The Lesser Known Eighth Dwarf, Dumpy, Comes to Disney Aug '11 **NEW 2/20 TR link!!!

[jenbear123]

that car news really stinks.

you wonder what some people think when they do stuff like that.

What I wonder is why go to the trouble in jamming screws that don't fit back onto my valves when they could've done that to their own car

ill just keep checking this thread every 5 minutes to copy your answers at the last possible minute, if i have to stay up all night i will.

Wow, that is really pathetic that someone felt the need to take the tire valve covers. What the heck?!

Yay for having another trip in the works...hope it all works out!

Some people are really weird. I hope the next trip works out too. I'll cry if it doesn't

Hi there! I am excited to jump in and I will be attempting your quiz game!!

I love your indecisive answers Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoy reading along.

 

[jenb1023]

So glad I didn't miss round 1! The week got away from me and has been crazy busy! I don't really have time to research but if I get one or two that is better than zero!

Sorry to hear about work, the car and your tooth! I hope it works out for you to take the trip!

1. Did we claim our bags at the airport before getting on DME? yes

2. What stop on DME was our resort? second

3. a) Were our room requests honoured? yes
b) If yes, what were they? Hint: You might want to look at a CSR resort map
Cabanas Building 8A

4. Did we have a pool view or parking lot view? pool

5. Where did we eat lunch at CSR? Pepper Market

6. What was the first thing we bought at DTD? pins

7. We ended up having time to kill before our ADR at Raglan Road. Where did we go to spend this spare time? took a boat ride
Hint: It is outside DTD

8. What dessert did we order at Raglan Road? Dunbrody Kiss

 

[PirateKate]

I'm here, hoping to get my answers in before it's too late.


Did we claim our bags at the airport before getting on DME?
Yes
2. What stop on DME was our resort?
Second.
3. a) Were our room requests honoured?Yes
b) If yes, what were they? Hint: You might want to look at a CSR resort map
Close to El Centro and a pool.
4. Did we have a pool view or parking lot view?
Pool View.
5. Where did we eat lunch at CSR?
Pepper Market
6. What was the first thing we bought at DTD?
Pin.
7. We ended up having time to kill before our ADR at Raglan Road. Where did we go to spend this spare time?
Hint: It is outside DTD
Port Orleans.

8. What dessert did we order at Raglan Road?
Bread pudding.

 

[jenbear123]

This is your last chance to get those quiz answers in for Round 1. I'll be back with the first day of our trip this afternoon!

 

[glennbo123]

I'm changing one game response:

Room request was for Casitas section.

 

[jenbear123]

Before I get to the actual road trip part, let me give you a bit of back story of the turmoil I went through before I could even start my trip. For those who read my PTR will know exactly what I'm talking about (you can skip this part if that's the case)

My dog, Pixel, became very sick the day before we were leaving to drive to Buffalo to stay the night. I was supposed to work on our departure day from 9am-2pm. Well, that didn't happen. I ended up having to call in sick and rush Pixel to the vet. She had been throwing up and not eating or drinking. I was panicked. She was so sick to the point that she couldn't even walk up stairs anymore. The vet told me she was severely dehydrated, blood work needed to be done and she'd have to stay the night. Of course I wouldn't even be in the country the next morning so I explained my situation to the vet. To speed up the process, I ended up taking her blood sample to the lab. By this point it was around 9-9:30 and I had told Stitch to be ready by 3pm to start driving to Buffalo. After I dropped the blood sample off, Stitch called. We talked about how things were going and even the horrid possibility of cancelling our trip. I knew it wouldn't come to that because I knew there would be family members willing to take care of her. We basically had to wait until the blood work came back to make sure nothing was wrong with her internal organs. Once we knew that, then the vet would know a bit more what was wrong. Fast forward to 12-12:30. The vet calls back to tell me her blood came back normal. Phew. He also said she was doing a bit better and looked okay. Double Phew. Then the bad news. Of course he had to tell me the "maybe's" of what could be wrong. I was told she could possibly have a blockage causing her to keep throwing up. The vet would try to feed her in the morning and if she threw up again, it meant there was a blockage and possible surgery would be involved. Oh good God. Surgery?!? I prayed to the heavens that that wasn't the case and she would wake up tomorrow all bright and happy, eating everything in sight like she normally does. I wouldn't know if she was okay until I landed in Orlando. It was going to be a stressful next 24 hours. My mom and stepdad kindly offered to take care of her while I was away. In fact, just about everyone in my family was willing to help. I had to wait until 3pm to meet with my mom and stepdad to give them all the doggie stuff since they had some appointments beforehand. Before I left my mom's house, I begged she text me as soon as she got news on how Pixel was the next morning.


I got to Stitch's house around 3:45pm and we were on the road no later than 4pm. After everything that had happened, we still left at the time I wanted to! What a way to start a trip....


The drive to Buffalo was smooth and uneventful. The sun was shining and the Disney tunes were blaring. We skipped shopping at the Outlet mall since it was nearly 6pm by the time we crossed the border and we were STARVING. We headed straight for:

It was PACKED. We had to wait close to half an hour to get a table. I was pretty suprised it was that busy considering it was a weeknight at the Olive Garden. Not like it was Le Cellier or anything. I was excited to finally be eating here. I know what you're thinking: "It's just the Olive Garden. What's the big deal?" Well.... you'd probably be right I'll admit it reminded me a lot of East Side Marios. Not sure if they are in the states. Here's a little food porn to get us started:

This is what I ordered. It was a shrimp ravioli or something like that. It was okay and there were tons of shrimps that came with it. I wasn't a big fan of the sauce. Too creamy/cheesy in my opinion. I was more in the mood for tomato sauce that night.

Here's what Stitch got:

Her dish looked much yummier.

The meal also came with salad which was just that. Salad.

We were too stuffed for dessert so we paid the bill and went on our way to find our hotel for the night. Overall, Olive Garden was less than I expected. I would eat there again but probably don't need to do it everytime.


We found our hotel pretty easily. We decided to spoil ourselves and stay at Holiday Inn Express Buffalo Airport. You probably think to spoil ones self at a Holiday Inn isn't really that great but if you compare it to the Motel 6 Bubba and I stayed in last time, well.... this Holiday Inn was like the Taj Mahal!

No tucking our pant legs into our socks this time. The hotel was literally right across the street from the airport. If planes had been taking off all through the night, they would've been flying right over us. Thankfully the Buffalo airport seemed to shut down after 11pm so it was peaceful dreams for us.

Next morning we woke up around 4am, drove the car across the street and checked in for our flight. We flew JetBlue this time (no Airsucky Tran!).

We sat by the window to make sure our bags got on the plane. Stitch just had to be sure :rofl2:

Our plane left on time and we settled in for an uneventful flight. We pointed and laughed at the people waiting to board our plane since they were going home and hopped on the fake monorail to the main building.

We got sidetracked by the Harry Potter store and just had to take a look.

There was so many things in that store I wanted to buy: Chocolate frogs, Bertie Botts every flavour beans, Hogwarts Robes, Golden Snitches, keychains, and so much more! Stitch and I had to promise ourselves we would only buy something if we had money left over at the end of our trip.

We forced ourselves out of the store to head down to baggage claim. Stitch is a little uncomfortable with letting our bags magically appear in our room so we decided to pick them up ourselves. Actually, I liked claiming the bags right then and there so at least we knew they made it with us to Orlando. Our bags were one of the first ones to come along so we were in line for DME before we knew it!

We were the only ones in line for CSR. This was the beginning of a trend that would follow us for most of the trip....

Yes that would be a slightly devilish look on my face. Little did Stitch know what she was in for.....*evil laughter*

Our DME driver wasn't as energetic as some other drivers I had but he got us to where we were going.

I was overjoyed when our driver told us CSR would be the first stop on our route. That rarely happens! The other stops were for the All Star resorts. Our bus was pretty packed but there were only a couple people other than us that got off the bus when we finally arrived.

We got off the bus with huge excitement knowing our trip was just beginning. As we walked into the lobby, we saw a rather nasty sight. A tour group was sitting around the fountain, as if waiting to check out or check in (I hoped it was checking out) But it wasn't even polite sitting. Some of them were sprawled out on the floor, lying on top of one another. Can't say it was the most welcoming sight. Thankfully they were checking out and we never saw them again!

We entered the grand lobby and got in line to check in.

It was great to finally see it for myself. It wasn't busy at all and we waited maybe 5 minutes for someone to help us. I had requested a room in the Casitas section in a quiet area. Pretty simple if you ask me. The girl helping us pulled up our reservation and quickly said we were in building 7B. At first I thought, okay this is in the Cabanas but my DIS mind started turning. Wait a minute. Building 7B is in Ranchos and is one of the furthest buildings Oh no, no, no. This wasn't going to do. I kindly asked if there was any way we could be in Casitas or Cabanas. The girl noticed that I was a travel agent (and thought Stitch was one too ) so she picked up the phone to work her magic. There must have been some pixie dust in the air because we got a room in Casitas Building 4! The girl didn't mention what view we would have but we went on our merry way. The fact that we got in Casitas made us very happy.

Our room was on the 3rd floor

With this nice view

Okay it was a parking lot, but at least it was quiet and not facing the pool. Last time I stayed at CSR, our room was right by the quiet pool and was ungodly loud late at night. I was happy with our room location and the fact that I'd have a full queen size bed all to myself for a week.

Once we found our room, we went to Bell Services to pick up our grocery order. Garden Grocer had called me when we were on DME to let us know it had been delivered. We were going to carry it back to our room until we remembered we had got a 32 case of bottled water. The man at Bell services offered to give us and our groceries a ride back to our room in one of those little golf carts. It was pretty fun riding around in it. At one point we had to go off road on the grass because there was some construction going on. The only thing was that Stitch bumped her head pretty good when she got off

By this point Stitch and I were starving so once we had put all our groceries away, we went down to Pepper Market to grab some lunch.

We saw a pretty fountain on the way

I forgot how big the portions are in Disney so I got a turkey & cheese croissant for myself

Stitch got the Chicken Quesadillas which I somehow didn't get a picture of. I was only able to eat about half of my sandwich. It was very delicious though. I also forgot they charge an automatic 10% gratuity if you sit in the restaurant. Oh well. The server worked hard to get our drinks

continued in next post

 

[jenbear123]

After lunch, we headed to DTD.

The first thing we needed to buy were our park tickets. I had got a discount with my travel agent discount but I still needed to pick them up at Guest Services. Stitch had to check to see how many days she had left from some tickets she hadn't used up before.

After we got our tickets, it was time start shopping

I saw this gorgeous painting in the art of Disney store

I saw a couple more of these style paintings where they depict Disney characters as if they were in real life. They were just stunning!

We bumped into this character while looking around

He was very proud to be sporting all those fancy lights

We looked around in the Christmas store for a bit but when we went to leave, the rain rain rain came down down down

It only lasted maybe 10-15 minutes.

I was glad to finally get to see the new lego statues!

By this point it was only just after 5pm so we still had lots of time before our Raglan Road dinner at 7pm. What better way to pass the time then take a boat and visit another resort, POFQ!

I didn't take many photos here probably because I was getting hungry again. Stitch hadn't been to this resort before so she had a nice time seeing it for the first time. We were going to go look at POR but time was getting tight so we hopped on the next boat that came along to go back to RR.

The boat dropped us off all the way back at the Marketplace so we had to hoof it all the way to the West Side. Oh, did I mention it was HOT?

It was pretty busy in RR by the time we checked in around 7pm. We had to wait maybe 10 minutes before our beeper went off. We were seated right near the stage where the dancers and music was going to be. I had no idea what was in store for me. Stitch had been there before so she was excited to see how I'd like it.

We started off with a pint each. How can you not get beer when you're at an Irish Pub?!?! Well.... unless you don't like beer

They had loads to choose from

I decided on an Irish Harp Lager

While Stitch decided on a Magner's Cider which I ended up liking more than mine!

We hadn't even got our bread yet before the band started to play.

It wasn't so much a band as a guitar and flute/violin player but that's all they needed to make the fantastic music.

As soon as they started, I was in love. I absolutely adore celtic Irish music. This was definitely the right place for me! The dancers were incredible too. Their legs must be made of steel doing all those leg moves.

The bread they served was delicious.

I ordered the risotto

Stitch ordered the ribs with onion rings which I sadly didn't get a picture of!

I made sure to leave room for dessert after Stitch had raved and raved about this raspberry type dessert called Dundon's Delight: a raspberry pavlova with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce.

This was fantastic. It was very light and refreshing after a hefty meal. Definitely worth the hype!

The whole dining experience at RR was incredible. An amazing feeling came over me while I was eating there that night. I was in good company with a wonderful new friend, listening to beautiful music, eating good food, and my dog was going to be okay! I think it was a combination of all the stress I had to deal with before my trip that I found comfort in finally being able to let go and have my vacation begin. I was definitely high on life and nothing was going to take that away from me at that moment.

We spent a good two hours eating, drinking, and enjoying the entertainment. I didn't want to leave but the long travel day was finally catching up to us. We went straight back to CSR after dinner to have a good rest for our plans the next morning....

 

[marvali]

Ah darn it! Looks like I didn't get those changes in on time! I figured my answer about parking lot or pool view was probably needing a change!

The boat dropped us off all the way back at the Marketplace so we had to hoof it all the way to the West Side. Oh, did I mention it was HOT?

It was HOT while you were there???

The bread they served was delicious.

I don't think I've ever had bad bread at Disney.....

I ordered the risotto

This looks yummy!

Stitch ordered the ribs with onion rings which I sadly didn't get a picture of!

And this sounds yummy!

I made sure to leave room for dessert after Stitch had raved and raved about this raspberry type dessert called Dundon's Delight: a raspberry pavlova with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce.

I KNEW I should have gone with this in my contest answers!!!

The whole dining experience at RR was incredible. An amazing feeling came over me while I was eating there that night. I was in good company with a wonderful new friend, listening to beautiful music, eating good food, and my dog was going to be okay! I think it was a combination of all the stress I had to deal with before my trip that I found comfort in finally being able to let go and have my vacation begin. I was definitely high on life and nothing was going to take that away from me at that moment.

There would be plenty of time for the taking away when you had to meet Marv later in the trip I guess........

Great Start! Can't wait to hear all about your trip......at least the parts I wasn't part of!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

You shouldn't laugh at Stitch, I also watch as they load the bags onto the plane to make sure that ours made it.

Too bad you weren't a bigger fan of Olive Garden.

 

[jenbear123]

Ah darn it! Looks like I didn't get those changes in on time! I figured my answer about parking lot or pool view was probably needing a change!

You gotta be on your game Marv! There's still lots of chances for you to gain

Great Start! Can't wait to hear all about your trip......at least the parts I wasn't part of!

I'm excited to hear about yours too.... if you ever start it Love ya Marv! Love, love love!

You shouldn't laugh at Stitch, I also watch as they load the bags onto the plane to make sure that ours made it.

Too bad you weren't a bigger fan of Olive Garden.

I guess it's good in a way to see that your bags make it on the plane. It was too funny though how Stitch was GLUED to the window

Olive Garden was okay. I mean maybe it was what I ordered? Maybe the location? I'll try it again sometime

 

[jenbear123]

Here's the standings after the first round.

Minnie_Mom: 7
Glenn: 6
onelilspark: 5
Marv: 5
heathers4um: 5
Megan: 4
Tammie: 4
PirateKate: 4
PlutoRHM55: 3
Lady Lallie: 3
teekathepony: 3
aggordom2: 3
Lessa: 3
Merida: 3
jenb1023: 3
Rosie: 2
FaunterloyFAN07: 1


None of you got the name of the dessert at RR right but I did give a point if you said Raspberry [something]

 

[marvali]

You gotta be on your game Marv! There's still lots of chances for you to gain

Well I didn't do too badly, only being two behind the leader. At least I did better than Rosie and Dan!!! I went back and read through your PTR but apparently it wasn't the be all, end all.

I'm excited to hear about yours too.... if you ever start it Love ya Marv! Love, love love!

Oh yeah, I see how it is.........

Olive Garden was okay. I mean maybe it was what I ordered? Maybe the location? I'll try it again sometime

Olive Garden is good, especially if you order the right thing(s) but like I said about your next trip down, we think Carrabba's OR Romano's Macaroni Grill is much better!

 

[glennbo123]

Hey, I did pretty good!

Wait a minute, you got the wrong dessert! Every review I've read said that you're supposed to get the bread pudding at Raglan Road.

Reading about you check-in, it reminded me that I should have told you to look for the cast member (Stephanie) who works at the front desk at CSR and has a Mickey-shaped engagement ring.

I'm glad your dinner put you in a vacation mood after all the stress you went through leading up to it.

 

[englishrose47]

Well I di pretty poorly in that round !!!I should have guessed the dessert as I too raved about it last October when Carol and I had it and she wanted to lick her plate it was sooooo good I sure hope they have it agin in October !!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Sorry you didn't think Olive Garden was that great. I love it there but then again I love any Italian food. haha

WOOT, you made it to Florida! I know what you mean about getting sidetracked at the Universal store. Lots of fun stuff there.

Wow, the lobby of CSR is really pretty! I've only ever seen that resort from the outside and it's usually only from the ME bus.

haha, that guy in the wheelchair with all the lights is funny. Might as well put lights on your wheelchair if you're in WDW!

 

[Queenofallthings]

Great update!! CSR looks so beautiful! I'm so happy you enjoyed RR, we're having our first meal of our trip there this coming Sunday....it's one of our favorites!

 

[Nermel9]

Great update!

CSR looks so beautiful, I really love the rooms there! I keep thinking the next time I stay in a mod, it's going to be CBR, but I think CSR looks nicer!

Raglan Road looks like so much fun! I wish I had time to fit it into my trip!

 

[teekathepony]

YAY! Great arrival day post!
I love Raglan Road, mostly because I love the celtic music too! :rofl:
I think every single answer of mine was wrong... hahaha. Oh well.
Looks like a beautiful start to the trip!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I didn't do so well that round but it looks like you had a good day! I can't wait for more!

 

[Disneyfreak616]

I am SO in!!! I'm a little late, sorry!

On our past trip I got to DHS at 8, even though it opened at 9, and literally sat on the turnstyle for an hour. I appreciate your touring style.

Raglan Road looks great! I really want to go there someday.