"Last Minute ADR Changes? No Problem!" A RAPstar TR (Complete)

[RAPstar]

Day 1
Since I'd been working nights, I tried resetting my sleep cycle the weekend before I left and ended up just not sleeping much. But I did spend time with the dog and said bye to my friend Adam.

At the gate, they were asking people if they'd like to check their bag so as to have enough overhead bin room, and I decided to just so I didn't have to worry about my bag since I still had the Magical Express tag with me. So I threw that on there and checked it in forgetting my camera was in there. After I got to my hotel, I was hungry so decided to go to Animal Kingdom for lunch and to see the Finding Nemo show which I'd never seen. Then I hopped over to Magic Kingdom. When I got there, I decided to play the new Sorceror's of the Magic Kingdom game. It was ok, kinda boring though. I then just walked around, killing time till the Electrical Parade. Oh,and I ran into Gaston, who was hilarious.

I got a spot at the train station and figured I should at least get some photos on my first day, so I took some with my phone.

While I had been walking around MK, I made some new friends who were in town for a convention, Bill and Phil. They were staying at the Contemporary. We got to talking about dinner plans, and they said they were trying to eat at Kona Cafe, which I already had an ADR for. They had went to the concierge who told them there were no openings. I called foul, whipped out my phone and made a reservation for 3 at the same time I had already reserved mine for using the new My Disney Experience app. And off to dinner we went!

Lapu Lapu

Bill (right) & Phil (left)

After dinner, I had the worst bus trip I've ever had on Disney. Took an hour and a half to get from Poly to DTD to Pop. Mainly cause there was a back up of buses at DTD due to a new dispatcher or so I was told or something.

 

[RAPstar]

Day 2

Today was my 2nd MK day, but first full day there.

I headed back to the new Fantasyland section first to see what they did with the Mermaid queue here. Apparently with no line I missed all the interactive stuff.

Once I finished with that I headed to my favorite ride, the Haunted Mansion.

I then walked around a bit, not sure what I wanted to do, but also waiting on Dainan to wake up/get there to ride stuff with him, and eat at the new Be Our Guest for lunch. Also, since Bill was in town for a conference most of the week, I invited Phil to join us so that he wasn't in his room bored all day. While waiting, I got a Dole whip float, but got the orange and pineapple swirl instead of just pineapple and it was delicious. I also ran into some characters.

Eventually, Dainan had made it to the Poly and was taking the monorail over (we were having dinner at 'Ohana that night). I told him to meet me by the Sunshine Tree Terrace.

Almost right after Dainan got there, Phil texted me he was over by the Storytime with Belle queue waiting on us (I had told him we were gonna eat over there). We headed that way and got in line. The line wasn't too bad, it moved fairly quickly. And the touch screen ordering was easy enough....well if you spoke English I guess (there were tons of Brazilians there this week).

After lunch we went over to thunder, and then on to Space Mountain.

We rode Space twice, and on the second ride, Dainan's lap bar popped open on one of the drops. Fun times. After Space, we were all kinda tired, so we rode the Peoplemover like 3 times in a row. We decided to take a break after at the Contemporary while Phil met Bill to go to some convention events. Then me and Dainan headed back to MK to see the Celebrate the Magic projection show and Wishes. Before the shows started, we walked around the stores a bit, and I saw that they had started selling Oswald ears, so I had to get some.

We watched most of Wishes, then headed out a bit early to beat the crowds to get to the Poly for our dinner reservation. 'Ohana was pretty good, we all ate until we were stuffed, and then had dessert. OMG, the bread pudding there was foodgasmic!!

Dainan, Jackie, Patrick and me

After dinner, Dainan, Jackie and I went back to the Pop, since they were staying the night so we could head to Universal in the morning to be there by opening (well, Dainan and I, Jackie had a classes in the morning, but she would meet us later).

 

[RAPstar]

Day 3

Apparently, I was the only one to get at least a decent sleep Tuesday night, so we were all kinda tired Wednesday morning. I went down to the food court while they were still getting a little more sleep and got everyone breakfast. After eating, we took Jackie's car to Universal (while having a Les Miz sing along), and then she went to her classes. Dainan and I decided to go to the Studios first.

We hit up the new Despicable Me ride first, which was fun, but I still kinda miss the chicken dance scene from Jimmy Neutron lol.

After, we did Rockit which had no line, so we walked on to the front row. Still not the best coaster, but not too horrible. We both love the Mummy ride so we did that twice before heading to Simpsons. While in line for Simpsons, the side we were on was having issues of some sort (we overheard something about exit doors but didn't get the full story), so they moved us over to the other side. After that, we decided to hit up E.T. just because. Luckily, E.T.'s home world didn't give me nightmares this time, lol. I had never seen the Curious George section, so we went there next. By that time, it was close to the time that Jackie would be out of class so we headed to the front cause we were going to take her to see T2 since she hadn't seen it before. We saw the Horror Make-Up Show while waiting. Jackie showed up outside the show, so we then saw T2, which I still enjoy despite the horribly boring middle section.

We were all ready for lunch, so we decided to head to IOA and eat at Mythos.

For the first time ever, I had the worst service at Mythos. We waited about 5 minutes after being seated, only to finally get drinks ordered by someone who wasn't even our waitress. Drinks took about another 5 minutes, and Jackie's was wrong. We ordered when we finally got our drinks. Another 10 minutes goes by and our drinks are empty and we were out of bread. Our table was on the other side of a column from the rest of our waitress's section, and she spent most of her time on the other side of the column (it was only our table that was disconnected). Eventually, Jackie goes to the manager who we kept seeing walking around to ask about more drinks and bread. Our waitress walks up while Jackie is talking to the manager. The waitress says she'll be there as soon as she can and Jackie said we'd been waiting a really long time. No sorry from the waitress, just an "ok". We then never see her again but get excellent service from the manager and a new waiter named Claude. Food was excellent despite the service.

After we eat, we head over to Potterworld. I didn't get dessert at Mythos, just so I could get a Butterbeer and try the strawberry peanut butter ice cream my friend Denise raved about when she went in 2011. The ice cream was ok, the peanut butter flavor was hit or miss depending on the bite I took.

We then head over to the Forbidden Journey and ride that. The time outside said 30 minutes, but that must have been including trying to get a locker. Seriously, with all the Brazilians trying to figure out the lockers, it was crowded and hectic, but after we got one there was no line at all inside. All the effects seemed to be working, and I finally saw the facial capture effect during the Dementor scene. I browsed the gift shop and got a Hufflepuff hoodie/jacket thing.

We popped back over to the candy store cause I wanted to try a cauldron cake, which we all shared. And then back over to the Hog's Head for one more Butterbeer.

Dainan wanted to ride Jurassic Park, so we went that way next.

The ride must have just been refurbished, cause the skin on the dinos looked fantastic and all of the effects were working as well. The T-Rex also must have been changed/fixed cause I swear he never seemed to be that close to the raft before. We then went over to Disney's Marvel Super Hero Island at Universal's Islands of Adventure (tee hee). The new HD animation on Spider-Man was pretty spectacular. We also hit up Dr. Doom and the Hulk. Hulk was still as rough as the last time I rode it.

The one last thing I wanted to do was ride The Cat in the Hat, just because.

We then left IOA and headed to the new mini-golf in CityWalk cause I wanted to try it.

The mini-golf was ok. I was expecting a few more "effects" I guess? IDK. Also, they don't have the little starter areas showing you were to put your ball to putt, so it was a little confusing. And I didn't think I sucked as much as I did at mini-golf, lol. We were hungry for dinner by the time we were done, so Dainan and Jackie decided to take me to WaWa since we don't have them in TX. I got a BBQ cheesesteak which was pretty good for food from a gas station. We were all exhausted after so I was dropped off at Pop, and really just lounged about the rest of the night. I did get the munchies later and got nachos from the food court. Yea, they were disgusting. But the tie dye cheesecake is still pretty good (it tasted better this time than in 2011, I think they fixed the cheesecake to cake crust ratio).

 

[RAPstar]

Day 4

Since I got a good night's sleep Wednesday, I decided to get to DHS for opening today.

They let everyone in about 10 minutes to open. I skipped breakfast at Pop before I left so I went to Starring Rolls and got a croissant to tide me over till I got lunch. I headed back to my 2 favorite rides, Tower and Rock n Roller Coaster.

After riding those, tower twice and the coaster once, I was gonna go ride the movie ride and wait for Dainan to join me to ride the other 2 again and maybe Star Tours. While walking to the front, I saw the American Idol theater and decided to audition. I hadn't originally planned on auditioning since I failed the last 2 times I went, but I figured, why not? I went in thinking I wouldn't make it since I'd had a sore throat since Tuesday. But, after singing Walking in Memphis, I made it past the first judge. So I sat in the "Coke Lounge" and decided what songs I was going to use for the 2nd judge. Last time I auditioned, I made the stupid choice of doing 2 ballads and didn't make it, so I knew not to do that this time around. I stuck with Walking in Memphis, even tho the version they had was in a lower arrangement than what suited my voice (even though I was hoarse) and Elton John's Your Song. After waiting for the 3 girls to go before me, I got to go in. I did Memphis first since I knew it wasn't the best, and then Your Song after which I was feeling fairly confident in. Good thing too, cause I made it into the show. 8) I was to be in the 12:30 show, and since it was almost 11 by the time I was done and I had to be back for prep at 11:20, I rushed to find something to eat so I wasn't starving. I ended up going to Fairfax Faire and got the BBQ sandwich. Blah. Then hurried back to get ready.

After hair, make-up, and working with a vocal coach, we did a run through of the show. Almost immediately after, they started letting people in. One cool thing about the show, they use these little GPS locators attached to our shoulders for the spotlights. Anywho, after a short wait it was time for the show!

When it got to my time to perform, I did the short interview with the "host", and then they played this video of people they had got to chant my name (as "fans") before the show, and this one girl who said I was her American Idol. It was kinda cute, but cheesy.

Then it was time to sing.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz3jL-XsRxM

Since I was the last performer, after the judges critiques, the 2 girls came back on stage while we got everyone to vote. Then we had to dance around to some Jordan Sparx song.

I lost, but it was still fun. After the show, we all went over to ride Star Tours (our friend Patrick works there). I finally got chosen as the rebel spy (but I think Patrick helped there). Dainan was hungry, so we went to the Backlost something or other by Star Tours (I was hungry again too, but wanted to wait till I got to Epcot).

We then took Jackie's car over to Epcot.

My friend back home, Denise, had gotten one of those Leave a Legacy things and wanted me to get a picture of it, so I did that when we got there.

Phil was with us, and he had forgotten to make dinner reservations for him and Bill. We tried to add him to the one I made at Via Napoli, but there wasn't room for 6 at the same time, and we'd have to miss Illuminations, so they decided to hold off till later and see what they could do. We went over to Test Track to get FP's, which the CM there was nice enough to print 2 extra since Patrick and Bill were joining us later, and then made our way to The Land so I could eat at Sunshine Seasons. Along the way, I finally remembered to get my Disney Visa card picture taken.

Then off to The Land we went. I got the cashew chicken I think it was at Sunshine Seasons. The first bite I took was outrageously spicy, but after that one bite the rest of it was fine. I talked Phil into doing the boat ride with me, mainly cause Patrick was just getting there and wanted food as well. Then we went over to The Seas.

By the time we were done there, Bill showed up and we went over to Test Track.....or Tron Track as it should now be called. The Tron like atmosphere is literally the only thing I like about the redo. Phil had wanted to do Mission Space, so we went there next. Unbeknownst to us, Bill has high blood pressure, so after doing the orange side, we had to sit a bit to let Bill recover, lol. He was fine eventually.

It was then dinner time, so we headed to Via Napoli. When I got there, there was a line of people outside. I got in line thinking it was to check in, and someone asked how long the wait would be. The hostess said it depended on how many reservations got cancelled and such, and I then mentioned I already had one. Is it wrong I got a sick pleasure out of the look of hate from everyone in that line? It also helped that I was able to get 6 people in on a reservation for 3 and we sat down pretty much right after checking in. I was the hero of the night. I treated Jackie, Dainan, Patrick and me to the largest pizza they had and drinks. I also got fried calamari, but me and Dainan were the only ones who ate it. All in all, I spent about $90 including the tip. So I made them buy me caramel from the caramel store in Germany, tee hee. It was only like $5, so I didn't feel too bad. Then we watched Illuminations. I wanted to get some shirts from Mousegears on the way out so we headed there after the show. Then home to Pop after.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

I absolutely LOVE this picture ...

While I had been walking around MK, I made some new friends who were in town for a convention, Bill and Phil. They were staying at the Contemporary. We got to talking about dinner plans, and they said they were trying to eat at Kona Cafe, which I already had an ADR for. They had went to the concierge who told them there were no openings. I called foul, whipped out my phone and made a reservation for 3 at the same time I had already reserved mine for using the new My Disney Experience app. And off to dinner we went!

That's awesome Robbie!! Way to share the pixie dust!!

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Once I finished with that I headed to my favorite ride, the Haunted Mansion.

Ours too!!!

I then walked around a bit, not sure what I wanted to do, but also waiting on Dainan to wake up/get there to ride stuff with him, and eat at the new Be Our Guest for lunch.

The line wasn't too bad, it moved fairly quickly. And the touch screen ordering was easy enough....well if you spoke English I guess (there were tons of Brazilians there this week)

So ... how was it? How was the food? The atmosphere??? Is it a "must do" or a "skip"?

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

After that, we decided to hit up E.T. just because. Luckily, E.T.'s home world didn't give me nightmares this time, lol.

We need to ride E.T. in May ... just because

I had never seen the Curious George section, so we went there next.

Curious George is one of my favorite characters!!!

We were all ready for lunch, so we decided to head to IOA and eat at Mythos.

As many times as we've been to IOA, can you believe we've never eaten at Mythos?? Usually Margaritaville wins out for us

And then back over to the Hog's Head for one more Butterbeer.

Just a tip - if there is ever a LONG line at the Butterbeer cart, go into Hog's Head, there is rarely a line there

The new HD animation on Spider-Man was pretty spectacular.

Can't wait to ride that one in May ... loved the old one so am looking forward to the new animations

The one last thing I wanted to do was ride The Cat in the Hat, just because.

I did get the munchies later and got nachos from the food court. Yea, they were disgusting. But the tie dye cheesecake is still pretty good (it tasted better this time than in 2011, I think they fixed the cheesecake to cake crust ratio).

I miss the Pop food court ... I love the Poly, but the food court at Pop wins out over Captain Cooks in my book. We'll have to maybe stop there for lunch one day in May. I LOVE their greek salad and breadsticks

 

[RAPstar]

Ours too!!!


So ... how was it? How was the food? The atmosphere??? Is it a "must do" or a "skip"?

I enjoyed it. The atmosphere was awesome. Its absolutely beautiful!! The food was pretty good too. I had the tuna Nicose salad, which was pretty good. The tuna was awesome, the salad wasn't bad but could've used a touch more dressing. Also, they there's no way to request items being omitted, so I had to pick out the olives. Dainan had eaten there a few times already and is a fan of the steak sandwich, which I had a bit of and was pretty darn good. I can't say much about what Phil had, the Croque Monsieur. I had just had one at La Madeline before flying out and it looked better than the one at BOG.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Then it was time to sing.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz3jL-XsRxM

I lost, but it was still fun.

You did an awesome job

It also helped that I was able to get 6 people in on a reservation for 3 and we sat down pretty much right after checking in. I was the hero of the night. I treated Jackie, Dainan, Patrick and me to the largest pizza they had and drinks.

And Robbie saves the day ... again!!

 

[RAPstar]

I forgot to put one of the funniest things that happened to me on Monday/Day 1. I was in line to get my first Lefou's Brew (I only had 2), and in the next line over was a woman who was looking confused. She noticed me looking and asked "Is it beer?". I replied, "No, it's like a slushie kinda." She looked mortified and said, "There's no alcohol in it?". I looked at her confused and said "Um.....no, there's no alcohol served in the Magic Kingdom....except dinner at...." and she rushed out of there so fast I couldn't even finish my sentence. I then remarked to the people around me "I guess someone needed a boost to their magic" which garnered a few chuckles.

 

[RAPstar]

Day 5

I forgot to charge the batteries for my camera, so I didn't bring it today, hence not many pics.

Started the day at MK again, since I had a breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace. Bill and Phil tagged along as well, luckily I was able to fit them in since I only reserved 2 people. The side we were sitting on didn't have all that many people in it though. Tigger and Eeyore were already on our side when we sat down so we waited to get pics with them before getting food. We got Tigger, but Eeyore had to go do the parade thing before he got to us, so we went to go get food. The food was good, I just thought there would be more variety? But the potato casserole was good, as was the sausage and puffed french toast. Eventually Eeyore came back around while we were eating.

After a while, and a couple more plates of food, eventually Piglet came around. Then we had to get a group shot with Pooh bear!

We finished up then headed out. Originally, I was going to go back to Epcot and play the new Agent P version of the Kim Possible game, but I also kinda wanted to see the Country Bears first. So we headed that way, and then Dainan wanted to take Bill on Thunder since he hadn't ridden it yet. We also wanted to do Dumbo, and Ph/Bill wanted to ride the train, so we decided to head that way and kill 2 birds with one stone. After Dumbo (no wait thanks to one of Dainan's friends working there), we showed Ph/Bill where the train was. I wanted to see the new character tent, and decided to meet Minnie and Daisy while I was there. When I approached Daisy, she wanted to know where my pin with her on it was, which I didn't have one. But I showed her my Donald phone case, which she then kissed then "fainted". I then had to pinky promise to get a pin of her so I could get a pic with her by the crystal ball. Minnie.....didn't interact much, lol.

After that, me and Dainan just sat for a bit cause we were both kinda tired. We decided to just stay in MK and have a slow, relaxing day. We got hungry again and eventually made our way to Sleepy Hallow where we tried the two waffle sandwiches. I had the ham/prosciutto and Dainan the spicy chicken. They were both good, tho the spicy chicked was a bit messy/sticky (and Dainan didn't like the slaw in it which I didn't mind). We headed over to Tomorrowland to hit up Stitch cause I had never done it and I'm a glutton for punishment. Luckily, the thing conked out after they seated us so I never got to see it and we got a re-ad FP out of it. So we rode Space Mountain a couple of times instead (we had regular FP's that were conveniently around the same time, woo).

We then headed back to the new section cause I was oddly craving a LeFou's Brew (it wasn't that horrible. I kinda liked it). I had the girl at the counter check how many credits I had left on my dining plan, and I lucked out and still had one snack and one quick service left so I got the drink and a pork shank. OMG, the shank was huge!!! And tasty. And greasy. My mouth was covered in oily juice after eating it. But it was sooooo good. I was full almost the rest of the day after it. So full, I cancelled my reservation at 1900 Park Faire (and getting charged $20 for it, oh well). Once we were done there, Dainan wanted to do the Tiki room. I'm one of the weirdos that actually kinda like the "New Management" redo. But the original is quite entertaining too. We also did the Jungle Cruise while we were there. This was the first time I ever had a skipper who didn't "steer" the boat.

By this time, it was getting close to firework time, and we decided to watch them from the Contemporary (that and we wanted something to eat and didn't like the options we had at MK). So we headed over to the Contempo Cafe. I had some pasta and Dainan had a chicken sandwich (his treat, even tho I was adamant about paying for at least my own meal). I did by myself the pineapple rum cupcake which was divine. Then we headed to the balcony on the 4th floor and watched Wishes. I will say seeing it from this vantage point made it a bit more impressive, IMO, since you saw how really big the big fireworks are compared to the MK.

We had made plans with Ph/Bill to meet at Jellyrolls that evening so we headed that way after Wishes. It was fun, but I was exhausted. I managed to last until 11:30, and then had Dainan take me back to Pop (he went back and hung out with Ph/Bill for a while longer tho). Once back at Pop, I got on my laptop real quick to change the breakfast reservation I had to a later time to sleep in some, and also made a late lunch/early dinner reservation at Raglan Road since I had an extra table credit to now use.

 

[wiigirl]

Love your TR.

 

[RAPstar]

Love your TR.

Thanks!

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Then we had to get a group shot with Pooh bear!

Pooh is my favorite

We headed over to Tomorrowland to hit up Stitch cause I had never done it and I'm a glutton for punishment. Luckily, the thing conked out after they seated us so I never got to see it

We did Stitch once ... never again ... for us it's a must miss

Dainan wanted to do the Tiki room. I'm one of the weirdos that actually kinda like the "New Management" redo. But the original is quite entertaining too.

Tiki Room is one of Lee's favorites

We also did the Jungle Cruise while we were there. This was the first time I ever had a skipper who didn't "steer" the boat.

We went to the MK on our last night in Orlando during our October trip and we had a Jungle Cruise boat all to ourselves (well with the skipper too LOL)

also made a late lunch/early dinner reservation at Raglan Road since I had an extra table credit to now use.

We do Raglan every trip - we end up getting together with a few of our Orlando friends, and have ended up being the last ones out more than once

 

[RAPstar]

Day 6

Dainan and Jackie were picking me up at 9:30 to go to Kona Cafe for breakfast. I got ready and double checked that I had everything packed. Then I went down to the gift shop and got 1 more Vinylmation and 1 more pin. Then went outside and waited for them. We got to Kona and were seated almost immediately. I got the Tonga Toast, which wasn't as sweet or greasy as I kept reading. Though I wish I had gotten the macadamia pineapple pancakes instead. After we ate, we headed to Downtown Disney cause I wanted to do Disney Quest since I'd never been. And now having been I never need to go back there ever again, lol. My biggest mistake was riding Cyberspace Mountain 3 times in a row doing as many inversions as possible. I was nauseous for a good hour or so, of course it didn't help that I did the Aladdin VR thing right after. So after an extended break with water, I was able to walk around some more. We played some of the arcade games (I love me some pinball!), then decided to skedaddle.

We went over to Raglan Road as our goodbye meal, which was really good, well for the most part. I had gotten the braised beef, but mainly cause I really wanted the horseradish mashed potatoes and parsnips, which were awesome. The beef was a bit dry, but when its prepared that way it usually is, well to me. After dinner, we went over to World of Disney, and I found an awesome shirt....but they didn't have it in my size (they checked the back too). By that time, we needed to get going to get me to the airport. So we hurried back to the car and got going. Check in went smoothly (I really like that you can now use your phone as your boarding pass with American). The flight wasn't all that great; all the seats in my row were taken and the guy in the middle used both arm rests so I had to lean to one side all flight which was uncomfortable, we were late getting in, and I conked out but just long enough that I woke up annoyed cause I wanted more sleep. Eventually landed and went to baggage claim to meet Adam, and my puppy, and went home.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

I thought I had replied ... but guess not

Dainan and Jackie were picking me up at 9:30 to go to Kona Cafe for breakfast. I got the Tonga Toast, which wasn't as sweet or greasy as I kept reading. Though I wish I had gotten the macadamia pineapple pancakes instead.

Tried Tonga Toast once ... was WAY too much for me ... but then I'm not a big breakfast eater anyway ... Lee likes it. I'd rather have plain old bacon, eggs and toast if I have to eat breakfast.

After we ate, we headed to Downtown Disney cause I wanted to do Disney Quest since I'd never been. And now having been I never need to go back there ever again, lol.

We've never had the desire to go to Disney Quest ...

then decided to skedaddle.

After dinner, we went over to World of Disney

LOVE WOD ... can shop for hours in there

The flight wasn't all that great; all the seats in my row were taken and the guy in the middle used both arm rests so I had to lean to one side all flight which was uncomfortable, we were late getting in, and I conked out but just long enough that I woke up annoyed cause I wanted more sleep. Eventually landed and went to baggage claim to meet Adam, and my puppy, and went home.

I find flights are never "fun" ... adventure might be a better word to describe it. I'm sure your friend Adam and Draco were happy to see you when you did finally get home though!