It's a-LIVE, a-LiVE...Trip Report, That Is

[Janet B]

Hi

Getting caught up with your TR, and really loving all your pictures!! Thanks for taking the time on your trip to do this report and post the pictures so we can all feel like we are in Disney too.

We love AK ...my favorite ride is EE, and mostly I do it alone in the single rider line ... my record is 9 times in a row during an AM EMH .. it was great.

If you plan on returning to AK, suggest seeing the Finding Nemo musical, it's terrific.

LOVE that you beat DH at TSM!! My sis is competitve and likes to win ... usually I beat her so she comes out with ... what's your accuracy rate?? huh? Who CARES I say .. it all about the point totaly baby!!

Sci Fi ... as i told you we realy enjoyed our meal here ... the kids love the movie clips and the burgers are good. We will have to try that oreo milkshake next time ... yummm

That's a bummer about fantasmic! but I hope you get to see it.

Your ornaments are nice and the personalization is worth the $$.

O'hana is one of our favorite restaurants! We have 2 ADRs this trip ... I might have to keep them both ...

Looking forward to your next update ...

P.S. So happy you are enjoying POP ... and yes, the bus tranpo is one of the best!!!

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

We checked in for our 6:50 reservation right on time, but weren't seated until 7:00. I still think that's pretty good considering how packed the place was. As the host took us to our table, she grabbed a fresh loaf of bread for us.

We got pretty decent seats with a view out of the windows.

First, they brought out the salad, which has this yummy dressing on it.

Shortly after, they brought us the first plate of sides/appetizers: potstickers and chicken wings. Both were very good!

A few minutes later, they brought us a second plate of sides/appetizers: noodles and broccoli. Both were very good. I am very picky about how I like my broccoli cooked. It cannot be mushy; it needs to be crisp but not so crisp that it barely seems like it has been cooked. This broccoli was exactly how I like it--not too mushy, and not too crisp. (I sound like Goldilocks.)

Throughout the meal, servers bring around giant skewers of meat--chicken, pork, steak, and shrimp. I didn't get any pictures of the meat on our plates, because they drop it onto the plate you have already been using, and I thought that might be kind of icky to post. Instead, I got a picture of them cooking the meats on the grill:

It's funny; the last time we came here, my favorite meat was the steak, and my least favorite was the chicken. However, this time, I think it was the opposite. The chicken was so much more tender this time, and it had a yummy glaze that I don't remember being on it the last time. The steak wasn't bad or anything; I think it's just that there was no way it could compare to Yachtsman from earlier in the week.

Finally, they brought the dish that is my favorite part of the meal: the bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. I remember the first time I read a dining review where someone was raving about this dessert, I didn't understand the appeal. To me, bread pudding didn't sound all that exciting. However, the first time I tasted it, I understood the hype. It is delicious!

Throughout the meal, they had a singer coming around, playing the ukulele and singing Hawaiian songs. He was also putting leis around people's necks.

Overall, we had a very good experience at 'Ohana. While I enjoyed this restaurant last time, I felt the food, especially the meats, were even better this time around.

After 'Ohana, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom. Stay tuned for the rest of our evening!

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

Hi

Getting caught up with your TR, and really loving all your pictures!! Thanks for taking the time on your trip to do this report and post the pictures so we can all feel like we are in Disney too.

We love AK ...my favorite ride is EE, and mostly I do it alone in the single rider line ... my record is 9 times in a row during an AM EMH .. it was great.

If you plan on returning to AK, suggest seeing the Finding Nemo musical, it's terrific.

LOVE that you beat DH at TSM!! My sis is competitve and likes to win ... usually I beat her so she comes out with ... what's your accuracy rate?? huh? Who CARES I say .. it all about the point totaly baby!!

Sci Fi ... as i told you we realy enjoyed our meal here ... the kids love the movie clips and the burgers are good. We will have to try that oreo milkshake next time ... yummm

That's a bummer about fantasmic! but I hope you get to see it.

Your ornaments are nice and the personalization is worth the $$.

O'hana is one of our favorite restaurants! We have 2 ADRs this trip ... I might have to keep them both ...

Looking forward to your next update ...

P.S. So happy you are enjoying POP ... and yes, the bus tranpo is one of the best!!!

Nine times!?!? My hubby would love that, but I can't do more that twice in a row!

We did plan on seeing Nemo and my favorite show--Festival of the Lion King--but I was having such issues with my feet that we barely got anything done that morning. We might head back tomorrow morning; we will see!

My husband does the same thing about the accuracy rate!

Off to Epcot now for rides and lunch at Le Cellier!

 

[sargenca]

Finally, they brought the dish that is my favorite part of the meal: the bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. I remember the first time I read a dining review where someone was raving about this dessert, I didn't understand the appeal. To me, bread pudding didn't sound all that exciting. However, the first time I tasted it, I understood the hype. It is delicious!

I'm like you...bread pudding? So?? But wow!! That picture looks great. I'm going to have to try and get over there to Ohana and try that in October!

As others have said, thanks for sharing your report. I get so excited when I get a notification that a new entry has been posted!! Have a great day.

 

[TIME2DISNEY]

Hello!
Just got caught up on your awesome trip report!
I think we are twins separated at birth because splash mountain and carousel of progress are my favorite must do rides. So classic Disney.
Last year I was lucky enough to stay at Polynesian in October, then stayed at Pop for a quick Christmas trip (you must plan a Christmas trip,incredible!).
It was very hard going from Poly to Pop, it seemed all we did was wait for buses, we weren't lucky like you!
Glad you are having a great time even though pesky rain storms are derailing some of your plans.
More please!

 

[Valgoof]

I am so excited for Ohana!!! We have never eaten there but we are in December! I love bread pudding so I am really excited about it. Ok really I love everything they serve.

 

[VACamm]

I just read your whoooole trip report and WOW!! Looks like an amazing trip so far!!!!

We go to Pop next Saturday he 25th and I was wondering if he 50s were the closest to the main building and to the bus stop??

 

[DLB]

Thank you for taking the time to share this trip with us! A great report and makes me SOOO excited to be there in 43 days!

Looking forward to hearing all about the rest!

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

After we finished dinner at 'Ohana, we took the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom.

We headed back over to Tomorrowland to hit some of the rides we had missed.

When we stopped by earlier, we had grabbed fastpasses for Space Mountain. They were now due, so we redeemed them. The standby line was about an hour, so we saved a considerable amount of time!

After Space Mountain, we headed over to ride the Peoplemover. Unfortunately, the ride got stuck for ten minutes right before we entered Space Mountain. Luckily, they eventually got it working!

We headed over to the bridge between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland to watch The Magic, The Memories, and You and Wishes. Since the issue at the Peoplemover put us a little behind schedule, I think we missed about a minute or so of The Magic, The Memories, and You. We still managed to get a spot that was great for watching the MMY light show, though there was a tree in the way of some of the lower fireworks in Wishes. Still, the view was pretty good, considering the fact that we ended up waiting until the last minute to get a spot.

This was the first time we saw The Magic, The Memories, and You, and I was really impressed with it. The patterns they project on the castle are so complex at times that I wonder how long it took them to create this show!

A little while before The Magic, The Memories, and You and Wishes, my phone died. Luckily, my husband had his, so I used it to take pictures instead. Even though he has the same exact phone as me, I swear it doesn't take pictures as well in low lighting. Therefore, some of these pictures are a little streaky looking. Still, I figured mediocre pictures are better than none at all!

The Magic, The Memories, and You pictures:

A few minutes after The Magic, The Memories, and You ended, Wishes began. I have a decent amount of Wishes pictures, so I will need to split the pictures among three posts due to the limit on how many pictures can be included in each post.

Wishes pictures
(Part 1):

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

Wishes pictures
(Part 2):

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

Wishes pictures
(Part 3):

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

After Wishes, we had time for a couple more rides before the park closed, so we headed over to the Haunted Mansion because my husband had never gone on it at night and always wanted to do so.

We finally got a different hitchhiking ghost, and I realized that they ALL actually "switch" your faces; the difference is just where they sit when they do it.

After Haunted Mansion, my husband was ready to leave, but I talked him into one last ride: Splash Mountain. Luckily, there was not a wait for it. (You just make out the big drop in the distance in this picture, even though it is dark!)

He also had never gone on this ride at night, so he greatly enjoyed seeing the castle all lit up from it.

After Splash Mountain, we headed out of the park, and as we were leaving, we managed to see some of the Main Street Electrical Parade. I took a couple of pictures when we had to wait a few minutes for the parade to pass the exit, but since we weren't specifically trying to watch it, I didn't get any other pictures.

When we got to the Pop bus stop, there was a bus just pulling out, and we were disappointed that we missed it because we thought we might have to wait another twenty minutes. However, another bus pulled up a minute or two later! This bus wasn't actually a Disney bus; its marquee actually said "Charter." I guess Disney must have hired it to help deal with the crowds at the end of the night.

By the time we got back to the room around midnight, we were exhausted, so we immediately went to bed!

Look for our morning at Epcot and lunch at Le Cellier later today!

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

I'm like you...bread pudding? So?? But wow!! That picture looks great. I'm going to have to try and get over there to Ohana and try that in October!

As others have said, thanks for sharing your report. I get so excited when I get a notification that a new entry has been posted!! Have a great day.

It is reeeeeallly good! I couldn't believe something so simple sounding could be so awesome!

Glad to hear you are enjoying my report Thanks for reading!!!

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

Hello!
Just got caught up on your awesome trip report!
I think we are twins separated at birth because splash mountain and carousel of progress are my favorite must do rides. So classic Disney.
Last year I was lucky enough to stay at Polynesian in October, then stayed at Pop for a quick Christmas trip (you must plan a Christmas trip,incredible!).
It was very hard going from Poly to Pop, it seemed all we did was wait for buses, we weren't lucky like you!
Glad you are having a great time even though pesky rain storms are derailing some of your plans.
More please!

I really want to do a Christmas trip! Maybe next year...

It is a little hard going from Poly to Pop. I like the Pop, but I think we were a bit spoiled by the Poly! The rain kind of stinks, but it is August (and thus can be expected!)

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

I am so excited for Ohana!!! We have never eaten there but we are in December! I love bread pudding so I am really excited about it. Ok really I love everything they serve.

I hope you like it. Even if you don't like everything, there is so much to try that you are bound to find a few items you like!

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

I just read your whoooole trip report and WOW!! Looks like an amazing trip so far!!!!

We go to Pop next Saturday he 25th and I was wondering if he 50s were the closest to the main building and to the bus stop??

There are a couple that are equally close. We are staying in 50s Building 1, which is pretty close to both the main building and the buses. Really, though, with the way Pop is set up, nothing is super far like at the All Stars. Check out the Pop thread for a map of all the buildings.

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

Thank you for taking the time to share this trip with us! A great report and makes me SOOO excited to be there in 43 days!

Looking forward to hearing all about the rest!

And thank you for taking the time to read it

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

Originally, we had wanted to head to Epcot for rope drop this morning, but since we got in late last night, we decided to sleep in a little longer. When we got down to the bus stop, we saw the Epcot bus just pulling away, and we had to wait about fifteen to twenty minutes for another bus, probably the longest we ever waited at Pop.

We got to the park at about 10:30 or so. We wanted to go to The Seas with Nemo and Friends, but we were afraid we wouldn't have as much time to explore as we wanted before lunch. Instead, we decided to head over to Journey into Imagination.

We cut through Innoventions on the way because of the air conditioning.

A few minutes later, we emerged right near the Imagination pavilion:

Now, I don't always think change is a bad thing at Disney. For instance, I really liked the addition of Nemo to The Living Seas (as it was originally titled.) However, I am still upset that they changed Journey into Imagination from what it used to be back in the day. I still go on it because it still has Figment, but I feel they actual made it worse when they rehabbed it, not better. Okay, enough of my rant now!

After we got off the ride, we spent a little while in ImageWorks playing around with some of the stuff there:

When we left, I snapped a picture of the cool fountains outside the pavilion:

Since our noon lunch reservation at Le Cellier was approaching, we headed over to Canada. On the way, we saw some of the people on the Segway tour heading out of the World Showcase:

Stay tuned for the next post on our lunch at Le Cellier!

 

[TIME2DISNEY]

Le Cellier yum!!!
Is this still a 1 dining credit for lunch? Supposedly it's going to 2 credits next year.
Have some pretzel bread and cheddar soup for me!

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

We arrived at Le Cellier about 25 minutes early for our reservation.

The guy at the front podium said he couldn't check us in for five more minutes, so he suggested we walk down to the actual restaurant and check in there.

On the way down to the restaurant, I took a picture of the garden out front. It kind of reminds me of Butchart Gardens, a place in Canada that we visited on our honeymoon cruise.

A couple of minutes later, we reached the official Le Cellier entrance:

When we checked in around 11:40, they informed us we might not be seated until our noon reservation time, which we told them was fine. They actually sat us around 11:50 though!

One of the first items they bring you at Le Cellier is a bread basket.
(Sorry for the dark picture; I forgot to turn on my flash.)

The three different kinds of bread are supposed to represent three different areas of Canada. My personal favorite is the pretzel bread. It is sooooo good!

For our appetizers, we both got the spicy chicken and chipotle sausage. I had this last time and had to have it again; it is very yummy!

For our entrees, we both got the New York strip steak. He got it with the cream cheese mashed potatoes it normally comes with, but I got it with French fries. (I don't like cream cheese.) Since we both basically ordered the same thing, just with different sides, I only took one picture:

The steak was okay, but after having Yachtsman earlier in week, I was spoiled. The Yachtsman steak was MUCH more tender than this one.

For dessert, I chose the chocolate "moose," and my husband got the cheesecake. Both were very good. The "moose" was a little rich, so I didn't finish it all.

Overall, lunch at Le Cellier was pretty good. I enjoyed my appetizer, dessert, and the bread more than my entree, though. If you are on the Disney Dining Plan, I would recommend Le Cellier for lunch ONLY, as that is when it is a one-credit meal. For dinner, Le Cellier costs two credits, and I feel that for two credits, Yachtsman is a far superior choice that is only about a ten-minute walk from Le Cellier.

Next up: The Seas with Nemo and Friends