Escape From Craziness Part II to Fireworks, Food and A DVC Tour - A June 2018 Trip Report - Completed 3/30

[cstorm65]

Day 2 - Part 3 - Fish and Chips Denial

After riding around with Figment we had to spend a little time playing in the Imagination Pavilion. Some fun little things in here for the kids!

DS6 really got a kick out of creating his own Figment this time. I mean he really got into it.

And some obligatory shopping as you go through the gift shop to get out of the pavilion. DS2 thought it would be nice for DW to wear these ears!

We headed back out into the heat and had a bathroom stop. While we were waiting the boys decided to have a little photo shoot on the bench!

Obviously we were number 1!!

It was about 10:15 at this point and we headed over to catch the Jammitors. We were towards the back end of their show, but the boys loved what we got to see. They even came over to the crowd after the show and handed stickers out. Our boys were very excited to get them!

I was especially surprised DS6 got into the stickers. Most of the time now he just give them to DS2.

DS2 got his stickers, but obviously dropped them and had to go after them!

We must have stopped in Mousegears after the show because I’ve got a few pictures of DS6 checking out some things for the next time he earned a toy with good behavior.

We were heading over to Nemo, but of course had to make a stop in Club Cool.

DS2 even got into Club Cool this time. He was probably just thirsty, but he kept asking DW for more please!

We headed over to Nemo at 10:45 and the standby line was 45 minutes. And look at that FP line!

With that in mind we decided to just head into the Aquarium and let the boys look around. They would enjoy that just as much anyway. First up was the manatees:

Then we looked at some fish. The boys especially got a kick out of the scuba diver that was in the water. He was making faces and things at all of the kids looking at him.

Speaking of fish, we were getting hungry and DW and I were craving some fish and chips, so to the UK we headed! A few pictures on the way:

We got to UK at 11:20 and were super disappointed to find out that Yorkshire County Fish & Chips wasn’t opened yet. We hopped in the shop in the UK and the times guide said it didn’t open until 12:00. We both agreed that was pretty late for lunch, but they probably know what they were doing. Even so we were denied our craving of fish and chips! I guess we’d just have to come back some other time! Only problem is, what are going to eat now!

Up Next: We Found the Best Cast Members Ever​

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

as especially surprised DS6 got into the stickers. Most of the time now he just give them to DS2.

My girls have started to say no thanks to the cm’s! And the cm always tend to look like, what?!? In there face, all confused.

We got to UK at 11:20 and were super disappointed to find out that Yorkshire County Fish & Chips wasn’t opened yet.

Bummer! Silly World Showcase, everything seems to open a little later than I would like.

 

[alliec419]

following! I was there probably at the same time - May 30-June 3rd!

 

[tinkerbell1991]

Following along - you're such a cute family! x

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I'm not at all surprised that you returned to French Quarter for your Po Boy Sandwich! It does look delicious. Your wife's sandwich looked quite tasty, too!

I've never stayed at the Dolphin or Swan, but the rooms sure do look nice! The proximity to two parks would be lovely.

What wonderful pixie dust with the Boardwalk CM! I'm sure you appreciated the nice interaction and the toys were a great bonus.

Ah, I really enjoy Living with the Land.

Good gracious, that line for Nemo is insane! Forty five minutes?! I think you made the right call to bypass the ride and just look at the aquarium.

 

[cstorm65]

My girls have started to say no thanks to the cm’s! And the cm always tend to look like, what?!? In there face, all confused.

Yes, we certainly get that way by the end of the trip too. Well, at least DS6 does. DS2 still loves getting them! With that said I love the gesture by Disney. That's not something they have to do, but they still do it and it's some of the best cast member interactions we've ever had.

Bummer! Silly World Showcase, everything seems to open a little later than I would like.

I know! Oh well, it's not like we wouldn't be back to Epcot! haha

following! I was there probably at the same time - May 30-June 3rd!

Yep, we were there in the window. I think we arrived June 1. Thanks for dropping by!!

Following along - you're such a cute family! x

Thanks! Thanks for reading along, glad to have you here!

I'm not at all surprised that you returned to French Quarter for your Po Boy Sandwich! It does look delicious. Your wife's sandwich looked quite tasty, too!

It is so good! We fell in love with French Quarter. Of course I don't know that there's a resort we haven't enjoyed, but it was special for several reasons, the Po Boy being on of them!

I've never stayed at the Dolphin or Swan, but the rooms sure do look nice! The proximity to two parks would be lovely.

The rooms are nice, except the two double beds. It is a very nice convention style hotel. We missed the Disney touches, but we'd stay there again!

What wonderful pixie dust with the Boardwalk CM! I'm sure you appreciated the nice interaction and the toys were a great bonus.

It was so great by her! It's what we still love about Disney that they give their cast members the freedom to do things like that.

Ah, I really enjoy Living with the Land.

Me too! I think I could quote it the entire ride, but I still enjoy it every time!

Good gracious, that line for Nemo is insane! Forty five minutes?! I think you made the right call to bypass the ride and just look at the aquarium.

Umm...yeah, NO. Not waiting on that! Like I said about the Fish and Chips...we'd be back to Epcot!

Thanks for reading along and commenting everyone!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 2 - Part 4 - We Found the Best Cast Members Ever

After the World Showcase denied us Fish & Chips we set out in search of some lunch. We didn’t really feel like just wandering around as we wanted to get the boys back to the room shortly after noon for a little nap. So, we decided to walk towards the Dolphin and stop for lunch at the Beach Club Marketplace on the way. What a great decision that was, but I’ll get to that! This is such a nice walk and I just love the location of these resorts!

After a few minutes we arrived at our destination, the Beach Club!

I was being a good trip reporter, for the first time ever, and for some reason took pictures of the coolers and the options that are available there. It’s probably too far away to tell what anything is, but hey, at least I was trying!

DW and I both decided the flatbreads looked good so we’d get a cheese one and a pepperoni & sausage one. DS2 would just eat with us, but DS6 just wanted a salad. I know crazy...but sometimes he just gets the urge and wants a salad and who am I to argue? Anyway, the only salad we see on the menu is the adult build your own salad which is $9.99. Well, he’s not going to eat anywhere near $10 of salad.

This is when the absolute gem of a cast member working heard us talking to DS6 and she said, “now did I hear that he wants a salad?” DW told her he did, but that we didn’t think he could eat near all of the adults salad and a salad wasn’t an option for the kids meal. The lady confirmed they don’t have small or side salads, but went on to say, “But I’ll make one special just for you!” So she got the bowl the side dishes go in and made DS6 his own build your own salad. She also got our flatbread’s cooking for us. When we got to the end and picked everything up she said, “Now, since we don’t have small salads you guys don’t even need to pay for this,” as she handed us DS6’s salad.

So, not only did we have the great cast member in the shop early in the day give the kids a toy, now this sweet lady was once again making some magic and this was just our first day. But, it didn’t end there. Once we had our flatbread’s DW had taken the kids to look in the store while I paid and the lady walked me to the register and told the other cast member that she had made us a small salad and that it was on the house. The other cast member picked up right where she left off and said, “That’s no problem at all! We hope you guys enjoy.” Then, as I was paying she pointed at DW and the boys and said, “Is that your family?” I said, “Yes”. She then replied, “Your boys are so handsome!” We chatted a little more and I told April those were some of the best cast members we’ve ever seen. This trip couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.

Anyway, sorry for the long story. Here’s our food. First the flatbread:

They were actually really good. For Disney flatbreads I’d rate it as one of the best. DW, DS2 and myself enjoyed it and ate every bite. DS6 loved his salad that was made just for him!

The only negative to this place is there isn’t really a seating area indoors and in the summer it isn’t always fun to eat outside in the heat. It wasn’t too terrible ont his day and so we sat out here to enjoy our meal.

After lunch we said farewell to the Marketplace, but we’d be back!

It was about 12:00 and we headed back to the Dolphin, but first some pictures here:

The place we’d be checking in for the second half of our trip!

DS6 wanted to pose in front of our hotel!

After DS6 did his posed picture above DS2 wanted us to take one of him as well! haha

Before long we were back in the room and by 12:30 the boys were napping after a great first morning in the parks! There is more fun coming up after nap time though!

Up Next: The Magic Tray of the Day​

 

[SimplyGoofy]

What a lovely lunch! The flatbreads look really good - in case I ever stay in the Epcot area I'm glad to know this is a great option!

I love that your son loves salads! What a great kid!

HOW SWEET of the CM to make a custom mini salad for him... and then gift it to you! Your pixie dust that day was amazing!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

!” So she got the bowl the side dishes go in and made DS6 his own build your own salad. She also got our flatbread’s cooking for us. When we got to the end and picked everything up she said, “Now, since we don’t have small salads you guys don’t even need to pay for this,” as she handed us DS6’s salad.

That is great! We had great CM expierences there as well

 

[cstorm65]

What a lovely lunch! The flatbreads look really good - in case I ever stay in the Epcot area I'm glad to know this is a great option!

This was a great lunch spot. It is a very limited menu, but if you like salads and flatbreads it is a good option.

I love that your son loves salads! What a great kid!

He does. It's not all the time, but every few days he gets in a salad mood!

HOW SWEET of the CM to make a custom mini salad for him... and then gift it to you! Your pixie dust that day was amazing!

I know. These ladies were awesome and they were so genuine in doing it. It was a great day with some great CM's.

That is great! We had great CM expierences there as well

Yes, it was so nice of her. And these ladies were so nice. And it wasn't like, here I'll make you this salad, but I'm going to be put off by it because we aren't supposed to do it. You could tell it was really something she wanted to do just to be nice. That makes it that much better when magic happens!

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

What awesome luck you had with CM's! I know it a little salad may not seem like a big deal to some, but it's those little things that make Disney CM's so special Plus with the toy they were given earlier - that is just so awesome!

I always enjoy the Beach Club Marketplace - we often grab snacks and breakfast stuff from there. It's so convenient and their flatbread's ARE really yummy!

I love that ya'll went in June b/c it's giving me strategy ideas for our next trip (we are going in June next year for our wedding!) and it's been years since I have been to WDW in the summer. We typically go "off" season but now that my son is getting older & my fiance is a teacher, our only options are to travel when they are out of school. We will be there the first week of June so I am hoping it won't be too miserable (heat wise). We are from Texas so we know hot weather but I usually stay in the AC as much as possible

Looking forward to the next post!

 

[cstorm65]

What awesome luck you had with CM's! I know it a little salad may not seem like a big deal to some, but it's those little things that make Disney CM's so special Plus with the toy they were given earlier - that is just so awesome!

I know! It was a great morning. And how right you are that those are the things that make Disney different!

I always enjoy the Beach Club Marketplace - we often grab snacks and breakfast stuff from there. It's so convenient and their flatbread's ARE really yummy!

We really enjoyed it. Even at here one or two more times after we switched over the the Yacht Club.

I love that ya'll went in June b/c it's giving me strategy ideas for our next trip (we are going in June next year for our wedding!) and it's been years since I have been to WDW in the summer. We typically go "off" season but now that my son is getting older & my fiance is a teacher, our only options are to travel when they are out of school. We will be there the first week of June so I am hoping it won't be too miserable (heat wise). We are from Texas so we know hot weather but I usually stay in the AC as much as possible

You know...I guess we've just made our peace with it. Both being teachers we have to travel in the summer and we know it's going to be hot and we just deal with it. We are from the same region of the country and we have heat and humidity too. Not quite what Florida is, but overall we make it ok. We just take it slow, rest at the resort for a few hours every day and like you said, really get in and out of the air conditioning a lot while we are in the parks. It's become something very do-able for us!

Looking forward to the next post!

Thanks for reading and commenting!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 2 - Part 5 - The Magic Tray of the Day

We were in the midst of our rest time back at the Dolphin and while the family was taking a nap I went in search of a refillable drink mug I’d heard of at the resort. But first I got to walk through the lobby!

At the time, the refillable mugs were available down in the restaurant downstairs called Picabu and looked like this.

The mug is refillable for the duration of your stay and when we were there we could fill it up at the Coke Freestyle machines there in that restaurant. I also think there were freestyle machine at the little quick service food shop, Fuel, in the lobby. Also, I think we used it at The Fountain, which was a sit down burger and ice cream place downstairs. The mug cost $15 which I thought was fairly reasonable. After getting it purchased I sat down in the seating area for Picabu just to relax for a few minutes while the family slept.

After a few minutes there I headed back through the lobby on the way to the room.

Back in the room I rested with them for a bit and then about 3:45 start waking everybody up. Of course once DS6 is asleep he is hard to get awake so it looked like this for a bit.

DS2 was up and ready to go pretty quickly, but we were still trying to rouse DS6 who was in a deep “Disney” sleep. He doesn’t nap at home, but boy does he nap when we are at Disney. We call it is “Disney” nap!

Again, what a great view from our room.

By about 4:40 we started our travel to our destination for the evening. We were walking to Hollywood Studios. One of the few negatives for our trip was that it was during the construction on one of the bridges outside of the Swan/Dolphin and Boardwalk so the Friendship boats were only running from the resorts to Epcot. So our only way to get to Hollywood Studios was to walk or ride the bus. We chose to walk and it wasn’t that bad. Certainly the boat would have been a best case scenario, but walking was do-able.

There was obviously a lot of construction to look at on our way in to the park.

All of my Skyliner pics are old news now since I’ve taken so long to get to this trip report!

We made it to the gate at about 5:00. So about a 20 minute walk and we just took our time and walked at a leisurely pace.

I guess DW decided to take a picture of me getting the stroller situation. Everything has to have its place you know!

We got into the park at 5:05 and met up with our friends that were down as well. Of course DS6 was super excited at the March of the First Order was coming down the street and the kids all got interested in that!

We also stopped for a quick family picture in front of the theatre.

After our picture we headed over with our friends and rode Star Tours together. We were busy enjoying the company and I didn’t get any pictures, but we had a fun time with them. We all then headed over to have dinner at Backlot Express. It was a good meal, although I didn’t take great notes as we were still hanging out with our friends. I did manage to get a picture of my Royal Guard Burger. As you can see thought they were out of the black buns that this is normally served on.

As I recall it was pretty good. Nothing special, but for a Disney Burger, I would say it was on the good end, of course I didn't get the normal bun. Also, as we were ordering we had something happen I've never seen or had happen before. The worker at the counter said, "You have the Magic Tray of the Day" as she handed me our food. She then asked me what kind of cupcake I wanted. I mean the two big pieces of magic earlier this day and now a free cupcake. I mean, what a first day at Disney. I ended up choosing the BB-8 cupcake. Of course we were so excited (well, I was so excited) I didn't even get a picture of it! It was delicious though!

After dinner our friends were leaving the park for some pool time, but we were going to continue our night down Sunset Boulevard!

What would we ride next??

Up Next: The Perfect Finish to a First Disney Day​

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I think many of us take several good Disney naps on a trip! Touring Disney is tiring!

Wow, what a great view! It's too bad about the cranes, but I think the excellent Tower of Terror view makes up for it!

Magic Tray of the Day?! Wow, you guys had the best experiences on your first day! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the cupcake!

 

[cstorm65]

I think many of us take several good Disney naps on a trip! Touring Disney is tiring!

So true! DS6, currently DS7, doesn't take naps at home...ever! But when at Disney, even he doesn't argue!

Wow, what a great view! It's too bad about the cranes, but I think the excellent Tower of Terror view makes up for it!

Tower of Terror is very photogenic on the walk in from the Epcot resorts! That is one of the best parts of the walk!

Magic Tray of the Day?! Wow, you guys had the best experiences on your first day! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the cupcake!

I know. Didn't even know this was a thing and for all I know this cast member made it up just because she wanted to give away a free cupcake, but it was awesome nonetheless!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 2 - Part 6 - The Perfect Finish to a First Disney Day

When I last left off we were heading down Sunset Boulevard and were heading to take a ride here:

We got there at about 6:20 and DW, DS6, and myself all had FP’s. We weren’t sure if DS6 wanted to ride or not, although we were very honest about it. We told him it went very vast and flipped upside down and that he could ride if he wanted, but he didn’t have to. He said he didn’t want to ride right then, so DW went ahead and rode. I hung out with the boys in the stroller.

DS2 decided to play a game of can I get out of the stroller without getting unbuckled!

He almost did it and would have fallen on his head in the process. While we were waiting DS6 out of nowhere decided he wanted to ride Rock ‘n Roller Coaster with me. So, when DW came out at about 6:45 he and I went on in. Here was the before picture:

We had about a 15 minute wait in line.

While we were riding these two were taking selfie's!

DS2 and I made it out of the ride ok and here was the final verdict:

He loved it! Of course the ride photo never got to my account, but he really liked it. He came off saying he wanted to go again!

After that it was time to head out of the park. DS6 found something he liked in one of the stores on the way out.

We started walking at about 7:30 and just took our time walking back to the Dolphin.

DS2 was looking especially tired in the stroller!

We made it back to the Dolphin at about 7:50 and quickly got our swimsuits on as we had promised the boys they could swim. For some reason the fountain at the Dolphin was off tonight.

DS6 couldn’t figure out why the water wasn’t running.

On the way to the pool DW and I got some ice cream at The Fountain. It was so good! We were super impressed by the ice cream here during our stay! We got to the pool at about 8:20 and swam for about 45 minutes. As we were finishing up we caught a glimpse of this from the pool area!

DW took DS2 back to bed and DS6 wanted a Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich so I took him to do that. We found one of those in Picabu which allowed me to refill my mug as well and we went to sit outside to enjoy the ice cream. It was actually a nice night outside!

DS6 really enjoyed his late night snack and felt really special getting to stay up 20 minutes later than his brother! By 9:30 we were back in the room and DS6 quickly fell asleep. DW and I followed soon after so we’d be ready for rope drop in the morning!

I'l finish this update off with a collage of today's picture's that DW took.

Up Next: “Dumbo Is A Baby Ride”​

 

[Jules123]

Joining in! What a sweet family you have!

 

[cstorm65]

Joining in! What a sweet family you have! ❤

Thanks so much and thanks for reading along!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Again, what a great view from our room.

Wow that was awesome! You could see all the way to Batuu!

He loved it! Of course the ride photo never got to my account, but he really liked it. He came off saying he wanted to go again!

He’s braver than me! I can’t handle RnRC!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I'm so glad that DS6 loved RNRC! You have a thrill rider on your hands!

I've heard such good things about The Fountain - I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Late-night Mickey ice cream sounds like the perfect way to end such a great day. I can't wait to hear about day two!