Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho. It's off to the Grand Floridian We Go! (Update: TR Started)
- Thread starter MarbleBob
- Start date
MarbleBob
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- Aug 20, 2003
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Cool! I really want one of the shirts, but I hear you about knowing when to stop. Must. Show. Restraint! (Luckily, we had set aside some money for decorating the dining room years ago. I figured this was as good of a time to dip into the home improvement budget as any other time. Haha.)
KelleyK75
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- Mar 3, 2010
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- 967
I love all of the items for your dining room! Especially the trash can salt and pepper shakers and the little orange bird. 
You might not have seen my question about the exhibit, and I was just wondering. Can you do both the animation academy and go through the costumes, or could you only pick one to do? Thanks!
You might not have seen my question about the exhibit, and I was just wondering. Can you do both the animation academy and go through the costumes, or could you only pick one to do? Thanks!
KelleyK75
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Oops, I'm sorry. I did miss your question. You can do both
Not a problem, thank you! I was just wondering, because I think both would be cool, and I'd want to make sure I had time to do both.
TheMaxRebo
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- Jan 12, 2008
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Joining! Sounds like it is going to be a great trip Matt! We had 10 our last trip and trying to coordinate everyone got a bit hectic/stressful (for the guy with the planning spreadsheets at least 
) can't image trying to organize 19!
I love, love the photo collages you used in your intros - great idea!
I've only been to Jacksonville for work (client meetings, in the insurance space - so not a lot of help with family vacation planning). The one fun thing we did was to visit a craft beer & cigar bar ... but, again, probably not a lot of help for you with having three kids and all
Congrats on getting the Elsa dress! The things we do for our kids/our excitement for our kids. The fact they need to have a raffle is kind of nuts, but glad they are doing things like that rather than it becoming a chaotic mass of people battling for them ... also probably minimizes people who grab like 10 of them just to put them up on eBay for exorbitant prices.
Great story with Princess and Snow White - we've always had great interaction with her and one of our "traditions" is for my daughter to get a kiss from Show White each trip - fun to compare the pictures over time.
I agree with you about the design of MDE ... it's like they tried to make it super easy for people not really comfortable with technology (by having it pick 3 options for you, etc.) but that just makes it more complicated/more steps if you want to deviate from the "simple" way
That's cool that you are doing the D-Tech thing. I heard they are now doing FP+ for some of the Star Wards events - not sure if that impacts your plans at all (oops, should have kept reading, you did find out and it did impact your plans)
Good luck with the BBB - I am sure Pickle will love all the pampering. So far we have just been doing our own version. We buy glittery hairspray, etc. Much cheaper and so far my DD has been happy with that. One trip we probably will do the real thing, but figure once we do, there is no going back
You've been doing great with the FP+ getting Anna/Elsa and the Mine Train three times (I definitely want to try it at night during our trip)! Not to mention an ADR for BOG!
The Disney's The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour sounds really cool. My son is really into trains, though being only 2, not quite old enough for a tour yet
Hope you are able to fit a date night in - those are always great ... gotta take advantage of the "free" baby sitters when you have them
Wow - that is quite the monorail layout. Love how you have it going around Spaceship Earth - just like in real life! (guess I have a little of "the man upstairs" in me too)
that little train set you got at the garage sale is pretty cool! Hope they make a "new" version with the new Festival of Fantasy parade floats
The POV video of the monorail is pretty cool! Wish when it talked though they included the "Por favor ..." part
That Disney Archive event looks very cool - almost like a different version of One Man's Dream. Seeing the actual story book from Snow White is very cool ... and then they add to it with the Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty ones!
haha, "Wonder Twins Powers Activate!!". ... Form of - people with FP+ for Anna and Elsa who get to skip the 4 hour line!
The costumes are pretty cool - even for the "lame" movies, always interesting to see the details that go into making them. And seeing the Rockateer costume is pretty darn cool!
oooh, I like the idea of rigging up games/chores to earn extra souvenir money. That might work on my daughter who we always struggle with to clean up the play room, etc.
That is quite the haul from the Disney Store - looks like so much fun to have that big box of little boxes and not really knowing what each thing will be until you open it!
I love the retro plates - especially the Tomorrowland one. And the little trash can/salt & pepper shakers are so cool!
That Disney Poster book is really cool! Last trip we got the calendar with the retro park attraction advertisement posters, and the cool thing about it is that it is designed so you can tear out the poster part so you can hang them up
Ok, I think that concludes the longest reply in DISboard history! Best of luck with any remaining planing - your trip is coming up super soon!
) can't image trying to organize 19!I love, love the photo collages you used in your intros - great idea!
I've only been to Jacksonville for work (client meetings, in the insurance space - so not a lot of help with family vacation planning). The one fun thing we did was to visit a craft beer & cigar bar ... but, again, probably not a lot of help for you with having three kids and all
Congrats on getting the Elsa dress! The things we do for our kids/our excitement for our kids. The fact they need to have a raffle is kind of nuts, but glad they are doing things like that rather than it becoming a chaotic mass of people battling for them ... also probably minimizes people who grab like 10 of them just to put them up on eBay for exorbitant prices.
Great story with Princess and Snow White - we've always had great interaction with her and one of our "traditions" is for my daughter to get a kiss from Show White each trip - fun to compare the pictures over time.
I agree with you about the design of MDE ... it's like they tried to make it super easy for people not really comfortable with technology (by having it pick 3 options for you, etc.) but that just makes it more complicated/more steps if you want to deviate from the "simple" way
That's cool that you are doing the D-Tech thing. I heard they are now doing FP+ for some of the Star Wards events - not sure if that impacts your plans at all (oops, should have kept reading, you did find out and it did impact your plans)
Good luck with the BBB - I am sure Pickle will love all the pampering. So far we have just been doing our own version. We buy glittery hairspray, etc. Much cheaper and so far my DD has been happy with that. One trip we probably will do the real thing, but figure once we do, there is no going back
You've been doing great with the FP+ getting Anna/Elsa and the Mine Train three times (I definitely want to try it at night during our trip)! Not to mention an ADR for BOG!
The Disney's The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour sounds really cool. My son is really into trains, though being only 2, not quite old enough for a tour yet
Hope you are able to fit a date night in - those are always great ... gotta take advantage of the "free" baby sitters when you have them
Wow - that is quite the monorail layout. Love how you have it going around Spaceship Earth - just like in real life! (guess I have a little of "the man upstairs" in me too)
that little train set you got at the garage sale is pretty cool! Hope they make a "new" version with the new Festival of Fantasy parade floats
The POV video of the monorail is pretty cool! Wish when it talked though they included the "Por favor ..." part
That Disney Archive event looks very cool - almost like a different version of One Man's Dream. Seeing the actual story book from Snow White is very cool ... and then they add to it with the Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty ones!
haha, "Wonder Twins Powers Activate!!". ... Form of - people with FP+ for Anna and Elsa who get to skip the 4 hour line!
The costumes are pretty cool - even for the "lame" movies, always interesting to see the details that go into making them. And seeing the Rockateer costume is pretty darn cool!
oooh, I like the idea of rigging up games/chores to earn extra souvenir money. That might work on my daughter who we always struggle with to clean up the play room, etc.
That is quite the haul from the Disney Store - looks like so much fun to have that big box of little boxes and not really knowing what each thing will be until you open it!
I love the retro plates - especially the Tomorrowland one. And the little trash can/salt & pepper shakers are so cool!
That Disney Poster book is really cool! Last trip we got the calendar with the retro park attraction advertisement posters, and the cool thing about it is that it is designed so you can tear out the poster part so you can hang them up
Ok, I think that concludes the longest reply in DISboard history! Best of luck with any remaining planing - your trip is coming up super soon!
MarbleBob
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 1,059
Wow! Great to have you onboard
It was fun reading through your responses to various photos/plans. I took a break from work to read it and one of my co-workers looked at me funny when I literally laughed out loud about your FP+ comment.
Perfect
Ever since we set up that monorail track and took the POV photos inside the Contemporary toy, I've thought... we really need to stay there some time. Excited that you'll be staying there this summer and that I can experience it vicariously through your TR
Cheers!
It was fun reading through your responses to various photos/plans. I took a break from work to read it and one of my co-workers looked at me funny when I literally laughed out loud about your FP+ comment.
Perfect
Ever since we set up that monorail track and took the POV photos inside the Contemporary toy, I've thought... we really need to stay there some time. Excited that you'll be staying there this summer and that I can experience it vicariously through your TR
Cheers!
KCmike
Never have fallen asleep on any
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- Jul 4, 2007
- Messages
- 9,783
Thanks Mike. I'm glad to see at least a few people enjoyed seeing photos of the exhibit. It really was outstanding. If you end up making a stop one your way to Boston, I'd be interested in knowing what you thought about it. And seeing some photos. Looking at your Flickr stream, you have some some outstanding photography skills. Personally, I've just got the basics down with my little Micro 4/3 camera. I still have a lot of practice to do
Thanks for visiting my Flickr site and for the especially kind words. Your a wonderful photographer as well. I really am enjoying this trip report. I like how you have given us perspective into what you enjoy about past trips, trivia from the family, and some of the fun stuff you do leading up to the big trip.
I will keep you posted if we do make the stop in Chicago. It looks like things have turned a little for the worse as my wife has hurt her back and now I might end up flying my youngest daughter to Boston by ourselves and we won't make the cross country trip by van. Her back tends to go out each year as has some disc problems. I hope she can make a recovery soon but might need to take off several days from work which will jeopardize her time off later in the summer. Fingers crossed.
MarbleBob
DIS Veteran
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- Aug 20, 2003
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- 1,059
Thoughts and prayers that your wife will recover quickly, and fingers crossed that you'll be able to make it to the Chicago exhibit.
Thanks DISNEY180! Glad to have you on board. Yeah, it's a lot of fun going through old vacation photos, trying to pick out which pics to include in the collages
MarbleBob
DIS Veteran
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- Aug 20, 2003
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- 1,059
Time to whip up some Dole Whips!
So... I guess we are in that state of PTR limbo, where most of the plans and reservations have been laid out, we are getting close, but not quite close enough to start packing. So this and the last couple of posts seem to be more about how we are biding our time before the final preparations. But that's OK, because I have something fun to report tonight
Getting a Dole Whip float is one of my favorite treats a Disney.... I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but the original plans for our trip had us staying at the Poly. However, with all the construction going on, my mom made the wise call to move us over to Grand Floridian. Anyway, I was SUPER excited to be able to get a daily Dole Whip at Captain Cook's while at the Poly. I'm very happy to give the Grand Floridian a try, but a bit disappointed that they don't have their own Dole Whip machine.
I had read a couple years ago that you can actually buy the authentic mix that they use for Dole Whips online from a place in Hawaii. But... it was going to be about $40 after shipping. Seemed a little steep at the time, so I moved on and figured it wasn't meant to be. For whatever reason, I thought about it again over the weekend and searched again. It turns out that another place will sell you a bag for $21 shipped. Now, that's more like it! So, I placed an order on Monday and it arrived today.
On the checkout page, there was a place to enter a coupon code, so I googled the company name and the word coupon code and found one for a free Dole mixing tub. Sure, why not?
They included a metal whisk too. Awesome!! So, the Dole Whip mix comes in powered form in a plain old bag. It's about 4.5 pounds of stuff. It makes something like 72 4oz servings. Thats like 30 cents per serving. Disney charges like $4 per serving. They are making a killing on this stuff!!!!!!
I decided to mix up a batch and put it in the refrigerator to get it cold before putting in our ice cream maker.
I found one of Ricky Brigante's videos where he converted a full batch to a one quart batch. So, I measured out one and a third cups of the powder and mixed it in with water to make one quart.
Dude!! This stuff smells AMAZING.
Before we started eating dinner, I poured it into the ice cream maker so that it would be ready for dessert
And then 25 minutes later....BAM!!!
Dude, there's a lot of it.
Let's scoop it out and try it!!
Oh my!! It tastes just like the real deal
Heavenly!!! The texture was a bit off, but that seems reasonable since I don't have a real soft serve machine.
We ended up eating about 1/2 of it, so I put the rest in the freezer. It'll be interesting to see how it does overnight.
So, a little bit of Disney at home to tide us over! If you have an ice cream maker and about $20 to spare, I highly recommend it!!!!! Here's the link to where I purchased it
http://www.precisionfoodsstore.com/dole-pineapple-each.html
So... I guess we are in that state of PTR limbo, where most of the plans and reservations have been laid out, we are getting close, but not quite close enough to start packing. So this and the last couple of posts seem to be more about how we are biding our time before the final preparations. But that's OK, because I have something fun to report tonight
Getting a Dole Whip float is one of my favorite treats a Disney.... I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but the original plans for our trip had us staying at the Poly. However, with all the construction going on, my mom made the wise call to move us over to Grand Floridian. Anyway, I was SUPER excited to be able to get a daily Dole Whip at Captain Cook's while at the Poly. I'm very happy to give the Grand Floridian a try, but a bit disappointed that they don't have their own Dole Whip machine.
I had read a couple years ago that you can actually buy the authentic mix that they use for Dole Whips online from a place in Hawaii. But... it was going to be about $40 after shipping. Seemed a little steep at the time, so I moved on and figured it wasn't meant to be. For whatever reason, I thought about it again over the weekend and searched again. It turns out that another place will sell you a bag for $21 shipped. Now, that's more like it! So, I placed an order on Monday and it arrived today.
On the checkout page, there was a place to enter a coupon code, so I googled the company name and the word coupon code and found one for a free Dole mixing tub. Sure, why not?
They included a metal whisk too. Awesome!! So, the Dole Whip mix comes in powered form in a plain old bag. It's about 4.5 pounds of stuff. It makes something like 72 4oz servings. Thats like 30 cents per serving. Disney charges like $4 per serving. They are making a killing on this stuff!!!!!!
I decided to mix up a batch and put it in the refrigerator to get it cold before putting in our ice cream maker.
I found one of Ricky Brigante's videos where he converted a full batch to a one quart batch. So, I measured out one and a third cups of the powder and mixed it in with water to make one quart.
Dude!! This stuff smells AMAZING.
Before we started eating dinner, I poured it into the ice cream maker so that it would be ready for dessert
And then 25 minutes later....BAM!!!
Dude, there's a lot of it.
Let's scoop it out and try it!!Oh my!! It tastes just like the real deal
Heavenly!!! The texture was a bit off, but that seems reasonable since I don't have a real soft serve machine. We ended up eating about 1/2 of it, so I put the rest in the freezer. It'll be interesting to see how it does overnight.
So, a little bit of Disney at home to tide us over! If you have an ice cream maker and about $20 to spare, I highly recommend it!!!!! Here's the link to where I purchased it
http://www.precisionfoodsstore.com/dole-pineapple-each.html
Awesome. Wish I lived a little closer so I could come over for a Dole Whip. How fun for you all. Wonder if we should serve this on our 4th of July party????
Trip report is fantastic. I guess I better get working on my Pre-trip contest for you all. Lots of good prizes to win!!
Mimi
Trip report is fantastic. I guess I better get working on my Pre-trip contest for you all. Lots of good prizes to win!!
Mimi
MarbleBob
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 1,059
Thanks Mom!! If you want to have some ice on hand for this Saturday, I'll bring the mix over and we can "whip" up a batch in your ice cream maker
Ooh! Prizes!!! And games, I can't wait
For those following along, this isn't the first time my parents have taken their kids and grand kids on big Disney trips. DisneMimi likes to come up with games and prizes for everyone as we approach the trip. Last time, we all went on the Disney Dream cruise and she came up with "Dream Dollars", coupons for parking, coupons for "drink of the day" and conch coolers, etc. Lots of fun! My mom is the BEST
Ooh! Prizes!!! And games, I can't wait
For those following along, this isn't the first time my parents have taken their kids and grand kids on big Disney trips. DisneMimi likes to come up with games and prizes for everyone as we approach the trip. Last time, we all went on the Disney Dream cruise and she came up with "Dream Dollars", coupons for parking, coupons for "drink of the day" and conch coolers, etc. Lots of fun! My mom is the BEST
MidnightParade
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
- Messages
- 1,022
Oooooh! I was looking forward to seeing how it would turn out! Looks like it was fairly easy! Oh man now I really really want one! Now if only I had an ice cream maker...
Wow! Your mom is the best! Yay for Pre-trip contests! That is awesome! Good luck! Make sure to post how you make out!!
Wow! Your mom is the best! Yay for Pre-trip contests! That is awesome! Good luck! Make sure to post how you make out!!
KelleyK75
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2010
- Messages
- 967
Thanks Mom!! If you want to have some ice on hand for this Saturday, I'll bring the mix over and we can "whip" up a batch in your ice cream maker
Ooh! Prizes!!! And games, I can't wait
For those following along, this isn't the first time my parents have taken their kids and grand kids on big Disney trips. DisneMimi likes to come up with games and prizes for everyone as we approach the trip. Last time, we all went on the Disney Dream cruise and she came up with "Dream Dollars", coupons for parking, coupons for "drink of the day" and conch coolers, etc. Lots of fun! My mom is the BEST
That is awesome you can order the Dole Whip ingredients! Might have to try that.
Your Mom is awesome!! That's so cool your whole family can get involved in the planning and going to Disney together! I bet you guys have so much fun!!
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
- 1,256
I have a gelato maker and I totally just ordered the dole mix and free bucket/whisk...looks like I am gonna be making me a Dole Pineapple Float in the near future...
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing, it will definitely get us ready and in the mood for our trip this June!
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing, it will definitely get us ready and in the mood for our trip this June!
MarbleBob
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 1,059
Oooooh! I was looking forward to seeing how it would turn out! Looks like it was fairly easy! Oh man now I really really want one! Now if only I had an ice cream maker...
Wow! Your mom is the best! Yay for Pre-trip contests! That is awesome! Good luck! Make sure to post how you make out!!
Yes indeed. About as easy as mixing up a batch of koolade and then pouring it into the machine
Yes, very lucky to have parents who love Disney every bit as much as we do
Thanks! I look forward to sharing more about how great she is as we get the trip report going
That is awesome you can order the Dole Whip ingredients! Might have to try that.
Your Mom is awesome!! That's so cool your whole family can get involved in the planning and going to Disney together! I bet you guys have so much fun!!
Yes, family planning sessions are a lot of fun! We are going out with my parents and my sisters family tomorrow. I'm sure there'll be lots of WDW discussions
I have a gelato maker and I totally just ordered the dole mix and free bucket/whisk...looks like I am gonna be making me a Dole Pineapple Float in the near future...
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing, it will definitely get us ready and in the mood for our trip this June!
Awesome! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did
Cool! Glad to have you join us over here
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