DeterminedOne
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2004
Your Mom is a rock star! Love her tee-shirts and how she really gets into the rides.
It Really is a Whole New World...Mother Daughter May 2017 TR! (Updated 8/26!)
- Thread starter VAtink
- Start date
VAtink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2013
Post 14: Rivers of Light…and someone is ready for Pandora!
May 12th
As we were making our way over to Tiffins, my mom looked down and noticed that her legs were blue! Seriously, smurf blue. HA! Turns out the bags from the stores had bled on her legs while on the safari! She was NOT a fan of having blue legs, even though I kept telling her maybe they’d let us take a sneak peak at Pandora after seeing the effort she made to dye herself blue! Sadly, she did not find this amusing.
When we got to Tiffins they asked us if we would like to be seated right away or wait until our reservation, I said right away, but my mom said she wanted to be seated later. What???
Turns out the blue legs were really bothering her, and she didn’t want to eat dinner while looking part smurf. Could have mentioned that to me before we got to the check-in desk mom!
We agreed to be seated later at our actual reservation time and I gave them my cell phone # so they could text when our table was ready. We then made our way over to the bar to get some ice cold water since we were partially melted by that point. There were two seats at the end of the bar, perfect. I sat down, but my mom just stood there looking very upset. So I asked what was up, and she tells me she needs to go to the bathroom to wash the blue off. Ok, no big deal right? Well she didn’t want to go alone. Ugh.
So off we went to the bathroom. It ended up taking her about 15 minutes to remove all the blue, so we still had a bit of time afterwards before our reservation, so we headed back to the bar to try to get that ice water again.
Not surprising, the seats from before were gone, and the place was packed. They were doing the CM preview for Pandora that evening, so I guess it was a lot more crowded than they were expecting. We found a table though and sat down to wait for our drinks. It took a solid 20 minutes before a server even noticed we were there, but she was so apologetic and noted that they were very busy that night and understaffed. She took our drink orders then disappeared for another 20 minutes. Yikes.
By the time she came back with our water, it was already well past our reservation time. She was again apologetic and told me they hadn’t even gotten around to making my drink yet, but asked if there was anything else she could get for us. We said no, and mentioned that we were still waiting to be texted about our dinner reservations and it was well past our reservation time at that point. So she offered to go check on them for us. She came back a few minutes later to let us know that our table wasn’t ready yet, but good news, my drink was finally being made.
A few minutes later she swung by with the drink, and we asked for the check so we wouldn’t have to wait any longer once our table was ready.
Finally, about 40 minutes after our reservation, we got the text that our table was ready. We headed up front to be seated. We met with the hostess, and she started bringing us back to the lounge. What? So I said to her “I thought Tiffins was back that way?” and she tells me that people with the Rivers of Light dining package were being put in this room. Oh, we had wondered why we saw so many people being led through the lounge while we were waiting!
We entered the ROL package room, and oh my goodness, I suddenly understood why they were separating the ROL package people and the regular dining people! It was crazy back there, there were kids running around the room screaming with napkins over their heads, other kids were rolling on the floor, and it was just so loud and bright, it felt more like a quick service place than a signature dining restaurant!
Our last time eating at Tiffins was the complete opposite, which is why we fell in love with it. It was dark, calm and a great respite from the hustle and bustle of the park. This on the other hand was anything but calm. Oh well, at least they still had the same food!
We were seated at a booth along the back wall, and within seconds our waiter appeared. Much better service than in the lounge! He was awesome, and we had a great chat about the food here with him!
He explained how the ROL package would work, took our drink order, then left us to peruse the menu. We loved the grilled octopus, so decided to get that again, and my mom got the cheese board so we could share. I ended up getting the Wagyu beef again (loved it last time!) and my mom got the pork.
The appetizers came out very fast, and were just as good as we remembered!
Grilled Octopus, yum!
Cheese plate!
We had just finished eating those when our entrees appeared! We were surprised at how fast everything was coming out!
The beef was once again amazing. My mom really liked the pork as well, but said she preferred the lamb she had on our previous trip, which our waiter informed us was just removed from the menu that night and replaced with venison.
My beef wagyu, so good!
My mom and her pork!
While eating, the kids at the table next to us started behaving really bad. Now I fully expect to see tired kids being a bit bad and cranky while at Disney, after a long hot day in the park I don’t blame them, but what happened while eating was beyond anything I’d expect. The little boy sitting in the booth next to me decided during the meal to lay down and start flailing his legs. The tables along the booth are very close together, so there wasn’t much room between us and that family to begin with, and when he lay down, he ended up kicking me repeatedly. I gave the father, who was sitting across from me, a “do you see what your kid is doing?” look, and he just half heartedly told his son to stop. Of course his son didn’t listen. His daughter meanwhile was laying on the ground under the table screaming. I don’t want to judge peoples parenting, but seriously? You think it’s fine for your kid to be kicking a complete stranger while they try to eat?
Ugh. Such bad parents.
I slid over on the booth as far as I could to get away from the kid, and we tried to enjoy the rest of dinner. The food was still spectacular, and the service was great, but we definitely prefer being in the non-ROL rooms!
Eventually it was time for dessert, so I ordered the mousse and my mom got the chocolate ganache. We of course shared.
Both were excellent!
At the end of dinner, our server came out with our ROL popcorn bucket and a special gift of chocolate for being repeat customers. So nice, and that chocolate was really good!
It was around 8 when we left Tiffins, so we decided to make our way over to the ROL theater to see if people were already going in. Sure enough, by the time we got there, the ROL dining package section was already about half full!
Now my mom has claustrophobia, so she cannot sit in the middle of rows, she needs to be at the end or else she will have a complete panic attack. We scouted the theater and saw an empty end of row at the 4th row up. We made our way down there and asked if those seats were taken, and they weren’t! Yay! They ended up being great seats, we were right by the center of the theater, and in the 4th row, so we had a great view.
Here I am with my popcorn bucket.
ROL was nice, we enjoyed it, but it’s not something we feel like we have to see again.
At the end of the show, we decided to wait a bit for people to clear out since my mom’s claustrophobia makes it difficult to be squished in with large crowds.
We waited a few minutes, but it seemed that a lot of people had the same idea since a lot of people just stayed in their seats. We finally gave up waiting and joined the exiting crowds. We found a side exit which was hardly being used, so that helped keep my mom out of the worst crowds, and when we got to the main path, we stuck to the edge so she wouldn’t be completely surrounded.
It wasn’t too horrible getting out afterwards, I had been really worried based on other reviews I’ve read about the traffic jam at the end of the show and was expecting it to be a lot worse for my mom, but it wasn’t bad at all.
We eventually made it to the park exit and made our way over to our bus. Our bus wasn’t there yet, and a short line had formed, so we got in it and had a really short wait, I’m pretty sure it was less than 5 minutes. We were glad it was such a short wait because we were wiped out! The lack of sleep had seriously caught up to us and we were dragging by the time we got back to the YC!
We got back to the room a bit after 10:00, and decided to call it a night since we were so exhausted. Once again, sleep would evade us though.
About 30 minutes after going to bed, our new neighbors got into their room, and oh my goodness were they loud!
Since we hadn’t heard them prior to that night, we assumed they had just checked in and had a lot of energy to burn! It sounded like the kids kept jumping off the bed over and over, and with the new hard floor it was super loud! We could also hear every word of their conversation, which at 10:30 at night was a bit annoying.
We couldn’t decide if they were just a loud obnoxious family, or if the new floors made THAT much of a difference in the sound proofing. All we know is prior to that night the family who had been there was super quiet, and the family on the other side we only heard when they were out on the balcony, so we assumed we just got stuck next to an inconsiderately loud family.
Good thing for us, the remaining nights we got back to the room after that family turned in for the night, but wow, that first night of them was so loud!
At least they all settled down by midnight, but we were so exhausted at that point. Between the lack of sleep the prior night due to the construction noise and the heat of the day, it was so nice to finally get some rest after our neighbors calmed down!
Firsts for day 3:
-First time starting the day at the pool!
-First ROL
-First time being woken up by construction noise at Disney
May 12th
As we were making our way over to Tiffins, my mom looked down and noticed that her legs were blue! Seriously, smurf blue. HA! Turns out the bags from the stores had bled on her legs while on the safari! She was NOT a fan of having blue legs, even though I kept telling her maybe they’d let us take a sneak peak at Pandora after seeing the effort she made to dye herself blue! Sadly, she did not find this amusing.
When we got to Tiffins they asked us if we would like to be seated right away or wait until our reservation, I said right away, but my mom said she wanted to be seated later. What???
Turns out the blue legs were really bothering her, and she didn’t want to eat dinner while looking part smurf. Could have mentioned that to me before we got to the check-in desk mom!
We agreed to be seated later at our actual reservation time and I gave them my cell phone # so they could text when our table was ready. We then made our way over to the bar to get some ice cold water since we were partially melted by that point. There were two seats at the end of the bar, perfect. I sat down, but my mom just stood there looking very upset. So I asked what was up, and she tells me she needs to go to the bathroom to wash the blue off. Ok, no big deal right? Well she didn’t want to go alone. Ugh.
So off we went to the bathroom. It ended up taking her about 15 minutes to remove all the blue, so we still had a bit of time afterwards before our reservation, so we headed back to the bar to try to get that ice water again.
Not surprising, the seats from before were gone, and the place was packed. They were doing the CM preview for Pandora that evening, so I guess it was a lot more crowded than they were expecting. We found a table though and sat down to wait for our drinks. It took a solid 20 minutes before a server even noticed we were there, but she was so apologetic and noted that they were very busy that night and understaffed. She took our drink orders then disappeared for another 20 minutes. Yikes.
By the time she came back with our water, it was already well past our reservation time. She was again apologetic and told me they hadn’t even gotten around to making my drink yet, but asked if there was anything else she could get for us. We said no, and mentioned that we were still waiting to be texted about our dinner reservations and it was well past our reservation time at that point. So she offered to go check on them for us. She came back a few minutes later to let us know that our table wasn’t ready yet, but good news, my drink was finally being made.
A few minutes later she swung by with the drink, and we asked for the check so we wouldn’t have to wait any longer once our table was ready.
Finally, about 40 minutes after our reservation, we got the text that our table was ready. We headed up front to be seated. We met with the hostess, and she started bringing us back to the lounge. What? So I said to her “I thought Tiffins was back that way?” and she tells me that people with the Rivers of Light dining package were being put in this room. Oh, we had wondered why we saw so many people being led through the lounge while we were waiting!
We entered the ROL package room, and oh my goodness, I suddenly understood why they were separating the ROL package people and the regular dining people! It was crazy back there, there were kids running around the room screaming with napkins over their heads, other kids were rolling on the floor, and it was just so loud and bright, it felt more like a quick service place than a signature dining restaurant!
Our last time eating at Tiffins was the complete opposite, which is why we fell in love with it. It was dark, calm and a great respite from the hustle and bustle of the park. This on the other hand was anything but calm. Oh well, at least they still had the same food!
We were seated at a booth along the back wall, and within seconds our waiter appeared. Much better service than in the lounge! He was awesome, and we had a great chat about the food here with him!
He explained how the ROL package would work, took our drink order, then left us to peruse the menu. We loved the grilled octopus, so decided to get that again, and my mom got the cheese board so we could share. I ended up getting the Wagyu beef again (loved it last time!) and my mom got the pork.
The appetizers came out very fast, and were just as good as we remembered!
Grilled Octopus, yum!
Cheese plate!
We had just finished eating those when our entrees appeared! We were surprised at how fast everything was coming out!
The beef was once again amazing. My mom really liked the pork as well, but said she preferred the lamb she had on our previous trip, which our waiter informed us was just removed from the menu that night and replaced with venison.
My beef wagyu, so good!
My mom and her pork!
While eating, the kids at the table next to us started behaving really bad. Now I fully expect to see tired kids being a bit bad and cranky while at Disney, after a long hot day in the park I don’t blame them, but what happened while eating was beyond anything I’d expect. The little boy sitting in the booth next to me decided during the meal to lay down and start flailing his legs. The tables along the booth are very close together, so there wasn’t much room between us and that family to begin with, and when he lay down, he ended up kicking me repeatedly. I gave the father, who was sitting across from me, a “do you see what your kid is doing?” look, and he just half heartedly told his son to stop. Of course his son didn’t listen. His daughter meanwhile was laying on the ground under the table screaming. I don’t want to judge peoples parenting, but seriously? You think it’s fine for your kid to be kicking a complete stranger while they try to eat?
Ugh. Such bad parents.
I slid over on the booth as far as I could to get away from the kid, and we tried to enjoy the rest of dinner. The food was still spectacular, and the service was great, but we definitely prefer being in the non-ROL rooms!
Eventually it was time for dessert, so I ordered the mousse and my mom got the chocolate ganache. We of course shared.
Both were excellent!
At the end of dinner, our server came out with our ROL popcorn bucket and a special gift of chocolate for being repeat customers. So nice, and that chocolate was really good!
It was around 8 when we left Tiffins, so we decided to make our way over to the ROL theater to see if people were already going in. Sure enough, by the time we got there, the ROL dining package section was already about half full!
Now my mom has claustrophobia, so she cannot sit in the middle of rows, she needs to be at the end or else she will have a complete panic attack. We scouted the theater and saw an empty end of row at the 4th row up. We made our way down there and asked if those seats were taken, and they weren’t! Yay! They ended up being great seats, we were right by the center of the theater, and in the 4th row, so we had a great view.
Here I am with my popcorn bucket.
ROL was nice, we enjoyed it, but it’s not something we feel like we have to see again.
At the end of the show, we decided to wait a bit for people to clear out since my mom’s claustrophobia makes it difficult to be squished in with large crowds.
We waited a few minutes, but it seemed that a lot of people had the same idea since a lot of people just stayed in their seats. We finally gave up waiting and joined the exiting crowds. We found a side exit which was hardly being used, so that helped keep my mom out of the worst crowds, and when we got to the main path, we stuck to the edge so she wouldn’t be completely surrounded.
It wasn’t too horrible getting out afterwards, I had been really worried based on other reviews I’ve read about the traffic jam at the end of the show and was expecting it to be a lot worse for my mom, but it wasn’t bad at all.
We eventually made it to the park exit and made our way over to our bus. Our bus wasn’t there yet, and a short line had formed, so we got in it and had a really short wait, I’m pretty sure it was less than 5 minutes. We were glad it was such a short wait because we were wiped out! The lack of sleep had seriously caught up to us and we were dragging by the time we got back to the YC!
We got back to the room a bit after 10:00, and decided to call it a night since we were so exhausted. Once again, sleep would evade us though.
About 30 minutes after going to bed, our new neighbors got into their room, and oh my goodness were they loud!
Since we hadn’t heard them prior to that night, we assumed they had just checked in and had a lot of energy to burn! It sounded like the kids kept jumping off the bed over and over, and with the new hard floor it was super loud! We could also hear every word of their conversation, which at 10:30 at night was a bit annoying.
We couldn’t decide if they were just a loud obnoxious family, or if the new floors made THAT much of a difference in the sound proofing. All we know is prior to that night the family who had been there was super quiet, and the family on the other side we only heard when they were out on the balcony, so we assumed we just got stuck next to an inconsiderately loud family.
Good thing for us, the remaining nights we got back to the room after that family turned in for the night, but wow, that first night of them was so loud!
At least they all settled down by midnight, but we were so exhausted at that point. Between the lack of sleep the prior night due to the construction noise and the heat of the day, it was so nice to finally get some rest after our neighbors calmed down!
Firsts for day 3:
-First time starting the day at the pool!
-First ROL
-First time being woken up by construction noise at Disney
Last edited:
missangelalexis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
What a mess leading up to your dinner between your Mom's blue legs and the service at the bar! I'm glad you were able to enjoy your food despite the chaos in the dining room!
MommyinHonduras
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2015
Following along
MeghanEmily
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2016
I finally got a chance to come over and read through the rest of your TR! I'm not sure if I ever commented before, but I've had it on my "to read" list for a while now. What lousy luck you had with the construction noise, and the noisy neighbors, and the wild room at Tiffins! That's incredibly different from the experience we had at Tiffins without a dining package. It's so nice that you and your mom make such good travel buddies! My mom and I are the same way, but we haven't been on a Disney trip together for a few years now.
gryffindors
goof of the week
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2017
This really solidified my need to drag my mom to Disney with me someday (whether I extend the invite to my sisters remains to be decided 
)
)
thumper*
Disney Dreamer
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
LOL
VAtink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2013
Part 15: A New Way to Start the Day!
May 13th
We woke up around 7:00, this time by our alarms rather than construction noise. After getting ready, we made our way downstairs around 8:15 to slowly meander our way over to Epcot. We got to the IG around 8:30 and found two other families milling around. Since it was so empty, we went and sat at one of the benches by security. By about 8:40 the crowds started showing up, so we got up and into line.
They started letting people in at 8:45, and once again held us right before the bridge to head over to France. This morning we were not in a rush to a ride, so we hung back away from the crowds along the fence. Just before 9:00, they let us in and off we went…approximately 50 feet.
Our plan for the morning was to skip the rides and head over to France for breakfast! The CM at the bridge informed us when we got there that they weren’t ready yet, so we hung out there waiting. A handful of people soon joined us, until they noticed the big sign saying FEA could not be reached going that direction! Oops!
About 5 minutes after the original rope drop, they let us back to France! There was only one other family heading over that way, so it was nice and empty!
We made our way back to the bakery and ordered our food and drinks. We got the chocolate brioche to share and we each got a mimosa!
We decided to sit at the benches out front to eat and enjoy the emptiness. Hardly anyone came back there while we were there. We stayed back there for about 45 minutes and we saw maybe 5 families come back to get breakfast.
Once we finished our breakfast, we snapped a bunch of pictures!
Our first FP+ wasn’t until 10:15, so we had plenty of time to slower wonder and take pictures.
We found a family of ducks!
We made our way slowly to the front of the park, making sure to stop at any photopass photographers we saw!
Eventually it was time for our first FP+, so we headed over to meet the big man himself, Mickey!
We also got to meet Goofy and Minnie!
Minnie LOVED my ears.
She questioned why my mom didn’t have any of her own ears, so my mom of course made some with her hands, ha!
Love it!
When we wrapped up with the characters we had a LONG time before our next FP+. We had it scheduled for about 1:30 for Spaceship Earth, but after talking a bit about it, we decided we’d rather be swimming at that time, so decided to head over to try to ride it immediately.
We got there to find a 25 minute wait time, but the line looked longer than we’ve seen it in many years. Oh well, 25 minutes didn’t sound too bad.
25 minutes wasn’t bad at all it turns out, unfortunately that only got us about half way through the line! By the time we got on the ride, we had waited just over 45 minutes! I do wish they would provide fans in that queue because most of it is outside it was a hot hot wait!
We finally made it on the ride, yay! We hadn’t been on that since at least 2013, possibly 2006! It was nice to see it again, even though we did break down for a while in the middle. It did provide a nice opportunity to get a picture!
By the time we got off SE, it was time for the food booths to open, so we headed over to World Showcase to grab some treats!
May 13th
We woke up around 7:00, this time by our alarms rather than construction noise. After getting ready, we made our way downstairs around 8:15 to slowly meander our way over to Epcot. We got to the IG around 8:30 and found two other families milling around. Since it was so empty, we went and sat at one of the benches by security. By about 8:40 the crowds started showing up, so we got up and into line.
They started letting people in at 8:45, and once again held us right before the bridge to head over to France. This morning we were not in a rush to a ride, so we hung back away from the crowds along the fence. Just before 9:00, they let us in and off we went…approximately 50 feet.
Our plan for the morning was to skip the rides and head over to France for breakfast! The CM at the bridge informed us when we got there that they weren’t ready yet, so we hung out there waiting. A handful of people soon joined us, until they noticed the big sign saying FEA could not be reached going that direction! Oops!
About 5 minutes after the original rope drop, they let us back to France! There was only one other family heading over that way, so it was nice and empty!
We made our way back to the bakery and ordered our food and drinks. We got the chocolate brioche to share and we each got a mimosa!
We decided to sit at the benches out front to eat and enjoy the emptiness. Hardly anyone came back there while we were there. We stayed back there for about 45 minutes and we saw maybe 5 families come back to get breakfast.
Once we finished our breakfast, we snapped a bunch of pictures!
Our first FP+ wasn’t until 10:15, so we had plenty of time to slower wonder and take pictures.
We found a family of ducks!
We made our way slowly to the front of the park, making sure to stop at any photopass photographers we saw!
Eventually it was time for our first FP+, so we headed over to meet the big man himself, Mickey!
We also got to meet Goofy and Minnie!
Minnie LOVED my ears.
She questioned why my mom didn’t have any of her own ears, so my mom of course made some with her hands, ha!
Love it!
When we wrapped up with the characters we had a LONG time before our next FP+. We had it scheduled for about 1:30 for Spaceship Earth, but after talking a bit about it, we decided we’d rather be swimming at that time, so decided to head over to try to ride it immediately.
We got there to find a 25 minute wait time, but the line looked longer than we’ve seen it in many years. Oh well, 25 minutes didn’t sound too bad.
25 minutes wasn’t bad at all it turns out, unfortunately that only got us about half way through the line! By the time we got on the ride, we had waited just over 45 minutes! I do wish they would provide fans in that queue because most of it is outside it was a hot hot wait!
We finally made it on the ride, yay! We hadn’t been on that since at least 2013, possibly 2006! It was nice to see it again, even though we did break down for a while in the middle. It did provide a nice opportunity to get a picture!
By the time we got off SE, it was time for the food booths to open, so we headed over to World Showcase to grab some treats!
Last edited:
VAtink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2013
Haha, thanks! She got so many compliments on her shirts this trip, especially the tapestry of nations one!
VAtink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2013
Haha, yeah, good thing they were only bad one night!
VAtink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2013
Aw, thank you so much! Have fun on your trip, coming up any day now! So exciting!
VAtink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2013
Oh my goodness I know. We felt like we just couldn't win for a while there! We're pretty good at letting little hiccups not bother us, but there were a lot of little hiccups all at once, and with the lack of sleep the previous night, we definitely were getting grumpy by the time dinner rolled around! Fortunately the food was amazing, and once the family next to us left it was a much better experience!
VAtink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2013
VAtink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2013
Loving your review!! Can't wait for more
Liz
Thank you! Been slow at updating the last few weeks, but am finally getting back into it!
VAtink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2013
Yeah, our AK day wasn't the best luck, but we still had fun, blue legs and all! We were shocked at how crazy the room was at Tiffins, we love the food there so much though, so for our trip this fall we're going back, but this time without the ROL package! Yeah, we travel so well together, it's great having a travel partner like her! That's great your mom are the same way, I love the mother daughter trips!
VAtink
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2013
This really solidified my need to drag my mom to Disney with me someday (whether I extend the invite to my sisters remains to be decided
HAAA! Love this!
MeghanEmily
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2016
We made our way back to the bakery and ordered our food and drinks. We got the chocolate brioche to share and we each got a mimosa!
That' sounds delish! And I love the Beauty and the Beast topiary now that it's been updated
We found a family of ducks!
So cute!!
No way! You never hear of SE having such a long wait!
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