How Much Do You Ladies Charge to Haunt the Castle? -- Departure Day up (See index

[mickeystoontown]

It's been many many many years since we've ventured over to Universal Studios. As a matter of fact, there wasn't even a City Walk way back then. Your meal at Emeril's sure looks better than the hot dog I had for lunch.

Like Mark, I'd love to work a stay at the Polynesian into our budget but, for us, that would mean a shorter trip and I am not ready to sacrifice a longer vacation.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

In my last update, we had just finished seeing the little celebration parade and scooted through some shops to try on some hats for the DIS faithful.

Hats? Really? Hadn't noticed.

I have to say this was THE longest wait we had for a bus the entire trip....we waited over 30 minutes for a bus to take us to the Dolphin (I have to say if we were ever to stay at the Dolphin, which we won't, we'd be driving our own car).

30 minutes?! You could have walked to the Dolphin.

From there, we drove to STARBUCKS.

We then went to take showers for our dinner this evening. We would be doing the unthinkable. We were driving to another land.

Blasphemy!

Our waiter graciously took a couple of photos for us (ignore the look of pain on Mark's face...the pictures were taken right after I banged his knee with my chair as I scooted closer to him )

Why should I ignore it?

(this store used to have some really great stuff, but we thought the quality and quantity had really gone down)

No wonder, it's all Spongebob crap.

 

[Terkina]

I love the banana peel hat

 

[FancyNancy]

Oh my goodness the pics of you and Mark at Emeril's came out fabulous!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Mark with the Marge Simpson hair is hysterical! I love the pictures of you guys at Universal and the one in front of the fountain at the Dolphin is great too!

I totally cried when I read what you wrote about Todd and myself....best thing about the Dis was meeting you and Mark, my long lost sister! We love you guys so much and cannot wait to see you in WDW of all places in just three weeks from right this second!

The Poly is just awesome! I would love to stay there again but the $500 a night price tag has me dragging my jaw off the ground! Even with the piddly 30% off they are giving its still very costly. I am just glad that we were able to stay there many times when it was just $220 a night lol!

Kona at 7:30 in the morning with both of us having pressed pots in our system...oh boy we are going to wake up everyone!

 

[KatMark]

After our delicious breakfast at Kona and our shopping, we headed to the car and drove here:

We parked the car and were only about four rows back at 8:15 in the morning and walked to the TTC:

We decided to take the ferry boat (I'd had enough of the monorail):

Some photos on the ride over:

The lovely crane can be seen from here:

First stop:

I had hoped to talk Mark into getting some princess pictures taken, but he wasn't "feeling it" (I think he's been hanging with Todd too much). So I let it go, but plan to make him do it next month...I mean he is turning 60 and shoudl be seen with beautiful, young princesses (and although I may be beautiful, I'm certainly not young and NO COMMENTS FROM YOU MARV!).

So we left our favorite mice and headed down good old Main Street USA.

Of course, we had to stop for more photopass pictures:

Seriously, we probably should have just stayed in the room.

Continued in next post

 

[KatMark]

We stopped again a little further down:

Then we went to say hi to some friends:

We walked through the castle and it was empty so I finally got some pictures of the mosaic tiles without people walking in front of me:

As we exited the castle, we saw a Photopass Photograher somewhere we had never seen one before and figured why not:

We were really in no hurry to get to any particular attraction and as we were walking through Fantasyland deciding where we wanted to go first an opportunity presented itself that we could not pass up and which gave us the name of the Trip Report.

But, you'll have to come back for the next update to find out what it is.

 

[emmysmommy]

A cliff hanger right at the reveal of your TR name??? You are such a tease!

I love that your last day at WDW starts with Kona Cafe (my absolute favorite for breakfast) followed by MK! When Michael was with Em and I for our last WDW trip he couldn't figure out why I stopped every 40 feet down Main St. to get photopass photos done... uhhh... you can never have too many. Right?

Those were such sweet words for Nicki (and Todd) - how nice!

Can't wait for more....

 

[shan23877]

I'm so glad that you two had a great dinner at Emerils! Even though it's not Disney, I appreciate the hat effort. The Marge Simpson and banana hat are great.

Breakfast looks delish! We've only recently discovered the Poly for breakfast, but for the forseeable future we'll be at Ohana with Lilo and Stitch.

 

[shan23877]

Love the fall decorations at the MK. Just beautiful.

I've never seen PP there either! What fun. I love how the PP CD offers the borders based on the location. Great touches.

 

[amandaw]

What a nice date night at Emeril's! The food & service at his restaurants are just excellent!

I really, really want to try breakfast at Kona! It all looks so delicious! I wish I had that right now.

And for getting in some more MK time! During our trip, they had PP photographers at the sword, too. I'm thinking that may be a new permanent spot for them.

 

[WDisneyMom]

Great update! I hope you get to stay at Poly for your 30th anniversary! That would be so special to tie it into your Hawaii honeymoon.

I haven't met anyone in person from the Dis but many of the people I have come to know on here are wonderful...love this place. So glad you have made lifelong friends in Nicki and Todd

Emeril's looks amazing! I would love to try it sometime.

Patiently waiting for the next update!

 

[FreezinRafiki]

Ooooo....I like that one!

Then my husband had the brainy idea that we should ride Goofy's Barnstormer. I was okay with that until he decided we should sit in the same car together. Seriously, we are too old and "wide" for that. But we had a blast on the very short ride:

So you take a ton of kissy-kissy pictures all over the park, but refuse to snuggle up in a ride car?

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

After our delicious breakfast at Kona

Mmmm..Kona. Breakfast looked yummy. I'm a sucker for Disney french toast with the cinnamon sugar all over it.

The lovely crane can be seen from here:

At this point, you guys might as well treat it as a permanent addition to the park.

I mean he is turning 60 and shoudl be seen with beautiful, young princesses

Is that a rule or something? I'll have to run that one by my wife. On second thought, maybe not.

We walked through the castle and it was empty so I finally got some pictures of the mosaic tiles without people walking in front of me:

Very nice!

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Ahhhh! Left us hanging!!!!
The photos of you and Mark at Emerils were very nice.

 

[FreezinRafiki]

I have to say this was THE longest wait we had for a bus the entire trip....we waited over 30 minutes for a bus to take us to the Dolphin (I have to say if we were ever to stay at the Dolphin, which we won't, we'd be driving our own car).

I'm not a marine biologist, but I play one on TV. I've never seen a dolphin that looks like whatever they have on top of that hotel. Which is why they are referred to as the "Swan and Carp" hotels.

We then went to take showers for our dinner this evening. We would be doing the unthinkable. We were driving to another land.

We love Emeril's and hadn't been in years (I think the last time was 2004 when we took Andy and his then girlfriend for his high school graduation).

Oh. Well. OK. As long as you'd buy park admission or anything.

Mark's dessert, Emeril's infamous Banana Cream Pie...and yes he ate the whole thing:

OK, maybe I'll have to try Emeril's one of these trips.

He's a keeper, Kathy.

 

[marvali]

Once at the Dolphin, we walked around and took a peek (we hadn't been there since it first opened)

Glad you got this done so you are familiar with it when the time comes to meet Nicki and Todd! Not much of a surprise can happen if everyone doesn't know where to be to pull it off.

For some reason I just really like this picture!

Mark took a call from work:

So not cool to have to take a call from work when you are away and trying to relax and escape such things........

We then went to take showers for our dinner this evening. We would be doing the unthinkable.

We were driving to another land.

Whew, that's a relief........

(Yes, I hate that entire dish of calamari ALL by myself; Mark has gotten sick the last two times he ate calamari so he was a little leery of having any).

After getting sick twice, you would think Mark would HATE it too............

Mark's dessert, Emeril's infamous Banana Cream Pie...and yes he ate the whole thing

Both of these looks wonderful! Guess I have another restaurant to add to the must-do list!!!

Our waiter graciously took a couple of photos for us (ignore the look of pain on Mark's face...the pictures were taken right after I banged his knee with my chair as I scooted closer to him

Poor Mark, doesn't he already have to suffer enough???

Hey, that's not Dumbo!!!

Uh, you have a choice here and still end up with the proverbial animal butt shot???

(Yes Kathy, I'm talking about the giraffe........)

Another classic!

and when I returned to the room to get the rest of our stuff, I saw this on the door:

I always HATE this sight.............

We left the OKW resort and headed here (sorry, it's a blurry picture)

Obviously NOT borrowed from the internet...............

Once we parked the car, we headed inside:

Nice one!!!

It was soon 7:30 and we were being seated here:

Love Kona for dinner.........need to go back for breakfast and try something different. I love bananas, but I was not a huge fan of Tonga Toast........

Mark got the Big Kahuna this time:

Maybe this.......... I want to try those pancakes!!! But I hate the last time we were there they had changed the sausage links to something that tastes cheap and high on fillers.......

Really enjoyed this party last year, and especially the parade!

Great pic!!!

I had hoped to talk Mark into getting some princess pictures taken, but he wasn't "feeling it" (I think he's been hanging with Todd too much). So I let it go, but plan to make him do it next month...I mean he is turning 60 and shoudl be seen with beautiful, young princesses (and although I may be beautiful, I'm certainly not young...... and NO COMMENTS FROM YOU MARV!).

Seriously, we probably should have just stayed in the room.

The verandah is risque enough, but right in the middle of Main Street USA is pushing it a little, don't you think???

We stopped again a little further down:

All that smootchin'..........about time you finally stopped!!!!

We were really in no hurry to get to any particular attraction and as we were walking through Fantasyland deciding where we wanted to go first an opportunity presented itself that we could not pass up and which gave us the name of the Trip Report.

I'm guessing you ran into, as Archie Campbell would say in his rendition of RinderCella, the two Sigly Usters........

I haven't met anyone in person from the Dis but many of the people I have come to know on here are wonderful...love this place. So glad you have made lifelong friends in Nicki and Todd

Wow, you are in Chicago and haven't met the infamous Ms. Kat??? You need to rectify that soon! What a wonderful first DISmeet that would be for you! I have met a few DISers, but I am so looking forward to one day meeting Kathy..........well, her husband Mark really, but Kathy nonetheless.................

 

[Pluto0809]

Oh, Emerils looks really good. Athough with how picky I am I'd probably have a hard time finding something I would eat!

The Miniature golf course looks really fun. We missed the opening by a few months when we were there in January.

I get my picture taken with that Pluto statue every trip!

Bummer for departure day but a least you got to go back to MK one more time!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I'm not a marine biologist, but I play one on TV. I've never seen a dolphin that looks like whatever they have on top of that hotel. Which is why they are referred to as the "Swan and Carp" hotels.

It's a Dolphin fish (AKA Mahi Mahi) not the porpoise Dolphin.

 

[afwdwfan]

Poor Mark my you know what! He was probably hoping to lose me for awhile so I'd stopping hounding him fo rpictures.

He seems pretty happy. Or are you saying he's a good actor?

I am happy about Starbucks, but it is NOT replacing the Bakery.

Yes, I've seen that since my original post. Their announcement could have been worded a little bit better. I'm fine with the idea of them serving Starbucks in the bakery, I just didn't like the idea of Starbucks pastries replacing the good stuff.

From there, we drove to STARBUCKS. I had not had any since the day we arrived very early in the morning and I was now needing my fix.

Surprise... were you starting to get the shakes from withdrawal?

Those Kona breakfast pictures are making me hungry. I love some good french toast.

The pictures taken from the boat on the way to MK really got me excited about our upcoming trip. I love that part where you're not quite in the park yet, but get to take in all the sights as you approach.

Nice cliffhanger.