Liberer le souper separe deux (with pics) *Update 11/17 Complete!

[SmallWorld71]

Please indulge me if you will while I go off on a tangent with a little story....

After leaving the MK and spending a few hours at the resort during which the kids swam, Grammie lounged by the pool and I did laundry, we all felt we were rested enough for an evening out. Buzz and I really wanted to see Fantasmic as for various reasons we had never been able to see it on previous trips. So, after many months here on the DIS, I had a perfect plan. We would head over to DHS, grab dinner at the Rosie's or one of the other nearby CS places and bring our food into the theater to eat while we waited for the show. Sounds good right?

Well, for once the bus was there right away so we got to DHS earlier than I had planned. This is where I made my 1st big mistake. "We have about a 1/2 hour extra. Why don't we just walk around a little?" We decided to walk over to TSMM so Grammie could see where it was since she and Alice were in charge of grabbing FP's for the next morning. Well, we get there and across from the ride is Buzz and Woody signing autographs. I foolishly look at the line and say that we can get the autographs and then head over to the show. Buzz is thrilled because he happens to be wearing a t-shirt with Buzz and Woody on it. What I didn't know was that the line snaked around once inside and would turn out to be the longest line we would wait in all week.

So, 15 min. later we are getting nowhere. I get the bright idea to go get us food while Grammie waits in line. The 1st place I go to doesn't have anything appealing. (2nd big mistake - I should have just grabbed a couple kids' meals here for the kids) I decide to go to Pizza Planet - closed! How did I not know that some places at DHS closed early?

I head back to the line and take Grammie's place as she needs to go check her blood sugar. Well, to try and close this story, we didn't get out of that line until 7:25! Now I'm not even sure if we will get into Fantasmic! We hustle over and there is no time now to get food outside. Inside, things are chaos and I realize that our seats are going to be terrible but what can I do? So, we make our way to the very last section and find seats and then Alice and I go in search of a restroom and some food.

The good news: 1) We found the restrooms. 2)On the way to the rest rooms, I notice a big space on one of the benches in the sections just to the left of the center. I ask the people sitting nearby and the seats were available! Miraculously, Grammie hears her cell phone and her and Buzz come to our new, great seats.

The bad news: The lines for food are horrendous! And they were moving at a snail's rate. There was no way I was making it through one of those before the show which was now 20 min. away. I spy a CM walking around with some Minute Maid frozen pink lemonades, the kind they give as desserts at some CS places. I manage to get the last 2 and that is what Alice and I bring back with us for supper!

Moral of my long boring story: when you have spent this long on the DIS, you should know better than to veer from a good plan without a good reason! Lesson over. Class dismissed.

On a happy note: all 4 of us loved the show!
And, we did get to see Buzz and Woody:

In the next post I will actually tell you what we had for food later that evening. Thanks for listening.

 

[SmallWorld71]

After the show, we made the cattle walk to the busses and of course waited a very long time while Disney Transportation tried to get the masses home. *Rant alert* Why do people see a huge crowd and think that their bus line must be empty and that those long lines are for someone else? I counted at least 50 people who walked out into the street to get to the All Stars bus stops only to be sent back to the end of very long lines by the people at the front. Did they think we all felt like standing around in a line. DUH! *Rant over*

When we got back, Grammie took the kids to the room to get them ready for bed while I got food for us. My receipt says I went through the line at 10:26pm.

I ordered:
Kids' Grilled Cheese and Kids' Chicken Nuggets with grapes and chocolate pudding. Got a milk and an orange juice with them.
Adult Chicken Quesadilla and 8 piece chicken nuggets with fries. I got apples with caramel and a fruit cup for desserts and a large orange juice and a vanilla soy milk for drinks.
That was a lot of food when I got it all on one tray and I somehow made it all the way to the room without dropping anything. I was nervous the whole way.

Poor Alice was so tired that she was already in bed. She did manage to eat half a grilled cheese and drink a cup of soy milk lying down with her eyes closed and then she fell fast asleep.

Grammie, Buzz and I attacked the rest of the food. (Hence no pics)
The quesadilla and the adult chicken nuggets were very good. The grilled cheese was also good. The kids nuggets were kind of dry but they were the only thing that wasn't good. I put the fruit and juice in the fridge for breakfast, and also the pudding was saved for later, but otherwise there wasn't a crumb left.

Buzz - I was starving! I really liked the quesadilla. I ate the most food. I ate until there was nothing left.

Side note: Since we were in the room anyway, I saved the plastic Mickey dishes that the kids' meals came in and rinsed them out. They actually made it home and the kids love using them. I wish I had saved more.

Up next: Day 4 DHS and Pizza Planet, then dinner at Crystal Palace

Thanks for reading!

 

[SmallWorld71]

After a late night, we dragged ourselves out of bed to make park opening at DHS and had fruit, crackers and juice on the go for breakfast. After a morning of touring we got hungry around 11:30 since we'd had such a small breakfast. We headed over to Pizza Planet. Grammie and I were afraid it might be busy but we were the only ones in line at this hour.

A couple random Pizza Planet pics:

Grammie and I got the "Junkyard Meal Deal" which is a veggie pizza with garden salad.
Buzz got the "Buzz's Meal Deal" (of course!) which is a cheese pizza with garden salad.
Alice just got a cheese pizza.

Veggie pizza and salad in background

Cheese pizza

For desset the kids had Mickey Rice Krispie Treats and Grammie and I had sugar cookies.

Nothing to exciting here. It is your typical pizza. But it was nice and fresh and we enjoyed it. Normally, I would have gotten 3 meals for the 4 of us but we were really hungry. None of us ate our desserts then. We saved them for later.

Buzz - I like the atmosphere. I like how it has things from the movie hanging on the ceiling. If you like Toy Story this is a cool place to eat.

***Note*** I have heard a lot of people complain that there is nowhere to sit at Pizza Planet. As mentioned, when we got there the place was empty and we had our choice of seats upstairs. However, when we left it was about 12:20 and people practically pounced on our table when we got up because the place was packed. So, if you want to eat there go early or at off times.

Food: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Atmosphere: 4/5



Snack later:
Later, Grammie and Alice had gone back to the hotel and Buzz and I stayed for a few more attractions. We got very hot and thirsty and grabbed a couple of these frozen lemonades from a little place along Echo Lake. (Receipt says Min and Bill's Dockside Diner)They were the perfect treat for a hot summer afternoon. We drank them as we headed for the exit and were excited to see our bus. The driver waited for us but then wouldn't let us on with our lemonades. He said no open containers were allowed. Fine, but people had been eating on the busses all week. Oh, well. Live and learn. We sat and finished our lemonades and waited for the next bus.

Up next: Dinner at Crystal Palace

 

[michael's mom]

Hi SmallWorld and Buzz! Great pics and reviews! Keep 'em coming

I get more and more excited about my trip in 6 months each time I read the reviews

 

[SmallWorld71]

Hi SmallWorld and Buzz! Great pics and reviews! Keep 'em coming

I get more and more excited about my trip in 6 months each time I read the reviews

Thanks and welcome aboard! Buzz and I are very jealous of people who have trips in the works.

Buzz has a pack meeting tomorrow night so no new reviews until Crystal Palace on Friday.

 

[SmallWorld71]

After refreshing ourselves at our resort, we headed to the MK for our Crystal Palace reservations. Honestly, we were all pretty tired, and I thought about canceling, but I knew the kids were looking forward to this one. As I mentioned before, we were celebrating Grammie's birthday. Well, Grammie is a big Eeyore fan and when the kids found out that she had never met the ole donkey, they were sure that Crystal Palace would be THE PLACE for her to celebrate. And of course, good Grammie that she is, she showed the proper enthusiasm and even wore her pin and everything.

Our reservation was for 6:10pm and amazingly there was no line to check in. After waiting about 10 min. we were shown to our table.
Here's a couple pics of the lobby topiaries:

I had asked for Grammie's birthday to be noted on the ADR and when we got to our table, it was decorated with some Mickey confetti. Sorry, no pic.

Now, this was our only repeat TS of the entire trip and I was very worried about the Disney Dining Jinx. For anyone who is not familiar with The Jinx, this is when you have a fabulous dining experience, can't wait to go back and then when you return the experience is not the magical experience you remember.

Anyway, the food was fabulous. I was surprised last year at how good food at a character meal that serves the masses all day long could be, but it really is quite good. I only have pics of my food (as well as Buzz's ice cream) because, quite frankly, I was much more concerned with character pics here and making sure nobody had gone to the loo or the buffet when they were approaching. Here are my few food pics:

I enjoyed everything except the spoonbread stuff although Grammie thought it was good so it was probably just not to my taste. The salads here were very good as was the salmon. I thought the dessert selection was better than last year. My favorites were the apple crisp and some red velvet cake of Buzz's that I tried.

Buzz - I really liked the salmon with anchovy sauce drizzled on it. I really liked the key lime pie and the cheesecake.

For those of you with kids who are not like Buzz and wrinkle their noses at words like "anchovy paste" please note that Alice's meal consisted of mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, 2 bananas and vanilla ice cream. There is definitely plenty of choice here for those with a more "particular" palate. I think this buffet is a good choice for families with a wide range of tastes.

Continued in next post:

 

[SmallWorld71]

We had happily survived the food jinx, but what about the characters? Would the interaction be as good as it was last year. The answer is a resounding yes. Unlike when surrounded by royalty, Alice was her usual bubbly self here and I think the pictures show what a great time she had here and how good the characters were with her. Even Buzz had fun and he is not a particular fan of our 100 Acre Wood friends.

First up was Piglet.
Quick story: 2 1/2 years ago was Alice's first Disney trip and she was terrified of most of the characters. However, she really took a liking to Piglet. He was very gentle with her and when he saw her sucking her thumb while clutching her ratty little bunny blankie he gently took if from her and started sucking his thumb. This tickled her to no end and she began to relax around the characters and Piglet (or "Pliget" as she called him) has been a favorite ever since. Well, last year she brought the bunny to dinner so her and Piglet could reminisce and bless Piglet for "remembering" after I told him the story. Fast forward to this year and a very worn bunny came to dinner again and this year Alice reminded him of the first time they met and he "remembered" again! Here is Piglet sucking his thumb. You can see how excited Alice is that he remembered her.

Next came Tigger who pretended to eat her Darby doll.

Next was Pooh Bear. See how he opens his arms. How sweet is that!

Last was Eeyore. Grammie and I had to have pics with him.

Final thoughts in next post:

 

[SmallWorld71]

I should also mention that our server here was also very good. She was very efficient with our drinks and kept checking back to make sure we had seen the characters. She also brought Grammie a cupcake and a card signed by the 4 characters from the meal and her and some other servers sang happy birthday to Grammie along with us. Here's a pic of the kids with Grammie and her cupcake:

She was definitely a good server and IMHO worked just as hard as someone at a non-buffet meal and I left her a good tip to reflect this.

FYI - The characters also do a little parade around the room with the kids which is cute and fun for the little ones.

Our ratings:
food: 4/5
service: 4/5
atmosphere: 4/5
characters: 5/5

Up next: Day 5 Kona Cafe breakfast, MK snacks, World Premiere Food Court dinner (I actually took a pic of this one)

 

[michael's mom]

Wow, you're fast. I never expected you and Buzz to put this up tonight! You sold me on yet another meal.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Wow, you're fast. I never expected you and Buzz to put this up tonight! You sold me on yet another meal.

Thanks, neighbor! I hope you have as good a time at Crystal Palace as we did. Don't be afraid to talk to those characters, it helps with the interaction. And, of course, make sure they know you are celebrating your birthday.

All Day 5 pics are ready to go. Hopefully, Buzz and I will get the next installment up tomorrow night.

 

[jeminni]

Great CP review. This is actually my favorite character meal. The first time we went to disney my all my DD wanted to see was winnie the pooh. She met him here the first time and loved it. In December her and I are going back for a girls only trip and we have ADRs here our first night before MVMCP. BTW she is 21 now and still loves going here.

 

[DLo]

enjoyed your cp review. we are going there for lunch for the 1st time next month. Alice's meal sounds exactly like what my ds 10 will be eating. He has chicken fingers almost everwhere we eat.

The piglet story is too adorable. That is one of the tings that makes disney so special.

 

[SunnieRN]

Awwww, loved the character pics! Your trip sounds absolutely wonderful so far! I know you felt you made a mistake at HS, but the picture with Buzz and Woody negates a late dinner. Awesome reviews!

 

[whogirl'smom]

I'm really enjoying your review and pictures! We just got back from AS Movies last night ourselves.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Great CP review. This is actually my favorite character meal. The first time we went to disney my all my DD wanted to see was winnie the pooh. She met him here the first time and loved it. In December her and I are going back for a girls only trip and we have ADRs here our first night before MVMCP. BTW she is 21 now and still loves going here.

Aww. I hope my kids still love going at 21.
On Alice's first trip she was so nervous around the characters but practically flung herself in Pooh's arms and as I mentioned bonded with Piglet so they are special to us.

enjoyed your cp review. we are going there for lunch for the 1st time next month. Alice's meal sounds exactly like what my ds 10 will be eating. He has chicken fingers almost everwhere we eat.

The piglet story is too adorable. That is one of the tings that makes disney so special.

Thanks! Even Buzz thinks she's really cute with Piglet and cute is not a word he usually uses to describe Alice.

Have a great trip!

Awwww, loved the character pics! Your trip sounds absolutely wonderful so far! I know you felt you made a mistake at HS, but the picture with Buzz and Woody negates a late dinner. Awesome reviews!

Thanks for the compliments! It was certainly a mistake that worked out in the end, but boy were we hungry!

I'm really enjoying your review and pictures! We just got back from AS Movies last night ourselves.

Welcome! I hope you had a great time! It's rough coming back, but these reports are great at helping you relive the memories.

 

[SmallWorld71]

We had a 10:40am reservation for a late breakfast at Kona. We choose this restaurant for 2 reasons. #1 The kids and I (along with DS13 and DH) had eaten at 'Ohana last year and Buzz fell in love with the Poly. It is now his dream resort that he hopes to stay at some day and he really wanted to show it to Grammie. #2 Buzz and I have seen so many pics of Tonaga Toast on these boards that we just had to try it for ourselves.

Today was EMH at MK, so we headed out early and got there just at opening. After a very productive 1 1/2 hrs. of touring, Buzz and Alice got in a silly little squabble at the penny machine in Tomorrowland and that's when I lost it. (Every good vacation needs a meltdown right? Well, this year I was the one with the meltdown.) I told them I was leaving them there (with Grammie) and started to walk away. But, they all followed me and as a result we found ourselves on Main Street a little earlier than I had planned. I agreed to stay and suggested we head over to Kona a little early and see if they would take us.

Here's a pic I took from the Monorail Platform:

Ahhhhh. So beautiful. Can't you just feel the stress melting away....

I checked in at the podium about 40 min. early and the host said he would try but he wasn't sure if they could take us early. Well, I had just finished explaining this to Grammie and the buzzer lit up. A whole 2 minute wait.

We were ushered to our seats and given our menus.

Continued in next post....

 

[SmallWorld71]

Grammie was happy to get a decent cup of coffee and the kids and I ordered "Lilikoi" juice which is their special blend of juices. (We had the same at 'Ohana last year and loved it. )

Here's a pic of the lilikoi juice along with the butter, syrup and strawberry sauce.

Grammie got the Blueberry Pancakes which came with a choice of ham, bacon, or sausage. She asked if she could sub fruit for the meat and they were fine with that. The pic doesn't do it justice, but these babies were loaded with blueberries and she really enjoyed them.

Alice had the Mickey Pancakes and picked a sausage for her side. She loved the pancakes and ate most of them but the sausage was too spicy for her and she gave it to Grammie.

Buzz had Donald's Choice. Described as "one egg, quacked and scrambled, with sweet cinnamon toast." He picked sausage for his side. He also had some of Grammie's fruit and 1/4 of my meal.
Buzz - The Tonga toast was really sweet. I liked my meal. The sausage was my favorite part.

I had the infamous Tonga Toast. "Banana stuffed sourdough bread, rolled in cinnamon sugar and served with Strawberry Compote and your choice of ham, bacon, or sausage." I also had mine with sausage which were very good. The adult meals come with 2, the kids' with 1. The Tonga Toast was delicious and I'm glad I tried it. BUT, it was too much sweetness. About 1/2 way through, I had had enough and was wishing I had Grammie's pancakes. I would only get it again if it was to be shared. I wouldn't tackle a whole one on my own again.

Our sever here was fine. Nothing special but efficient and competent. She didn't say much, but that was fine for morning IMHO.

Food 4/5
Service 3/5
Atmosphere 4/5

After breakfast we walked around a little and the kids colored in the lobby for a while and posed for some pics. Feeling much better - rested and full, we headed back to the MK for the afternoon.

A few more pics:

 

[SmallWorld71]

After eating and relaxing at the Poly, we headed back to MK. We were in Toontown and needed something to combat the heat, so we got another frozen lemonade from the Toontown Farmer's Market. I don't have a pic, but here is the one from DHS; it was the same. Yummy and refreshing. These things are great on a hot summer afternoon.

Later, we were in Frontierland using some BTMRR FP's and were getting hot and hungry again. Buzz and I thought this would be a good time to head on over to Aloha Isle. Alice decided she would rather have an ice cream sandwich from one of the carts instead. It was here that I met psycho lady #2. There was an old man trying to order ice creams and was having a difficult time. She was getting very disgusted and walked away. As soon as he was done and I stepped up she comes running back, screams at me that she was next and practically pushed me out of the way! Not wanting to risk bodily injury, I let her go next.
Here is a pic of the ice cream sandwich that Alice had the next day at AK as I was too shocked at MK to remember a pic. A Disney classic...

We then made our way to Aloha Isle. Grammie got a pineapple juice which she enjoyed. I was going to get a pineapple/ chocolate soft serve twist but they were out of chocolate ice cream. So, I got what Buzz was getting, a Dole Whip Float.

Buzz - This is one of my favorite snacks at Disney World. I love pineapple! If you do too, you should try this. Get the float; it's better than just the ice cream.
My receipt says we bought these at 2:45. As we were walking towards Main Street, we saw that there was still plenty of room for the 3:00 parade! So, we stayed and watched and enjoyed our cool treats.


Dinner that night was the food court again.
Here's a pic I took of all the food on one tray. (Grammie was doing some souvenir shopping and joined us a little later.)

Alice had the mac&cheese. What can I say? She loves mac & cheese.
Since we had extra CS, I let Buzz get an adult meal. He chose the salmon with mac & cheese, rice and a brownie.
Buzz - The salmon was really good. The brownie was really chocolatey.
I got the Turkey and Muenster on foccacia with chipotle mayo and pasta salad as I side. Grapes were my dessert which I saved for later. The sanwich and salad were only O.K. Honestly, the only thing I got at the food court all week and wished I hadn't. Buzz was the one who made the smart choice here. He let me have a taste and the salmon was surprisingly good.


Up next, Donald's Safari Breakfast before park opening, Wolfgang Puck Express, and Goofy's Candy Company.

 

[oybolshoi]

Great reviews and if I didn't already say it ... your kids are really cute!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Great reviews and if I didn't already say it ... your kids are really cute!

Thanks and welcome back! I'm enjoying your reviews as well.

By the way, Buzz is very impressed that the DISer with the most pages to her food reviews has posted on our review. Kind of like coolness by association.