LowesChevy
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- Joined
- Oct 18, 2007
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Pretrip Report
Dining Reviews
Thursday October 7th
We took the opportunity to sleep in a bit this morning, so we could stay up for the party tonight. We stopped and had breakfast at the Grand Floridian Café. It was great except for the fact that my dad ordered a ham and cheese omelet and received scrambled eggs basically because there was no ham or cheese in the omelet. I had to do a little switch a-roo on the lunch adrs for Friday and Sunday. I was able to cancel and rebook a reservation at Mama Melrose for Saturday rather than Friday. Earlier in the week I had to switch my Plaza adr from Tuesday to Saturday. We originally planned to visit the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday during our transition from the Polynesian to BLT, but we decided to go to the Animal Kingdom that day instead if you recall. I found the Grand Floridian concierge staff to be very helpful and courteous.
We headed over to the Magic Kingdom. I stopped by the Arribas Brothers shop to get a personalized mug. I picked out a design with Mickey, which was about $20 with my name engraved on the back. After a couple of hours, we walked back to BLT to nap for a while.
By 4:00 PM, we walked back over to the Magic Kingdom to get our bracelets. We had 45 minutes till our reservation at Tony’s Town Square for dinner, so we hopped on the Walt Disney World Railroad and took the circle tour. I went and check us in at Tony’s and a few minutes later we were seated outside, in the sun, in Florida! You can catch my review of Tony’s this week in my dining review. Let’s just say we probably won’t go back for now.
Dinner only took 45 minutes since it came out lighting fast, so we were on our way to enjoy the park. By a few minutes after 7 PM, there were only a few people without bands roaming in the park. We decided not to trick or treat this year because for one I do not need to candy and two-like I am going to save room in my suitcase for candy-ha! We walked on pretty much every ride, it was great, except for Dumbo-we waited 20 minutes. The parades were crowded as usual, but we were able to skip onto the Haunted Mansion avoiding the beginning and end on the first parade. The trick or treat lines were long, but they moved quickly.
I am a little on the fence on whether or not I am going to buy tickets for the MNSSHP next year. Even with our DVC discount the tickets are $46. I really love the atmosphere and fact that you can walk on the rides, but we go at a really good week for crowds anyhow. We are not huge on catching the parade and we usually catch the fireworks from the porch at the Polynesian a few nights also. Kind of something for me to think about next year I suppose.
We walked back to BLT around 10:30 PM.
Friday October 8th
We had breakfast at the Wave this morning. The atmosphere is a little odd in here, but breakfast was quick and tasty. The plan was to drive to Epcot and then head over to Downtown Disney for some lunch and shopping in the afternoon.
We drove over to Epcot, knowing that it would start getting busy this afternoon, but none the less-we just love the place. We managed to score fast passes for Test Track and Soarin’ in the meantime riding The Universe of Energy and Mission Space. After browsing through the shops and visiting Club Cool, we pack it in and headed for the car.
At DTD, we went to Wolfgang Puck Café for a lovely lunch. We prefer to eat lunch here, the service is better during the day for some reason in our experience. After that we wandered down the West Side stopping at Magnetron, D-Street Store and browsed the window at the Candy Cauldron, so mom could pick herself out a caramel apple. The crowds were not too bad for the middle of the day, but it definitely was not dead by all means.
We bought a few things from the World of Disney, Once Upon a Toy and the Christmas store, which turned into a fiasco. We were trying to ship a few things home and the cashier was trying to tell us the freight was going to cost $50 for ground shipping and I said “No Way-that is wrong, try again!” Then it was going to cost $24, but that was still a little high even with a charge for wrapping. It was normally around $15 for the last 3 years. I would expect a little increase because our costs for shipping have increased at work, but that was ridiculous. Finally she went to retrieve a manager and after about 15 minutes we were done with the transaction. I really do not think the cashier had any clue on what she was doing. A similar trend we found was that my dad was buying two cups of coffee from a few places each morning and the cost was always different. The same two cups of coffee would add up to different amounts depending on where you were. It was more expensive to buy at Contemporary Grounds, but at the Contempo Café and Captain Cook’s the cost should be the same every day. A weird inconsistency we found.
We hauled back over to the car and headed back to the villa to rest and get ready for dinner at Jiko.
We arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge around 6:15 PM and did a bit of exploring. My dad went to take some pictures outside the back of the lobby and I looked around the floor at Boma. We were seated right on time at Jiko seated near the flatbread oven and appetizer station. This was fun to watch all night. The service was great and my dad and I’s food was wonderful, but my mother’s filet was less than spectacular. Check out my full review on our experience here. After the meal, we stopped at Gooding’s for a few sundries, then back home.
Dining Reviews
Thursday October 7th
We took the opportunity to sleep in a bit this morning, so we could stay up for the party tonight. We stopped and had breakfast at the Grand Floridian Café. It was great except for the fact that my dad ordered a ham and cheese omelet and received scrambled eggs basically because there was no ham or cheese in the omelet. I had to do a little switch a-roo on the lunch adrs for Friday and Sunday. I was able to cancel and rebook a reservation at Mama Melrose for Saturday rather than Friday. Earlier in the week I had to switch my Plaza adr from Tuesday to Saturday. We originally planned to visit the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday during our transition from the Polynesian to BLT, but we decided to go to the Animal Kingdom that day instead if you recall. I found the Grand Floridian concierge staff to be very helpful and courteous.
We headed over to the Magic Kingdom. I stopped by the Arribas Brothers shop to get a personalized mug. I picked out a design with Mickey, which was about $20 with my name engraved on the back. After a couple of hours, we walked back to BLT to nap for a while.
By 4:00 PM, we walked back over to the Magic Kingdom to get our bracelets. We had 45 minutes till our reservation at Tony’s Town Square for dinner, so we hopped on the Walt Disney World Railroad and took the circle tour. I went and check us in at Tony’s and a few minutes later we were seated outside, in the sun, in Florida! You can catch my review of Tony’s this week in my dining review. Let’s just say we probably won’t go back for now.
Dinner only took 45 minutes since it came out lighting fast, so we were on our way to enjoy the park. By a few minutes after 7 PM, there were only a few people without bands roaming in the park. We decided not to trick or treat this year because for one I do not need to candy and two-like I am going to save room in my suitcase for candy-ha! We walked on pretty much every ride, it was great, except for Dumbo-we waited 20 minutes. The parades were crowded as usual, but we were able to skip onto the Haunted Mansion avoiding the beginning and end on the first parade. The trick or treat lines were long, but they moved quickly.
I am a little on the fence on whether or not I am going to buy tickets for the MNSSHP next year. Even with our DVC discount the tickets are $46. I really love the atmosphere and fact that you can walk on the rides, but we go at a really good week for crowds anyhow. We are not huge on catching the parade and we usually catch the fireworks from the porch at the Polynesian a few nights also. Kind of something for me to think about next year I suppose.
We walked back to BLT around 10:30 PM.
Friday October 8th
We had breakfast at the Wave this morning. The atmosphere is a little odd in here, but breakfast was quick and tasty. The plan was to drive to Epcot and then head over to Downtown Disney for some lunch and shopping in the afternoon.
We drove over to Epcot, knowing that it would start getting busy this afternoon, but none the less-we just love the place. We managed to score fast passes for Test Track and Soarin’ in the meantime riding The Universe of Energy and Mission Space. After browsing through the shops and visiting Club Cool, we pack it in and headed for the car.
At DTD, we went to Wolfgang Puck Café for a lovely lunch. We prefer to eat lunch here, the service is better during the day for some reason in our experience. After that we wandered down the West Side stopping at Magnetron, D-Street Store and browsed the window at the Candy Cauldron, so mom could pick herself out a caramel apple. The crowds were not too bad for the middle of the day, but it definitely was not dead by all means.
We bought a few things from the World of Disney, Once Upon a Toy and the Christmas store, which turned into a fiasco. We were trying to ship a few things home and the cashier was trying to tell us the freight was going to cost $50 for ground shipping and I said “No Way-that is wrong, try again!” Then it was going to cost $24, but that was still a little high even with a charge for wrapping. It was normally around $15 for the last 3 years. I would expect a little increase because our costs for shipping have increased at work, but that was ridiculous. Finally she went to retrieve a manager and after about 15 minutes we were done with the transaction. I really do not think the cashier had any clue on what she was doing. A similar trend we found was that my dad was buying two cups of coffee from a few places each morning and the cost was always different. The same two cups of coffee would add up to different amounts depending on where you were. It was more expensive to buy at Contemporary Grounds, but at the Contempo Café and Captain Cook’s the cost should be the same every day. A weird inconsistency we found.
We hauled back over to the car and headed back to the villa to rest and get ready for dinner at Jiko.
We arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge around 6:15 PM and did a bit of exploring. My dad went to take some pictures outside the back of the lobby and I looked around the floor at Boma. We were seated right on time at Jiko seated near the flatbread oven and appetizer station. This was fun to watch all night. The service was great and my dad and I’s food was wonderful, but my mother’s filet was less than spectacular. Check out my full review on our experience here. After the meal, we stopped at Gooding’s for a few sundries, then back home.
