That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up; A Feb. '21 birthday TR with a little "extra" thrown in *LINK TO NEW TR! 10/9!*

[kittylady1972]

Hey guys! I have a BONUS day left to write about on my big 50 birthday trip! So of course that means we'll go back to Thanksgiving 2020

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This was when they were redoing the track for the Liberty Belle and as ugly as it looks, on this trip and a few weeks later when Steve and I returned we saw them working on it and Steve thought it was pretty neat watching how they do it.

This was what it looked like for us in late October/Early November also. Definitely interesting.

Of COURSE Steve got the mule, right Kelly @buzzrelly??? I stuck with the raspberry mojito I'd had before and loved.


We all seriously loved our dinner here; I got something different this time, the gnocchi and I'm dying to have it again!

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This is why we have to get together one day. We just ate at The Wave last month...and I LOVED that mojito...I had it before as well.




And of course what was my meal?


Now what I am noticing is how your sweet potatoes were much more evident in your dish. They were in mine...but not as easy to find. See if you can spot them in this photo? Yeah hiding a bit. This was a GREAT dish though...but so filling. I got the salmon last time which I also loved (and yes I know you don't do seafood) but I would do this one again...and maybe share it. Very sad if this restaurant doesn't come back like before. We are going to get it in during our upcoming trip later this month though, at least one more time.

I am still lamenting over the loss of the Concourse Steakhouse and here and that's been gone for YEARS!

 

[cajunfan]

Your retraining comment almost made me snort my tea. So true though. My now 27 year old has finally got the hang of things.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Last July we had dinner for the first time at the Wave with @Jenny Sanders and Joe and really enjoyed it;

The Wave has always been a good, solid option.

 

[buzzrelly]

We went to Auntie Gravity's to try the "Just a Dream Away" salted caramel churro shake

Yum!

They had some specialty drinks for the holidays:

Of COURSE Steve got the mule, right Kelly @buzzrelly???

As someone who is slightly OCD and comforted by predictability, thank you Steve

the Wave is closing for a long refurbishment and then the stupid rumor going around that it may return as an Incredibles character meal there's not much point............

Oh, no. I heard about the refurb, but not the Incredibles meal. Not really a fan Of course, since I've never actually eaten at The Wave anyway, this doesn't really affect me

I guess the good filet put Chris in a good mood because he let me take this!

Aw,

 

[pkondz]

Hey guys! I have a BONUS day left to write about on my big 50 birthday trip! So of course that means we'll go back to Thanksgiving 2020

Of course!

We got there early and were treated to this scene on the way to Big Thunder, our first ride of the day:

That's... I have really mixed feelings about this.
1. It's ugly.
2. But it's so darned cool!
3. I had no idea it was so shallow! But then again... it's man-made.
4. Until recently, I had no idea the Belle was on a track!

Steve thought it was pretty neat watching how they do it.

I agree with Steve!

We went to Auntie Gravity's to try the "Just a Dream Away" salted caramel churro shake

That sounds really good! Glad you guys enjoyed it.

(it's like I enjoy time travel or something)

Well who doesn't?????

Last July we had dinner for the first time at the Wave with @Jenny Sanders and Joe and really enjoyed it

Got in just before they're closing it. (As you know/mentioned.)

the stupid rumor going around that it may return as an Incredibles character meal

What? Really? Shame.

I'll end with this shot that I like a lot; more fountain than castle but still festive:

I like that shot!

If any of you had kids go to college or went to college yourselves you know that once you get a taste of living "on your own" (and not paying your own bills lol) it's HARD to live with your parents again and vice-versa! So we had a few little issues and re-training to do

but to this point we were enjoying each others' company and being in Disney for what's become more of a traditional Thanksgiving for us than being home

Glad that settled down.

 

[suse66]

So far so good! The weird thing on this trip was that Ricky had been living away from home, at college, for a few months and came home for the first time since August the day before we left for Disney. If any of you had kids go to college or went to college yourselves you know that once you get a taste of living "on your own" (and not paying your own bills lol) it's HARD to live with your parents again and vice-versa! So we had a few little issues and re-training to do but to this point we were enjoying each others' company and being in Disney for what's become more of a traditional Thanksgiving for us than being home

I am laughing with you....retraining is definitely a thing!

Oh my were you just in my brain, lol

She was in mine too.

 

[kclark9830]

Love the holiday pictures! Someday I will go to WDW during the winter holidays.

 

[kastoney]

Hey guys! I have a BONUS day left to write about on my big 50 birthday trip! So of course that means we'll go back to Thanksgiving 2020

This was when they were redoing the track for the Liberty Belle and as ugly as it looks, on this trip and a few weeks later when Steve and I returned we saw them working on it and Steve thought it was pretty neat watching how they do it.

Im so smart some days. I had zero idea the Liberty Belle was on a track. Here I thought it it was an actual boat that someone had to pilot. Silly me

We all seriously loved our dinner here; I got something different this time, the gnocchi and I'm dying to have it again!

Yum!!! This looks delicious and right up my alley. We've had breakfast at the Wave a few times and always enjoyed it. I think we've only done dinner once. I think the food was good but sadly my memory is that the place reeked of not good smelling fish and it was so hard to eat anything when that is all we were smelling.

I'd put the descriptions of these 2 dishes but since the announcement that the Wave is closing for a long refurbishment and then the stupid rumor going around that it may return as an Incredibles character meal there's not much point............

Seriously??? I am so over the whole character meal thing. Clearly I am in the minority from typical Disney fans but just serve good food at restaurants. Character meals just seem to be an excuse to charge exorbitant amounts of money for less than mediocre food. But the fact that they are opening more of them up clearly Disney is rolling in the cash from them.

 

[Steppesister]

This was when they were redoing the track for the Liberty Belle and as ugly as it looks, on this trip and a few weeks later when Steve and I returned we saw them working on it and Steve thought it was pretty neat watching how they do it.

It like that for me too. Empty in Jan/Feb., up and running in April. Fun to see both sides of the refurb!

and then the stupid rumor going around that it may return as an Incredibles character meal there's not much point............

WAIT, just WAIT, SAY WHAT?! UGH.

That's... I have really mixed feelings about this.
1. It's ugly.
2. But it's so darned cool!
3. I had no idea it was so shallow! But then again... it's man-made.
4. Until recently, I had no idea the Belle was on a track!

Interesting you should say this... I rode this (with Kari) a couple weeks ago, and got a bit cozy in a geeky sort of way with the CM running the ship and got a TON of info on the propulsion, track and steam systems. I will write a bit about that fun conversation in an upcoming update. I really learned a LOT.

 

[CruellaNY]

A special meal for your birthday is totally acceptable.

I totally missed this comment but YES! Nothing we'd do often but for a special occasion for sure

Oh my were you just in my brain, lol

LMAO! It's so true though! We had a tutorial on not leaving shoes in the middle of the floor/right in front of the door today!

I think Chris is even SMILING in that picture he let you take!!! What kind of magical sorcery did they do to that steak?!

It's like spotting a leopard walking around on the safari; it happens, but it's rare

Oooh, I must be failling at keeping up with my Dis rumors--I heard the Wave was closed for refurb, but totally missed that Incredibles part....hmmmmm, not sure how even I, who love character meals, feels about that one. I really like The Wave the way it is!!

Well it's really only been noted on some less than reputable pages and websites so I'm really hoping it's 100% NOT true. I think character meals are needed for sure but I don't like them taking over otherwise fantastic restaurants! I'd prefer they open a new one or just add them back to somewhere that used to have characters; like change the Cape May or Crystal Palace characters up!

This is why we have to get together one day. We just ate at The Wave last month...and I LOVED that mojito...I had it before as well.

Now what I am noticing is how your sweet potatoes were much more evident in your dish.

OMG so funny! I had the mojito the first time we went as well and you are right about the sweet potatoes!

I got the salmon last time which I also loved (and yes I know you don't do seafood) but I would do this one again..

Steve got the salmon the first time we went and loved it

Your retraining comment almost made me snort my tea. So true though. My now 27 year old has finally got the hang of things.

Wonderful, I have years to go then But it's so freakin' true!

The Wave has always been a good, solid option.

SO glad we went there with you that first time and fingers are crossed it remains the same when it reopens...........

Oh, no. I heard about the refurb, but not the Incredibles meal. Not really a fan Of course, since I've never actually eaten at The Wave anyway, this doesn't really affect me

Well if it doesn't come back with characters you should try it, so good! Ugh I really don't want it ruined but it "fits" the same profile that Artist Point did before they ruined that; always availability, not talked about often. not real interesting to kids. Not too hopeful!

 

[CruellaNY]

That's... I have really mixed feelings about this.
1. It's ugly.
2. But it's so darned cool!
3. I had no idea it was so shallow! But then again... it's man-made.
4. Until recently, I had no idea the Belle was on a track!

I always think it's neat to see behind/under/below/the attractions even when it looks less than desirable! I may not if my kids were little because they'd see behind the "magic" I guess-who knows-but now I think it's cool. I was still happier when it was refilled though!

What? Really? Shame.

Totally. So let's hope it's JUST rumor.......

I am laughing with you....retraining is definitely a thing!

Right? I mean I do remember it being difficult to adjust when I'd come home from college for summers and winter breaks but I COULDN'T have been as bad as this kid is

Love the holiday pictures! Someday I will go to WDW during the winter holidays.

Yes it's so cool! The best part is that you don't need to go during the actual holiday to get all the holiday feels

Im so smart some days. I had zero idea the Liberty Belle was on a track. Here I thought it it was an actual boat that someone had to pilot. Silly me

LOL well your favorite sanitation worker thought the same; I guess great minds think alike!

Yum!!! This looks delicious and right up my alley. We've had breakfast at the Wave a few times and always enjoyed it. I think we've only done dinner once. I think the food was good but sadly my memory is that the place reeked of not good smelling fish and it was so hard to eat anything when that is all we were smelling.

You know I remember you reviewing it and saying that about the smell; it turned me off to the restaurant for awhile until Jenny suggested it. So no smell either time we went! If they don't go and ruin it you guys should try it; actually it should still be normal when you go in June!

Seriously??? I am so over the whole character meal thing. Clearly I am in the minority from typical Disney fans but just serve good food at restaurants. Character meals just seem to be an excuse to charge exorbitant amounts of money for less than mediocre food. But the fact that they are opening more of them up clearly Disney is rolling in the cash from them.

Right there with ya sister

WAIT, just WAIT, SAY WHAT?! UGH.

I.KNOW I should not have even brought it up lol since everyone is against it (and that makes me happy) so let's really really hope it's just rumor!

Interesting you should say this... I rode this (with Kari) a couple weeks ago, and got a bit cozy in a geeky sort of way with the CM running the ship and got a TON of info on the propulsion, track and steam systems. I will write a bit about that fun conversation in an upcoming update. I really learned a LOT.

So cool!!

 

[pkondz]

I always think it's neat to see behind/under/below/the attractions even when it looks less than desirable! I may not if my kids were little because they'd see behind the "magic" I guess-who knows-but now I think it's cool. I was still happier when it was refilled though!

I would be much happier with it filled too. Don't mess with my childhood memories!

 

[Wood Nymph]

If any of you had kids go to college or went to college yourselves you know that once you get a taste of living "on your own" (and not paying your own bills lol) it's HARD to live with your parents again and vice-versa!

We had taken many WDW trips our family of five and really enjoyed them. Even when our kids were teenagers, they loved Disney. Our son went off to college and I knew the end of these family trips was near. I decided to book one more "just the five of us" family trips in the summer after his sophomore year. Unfortunately, you can't bring back the past. We didn't know that he had a girlfriend back at college. And she made our son feel very guilty for taking a vacation without her. Trips changed after that.

 

[eliseisawkward]

I live the trip report within a trip report!! All the bonus content please.

I loooooove that gnocchi from The Wave! Soooo good. Derek and I split it and an app when we went Feb 2020, the portion is huge. Last rumor I heard about the refurb was that it was getting a “retheme” to be an incredible steakhouse, but not a character meal. Which makes some sense considering they did light incredibles theme for the Contemporary refurb. I’m hoping that the menu will be largely unchanged and they will just update the decor a little (but not toooooo much).

 

[CruellaNY]

I hope everyone who celebrates Mother's Day in any way had a nice relaxing day spent with those you love! I was of course with my guys and my lovely mom and did my best NOT to do any work lol.




But it does just put off today what will need to be added to tomorrow right? Anyway let's revisit November 2020 a bit more since I was with all my men then too!
​

We had 2 days left and today we were finally going to do something NONE of us had done before:

​

OK OK I jest: but if you've read my previous reports you may know what I mean based on where we were going! First we did something Steve and I had done but the boys didn't, and being that we had a 7:30 breakfast at Ale and Compass and walked over we got in super early and found this to our pleasant surprise:



Great for the boys' first time! Not a real popular opinion but they felt the same way Steve and I did; cute, no need to ever ride again, shouldn't have replaced GMR. But it does not good to lament the loss of all things MGM so on we go!

We rode lots of things besides MMRR including TOT, SDD, RnRc and TSMM; we were all having a good day so everyone agreed to pictures:





And then everyone agreed to food! Like many folks I do not enjoy eating in HS other than HBD and definitely not QS but nobody wanted to leave ; I had brought up taking the skyliner to Riviera to eat there but we had something on the horizon and so I got a little "resistance"
Instead we ended up at ABC Commissary which on previous occasions made me barf but they'd recently introduced a new menu I heard good things about. Happy to say for HS QS food it was REALLY good!



Ricky went with the fancy buffalo chicken grilled cheese while the rest of us got tacos; shrimp for Steve and pork carnitas for Chris and I. I rarely meet a taco I don't like and happy to say I'd eat these again on the off chance I find myself needing a quick meal in HS.

And then, it was time. Time for us all to do what Steve and I could have done like 4x previously but we skipped out of the park; time for all of us to experience the phenomenon together:



YES! Like millions before us we finally rode ROTR! And have not ridden again in our visits since!!

It's a good ride and I can totally understand fans loving it. I really liked that it's different......rooms? Experiences? Basically that it's a longer ride lol. And I know people say you don't need to KNOW SW to enjoy it but I disagree because having never watched more than 10 minutes of the original movie I knew 0 and understood 0 about what was going on! Ricky knew some as he's watched the movies; he and Chris thought it was pretty good. Steve and I feel no need to ride again but since we have a HS reservation for June we'll probably try to get a BG and see if we like it any better the 2nd time around.

With that it was later in the afternoon and we were ready for a break before dinner! I did need to get one thing before we left; another holiday treat!




This was a red velvet whoopie pie with cream cheese filling and OMG was it worth the calories. I did only eat about a third but with the cute container I was able to bring it to the room and eat it slowly over the rest of our trip.



LOOKIT THAT! And I used a fork so those aren't my gross teeth marks

Welp almost done with this trip as well as my birthday bash; enjoy your Monday everyone!

 

[CruellaNY]

We had taken many WDW trips our family of five and really enjoyed them. Even when our kids were teenagers, they loved Disney. Our son went off to college and I knew the end of these family trips was near. I decided to book one more "just the five of us" family trips in the summer after his sophomore year. Unfortunately, you can't bring back the past. We didn't know that he had a girlfriend back at college. And she made our son feel very guilty for taking a vacation without her. Trips changed after that.

Happy Mother's Day Sue!
Yeah that STINKS. Luckily it was just his own attitude that got in the way lol however my best friends' son (Ricky's age and a good friend of his) currently has his first girlfriend, My friend is going to Mexico with all 3 of her kids in August and Anthony's GF is already guilting him about it and that is not right in any way.

I live the trip report within a trip report!! All the bonus content please.

Glad you're enjoying it! I do so many more reports on our adult only trips since there are so many more of them, and when we got back from the Thanksgiving trip work exploded so combined with the holidays I never got it done then. And who knows when the boys will go with us again so really wanted to do it

loooooove that gnocchi from The Wave! Soooo good. Derek and I split it and an app when we went Feb 2020, the portion is huge. Last rumor I heard about the refurb was that it was getting a “retheme” to be an incredible steakhouse, but not a character meal. Which makes some sense considering they did light incredibles theme for the Contemporary refurb. I’m hoping that the menu will be largely unchanged and they will just update the decor a little (but not toooooo much).

You're right it does state in the rumors "Incredible Steakhouse" so hopefully no characters; hopefully no schtick; and hopefully gnocchi!!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

All caught up but my sieve for a brain has now forgotten all I wanted to comment on
Suffice to say I love all your happy smilie people photos (slightly in awe that the smiles were actually evident if I'm honest given that I also mother a 14 year old son ).
Especially loved your fountain/castle photo.
Roared with laughter as everyone commented on the returning to the nest/ need for retraining habits of our kids. Each and everyone of those comments could have been uttered by me! Love my eldest boy but dear holy mother of goodness wth happened between leaving here 8 months ago and coming back home!
Hate that some girlfriends think it is ok to guilt boys out of spending time with their families and even though neither of my boys have a girlfriend I warn them that this is not ok as I have seen so many boys lose touch/closeness with their siblings/parents because of partners. Makes me cross to say the least
Really hope disney doesn't make any more restaurants character places. Think I agree with Kari on that one-seems to be an excuse to charge more for poorer quality food and that's just the pits

 

[suse66]

Great for the boys' first time! Not a real popular opinion but they felt the same way Steve and I did; cute, no need to ever ride again, shouldn't have replaced GMR. But it does not good to lament the loss of all things MGM so on we go!

We rode lots of things besides MMRR including TOT, SDD, RnRc and TSMM; we were all having a good day so everyone agreed to pictures:

Sometimes I think they update things just for the sake of updating the. Some things are classics and should be left alone.

It's a good ride and I can totally understand fans loving it. I really liked that it's different......rooms? Experiences? Basically that it's a longer ride lol. And I know people say you don't need to KNOW SW to enjoy it but I disagree because having never watched more than 10 minutes of the original movie I knew 0 and understood 0 about what was going on! Ricky knew some as he's watched the movies; he and Chris thought it was pretty good. Steve and I feel no need to ride again but since we have a HS reservation for June we'll probably try to get a BG and see if we like it any better the 2nd time around.

I know very little about Star Wars so honestly wouldn't even bother with RoTR if I wasn't going with Jack. I know he will love it.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Happy belated Mothers Day to you, too.

All these pictures with masks on mean that we will never forget this dark period of time when Covid restrictions ruled our lives.

Instead we ended up at ABC Commissary which on previous occasions made me barf but they'd recently introduced a new menu I heard good things about. Happy to say for HS QS food it was REALLY good!

We usually avoid eating at DHS but the tacos do look good. I have become a fan of mobile ordering now that I have been forced to use it.

Like millions before us we finally rode ROTR!

This is how I feel about Pandora and Flight of Passage. I don't really know the story, so the ride is more of just a ride to me, a great ride.

 

[missjackiemcg]

I really want to ride RoTR but fear I will have the same feelings as you! I only like the Ewoks, LOL, so anything beyond that is totally lost on me. Rob and my Dad will be super excited about it though, so hopefully we finally get a BG in December when we're all there together.