There's a Great Big MARATHON Tomorrow: Goofy Challenge/Marathon Weekend '15 FINALLY COMPLETE!

[ZellyB]

I've never eaten at Mama Melrose's, but your meals look tasty for sure. The atmosphere looks pretty cute too.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

I've never eaten at Mama Melrose (or any sit down TS restaurant for that matter), but the place looks really cute. I kinda like the idea of random decorations for some reason.

Glad you enjoyed it, and it sounds like a very solid pick for a Fantasmic Dinner package.

 

[ursalita]

I haven't read many reviews of Mama Melrose's so I was glad to see your review of it. We have the Fantasmic! package booked in April and I'm happy to see we made a good choice.

 

[emilyindisney]

Mama Melrose has never appealed to me because we usually go to Via Napoli as our Italian restaurant…but WOW your pasta looks good!

The pasta was super yum (and so was the bread!) However, the pizza at Via Napoli is literally amazing so if we're comparing the two Via Napoli gets my vote.

You would have appreciated that a stick Olaf made his way into the decor and was hanging out of the rafters right over our table!

I've never eaten at Mama Melrose's, but your meals look tasty for sure. The atmosphere looks pretty cute too.

The atmosphere was fun- there was a lot to look at while we waited for our meals. The walls were all written on with crayons too- like signed with people's names. It was fun!

I've never eaten at Mama Melrose (or any sit down TS restaurant for that matter), but the place looks really cute. I kinda like the idea of random decorations for some reason.

Glad you enjoyed it, and it sounds like a very solid pick for a Fantasmic Dinner package.

The random decorations were fun...and sort of weird. For example, there was a one little corner with Christmas decorations still hanging. On another rafter there was a big fishing style net (the type you use to scope the fish out of the water after you've hooked it) with a rubber pizza in it

I haven't read many reviews of Mama Melrose's so I was glad to see your review of it. We have the Fantasmic! package booked in April and I'm happy to see we made a good choice.

I think you'll enjoy it!

 

[emilyindisney]

Standing Room Only? Say it ain’t so! (Really, it’s not so.)

I forgot to mention that on our way out of the Studios earlier this afternoon was stopped for our last pictures with the hat!



I'll miss the hat a little bit, but I'm excited to see what the park looks like without it too!

We also snagged this magic shot:



So anyways, actual post-dinner weather update:


IMG_3215 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

Yes, still cold but at least we'd come back to the park a little better prepared.

After dinner with Mama we passed by the Muppets Theater which was decked out in it’s Christmas best.


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We reached our fourth FP of the day at the Great Movie Ride:


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We’ve been reading a book on Disney trivia which talks about the Lion Statues outside the theater so we decided to take a picture.

This is the male Foo:


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This is the girl Foo:


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You can tell the difference because the male has the globe under his paw and the female has a baby foo under her paw.

It was time to round out the night with the nighttime spectacular of the Studios- Fantasmic! They must really be pushing the FP seating because as soon as we got in line they started announcing it was standing room only. Seriously? How could that be? I couldn’t believe that huge arena was totally full of FP people. Turns out, it wasn’t. We were able to get a great seat on the far right set of bleachers far enough back that we didn’t have to worry about being misted in the cold.

As always it was a great show! My favorite part:


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Okay, okay, there’s no way I can pick a favorite part but the Steamboat is definitely awesome! We noticed they replaced Meg with Tiana. I LOVE Tiana but does this mean Meg has been totally and 100% retired from the parks?! Poor girl!

With little wait we hopped a bus back to ASMovies and rounded out our first Disney day!

This may be a good time for a little interlude to explain the All-Star bus system. Lots of places online will tell you the All-Stars share which is only partly true. The All-Star resorts share during the slow times of the day (like mid day when we took our break) but not in the morning or the night. At those times we got direct bus service while during the slow times we got on one bus that made stops at all three resorts (with Movies being the last stop.) This worked perfectly for us and I’d report no complaints! We never waited more than 5 or 6 minutes for a bus all week, and most days it was less than that. I think there was only 2-3 bus rides that we had to stand, which was a pleasant surprise-especially after the marathon! This has been some of the best bus service I’ve ever had at a Disney resort.
​

 

[emilyindisney]

Our Private Dining Experience (The Wave breakfast review)

Friday morning we were up early to catch a cab to the Contemporary for a 7:30am reservation at The Wave!


IMG_3221 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

This was another restaurant we had never been to, and I had heard great things about their breakfast. We arrived about 10 minutes early for our reservation, and upon arrival, we realized the restaurant didn’t open until 7:30. We decided to check in anyways, and to our surprise, they seated us right away! We were the only ones in the dining room!


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The chic design and decor reminded me a lot of the Taste and Savor dining rooms on Norwegian Cruise line ships. Anyone else whose cruised NCL agree?

The Wave offers a traditional breakfast menu as well as a buffet option for around $20.


IMG_3222 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

I choose the plated french toast from the traditional menu while Caitlin opted for the buffet.

French toast:


IMG_1284 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

The buffet selections:


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I was VERY impressed with this breakfast! I chose the buffet mostly because I couldn’t decide between entrees, so this allowed me to try a little bit of everything! It was all delicious but my favorites were the whole grain mickey waffle, the sweet potato pancake, and the yogurt bar with all sorts of dried fruit to add to it! There were several things on the buffet that I didn’t get to because I ran out of stomach space so I guess I will be forced to return!

The restaurant slowly filled in while we ate, but it was still very peaceful and had a subdued atmosphere, which is a welcome change from most WDW breakfasts.​

 

[Miffy2003]

Great report. Love the Wave - eaten there many times as we often stay at BLT. In fact we were there when you were in the Wave! Never done breakfast though as I find breakfast a bit samey, and prefer cereal in the room and an early lunch

I know what you mean about the similarities with NCL

 

[emilyindisney]

Great report. Love the Wave - eaten there many times as we often stay at BLT. In fact we were there when you were in the Wave! Never done breakfast though as I find breakfast a bit samey, and prefer cereal in the room and an early lunch

Haha, a near DISmeet! I'd LOVE to stay at BLT some day- those rooms look awesome and have great views!

I agree, breakfast is pretty similar where ever you go on property (sans a few hot ticket items like Tonga Toast.) Breakfast food is some of my favorite so I like a good morning TS every once in a while (but cereal is way simpler!)

I know what you mean about the similarities with NCL

So I'm not the only one! Even the colors sort of seemed similar (to the orange dining room- don't remember which is which on the cruise line!)

 

[Miffy2003]

Don't you know it's unkind to mention Tonga Toast to someone trying to eat healthily?

Love the stuff!

Maybe NCL took a leaf from Disney's design team, or vice versa!

 

[emilyindisney]

Don't you know it's unkind to mention Tonga Toast to someone trying to eat healthily?

Love the stuff!

Maybe NCL took a leaf from Disney's design team, or vice versa!

Tonga Toast has a fruit in it. That's healthy, right?...right?!

 

[Ariel484]

Ahhhh Fantasmic! is my favorite. Love that show so much, great pictures.

I agree with you, the Wave is definitely a solid breakfast choice.

 

[ZellyB]

We've never eaten at the Wave, but it looks very appealing in both decor and yummy food!!

Now I want french toast.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

I'm kind of indifferent about the hat, but yeah, it's been there a long time so it is going to look really weird not there. It will definitely also have an impact on giving directions to people too.

Haha, that Magic Shot with Mike is perfect.

I love Fantasmic. Seeing all those characters come out on the boat never ever gets old. And yeah, nothing against Tisna at all, but I am really saddened that Meg is gone.

Out of curiosity, do you remember how much the cab was to the Contemporary? I'm thinking I will likely cab from POP to WL when I change resorts, so this would be a pretty good idea of the cost.

Wow, $20 for a buffet in Disney is not bad at all... as long as there are Mickey waffles.

 

[emilyindisney]

Ahhhh Fantasmic! is my favorite. Love that show so much, great pictures.

I agree with you, the Wave is definitely a solid breakfast choice.

I love Fantasmic too! I would love to see the back stage set-up there and exactly how everything work. I'm always trying to figure that out while I'm watching!

We've never eaten at the Wave, but it looks very appealing in both decor and yummy food!!

Now I want french toast.

Love me so thick french toast

I'm kind of indifferent about the hat, but yeah, it's been there a long time so it is going to look really weird not there. It will definitely also have an impact on giving directions to people too.

It will be weird for it not to be there but I'm definitely interested to see what the area looks like without it (as that's how it was intended when the park was built!

Haha, that Magic Shot with Mike is perfect.

I love Fantasmic. Seeing all those characters come out on the boat never ever gets old. And yeah, nothing against Tisna at all, but I am really saddened that Meg is gone.

Yeah, me too!

Out of curiosity, do you remember how much the cab was to the Contemporary? I'm thinking I will likely cab from POP to WL when I change resorts, so this would be a pretty good idea of the cost.

Wow, $20 for a buffet in Disney is not bad at all... as long as there are Mickey waffles.

I believe it was about $18 before tip. Cab travel is seriously so convenient (though obviously the bus system is free, haha!) Either way you can have luggage services at Pop send your bags to WL where they'll deliver them to your room

 

[Biggie Smalls]

The problem with trip reports are the dining portions. It's now 830 at night and I want French toast in my belly! Looks yummy and the wave is on our short list of restaurants for our nov trip.

 

[courtneybelle]

RIP hat I've been so devastated seeing pictures of its destruction.

I cracked up at the weather update

That French toast looks heavenly!

 

[emilyindisney]

The problem with trip reports are the dining portions. It's now 830 at night and I want French toast in my belly! Looks yummy and the wave is on our short list of restaurants for our nov trip.

Ugh, I know! Trip reports make me miss Disney food so bad!

RIP hat I've been so devastated seeing pictures of its destruction.

I cracked up at the weather update

That French toast looks heavenly!

It's sad to see it go but I'm interested to see what the vibe of the park entrance will be with a straight shot view of the theater. I feel like the whole park is just going to go through so much revamping in the next couple years and I want to see how it's all going to come together. It just feels like it all needs to be pieced back together so I can see what the vision is behind all the changes!

 

[emilyindisney]

Good Morning! Good Mooorrnning!!

We finished eating fairly early, and decided to ride the monorail to the GF to see if any Christmas decorations were still up. Unfortunately, they weren’t, but we had a great time wandering the lobby and doing some pin trading in the gift shop. We hopped back on the monorail and arrived at the MK just in time to see the welcome show!


IMG_1285 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

I’ve never seen this show before, but it was very cute and upbeat. I was singing the song all morning- so catchy! Soon the gates were open and we were on our way down Main St USA! Caitlin originally really wanted to do Jungle Cruise first because she loves that ride (which I just don’t understand- it’s not really my cup of tea.) YOU GET TO SEE THE BACK SIDE OF WATER! WHERE ELSE CAN YOU SEE THAT? Umm...the shower? She just doesn’t understand… She agreed to skip it for me and head straight to BTMRR but we ended up going through Adventureland to get there...and that’s when I saw it-MY FAVORITE RIDE EVER, DECKED OUT FOR MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY EVER!!!!


IMG_1288 by secondaryhoney, on Flickr

I know its cheesy but Jungle Cruise is one of my favs, and I had no idea that the holiday overlay would still be up. We had planned to skip it for now, but once we got saw that we had to ride right away. Even though I don’t love Jungle Cruise I agreed that we should ride because who knows when we’ll see the Christmas decorations again!


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The holiday decorations were really fun, and we had a great skipper on this ride, which as you know, makes all the difference!

We ventured on to our original destination- Big Thunder! There was much of a line but we rushed through the queue to make sure we would beat the tour group that was currently headed up the exit group (it was a Disney tour group- like Keys to the Kingdom or something like that.) Actually- I should say that Caitlin hurried through the line while I stopped to take a picture.


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I booked it to catch up which ended up working perfectly because we got the very front row with the whole tour group filling in the seats behind us.


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The train is a little slow when you’re up front but it was still fun!

After riding we continued through Frontierland where we saw that Chip and Dale were out in their western best. Of course, we stopped because they’re two of my favorites!


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They were great and appreciated that were knew their names without having to see the back of their vests! Plus, the character attendant took some seriously cute pictures.


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See? Awwww!​

 

[ZellyB]

Love the Christmas stuff on Jungle Cruise. Very cute! Also love the pictures with Chip and Dale. The photographer did a great job.

 

[rteetz]

I was really surprised when I saw the Jingle cruise was still going so I knew I had to rise it. We had a great skipper as well. I have never met Chip and Dale in western gear definitely need to add that to the list.