Olivia's 3rd Birthday Extravaganza! DDxP,BBB and PP!Oh my! Our 12/10 TR! **Finished**

[eecteacher82]

Mmm Yak and Yeti looks so good! I really might have to go eat there on my next trip, I keep seeing such great reviews! Those Fried Wontons look awesome, what does the sauce taste like?

I highly recommend it! We loved everything about it! The wontons were so yummy! The sauce was pretty sweet (DH is not a huge fan of really sweet desserts), the menu said it was a honey vanilla drizzle. All I know is that it was delicious!

mmmm that food all looks good, I think I am going to gain weight just reading your report. I am considering doing the deluxe plan for next year, do you think it is worth it?

I hope you don't gain weight reading! I actually ended up losing about 5 pounds on the trip....still not sure how though I was a little bit leery about the DDxP, but, not giving too much away, I will say that we did do better financially by getting the plan, and we never felt overstuffed or ridiculously full. I think as long as you space out meals and hit at least one signature restaurant, you will be fine! I will give a more thorough review at the end of my TR!

I was an update behind, but your day at AK sure got off to a great start....love the photopass pics. You guys are such a photogenic family

Yak and Yeti looks delicious... and your story of taking pictures of the food made me laugh. I did this on our last trip, and my bf thought it was strange at first but ended up joining in on it within a couple of days.

Can't wait for more!

Thank you! It is funny that you say we are photogenic, DH cannot stand having his picture taken, but I told him that since we had spent all that money on the PP he better smile and look nice/happy! Olivia LOVES having her picture taken and I don't either like or dislike it.

I just told Toby that my DIS friends appreciated me taking all the food porn pics, and he just laughed and said that's because they are nuts like me! Truth be told, he had fun with the picture taking too-I'll explain that in a later post!

 

[Daddy_of_Princesses]

I didn't take a picture of the passports, but can do that. I will include them in my TR so you might have to wait a bit. We didn't use them till the end, but did take them the first day to EPCOT.

 

[eecteacher82]

Happy New Year everyone!! Did everyone have a nice New Year's Eve? Mine was pretty tame: I cleaned the house, played with Olivia and was asleep before midnight (although all the fireworks around here woke me up)!

Back to the TR. When I left off we, had just finished a delicious lunch at Yak & Yeti, it was about 2:15 and we were heading to the Safari.

I will admit right now, I am a bad DISer and didn't take A SINGLE PICTURE on the ride!!! I have a good reason though, I was in shock....

You see, while we were waiting in line (it was pretty short- less than 15 minutes), there was a family in front of us that had 4 kids ranging in age from about 4-17. They seemed pretty nice, although a little rowdy (the youngest two kept bumping in to Olivia, almost knocking her over a couple of times). As we were about to board our truck for our two week safari, I noticed it. The 17-or-so year old was...... SUCKING HER THUMB!!!! I know, I know, I should not judge (and I really wasn't, I was just in shock), but isn't 17 a bit old to be sucking your thumb? What made it even worse for me, was that she wasn't just sucking it, she was not taking it out at all. Not to talk, not to take a drink, nothing, nada! Of course the family was in the row in front of us for the trek, and the young lady sat right in front of me. I am ashamed for saying this, but I could not stop staring! The WHOLE ride she was talking and pointing to things all with her thumb in her mouth. So there you have, the horrible/pathetic reason why I have no pics of the ride. I do remember that we saw every animal, even the lions and cheetah!

After we exited the ride, we made a mad dash for the bathroom since Olivia had been asking to go for about 10 minutes (darn those 2 full cups of lemonade at lunch), and I knew she couldn't wait much longer. So, as Olivia and ran to the RR, Toby found the stroller and met us outside.

By this time it was around 3:00 and I was on a mission: more PP pics of course! I knew there were photographers on the path between Africa and Asia, with a great view of the Tree of Life, so that is where we headed.

There was nobody else there, just 2 lonely photographers! Score! No waiting. *I should mention that by now it was WAY past Olivia's nap time and it was starting to show. She wasn't being outwardly naughty, but she was definitely letting us know if she didn't want to do something...and smiling and posing for lots of pics was something she didn't want to do right then. We did manage to get some cute ones:

Once we had finished those pics, we asked Olivia if she wanted to go to the hotel (we were hoping our room was ready since we had not yet received a text), or go and see Pooh. The mention of seeing more characters perked her right up and she chose Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore.

There must not be too many people that know about this little area because there has never been more that 5 or so people down there anytime we have gone. This was probably one of the worst character experiences we have ever had. Olivia was so excited that she was bouncing like Tigger as she waiting for the family ahead of us to finish! When it was finally her turn, she ran right to Pooh and gave him the biggest hug ever! It was the cutest thing, and of course the PP didn't get it He was only taking the "posed" pictures. I have never been in a character line where the photographer didn't take pics of kids running up to the characters (maybe we have just been lucky...). It seemed like every CM down there had the "I don't want to be here right now" attitude, which was less than magical. Anyway, our "time" with Pooh was literally about 20 seconds, but we did get some cute pics:

Next up was Eeyore, and it was much of the same, hurry up and move on. Luckily we did get more cute pics!

Last up was Tigger! I am happy to say that Tigger was ignoring the CM and PP's requests to hurry up and spent TONS of time with us!!! He was playing with Olivia and "talked" to us for a good 5 minutes! Olivia was in heaven!

(LOVE this one!)

Once we finished up our pics, it was 3:45 we decided to head out and back to POP (even though I really wanted to see the parade), so we could unload the car, get in the room and let Olivia relax a bit before dinner.

We made our way to the buses and waited....and waited....and waited, for more than 30 minutes! We literally saw 5 All-Star buses come to an EMPTY All-Star stop!!! Finally, after about 35 minutes our bus came and we were on our way back to POP. Now, it was almost 4:30 and we still hadn't gotten the text with our room number...grrr.

We pulled in to POP at 4:45 and had to go to the front desk so we could get our room number. The problem was the check-in line was L O N G and Toby refused to wait since we should have already had the room number and been able to go right to the room. I thought that it was nuts too, so I just got in the concierge line which only had 1 person in it. I was helped pretty quickly (the CM was shocked that we had not received a text...). Finally just before 5:00 we were on our way! Room 1437 here we come!!

Up next, getting moved in and ready for dinner.

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

great update!! I told you I was going to stalk it!! We had the room ready text not come on one of our trips so I make it a point to ask for a card with the resort's phone number on it and then if it's before or after 3:00 and you don't have the text you can call. I think that makes it way easier than having to stand in line! I guess obviously you would have to stand in line if the CM on the phone kept saying it wasn't ready but we've never had it come down to that. Our trip in March, I think the CM said it was ready and we got the text at 3:05

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Happy New Year! We stayed in and at 11:30pm started watching Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clarke to ring in 2011.

That crispy honey chicken looks yummy - I'm soooo getting that on the Spectrum Mom's trip!

Very cute character meets and yay for Tigger for not rushing you through!

 

[eecteacher82]

great update!! I told you I was going to stalk it!! We had the room ready text not come on one of our trips so I make it a point to ask for a card with the resort's phone number on it and then if it's before or after 3:00 and you don't have the text you can call. I think that makes it way easier than having to stand in line! I guess obviously you would have to stand in line if the CM on the phone kept saying it wasn't ready but we've never had it come down to that. Our trip in March, I think the CM said it was ready and we got the text at 3:05

Hmm, I didn't know you could get a card with the direct number! Now I know, thanks! I'm pretty sure not getting a text had something to do with the fiasco with Ting-Ting at check-in earlier, but it was fine!

Happy New Year! We stayed in and at 11:30pm started watching Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clarke to ring in 2011.

That crispy honey chicken looks yummy - I'm soooo getting that on the Spectrum Mom's trip!

Very cute character meets and yay for Tigger for not rushing you through!

Glad you had a nice NYE!

The chicken was great, I will recommend it to anyone!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I also forgot to comment on the thumb sucking!!! Of course I can't judge because I don't know what her situation was medical or not but 2 years ago, I was at TL on one of my days off and it was during spring break = crazy! But a family who didn't speak English sat down behind me and had towels on the sand. I turned over to read a magazine and see right in front me, a 17 yr old something on her towel, reading a book/texting with her thumb in her mouth. Crazy isn't it?!

 

[eecteacher82]

I also forgot to comment on the thumb sucking!!! Of course I can't judge because I don't know what her situation was medical or not but 2 years ago, I was at TL on one of my days off and it was during spring break = crazy! But a family who didn't speak English sat down behind me and had towels on the sand. I turned over to read a magazine and see right in front me, a 17 yr old something on her towel, reading a book/texting with her thumb in her mouth. Crazy isn't it?! I actually took a picture and sent it to my roommates!!

It was just so nuts! I have never seen someone that old sucking their thumb! There was actually a show on TLC the other day about strange addictions or something, and there was a 24 year old who still sucked her thumb! She went to a shrink, who said she had issues! LOL!

 

[Nermel9]

Haha, can't believe that story about the 17 year old thumb sucker! I've never understood sucking your thumb, even for kids, it's just weird to me...binkies I can understand, but something about having a finger in your mouth is gross to me!

Love all the pictures! It's too bad it seems like the PP photographers didn't care...I noticed that about some of them on my trip too, most of them were really great, but there were a few who seemed like they just could not be bothered. Whatever, you work in DISNEY WORLD!!! Cheer up! I would trade places with you people in a second! (Ok, sorry, mini rant over! )

Glad you had such a great time with Tigger! I love when the characters give you extra attention!

 

[Tinkermom76]

Hey great update!!!!!

Wow, 17 year old thumb sucker. All my best friends kids suck their thumbs and I tell her all the time that she needs to stop them. She had the most recent one 6 months ago and I tried to get her to give him a soother but she wasn't persistant and he sucks his thumb too. Her other ones are 2, 4, 6 & 8 and they all suck their thumb and cuddle a blanket. I don't get it cause none of mine ever sucked their thumb but it's funny because she doesn't seem to care that they do it. I tell her all the time people will laugh at ther kids but she doesn't seem to care.

I would have stared at her too

 

[Daddy_of_Princesses]

Where are Pooh and Friends at AKL? We missed that. Bummer. We met them at Crystal Palace anyway, but would have been cool to get pics with them dressed for winter.

 

[eecteacher82]

Haha, can't believe that story about the 17 year old thumb sucker! I've never understood sucking your thumb, even for kids, it's just weird to me...binkies I can understand, but something about having a finger in your mouth is gross to me!

Love all the pictures! It's too bad it seems like the PP photographers didn't care...I noticed that about some of them on my trip too, most of them were really great, but there were a few who seemed like they just could not be bothered. Whatever, you work in DISNEY WORLD!!! Cheer up! I would trade places with you people in a second! (Ok, sorry, mini rant over! )

Glad you had such a great time with Tigger! I love when the characters give you extra attention!

The thumb sucker was just SO weird! Olivia has never sucked her thumb either, never even had a pacifier...I guess we are just lucky!

I was kinda upset that the photographers just didn't seem very "Disney" to me. Oh well, not everything can be perfect!

The majority of the characters on this trip were AMAZING and spent lots of time with Olivia! I was so happy.

Hey great update!!!!!

Wow, 17 year old thumb sucker. All my best friends kids suck their thumbs and I tell her all the time that she needs to stop them. She had the most recent one 6 months ago and I tried to get her to give him a soother but she wasn't persistant and he sucks his thumb too. Her other ones are 2, 4, 6 & 8 and they all suck their thumb and cuddle a blanket. I don't get it cause none of mine ever sucked their thumb but it's funny because she doesn't seem to care that they do it. I tell her all the time people will laugh at ther kids but she doesn't seem to care.

I would have stared at her too

I just don't get it I was always against pacifiers and thumb sucking, and lucky for me, Olivia was not at all interested in the pacifier when they tried to give her one in the hospital, and has never sucked her thumb! My niece is almost 7 and still sucks her finger and it drives me nuts, but her mother doesn't care... The funny thing is that when I told my SIL about the thumb sucker at Disney she thought it was disgusting, and ranted and raved about how parents should not let them do that....etc!

Where are Pooh and Friends at AKL? We missed that. Bummer. We met them at Crystal Palace anyway, but would have been cool to get pics with them dressed for winter.

At AK, there is a little path near the front of the park-if you walk in, cross the bridge and are staring at the ToL, turn right and just before you get to the bridge to Dinoland there is a path on your right that takes you down to the characters. We saw them at CP too, but I really wanted as many pics of characters in their winter clothes as possible!

 

[exwdwcm]

LOL at the thumb sucker- that is crazy. I would have been staring too. I don't even take pics on the safari anymore anyways, we've done it so many times now, all my pics are almost all the same and i don't have time to scrapbook anymore, other than a digital book, so i just don't even bother on safari unless we get really close to something.

Love the pooh pics- i didn't realize they had this area, i will have to check it out next time! Will would have loved it!

so sorry about the room situation- i would have been pissed at not receiving a text before 4. we were not into our room until right at 4, we were pretty upset they didn't have it ready sooner, but i guess BLT was booked solid.

 

[eecteacher82]

Hi guys! How is everyone doing today? Things are good here. This is a super busy week! We had a nice New Years Day at my Mom's house, and once again ate way too much delicious food! I have to work tonight at church, tomorrow night we are going out for $1 taco night at a local Mexican restaurant, Friday night we are going to the circus, Saturday is Toby's birthday-the big 25, lol, then Sunday is working at church and family time. Whew, I'm tired just typing that!

Back to my TR. Last time I left off with us finally getting our room number (1437)!

We headed out of the lobby and Toby went to the car to pull it around to the 50s parking lot, and Olivia walked to find the room. Once we found it (we didn't go upstairs, just stayed on the ground floor), we waited for Toby to park and went to the car to do some unloading. Our goal once again, was to attempt to take everything up in 1 trip. I should take a second to note what "everything" was:
*Olivia's suitcase (travel size)
*Toby's suitcase/rolling duffel bag (a little bit larger than travel size)
*My suitcase (travel size)
*Travel size suitcase w/ misc room stuff
*Toiletry bag
*Stroller
*Reusable grocery bag of food
*Large (about 4x the size of a reusable grocery bag) of other misc stuff
*Park bag
*My purse
*Laptop bag

I really wish I would have taken a picture of all this...it was quite a comical sight....

We somehow managed to get all of it at once! Olivia had her suitcase and my purse. I had loaded the stroller (far beyond what I am sure it's capacity is), and was pulling my suitcase. Toby had his bag, the laptop, and some other stuff. Now, we may or may not have let a choice word or two escape on the way to the room but we did make it!

Our room was what I had asked for, 4th floor bldg 1. I was kind of upset though, it was a corner room w/ a parking lot view, none of that was "bad", I was just sad that nobody would be walking by our room to see our decorated window and write on our board!! On the positive side, we were about 6 feet from the stairs, which worked out well for late night soda runs and such. I did manage to snag a pic of our room before we unloaded all of our gear and it wasn't so pretty looking.

After we had everything in, I called housekeeping since our bed rail and fridge weren't there yet, and started unpacking. I was moving at a pretty good pace. I really wanted to have everything unpacked, the window decorated, and everyone showered before dinner. After about 10 minutes, our fridge and bed rail showed up, so I got those set up.

While I was unpacking, Toby and Olivia took a shower (which was huge help since Olivia was out of the way for a bit). By the time they were done, all of the clothes were unpacked and either hung up, put in a drawer or a bin, and Olivia's clothes were in the hanging organizer I brought. I had put the lighted stuff in the window while Olivia was in the shower, but left the window clings for her to help with. I put the clings up high and left her to do the lower ones while I showered.

By 6:30 were were all dressed and headed out the door to dinner! I stopped to take a few pics of our window on the way out.

Olivia loves all the huge numbers out front of POP, and she requested to climb in and have her picture taken....who am I to say no?

A MK bus came pretty quickly and we were off! Once we arrived, we decided to walk to the Contemporary vs. taking the monorail. It was a nice walk, but cold! We also had decided not to take the stroller or the park bag since we were just doing dinner. I tell you what, it was really strange to only be carrying my purse and holding Olivia's hand!

We arrived at the CR at about 7:15 for our 7:45 ADR at ...California Grill!!!! I was SO excited about trying this! I didn't want to check in too early, so we just walked around and checked everything out. We looked at the gingerbread Christmas tree (sorry, I really wasn't all that impressed), and Olivia inspected every piece of merchandise in the 2 shops on the 4th floor, and drooled over the Cinderella Castle playset (we were planning on buying it for her for Christmas). Toby and I were thirsty (and my blood sugar was low) so we headed over to the CS place and he got a cranberry juice, and I got an orange juice. We sat on a bench to finish our drinks and let Olivia get some energy out before dinner. She was dancing around like a crazy person, it was cracking us up!

We decided to check in at 7:30. We were taken right up and waited to be seated. While we were waiting, we ventured outside to the viewing area. Let me say, as a mother, this was mortifying! I was scared to death that some huge gust of wind was going to take Olivia away! (it was REALLY windy and freezing up there). It especially freaked me out when Toby lifted Olivia up to see over the rails!! I snapped one quick picture and then we called it quits out there!

We were finally called to be seated around 8:00! That is where I leave off for now though!

Next Up: Dinner. Would it live up to my expectations?

 

[mermaid764]

That's really weird that you never got the text about your room, luckily they were able to help you without you having to wait in that long line again.

I love the decorated window.....it looks beautiful.

Hopefully your dinner does live up to your expectations

 

[eecteacher82]

LOL at the thumb sucker- that is crazy. I would have been staring too. I don't even take pics on the safari anymore anyways, we've done it so many times now, all my pics are almost all the same and i don't have time to scrapbook anymore, other than a digital book, so i just don't even bother on safari unless we get really close to something.

Love the pooh pics- i didn't realize they had this area, i will have to check it out next time! Will would have loved it!

so sorry about the room situation- i would have been pissed at not receiving a text before 4. we were not into our room until right at 4, we were pretty upset they didn't have it ready sooner, but i guess BLT was booked solid.

I'm glad I'm not the only person who stared/would have stared! Those are my thoughts on the safari pics as well, only if we are super close to something!

The Pooh area is great! I bet Will will definitely love it! I love that it is never crowded!

The whole room situation was pretty sucky, but what can you do? At least we didn't have to wait in the long line just to get our room number!

That's really weird that you never got the text about your room, luckily they were able to help you without you having to wait in that long line again.

I love the decorated window.....it looks beautiful.

Hopefully your dinner does live up to your expectations

I'm pretty sure the lack of a text had to do with the confusion of earlier. The funny thing is that she has checked us in before and we had issues with her understanding something then as well!

Thanks! I was pretty happy with the way our window turned out! It was really fun to do, and Olivia love it!

I should have our dinner post up this afternoon. I plan on working on it while Olivia naps!

 

[eecteacher82]

I left off with us being called to our table for dinner!

We were seated as far away from a window with a view of the castle as possible! We did have a great view of the kitchen though! Immediately our server, Jenny came and introduced herself and told us about the restaurant. I knew right away that I LOVED her! Seriously the best server I have had. Anywhere! She took our drink orders: Coke for Toby, Diet Coke for me and pomegranate lemonade for Olivia, and gave us a minute to look over the menu and decide on appetizers.

Toby and I both ordered the California Roll sushi for our appetizers. Jenny brought Olivia sushi of her own too:

I should say that I am not a very adventurous eater, especially when it comes to sushi, but I have had California Rolls before and enjoyed them. However, for some reason I did not care for this. I'm not sure why, it just didn't float my boat. Toby on the other hand, was in love! He gobbled up all of his plus most of mine!

Once we finished our appetizers, Jenny came back (she always seemed to come at just the right times, not to often, just right), and went over the whole menu and then took our orders. Once again, we both got the same thing, the Grilled pork tenderloin with button mushrooms. Neither one of us are big on polenta, so we substituted some kind of potato gratin. Olivia got macaroni and cheese.

Our meals arrived pretty quickly:

All I can say is: To. Die. For! Seriously this was the best pork I have ever had in my life! It was perfectly cooked. I hardly needed a knife to cut it! I loved it. The potatoes were amazing as well. I love mushrooms, so they were just a yummy added bonus. The zinfandel glaze was just the right touch, not too overbearing at all. Toby really enjoyed it as well, and cleaned his plate, plus finished my potatoes and the little bit of pork that I could not cram in to my stomach! Olivia's mac and cheese was really tasty too, and she ate almost all of it.

Once we had polished off our meals, Jenny came back to take our dessert order. I got the Valrhona Chocolate Cake, which came with eggnog ice cream and peppermint bark for the holidays and Toby got some kind of pumpkin cheesecake. Jenny brought Olivia a little sundae, which she thought was really neat!

Needless to say, they were wonderful, and we could come nowhere near finishing them!

When we were so stuffed we thought we were going to have to be rolled out, Jenny brought the bill:

Of course all we needed to do was pay for Olivia's and leave a tip. Since we both thought the service was amazing, we left a $40 tip and thanked Jenny profusely!

Holiday Wishes was just getting ready to start, but it was FREEZING and windy outside, so we decided to just head out and go back to the hotel. We hopped on the monorail to the MK and then got a POP bus and were back in our room at just before 11:00. Olivia had fallen asleep on the bus and didn't wake up as I took her potty and put jammies on.

Once Olivia was tucked in, I went down and picked up our mugs, filled them up (Coke and Diet Sprite), and headed back up to the room. Once I got back, I got myself ready for bed, and got the stroller and park bag packed for the morning, and set the alarm...it was going to be an early wake up!

I was sharing a bed with Olivia-which is horrible because I am convinced she turns in to an octopus at night, and I climbed in at 12:00 (had to push her back over to her side) and I was asleep by 12:45.

Up next: An early wake up call and breakfast at the Kona Cafe!

 

[luckylady]

Everything looked so good at Cinderellas. Can't wait to hear how you liked Kona. Love that place for breakfast.

 

[exwdwcm]

I'm glad I'm not the only person who stared/would have stared! Those are my thoughts on the safari pics as well, only if we are super close to something!

The Pooh area is great! I bet Will will definitely love it! I love that it is never crowded!

The whole room situation was pretty sucky, but what can you do? At least we didn't have to wait in the long line just to get our room number!
!

i hate the room situation- i was so shocked our room was not ready until exactly 4. it was crazy- first time at WDW we haven't been able to check in early, but i hear it is like that at BLT in December with so many DVC folks travelling then. In fact, on the day we left, we couldn't get an elevator down- every single one was full with folks coming in or out and all their luggage. it was crazy. i think we waited through like 5 elevators before we got on one! lol


i love the 'goldfish sushi' that Olivia got! lol! We love Cali Grill- i've had the pork there too- but i don't believe it had mushrooms when i had a few years ago (but did have the polenta, which i enjoy). it was so good- the most tender i have ever had too! I do love their filet though best. We've always lucked out with good tables here too. And I've never had a bad service experience at CG- and i have eaten there probably 7x now. Whenever i had a business trip in Orlando, i would take my coworkers there (hey the company is paying, right? LOL).

looks like a fabulous night!

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Started reading your TR today and now I'm all caught up! You got a lot of great photopass shots so far. Lion King is our favorite show at Disney World and we make sure to see it every trip.

On our last trip we were with DW's parents and sisters and they all thought it was weird that I was taking pictures of the food. I decided I would only take pictures of my food and DW's, when I remembered to that is. I have a lot of pics of food with a few bites taken out of it. So far, you've eaten at two of the places we're planning on trying for the first time on our March Deluxe Dining trip and we're planning on trying breakfast at Kona for the first time too. Yak and Yeti looked delicious. We tried the CS on our last trip and liked the chicken. California Grill looked great, but I am a little afraid of heights so the viewing area might make me a little apprehensive at first.

I'm looking forward to reading more about your trip!