Heat, Humidity, and Our Favorite Disney Dog Was a Thug! LINK TO NEW PTR!!

[Jackiemarie21]

I love the atmosphere at HS. It is just a fun place to be! I am glad your meal at HBD went better than ours.

We LOVE the boats at Disney. My DD kept asking if she could ride all the boats. They are just so peaceful and relaxing.

I can not wait to hear all about meeting Farmer Mickey, we loved him!

 

[littlenellbell]

Just joining in to say hello! I have a daughter about the same age as Williow, so it's been fun to follow along and see what you did on your trip.

 

[RGirl]

I love the atmosphere at HS. It is just a fun place to be! I am glad your meal at HBD went better than ours.

You know, our first trip, we didn't really care for DHS. But in 2011, we realized how awesome it is - especially DD. It really is such a fun place!

We LOVE the boats at Disney. My DD kept asking if she could ride all the boats. They are just so peaceful and relaxing.

Right??? Such a great way to travel! I think I would enjoy that aspect of staying at WL someday.

I can not wait to hear all about meeting Farmer Mickey, we loved him!

I'm going to go ahead and try to get it posted here in a second since the last update was pretty boring.

Just joining in to say hello! I have a daughter about the same age as Williow, so it's been fun to follow along and see what you did on your trip.

Hey there! It's great to have you join in. I hope you will stick around!

 

[RGirl]

Farmer Mickey and Friends​

When I last left you, DD had fallen asleep at about 3:30. Well, she did not wake up until 6:15! When she did get up, she showered and got ready and we headed out.

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We were a little early, so we made a quick stop at the gift shop to pick up Willow’s bow and arrow purchase from yesterday and took it back to the room before heading to the Friendship Boat dock.

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We were off to Epcot, which does not take long at ALL from the BW - no stops!

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We headed straight over to The Land, hoping to ride Living with the Land before our ADR, but it had closed at 7:00. So we just headed upstairs to Garden Grill - this would be our first time dining here. Look at all the people who were waiting!

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We had a seat and waited for a bit, but nothing too bad. And here’s the beauty of this restaurant: All those people out there waiting? It was going to be CROWDED, right??? Well, the way this restaurant is designed, you don’t really see any other diners from the booths, so we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves, and the service was good enough that it was completely believable to think there were only a handful of tables in the place. You can kind of see what I mean about how the booths make it very private in this pic of DD - you can tell more in upcoming character pics.

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This was the original view from our table:

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However, as you may know, this restaurant rotates, so it wasn’t our view for long! Here are some of the other sights we viewed - love that you see Living with the Land from a different perspective during this journey.

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The service here was excellent - both our server and the chef were very attentive, funny, and engaged. And the food was good too! (For more details, again, you can read my dining review, but I will give you the highlights here.) This is not an a la carte restaurant - it is family style (like Akershus). You start with an amazing salad - no idea why this is so good, but we were actually fighting over it.

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The kids’ entree platter - chicken, broccoli, sweet potato fries and mac and cheese:

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And the adults’ entree platter - beef, fish, and turkey with veggies and mashed potatoes (usually a savory bread pudding as well, but that was kept off of mine):

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But the best thing here was the character interaction. It was the best of the trip!

Up Next: Farmer Mickey and Friends Cont.

 

[RGirl]

Farmer Mickey and Friends Cont.​

While our server was still chatting with us after explaining the food and character interaction, Chip showed up. Our server told him to get a look at Willow’s shoes - the BBB glittery shoes with the big “gem” on them. Chip started going into an elaborate miming thing for us - he was pretty good, because I started singing, “hi-ho hi-ho, it’s off to work we go!” And Chip was jumping up when I guessed right. DD had a lot of fun with Chip.

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Chip loved our autograph page as well.

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Dale was at the next booth over when the chef visited our table. At some point, Dale came over to see the chef, and the chef told us that Dale was trouble. Dale then mimed that the chef was crazy. It was quite funny the way all the staff interacted with the characters - it was very cool! Dale went back to finish up with the table he was visiting and then came back to us. DD had a great time with him as well.

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He loved our autograph pages and looked through the whole book (I had separated the billion pages into books based on where we were going, so we had a dining book with us tonight). Dale was especially impressed with the way I had matched Mickey’s Garden Grill shirt on Mickey’s page.

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While we were enjoying the salad (which was INSANELY good; have I mentioned that?), Farmer Mickey stopped by. He also really liked his autograph page.

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Pluto stopped by next, and DD had a blast with him! (He also loved his autograph page!)

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One of the best things about this experience is that the characters actually stopped back by again. Instead of just passing our table because they had already been there, a couple of them actually engaged with DD even MORE than the first time. First, Chip stopped by again, and Willow got another hug.

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And then Dale stopped back by and sat down with DD this time. He was pretty psyched when we offered him some mac and cheese and agreed that it was really hard to be there all that time seeing all that yummy food and not getting any.

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Up Next: Farmer Mickey and Friends Cont.

 

[RGirl]

Farmer Mickey and Friends Cont.​

And then DD had her best Pluto moment of the trip. She was super-excited to see him again. And then she started singing the hotdog-hotdog-hot-diggity-dog song, and Pluto started doing the dance! It was so funny and such a blast for DD!

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Here he is doing the hotdog dance:

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One more hug for DD who just can never get enough Pluto!

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After our fabulous character interaction, we also enjoyed some dessert. The kids’ dessert was a cake cone.

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And I was treated to some gluten-free brownie bites and cookies.

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So Garden Grill? If you like characters, GO THERE! We will - every trip as long as it remains this fun.

When we exited Garden Grill, IllumiNations was going on - yep, another fireworks FAIL for us! We made our way to the World Showcase and felt like fish swimming upstream trying to get to the International Gateway, but it didn’t take too long. And the walk back to the resort was very pleasant. I was starting to feel the snack credit pressure - we had 32 snack credits, and had only used one! So we stopped briefly on the boardwalk and picked up some glazed almonds. Here’s what they looked like:

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These were okay, but would have been better earlier in the evening when they were a little more fresh.

When we arrived back at our room, Willow got ready for bed and then practiced with her new bow and arrow before watching Stacey yet again and then falling asleep at about 10:30.

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I enjoyed the balcony for a few minutes before setting out to download my cameras, write up trip notes, and re-pack our park bag.

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Willow took some pics too. First from our boat ride to Epcot:

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(yeah - I guess she liked the fabric she chose for this particular dress )

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She got a super-cute picture of Chip!

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And it wouldn’t be right without a couple of selfies.

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Up Next: A Little More Princess Dining

 

[Jackiemarie21]

We also had a wonderful experience at GG. It was one of our favorite meals of the trip. I thought the interaction was fantastic and the food was great. I agree with you that it felt like you are the only people in the restaurant. We were very impressed.

By the way I LOVE the autograph book. It is so cute!

 

[dismagiclover]

I loved these updates! Garden Grill is the best. I know exactly what you mean about never feeling crowded and the characters are great there. I also love the view from your deck. How I wish I was at the Boardwalk right now.

 

[chattadisser]

Ahh..Franzia! How I remember many a night in college spent with Franzia. Then my husband and I moved up to bottled wine (we thought we were so classy!) and now we’re back to boxed wine. Life is really one big circle!

Wow what a long nap Willow had! Wish I could get one of those.

Bummer about Living with the Land. I LOVE that ride and no one else in my family does, I usually have to drag them on – they humor their mother occasionally.

Your autograph pages are so good! How fun that will be to look back at in a few years. I am always so bad about getting the pictures in with the autographs after we come back. I’m actually working on that as we speak.

I loved these updates! Garden Grill is the best. I know exactly what you mean about never feeling crowded and the characters are great there. I also love the view from your deck. How I wish I was at the Boardwalk right now.

I'm with Jenny...can we all be at BWI right now???

Christine

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

willow's dress is so cute! did you make that one? I love the color!

garden grill looks like it was a lot of fun! the characters seemed so great! now i'm sort of regretting taking it off our list, but I just couldn't get excited about it. maybe it'll have to go on the future must do list after all!

willows cake cone is so cute! and all the food looks delicious. I can see why you were fighting over the salad.

your autograph books are crazily cute! I love them everytime! you must have spent some time on those!

my girls would be so thrilled to do the hot dog dance with pluto! we were just singing that song this morning! how fun! great update!

 

[RGirl]

We also had a wonderful experience at GG. It was one of our favorite meals of the trip. I thought the interaction was fantastic and the food was great. I agree with you that it felt like you are the only people in the restaurant. We were very impressed.

We loved GG so much - I knew it would be fun, but I really had NO idea that it would be as good as it was. Probably the best character meal we have ever done - or at least tied with our birthday dinner at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel. Great character meals are just such a blast!

By the way I LOVE the autograph book. It is so cute!

Thank you so much!

I loved these updates! Garden Grill is the best. I know exactly what you mean about never feeling crowded and the characters are great there. I also love the view from your deck. How I wish I was at the Boardwalk right now.

Yeah - we just had the most fun there! I can't wait to go again one day!

Oh, me too. I would love to be there right now.

Ahh..Franzia! How I remember many a night in college spent with Franzia. Then my husband and I moved up to bottled wine (we thought we were so classy!) and now we’re back to boxed wine. Life is really one big circle!

I have this weird memory of a college friend and I spending an evening with a box of Franzia and a chocolate cake from the grocery store. I'm so glad boxed wine has improved - so good for traveling!

Wow what a long nap Willow had! Wish I could get one of those.

Ugh, me too! Like right now.....

Bummer about Living with the Land. I LOVE that ride and no one else in my family does, I usually have to drag them on – they humor their mother occasionally.

I'm glad they at least humor you occasionally! Luckily, Willow loves LwtL too - we were both sad to miss it.

Your autograph pages are so good! How fun that will be to look back at in a few years. I am always so bad about getting the pictures in with the autographs after we come back. I’m actually working on that as we speak.

It is hard to get all the post-trip "memory things" done, isn't it? In years past, I have always prepared the autograph books and a photo book and given to Willow for Christmas. I haven't started either at this point , but hopefully, I can still manage that this year!

I'm with Jenny...can we all be at BWI right now???

Seriously!!!!

Great update!

Thanks!

willow's dress is so cute! did you make that one? I love the color!

I did make it! I can't take any credit for the fabric though - Willow chose that.

garden grill looks like it was a lot of fun! the characters seemed so great! now i'm sort of regretting taking it off our list, but I just couldn't get excited about it. maybe it'll have to go on the future must do list after all!

If our experience is at all typical, it really is a special experience. Man, we had SO much fun!

willows cake cone is so cute! and all the food looks delicious. I can see why you were fighting over the salad.

For a character meal, the food was quite good - and different from the usual character-meal fare. But that salad was the BEST.

your autograph books are crazily cute! I love them everytime! you must have spent some time on those!

Thanks! Yes, they took a loooooong time. I often wondered what in the world I was thinking as I stuck tiny pieces of paper to other tiny pieces of paper late at night.

my girls would be so thrilled to do the hot dog dance with pluto! we were just singing that song this morning! how fun! great update!

It was so cute! We couldn't believe it when he just started dancing along. So cute!

 

[magic kingdom park]

Can't wait to hear more

 

[7165red]

Love the photos of Willow.

 

[dizneeat]

I love the new updates.
Garden Grill character interaction looks just too cute. But then Willow is just so cute herself, how can the character interaction not be good.

The way she works her bow and arrow is too funny and I just LOVE the selfies!

More please!

 

[RGirl]

Can't wait to hear more

Thanks! Coming right up!

Love the photos of Willow.

Thanks!!!!

I love the new updates.

Thanks!

Garden Grill character interaction looks just too cute. But then Willow is just so cute herself, how can the character interaction not be good.

Aww - thanks! I think she's pretty cute. We sure did have a lot of fun at GG!!!

The way she works her bow and arrow is too funny and I just LOVE the selfies!

Right??? I was wondering if anyone would notice that. I did, in fact, correct her form after taking the pics.

More please!

Coming right up!

 

[RGirl]

A Little More Princess Dining​

After our rough day at DHS, we were nonetheless up at 6:45 due to an early ADR. We were TIRED. We soldiered on, however, and got ready because this is an every-trip tradition for us - having breakfast at Akershus. We were on our way downstairs to the boardwalk by 7:15 (somehow - how is that possible?).

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We enjoyed a quiet and beautiful walk over to the International Gateway.

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As we got closer, we saw that the gates were closed! We had never seen that before.

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Just as we were arriving at the gates, however, a security CM was walking down to open them. And we were at the roped-off bag-check area at 7:30 - why are we always so early????

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We chatted with the CM who had opened the gates and was going to do be doing bag check while we waited. She explained that they were waiting for the call that would tell them the park was all clear. (She also told us all about her kids, their different dads, where she grew up, her mother, and everything else under the sun. ) As it got closer and closer to 8:00, all of us thought it was really odd that not a single other person had shown up at the IG for early entry for an ADR. Finally, at 7:45, the call came and we were let in. There was still not a single other person at the IG!

We made our way through an empty WS.

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This beautiful walk through WS was made most unpleasant by the fact that I thought I had lost my PP+ card or left it at the room. I couldn’t find it anywhere - usually it was around my neck - and I was FREAKING OUT. Seriously - I was having a tantrum. Luckily, shortly after we arrived in Norway, I did find it.

Up Next: A Little More Princess Dining Cont.

 

[RGirl]

A Little More Princess Dining Cont.​

We did eventually meet up with a few families coming in from the front of the park. But we were still the first family to arrive at Akershus at 7:56.

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We checked in and proceeded to wait - not long though. We were about the fifth family called to be seated a little before 8:10.

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Before we knew it, we were meeting Belle.

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Belle’s page (this one is pretty bad - it was one of the first I attempted):

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Both prior years that we have had breakfast here, we have been sat in the same area. this year we were in a totally different spot - kind of a little nook way in back with just a few tables in it. It was nice, actually.

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View from our table:

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We had lots of good food:

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But we were here for princesses! In prior years, we have had an amazing time here with great princess interaction. And we were looking forward to a fun time here today - this was our Family Day! However, today, the princesses were incredibly rushed. Cinderella was first, and she was just odd. She was kind of whispering and acted like she didn’t really want to speak to us. It was so odd.

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Ariel was next. She was bubbly and sort of appropriate, but talking a mile a minute and just rushing, rushing, rushing. We were actually her first table, and it was so strange - they come out WAY on the other side of the restaurant in a room we couldn’t even see from here (but knew about because we had been seated there every other time) - and it looked like she just sprinted across the entire restaurant to our table - again, our table was about as far from where she entered as you could get. It was kind of hilarious.

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Ariel’s page:

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Up Next: A Little More Princess Dining Cont.

 

[RGirl]

A Little More Princess Dining Cont.​

Next was Aurora, and I don’t have a single note about this interaction. She must have been a pretty decent Aurora. The pictures seem to indicate that she actually interacted with DD, so I’m guessing she was a pretty good meet-and-greet!

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Unfortunately, my pic of Aurora’s page is really blurry.

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Next up was Snow White, and she was off too (maybe I was the one who was off since everyone else SEEMED so off to me??? ). You know how Snow White has that squeaky Snow White voice, and how amazing it is that the Snow Whites in the park have that same voice? No, just me? Really??? Well, anyway, this Snow White did not have the Snow White voice, but seemed like she was trying to - it just didn’t come out right at all. Add to that the fact that she was REALLY loud - which is just not Snow White - and she came to our table in the midst of the announcement about the princess processional, grabbed our autograph book, announced she was going to sign it and then come back later. And she proceeded to sign, not interact at all, and then race off to the processional. It was so weird! She did come back, and gave us enough time for one photo and was gone again.

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Snow White’s page:

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So would we go back to Akershus after this weird morning? Yep - we absolutely would. Two out of three visits have included wonderful princess interactions. For some reason, they were super-rushed this morning, and it wasn’t the best experience. But DD was still thrilled to be with her princess friends, and the breakfast food here is truly GOOD.

Willow did take a few pics here as well (I’m sure you know what’s coming):

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Up Next: Serious Speed and Character Fun

 

[dismagiclover]

So we love the Boardwalk area and have been through the gate at IG plenty of times. I have walked through England and thought it was empty. Now I know what empty really is. You were the only person in the place! That is awesome! Too funny about the princesses. I wonder why they were in such a hurry. Especially because the restaraunt probably wasn't even full yet. Weird. Aurora really was looking extra pretty that day though.