Hey Bang-Bang Chicken, Where's Carl? UPDATE 6/3

[OhioDisneyLover]

I can't say enough about how much we love lunch at LTT. It;s so yummy!!

By this time, the family was already starting to complain about the amount of food we were consuming on our trip. Ha ha! Thank goodness we were not on the deluxe dining plan. I think we would have burst if we were.

We decided that we were going to head back to Pop for a bit. I think all of that food was getting to us already. The Gramma was tired and the rest of us were ready for a short break.

As we headed for the exit, we saw these guys so we stopped to dance for a bit.

Here is Joe and Bang-Bag. Carl is in the background texting.

Woody was having some head issues here. Poor dude.

This guy was pretty tired by this time so we continued towards the exit.

Took these on the way out. Been a while since we've had flowers in bloom at home.

Our friends came back to the resort with us and we yapped and Joe and I opened Christmas gifts from our friends. We got lots of cool stuff! We decided not to go back to the park and we just sat around and talked a bit more. Did some relaxing as well…imagine that, relaxing while on vacation! Check out Brodie having himself a good time!

Once we got to the point where we figured we might as well eat again (notice I didn’t say “hungry”), we headed over to Everything Pop and ate there.

It was pretty good. I like being able to build my own salad, but I wish they had more options for it. I also got our resort mugs while we were there. Can I tell you how bummed I was that they had green and purple only? What the heck!

The kids took Brodie into the Arcade to play while Amanda talked to the folks at the desk.

Amanda had dropped off a welcome basket for Joe and I at Pop a couple of days before we were to arrive. Can you imagine....they LOST IT! She spent so much time talking to the CM's there to try and figure out what happened to it. It never showed up. I felt so bad for her. She went through a lot of trouble making up the basket, delivering it to Pop and talking to the CM when she dropped it off about ensuring that we'd get it when we checked in.

After dinner and discussion with the desk, we headed back to our rooms.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

The little man entertained us for a while after dinner.

Apparently he needed to make a call.........Hello, Mickey?????

We called it a night a bit later as we had an ADR at Kona and we were headed to DAK the next day.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Hi Remember me??? My family has asked me when I plan to update my TR, so I thought I'd take my lunch hour and do so.

Hopefully I've got some readers out there and if so, I would really, really love to hear from you.....


Disney Day 3 – DAK Day

Ah, breakfast....our favorite meal of the day. Today we were headed to the Poly.

To have breakfast here:

We were starting off our day today at Kona for breakfast with Jenn and her family. I love Kona. It is on our must do list.

Once we arrived at the Poly, we took a few pictures before meeting up with Jenn for our ADR.

Did a little shopping as well.

I don't know about everyone else, but if I am honest, I am not a Tonga Toast fan. It's just....meh. I seem to get the same thing every time we go…the pineapple macadamia nut pancakes. What I didn't get this time, was a picture of my pancakes. But I did get this picture!!! Awww, look at Baby Bean!!

For anyone interested, here is the recipe for the macadamia nut pancakes.

Pancakes
1-1/4 cups brown sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 - 3/4 cups toasted macadamia nuts, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pineapple extract

Pineapple Sauce

1 can crushed pineapple, well drained
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Macadamia Nut Butter
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1/4 cup toasted macadamia nuts, finely chopped
1/4 cup honey

Pancakes
Sift flour into a medium bowl, then ad sugar, baking powder, salt, and macadamia nuts. Stir until combined. Add eggs, milk, oil, and extracts and beat until all ingredients are moistened and the batter is smooth.

On a heated, slightly greased skillet or electric griddle, pour 1/4 cup per pancake onto skillet and cook until bubbles form through the pancake and the sides look cooked. Flip and cook other side until golden brown. Top with pineapple sauce and nut butter, if desired. Serve warm.

Pineapple Sauce
Combine all ingredients and spread on a cookie sheet or dish. Bake in oven preheated to 350 until slightly browned. If the chutney-like sauce is too dry, add some of the liquid that was drained from the crushed pineapple.

Macadamia Nut Butter
Combine all ingredients and beat together with a fork until creamy. Serve either chilled or at room temperature, but store in the fridge.

I love them, which is interesting because I am not really a pineapple fan. Our adr was later than we normally eat breakfast. I like to eat between 7 and 7:30 to make the most of our park time, but Jenn wanted to eat a bit later this time. I was surprised how packed the place was. I am use to being the first ones seated at Kona in the morning. LOL!!

I really love the Poly. It seems like we are there at least 2 times, or more, to eat each trip. I often thought that I’d like to stay there one day, but I have a really hard time spending that much on a room. I’d rather have lots of days at a less expensive resort than a shorter trip at an expensive resort. Hmm, wonder how many of you feel the same way?

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

We left Kona and went to DAK.

Of course, we needed to stop and have some play time with Bean along the way.

After a couple of Photopass pics, our first stop was DinoLand. Here are a couple of our PP pics.

Before we got to Dinoland, we had to stop and see this guy!!

I have to admit that I just really started to go to DinoLand a year or so ago.

We never really got that way. I use to think that it was too much like a carnival for me and didn’t have that Disney feel that I love throughout the themeparks.

We rode the Primevil Whirl.

Last year I went on with Jenn and her daughter, Kayla, and laughed so hard that they all made fun of me. Needless to say, the kids wanted to go on with me this time, so that they could make some fun of me. LOL. It was fun, but dang, that ride jerks you around like mad!

Next up was Dinosaur, which we had a FP for.

Amanda had sent me a text to let me know she was in the park so we let her know where we were. Jenn and the Gramma didn’t ride and waited with the baby for her to get there. Dinosaur is another ride that I just recently started riding. It wasn’t so bad, if it were not for the pushy tour group that was in front of us. Dang, they were so rude. So, to clarify, they started off BEHIND us. Next thing we knew, 100 people rushed past us in line. I don’t get it. Why do they have to be so rude?

Once we got on the ride, I kept telling myself that I would keep my eyes open. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Wish I could tell you more about the ride but so far, my eyes have been closed every single time I’ve ridden it. Ha!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Once we exited the ride, we went to get the rest of our group. Look at this guy!!

Amanda had been telling us about the new hot dog with mac and cheese and Joe and my nephew wanted to try one so we went over to Restaurantasaurus. Sorry, no recipe for that one.

As we were heading into Restaurantasaurus, we lost Carl….again. There was also a miscommunication at this point though. No clue what happened, but we all got sort of separated at this point. This may have been when my niece really earned her nickname “Carl.” The name came from a show that Joe watches called Walking Dead. Never seen it myself but apparently, there is a character named Carl that either gets separated or lost all the time?

We all ended up meeting at Everest. Who got there when, I have no clue. I think it was raining then too. We split up and rode in groups. The Gramma didn’t ride this one and we did baby swap so the rest of the group could ride. I rode this for the first time a couple of years ago…notice a pattern here? Seems like I got guts when I turned 50. LOL. I still hate the going backwards part. It’s another ride where I spend most of the time with my eyes closed, but this time I wanted to see the Yeti….so I took a peek.

Once we got off the ride, I had the pictures loaded onto my Memory Maker. So easy to just use the magic bands instead of fussing with cards and stuff.

Our party did a swich-a-roo and the rest of the group when on EE while we waited with Baby Bean and Brodie.

We were getting close to our dinner ADR time at 1900, but how can you be at DAK and NOT stop at Flame Tree?

I think Flame Tree is my favorite quick service restaurant. So, what did we do? We ate of course. I love the pulled pork sandwich there and also the key lime desert thing that they have. Yummy.

Flame Tree BBQ: BBQ Dry Rub
*makes 4 1/2 cups

Ingredients:

4 cups Sugar
1/4 cup Seasoning Salt
2 tablespoons Paprika
2 tablespoons Chili Powder
2 tablespoons Ground Black Pepper
2 teaspoons Garlic Salt
2 teaspoons Onion Powder
1 tablespoon Ground Cumin

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl or gallon-size freezer bag. Rub over raw meat until completely coated. Place meat in refrigerator at least 1 hour prior to cooking.

We walked one of the trails after Flame Tree.

That was the last picture I got with my camera before the battery died. I had to switch to my point and shoot that was in the car....boooo.....

Joe and I decided that we wanted to get a head start exiting the park so that we were able to take our time. So after walking just one trail, we decided to head over to the Grand Floridian and park, etc. “Carl” decided to stay back and come over with Amanda since all of us were eating together that night. At least this time we knew that we didn’t lose her again.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Once we got to the GF, we learned something. Apparently, when you have a handicap parking pass, you don’t pay for valet parking at the resorts. Never knew that. Joe has a permanent disability so we usually either self-park in handicap or valet and pay. We were prepared to pay, but the valet told us no charge. Cool..pixie dust.

We went inside the GF and looked around until the rest of our party got there. As usual, the Teddy Bear Lady was there. We “googled” her story while we waited for the rest of our group. They were running a bit late so I went to the podium and talked to the CM. The CM said no worries and that once we were all here we should check in.

We hung around the lobby for a bit and checked Facebook, email, etc.

Once everyone arrived, we checked in. With such a big group, it took a while to get seated. What really stunk was that they split us up and we were really not that close to each other, which was a bummer. Jenn talked to the manager and they tried to see what they could do for us. In the end, it still felt like we were two totally separate groups.

I have to say that the character interaction there was awesome. Probably the best we had this trip. Here are a few pictures of the conversation that Brodie who is 2, was having with Lady Tremaine and the step sisters. Hilarious! I wish I had a video. Apparently, Anastasia was waiting for him to put a ring on her finger. So funny!

They were doing Popeye faces here.

This little guy slept through a lot of the action:

We also had a little bit of our own entertainment going on at our table:

The food was pretty good. I had never been there for dinner before and wasn’t disappointed in the selection. They had a giant, and I mean giant, container of gummy bears (or where they Mickey’s?) on the desert buffet. My mom loves them. We were going to make her a giant plate and take them to her to see what she’d do, but we didn’t. lol

We decided to head back to Pop after dinner. Originally we were going to go to a park, but everyone was ready to relax for the evening. I don’t like to push my luck so when Joe says he is ready to head back, we do that. He can only do so much time on his feet.

So, what's up for tomorrow?????

 

[annmarieda]

OMG! I somehow lost track of you on dis. I saw on fb you posted about a TR update and so I had to come find you!

So excited to go back and read... and follow along.

 

[inkedupmomma]

Love all the added recipes. I hate this day cause it was our last full day breakfast and dinner was SO good! Minus the bs separation! Ugh. I really miss you guys so much!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[annmarieda]

All caught up...

That drive sounds hair raising! Glad you made it safe and sound. (even if the car needed a bath )


How cool your rooms were adjoining!!!

The squirrel was too funny! I have seen that on many occasion and I always wonder if then the kids still eat the stuff they left. Makes me worry bout the entire family getting sick...

FP+ is a work in progress I think. I know in October when I used it I did not have much experience with it (I only had my band for one night of my stay) In January, we had issues here and there. It is definitely a pain to switch things around.

Illuminations view - AWESOME!

Kids - all TOO CUTE!

This guy looks like he is a kid again! So happy!!!

This is the area they are getting rid of, right?

Peter Pan - I agree... Once Upon a Time ruined him for me.

So cool that you include recipes! I am definitely going to have to try them out!

This picture is AMAZING!!!

Your nieces nick name - You started to explain she got it when she was separated and even before you mentioned Walking Dead I had "CAAARRL." pop in my head.

1900 PF - stinks that you were all seated apart.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

OMG! I somehow lost track of you on dis. I saw on fb you posted about a TR update and so I had to come find you!

So excited to go back and read... and follow along.

Yay!!! So glad that you are here!!!

Love all the added recipes. I hate this day cause it was our last full day breakfast and dinner was SO good! Minus the bs separation! Ugh. I really miss you guys so much!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Hi

I have some of the recipes and others I am trying to find. I hate this day too. I was so bummed that we had to say good bye. One more hug and I would have started to cry

We miss you guys too!

All caught up...

That drive sounds hair raising! Glad you made it safe and sound. (even if the car needed a bath )


How cool your rooms were adjoining!!!

The squirrel was too funny! I have seen that on many occasion and I always wonder if then the kids still eat the stuff they left. Makes me worry bout the entire family getting sick...

FP+ is a work in progress I think. I know in October when I used it I did not have much experience with it (I only had my band for one night of my stay) In January, we had issues here and there. It is definitely a pain to switch things around.

Illuminations view - AWESOME!

Kids - all TOO CUTE!

This guy looks like he is a kid again! So happy!!!

This is the area they are getting rid of, right?

Peter Pan - I agree... Once Upon a Time ruined him for me.

So cool that you include recipes! I am definitely going to have to try them out!

This picture is AMAZING!!!

Your nieces nick name - You started to explain she got it when she was separated and even before you mentioned Walking Dead I had "CAAARRL." pop in my head.

1900 PF - stinks that you were all seated apart.

I have wondered the same about the squirrel thing. My guess is that the people can probably tell that their bags were ransacked. That thing was going at it!!

We were happy with our room situation...have to say I was really surprised that we got them.

I love Illuminations. I think that watching it from Rose and Crown is my favorite.

Yes, I think that is the area that they are getting rid of but I actually like it. I like to sit there and relax and people watch.

I had such a good time with all the kids. They are all cuties!!

I had no clue who Carl was...lol. I think Joe came up with the name actually. He loves that show.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Happy Friday everyone and yay to the end of my work week!!!

Going to get started on another update. If there are any lurkers out there....please post and let me know your thoughts. Would love to hear from you.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Today was our non-park day and also the day that we said good-bye to Jenn and hello to my brother.

We started our day at Cape May for breakfast as a group. Jenn checked us in and we waited for our table in the lobby. I took a few pics, again with the point and shoot camera.

Kayla entertained herself while we waited.

Unfortunately, we had another seating issue here. See how confused we all looked?

What really stunk was that they had a table large enough for all of us, but we had to go to great lengths to get it. Ugh, the day was not starting out magical at all.

Once we got our seating squared away, we took turns going to the buffet. We wanted to be sure that we were able to see all of the characters. My favorite thing on the buffet here has to be the Mickey waffles. Yeah, I know, you can get them on almost every buffet. For some reason, I like these best. Here are a few pictures. Not great ones because I was using a point and shoot instead of my camera.

Most folks recommend that the “secret ingredient” in Mickey waffles is Carbon’s Golden Malted Flour. Here’s a good recipe to use for Mickey Waffles:

4 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
2 cups flour
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Beat egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until light. Add cooled melted butter, milk and vanilla extract. Add flour, baking powder & salt, beat well. Beat egg whites until stiff and gently fold into batter. Bake and serve.

I love this picture of Minnie and Baby Bean and Minnie. Awwwwww.

Brodie was mortified of the characters…all except for Minnie that is.

Donald really messed with him, in a funny way. Donald tried to go behind him so that we could sneak and take a pic. Brodie got wise to that though. LOL.

Here is Joe and Minnie:

My sister and nephew:

Look at this picture of Bean...awwwwww

My nephew and Brodie

Brodie did not want to be anywhere near this guy:

Crappy picture, but here are three of us girls....all met on the Dis!

Bob, Joe and Goofy:

Mom, Goofy and my sister:

Mom and Goofy:

The food at Cape May is great. We really enjoyed it. It did take forever though to get our checks correct. We ended up being the last people to leave the restaurant. On our way out, a guy in a suit asked how everything was. I sent him to Jenn…..yep, I passed it over to her to explain while my mom and I went to the gift shop in search of super glue. The CM there was awesome. He was an older man and messed with me a bit over having to glue my nail while on vacation. LOL.

The next thing we did was really hard……we said our good-bye’s to Jenn and her family as we set off in the rain to the outlets to shop. We had a 10 day hopper and were there for more than 10 days so we had scheduled a shopping day here. Jenn headed to the parks for one last half day before heading home.

We took two cars and headed over to the Outlet mall first. We had a little “incident” with a not-so-kind dude that zoomed into the parking spot that Amanda was waiting for, but we shall skip over that incident and move on…..*wink* *wink*

We found a LOT of awesome stuff (cheap) at the outlet mall. Remember how I said earlier that the truck was packed when we left home? Well, it was about to get even more packed! There is a new North Face store at the outlet that had a pretty good sale. We also did other damage to our Disney budget as well, but thank goodness everything was on sale. There were some great deals at the Disney Outlet this time.

The day got a lot nicer so after the outlets we headed back to Pop. My brother had arrived and was checked in. And guess what? He got the connecting room next to mom! Woot for pixie dust!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

We got back to Pop and I decided to do laundry while the others, some of them, went swimming. It was a pretty nice day although getting out of the pool was pretty cold, from what I am told.

Brodie was having fun in the pool.

So, on the laundry thing…I have to say that Pop has a really nice laundry facility. I like it better than the one at Wilderness Lodge. The only thing I don’t like is $2 to wash and $2 to dry. LOL.


We decided that we were going to go over to AoA for dinner.

I really like their food court. Isn’t it funny how AoA is the only resort that uses “real” silverware and plates? The meal was good, but I honestly can’t remember what we had. LOL.

I also like the gift shop over there. It’s very cute!

After dinner we decided to wonder around the resort. It’s a very cute resort.

I wish I would have gotten more pictures. We walked mostly through the Cars part of AoA.

I’d like to stay there one day, but for the price, I’d rather stay at POFQ. If I could convince the family, I’d do a suite at AoA, but everyone seems to like having rooms instead so that they can have private bathrooms.

After dinner we headed back to Pop and yapped a bit more before Amanda and Brodie went back home. Our plans for the next day included DHS! Woot!

 

[Synndy]

I love all the pictures.

Poor Brodie did NOT like Cape May. Except whatever it was with chocolate. He loved that

I have no idea what incident you're talking about at the outlet malls but whatever it was, I'm sure they deserved it

I love the pictures of my little fishy baby. He's such a ham. He keeps trying to drag me to our apartment pool but it's been too cold.

I miss my Ohio family so much and look forward to more updates.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I love all the pictures.

Poor Brodie did NOT like Cape May. Except whatever it was with chocolate. He loved that

I have no idea what incident you're talking about at the outlet malls but whatever it was, I'm sure they deserved it

I love the pictures of my little fishy baby. He's such a ham. He keeps trying to drag me to our apartment pool but it's been too cold.

I miss my Ohio family so much and look forward to more updates.

Awe, he did like the chocolate thingy though. I wish I could remember what it was.

- the "incident" was fresh in my mind yesterday when Joe and I were out. lol

Brodie had a good time in the pool. Wish we had more warmer days so he could have swam more.

We miss you guys too!!!!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

We started our day off bright and early. We headed for DTD first so that we could have breakfast at EOS. We love it there!!!

Of course, once we got to DTD, I insisted on taking pictures in "our spot." Yeah, us and the rest of the world. lol

Earl was not crowded at all since it was so early in the morning.

We had our breakfast and then decided to do a bit of shopping before we headed over to DHS. First stop was World of Disney. Man, I love that store. I could spend hours and hours just wondering through. Lucky us, we were the first to arrive that morning and so we got a bit silly when we first entered the store.

We picked up a few things and then moved to Once Upon a Toy. You see, the vinylmation bug had hit some of us big time…namely my brother and Joe. Joe kept telling me he wasn’t going to buy any more and next thing I knew, he had one, two or sometimes three more. Ha ha!!!

Of course, I had to stop at TrenD too. It's my favorite!!

We also went into the Christmas shop and for the first time ever, I didn’t see anything that I could not live my life without!! I normally buy several ornaments each trip, but this time I didn’t get one from there.

After we were finished with our shopping, I took a few pictures of DTD.

We then headed over to DHS. We were meeting Amanda and Brodie there.

 

[annmarieda]

Looks like DTD was quite empty! I love the parks like that. I bet DTD has a similar "special" feel when so empty.

AoA is such a cute resort. I stayed one night in the LM section. Such amazing theming! But I agree for the price I prefer POFQ!

So what did you think of Cape May for breakfast? I am trying to plan for a breakfast to replace Kouzzina.... I am really struggling.

 

[vtfretwell]

Hi! I usually lurk but I thought I would post. It looked as though everyone had a blast and I think it is great how you have made great friends on the boards. I love reading everyone's stories. It gets me through when I start having withdrawals.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Looks like DTD was quite empty! I love the parks like that. I bet DTD has a similar "special" feel when so empty.

AoA is such a cute resort. I stayed one night in the LM section. Such amazing theming! But I agree for the price I prefer POFQ!

So what did you think of Cape May for breakfast? I am trying to plan for a breakfast to replace Kouzzina.... I am really struggling.

DTD really was empty that morning. I was surprised!

Cape May breakfast was good...it was the service that we had an issue with. I am so bummed that Kouzzina is closing.

Do you have any other ideas for breakfast to replace Kouzzina?

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Hi! I usually lurk but I thought I would post. It looked as though everyone had a blast and I think it is great how you have made great friends on the boards. I love reading everyone's stories. It gets me through when I start having withdrawals.

Hi! Welcome! Nice to have you here with us. I love the DIS. I've met some life long friends here and I too love to read everyone's stories.