First trip home, BWV Nov10-17(food porn included)

[petbren]

Our friend's meet us at our room, and we left for MGM @ 8:30.
It started out cool, but by the time we walked there, we were quite warmed up.

We started out heading to Rock n' Roller Coaster, my DD decided she would ride.
The ride was down, but expected to open in a short time, so we just all grabbed fast-passes to ride later.
We then headed for Star Tours.
We got there just as the first Jedi Training Academy was to start.
DS is a huge Star Wars fan, and wore his Star Wars Lego Shirt, stood up front,jumped up and down, and waved his arms around, and was picked to join the training.

Soon he was joined by Troopers.

And finally by the big man himself.

Each kid got to battle Vader one on one, and was presented with a certificate for graduating from the Jedi Training Academy.

Even at 11 years old, this is something he will probably never forget.

After this, we rode Star Tours.......as did most of the other families participating in the training Academy, and people watching, so the wait was long...last year, we walked on to this several times.
We looked around in the store quite a bit afterwards, and headed off to watch the High School Musical Pep Rally.
It was quite good, but DD still expected to see the real actors from the movie
It was getting super hot then, and DF's family complains a lot about the heat.
We decided to get lunch at Pizza Planet.
It was the usual, pizza and either salad or apple slices with a drink and cookies or rice krispie treat.
We had an assortment of each, and the kids spent $5 each on the games and we headed back out.
Next, is when I learn that trying to please a variety of people is quite difficult.
I said the only Must Do here for us was Lights, Motor, Action as we had missed it last year do to timing. Again, the show only ran at 1:30 and 4:30(right when our dinner ADR was).,
We headed out that way, but DF insisted we should do The Great Movie Ride.
The line was quite long, but she insisted it went fast.
As we stood +20 min., it was obvious we were not going to get out in time to see Light,Motor, and I was getting quite annoyed.
DH said, to stay calm, somethings things don't always work out.
After this, and a few other incidents, it evolved that we would spend a lot of time on our own, and meet up mostly for supper or other special events. This tended to work best for all.
We went on the Backlot tour,then met DF1 who had returned from visiting her Uncle.
We then caught the parade, did Muppet 3D(DF1 is a huge Miss Piggy fan), then headed off to Momma Melrose for our 4pm ADR.
We had eaten here last year and enjoyed it.
Everything was good, not fantastic, but OK.

The most memorable part of this meal, was when my friend and I asked for wine suggestions from the waitress. We asked what kinds of reds they had, and she asked if we liked "cold reds"
I thought I didn't understand her, and maybe "cold" was a term they used for crisp, or bold, or something, but no, she meant did I like my red wine from the refrigerator
DH asked for a Cesar...look of confusion from waitress.
After she checked, it was said, no, they didn't have any clamato juice.
We did run into this several times during the trip, and had no luck getting one. Who would have thunk no clams in Florida

What we ordered:

ME: Crispy Calamari--Good
Spaghetti Fra Diavolo - Made with clams, mussels, calamari, and shrimp
tossed in a spicy marinara sauce. Good

Tiramisu--Looked good, but was very dry--DF1 and
DF2 also ordered this, and said it was dry.

DH: Soup of the day--it was some pumpkin spice
concoction--he said Very Good[/COLOR]
Spicy Italian Sausage - Served with Rigatoni pasta, peppers, onions, and
a tomato basil sauce topped with Caprino cheese.
He said this was good, but nothing I couldn't make
better at home.

Crema Limone - No sugar added lemon custard topped with fresh whipped
cream and berries.
He didn't want dessert, but I picked this for him to
order, and I was glad I did after my dry Tiramisu--it was very
good.

DS: Artisan Breads and Spreads - Freshly baked breads served with an
arugula and chive pesto, sun-dried tomato, roasted vegetable, and
roasted garlic spreads.
Nothing on the appetizer menu(kids or adults)
appealed to him, so
I suggested this, as he likes bread, and the rest of us would share
the spreads--it was OK
Vine-Ripened Tomato Flatbread - Made with sweet basil pesto,
and Caprino cheese.
He didn't like this, too much weird stuff on it--I
should have ordered the kids pizza for him.
Kids Ice Cream Sundae.
DD: Kids meal, Garden Salad, Pennee pasta with tomato sauce, kids ice
cream Sundae.
She liked this.

DF2 son didn't want dessert, so she ordered him the Honey-Hazelnut & Ricotta Cheesecake - Honey-hazelnut and ricotta cheesecake.

I had a taste and it was good.

After dinner we did a few things, and then walked through the Osborne Family
Spectacle of Lights--it was the first night and all I can say is WOW

I have some photos of this on Photopass, I'll try to post later.

We stayed for the later show of Fantasmic, it was a bit different than last year, but still good.

We did a bit of shopping on the way out, and ended up taking the boat back to BWV as everyone was tired.
I would recommend this only if you just can't walk. It took almost double the time, but sometimes, I guess it's worth it.

Tommow: Day 4 Downtown Disney, Chef Mickeys and MVMCP

 

[petbren]

Sorry about the last post, I missed a few days there.
Next up is BBB for DD and DF1, the two of us at CRT, remaining group at Lilo & Stitch's Breakfast at Ohannas.

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
DD and DF1's appointment was for 8:05am, park opens at 9.
We arrive at 7:45 and have to line up out front until they open the gate to people with early ADR's etc.
What I found strange was, they had a line outside the main gate for this, but no one even asked to see confirmation of reservations, so I guess you could wonder around main st. until 9 if you wanted.
We walked quickly to the Castle, and checked-in at BBB right on time. There were no others there for about 15 min.
DF insisted on wearing a "princess" costume she bought at Walmart before we left.
Firstly, it wasn't even a Disney Princess, secondly, you're not suppose to dress up in the Parks if over 13, unless for a special event,each of which I tried to explain to her, but to no avail. Some things are just not worth risking a friendship, over so I just went with the flow, but did tell her to take other clothes in case a CM asked her to change.
Here she is, just before we went to our appointment.

As it was, no one asked her to change, and she proceeded to wave her wond(thank you CRT waitress ), at people all day. Some people thought she was the Fairy Godmother, other's just thought she was strange.

DF's finished product.



My princess--she's Elizabeth dressed as the Asian Princess from Pirates 3. Not everyone knew who she was, including some of the Princesses, but some defiantly got it. We bought the outfit at the Disney Store here before Halloween, and she wore it then, and at MK.

She looked adorable, and liked all the attention she got while dressed this way.

She changed before lunch time, into the cooler version.

Next up CRT.

We snagged these ADRs at 180 days, and decided to pay out of pocket rather than the 2 TS each.
We had our photo with Cinderella before we were seated, DF purchased the package .
The food was very good here.
First they served coffee/juice, and a basket that had a nice mix of pastries.
It's served plated, but if you want anything else, you can ask, and they bring out a small platter of that item.
DDs platter had French toast sticks, scrambled eggs, bacon, saussage and fruit.

Adult buffet had all of the above, but French toast was whole slices, and was really good, also included a potato casserole dish.

The Character interaction was Spectacular

Each Princess came to the table individually, talked a bit with DD,and posed for a photo.
Cinderella was outside with the photos, inside were Snow White, Aurora, Belle, and Jasmine. Bell and Jasmine recognized my daughter's outfit right away, and when I joked that Jasmine should educate Snow White as to who DD was dressed as, she said Elizabeth was a great friend of hers, and she would have to speak to Snow White later...DD thought this was hilarious.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who had kids young enough to appreciate Princesses.

On that note, DH and DS we're not interested in princesses, so they opted to have breakfast with DF2's family at Ohanna's Lilo & Stitch Breakfast.

DH said this was good. We did this breakfast in 2004, it was good then too.

We all met up at MK after our breakfast was over, and did the park, mostly together.
As we had a big breakfast, we didn't do a real lunch, and had an early dinner at Cosmic Rays about 4pm.

I will try to post the reminder of this day, tomorrow. Gotta get some sleep.

 

[wannago2disney]

excellent reading!

I think that it is very cool that your daughter did not pick a "regular" (for lack of better term) princess...and I think that she looks absolutely adorable!

looking forward to reading more.

Tosh

 

[Goofy's apprentice]

Nice reporting....wish I was there right now !

Regarding trying to get a Caesar in Florida...Apparently this is a Canadian drink and few have heard of it. Our friends drink Bloody Marys instead. Seems strange that a drink that everyone here knows seems not to exist there !

 

[petbren]

Sorry it took so long for me to finish up Day 4...life goes on after Disney I'm afraid.
Actually I've been firming up ADR's for the March Break trip, and adding on another day at AKV I hate to be that person who is always getting to go....nothing after that trip 'till Aug/09--OK, I'm a compulsive planner.

We all decided on an early dinner at Cosmic Rays as there are lots of choices to suit everyone.
Unfortunately, on the way there, I started feeling ill.

Here's what we ordered.

ME: BBQ Rib Meal, comes with mashed potatoes and veggie--it was green beans, not my favorite., Carrot Cake for dessert
DH:1/2 Chicken and rib combo, carrot cake
DS: Chicken nuggets and fries, and he ate one of my rib pieces,brownie for dessert
DD: Chicken nuggets and fries, brownie
DF1 Bacon Cheese burger and fries, brownie.

I ate very little here, as I continued to feel unwell.
The ribs were tough, but everyone else seemed OK with their food.
Sorry, no photos.

DF2 and family had had about enough by now, and decided to head back to the hotel.
As I hadn't seen the Specto Magic Parade before, we decided to hang around and catch it.
It was really quite good.

It's hard to get good pictures of this, not sure what a peacock had to do with Disney, there were a few floats I couldn't figure out, but they were spectacular.
We headed back to the resort right after the parade, and the kids went to the Community Hall with DH while I went back to the room.
By the next morning, I was feeling better.
I had found out where to get a Dole Whip at MK, but alas, I didn't feel like eating one, so hoped to get one during MVMCP when we went back to MK.
Again, this didn't work out as the park was very crowded and it was too cool to be eating a frozen thing.
Earlier in the day, the kids had some ice cream treats at Auntie Gravities, and it was a really good use of a snack credit.
They had a Sprite float,an ice cream twist in a cup, and an orange Pineapple smoothie. I taste-tested each and they we good.

Coming up tomorrow( I am really going to get back on track with posting)
Animal Kingdom, Flame Tree rest, and Boma.

 

[trivial]

Great trip report! How was the shuttle from The Sleep Inn to BUF? I've been considering this option, but I'm a bit sketchy about taking a hotel shuttle.

I was totally surprised at how fantastic my [meat] sandwich was at Sunshine Seasons... wasn't a planned meal, but I'm glad we ended up there. Funny you found your standard room at BWV loud; we stayed in a preferred boardwalk room, and my wife found the nightlife outside to be a bit too loud (I never heard anything, but I'm a sound sleeper). It's disappointing to hear the rooms were so far apart... our next trip will have a big group staying in 4-5 rooms, so I'm not terribly optimistic after hearing that.

Shame about the itinerary conflict with your friend. I've been warned that touring the parks with a big group can be a nightmare, and our group could be fairly big... still not totally sure what to do. I figure I'll create a "master" itinerary, with key times and meeting places (such as for meals), and if people want to go off and do their own thing, no problem.

For Mickeywho?, our BWV pv studio was great; I absolutely loved everything about it -- except for the looong walk from the elevators (something BWV is known for), but that's a very minor nitpick. There are a few restaurants on the boardwalk, which is a very short stroll from the lobby.

 

[petbren]

Great trip report! How was the shuttle from The Sleep Inn to BUF? I've been considering this option, but I'm a bit sketchy about taking a hotel shuttle.

The Shuttle was great.
The night before we left, they followed DH to the parking lot which was in a private section of the airport lot, showed him where to park, and drove him back. That took a total of less than 20 min.
They set a time the night before, and they left right on time.
On the way back, we called and they met us and dropped us in front of our van.
The only issue was there were 12 of us waiting, and the van really held 10, so we really were squished, but it was worth it not to have to wait longer.
The year before we stayed at The Millennium.
It was OK, the parking was just in the hotel lot, but the issue here was waiting to get picked up when we landed.
We called several times, and they kept saying, the driver passed there and no on was there.
We never left the spot,and eventually, someone arrived.
The guy who arrived looked like they had signed him out from the Nursing Home, and it took him forever to get back to the hotel.
Maybe it was an isolated incident , but we decided to use Sleep Inn this time,and it was much better.
Next trip we're flying out of Detroit, and our flight leaves at 3pm, so will just park in Airport parking there.

 

[petbren]

We all met early today, and caught a bus to AK.
This bus stopped at BB, even though it was 8:30, and BB didn't even open until 10--no one got on or off
We headed right to EE. My kids not being huge coaster riders, didn't want to go, but DF1, DF2, and kids did.
DD & I shopped in the gift shop, and waited, and waited, and I said this is the last time I will do that.
Anyway, everyone that went loved the ride, and DD & I made a pack to ride it on the next visit

We then did Kali River Rapids, it was walk-on.
The first ride, everyone got mildly wet, so several decided to ride again.
I think they dried out completely about 5 hours later.

I checked out the new Yak & Yeti counter service rest. menu while at EE, and thought it looked good, but alas, DF1's DD didn't want that, so we decided on Flame Tree.
We ate here in /04 and liked it.
We got two tables by the little pond, and watched the bird life.

Here's what we had.

ME: Pulled pork sandwich, came with beans and coleslaw(not the corn on the cob on the menu), bottle of water, and key lime pie.
The pie was amazing, even better than the one I ordered at Coral Palace.
The sandwich was also quite good.

DH: Smoked Turkey Breast sandwich, diet coke and frozen lemonade for dessert.--he said this was good.

DS: 1/2 slab ribs--he is a rib-man, and liked these much better than Cosmic Rays--they have more of a dry rub on them, also much less of a mess to eat.
He had a diet coke, and frozen lemonade.

DD: Kids meal chicken wings--these weren't what she expected--think two wings pulled off a roasted chicken--, choc. milk, grapes and carrots.

DF1, also had the ribs, and used a snack credit for the onion rings which were quite good and good use of a snack credit.

Sorry, I have no photos, which I was sure I took, I guess they disappeared into digital wasteland.

We decided to split up as DF2 & family wanted to ride EE again, and we wanted to to to dinoland, and see some more animal exhibits.
We agreed to meet at the INSIDE THE PARK entrance to Rainforest Cafe at 5:30 then catch the bus to AKL for our 6:10 ressie at Boma.

DF1 came with us. We did what we wanted including ride Primevil Whirl 4 times and Dinosaur 3 times(DS wants to be a paleontologist).
We then trotted back to the meeting place.
After standing 15 minutes I finally called DF2 to be told they waited 15 min. at our designated spot, and we weren't there Obviously, she didn't have her listening ears on yet again.
They were in line waiting for the bus to AKL.
We almost ran there, to discover they had already got on a bus and left
The next bus finally came, and we checked into the podium exactly at our ressie time.
When we arrived at the table, they were sitting there, with their drinks, wondering what took us so long.

I tried not to explode, and enjoy my dinner.

This was the only meal that I ate so much, I though I might explode.
There are just so many good things to try, and the soups are so wonderful, I just had to have one more bowl at the end of the meal.
Because of that, I barely could get a few spoonfuls of dessert down.

After the meal, in the lobby, my daughter was approached by a CM dressed in an African outfit who wanted to know if she would lead the Zawadi Primal Parade. She's quite shy, and declined but at the gift shop, the CM was recruiting more kids, and all our kids joined in.
They just pulled instruments off the shelf at the gift shop, and the CM sang, and the kids marched around the lobby.
Each kid then got a certificate for participation.

It was about 8:30 by now, and no one was looking forward to getting a bus to AK, then another back to BWV, so each family took a cab. The fare was only $13, and well worth it to get back in less than 20 min.

Next up Downtown Disney, Wolfgang Puck Express, Chef Mickey's and MVMCP