Star Wars Nightastically Delicious! ~ Updated 10/24: Nov PTR Started...Link in Siggie

[jc040404]

Wow! You were right. I am soooo hungry now!! (And I just ate lunch!!) I never really considered the dessert parties for fireworks, but this looks pretty nifty.

Can't wait to hear about 4 parks in one day! We tried it twice, and failed both times! We can only manage 3. Dragging the kiddos along made things kinda crazy.

 

[reelmom]

We did 4 parks 1 day on Sunday the 6th also. Started off at DHS for SWW, then AK, EPCOT, and the MK. We were tired by the end of the day but we had a blast. We did have more than 6 hours sleep the night before though. Love the video and the pictures of the Dessert Party. We still haven't convinced ourselves to try it yet.

 

[karebear23]

Yeah! DD & I loved the fireworks! I was thinking about driving of to the poly beach and see them again.
Oh your killing me with the dessert party! They all look delicious! Not helping my diet!!!!

 

[Dugette]

Summer Nightastic looks very cool!!! Glad you guys enjoyed it. Looks like they stepped up the desserts at the Dessert Party too

4 parks in 1 day???? Even I haven't been that ambitious! Three has been our personal best!

Yes, Summer Nightastic was pretty cool! Glad that the timing worked out so that we were able to see it (considering we booked this trip before it was announced). I'm glad we did the dessert party too, since it was a nice way to really enjoy the show w/o too much of a crowd.

4 parks in 1 day will not be as impressive as our last time we did it (our January 2010 trip...links to video/posts in the table of contents on page 1 of "The Magic and the Misery" TR). This one will not have any requirements other than physically being in each of the four parks...who needs rides everywhere?!

Great video! I wonder if the glasses would work at any other fireworks? Wow you got a picture in front of the castle with nobody else in it but you two. We had one taken last time and what a awful job they did. There was other people in our family picture

Good question about the glasses. We'll have to bring them with on future trips and try that out! Too bad I didn't think of that on the 4th of July. I would think they would work on anything, though.

Yes, that picture in front of the castle did work out well. However, since I used that picture in our intro post also, I think I had cropped it a bit...I think there was some guy on the edge of it that I got rid of. Not too bad for the photo the Photopass person took with our camera, though (since we don't buy the Photopass ones).

Wow! You were right. I am soooo hungry now!! (And I just ate lunch!!) I never really considered the dessert parties for fireworks, but this looks pretty nifty.

Can't wait to hear about 4 parks in one day! We tried it twice, and failed both times! We can only manage 3. Dragging the kiddos along made things kinda crazy.

Yes, we're glad we got into the dessert party for this (we'd tried a few times and were told it was full, but persistence pays off, I guess). I only wish we were not so full. It wasn't even because of that day, it was more because of the past couple of days. I think I'd recommend doing the dessert party on the first night of a trip, so you're not so full from the accumulated Disney dining.

Those 4 parks in 1 day attempts must be coming up in your TR? Looking forward to it! I can imagine it would be more challenging with two little boys along for the ride.

We did 4 parks 1 day on Sunday the 6th also. Started off at DHS for SWW, then AK, EPCOT, and the MK. We were tired by the end of the day but we had a blast. We did have more than 6 hours sleep the night before though. Love the video and the pictures of the Dessert Party. We still haven't convinced ourselves to try it yet.

That's awesome that you did 4 parks on the same day as we did! Almost the same order, too. Just swapped the first two parks. It is tiring, but fun. In fact, the time we did it in January was probably one of our most fun days at Disney (somehow, in January, we managed to do at least a few attractions in each park, eat a leisurely brunch at Kona, and have a No Way Jose at Beaches and Cream).

Yeah, the dessert party is hard to justify. I think it's probably a one-time-only thing for us. I think the only thing that made it worthwhile was the new fireworks show premiering that night. Otherwise, I'm not sure of the value. Of course, I could have eaten a lot more desserts if I didn't have a giant chocolate peanut butter cupcake earlier that day!

Yeah! DD & I loved the fireworks! I was thinking about driving of to the poly beach and see them again.
Oh your killing me with the dessert party! They all look delicious! Not helping my diet!!!!

I'm glad you enjoyed the fireworks too! I bet they would be cool from the Poly Beach too!

Yes, Dug took some really nice pictures of the desserts. I think the pictures might actually look better than the real things did!

 

[jc040404]

Yes, we're glad we got into the dessert party for this (we'd tried a few times and were told it was full, but persistence pays off, I guess). I only wish we were not so full. It wasn't even because of that day, it was more because of the past couple of days. I think I'd recommend doing the dessert party on the first night of a trip, so you're not so full from the accumulated Disney dining.

Those 4 parks in 1 day attempts must be coming up in your TR? Looking forward to it! I can imagine it would be more challenging with two little boys along for the ride.

I'm going to definitely look into that party for the next year now! I'll take that early in the stay tip, too. Although, I doubt I'd have much trouble with the boys eating all those desserts though!

Yes, we tried it towards the end of the year on our last two mutiple night stays. It's kinda far off from where I am now. I was getting freaked out that our passes were about to expire and wanted to cram as much Disney into each day as I could!

 

[praisehisname]

Great pics of the desserts and fireworks! I'd like to try the party sometime, if they continue to offer it. I'm anxious to see how your 4 parks/1 day works out...

 

[Dugette]

Yes, we tried it towards the end of the year on our last two mutiple night stays. It's kinda far off from where I am now. I was getting freaked out that our passes were about to expire and wanted to cram as much Disney into each day as I could!

Understandable! I think I'd probably be compelled to spend my last "Disney day" at all 4 of the parks too!

Great pics of the desserts and fireworks! I'd like to try the party sometime, if they continue to offer it. I'm anxious to see how your 4 parks/1 day works out...

Thanks! I'm going to try to start working on the start of the 4 parks in 1 day right now.



To anyone out there: Sorry for the lack of updates! We were out of town (no, not Disney--WA/OR for family visits/wedding). I'm so behind on my reading of TRs that I've been putting off writing more. But, I don't want to get too out of practice, so I'll work on another update tonight!

 

[Dugette]

Refreshed from our 6 hours of sleep, we got up excited to try Boma for breakfast! We’d had dinner at Boma on our September trip and loved it, but we’d also heard good things about the breakfast, so we were looking forward to trying it!

So nice to have cool restaurants in the same building you’re staying in. We got ready and strolled down to Boma. Checked in for our 7:30am ADR and were seated right away. We ordered some of the famous “Frunch” juice and went up to the buffet.

The juice:

Various trips to the buffet:

Yummy strawberry-banana yogurt:

Some soup (looking at the menu on allears, I think it might be the quinoa porridge):

We noticed that the cream for Dug’s coffee had formed its own Hidden Mickey:

The back of Dug’s chair also contained a Hidden Mickey:

While Dug was up at the buffet, I stole the camera and took some pictures of the restaurant:

This one shows the table we sat at in September (on the right). We were seated right by it:

We both loved the breakfast and were glad we hadn’t skipped it to sleep in! I’m not even a big fan of most breakfast foods, but I found plenty that I was excited to eat. And there’s so much I didn’t even have room to try. We’d definitely go back!

With that yummy breakfast in our bellies, we made our way out to the buses. On our way out, Dug took this picture of a light fixture that he liked:

Caught a bus for the short ride over to AK. Made it in time for rope drop:

This was our first destination, though only to get the Fast Passes:

Once we’d obtained the FP, we made our way to the safari:

We ended up in the very front seat this time:

This ended up being handy for animal spotting since we could see exactly what the driver was looking at when he was talking.

They crammed us in next to another couple this time. Ready to videotape my safari:

Dug was having fun taking pictures of the theming:

Dug has always had trouble getting good pictures on the safari, due to the bumps and quick movement. He finally figured out a solution: he set the camera on high-speed burst mode. He ended up with a lot of pictures (when you flip through them, it almost looks like video, there’s so many), but within all those photos were some nice ones. Here’s a few random ones:

We were lucky enough to see several babies/animal families on this safari. Adorable! Here are the giraffe and elephant families:

Continued in next post…

 

[Dugette]

We left off with this cute family:

Next, we went over the “dangerous” bridge:

Strangely enough, it didn’t actually do anything this ride…no near-collapse for us!

Next was another baby, a sleeping one:

And some of their relatives out for a walk:

Although Dug didn’t get a picture, I got a little video of the cheetahs! This was the first time we’d really been able to see them. Here’s a still frame from the video:

We also saw some napping lions:

And a few more friends:

After the safari, we watched the gorilla for a few minutes:

It was about 10am by then and time to head over to Dinosaur:

After we’d returned from our time-travel, it was time to use our EE FPs, so we made our way back over there:

Although we still enjoyed it, we did not see the Yeti at all this time. Dug asked a CM at the end if the Yeti was feeling shy this morning and they said yes. Oh, well.

It was about 11am by then and we’d hit the 3 rides we’d wanted to do. Time for a break! It was ridiculously hot and humid out already!

We hopped on a bus back to AKL for a shower and a nap. Ahhhhhh, a nap!

After maybe 1.5 to 2 hours of napping, we got up for a swim. Enjoyed the time relaxing in the AKL pool. We both wanted to go down the waterslide, but it had a giant line of small children at all times, plus the bottom of the slide was full of parents eager to catch their little ones. We decided we didn’t want to come barreling down the slide with all the toddlers. Oh, well.

After our swim, we headed to the pool bar to get a cold drink. I had read a thread on the Dis shortly before our trip that was about the best drinks at WDW. The Pina Colavas at the resorts came up frequently as a recommendation, so we wanted to try one:

Very yummy on a hot day! We wanted to bring the drink and some lunch up to our room, so we could eat out on the balcony. I felt ridiculous in Mara, wet, wrapped in a towel, but we got our food. We picked up an African Stew (yummy!-thanks for the recommendation, Gellybean!), a veggie flatbread (good, but not as good as Jiko’s), and some more Zebra Domes (see background of Pina Colava picture):

We relaxed on the balcony, watching the animals, and enjoying our lunch. All in all, it was a very nice (and much needed) 4 hour break. Then, it was time to get ready to go to the Studios for more SWW!

On our way out of AKL, we stopped to take some pictures. Here are some from the bridge (Dug put a crown on me in the first one):

Some more views:

Around 3:40pm, we were on our way to the second park of the day:

We arrived:

Up next: Dug meets more SW characters and we make a “Visit to the Maul”

 

[karebear23]

Yeah! I love AKL! We visited my friend who was staying at Kidani Village and even got to enjoy the pool.

Boma looks Yummy! Looks way better than my oatmeal I'm eating!

You got some great pics on the safari. I used the High Burst Mode on my camera too...thats the only way I can get pics of the kids since they are constantly moving . It is funny how it looks like a video...or one of those flip books where the stick figure walks across the page.

Can't wait to see what is next at DHS.

 

[Goofy442]

All these pictures of food is really making me hungry. Wow so many babies for us to see when we get down there. You were staying at Jambo House did you walk over to Kidani Village?

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Lots of yummy food pics!!! I'm drooling

Good job with the safari pics. It's is tricky to get. I use burst mode too. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon deleting the 900 pics I didn't need

I've never seen the giraffes all together And you got to see the lion!!!

I believe EE has been changed so you don't see the Yeti anymore. I don't quite get why. They spent all that time MAKING him!

 

[praisehisname]

I love how you got to see all those baby animals on the safari! Very cool!

Your meals looks yummy, especially Boma breakfast!

 

[gellybean]

Glad you liked the African Stew!! It really hit the spot in c c cc cc cccccccold Janaury!!!!!

Your Boma breakfast pictures are making me drool.... and yearn for more Boma breakfast buffet. Gonna miss it this time around!! But those sticky buns we'll be mine again. Oh yes they will!!

 

[Dugette]

Yeah! I love AKL! We visited my friend who was staying at Kidani Village and even got to enjoy the pool.

Boma looks Yummy! Looks way better than my oatmeal I'm eating!

You got some great pics on the safari. I used the High Burst Mode on my camera too...thats the only way I can get pics of the kids since they are constantly moving . It is funny how it looks like a video...or one of those flip books where the stick figure walks across the page.

Can't wait to see what is next at DHS.

Yes, AKL was great. So was Boma breakfast! So, Dug's not the first one to figure out that High Speed Burst thing, huh? It looks exactly like a little flip book! We could see the rhinos walking and the elephants moving their trunks!

All these pictures of food is really making me hungry. Wow so many babies for us to see when we get down there. You were staying at Jambo House did you walk over to Kidani Village?

We were surprised at all the baby animals! When are you going?

We never walked to Kidani, but we did take the bus over there for our last-day lunch at Sanaa. We probably should have walked over there on the morning where the DHS buses were filling up at Kidani and skipping Jambo, though!

Lots of yummy food pics!!! I'm drooling

Good job with the safari pics. It's is tricky to get. I use burst mode too. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon deleting the 900 pics I didn't need

I've never seen the giraffes all together And you got to see the lion!!!

I believe EE has been changed so you don't see the Yeti anymore. I don't quite get why. They spent all that time MAKING him!

We had a ton of safari pics that we had to go through and select the best of! But, at least we got some non-blurry ones that way! I loved the giraffe family...so cute! And the lions were hard to see, but those High Speed Bursts caught the moments that we could glimpse them! Yeah, I don't get the Yeti thing!

I love how you got to see all those baby animals on the safari! Very cool!

Your meals looks yummy, especially Boma breakfast!

I loved the baby animals too...I was so glad we decided to make this short trip to AK, just because of that. And food on this trip was generally very yummy!

Glad you liked the African Stew!! It really hit the spot in c c cc cc cccccccold Janaury!!!!!

Your Boma breakfast pictures are making me drool.... and yearn for more Boma breakfast buffet. Gonna miss it this time around!! But those sticky buns we'll be mine again. Oh yes they will!!

I bet the African Stew would be even better in the cold! But it was good in the hot too!

I can't say I blame you for having so much Boma when you stayed at AKL on the Deluxe Dining Plan! You'll love the Poly dining in a few days, though!

 

[Goofy442]

We will be down there in two weeks. Everyone say's we are crazy because it is so hot. For me the hot the better, this cold weather starts to wear on me.

 

[Dugette]

We will be down there in two weeks. Everyone say's we are crazy because it is so hot. For me the hot the better, this cold weather starts to wear on me.

Cool...you'll be there soon! I don't mind hot or cold, as long as I'm in WDW! Have a great trip!

 

[jc040404]

I love your food pics! They make me soo hungry and want to try some new places. I reeeally tried to take some food pics when we were at WDW last week. We were at The Plaza and I had my camera out and ready.. but I couldn't do it! I just felt too weird about it. Ever get any funny looks or comments on this? I think I'm thinking too much. I doubt anyone else is paying attention to their dining neighbors anyway.


Anyways, LOVE the update!! Now I'm off to find a snack!

 

[Dugette]

I love your food pics! They make me soo hungry and want to try some new places. I reeeally tried to take some food pics when we were at WDW last week. We were at The Plaza and I had my camera out and ready.. but I couldn't do it! I just felt too weird about it. Ever get any funny looks or comments on this? I think I'm thinking too much. I doubt anyone else is paying attention to their dining neighbors anyway.


Anyways, LOVE the update!! Now I'm off to find a snack!

Thanks! You know, I haven't noticed any weird looks or anything on taking food pics at Disney. Even when Dug was taking pictures at Brown Derby WHILE the waiter was at our table tossing our salad...he didn't bat an eye. In fact, he later offered to take our picture for us, I believe. I think they are very used to it at WDW...all of us Dis-ers! Of course, on our recent trip to WA/OR, when Dug started taking pictures of food there, that seemed weirder.

 

[scottny]

Hi,
Your title brought me in, love Star Wars.

The pics r fantastic. I hope one day to make it down for a SW weekend.

The video from the Fireworks show with the glasses was neat, thanks for posting.

Really enjoying the tr.