The Aussietravellers Adventures continue... Updated - Day 26 - Part 1

[PrincessInOz]

It made me realise we are the lucky country here we really are the grass is not always greener and all that. You guys know what I mean?

DH's job is based in the US and I have portable job skills; so we could be living in the US right now. We choose to live in Oz for a reason.....Australia is a great country to live in.

 

[kyl]

Well said PrincessInOz.

 

[SPBendersky]

Want to go for two weeks and catch as many of those fish species as they got down there. Some of those fish look really neat.

 

[aussietravellers]

Woke this morning early and went down to Captains Grill for breakfast. This consisted of my usual...
Eggs Benedict

and Mickey Waffles, YUM.

yes that is a block of butter, which I did not use, but it came in large blocks, they should make them half the size.

Anyway breakfast was delicious and we then raced to the bus stop to catch the bus to Magic Kingdom as DS had a 9am appointment at Pirates League. We arrived early and as it was EMH we headed for the tea cups. To our horror and disappointment, they had closed for "Rehab". I have to say that Fantasyland was very disappointing, with Small World closed and now the teacups and half the place all boarded up, it didn't feel as fantasy like as it used to, but I guess once the "Rehab" (what does rehab mean anyway ) Like we say "Refurb" short for Refurbishment, what does Rehab stand for other than a place where people with different issues enter to help heal.

Anyway it was then time for Pirates League, so we headed to Adventure Land. It was not open yes so we waited at the rope the dozens of other people. Once opened we followed the pirate (who was entertaining the crowds at the adventure land rope) all the way to Pirates League.

Once there we were about third in line. We checked in and DS had to choose the face he wanted. He chose some dark eyed pirate and then chose the optional pirate costume. Once inside they took DS to the dressing room for him to change into his costume. Once there the pirate took DS back into the front room where he had to find out what his "Pirate Name" was. To do this he had to spin a big wheel and some dice were revealed. They then opened a big book at DS's birth month and with the first dice he had the name of that number and of the second dice chose the last name. So DS's pirate name was "Robert Guncheese"

"Robert Guncheese" was then taken inside and sat down infront of the mirror ready for his transformation.

The female "pirate" who made him over was fantastic, they chat to the children about pirate things and at the end of it, they have to swear to abide by some pirate code!

They are then taken to another room where they take the photo and you are then back out in the entry where you pay an view (and pay) for your photo. If you buy the photo, you can have the rest put onto your photopass and it will put all of the photos from the session on to your photopass. I forgot to have the photos added But luckily I have worked out to add the code beginning with EVNT into the photopass area online and it has added all of the photos to my photopass account so I will be able to get them on my CD afterall

So here is Robert Guncheese

The costume also came with hideous ugly teeth and also a jack sparrow type hat which DS wore that night to the MNSSHP. He (we I) decided it was best to have the bandana that they provided instead of the hat as the long hair and the hot day may not be the best for rides etc. Robert Guncheese agreed and went with the bandana for the day time.

From there we met up with our friends who's girls had just been to BBB and they were all looking so cute.

We went on a few rides, the flying carpets, Snow White, Buzz and then it was time for lunch at CRT.

Went and checked in there and we were taken in in about 5 minutes for our photo with Cinderella. As we had two families we got two photos which was nice, we actually had one with the kids and cinderella and then a group photo. We then went upstairs to our table. We were seated at the back, with a view of a wall of baby booster seats and the kitchen A bit disappointing I have to say. The appertizer really was not that nice, I didn't have any, it was a variety of cheeses and salami, then the mains came out, I had the beef dish with puff pastry. It was ok. We still had not seen a princess, but they started to come around then. Dessert arrived and it was tasty. It was some sort of chocolate mousse I think, here's a picture.

I also got this

Here is one of the children's desserts.. a build your own sundae

There was also a build your own cupcake.

Our photos then arrived and we were ready to go. It was such a rushed meal, they just whip the food out and give you the photo and then you leave.
I have to say that I was disappointed with this meal. I think is was more because I was expecting more... I had been wanting to eat here for so long that in my mind I had built it up to be more.... so that's why I was disappointed.

Anyway we decided to go back to the hotel after lunch as we were due to be back tonight for MNSSHP which we were really looking forward to.

We hopped back on the bus and went back to YC.

Our friends picked us up later in the afternoon and we went over to POFQ for dinner. My friends had stayed there before and said the Beingets (spelling?) were the best, most yummy things around, so I was going over for my first Beinget. Dinner there was good and whilst at dinner DS Robert Guncheese lost a tooth. So that would mean a visit from the Disney tooth fairy!

After dinner we took off for Magic Kingdom for MNSSHP. There were these cute mickey lights around

This night went sooo quickly. We went trick or treating but it was just so busy, you would go to a trick or treat area and line up, the line would run past big bins and CM's would put a handful into your trick or treat bag. Now you could go around and around, you weren't restricted to going through each trick or treat station once, so it was a bit of a surprised that I was almost bowled over by a "scavenger". I was going through the station (there were two beside each other and this woman had just been through the one beside me). My CM dropped about three pieces of candy onto the floor and this woman that was about a metre beside me just past the other station, literally dove in front of me, almost knocked me flying and was grabbing up the three pieces of candy that were around my feet. I was in shock. Seriously that somebody would be that desperate for three, tiny pieces of sugar, worth about 3 cents! Anyway it created a bit of amusement as we continued to follow this woman around the trick or treat trail wondering if she was going to go scavenging again

Time went SO quickly.

We got these adorable little popcorn buckets

We rode the haunted mansion and had photos taken at the carriage. We saw the parade with the headless horseman and before we knew it, the night as over. It was midnight and we had to leave. It went just so quickly. But it was a fun night and it was back to the bus to YC.

Once back at the YC I stopped at reception (concierge was closed) to see if they do anything for the tooth fairy. They let me buy some Disney $'s and then did up a letter to leave out from the fairy. So up at the room DS left his tooth out and was so surprised next morning with the $'s and the letter.

Anyway it was a long day and night but a very fun day and night. Tomorrow there was a sleep in planned!

 

[aussietravellers]

I've also added some photos to the few previous pages that I couldn't add because I was at my photobucket bandwidth limit. Have also added an index in post one with each day's posts

 

[Jade+3]

Were there many young kids at MNSSHP? We gave it a miss last year as my 3 year old had enough issues with the 'scary pumpkins' at MK. We did go to the Halloween party at DTD for trick & treating, which was fun (and free!!). Next year they will be 6, 5 and 2.

 

[PrincessInOz]

LOVE the food porn......and the other pictures at the World aren't half bad either!

I'm so glad that your photobucket reset before I left.

 

[aussietravellers]

Were there many young kids at MNSSHP? We gave it a miss last year as my 3 year old had enough issues with the 'scary pumpkins' at MK. We did go to the Halloween party at DTD for trick & treating, which was fun (and free!!). Next year they will be 6, 5 and 2.

Actually there were HEAPS! We were really surprised actually as we kept saying that it will get quieter as it gets later as everybody with the really young kids won't be staying until midnight. Wrong! There were just as many toddlers running around at midnight at there was at 7pm!

LOVE the food porn......and the other pictures at the World aren't half bad either!

I'm so glad that your photobucket reset before I left.

Well the truth is it didn't reset, it wasn't due to reset until the 23rd and I figured that would be USA 23rd so the 24th. I was impatient so I paid for one months of unlimited access , so I should have finished my report by then and won't need the extra.

 

[aussietravellers]

.....and the other pictures at the World aren't half bad either!

Actually I'm a bit disappointed with my photos. After I dropped my camera on day 21 (I think it was) at Ridemakerz and I fatally wounded it, the steady part is what I seemed to break, so I had absolutely no control in the steady function of the camera. Sometimes a photo would be focused but at other times the camera would be shaking so much that the photos kept coming out blurry. It was very very annoying So I have a large majority of photos for the last 10 day that are blurry.

 

[shushh]

Pirate's League looks awesome! As does MNSSHP. I hope the MVMVP will just as good. The Disney dollar is so cute, what a nice thing to received from the tooth fairy!

 

[amyren]

Actually there were HEAPS! We were really surprised actually as we kept saying that it will get quieter as it gets later as everybody with the really young kids won't be staying until midnight. Wrong! There were just as many toddlers running around at midnight at there was at 7pm!

Um, ya... I'm not sure if it was a sugar high or Disney magic but DD(2) lasted until midnight when we were at MNSSHP last month! We had a blast!

Love the pics Aussietravellers! Pirate's league looks so cool, I'm glad they finally came up with something for boys to help balance out all of the princess stuff.

 

[kyl]

You never disappoint aussietravellers, I think you should get a job as one of the disney "moms" on the disney site. You would do a great job!

 

[ehsmum]

Love the Disney dollars from the Tooth Fairy!!

 

[aussietravellers]

Pirate's League looks awesome! As does MNSSHP. I hope the MVMVP will just as good. The Disney dollar is so cute, what a nice thing to received from the tooth fairy!

The christmas party should be just fantastic. I loved going for Halloween but I still feel that Christmas time is my favourite time to go. I just love all of the Christmas decorations and the christmas music around. It certainly feels so festive going during that season.

Um, ya... I'm not sure if it was a sugar high or Disney magic but DD(2) lasted until midnight when we were at MNSSHP last month! We had a blast!

Love the pics Aussietravellers! Pirate's league looks so cool, I'm glad they finally came up with something for boys to help balance out all of the princess stuff.

Thanks Amy, yes it is good they created Pirates league, now they just need to do a decent character meal for the boys, like a toy story or star wars, pirates/peter pan, something that the girls would still love but more boyish

You never disappoint aussietravellers, I think you should get a job as one of the disney "moms" on the disney site. You would do a great job!

Thanks Kyl That is such a sweet thing to say!

Love the Disney dollars from the Tooth Fairy!!

It was a cute thing from the Tooth Fairy. DS has lost two more teeth in the two weeks since that tooth fairy came! So she has been two more times, only we had left WDW, so no letter and not Disney $'s

 

[kylieh]

D'uh moment....

 

[areweindisneyyet]

Aussie Travellers, again thanks for sharing your holiday memories with us in real time.

The photos have made me feel like I have been with you. My girls have loved looking over my shoulder as I have been reading, Blizzard Beach was definitely a hit.

I am planning on staying two weeks at WDW when we go but you are certainly making three weeks sound even better.

Like you, I love planning the little details for my family to make sure that the magic goes just that little bit further.

 

[aussietravellers]

D'uh moment....

Oh and here I thought you were enjoying reading my report but I am just an error post meant for another thread (just kidding)

Aussie Travellers, again thanks for sharing your holiday memories with us in real time.

The photos have made me feel like I have been with you. My girls have loved looking over my shoulder as I have been reading, Blizzard Beach was definitely a hit.

I am planning on staying two weeks at WDW when we go but you are certainly making three weeks sound even better.

Like you, I love planning the little details for my family to make sure that the magic goes just that little bit further.

You're more than welcome. I'm so glad that you are enjoying reading about our adventures.

We are home now though. I tried to keep up with on the spot posting but got a little behind (well a lot behind )

Three weeks was just fantastic, we got everything done that we wanted to, but two weeks is still great too. We ended up doing quite a few shopping days and going for three weeks meant we could just take it easy, we weren't worried about missing something one day because we would be going back another. Two weeks is plenty of time to get lots done

 

[kylieh]

Oh and here I thought you were enjoying reading my report but I am just an error post meant for another thread (just kidding)

Yes, we're enjoying your thread. HEAPS!!!!!

I did have a moment where I meant to post to another thread, and then I realised, and my post would of been completely completely wrong for this one

Thank you for all of your hard work writing your updates.!

 

[aussietravellers]

Today was a bit of a quiet day. After the day and night before, by the time MNSSHP finished and we were back at the resort it was about 1am. Then had to get the tooth fairy surprise organised at reception which did take a while at that time of night, then the tooth fairy had to say awake So it was after 2am before I went to sleep the night before, so this morning was a sleep in day right....... well yes and no.

We had a 10am breakfast ADR at Crystal Palace! So that meant having to get up and showered and over to Magic Kingdom by 10am, so it was not exactly a sleep in. I arrived at MK before our friends and I had had an SMS from them that they were just getting off the monorail, so I knew they were almost there. So I went to check in...... No, No ADR for 10am in my name or my friends name. So I had to go up to the other check in counter near the front door. Went there and no, no ADR at 10am for us. He then saw that our ADR was for 1pm OK. I had originally made the ADR for 10am, then after speaking to my friend (another major planner like myself), that that was not a great idea with us being out late at MNSSHP the night before, that we would probably want an easy morning, so lets make the ADR for lunch! So I cancelled the 10am ADR and rebooked for 1pm!!!!! But I had recorded the 10am ADR and reservation number! What an idiot So we had all raced for our 10am ADR and didn't have one!

Anyway the restaurant just cancelled my 1pm ADR, gave me a pager and by the time my friends arrived, it was all sorted and we were waiting for our pager to go off. Which it did in a few minutes.

Crystal Palace has a really good breakfast (not as good as Boma, but still good).

Didn't take many photos but this is the only place we found chocolate mickey waffles. YUM!

We did have a little issue with a very very rude CM and I ended up speaking to a superviser/manager to complain. We had been at the restaurant for an hour and were really ready to go. We had had Eeyore visit our table and that was it, and he had been more than once, actually twice and the other characters were in the room when we arrived but didn't come to our table and then they came back to the room did a sweep but missed us and left! So as they left I went up to two of the character minders and just mentioned that we'd been there for an hour, the characters had done two loops in that room and all but eeyore had missed our table (at this time eeyore was at our table again! Third time). So I said that it was the table there where eeyore was now and that was the third time he had been there. The rude CM said "three times, he's been there three times" I said, "yes, he is there now and that makes his third visit". She said "right, sure, three times, we don't count walking past as visiting a table, he hasn't stopped at the table three times" I said "actually, he has stopped at our table, THREE TIMES, not passed by, like he is now, I would say that is stopped at our table, he has done that THREE TIMES". The other minder who was nice, said "yes what he is doing now is stopping at the table". The rude one rolled her eyes and said that characters don't stop three times and that walking by doesn't count (again, he stopped three times) and that the other characters had left the room for a break, "they do need breaks" and they would come back and to just go and sit and wait! She was just so incredibly rude! And I was pleasant the whole time. The nice one actually came over to our table not long after to see if the characters had been and she went and got the handler manager for me to make a complaint so I think she was a little surprised at how rude the other woman was.


After breakfast we went and did a few rides, pirates of the caribbean, splash mountain, the train and then we left the park to head back to the hotel. As we were absolutely drenched from splash mountain, we got changed and then went for a walk around world showcase and got some lunch (snack due to our late breakfast) from Germany. I got the sausage in a pretzel which was delicious!

On our way back we saw this guy, at France.

I also had one of the shadow images done of DS. It was amazing how they do it. The just sit there cutting the image out of paper and I can't believe how accurate it is.

We then went back to the hotel. Here are some photos of YC from the outside.

After our rest we headed back to Epcot for our ADR at Rose and Crown.
We checked in about 5 minutes early and they were out of pagers so they would just look out for us when our time came That did not sound good. Anyway we had to go and pick up our picture of DS, I had only taken gift card and room charge when out earlier and they didn't take either of those, so I had to take the cash back, which we did whilst waiting for our table.

We went back to Rose and Crown and asked if our table was ready as we didn't have a pager and they said no, so we just went down the path and waited at a waterfront table. Staff would come down there looking for people and i would think "it's our turn" only to find it was another family. I could see into the restaurant and as usual it was only half full. This waiting for tables with half full restaurants was very frustrating for me. I just can not understand it, employ more staff and get people seated and fed!

Anyway i went back to the podium and said that we were sitting down there. They said we were 4th in the queue now so it shouldn't be long 4th!!!! We'd already been waiting almost 3/4's of an hour! Anyway after an hour of waiting, we finally got our table, which I had seen empty the whole time we waited

Dinner was great. The food was fabulous. I had the scotch egg to start and the cottage pie for main. I didn't take any photos of those for some reason

The only downside of this meal was when we arrived there was a fan blowing on our table. It was so strong that anything on the table that wasn't heavy blew straight off. Also as the sun went down it became quite cold so with the fan it was freezing. So we asked if the fan could be turned off or to move tables. So they turned the fan off and all of the lights So our entrees (appertizers) arrived and we cold not see. It's funny eating something that you can't see. Like we could make out the food, but we are sitting in the dark so we couldn't make out colours for example. So I asked the waitress if it was possible to have the lights turned back on She said oh yes, they must have turned them off when they turned the fan off. So in she goes to fix it, next thing we are almost blown out of our seats as the fan is put back on I heard the people at the table near us whinging to as they grabbed their napkins and straws as they took off across their table So out came the waitress and she blew past us and dropped off our mains, but they still hadn't cleared our starter dishes (which the probably couldn't see with it being so dark! and she said, oh it's still dark and the fan's back on. Next thing there was a manager outside on her walkie talkie. No still no lights, get the fan off! Then the fan is off and she was saying, "no, still no lights". Next thing the lights came on and all the tables around us (including us) cheered as it was just so dark out there

Anyway the meal was yummy.
Chocolate cake Dessert at Rose and Crown

After dinner we just walked back to the hotel for an early night. We only had about 20 minutes until illuminations so could have stayed in our seats at Rose and Crown as we had a great spot outside to watch from our table, but we were so tired after the night before and we were planning on watching it with our friends in a few nights after our Teppan Edo dinner, so we watched them from our balcony at Yacht Club instead.

Here is the popcorn bucket from the night before at the halloween party. So Cute!

 

[Jade+3]

We had a similar experience at Crystal Palace. Tiger kept missing our table, and the reception I got when I asked for him to visit was very icy. Our table was at the back of the restaurant, near a door that the staff were using to go on their breaks. The view out the door was very un-Disney. The ground was littered with cigarette butts and their was a pile of broken chairs and high chairs.