Tale as Old as Time...a Feb 2017 Princess 5k and B-Day Trip! NEW 4/7 THE END of our trip!!

[chunkymonkey]

What a perfect Disney birthday! Oh man! That drink! I'm so jealous, I really wanted to try one that trip but it never panned out. I'm totally going to make DH buy me one for my birthday trip! We decided to make a quick dash to DW July 1-4! Just a day after my b-day, but it still counts, right??

It was a great bday! We totally should have had one of those drinks...if it weren't for those monorail problems on the day we met at Trader Sams, I think we could have made it there early enough, hehe. Next time!
Oh sooooo awesome! Yay!! You'll get to watch 4th of July fireworks maybe?

The ToTW lounge looks realy nice! And your Cali grill dinner looks yummy!
I love seeing the fireworks from there.

It was a wonderful evening indeed!

Of course you know I love your Tangled magic shot, it's really beautiful. I hope they keep it around.

Thank you!! I hope so too!

Good point!!!!

I noticed your travel blog in your sig and went to peruse. We are planning our first trip to Hawaii for September for our 10 year wedding anniversary, so I was SUPER excited to see so much HI travel on there!!!!! We will be there for 2 weeks. I may have to ask to pick your brain on a few things if you have time!!

Aaah yes, Hawaii, my OTHER travel love aside from Disney. Hahaha. Happy early anniversary! That sounds like an awesome trip! Our 10 year is next year and I think we'll do Hawaii too. I just love it there.
Feel free to explore my blog or ask me any questions. Do you know which islands you will be going to?

 

[ariane37]

I'm not a SW fan in the least but I love your R2D2 dress!
Looks like you had a perfect birthday; love the pictures of ToTW lounge as I've never seen inside it before and the view is gorgeous. So is the view of Wishes from CG. We ate there once and DH didn't love his meal, but I'd like to try it again because the majority of people have great experiences.
I completely forgot about the Tangled shot last week I think both your pictures came out good, I'm going to try to remember to do it next month and THEN you'll see an awkward one lol!

 

[chunkymonkey]

I'm not a SW fan in the least but I love your R2D2 dress!

Thank you! My sister barely new a thing about Star Wars when we went on our SW cruise last year but she bought the dress because she needed an outfit to wear, and it turned out to be a great dress! So much so I got one too

Looks like you had a perfect birthday; love the pictures of ToTW lounge as I've never seen inside it before and the view is gorgeous. So is the view of Wishes from CG. We ate there once and DH didn't love his meal, but I'd like to try it again because the majority of people have great experiences.

Thank you, it was a wonderful birthday! I had no idea about ToTW lounge until my friend told me about it and of course I was game to check it out. It was gorgeous! Such a nice perk to be a DVC owner...I keep telling DH that but he's like I'm not buying DVC for a bar!! LOL

I completely forgot about the Tangled shot last week I think both your pictures came out good, I'm going to try to remember to do it next month and THEN you'll see an awkward one lol!

Ooooh how was your trip? New dining report soon? That's right, you'll be there for the Pandora preview on the 20th! We'll be there too from 6-8pm but will probably be in AK earlier than that

Can't wait to re-do my Tangled shot, let's hope it's still around in May and maybe I can work on my "resting lantern face" before then. Haha.

 

[Teetah]

Aaah yes, Hawaii, my OTHER travel love aside from Disney. Hahaha. Happy early anniversary! That sounds like an awesome trip! Our 10 year is next year and I think we'll do Hawaii too. I just love it there.
Feel free to explore my blog or ask me any questions. Do you know which islands you will be going to?

For week one, Oahu for a couple of days then Maui, as we have friends coming for that week only. We will hit the highlights - Pearl Harbor, snorkeling, Road to Hana, maybe a luau. It is week 2 we are struggling with. I really want to see the Na Pali coast and visit Kauai, but I am not sure if we would be on Kauai all week. Do we stay on Maui for a few more days? I guess I am trying to find a balance of not overdoing it and not getting bored (neither of us are good at relaxing and week 1 will definitely have some relaxing). Thoughts? Feel free to DM me if that is better than discussing on your TR!

 

[chunkymonkey]

For week one, Oahu for a couple of days then Maui, as we have friends coming for that week only. We will hit the highlights - Pearl Harbor, snorkeling, Road to Hana, maybe a luau. It is week 2 we are struggling with. I really want to see the Na Pali coast and visit Kauai, but I am not sure if we would be on Kauai all week. Do we stay on Maui for a few more days? I guess I am trying to find a balance of not overdoing it and not getting bored (neither of us are good at relaxing and week 1 will definitely have some relaxing). Thoughts? Feel free to DM me if that is better than discussing on your TR!

Sounds like an amazing time! I'd start by reading some of the trip reports on my blog, that'll help give you an idea of all the activities we did and then you can plan an itinerary around there. I usually go by the rule of one week per island, just because the hassle of traveling inter-island can be a task onto itself. There's definitely lots to do and see on Maui. If you think you'd be bored, try a split stay on the island, maybe half the time in south maui and the other half in west maui, or even a few days in Hana if you plan on doing the road to Hana. I love that island so much! We are big foodies (obviously, lol) and we ate our way throughout the island. I love oahu the most for food though, I feel like because it's more populated there's more competition and therefore the food really stands out. Feel free to DM me too and we can figure out an itinerary that best fits you!

 

[ariane37]

Ooooh how was your trip? New dining report soon? That's right, you'll be there for the Pandora preview on the 20th! We'll be there too from 6-8pm but will probably be in AK earlier than that

I did start my dining report The link isn't in my signature yet because, well, I'm lazy and I always forget how to do it, have to figure it out again, and don't do that until I'm half way through each new report But it's called "It Takes Two Baby, A 2017 Flower and Garden dining report"!
We had a really nice trip! Of course now I'm counting down till May, I think we have 42 days lol. Our Pandora is 12-2; I'm reworking our days a bit but right now I'm thinking we'll get to AK around 11:30 and then hang for awhile after the preview so hopefully we can meet up! We'll "talk" before then - what are your actual dates?

 

[katt789]

I'm reading along!! Definitely excited to read about someone else's first 5k experience!!
GOD THAT ME LINE IS LITERALLY INSANE!!! UGH! Glad you got to the contemp quickly though!
We went to the expo post FoF and have found that the crowds are usually 1/4 of what they are earlier in the day! It seems to work for us!
Looks like a good start at MK! Yay!
Ah this is so exciting reading about the 5k, seriously, it's like living it all over again lol.

OH MY GOD!!! IN THE SELFIE OF Y'ALL WHILE YOU'RE WAITING FOR PRINCESSESS YOU CAN SEE ME & KARA IN THE TOP CORNER *** THAT'S SO WEIRD!!!


Glad that the 5k was such a good experience! I really enjoyed it too! I can't wait to do another one! We headed straight into the parks that day, and man oh man was I ever EXHAUSTED at the end of the day! We did DHS as close to open as we could, then got to Epcot for 12:30, and spent the day walking world showcase, I bailed on Illuminations that night lol!



THE MONORAIL WAS LEGIT THE WORST THIS TRIP! On Saturday we were monorail bar crawling and were stuck waiting for AGES on one!

I haven't managed to get to the Wave for breakfast but it certainly looks good!!

The star wars tour looks awesome! I had no idea it was even a thing!

Awe man, we were at DAK the same day too!! Though I didn't do much that day, I was SUPER sick and so low budget I didn't want to waste money on the high cost of medicine on disney property lol!

UGH TIFFINS! I NEED TO GO! We wanted to at least go to the lounge that day but it was kinda just an off day for everyone lol! Kara had ran the 1/2, Becky had family she was hanging with, I'm pretty sure Tasha was hungover, and I was sick, bahahaha, I'll HAVE to go in May!

OH GOODNESS I've forgot how much I LOVED Yachtsman (though I am a bit biased and do prefer the filet at Le Cellier…partially cause it's Alberta beef, which is just better, and probably partially cause I worked there lol) BUT the bread & mac & cheese at Yachts is seriously the BEST!

WOW!! UGH, that's legit the worst, I'm so sorry that y'all got told the wrong time!! NOO!! SO glad they let you come back to the later one! We missed ROL as that was the only night we could get to Hoop!

Ugh, Dinosaur, like, I hate it, but I'll ride it…

Glad y'all had an early morning breakfast that day! It took us WAY too long to get going that morning, and we were at Pop, that BUS LINE WAS INSANE, it reached almost all the way back to the main entrance of the hotel, we definitely missed rope drop AND the first trolley show! I'm bummed about the no more empty main street shots too! Like, that's half the benefit of PPO breakfasts! Lol

Sounds like the ice cream social was decent! I just don’t know why it's considered such a good parade viewing thing, like, why not do it at a different time of day? If they did I'd be more likely to do it and not miss FoF lol!!

What a wonderful way to spend your birthday evening! TOW lounge looks amazing! I really want to go! We had that blue drink too! HUGE, but so good! Cali Grill is one of my favorites, definitely one of the best experiences of my program, and watching wishes from up there is awesome too! I'm definitely going to miss the show! I was bummed, we had done the tangled shot right before wishes, so we missed the beginning of the show & knew it'd be hopeless to get a front of the castle spot so we RACED back to BOG to watch from back there, but it's still pretty magical!

Loved reading along on your trip!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 6 Part 1: Eating breakfast and staying for lunch!

I can't believe I'm already at our last day at the parks! Where has the time gone! I guess it was a much shorter trip than we've previously done. We spent our last day at AK. We only had the first part of the day before we had to head back to get picked up by ME at around 2pm for our 4:30 flight.

We had packed up the night before and went to drop off our stuff with airline check-in and our carry-ons with bell services. Then we hopped on the next bust bound for AK! Our first stop? The safari! We had FP for this, but still had to wait a bit. For some reason there was a bit of a back log and they weren't letting anyone on the ride vehicles for about 20 minutes so it built up a bit of a line. But finally we were on a line and here we go!

I actually missed going on the safari because we didn't go there in December. So I was excited to take some pictures!

Didn't get a good shot of Mr. Lion but he was sleeping at the top of the rock.

Our next stop was breakfast at Tusker House! Always a favorite for us although I have not been here for more than a year I think. It was packed inside though and it was noisy as heck. They did sit us in a little alcove which made it less noisy but a bit more cramped and near an exit door. Oh, and I guess they got rid of the Donald picture before you get seated? I remember that from past trips but doesn't seem to be there now.

I love the buffet area at Tusker. Reminds me of a bazaar in an exotic African or Middle Eastern country...if I ever went to those places!

Our server brought us some Jungle Juice and a much needed pot of coffee.

And then we were off to gather food. He said we had about 20 minutes before our first character came by. I appreciate all the servers giving us approximate timing of the characters now as it makes it so much easier to figure out when you can go to the buffet or not.

So we went and conquered the buffet in those 20 minutes.

This is one buffet that we took our time on...I guess it was our last meal and also the characters took some time to all get around to us, so that meant multiple trips to the buffet. We were there at around 10:30am so that meant we were there when they transitioned to lunch items as it got closer to 11am. I love coming to brunch at that time as you get to try even more stuff. As you can see from my plate above it was mostly breakfast items at that point.

Donald was our first visitor!

Followed by Daisy:

Now you can see how the food started transitioning to the lunch items.

There was this giant baked fish which was wrapped in leaves. When they unwrapped it, it looked like this. It was salmon or something with an orange-y flesh. It was quite tasty! It replaced the carved ham at breakfast.

It's Mickey's turn!

And finally, Goofy!

At the end of our meal I got a birthday card!

Then Daisy came back around so I got another pic of her and DH:

It was a fun meal at Tusker, but we were very full after we had sampled both breakfast and lunch dishes!

Continued in next post...
​

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 6 Part 2: The final moments...

Our next FP was to meet Mickey and Minnie. I love this character meet as it's indoors where it was nice and cool. Definitely got very warm the last 2 days of our trip compared to the first few days.

Mickey and Minnie insisted I get a solo pic because I was wearing my b-day button!

Unfortunately it was time to head out of the park. We did have one more FP but for Dinosaur which we rode that night we went to RoL so we decided to skip it. It is definitely not a favorite of mine.

As we headed out we got these last few PP pictures:

Sadly it was time to leave so we headed out, back on the bus to the Contemporary. When we arrived we collected our stuff and sat on the comfy couches in the lobby until we saw the ME bus pull up. Or what we thought was the ME bus but it turned out to be some Disney cruisers arriving from Port Canaveral (how lucky!). But then 10 minutes later our ME bus pulled up so it was off to the airport finally.

Not too happy faces because we were leaving....

I did a sad face but then I realized we'd be back in about 2 months for Flower and Garden, so that brought a smile to my face after all! (Less that 30 days now!)

At the airport, we got kinda hungry so it was a good thing we had some of this popcorn leftover from Tiana's Ice Cream party!

Thank you Tiana!

Our flight left on time and before we knew it, we were back in cold NJ...

THE END

That's the end of our Feb 2017 Trip!!! Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

Our next trip begins the night of May 2nd...we're doing the same thing we did for this trip, flying in late and staying at the Hyatt MCO so our vacation actually starts a little earlier! Let's hope ME is not the crazy madhouse it was on this trip!

Oh and we may have booked another trip for the Pandora AP Preview...about 2 weeks after we return from our May trip
...I will write more on my PTR!

See you real soon!​

 

[chunkymonkey]

I did start my dining report The link isn't in my signature yet because, well, I'm lazy and I always forget how to do it, have to figure it out again, and don't do that until I'm half way through each new report But it's called "It Takes Two Baby, A 2017 Flower and Garden dining report"!
We had a really nice trip! Of course now I'm counting down till May, I think we have 42 days lol. Our Pandora is 12-2; I'm reworking our days a bit but right now I'm thinking we'll get to AK around 11:30 and then hang for awhile after the preview so hopefully we can meet up! We'll "talk" before then - what are your actual dates?

OK! Gonna go find your dining report! Woohoo!
That sounds like a plan. I think we want to do some stuff at AK and then grab some drinks or something at Nomad lounge before our 6-8pm preview. Our dates are really just 3 days, the 19 to the 21st, staying at AKL. Yay! Let's make it happen!

I'm reading along!! Definitely excited to read about someone else's first 5k experience!!
GOD THAT ME LINE IS LITERALLY INSANE!!! UGH! Glad you got to the contemp quickly though!
We went to the expo post FoF and have found that the crowds are usually 1/4 of what they are earlier in the day! It seems to work for us!
Looks like a good start at MK! Yay!
Ah this is so exciting reading about the 5k, seriously, it's like living it all over again lol.

OH MY GOD!!! IN THE SELFIE OF Y'ALL WHILE YOU'RE WAITING FOR PRINCESSESS YOU CAN SEE ME & KARA IN THE TOP CORNER *** THAT'S SO WEIRD!!!

Hi there!! Thanks for reading!! You were at the race too? Is it this picture?

Or this one:

Haha let me know!

Glad that the 5k was such a good experience! I really enjoyed it too! I can't wait to do another one! We headed straight into the parks that day, and man oh man was I ever EXHAUSTED at the end of the day! We did DHS as close to open as we could, then got to Epcot for 12:30, and spent the day walking world showcase, I bailed on Illuminations that night lol!

I can't believe you were able to go out to the parks right after! I was done. We were pooped.

THE MONORAIL WAS LEGIT THE WORST THIS TRIP! On Saturday we were monorail bar crawling and were stuck waiting for AGES on one!

I haven't managed to get to the Wave for breakfast but it certainly looks good!!

The star wars tour looks awesome! I had no idea it was even a thing!

Awe man, we were at DAK the same day too!! Though I didn't do much that day, I was SUPER sick and so low budget I didn't want to waste money on the high cost of medicine on disney property lol!

UGH TIFFINS! I NEED TO GO! We wanted to at least go to the lounge that day but it was kinda just an off day for everyone lol! Kara had ran the 1/2, Becky had family she was hanging with, I'm pretty sure Tasha was hungover, and I was sick, bahahaha, I'll HAVE to go in May!

The monorail did suck. I hope it's better by august as we'll be at the Poly and I'd be pissed if it still had problems.

The Wave was great! I'd do it again if I were staying on a monorail resort.

The SW tour was fun, definitely a very specific targeted audience, ie Star Wars geek (aka yours truly)

Tiffins was amazing we loved it so much.

OH GOODNESS I've forgot how much I LOVED Yachtsman (though I am a bit biased and do prefer the filet at Le Cellier…partially cause it's Alberta beef, which is just better, and probably partially cause I worked there lol) BUT the bread & mac & cheese at Yachts is seriously the BEST!

It seriously is the best steak house. I do like le cellier too but more for the sides and the soup than the steak.

WOW!! UGH, that's legit the worst, I'm so sorry that y'all got told the wrong time!! NOO!! SO glad they let you come back to the later one! We missed ROL as that was the only night we could get to Hoop!

Ugh, Dinosaur, like, I hate it, but I'll ride it…

Yup, the crazy running for ROL.....not fun. But luckily we got to see the 2nd show. And it wasn't even that great IMO.

Glad y'all had an early morning breakfast that day! It took us WAY too long to get going that morning, and we were at Pop, that BUS LINE WAS INSANE, it reached almost all the way back to the main entrance of the hotel, we definitely missed rope drop AND the first trolley show! I'm bummed about the no more empty main street shots too! Like, that's half the benefit of PPO breakfasts! Lol

yup, no more empty castle shots. It's inevitable now. sigh.
Still won't stop us from getting the early breakfasts.

Sounds like the ice cream social was decent! I just don’t know why it's considered such a good parade viewing thing, like, why not do it at a different time of day? If they did I'd be more likely to do it and not miss FoF lol!!

I don't know, I think they put it there thinking it would be a good use of the liberty belle. It's an odd place to watch the parade but hey, we were distracted with all things sweet and shiny...

What a wonderful way to spend your birthday evening! TOW lounge looks amazing! I really want to go! We had that blue drink too! HUGE, but so good! Cali Grill is one of my favorites, definitely one of the best experiences of my program, and watching wishes from up there is awesome too! I'm definitely going to miss the show! I was bummed, we had done the tangled shot right before wishes, so we missed the beginning of the show & knew it'd be hopeless to get a front of the castle spot so we RACED back to BOG to watch from back there, but it's still pretty magical!

Loved reading along on your trip!

Thank you so much! It was a great birthday! Cali Grill was very good, and watching wishes there has spoiled me. Hope you had a great time on your 5k trip too!!

 

[kastoney]

They did sit us in a little alcove which made it less noisy but a bit more cramped and near an exit door. Oh, and I guess they got rid of the Donald picture before you get seated? I remember that from past trips but doesn't seem to be there now.

I don't remember when but he's been gone for a while now. Though I never understood the logic of having him out there and then trying to get you to pay for it.

We were there at around 10:30am so that meant we were there when they transitioned to lunch items as it got closer to 11am. I love coming to brunch at that time as you get to try even more stuff. As you can see from my plate above it was mostly breakfast items at that point.

Yum! Love Tusker House and this is our favorite time to eat there. You get two meals for the price of 1 and the cheaper one at that Its a win, win for my stomach and my wallet.

Mickey and Minnie insisted I get a solo pic because I was wearing my b-day button!

I love your shirt. Did you get that somewhere recently?

s we headed out we got these last few PP pictures:

I love how in just a matter of a few feet it looks like there is barely anyone in the park on then left and then on the right the whole world showed up.

That's the end of our Feb 2017 Trip!!! Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

Our next trip begins the night of May 2nd...we're doing the same thing we did for this trip, flying in late and staying at the Hyatt MCO so our vacation actually starts a little earlier! Let's hope ME is not the crazy madhouse it was on this trip!

Than you so much for sharing. Always love your reports. I'll be on the look out for your may trip

 

[disneyAndi14]

Enjoyed your report, I love your Mickey necklace, very cute! We also love TH, we try to go at least every other trip. So funny, you are not a big fan of Dinosaur, it is one of my favorite rides! I have fun memories riding with my son when he was young!

Excited to hear about your upcoming trips, hope you write a TR.

 

[LindseyJo22]

Ahh, how am I always behind? Plus I haven't even updated my TR in like ages. I probably should stop writing them at this point

Oh and we may have booked another trip for the Pandora AP Preview...about 2 weeks after we return from our May trip
...I will write more on my PTR!

See you real soon!

Ooh, we are heading down May 18! Looks like we might miss you, but we managed to snag two different AP preview times because we booked one and our in-laws booked one, so we're planning on doing a lot of Pandora. I was so excited, because I figured there was no way we'd manage to be down there when the previews were going on! I'm going to have to go catch up on your PTR, and maybe one day update my own TR...

 

[Teetah]

I LOOOOOOOVE the safari!!! Disney does such amazing things with animal conservation, and this safari is such an awesome example!

I rarely see Tusker House pics in TRs, so this was great to see! Good idea on the timing to get to try both breakfast and lunch items! Must keep that in mind...

What a great trip! I am so glad I found your TR!! Can't wait to hear more - I am so glad you have more trips coming up!!!

 

[Raeven]

Oh, and I guess they got rid of the Donald picture before you get seated? I remember that from past trips but doesn't seem to be there now.

What?! I've never gotten one of those! We took one with the sign in 2015, but last year when we went they didn't take any picture.

At the end of our meal I got a birthday card!

I love the birthday cards they're so cute.

I did a sad face but then I realized we'd be back in about 2 months for Flower and Garden, so that brought a smile to my face after all! (Less that 30 days now!)

and now we're so close!

 

[Neverland_Girl]

This is one buffet that we took our time on...I guess it was our last meal and also the characters took some time to all get around to us, so that meant multiple trips to the buffet. We were there at around 10:30am so that meant we were there when they transitioned to lunch items as it got closer to 11am. I love coming to brunch at that time as you get to try even more stuff. As you can see from my plate above it was mostly breakfast items at that point.

Yummm! Loved that ham and hash with the cornbread topping.

I did a sad face but then I realized we'd be back in about 2 months for Flower and Garden, so that brought a smile to my face after all! (Less that 30 days now!)

Yay for more trips!

THE END

That's the end of our Feb 2017 Trip!!! Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

Our next trip begins the night of May 2nd...we're doing the same thing we did for this trip, flying in late and staying at the Hyatt MCO so our vacation actually starts a little earlier! Let's hope ME is not the crazy madhouse it was on this trip!

Oh and we may have booked another trip for the Pandora AP Preview...about 2 weeks after we return from our May trip
...I will write more on my PTR!

See you real soon!

Yay for more trip reports!

 

[KathyM2]

That's the end of our Feb 2017 Trip!!! Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

Our next trip begins the night of May 2nd...we're doing the same thing we did for this trip, flying in late and staying at the Hyatt MCO so our vacation actually starts a little earlier! Let's hope ME is not the crazy madhouse it was on this trip!

Thanks for sharing!! I can't believe you are going back again so soon....and then again in August!! That is a lot of Disney...not that there can ever be too much lol. I do like your idea of staying at the airport for night 1...also to not have to pay WDW prices for a room when you get in so late. I may look at that option if our August trip materializes lol

 

[coloredimage]

Enjoyed reading along! I sat in the same spot in Tusker House a few years ago and it definitely is nice to be away from the noise but it does get crowded! Especially if you have to leave while characters are interacting with other guests down near the end or servers are coming around with drinks/orders.

This TR definitely helped break up the time and it ended a week before I leave so perfect timing! Thanks so much for sharing

 

[bcwife76]

What a great last breakfast!! Love the variety of food options. Haha also love that you were there so long lunch started

While all character photos are fun, I think Mickey and Minnie are the best in all of their variety of outfits Man, not long now before you are back at the World!

 

[wdwnut61]

Loved your trip report sad it's over but looking forward to your next one. I've been following along on your pre trip report with all your adventures this year
We love Tusker House what a smart idea about going at the end of breakfast so you can enjoy the switch over to lunch.
You got more great magic shots.