Dreams Come True! An April Adventure of Being Remembered & Making Magic Updated 11/6!

[katt789]

I'm there the night of the 8th through the 11th.

Yaaayy!!! Are you going to one of the ap previews? Ill be at the one on the 11th, auditioning on the 10 & just playing the other days! We should meet up for a dole whip or something!

 

[dara00]

I don't even know about the ap previews, lol! I'm going for the 1/2 marathon and the plans are on the 9th breakfast at 1900 Park Faire, the race expo, and downtown disney; the 10th I'll be relaxing hopefully at the pool (staying at the Swan) and around the boardwalk getting ready for the race, Saturday night is the race and the after party at Epcot, the 11th breakfast at the Beach Club and we leave that day, so I'm not even going to the MK!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I love getting to parades at the right time. I don't normally wait around to watch them, but if they start when I happen upon the area, well....that's perfect timing.

There is nothing wrong with watching Disney movies to prepare for a Disney trip. I totally do that allllll the time.

 

[katt789]

I don't even know about the ap previews, lol! I'm going for the 1/2 marathon and the plans are on the 9th breakfast at 1900 Park Faire, the race expo, and downtown disney; the 10th I'll be relaxing hopefully at the pool (staying at the Swan) and around the boardwalk getting ready for the race, Saturday night is the race and the after party at Epcot, the 11th breakfast at the Beach Club and we leave that day, so I'm not even going to the MK!

Ack!! As it turns out that weekend is opening weekend for the next show at work....and we aren't allowed to book those days off, so it looks like no trip for me!!

I love getting to parades at the right time. I don't normally wait around to watch them, but if they start when I happen upon the area, well....that's perfect timing.

There is nothing wrong with watching Disney movies to prepare for a Disney trip. I totally do that allllll the time.

It's awesome!!! I don't mind waiting for them (we actually did a lot of "getting there early and waiting" in Sept, but we got amazing spots, and amazing pictures, so I don't mind. That's how I schedule breaks into a trip. Lawl)

I will watch disney movies all day every day, they make life awesome!

 

[katt789]

Tanessa and I had just RACED over to the Grand Floridian, and had arrived no later than 4:25, and were concerned that we would be late for checking in for dinner (especially since 1900 Park Fare has the longest waits ever!) But the doors to the restaurant weren’t even open (as they close between breakfast and dinner lawl). Thank goodness! Once they were open, we checked in and were seated right away, in the little table right beside the buffet, right beside the little “alley-way” back room, in its own little nook. It was great!

Our waiter was up right away and took a drink order for us, I couldn’t tell ya what anyone ordered, except Tyler got some kind of beer. The drinks came out quickly, and we made our way up to the buffet!

My plate! Starting with the bun and going clockwise: bun, strawberries, watermelon, shrimp & cocktail sauce, spinach salad, RICE, some other rice blend, and some roast chicken. The others got the same kind of mix of food, and all of us ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. Seriously 1900 PF has some of the GREATEST food I have ever had on Disney property, especially for a buffet, breakfast or dinner. They have a great selection, and amazing quality, it probably helped that we were right in the first set of the evening, but it. was. awesome.

The characters started to make their way around, and Prince Charming was first!

He certainly was charming, as he said hello to the ladies, took the picture, signed the book, etc, and then moved on. Nothing that special, so we took it upon ourselves to add a little character to the evening!

Cinderella came along next, and it was about the same level of interaction as her Prince, she was sweet, nice, and moved along pretty quickly.

And then, it was time for the big show. I had booked this dinner when I traveled solo in Jan, but ended up skipping it, even though I really really wanted to go, so I knew I had to book it now, especially with Tyler coming, and him being a boy. Why, may you ask? Well, tonight was the night he was going to propose to one (maybe both) of the step sisters! After our little interaction (and the ginger love connection) with Anastasia earlier in the trip, he knew it had to be her (and we were really, really hoping it was the same friend of Anastasia that would be there tonight, although we doubted it). I had bought a couple of little “bachelorette party” rings from the dollar store before leaving, they even lit up! So when Anastasia next made it around to our table, she said a quick hello before Tyler got her attention and said he had something important to ask her, would he marry her?

Needless to say, it got loud in there fast! I had been super nervous about how the girl would feel because it was an actual guy, probably close to her age, doing it, instead of an adorable little boy, but these girls were amazing. She immediately started screaming, yelling to her sisters, showing off the ring, saying yes, of course, it was amazing!

Drizella came by, and of course, wanted to know why he picked her sister instead of her, to which Tyler’s response was “ginger love connection” of course! Drizella was upset, but huffed away back to the table she had been at before Cinderella came back to congratulate the couple!

She commented on how we would all soon become step families before Anastasia got pictures with all of us, showing off her new ring, of course.

And then, it was time for desserts! Yum!

I like to take pretty much one of everything, and then take one or two bites of it all, figure out what I actually like, and then eat those haha!! We’ve got there, a fruit tart, 2 key lime pies, carrot cake muffin, cheesecake, I’m gonna guess some kind of bread pudding, and a chocolate mousse. I’m pretty sure the carrot cake and the mousse were the winners. While we ate, we watched Cinderella and her Prince dance through the dining room.

Then it was about time that Drizella stopped by! I had asked Tyler if he wanted to cause some drama and propose to them both, but he said he’d rather just keep to the one, haha! Good man. The Step sister immediately walked around the table and took a seat next to Tyler and started questioning him as to why he would choose Anastasia over her while she signed my book, and then they took a picture together.

And then she walked away…..yup…that’s cool, Tanessa and I didn’t want our picture with you anyway….okay… I was a little peeved at that, like, there are 3 people at the table, and she pretty much completely ignored us, but whatever. During the rest of our time in the restaurant, Anastasia would walk by the table, flashing her ring, waving at Tyler, blowing kisses, showing him off to everyone else, it was awesome. Drizella also came back at one point asking “is there anything else you might want to ask me” and Tyler blankly replied “no….” and then about 10 minutes later, realized she meant if he wanted to propose….smart man….

We paid our bill and said thank you to the waiter, and moved along from the restaurant, taking some time to wander the Grand Floridian as we exited. I’m pretty sure Tyler went back to the hotel to nap/pack at this point (surprised that he split up from us?)

This resort is by far my favorite. I mean, I love the Poly, I love pretty much all the resorts Disney has, but the GF is just absolutely beautiful, there’s usually at least 1 wedding party doing pictures somewhere on property, there’s a live orchestra, and it’s just amazing. Tanessa and I browsed through the gift shop, and eventually, made it back onto the monorail, we had one last evening in the Magic Kingdom to take advantage of!

 

[ronnmel]

I love the interaction between Tyler and Anastasia, and how Drizella reacted.

 

[katt789]

I love the interaction between Tyler and Anastasia, and how Drizella reacted.

It was great!! Haha, 1900 is just such a good place for a meal, I'm so glad the proposal went over well haha!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Food and a fiance? Can't wait to hear about that.

Sometimes we have to add our own character.

Hahahahaha, that's hilarious about the proposal! That's so cool and great that they just went along with it.

 

[katt789]

Food and a fiance? Can't wait to hear about that.

Sometimes we have to add our own character.

Hahahahaha, that's hilarious about the proposal! That's so cool and great that they just went along with it.

Bahaha, yeah, hey adding our own characters makes for the best photos! Lawl.

Oh goodness I was so excited and happy that it went well. I know those girls must get asked for marriage at least 3 times a day, and like, sometimes it's cute and adorable, and it's kids, but when it's adults, does it just get weird? I was really happy that they clicked and that it all worked out. I mean, it wouldn't be very in character if she acted weird about it, but still ahah

 

[katt789]

With our bellies VERY full, we headed back towards the Magic Kingdom (monorail of course!) and breezed straight through to Frontierland. It was really hot out (and after stuffing myself full, I wasn’t feeling too hot anymore) so we grabbed a fast pass for Splash Mountain, and browsed by Liberty Square to check if our friend of Naveen’s was out….no such luck. Sad face. Continuing through Fantasyland, we had some rides we wanted to check out there, but the wait times were still a little bit too long, so we continued to the land of Tomorrow, where we noticed that the wait to save the galaxy from Zurg was only 15 minutes (who would make you wait for that kind of thing!? Lawl) And we slowly walked right on!

Every single time I go through this cue, I try and push buttons on that thing and get really sad when they don’t do anything. Ha! I wish that it was more interactive in here!

That guys pretty cool though! We hit up the Peoplemover next, considering we were there, and it would give us some time to digest! And then cut across the hub after Tanessa remembered that she really wanted to do the Jungle Cruise, and we hadn’t managed to hit it up yet!

This is another ride that I love all the stuff in the cue! And I sure to love this ride for it scaring the heck out of me when I was a kid! (Don’t ask me why, it just did haha!) I really appreciate the work some of the skippers put into their jobs, and the jokes, LAWL, just lawl.

There was definitely more than one point that Tanessa and I were the only people laughing at the jokes, hey, at least the skipper appreciated us! Since we were already in Adventureland, and it never has a line, we jumped over to battle with some Pirates next! (and conveniently, that song just came onto my Ipod….)

We were done sailing through the seven seas, and winning against scurvy, and headed over to the Briar Patch next, it was time to use our fast passes! YAY! However this was sad moment…it was our last ride on Splash Mountain (and was my last ride, up until 13 days from now….I managed to not get on it once during my July trip edited….clearly I’ve ridden Splash since then..but when I wrote this I figured I’d be done this TR LONG AGO )

*sigh* Splash Mountain, my all time favorite ride, I get on it, and I just start to dance to the music. The music is actually my ring tone & alarm right now….it makes me happy to wake up to awesome stuff every morning. Haha! I cannot wait to get back to my love!

 

[katt789]

Tanessa and I had just completed our last adventure through the briar patch, and decided to head back over to Fantasyland to finish up some more rides and fun there! However, since it was our last night, we figured that we should make a stop for some final photopass pictures on the way!

First up, we journeyed through the 100 Acre Wood!

Apparently I was in a picture taking mood! Hahaha! I seriously love the Winnie the Pooh ride, it’s just absolutely adorable, and I love that it follows one of the original story lines, so cute!! Next up, we decided we should probably take a ride that would also be a last one….ever….for us…Snow White’s Scary Adventures!

Clearly that ride is a lot darker, and most of the pictures didn’t turn out! Haha! Since we were already in Fantasyland, and hey, you only live once, we headed into the Storybook circus area for one last ride, the Barnstormer. Yup…that is how we ended our trip! Ha!!

After fighting our way back towards the hub, we decided that it would be a good time to get some snacks…and snacks may or may not have turned into a whole meal (again, when better to splurge than in Disney? Lawl) I was going to get a cinnamon bun from the bakery, while Tanessa went to Casey’s, but I decided against the sweetness, and joined her instead!

That would be mine: a hotdog & some corn dug nuggets. I had asked if I could “upgrade” from fries to the nuggets, but was told no, so I just ordered them as well and said to not give me the fries. Tanessa got some form of cheese dog

We slowly ate, just taking in all of our surroundings. I’m pretty sure that Wishes was going on while we were sitting inside. And that was that, with some last browsing through the stores, we were on our way out of Disney World. One thing I always like to do is to go up to the top of the train station on my last night and just watch everything going on down on Main Street while I take it all in. *sigh*

And that, ladies and gents, is that. I hope you enjoyed reading along on my most recent adventure, and that you’ll come to hang out with my September trip (it’s sure to be a gooder!) and maybe even my November trip too! Stick around for a couple of review pages, and be sure to check the table of contents for any other trip reports I have going on (my July audition trip, and –currently- the TR for Sept)


Thanks again and have a magical day!

 

[katt789]

Alright, so this is the part where I kinda just review everything over in general, and give some dining reviews, closing thoughts, etc;

Overall: The trip was great! Another amazing Disney trip, we managed to do everything and see everything, I (of course) wish we had had more time to explore, but hey, you live with what you can. I also do wish that the three of us had stuck together more often, and actually really had some good hang out times, but hey, to each there own, right?

April: A nice time to go, but since I don’t have kids, or a job that only allows certain times off, I probably wouldn’t go again. It was more crowded than I thought it would be, and even if the ride wait times weren’t long, the characters were ridiculous. The weather was also way colder than I thought it should be (especially since I thought it was colder than Dec/Jan, but that’s just by sheer chance.

Resort->Caribbean Beach Resort: Holy cow. I seriously recommend this resort, everything is so beautiful, and awesome. Each little area is nicely secluded, and has it’s own pool, space of beach, and hammocks to lie in, they’re great! That being said, it’s not super spread out, and took under 5 minutes to walk over to the main hall (food court, gift shop, main pool, etc) The busses seemed to run pretty efficiently, just make sure to give yourself a buffer of an extra at least 5 minutes to get somewhere, as sometimes they busses pick you up first, and then do the loop of the hotel. My one complaint for CBR was that Old Port Royale (food court) wasn’t open as late as they are in the Values, I liked being able to get back from the parks and be able to either grab a snack, or grab something for the next morning.

Food:

Cosmic Rays(Magic Kingdom): Always a good choice, you can’t go wrong here, there’s so many options to choose from and they’re delicious!

Pizzafari (Animal Kingdom): Good, the pizza’s and salads are better than one would expect, and they do even have breakfast options, I just prefer something a little healthier, I’d probably go elsewhere next time

Hoop De Doo (Ft Wilderness): Just do it. Seriously, we each paid $60.00, and got cornbread, salad, fried chicken, ribs, mashed potatoes, corn, strawberry shortcake, and as much beer/sangria that we could get in us. Not to mention that on top of that there’s a show. This was the absolute highlight of the trip for all 3 of us, it’s something for people of all ages, and everyone just loved it!

Crystal Palace (Magic Kingdom): Again, GO. The food is delicious (breakfast that is!!) and fresh and there’s lots of different options, you can eat healthy here, and there’s lots to choose from. The interior is beautiful, service has always been efficient, and there’s Winnie the Pooh characters. My one complaint here was my own fault, book a pre-park opening breakfast, I was sitting there the whole time not really enjoying it as I was thinking of all the things we should have been doing out in Magic Kingdom!

Casey’s (Magic Kingdom): My new found deep friend best friend. Those corn dog nuggets are dangerous! Seriously! This is a nice little stop to grab something to eat, they’ve got your basics, and some more adventurous options. I also really like that you can sit on the bleachers and watch old timey cartoons! Yay!

Aloha Isle (Magic Kingdom): Delicious. If you don’t stop here for a treat at some point on your trip, you haven’t lived. I’ve found that I either like the soft serve pineapple, or the vanilla soft serve in the pineapple juice, too much pine apple otherwise! Lawl.

ABC Commissonary (DHS): Surprisingly good. This would be pretty much the only place aside from Starring Rolls that I’ll eat in DHS. I’ve found something finally, everyone enjoyed there food here, it had a very big “food court” feel to it, but whatevs. The butter chicken bowl was good, tasty, and hot, I have no complaints.

Old Port Royale (CBR food court): Good. There’s lots of choices, and the one I had was good, kinda greasy, but hey, I lived, didn’t I? I’m also in love with the fact that so many meals in Disney come with cornbread. It’s a good value of food for the price. I’ll also take the time here to review the bar down by the pool. I loved it, the bartenders were quick, friendly, and awesome. They have some specialty drinks, and they were all pretty tasty, take the time to talk to them, and they were pretty great to hang out with!

Sunshine Seasons (Epcot): Oh my goodness that fruit & cheese plate was my favorite thing in the whole WORLD. UGH. It was so amazing and fresh, I love Sunshine Seasons, it’s got many choices of food, and a variety at that, great for a nice healthy snack, or a full meal!

Fiesta Margarita(Mexico, Epcot): Delicious. I *think* I might try something else next time, but that’s just because I’ve had this 3 times now, I might change it up! Haha, I like it because you get 3 flavors in one, and it may be $10.00, but there is a lot of tequila in it! Trust me!

G.M./Grey Goose Slush(France, Epcot): Don’t. Even. Ask. Just. Do. It. The GM orange one that is, seriously the greatest thing I have EVER drank, I’ve tried recreating it, and almost gotten there once, but hey, sometimes it’s nice to save things for Disney, right?! Haha.

Chefs De France(Epcot): Great!! I definitely recommend booking a later (2:30ish) lunch here, #1: it beats the heat when you’re in WS and just want to DIE #2: you get the chance to see Remy, and #3: we got seated right away, great service, and the restaurant was not busy. I accept all of these things. I would eat here again, but I do really want to try all the countries restaurants first! Lawl. Everything was super delicious here, and I know the others loved it too!

Starring Rolls(DHS): The only other place I’ll eat CS as DHS. Seriously, that place needs a quick service make over!! Ugh! Starring Rolls is amazing, they have lots of healthy options, and their sandwiches are great, fresh, great! And don’t even get me started on their cupcakes, seriously, get the red velvet, and it’ll be the greatest thing you’ve ever tasted!!


1900 Park Faire (Grand Floridian, dinner): 1900 PF has some of the greatest food I’ve ever had, especially for coming off of a buffet, everything was fresh, absolutely amazing, and definitely delicious! The food was well worth the price, and I would go back just for that, now, the characters, UGH. This was another HUGE highlight of our trip, and Tyler couldn’t stop raving about the food (hey, he’s a chef, he’s gotta know his stuff!!). I highly, highly, recommend this to anyone, I also suggest getting a reservation for RIGHT as dinner opens up, I know for breakfast (and other people) have had a hassle of a time checking in and getting seated, waiting a long time, but if you go right around 4:45, everything’s awesome!!

 

[shan23877]

Thank goodness you take so many trips-there's no need to be sad when one of your TRs comes to an end

Sounds like you guys had a great trip. I couldn't agree more about the weather-I was shocked at how cold it was in the mornings/late night. And the character lines---out of control!!!! That was a bit of a let down for a supposedly slow time of year, but it was a trade off for short ride lines and a chance to see F&G.

So glad that we had the chance to meet you even if it was brief.

Can't wait to hear more about all of your adventures.

 

[katt789]

Thank goodness you take so many trips-there's no need to be sad when one of your TRs comes to an end

Sounds like you guys had a great trip. I couldn't agree more about the weather-I was shocked at how cold it was in the mornings/late night. And the character lines---out of control!!!! That was a bit of a let down for a supposedly slow time of year, but it was a trade off for short ride lines and a chance to see F&G.

So glad that we had the chance to meet you even if it was brief.

Can't wait to hear more about all of your adventures.

Hahaha, true enough! I also like to try and "drag out" trip reports so that when one ends, there's already another on the go haha.

It was an awesome trip, I think if I do a spring trip again though, I'll wait til May (which was originally the plan here, but a dance competition bumped it haha) the lines were just too long for characters, and that;s what I like more haha. It was still awesome!

Yes!! And hopefully we'll have another chance, although I might be hanging out with some princess by then! *fingers crossed*