Everything is Satisfactual - A TR (9/22-9/31) Updated 12/9 Last Day

[Hedy]

I'm glad to hear Keys to the Kingdom didn't ruin the magic for you...

 

[Donald is #1]

! I deceided that I absolutely needed to buy myself a pair of classic Mickey ears with my name on them to replace the ones I had when I was four.

That would be me in the middle wearing the ears I stole from my crying brother. Only fair since my cousin next to me stole mine.

Hmm, you don't look too happy in the picture either. Your cousin on the other hand looks extremely pleased with taking your ears.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Who brought 2 pairs of Mickey Ears for 3 kids????????

(I think you brothers really upset because of that jumper he's wearing)

My cousin actually got to go to Disney World, while we got stuck at home. I think I'm upset because of that awful pink outfit with clashing red shoes. It's probably the cause for why I hate red shoes to this day.

I'm glad to hear Keys to the Kingdom didn't ruin the magic for you...

Not a bit. It was one of the highlights of my trip.

Hmm, you don't look too happy in the picture either. Your cousin on the other hand looks extremely pleased with taking your ears.

That picture is my cousin in a nutshell. Always the one causing trouble and feeling happy about it.

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'm glad you rode Pirates after you Tour.

I'm intrigued with O'hana. I am excited to see what you thought about it.

 

[Charleston Princess]

That picture is a riot! I know I shouldn't laugh at crying children, but I can't help it right now!

Glad you rode Pirates and was able to enjoy browsing without being rushed.

 

[skier_pete]

HA, I couldn't ask for it, but I was hoping you would give me a shout-out. It was great chatting with you too. It IS weird how you can sit down next to someone you've never met and have a full-on conversation like you've known eachother for weeks or months. (Which I guess we sort of did.) I was a little disappointed we didn't run into each-other again the rest of the trip...we were around the resort quite a bit, but I guess that's the way it goes at Disney. Anyways, great TR so far, I'm enjoying the read.

Skier Pete

 

[If U Had Wings]

I'm intrigued with O'hana. I am excited to see what you thought about it.

You'll have to wait and see. It had been one of my favorites from my 2007 trip. I was really looking forward to eating there again.

That picture is a riot! I know I shouldn't laugh at crying children, but I can't help it right now!

I laugh everytime I see that picture, even now. I think it's my cousin's self satisfied look while my brother is so miserable that makes me laugh.

HA, I couldn't ask for it, but I was hoping you would give me a shout-out. It was great chatting with you too. It IS weird how you can sit down next to someone you've never met and have a full-on conversation like you've known eachother for weeks or months. (Which I guess we sort of did.) I was a little disappointed we didn't run into each-other again the rest of the trip...we were around the resort quite a bit, but I guess that's the way it goes at Disney. Anyways, great TR so far, I'm enjoying the read.

Skier Pete

I know I was surprised that I didn't see you again either. I guess since our rooms were on either ends of the resort. Maybe the next trip to Disney we'll bump into each other again!

 

[If U Had Wings]

In 2007 when I went to Disney with a friend of mine the one restaurant we were not able to get an ADR for when we booked our room at 110 days out was Le Cellier. (I know…big surprise ). I had chosen all of the other restaurants, so I made my friend pick our last one. She chose Ohana. I had never eaten there before, and was anxious to try it even though some of the reviews I had read were making me a bit nervous about the choice. Happily we ended up loving the place, and it made our top 3 list of favorite restaurants. It was #3, right behind Brown Derby and Boma just so you have an idea of our tastes. It was definitely one of my must-do's for this year's trip.

That's what makes this review so painful to write. I was so looking forward to Ohana's again and it turned out to be so disappointing, really living up to the negative reviews. Originally this was supposed to a family dinner, but my brother and his gang had bailed on us the day before, so I was also a bit disappointed that the one family night I had planned was a bust.

We made really good time getting from POFQ to the Poly so we were able to check in pretty early for our ADR. They had no problems adjusting our reservation for 8 to one for 3. We had plenty of time to explore and enjoy the Great Ceremonial House. The Poly will always have a special place in my heart as it is where we stayed for my childhood visits to the world. I was taken with the idea that the fountain in the middle was much smaller than it used to be when I was a kid. As I was thinking it, I figured that it was probably the same size, but it just seemed smaller now that I was an adult. Then my mother came up asking what in the world they did to the fountain, and I felt better knowing it wasn't just me. It's still beautiful, just not quite as tall and lush.

We were seated relatively quickly and given a table right near the dance/activity part of the room. (Actually it was the exact same table I sat at last year with my BFF). There was a kid's activity wrapping up while we were being seated so there was a lot of hubaloo going on around our seats. (As an aside, our table was a table for 3 so Ohana is one of those few places at Disney that actually has tables for 3 and not just 4).

As the hostess sat us at the table she left us with a board of fresh baked bread. No plates, no butter, just bread. I've heard praises of the delicious bread and butter at Kona and can't imagine why they can't send some of the butter on down the hall to Kona. We were hungry and there was no waiter in sight so we ended up sharing the board as a dish.

Our waitress finally showed up, explained how the food was served and took our drink orders.

And we waited.

And waited some more. Nibbling on our plateless dry bread hoping they'd eventually feed us something.

Finally they brought plates, salad and dipping sauces. Last year they had given us those crunchy fried noodles with the dipping sauces. (I'm not sure exactly what they are called). This year just the dipping sauces. Weird. We didn't quite get what the dips were for without the noodles. If they were supposed to be with the bread, it would have been nice if they had been served together. Our bread was long gone at this point.

The upside though that the salad was delicious. The dressing on it was light and refreshing. The three of us had no problems finishing off the entire bowl of salad.

Then we waited.

Again.

We would have asked our waitress what was going on, but she had conviently disappeared. Our table was right near the fire pit area in the middle of the restaurant, and we didn't see her come by once.

After about 15 minutes had passed our waitress finally made a reappearance and brought us honey chicken wings, peanut noodles and broccoli. Now before making any comments about the food itself I just want to comment on how they serve the food at Ohana, because they served it the same way both times I've been there. I don't understand why they don't serve the sides with the meat at the same time. Both times I've been there now they serve the sides first, then the meat. I like having both at the same time, but if you try to wait at Ohana inevitably your sides start getting cold by the time your meat arrives. (And that's even without the poky waiter service).

The peanut noodles were okay, but I didn't like them quite as much as I had loved the Maui potatos last year. I probably would have loved the noodles more, if I wasn't subconciously comparing them to the potatos in the back of my mind. (The potatoes were to die for). The noodles were good, but I didn't leave there thinking I absolutely had to have more.

In 2007 they had been serving delicious green beans, instead of the broccoli but the broccoli was just as good if not a bit better. It was perfectly cooked - just a little bit crisp, not soggy at all, and was covered with a touch of a very light teriyaki sauce. Delicious. The wings were good too. Not spicy at all, but flavorful.

We were eating pretty slowly, hoping our meat would show up while we still had some sides, but that never really happened. We were finishing the last of our wings and noodles when they brought us peel and eat shrimp and some dumplings. I'm not normally a big shrimp eater, but this shrimp was excellent. It was the one spicy item we had and so good. The dumplings were everyone's favorite part of the meal. Like the broccoli was cooked perfectly and utterly delicious.

We finally realized that there was no way we'd be able to push off finishing our sides until the meat arrived so finally just finished what we were eating. When we were done someone came to completely clear away our plates.

And we waited.

About 10 minutes or so later they finally started bringing us the meats. Everything was okay, but defintely not as juicy as last time. The turkey and pork were good, but the steak which had been so delicious last year was quite dry this year. They had done away with the sausage, but as it was the one meat I really didn't like last year it wasn't missed at all.

As we were eating our long awaited meat the next show was starting on the floor next to us. I wish I could say that the entertainment was so wonderful that it made up for the rest of the issues that we were having.

Really I would.

Last year the entertainment had been a Don Ho like guy with a ukelele singing. He was actually pretty good and it had been fun while everyone was waiting to watch Wishes. This year we got to see the female entertainer. If your planning on trying Ohana on your next visit, really try to go when the guy is performing. The lady talked in a very phony, cloyingly sweet voice while tottering around in a pair of 80's wooden Candies shoes leading the kids in hula dancing and coconut races. It was the syrupy sweetness that was irritating because it was coming across as utterly phony. My mother and I were getting really silly, laughing while watching over the show.

Unfortunately with our seats so close to the dance floor area we were also subjected to a multitude of parent's rear ends in our faces as they practically sat on our table while filiming and photographing their kids doing the hula. I understand wanting to capture the moment, but really have some courtesy for the other guests at the restaurant. When I actually said something to one woman who was uncomfortably close to me while I was eating, she gave me the dirtiest look and moved off with a disgusted huff.

Dessert was the only thing that arrived without a huge wait, but again I was a bit disappointed. My last trip, the bread pudding with the banana foster sauce was my absolute favorite dessert. I dreamt of the yummy deliciousness that was that dessert. My bff and had I polished off the plate of it all by ourselves and felt only minorly guilty, until we saw the guys at the table next to us finish off a family size plate each of the pudding. It was that good. This time…meh. It was still pretty good, but it wasn't quite the same. The waitress did mention it containing pineapple, which I don't really remember from the year before. (It could have been, I just don't remember anybody mentioning pineapple last year). So maybe it's been changed slightly. I didn't think it was quite as good anymore. I was happy this time with a small normal serving. Again, like the peanut noodles, if I wasn't comparing I probably would have liked it much better.

Overall, the sides were pretty good, but the meats this time were kind of dry - not inedible but not wonderful either. I wasn't very happy with the menu changes, but my parents who didn't have the old stuff to compare it to seemed to like everything well enough. It was really the service and the entertainment that ruined the night. We felt like we spent much of our time sitting around staring at empty plates. If the waitress had been a bit more forthcoming and had just said "I apologize for the delays were a bit short handed today" or something like that we would have been more understanding. Her method of just disappearing and not coming near our table was annoying. I'd like to say that she was new, but I think she had mentioned that she had been there for a fairly long period of time.

I don't know if I'll be going back to Ohana any time soon. I was honestly feeling guilty for being the one who chose the place with such lousy service. Maybe if someone I was traveling with really wanted to eat there I'd give it one more try, but it's definitely been taken off my must-do list. Sad as it had been a favorite.

After dinner we deceided to head over to the MK. We had been hoping for a bit more time there this evening, but after spending over 2 hours at Ohana we didn't really have a lot of time to get too many rides in. We headed over to Tomorrowland where the lines were fairly short. I got an embarrasingly low score on Buzz, rode Space Mountain with my father, and watched the Carousel of Progress. We had a bit more time before we needed to stake out a spot for Wishes so we hopped on the TTA. I wish I had taken a picture. As we were riding around the track you could see a humid haze just hanging over the park. It was spooky looking. The air quality that night was horrible.

After our ride we headed back to the castle to claim our Wishes spot. I always stand in the same place. It offers a great clear view of the castle and Tinkerbelle during her flight, and you never get anyone standing right in front of you. It's a nice little spot, that doesn't fill up right away, but I don't like to take my chances of someone finding my spot on me. I love, love, love Wishes and was thinking how much the nieces would love to see them, but unfortunately my brother and SIL never plan for any Wishes nights for the girls. There was an English family standing next to us who annoyed me when at the end of the show they left all their cups and empty chip bags all over the sidewalk where they had been standing. Left them there and just walked off. How difficult is it to carry them to the garbage can for petes sake???

We walked slowly towards the exit, doing a bit of shopping while we were poking in the stores. When we got out to the buses we were shocked by the mess that meeted us out by the bus stops. In all my years of going to Disney I've never seen such a disaster as the bus stops were that night. I don't know what in the world was going on, because the park hadn't even been that busy but it seemed as if all of humanity was waiting for a bus to one of the Disney resorts. I've never seen lines that big before. You would have thought that the bus drivers had all walked off the job or something.

The line for POFQ is at the very end of the bus stops on the left side, on the right side of the station. It was nearly impossible to make our way through the crowds to get to our station. The line for the Boardwalk/Swan/Dolphin stretched all the way down past the resort stop in back of it, nearly to the directional signs. We couldn’t tell which line was which and where any of the lines actually ended. I put myself in my best New York City walker mode and told my parents to stick close. I bobbed, weaved, and twisted by way through the crowd and finally made it to the POFQ holding pen where there was absolutely no line whatsoever. Can I say how much I love the fact that the Magic Kindom has separate lines for POR and POFQ? I don't know why they don't do this at the other parks.


I felt horrible for the people trying to get to POP and the All Stars on the other side of the pick up area. If I thought the crowds on our side were bad, it was even worse over there. When buses showed up, people would actually start to cheer.

We were at a park nearly every night until closing, and never saw a mess like that again. I don't know what caused it, but I'm hoping I'm never there again for such a disaster.

We all crashed early that night as we had a long day planned with the girls the next day at MGM.

Will too much family togetherness finally catch up with us? Stay tuned.

 

[MRYPPNS]

Well at least you enjoyed most of the food at 'Ohana's...except for the dry meat.....that's what the dipping sauces are for. It seems that every skewer of meat is different in how it's cooked. Sort of like the Good, the Bad and the Ugly! I don't mind how they serve the food in sections....but then again I'm not shy with flagging down any server or manager to get us more wheather it's emtpy or just cold. Do you think maybe because your neices weren't there like you had planned that but a damper on the dinner? I really do think it was rude for your DB and SIL to cancel.

I've seen that bus mess after Wishes....and once was enough for me...now I wait close to an hour before leaving after Wishes....it's a good excuse for some ice cream or popcorn!

 

[If U Had Wings]

Well at least you enjoyed most of the food at 'Ohana's...except for the dry meat.....that's what the dipping sauces are for. It seems that every skewer of meat is different in how it's cooked. Sort of like the Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

I didn't even think of using the sauces. The last time everything was so tender it would have been a shame to put anything on them. I think my biggest issues were comparing it to my prior trip. Nothing was really living up to what I had been expecting.

I don't mind how they serve the food in sections....but then again I'm not shy with flagging down any server or manager to get us more wheather it's emtpy or just cold. Do you think maybe because your neices weren't there like you had planned that but a damper on the dinner? I really do think it was rude for your DB and SIL to cancel.

The service was really bad this time. We were looking for our waitress to complain, but she'd be nowhere around. She'd drop the food off and run.

Honestly I was expecting my brother and sil to cancel on me. They had been wishy washy about the reservation for awhile, and I know enough to know that means they will probably cancel. You learn to expect it after awhile. What ends up being annoying is when they lie. They told us they deceided to just cook and eat at the house, but the girls told us the next day all about their dinner at Bahama Breeze. Really, just tell the truth.

I've seen that bus mess after Wishes....and once was enough for me...now I wait close to an hour before leaving after Wishes....it's a good excuse for some ice cream or popcorn!

What a mess is right! Wow! We had actually waited a bit doing our shopping so were really shocked that it was that bad.

 

[skier_pete]

After our ride we headed back to the castle to claim our Wishes spot. I always stand in the same place. It offers a great clear view of the castle and Tinkerbelle during her flight, and you never get anyone standing right in front of you.

We walked slowly towards the exit, doing a bit of shopping while we were poking in the stores. When we got out to the buses we were shocked by the mess that meeted us out by the bus stops. In all my years of going to Disney I've never seen such a disaster as the bus stops were that night. I don't know what in the world was going on, because the park hadn't even been that busy but it seemed as if all of humanity was waiting for a bus to one of the Disney resorts. I've never seen lines that big before.

The line for POFQ is at the very end of the bus stops on the left side, on the right side of the station. I bobbed, weaved, and twisted by way through the crowd and finally made it to the POFQ holding pen where there was absolutely no line whatsoever. Can I say how much I love the fact that the Magic Kindom has separate lines for POR and POFQ? I don't know why they don't do this at the other parks.

We were at a park nearly every night until closing, and never saw a mess like that again. I don't know what caused it, but I'm hoping I'm never there again for such a disaster.

See..we must have almost ran into eachother again here...we were just south of the hub for Wishes. The difference is we booked out the second the fireworks ended. (DW wanted to leave before, but I couldn't do it.) We bobbed and weaved through the crowd, and the bus queues had not yet gotten crowded. We got on the first bus, and were in our room by 10:35 PM. I agree the evening buses are the WORST in general...and MK is really bad.

SkierPete

 

[trixiequilts]

Do you ever share the location of your great spot for Wishes? DD6 loves Tink and will absolutely FLIP when she sees her. I haven't told her about it because I don't want her to be disappointed if we can't see her. If you do want to tell me, maybe you should PM me so the whole world doesn't know!

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

Sadly the Davy Jones effect was not working.

For us either.

My first Dole Whip. (Honestly, I don't know how I've missed these things before I started dissing). While I like pineapple, I don't like it in overwhelming quantities so I went with the Dole Whip soft serve instead of the float. So good! The taste was so mild and refreshing. Delicious!

I actually would be willing to bet you'd like the float too. There's not too much juice and I'd worried it might end up being heavy...not. one. bit.

LOVE. IT.
CLASSIC.

I always stand in the same place. It offers a great clear view of the castle and Tinkerbelle during her flight, and you never get anyone standing right in front of you. It's a nice little spot, that doesn't fill up right away, but I don't like to take my chances of someone finding my spot on me.

I found a spot like that this year. Once I write about it, you'll have to tell me if it's the same spot as yours. This one also has an excellent view of the castle, Tink flies right overhead and we were there about 45 minutes early and it didn't start to really fill up until about 10 minutes out. Oh. And if you're early enough, there are real, honest to goodness SEATS.

Sorry to hear O'hana didn't turn out so well. We'd originally had it booked but canceled it when we scheduled the dinner with TK. Now, I'm not missing it so much!

 

[If U Had Wings]

See..we must have almost ran into eachother again here...we were just south of the hub for Wishes. The difference is we booked out the second the fireworks ended. (DW wanted to leave before, but I couldn't do it.) We bobbed and weaved through the crowd, and the bus queues had not yet gotten crowded. We got on the first bus, and were in our room by 10:35 PM. I agree the evening buses are the WORST in general...and MK is really bad.

SkierPete

Too funny. Normally we move out faster when we are with the girls. I think this time we fell into a weird middle area. Not fast enough to be one of the first people out of there, and not slow enough to get caught in the crowds. I've learned my lesson.

I actually would be willing to bet you'd like the float too. There's not too much juice and I'd worried it might end up being heavy...not. one. bit.

Something new to try next time.

I found a spot like that this year. Once I write about it, you'll have to tell me if it's the same spot as yours. This one also has an excellent view of the castle, Tink flies right overhead and we were there about 45 minutes early and it didn't start to really fill up until about 10 minutes out. Oh. And if you're early enough, there are real, honest to goodness SEATS.

They must be close, but no, no seats in our area although there is a fence to lean on. A good spot is key. I don't mind sharing my spot with any of my Dis friends, just don't want to let the secret out too much. I don't want to have to start holding down my spot 2 hours before wishes.

Sorry to hear O'hana didn't turn out so well. We'd originally had it booked but canceled it when we scheduled the dinner with TK. Now, I'm not missing it so much!

I think that I felt worst that it was going so badly because I had waxed poetic on it so much previously. Being left in charge of all the details I wanted everything to go perfectly.

 

[If U Had Wings]

I'm in the middle of writing up my next day trip installment. It's almost done. I've been trying to wait for my brother to burn me a copy of his pictures to fill in the blanks, but he is really taking his time. They were all over my house on Saturday, and no disk was brought. At least he brought me a copy of the photo pass pictures, so to keep you entertained until the next installment is ready I'll fill you in with a few photopass pictures from the days I've already posted.

From the Animal Kingdom, a group shot near Everest

And near the tree of life

One of those silly shots they love to have you take -

Princess Cin with Simba

Princess Jasmine with Simba

Me and my two favorite girls

From Epcot Princess Cin scared on Test Track. That's me next with my arm around her, and Pa Eeyore on her other side. Pa Grumpy, Jasmine and Ma Tink are in the back seat.

A few more rides on Test Track, and she's feeling all happy and telling us where to look for our photo op. Again, she's in the front with Mickey and Minnie. I'm in the back with Eeyore and Jasmine. Jas wanted to ride with Ma Tink and me, but we had to pull her aside and tell her not to exclude Eeyore.

Ma Tink and Pa Grumpy for a Soarin photo op.

We had another one of these taken with the entire family. Everyone came out really cute, but the dopes at Disney never put in the handglider. So the picture just has all of us looking up at nothing. I think I need to find someone who can photoshop the glider on.

I promise a new installment will be up soon!

 

[Lady Lallie]

Those are great pictures.

I love the Test Track photos.

Disney forgot to add in one of the enhancements and I emailed them and the next morning it was in there.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Those are great pictures.

I love the Test Track photos.

Disney forgot to add in one of the enhancements and I emailed them and the next morning it was in there.

Hmmm that's what I get for leaving my brother in charge of photopass.

 

[If U Had Wings]

I should have taken it as a sign when I woke up at 4:30 am with a horrid burning throat. That little scratchy throat I had while having my Dole Whip the day before had developed into a full fledged sore throat. Really sometimes little things like that are like blaring sirens that the day is going to have a few issues. It should have been mine. While the day wasn't completely horrible, it was definitely a hump day. Family togetherness was taking a beating for a few members of our party and those individuals really could have used a bit of time apart. Unfortunately that time apart wasn't on the plan until tomorrow.

As much as I love Disney, there are reasons why I could never live and work there. The perpetual sore throat/asthma attacks that I get while I'm down there are the primary reason. Everytime I go to Disney I wake up one morning about midway through the week weezing and feeling like my throat is on fire. Then I spend the rest of the week having coughing fits every time I try to say more than 3 words in a row. Up here in CT I get hit with this about once a year or so right at the beginning of summer, in Florida it hits whatever time of year I go down.

This year was the worst it's ever been, but it's the first time I've ventured down to Florida in August. You could feel the humidity, and the clogged quality of the air so it was really just a matter of time for me. After I woke up at 4:30 I could not get back to sleep. I laid around to about 6:30 or so mentally berating myself for not bringing anything with me for sore throats. (One would think I'd learn eventually).

Another quick breakfast at the food court and we were off to meet up with the rest of the gang at about 8:30 am at MGM, or as we fondly referred to it - doofy matching shirt day #2.

We all wore our stick figure t-shirts which oddly enough became a bit of a Dis board calling card. I was a bit surprised, but was stopped several times by people recognizing the design from the Dis boards. The rest of my family had no idea what in the world these people were talking about. I enjoyed getting to meet some other Dissers, but sadly didn't catch any names. I think next time I might have to carry a few extra LGMH to use like calling cards or something. The shirts weren't quite as big a hit as the tye dyed ones, but still we were stopped all over the park. As doofy as we felt wearing the shirts around the resort, they felt perfectly right once we got into the parks. They made it really easy to pick each other out of a crowd, and I think we all liked the bit of uniformity they gave to the group shots.


I've been going to Disney since I was a kid, and I haven't seen anything like the rope drop at MGM since the Magic Kingdom only had Space Mountain as a headliner ride. When the rope drope everyone headed directly towards Toy Story Mania. Everyone. I don't think I'm exaggerating a bit here. If someone was vering off to go on something else I certainly didn't see them. A giant mass of humanity was working itself around to Toy Story Mania. It was oddly entertaining. As we passed by the giant hat Daisy and Minnie were standing there waving at them , yet no one was paying them a bit of attention. Single minded in their focus, everyone kept plowing around to the ride.

In hindsight we should have been a bit more organized and had more of a plan, but we eventually decieded to send Minnie to get FP's while the rest of us waited to get in the standby line. We wasted some valuable time. As we waited just at the entrance to Toy Story Mania for Minnie to return, we could watch the wait time clock getting longer and longer. It took longer to get the FP's than we expected so we held back in the line just outside of the building door to wait for Minnie. We waited there letting people go in front of us, when Pa Eeyore starting going on about how people were going to think we were cutting the line since we were standing there. He thought we should leave the line altogether and get back in when Minnie showed up. Pa Grumpy lived up to his name sake, and snapped on him telling him no one was going to think that since we were already in the line and letting people go ahead of us, and if anyone thought that they were an idiot. Eeyore copped and attitude, and went standing off by himself. Yep, we were off to a great start this morning.

Things only got better as we continued to wait for Minnie. Pa Grumpy, now riled up, was getting even grumpier as he hadn't been on a major ride yet. He was muttering to himself, and anyone who would listen that we were wasting time, why the he** weren't we going on the ride, why bother with fastpasses etc., and if it was going to be like this all day long he was just going to go back to the room. Utter drama queen. And we wonder where the girls get it from. I am a true libra, and strife and agitation bother me a lot. This morning it was actually making me feel physically ill, which coupled with the sore throat and asthma was making me a very unhappy camper. Normally I just let things pass and try to make peace by skirting around the issue, but this morning I was in no mood so I pulled my dad, Grumpy, off to the side and flat out told him we were getting the fast passes for the girls, and that waiting 10 minutes or so now would make them very happy later on when they got to ride again without a 2 hour wait. I might have mentioned he should cut the nonsense about returning to the room, I can't be positive, then I stomped off to wait with the girls. He seemed to get the message, and at any rate kept quiet after that. Once he got on the ride he was fine again. We learned a valuable lesson that the key to his happiness was getting him on a major ride within his first 15 minutes of being in a park.

Cin waiting patiently for Minnie to come back:

Both grandfathers behaved themselves a bit better after that. Minnie showed up and we all headed in. The sign had posted a 45 minute wait when we entered, but we waited longer than that. The line was fun however and the girls were getting a big kick out of the oversized props and toys.

The girls

The girls with their beloved Ma Tink.

Mickey and Cin

Jasmine

Minnie, Jas and Me

Some shots of the props

They are complete hams, and we had a lot of fun doing a bit of a photo shoot as we walked through the line.

This is probaby where we should have been sending the grandfathers.

This is what happens when the girls amuse themselves with the cameras.

It scares me sometimes how much they are like my brother.

Of course we had to stop for some pictures with Mr. Potato Head.

The girls loved TSM. I rode with Cin and was getting a bigger kick out of watching the look of utmost concentration on her face than from the ride itself. She didn't do particularly well, but we lied a bit about how she did so that she didn't think she had done so much worse than everyone else. They wanted to ride immediately, but the standby line was up to about an hour and a half so we were going to have to wait for the fast pass return time which was at about 11 o'clock or so. The return time for passes being given out when we got off the ride was already up to 5:30 pm! Crazy

Coming soon...How will Princess Cin take to being dropped 13 stories?

 

[Lady Lallie]

I have no idea how I missed your Ohana review! Where the heck was I??

I am sorry you didn't like it as much as last year. I have been contemplating doing Ohana's for breakfast, have you ever been for that?

I am so glad you were able to enjoy the TSM queue. I am going to suck it up and stand in the line next trip so I can see Mr. Potato Head. We really saw none of it with our Fastpasses.

 

[If U Had Wings]

I have no idea how I missed your Ohana review! Where the heck was I??

I am sorry you didn't like it as much as last year. I have been contemplating doing Ohana's for breakfast, have you ever been for that?

I am so glad you were able to enjoy the TSM queue. I am going to suck it up and stand in the line next trip so I can see Mr. Potato Head. We really saw none of it with our Fastpasses.

I might have to give Ohana one more try. My primary problem this time was with the service. (And the cheesy entertainment). I'd defintitely try to go when the guy was performing.

It was worth it to check out the line at TSM. If you go in, and go directly in it probably wouldn't be that bad. We waited about an hour, but we wasted quite a bit of time getting our fp's. Still with the girls we were happy to get 2 rides in. Since it was first thing in the morning they were pretty okay with waiting to ride it. They loved it so much they were actually volunteering to wait again.