Just Back..June 21-June 27

[Brier Rose]

We have been to Disney World 27 times, and this has been one of the best trips ever! Thanks in large part to things I've learned here on the Dis.
One of the things we enjoyed the most, that I would not have tried had it not been for these boards was EE.
In all the trips that we have taken, we have never done this before.We did EE for MK on Sun. the 22nd, and it was great. I just read some negative reports on EE on another thread, and like I said there, I don't know how it was in the past so I can't compare it to the EE mornings of old, but in comparison to the crowds later in the morning it was wonderful.
We got to MK at 8:05am,and by the time we got to FantasyLand, there were a few lines, but we did Dumbo,Snow White, Small World, Peter Pan twice, and the Tea Cups, before we moved to Tomorrow Land and did TL Transit Authority, and then lined up for ToonTown opening, went to see Mickey, rode Barnstormer twice, then caught the train to Main St, and was on the monorail headed for Epcot by 11:00am!

In comparison we did E-night on the 24th, and only rode Splash Mt. twice, Big Thunder twice, Buzz once, Space MT. once, and TL Transit Authority twice. And we did no shopping, or eating during the whole 3 hours.
We might do e-night again, but I know we'll do EE again.

The weather report for our week looked TERRIBLE,so we were a little worried.It turnedout to be GREAT!
The only bad day we had was Sat. the 21st. We checked in to AKL on that day, and had planned to spend it by the pool, but they wound up having to close it because of a thunderstorm.
At least the kids got to swim for a few hours though.

We spend the rest of the day Sun. the 22nd at Epcot. There were NO crowds!! It misted rain just a little. Not enough to have to wear a poncho, and just enough to keep the weather nice and cool. We did a few favorites in Future World, and then had a long relaxing, and GREAT lunch at Le Cellier.
We then hit every country, with the kids doing the masks at the Kidcot stations at each one, and finished up with a ride on SpaceShip Earth, and a spin on Test Track, both with NO wait!
Guess everybody was staking our a spot for Illuminations!
It was a perfect day!
The next day we spend at Blizzard Beach.Not too hot, not too cold, and not too crowded.....perfect again! Oh! and NO rain, even though the forecast called for thunderstorms.
The next day we spent at MK, It was the most beautiful day! The sky was so blue and it was a little hot,but not too humid.It felt crowded,but the longest we waited to anything was 10-15min.
We did fast pass when we needed to, and had a nice long lunch at Tony's.

We got to see COP.I haven't seen it in a while,and it always makes a trip to the MK seem complete to me.
Spectro was great as always, and we had no trouble getting a front row seat in Liberty Square about 45 min. before start time.

We also did AK, MGM, and an Illuminations cruise, so if anbody has any questions....ask away!!!!!

 

[Kallison]

Wow - Glad you had a great trip. All I've been reading lately is that the crowds are horrendous. Tell me about e-night, was it too crowded? Is that why you didn't get on much?

 

[Taximom]

Thanks for sharing! Glad you enjoyed your trip!
I am so happy to hear that COP was open....I really hope it will be open when we're there in August!
Where did you eat in MK/Epcot?

 

[Brier Rose]

Kallison,
e-night didn't seem crowded when we were walking around, but every ride had about a 15-20 min. Pretty short I think, but factor in the time it takes to stand in line,ride, and then walk from Fronteir Land to Tomorrow Land, and time just seemed to run out so fast.
Take into consideration though that we were already dragging our feet from a long day at the park.
I think we'll do e-night again if we're staying at a MK area resort, and maybe do the park in the early am, and then spend the rest of the day at the pool and taking a nap!
By 1:00am I was wishing I could just pay extra to sleep on a bench for the rest of the night.
We were staying at AKL, and having to do the whole transfer to the TTC ,and then tram to the parking lot, walk to the van,drive to the Lodge, walk to the room, all while carrying sleeping DS (4), was WAY too much for us!

 

[Brier Rose]

Taximom,
We ate at Tony's Town Square in the MK, and Le Cellier at Epcot, 2 of our very favorites.

I know Tony's usually gets a bad wrap on these boards, but we always enjoy the food, and this time seemed especially good!
I had the Stromboli with procuttio(sp) ,an Italian ham.I usually have the calzone of the day,but they have replaced this on the menu with the stromboli.While I enjoyed it alot, I like the calozone better.....only because I didn't really care for the procuitto it was stuffed with.
DH had the most delicious dish, that I can't remember the name of!
That's helpful isn't it???
It had cheese stuffed tortollini, with vegetables topped with an alfredo sauce.It was very good.
All of the kids had the pizza, which they LOVED, and deemed it the best pizza EVER!

Sorry, gotta run, but I'll tell ya about Le Cellier in just a bit!

 

[drogerstn]

We attended e-night on Friday, June 20. We had to wait no longer than 10 minutes for the rides we went on. Also, the park closed at 7pm. We entered the MK at 4:30pm and had no wait on JC or PoC, & just a couple of minutes on Haunted Mansion. We got a fastpass for Splash Mtn and used it at 6:05pm (standby line said 15 minutes); after that we rode SM again in standby with no wait. We had about a 5 minute wait for two rides on TM before the park closing time of 7pm.

We were in the park near closing time on June 24 (the e-night mentioned in the earlier post) and the park was crowded and the waiting time for TM was 30 minutes. For whatever reason (it did rain on the 20th), the crowds were much larger on the 24th and it sounds like the e-night crowd followed the same trend. (We did not do the e-night on the 24th.)

I have been at one e-night which was as bad or worse than Brier Rose describes and was somewhat disappointed. But the e-night on June 20 was not crowded at all and was similar to 3 other e-nights that I have participated in.

I was surprised that the scheduled closing time of 7pm was never extended, but the MK was not crowded in the late afternoon and early evening prior to official park closing time, so I guess the folks at WDW knew what they were doing. I liked attending at e-night that ended at 10pm

 

[Brier Rose]

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back.

While at Tony's I forgot that DS(4) had the speghetti and meatball. He LOVED it, and it was the only time during the whole trip that he actually finished every bite!
Also they have the best bread and dipping sauce while you wait for your food. The sauce is a sundried tomato pesto with para. cheese.I like it so much, I would eat there just for that.
And for dessert we had butterscotch creme brulee that we really enjoyed.

At Le Cellier I had the open faced steak sandwich that had arugala,tomato jam,sauteed mushrooms,and fried onions on top.
I know you're thinking....tomato jam???
So was I,but our server(who was great by the way), talked me into trying it.
It had a very fresh tomato taste, with just a hint of sweetness. Combined with the mainade that the steak was in....I thought it was VERY tasty. I ate every bite!!
DH had the same thing, and he said his was just OK, but only because he thought the steak was a little tough.

The kids all had the jr.steak, and it was HORRIBLE!!!
We ordered them all well done, and they came out totally bloody, not to mention so tough I had trouble cutting them with my steak knife.
We sent them back and had them cooked some more,(the server even said she had NEVER seen a childs steak cooked quite that rare), but they were still so tough that the kids couldn't eat them.
They all liked the mashed potatos that came with it,so they ate those,and then had the chocolate mousse for dessert.
It is so cute,and good too! DS likes the maple cookies that they use for antlers,and they brought him a few extra.
DH and I had the creme brulee.......maple this time.
It was soooooo good!!! Wish I had some right now.

We love Le Cellier, and usually eat there at least once ot twice a year.I don't know what was up with the steaks being so tough.
DH had a steak at Sci-FI DIne in of all places, that he said was the best of the whole trip!

 

[nativetxn]

Welcome back. Sounds like you had a great trip. Great tip on the early magic hour.