Pudge Controls the Weather-A Land and Sea TR Apr 6-Apr 15 ( Last Day new 5/26)

[marDgreen88]

I got him to agree to a short stay in June over Father's Day weekend. I sold him on the fact that we had annual passes we need to use again, PLUS we had water park annuals passes that expired at the end of June. So we only need to pay for food and gas. And he said OK. YAY !!! It's hard because my bestie can't go because her sister is getting married that weekend. And I really like it when our trips coincide.

Ahhh no way!!! That's so exciting! Do yall know where you're gonna stay yet??

 

[Pixie Princess]

I got him to agree to a short stay in June over Father's Day weekend. I sold him on the fact that we had annual passes we need to use again, PLUS we had water park annuals passes that expired at the end of June. So we only need to pay for food and gas. And he said OK. YAY !!! It's hard because my bestie can't go because her sister is getting married that weekend. And I really like it when our trips coincide.

No Disney together, and we won't get to see y'all when we come to town for the wedding.

 

[MickeyMichelle]

Hey Susan!

I just read your TR and enjoyed it so much! My favorite Hotel AKL and I am Dreaming of sailing on one of the new ships. I sent a request for FB for the castaway crew. I am not much of a blogger but I am addicted to reading TR! I would love to be a member. I live in North Atlanta.

Have a Magical day!

Michelle

 

[jecskc]

Hey Susan!

I just read your TR and enjoyed it so much! My favorite Hotel AKL and I am Dreaming of sailing on one of the new ships. I sent a request for FB for the castaway crew. I am not much of a blogger but I am addicted to reading TR! I would love to be a member. I live in North Atlanta.

Have a Magical day!

Michelle

Michelle !! I just love reading people's TR's as well. You can learn so much by reading them. I will see if I can add you to the group. I am not sure I can do it without knowing your full name on Facebook. Message it to me and I will see if I can add you. Thanks for reading and stopping in to say hello.

 

[jecskc]

Day 3 – Part Five

So DD and I were waiting for the boys at Casey's watching some old style Disney cartoons.

They weren’t gone long and had even managed to get a ride on Stitch while they were over there. We still had a little time before our ADR, so we went over to ride Pirates of the Caribbean.

Yo ho, yo ho and a pirate’s life for me. We waited about 10 minutes. Not bad at all. DH then went over to get fastpasses for me and DS while we went to go wait in line for the Fairies – which was 40 minutes. But since that was so close to our ADR time of 12:45 PM at Liberty Tree Tavern, we decided to get out of line and just head over to see if they would take us early. I want you to keep in mind that we had done all of this during Spring Break before lunch. So with a good rope drop strategy and wise use of fast pass, you can still get everything done (well, everything that we wanted to do anyway) during one of the busiest times of the year. We were using our fast passes within our allotted time frame as well.

So, we headed over to Liberty Tree Tavern.

And even though they were pretty crowded, they said since we had a reservation, we could get seated right away, no problem. We were a little worried about our sharing strategy after the previous night’s debacle at Via Napoli, but our waiter said it was fine that we shared and he said they should have let us share at Via Napoli as well. He said they don’t have any such policy about not sharing. So it was all good. We were starving so we ordered quickly.

DS got Angus Chuck Cheeseburger - topped with bacon and cheddar or mushrooms and provolone served with fresh fruit or tavern fries (without the mushrooms of course)

These are my favorite kind of fries. Kinda thick, but still cooked until they are crunchy on the outside. I made sure he “shared” some with me. LOL.

DH and I split the New England Pot Roast... Our Tavern Keeper's Favorite - braised beef in a Cabernet wine and mushroom sauce served with mashed potatoes and garden vegetables.

They even split it up for us so this was just MY half. Can you see how much food this is ?? I was so happy we split it. And it was out of this world good. So simple and homey. We loved it.

DD ordered

Choice of 1 Appetizer, 1 entree and 1 dessert - $8.59

Appetizer

Garden Salad
Chicken Noodle Soup
Celery and Carrot Sticks
Sliced Apples

Entrees

Pasta with Marinara Sauce
Macaroni & Cheese
Oven-roasted Turkey
Barbecue Chicken and Pineapple Flat Bread

Desserts

Fruit Salad
Ice Cream Sundae
Yogurt Parfait
Sliced Apples

I thought this was a really good selection for the kids here. She got the sliced apples, Macaroni and Ice cream sundae.

Here is her dessert.

Don’t you just love the sprinkles ?? All patriotic and stuff.

DS ordered the Seasonal No Sugar Added Sorbet - with berries (flavor was Raspberry)

Very light and refreshing. And the berries were really good.

DH and I split the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake - vanilla cake with a gooey toffee filling, vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce

This was sooooo fantastic !! It was a heavy dessert, but sooo yummy !! We very much enjoyed it. Our waiter was one of the best and we really enjoyed our meal at Liberty Tree Tavern. We will definitely go back for sure. Here are the kids after eating. DS and his hat just crack me up.

Liberty Square getting pretty busy.

We made our way over to Frontierland

And Splash Mountain.

The last time I rode this was during our trip in September of 2010. And when we rode, they had the water cannon on and we got absolutely soaked, like down to your underpants soaked. Ringing our your clothes and making a huge puddle soaked. So I have not ridden it since. But this was our last ride of the day, so I thought that if I got super wet, we would be leaving anyway.

We escaped with minimal sprinkling this time and headed out of the park via the steam train. You can see this area was packed !!

It was about 1:30 or 2:00 PM when we headed out.

The new Fantasyland train station.

Speedway (as seen from the train)

Monorail

And Main Street right before we exited.

A panorama

And then we headed out to the bus stop and waited about 10-15 mins for a bus and then we were back AKL for a few hours rest.

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

I can't believe how big that half portion of pot roast is!! Your lunch looks great!

Glad you didn't get drenched on Splash!

 

[jecskc]

I can't believe how big that half portion of pot roast is!! Your lunch looks great!

Glad you didn't get drenched on Splash!

I know. Some of those places serve sooo much food. This is why the sharing thing works so well for us. Neither of us would eat that whole thing ourselves. Why waste food and add extra calories ?? Plus, the kids often don't eat all of their food, so we never go away hungry.

Girl, I don't mind getting wet if we are leaving right away. So this was our strategy that day. Thankfully there was no wringing out of shorts or trying to dry my t-shirt off with the hand dryers in the bathroom. It was a fun ride. It had been way too long since I had ridden it.

 

[jecskc]

Just booked a short weekend trip in June for an Anniversary/Father's Day !!! It was ridiculously easy using the online booking on the DVC site. Going to go check on ADR's now !! Woo hoo !!

 

[LissaW16]

Just booked a short weekend trip in June for an Anniversary/Father's Day !!! It was ridiculously easy using the online booking on the DVC site. Going to go check on ADR's now !! Woo hoo !!

boo! I hate that I have to get on a plane to get to WDW (and by get on a plane, I mean drive 3 hours to an airport then pay $1200 for the family of 3 to fly)... so jealous!

 

[jecskc]

boo! I hate that I have to get on a plane to get to WDW (and by get on a plane, I mean drive 3 hours to an airport then pay $1200 for the family of 3 to fly)... so jealous!

I am so sorry Melissa. It was 93 here today ... and we won't see much relief from that until October. Does that help?? If we didn't live within an easy drive, I doubt we would ever go. So I am thankful we have that option.

 

[marDgreen88]

Your LTT meal looks delicious! I've heard so many good things about that place but for some reason I never think to go there myself. I love when they split it up for you! Makes everything so much easier when you're splitting.

Glad you escaped Splash Mountain without a puddle following you this time! I LOVE SPLASH MOUNTAIN.

 

[jecskc]

Your LTT meal looks delicious! I've heard so many good things about that place but for some reason I never think to go there myself. I love when they split it up for you! Makes everything so much easier when you're splitting.

Glad you escaped Splash Mountain without a puddle following you this time! I LOVE SPLASH MOUNTAIN.

You need to put LTT on your list for sure. Our waiter was awesome !!

Yes, it was nice not getting soaked.

 

[IheartDDuck]

I knew that the CM at Via Napoli was wrong about the splitting thing! I've heard of so many people splitting meals, I was so confused when you said that.

Wow, that was half a serving of pot roast?! And we wonder why we're all fat.

 

[jecskc]

I knew that the CM at Via Napoli was wrong about the splitting thing! I've heard of so many people splitting meals, I was so confused when you said that.

Wow, that was half a serving of pot roast?! And we wonder why we're all fat.

I don't wonder why I am fat at all. I KNOW why. It's just that everything TASTES so good. If I want to be skinny I will have to work VERY hard at it. All day. Every day. And I've just gotten lazy in my old age. Yep. Lazy. Besides, its genetic. I mean, I gain five pounds just licking a stamp. It's not fair.

That pot roast was da bomb, though.

 

[jecskc]

Day 3 – Part Six

Back at AKL for some afternoon rest. Some animals that we could see from our balcony. Again, the weather on this day was amazing !! 60’s in the AM and got up to around 80 in the afternoon. Seriously, Pudge loved us on this trip and bestowed us with good weather.

DH volunteered to take DD to the pool so I could get some rest and DS stayed to rest with me. DD came back from the pool with these.

Apparently they were having Disney trivia at the pool and she won some stuff. That’s my girl !! She knows her Disney stuff, now. We chilled for a while and then headed to Downtown Disney for some dinner.

On our last trip when we went to DTD, it was super crowded. DH had to park all the way down at Cirque de Soleil and walk down to meet us. So this time, we tried to get there earlier to avoid a huge crowd.

We ate dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s Express

This is the best use of counter service credits, I think. We really like the food here. DH and I split the Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf - mashed potatoes, port wine sauce and crispy onion rings

I took the bacon off before I took the photo. This dish is so good. I just love the onions on it.

The kids got the usual - Crispy Chicken Tenders & French Fries

Can’t really go wrong with that. For dessert, DH and I split the cheesecake.

Very yummy. I love the crème brulee type crust it has on the top of it.

And DS had a sugar cookie.

Which he took a bite out of before we got our dinner.

And DD got a brownie

These brownies are really good.

So after we were done, we headed over to Mickey’s Pantry

And bought these plastic wine glasses to use on our cruise (they let you bring your own alcohol on board and we have a box of wine)

I bought these magnets

And the kids got a coffee mug for their older sister who is my DH’s daughter from his first marriage.

After that, we headed over to Once Upon a Toy

But didn’t buy anything. DH took DS over to the Lego store

Lego Sculptures

Where he bought

In the mean time, DD and I headed over to World of Disney

Where she bought a necklace

And some charms for her charm bracelet.

And that was it. We were so tired, DH especially, that we just needed to go back and settle in for the night.

 

[kyirish25]

We were at DTD this night as well. We saw you up ahead of us but never was close enough to get your attention without being obnoxious.

Guess who else bought those wine glasses? Of course I did and also picked up the Mickey head wine charms.

Awesome on booking a quick trip in June! I'm still pushing for weekend of June 9th but won't know if Doug can get the time away from work until closer to time. If not, I hope to talk him into sometime this summer as end of Sept is just too long to wait plus our AP's expire end of July so another trip is a must before we renew them.

 

[DSRMary]

LOVE the wineglasses!! how did i not see them?? I'll have to look when we go to WDW in June. Loving your TR!!

 

[jecskc]

We were at DTD this night as well. We saw you up ahead of us but never was close enough to get your attention without being obnoxious.

Guess who else bought those wine glasses? Of course I did and also picked up the Mickey head wine charms.

Awesome on booking a quick trip in June! I'm still pushing for weekend of June 9th but won't know if Doug can get the time away from work until closer to time. If not, I hope to talk him into sometime this summer as end of Sept is just too long to wait plus our AP's expire end of July so another trip is a must before we renew them.

LOL that you saw us ..... again !!!

I have those wine charms, too. LOVE them !! I loved that those wine glasses were plastic so you don't have to worry about them breaking while on the cruise. We had brought some plastic ones from home, but since they didn't have Mickey's on them, they got left in the car.

The whole purpose of the June trip is to maximize use of Ap's. We have park AP's plus Water Park AP's that expire June 22nd. So with only 50 DVC points used for a studio, we only have to pay for food and gas for the June trip. Which coincides with our Anniversary and Father's day. It's a no brainer. We've been invited to the beach the weekend of the 9th, so that will be nice.

I hope you guys can get a trip this summer!!!

 

[jecskc]

LOVE the wineglasses!! how did i not see them?? I'll have to look when we go to WDW in June. Loving your TR!!

When are you going in June ?? Maybe we will see you !!! I love those wine glasses. Thanks for reading and stopping to say hello !!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I'm so jealous that you guys are so close to book that kind of a weekend. All we have here is Wisconsin Dells.

You get fat licking stamps too!? Good, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I did start using the MyfitnessPal app and website though and it's been incredibly easy so far. Lost 12 pounds so far. Not that you can tell.

Good job for your DD with the trivia! You have trained her well.

I love the cheesecake at WPE. I used to like the creme brulee, but then I ate the cheesecake and it was all over.