The year of living Disney - Autumn and deluxe dining TR**NEW TR LINK UP 1/16**

[chunkymonkey]

It was great meeting you and your family Kelly! Are you hubby and daughter returning in Feb too?
I still have to download my pictures but I will send them to you when I do!

 

[cinderkelly]

It was great meeting you and your family Kelly! Are you hubby and daughter returning in Feb too?
I still have to download my pictures but I will send them to you when I do!

It was great to meet you and Steve also Su-Lynn! We had so much fun hanging out with you. It will just be myself and my oldest Daughter on our Feb. trip.

I'm going to try and do a short TR after I get this one wrapped up, hopefully soon before my brain forgets details of the last trip

 

[cinderkelly]

Day 6
A different view of the MK and awesome food​

If you've ever looked into doing a tour at Disney World you know how hard it is to choose, there are so many of them that look amazing. I had a really hard time choosing between the Keys to the Kingdom tour and the Marceline to Magic Mingdom tour, but we ultimately decided on the MtMK tour and I'm so glad we did!

We met up with our group at the Main St. theater at 8:00am and they gave us all these cool ear devices so we could hear our guide without her having to yell. Our tour guide, Rae was really awesome and you could tell right off the bat that she loved her job and had a real love for Disney and it's history.

We walked down Main St. and she pointed out a lot of things on the buildings, and talked a lot about how Walt and Roy got started and then we worked our way over to the Haunted Mansion and she pointed out a lot of stuff we never would have noticed in the que, we got to go straight in and we rode the ride and she continued to point out lots of cool things that are hidden around.

After the HM we got to go backstage and into a room that was underneath the ballroom scene and we got to see how it all worked, it was so cool. I'm not giving away any secrets or or going into much detail about the tour because I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but I will tell you this tour was awesome and very well worth the 3 hours and the $50 or so per person we paid.

Sorry I have no photos of the tour, as we weren't allowed to take any...

After the HM we got to ride Winnie the Pooh, and CoP, which was really awesome, we got our own theater and Rae pointed out so many hidden things that the imagineers put in. One thing I learned on the tour that I can share that the view of the castle we all photograph and love is actually the back side of the castle! The balcony that faces Fantasyland is the front side, because they wanted Cinderella and Prince Charming to be able to stand out on the balcony and look out over Fantasyland and all their royal subjects.

Back side of the castle!

After our awesome tour we left the MK for a while to rest. We had intentions of going to the pool but someone ( cough, cough, me) accidentally took a really long nap and when I woke up it was time to get ready for our dinner reservation at Flying Fish.

This ended up being our favorite dinner of the entire trip, everything was beautifully prepared and presented, and the service was outstanding.

Beautiful food photos coming up!


My app - yellowfin tuna, citrus Espelette ( sauce), Black Sea salt, avocado, watermelon under the tuna...spectacular!


Bob's app - corn encrusted wild gulf shrimp, spiced hearts of palm, orange supremes, piquant aioli

And the main courses...


Mine - plancha seared Hokkaido scallops, antebellum grits, sweet corn, peppadew emulsion. The scallops were sweet and juicy, heaven on a plate!


Bob's - Chilean sea bass, key west shrimp, bomba arroz ( rice??) Peruvian sweet peppers, chorizo. I didn't try this but Bob said it was fabulous

And we're not done yet!


Mine - Florida Reef, lemon tart, toasted meringue, Florida citrus salad, ruby red grapefruit sorbet. This was so light and delicate, under the orange gel dome was the lemon tart, and the grapefruit sorbet was loaded with flavor but so light, almost like flavored ice. We thought it looked like a dinosaur


Bob's - chocolate-banana Napoleon. Banana raspberry mousse, slow cooked vanilla rum caramel sauce. This was also light and delicate but very flavorful.

I didn't get a photo of it but I also had an amazing pink grapefruit and lychee martini, I could have had 4 or 6 they were so good!

We loved his dinner so much we returned to FF last week and I had a repeat of the exact same dinner and it was just as spectacular. Nice to know that a great place remains consistent. I hate it when you love a place and then you go back and it isn't as good. Flying Fish did not disappoint. Yes, it's pricey, but if you do the Dining Plan or DxDP it's an excellent choice for a Signature restaurant.

Our favorite thing this day - everything! This day was flawless, a great tour, a 4 hour nap and super yummy food!

Miles walked this day - 6.6

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

.

 

[ariane37]

Seriously a perfect day! I like your review of the MtMK tour and understand holding back info and the lack of pictures, as we did KTTK a couple years ago. I've considered doing MtMK but wondered how similar the two are. Other than probably pointing out some of the same things on Main St. and riding HM they seem different, and we didn't go underneath HM to see how the ballroom scene works, which sounds so cool! I'm trying to decide if we're going to do a tour on our next adults only trip and now this is definitely in the running if we do

I don't eat seafood but all those FF pictures are divine, and I do eat dessert so Bob's Napoleon looks like

 

[DVCGloria]

Wow, that food looks amazing! Gotta love the Flying Fish!
Also, the behind the scenes tours of Walt Disney World sounds amazing! I have never been on one but some of my co-workers have and they sound fascinating.

 

[cinderkelly]

Wow, what a spectacular day! That tour does sound great, I might even consider getting up that early to participate myself, especially since HM is one of my favorite rides. I'm loving living vicariously through your trip!

It was a practically perfect day! I would totally do the tour again, especially if you love HM, it was so neat to see some things I never would have noticed on my own.

we didn't go underneath HM to see how the ballroom scene works, which sounds so cool!

It really is cool to see how they do some of those things. Plus I loved all the back stories she told us about while they were building some of the attractions.

I'm trying to decide if we're going to do a tour on our next adults only trip and now this is definitely in the running if we do

You should! I would highly recommend it. It was a great way to spend the morning.

I don't eat seafood but all those FF pictures are divine, and I do eat dessert so Bob's Napoleon looks like

They also had an amazing wagu fillet that Bob got when we were just there if seafood isn't your thing.

Gotta love the Flying Fish!

Hi! Thanks for joining in! Flying Fish is great, we've been very pleased with it both times we have been there.

I have never been on one but some of my co-workers have and they sound fascinating.

If you are into Disney history and how things work the tour is great. I learned so much about why attractions were built the way they were and learned lots and lots of hidden gems throughout the park I never would have noticed before. It definitely gives you a different perspective on how detailed everything is.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Your review of Flying Fish really makes us look forward to eating there next May! I can't believe for Disney we plan out our meals so far in advance but I literally don't know what I'm eating this coming week.

That tour you took also sounds really cool. It may be something to do in the next year of Disney!

 

[Steppesister]

but we ultimately decided on the MtMK tour and I'm so glad we did!

I'm so glad you did! I was toying with the idea of this one being next on my list. Happy to hear you enjoyed it!

We walked down Main St. and she pointed out a lot of things on the buildings, and talked a lot about how Walt and Roy got started and then we worked our way over to the Haunted Mansion and she pointed out a lot of stuff we never would have noticed in the que, we got to go straight in and we rode the ride and she continued to point out lots of cool things that are hidden around.

COOOOOL! My favorite ride too! I'm sure we only see about 1/100 of what there is to enjoy on any given ride, and some things never.

but I will tell you this tour was awesome and very well worth the 3 hours and the $50 or so per person we paid.

Yeah, I need to do this one next.

This ended up being our favorite dinner of the entire trip, everything was beautifully prepared and presented, and the service was outstanding.

One of ours too! It was amazing except the wait even with a ressie.

OH yes!!! WOW! I had that too. Amazing!

Flying Fish did not disappoint. Yes, it's pricey,

No, nor for us either. Just spectacular!

 

[kastoney]

Wow, that tour sounds amazing. Especially the Haunted Mansion part, would love to be able to see behind the scenes. Will definitely have to do that once Casey gets a bit older.

Glad to hear Flying Fish was awesome for you all too. I almost ordered your scallop dish and now I'm totally regretting not doing so. Looks perfect. Speaking of perfect, I"m going to have to add that martini to my list too. And your desserts look too good to eat. They are gorgeous!!!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Oh I wish I did! We were flying Icelandair, I think they are in terminal 2. All I remember is that it was on the upstairs level in the " holding" area before we got our gate assignment ( inside the main security) I even looked on Heathrow's website and nothing they had listed looked familiar. All I can remember is they were farm fresh organic eggs and the yolks were so orange!

Sorry, I know that's not much help. But if you're ever at St. Pancras station the Booking Office also does a nice Benedict !

Hi Kelli! I have been reading and loving your TR! I'm almost caught up, but I wanted to chime in about the eggs. When we had chickens, the egg yokes were orange if we fed them food scraps instead of just sack feed. Your delicious eggs came from happy chickens

Congratulations on your grand baby to be! There is nothing like being a grandma

Your DXDP gave you quite the adventure in food. Thanks for sharing your honest thoughts. I have often thought about getting that plan when DH and I go without the family, but we found that even the DDP causes us to spend more time eating and getting ready for the next meal than we like. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't enjoy trying to make it worth the $$. I'm looking forward to more.

 

[cinderkelly]

Wishing all my friends a Very Merry Christmas
And or
Happy Hanukkah

I think we're ready!

Can you find the hidden Mickey?

I'm going to try my best to wrap this trip report up really soon, I promise!

In the meantime, enjoy your family time and have a jolly Holiday!
​

 

[cinderkelly]

Wow, that tour sounds amazing. Especially the Haunted Mansion part, would love to be able to see behind the scenes. Will definitely have to do that once Casey gets a bit older.

It was really awesome. I do know they have some tours that are for families, but I don't think they include any of the cool behind the scenes stuff.

And your desserts look too good to eat. They are gorgeous!!!

I was afraid to eat it, it was so pretty! I'm just glad they were as tasty as they looked, sometimes food is prettier than it tastes, but not so in this case.

Hi Kelli!

Hi! Thanks for reading along. That's so cool about the chickens, thanks for telling me that. I was just so blown away by the orange yolks.

Your DXDP gave you quite the adventure in food.

It was quite the adventure. We were glad we did it but after the trip was over we wondered if we would ever do it again. At that time it was probably not, but I have a bit of a different story about that coming up in my next TR

I'm looking forward to mo

I'm hoping to get this TR wrapped up soon so I can start on the next one before we leave on our next adventure in late FEB. thanks again for reading!

 

[pkondz]

Wishing all my friends a Very Merry Christmas
And or
Happy Hanukkah

I think we're ready!
View attachment 211623
Can you find the hidden Mickey?

I'm going to try my best to wrap this trip report up really soon, I promise!

In the meantime, enjoy your family time and have a jolly Holiday!
​

And Merry Christmas to you too!

 

[ariane37]

MERRY CHRISTMAS KELLY

 

[Steppesister]

Merry Christmas just a scooch late! Hope this finds you happy and well, Kelly!

 

[cinderkelly]

Day 7

We finally make it to AK, and we have how many credits to use??
​

Bob, to my surprise, was getting into this ADR thing and had been searching on his phone for a breakfast place since we still had an abundance of credits to use. While he was busy checking ADR availability, I was Checking up on Hurricane Matthew. Buzz was starting to pick up around the resort about it and you could tell something was in the air because that day was extremely humid.

I put Matthew out of my thoughts for a while because we were able to snag a last minute ADR at Boma for breakfast. I was really excited about it because I had always heard such rave reviews about it from @Elevationist. We took the monorail to MK and then stood in line for the AK bus with one other couple who were also on their way to Boma. After standing in line for about 15 min the bus "director" at MK asked where we were going, and said a bus should be along shortly. in about 5 minutes the bus showed up and the bus director told our driver where we were going and to take us directly there. Our driver was an elderly guy and must have forgotten because he promptly took us to Kidani Village first, well more like Kidani Village adjacent, as we had to wait about 10 minutes for traffic to clear so that he could even park. Our ADR was in about 5 minutes so us and the other couple got off there and high tailed it over to AKL and made it just in time for our ADR. Whew!


Love the Boma ceiling!



Breakfast was good, Bob wasn't too impressed but I liked it. I really love the AKL atmosphere though. We Made 1 1/2 passes thru the buffet and that was good enough. It was time to visit Animal Kingdom! As you can imagine it was HOT HOT HOT. You all know how AK is one of the hottest parks, just because of the vegetation factor, but since it was extra humid that day it was extra sweaty that day . We had fun on Kali River Rapids and the Safari but on our way over to EE Bob was starting to fade fast. He had gotten overheated and was not feeling well at all. Luckily we had stopped and picked up a hand towel at the entrance of the POLY that they leave out for guests when it rains in anticipation that we might need it after Kali to dry off. I had to high tail it into the gift shop and pick up a couple of bottles of water to drench the towel with to put around his neck to cool him down fast. I did not need a man with heat stroke on my hands! We were able to find a shady area to sit and rest for a while while he cooled down and I was able to ride EE on my own a couple of times while he chilled out.


Bob's feelin' better!

We finally got him feeling better and made our way over to our lunch ADR at Yak & Yeti. This had been my favorite lunch on my previous trip with my son so I was really interested to see how Bob liked it. I was pretty disappointed right off the bat because they took the dish off the menu that I had previously that was so good, the Mahi-Mahi with mango chutney. It looked like they had really paired down the menu from when were there just 3 months before. Bummer. We got the dragon roll to start with which was really good. Unfortunately the rest of our lunch was just ok. I honestly don't even remember what else we ordered except for dessert. We shared a piece of the mango pie, which was good, but the rest of lunch was lackluster except for the entertainment....

While we were having lunch it started pouring, like torrential downpour type of rain. I was actually kind of fun seeing all the people scurrying around trying to escape the rain. We were seated upstairs near a window so we had an awesome view of the rain and all the droves of people heading towards the exit of the park.. We timed it perfectly because it had nearly stopped raining by the time we left Y&Y.

My only food pic of Y&Y , mango pie

We decided after lunch that we had had our fill of AK for the day, we were tired and hot and decided to go back to the Contemporary on our way back to the Poly to pick up some final gifts for the kids back home. Do you guys have a favorite resort gift shop? I think BVG is ours. We always seem to find everything we want there.

After our shopping extravaganza we monorailed it back to the Poly. We had a message on our room phone about Matthew being on his way in and really got us thinking about what we should do. We had planned just a relaxing pool and shopping day for our last day, which was the next day.

And so the last minute scramble to leave the next morning began. We decided to go ahead and leave a day early because we had full schedules at work the next few days and had been gone long enough that we couldn't take the chance of getting stranded a couple more days.

So we checked in with the Poly front desk and they were cool with us checking out a day early, I was busy on Southwest's website getting new flights booked, luckily they were allowing anyone with reservations those next couple of days to re-book without having to pay a price difference, so I was able to get us on a flight the very next morning at 8:00am. It was a bit of a frenzy those last few hours, change flights, call Magical Express so that we could get on that morning ( at 5:00 am ), call Disney dining and cancel our dinner reservation at Chef's de France and whatever we had booked for our last day( they were nice enough to waive the last minute cancellation fee), pack and grab a quick service dinner.

We decided to go back over to the Contemporary to grab dinner and happen to stop back into BVG and were talking to the CM there who was appalled that we were leaving so many dining credits unused. We remarked that that it was our decision to leave early ( he at that time said "Why are you leaving, this hurricane is going to be no big deal!" But the lady CM standing next to him checked our account and said " you have 8 dining credits left, we can convert those into snack credits so you can grab some snacks to take home". Well, 8 meal credits converts into 24 snack credits! so we grabbed our dinner to go at Contempo Cafe and talked about it and decided to go for it. We cleaned BVG out of snacks and came home with 10 Mickey rice crispy treats, 6 bags of goofy's candy, 5 packages for Oreos and Chips Ahoy cookies and 3 bags of Cheese It's. We still have some stashed away in the kitchen somewhere to this day.


This is what the Polynesian lobby looks like at 4:50 am

I was bummed to leave a day early, I never did get my pool time in, but Bob was Disney'd out and was ready to go home. All in all I'm glad we decided to go ahead and go a day early, things got messy at DW and at the airport with the arrival of Matthew and I was glad we were able to avoid it. We finally made it to bed by 11:00 and were up at 4:00 the next morning to catch the magical depress and head home. Our flight home was thankfully uneventful. It ended up being nice to have a buffer day to be at home before going back to work to do laundry and decompress from the trip.

My favorite part about this day : I'm still undecided on this one. It was kind of a rollercoaster this day!

Miles walked this day : 7.2


Up next, some final thoughts and observations and trip wrap up.

Would we ever go to Disney for this long again? Would we ever do the DxDP again? What did we think of the Poly? How many total miles did we walk????

 

[ariane37]

I got excited when you said you snagged a Boma breakfast ADR and then got sad when you said Bob wasn't impressed lol. Steve and I did it for the first time back in January and I absolutely loved it, especially the french toast bread pudding, but he just thought, "eh" So now while I would make a special trip to AKL just for that meal, him not so much.......
I'd say it stinks you left early due to Matthew but it sounds like it really worked out for the best! I did read some reports of airport confusion and even negative reports of the meal situation at some resorts so I think you lucked out. And we like having a "buffer" day before everyone has to return to work/school too

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

.

 

[kastoney]

Glad you all got to try Boma (aren't last minute reservations just the best). We're staying at AKL next trip so I'm sure we'll be there at some time. But sorry Yak n Yeti was a bust. It's usually so good. At least you got to sit out the rain though ; )

Poor Bob with the heat at AK. It can definitely get hotter there than the other parks. We were there before Hurricane Hermine came through and had a very similar heat experience. Good news for us though is it brought some breezes with it too.

Glad you all were able to get out before it got crazy. I know Orlando largely escaped, but being stuck in the resort with no real amenities does not sound like vacation to me. I'm sure a day at your house was much more enjoyable, even if it wasn't disney