Peekaboo, I see Pluto! A 1st Birthday TR; Wrapping up PTR and TR 10/02!

[teekathepony]

Ok, so let me get this straight...

-3 extra days in Disney
(Let's refine that, shall we?)
-3 extra days in AKL!
-Arriving 3 days earlier
-Attending a swanky party to watch Illuminations and eat Zebra Domes...

I'd say that's something to happy dance about!!

 

[Missyrose]

Ok, so let me get this straight...

-3 extra days in Disney
(Let's refine that, shall we?)
-3 extra days in AKL!
-Arriving 3 days earlier
-Attending a swanky party to watch Illuminations and eat Zebra Domes...

I'd say that's something to happy dance about!!

Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes!!!!

Lots of dancing in my house this week. And my boss got back frm his vacation and signed off on my extra vacation days. Wuh-hoo! So we're set to go, now I just need the next four months to fly by.​

 

[Missyrose]

We last left off with my group FINALLY catching up with me at Le Cellier.

And Le Cellier, not surprisingly, was running a bit behind schedule. Our ADR was for 1:15, but they took us to our table at 1:35, which isn’t terrible by Le Cellier standards.

I just love this restaurant. The details and decor are impressive, you really start to feel like it should be 20 degrees outside with about two feet of snow on the ground.

I scanned the room for Joshua (our waiter, a.k.a. Prince Charming, from October).

I saw him, but he was working in a different section. Sad trombone. But enough with the scenery, on with the real reason y’all are here... the food!

We started off with the bread basket. I told the waitress to just bring the pretzel bread, and lots of it!

Now what’s the fun in pretzel bread without something to dunk it in? If any of you read my last TR, you’ll remember that on our first trip to Le Cellier, Franklin and I split a bowl of the cheddar cheese soup. You’ll also remember that we both loved the soup so much that we vowed never to share ever again.
And you know what? we stuck to our vow.

And let me tell you, there wasn’t a drop left in either bowl!

On to the main course...

Franklin and I split the mushroom fillet, with cream cheese mashed potatoes instead of the rizzotto. And we also added a side of the macaroni and cheese.

Keith had the New York strip.

Lala had the chicken Caesar salad.

And Kotkham had the salmon.

Everyone gave lunch two thumbs up! And with our bellies full, everyone was refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the afternoon.

​

 

[Missyrose]

As we left lunch, we realized our Soarin’ FPs had come due. Kotkham wanted to stay in the World Showcase to check out the Flower and Garden Festival while the rest of us made our way back to Future World.

Franklin, Lala and I went first while Keith hung with Tanner.

Lala was pretty excited for her first flight! We waited for the front and center row, which makes the ride so much more awesome!

Upon our return from out West, we found Tanner passed out in Keith’s arms.

Lala took Tanner and she and I waited for the boys to take their flights. While we were waiting, we decided that instead of finishing our to-do list at Epcot, we’d head home to rest for a couple of hours because we had a big night planned -- Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes at Magic Kingdom!

When the boys returned, we made our way to the front of the park.

We had our very own Photopass photo shoot before we left the park.

And with about a million pictures taken, we piled into the SUV and headed for home. I have to say, I was so incredibly impressed with the Flower and Garden Festival displays, especially the Fantasia one at the front of the park. How many of you have visited Epcot during the festival? What did you think of it?

Stay tuned because we have lots of nighttime entertainment at MK ahead!​

 

[natebenma]

A couple of updates!

Spectacular Food Porn- your meals looked seriously delicious. *drools*

I think getting the Cheddar Cheese Soup for each of you and splitting an entree was brilliant!

for first time riders on Soarin'

The Flower and Garden pictures are beautiful. I love the planters in the water. And thanks for posting the Peter Pan pic!

Love the F&G Photopass border with the butterflies.

And just when you think you have seen the cutest pictures of Tanner- there he is sleeping!

 

[Joyciemc]

I had never heard of the Food Blog's Snack Attack party... may be I don't follow them on twitter... though I do stalk the website multiple times a day!
It sounds AWESOME! Too bad it is the week before we go- I know I can't change our dates like you did.
But I am STOKED for you!!! Extra days in WDW, and that awesome party

You all had a lovely day in Epcot. This was my 3rd May trip, and I think this Flower & Garden Festival was the prettiest of all! So many gorgeous displays...

 

[marDgreen88]

OMG. I am seriously impressed with that pretzel bread basket. Is the other bread even worth trying?? I'm guessing the answer to that is: big fat NO. It looks DIVINE.

Okay but really, ALL the food looks divine. Wow. Would you recommend the filet or the strip steak? (Have you ever had the strip steak?)

HAHAHA, the guy giving Minnie a 'bath' looks like he's having the time of his life.

All those F&G pictures are beautiful! I haven't been (yet) but I would absolutely love to go someday!

 

[Missyrose]

A couple of updates!

Spectacular Food Porn- your meals looked seriously delicious. *drools*

I think getting the Cheddar Cheese Soup for each of you and splitting an entree was brilliant!

I spent all day yesterday craving cheddar cheese soup after writing that chapter.

Splitting the entree is really the only way to go. When it's that hot out, you really don't want to be running around after just having eaten an entire steak.

for first time riders on Soarin'

I love taking newbies on it, their reactions are priceless.

The Flower and Garden pictures are beautiful. I love the planters in the water. And thanks for posting the Peter Pan pic!

I knew you'd like that pic!

Love the F&G Photopass border with the butterflies.

And just when you think you have seen the cutest pictures of Tanner- there he is sleeping!

The borders for the festival were really cute. There was another one with an angry Donald topiary and bees buzzing around his head. I'll post one this afternoon!

Isn't he just the most precious sleeping baby ever? Sigh, we're leaving soon to go up and see him. Love that little guy!

I had never heard of the Food Blog's Snack Attack party... may be I don't follow them on twitter... though I do stalk the website multiple times a day!
It sounds AWESOME! Too bad it is the week before we go- I know I can't change our dates like you did.
But I am STOKED for you!!! Extra days in WDW, and that awesome party

You all had a lovely day in Epcot. This was my 3rd May trip, and I think this Flower & Garden Festival was the prettiest of all! So many gorgeous displays...

I love Disney Food Blog, it's a great daily Disney fix (and what's better than Disney food?). That stinks that the party doesn't work for your dates, but you and Ben are going to have so much fun with your friends!

I can't wait to go back to Flower and Garden next year and really explore, we didn't get to do nearly enough of that on this trip.

OMG. I am seriously impressed with that pretzel bread basket. Is the other bread even worth trying?? I'm guessing the answer to that is: big fat NO. It looks DIVINE.

The other bread is some multi-grain roll, so no, I'd stick with a ginormous basket of pretzel bread!

Okay but really, ALL the food looks divine. Wow. Would you recommend the filet or the strip steak? (Have you ever had the strip steak?)

I have three words for you: Truffle butter sauce. The fillet comes with the yummiest truffle butter sauce and the N.Y. strip doesn't. I think Franklin might bathe in the truffle butter sauce if given the chance, there's never a drop left on the plate.

HAHAHA, the guy giving Minnie a 'bath' looks like he's having the time of his life.

All those F&G pictures are beautiful! I haven't been (yet) but I would absolutely love to go someday!

It's really gorgeous scenery, Epcot looks so colorful with all the new flower beds. And the floating beds between Future World and the World Showcase were a beautiful touch.
​

 

[Pixel Dust]

for first time riders on Soarin'

And for the rest of us who can't get enough, come soarin' with us again! Here's a video I took of Soarin'.

VIDEO ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSmJaR_OjY4

I don't usually do ride videos and this is my first crack at it. Video is a whole new ballgame beyond photography.

 

[Maestra99]

OK, I thought I was satisfied with my decision to try something new at Epcot (Coral Reef, because my son might like the fishies), but your photos are seriously making me feel crazy for skipping Le Cellier! And I've never tried the Cheddar Cheese Soup but it looks so incredibly amazing! I love the filet there...it's not *quite* as good, in my opinion, as the stellar one at California Grill (my best meal ever), but it is one of the best I've had! I'm curious: does Lala not eat steak? It would be really hard to go somewhere like LC and eat a salad!

Love looking at the photos of the F&G festival. I've never been, but I hope to some day. That picture where the man is watering the topiary is so fun! When I first glanced at it for a split second, I thought he was wearing a plant-like Mickey hand on his left arm, but then I realized it was part of another topiary!

 

[Missyrose]

OK, I thought I was satisfied with my decision to try something new at Epcot (Coral Reef, because my son might like the fishies), but your photos are seriously making me feel crazy for skipping Le Cellier! And I've never tried the Cheddar Cheese Soup but it looks so incredibly amazing! I love the filet there...it's not *quite* as good, in my opinion, as the stellar one at California Grill (my best meal ever), but it is one of the best I've had! I'm curious: does Lala not eat steak? It would be really hard to go somewhere like LC and eat a salad!

Love looking at the photos of the F&G festival. I've never been, but I hope to some day. That picture where the man is watering the topiary is so fun! When I first glanced at it for a split second, I thought he was wearing a plant-like Mickey hand on his left arm, but then I realized it was part of another topiary!

Le Cellier is SO GOOOOOOD! I know some of the popular restaurants (like Le Cellier and 'Ohana) can sometimes take a beating on these boards (you can't please everyone) but both meals we've had at LC have been perfect and we can't wait to go back. It looks like we're going to skip it in October, but it's back on our list for January!

It was really hot out, I'm sure Lala just wasn't in the mood for steak. I know if Franklin and I hadn't shared one, I probably wouldn't have ordered one. That's the only problem with LC, we like it for lunch, but steak can be a bit heavy in the heat.

The F&G Festival was simply stunning. Epcot is already a gorgeous park, but the added color just makes everything unbelievably beautiful! I hope you get to see it in person some day!

I see you're going to Disney a few weeks after us in October, what kind of plans have you made?​

 

[teekathepony]

Omg lunch at Le Cellier looks sooooo good! I'm trying to think in my head of what I'm going to get when I'm there but there are too many good choices! I also love the decor of the place.
Hooray for Soarin!
My parents were at the Flower and Garden festival this year. I had fun going through their pictures, it's so very pretty!

 

[Missyrose]

Omg lunch at Le Cellier looks sooooo good! I'm trying to think in my head of what I'm going to get when I'm there but there are too many good choices! I also love the decor of the place.
Hooray for Soarin!
My parents were at the Flower and Garden festival this year. I had fun going through their pictures, it's so very pretty!

You're doing the double-digit dance for your trip! Are you totally excited? I'm so excited for you!

You can't go wrong with ANYTHING on Le Cellier's menu. We've yet to try anything we didn't like.​

 

[Missyrose]

We last left off with our intrepid group making our way out of Epcot and heading home for a wee bit of downtime before our evening plans. We got back to the house at 4:30, where we all lounged around for about an hour before piling back into the SUV.

The plan was to spend the evening at Magic Kingdom to see Main Street Electrical Parade; Magic, Memories and You; and Wishes.

Now, some of you may ask “Why didn’t we watch Illuminations on our Epcot day and Wishes on our MK day?” Completely valid question, but I’m sure all the planners out there (both my regular commenters and the lurkers who are following along on this TR) will understand why I planned things the way I did.

First, Thursday night was the only night during our trip that had all three nighttime shows on the MK schedule. And because of this, the crowd numbers were out of control at MK that day (I think the actual number was something like 9.6! )

I loathe crowds. I would rather spend the day in a less crowded park to get the most out of touring and then hop to whatever nighttime events I’d like to see. Now that we’ve got the uber-planner PSA out of the way, back to the SUV.

The ferry-only option (we hadn't had any luck with monorails on the trip) from the TTC sounded extremely unappealing in terms of getting into the park quickly to nab “Franklin’s spot” to take photos and the ferry was an even more unappealing thought for AFTER the fireworks. So I threw out another option to the crew. I suggested we valet the car at the Contemporary and walk over to MK. I’ll pause here to duck as angry Disers throw things my way for breaking such a rule. I know the valet parking is considered a loophole to not using the resorts as parking for park visits, but with the ECV and stroller, it was our best option.

Soon enough, we were on our way to MK via the the “private path.”

I stopped to trade pins with a CM at the CR bus stop, but everyone else galloped ahead.

I met up with everyone as we came through bag check. Well, almost everyone. Franklin had taken off down Main Street to claim “his spot” for the parade and Wishes. Luckily, he’d remembered to leave my ticket with the rest of the group. Phew!

Main Street was PACKED, a sea of wall-to-wall people. I said to Lala, “Aren’t you glad we didn’t spend the day here?”

The sun had begun to set and dusk settled around the castle. This has to be one of my favorite times of day to be in the park, it’s just so pretty. We met up with Franklin at the corner where Main Street meets the hub (on the left side of the street for the very detailed-oriented among us).
The final Dream with Mickey show was finishing up on the Castle stage.

I’ve never watched the show from start to finish, it may end up on our to-do list at some point in the future.

As the show ended, we parked the stroller and scooter in their viewing spots on the sidewalk.

My feet hurt and my legs were really dragging by that point, and so a very kind family let me sit in front of their stroller for a bit. I struck up a conversation with an older woman who was at Disney with her husband. They had been at Universal for a few days and this was their first day at Disney. The gentleman sitting to me right was at Disney from Brazil. They were both sharing stories of how crowded MK had been that day (two hours to ride Space, two hours to ride the Riverboat?!?!?). Um, no thanks!

With about 15 mins left until the parade, it started to rain. Everyone scurried for their ponchos, but I didn’t. I thought it felt good. It only lasted about seven minutes, anyway. It had gotten pretty dark by then and everyone was ready for a little parade action.

I hadn’t seen Main Street Electrical Parade since I was a little kid. I LOVED it. I loved the floats and the characters and even the music, which, yes, got stuck in my head.

The parade was a huge hit. Tanner loved all the lights and so did all of us adults.
It was the perfect start to an evening of entertainment at MK. Stay tuned because there’s plenty more coming up.​

 

[PrincessAmongPrinces]

Hi! I'm still here! I've been shying away from the dis a bit lately bc I've got Disney fever very badly and all the ptrs and trs make me wanna go NOW! But I am still reading all about Tanner's first trip.

Love the Le Cellier pics. That's on my list for whenever we end up going again. The food looks absolutely amazing!

Great electrical parade pictures Frank-a-lin!!

 

[marDgreen88]

I definitely understand your planning method. Makes sense!

LOVE the parade pictures! Amazing! I'm so glad you liked the parade!

 

[teekathepony]

You're doing the double-digit dance for your trip! Are you totally excited? I'm so excited for you!

You can't go wrong with ANYTHING on Le Cellier's menu. We've yet to try anything we didn't like.​

Soooooo excited for my double digits!! You guys are getting awfully close to double digits yourselves!

TWO HOURS to ride the RIVERBOAT!? Holy cannoli!

Ohhhh I adore the MSEP! It's so pretty! What gorgeous pictures Franklin got. I'm definitely staying tuned because I can't wait to see his fireworks pictures!

 

[Missyrose]

Hi! I'm still here! I've been shying away from the dis a bit lately bc I've got Disney fever very badly and all the ptrs and trs make me wanna go NOW! But I am still reading all about Tanner's first trip.

Love the Le Cellier pics. That's on my list for whenever we end up going again. The food looks absolutely amazing!

Great electrical parade pictures Frank-a-lin!!

Yay! Welcome back Kel. You're going to be planning a new trip soon, I can feel it!

Le Cellier is sooooooo good! You guys have to try it. They even have a great kids menu for the boys.

I definitely understand your planning method. Makes sense!

LOVE the parade pictures! Amazing! I'm so glad you liked the parade!

Thanks! Always nice to hear that my uber-planning ways aren't totally crazy.

The parade was just gorgeous and I can't get over how well Franklin's pictures turned out!

Soooooo excited for my double digits!! You guys are getting awfully close to double digits yourselves!

TWO HOURS to ride the RIVERBOAT!? Holy cannoli!

Ohhhh I adore the MSEP! It's so pretty! What gorgeous pictures Franklin got. I'm definitely staying tuned because I can't wait to see his fireworks pictures!

We're creeping up on double digits, 111 days away now. Time is moving VERY SLOWLY. But if I can get through the next month, then it will be the Olympics, then the start of college football, then the start of NFL season, then four Redskins games later, it will be time for Disney!
Yes, when you work in sports, sports events are the way you tell time.

I cannot even imagine waiting 10 minutes for the riverboat, let alone 2 hours.

You're in for a treat with Franklin's Wishes photos, they turned out incredible!

​

 

[Joyciemc]

I know I've said it before- but Franklin's pictures are crazy-awesome. Who needs to see the actual parade?

 

[natebenma]

Getting caught up. Fortunately, I didn't miss much while I was away.

I watched the Soarin' video- AWESOME!!!

No explanations needed for your planning strategy. Great to have it justified, though. I parkhoppers!

Once again, amazing pictures. The colors in the castle are incredible. And the closeup flowers on the parade float are just gorgeous.

More, please!!!