Team Renfroe's 2nd Trip Report - 1,500 pictures, dining reviews, and DISmeets!

Alan, you and the fam look like you're having so much fun! And you seem to squeeze everything in with time to nap! LOL

Well we were going to do QSDP on our trip next year but I think we may upgrade to DDP to try out a few of your restaurants! Ohana and CP is on the top of our lists! DxDDP is just way too much food for us.

Um, even though this was our first trip this year, we didn't do Dumbo either. Shame on us!
 
well, that all looked great! Lonnie & I did the GF Tea on this trip- I LOVED it and hope to do it again. It was really special! And J's hair is AWESOME!!!! Love those braids!

Oh- and to answer your question, the boys have 2 weeks left of summer- Sean goes back the day after Labor Day and T&T go back Sept 10th! Most schools in NJ go back after labor day- although this year is a little different in some towns because Labor Day is so late.
 
Hi! Really enjoying your trippy. Great pics too. We are planning our first trip next May and have picked out some restaurants because of your pics and reviews! Really helps us a lot :thumbsup2

I can see you enjoy the food experience as much as I know I'm going to! That's part of the reason for going to Disney World right!?

Looking forward to reading the rest of your report.
 
That's great that you each planned something special for your son / daughter. It's a great bonding moment! The tea looks like it was a nicething to do!
 

All caught up!

So sorry about the moody bus driver, we had a few long waits last year too and it's so annoying!

Glad you got to CP OK and they were fine, the food looks lovely.

Wow the Wave was empty and how kind of the server to replace the smoothie!

The braids look lovely and what a lovely way for the girls to spend their afternoon :goodvibes
 
I love how you guys split up and did speical things with each of the kids. It looks like your ladies had a wonderful afternoon! A trip to the salon and afternoon tea-sounds like an excellent vacation day to me!

Looking forward to reading what the boys did...
 
I'm glad you enjoyed your lunch at the Wave. I had never even heard of that restaurant before. It is fun to spend time with just one child at a time at WDW. We had to split up some on our last trip because our son was too small to ride some rides and too scared to ride others. One of us took our daughter on bigger rides while the other took our son on smaller rides. I do hope he is ready to try more rides this time because it is also fun to be able to ride things as a family. Waiting to hear about the boys' adventure.
 
You tell Ms. Julianna that I love her hair braided like that. Looking forward to hearing about the father/son time together.
 
Guys and girls split up!

Awesome!!

I can't wait until our son/daughter are a bit older and we can have an afternoon/evening like that at Disney World.
Look forward to hearing the guys' story!

We split up on our first trip last year and really had some memorable moments with our kids. I would strongly suggest this...at least one afternoon or evening.

Thanks for the review of The Wave, we're really looking forward to it! Glad to know that appetizer for two can be ordered for one, it's calling my name.;)

Miss Juliana looked really gorgeous with that braided hair, you go girl!!!!!:thumbsup2

That appetizer at The Wave was really good! Ahhh...thanks for saying Miss Juliana looks gorgeous.

Love the braids on Juliana! And glad her and mom got some time alone from you guys. :rotfl2:

Yeah, I'm sure she was ready for it! :rotfl2:

How fun for Elizabeth and Juliana - love her braids. It would be fun to do something like that with my two girls. But, then Dad would be left out. Or maybe he would like it that way???? hmmmmmm.

I'll bet Dad could find something that HE would be interested in while you girls did your thing!

Hi Alan!!

Liked Wil's concept of "Pal Eeyore"!! Just hearing about it made me laugh. He should sell that idea to Disney!!

Glad you liked The Wave!! That photo of Wil's Angus Cheeseburger just made my mouth water (and I have just gotten dinner!!). I agree that the desserts are very good. In fact, I found myself just wanting to order another round...

And those pastries at The Grand Floridian look just fabulous!

Regards,

Luis

It was your review of The Wave that made us book the reservation in the first place - so I have YOU to thank! Everything there was really good, including the service.

Elizabeth said the pastries at the GF were really good. And the tea as well.

We are doing a split day next monthe too !! I get the 3 kids Judy and Sandy get a night out!! Oh wait a minute that's called babysitting:lmao:

The kids picked WCC for our night out !!!!!

Call it babysitting....call it whatever you'd like...but those are special moments! Enjoy them!

:rotfl2:Rosie you crack me up!!:lmao:

I concur....Rosie, you crack us up!

Thanks for the fantastic trip report! Just got back from a weeklong stay at the Wilderness Lodge, and while I've got a report written and waiting to go, I'm at odds over publishing photos to go along with it. :confused3 But I think seeing your family photos has gotten me to the point where I'm going to go for it. :thumbsup2You guys look like you had a WONDERFUL time!! Oh, and seeing your biz website makes me wish I lived in Alabama, since I LOVE Sabretts hot dogs.:lovestruc

Thanks for the comments! We would LOVE to see your family's pictures from your recent trip at Wilderness Lodge. That is such a beautiful place.

Oh, and if you're ever in Alabama....we make a mean hot dog!

I have a question regarding Julianna's braids- how was it taking them out?

Hmmm....I'm not sure. I'll ask Elizabeth and get her to make a post.

Wow, I can't believe The Wave was so empty. Not a great sign for a new restaurant. Looked pretty good too.

Love the braids! :cool1:

You are right - we were a little frightened when we walked into The Wave and no one was there. It was kinda like being the first person at a party and wondering if anyone else is going to show up. Anyway, eventually more people did show up....and fortunately everything turned out to be really good.
 
Just found your tr (I know, I'm just a *little* late) and I'm all caught up. You have such a beautiful family and I'm enjoying reading about your adventures.

The hot dog restaurant sounds awesome, too bad I don't live closer to check it out. We love hot dogs, we even go on a 'hot dog tour' every year in New Jersey with some people from the roadfood forums. Lots of fun! :)

Welcome to the Trip Report! Glad you found us! Thanks for the wonderful comments about the family.

We are getting ready to debut our newest menu at the hot dog restaurant, which will feature some bacon-wrapped dawgs. Oh yeah.

The Wave sounds like a great place to eat. May have to put that down on our list. Now that we can make ADR's 180 days out I really have to start planning!!:scared1: Julianna looks so cute with her hair braided. What a great idea:thumbsup2. Love the pic with her & Goofy trying to eat her head:)

If you are at the Magic Kingdom on a really crowded day, and would like a little break from all the crowds, a quick trip over to The Wave may be just what the doctor ordered.

Thanks for your comments about Juliana! She's quite a character herself!

Alan, you and the fam look like you're having so much fun! And you seem to squeeze everything in with time to nap! LOL

Well we were going to do QSDP on our trip next year but I think we may upgrade to DDP to try out a few of your restaurants! Ohana and CP is on the top of our lists! DxDDP is just way too much food for us.

Um, even though this was our first trip this year, we didn't do Dumbo either. Shame on us!

DxDDP really is too much food. We almost did not do it this year....but we love doing those 2TS dinners soooo much that we ended up finding it to be worth it for us....even though it definitely is too much food.

I think we were able to fit everything in BECAUSE of the naps. They re-energize us and it is almost like having two days in one!

well, that all looked great! Lonnie & I did the GF Tea on this trip- I LOVED it and hope to do it again. It was really special! And J's hair is AWESOME!!!! Love those braids!

Oh- and to answer your question, the boys have 2 weeks left of summer- Sean goes back the day after Labor Day and T&T go back Sept 10th! Most schools in NJ go back after labor day- although this year is a little different in some towns because Labor Day is so late.

Juliana and Elizabeth really had a great time together doing the salon and the tea. You KNOW who Juliana's influence was for doing the braids!

Wow...our kids have already been back in school for two weeks. They started last Monday. I think we get out down here before you all do.

Hi! Really enjoying your trippy. Great pics too. We are planning our first trip next May and have picked out some restaurants because of your pics and reviews! Really helps us a lot :thumbsup2

I can see you enjoy the food experience as much as I know I'm going to! That's part of the reason for going to Disney World right!?

Looking forward to reading the rest of your report.

May is such a wonderful time to go! It would be hard to convince me of a better time!

The food experience is part of what makes our vacations great! I can cook for myself at home. I can eat out at regular places at home. But when I am on vacation, I look for something SPECIAL! Yes, the eating experience at Disney World definitely adds to the overall experience. :thumbsup2

That's great that you each planned something special for your son / daughter. It's a great bonding moment! The tea looks like it was a nicething to do!

The boys' adventure is up next!

so cute..mother daughter time at the GF :) love it! Looking forward to what you boys did!

Oh yeah....we were not going to be outdone by the girls!

All caught up!

So sorry about the moody bus driver, we had a few long waits last year too and it's so annoying!

Glad you got to CP OK and they were fine, the food looks lovely.

Wow the Wave was empty and how kind of the server to replace the smoothie!

The braids look lovely and what a lovely way for the girls to spend their afternoon :goodvibes

Hi DisneyJo! It is funny how some people seem to LOVE their job at Disney (like the server at The Wave,) and others seem to HATE their job (like the bus driver.) I guess that's life, huh?

Anyway, the girls had a wonderful time together. The boys time is coming up next!

I love this TR :worship:

awww...thanks!

I love how you guys split up and did speical things with each of the kids. It looks like your ladies had a wonderful afternoon! A trip to the salon and afternoon tea-sounds like an excellent vacation day to me!

Looking forward to reading what the boys did...

Isn't that cool? It was sort of like a vacation within a vacation for the girls. They both agreed that it was a nice treat for them.

I'm glad you enjoyed your lunch at the Wave. I had never even heard of that restaurant before. It is fun to spend time with just one child at a time at WDW. We had to split up some on our last trip because our son was too small to ride some rides and too scared to ride others. One of us took our daughter on bigger rides while the other took our son on smaller rides. I do hope he is ready to try more rides this time because it is also fun to be able to ride things as a family. Waiting to hear about the boys' adventure.

It's fun to be together as a family, but splitting up can really build some individual memories between you and your kids. They relish the time when they have your full undivided attention. I think my afternoon with Wil definitely made our relationship even better.

You tell Ms. Julianna that I love her hair braided like that. Looking forward to hearing about the father/son time together.

Well, I will definitely tell Miss Juliana that you said so! She had a great time with it!
 
Since the girls had their afternoon planned, Wil and I had plans of our own! We decided to go back to the Magic Kingdom and see how many rides we could ride before our dinner reservations at Tony's Town Square.

It was still raining outside. Raining, Schmaining! Who cares? Put some rain gear on and get going!

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We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and decided to go ride Buzz Lightyear.

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and again...

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and again...

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and again...

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it was just amazing how there was no one there!! We would literally step off the ride, and then step right back on. We ended up riding it 6 straight times!

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Finally, after six times, we were actually tired of riding Buzz Lightyear. (Oh, and by the way, Wil beat me in scores EVERY SINGLE TIME! It wasn't even close!)

We had just enough time to ride Astro Orbiter before it was time for our dinner reservation.

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We enjoyed this ride last year - but it was even more fun in the rain!

After that, it was time to head back down Main Street to go to Tony's Town Square for our guys dinner.

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Coming up next - our dinner report from Tony's Town Square.

 
What a fantastic afternoon, riding Buzz so many times must have been like a dream come true to Wil :goodvibes

BTW please call me Jo :)
 
Riding Buzz 6 times in a row reminds me of the night last June when my boyfriend and I rode BTMRR 5 times in a row at the end of the night. We were going to try for more...but I had to use the little girl's room too badly to sustain another ride. :rotfl: But, I love when the park is dead like that!

Can't wait to hear about your dinner at Tony's! :thumbsup2
 
This was our second year in a row for my son and I to eat at Tony's Town Square together. It was such a memorable part of our trip last year, Wil was insistent on doing it again this year. I was just glad to be spending some quality time with my son!

Last year, we had a wonderful server named Casey. (You KNOW it is a good server when you can remember his name from one year ago!) This year - uh....not so much. I think our server's name was Kathy....and she was not very good at all.

She brought us our menus, along with bread and olive oil:

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Wil and I were both thirsty, so we ordered a glass of water and Sprite as our drink. It seemed like it took forever for the drinks to come.

Then it was time to order our appetizers. They have a wonderful antipasto platter for two. Last year, I asked my server could I possibly order that appetizer for only one person. He said, "sure! I'm glad you asked! Most people don't think to ask." Well....this year was a different story. I asked our server, "could I possibly get the antipasto platter for two, only a single portion?" She said, "no." I explained to her that last year our server had the chef make a single portion and said it was no problem. She said, "well, we don't do that anymore." Uh...not very friendly or accommodating.

I was really disappointed...and I let her know it. That was what I was most looking forward to about my meal at Tony's. Oh well. I remembered Wil ordering the calamari last year and it was really good, so I ordered it.

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It was good, but the portion size was much smaller than last year. This was not turning out to be a great dining experience. Wil, however, ordered the toasted cheese and garlic bread, and loved it!

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When it came time to order our entrees, Wil said, "this place is famous for their spaghetti and meatballs!" So that's what he ordered.

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It was very good.

I decided to try the Shrimp Scampi Linguini with sun-dried tomatoes. It was delicious!

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Note to self: If I ever eat at Tony's again, order this dish!

However, there was one thing that kept me from fully enjoying this dish. I was about to thirst TO DEATH! Our server only refilled our glasses once. My meal was very tasty....but when you are thirsty, it is hard to enjoy anything.

Next came the desserts. Wil ordered the Ice Cream Bomb. (He had ordered this last year and said it was "Da Bomb!")

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I had the Tiramisu. It was okay.

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Overall, the best thing about dinner at Tony's was the COMPANY! I never told Wil that I wasn't enjoying my meal....and he LOVED his once again this year! If this kid wants to come eat here with his Dad for the rest of his life, I will come eat here! That being said, I truly would not recommend Tony's Town Square based on this year's experience. The entree was really good, but the service was downright poor - the worst all week long.

Okay....so after we finished our dinner it was dark, dreary, and rainy. The park was practically empty. We took FULL advantage of it! I'm sorry I don't have pictures to show here, primarily because it was too wet to keep the camera out. We met back up with the girls to ride Buzz Lightyear two more times, then we went to the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. What a great attraction! We laughed and had a great time!

By this time, the girls were ready to call it a day....so they headed on back to CSR. Wil and I stayed and rode more rides. He wanted to do Stitch's Great Escape again this year....so I did that with him. (I hate that attraction...but Wil loves it, so I did it with him anyway!) Afterwards, we went back and rode Astro Orbiter once more.

Then, we crossed the park and rode the Jungle Cruise. Next, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean. (Here is a poor attempt at making a picture of the Davy Jones reflection off the water.)

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After Pirates, we went back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and rode it three straight times in a row!!

It was absolutely amazing to have the whole park to ourselves like that. However, we were now getting tired and ready to get to dryer ground.

We had ridden more rides than I've probably ever ridden in a single day. It had been a wonderful day. On the bus back to Coronado Springs, Wil even let me hug on him. He looked at me and said, "Dad? You know yesterday when I said it was the best day ever? Well, yesterday was the second best day ever. THIS has been the best day ever!" SCORE!! I think it was all I could do to not cry a little...but instead I looked at him and said, "Boy, you are not kidding! We had a GREAT day, didn't we?"

I'm telling you....you can't buy or bottle this stuff. How great is it for your son to tell you he has just experienced his best two days ever? It absolutely cannot get better than that.

We made it back to our resort and called it a night. My relationship with my son was as strong as it had ever been....and I was at peace.

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What a great vacation we were having!

Tomorrow, we have breakfast at Chef Mickey's followed by our waterparks day! Stay tuned...

 
In that last picture with Wil in front of the fountain...

Looks like the kid is wearing a Chef's hat and jacket...and the girl has her hair braided like J's.

Just jumped out at me. :banana:
 
Very touching words, your children are lucky to have you!:lovestruc

I have to say that Tony's was the all time worst experience we ever had in 4 trips at WDW. We had poor service and poor food. I just can't bring myself to return, not one of us enjoyed it. I think at WDW you have good days and great days... the day we ate at Tony's was a good day but the dining experience did not enhance our day if you know what I'm saying.

Glad to hear Will enjoyed it, that is the most important thing. :goodvibes
 
Alan - I have ALOT of back-reading to do but I just read your latest installment and wanted to comment.

Lauren and I had the same experience with Tony's last year. The food was decent enough but the service was horrible! We too waited forever to have our drinks served, and then refilled.

Wil's appetizer looked delicious but when I saw your calamari, I thought maybe you had eaten some before you took the pic. But no? That was it? We did enjoy our dinner and glad to see you did too!

So - how late did you last at PM EMH? It is wonderful, isn't it? Too bad the rain has to put a damper on it though.

Ok, I need to catch up. I-spy a sleeping little girl wearing a kerchief. Which could only me one thing - HAIR BRAIDING!!!! I need to read about it!
 











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