*FinalUpdate, 3/11/11*Back to the 'Land after so many years...my first TR (June 2010)

[DizNee Luver]

My hubby was the same way....but trust me....watching it on the computer vs watching in person will totally be different!! I did it so the twins could get used to the music & sounds plus occassionally they watched it. I'm super excited to see it live now!!

 

[jforever52]

Last Sunday we celebrated Father's Day with my dad, since we are going to be in the park on the actual day this year and he won't be there. During dinner we started talking about "that restaraunt inside Pirates of the Caribbean." DH revealed that he would love to eat there (acutally his words were, "honey, you booked a meal there right?").

I hadn't booked a meal there because they don't accept meal vouchers. However, I decided to revisit the issue given the fact that we have a full days worth of $15.00 meal vouchers to use up (we pre-purchased picnics for WOC). I called Disney dining and was told "absolutely" Blue Bayou accepts the $15.00 meal vouchers. With each member of our party having two $15.00 coupons to dedicate to the meal I think we should be able to cover the bill with the vouchers!!!!

But, did they have an opening this late in the game for a party of 4 adults, 1 child and an infant? "Absolutely!!!!" We are eating there Sunday at 3:30pm.

I have never eaten at Blue Bayou but have always wanted to since I was a kid. I really hope the restaraunt lives up to the hype!!!

As an added bonus we can celebrate Father's Day with DH and my father-in-law at the Blue Bayou.

 

[DizNee Luver]

We really enjoyed our meal there. It was just my hubby & I, but our bill still was close to $60. (and we shared a meal). You can look at the menus/prices on the DIS or at allears.net

We were seated by the water & got to watch the boats float by. There are people that will yell things at the diners from the boats....but I found it kinda fun! One boat was yelling to throw food so I yelled back for them to throw money....

We've decided not to do Blue Bayou this trip. We found the food at Cafe Orlean's to be even better & in the same style.

 

[jforever52]

We really enjoyed our meal there. It was just my hubby & I, but our bill still was close to $60. (and we shared a meal). You can look at the menus/prices on the DIS or at allears.net

We were seated by the water & got to watch the boats float by. There are people that will yell things at the diners from the boats....but I found it kinda fun! One boat was yelling to throw food so I yelled back for them to throw money....

We've decided not to do Blue Bayou this trip. We found the food at Cafe Orlean's to be even better & in the same style.

We also have a reservation at Cafe Orleans. Do you think we should cancel it and go somewhere else just to get more variety?

 

[Belle Ella]

I absolutely love eating at BB and I hope you don't regret fitting it into your plans. I cannot imagine taking a trip to DLR and not eating there to be honest. Ive never had a bad meal, I've always had amazing service, and the ambiance is something that you just wont find at any other restaurant in Disneyland. Just a heads' up, if you have some people in your party that aren't big eaters you can cut down on the cost a little by splitting plates, with two options:

1. Split Plate charge of $12 where they'll split the entree for you and each person gets their own side salad and veggies

or

2. Simply ordering the entree and asking for a second plate and you can split the meal yourself. It's totally free

They raised the split plate fee last year, but it still works out to be cheaper than if you ordered 2 seperate entrees. My friend and I did that on one of our trips last year because we both wanted our salad and veggies but knew we couldn't eat seperate meals by ourselves and wanted to save money, and it worked out perfectly.

 

[DizNee Luver]

We also have a reservation at Cafe Orleans. Do you think we should cancel it and go somewhere else just to get more variety?

I wouldn't.....we had seafood at BB & the other goodies at Cafe Orleans. I think the only main dish they do the same is the Monte Cristo's (there could be a few others). The style is similar but they are both different & very good. I'd do both & then you can decide which one you enjoyed the most (just in case next trip you can only pick one......)

 

[jforever52]

We are back and missing Disney already! Overall the trip was great. Saturday and Sunday (June 19th and 20th) we had no crowds, 10-15 minute waits for rides and pleasant weather. Monday (June 21st) was a zoo. The park was so crowded we hardly did anything in the parks at all...the pool was calling our name!!!!

Here is the begining of my day by day breakdown:

Day 1-Travel and Toy Story 3

Sorry, no pictures! The camera was packed and we forgot to take it out.

My plans of leaving bright and early like 2am was squished like a bug. We ended up leaving about 7am, getting to Embassey Suites at 2pm. The suite was sold to us as a two bedroom suite. We were expecting 2 bedrooms! Instead we had one bedroom and a living room with a fold out couch. We were a bit dissapointed, but my gracious in-laws said they could live with the foldout. Leaving our family to split the two full beds in the room. It ended up working out fine-just beware if you are going to Embassey, it is NOT two bedrooms at all.

Immediately after checking in we jumped in the pool to cool down. The water was great and the kids had fun.

After the pool we headed to Downtown Disney for dinner. We ate at Tortilla Joes. I had the Tostada Salad. It had a Chipotle Lime sauce that was so spicy it cleaned out my sinus. I enjoyed it...everyone else loved their food too.

We walked around the shops for awhile-picking up some stuff at World of Disney, including our free travel lanyards. Then we headed over to the movie theater for Toy Story 3. The amount of people at the theater was amazing. We are talking hundred of people there to see the show. I LOVED the movie. I think it was the best of the three. DS got really upset at the end...which was really touching, but I'm not giving it away.

After the movie we went back to the hotel for our first day at Disney.

More to follow...with pictures since we did EVENTUALLY unpack the camera!!!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Welcome back!!! Can't wait to see some pics!!

 

[basketballmom]

YAY! I love reading trip reports!!

 

[OctoberDisney]

LOVED all your pre-trip reports...the build up! Now...can't wait to read how it all turned out!

 

[Karenann*]

Welcome home! Our first day is dining at RFD, then ToyStory3! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip!

 

[jforever52]

Thanks to everyone whose following. Hopefully I can live up to the high standards set by everyone else who gives trip reports!

Day 2-Zip-i-dee-doo-daa!!!!

Day two began with our complementary breakfast at the Embassey Suites...you really can't beat a free meal...word to the wise though, get an omelet, NOT the scrambled eggs. The omelet is worth the wait. The scrambled eggs are not!!!!

After eating we hopped on the Aneheim transit and headed to Disneyland for the day. We arrived around 8:30am and were surprised to find ourselves stolling down Main Street with a very light crowd. Before breakfast we had given DS the pins we bought on e-bay and explained the concept of pin trading. Low and behold, DS made his first (of three total) pin trades on main street:

As a stickler for tradition I led the group to Frontierland. We always started Disney in this land as a kid and I wasn't about to break the tradition.

First stop was the Tiki Room, which was just about to begin a showing. With 4 families total in the show, each group had its own front row seat.

It was great to see the show in its original format. Disney World has changed the Tiki Room to include Iago and Zazuu, which is cute, but not the same as the original Tiki Room.

After Tiki we headed to Indiana Jones. Only a 10 minute wait!!!! I got a rider switch pass and waited for the group to finish. After they were done I hopped back on with DS. DS told me he would hold my hand through the whole ride so I didn't get scared (and he did which was so cute...got to love little boys). Right behind me and DS were the Lopez Twins who play for the Arizona Suns and the New Jersey Nets. I am such a dork, I didn't recognize them at all, but my husband sure did when we walked out. I just kept looking at them thinking, "DH is 6'5" and these guys make him look tiny." We ran into them a couple of times during the weekend...once on autotopia which was hilarious (picture a 7 footer in a tiny car trying to drive).

After Indiana we went over to the Jungle Cruise-

Up next, we work our way to DS's first mountain adventure....Splash Mountain!!!!

 

[Karenann*]

I wouldn't know the twins either, but would appreciate seeing them try autopia!
Great report so far, looking forward to hearing about Splash.

 

[jforever52]

Okay, before I get into my trip report I have some EXCELLENT news to share. We just bought 250 points with DVC at the Villas at Grand California!!!!!! We have been tossing the idea of joining DVC around for almost 2 years now and after we got back from the trip we decided to do it...mostly considering the fact that we have gone to Disney twice since we started researching DVC. I am so stinkin' excited about being a member of DVC I can hardly stand it. We chose VGC given its close proximity to us. Originally we wanted to buy into the new resort in Hawaii but they are only taking pre-sales and we wouldn't have been able to use our points until Sept 2011. To long for me! Anyway, back to my trip report.

After the jungle cruise we worked our way to Splash Mountain, hitting up The Tarzan Treehouse, Priates of the Caribean, The Haunted Mansion and Princess Tiana's show in New Orleans along the way.

Miles, DM-in-law and I then got in line for Splash Mountain. DS was a little nervous about his first roller coaster and we decided to sit in the very back in the side by side seats for his first coaster. The wait was only 15 minutes!!! DS LOVED the ride...in fact it turned him into a coaster junkie. For the rest of our stay he ONLY wanted to ride the coasters. His order of preference was: (1) Splash; (2) Space; (3) Big Thunder.

After Splash we ate at the quick service restaraunt in frontierland. DD-in-law met us there as he was gone in the morning on an errand in LA. After eating our burgers and ceasar salads we hit up Winnie the Pooh and the character meet and greet. We then ran back to Pirates before heading to Big Thunder Railroad and then fantasy land.

We did just about everything in fantasyland except Dumbo, the Carosel and Peter Pan (our plan was to do these during extra magic hours...unfortunately we didn't get to them this trip). We watched the tail end of the Celebrate parade and then headed over to Big Thunder BBQ for dinner. Dinner was great!!!! We had a ton of ribs and chicken and sausage and cornbread. We ordered desert and they brought us the LARGE cobbler. We also ordered one cupcake cone, which they brought out on a HUGE platter (clearly met for parties ordering numerous cones). The musicians were fun too. It was a great atmosphere, we loved it.

After dinner, DD-in-law took off for the hotel to rest. We stayed until about 11:30pm. We watched the fireworks, road astro-blasters, the matahorn and shopped.

It was a great day at the park...everyone got to do at least one of their favorite rides. The park wasn't too busy and the weather was pleasant. It was a great start...but will it last?

 

[DizNee Luver]

We're doing the BBQ for the first time this trip & glad to hear that you enjoyed it!!! Can't wait!!

Great pics!! Lots of smiles....and why not.....it is the happiest place on earth!!

 

[APX]

Glad to say i'm going to be reading this.

 

[jforever52]

Welcome! Glad to have ya here!

 

[jforever52]

Day 3- Sunday, June 20th (Father's Day)

Sunday we had an ambitious schedule to say the least. We decided to have this day be the one when we went to the park an hour early. The thought was to use the extra hour to hit up space mountain and the submarine voyage before heading to our 8am reservation at Breakfast with Minnie at the Plaza.

As planned we got to the park right at 8am and headed straight for space mountain. Only a 10 minute wait!

We all rope the ride twice before moving on! DH, DS, DD and I then went to the Submarine Voyage while DM-in-law and MF-in-law went over to Astro Blasters. My father in law does NOT like enclosed spaces and thought that he would not fair well with the submarine. It was about 7:40 by this time and the submarines were about a 20 minute wait. We knew we would be cutting it close for our reservations but decided to do it anyway because we did not want to deal with the lines later.

The ride was really cute. I thought it might scare DD, since she is only 9 months, but she did really well...kept trying to touch the glass windows.

After the ride we caught up with the in-laws and RAN to our reservations at the Plaza. After checking in, taking the obligatory picture, we were shown our seats. While I was looking for a high chair the characters started showing up. Let me just say the restaraunt was mostly empty when we were there so we got LOTS of attention at the very beginning. The characters almost came too fast...I had a very hard time juggling the baby and juggling picture taking duty as DH had already left to hit up the food.

Here are some pictures with the characters:

It was especially fun to see Max and B'er Fox. I've never seen either of these characters out! Max has always held a special place in my heart since DH and I watched "A Goofy Movie" on our first date. Ah, memories!!!

Anyway, during breakfast DH said his orange juice tasted funny. We thought nothing of it at the time (but remember this for later).

After breakfast we headed back to futureland to hit up Autotopie and Space Mountain again (20 minute wait this time).

We then headed over to Its a Small World and the Princess area. Surprisingly, DS wanted to get the princesses autographs. He's no fool, those princesses are cute!

At that point we decided to take a break. DH's stomach has started to turn. So we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest, planning on returning to the park for our 3:30pm reservations at Blue Bayou.

 

[jillybeene71]

im joining in...cant wait to read more, especially about the food/restaurents. Were going next July so im eager to see where to eat. lol

 

[chickyann]

looking forward to hearing more