DONE 7/28!! My Life on the DVC Blacklist - an August '09 Pre-Trip.

[GreatBiscuit]

Minus a Plan, we did some exploring by the seats of our pants and really enjoyed the little things!

You mean it's possible to do that?

Minnie’s Butterfly Garden (where we watched several butterflies come out of their cocoons!)

I'm glad you explained that cause I was staring at the photo and thinking mutated mini-bats. Then I had to ponder just what sort of sick and twisted imagineer stuck a flock of mutant bats in the middle of a butterfly garden.

Oh. SNAP.

Heres the POP I couldn't find a CRACKLE.

The fish was so salty as to be inedible. The beef wasn’t unusually tough, considering the cut (flank steak), but it had no flavor this time. The turkey tasted gamey.

And where in tarnation heck were the crisp, flavorful, insanely fresh vegetables of our last meal there?!

Not on our table, I assure you. We got a few soggy chunks of yellow squash and a snap pea. Yes, a snap pea. We split it three ways.

Gramma and I were really disappointed, as we’ve raved about the GG food before.

If nothing else, it helps affirm my decision to cut it in favor of Whispering Canyon.

[“That’s right, you heard me – we demand equal pay and universal health care or the kid gets it! Payment may be made in nuts.”

Sadly for me, the next day was going to start at one freaking AM.

Great update. Loved the pics! Leo looks like he's having a great time!

 

[boysmom5150]

Great update V and the pics once again are great
Despite the icky food Leo looks like he was having a good ole time. what a smile on that boy!!
And that cake looked delish, did u taste it. It may be worth it to go just for that

Grandma looked to be enjoying the mickey bar too

 

[dlwharp]

We grabbed a “snack” and basked in the sunny views of Mexico:

Um, what "snack" is that? I think I might need to try one

Bummer about the so-so meal. Guess I won't put GG on my list

Again, your photos are amazing

Up at 1 am? What a cliff hanger!!!

 

[englishrose47]

Great pix V !! We wer not overly impressed by the food at GG either but service was great!!

 

[PrincessAlways]

I haven't been to GG for a few years. Guess I shouldn't really bother trying!!

 

[DisneyJo]

What a shame about GG we loved the food there in 2007 good job the characters were still great!

Wow the cake Leo got looked yummy, much nicer than the normal cup cake

 

[jcc0621]

Oh God! I hope you just caught GG on a bad day. We HAVE to go their in August. It is the only place we can eat with Chip and Dale. since there are no longer characters at LTT.

 

[askelton]

Snack choice!

Love this picture!

After our somewhat crappy-yet-fun meal,

I don't know why this made my laugh!

 

[debraW76]

First of all, I could not even imagine going into a park without a plan! We're you scared? It sounded like it turned out ok.

So sorry about the GG. That is on my 'will try when we get free dining' list.

 

[lovemyblt]

So sorry about the rain and the GG but the one line that stuck out for me was:

ONE FREAKING AM
I must have the details! Are you kidding? 1 am on vacation???? UGHHHHHH

oh and once again great pictures!!!!

 

[Lauralee131]

1 AM?!?!?!?!

Oh this should be good...

 

[englishrose47]

Hi V!!

 

[PrincessV]

Well, I'm going to join the throngs of people in telling you how WONDERFUL your photography is!! WOW!!!

Thank you so much!

The rain pics at the Poly are pretty...that seems silly to say, but the rain adds something!

Not at all - we actually really enjoyed watching the rain... form the dry safety of the room, lol!

Ugh! I'm sorry you had a not-so-great meal. But Leo looks happy.

He was ridiculously happy - totally worth the crappy food!

Dude - that piece of birthday heaven looks AMAZING!!

Please tell me it tastes as good as it looks!

You're gonna freak T... I didn't taste it. I'm not a big cake person.

I'm glad you explained that cause I was staring at the photo and thinking mutated mini-bats. Then I had to ponder just what sort of sick and twisted imagineer stuck a flock of mutant bats in the middle of a butterfly garden.

That's sick, but a really flipping funny thought!

Grandma looked to be enjoying the mickey bar too

I'm sure she'd kill me if she knew I'd posted that, but I think it captured the moment nicely!

Um, what "snack" is that? I think I might need to try one.

Oh yes, you must - that's a Fiesta Margarita from the stand-alone kiosk in MX. YUM!

We wer not overly impressed by the food at GG either but service was great!!

Darn; I was hoping we just had an off night. I agree, though - service was fantastic!

I haven't been to GG for a few years. Guess I shouldn't really bother trying!!

It depends... I still love it for the ambiance and characters. Just not the food this time.

Wow the cake Leo got looked yummy, much nicer than the normal cup cake

LOL, I said the same thing!

Oh God! I hope you just caught GG on a bad day. We HAVE to go their in August. It is the only place we can eat with Chip and Dale. since there are no longer characters at LTT.

I still recommend it for you guys - Jimmy will love it! Just don't save up an appetite, KWIM?

Snack choice!

Why are they so stinking good?!

First of all, I could not even imagine going into a park without a plan! We're you scared? It sounded like it turned out ok.

LOL, nope! I never used to use plans, pre-Leo, so it was kind of nice to go back to the "old ways."

ONE FREAKING AM
I must have the details! Are you kidding?

Sadly, no.

1 AM?!?!?!?!

Oh this should be good...

NOTHING good about it!

Hi V!!

Hi Rosie! LOL, is that a hint?!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I really meant to write an update this week, and have a bunch mentally prepared, but never got time. Hopefully later today, though!

 

[PrincessV]

Sadly, the answer to that question was “yes.” I knew exactly where our Poly neighbors were… because they were having a flipping PARTY next door!


Let me back up a minute and say this: I’m a very sound sleeper at home, but anywhere else, the different sounds distract me enormously. Anything from a toilet flushing three rooms down, to footsteps in the hall, to Gramma’s sheets rustling are different enough to wake me numerous times a night. And when V isn’t well rested – well, it’s not good.


But since I got my iPhone, my standard response to any challenging situations life may throw at me has become “There’s an app for that!” And, indeed, there is an app for that! Allow me to introduce iChillout. Ambient noise for the iPhone. You can select anything from lapping water, to chimes, to monastic chants. Leo chose “Prairie Wolves” for his go-to-sleep sounds. I was more than a little skeptical, but it worked beautifully; he was out in about 10 minutes. For Gramma and I, I went with “English Lakeside” which includes some lapping water, birds calling and crickets chirping. Bliss!

iChillout was the answer to my sleep-away prayers… I had no problem falling nor staying asleep.


Until the party started. One in the morning, I suddenly awake to shouts and laughs and the pouring of drinks next door. And lots of profanity. (Admittedly, I swear like a sailor, but not around Leo. Much. )

I turned up the iChillout, but even it wasn’t enough to drown out the neighbors. So I took action – stepped into the hall to get the room number and then gave them a call. That was weird; I could hear the girl who answered in stereo – both through the receiver and the wall! I politely asked if they could please keep it down as I had a young child tryig to sleep (BTW, Leo never so much as stirred through all this – I was the one trying to sleep!). To her credit, the girl apologized and the noise stopped immediately. Whew!

The next morning, I admonished Gramma and Leo to please stop shouting at each other between the bathroom and living area. I figured if our neighbors were kind enough to be quiet while we slept early, we should do the same so they could sleep late. We had no further problems with them, thank goodness.




Moving on, that next morning called for a MK rope drop. I actually hate the whole opening show thing, but I hate waiting in ride lines even more, so we get there early and I suffer through the schmaltzy show.

I’m not going to go through all the rides, but some lessons were learned that morning that will carry over nicely to the Aug. trip, so I’ll highlight those:



1. Ridemax ROCKS!

Like totally. Fur sure. My DIS buddy T turned me onto Ridemax and I decided to give it a shot. Holy mother of Mickey, it’s like the Unofficial Guide’s (UG) touring plans on steroids! Actually, it’s a lot like the customized plans UG used to provide via email, in which you could specify arrival and departure times, lunch breaks, touring speed, and which attractions you wanted to see, and it produces a plan to get it done. But UG stopped doing those a while ago and I’ve been on my own. Until now!

Ridemax takes it a step further, giving you actual times that you ought to be arriving at each attraction, how long you can expect to wait for each, and how long it should take you to get between attractions.

Cynic that I am, I seriously doubted that it would be all that accurate, but I was game for giving it a whirl.

Dudes, it blew my socks off. We hit every single attraction within a few minutes of the time shown by Ridemax, and we were almost always ahead of schedule! I’ll keep my UG subscription for its extended best/worst park days and crowd calendar, but Ridemax is my new Plan coordinator.


Random MK pics…

Someday, my strollers will come…




2. Don’t assume anything when it comes to kids and rides.

Speaking of attractions and planning… knowing just which rides to put into the Ridemax engine was something of a challenge. On one day, Leo wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR). On another it was deemed “too scary.”

BTW, he’s been on the ride a bunch of times. He used to love it and then, suddenly and without warning, decided the bats scene was too scary to be endured. He hadn’t been on it for a long time before this trip.

It’s A Small World was also put in and out of The Plan a few times, as one day he “loved that ride” and another it was “just okay.” Barnstormer was initially okay to toss in favor of BTMRR… but was later thought to be an absolute requirement.

There were some constants, though, so I wound up making a few different Ridemax Plans and brought them all. In the end, Leo selected the BTMRR plan and understood that it meant skipping Barnstormer.

Any guesses on how that went?!





Leo clung to me with a force stronger than gravity throughout the ride and spent the entire exit walk repeating that “that was NOT fun” and he was “NOT going on it again. Ever.”

FYI, on the ride home at the end of trip, he announced that he’d changed his mind and I should plan on putting BTMRR back in the mix for our next trip. Sure am glad I bought the year-long subscription to Ridemax; it’ll be getting a workout!




3. I found a new favorite menu item!

We wound up eating lunch at Pinnochio Village Haus because Leo wanted pizza. For those who don’t know, I’m in love with the Magical Tuna Sandwich served up at Columbia Harbour House; to eat anywhere else is a sacrilege. But I wasn’t willing to fight about it, so off we went to Pinnochio’s. I was hot and really didn’t want a pizza, so I tried the Mediterranean Salad. YUM! It was really, really good. Grilled chicken breast, mixed greens – and fresher than fresh, too! – cherry tomatoes, mozzarella balls, olives… it was delicious and perfect on a hot day. I still love my Magical Tuna, but this ranks right up there.


Also right up there are cinnamon rolls from Main Street bakery, at which I insisted on stopping before we left the MK. I’m not normally big on sweet tastes, but this is a major exception and a must-have whilst at WDW. I’d been working out and eating right for weeks leading up to the weekend… and I’d been fantasizing about Main St. cinnamon rolls for days. It totally hit the spot! I only ate half there, though, and brought the rest back to the Poly for later. Remember that.

See? Alice covets the ooey-gooey goodness of Main St. cinnamon rolls, too.




I’ve mentioned the heat… it was HOT. No rain and few clouds. But what had the afternoon in store?

Guess what – there’s an app for that!

Sure enough, my Weather app showed all clear for at least a few hours, so we scurried off the Poly. And the pool time for which we’d been impatiently waiting.


More random MK pics…

Nothing says “Pirates!” like Crocs and Vera Bradley.

Why am I the only one who ever cheers for the Backside of Water???

Continued here...

 

[DisneyJo]

Looks like your phone was worth every penny And I've read great things about ridemax before, glad it worked for you and leo with his ever changing favourite rides

 

[PrincessV]

I don’t think we’ve ever changed into swimsuits so fast as we did that day! It’s not like we’re swim-deprived, for goodness’ sake – we have a pool not 15 steps from our front door! But. It doesn’t have a volcano. Or bubbly section. Or attached beach. Or a view of Cindy’s castle.


Or a bar.

Heh heh. For the record, that wasn’t my first stop; I did spend some time in the pool with Leo before hitting the pool bar. The water was lovely – just cool enough to feel good in the sun, but warm enough not to chill.

Wouldn’t it be great if I had some pictures of me and Leo playing in the pool, so we could remember that awesome afternoon? Yeah. Well, Gramma needs another tutorial on how to work the iCamera. Dabnabbit. She thought she took a bunch… I got home and found none. Oh well.



Eventually, Gramma wanted a turn in the pool and I wanted some quality time with a mojito, a lounge chair and the latest US Weekly. Yes, I read that crap, but only whilst poolside. (Remember the location of our home pool?! )

I also took a little walk along the beach and drunk-dialed Lauralee. I wasn’t actually drunk, and I got her voicemail, but it’s the thought that counts.



When we’d all had enough Volcano Pool action, we headed back to the room and I grabbed a Pina Colava to go. I really don’t know what possessed me; I’ve never liked those things. Too sweet and too rich; I don’t approve of mixing ice cream with booze. But it sounded good for some reason.

It may have been a mistake, but it was an even bigger mistake to use it as a chaser after downing the other cinnamon roll half. Ugh, all that sugar overwhelmed my low-carb system and I think I went into insulin shock! I flopped down on my bed and just laid there for a while willing my heart rate down and my legs to stop twitching. Apparently I fell asleep, too, because Leo tapped me on the shoulder a while later to tell me his movie had ended. Oops.



Good thing he woke me up, because Gramma’d fallen asleep too, and we had an ADR at ‘Ohana.


~sigh~

I really wish I could say something glowing about that meal. Esepcially since ‘Ohana holds a special place in my heart; we’ve enjoyed a few meals there with very special friends over the years.

May 2007, with my friend Char.

January 2008, with Lauralee and Michael

May 2009


But it’s off the list for a good long time now, I’m afraid.

Much like GG, service was terrific. Our server was super efficient. But the food quality just wasn’t great. The meat was dry and bland. The noodles… were just noodles. The broccoli was good, but what happened to all the other vegetables? The bread pudding was soggy. The salad was the only shining star on our table.

All of which wouldn’t be a big deal… except that we didn’t utilize the entertainment, either. Leo wanted nothing to do with the cocoanut racing or limbo contest. He proclaimed the singing “too loud” and rudely covered his ears when the singer strolled by.

And the kicker? It was a “holiday” weekend, so we were charged an extra $5 per person! After dropping over $100 on that not-so-great meal, I vowed to skip any family-style restaurants in the future.




The monsoons had returned during dinner, but let up by the time we were done, so we strolled around in the drizzle and I played some more with the camera. Enjoy!

 

[cmp1111]

But since I got my iPhone, my standard response to any challenging situations life may throw at me has become “There’s an app for that!” And, indeed, there is an app for that!

OK, I think that may be the final straw for me - I am just like you in terms of sleeping at home vs. away from home.

To her credit, the girl apologized and the noise stopped immediately. Whew!

That was nice, at least.

Ridemax is my new Plan coordinator.

Hmm... Next time!

Someday, my strollers will come…

I also took a little walk along the beach and drunk-dialed Lauralee. I wasn’t actually drunk, and I got her voicemail, but it’s the thought that counts.

I love this one. Plus, you know, it reminds me of August and OFF (Our Friend Fay...)

Sorry about 'Ohana - how sad.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

First, I must say that your pictures are FANTASTIC! I love the one with the tasty bar concoction hoisted in the air! Very nice.

I, too, cheer for the backside of water!

"There's an app for that"...too funny! Is there an app that magically transports me to WDW??

Those MK Bakery cinnamon rolls are HUGE!! Isaiah and Jonah split one on our trip. YUMMY!

 

[sharkB8HooHaHa]

But since I got my iPhone, my standard response to any challenging situations life may throw at me has become “There’s an app for that!” And, indeed, there is an app for that! Allow me to introduce iChillout. Ambient noise for the iPhone. You can select anything from lapping water, to chimes, to monastic chants. Leo chose “Prairie Wolves” for his go-to-sleep sounds. I was more than a little skeptical, but it worked beautifully; he was out in about 10 minutes. For Gramma and I, I went with “English Lakeside” which includes some lapping water, birds calling and crickets chirping. Bliss!

Seriously? Wolves????

So I took action – stepped into the hall to get the room number and then gave them a call. That was weird; I could hear the girl who answered in stereo – both through the receiver and the wall! I politely asked if they could please keep it down as I had a young child tryig to sleep (BTW, Leo never so much as stirred through all this – I was the one trying to sleep!). To her credit, the girl apologized and the noise stopped immediately. Whew!

I never would have thought to call the room! I would have been making a big ol' stink with the front desk....pointless, I'm sure.

Leo clung to me with a force stronger than gravity throughout the ride and spent the entire exit walk repeating that “that was NOT fun” and he was “NOT going on it again. Ever.”

OMG, V...I'm sorry. I can SO picture this whole scene.

Guess what – there’s an app for that!

Sure enough, my Weather app showed all clear for at least a few hours, so we scurried off the Poly. And the pool time for which we’d been impatiently waiting.[/SIZE]

I've seen you work that app. Your the queen of the app.

Why am I the only one who ever cheers for the Backside of Water???[/SIZE]

Was anyone ordering pizza?


Sorry you went into sugar overload and crashed. And sorry-er that dinner was a let down. Leo wasn't feeling to hooky-lau? Can't say I blame him.

 

[Sooze]

Let me back up a minute and say this: I’m a very sound sleeper at home, but anywhere else, the different sounds distract me enormously.

Funny, but I'm the complete opposite! Every noise at home wakes me, but when I'm away, I sleep like a baby! I think it has something to do with being paranoid about something happening to my home (fire, burglary, etc) but when I'm in a Disney resort, my mind tells me everything's good!!

But since I got my iPhone, my standard response to any challenging situations life may throw at me has become “There’s an app for that!”

We just got iPhones after our Spring Break trip to Disney.. can't wait to go there with mine! I think the apps will come in so handy.. just like they did for you!

And lots of profanity. (Admittedly, I swear like a sailor, but not around Leo. Much. )

To her credit, the girl apologized and the noise stopped immediately. Whew!

Well, thank goodness! Glad that didn't escalate into something bad. (Tho, I'm not gonna lie, I would've loved to hear you tell a story about it!)

1. Ridemax ROCKS!

What is this? Is it an app for the iPhone, or something online? Can you give some more info.. or can I find it on this TR somewhere? Thanks!

BTW, he’s been on the ride a bunch of times. He used to love it and then, suddenly and without warning, decided the bats scene was too scary to be endured. He hadn’t been on it for a long time before this trip.

Kids are so random and bizarre, aren't they?

Grilled chicken breast, mixed greens – and fresher than fresh, too! – cherry tomatoes, mozzarella balls, olives… it was delicious and perfect on a hot day.

This sounds SOOO good!!!

See? Alice covets the ooey-gooey goodness of Main St. cinnamon rolls, too.

This is so funny. People are just walking by her. It's like she's just another residents on Main Street!

Sure enough, my Weather app showed all clear for at least a few hours, so we scurried off the Poly. And the pool time for which we’d been impatiently waiting.

I LOVE my weather app!! Sometimes, when we're at the pool and it looks like the heavens might open up, I just check the radar on my iPhone to see if we can stay or if we need to pack it up! Sooooo convenient!