Our Fantastic November Adults-Only Trip w/Pics & Food Reports *7/2/11 BB & CBR**

[GAGirlInVA]

I'm excitedly joining in. We are going on an adults-only trip in April!

(Oh and you REALLY missed out on the BBQ pizza..)

 

[Jack Talon]

I'm excitedly joining in. We are going on an adults-only trip in April!

(Oh and you REALLY missed out on the BBQ pizza..)

Oh don't worry, we went back. :3 More on that later!

 

[Jack Talon]

Awesome pics! How far in advance did you make your ADRs?

btw, that breakfast looked soooo good.

Also, you're not in any of these pictures.

If I recall correctly I think a lot of them were made just a little over a month in advance. We booked the trip I think 2 months before we actually planned to go, and then we piddled around for some time after that before we actually made the ADRs.

 

[palaemon]

I'm not trying to jump the gun, but did you guys go to Food & Wine at EPCOT while you were there?

 

[SaberJ]

Just letting you know I am in! Childless TRs are the best.

I'm glad someone is going to enjoy the trips. I love reports where you get to see excited kids and how the trips made their year. I know when I went in 4th grade, it was something that stuck with me for a long time. But I think that adult reports are unique and fun just because they aren't so reliant on needing to satisfy the need of a kid. Sometimes they get to pack more in, try more adventurous things, and really show a good time overall. I hope that's some of the stuff this report will do. Thanks for joining!

Awesome pics! How far in advance did you make your ADRs?

btw, that breakfast looked soooo good.

Also, you're not in any of these pictures.

This trip was a "last minute" thing. We wanted to make sure we got to go on a vacation before the end of the year. But we decided this at the beginning of September. So it was a little over 9 weeks before the trip when I made the first reservation ('Ohana Breakfast was the first one, it looks like). You can make them up to 6 months in advance. Since we didn't, we missed out on a couple places (Like Le Cellier), and had to shoehorn a couple into times we didn't really want (We ate Sci-Fi Dine-In for lunch, rather than dinner).

Overall, I think we were more than pleased with the results of our meal schedule. If we had gotten every reservation we wanted, then we wouldn't have got to enjoy the surprise hit of the trip (more on that one later in the reports).

Yeah, I take pictures, but I never remember to suggest I get some taken as well. But I think that Russell (Jack Talon) has at least a couple on his camera. In fact, he probably has some additional shots of the stuff I've already posted, so I may have to edit some in as soon as I get them from him. He's out of town now for work, but I'll check with him on Monday or so. If nothing else, we at least have some ride photos from like every ride we went on.

I'm excitedly joining in. We are going on an adults-only trip in April!

(Oh and you REALLY missed out on the BBQ pizza..)

Yeah, like JT said, we've got a nice revisit of WPE coming up. I loved our experience. And while we already have plans for this year, I'm almost certain 2012 is going to be the year of our return. How many people do you have going in April? Just two? Or more? Good luck with it!

 

[SaberJ]

I'm not trying to jump the gun, but did you guys go to Food & Wine at EPCOT while you were there?

We caught the very last day of the celebration. That will be Day 3, I believe. You can read a bit more about our plans for it in the pre-trip report I did. You can find that here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=38818379#post38818379

 

[407-W-DISNEY]

I'm in!
Great report, can't wait to hear more!

 

[Jack Talon]

My thumbs up in pictures is also a running theme throughout the trip. At one point Randy tries to do it himself. He tried to steal my pose! You should all shun him for that.

Also, so everyone knows, I have a lot of fun videos I will be uploading to my Youtube account soon. You will get to hear the brotherly banter between Randy and myself as we ride rides and watch things. Amazing, awesome things.

 

[sPaRkLeSpAz]

This is great so far! It looks like ya'll had a lot of fun, and I LOVE the Stitch plushie!!

 

[SaberJ]

What, you may ask, is the point of a Disney Trip Report without reporting about the parks? Well, the obvious answer there is a wonderful amount of food, of course. But that could just be put in the Restaurant Reviews section of the forums. Since we are here in the Trip Reports section, how about I go ahead and give you the run down on our first park day. A section I humbly call...

Day Two: Magic Kingdom

I didn't intend to go this long before getting to our first park report. But it turns out that A> I have a lot to say about even the most mundane detail (But then is anything at Disney ever really mundane??) of our trip. And B> I wanted to get together with Russell and walk back through the details of our park days. Because everyone knows the order we go through the park really matters. And yes, I'm being completely serious when I say that, please stop chuckling politely.

So there we were, pleasantly stuffed from our morning breakfast at 'Ohana. If you are skipping directly to this post from Ye Olde Table of Contents, you won't want to miss that report. Anyway, pleasantly stuffed, we waddled our way back to the monorail. From there, we road back around to the Magic Kingdom. Several jokes involving the Monorail's spiel containing "Alejandro" held us over until we got there.

We were pretty stoked about our first park, and nobody in our group had been in a Disney park since 1998, and one of us (Tabitha) had never been. But we were also very eager to see what sort of crowd greeted us. After all, this was supposedly one of the slowest periods of the year.

The funny thing is that as we entered Magic Kingdom, I was actually really caught off guard by the Christmas decorations. I'm not sure why, because I knew that they would be up. But still, in early November, the last thing I'm thinking of is Christmas. So I was caught off guard, that's all I'm saying. Get off my back.

And, oh look at all those people. Yeah, apparently even in the slowest period of the year, the place is still pretty busy. Granted, this was the time where most people were coming in, and we were still at the entrance. And for the most part, we didn't end up having all that big of a problem with lines and crowds. But at this point, it seemed just as crowded as I'd seen it before.

As we made our way right down the middle of mainstreet, I couldn't help but thinking of the "underground" tunnels, and how they aren't underground at all, but that they were built above ground, and then Magic Kingdom was built atop that. You can barely tell there is any slope to the entrance at all, but it's still neat to look at it.

Anyway, we were interrupted on our way in by an impromptu song and dance number but some people in a horse carriage. I love Disney.

So with them loaded back into their carriage, we pressed onward through the crowd, taking an amount of pictures of the castle that only a person who hasn't visited in a while could take.

So really, we had two goals for Magic Kingdom. First and foremost, we wanted to ride Space Mountain. The last time we went, we were with a big group. Me and my dad were the only ones that were into riding coasters. Russell was obsessed with everything about them, but he wouldn't ride them at all. So of the three of us, nobody had ever rode this landmark ride. So it was off to Tomorrow Land to get a fast pass for that. But first, we had to take more pictures along the way.

When we entered Tomorrowland, we decided to check out Stitch's Great Escape while we were there. It's a "ride" that we were disappointed got "dumbed down" from it's original vision. But we are pretty big fans of Lilo and Stitch, so it was worth a look.

While waiting in line and watching the "debriefing", Russell was naughtily filming it with his camera. The nice lady behind us (hack through the sarcasm at will) was kind enough to remind him that he wasn't supposed to be doing that. I could only stare at her in return. I can imagine she got beat up a lot as a kid. But ultimately, it made for a funnier story than anything.

I thought the show was pretty neat. But there was definitely a lot more potential there than they were tapping. It was the perfect setting for something much creepier, such as the original Alien theme. All those atmospheric tools at their disposal kind of went to waste pumping chili dog burp smells at us, IMO. But I suppose it stuck closer to the family friendly nature of Magic Kingdom, and that's what it's goal was. I would've liked to seen a Hollywood Studios version, though.

After escaping with Stitch, we headed to Space Mountain to grab some fast passes. The wait wasn't too long, but the fast pass wait was even smaller. So we grabbed that, and then went to ride the People Mover and The Carousel of Progress. These are staples of my memory of Disney World, and they were musts for our trip. The People Mover is a nice relaxing trip around the area, so I always enjoy that. And Tabitha did too, though it took her a couple days before she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh I get it! Tom Orrow! Tomorrow! Because it's Tomorrow Land." That happens a lot with her.

During the Carousel of Progress, I kept going to explain all the neat things about the ride to Tabitha. Like how on the side of each wall, there was another group of people. Or how when you leave one era, the song that plays transitions you out, and the new group in. I'm a dork like that. However, she apparently decided that it was a great time to catch up on some of the sleep she missed by being so slow to get rea.....errrr, by getting up so early. Sleeping during random rides became a theme for our trip for her. Wait until you see what she slept through at Epcot.

After the Carousel of Progress, we stopped by that little central eating area, and waited in line to get some cups of water. Except they tasted like sewer water, and we immediately tossed them. It was pretty horrible. But anyway, after that, it was time to go use our fast passes!

I took those pictures of the spacemunks on the way in. It was weird though, because they had to have been there at least a couple hours. And it was very warm that day. And to top it off, there was no shade in that area. I kind of felt bad for them. But at least they kept a smile on their face the whole time.

We rode Space Mountain, and had a blast. I had seen the inside illuminated before on the People Mover, but it's always amazing how much they fit in there. We took an on-ride photo here, and started a new trend of Russell getting one for every ride where we had fun. If the picture wasn't good, we went until it was. In this case, the picture was good from the beginning. And I'll post it....just as soon as Russell sends it to me. He sent me all of them from the other parks, but no Magic Kingdom. Jerk. (Edit: Got the Picture!)

Anyway, following Space Mountain, we went back to the front of the park in order to get something out of our locker. I forget what it was, but it doesn't really matter. On the way back in though, we ran into yet another random Disney thing. This time, it was the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It Street Party. We had no idea it was even happening. But we found ourselves ushered off to the side of the street, and was right there when everything rolled through. We setup camp on the sidewalk, and grabbed several pictures.

We took a lot of pictures, but I'm not going to flood this post with all of them. Head over to my Flickr page if you want to see more. This will take you to my Magic Kingdom Set.

Eventually, the parade past, and we was like, "Well, that was random and pleasant. Let's go!" Except we move on down the road to discover that they have setup shop in front of the castle to continue dancing, which made getting to our next destination rather difficult. But it was cool, because apparently they had acquired new characters in the process.

Apparently everyone else in the park realized there was a show going on, because it was almost impossible to get through the crowds here. Almost.

The annoying thing is that we were going to cut through the castle to get to our next destination, but it was roped off and closed. Not sure when they started doing that, or why, but it was open again that night. But that didn't help us in getting to our destination, which was....

I'll tell you in the next installment of the trip report. But I seem to have reached the maximum number of pictures I can post in one post, so I'll have to split this report. Which is fine, because I need to get those on-ride photos anyway. Where are we headed, anyone know?

 

[Jack Talon]

On-Ride photos emailed to you. Videos also uploading now.

And FYI, you went to the locker to get the other thingie for you camera. Get your story straight man! D:

I think one of the big things about Carousel of Progress is that you and I have fond memories attached to it from when we went as kids, because we are dorks. Tabitha didn't have that, so for her it was just a big dark room where you watch and old guy talk about random things for 20 minutes. :3

 

[SaberJ]

So where was I? Oh right...

Day Two: Magic Kingdom Part 2

...we were headed to Frontierland, to scale the remaining mountains. If you are going to jump in at Disney World, it's best to jump in head first. So we wanted to get to Splash and Big Thunder Mountains before they spontaneously disappeared from existence.

But first, we risked a stop to grab one of the items from my "Must-Have Snacks List" in my Pre-Trip report. The Dole Whip Float! I don't know why people prefer it without the juice, but that sort of thing doesn't float (heh) in this family.

Yum. This was the first time I've had a dole whip. But I love fruit, so I had high expectations. It did not disappoint. My favorite thing was the take a spoonful of the ice cream with the juice. It was a great blend of tastes. Unfortunately, I ran out of ice cream much faster than juice. That's the drawback of the float, I suppose. But still, it just need a higher proportion of ice cream to juice, is all.

So anyway, we then headed over to Splash Mountain, and grabbed a fast pass. At that point, we decided we would make sure Big Thunder Mountain wouldn't give us one while the other pass as still outstanding. We verified this, and headed off to Haunted Mansion in order to pass some time for our fast pass to come up.

So I have this image in my head as a kid. Those stupid "invisible dog" leashes were all the craze at the time. So I remember setting up camp outside Haunted Mansion. Me, dad, and Russell were going to ride. People were walking around with their invisible dogs, and I was watching them to amuse myself while waiting the obligatory amount of time it takes for a family to split up. How come families can never say, "We're going to do this...wait here" and be done with it? Anyway. So Russell was sort of young at the time, but even so his fear of that ride was pretty irrational. He had been freaked out by watching Disney Sing Along Songs on tape before we left. There was one scene where they were going to the Haunted Mansion, and the trees came alive in it. He was scarred for a long time following that.

So anyway, here we are, getting ready to ride it for the first time without Russell being a little whiny baby. But we go in to the mansion on the Left. I could have swore you used to go in on the right...through the gates. Does anyone know for sure, so that I can stop obsessing about this minor issue?

The line for this ride was insanely long. Perhaps the longest I saw all day. But it also broke down on us, so it's possible it had been doing that frequently, and that's why the line was so long. Either way, it wasn't too bad, because Haunted Mansion actually a pretty cool line.

Also, if it wasn't for the long line, then we probably would've missed out on our first "cute kid interaction" of the week. While standing in line, Russell was look at the thematic decorations and made the smart alec remark that it looked like someone needed to dust the place. Then this adorable little girl that had somehow got right between us was like, "Yeah, you that would probably help a lot". Me and Tabitha looked down at her, and busted out laughing. Russell looked around lost, then glanced down at her, "What did she say?" He was completely oblivious that anyone had responded to his comment. It was very funny, mostly because the girl was entirely serious, and thought he was as well. As if she had been thinking the same thing as him.

As I mentioned before, the ride broke down on us while we were going through. I wish I had thought to have my camera out. It was while you were going through the grave yard, and the three singing heads were right in front of us. Luckily, that song is one of my favorite Disney Park songs, so it was awesome being stuck right there.

After we got out of Haunted Mansion, it was time for our Splash Mountain Fast Pass return. So we headed back that way, grabbed a Thunder Mountain FP, and then went to ride Splash Mountain.

Another retro story. Last time we rode this ride, it took 3 hours to get on. Me, Russell, and dad had split from the family to go ride. Well, by the time we realized how long the wait was going to be, we were already stuck in the maze that is the line. And these were the days before cell phones. So the rest of the family waited for those entire 3 hours, having no clue what the deal was.

This time was nothing like that. The biggest part of the wait was the walking. Granted, we were using fast passes, but even the regular line was relatively short.

I was the only one that ended up getting wet at all, somehow. And I was soaked before we even went down the hill. Another boat on it's way down got me. Just look at my hair in the On-Ride Photo. Sheesh. Bad luck. But as usual, it was a blast.

After the ride, we went through the gift shop. Russell bought the picture, and noticed that they had the Splash Mountain poster up. He had been wanting this poster, so we began yet another reoccuring event. "The Hunt for the Splash Mountain poster". You can not imagine where all we went for this thing. I believe we went to every single The Art of Disney store in Disney World. Everyone told us it would be at a different place. Some said, "If we have it, then it will be here", but several said, "They will have it over here". Finally we ended up at one AoD store where they refused to believe it wasn't on their little online ordering system. She had to come over herself to show us that it was in fact....not there. She promised to get the person in charge of orders to call him ASAP, and they could setup the order that way. I'm not sure whatever happened with that. But I'm assuming nothing.

Following Splash Mountain, we headed to Big Thunder Mountain. We gave our fast passes, and I'm pretty sure that this FP line was even longer than the Splash Mountain regular line. Not much to say here. BTM is pretty awesome, and we enjoyed it. We ended up returning for a few more rides later in the week, at night. Night coasters are the best.

At this point, it was getting close to dinner time. So we decided to head back to the hotel to get ready. We were going to 1900 Park Fare for dinner, and we wanted to try to be early to get back in time for Main Street Electrical Parade. Yeah...that didn't work out. But more on that later.

Before we left the park, we did the touristy thing, and took more pictures of the Castle. Can you have too many? After going through all my pictures I can say with authority: "YES!"

Finally, we went to Old Port Royale prior to dinner to pickup our shipments from Downtown Disney. The staff had decided to break out in a dance party. They were doing the Electric Slide. It was bizarre.

After getting ready, it was back to Magic Kingdom to catch the monorail over to The Grand Floridian. And that's where we will pick up next time. Hope you are enjoying!

 

[Jack Talon]

So a few points from my perspective on this whole thing. First off, I was a wuss as a kid. It also didn't help that my dad was scaring me all the way through Haunted Mansion. He thinks it is funny to give his kids a heart attack, especially when they are really young. Also, I have a video of us stuck on The Haunted Mansion, which will be uploaded soon.

Next, I spilled the Pineapple juice from my Dole Whip Float on my camera because have zero coordination and cannot hold two things at once apparently. Got it all cleaned up though. No harm done.

Next, I would like to point out that I took Stitch out on all the rides we went on except for Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. I didn't want to take him out on Space Mountain because I was really afraid he would get homesick, and I couldn't have a sad genetic experiment on my hands. And I didn't take him out on Splash Mountain because where his molecular density is too great and he can't swim, I figured he would be too afraid of the water, so I kept him nicely tucked away.

ALSO! In regards to that stupid poster that caused us so much trouble. I called a couple of times after the trip and got no response. I still plan to get the canvas print of it, but I will have to wait until I have the money again and I can actually get in touch with the lady I need to get in touch with.

Lastly, anyone that wants to see the videos I have of Disney World, follow this link: ... Okay, so I don't have a high enough post count to post a link. That seems kind of silly. Well, then I will post the link on a later reply!

 

[SaberJ]

So a few points from my perspective on this whole thing. First off, I was a wuss as a kid. It also didn't help that my dad was scaring me all the way through Haunted Mansion. He thinks it is funny to give his kids a heart attack, especially when they are really young. Also, I have a video of us stuck on The Haunted Mansion, which will be uploaded soon.

Next, I spilled the Pineapple juice from my Dole Whip Float on my camera because have zero coordination and cannot hold two things at once apparently. Got it all cleaned up though. No harm done.

Next, I would like to point out that I took Stitch out on all the rides we went on except for Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. I didn't want to take him out on Space Mountain because I was really afraid he would get homesick, and I couldn't have a sad genetic experiment on my hands. And I didn't take him out on Splash Mountain because where his molecular density is too great and he can't swim, I figured he would be too afraid of the water, so I kept him nicely tucked away.

ALSO! In regards to that stupid poster that caused us so much trouble. I called a couple of times after the trip and got no response. I still plan to get the canvas print of it, but I will have to wait until I have the money again and I can actually get in touch with the lady I need to get in touch with.

Lastly, anyone that wants to see the videos I have of Disney World, follow this link: ... Okay, so I don't have a high enough post count to post a link. That seems kind of silly. Well, then I will post the link on a later reply!

Yeah, I think you need like 10 posts or something stupid. You can probably do it in your next post.

Anyway, I also forgot to mention that we both really wanted to reach out and touch the ceiling in the Space Mountain tunnel, but was afraid we could probably actually reach it, and it would burn our hands off. Being an old coaster, I imagine the safety stuff isn't all that high.

 

[SaberJ]

Got more pictures from Russell. So I'm just going to insert those into this post. These are from Day 2. The pictures from future days, I'll be mixing in with my own.

More pictures from 'Ohana. Including pictures of myself, since they didn't appear much on my own camera:

On the way to Magic Kingdom:

Entering the Haunted Mansion:

 

[TanzUnited99]

Have just come across your TR and am all caught up!

We are also doing an adults trip in September...am dieting until Disney and then planning on eating anything and everything!

Was pleased to read your comment about CMs being really nice and helpful as have heard people talk about this declining recently.

We are also planning on just doing one character breakfast (due to being late risers!) though after reading your comments am not sure if this is a wise decision.

Love the Stitch plush and am pleased that he decided to ride Big Thunder Mountain though can understand him not wanting to ride the other two mountains

Looking forward to reading more

 

[SaberJ]

Have just come across your TR and am all caught up!

We are also doing an adults trip in September...am dieting until Disney and then planning on eating anything and everything!

Was pleased to read your comment about CMs being really nice and helpful as have heard people talk about this declining recently.

We are also planning on just doing one character breakfast (due to being late risers!) though after reading your comments am not sure if this is a wise decision.

Love the Stitch plush and am pleased that he decided to ride Big Thunder Mountain though can understand him not wanting to ride the other two mountains

Looking forward to reading more

It was tough getting out of bed early every morning. And I would probably avoid breakfasts that are too early. But if you like that kind of food, I don't think you can go wrong with a couple. Especially the first and last day, IMO. The first because you still have plenty of energy, and the last because it's almost over.

As far as the CMs go...who knows, maybe they've gotten worse. But in my experience, worse still means far and above what you would get anywhere else. I think people get a big jaded after a while, and their expectations get too high. Maybe it's the worst service you've had in the 12 times you've been in the last 5 years, but you still have to realize that it's on an entirely different level than everything else out there.

Good luck with your trip, hope you have a blast like we did!

 

[SaberJ]

Before I get back into the the trip, I wanted to thank everyone that posted to say they are following along. Glad to have people paying attention. If you are new to the thread, just a tip that you can look at the top of the first post on each page, select "Thread Tools", and then "Subscribe to this thread" from the list of options. Then you can determine how you will be notified when there is new activity. But don't forget to post and let me know you are following along, I do likes the attention.

Ok, so jumping right back in. We were on the Monorail headed to the Grand Floridian. This was our dinner destination. The location of 1900 Park Fare. So that bring us to the core of this report:

Day Two: Dinner at 1900 Park Fare

I mentioned before that we wanted to be early for dinner, so that we might be able to make it to the Main Street Electrical Parade (which both me and Russell love). Our reservations were for 8:15, and the MSE was at 9. Well, when we arrived and checked in, we were told that they were running about 45 minutes behind, but since we were about an hour early, we should get seated right about our reservation time.

So with the hopes for making MSE dashed, we decided to walk around the Grand Floridian and take pictures. Personally, I'm not a fan of victorian style architecture, and the Grand Floridian isn't really an exception. Large wooden structures and white paint just don't do it for me. That's why the GF would be the last on my list to stay at, if we were making a list of deluxe properties we like. The Contemporary, and The Polynesian are more along my style. I love the Animal Kingdom locations too, but those are just too far from everything else for my taste. Sorry for dissing the Grand Floridian, for those of you that are fans.

Despite my disinterest in the resort, I still wanted to grab some pictures, so I started on that.

But before too much longer, we ran into the lounge on the second floor near the orchestra, and decided to sit down for a drink. Russell got a beer of some sort (not appealing to me, so I tend to block them out). Me and Tabitha decided to go the fruitier route. I forget what the drink was called. A Starlight something? It had a glow cube and was loaded with fruit juices, and that's all I can remember.

Russell also got some beer nuts, so we were more than happy to help him out with those. We were very hungry by this point. Knowing that we were going to a buffet, let alone one with strawberry soup on it, we had ate very little during the day. By the way, it's worth mentioning again that I love fruit. Fruit drinks, fruit desserts, fruit by itself, whichever way you want to give it to me, really. So here with the drink, and again with the soup, you'll soon wonder why I target so many fruit options. That's why.

In fact, the whole reason for booking 1900 Park Fare was the presence of the Strawberry Soup. I've taken a lot of cruises, and that's one dish I always look forward to each time. So despite being completely out of place in a Cinderella themed dinner, I decided to book this reservation anyway.

But before we got our call for seating (which came about 15 minutes after our ADR time), we had more pictures to take. Tabitha wanted more pictures of some of the things in the GF, so I obliged.

The Gingerbread House:

The Chandelier and Skylights:

We went back to the seating area to finish waiting for our table. Mostly there was a lot tired waiting to be done. However, there was one point in which a CM started playing the piano with a really talented little girl. So that was entertaining. I again re-iterate how top notch my experiences with the CMs on this trip was.

But mostly, it was just a lot of being tired before dinner. At one point, Russell even entered a trance.

Eventually, though, we were called to our table. Actually, it was more of a half booth. The booth half was against the wall, and meant squeezing past the neighbors in order to get out. I'm never a fan of this sort of seating, but especially at a buffet where you are constantly climbing in and out of the table.

We all started grabbing our first plates. Russell ended up with Roast beef, some sort of fish, salad, to forms of rolls, and some more assorted stuff. However, the highlight of his selection is of course the strawberry soup entree.

Tabitha, the perfect picky eating partner for me, went for some tried and true choices. Roast Beef, pizza, salad, mashed potatoes/gravy, and bread. Unfortunately, her selection was docked points for her failure to procure strawberry soup. She was disqualified from the running for "Best Selection" and mocked thoroughly as a result.

I personally decided to go the "Meat, Bread, and Fruit" route. The Roast Beef was good, but the second meat...not so much. It was very dry and tasteless. The rolls were good. However as is usually case, cold bread + hard butter = very help in eating. Ultimately though, the strawberry soup was the highlight of my meal. I was actually surprised by it. It was very good, and also pretty thick. At a buffet, I was expecting it to be be very watered down to keep costs down. I was wrong.

The meal was...decent at best. Strawberry Soup or no, I think I would be hesitant to go back. Ultimately, I'm pretty sure I could get a better buffet from around here at about 1/3rd the cost. I guess the argument could be made for a lot of places, but this is really the only place I felt that way at.

However, if you have kids, the atmosphere of the place is top notch. The characters aren't just coming around to tables, but the are interacting with the guests, with each other, and livening up the atmosphere. The step-sisters were pleasantly obnoxious, and took some of the best pictures. We got visited by each character through our dinner. I'm not the biggest Cinderella fan in the world, but the little girls in the room seemed to adore the characters.

But perhaps they didn't enjoy it as much as Russell did. Inseparable from his Mickey ears at this point, Russell had a rousing debate with Lady Tremaine on whether or not rodents are good. It was a pretty long debate, extremely in character, and quite entertaining. I did find it very cool how the "bad" characters still managed to be pleasant toward the children. Not that the children wanted much to do with them either way, but at least they tried.

Anyway, following the characters and dinner, it was time for dessert. I personally stuck with the strawberry soup. I hadn't got my fill yet. I think I ended up eating 3 bowls of the stuff. Very yummy. Tabitha had her birthday pin on that night, so she got a birthday cupcake. Even though she had ended up getting strawberry soup on her second plate, I still mocked her for eating the cupcake when there was more strawberry soup available. But she would have none of it, and enjoyed every bite of her cupcake.

Russell also decided to change things up from the strawberry soup, and got one of each of the mini-desserts. It was a decision he ended up regretting, as he said none of them tasted particularly good. I believe he ended up grabbing another strawberry soup bowl.

Like I said, I wasn't a fan of the food itself other than the all-course fruit dish from the Gods. But the thing that really blew my mind about the meal was the price. I would absolutely not pay that price for the meal, and wouldn't even book it on the future trip, unless I was bringing a kid along that was a huge Cinderella fan.

Before leaving the restaurant to head back to Magic Kingdom for the fireworks and extra magic hours, Tabitha made sure I took some pictures of the decorations around us.

Join me next time for the end of day two. Finally!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Am with you on the GF being the last deluxe resort I would want to stay in...don't know what it is but it just doesn't appeal to me as much as Poly or Contemporary. You managed to get some great pics of the place.

Wow you guys are patient waiting that long for a buffet dinner...especially as you had not eaten much during the day.

The debate with Lady Tremaine sounds funny! It's a shame the food wasn't that good but at least there was strawberry soup! Hope you managed to catch MSEP later on in the trip

 

[jelloarms]

That is a really good Cinderella. Like I mean, that is exactly how I picture Cinderella to look in my head. I hate when the characters don't look like how I think they should look.