"Good Morning! No Sleeping!"- A Mother/Daughter January Getaway *Update 5/13*

joining in! I so wish my mom was a disney person or a travel person at all, but she's not. so someday I'll do the mother daughter thing with my daughter!
 
joining in! I so wish my mom was a disney person or a travel person at all, but she's not. so someday I'll do the mother daughter thing with my daughter!

Welcome! and sad that your mom isn't disney person :( Hope you and your daughter get the opportunity to have a trip together.

I am also of fan of WL but we have never stayed there, only dined there! I find it so beautiful and rustic....my dream home would be a log home so I guess this explains why I love it so much! Great pictures of both of you!

I laugh when we go when it's cold here and we still go swimming and people ask us if were Canadians....yup we sure are and to us this is warm in our winter months!

Can't wait to hear about your meal! We love that place!

Yay for another wilderness lodge fan :) I haven't stayed there since my mom surprised me with a disney trip in my first year of high school so lately my only experience there has been dining also. I love the rustic feeling there as well. I just find the whole place very peaceful. I'm looking forward to the day we can stay there again.

That's funny how that is the dead give away of where you are from isn't it? I feel like I often get that look when in disney. Anything above 50 degree is warm 2 me in the winter months. This trip weather actually for the most part was nice even by florida terms. we had three nights that got really cold but it was a 11 day trip so that was nothing.

Love the Wilderness Lodge! Such a pretty place to just wander around and be. Looks like you guys made the most of your time before you got buzzed for your reservation.

Another Chicago girl here, so I know what it's like to feel the awesome weather when you're in Florida. Cold to most people, but not to us.

yay for yet another wilderness lodge fan reading this TR :) I love just being there. I feel like there is always something interesting to see and check out there. and I don't like just sitting and waiting if i am some place where I could do other stuff in the meantime.

and yep, gotta love chicagoeans (well, any northerners for that matter) reactions to the weather. Northerners put up with a lot of crazy winter weather so anything even remotely close to warm is great to us. although the weather yesterday and today was pretty great so I can't really complain about weather, especially considering this time last year we were dealing with snowpocolypse.
 
WL is gorgeous!! and what a BEAUTIFUL pool!!!

I LOVE the idea of those buzzers - who wants to stand around waiting??? It's nice to wander around and enjoy the atmosphere while you wait. Less like waiting then :)

Great start!!!
 
WL is gorgeous!! and what a BEAUTIFUL pool!!!

I LOVE the idea of those buzzers - who wants to stand around waiting??? It's nice to wander around and enjoy the atmosphere while you wait. Less like waiting then :)

Great start!!!

Agree with everything you just said! I am the type of person who gets bored easily if they are waiting in the same area for 2 long. I love the fact that I can explore the area and walk around so the time goes by faster. Even though we were waiting a half hour for our table it really didn't feel much longer than 10 minutes which is something I like.

and Thanks :) I am thinking about doing another update tonight. If I don't do it tonight I will do it tomorrow.
 

WL is such a pretty resort! It would be perfect for a holiday trip :cloud9:

So cute about your charm braclet!!!

Can't wait to hear about your dinner!
 
A CRAZY DINING EXPERIENCE

Once our pager went off we went into Whispering Canyon for our first meal of the trip.

As we were turning in our pager they were having the classic Pony Races for the kids.

I unfortunately wasn't at a good angle to get a picture of this and my camera was buried at the bottom of my bag so I didn't get a picture of these races but they were super cute and entertaining.

It brought me back to the days when I was a little kid participating in those races.

I loved doing them and they passed out cookies at the time so there was a reward as well.

When they stopped giving out the cookies when I was in fifth grade they handed out certificates instead which was still fun but we missed the cookies.

We had to wait for the races to end before being lead to our table, but once they were done we were immediately seated.

Here was where the disappointment of the dinner began. For those of you who haven't dined at whispering canyon before the restaraunt has a couple of sections.

The first section is the main section of the restaraunt and that is the one that most people are sat in and it is the one that has the most rucus (Sp?).

Then there is the other section that I like to call the quiet section. This section is tucked behind a corner of the restaraunt. They only have a few tables back there so it isn't anywhere near as crazy or fun as the main section.

Well, since I am telling this whole story you can probably guess which section we were in.

I tried to stay upbeat and positive about it but I was really disappointed with where we were. If the restaraunt weren't as crazy as it was I probably would have asked to wait a little bit longer for a table in the main section but I really didn't want 2 stress out the people working there even more and come across as being super picky.

When we got seated my mom and I pollitely asked the people in front if we could get some kids menus by insisting we were "kids at heart". My mom is a former kindergarten teacher so she likes to ask for kids menus when we go 2 disney restaraunts since they are so much fun.

After a little bit of teasing from the lady that brought us to our table we got them and began coloring.

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They were nice enough 2 give us 2 menus which was awesome! One was cars themed and the other one was winnie the pooh themed.

We weren't waiting very long at all when our server came up to our table. After introducing herself she took our drink orders right away.

My mom and I both got milkshakes, mine was chocolate and my mom's was carmel.

She was super excited to try it because she remembered this awesome milkshake from when she was a kid that was carmel flavored.

When she took our drink orders she also asked us if we were ready to order our meal as well which we were.

We both decided we wanted the canyon skillet. It had been a few years since we came there for dinner and my mom knew how amazing it was. I had personally had the skillet before because of my being a picky eater.

However, over the past few years since we had been there for dinner my palate has grown a lot so I got the skillet 2. After no time @ all our milkshakes came 2 the table. The first picture is the carmel milkshake and the second one is the chocolate one.

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I can't really say I didn't like the milkshake but I didn't love it. The taste was fine but the conistency was weird.

The shake was more like soft serve ice cream whipped into milkshake form rather than an actual milkshake.

It tasted more vanilla-y than chocolate-y to me (probably for the above stated reason).

I tried some of my mom's milkshake and hers was the same way except I tasted more of the carmel in hers than I tasted the flavor in mine.

She didn't particularly care for hers either. I know that a lot of people do like these but for some reason we didn't.

My entire family is extremely judgmental of any kind of ice cream based thing so we are probably being very over critical right now.

Pretty soon after we got our milkshakes the cornbread and the salad came out.

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I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE CORNBREAD!!!! If I didn't need to share it with my mom I would have probably eaten that ENTIRE THING!!!!! I absolutely loved the taste and consistency of it. I have heard some criticisms of the cornbread online but I really loved the bread. My mom liked the bread a lot as well.

As for the salad, my mom really loved the salad. I was super excited to try some of the salad but then I was told it already had dressing on it. I like salads a lot but I am one of the few people in the world who prefers a plain salad. I think it goes back 2 the fact that I don't like viniger and most dressing have some type of viniger on them.

I tried a little bit of the salad anyway and thought the vegetables themselves were good but wasn't a fan of the dressing.

After we had our salad and bread we saw the table by us was doing the standard "We want ketchhup!" call. There server was hillarious (It was the same one who was teasing us about the kids menus). After they were done with that call the server came over 2 our table and was checking on us 2 make sure we were working on those kids menus we were "begging" her for.

It was pretty hillarious and made up for the somewhat subdued atmosphere we had been experiencing so far.

Our server was super nice and everything but she was one of the less wild and crazy servers (those of you who have dined @ WCC probably know those type of servers I am talking about).

She did a great job other than the wild and crazy thing though so I really can't complain.

As the server from the other table was checking on us our server came up with our skillet.

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I absolutely LOVED the corn and the chicken! I had 2 huge pieces of chicken and some corn. They were both awesome! I loved how juicy the chicken was! I also loved the seasoning on the chicken as well!

My mom had some of the ribs and brisket and some corn. She loved everything on her plate as well.

Neither my mom or I are people that eat a lot in one sitting so we filled up pretty quickly. We were both 100% satisfied.

I should alot mention that about half way through our meal I started to get a sore throat.

Now I am someone who doesn't get sick very often. I was starting to get a little nervous about my sore throat and just kept hoping it would go away. I told my mom about this and luckily she had some allergy pills I could take.

This was nice because then I could see if I was really getting sick or if my throat was just reacting 2 the climate change and the new enviroment.

We then decided 2 still go on with our evening plans since I wasn't feeling bad other than the throat and even that wasn't that bad and I wasn't going 2 waste my special disney time moping around. It would have 2 take either me feeling absolutely horrible 2 impact my plans.

After we finished eating my mom and I discussed our dessert options. I had read that the carmel apple pie was amazing on the disney food blog.

Another thing you should know about me is that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE DISNEY FOOD BLOG, I read there articles all the time! They had just recently came out with an article about WCC and raved about this pie. So of course being the disney food blog fan I am I had 2 get this pie.

My mom and I weren't very hungry but we did have the dining plan so we wanted 2 make as much use of it as we could. However, we definitely weren't going 2 finish 2 desserts so we got one carmel apple pie 2 split.

Pretty soon after we placed our order and got our check we got our dessert!

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While this pie was by no means bad it wasn't by any means great either.
I really liked the apple pieces themselves but I thought the top crust part was weird. It was kind of like graham cracker style crumb cake topping with cinnamon. I also wished it had some ice cream with it as well.

Despite all of this I still ate my fair share of the pie untill I literally couldn't take another bite.

Here is my overview of our meal:

Server: Dorothy, she was really nice and was super prompt and great about answering questions we had but she didn't seem 2 get in the spirit of the restaraunt.

Service: 3.5/5, we had some fun moments and we got our food, drinks and check quickly. However it wasn't as crazy as the typical wilderness lodge experience and we did wait a half hour for our table in the first place.

Food: 3/5, While the skillet, corn bread and salad were very good (especially that cornbread), the desserts could have been better.

First Visit? No, but it was our first dinner there in a long time.

Would I Return? Absolutely! Even though the experience wasn't as good as normal it is still a great restaraunt with a great setting and I am still glad this was our first meal.

Standout Dish: Cornbread :dance3:

After we paid for our meal we went off 2 our destination. Where will it be? Stay Tuned :) popcorn::

Continued In The Next Post
 
WL is such a pretty resort! It would be perfect for a holiday trip :cloud9:

So cute about your charm braclet!!!

Can't wait to hear about your dinner!

Omg, I have been there the week before christmas and it is so unbelieveably gorgeous @ that time of year! They have a tree up in the main lobby and it is so much fun 2 be there seeing it.

And Thanks about the charm bracelet, I don't remember exactly how we thought of collecting the charms or why we bought them in the first place but it has been a really fun tradition we do on our trips.

and Yep I actually just posted about the dinner so you don't have 2 wait long 2 hear about it.

 
i'm so glad you posted about getting the kids menus!!! dd13 would love them but we would never have thought to ask for them now that she's older. I wonder if she could evn order off them still??? hmmm - she's a picky eater so that would be nice.
Enjoyed your review! I would have loved the shakes b/c ice cream and chocolate just can NEVER go wrong with me. ROFL but i'm NO conesour (sp??) lol. I want to have some cornbread now i bet it was wonderful!!! I'll have to try some - i havn't had it in AGES!!!
 
Aw too bad about the quite section!

I also love kids menus :laughing: I just love coloring in general :laughing:

Those shakes look soo good!!! I am sorry they didn't taste as good as they looked :headache:

Oh my Walt I could eat that entire loaf of cornbread :laughing: I love cornbread in general and Disney cornbread is pretty fantastic!

That food looks good and I am glad it tasted good too!
 
Hahaha, when I read your post, I was thinking that cornbread would probably be my favorite part too. I LOVE cornbread! I'm sorry that your meal wasn't the greatest, but at least it was still good.
 
I'm sorry your meal wasn't as good as you had hoped, but glad that it didn't diminish your Disney enthusiasm! Wildereness Lodge is on the top of my list of resorts to explore when we are back in the U.S. Thanks for sharing the great pictures! I love to start a trip with EMH; there is just something magical about it. :)
 
I know exactly where they sat you....we were seated there when we went in Jan/Feb of 2010. I told the kids that it was probably because they were older teens and they kept the large room for the youger ones but they didn't care, they wanted to be in the middle of the fun too!

We always order the skillet...and I can't get enough of the cornbread....to.die.for!
 
Great review of WCC :thumbsup2 We love it there as well, but have only had breakfast. I really want to try the dinner though! I hope you ended up feeling better. Getting sick at Disney is the worst!
 
Joining in! Pop Century looks so fun! That's where we were originally staying
but plans changed and now were at POFQ, oh well I think all the resorts are
beautiful! I had no idea they had a magazine!!! I'm so excited to know that
now!!!!! :goodvibes I will for sure be getting Celebration magazines now!!!! :woohoo:
 
Hi Everyone :) Hope all of you are having a great weekend :) Mine went pretty well, On Friday I saw Beauty and the Beast in 3D since we were in disney when it was first released in 3D and both my mom and I wanted to see it :). I absolutely LOVED it in 3D! It didn't really have 3D effects but the 3D really enhanced the film. I absolutely LOVE beauty and the beast so of course I loved it in 3D. Beauty and the Beast was actually the first movie I ever saw in theaters as a 6 month old baby so that combined with my entire family's love of the movie has helped me be super into the movie as well.
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THE BEST SURPRISE EVER!!!!

After we finished up at Whispering Canyon we decided to go back outside to catch a boat to the MAGIC KINGDOM for EMH. I absolutely LOVE EMH @ MK! On our way I decided to take a couple of pics from our walk and

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All of the parks are great for EMH but Magic Kingdom is simply the best! The park was open till 11 that night which made it super conveinent to go over there that night.

Our main goals for the night were to ride Big Thunder Mountain a bunch of times that night since the next day it was going into refurbishment untill late May :(.

We were so sad about that because we LOVE Big Thunder Mountain (especially @ night!).

We were so sad that it was going 2 be closed for most of our trip. However, we were super excited when we realized it would still be open our first night there!

We were just hoping that it wouldn't break down before we got a chance 2 ride it. We were also hoping to get a couple of other rides in there as well.

The weather when we got outside was unbelievably nice still so while we had to wait for the boat for a while we didn't mind. We also happened to meet this really cute little girl and her parents in line. She was so spunky and outgoing and we really enjoyed talking to her!

While we were talking we found out that they happened to be from a town that is just an hour south of where we live so we spent a lot of time taking about that as well. We kept talking untill the boat came and then we found a seat near the front of the boat.

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It was such a pretty view! it was pretty dark out so unfortunately it was kind of hard to see all of our favorite landmarks but we didn't care because we planned to do this on another one of our MK days when it was light out and the view was still nice. Once we turned the corner on the side of the contemporary the castle came into view!

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Now we were there the second sunday of january and christmas was begining to wrap up before we got there. So imagine the surprise I get when I notice that the little tip of the castle that we can see from our view on the boat looks like it has white lights!

I see it without really interpreting it for the first few seconds and then i realize what I am seeing and then I say to my mom, "Mom, I think the castle is still decorated for christmas!"

My mom says ,"oh that's cool" But I have a feeling she didn't really see it. When more of the castle comes into view it is pretty obvious that the castle is still decorated! Unfortunately I couldn't get a good pic of the castle at this point so i'm apologize for that lack of photo in advanced.

We both really realize that fact at the same time and are so excited! I kept saying to my mom that I was glad that we still carried on with our plan to go 2 the magic kingdom that night rather than go back 2 the hotel so I could rest my throat (which was feeling a little better than earlier but I would have gone even if it was worse). Here are some pics I took from the boat on our journey!

When the boat dock my mom and i were some of the first people off the boat. As we were walking into the park we couldn't find the security people and were wondering if they weren't checking people who were entering for extra magic hours.

As soon as we both verbalized the question we saw the security guards and were checked and through the gates pretty quickly after that. Once we entered the park we decided the first thing that needed to be done was get a ton of entrance and castle pics!

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We first took my picture in front of the "Let the Memories Begin" sign and then we walked through the right side of the train station by the locker station and then we were on Main Street USA.

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Then we took a pic by the big tree right by the entrance to the park.

Then we took some more pics right down the middle of Main Street USA.

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Once we finished doing that we began the first part of our pluthroa (Sp?) of castle pics! I will let the pictures speak for themselves right here.

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After we finished up round 1 of castle pics we headed over towards frontierland to ride one of our favorite nighttime rides in the magic kingdom!

Continued In The Next Post
 
I cannot think of a better surprise than seeing the castle still lit up....it is stunning....you captured some beautiful moments!
 
I cannot think of a better surprise than seeing the castle still lit up....it is stunning....you captured some beautiful moments!

I was completely surprised to see the castle decorations still up there! Last year we came to disney on January 3rd which was about a week before we got there this year and the disney christmas lights were only up on our first day then 2. I didn't think we would get 2 see any christmas lights this year because it was later in january when we got there!

Yeah we defintely maximized our picture taking opportunities this trip!
 
Joining in! Pop Century looks so fun! That's where we were originally staying
but plans changed and now were at POFQ, oh well I think all the resorts are
beautiful! I had no idea they had a magazine!!! I'm so excited to know that
now!!!!! :goodvibes I will for sure be getting Celebration magazines now!!!! :woohoo:

I absolutely LOVE staying at POP!!!! It is so much fun!!!! I have stayed at port orleans before as well but it was a long time ago (like 15 years ago) so i don't really know that much about it anymore. I remember really enjoying the sea serpant pool though.

That magazine is great! I love getting a new issue and spending hours at a time reading it! I highly recommend it and it makes for great plane reading material! It has become part of my getting ready for a trip ritual to make sure I read some celebration magazines!

Great review of WCC :thumbsup2 We love it there as well, but have only had breakfast. I really want to try the dinner though! I hope you ended up feeling better. Getting sick at Disney is the worst!

My mom and I actually for the past few trips before this one had been going 2 breakfast instead of dinner there. While it felt weird to not be there for dinner at first I actually really enjoyed it for breakfast as well :). I learned a couple of trips ago that just because its early in the morning doesn't mean that they are any less crazy and energetic. we had this crazy fun server then and it was so much fun and a highlight of the trip! I think that previous experience was one reason why the more subdued experience this time around really made me sad.

I highly recommend there dinner! It is sooo yummy! Even though the dessert wasn't amazing this time around doesn't change the fact that I love it there and would go back in a heartbeat!

Don't worry! I did end up feeling a lot better the next day! I ended up taking some allergy medicine and did a lot of gargaling (sp?) and felt a lot better! I was so relieved that it was just allergies!

I love your TR so far! Keep up the good work, I'm in!popcorn::

Thanks and WELCOME!!!!!!!

I know exactly where they sat you....we were seated there when we went in Jan/Feb of 2010. I told the kids that it was probably because they were older teens and they kept the large room for the youger ones but they didn't care, they wanted to be in the middle of the fun too!

We always order the skillet...and I can't get enough of the cornbread....to.die.for!

I figured that our seating situation probably was for that reason as well, I agree with the kids though, I would rather be in the middle of it all. The other reason for us was probably that it was really busy and that just happened to be the first spot that opened up.

That whole skillet, bread combo was amazing! I love pretty much any kind of bread so it isn't that hard to please me with bread! If i don't like a bread then it must be really bad!

I'm sorry your meal wasn't as good as you had hoped, but glad that it didn't diminish your Disney enthusiasm! Wildereness Lodge is on the top of my list of resorts to explore when we are back in the U.S. Thanks for sharing the great pictures! I love to start a trip with EMH; there is just something magical about it. :)

Thanks :) That skillet and bread were still amazing! I would just get another drink and dessert next time around though. My mom had her eye on another dessert on the menu so we would probably get that next time.

Isn't everything about that resort just perfect! It's nice with a casual feel which is something i personally love in a resort! I don't think any other the disney resort aren't nice, in fact they are all wonderful, it's just that some just happen to be a higher level of nice and wilderness lodge for me is at the super nice level but doesn't go into the mode where you feel out of place in typical park clothes. I find it super relaxing!

No problem :) I love sharing my pics as well :)

Me 2 :) I absolutely LOVE EMH!!!!! I think it is amazing when you get 2 close the park! While I love EMH at every park I think magic kingdom EMH is particularly great!

Hahaha, when I read your post, I was thinking that cornbread would probably be my favorite part too. I LOVE cornbread! I'm sorry that your meal wasn't the greatest, but at least it was still good.

That cornbread really is to die for :)

Thanks, I'm glad that it was still good as well. i would have been really sad if it had been bad. I really did love that chicken and corn as well as the bread.

Aw too bad about the quite section!

I also love kids menus :laughing: I just love coloring in general :laughing:

Those shakes look soo good!!! I am sorry they didn't taste as good as they looked :headache:

Oh my Walt I could eat that entire loaf of cornbread :laughing: I love cornbread in general and Disney cornbread is pretty fantastic!

That food looks good and I am glad it tasted good too!

Aren't kids meus great :) I especially love them in disney because of the themes and i think that the games are great! I also am a fan of coloring in general! Defintely not just for little kids.

They do love good don't they? I happen to be pretty picky about ice cream so just because I didn't like it doesn't mean that I won't still recommend this. I think I probably would have liked this better if i hadn't had these super high expectations and had head more of a description of this particular shake before I had it. It really wasn't terrible, it just wasn't what I had expected. I am defintely more of a fan of the 50's prime time style mikshakes that are more chocolaty.

i had to use some pretty serious self control not to eat the entire cornbread by myself! I also am a pretty big fan of disney cornbread as well! I love the little muffin ones at chef mickey's :)

The food was great! I would highly recommend that skillet! even if you don't like every single thing on that plate it is still amazing! I polished off a lot of chicken and corn! I think I also nibbled on some cornbread after the meal as well :laughing:

i'm so glad you posted about getting the kids menus!!! dd13 would love them but we would never have thought to ask for them now that she's older. I wonder if she could evn order off them still??? hmmm - she's a picky eater so that would be nice.
Enjoyed your review! I would have loved the shakes b/c ice cream and chocolate just can NEVER go wrong with me. ROFL but i'm NO conesour (sp??) lol. I want to have some cornbread now i bet it was wonderful!!! I'll have to try some - i havn't had it in AGES!!!

Yeah, the kids menus are great :) They are pretty nice about giving you the kids menus if you ask for them. We personally always use the disney motto of kids at heart. I have never been told i couldn't have one to color on.

As far as eating off of the kids menus it depends on where you go. I haven't ever tried to order off of the kids menus since being on the dining plan since I was significantly older when we began doing that (in early high school). My experience was at table service restaraunts it really depends on the place. many places still let me order off of the children's menu when I was your daughters age. With desserts if you think the kids dessert sounds better than the adults dessert (which my mom and i have both found to be true) they are pretty leinent with letting you have a kids dessert if you ask in a way similar to how you asked for the kids menu. As far as counter service places are concerned they will pretty much always let you have a kids meal if you order it. I still do that sometimes if i am not feeling super hungry but want to eat something small anyway.

Thanks :) I still recommend those milkshakes despite them not being my cup of tea. I had very high and specific expectations of those shakes based on what I had read. if I had tried those milkshakes without any kind of expectations I probably would have liked it better. I found that to be true with a few things I tried this trip.
 
How awesome that you got there and the dreamlights were still on! That's one of my favorite times of year to go. The castle is honestly spectacular. My friend was surprised when we went, because she was under the impression the castle looked like that all the time. I had to explain to her that it was not the case. What a great surprise for your trip.
 












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