I can't tell if we've landed...Spring Break 2018 with Grammy and the teens-UPDATE 9/30

[buzzrelly]

MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2018
LET THE WONDER TAKE HOLD

We took our first trip through space,


and were done by 9:19…



We found a familiar face waiting for us in the gift shop


Allie was sad that we didn't wait for her so we had to go on a second time…


Grammy was still back at BLT getting ready, so we just wandered out of Tomorrowland,




and hit up the Purple Wall on the way. I'm such a dummy-they had just painted the new triangles just out of the shot of the picture but I thought they were always there and had just never noticed them, so I purposely cut them out. I found out when I got home that that's all part of the "New purple wall." Sigh…I am so uncool, I just can't keep up




After our purple wall fail, we decided to do something none of us had ever done, the teacups.


From our spinning teacups we went to take a ride in a doom buggie…



And by then, Nicholas was ready for a snack so we headed to Gaston's Tavern for a LeFou's Brew…


Continued in next post...


​

 

[buzzrelly]

APRIL 9, 2018
FEEL IT DRAW YOU IN



Nicholas enjoyed his LeFou's brew, but he thought it was going to taste more like Universal's Butter Beer, which he claims he likes better.



We were still waiting for Grammy…would she EVER get here?


While walking through Liberty Square The Muppets, Great Moments in American History was just starting. I have never seen the whole show from start to finish so we sat and watched while Nicholas finished his drink.







(Edited to add in these video clips)

After the show, we headed to our first Fastpass of the day…any guesses? Here's your hint…


If you guessed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, you'd be correct


But first, we had to stop and oooohhhh and ahhhhh over some cute baby ducks who made Splash Mountain their home





And THEN it was time for the wildest ride in the wilderness…



It actually worked out good because Grammy had been texting that she was on her way, but she won't go on BTMR anyway, so she was heading here and would probably make it by the time we got off.

Continued in next post...

​

 

[chunkymonkey]

I'm here!! Excited to follow along!

The salon was really busy but they took my number to text when they'd be ready and mom and I headed to Macy's where I got the most perfect Northface wind-breaker. They texted shortly after that and we headed back for our pedicures. The two ladies were directing us where to go, there were two seats right next to each other. So I was kind of putting my stuff down and getting ready to sit when I see Mom going to the chair next to me and instead of putting her butt down in the chair, she was kind of lowering herself into the bucket of water where your feet go. I swear, it was like watching in slow motion and before I could even get the, "What the heck are you doing???" words out of my mouth, you guessed it…she had fallen in The two nail ladies helped her up and OUT of the bucket but she was soaked! The lady getting a pedicure on the other side of my mom, while very sweet and asking if she was okay, could NOT stop laughing. And I could not stop laughing. The whole thing was completely ridiculous and even now writing this, I have a serious case of the giggles

OMG your poor mom!! But it is too funny...you are right, I am laughing picturing this. I feel bad though! Did your mom think it was funny or was she embarrassed?

We got through security very quickly, thanks to my TSA-precheck…I guess because I have it, everyone got it. It's really the greatest thing ever

Love pre-check!

Also, one more task I needed to attend to was that during our cruise, mom and I went to the DVC reception and signed up to talk to someone from DVC so we could get an extra 3 fastpasses. Before we headed up to our room, I went and inquired about this at the DVC desk. The guy was super nice and asked if we get 3 fastpasses, or 3 fastpasses/day for 3 days. I was like, "Sure! That'll work too!" and that's what he gave us. Nothing wrong with a little fastpass pixie dust to start out your vacation

I think this is awesome! I wonder how this works if you aren't going to the parks right after the cruise?

Coming from the tiny room on the cruise, it was so nice to be able to spread out in our 1-bedroom…

That looks amazing!

Ah, one of my very favorite pics from this trip. Can't you just feel the bliss and joy coming right up off the computer from them? They really ought to be featured in a WDW commercial, Amiright?!

Hahaha, too funny!

I used to LOVE Pizza Planet and had been dying to try this place last October but it just wasn't in the stars then.

The verdict? Sadly, we should have gone back to Rosie's The pizza wasn't as good as I remember from PP, and the salad was just kind of icky…the croutons were stale and there was hardly any dressing. Just a disappointing meal all around and I will not be returning here anytime soon.

I used to LOVE Pizza planet too! They should have left it or moved it over to Toy Story land. Boo. Your pizzas look ok though, did they not taste as good as they looked?

I kind of LOVE the theming of this ride, though I'm not a fan of drops. When Nicholas was 4, he went on this with his dad while I stayed and rocked Allie who had fallen asleep in her stroller. Once he got off, he was so excited and wanted to go again and said, "it's not scary mommy." Well, I thought, if a four year old isn't scared then it can't be too bad, right? WRONG! I was petrified and hated the whole thing! I was really nervous that Nicholas was so little and I kept thinking he was going to fly up and out of his seatbelt, there was just no way I could appreciate it.

Throughout the years, Nicholas loved it more and more, and eventually Allie loved it too. DM and I would sit near the gift shop and wait for them to get off. But as I got older and more into learning more about the parks and rides, I started toying with the idea of trying TOT again. Eventually, in 2015 I got back on and I LOVED it! I still don't love the dropping part so much, but I love everything else about it, though I have to have a death grip on my little seat handles

Haha that's like me, petrified of falling. You can't get me to go on that ride although I may do the queue.

We poked around the stores in DS. I purchased my dated Christmas ornament in the Christmas shop, we got some chocolate covered rice krispy treats in Goofy's and I picked up some piggy soap for Allison's stocking while we were in Basin. I was eyeing the Dooney bags but I didn't end up getting one this trip. I have a few already, and while I LOVE the way they look, they are quite heavy to carry around so I never end up carrying them. I like the smaller one that I have, but it's just a hair too short for my wallet to fit in so I have to take everything out of my wallet and put it in loose….sigh. I'm sure I'll get another one someday when I come across one I just can't resist. But for now I'll just enjoy the ones I have.

Same here! I love the way they look and the cute designs but they are either to small or too heavy for me, so I don't want to get anymore unless there's some fabulous pattern I can't live without, LOL.

bviously, we were excited to get there so we took the fastest way possible…

How nice to be staying at the closest resort to MK!!!

 

[wdwnut61]

I’m with you I really miss the old HS and even older MGM
Trying to be positive as we do love SW
Great selfies with your son
I love the walking path to MK if I could afford it we’d stay at CR every trip

 

[buzzrelly]

I'm here!! Excited to follow along!

Did your mom think it was funny or was she embarrassed?

Oh, she was embarrassed, but she thought it was funny too! And she's done stuff like this before…though not THIS astonishing

I think this is awesome! I wonder how this works if you aren't going to the parks right after the cruise?

I know, I should have asked how long after the cruise the fastpasses are good for! When I go in October with Mike I'll ask, since we are doing the parks before that cruise.

Your pizzas look ok though, did they not taste as good as they looked?

I don't know…maybe they're the same but I'm bitter about it not being Pizza Planet anymore? Like, maybe the fact that I LOVE Toy Story so much made them actually taste better?! Either way, I'm not returning

Haha that's like me, petrified of falling. You can't get me to go on that ride although I may do the queue.

I have a huge fear of falling too! I'll give you the one secret that REALLY made me get on TOT, and it may make no difference to you, but it made ALL the difference to me. You are NOT actually falling, you're being PULLED by a huge, mechanical arm. Just knowing that set my mind at ease somehow and allowed me to try it the first time

Great selfies with your son

Thank you…extremely rare footage

I love the walking path to MK if I could afford it we’d stay at CR every trip

I love both The CR/BLT and The Poly equally, but that walking path definitely gives the edge to The CR

 

[buzzrelly]

APRIL 9, 2018
WATCH THE MOMENT UNFOLD


BTMR was awesome, as usual. And Grammy had finally gotten here…a full two hours after us. I purposely made our BTMR and Splash Mtn fastpasses back to back, but because we had gotten to BTMR at the beginning of our FP window, we had some time to kill before our next one. Hmmmm….how to kill some time in the MK??

No big surprise here, right?

Grammy and Allie decided to sit and relax with B'rer Fox and B'rer Bear, while we waited for our FP window.




When it was finally time, Grammy got ready to NOT get wet…I usually don a poncho too, but since my hair was already curly and it was warm out, I didn't really care about getting a little wet.



We're off!



We never get our poses right



Nicholas got the worst of it, but he didn't seem to mind


Edited to add this in for anyone who needs a Splash Mountain fix I keep forgetting I have these videos! Also, you can hear the kids talking about how they feel bad because we ran over a baby duck in our Splash Mountain boat. I didn't see it, but in the first video, the mama is standing on the side…they said she was upset because her baby was just run over

Afterwards, we headed out of Frontierland, and into Adventureland so I could take my picture in front of a garbage can…I don't know why, but I seem to do that a lot. If I think of it later, I'm going to make a montage of all those pictures



Our last scheduled FP was for The Jungle Cruise...




Continued in next post…

​

 

[buzzrelly]

And now, a quick detour from this trip report to just a few of my favorite poses with garbage cans









I'm sure there are more but these were the easy ones to find

​

 

[buzzrelly]

And now, back to the Trip Report…


APRIL 9, 2018
SPARK A DREAM THAT WE'RE MEANT TO FOLLOW



After our return from the Jungle Cruise, the Magical Carpets line was only 15 minutes. In multiple trips, we have never, ever gone on these, but we decided, what the heck?



It was cute, but not as fun as Dumbo. I guess there's a reason we never felt compelled to go on, and I don't know that I'd ever need to go on again.


From there, we decided to use one of our cruise fastpasses...



I know a lot of people don't like the new scene. Personally, I don't mind it. I actually don't care one way or another all that much, I still really enjoy POTC



We made our way out of Adventureland and moseyed back to Frontierland. This has always been one of Nicholas' favorite things to do in the MK...




…starting when he was barely tall enough to rest his arms on the counter.


We made the mistake one year of purchasing him a fake rifle in the gift shop…I think they have since stopped selling guns altogether…but we had the HARDEST time figuring out how to get it home because we didn't realize we couldn't take it on the plane. We ended up having to purchase a separate box and shipping it separately, which was kind of a pain and almost doubled the cost of the souvenier


Anyway, we made our way over to Grammy's favorite ride...

Who am I kidding? We all love this

We had a little time to kill before lunch, so we headed over to Buzz, where I can't remember if we used one of our fancy fastpasses, or waited in stand-by. I think we did stand-by because I feel like we used our fastpasses later that night. Sorry….I always think about taking notes for my TR, and never do

Again, the kids couldn't contain their enthusiasm for this ride







None of us were Galactic Heros, which kind of annoys me because I actually googled how to do that before we left, and I STILL couldn't figure it out!

As we had done on past trips, we made a 2:30pm reservation at one of our favorite restaurants in the MK, so that's where we were headed after Buzz.


Where could we be going???​

 

[DLo]

Love the trash can photos .

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love your selfies with your son, isn’t nice when they want to be with their mom!

Glad Grammy finally moseyed on over to MK

Looks like a fun morning so far, I’m guessing LTT for lunch??

 

[buzzrelly]

Love the trash can photos .

Ha! I guess with my WDW goggles on, even garbage cans make good photo ops!

I love your selfies with your son, isn’t nice when they want to be with their mom!

Yes, it is…and it's more and more rare these days!

I’m guessing LTT for lunch??

No, but good guess! At this point in the trip I had never been to LTT…gives you kind of a clue for another day though

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Signing up!

 

[buzzrelly]

APRIL 9, 2018
EVERY CHOICE WE MAKE HELPS US FIND OUR OWN WAY


I left off with us heading our of Tomorrowland and to lunch at one of our favorite places. This may not come as a surprise to anyone who's ever read any of my trip reports…



We love Tony's, even though they get lambasted here. When choosing our ADRs for this trip, I asked everyone if they'd rather go to Tony's or Be Our Guest…the overwhelming response (well, from Allie and Grammy…Nicholas can't be bothered with planning details ) was Tony's!

We checked in and were seated about 10 minutes later. If you watch the DisDining show, you know that they recently got a new menu and a new chef here, though we've been coming here each trip since 2010 and have always liked it. Here's the new menu...



Allie was happy they still had her Pomegranate Lemonade...




Grammy and I split the House salad, which was delicious. Everything was nice and fresh and I was happy it wasn't just iceberg lettuce.



Allie ordered the Margherita Pizza,



and Grammy and I ordered the Ravioli, to share...


I don't remember what Nicholas had, because he was getting annoyed with me taking food pictures and probably didn't let me

But we all REALLY loved our meals. My raviolis were so delicious and the pasta tasted very fresh. The sauce was kind of a light, blush sauce and the little julienned veggies on top seemed weird to me at first, but tasted delicious with the raviolis. My ONLY complaint about my meal is that it wasn't a very large portion. I had originally ordered the raviolis thinking Grammy and I could share, but I didn't realize we would only get three We ended up splitting them and then we each had a little of Allie's pizza, so it ended up working out, but in the future I would just get my own and hog them all to myself

We paid and stepped out of the restaurant at 3:25, just in time for the Festival of Fantasy Parade. Perfect timing, and why I always make a 2:30 reservation








Aw, I guess we won't be seeing this anymore. I'm going to miss her




During lunch, we had decided we would go back to BLT for an afternoon break, so as soon as the parade finished, we headed out of the MK.

Don't worry, we'll be back after our afternoon siesta!

​

 

[buzzrelly]

Signing up!

 

[wdwnut61]

First off gurl you can rock a trash can

Great suggestion about the timing of lunch at Tony’s
We eaten there before with the parade package but I love the idea of watching from the porch

 

[disneyAndi14]

Your food looks good, I do remember your last report and you did go to Tony’s. We went once and really enjoyed our food. We had the Calamari and shared the flat bread.

Good idea to plan the meal around FoF parade. Is the dragon out of commission now?

 

[ariane37]

Sigh…I am so uncool, I just can't keep up

I'm right there with you! Since I hate selfies and don't really understand Instagram much to my kids embarrassment, I don't pay much attention to the whole "instagram wall" thing at Disney. So I know about the purple wall but still have no idea what the triangles you speak of are lol

lso, you can hear the kids talking about how they feel bad because we ran over a baby duck in our Splash Mountain boat.

OMG I would feel horrible and not enjoy the rest of the ride! Steve wouldn't care................

This has always been one of Nicholas' favorite things to do in the MK...

My boys love this, especially Chris!

…starting when he was barely tall enough to rest his arms on the counter.

Adorable

Where could we be going???

Well before I continued I was going to guess the Plaza because since my memory is shot I'd forgotten your love for Tony's..............

Here's the new menu...

You know the menu looks totally like something my family would enjoy. Last time we ate there was 2014 and while it wasn't inedible we didn't love it. Steve mentions returning there every once in awhile and I always veto it. Part of me WANTS to give it another try and then part of me is afraid I'll regret it and there are so many places we love to eat. Do I want to chance it??? Your ravioli's do look good though!

 

[buzzrelly]

First off gurl you can rock a trash can

This made me LOL! Something for my tombstone!

We eaten there before with the parade package but I love the idea of watching from the porch

That parade package worries me…I just want to keep doing what we've always done. I hope they don't make it so that you HAVE to have a package for lunch…in other words, more $$$$

Is the dragon out of commission now?

I would think so…

This happened shortly after our trip...








Sad dragon


I'd be surprised if she makes her way back to the Festival of Fantasy.

So I know about the purple wall but still have no idea what the triangles you speak of are lol

WDW found out how people love these walls, so they are getting in on it and (of course) trying to cash in on it They repainted part of the wall right before we got there…




But me, being clueless and not guessing this was the next big thing, didn't get it in our pictures. It's a stupid thing, but right when we got back all the blogs were blowing up with…"WDW has a NEW PURPLE WALL!!" And everyone was so excited. I was like, "Oh, I saw that and cut it out of my pictures." I guess I'll never be a Blogger/Vlogger

OMG I would feel horrible and not enjoy the rest of the ride! Steve wouldn't care................

I was glad I didn't see it, but the kids were really upset

I was going to guess the Plaza because since my memory is shot I'd forgotten your love for Tony's..............

We love The Plaza too

You know the menu looks totally like something my family would enjoy. Last time we ate there was 2014 and while it wasn't inedible we didn't love it. Steve mentions returning there every once in awhile and I always veto it. Part of me WANTS to give it another try and then part of me is afraid I'll regret it and there are so many places we love to eat. Do I want to chance it??? Your ravioli's do look good though!

I say give it a chance! Get the ravioli! The Dis just did a new dining review and while some of them still hated it, Pete actually really liked it and he used to HATE it. My problem is that I don't think there ARE that many great TS in the MK. We love The Plaza, and you'll see soon that we just tried LTT for the first time and while we all liked it, we only ate there because Allie wasn't with us and she would have hated it…and have had to pay the same amount so we just don't go there. We ate at BOG a couple times and found it WAY too salty, and the only other TS is Skipper's Canteen …to be fair, we just wouldn't try it because the menu looks gross to us.

I'm sure it's nowhere near as good as Il Mulino, but I would put it as about the same as Mama Melrose. I am trying to convince you because I want you to try it, but I don't want you to hate me if you still hate it

 

[buzzrelly]

APRIL 9, 2018
IT'S JUST BEGINNING, FEEL YOUR HEART BEAT FASTER


After our delicious lunch at Tony's we went back to BLT to rest and headed back to the MK around 6:30 pm.




And because we hadn't gotten many MK entrance pictures that morning, we did some now.




I was trying for one of those nice balloon pictures, but it didn't work out so great…foiled by a scrim!












The kids were hungry and stopped for hotdogs at Casey's. I have no recollection of myself or Grammy having dinner, but I'm guessing I might have had a snack or something at our room. Either that, or we were still stuffed from our 1.5 raviolis from earlier Orrrrrrr…we were saving room for something special later…hint, hint





We just mainly stayed around the hub taking photos, because at 7:45, we had somewhere to be...​

 

[buzzrelly]

APRIL 9, 2018
REACH OUT AND FIND YOUR HAPPILY EVER AFTER


If you were wondering where I was going with the titles this day, wonder no more! I stole the lyrics from Happily Ever After because this whole day, that's what were were heading…



We checked in right at 7:45pm, but they must have started letting people in earlier than that because we were seated way at the bottom of the Terrace, as far away from the desserts as you can get. So, I'm sorry, but I didn't take any pictures of the offerings, but here's a little sample of what they had...



The desserts were yummy, but the main reason I booked this was because my mom and the kids hadn't seen HEA yet, and I wanted them to have a good vantage point for viewing. We booked the dessert party with the plaza garden view, but I think next time I would book it with the Terrace viewing, just so my mom could sit. Once we got to the garden, the kids and I sat on the ground but that would have been too difficult for my mom so she ended up standing the whole time.

This picture is kind of grainy, but you can see we had plenty of space around us…



Waiting for the show to start…


And finally, Happily Ever After...















We all loved this and there is nothing like seeing it from this angle. We were able to see it from our room the rest of the week, which is nice, but definitely loses some of the magic that way.

After the show, Grammy decided she was tired and wanted to head back to the room. But the kids and I still had a couple of our extra fastpasses and we wanted to use them so we staying at the MK a bit longer…


What would we use them on? You'll have to wait and see...​