Surprise trip The good, the Bad and the “NO, You didn’t do that, did you?

[myhouseofmouse]

Great updates and pics.

Nice osborne lights pics. We did not see it this past trip unfortunately.

Thanks,
Yeah the Osborne Lights are a must do for our family, we will always search around the lights for the hidden mickey's and the black cat. Always a good time.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

We Ended up getting to the our BOG ADR around 3:30pm and noticed a line forming to the left of the check in area to the left of the bridge before the BOG restaurant. At first I thought the people were there to sign in for their ADR Ressie, but it turned out hey were there to waiting to be able to get a Ressie if one happened to open up. There ended up being a big argument of exactly WHO was there first with people trying to say they didnt know where the line was to wait. I never ended up seeing how they resolved this issue. We checked in there, received our pager and waited on the bridge to be called into the Restaurant. My big tip for this restaurant is simple; get one of the first Resses of the dinner seating. I say for three reasons:
#1 Is a given, fast quick service!! (Hard for them to mess up the first meals of the day)
#2 This is the thing that blew us away and set the tone for the rest of the meal. Being one of the first people to enter the restaurant, they had EVERY server lined up on both sides in the inside entranceway of the restaurant. Then they all applauded as you walked into the restaurant. The whole thing made you fell like royalty. This really kicked off the meal. (WOW was all I could say)
#3 Being one of the first tables, it takes them time to fill up the room, this gives you great time to walk around the restaurant and be able to take pictures with no one else around. (There is plenty to see here in this restaurant, great for picture taking. So much detail to take in and see.)

Now we sat in the main ballroom right near the snow window, which was a cool effect. Our server was helpful, informative and attentive during our visit. (I did notice again that servers did seem to have a full load of tables and watched the service slow down as other tables filled the dining room.) Both our kids ordered from the kids menu (even though my DD is 13.) My DS had the meatloaf, which he thought was just ok and my DD ended up just getting a bowl of pasta with butter sauce. (NOTE: This item was not on menu, but the server said that they get requests all the time for different items and she was happy to accommodate us.) My wife got the Sauté Shrimp and Scallops and really enjoyed this, but wasnt crazy about the pastry that it came in. I had the Grilled Strip Steak and loved every bite of it. But have to say, the best part of the entrée with the condiment for my side of French (Pomme frites) Fries. They came with this incredible truffle mayonnaise, that I almost licked the container clean. Would love to get the receipt for this. Now because I had the dessert party planned for later we did not endulge in the wonderful cupcakes, however we could not resist on trying a few orders of the Grey Stuff. It was oreo mouse on a chocolate brick thing. It was good, glad we tried it, but after enjoying the cupcakes on a future visit, I would stick to any of those.

Front Entrance:

View from our Table:

Our Table:

The Beast:

After dinner, we headed back over to Space Mountain for another ride. We then headed over to our last FP+ of the day, The New Story Time with Belle or as it is called, Enchanted tales with Belle. I call it by the first name, because it really is the old show they used to have outside the castle, but now indoors and with wonderful effects that really bring the show to a whole new level. My DD got to be Mrs. Potts and I got to be one of the Very handsome Suits of armor for the show. This was a really good show, but not sure it would make it a must do every trip attraction for us. We then did a quick ride of Winnie The Pooh (using a fp-) then headed over to the Dessert Party.

For anyone who does not know, this is a area over at the TommorrowLand Terrace (near Noodle Station) and cost about $25 for Adult and $15 for kids. Here you get to enjoy an All-You-Can-Eat Dessert buffet while you wait for wishes Dessert Party. (If you catch it on the right night you will also have a good seat for the Electric parade and celebrate the magic show before wishes) I am probably the only one in my family that actually eats $25 worth of desserts, but this is a wonderful event to do and highly recommends this to anyone who eats.

After Wishes, we headed back over to SM for one last ride before heading back to the resort after a long day. For those of you counting; this brought us as 8 total rides for SM, which set a new personal family record for us.

Tomorrow: Epcot, Just the Kids and me????

 

[Belle5]

My big tip for this restaurant is simple; get one of the first Resses of the dinner seating. I say for three reasons:
#1 Is a given, fast quick service!! (Hard for them to mess up the first meals of the day)
#2 This is the thing that blew us away and set the tone for the rest of the meal. Being one of the first people to enter the restaurant, they had EVERY server lined up on both sides in the inside entranceway of the restaurant. Then they all applauded as you walked into the restaurant. The whole thing made you fell like royalty. This really kicked off the meal. (WOW was all I could say)
#3 Being one of the first tables, it takes them time to fill up the room, this gives you great time to walk around the restaurant and be able to take pictures with no one else around. (There is plenty to see here in this restaurant, great for picture taking. So much detail to take in and see.)

Really enjoying your report so far! I wanted to say that my kids have requested that, once again, we try to get the latest possible ADR for BOG. We were basically the last guests in the restaurant, which was nice, and it was one of those magical moments to walk down Main St. and out of the MK with everything lit up and feeling as if we had the park to ourselves! We hadn't initially wanted the last seating of the day, but ended up finding it to be wonderful! It sounds like if we can only snag the first seating of the day, this time, that would be pretty nice in it's own way!

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Really enjoying your report so far! I wanted to say that my kids have requested that, once again, we try to get the latest possible ADR for BOG. We were basically the last guests in the restaurant, which was nice, and it was one of those magical moments to walk down Main St. and out of the MK with everything lit up and feeling as if we had the park to ourselves! We hadn't initially wanted the last seating of the day, but ended up finding it to be wonderful! It sounds like if we can only snag the first seating of the day, this time, that would be pretty nice in it's own way!

So glad that you are enjoying it. I love the sounds of the last ADR as well, we have been to the parks real in the past and do enjoy walking around with no one else on the streets. Its a lot like doing an early ADR in the parks before it opens. Both are great times to get pictures without anyone else in the shots.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Day 6

Before I get into day 6, I have to take a moment to reflect. Day 6 is the dreaded "Halfway" day of our trip to the World. The day when you know that your trip is already half way over. I do not know about everyone here, but this day always has me taking some time to reflect on that I have done up to this point. To stop and think, that all of months and months of planning, all of the money spend and all of the work is actually going to end soon. I do try really hard, not to let this day be a bummer, but use it to remind me all that I have done to get here and make sure that I remind myself to enjoy every moment I have left in the trip. So am I crazy or does anyone else do the same thing???

Another side note before day 6 begins; I forgot to mention that one the way home last night from MK, my wife finally played her "Epcot" card. My wife on multiple occasions complained that her "Shines Splints" were bothering her. So on the way back to the resort, we started talking about tomorrows plan at Epcot and what time we would be getting to the park. (by 7:45am, for EMH morning) This is when she played her card, "How upset would you be if I didn't go to Epcot???" followed by, "You could take the kids and I can stay here and rest my legs, so I can make sure I am good to go for the rest of the week." Now, I think I have said it before, for some reason my wife just doesn't care about Epcot. So know that and the fact that she really wouldn't miss any major events I told her that it would be fine. The plan now, was for me to take the kids until the afternoon and at some point come back to the resort and pick up my wife and then all go back to Epcot for the evening as a family and hit the highlights of the park that my wife enjoys. (A happy marriage is all about compromise, as long as the wife is happy!!!)

 

[stephv3]

An..... Just got to the end. Can't wait for the rest of the report. Also wondering about BOG. Trying to decide about lunch vs dinner there. Thoughts??

 

[myhouseofmouse]

`Glad that you are enjoying, thank you.

My lunch review will be coming up here on day 7, even though I really enjoyed the lunch, I would tell you to go with the Dinner BOG ressie.I think the food selection is a little better and they really do the "Table Service" part really well. Also, the Beast is there for meet and greets for pictures for an added value.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Day 6

The day starts with a 6:45 wakeup call and with having to get one less person (female) ready we are quickly out the door and at Epcot. I probably have the 6th parking spot in the lot and right up front for an easy walk to the gates. As far as plans go today, we really do not have many set things in place. As of that morning, I had no plans for lunch, but thought of hitting a quick counter service somewhere. (Most likely Sunshine Seasons, which is also a possibility for Dinner tonight.) We also had FP+ for Soarin, Test Track and Mission Space. Now since my wife was no longer going to be joining us for the first part of the day, I again used the MDE app on my phone to change FP+. Good news again with using the app, I was able to move my Fp+ for all of the attractions to later times in the day with no real problems. (Besides the very slow process of, actually going thru the app and moving them.)
As soon as we got thru the gates, we headed over to Soarin and took a quick spin on it. We then headed over to Test Track to check out the changes to the new “Unofficial Tron Track”. I found the queue line to be just ok, but did enjoy the custom car part, where you build your own car. The also really enjoyed this, my only complaint is that you only build one car and with two kids, that can be a challenge to get them to agree on things. We got on the ride and went thru the indoor “Tron” part and enjoyed it. We then got to the part where your car starts to accelerate fast and go outside, however as soon as it started to accelerate, something started to go wrong, as we then started to slow down and crawl our way outside until we reached to furthest point and then it just stopped. We kept getting the stay seated message and got to enjoy to some interaction with a few maintenance men as they were creating and forming the now painted Test Track symbol. (You can see this when you are going around the loop outside, it is on the parking lot there) After 35 minutes of leaning sideways, they finally came out and gave us a personal escort thru some backstage areas. They ended up giving us 3 paper FP’s to use anytime during a future time. The bad part is that, it was now after 9am and we basically got up for EMH to do Soarin!!!
After TT we headed over to Mission Space for my sons first time on it. Being his first time we did the Orange side, no wussy green side for our family. (Actually, we have never even tried the green side, so I’m not sure how wussy it really is. I think it is the same ride, without the big spinning.) My wife has never even gone on this ride; she heard that it was a spinning ride and will not even go near it. Of course he loved the ride and wanted to go on it again, so even with my head still spinning, we hit it up again.
Test Tract was still down after 2 visits to MS, so we headed over to The Seas with Nemo. We have always enjoyed this area as a nice way to relax, check out Turtle Talk, the dolphins and fish. We ended up accidently coming across this great CM in one of the Aquarium rooms and had a wonderfully educational 20 minute chat with her all about the aquarium and the fish in there. Did you know that all the fish have names there??? That’s a lot of names. (They name them all, so that they are able to take care of them better and to better help when/if they get sick.) After here we headed over to Figment for quick tour of our imagination. Since Small World was down for refurbishment, we had to do this ride, if for no other reason, then to have a song stuck in our heads for the next few hours.

Next: more of Day 6 (Including our "first" ever Disney Bus service sxperience)

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Great TR! I love road trips.

I was there on a trip for almost your exact dates. We went to MK the day after Thanksgiving, then did a few days in Key West and the Everglades, then came back to disney to stay for about a week.

I really had to laugh a little at the pic of your son's first ride on Space, he looks very nervous. Glad he grew to love it.

We double dipped with FPs too. I don't really see it as cheating, just kind of bending the rules to your advantage, a bit like a pirate. And we all know Disney supports pirates, so we're ok.

We did almost the exact opposite strat as you for MK, we went on days that had parties, we find that the crowds on those days are almost always very low.

Looking forward to reading more

 

[judaloo]

Great trip report! My youngest will be six this trip and tall enough to ride some things for the first time as well. I'm looking forward to seeing how he does. So far, he's proved to be more of a daredevil than my older two...thank goodness!

Also, just curious...have you ever tried the Hoop de Doo Dinner Review in Fort Wilderness? We've done it every trip and the kids just belly laugh the entire time!

Really appreciate your detail to how the fp is working. We'll be there the first week of June with just the MB, so am a little nervous.

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

 

[scottny]

The pic with the table by the tree we sat at the table to left of it.
Sounds like a good way to end the evening.
I am the same way about halfway through the trip.
Epcot sounds like you did the main things. That is good.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Great TR! I love road trips.

I was there on a trip for almost your exact dates. We went to MK the day after Thanksgiving, then did a few days in Key West and the Everglades, then came back to disney to stay for about a week.

I really had to laugh a little at the pic of your son's first ride on Space, he looks very nervous. Glad he grew to love it.

We double dipped with FPs too. I don't really see it as cheating, just kind of bending the rules to your advantage, a bit like a pirate. And we all know Disney supports pirates, so we're ok.

We did almost the exact opposite strat as you for MK, we went on days that had parties, we find that the crowds on those days are almost always very low.

Looking forward to reading more

Thank you, glad you are enjoying it.

Yeah wait to you some of the other pics I have from SM, you will see the comfort level change in them.

Its funny we have done it both ways in the past, but really never noticed a crowd level change during this week in the past. This year we found it to be busy on Monday (non party night) and Friday (party Night), but found Wed. (non party night) to have low crowd levels.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

The pic with the table by the tree we sat at the table to left of it.
Sounds like a good way to end the evening.
I am the same way about halfway through the trip.
Epcot sounds like you did the main things. That is good.

I thought the seat was a great location at BOG for dinner.

Also glad to hear that I am not alone in the half way thinking.

Epcot was a fun relaxing day, more to come on that one.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Some Epcot Pics:

Our First Car Design:

Us stuck on Test TRack:

Our View while stuck on Test Track:

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Day 6 continues...

It was now about 10:45am and gave my Kids the choice of either going to sunshine seasons or try our luck around world showcase for lunch. Surprisingly my daughter chose to do world showcase. We headed off going right to left, starting at Canada. Now even though we have been to Epcot many times, we are not pros when it comes to what each of the countries has to offer when it comes to counter service foods, so this was going to be interesting. We skipped past Canada and the kids said no to Fish n’ chips in the UK. They also said no to the Sandwiches at France. Believe it or not, we ended up at Morocco at the Tangierine Café, I have heard from other people about this place and agree with all of the good reviews. They had a really good selection here and the staff was all very nice. Of course my kids managed to get chicken tenders and a hamburger in Morocco. I on the other hand decided to wait and look for something else around the world showcase. My idea was to get something from one of the Countries beside the US, but I ended up making the mistake of going to close to the Turkey Leg stand and after walking thru every country, we ended up walking back to the Turkey Leg stand and getting my first Turkey leg at the parks. I will admit, it was just ok, I really did taste too much like ham for my liking, but my son helped my finish it off. We ended up going by the little Ice cream and Crepe stand in France and finished off lunch with some goodies from there.

turkey Leg:

ice Cream and Crepes:

Club Cool:

After lunch and a stop at Club Cool to check out the new flavors (which we all liked a lot better than the old selections.) we decided to head back to resort to relax at the pool for a bit. This is when we did another first for our family, we took the bus; we used Disney transportation back to the resort. We did this for two reasons; First, I didn’t want to lose my great parking spot for the end of the night dash out of the park. The second reason is that I really wanted to try it out and see who it really worked and be able to compare it to my perception of it. The good part is that it was pretty easy to find where the bus stop was and the bus came within 15 minutes of us getting to the bus stop. The bus was also at the bus stop on the way back to the resort later in the day. However I have decided that my perceptions are correct about the bus service and would probably not use it again.
I am just too impatient of a person to use it, I know it me, but I couldn’t help realize how much time was wasted in the whole process. For example, on the way to the resort, we first had to stop at POFQ to drop off guests there. Then, later on the way back to the parks, we first had to wait until an additional time for them to load a mobile wheelchair and then go around the resort to the other 3 stops and pick up additional guests. (We even waited a few minutes at one of the stops, because 2 guests got on, but said another was coming and it took a good amount of time before the other guest showed up.) It’s not like any of this really bothered me or affected my touring plans, it also didn’t add up to a lot of time. (It took 25min to resort and 35min to the park) But I could see myself adding the minutes of wasted time at each stalled point and thinking how frustrated I would be by the end of a week of taking the bus. I know that I am wrong to feel this way, but I am just one of those travelers that feel the need to be in control of my time to be at peace with it. The good news for everyone else is that you will not have to worry about my family taking up a few spots on the bus, so that you may travel to your destination quicker. See everyone is happier now!!!

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Back to the day 6:

We got back to Epcot around 5:30 and had a wonderful dinner at Sunshine Seasons. This is probably one of the best counter service restaurants (next to BOG) in any of the parks. The selection is great, the food is usually very good quality and the desserts…wow just wonderful and huge! After dinner it was time to use our first FP+ and take a swing on Soarin. Here again, only 2 of the 4 FP+ worked by showing the correct times, but they let us in anyway. After Soarin we headed over to Test track and used our FP+ to all go on the ride. Good news, we were able to go on it and even were able to split up into parties of 2 so that each one of the kids could make up their own car. We all enjoyed the ride and of course then men’s car beat the girl’s car in total score. We still have those 3 paper FP’s from when the ride broke down and I decided to let the wife and kids go on it, but my wife being just as nice had the CM give us another FP so we could all go on it again as a family. Love that pixie dust!!! We got it, made some new car designs and then came the “Test Track is not working, please exit!!!” They were nice enough to give us more paper FP to use at a later time, but we never got to use them. So we went on TT 3 times and got to ride it fully, once! We then headed over to MS where I and the kids used our last FP+ and my wife waited outside for us.
We ended the night with Illuminations from in front of Canada. (Our front center spots were now taken over by the FP+ people) My DS fell asleep before the show started in the stroller and did not wake up once during the show. I am happy to say that after carrying him back to the room, that the MB’s did work to let us in.

Up Next: Day 7: Back to MK

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Day 7: Back to the Magic Kingdom

Today’s park day is what I call our “Flexday”. We usually do not spend 3 whole days in MK (normally 2), so this day could be a universal day or resort day or a park make up day in case there was a bad weather day. Today at MK is again a non-party night at the park, so it gave us another day to do Wishes if we wanted. Since the weather has been as close to perfect as you can get and we have not encountered any bumps in the road yet, we decided to make this a lite day at the parks and use the night to go to downtown Disney and do some shopping. So the plans for the day are:
Rides and more rides (Continue with some favorites and knock out some misc. rides)
FP+ (Space Mountain, Splash and Big Thunder)
Lunch: 11:30am FP+ ADR at BOG
Dinner 5pm Dinner ADR over at the GF at 1900 Park Fair
After Dinner hit Downtown Disney and then back to resort and maybe catch some Yeeha Bob

The day started at what is turning out to be our normal 6:45am wakeup call. We got to the MK and ended up taking the Ferry over to the park this time. Maybe it’s a guy thing, my DD and wife hate taking the Boat over, it’s either too hot or too cold for them, But I (and my DS) love taking the boat over, it really lets you take it all in as you cross the water. When we got to the gates I noticed that the opening crowd seemed to be a little lighter than on Monday and was optimistic that it would be a smaller crowd day. After RD, we again headed over to SM and did our 4 rides to start off the day. We have quickly become friendly with the CM’s at the photo both here and picked up the “Funny Face Family” nickname by the Cm there.

Some more examples below:

We also knocked out the following rides this morning before our Lunch FP +ADR at BOG:
In this order:
Winnie the pooh
Little mermaid (Again, love the people with the flash cameras here!!)
Quick stop at Gaston’s to get my LeFou’s Brew
Haunted Mansion
Big Thunder Mountain
Pirates
Jingle Jungle Cruise (This was a cute overlay for the holidays, Decorations were on the light side and the joke were the normal variety. Cute but totally not worth the extra long lines to see it)
Mickeys PhilharMagic

I was very happy with the crowd levels here in the morning and was able to really get around the park in quick manner and low wait times.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Day 7: BOG Lunch FP+:



So thanks to the wonderful world of the Disboards, I was able to get the inside info on the BOG FP+ for Lunch. (If you do not know about this, please do a search for it and get the details.) This FP+ is not connected to the regular FP+ for attractions, but a separate website where you can book a set time and even pre order your food ahead of time. When we got up to the bridge to check in the line, the stand by line was already down the other side. We gave our name at the front check in and he was able to find our ressie, but was unable to find the pre ordered items and directed us to the front of the line to check in there. At the front of the restaurant we went to another counter and again they found our names and ressie, but not the pre selected items that we picked out. (An interesting thing is that the CM there pulled out a sheet of paper and entered our info, it already had 3 other names on it and a spot for “Pre order Missing”, so this must be a common issue.) So they told us that we would have to go to one of the touch screens and re enter our meal choices.



This is the negative and only complaint about the BOG guest restaurant; the lunch ordering system is not great. I know I should not complain since I was able to eat and not wait over 30+ minutes like the folks on the bridge. But the way that they have it set up, slows down the whole process. Unlike other counter service restaurants where you go up to a cashier and place your order, here you go up to a screen and do everything yourself. They also decided to form lines behind each screen, so if you were in a line of people who could quickly figure it out and navigate the screen, then you would probably get thru it ok. But, if you were behind people that did not understand it, then you were stuck there until they did or until a CM came over to help. Not only did I get to see this happen at other screens, but also I had two nice ladies in front of us that could not seem to figure it out and ended up restarting their order 2 times before I was able to help and get them a CM to help. Maybe it is just I, but I think Disney needs to tweak this system and make it flow a little better.



Luckily, I brought a print out of our order (and since the order system layout was the same as when I made the ressie) I was able to get thru the re order process and off to find a table. Since we eat in the main ballroom for dinner here, I wanted to do lunch in the rose room. (At dinner, they seat you, at lunch you choose your own seat and they bring out the food to you.) The rose room is smaller, so not as many tables, we got lucky and was able to get a table from a family getting up. This is a very popular room, with a line of guests waiting to get their photo with the “Rose”. There is the cool lightening effect in this room at a must see at the restaurant. After about 10-15 minutes they brought out our food. The kids ordered the pasta dishes, my wife got the Turkey Sandwich and I got the Roast beef. Everyone enjoyed all of the food; it was really tasty and fresh. This time, along with the lunch entrée’s we also got a few of the cupcakes to share. This really was the “icing on the cake” for the meal. It really was hard to name a favorite cupcake they were all very good. Take my advise, save room for dessert here.

(Note: The whole lunch experience took about an hour, only about 15-20 more then a normal counter service meal)

 

[scottny]

Too bad you didn’t eat in TC. The food is some of the best for counter service.
I miss the watermelon soda but I cannot drink carbonation anymore so it doesn’t matter. LOL
We rent a car when we go now but only use it to go to stores or Universal. I enjoy the buses but love the boats more. I wish every resort had boat access to the parks. LOl
I couldn’t get FP+ to work for me for BOG.
Great updates and pics.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Too bad you didn’t eat in TC. The food is some of the best for counter service.
I miss the watermelon soda but I cannot drink carbonation anymore so it doesn’t matter. LOL
We rent a car when we go now but only use it to go to stores or Universal. I enjoy the buses but love the boats more. I wish every resort had boat access to the parks. LOl
I couldn’t get FP+ to work for me for BOG.
Great updates and pics.

Yeah I really should have tried the food there at TC. . Both the kids really enjoyed the food there and everything looked good.

Thank you for following and glad you are enjoying it.