride she didn't like all week.
-Parade: One of our favorite parts. Almost all the characters made the point of waving directly at Emily and saying Happy Birthday. So awesome.
-Wishes: I hadn't read up on exactly what Wishes was, but I thought it was a fireworks thing. So, they did that stuff where they show pictures on the castle and then turned the lights back on so we thought that was it. So while that was neat, we were disappointed. THEN, they turned off the lights again for the fireworks stuff and we all loved it.
Universal: Islands of Adventure
-Everything but HP: Meh. We were bored by most all of IoA except the HP part. We rode Spiderman, that air tram thing in the Seuss area, and Pteranodon Flyers. Emily was too short for Hulk. A lot of the food places weren't open.
-Pteranodon Flyers was painful. The line wasn't long, maybe 50 people, but it took 45 minutes because there were only 3 Pteranodons and they only seat 2 people each.
-The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was AMAZING, but there were more people in that one area than the entire park. Emily was too short to ride the Forbidden Journey or the Dragon Ride.
-Chris and I rode the Dragon one back when it was Dueling Dragons, so we skipped that all together. Em LOVED the Hippogriff ride. We did parent swap for the Forbidden Journey and this is the one area where Universal beats Disney. There's a little room with benches and Sorcerer's Stone playing for the other parent and the kid to sit while they waited. The Forbidden Journey ride was my absolute favorite of the entire trip. It was SO good.
-Filch's Emporium: The only regular shop with clothes is Filch's, which is where Forbidden Journey lets out. It's tiny. It was wall to wall people and we couldn't move. I found a cool Marauder's Map, but it had no price and I couldn't find anyone working there because it was so crowded and dark.
-Butterbeer/Pumpkin Juice: The butterbeer (we got cold, not frozen), was much better than I thought it would be. The pumpkin juice tastes like you'd think it would, which was bad.
-The line for Olivander's was at least 100 people long. Emily didn't want to stand in line, but we were able to buy wands at a cart. Emily got Hermione's and I got Neville's. Unfortunately, the entrance to Dervish & Banges was past Olivanders and the line was in the way. We didn't realize that D&Bs was a shop that you could go in, so we didn't go there. No idea what else they have, but they do have Time Turners.
Hollywood Studios
-Rides: Tower of Terror was Emily's favorite ride, followed by Toy Story. Rockin' Roller Coaster Em was too short for, so Chris and I traded off since there wasn't much of a line.
-Prince Caspian was a waste of time...it's just a long trailer and a few outfits from the movie.
-Disney Rocks: The only thing from any of the tween stuff you can find in the entire property. Emily LOVED going up and dancing with them.
Animal Kingdom
-Flights of Wonder was really cool. I generally am bored by bird shows, but this one was really fun.
-Rides: Expedition Everest was Em's favorite ride and her favorite ride of the entire week. Dinosaur was okay. Nothing else was particularly memorable.
Restaurants:
-Rainforest Cafe - Downtown Disney - We ate here the first night because it was convenient. We were just looking for somewhere fast. I had a REALLY yummy Asian Chicken Salad. I've been a bit obsessed with them lately. Chili's used to have one, but they've gotten rid of it and I've really missed it. The hubs got a seafood trio and Em got her favorite, pizza. We all LOVED the food and it was cute inside, though a lot like Bugaboo Creek with the weird moving "stuffed" animals.
-Ohana - Polynesian - We liked the character breakfast. The food was yummy and their special juice was REALLY good. We were there a while and Lilo never came around to our table for some reason, but we had fun meeting Stitch, Pluto, and Mickey. The photo looked really good too, so we got that.
-Tangerine Cafe - Morocco at Epcot - We like Persian food and we loved the TS Moroccan place from our first visit to Disney. Tangerine Cafe, though was the worst place we ate the entire weekend. I got a chicken platter and Chris got the lamb. My chicken tasted weird and all the rest of the food was super cold and weird. Emily got a hamburger and she thought it was vile.
-Rose & Crown - UK at Epcot - One of my favorite meals of the trip. I had a steak, Chris had the surf & turf, and Em had pizza again. Chris thought his was okay, but mine was SO yum. Our waiter was an incredibly adorkable Scottish boy. He was SUPER slow, though, so we were here for quite a while.
-Tepan Edo - Japan at Epcot - This wasn't our first pick. We originally wanted to do Ohana for dinner, but our TA couldn't get it so she changed it to Tepan Edo because it was kinda like Ohana. We wouldn't have picked it 'cause we do hibatchi quite a bit at home. The food was decent, but not as good as our Japanese at home. We missed the fried rice too.
-Circus McGurkus Café Stoo-pendous - Universal IoA - The food wasn't good. The atmosphere felt kind of depressing. The entertainment was alright, but nothing special.
-ABC Commissary - Hollywood Studios - The food was very yummy and it was sedately, but nicely decorated. Probably my favorite CS of the trip.
-Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano - Hollywood Studios - Very yum. They had these new cupcakes that had vanilla icing that looks like spaghetti, a little chocolate cake ball like a meatball on top, with strawberry or raspberry sauce for spaghetti sauce on top. TOO cute.
-Restaurantosaurus - Animal Kingdom - Em HATED her food. It was cute that it came in a little sand pail with a shovel, but odd since the message of the park is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It'd odd that they'd promote that kind of waste.
-Chefs de France - France in Epcot - This was our favorite place the first time we went, but not this time. This time it was okay, but not amazing at all. We did like how Remy came out to the tables on a platter. That was too cute.
-Akershus - Norway in Epcot - Nice! I don't think they let you in with enough time, but other than that, it was great. The food was yum and all the princesses were great.
-The Pinocchio Village Haus - Magic Kingdom - It was Em's actual bday this day and she wanted somewhere with pizza (again) and this was close. It was actually really tasty.
-Le Cellier - Canada at Epcot - I had asked our TA to make a note for them to do something special this night for Em's actual bday. I guess they didn't get the memo. We had to eat at 4:30 because that was the only reservation we could get. Our waiter didn't give us any of the history-type stuff like the waiter at the next table was giving them. Still, the food was VERY yummy. I had the moose cake for dessert and wasn't impressed. Chris had the S'Mores thing and it was REALLY yummy.
General Food: Em hated most of the kid's hamburgers. All the cheesecake-type desserts were VERY tasty (after I'd removed the weird gooey stuff on top of the one at Restarauntosaurus).
We originally planned on doing Disney when our daughter was in PreK. I lost my job and the trip was postponed. Now she's in 1st grade and we decided to take her out of school to do it. Her birthday is 1/21 and MLK day is the same week, so that's the week we went. We wanted to do a week when she already had off school, but we don't do heat very well and wanted to go when it wasn't too busy. So, that's why we picked that week.
Here are the players:
Chris - 37yo computer programmer and all around geek. Loves Disney, particularly Pixar, Star Wars, and Harry Potter.
Jenn - 34yo sahm and geek. SUPER into Harry Potter, loves Disney
Emily - 6-7yo (turned 7 while we were there) girl who likes the Princesses, loves the Fairies, LOVES Harry Potter, and loves roller coasters.
We stayed at the Pop Century, in the 90s section close to the buses and the computer pool.
Day One - Travel Day
Day Two - Epcot
Day Three - Magic Kingdom
Day Four - Universal
Day Five - Hollywood Studios
Day Six - Animal Kingdom
Day Seven - Magic Kingdom
Day Eight - Travel day
All Pictures on Flickr
Pop Century
-We were in the 90s one, but you couldn't tell from the room. The bedspread was custom and had all the decades listed. There was an 80s poster on the wall.
-The room was small, but clean and big enough for us.
-I thought the pool was supposed to be heated? Because it REALLY wasn't.
Downtown Disney
-We were going to do the "make your own" Mickey hats at that first store when you get to DtD, but all the bases our Little wanted had a snap in the middle, but nothing to put on it, so it looked silly. We ended up doing a premade instead.
-Build-a-Bear Dinos at TRex?! We always get our daughter one for her birthday, so this was perfect.
Epcot
-Test Track was the favorite ride.
-Em was bored by Innoventions.
-We were disappointed in the Kidcot stations. I thought there would be something different in every country. I also thought there might be some educational stuff at each, but there was nothing really going on except for the silly Duffy fans.
-I was disappointed in the UK. I've become a bit of an anglophile, so I was looking forward to getting something cool here. I thought it would be neat to pick a soccer/football team and get a tee. They had $80 jerseys (which I wasn't willing to buy since I'm not a real fan) and that was it for soccer gear. As for regular teeshirts, they all either had Guinness, band tees, or were for Rose & Crown. I didn't want that at all. They did have some cute UK ones in women's cut, but I'm a plus size girl and the biggest they had was the XL, which was TINY in the women's cut. So, that was disappointing.
-Captain EO - Chris saw this the first time around. It was just awful.
-Turtle Talk with Crush - Crush talked to Emily and it was so cute.
Magic Kingdom
-Both times we did MK, it rained, so that put a damper (haha) on our days there.
-Hall of Fame in Mickey's Toontown: We first waited in line for the fairies and it took FOREVER while the princess line was almost always empty. We waited about 45 minutes to get in. I'm not sure why it took so long except that the fairies were much more talkative. We came back later and saw the princesses.
-Rides: Favorites were Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. Splash Mountain was closed. Country Bear was just as awful as it's always been. Emily didn't like the Haunted Mansion though we'd warned her what was going to happen. That's about the only ride she didn't like all week.
-Parade: One of our favorite parts. Almost all the characters made the point of waving directly at Emily and saying Happy Birthday. So awesome.
-Wishes: I hadn't read up on exactly what Wishes was, but I thought it was a fireworks thing. So, they did that stuff where they show pictures on the castle and then turned the lights back on so we thought that was it. So while that was neat, we were disappointed. THEN, they turned off the lights again for the fireworks stuff and we all loved it.
Universal: Islands of Adventure
-Everything but HP: Meh. We were bored by most all of IoA except the HP part. We rode Spiderman, that air tram thing in the Seuss area, and Pteranodon Flyers. Emily was too short for Hulk. A lot of the food places weren't open.
-Pteranodon Flyers was painful. The line wasn't long, maybe 50 people, but it took 45 minutes because there were only 3 Pteranodons and they only seat 2 people each.
-The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was AMAZING, but there were more people in that one area than the entire park. Emily was too short to ride the Forbidden Journey or the Dragon Ride.
-Chris and I rode the Dragon one back when it was Dueling Dragons, so we skipped that all together. Em LOVED the Hippogriff ride. We did parent swap for the Forbidden Journey and this is the one area where Universal beats Disney. There's a little room with benches and Sorcerer's Stone playing for the other parent and the kid to sit while they waited. The Forbidden Journey ride was my absolute favorite of the entire trip. It was SO good.
-Filch's Emporium: The only regular shop with clothes is Filch's, which is where Forbidden Journey lets out. It's tiny. It was wall to wall people and we couldn't move. I found a cool Marauder's Map, but it had no price and I couldn't find anyone working there because it was so crowded and dark.
-Butterbeer/Pumpkin Juice: The butterbeer (we got cold, not frozen), was much better than I thought it would be. The pumpkin juice tastes like you'd think it would, which was bad.
-The line for Olivander's was at least 100 people long. Emily didn't want to stand in line, but we were able to buy wands at a cart. Emily got Hermione's and I got Neville's. Unfortunately, the entrance to Dervish & Banges was past Olivanders and the line was in the way. We didn't realize that D&Bs was a shop that you could go in, so we didn't go there. No idea what else they have, but they do have Time Turners.
Hollywood Studios
-Rides: Tower of Terror was Emily's favorite ride, followed by Toy Story. Rockin' Roller Coaster Em was too short for, so Chris and I traded off since there wasn't much of a line.
-Prince Caspian was a waste of time...it's just a long trailer and a few outfits from the movie.
-Disney Rocks: The only thing from any of the tween stuff you can find in the entire property. Emily LOVED going up and dancing with them.
Animal Kingdom
-Flights of Wonder was really cool. I generally am bored by bird shows, but this one was really fun.
-Rides: Expedition Everest was Em's favorite ride and her favorite ride of the entire week. Dinosaur was okay. Nothing else was particularly memorable.
Restaurants:
-Rainforest Cafe - Downtown Disney - We ate here the first night because it was convenient. We were just looking for somewhere fast. I had a REALLY yummy Asian Chicken Salad. I've been a bit obsessed with them lately. Chili's used to have one, but they've gotten rid of it and I've really missed it. The hubs got a seafood trio and Em got her favorite, pizza. We all LOVED the food and it was cute inside, though a lot like Bugaboo Creek with the weird moving "stuffed" animals.
-Ohana - Polynesian - We liked the character breakfast. The food was yummy and their special juice was REALLY good. We were there a while and Lilo never came around to our table for some reason, but we had fun meeting Stitch, Pluto, and Mickey. The photo looked really good too, so we got that.
-Tangerine Cafe - Morocco at Epcot - We like Persian food and we loved the TS Moroccan place from our first visit to Disney. Tangerine Cafe, though was the worst place we ate the entire weekend. I got a chicken platter and Chris got the lamb. My chicken tasted weird and all the rest of the food was super cold and weird. Emily got a hamburger and she thought it was vile.
-Rose & Crown - UK at Epcot - One of my favorite meals of the trip. I had a steak, Chris had the surf & turf, and Em had pizza again. Chris thought his was okay, but mine was SO yum. Our waiter was an incredibly adorkable Scottish boy. He was SUPER slow, though, so we were here for quite a while.
-Tepan Edo - Japan at Epcot - This wasn't our first pick. We originally wanted to do Ohana for dinner, but our TA couldn't get it so she changed it to Tepan Edo because it was kinda like Ohana. We wouldn't have picked it 'cause we do hibatchi quite a bit at home. The food was decent, but not as good as our Japanese at home. We missed the fried rice too.
-Circus McGurkus Café Stoo-pendous - Universal IoA - The food wasn't good. The atmosphere felt kind of depressing. The entertainment was alright, but nothing special.
-ABC Commissary - Hollywood Studios - The food was very yummy and it was sedately, but nicely decorated. Probably my favorite CS of the trip.
-Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano - Hollywood Studios - Very yum. They had these new cupcakes that had vanilla icing that looks like spaghetti, a little chocolate cake ball like a meatball on top, with strawberry or raspberry sauce for spaghetti sauce on top. TOO cute.
-Restaurantosaurus - Animal Kingdom - Em HATED her food. It was cute that it came in a little sand pail with a shovel, but odd since the message of the park is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It'd odd that they'd promote that kind of waste.
-Chefs de France - France in Epcot - This was our favorite place the first time we went, but not this time. This time it was okay, but not amazing at all. We did like how Remy came out to the tables on a platter. That was too cute.
-Akershus - Norway in Epcot - Nice! I don't think they let you in with enough time, but other than that, it was great. The food was yum and all the princesses were great.
-The Pinocchio Village Haus - Magic Kingdom - It was Em's actual bday this day and she wanted somewhere with pizza (again) and this was close. It was actually really tasty.
-Le Cellier - Canada at Epcot - I had asked our TA to make a note for them to do something special this night for Em's actual bday. I guess they didn't get the memo. We had to eat at 4:30 because that was the only reservation we could get. Our waiter didn't give us any of the history-type stuff like the waiter at the next table was giving them. Still, the food was VERY yummy. I had the moose cake for dessert and wasn't impressed. Chris had the S'Mores thing and it was REALLY yummy.
General Food: Em hated most of the kid's hamburgers. All the cheesecake-type desserts were VERY tasty (after I'd removed the weird gooey stuff on top of the one at Restarauntosaurus).
