The Magic and the Misery ~ Updated 6/13: June Trip Report Started!

[disneyaddicted]

That was a smart solution to the camera.

I have always wanted to stay at Wilderness lodge, the closest I ever got to it was dinner at Whipsering Canyon Cafe, I always have to choose betwen staying a longer time at a Value resort or a short time at a Deluxe. I always choose more bang for my buck, but one of these days.........
anyway so I love reading TR's that have other resorts in them, I can kind of live vicariously through that.

I love Pecos Bill, it's always on my list. I've never had the chilli cheese fries they've never appealed to me, but I also never thought of adding onto them at the fixins bar, smart, smart, smart.

 

[Dugette]

That was a smart solution to the camera.

I have always wanted to stay at Wilderness lodge, the closest I ever got to it was dinner at Whipsering Canyon Cafe, I always have to choose betwen staying a longer time at a Value resort or a short time at a Deluxe. I always choose more bang for my buck, but one of these days.........
anyway so I love reading TR's that have other resorts in them, I can kind of live vicariously through that.

I love Pecos Bill, it's always on my list. I've never had the chilli cheese fries they've never appealed to me, but I also never thought of adding onto them at the fixins bar, smart, smart, smart.

Thanks! You know, the other thing with the camera decision was that we figured IF the broken one ended up getting replaced for free (we don't know yet), we'd each have a camera, so that would be nice

I totally understand the Value vs. Deluxe choice you mention! We are not "deluxe" people usually. When we travel, we stay in Super 8's. Our last Disney trip we stayed at Pop Century and loved it (first time I'd stayed on property too). The places we stayed this time really came about through a combination of PIN code discounts (40% on deluxe) and lack of availability (since we booked only a month out). Of course, for trips later this year, we've booked moderate and deluxe again, due to 30-45% off bounce-back offers.

We love Pecos Bill too! I even used to love it as a kid. We had never tried the chili cheese fries, but we were thinking fries after our adventure. They were pretty good. Not a real big serving when splitting them, though.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

THanks for clearing up the Figaro Fries thing. I have heard about them on this site too, but we ate there a couple of times on our trip last June and I did not see them on the menu. I was disappointed too, but I figured it was one of those "special" things that you had to ask for and we forgot. I'm glad you mentioned they were gone, because I've been feeling like we missed out on something.

What a bummer about the camera. I'm glad you came out w/ a great solution to buy another one. I never would have thought to go on Amazon and have them overnight it. It sounds like you didn't let it ruin your day though. And I'm glad you got to see the fireworks from the Poly beach. That is still one of my favorite experiences from our last trip.

LOL about your cereal. We have that same cereal in our pantry and I LOVE it.

 

[Dugette]

THanks for clearing up the Figaro Fries thing. I have heard about them on this site too, but we ate there a couple of times on our trip last June and I did not see them on the menu. I was disappointed too, but I figured it was one of those "special" things that you had to ask for and we forgot. I'm glad you mentioned they were gone, because I've been feeling like we missed out on something.

What a bummer about the camera. I'm glad you came out w/ a great solution to buy another one. I never would have thought to go on Amazon and have them overnight it. It sounds like you didn't let it ruin your day though. And I'm glad you got to see the fireworks from the Poly beach. That is still one of my favorite experiences from our last trip.

LOL about your cereal. We have that same cereal in our pantry and I LOVE it.

I thought the same thing about the Figaro Fries when I didn't see them on the menu. Figured we'd just ask for them and they'd make them up. Didn't expect to hear they'd been extinct for awhile!

Yes, the fireworks on the beach were cool. I think this experience will always be a little bit marred by the camera incident, though. Dug commented that they were the most expensive fireworks ever! But it was really relaxing to be out there on the quiet beach watching them.

You have good taste in cereal! I actually ran out of it yesterday, so I'll need to go to the store soon to replenish my supply!

 

[Dugette]

One thing I forgot to mention about our MK afternoon: our MN Vikings were playing the Cowboys in the playoffs. We had considered watching it, but only if it was convenient. As we got to the MK so late, though, we decided not to watch. We just checked the score occasionally with the iPhone. Vikings won! The other cool thing about this was that we saw LOTS of other Minnesotans in the MK that day. It was easy to identify them with purple Vikings gear on! Shocking, I know, that there would be lots of Minnesotans in Florida in January! One funny moment was in line for POTC. A guy wearing a Favre jersey and his young son were walking backwards through the line to leave. As he walked by, he commented, “I’m like Favre, I just couldn’t make up my mind whether or not to do it!”

But back to the Wilderness Lodge! We got off the bus, walked up to the entrance, and took in the sights. Very nice. Went up to the desk for our online check-in. I think there was just a very brief wait. While we were checking in, Dug was asking about the route to walk over to Fort Wilderness for dinner (at “Happy Trails”…yes, he said it again and we had a good laugh). The front desk cast member seemed shocked that anyone could possibly want to walk to Fort Wilderness. But she gave us a map anyway.

Our room was ready, so we went over to the Bell Services stand and had them bring out our luggage. It had successfully transferred over from the Poly! We took it and headed to our conveniently located room. I should mention, we had a “woods-view bunk-bed” room. Not that we had a preference for that (although I know many people with kids do), but it was all that was available when we booked this trip. Our room was on the same level as the lobby. Over near the gift shop, across the main hall, there is a small hallway with guest rooms. We were a little ways down that hall, in room 2112. The room was nice. I apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures (especially the blurry ones from the video camera), but we took a lot, so here they are.

Our Mickey:

Main Bed:

Upper Bunk:

Lower Bunk:

Boy, were we happy to see these! As much as we liked the Poly, one of the few flaws was only 1 sink. At home, we have double sinks, but we seldom are using them at the same time, so it’s not that big of a deal. On vacation, we almost always were getting ready at the same time, so the double sinks were really helpful!

The headboard of the bed was so impressive:

And the bedposts (I think the other one was a rabbit? I didn’t get a picture):

Neat light fixture:

The fridge for my future milk. I like the handles on the drawers:

View from the patio—right, straight ahead, and left:

After checking out our room, we explored the lodge and the grounds a bit.

Lobby:

Think this one was taken later that night:

Front desk:

Store:

Continued in next post...

 

[Dugette]

The grounds:

Pool (we also checked out the one at WL Villas, but didn’t take pictures—it was really nice!):

Beach:

One thing that I enjoyed was looking at all the (imagineered) animal footprints on the sidewalks around the resort. Thanks to some of the books we read before the trip, I was more aware of some of these little touches. (By the way, the ground at Animal Kingdom is worth paying attention to also, for the same reasons).

Our exploration led us to the beginning of the walking trail. There was a bike rental shop near there. Dug had left the map we just got in the room, so asked for another one there. They also thought we were crazy to walk to Fort Wilderness. The person there gave Dug advice on which way to go, but he didn’t think it made the most sense, so he used the map to take us a different way.

Turns out that walking to Fort Wilderness was not bad at all. Maybe half an hour to 45 minutes, at a fairly leisurely pace. I mean, we’re at Disney—we’re used to walking! The view was great:

We saw wildlife:

And, this was a surprise to us, there were Hidden Mickeys along the trail:

Then, we arrived at Fort Wilderness:

Finally, the thing we had worked up an appetite for today:

Our ADR was for 5pm, but I think we were maybe 20 minutes late, due to our walk. It was no problem, though, and we were seated (right by the buffet) within a few minutes.

I guess we forgot to take any pictures of the inside or the food. Oops. But, it was a buffet of comfort foods, pretty much. We chose to eat here since we’d heard that it was a good value. Since we were still not on the DDP, seemed like a smart choice. We both had several plates from the buffet. Dug got Pomegranate Lemonade to drink. I was already getting sick of Sprite (Disney does not have a lot of variety for non-caffeine drinkers), so I was happy to find milk as a beverage choice. Harkening back to my childhood, where I always drank insane amounts of milk with meals, I had three pretty big glasses.

My personal opinion was that this place was okay, but I probably wouldn’t go back again (unless I were staying at FW). The food wasn’t amazing, but wasn’t bad (except for one nasty rib I got). It wasn’t nearly as big of a buffet as Boma, Tusker House, Biergarten, etc. But I still stuffed myself silly. So much so, in fact, that I felt horribly sick to my stomach as we were leaving. I think 3 glasses of milk, along with a brownie sundae when I was already full, was overkill!

We remembered not to leave a second tip this time (unlike at Kona!), as we used our Tables in Wonderland discount again. It was kind of strange knowing that our server at a buffet (and not a particularly good server) would be getting an automatic 18% tip. I hobbled out, stomach aching, and we made our way to the boat back to WL. Ironically, we stopped at Roaring Fork when we got back and grabbed a carton of milk for my cereal in the morning. Once we got back to our room, it was naptime!!!

It was a great nap and I felt much better afterwards!

Before heading out to the Magic Kingdom for its late-night hours, we had one issue to take care of. If you read our PTR, you know that we were conflicted over our Teppan Edo reservation for the next day’s lunch. It was at 12:20pm and we wanted to use DDP dining credits on it. Which meant we would have to be checked in at Port Orleans before going there. Which just didn’t seem to be an efficient use of our time, especially now that we hadn’t had a chance to try out the hot tubs at WL yet! So, we took the advice of our loyal PTR reader Gellybean and moved our Teppan Edo ADR to 2pm.

That taken care of, it was time for the magic to engulf us!

Up next: When people ask us what our favorite part of the trip was, we tell them about this night at the Magic Kingdom!

 

[gellybean]

Glad you guys were able to move the ADR!!!! I personally, think that was a smart choice. And not just because I was the one that suggested it! Hope to hear that it worked out for the best for y'all!

Your pics of WL are making me check availablity for a 3 day weekend in April!

Just twist my arm why doncha?!

IDK though. I'm holding out for a better deal than 30% off room only!


Sorry all that milk made your tummy ache! Glad you guys rested up and relaxed before touring commando style! I'm so anxious to hear what the crowd levels were like the week AFTER MLK day!

Great update, guys!

 

[Dugette]

Glad you guys were able to move the ADR!!!! I personally, think that was a smart choice. And not just because I was the one that suggested it! Hope to hear that it worked out for the best for y'all!

Your pics of WL are making me check availablity for a 3 day weekend in April!

Just twist my arm why doncha?!

IDK though. I'm holding out for a better deal than 30% off room only!


Sorry all that milk made your tummy ache! Glad you guys rested up and relaxed before touring commando style! I'm so anxious to hear what the crowd levels were like the week AFTER MLK day!

Great update, guys!

The WL is pretty nice. We were lucky that we got 40% off both there and the Poly. The PIN code I had wasn't supposed to be effective those days, but it worked anyway!

I'm anxious to hear how your experience MLK weekend was! And that's going to be way at the end of your TR! Oh, well, I'll have to wait...

Another update going up tonight on this, I think!

 

[Dugette]

We headed out to the Wilderness Lodge dock to take the boat to the Magic Kingdom. We were first in line. As we waited, we caught the end of the Electric Water Pageant:

The boat came in and people got off. One person walked up to us on their way out and asked if we wanted Fast Passes for Space Mountain! Of course, we said yes. She gave us 3. So, here we were, headed to the Magic Kingdom with 7 Fast Passes on us: 2 for Peter Pan that we got earlier, 2 for Space Mountain that we got earlier, and now 3 more for Space Mountain!

As a side note, at this point in the trip, we’d really ridden hardly anything. Here’s the whole list of the attractions we’d done in the last 2 days:
Spaceship Earth
Living With the Land
Innoventions West (5 exhibits)
Club Cool
TTA (3 times)
Buzz Lightyear
Space Mountain
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Train

That’s pretty crazy for two people who spent their last trip doing nearly all the rides in a park each day! But, Fast Passes in hand, and a 1am closing time (or so we thought!), we’d be making up ground this night. We didn’t plan to stay till close, but just figured we’d stay until we were tired. We had taken that nap, so we were feeling pretty good. It must have been close to 10pm by then.

Once we arrived at MK, we thought we’d take the train over to Frontierland. Went up on the platform and realized the train was closed. We tried out the little crank-machine movies on the platform, since we were there. Those were kind-of cool. One of those things we’d never noticed before.

We checked out a couple of stores on our way down Main Street. Went to the cinema store and apparel store. Dug wanted to check out the books in the cinema store, but couldn't find the one he wanted (turns out it's not published yet...the Imagineering Guide to DHS). Didn't get anything either place.

Then, we headed over to check if there were Fast Passes remaining for Big Thunder. No Fast Passes left!

So, we headed over to Peter Pan to redeem the Fast Passes that I’d gotten for us earlier that day. While we were in the brief Fast Pass line, we must have overheard someone say that the MK was open until 2am that night! Dug used his iPhone to check on this. They must have changed things up, because now the park was open until 2am and those last 3 hours were Extra Magic Hours! Hmmm, this could change our leaving-early plans…

Peter Pan was great as usual. It’s always been one of my favorite rides. When we got out, we headed across the street and rode It’s a Small World. I took a bunch of video. Here are a few still frames from it:

We caught the end of the clock being open:

We saw the sword in the stone, so Dug made his unsuccessful attempt at it:

Next, we headed over to Mickey’s Philharmagic, as a show would be starting soon. I had really enjoyed this show last trip and wanted to do it again. And, again, it was a lot of fun. We remembered reading that somewhere you can find the front half of Donald (where he went through the wall), but we couldn’t remember where, so we checked out the nearby gift shop. Couldn’t find anything. Maybe next time. We’ll have to look it up, I guess.

Up next was Snow White. I videotaped the whole ride (I was apparently in quite a video mood this night). Video in the dark rides with the camera on night mode doesn’t turn out too easy to look at….lots of blurriness! So, no shots of that ride to share. By the way, the iPhone doesn’t have a flash, so most of the “photos” on this post are actually stills from my video, which is why the quality is not great.

After that, we saw that there wasn’t really a wait for Cinderella’s Carousel. We had not ridden this on either trip, so figured…why not? I had read that Cinderella’s horse could be identified by the gold ribbon tied around its tail. I figured I’d try to get that horse, just because. Unfortunately, a teenage boy was on it already. We found horses a couple rows behind.

Well, it turns out this teenage boy was part of a small group of unsupervised young mischievous teenagers. As the carousel started, he and his friends began climbing around from one horse to another (and yelling to each other about it). This is what I’m talking about:

Dangerous? Yes. Terrible example for the little kids watching them? Yes. Too much of a distraction for us to enjoy the ride? Yes. Did they stop the ride or kick them off? No. The cast member running the ride clearly saw them, but did nothing. I thought for sure she’d stop the ride and ask them to leave. But, nothing.

We were kinda bummed about this ruining our ride experience. We were going to get off at the end of the ride, but Dug’s horse stopped in such a high position that we just decided it would be easier to stay on. And it would make up for the last ride. We stayed on for a second round. Much better ride this time! Of course, Dug’s horse stopped in the very top position again, but he managed to get down via my horse.

After we exited, we saw these guys signing autographs:

We didn’t stop, but little did we know we’d see them again later…

Went over to Winnie the Pooh. On our last trip, we rode this ride ½ of a time! We had funny luck on our September trip. We did all these rope drops, but kept having the first ride break down on us! Pooh broke down, Mission Space broke down, Toy Story Mania broke down…but we did get a lot of cool “super fast passes” (as I called them) out of the deal. So, our last ride on Pooh ended about halfway through with sitting in our Hunny Pots for awhile, then being escorted out and sneaking photos of behind-the-scenes things. This is why we were riding it now…to finish it! And it worked and was fun!

We had no intention of riding the Mad Tea Party (hadn’t on our last trip either), but there was no line and Dug was intrigued. So, we hopped on. I am not great with spinning, so I was a little nervous. I found that I was fine spinning one direction, but got a headache the other direction. Strange. Anyway, it was mildly fun, I guess.

Then, we decided to do another thing that we didn’t intend to do (and hadn’t done before)—the Tomorrowland Speedway. Well, this is where we encountered another bunch of unsupervised mischievous young teenage boys! Where are their parents?!? There were two of these boys in the cars ahead of me and Dug was behind me. The driving started off okay. I had the petal to the metal and was driving smoothly. Then, I started to catch up with these boys. They were purposely driving as badly as they could. Not only slamming into each-other, but slamming their own cars side to side on the rails endlessly. Clearly they thought this was hilarious. I had to keep slamming on my breaks (and so did Dug behind me) to avoid hitting them when they hit each-other. It was such a terrible experience. And, unlike on a real road, you can’t just pass them. And there’s no one to pull them over. Once we finally made it back, the attendant opened the hoods of both of their cars and took them out of service. Dug and I had to get out of our cars on the track and walk up to the unloading platform.

Due to this bad magic, we needed a dose of good Disney magic. So, we went over to Space Mountain, our 5 Fast Passes in hand. Rode the right side this time (since we’d done the left side before) and enjoyed it. Went in with our next set of FP and rode again. I love that ride. We really had no use for the lone FP we still had, so decided to re-gift. Found a teenage girl sitting by herself outside the ride and asked if she wanted it. She did!

It was around 1am by this time. The park was not at all crowded. Which was cool, considering how crowded it had been that afternoon. And that it was the Sunday of MLK weekend. So, we decided to do yet another thing in that weren’t-going-to-do-it category. In fact, I don’t think I’d EVER done this one: Dumbo!

Well, apparently most people weren’t even aware that Dumbo was still open. The attendant was running the ride empty, probably to get attention:

We got in the queue…it was empty:

So, how do you recruit people to ride Dumbo at 1am? Have this guy hop in line:

Yep, Goofy himself queued up with us :

A few other people had ventured into the line by now, too. Goofy was kind enough to greet everyone. Dug got a handshake and I got a kiss. And, once enough people had gathered, it was time to get on Dumbo. Goofy ended up riding with a little maybe 6-year-old girl:

I ended up a few Dumbos behind them, with Dug behind me. It was pretty cool riding Dumbo in an empty MK with Goofy!

After we exited the ride, I noticed Goofy strolling off hand-in-hand with the little girl, I think to the Carousel. What a magical night for that little girl!

A few minutes later, we spotted Goofy and Chip & Dale on the Carousel:

And now Pluto was riding Dumbo:

Since we love Peter Pan, we decided to get in another ride. According to my video narration while we were walking through the queue, it was 1:22am. If you’ve ever wondered what a true walk-on looks like (at a slightly crooked angle):

I took video of the whole ride again, but it’s too hard to see, like with Snow White. So, no stills of that. When we got to the end, seeing there was nobody in line, they asked if we wanted to go again. Normally, this would have been awesome, but we had other things to do..so we climbed out of our ship and moved on.

We headed over to the Haunted Mansion. Also a walk-on. Here’s the only semi-acceptable still I could pull out of the dark blur of my video on this (our ghost hitchhiker):

At this point, we figured it was likely we could get right on Big Thunder. So, we power-walked over and hopped on. What a great ride! This was my favorite as a kid! And it’s still pretty cool—especially at night!

It was only a few minutes until 2am now. We’d done my request (Big Thunder), so Dug wanted to get his request in too. He loves the Jungle Cruise, so we jogged over there, hoping to catch a boat. Well, we were just in time. And we were the only ones there. So, we got a Private 2am Jungle Cruise! How awesome! Our guide did a good job, which is impressive considering she had to do her spiel to a crowd of 2, both of which knew what was coming (for the most part). Here’s a glimpse of our private cruise:

Once we disembarked, the park was a ghost town. This is what it looked like near the castle:

Just nobody! We enjoyed strolling out of our own personal Magic Kingdom!

Super Magical Night! No lines, character rides, private cruises, empty streets….hard to beat that!

We took the boat back to the Wilderness Lodge. There was a dad and his young son behind us on the boat. They were having a cute conversation and the boy was asking a lot of questions. When we got back to the WL dock, we heard them behind us. The son asked, as we were getting off the boat in front of them, "Why do some people get to go first?" The dad replied, "Just because that's the way it is." The son then asked, "Why are some kids so tired?" Then he loudly answered his own question: "Because they haven't had caffeine...like me!!" Dug couldn't help but laugh. The dad said something like, "Great, now they're going to report me to child services!" We told him it was okay. Just funny!

We went back to our room and hopped into bed, tired and happy. And, for the record, the pedometer said we clocked 21k steps that day.

Up next: What celebrity likeness do Dug’s infected lips have? And who’s the freak bringing a ½ gallon of milk to the Magic Kingdom?

 

[cmp1111]

I'm glad that the good magic outweighed the bad! Sounds like a fantastic night!

 

[Dugette]

I'm glad that the good magic outweighed the bad! Sounds like a fantastic night!

Thanks! Yes, it was a great night, despite the teenage boys! Wish every night in the MK was like that!

 

[praisehisname]

Joining in, and really enjoying it!

 

[Dugette]

We woke up this morning, after sleeping in a bit, at the Wilderness Lodge. We’d be moving to our week-long home today. But the resort-hopping was fun while it lasted!

Dug woke up with very swollen and very sore lips, surrounded by redness. His description of his condition, which was pretty accurate, was that he looked like “the love child of Angelina Jolie and the Joker.” So, he headed over to the (very nearby!) Wilderness Mercantile to find some sort of remedy. The topical antibiotic he’d gotten by prescription clearly was not doing much for him. He came back with several new things to try: some kind of camphor product, regular Benadryl, topical Benadryl, and some sort of cortisone product. He used them all…crazy, but he was desperate for relief.

We had some breakfast. Dug had an oatmeal bar we’d brought from home. And I had another bowl of my beloved Reese’s Puffs (with the small carton of milk we’d bought the night before).

We were up a little earlier this morning than we were at the Poly, so we had time to take a dip in the whirlpool before checking out. I thought the design of the WL whirlpools was pretty cool. They looked just like the little bubbling hot springs they had around the place. We had one of them to ourselves for a bit, then a little girl joined us. I don’t get how a kid can go for a swim, putting their head underwater, in water that hot! But she did. Anyway, that dip in the whirlpool was a pleasant way to start the day.

After that relaxation, we headed back in and got ready for our day. Just like the morning before, we called Bell Services to come get our luggage and sat out on the patio while we waited. Once they collected our bags, we headed over to the store again. Dug had noticed that they carried half gallons of milk, instead of just the little cartons. Since we were staying in one location for the next week, it made more sense to get a big thing of milk. But, he figured we needed to get one now, since they probably only sold them here, due to the campground. Ironically, much later in our trip, I noticed that Port Orleans’ store had the same half gallons of milk!

So, we bought the milk at WL. The clerk asked if I wanted it in a bag. I think milk in a plastic bag is so much more awkward to carry than just holding the jug by the handle. So, I passed on the bag. This was my mistake. I didn’t think about the journey this milk needed to take with us. We couldn’t just hop in the car to get over to POR. We had to use Disney transportation!

So, we went to the boat launch and got on a boat to the Magic Kingdom. We’d take a bus from there to get to Port Orleans. Anytime Dug would get self-conscious about his Jolie-Joker lips, I would reassure him that, if anyone were looking at us, they were surely looking at ME, wondering why in the world I was bringing a half gallon of milk to the Magic Kingdom with me. I definitely felt the bigger freak! Luckily, this was Disney, so people had plenty of better things to look at, but I think I caught a couple of odd glances our way. They were probably seeing this: I mean, really, who lugs their own jug of milk to the MK?

Once we got off the boat at MK, we headed straight to the bus stops. Found POR bus. I believe it was just us and one other couple on it. It was awfully early to be heading home from the MK, after all. I really wanted to put the milk in the backpack, but there wasn’t room for a half gallon in there. So, I just held onto it, even though it was starting to get some condensation on it.

We arrived at POR and went to check in:

I panicked, suddenly realizing we might not have a room ready yet! Then what would I do with the milk?? It was still just very early afternoon, so the likelihood of our room being ready was probably not very good. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

Luckily, someone must have ordered us some extra Disney magic, as our room WAS ready! Yahoo!! We even got our room request for this building:

We were room 9911 on the third floor. Corner room, King bed. We made the hike over to our room to store the milk. We didn’t take any pictures of the room until the end of our trip, and not many at that, but I’ll share them now:

We were very happy to see the double sinks! Here are some semi-hidden Mickeys (bedspread and coat rack):

Here’s the one towel creature we received during our week-long stay:

In September, at Pop Century, we got a new one pretty much every day. Not here. Oh, well.

Once we’d checked the place out, it was time to head to the bus stop for Epcot. Here’s the view from just outside our room:

Here’s some pretty pics of our walk:

I really liked the river and pretty scenery at Port Orleans Riverside! This is where the title to this chapter comes from. I pulled those previous pictures off of my video and I noticed, on the video, I was talking to Dug and excitedly said something you can only say at Disney World: “We’re going from New Orleans to Japan…for lunch!”

Continued in next post.

 

[Dugette]

We made it to the bus stop by the main building, got on the Epcot bus, and disembarked in Epcot. First thing we did was check how far out the Test Track Fast Passes were for. I really wanted to go on Test Track, as I loved it last trip. They were for too late in the day, as we would be leaving Japan for Hollywood after lunch. Some other time, then.

We were both thirsty, so trekked over to Club Cool. Had some refreshing non-Beverly beverages , then headed out to walk around the world.

We actually took the long way around World Showcase to Japan, because my second-choice (since we couldn’t do Test Track) was to ride the Maelstrom. I think I get too excited about this ride because, as a kid, I’d really wanted to go on it (I’d seen pictures and video), but we never went to World Showcase! So, now I’m making up for lost time, I guess. We did ride it in September, so I had been on it before this trip.

So, on our walk, we passed Mexico:

Norway, where we grabbed the Maelstrom Fast Passes for after lunch:

China:

Germany, where we checked out the miniature train:

Italy:

America:

And, finally, we arrived in Japan:

We waited for a little while, upon arriving for our 2pm ADR. Surprisingly crowded at that time. We were seated with a couple other families. Took awhile for our chef to arrive. But she did. We got a female chef, which I thought was really cool! She was funny too. Every time Dug tried to sneak a picture with his iPhone, she would whip around and pose for the picture:

Here’s the Hidden Mickey/Minnie she made for us:

The onion volcano:

Cooking:

The white sauce in front she called the “yummy, yummy sauce”…and it was! Dug got the scallops:

I got the filet mignon (woohoo for the dining plan getting me the most expensive thing on the menu! ):

I got a Sprite to drink and Dug got lemonade. Everything was very tasty and we enjoyed. The chef was also very fun and silly. I really enjoyed Teppan Edo and would go back. My only other experience with a Japanese steakhouse was a couple years ago. We went to Ichiban in Minneapolis for my dad’s birthday. Although it was similar to Teppan Edo, it was a very different experience. The chef did all kinds of crazy tricks—food was flying everywhere! Our mouths were hanging open watching him catch everything. And the food was amazing, possibly one of the best meals I’ve ever had (I had steak there too). So, in comparison, Teppan Edo was maybe a 4 if Ichiban was a 5. But, if I didn’t have anything to compare it to, I’d say it was a 5. Very good meal, especially a good value on the DDP.

For dessert, Dug got the Green Tea Pudding and I got the Chocolate Ginger Cake:

I really liked the cake. I tried the pudding and didn’t particularly care for it.

After lunch, we strolled over to the Maelstrom to redeem our Fast Passes. It was fun and worth walking a little bit out of our way for.

Next, we walked over to the International Gateway to take the resort launch over to Hollywood Studios. The boat ride gave us a nice little tour of the Boardwalk, Beach/Yacht Club, Swan/Dolphin area. And then we arrived at Hollywood Studios:

Up next: What is there to do at DHS when you show up mid-afternoon? Does Saratoga Springs have its own ZIP code? And what counter service restaurant gave us distinctly non-Disney service? Stay tuned!

 

[Dugette]

Joining in, and really enjoying it!

Glad you stopped by to say hi! It's been so quiet the last few days that I was starting to think all my readers ran off to Disney World or something! (Ok, I think a couple actually did.) Enjoy the new updates! Thanks for reading!

 

[reyasmommy]

Joining in!! I'm only on the 1st page however.

I just wanted to let you know I'm enjoying your tr so far and the pictures.

I'm sorry your DH had to deal with Impetigo while there. My poor DD had gotten it a couple years back and it's wasn't fun to deal with at all.... Especially because she was too small and young to understand that she couldn't touch it and touch everything else in the house too..... Lysol was my best friend at that time.

Okay, gotta go catch up now.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Enjoying your TR!

I was at WDW the same time as you-1/20 to 1/27 at AKL for my youngest's 7th birthday.

Can't wait to read more!

Your night at MK sounds great!

 

[my2disneyboys]

Great update! I think I would wonder what you were doing with a half gallon of milk at MK too! Just an FYI - I always get groceries delivered from Garden Grocer (Milk, waters and some snacks) and Bell Services at each resorts has a fridge to store that stuff until rooms are ready!

Love the pics of Port Orleans! We loved our stay there. It is just a very pretty resort!!

 

[praisehisname]

We were room 9911 on the third floor. Corner room, King bed.

So glad your room was ready so you could put your milk away! POR is so pretty. I'm seriously considering switching to there for our November trip.

So, in comparison, Teppan Edo was maybe a 4 if Ichiban was a 5. But, if I didn’t have anything to compare it to, I’d say it was a 5. Very good meal, especially a good value on the DDP.

Good to know. We have a great Japanese steak house near where we live, so I've never been interested in Tepan Edo. But it really is a great value, and our steakhouse doesn't do Mickey onion volcanoes...

 

[Dugette]

Joining in!! I'm only on the 1st page however.

I just wanted to let you know I'm enjoying your tr so far and the pictures.

I'm sorry your DH had to deal with Impetigo while there. My poor DD had gotten it a couple years back and it's wasn't fun to deal with at all.... Especially because she was too small and young to understand that she couldn't touch it and touch everything else in the house too..... Lysol was my best friend at that time.

Okay, gotta go catch up now.

Welcome! Wow, someone who understands the "fun" we were having! That would be really tough to have a little one that doesn't understand how easily it can spread!

Enjoying your TR!

I was at WDW the same time as you-1/20 to 1/27 at AKL for my youngest's 7th birthday.

Can't wait to read more!

Your night at MK sounds great!

Hi! Cool that you were there at the same time--maybe we crossed paths! And, yes, that night at the MK was awesome! I had no idea there were late-night character rides...so cool!

Great update! I think I would wonder what you were doing with a half gallon of milk at MK too! Just an FYI - I always get groceries delivered from Garden Grocer (Milk, waters and some snacks) and Bell Services at each resorts has a fridge to store that stuff until rooms are ready!

Love the pics of Port Orleans! We loved our stay there. It is just a very pretty resort!!

That's good to know about the food storage! I wondered if there might be something like that they could do, but I was hoping not to have to find out the hard way that they didn't.

I agree, POR was just beautiful! I think we have some more pics coming up from walking around it later in the trip.

So glad your room was ready so you could put your milk away! POR is so pretty. I'm seriously considering switching to there for our November trip.

Good to know. We have a great Japanese steak house near where we live, so I've never been interested in Tepan Edo. But it really is a great value, and our steakhouse doesn't do Mickey onion volcanoes...

Yes, Teppan Edo was fun. I liked the Disney touches she did (there were several things where she made Disney characters and then destroyed them...kind of weird to be eating Mickey!).

Where are you staying on your November trip? We really liked POR and the building we were in worked out well, as it was not too far from the main building and we could actually walk over to French Quarter pretty quickly too. And I loved the river. So peaceful!

BTW, I took a quick look at the first several pages of your TR. You have good taste in dogs! You probably noticed, but our dog is a Cocker Spaniel too. And Lady and the Tramp is my favorite Disney movie!


I have another update almost ready. Will be putting it up shortly!