Our COMPLETELY New and TOTALLY Different 6th September Disney trip: A pre-trip report

[kokotg]

Tuesday: Hollywood Studios

Only one Hollywood Studios day! I think Hollywood Studios might be the main thing that makes me a little sad about not having park hoppers. I wouldn't mind a day and a half here.

Because we do not care enough about Toy Story Mania to go to a lot of effort to do it twice, I'm thinking Dave will probably run over for fast passes first thing (he can also move a lot faster without the rest of us slowing him down) and then we'll all meet up for Rock n' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. Gus is 47 inches barefoot right now. I'm hoping that new Crocs, a couple more weeks to grow, and going there first thing in the morning (before gravity kicks in. isn't that the idea?) will get him up to 48 and onto RNRC. As he mentioned, he has a family fastpass all ready for us if he does get to ride. Although it's entirely possible he'll decide at the last minute that he doesn't want to ride it after all. He's a very brave kid, but he has a little bit of a going upside down fear.

And then? Well, I want to do pretty much everything. Except Beauty and the Beast. We saw it last year, and I think we can skip it this year. And Backlot Tour will be closed, I think. That's kind of good since it's a bit of a time suck, but kind of sad because look what happened to Dave on the Backlot Tour last year:

The CM asked for volunteers, so I poked Dave in the ribs and said, “put your hand up!” And he DID!

Our reservation on Tuesday is at Mama Melrose. I don't remember if it's officially lunch or dinner; it's a Fantasmic package, and it's at 3:40. So I guess we'll try for a really early lunch somewhere (we've only ever eaten at the ABC Commissary, and we might continue that tradition. I kind of want to try Pizza Planet, but since Disney doesn't do regular pizza very well, I don't have high hopes for their gluten free version) and then pick up snacks late. Oh, it just occurred to me...I guess the fact that we're eating dinner at Mama Melrose might be another reason not to have pizza for lunch!

Fantasmic is at 8:30. Somehow, we've never seen it before, so we're all looking forward to it.

 

[kokotg]

Gluten-free blathering:

I honestly haven't thought a whole lot about the gluten stuff lately; I researched it obsessively back when we first started the great gluten free experiment, and there's a note about it with all of our ADRs.

And, beyond that, I'm just kind of counting on it being...easy.

I have friends who've done Disney trips with food restrictions far more complicated than ours, and they've all come back with rave reviews. And I've read countless gluten free at Disney blogs at this point, and it's very rare to read a negative comment about Disney's handling of such things.

Truth be told, I'm a little excited about being gluten free for this trip, especially on the kids' behalf, because I hear they still give you real chicken tenders if you need an allergen free version, instead of the gross chicken nuggets you're normally stuck with these days. Chicken fingers are the main issue my kids have with being gluten free. That's what they order 90% of the time when we go out. They are not especially picky eaters at home (they'll all eat broccoli, even!) but they love chicken fingers and rarely pass up an opportunity to eat them. So knowing we can get them at Disney is a huge relief.

Other gluten free stuff I'm excited about:
Babycakes: I just checked to see whether they take snack credits...and they do! Yay! I'm not so keen on the vegan part, personally (I generally compensate for needing to leave gluten out of my baking with lots of eggs and butter), and I kind of think agave nectar's a big, fructose-laden scam, but, hey! We can have cupcakes!

Cookes of Dublin: just read that they'll make me gluten free fish and chips. yay! again.

So it looks like we really need to make sure we fit in that Downtown Disney trip. I'm thinking we need to try to leave AK by lunch time on Monday.

I've also been giving some thought to breakfasts. We normally bring bagels and stuff to eat in the room in the mornings. But we are not so keen on gluten free bagels. So I've been trying to come up with a good list of ideas. We'll bring along some Chex and buy some milk, I think. And then cheese, fruit, maybe peanut butter to dip apples in. I'd like to make sure the kids get some protein in them every day before we hit the parks.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts later, but that's what I've got for now! Maybe this year I'll actually be brave enough to take pictures of all our food, so as to report back on gluten free eating more effectively

 

[kokotg]

Two weeks from right now I'll be sitting in Kona, having just finished our first MK day!

 

[RooRach0906]

Great updates! TWO WEEKS!!!! Horray for you guys!!!

 

[princess&her4princes]

Two weeks from right now I'll be sitting in Kona, having just finished our first MK day!

WOW! I have chills just thinking about that! It's going to fly by! Have you started packing? Do you do Garden Grocer for your bagles, cereal for your room? Love them!! So excited for you guys and I hope you're right, I hope that the allergy and glutin issue is easy for you at Disney!! Fingers crossed!

 

[kokotg]

WOW! I have chills just thinking about that! It's going to fly by! Have you started packing? Do you do Garden Grocer for your bagles, cereal for your room? Love them!! So excited for you guys and I hope you're right, I hope that the allergy and glutin issue is easy for you at Disney!! Fingers crossed!

We drive down, so we can just pack food to bring with us (well, except milk. We'll have to pick that up somewhere I guess. Or maybe we can put it in a cooler while we drive).

No packing yet! I'm trying to restrain myself until it gets a little closer

 

[gallmcduck]

I have dropped over from my ptr, your family are adorable and you are nearly doing the single digit dance Plans and dining look great

 

[kokotg]

I have dropped over from my ptr, your family are adorable and you are nearly doing the single digit dance Plans and dining look great

thank you! and...

 

[kokotg]

More shopping!

I found a floppy rabbit ears hat for Milo's Oswald costume on Etsy! I was a little worried, because some of the seller's feedback commented that the shipping was slow, but she's already marked them as shipped, so they should be here in plenty of time.

The person I bought Gus' mouse hat from hasn't shipped yet, and I'm trying not to freak out. I must be every Etsy seller's worst nightmare: the person who really, really needs something for a specific event and waits until the last minute to order . Still have nearly 2 weeks, though; I think it will be okay.

Ari has outgrown most all of his Disney shirts (we have a decent collection, courtesy of thrift shopping), so I ordered this for him on ebay:

And haven't ordered it yet, but I decided I need a Mickey shirt, too (I smell a family t-shirt theme day!), so I'll be picking one out and ordering it very soon.

 

[kokotg]

Wednesday: Magic Kingdom

Back to the Magic Kingdom! This will be our first and only full day here (other days are arrival day and then the Halloween party) , so somehow we'll have to drag ourselves out of bed after being out late for Fantasmic and get there for rope drop. We can do it, right?

I don't have any particular strategy or plan for today; it will probably depend on how much we manage to do on arrival day. Might turn the kids loose on Tom Sawyer Island for awhile; we never made it over there last year.

Lunch at a counter service place, probably either Cosmic Rays or Columbia Harbor House.

Dinner is at 'Ohana, but not until 8:30. Things have moved around so much that I'm longer sure exactly why we made them so late. I think this was originally our Hollywood Studios day, and we were going to head over to the Polynesian after HS closed. This was back before the expanded Fantasmic schedule.

We've had very mixed experiences with 'Ohana, yet, somehow, we wind up there on every trip. There was awhile when I thought I was going to end up canceling this one (before we decided to go to MNSSHP, this was going to be our only late night at MK, so we were going to stay for Wishes and the parade. As it is, we'll have to settle for just the Halloween stuff), and I realized I was really bummed at the idea of missing it. I couldn't really tell you why, though.

First trip's 'Ohana visit was not well-reviewed by me and my trip report:

The whole place was packed. It was the first time we had to wait much past our ADR time for a table (maybe about 20 minutes), and it was also the most crowded place we’d encountered. It really made me realize how very glad I was that we’d come during such a slow season; I get short-tempered and exhausted very quickly in large crowds. ‘Ohana was okay. It wasn’t our favorite place, but we might have enjoyed it more if things hadn’t felt so hectic. We were seated off in a corner and couldn’t really see or hear any of the hula dancing, coconut races, etc. Cousin Joe seemed sort of impatient with us when we did stuff like ask for water. ‘Ohana, we were told repeatedly, means “family,” but it kind of felt more like an awkward extended family gathering where you don’t know the people very well and you’d rather just go home.

But we gave it another chance and had a great experience the next year:

I’m not sure why we decided to go back to ‘Ohana this year, since we had a pretty cruddy experience there last year. Our server had been sort of weird, and we’d been seated off in a corner where we couldn’t see any of the main action, and neither of us remembered the food as being especially impressive. But we went back anyway, and I’m very, very glad we did. ‘Ohana was probably our best overall meal of the trip. We were seated near the windows and with a great view of all the entertainment. Our server was great, and offered without our having to ask to bring some chicken fingers and fries over from Kona for the kids (last year our server hadn’t offered and had acted so annoyed that our kids weren’t gobbling up all the food that we didn’t want to ask. The kids actually did try a good bit of the regular stuff this time, but were happy to have the fries). And Milo was absolutely enchanted with Lipoa, the singer:

He was a little reluctant to head over to her at first (Ari was not interested at all), but finally went over to listen to her sing and do a little parade around the restaurant, and after that he was in love. Here he is with the new friend he met, who shared his love for Lipoa:

After they did the parade and Lipoa was nowhere to be seen, Milo didn’t come back to the table. We waited for a bit, then Dave went off to look for him. He came back a couple of minutes later without Milo. “He and that other kid are over there waiting for her, and they won’t leave,” he said. I got up to talk to him. “She said she’s coming back,” he explained, “we have to wait here!” I finally managed to convince him that it would be okay to come eat for awhile while he waited. He headed right back over for the dancing class a few minutes later, though, and gazed at Lipoa, starry eyed, the whole time:

And the food! Apparently Dave and I were in the mood for a grand meat-fest that night, because we both loved it. Yum!

These were the high and low points of our 'Ohana experiences. We've been back two more times, and both times have been...okay. Milo forgot all about his love for Lipoa, and this past year the kids wouldn't even participate in the coconut races or anything.

So anyway—8:30 at 'Ohana. I suppose there's a chance we'll be able to see Wishes while we eat, but I'm not going to count on it. By the time we finish up and get back to Pop, it will be quite late. But this is fine, because we have a late morning (finally!) planned the next day.

 

[RooRach0906]

Hope you get your Esty things soon!! I also hope you have a great time at Ohana.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Yay on shopping! Hope your purchases arrive soon.

We haven't booked an ADR for O'hana and I have been debating the decision after reading mixed reviews as well. Hope you have a great experience this time around and the bad experience was just a one off.

Also on it being 10 days to go today - single digits tomorrow!!

 

[kokotg]

Hope you get your Esty things soon!! I also hope you have a great time at Ohana.

thanks! DH has convinced me to wait until tomorrow to harass the poor mouse ear hat lady about when she's going to send them

Yay on shopping! Hope your purchases arrive soon.

We haven't booked an ADR for O'hana and I have been debating the decision after reading mixed reviews as well. Hope you have a great experience this time around and the bad experience was just a one off.

Also on it being 10 days to go today - single digits tomorrow!!

I know! Tomorrow! I can't believe it's so close already!

I joked on another thread that they must put something addictive in the wing sauce at 'Ohana. It and Boma are the only places we've come back to so many times, and our feelings about Boma aren't nearly as mixed. If nothing else, though, it's always nice to have an excuse to ride the monorail over and hang out at the Polynesian!

 

[kokotg]

Ten days!

More shopping: Goodwill visit yesterday yielded a Kermit the Frog shirt for Ari to wear on our Hollywood Studios day:

And I took advantage of the Labor Day free shipping code (“laborday,” in case anyone else needs it) to order both my Mickey shirt:

And Ari's shirt for MNSSHP:

And now I think I'd better be all finished shopping for awhile (unless it's at the thrift shop again).

 

[BerrysGirl]

I love your t-shirt shopping. Seriously, what an awesome Goodwill find!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Great tops which are made even better with the discounts!

Love the Halloween top

 

[gallmcduck]

Shopping purchases yey

Is it single digits? Hopefully your O'Hana visit will be as good as it was last year. Rope drop you can do it

 

[999ghostslover]

You have me all sorts of nervous about 'Ohana now. It looks so yummy. I am really hoping that it is. We do it our first night and then go out to watch fireworks afterward. The resort crowd level is like a 2 that day. I'm hoping that it won't be stupid busy and we can enjoy ourselves a little. I like family style eateries. I was really looking forward to drinking one of those obnoxious drinks out of a pineapple or coconut but I realized that with it just me and my DD7 it will not really be the right place and time. Drat!

I wish I could find stuff like that shirt at our thrift stores. Score!

 

[kokotg]

I love your t-shirt shopping. Seriously, what an awesome Goodwill find!

Great tops which are made even better with the discounts!

Love the Halloween top

Thanks, guys...I'm having WAY too much fun buying t-shirts this year. I was at the mall today (a very rare occurrence for me) and was really tempted to pop into the Disney store just to see if any t-shirts were on sale...fortunately I was running late to pick Ari up from a class, so I couldn't do it.

Shopping purchases yey

Is it single digits? Hopefully your O'Hana visit will be as good as it was last year. Rope drop you can do it

9 days today until we leave! Still 10 until we actually get to Disney, though, since we're staying a couple of hours away the first night.

You have me all sorts of nervous about 'Ohana now. It looks so yummy. I am really hoping that it is. We do it our first night and then go out to watch fireworks afterward. The resort crowd level is like a 2 that day. I'm hoping that it won't be stupid busy and we can enjoy ourselves a little. I like family style eateries. I was really looking forward to drinking one of those obnoxious drinks out of a pineapple or coconut but I realized that with it just me and my DD7 it will not really be the right place and time. Drat!

I wish I could find stuff like that shirt at our thrift stores. Score!

Don't be nervous! 'Ohana's one that always gets very mixed reviews, so you really just have to try it and see. We've never disliked the food there (though some years have been better than others); it's more the service that's been inconsistent. And maybe you should get the pineapple drink anyway--how much alcohol can there be in a drink that's served in a pineapple?

 

[kokotg]

Mini update: Disney related activity for the day:

While Ari was at Spanish class today, I took the other kids to the Apple store to get Gus a new ipod. I would never have bought an ipod for a 5 year old, EXCEPT that his two older brothers had them, and this imbalance meant that I was constantly lending him my iphone, which, in turn, meant that I had approximately 4 million extraneous apps on my iphone. So he got one for his birthday last year. At some point the screen cracked and the home button stopped working, but it was chugging along okay until this past summer. When Gus decided to set a passcode on it, so that no one else could use his ipod (no one else wanted to anyway, since everyone has his own ipod)....and then, predictably, he forgot the passcode. Tried in vain to remember it until it locked him out. And the people at the Apple store couldn't fix it because the home button was broken (not sure how all that's connected).

Still with me?

So...they told us they could replace it for $100. So we commandeered Gus' allowance for a few months, gave him some extra chores around the house, and then agreed to chip in to help him replace it. Because 1. I need my iphone back, sans weird apps and 2. We're about to take him on an 8 1/2 hour drive, and we need him entertained. Without my iphone, because I need to play with it while we drive.

Anyway, so that was our errand for today. Good thing we went today, because they didn't have it in stock, and it will be 3-5 days before it gets there.

And then I spent some time this evening checking out kid-friendly audiobooks from the library to listen to on the drive. I have The All-of-a-Kind-Family Downtown, some Grimm's Fairy Tales, and something called Whittington which won a Newberry medal or some such award and was compared to E.B. White in the reviews...among others.

We listened to a couple of books on our trip to the Cape and back this summer, and it was a big hit.

So! Car entertainment taken care of!