OUR DISNEY BUCKET LIST! Year of Disney CHAPTER I, **NEW X 1 12/29 CHEF MICKEY'S!

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**If you're one of the four people following along I decided to change part of the title to something that sounds a little bit more POSITIVE! And this was the trip we started our DISNEY BUCKET LIST, so that's what we are now calling this report!

WELCOME, WELCOME, WELCOME TO THE FIRST CHAPTER OF OUR YEAR OF DISNEY!!!!
Wanna meet the gang?! First up there's me, Melissa, mom to two (busy!!) little boys, recent discoverer of Disney, justifier of the Annual Pass, exclusive trip planner of the family, and all-around happy gal! In my life outside of Disney, I own a design business specializing in high-end vintage furniture. My schedule is mostly flexible and I can work from anywhere-- I'm especially partial to catching up on emails on It's A Small World and the Peoplemover!
Side note-- like lots of moms, I'm almost always behind the camera. Here's one of the ONLY shots of me this trip, taken by my four-year-old! Next time we are ordering PP+ for SURE!



Next up is my husband, Adam. We can generously call him a reluctant Disney-goer and a certified work-a-holic. This trip was my way of forcing him to slow down and feel the Magic, and while I don't think I'll hear him SUGGESTING a Disney trip of his own accord, I think he had a pretty good time! We were celebrating big time-- after a looooong decade of law school and life in the high-pressure corporate world, he made partner in his law firm at the ripe old age of 34!


This is Grady, our oldest. He was six on this trip, and he's my commando-touring-buddy, rope drop to park close companion, lover of all the rides that go FAST and not too big to hug on some characters (but NO face characters, please! They "freak him out." Hoping to change that during the Year Of Disney!!):yay:



The last member of our family is John-Harper (that's a double name, for all you folks from above the Mason-Dixon!) and he was four on this trip. He WISHES (heck, we ALL wish!!) that he could tour commando-style, but in reality, he's still pretty little, and gets tired quickly. When he's not melting down, he LOVES meeting characters, riding any roller coaster's he's tall enough for and eating Disney snacks. He developed some pretty strong opinions this trip about what he's NOT into (and I have to say, declaring Mickey's Philharmagic a big no-no just about broke my heart).:



Our first trip to The World was in January of 2012, and this October 2013 trip was the FOURTH for half our group, and the third for the rest. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside (our first moderate-- we liked it a lot!) for 7 nights, and upgraded to AP's on our first day at the parks. Thanks to the magical Dis I discovered I could apply the value of the tickets I'd already purchased with our FREE DINING package towards AP's, so it felt like we got a whole lotta bang for our buck! We also bought at TIW card, and added quite a few table service meals on top of our Free Dining ADR's.



Come along and join in for Chapter I (or 4, possibly 5 trips we have planned in the next 12 months!!) I'm on a TIGHT deadline to try and finish this report before our next trip-- as of today, our countdown is at 18 DAYS!!!!:

Next up-- a little peek into our Disney past!!

 

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CHAPTER LINKS

OUR DISNEY HISTORY (Or how the family who was NEVER going to go to Disney went four times in 18 months...)

On The Road Again. Or For The First Time. Whatever.

Checking in at POR and Dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express

Our January Trip Plans--EPIC DELUXE TRIPLE SPLIT STAY!!!

MAGIC KINGDOM MORNING!! PART I

Huny Pots and Space Adventures

Enchanted Tales With Belle! Starring Grady!!!

Castle lunch and Mountain Conquering!

DTD and Raglan Road Dinner!

BREAKFAST AT CHEF MICKEY'S!!

 

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So... we were that family who just didn't "get" why you would go to Disney. My parents never took me as a child, and it sort of just never occurred to me to want to go. I know. Gasp, fall over on the floor in a dead faint, throw rotten eggs, etc. etc.



My husband started going on a yearly business trip to Orlando several years ago. And, like clockwork, my kids came down with the stomach flu the INSTANT his plane's wheels left the ground. So I finally said enough is enough, we are going with you so at least if everybody is throwing up I'll have some help


We decided to stay at Wilderness Lodge, and I remember distinctly telling the travel agent that I thought we might want to go to the parks one or two days, but I couldn't imagine what we would do there after that



I didn't realize it at the time, but we got an awesome upgrade on that trip (bunk bed pool view!) and it took all of about 10 minutes in the park for me to add both days AND Park Hoppers to our tickets. People had told me to get there early and pack it all in, and I'm a Rules Girl, so we did just that. We had SO MUCH FUN.



So much fun, in fact, that I couldn't wait a whole year to go back So I planned a SURPRISE mother/son trip for our oldest son, then in Kindergarten, staying at the Pop for a week, attending a Christmas Party, and using upgraded Free Dining.



We had THE BEST time on that trip.


Grady is a real trooper-- the kid is up before the sun and ready for every rope drop, and he's not going to leave the park until they chase us out at night

We were back for our second annual family trip just a couple months later, this time with my mom in tow, with a week at the POLY planned, and a couple nights in a Little Mermaid room at the end of the trip. The night before that trip I got a call that the shop that handles all the refinishing for my pieces (I sell high-end mid-century furniture on a flash sale site) burned TO THE GROUND. And then... wait for it... the airline lost my luggage. Leaving me in the Florida heat with nothing but the black wool pants and black long-sleeved sweater I had on my back. For three days. There was a little bit of a cloud over that entire trip, and I wanted to have a TRULY magical trip to make up for it.



And so we found ourselves again in Disney for a week in October, staying at Port Orleans Riverside for the first time, with Free Dining. I found out (thanks DIS!) that I could upgrade our park tickets (7 days with hoppers) to Annual Passes AND keep our free dining for the week-- scoooore!!! Since I knew we'd be back for our annual January trip in just a couple of months, it made perfect sense, and our Year of Disney was born!!



We currently have a trip planned for the first week of June (our first time in the parks in the summer!!) to help a friend celebrate his birthday, and I'm pretty sure the kids and I will squeeze in a long weekend over the summer (gotta get the value out of those passes, right?? And after experiencing our FIRST HALLOWEEN PARTY this year, I KNOW we will be back for another one next fall-- it was my favorite Disney experience ever!!

So that's our history-- let's get moving with the trip report, shall we?

 

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Ah, travel day. For the first time since our very first Disney trip, everything was coming up roses. Nobody was getting over pneumonia (ahem, me, trip #2, the solo one with the five year old in tow.) Nobody's place of business had just burned to the ground (ahem, me, again.) Nobody had had, was going to get, or currently had the stomach flu (see previous-- the original reason I was willing to brave Disney in the first place) We HAD THIS.

We were also driving for the first time ever. Tired of paying too much money to spend all day waiting around for airplanes that seemed to ALWAYS be late (and loose your luggage, ahem, ahem!) we decided to take to our mini-van and travel the 647 miles from our home in North Carolina allll the way to sunny Florida.

My packing is down to a science-- I keep a large tub in the attic (filled with smaller tubs and gallon ziplock bags. OCD much, anyone?) with all the things we need to make a trip more fun-- light up toys, sunscreen, Mickey ears, closet organizers, park bag, monogrammed coordinating shirts, etc.) All I had to do to get ready was put together some clothes for us, and a few extra outfits for the boys, and we were PACKED. Can I just tell you how much I loved being able to pack as many suitcases as we wanted, without worrying about weight. Awsomesauce, I tell you.


See? Excited.

We were on the road bright and early around 7 am. I busied myself playing on my phone and reading magazines, my husband guzzled coffee and put the pedal to the metal, and the kids watched movie after movie.



Soon we were crossing into South Carolina...



and Georgia... (somehow I missed the sign...)



Lunch was the salad bar at a Ruby Tuesday's somewhere near Savannah...



This is what the kids thought of five straight hours in the car at this point...



A couple hours later we were seeing THIS.... yay



Then THIS...



THEN THIS!!!!


THEN THIS!!!!!



WE MADE IT!!!! I made a point of not looking at the speedometer, but I do know that we made it from NC to POR in 9 hours 37 minutes... with an 30 minute traffic jam outside of Sanford. At least we didn't get a ticket....

Next up... Arriving at Port Orleans Riverside!!!

 

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Apologies in advance-- there are not a lot of pictures from this night. What can I say--we were pretty tired!

When we left off, we had just driven under The Sign and were so excited bo be back in the bubble!! We found Riverside without much trouble, and Adam took the kids to the bathroom, and then to the playground to wait, while I waited in a really, really long line to check in. It took FOREVER. I had signed up for Magic Bands and FP+ a few weeks before our trip, and had our bands with me, but it looked like maybe a lot of people were either getting their bands at check in, or were maybe just hearing about the bands and were learning about them while we waited? I’m not sure, but it took forever. I don’t usually do on-line check in, but boy was I wishing I had that time!



When I finally got up to the desk, it was well after 6 pm, and our room still was not ready!!!! The resort was SUPER busy, and, hey, we were in DISNEY, so I wasn’t going to stress about it. We were still in our winter clothes (we had our first frost the night before we left!) but we decided to hop a boat to Downtown Disney and use our first dining credit of the trip at a restaurant I was REALLY excited to try!



Side note: when we stayed at Wilderness Lodge, I really, really loved the boat service from WL to the Magic Kingdom and Contemporary, where we would catch the monorail. I was really excited to use the boat service at Riverside, and it did not disappoint. It felt pretty slow—we waited for quite a while almost ever time we caught the boat at the resort, but it was so much more pleasant than traveling by bus, or searching for a parking space at DTD on a Saturday night!



We got off right by the Rainforest Café, and my kids were fascinated by the volcano and the crocodile out front. I noticed right away that I should have studied a map of DTD before we left. This was our first visit, and it was PACKED that night. There were no signs up showing us where everything was, and I looked up a map on my phone and we started walking towards Wolfgang Puck Express! We fought the crowds all the way there--- only to realize that we were NOT at the location I wanted! Oops! At least we now knew where Raglan Road was—good thing, because we were eating dinner there the next night!




On our way back, we saw a big crowd gathered around a Living Statue—a purple Witch from The Wizard of Oz! It was very cool, but we were tired and starving, so we kept going without a picture. (This is obviously not our family- and my apologies to whomever these precious kiddos belong to. It's the only picture I could find on the web of the witch!

We finally found WPE, and stood in a line that stretched out to the Christmas store! (I ran to check out the line at Earl of Sandwich while Adam waited with the boys to see if it was any shorter, but it was also way out the door, and I would MUCH rather use a counter service credit at WPE so I ran back.) We used our time in line to decide what we all wanted to eat, and ended up splitting a few things. I got the Chinois Chicken Salad, Adam got the Sausage and Fennel Pizza, Grady had a Four Cheese Pizza, and JH had a kid’s cheese pizza. I think I might be testing the limits of my husband's Disney endurance to take actual food pics, so these are borrowed from the web.



My salad was OK, but not as exciting as I was expecting. We were all a little disappointed in the four cheese pizza, too—I was looking forward to these two the most after reading great reviews on the Dis, but it turned out the star of the night was Adam’s sausage pizza.

photo credit www.eatingwdw.com

It was AWESOME, and he ended up giving me a couple of pieces and I have him half my salad (it was HUGE!) Yummy!! We tend to be pretty healthy eaters at home, and it took some restraint not to get a dessert for each of us, so we ended up using three of our dessert credits for fruit cups, and then we shared a piece of the Vanilla Cheesecake. YUM. I wish we had gotten two pieces—it was really yummy! We got bottles of water for the grown-ups and milks for the kids. (Side note: A Wolfgang Puck recently opened in our hometown, and y'all, can I just say that the mushroom pizza there is a spiritual experience. Adam orders the pizza that is really similar to the one he had in DTD every time we go, and it is equally awesome, but if you like mushrooms, GET the mushroom pizza!!!!)

During dinner, we got a text that the room was ready, and we headed straight back to the resort after dinner. We googled the room number on the boat back, and realized we were in Alligator Bayou, which I was not crazy about. I even checked with a CM to see if my request for a Mansion could be met--nope, couldn't, they were totally full. At this point we (and the kids, who did not nap at all on the way down!) had been up for 16 long hours, and we decided to just crash in the room. I thought I took pictures, but apparently either I forgot to or they got deleted, so take my word for it that these rooms are actually great! Good size, CLEAN and the fold-down bed was a life-saver for my kids, one of whom is a serious annoyer when bedtime rolls around Plus, we got the BEST towel animals of any Disney resort we've stayed in, which I DID take pictures of! We did lose some drawer space with the fold-out bed, so I was extremely glad I'd gotten the idea from the boards to bring hanging sweater organizers (for the kids outfits, divided by park day and pop-up bins for all our toiletries. We stayed very organized all week long, which makes my little OCD heart happy And then it was off to bed to dream of our FIRST PARK DAY in the morning!!!!

Coming up... checking some items off my Magical Bucket List!

 

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I'm loving your Trip report!!
Don't worry you weren't the only one who didn't get why
people wanted to go to Walt Disney World.
I thought that it was only for little kids, until I went, I was in my early 30s then. I fell in love!!
I've been several times since then, and always can't wait to go back. My DS is turning 18 years soon but he still loves going. Even my DH who I never thought would love Disney, can't wait to get back this coming year.
POR is our favorite resort. We've haven't gotten to stay at WL yet, maybe someday, stayed at AKL, POFQ and CSR, but POR still our favorite. We'll be staying there in Sept.
Looking forward to reading updates of your Trip report.

 

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Following along!

 

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Hi guys! Thanks for following along! Coming back with some EXCITING news about our next trip, which is just SIXTEEN DAYS AWAY!!! Then I need to get cracking on this report so that it's all finished up before we leave!

 

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Now that Christmas is behind us (we are the family that takes it ALL down on 12/26!) we are preparing for our next big event-- John-Harper turns FIVE on Sunday! We are having his party the following weekend-- it's a Jedi Training Academy party complete with Padawan Training with Darth Vader (my husband is SUPER excited to do this a Death Star Pinata and the cutest Star Wars food. I'm making a Death Star cake-- cross your fingers it turns out looking remotely like a circle and I have a lot of prep to do before the party, which will not be until the first weekend in January.

The weekend after that we leave bright and early Saturday morning for Disney!!

Can I just tell you how excited I am about this trip?????? Since it will be just me and the kids for about half of it (my husband has a conference during the day on Monday afternoon-Thurs morning) I am going to try to take more food pics and report back on all our meals. Thank goodness for the TIW card is all I have to say! Between that and the fact that we only have to cover meals for me and the kids (hubs meals are covered with his travel allowance) it came out much cheaper to pay oop vs. getting a dining plan, meaning we eat mostly table service meals. I often prefer getting two apps or an app and a salad vs. an entrée, especially at lunch, so this is my preferred dining method anyway!

Are you ready to hear about our accommodations for this trip??? We are in for an EPIC 7 nights with an equally EPIC DELUXE!!!TRIPLE!!! SPLIT!!! STAY!!!!!

We check in 1/11 at THE BEACH CLUB!!!! First time at an Epcot area resort for us. I booked it specifically so that we can FINALLY see Illuminations. We have always been so worn out by the end of our days at Epcot (am I the only person who finds it dark and hard to navigate at night? I am always ready to leave as soon as it gets dark!) that I decided the best way to see the fireworks was to be able to walk home when it's over! We are trying THREE new-to-us restaurants while we are there: La Hacienda de San Angel our arrival day, using our FP+ allotment that night to watch Illuminations from the preferred viewing area. The next day, I have a Via Napoli lunch ressie which we were all looking forward to (it's a crowd favorite here!) but we are now leaning towards canceling that and trying the pub menu at Rose and Crown for lunch instead. Sunday night I'm SUPER excited to drop the kids at the Sand Dollar Club (Sand Castle Club? Whatever the kids club at Beach Club is!) and walk over to the Swolfin for dinner at BLUEZOO!!!!! One of our most favorite things to do is dine out, and the menu here looks great! I will try to take some pics and report back!

Monday morning we are heading over to Hollywood Studios, and our luggage is heading over to our NEW ROOM AT THE CONTEMPORARY!!! Another first for us-- I am SOOOOOO EXCITED about this resort. We plan to spend a lot of time at the MK the next few days. We have some great ressis lined up for this time during our stay--
Cape May breakfast
50's PT lunch
Tony's Town Square dinner (which I booked in hopes we will get a patio table and watch the MSEP go by!)
watching Wishes with a childhood friend and her twins who will just happen to be there at the same time and who are the same age as JH
Liberty Tree Tavern lunch
Dinner at the Plaza (STILL trying with no luck to get a BOG ressie for this night. We ate there for dinner last January and I thought it was great)
Kona Breakfast
Rainforest Café lunch
Dinner at Artist's Point!!! (a first for us. We are super excited about this restaurant!)
BOG lunch (if we don't get a dinner ressie between now and then. If we do, I will try to book lunch at The Plaza)
Dinner at Mama Melrose (I know it gets mixed reviews, but we have had three great experiences here)

And then our luggage heads over to our FINAL hotel of the trip-- WILDERNESS LODGE-- for the last two nights. (Side note-- I would not really recommend doing THIS many transfers, but we are saving over 1K by doing the last two nights at WL vs. CR because of the level of room we would have to book to stay all five nights at CR due to availability) We have a woods view bunk bed room, but I'm hoping we might get an upgrade like last time, when we got a pool view with a perfect view of the EWP every night!

Our last day we have a Whispering Canyon Café reservation for dinner, will catch lunch on the fly somewhere, and plan to be at the MK E.A.R.L.Y. in our matching Mickey shirts with our biggest smiles on with a super-special goal in mind. Wish us luck!!

I'll be back later today with our first park day!!!

 

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This starts out pretty text heavy, but keep reading-- lots of pics once we FINALLY arrived at our destination...

This morning Adam got up early for a run. I slept in for a bit (sleeping in being about 6:30!) and got up and showered while the kids slept. I laid out all our park things and their outfits for the day (today we had matching monogrammed Mickey shirts!) and some Power Bars for breakfast.

Pre-dawn Stacey + Figment lovie + Mickey Ears= Happy Boys

They were all settled with their breakfast and some STACEY (we LOVE us some Stacey) when Adam got back, and I ran to the lobby to get our resort reservation number so I could try the link I found here on the Dis for getting lunch reservations at BOG. (Here’s the link in case this is news to you. I found it incredibly helpful—you can even pre-order your food if you wish: https://beourguestlunch.disney.go.com/Login.aspx .)

POR was so lovely in the mornings. We were a pretty fair hike from the lobby-- it took about 10 minutes to walk with the kids in tow-- but it was awfully relaxing.

The most cheerful CM (who was also from NC!) with an iPad met me as I approached the concierge desk, and in a few minutes I had a little slip of paper with the magic number I needed (you will need your RESORT reservation number, which has no numbers or letters in it, to use the link. We only had our PACKAGE reservation number before check-in, which didn’t work.) I grabbed a second mug of coffee (Adam had brought back mugs after his run) and sat in a lobby chair and got it all set up on my phone—easy peasy!


At this point, the boys were walking into the lobby, so we high-tailed it out to the bus stop. We had decided not to bring the stroller with us for the FIRST TIME EVER, thinking that JH was probably old enough to walk (spoiler alert—that was a pretty terrible idea) and we were enjoying our freedom and strolling along. And just as we strolled into the covered waiting area… a Magic Kingdom bus pulled away. Boo! We were really hoping to make Rope Drop, and I thought having everyone out of the room at 7:30 for a 9 am opening we were going to be just fine on time (more foreshadowing—it wasn’t)

Let me take a minute here to tell you about my Disney Bucket List. I had a list of things I REALLY wanted to do this trip-- we are usually ALL about the rides, and I thought it would be fun to slow down a little and soak up the MAGIC instead of rush, rush, rushing to fit in five rides on BTMRR AN PPF in one morning... and the Bucket List was born.

DISNEY BUCKET LIST ITEM 1: Get there EARLY for the Opening Show!
I’ve only seen the opening show once—on my very first day EVER at Disney back in 2012.) I had the idea that this would be THE MOST MAGICAL TRIP EVER and we would do ALL THE MAGICAL THINGS—and as I saw that bus pulling away I must admit I was really disappointed (the whole week is ruined! We are going to miss the Opening Show! Nothing will be fun after that disaster!) but then I realized there were still 1,943,345 magical opportunities out there, so we plopped down on a wall and waited for the next bus like happy little Mouseketeers.

The buses for POR were—OK. Not terrible (like at Wilderness Lodge—those were horrible) and not great (like at POP) but just OK. One arrived about 20 minutes later, and it was standing room only, so we stood and had the kids sit at our feet. It worked really well and in a few minutes we were pulling up the THE MAGIC KINGDOM... just as the train was just pulling away... oh, well.

The train was just pulling away from the station and people were streaming through the gates, but we headed over to Guest Relations for our first

BUCKET LIST ITEM 2--OUR BIG MAGICAL MOMENT—TRADING IN OUR PARK TICKETS FOR ANNUAL PASSES!!!!!!!!

When I was planning this trip, I knew we’d be back about 2 months later, and I priced everything out with buying AP’s before Free Dining was announced. But when Free Dining came out, I decided to take advantage of that, and maybe buy less expensive tickets in January (ie, no Hoppers, maybe not going to a park every single day.) I was SO, SO, SOOO excited to realize that I could trade in the tickets for the value we’d paid (for 7 day tickets with hoppers, this was over half the cost of the AP’s) and buy AP’s for about $400 less than it would have been to buy tickets now plus tickets in January. Score one for the Disboards and their amazing information!!

We got this done pretty quickly, and made it through the turnstiles about 9:15.
I love our shadows in this picture



We used our Magic Bands to enter instead of the paper AP’s (more on why this was a BIG MISTAKE later on!) and got right down to crossing the first BIG MAGICAL MOMENT off our list---

BUCKET LIST ITEM 3--ride a Main Street Vehicle to the castle!

The kids have done this a few times with Adam and with my parents, but I am always the one running behind with the camera and the stroller, and I hadn’t ever gotten to. Adam headed off to STARBUCKS for some giant coffees (wish we’d realized we could have used a snack credit for any size coffee there—he paid oop for my grande non-fat latte, and it was around $5.95, so a venti for “free" would have been a lot better!) and the boys and I hopped on a trolly car, right up front.


Our driver told me he’d been coming to the Magic Kingdom for over 40 years, starting when he was the same age as my oldest. Awww—he really seemed to love his job, and he tooted the horn super cheerfully as we went slooooowly up the street. I'm trying to figure out how to link up to the (terrible) video I took, because you can at least feel the happy atmosphere and hear the horn tooting away--Yay for happy CM’s!!


When we reached the castle we thanked him and ran for the totally empty area right up front, and I got some cute pics of the kids.

Adam came up with our coffees, and we walked on to complete
BUCKET LIST ITEM 4: Walk through Cinderella's Castle

We did this our first morning ever in the MK, and then for one reason or another have NEVER been able to do it again! I wanted some pictures of the murals!


(^^Foreshadowing... we were about to have a fun interaction with these ladies...)

(Funny side note—before our first trip I had NO idea what the castle would be like. Grady is so much like my husband—very practical and not easily swayed by “magic”—and when we walked through the castle for the first time, I was loving looking at all the murals. Grady, age 4, piped up “Mooom. Cinderella’s Castle is just a HALLWAY. Come ON!!!)



I enjoyed the “hallway” again this time, and we were soon in my favorite place in all of Walt Disney World, old Fantasyland!

...continued in the next post

 

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We left off as we were entering my Disney Happy Place...

I just love everything about Fantasyland first thing in the morning- the crowds are low, the music is cheerful, and everything is so, so happy. And who should come skipping right into my favorite place but some of my favorite characters—the TREMAINES! They were delightfully nasty, and hopped right up onto the carousel with the guests.



We waved at them as they went by, and Drizella yelled out to Adam (who for some reason was trying to pull the sword out of the stone?!) “pull HARDER!!” It made my morning!



Anastasia was loving all over this little boy-- and when the ride stopped, they hauled him over to the sword!



Lucky boy!!

We hopped on the carousel for our ride...



Carousel kisses for Mommy!



We were using FP+ on this trip, but I couldn’t really imagine being limited to only three FP’s for an entire day at the MK, so I decided to go try pulling a paper FP for Pooh. The cast member saw my magic band, and asked if we were participating in FP+. Why yes, we are, we are so excited, I told him! He was NOT a cheerful CM, and whether this is true or not I am not sure, but he told me if I used my band to pull a FP it might erase all the FP+ I had made for that day! What?! So I pulled out our new AP’s to use those—but he told me that if we hadn’t entered the park with the paper tickets, they wouldn’t work at the FP machines. Double what? I decided that since it wasn’t that crowded, we should try to squeeze in our favorites while the crowds were low and then hit the FP+ attractions later on. (We used our AP’s to enter the park later in the week, and we were able to pull fp’s without any problems. We often pull multiple passes for our favorite attractions between opening and closing each day, so I didn’t really feel bad about “double dipping”—is that wrong? I am not one of the people who is all “FP+ will ruin Disney” because I know that eventually they will get it worked out where you can enjoy attractions with more frequency without waiting in super-long lines, but for now this is a definite disadvantage.)

So we hopped in the stand-by line and made our way through the play area (which is already due for a re-furb—about half the things are not working at all or are only partially working) and waited about 20 minutes for our honey pots!





Our oldest son has loved Winnie the Pooh since he was very, very small, and we read all the wonderful A.A. Milne books at bedtime starting when he was around a year old. He introduced himself to his teacher when he was 2 ½ by saying “Hewwo, my name is Cwistofew Wobin” and I have had a very, very soft spot for all things Pooh ever since. I get a little teary at the rides that celebrate childhood—Peter Pan and Pooh—because they make my heart so full of my own sweet little ones. Sappy moment over—we thoroughly enjoyed our ride through the Hundred Acre Wood, and we even spotted Mr. Toad for the first time (Adam loves Mr. Toad, so this made him super happy!)

We walked past the Teapots (the adults in our party Do Not Spin, so until the kids are old enough to make themselves sick on this one, we are sitting it out!) and the Speedway (Stinkway, is more like it!) and over to Barnstormer. My TouringPlans app said there was a 10 minute wait, which we though would mean walk-on, but it was actually closed. Grady, ever convinced of the magic of Disney, was certain the delicious popcorn smell was coming from the picture of the Dwarfs eating popcorn on the wall around the Mine Train—I didn’t want to point out the real popcorn cart right across the street! So cute!



We walked onto Dumbo, skipping the play area, which disappointed the kids, but I hate to waste prime MK time on a playground. I’m a mean mommy! We'll add it to the January Bucket List.



After a fun ride, it was time to use our first FP+ on Space! Which had a… 5 minute stand-by wait. Oh, well! We decided that I would try it out with Grady stand-by, then he and Adam would use our FP+, and not bother with rider-swap. I am not a huge Space fan—way too jerky for me—but Grady LOVES this ride. He chattered about everything he saw as we walked through the long, empty queue, all through the ride (when he wasn’t giving a lusty WOOHOOO!!!!) and after!



Boy loves some outer space! Meanwhile JH and Adam rode Astro-Orbiter (another ride I put on my once and DONE list a few trips back!) and then JH and I hit one of my favorites while the big boys rode Space again with our FP+-- THE PEOPLE MOVER!!!!! I LOVE THE TTA!!!



I put my feet up and enjoyed the ride!





Buzz was a 15 minute wait, but since we were already there, we decided to go ahead and ride, since I didn’t have plans to come back to Tomorrowland again (I’m not a real big Tomorrowland fan.) Universe defended, we took our picture with Zurg and grabbed some candied almonds from the snack cart, as we were getting hungry but our BOG lunch reservation wasn’t for a while longer.



We used the cut-through that’s now open between Ariel’s ride and the Storybook Circus area, stopping to watch the band along the way. We made our way Under the Sea (I love the part where your clamshell flips backwards and you feel cold air and see all the bubbles overhead—yay for Disney immersive experiences!) and back up on land for a VERY special FP+ reservation!

Read all about our SPECTACULAR character interaction in the next update!

 

[mousehappync]

We left off as our FP+ window for something I was super-excited about was opening up.

ENCHANTED TALES WITH BELLE!

G and I were lucky to hit on one of the days last November when they randomly opened up NFL to regular park visitors, on an evening EMH day, to boot! I was FLOORED by this experience! It was brand new, and the CM’s were still working on their scripts (it seemed really forced and uncomfortable for them to be leading us through things, rather than just ushering us onto a ride) but then the magic mirror opened up, and then the LIBRARY—it was truly, truly Magical! Grady must have looked cold—he was cast as Maurice, and shivered well. He loves to read, and was so, SO delighted by the bookmark he got from Belle (which John Harper promptly ATE when we brought it home. I couldn’t make this up if I tried…

It turns out Grady had Bucket List item of his own:
BUCKET LIST ITEM 5: Be the Beast in a performance at ETWB!

His roar was-- something else In fact, he practiced it all the way through NFL on the way to the cottage-- you're welcome, all the nice, well-behaved families touring the park that day

Sure enough, the CM barely had the words out of her mouth “show me your best roar” when Grady ROARED—I mean ROARED, complete with fangs showing and claws up—and she said “well, I don’t even need to look any further, HERE is our Beast!!” He was SO excited. JH didn’t have much idea what was going on, but he was happy to be Phillipe.



We had a fantastic Belle that day!




And now I PROUDLY present-- 1000 pictures of my children with my favorite )



Please note the CM's face in the background Grady was LOUD!



Belle chatted with Grady the whole time they were dancing. I asked him what they talked about, but he told me "Mom, I have no idea. I was focusing on my DANCING"



The bowing must have made a big impression. He now bows-- a lot--and even when nobody else is bowing-- in every single school performance. I mean, hey, why not?



So any parent who can watch their child dance with a princess and NOT cry has a heart of stone—and Adam and I are big softies. I’m not saying I was not the only one who shed a tear, but I’m not NOT saying that, either… the boys were so happy with their performances, and I felt like every dime I’d spent on those (expensive!!) tickets was worth it for that moment alone.



JH and Belle-- he loves a pretty girl!



Sweet hugs


Getting his bookmark, which I am very pleased to report he has NOT eaten (yet))



Up next-- some more NFL adventures and lunch at the castle!

 

[mousehappync]

After our seriously awesome experience at ETWB, we were ready for another reservation-- LUNCH!

I had used the nifty little code I found here on the Dis to schedule lunch ressies at BOG that morning-- genius plan, I tell you. It was getting hot, and we breezed by all the folks waiting in the loooooong line, gave our name and were led right in to make our selections!

Grady and I had eaten lunch at BOG with my dad on our November trip, and Adam and JH had joined us for dinner there with my mom on our January trip, so this was the first time the fam was all together to try the lunch menu.

I had the Tuna Nicoise my first time, and it was a little disappointing. The tuna was not great quality, and the egg was hard-poached (I prefer soft.) BUT-- you could have served me just about anything and I would have been happy to be IN THE CASTLE and eating a leisurely lunch that was delivered to my table on a real plate. It makes those little cattle-herder turnstiles at other QS places seem just-- SO uncivilized

Today I opted for the slow cooked pork, and let me just say, it was DELICIOUS. Seriously-- so, so good. I'm stealing a pic for you here, as I didn't take any in the restaurant.




This was an INSANE use of a counter-service credit. I shared about half of it with Adam (who ordered the disappointing Tuna Nicoise-- I TOLD him it wasn't good!) and I was still full to the point of bursting with what I had left. The green beans and the potatoes were especially good, and the pork was great. I ordered a chocolate cream puff for dessert, most of which the kids devoured. I had promised them a Grey Stuff cupcake, but we had a snafu at the checkout and neither of us ordered one, and it seemed like it would be kind of a hassle for them to add one to our order after the fact-- or that's what the CM made it seem like. So I sacrificed my dessert to them... ah, a mother's love



The kids had a kid's turkey meal and a kid's meatloaf meal-- they ended up sharing the turkey and discarding the meatloaf, although I think Grady ate the veggies that came with the meatloaf? We also ordered him a cup of the Leek and Potato soup, which he really enjoyed. I had a couple of bites and it was really good--a little too salty, but tasty.



The dark restaurant, the delicious, rich food, the heat that was building outside-- we needed something to wake us up ASAP before we fell asleep right there in the MK.

Note JH "resting"/falling into the fountain

What better way to wake right up but a ride on BTMRR?!

We used our last FP+ for this ride, and I'm glad we had it, as the line was something like 60 minutes at around 1 pm on a 3/10 park day I think it goes extra fast the hotter it is/later in the day it is, and we were WHIZZING around that track! I love this ride-- I see something new every time we ride it, but my photo skillz (in case you haven't noticed, they aren't great on flat land) are not up to it! Boo!

We also hit up Splash, which had been closed on our last trip. It was Adam and JH's first time riding-- these boys love them some drops, and this moster 50 footer did not disappoint. We got soaked, which was also thrilling

Because we weren't wet enough, we wandered on over towards Adventurland, and the boys cooled off in a mister near the Tiki room.



We also hit up Pirates and took a spin on a magic carpet. We cut through back towards Fantasyland and ended up crossing ANOTHER item off the Bucket List:

BUCKET LIST ITEM 6: Watch a Disney Parade!
Somehow we had NEVER seen a parade at Disney! We were able to dash across the street and plop the kids up on one of the planters in front of the Liberty Belle dock, and they had a pretty good view. It was super cute, even if they didn't really get to interact with the characters (we got some serious parade-love later in the week, though, don't worry!)











We then hopped onto a ride I love-- It's a Small World! I can hear it now....

By then we were tired, it was getting hot, and we had knocked just about every ride in the MK out of the park. We hit up Philharmagic-- one of my top five attractions in all of Disney World... and JH had a MAJOR flip out. About the champagne bottles that pop in your face. I was sooooo sad because we never were able to go in again as a family-- Grady and I did it a couple of times, but it just wasn't the same.

We needed a little pick-me up, and so Adam took the kids to try to pull the sword out A-gain-- yes, recurring theme, here, my children are convinced they are princes-in-disguise-- and I ran over to Sleepy Hollow to use a couple of snack credits on some cool treats. A rootbeer float for me and Adam, and a vanilla shake for the kids, which the CM was sweet to split into to separate cups for us.



We headed over to the wishing fountain, and the kids tossed in some coins and made their wishes. Grady's wish-- get this. I kid you not, this kid makes this wish EVERY time he is given a wish to make (which at Disney is practically every five minutes and every time he makes the same wish.) Which is to see fireworks in the daytime. Strange? Yes. Comes true One. Hundred. Percent. Of. The. Time.? Yes. Must be the The castle show must have been going on, and tow seconds after Grady wished-- Boom! There went the fireworks over the castle!



Pretty castle

We were pretty beat at this point, so we made our way slowly down Main Street and hopped a bus back to POR. We went through the lobby and straight to a boat for DTD-- we had a TIW card to buy and a dinner (with cocktails, 20% off) to get to!

 

[mousehappync]

We caught a boat for DTD after our full day at the MK. My kids were WIRED, and the loooong wait for the boat was not fun. For any of us. Or any of the people around us. If any of you are any of them-- my sincerest apologies.

So after we arrived at DTD, Adam and the boys headed straight to the Lego store, and I headed straight to Guest Relations. Time for another Disney Bucket List Item-- our very own TIW Card!

The line was loooong, and I took the time to call my dad, who lives near Orlando, and set up a day for him to visit us in the parks later that week. When I finally made it to the front, I had a CM from a town right down the road, where we used to live and where Grady was born, helping me. She was precious, and she was a big help. I had a ton of Disney Rewards Dollars, and I used some of those for the TIW card, so it was essentially free, right? Yay for TIW cards!

I headed over to the Lego store to give the AP discount a little work-out, and we bought some Hero Factory thingies and I wished the Ewok village was a tad bit less than a car payment, and wished we could have it at our house.

Then it was time for dinner at Raglan Road!

I have a soft spot for pubs-- Adam and I honeymooned in Ireland, and loud, cheerful pubs always take me back to that trip. Let me tell you, Raglan Road has the LOUD down PAT!



We were seated after about a 10 minute wait right in front of the stage, and it was loud enough in there to drown out even my hyped up children! We decided to relax a little, surrendered our iPhones (and Angry Birds) to the little munchkins, and got down to the business of indulging in some (discounted!) booze! Our server, Katie, was fantastic-- we ended up adding quite a bit over the 18% TIW tip she got, and she deserved every penny!

The music was great, and we enjoyed the dancing, too!


I had a glass of wine and Adam had a big ol' beer, and we promptly ordered:

Me:
Kevin's Heavenly Ham



Confession-- I was really, REALLY hoping this would be like the "bacon" we had in Ireland, which was something of a cross between pork belly and the divine experience that is Whole Food's Black Forest Bacon (get it. Cook it. You will thank me for it. I swear.) Sadly, it was mostly just-- ham. It was fair. Nothing great, though. I wish I'd gotten fish and chips, which I really like but we can't easily get at home.

Adam had the Bangers and Mash.



He likes Bangers. He likes Mash. He had two beers that were each about a foot tall during dinner. I think he was happy.

The kids had a cheeseburger and the kid's portion of the Dalkey Duo. I snagged a few of these-- something else I'd been looking forward to trying. They were good. Not amazing, but a good, solid B+.

For desert, duh, I ordered the Bread Pudding.



It was super rich, sugary, buttery, and creamy. What's not to love? I thought it was great, and ate about 1/8 of it, leaving approximately enough to feed a small country for a week. This is a HUGE dessert! Adam had some lemon cloud thing, which he liked. It was WAY too tart for me, though!

The kids had the Chocookberry dessert, which was ice cream, fruit, cookies and chocolate. What's not to love?

We really enjoyed the music and the dancing during dinner, as well as relaxing with some drinks while the kids relaxed with their iphones and dinner. I'm not sure I'd call this a must-do, but if we are at a DTD area resort I am sure we will be back!



When we left, we stopped back to visit our friend the crocodile at Rainforest Café before hopping a boat back to the hotel.



A full, fun day was behind us, and we still had a whole week to go!

 

[scottny]

Joining in. Sounds like it was a fun trip so far.

 

[Disneyvirg]

Loving your trip report! Your boys are adorable! Can't wait to read more.

How cool that you're about to leave on another trip, too!

 

[crepemyrtle]

Following along, and looking forward to reading more.

 

[mousehappync]

Joining in. Sounds like it was a fun trip so far.

So glad you're here!

 

[mousehappync]

Loving your trip report! Your boys are adorable! Can't wait to read more.

How cool that you're about to leave on another trip, too!

Aw, thank you I'm so happy we get to do this together when they are little enough to really learn to love it This is likely the ONLY year we will get to go this many times, and believe me, we are LIVIN' IT UP (do you see my Stacey reference there

 

[mousehappync]

Following along, and looking forward to reading more.

Welcome