I think I gained 5 pounds at the Food & Wine Festival - An Oct 2012 TR **NEW 3/18**

[jenny105]

Day 3  10/2/2012

We awoke bright and early the next morning and headed (by car!) to DHS. We got there around 9:45 and the first thing I did was stop at guest relations. Being a TA has great perks  one of them being that I can get two free 2 day hopper plus water park tickets each year. So we stopped at guest relations to pick them up (we were going to need them later in the trip) and continued on our way to Toy Story Mania.

The line was already 60 minutes so we picked up our FPs for a 12:45-1:45 return time. We hadnt eaten anything yet but nothing was open in the immediate area so we decided we could wait until 11 when Pizza Planet opened. What to do in the meantime? Kris had the answer.

Backlot Tour.

Those of you who have known me through DIS for awhile know that I love the backlot tour. I hope youre catching the sarcasm because Im laying it on pretty thick. I think the backlot tour is a giant time suck and should be avoided at all costs. But Kris loves it so on it we went.

Earful Tower

I wish this plane wasnt retired. How awesome would it be to fly in it?

The exit opens up to a big studio of villain costumes. I think thats my favorite part of the whole attraction.

It still wasnt 11 so we headed over to Muppets 3D next. I think this ride is outdated in comparison to the other 3 (4?) D attractions but its still super cute. I hope they update it since the Muppets movie this past year did so well.

Fozzie's got a big old butt.

Kris was a little cranky due to his empty belly at this point so after the Muppets we headed straight for Pizza Planet. I think this is the only counter service Ive ever tried at DHS and I have no plans to go anywhere else. I love it there! I know a lot of people hate Disney pizza and being from NJ (we have GOOD PIZZA!) you think I would but I dont mind it. I scarf it down!

Kris looks like hes feeling better now!

We managed to get in a game of air hockey after lunch. I dont remember the score but Im pretty sure I won. I remember Kris knocking the puck into his own goal a lot LOL.

After filling our tummies with yummy pizza we made our way over to Star Tours. The ride was closed for refurb in 2010 so Kris had never been on it and I hadnt been post-refurb. I love how they updated everything! I especially loved the story they worked into it about a rebel being on board. The shots they show of the rebel are great. We had a lot of fun of that ride! When we walked into the gift shop Kris wanted to get one of those pictures taken where they take the picture of your face & put it on the characters body. We did a couple with Luke & Leia and Leia & Hans Solo. They came out cute but there was only one person working the register and the lady in front of us was taking FOREVER. She ordered everything they offered, it was ridiculous! I think she spent something like $200! After waiting 15 minutes for her to be done we just said forget it and walked away. Oh well!

Then came another attraction I dont particularly care for  American Idol The Experience. Ryan Seacrest makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I cant stand him. The show was just about to start and they were waving people in so we decided to go. We still had time to kill before our TSM FP time. I dont remember much about the contestants except the rocker guy we voted for. He ended up winning that show. I think his name was Bill. Go Bill! I wonder if he won for the day.

By the time the show ended it was time for our TSM time. On the way I saw an old friend.

Ohai Walt!

We hopped in the FP line and only waited 5-10 minutes to board.

I didnt win but I think I held my own. And I had better accuracy!

TSM is so fun! I am constantly laughing on that ride. I wish the wait times weren't always so crazy so we could've squeezed in another spin!

And with that Ill bring this chapter to a close. Stay tuned for the rest of our afternoon at DHS!

 

[Joyciemc]

I like Pizza Planet, too. And your meal sounded very familiar- the only time I've eaten there was when I was starving and waiting impatiently for it to open for lunch.

 

[princess_momma]

I think that should be a new thread all by itself: reasons Kimmy & Jen need to go to Disney World together. Maybe people will fund our trip.

Kris is the same way about birthdays! Oh man. There's another reason right there. Kris and Garret need to meet!

I wanted to meet Woody too because I wanted to ask him to lift up his boot. I'm curious to know whether or not it says Andy on it.

You've had ostrich meat? I like to try new things but I'm not sure I'm that adventurous!

Yes! We can ask people, "Please donate to the JK Fund. We're not kidding though, WE NEED TO GO."

I'm curious if it says Andy or not too!

I have had ostrich meat. It was sooooo good. Lol. I'm only adventurous with meat. But ostrich is the most adventurous.

I hope to find out if any of the drinks in the F&W festival were a reasonable deal or not. Usually it sounds like a ripoff for the amount you get. (Except maybe beer.)

That little boy with his toy guitar is adorable! How precious!

I think Kris is holding you in general because he's like "Pooh, don't take my hunny!"

I've heard good things recently about Angry Orchard. I may have to try them! I'm also a big fan of cider beers.

Oh Sugar Ray!! You did get pictures, how awesome that he ran right by you!

Man, you like beer so much and you got wine at Biergarten? I'm shocked! lol. Do you not like the beer there?

YAY for extra fireworks in Epcot! That sounds magical!

Extra YAY for DHS. You know I love that place. But I've never done the Backlot Tour. Probably because I won't get off of ToT!

I'm not picky about pizza. Via Napoli is probably my favorite ever though. (Or maybe pitchers of sangria just make it taste better ) I do love most forms, but you can just tell when it's steps above. I don't even know if I've ever had Disney pizza. CRAZY.

Isn't it the absolute worst to KNOW you would only take a minute or less at a register and you get behind the person who is going to take days?! AHHH pet peeve! How frustrating.

Glad you got in a ride on TSM! SO FUN! I am always laughing on that ride too. It's really just so perfect.

 

[jenny105]

Yes! We can ask people, "Please donate to the JK Fund. We're not kidding though, WE NEED TO GO."

I'm curious if it says Andy or not too!

I have had ostrich meat. It was sooooo good. Lol. I'm only adventurous with meat. But ostrich is the most adventurous.

I hope to find out if any of the drinks in the F&W festival were a reasonable deal or not. Usually it sounds like a ripoff for the amount you get. (Except maybe beer.)

That little boy with his toy guitar is adorable! How precious!

I think Kris is holding you in general because he's like "Pooh, don't take my hunny!"

I've heard good things recently about Angry Orchard. I may have to try them! I'm also a big fan of cider beers.

Oh Sugar Ray!! You did get pictures, how awesome that he ran right by you!

Man, you like beer so much and you got wine at Biergarten? I'm shocked! lol. Do you not like the beer there?

YAY for extra fireworks in Epcot! That sounds magical!

Extra YAY for DHS. You know I love that place. But I've never done the Backlot Tour. Probably because I won't get off of ToT!

I'm not picky about pizza. Via Napoli is probably my favorite ever though. (Or maybe pitchers of sangria just make it taste better ) I do love most forms, but you can just tell when it's steps above. I don't even know if I've ever had Disney pizza. CRAZY.

Isn't it the absolute worst to KNOW you would only take a minute or less at a register and you get behind the person who is going to take days?! AHHH pet peeve! How frustrating.

Glad you got in a ride on TSM! SO FUN! I am always laughing on that ride too. It's really just so perfect.

Hmmm. Now that Sandy happened I don't think people would be quite so generous.

My co-worker went to Arizona last year and tried rattlesnake meat. Ew. I thought I was brave for trying haggis.

The beer at F&W is reasonable. The mixed drinks are not. You pay $8 and get something that's a little bigger than a shot glass. It's ridiculous.

I don't like german or oktoberfest beers and that's all Biergarten has! It's something about the after taste. Too bitter. That and I can't pronounce any of them and just end up pointing at the menu so I don't embarrass myself.

I don't know how you get anything else accomplished at DHS. It seems like you're always on ToT!

I like Pizza Planet, too. And your meal sounded very familiar- the only time I've eaten there was when I was starving and waiting impatiently for it to open for lunch.

We always eat at Pizza Planet. They give ya a lot of food and it's pretty good! Plus it's Toy Story themed!

 

[jenny105]

When I last left you Kris had just schooled me on Toy Story Mania. Next we headed over to One Man’s Dream. I love walking through that exhibit and learning about everything Walt achieved. Of course there was a section for the New Fantasyland.

We probably won’t end up going back to Disney until everything is complete. I’m most excited for the Mine Coaster and that won’t be open until 2014 so I’ll wait until that’s open to go back. That way we have a whole new land to explore!

We skipped the video because I’d seen it before and Kris didn’t seem too interested. Then we headed over to the Animation Academy. We skipped this entirely on our last trip and I really wanted draw something! We were one of the first people lined up and ended up waiting about 20 minutes for the class to start.

The instructor gave us a few options and we decided on Grumpy. I think we did ok!

We also stopped at the ‘Which Character Are You?’ kiosks while we were there. I got Cinderella and Kris got Aladdin.

We were a little hungry at this point because we had eaten lunch so early. We didn’t want anything big because we had a dinner ADR coming up so we just wanted snack. I mentioned the enormous cupcakes at Starring Rolls and Kris enthusiastically agreed. We got the last chocolate and peanut butter cupcake in the place. YUM!

We grabbed a table outside and as we started eating we noticed it was starting to rain. Luckily our table was covered by an umbrella. After the rain let up we headed in the direction of RnRC and ToT. We decided to FP whichever line was longer and wait for the other one. RnRC was the FP winner with a 60 minute wait Our RnRC FP return time was 3:40-4:40 so we had a little over an hour to kill. ToT only had a 20 minute wait so we got in line. The wait was only about 10 minutes. We walked right into the video room and only had to wait in the boiler room.

It told me to tell you hello Kimmy. ToT misses you.

I love ToT! It’s one of my favorite rides of all time. I love the theming, the ride itself, and the anticipation of the drops. You never know how far you’re going to fall. You’re supposed to look scared on that ride but I always have a big grin on my face. I’m glad we got the better version of the two. Disneyland’s doesn’t come close to match the awesomeness of the DHS version.

Since we had a little time to kill before RnRC we walked around the nearby gift shops for a bit, took a view Photopass pictures (I got the CD, I’ll post them at the end of the TR. I have yet to upload them), and decided to sit down & slurp down some margaritas to kill the rest of the time. By the time we were finished it was 3:45. Time for RnRC!

RnRC was down during our last trip so we never got to ride it. Kris had never been on it and he thought it was fun. Until he realized he’d lost his phone on the ride! We double back through the exit and luckily it had just fallen out of his pocket into the seat. Good thing it didn’t fall out of the car entirely! I’m glad we found his phone or he would’ve been miserable to deal with the rest of the week! Thank you RnRC CM!

We had about 90 minutes or so to kill before our ADR so we checked the times guide. Lights Motor Action was starting at 4:30 so we hightailed it over there. As we were getting close the sky just opened up and it started downpouring! It continued throughout the entire show.

I’ve seen the show a couple of times and once you’ve seen it & know all the tricks, it’s a little boring. I really only wanted to see it because they added Lightning McQueen. Kris was more interested in it since he’s a mechanic and loves cars so he enjoyed it.

They had to stop the show at one point because one of the drivers fell off his motorcycle behind the stage. It was raining that hard. It’s difficult enough to perform in this show on a daily basis. I can’t imagine doing those stunts in the rain!

By the time the show was over we still had about 30 minutes before our ADR but we decided to show up early because it was STILL raining. Anything to get out of that rain! Where was dinner you ask? 50s Prime Time Café! Their fried chicken is so good! We showed up about 20 minutes early and were told to wait in the living room until we were called. We waited about 15 minutes before we were shown to our table. I forget the name of our server but he was great and introduced himself as our cousin. At one point when he was walking by he told Kris to get his elbows off the table! Another server made a long stick out of straws and hid behind a wall & poked people on the other side. Gotta love this place! Unless you don’t like being messed with. Then I wouldn’t recommend it LOL.

We both ordered chocolate milkshakes, split an order of onion rings, and I had chicken noodle soup and the fried chicken (of course!). Kris had Mom’s Favorites which is fried chicken, pot roast, and meatloaf and the brownie sundae for dessert. I was too stuffed for dessert so I asked him if the milkshake could count toward as dessert. It did!

During dinner we debated whether or not we wanted to see Fantasmic. I’m not a huge fan but Kris had never seen it. He decided he didn’t want to see it and we said goodbye to DHS. As we boarded the tram to take us to our car I noticed this sign. I love this show!

Of course the first thing we did when we got back to the hotel was change into our swimsuits and hit the hot tub! We both weren’t really feeling well and weren’t up to much. I had a sore throat since the first night we got there and it was developing into a full blown cold & Kris’s throat was starting to feel scratchy. We stopped at Zawadi Marketplace and stocked up on cold medicine and cough drops, took showers, and crawled into bed. I think it was 8PM at this point! We watched an episode of Lost on Kris’s computer (Netflix, gotta love it) and fell right to sleep hoping we’d feel better in the morning. What does day 4 have in store for us?

Stay tuned…

 

[khertz]

Yay for the animation class! I have to say, that is the one thing I have really missed doing since DS came along. I can skip the roller coasters just fine, but I really really miss those classes. They are so fun! Great Grumpy drawings too. That is one we have never done.

ToT, yes, WAAAAY better in WDW than DL!!!

Oh, no, hope that is not some foreshadowing of y'all being sick the rest of the trip!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

mmm fried chicken...we need to get there and try this place out.

i had thought that the fantasyland expansion was suppose to have a tinkerbelle area? i wonder when they took that away from the original plans? i noticed on our trip they were doing work on the old sky way station by small world. wonder if it will be there?

 

[Taya]

Don"t even worry! I felt such the same way it was terrible! My mom took me and I ate and ate I grew about 6 pounts! Gosh it was terrible!! But I dropped it quick by swimming in my inside pool about 6 hours each day but it took a few days! -lol

 

[Joyciemc]

Awesome day at DHS! Even with the rain, sounds like you guys had a great time.

 

[klacey1]

LOVE One Man's Dream! That map of the new Fantasyland is sooo cool to see-- I wish they would finish the Mine Train coaster before 2014, though!

I completely agree with you on DCA's TOT vs DHS's! It's great in both places, but has much more of a story in DHS.

Thank god Kris's phone only fell in the RNRC car! If only we were so lucky with Zach's glasses in 2011!

 

[Imagineer5]

Oh no, I hope you felt better!! Smart of you to turn in early though. DHS day sounds like so much fun! We totally skipped the backlot tour (thank goodness) but did everything else. Loved one man's dream. One thing I absolutely love doing is hte animation academy, and we won't be doing that with Aria for quite some time I guess. Boo.

Nice day though!! Also, so happy to hear you guys fared okay with the storm, minus all the power outages. nice you were able to visit with family though since work was closed.

Looking forward to more!

 

[raraavis]

i got cinderella too!! but my fiance got captain hook....hmmm. not sure if those two characters go together! haha

we loved the animation class, but we were bummed that our character was naveen from princess and the frog (which neither of us have seen since we're not really into the princess movies). the next class had eeyore (my all time favorite character!!! but we had to miss it). i would have loved to have grumpy like you guys though; he's another of my favorites.

 

[jenny105]

i got cinderella too!! but my fiance got captain hook....hmmm. not sure if those two characters go together! haha

we loved the animation class, but we were bummed that our character was naveen from princess and the frog (which neither of us have seen since we're not really into the princess movies). the next class had eeyore (my all time favorite character!!! but we had to miss it). i would have loved to have grumpy like you guys though; he's another of my favorites.

Cinderella doesn't belong with Hook OR Aladdin. I think Jasmine might be ticked.

Naveen seems like a really random character. I've seen the movie but he's not a classic character. You would think they'd stick to characters who have been around awhile.

Oh no, I hope you felt better!! Smart of you to turn in early though. DHS day sounds like so much fun! We totally skipped the backlot tour (thank goodness) but did everything else. Loved one man's dream. One thing I absolutely love doing is hte animation academy, and we won't be doing that with Aria for quite some time I guess. Boo.

Nice day though!! Also, so happy to hear you guys fared okay with the storm, minus all the power outages. nice you were able to visit with family though since work was closed.

Looking forward to more!

I hope the backlot tour is gone by the time we go back. I've heard rumors they want to build a Cars Land in DHS so hopefully they'll use that area to make room for it. It's such a waste of space IMO.

Thanks! We were lucky with the storm. I feel horrible for all the people along the coast who lost everything.

LOVE One Man's Dream! That map of the new Fantasyland is sooo cool to see-- I wish they would finish the Mine Train coaster before 2014, though!

I completely agree with you on DCA's TOT vs DHS's! It's great in both places, but has much more of a story in DHS.

Thank god Kris's phone only fell in the RNRC car! If only we were so lucky with Zach's glasses in 2011!

Me too! I'm super excited for the Mine Train. I don't really have a whole lot of interest in the other things.

I was so happy we didn't lose Kris's phone. I would've been dealing with a miserable grump the rest of the week if we had.

Awesome day at DHS! Even with the rain, sounds like you guys had a great time.

It was fun! I've never had to deal with so much rain though. I felt like it was August not October.

Don"t even worry! I felt such the same way it was terrible! My mom took me and I ate and ate I grew about 6 pounts! Gosh it was terrible!! But I dropped it quick by swimming in my inside pool about 6 hours each day but it took a few days! -lol

In Disney there are no such things as calories

mmm fried chicken...we need to get there and try this place out.

i had thought that the fantasyland expansion was suppose to have a tinkerbelle area? i wonder when they took that away from the original plans? i noticed on our trip they were doing work on the old sky way station by small world. wonder if it will be there?

I have no idea. I think I heard something about a Tinkerbelle section but I wasn't all that excited about New Fantasyland so I didn't pay much attention to the details. I know they changed things around a lot from the original concept to make it more boy-friendly.

Yay for the animation class! I have to say, that is the one thing I have really missed doing since DS came along. I can skip the roller coasters just fine, but I really really miss those classes. They are so fun! Great Grumpy drawings too. That is one we have never done.

ToT, yes, WAAAAY better in WDW than DL!!!

Oh, no, hope that is not some foreshadowing of y'all being sick the rest of the trip!

The Animation Academy is one of the best attractions there. Many people don't know about it and it's worth doing. Free souvenir! Maybe I'll frame our Grumpies!

 

[Taya]

Hi meme

 

[Taya]

Awww!

 

[smile4stamps]

Your DHS day sounds like a lot of fun! I really wanted to do the Animation Academy and One Man's Dream but the crowds were just too much as we left the park pretty early!

Love that you took advantage of the hot tub! We didn't use it near as much as we had hopped but it wasn't for lack of my suggesting it!!

 

[jenny105]

Your DHS day sounds like a lot of fun! I really wanted to do the Animation Academy and One Man's Dream but the crowds were just too much as we left the park pretty early!

Love that you took advantage of the hot tub! We didn't use it near as much as we had hopped but it wasn't for lack of my suggesting it!!

Was it really crowded when you were there? I didn't think the crowds were so bad. I guess there really is no quiet time anymore at Disney! Not with all the promos.

The hot tub at AKL was my best friend lol.

 

[smile4stamps]

Was it really crowded when you were there? I didn't think the crowds were so bad. I guess there really is no quiet time anymore at Disney! Not with all the promos.

The hot tub at AKL was my best friend lol.

The crowds were weird when we were there. If we had been able to follow my plans they probably wouldn't have felt too bad but we were delayed at times and it threw things off. then we had to be at Epcot a few weekends and that was BAD!

 

[jenny105]

Day 4
Hi guys! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. On with the TR!

Since we turned in so early we woke up around 8:30. We still weren’t feeling 100% but we felt much better than we did the night before. Kris decided he wanted to look around the gift shops and get breakfast off property. He loves gift shops and he’d seen so many when we stopped for beer & wine before getting to the hotel that he was itching to go. He wanted to go to breakfast somewhere we didn’t have at home so we ended up at Shoney’s off all places. It wasn’t bad. Typical breakfast buffet and cheap too. After breakfast we looked around at some of the gift shops and quickly realized they all had the same merchandise. We did end up buying quite a few things from these stores later in the trip.

It was a little cloudy out but we decided to stick with our original plans for the day and head over to Blizzard Beach. Neither one of us had been there before so this was a first for us.

We rented a locker, stashed our stuff (including our camera sorry), and off we went! We started with the Purple Slope first and worked our way around the rest of the park. Our first slide was the Downhill Double Dipper followed by Snow Stormers. We skipped Toboggan Racers since it seems every waterpark has one of those. The Red Slope was up next which is home to Runoff Rapids. There are three slides – two open air and one enclosed. I believe we went on one of the open air slides in a double tube and then the enclosed separately. Next it was time to brave the Purple Slope – home of Summit Plummet! We jumped on the chair lift and decided to work our way up to SP so we hit Teamboat Springs first. Then we took the stairs and took a ride down Slush Gusher. Back to the chair lift for the final slide – Summit Plummet! I’m not going to lie. I was scared. I didn’t like sitting on the edge of the slide, looking over, and seeing nothing. It was like you just dropped off into the abyss. It was a rush but ouch that ride hurts! You’re going so fast and bumping the sides hard & you finish with the biggest wedgie ever LOL. Sorry if that’s TMI!

After we had done all the slides we hit the wave pool and took a ride around Castaway Creek before stopping for lunch. Kris and I had lunch at Avalunch, decided we didn’t want to do any of the slides again, and headed out.
Since Winter Summerland is right next door I challenged Kris to a game of mini-golf. He obliged, we picked the winter side, he won 44 to 50. Grrr. I did get a hole in one though so I'm proud of that. I’d been to Fantasia Gardens a few times before but never this one. Both courses are really cute! I can’t believe Disney puts so much detail even into their mini-golf courses!

My favorite of course LOL.

These guys were everywhere!

Up next a tour of the new Art of Animation Resort and dinner at Ohana!

Stay tuned…

 

[smile4stamps]

Sounds like a fun day! I used to love Water Parks as a kid but haven't been to one in many many years! Maybe someday! (I have lots of Maybe Somedays lol!)