Finally did the platinum plan! Did and ate everything we wanted! WHAT'S NEXT???

[Symans3honeybees]

This is my very first attempt to write a trip report, so I will try to make this as short and sweet as possible. I will let the pictures do the talking for me.
We have 4 separate reservations for our 7 nights stay at AKL/Pool view room.
-Night #1, Room only reservation
-Night #2 to 5, Deluxe Dining Plan w/4 day PH
-Night #6, Platinum Plan
-Night #7, Room only(using leftover platinum credits)

The weather for the whole week was beyond hot. It never rained once except maybe a few sprinkles here and there. Every night, we were treated with some awesome "Lightning" show by Mother Nature.

Night #1: Our arrival day, we spent the entire first half of the day "shopping" We had dinner at the Cape May Cafe. It was the first time for us eating there. Great service and food. The crab legs were really good and fresh.

Cape May Cafe desserts


Disney-40.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr



Night #2: First full day(Deluxe DP)
After a quick check out and check in with the front desk and received a new set of KTTW keys, we went to Epcot. No sure whether or not it was an EMH for Epcot or not, I found the park kind of not crowded. We quickly headed off to Soarin' to get some fast passes, fully expecting it to be packed, but it wasn't. We got there at 9:15'ish and the fast pass were for 10:20am window. The regular wait line was only 20 minutes or less. Totally unreal!!
We used 2 snack credits for a strawberry shortcake and bagel with cream cheese as breakfast. If anyone of you have the strawberry cake lately, did you notice that it has gotten much smaller?


Strawberry Shortcake


Disney-65.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


There was no wait time for behind the seed boat ride, so we decided to hop on one before coming back for Soarin'. There were some minor changes inside the garden. We left the "Land" after using the fast passes for Soarin'. The wait time was still under 30 minutes at 10 o'clock in the morning.

I don't want to brag or anything, but I was able to secure a 12:30pm lunch at Le Cellier only a couple days before this trip. My DS got fast passes for us at Test Track for a return time of 12:15pm window at 11am. We opened the country from Mexico. The countries were no longer roped off now which was great. My DH was going to hit the Cave, but it was not opened until noon Bye bye Cave, maybe next time. DH took a detour at Germany and got himself a pint of German draft. The disappointment of not having to stop by the Cave earlier was gone shortly after he downed the pint. Next stop we went to the China Pavilion. There was no one else but us at the 360' Theatre. The CM was kind enough to let us in for a private show. We felt like "VIP's"
By this time of the day, the temperature was already at low 90's with no rain in sight. Boy was it hot!!!
We checked in about 20 minutes early at Le Cellier. We didn't have to wait long before we were seated. Le Cellier has always been our favorite spot to eat at WDW, but we might try to do lunch from now on since the dinner will become a Signature.


Le Cellier Lunch
The Soup


Disney-81.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

The filet


Disney-85.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


We left the park shortly after lunch and headed back to the resort for a much needed shower before dinner tonight at California Grill
California Grill has become our perennial favorite restaurant. The dinner was perfect with great service and food. Next time, we will ask for Mike as our server again if possible.
Here are some of pictures from dinner:

Rainbow roll


Disney-92.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Sashimi on a slate of salt


Disney-93.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Lobster Salad


Disney-94.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Lamb Chop


Disney-97.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


That's all for now. Stay tune for day 3. Night, night!

 

[thanktheboard]

Enjoying your trip report. Pictures of food are great. We are getting ready for free dining in 29 days so love hearing about the restaurants.

 

[nannette]

Great start! Can't wait to read day 3!

 

[jmskinner]

Saw your post over on the Premium thread and thought I would join in. Hoping to go Premium for a long belated anniversary trip in January.

Your pictures are amazing!

 

[Symans3honeybees]

Enjoying your trip report. Pictures of food are great. We are getting ready for free dining in 29 days so love hearing about the restaurants.

Glad that you're enjoying this

Great start! Can't wait to read day 3!

Thank you for reading. I am trying to write as fast as I could.

Saw your post over on the Premium thread and thought I would join in. Hoping to go Premium for a long belated anniversary trip in January.

Your pictures are amazing!

You will have a Grand time in January. We were supposed to go with the Premium, but decided to upgrade it to "Platinum" because it included the V&A option.

 

[Dizney73]

Hopping on board too so I can relive my happy days in Disney!

 

[Symans3honeybees]

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom Extra Evening Hours

We finished our dinner at California Grill around 8:30pm. We strolled to MK for EMH(10:00pm to 2:00am).
DH has set his "personal" GPS toward the Aloha Isle for a dole float.


Disney-109.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr



We hit a couple of rides with little or no wait time. Fantasyland was going thru a major facelift.
Can't wait to see the end product next year!! With only 30 minutes to spare until Wishes was to begin, we decided to find
a spot to watch the show. No matter how many times we have watched this Firework, we would never get tired of it.

Hoping that the park's crowd would be lessen after Wishes, not so... It was still packed with longer wait
time for most of the rides, we decided to leave after midnight. There's always tomorrow!

Day 3 - Animal Kingdom

We were going to sleep in today after a late night before, but still was able to get to AK by 9am. I was
surprised to see AK rather empty. We rode the EE for a few times and got fastpasses for later use. The Kali river
raft was basically walk-on's. I have never seen so few people at these attractions, EVER!!
Still wet from the raft ride, we decided to hit the Safari before lunch at Yak & Yeti.


Disney-88.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr



We returned to our resorts after lunch for a much needed afternoon break at the pool. Tonight's dinner was
Jiko. We loved Jiko. The service and food was A+. Can't wait to eat there again!!

Bottle of wine recommended by our server, Leslie


Disney-152.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Appetizers


Disney-153.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Fire roasted mussels

Disney-154.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Wild boar tenderloin


Disney-155.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


I am posting our entree pictures since there are many on the food porn thread.

Day 4 - Hollywood Studio/Epcot

We didn't get the park until 9:30 in the morning. After taking a few shoots with photopass, we went over to
Starring Roll and used some snack credits for breakfast. The esspresso and chocolate croissants were good as always.
Crowd was low for Hollywood studio also. We were able to ride RNRC twice within 40 minutes. To me, that's extremely
unbelieveable. DH and DS got fastpasses for TOT to use after lunch at Brown Derby. We caught the 11:30am "Lights, Motor,
Stunt show" The place was only half full.


Disney-138.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


Disney-136.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr



I still can't understand WHY so few people! Didn't all the resorts sold
out with Free Dining????? Who knows


Disney-270.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


Disney-173.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr



Lunch was at 12:45pm at Brown Derby. This was a first for us. We liked this restaurant very much. Maybe it was
not worth 2TS credit, but to us, it is a bit better than 1TS. Can we give it a 1.5TS worthiness?

Brown Derby podium


Disney-257.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Tuna tartar appy(the blue ice is edible, YUMM)


Disney-261.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

The Grapefruit cake and cheesecake desserts


Disney-267.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr




After using those fastpasses for TOT, we returned AKL for an hour break before heading back to Epcot for
"IllumiNations" and a late dinner at Tutto Italia.

Tonight was Epcot's EMH. We grabbed some fastpasses for Test Track for later use. Next, we headed toward the
WS hoping to secure a nice spot for IllumaNations. We got lucky!! The bridge in front of Italy was relatively empty
at 8:00pm. DS set up his camera gear on the high arch of the bridge. Perfect spot!!! All his pictures turned out
great.

Some great pictures from IlumaNations


Disney-310.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


Disney-314.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


Disney-328.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr



We checked in for dinner immediately after IllumaNations and were seated within a minute. Everyone's dinner
was great except mine. I was kind of disappointed with my pasta dish. There's nothing with my dish. I just didn't
love it and wished that I didn't change my mind at the last second. My bad!!

Fried Calamari


Disney-346.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


My Shrimp pasta in a white cream sauce


Disney-348.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


Braised Beef short rib(boneless) I had a bit and it was delicious!!!


Disney-349.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


Trio


Disney-351.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


Tiramisu


Disney-352.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr



We didn't really have much time for EEH because dinner was done after 10:30pm. We used FP for Test Track
and called it a night. Next time, we should utilize the "single rider" line for this attraction. It was WAY faster than the other
lines. Well that's it for day #4.
Next up: Teppan Edo, Yachtsmen Steakhouse, and first day of Platinum Plan,

 

[HaleyB]

Excellent photos! I am looking forward to hearing all about your Platinum days!

 

[Symans3honeybees]

Sorry for the long delay, folks!! It has been a hectic week for the whole family. We sent Bryan off to college I am a total wreck Then I pulled my ring finger tendon/pulley on his move-in day. It will required a couple of months to heal according to the doc. So pleasse forgive me if my spelling is off..
I have decided to let my pictures to all the reporting for me. Here it goes:

Day 5:

Lunch was at Teppan Edo. It was our second visit to TE. Food was ok this time. We were seated with a very nice family of fellow Dis'er, 4luvofDisney.


Disney-401.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

DH's appy: Tuna Sashimi


Disney-368.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

DS's appy: Beef roll thing(cooked on the griddle)


Disney-379.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

All of us had the Shrimp & Sirloin as entree


Disney-393.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Here's my plates: edamame(appy), iced green tea, sauce on the side


Disney-394.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Our chef was an older gentleman. There wasn't much of a show, except a tall smoking onion vocano, which was fine with us since we weren't there for entertainment.

After saying our goodbyes with 4luvofDisney, we left TE for Test Track again.

 

[jmskinner]

My DH just booked us for either the premium or platinum plan and I can't wait to eat all the food. Your pics are just amazing!

And how nice that you had dinner with a fellow Dis'er!

 

[Symans3honeybees]

Tonight we were eating at Yachtsmen Steakhouse. We had a great server "Mike" Our steaks were cooked perfectly and we were able to substitute to any sides of our choice.

Appetizers:
Chilled jumbo shrimps


Disney-408.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Escargots (x2)


Disney-409.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Entrees:
NY Strip w/creamed spinach


Disney-410.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

DS big 24oz(yes! he finished everything)


Disney-412.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

mushroom side w/NY Strip


Disney-413.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Desserts:
my pistachio trio


Disney-418.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Sorbets trio(one of them has red pepper flakes on it)


Disney-416.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

forgot what this is called I guessed it was quite good coz my DS ate it all.


Disney-419.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

 

[Symans3honeybees]

All these few days of non-stop eating leading up to this day.
I was going to wake up bright and early today to do my check-out/check-in rituals. I guess my IPO had that in mind too. I woke up and found a package slipped under the door already @6:30am My platinum KTTW keys and some other vouchers(actually they were cards) were in the pack. But upon a closer examination, the cirque du soleil voucher cards, Richard petty rides voucher cards, and platinum photopass cd voucher cards were ALL missing from the pack. So a trip to the concierge desk was unavoidable!!

We must be at the Concierge for at least half an hour or more. The CM's were unable to locate my missing voucher cards As a matter of fact, none of them has ever dealt with any platinum guest before. Finally, one of the CM's came upon a white envelope with just my name on it. The rest of the voucher cards were in. For those reading this and are planning to do the premium or platinum plans, please make sure you have all of the hard-plastic voucher cards.

Things that require the voucher cards are:
1. photopass CD redemption
2. Richard petty experience
3. Cirque du Soleil
4. Fantasmic Preferred seating's

Be right back shortly..

 

[Symans3honeybees]

Hopping on board too so I can relive my happy days in Disney!

Welcome on board!!

Excellent photos! I am looking forward to hearing all about your Platinum days!

Thank you. I am almost there.

My DH just booked us for either the premium or platinum plan and I can't wait to eat all the food. Your pics are just amazing!

And how nice that you had dinner with a fellow Dis'er!

Your DH is a smart man! When are you going? I hope you'll have great weather

 

[Symans3honeybees]

After the ordeal/confusion at the concierge desk, we went to Mara for a quick bit to eat before heading out for a full day of activities.

Dolphin in Depth (9:45am - 12:45pm)$206+/pp

We got to Epcot around 9:15am and the security check point was busy with only 2 guards doing the checking
At 9:40am, the dolphin tour CM's came out from the back gate and checked us all in. The first hour or so, the tour was spent learning about the dolphins' behaviors and trainings. Really cool stuff Then all of us changed into the provided wetsuits and booties for some water actions with our dolphins.

Here's us with our dolphin


untitled-8.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

We absolutely LOVE LOVE this tour and vow to return next time. We were given a knapsack and a picture w/dolphins as souvenirs at the conclusion of the tour.

Richard Petty ride-along experience(1:15pm - 1:50pm)$99/pp

This was something I thought that my boys would truly enjoy, but NOT It was just OK at best. The 3-laps ride was fast but we all wished we can do the "Indy car" instead. Maybe next time if we are on this plan, we would opt to do the Indy car. The Nascar and Indy car experience are separate venues but share the same track. Nascar is from 9 to 4 while the Indy car gets the track after 4pm.


Disney-421.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


Disney-425.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

I have originally scheduled a massage appointment at 2pm, but fearing that the Richard Petty thing might take longer than the short 30 minutes, I CANCELLED it The after thought of wasting my precious massage time over the Nascar, brought me to tears.

By the time we got back to AKL, it was already 2:15pm. It was too late to reschedule any spa treatment for the day. Next time, I will book a double session to make up for this trip.

Portrait session at GF(4:15pm - 5:00pm)
Great pictures to share


untitled-1.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

Dueling men


untitled-2.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


untitled-5.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

My freshman


untitled-3.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr

 

[HaleyB]

All these few days of non-stop eating leading up to this day.
I was going to wake up bright and early today to do my check-out/check-in rituals. I guess my IPO had that in mind too. I woke up and found a package slipped under the door already @6:30am My platinum KTTW keys and some other vouchers(actually they were cards) were in the pack. But upon a closer examination, the cirque du soleil voucher cards, Richard petty rides voucher cards, and platinum photopass cd voucher cards were ALL missing from the pack. So a trip to the concierge desk was unavoidable!!

We must be at the Concierge for at least half an hour or more. The CM's were unable to locate my missing voucher cards As a matter of fact, none of them has ever dealt with any platinum guest before. Finally, one of the CM's came upon a white envelope with just my name on it. The rest of the voucher cards were in. For those reading this and are planning to do the premium or platinum plans, please make sure you have all of the hard-plastic voucher cards.

Things that require the voucher cards are:
1. photopass CD redemption
2. Richard petty experience
3. Cirque du Soleil
4. Fantasmic Preferred seating's

Be right back shortly..

I didn't know anything about the cards, so thank you very much for the tip. You would think I'd have seen it on the Platinum Plan for one day thread since it is so huge (maybe that is why I missed it).

The good news about sending kids off to college these days is that they come back again. Ok. Not really sure that is good news. 50% of my sons class is still unemployed over a year after graduation. He went to a very good private school, but out of state and that has made the job search that much harder.

Sorry about your finger/hand. My whole right hand is a mess due to an injury about 2 years ago that was 100% stupidity (I slammed my hand down too hard on a desk to try to get my students attention. In a nice way, not in a scary mean teacher way). I wore a brace, it got better. Took the brace off, it got worse. It is only aggravating, so I am ignoring it for now.

 

[Symans3honeybees]

The much anticipated dinner at V&A was definitely worth the months and months of anticipation. We did upgraded quite a bit of options with our dinner.


Amuse-Bouche

Disney-438.jpg


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one of the bread service(yummy)


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Galilee Osetra Caviar with traditional garnishes($90 1/2 oz)


Disney-443.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


Minnesota Elk carpaccio with olives, artichokes, and chorizo vinaigrette


Disney-445.jpg

Tamarind Glazed Gulf Shrimp w/watermelon and tomatoes


Disney-446.jpg

Sake soy-marinated Alaskan Salmon w/bok choy and soy beans


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Wild Turbot w/ toasted capers and preserved lemon ($30)


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Citrus poached Halibut w/warm verjus vinaigrette


Disney-452.jpg

Duck breast, duck sausage and confit w/strawberry and rhubarb


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Roulade of Ocala Rabbit w/pistachios and apricots





multi-grain bread w/house made salted butter


Disney-458.jpg

100% pure Wagyu Tenderloin w/ oxtail jus ($80)


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The best mashed potatoes I had ever have...


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Kurobuta Pork tenderloin and belly w/ baby beets and sherry bacon vinaigrette


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Australian Kobe beef tenderloin w/smoked garlic potato puree ($35)


Disney-465.jpg

We went with the wine pairings @$60/pp. Wow, there were a lot of booze. My dear husband managed to finish all his plus my left-overs and not getting drunk...how?

My DH and I went with the house "Celebes" coffee while my baby tried the "Jamaican Blue mountain" Celebes -$12(we weren't charged with this) The vacuum coffee maker costs over $200 each.


Disney-469.jpg


I went with the white chocolate gelato


Disney-474.jpg


My husband had the cheese plate(sorry no pix)
Desserts here were amazing.

DS' Hawaiian Kona chocolate Souffle


Disney-477.jpg


My Grand Marnier Souffle


Disney-478.jpg

DH's Caramelized Banana Gateau


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Sweet treats


Disney-481.jpg

 

[Symans3honeybees]

Do we like V&A?? A gazillion yes! What we should have done was to eat here TWICE with the Platinum plan!!! The beautiful rose given to me at the end of dinner lived for another 10 days in my living room.

What better way to end the night with a firework cruise! We were supposed to share the boat with a couple on platinum plan too, but they never showed. We had the boat all for ourselves.


Disney-487.jpg


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The only picture of the firework by Bryan on the boat (it was drizzling a little)


Disney-489.jpg

Next up...the final day of platinum...

 

[Symans3honeybees]

Today was our last day using the platinum credits. I did my usual check-out/check in routine.
It was an easy process for those who might be thinking about a split stay within the same resort.
Got our new KTTW cards for the room only reservation for today's stay. I marked all the new cards
with "Room Only" w/sharpie borrowed from the front desk. This will eliminate any confusion as to which
key to use for entering the room later.

Segway at Fort Wilderness(8:15am - 10:30am)$95/pp

As first timers, we did pretty well on the Segways. Some say this tour was more strenuous than the one
at Epcot, I had to agree. we were at the back of the barn for some training. We had so much fun with our
instructors "Ron" and "Sean". They were both funny and knowledgeable. We didn't want to carry our big
SLR camera on this tour, so no pictures to share, sorry people!!

The Segway X2 was equipped to go off road at a max speed of only 6-9 mph for guests. It was still a ton of
fun for us. My DS wished that he can go a bit faster than that. Teenager!!

We will include both Segway tours for sure next time. We conquered the off-road one with only "limited" aches
and knee pains, we should be "Pro" with the Epcot tour.

At the end of the tour, there were souvenir segway pins for us. Lovely!!


Parasailings at Contemporary Resort's Sammy Duvall Water Center

Tandem w/DH


Disney-535.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


Disney-546.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr


DS Solo Flight. He flew much higher than us @~500+feet


Disney-516.jpg by Blaaammmm, on Flickr



My son and husband loved the flights. My DH and DS can go as "SOLO" next time for all they want, but you
will never find me on one anytime soon.

We checked in about 30 minutes late for lunch at Kona Cafe, but were seated immediately. We skipped breakfast
this morning because time was short and it took forever to drive to Ft wilderness.

Lunch was good as always. No camera = no pictures!!

We rushed thru lunch because we have the private golf lesson scheduled immediately after.

Thank goodness that the Palm/Magnolia Course was just a stone throw away from Polynesian.
We got there on time at 2 for our lessons. Shortly after checking and ringing up our Platinum keys, we
were introduced with our golf pro "Diane" She helped selecting our clubs and assigned us with 2 electric
golf carts. We drove to the driving range and the lesson began there. It was like a broiler oven today.
Temperature was topping at above 96 degrees. Diane was so patient with all of us(especially me) I have
never swing a club in my life. My boys on the other hand have some lessons at home. Bryan was playing
really well, according to Diane if he keeps it up, he could be quite good at this golf thing.

Can you believe that we were on the course for 2 hours?!! in the dog day afternoon between 2 and 4pm?!!

I thought I could hear my skin sizzled..

Note to selves: only golf before 11am!!

We returned to our resort to clean up for La Nouba and dinner at Fulton's Crab house.

Again, there's no pictures allowed at Cirque du Soleil, so we left the camera in the room.
It was an amazing show. We waited for years to watch this show and wondered why not sooner? We got
a souvenir mug w/drink for only $5.00. Not too bad!!

Fulton's Crab House was a first for us. The food was great. Our server did a good job.
We were told that we can order "Oysters" on the half shells as our appetizers. There's no guideline
as to how many we can get as the appetizer. I only ordered half a dozen(would've gotten more with no problem)
They were fresh and sweet(no "crude" smell) My DH had the King Crab claw and south African lobster tail. He
said that they were great! DS and I went with the filet with King crab claws. Wonderfully delicious!!!

I want to have some tonight, please!!!

Satisfied with the seafood fix, we decided to go to Magic Kingdom for the EMH tonight(12 - 3:00am)

Around 2:15am, the whole day's activities caught up with us. We left the "Mouse" house completely
happy with how much we had accomplished this past week.

 

[Symans3honeybees]

We have noticed that over the years of vacationing at WDW, something has never changed. We have always came home with our next vacation planned for the next year. We are going back next May/June. Our next trip will also include at least one night Platinum plan. It was just that great!!!
When will my planning begin, you ask?? Right now of course

Yours truly is going to create a "New" trip ticker soon. Well yes! My ADR dates are only a couple of months away.

Thank you all for reading my short report! Hope you enjoy the pictures as well.

 

[dznyacct]

Thanks for your report and great pictures . I really think my friend and I will plan a one night premium/platinum stay as part of our next trip. I don't think my DH could keep up with the pace, so I'll save it for when I go with my friend .