Doesn't everybody have Disney on speed dial? Seriously? Mickeystoontown does! 5/14

[KatMark]

Seriously? No Test Track at all?

Nope, not at all.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Someone else sent me that but it won't let me put in my reservation #. I think someone had said you had to wait until about a month beforehand before it will let you book... :/ I totally feel you on the stopping for a certain time for lunch, that's why I am not totally convinced yet.

That may very well be true. I had a problem putting in our reservation number too but it finally let me put in our room only #.

Nope, not at all.

I am not a big fan of the new "theme" but we'll still take a lap around the track.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Our 1st off day includes a new restaurant and a big surprise!

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years of going to Walt Disney World it’s the fact that it’s pretty important that I schedule at least a couple of “off” days. Days that we have no morning plans at all. Days that we can sleep in if we want. Days that we can laze around on the beach or go for a swim. It takes all that I have in me to do nothing while at Disney. Usually, I can take the lazing around for only so long before I set off on a walk around the resort or something. The boys? Well, they have no problem whatsoever plopping their butts in a hammock for an hour or so.

May 28th will be one of our “off” days which, as far as John and Hunter know, includes nothing but a possible lunch at Wolfgang Puck or the resort. If we do go to Downtown Disney, it’s very possible that we’ll go to Disney Quest since admission is included in the water parks and more option on our tickets.

It’s been quite some time since John and I have been in Disney Quest. The kids went a couple of trips ago while John and I took Mama back to the resort. I’m not a big gamer but I had fun doing the Jungle Cruise thing and the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Now, as far as the games shown below go, I’m awful! I have no skills whatsoever when it comes to things like that. How bad am I? Let me just say that I lasted 2 seconds on Guitar Hero.

Our plans for the day also include an early dinner ADR at Kona. Well, I say early, it’s for 5:45 p.m. which isn’t that early to some but it’s early for us since I try to book all of our dinner ADRs for 7:30 or later.

This will be our first time eating at Kona and I’m pretty excited about it. Lacey and Jesse have eaten there twice and loved it. Many of my Dis friends rave about it. So, like I said, we’re pretty happy that I booked an ADR there. If ya’ll have any reviews or recommendations on what to order, please chime in.

When I start making our vacation plans, I look at the various menus, print out some possibilities and then we make the decision on where to eat. John absolutely hates this part of the planning but I make him do it so that I can't be blamed if we don't like the meal/restaurant. Kona was one of the restaurants that was chosen and I told the guys that I’d work it in somewhere. John and Hunter believe that the only time that I was able to get was an early dinner. Little do they know that I have a surprise for them.

Stacy? Oh Stacy? You listening? Got another shout out coming at ya!

Back in the day, before Disney wised up, we used to watch the fireworks from the Tomorrowland Noodle Station (it was called something else back then). We even used to comment on the fact that we couldn’t believe Disney hadn’t thought about charging folks to watch from there. I had never given super serious thought to booking the Wishes Dessert Party because: 1) I could never fit it into our plans; 2) We are on the dining plan and desserts come with our dinners elsewhere; 3) Hunter’s not a big dessert eater so would it be worth the cost. I kinda sorta thought about trying to fit it in this year but was still unsure.

One day, I get an email from the Dis and somebody had posted on the May ADR cancellation thread that they were going to cancel their Wishes Dessert Party ADR. I just happened to have our Disney itinerary with me so I gave it a quick glance and, by gosh, I could rearrange things a bit and actually make it work this time. I messaged the poster on the thread.....that would be the one and only Stacy....and she was kind enough to coordinate a time for her to cancel and me to try and snag her cancellation. She cancelled, I snagged and we were booked! Yay Stacy! Yay me!

I fiddle-dee-dee’d around with our dinner ADRs a little and was able to get a 5:45 p.m. ADR for Kona and our Wishes Dessert Party is at 9:05 p.m. I decided to not tell the guys that I booked the dessert party but rather let it be a surprise. They think that we are eating at Kona and then going over to the Magic Kingdom for a while.

Thinking that it may be possible to finish up dinner and have a little time before the dessert party, I made a couple of FP+ selections in the area but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to actually make them both. It’s a possibility though and I’m keeping them just in case.

Those are our “off” day plans which, after looking at what I just typed, don’t look so “off” but at least we are sleeping in. The Downtown Disney plans aren’t written in stone so we can always skip it and do it another day if we choose to stay at the resort.

**Up next: Skipping the whole Star Wars event? Yes! No! Not exactly!

 

[KatMark]

Great plans for your "off day" Lisa. We love eating at WPE. I've not been to Disney Quest since the year it opened. I am sure Hunter probably enjoys all the games.

We are eating dinner at Kona for the first time in May/June. Mary suggested it and I said I'd love to give it a try. I've heard the pork chop is out of this world.

I still haven't been able to get a Dessert Party time and I've tried every year.

 

[MEK]

I agree - those are great plans for your rest day and I love that you nabbed that Dessert Party ADR. That will be a really fun surprise for everyone! Nice!

I just made a Kona ADR for October!

 

[farrahalex76]

We have a Dessert Party ressie the same night! It's kind of a surprise for my husband and kids. The only thing my husband knows about our trip is that we are going to Disney and how much it cost. He has no idea about ADR's I make or anything. But our anniversary is in early May and my oldest DD birthday is during our trip so I'm considering it a celebration night.

I am keeping my BOG ADR for now. It has steak on the kids menu and my DD9 loves steak.

 

[stacy~**]

Loved the last update because not only is the 28th our "off" day too but our night plans have us at the Poly!! (Ohana). I think our reservation is around 6:30ish so I may have to peak inside Kona and say Hello to you!!

We also may head over to MK for a little post dinner adventures (although no dessert party! ...after Ohana bread pudding who needs more dessert!). Seriously I couldn't have coordinated my releasing of the party to a better person. I feel like my reservation is living on.

I have kind of become a stalker of you...been reading you TR from last year. Really enjoyed hearing your recount of the 24 hour day since my eldest and I are attempting it.

 

[PittypatBR]

I love Kona. I can't believe you haven't been there in all those trips! I'm sure the menu has changed since we were there but I loved their steak. What fun plans for an "off" day! You will be all relaxed and ready to party by the evening!

 

[BridgetR3]

Your "off" day plans sound great!! We have trouble having entire days off and like to schedule things on our "off" days as well.

Wolfgang Puck Express in DTD is a special treat for me. I LOVE their rotisserie chicken!

At DQ, ride the Aladdin ride. It's a game where the three of you can play together in search of some jewel (I think). I was awful at it but luckily my boys are awesome at video games so they helped us out. I love the POTC game there and I enjoy steering the boat while they shoot. As for the arcade games, they enjoy them while I take a breather.

We've never had Kona so I can't wait to hear all about it on your TR.

We did the dessert party for our trip at Thanksgiving and LOVED it! Enjoy your surprise!

 

[Marsheliz]

The off day sounds fantastic!! I hope to do that one of these trips.. We are always rushing here and rushing there! But that is the good thing about our weekend trip in June... Our first day there we aren't doing any parks.. We are goign to "resort hop" on the monorail, do a pony ride with the boys at FW and then watch the Movie Under the Stars at our resort and maybe peep in at Yee-haw Bob show... Maybe not total relaxation but you know what I mean.

I can't wait to hear about the dessert party. I hope your surprise goes off well! I love surprises!!

 

[Clarf]

Your "off" day sounds like a lot of fun! My DH would love Disney Quest. He's a video game nut. My girls would probably like it too. One of these years...

Kona is on my must-try list for a future trip. I've heard only good things about it. And yay for the desert party! I bet that will be tons of fun and a nice surprise for your boys.


I hope Hunter has fun on his trip this weekend and that he doesn't get stuck with the naked guy. Don't they get to pick roomates?

Glad Lacey and Jesse made it home for Easter! That must have been a great time!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yay for 30 days!

Sounds like you had a great Easter and how wonderful to get to spend that much time with Lacey! :good vibes

I sincerely hope Hunter has a new roommate on this trip. Sheesh!

We had a wonderful Easter visit with Lacey & Jesse. I know that you enjoyed having your boys home too.

Sheesh yeah!

Great plans for your "off day" Lisa. We love eating at WPE. I've not been to Disney Quest since the year it opened. I am sure Hunter probably enjoys all the games.

We are eating dinner at Kona for the first time in May/June. Mary suggested it and I said I'd love to give it a try. I've heard the pork chop is out of this world.

I still haven't been able to get a Dessert Party time and I've tried every year.

We really enjoy Wolfgang Puck Express too and I know that we'll make it there at least once. Hunter loves Disney Quest!

If you really want the dessert party ADR don't give up looking. Subscribe to the May/June ADR cancellation threads.

I agree - those are great plans for your rest day and I love that you nabbed that Dessert Party ADR. That will be a really fun surprise for everyone! Nice!

I just made a Kona ADR for October!

I don't know how many desserts will be eaten but I am sure that we'll enjoy the view.

We have a Dessert Party ressie the same night! It's kind of a surprise for my husband and kids. The only thing my husband knows about our trip is that we are going to Disney and how much it cost. He has no idea about ADR's I make or anything. But our anniversary is in early May and my oldest DD birthday is during our trip so I'm considering it a celebration night.

I am keeping my BOG ADR for now. It has steak on the kids menu and my DD9 loves steak.

Really!?! If you see us, say HEY! I like the idea of celebrating your anniversary and DD birthday at the party!

John doesn't know every detail of the trip but he does have a little input. Mostly because I want the guys to know "don't blame me if you don't like XYZ restaurant".

Loved the last update because not only is the 28th our "off" day too but our night plans have us at the Poly!! (Ohana). I think our reservation is around 6:30ish so I may have to peak inside Kona and say Hello to you!!

We also may head over to MK for a little post dinner adventures (although no dessert party! ...after Ohana bread pudding who needs more dessert!). Seriously I couldn't have coordinated my releasing of the party to a better person. I feel like my reservation is living on.

I have kind of become a stalker of you...been reading you TR from last year. Really enjoyed hearing your recount of the 24 hour day since my eldest and I are attempting it.

I am forever grateful that I was able to get your ADR cancellation! It worked out perfect for us.

Nah, you're not a stalker! I hope that you are enjoying my last trip report.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I love Kona. I can't believe you haven't been there in all those trips! I'm sure the menu has changed since we were there but I loved their steak. What fun plans for an "off" day! You will be all relaxed and ready to party by the evening!

I know! We usually go to Ohana but decided to change it up a bit. There's still a steak on the menu and I'm betting that it will be ordered by at least one of us.

Your "off" day plans sound great!! We have trouble having entire days off and like to schedule things on our "off" days as well.

There's simply no way that I can go alllllll day long without some sort of plan and it's usually dinner reservations.

Wolfgang Puck Express in DTD is a special treat for me. I LOVE their rotisserie chicken!

We haven't tried the rotisserie chicken yet but it sounds good.

At DQ, ride the Aladdin ride. It's a game where the three of you can play together in search of some jewel (I think). I was awful at it but luckily my boys are awesome at video games so they helped us out. I love the POTC game there and I enjoy steering the boat while they shoot. As for the arcade games, they enjoy them while I take a breather.

I remember the kids and John doing the Aladdin thing and saying that it was fun but hard to keep the helmet on.

We've never had Kona so I can't wait to hear all about it on your TR.

We did the dessert party for our trip at Thanksgiving and LOVED it! Enjoy your surprise!

It's so good to hear positive dessert party reviews.

The off day sounds fantastic!! I hope to do that one of these trips.. We are always rushing here and rushing there! But that is the good thing about our weekend trip in June... Our first day there we aren't doing any parks.. We are goign to "resort hop" on the monorail, do a pony ride with the boys at FW and then watch the Movie Under the Stars at our resort and maybe peep in at Yee-haw Bob show... Maybe not total relaxation but you know what I mean.

I can't wait to hear about the dessert party. I hope your surprise goes off well! I love surprises!!

We used to rush rush rush but, over time the trips have gotten longer and it's easier to factor in down days.

Your first day plans sound wonderful! The kids are going to love the pony rides.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Your "off" day sounds like a lot of fun! My DH would love Disney Quest. He's a video game nut. My girls would probably like it too. One of these years...

Kona is on my must-try list for a future trip. I've heard only good things about it. And yay for the desert party! I bet that will be tons of fun and a nice surprise for your boys.


I hope Hunter has fun on his trip this weekend and that he doesn't get stuck with the naked guy. Don't they get to pick roomates?

Glad Lacey and Jesse made it home for Easter! That must have been a great time!

I figured since the tickets included Disney Quest, then why not go?!? I know that Hunter will enjoy it a lot.

Poor Hunter, he sure doesn't want to room with the naked guy again. The orchestra director is in charge of picking the room assignments but Hunter has slipped him a hint or two that he doesn't want to room with that particular person.

 

[Mommy Poppins]

Lisa, your PTR is just what I needed this week. We lost my mom last week and I am just now coming back to work--but not really wanting to be here. So I'm just doing some DISing. Your PTR is perfect reading.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Lisa, your PTR is just what I needed this week. We lost my mom last week and I am just now coming back to work--but not really wanting to be here. So I'm just doing some DISing. Your PTR is perfect reading.

I am so very very sorry to hear of your mother's passing! Praying for peace and healing of your heart.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Skipping the whole Star Wars event? Yes! No! Not exactly!

I think that I have mentioned before that I planned our itinerary I wanted to avoid Star Wars Weekends at all cost. Been there! Done that! Dealt with the crowds! Ain’t going back!

Having said that, if Hunter had given me the big old puppy dog eyes, I would have caved and figured out how to have two days at Hollywood Studios. However, he didn’t say much about skipping Star Wars Weekends but he did say that he wanted to try out for American Idol and we told him that we could. I still have to read up on how that whole audition process works. If ya’ll have any tips or ideas, I’d welcome them.

Our plans for the day look like this so far:

Thursday: May 29th

Hollywood Studios day

Fastpasses for the day:
Tower of Terror: 9:05 to 10:05 a.m.
Toy Story Mania: 4:20 to 5:20 p.m.
Star Tours: 5:20 to 6:20 p.m.

The whole stupid dumb idiotic “tier” FP+ here came into play as well. Had to choose between Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n Roller Coaster. Hopefully, we can ride Tower of Terror and then pop over to Rock ‘n Roller Coaster before the line gets prohibitively long. Look at me using big legal sounding words (I am a paralegal you know. )

Initially, we said that we were going to skip a table service restaurant at Hollywood Studios because none of the restaurants really knock our socks off. I didn’t want Aunt Whatchamadoodle to tell me to force feed me the greens that I ain’t touching or have Uncle Blackrimmedglasses tell me that I’m not getting dessert because I don’t know how to keep my elbows off the table.

We had a snooty server at Mama Melrose’s last trip who thought she would act like the 50's Prime Time servers and cop an attitude with us so Mama’s was out. Sci-Fi? Well, we’ve eaten there many times and just didn’t want to eat there again. In the end, we decided we were just going to eat two counter service meals on our Hollywood Studios day.

That’s until an announcement was made that there would be Star Wars themed character meals every day during the time Star Wars Weekends were going on.

Now, I know that my teenager is not a little boy but I knew that he would enjoy this character meal simply because they incorporated Star Wars into it. Hey, Disney brings out the little kid in all of us. I logged onto the Disney site and found it surprisingly easy to get a dinner ADR at Hollywood & Vine and it was the Fantasmic package too! Boojah! Hunter has no clue that this is a themed dinner and thinks that we are just trying a new restaurant. Am I ever the sneaky one! Not one surprise this trip but two!

We’ll finish off the day by watching Fanstasmic which is must see for our family. Gotta love anything that incorporates Mickey, people swinging from one side of a mountain to the other, dragons and fireworks!

**Up next: White water rafting, toboggan racing, Santa and dinosaurs all in one day!

 

[melnbil]

Sounds like a fun "off" day. Your boss sounds like my friends boss. They come in late and leave early more than they are there. I guess that's a perk to being boss. The tiers really do stink, at DHS and Epcot too. Just had a thought..... Since your FP+ for TOT runs till 10:05, why not jump on RNR first then do TOT? That way the line wouldn't be too bad maybe?? Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[BridgetR3]

About your RNRC and TOT rides, if the park opens at 9 I would ride RNRC first at rope drop, then go to your FP+ at TOT. I would think the line for RNRC would be shorter that way.

How sneaky of you to have two surprises on back to back days!! He will love that dinner!!

 

[farrahalex76]

Your HS day sounds great. The TS choices at HS are not great I agree. I think I've had an ADR at every restaurant because I couldn't make up my mind. Everything changed when Doc and Sophia came to H&V. I know my girls would love to meet the characters so I booked it. I had said that was the one place I would not eat at. Oh well I guess I'll be eating some crow while there. I can't wait to here about the Star Wars dinner. It took everything I had in me not to book one. Maybe I'll get to do a Star Wars weekend when the my kids are older, I'm not fighting that crowd with little ones that don't care about it.

I will surely stop and say hey if I spot you at the dessert party.