Thrice Canceled, Last Chance, Christmas Week 2021 Trip

[mgarbowski]

Background
DVC members since 2011
15th family trip to WDW, some of which predate DVC membership
Cast: myself, DW, D1, 21 (Big Girl , D2, 17 (Little Girl)
Staying Bay Lake Tower, Studio Lake View
December 25, 2021 to January 1, 2022

Previous trip was August 2019. We booked and canceled 3 times since then and before this trip. Big girl is graduating college in the Spring and starts work in June 2022, making this likely the last trip with all 4 of us, for a while at least.

Day 1 - Christmas
Plan: Flight arrives around noon. Spend a low stress slow afternoon at Magic Kingdom. Christmas Dinner at Raglan Road.
Actual: Flight canceled late afternoon on Christmas Eve. Rebooking puts splits the family with departures in 2 states, separated by 1 hour, 5 counties and 2 rivers when rebooked (we were on separate itineraries because D1 was booked with points). We also lose 8-9 hours in Orlando and Christmas dinner at Raglan Road is a casualty. Spend hours getting us on same flight, with expected even later 10 pm arrival, but worth it to travel together. Checking bags at JFK was an experience. Flight is further delayed, and we arrive almost midnight. Upon arrival, wait one hour to get bags. Picking up rental car at Hertz at 1am is also less than smooth. One car we almost take has no seat belt anchors in the rear seat to click the seat belts into. End up in a sub-compact SUV rental car that both I and our bags barely fit in because that's what was left. Arrive at Bay Lake at 2 am. Go straight to room and bed.

Day 2 - Sunday
Aaaaaaah. Disney World. Yesterday was yesterday.

Discover that our studio BLT lake view room is one of the coveted ones that can see the Magic Kingdom including fireworks. Lol because I requested a pool view room via Touring Plans and I'm fairly certain that dozens of other people probably requested the park view and did not get it. I'm not disappointed. I only asked for a pool view because we've never been on that side of the arc and it would have been a change (and we don't especially value the park view as much as others do so I thought I was doing everyone a favor). But it's amusing.

Wake at 6:30 am to buy G+ and shower. Ready at 7am. Get LL for Smuggler's Run at about 11am and buy another for Rise at 2:50pm. We've never done either. We have 3 Hollywood Studios park reservations because I made them before the G+ change and thought we'd be playing the RotR boarding group lottery and I just never changed them. In fact, I planned a lot less for this trip than almost any other since maybe our first. Walk across the sky bridge to Contemporary for breakfast while family sleeps. Sit there thinking: I'm back in my happy place. I might not like a lot of the changes, extra costs and disappearing perks or attractions. But damn I'm just happy to be back here after 2.5 years.

First visit to Galaxy's Edge. Boy, is it big, and impressively immersive. Much bigger than I thought it could have been. Also it's confusing to get around, and I would not be averse to some standard alphabet on the signage. But that's a quibble. It really is something.

Smuggler's Run is a lot of fun. DW and D2 piloted. D1 and I shot, and a single rider tagged along as our engineer. We did pretty well. I have no idea what the score was, but we did not crash too much and we collected a few of those macguffin thingies we were trying to collect.

Next, we had lunch at Ronto Roasters. It has a significant shortage of seating, I think, but we did manage to snag a table. My item looks like a weird and pathetic hot dog pita, but is some sort of pork and sausage and slaw wrap, and pretty good. It was shortly after lunch that the exhaustion from the previous day's travel and 2am arrival hit. We walked through Toy Story Land to kill some time, then found some benches near the Toy Story store and sat. My family got up and, did something, I don't remember what, while I just stayed put and might have even dozed off. The family returned and we still had time to kill until out Rise LL, so we got some cold drinks and and just hung around some more before we finally headed back to Galaxy's Edge and RotR.

So. Rise. Frankly, we liked Smuggler's Run more, and I don't think we will feel a need to keep paying for RotR Lightning Lane passes. I'm certainly glad to have experienced it, and with normal waits would happily do it again, but not with the current demand that so greatly exceeds supply and makes riding costly in either wait time or cash. More behind the spoiler tag:

Spoiler: Rise of the Resistance Spoilers

Basically it's a ride that is very similar in its movement to the new Mickey/Minnie and Remy rides (though a bit more active and jarring) with an extremely extended, multipart pre-ride. I had mostly avoided spoilers, though I think I had seen an image of the room with the Stormtroopers and I heard there were AT-ATs involved. But honestly I'm not sure why there is such a consensus to treat this ride like a movie twist and keep discussions spoiler-free. If anything, that whole effort probably made me expect far too much from the ride. The initial scene where you are given the mission is fine. The transport experience was a big dud for me. I understand they cannot introduce too much movement before they have to make everyone strap in, but I really got very little out of that segment. The stormtrooper room is quite cool upon first look, but would have been improved with 1 or 2 live cast members moving and interacting. After a few seconds a room of stormtrooper statues feels like a wax museum display. Fine, but not exciting. Then we waited a good 10 minutes in the long hallway before the next segment and getting divided into groups for seating on the actual ride. That killed any narrative flow. My daughters pointed out it was arguably realistic for captured prisoners to wait for processing, which is a fair point, but I don't think people ride to re-create the realistic wait experience of political prisoners. Then finally, the ride. It was good, not great. Among newer rides, I would definitely rank it behind both Flight of Passage - still the best ride anywhere I have experienced - and Smuggler's Run. My daughter who sat on the left end of our vehicle row never saw Finn and could not figure out why he was being mentioned. And it seemed weird that during our supposed escape we kind of lingered in a room that allowed us to look up at the bridge and watch Hux and Kylo yelling. Why are we doing this? What if they turn around?

I'm probably coming off more negative than it deserves, which is a result of my over-excited expectations. It was good. It was fun. But man, I think I might have been annoyed if I visited during the 7am boarding group days and missed a few times, finally lucked out after multiple HS visits, and then experience that. Glad I was simply able to pay a fee and check off that box.

Anyway, that done, we headed back to the room to relax briefly. But we did not have very long. We drove over to Celebration to attend the last chance 5:30pm Sunday Mass at Corpus Christi before heading over to Toledo for dinner.
It was pricey, especially for a non-Signature restaurant, but IMO justified.
For comparison, we also ate at another Spanish restaurant this trip I will get to that eventually.
We started with the Charcuterie and Bread and Tomato. I had the Fillet of Beef, which melted in my mouth. D2 had Hanger steak which did not, but was far from tough and she liked it, plus there was more of it. Our party also ordered scallops and chicken. Everything was excellent. Total for 2 apps, 4 entrees, 4 desserts and 1 drink was $268 before discount and tip.
We also had never been to the Coronado so it was a pleasure to have a reason to visit there. One negative, this restaurant is still using the QR code menu system, which was a pointless experiment from the earliest weeks of Covid (which is not spread on surfaces). I pay this much for a restaurant experience, I want a proper menu, not squinting at my phone.

More to come, including a few photos along the way.

 

[mgarbowski]

Day 3 - Monday - Animal Kingdom

We have decided to structure our days the same as yesterday: get to the parks mid to late morning and no worry about rope drop or maximizing rides and capacity. I continue with the morning G+ purchase and initial Lightning Lane selections. This day I obtained Everest as a G+ LL at 10:35 and bought Flight of Passage at 1:15PM. If I could make one tweak to the Genie+ rules it would be to allow you to select a time for your first LL later in the day - just once - at 7am. I understand why the LL selections are take it or leave it generally with no opportunity to pick specific times, but when you do not want to enter the park at the opening, it's very tricky trying to get a time that works for you. It's bad enough the system makes someone get up for the 7am reservation time every day, it should at least allow yo to then pick your first LL for 10, 11, or noon or whatever, and then leave you to take what's available the rest fo the day. I found it generally was not too hard to time the system. Because it was Christmas week everything moved pretty fast, so I could get what we wanted and I would be done in just a few minutes. But I imagine in slower times, the 11am slot for some rides might not show up until much later, and it would be a major hassle to keep monitoring it until they became available. If anything, things moved so fast that I ended up getting later LL times than I wanted once I waited just a few seconds to refresh. But it all worked out.

I again went to Contempo Cafe for breakfast. It's pretty relaxed in the mornings and the mobile order works easily enough. After the rest of my family is up and ready we drive to Animal Kingdom. I'm pretty sure this was our longest parking lot walk and the one time we really missed the trams. While not rushing, we head straight to Everest. DW skips this, as she does many rides, though she has tried I think every ride at least once. It was a little disappointing that we ended up very near the front, but it's always a fun ride nonetheless.

Once we tapped in I grabbed LL for Kilimanjaro Safari at 3:25. Then we walked over to Dinosaur! which had a posted 50 minute wait and actually took about 35 minutes from getting on line to leaving the ride. We consistently found wait times were shorter than posted this week. Then we wanted lunch and ran into our only mobile ordering window issue. We had to wait, I think, 30-45 minutes for an open window at Flame Tree Barbecue. So we placed our order and then walked through the big shops that are all connected and very close to that restaurant. Our browsing used up most of that time and we found somewhere to sit nearby. By the time we exited the connecting shops we were probably a good 100+ yards away from Flame Tree and around a corner, so when I got the notification that our window opened I waited until we were within view to hit the "We're here" button. Rookie mistake. We had to wait at least another 10-15 minutes before they got to our order and it would have been fine to say we were there when we were just 2 minutes away. As it was, we watched a CM announce easily 7-8 orders over and over that went unclaimed, likely because selfish people hit the "we're here" button from across the park and did not arrive until 10-20 minutes later. Whatever. We found a table on the water, way down the path, where many people forget to check. As usual, Flame Tree had great food and the atmosphere was superb. We caught the beginning of some show that has "kites" in the title but mostly seemed to involve big balloons being zipped around the water by speed boats. Next: Flight of Passage. Our group included 3 kids without adult supervision, the oldest of whom was probably just 9 or 10. I remark on this because they really impressed me. The oldest, oddly enough, was rather unsure of whether he wanted to ride. The younger 2 - probably about 6 and 8 - did a real solid job of encouraging him without pressuring him. When we got to the do or don't moment, a CM also really impressed me with his approach which again was calming and encouraging but never pressed the youngster to do anything he did not want to do. In the end he rode, and was fine. I do think the warning for that ride, though arguably necessary, are over done. They really stress the fear of heights issue, but I don't even notice how the floor drops away when I ride. If nobody told me I would not even know I was hovering over any space at all.

From there we walked over to the Harambe market area. Two of us got refreshment (including a rum Dole whip for me) and we relaxed in the L-shared shady eating area right there, until it was time for KS. We had a very fun safari ride, with the highlight being when a group of 5-8 giraffes came by, walked along the road, and required that we pause for a few minutes. We also were held up just before unboarding for 5-10 minutes for an unspecified "situation" somewhere else on the ride.




That night we ate at Jaleo in Disney Springs. We did not anticipate how crowded it would be and were lucky to find a spot and make it to the restaurant on time. One tip: if you approach Disney Springs (as many GPS will direct you) by way of East Buena Vista Drive going East to West (with DS on your right), never, ever get on the line for the first entry point to Lime garage. In my experience that line is always 4x to 7x times longer than any other entry point, many of which let you cruise directly into either Lime or Orange garages without wait, while that first entry to Lime is heavily backed up.

Jaleo is a true tapas restaurant. The menu is extensive, and the plates small, except for a 2 entrees, in a menu section called something like "José Makes Large Plates, Too." Lol. So we went the small plate tapas route. To my surprise, we only needed 7 items for the 4 of us. We started with the first 3, and kept one menu for reference for additional ordering. We ordered 4 in the next round, and to my surprise found that we were satisfied and done.

Bread and tomato
Serrano ham
5 variety cheese plate selection
Seared piquillo peppers with goat cheese
Chicken fritters
Fried squid with squid ink alioli
Charcoal grilled octopus

We did not order dessert. The plan was to get something from one of the Disney Spring dessert places, but DS was absurdly crowded that night and that didn't pan out.
Total cost for those items plus 2 drinks was $158 before discount and tip. It does make me wonder how many dishes they give you for the chef's tasting menu, which is $95 per person. We fed ourselves for $40 each.

DS was packed, possibly more than I have ever experienced it, and that's saying something because it is crowded almost every night I have been there. We all walked to the big Disney store, and found that none of like it after the big re-arrangement that happened since our last visit. There seem to be fewer things, and many items are now collected by IP instead of by item. So if you just want the most appealing hoodie, or pajamas or jacket, and are flexible as to what character it features, you have to go all over the store instead of them being collected in one place. Not everything is like that, but enough is to be frustrating. At this point I was done but the family was not, so I walked to the bus stops. I was fortunate. There was nobody waiting at the Wilderness Lodge/Contemporary stop, yet a bus pulled up and pulled out maybe 2 minutes later, with jus me and one other guy who showed up just in time as passengers.

Day 4 - Epcot

Same schedule. I snag G+ LL Soarin' for 9:30 and separate paid Remy for early afternoon. We cut it a little close and tap into Soarin at 10:28 (yes I know there should still be a 15 minute grace period), mostly because the lines to enter the parking lot were absurd. I honestly have no idea what caused the massive hold up. It also was partly because we get caught behind a group of 6-7 people who had to show IDs and whatnot to activate their tickets. Maybe annual passes? I don't really know. This happened again later in the week and I really think stuff like that should be handled at Guest Services instead of randomly making an entire line wait while whatever that was gets sorted out.

Anyway, we all rode Soarin', and ended up on the front (highest ) row, on the center-most edge of the left section. All in all, not a bad placement. I still prefer the California version better, in part for the comparative lack of distortion. I grabbed LL for Spaceship Earth at 11:15, so we ended up being able to walk straight to that when we left Soarin'. I did notice that our eligibility for a new LL did not open until we scanned the second entry post in Soarin'.


Something something something (I forget the order) - but we hit the new Club Cool (the new drink selections are much better), the new Mouse Gears (I will learn the name eventually) and walked it seemed forever to get around those construction walls. I will not miss them. Then Rose and Crown for lunch, with a Candlelight Processional dining package.

My cost is largely irrelevant as it was a Prix fixe dining package, but fwiw it was $269 before tip.
I had a Scotch Egg to start. I always wanted to try one ever since seeing it on the original British Office. It had less flavor than I expected. I also had a burger which was quite good. Everyone at the table enjoyed the food, and the atmosphere outside on the water was quite nice. We were not expecting British waitstaff because of Covid but our English waiter was a delight. Dessert options are very limited with 2 choices, but we each enjoyed what we had. This was also another restaurant that is still using a QR code menu and those need to disappear. The prix fixe dining package caused us to eat a lot more than we wanted for lunch and was ridiculously expensive but that isn't the fault of the Rose and Crown.

From there. we walked to the France Pavillon where the expansion is very impressive. then we rode Remy. It was a lot of fun, and reminded us a lot of RotR, with a shorter pre-ride and somewhat less jarring motion. The big advantage of RotR is when you move in space you actually move, while Remy uses more illusion, animation, and 3D glasses. But Remy was great.

From here, again I split off. DW and the girls take a deliberate walk through the World Showcase, stopping in numerous pavillons and stores, while I do the same walk but don't stop anywhere, again getting caught in the massive construction detours around where the fountains used to be. I take the monorail back to Bay Lake. My family decides to do the same and leave the car parked in Epcot where we can pick it up after Candlelight Processional.

Family remembered to take our usual photo of the girls by the Norway troll. It is the closest we have to a traditional, annual, every trip photo. Here's one from 2012, 2017 and this year.







Candlelight Processional. This is our second time. Do it. Go to Disney in Christmas Season and do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Book a trip to Disney in Christmas Season just for CP. It is that good. I would recommend it even to people who don't celebrate Christmas, though if the idea of an explicitly religious (but not aggressively proselytizing) Christmas celebration is likely to bother you then, yes, you might understandably be an exception to my otherwise universal recommendation. It is a beautiful, wonderful concert. Our first time we saw it our narrator was Chandra Wilson from Grey’s Anatomy. This year we had Blair Underwood. It was amusing to discuss him within our family and realize he was known primarily for three very different shows and eras: LA Law, Sex and the City, and Agents of SHIELD. He was great. I expect ever narrator is great, but the celebrity narrator is not the point (and both I have seen were appropriately restrained). It's free (with park admission). You don't need to do the Dining Package to get a seat. You don't even need to sit in the theatre seating to enjoy the show. Do it.

 

[mgarbowski]

Our officially Lake View but theme park view.

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[footballmouse]

 

[Minniemoo15]

I love this report .. my girls are 6 and 8, and lately I have been lamenting the fact that we are missing the prime traveling years that we bought DVC for (being Canadian, we haven’t been since feb 2020)… anyway this report reminds me we have many happy years of traveling with our daughters left. Thank you and can’t wait for the rest !

 

[mgarbowski]

I love this report .. my girls are 6 and 8, and lately I have been lamenting the fact that we are missing the prime traveling years that we bought DVC for (being Canadian, we haven’t been since feb 2020)… anyway this report reminds me we have many happy years of traveling with our daughters left. Thank you and can’t wait for the rest !

Thank yo for saying that. The rest of the report is coming, but I'm very busy these next 2 weeks so there might be a gap.

 

[mgarbowski]

Day 5 - Wednesday - Oga's, A Necessary but Pointless Trip, and Fireworks

Today was almost a rest day. As it was we modified our plans considerably from what we originally expected. We had park reservations for Hollywood Studios, late morning reservation at Oga's and a dinner ADR at Citricos. But we also realized we needed to drop a dinner ADR if we wanted to watch fireworks at the Magic Kingdom, plus having managed to ride both new Star Wars ride on our first Hollywood Studios day, we almost were ready to take today off. But we wanted to experience Oga's. Still Big Girl decided to skip HS altogether because she wasn't feeling 100% plus she had work to do for her college extracurricular engineering team project. So DW Little Girl and I went back to Galaxy's Edge, pretty much just to experience Oga's Cantina.

Glad we did it. I probably would not do again, unless with someone else who wanted to try it. The whole 45 minute, share a standing table with strangers things really comes off as a contrivance, and not a restful break. Not that I know how they could manage it otherwise. Little Girl got the Blue Milk because someone had to.


Little Girl sporting her Figment shoulder pal on Sunset Boulevard.

We did not really have anything else to do at HS, so we circled through the shops again, and had lunch at the Commissary. This was once an annual lunch spot for us, mostly because it was sort of centrally located and was big and always had seats. Back when, it used to have a very basic burger, dogs and chicken finger menu. It's had at east 2 menu overhauls since then and the current version really is quite a change from what it was.

While there, I have a terrible realization. Bg Girl won't be allowed in the Magic Kingdom tonight unless she taps into HS first. Ugh. She is very much less than thrilled at her options. Eventually we convince her it is worth schlepping over to HS just to tap in so she can come see the fireworks with us that night. So late afternoon, I drive her to HS, and we're very lucky because we end up parking all the way down front, so at least the walk from the car to the gate and back is minimal.

Then there is a weird car malfunction episode. Nothing dangerous, but it takes some time to sort out and ends up with us getting to MK later than expected. Plus in the middle of all this we get the notification that our flight home is canceled, and an hour later we discover we are booked again on 2 separate flights, but both very early. One at 7:05am and the other about a half hour later. We were originally booked to leave in the afternoon and have a park morning, but that's been taken away. This has been a day.

We rush over to Cosmic Rays because, to our surprise, Tomorrowland Terrace is closed. Fortunately our order is ready quickly and we don't have to snarf everything down in a mad rush. But the entire viewing area for the fireworks is pretty full by the time we leave Ray's and we end up splitting up. Little Girl is willing to head over to a central area and find a tiny open spot to park herself in. DW, Big Girl and I end up on a walk way over by Tomorrowland Terrace. It's not straight on, and there's a tree partially blocking our castle view, but its a bit less crowded and we're happy.

As for the show, well, I'm not a big night time spectacular fan, but Happily Ever After was by far my favorite. I was sad that it had such a short run. It's not a big deal to me, but this does not measure up and I'm disappointed. But also, like I said, these shows are not my thing, so I'm not the audience and not a big deal. But my family agreed. They didn't hate it, but agreed it's a step down from HEA.

My family wants to walk through the connected shops on Main Street on the way out. We wait for the mass exodus to thin out a bit, but after I step into the first store for about 7 seconds I decide the in-store crowd is still too much so I just head back. I stop in the Contempo Cafe and grab a cupcake,


and later learn the family got ice cream at Plaza Ice Cream Parlor. That white chocolate construction is a monorail car.

In the end, not the relaxing day I had hoped for, but a good day.

 

[mgarbowski]

Bonus Magic Kingdom Christmas Tree Night photo.

 

[mgarbowski]

Very belated follow ups to finish out this report:

Day 6 - Thursday - Magic Kingdom, Topolino's

Again I wake at ~6:30 to be ready for 7am G+ and LL grabs. But today we save just a bit of cash, because during Christmas season the only individual LL purchase option at MK is Seven Dwarf Mine Train. We've done that any number of times an enjoy it, but really it's not worth a long wait or extra charge. I did a limited amount of research, and found no consensus on which Genie+ LL selections to prioritize, either to make sure you get that one rid, or for maximum opportunity for multiple LL rides. I ended up grabbing Haunted Mansion for 9am. It's one of the few rides my wife, and therefore the entire family enjoys.

Also, we chose to arrive at MK about 30 minutes into the pre-opening 1 hour (during the Christmas weeks) for onsite guests. With this, we rode Space Mountain. It had a 45 minute posted wait but it only took 25 minutes for the entire experience. The downside is this meant walking nearly as far as possible between our first two attractions. Also, how many times have you wished there were a way to get from Town Square to the Space Mountain area that was more direct? The funny thing (to me at least) is, the way we have to go is not actually that out of the way when you look at the map.




Anyway, after tapping in to HM I grab a Splash Mountain LL at 12:35. We browse through Memento Mori and head up the hill towards Fantasy Land. We ride Pooh with a 30 minute posted wait but we are in and out in 20. Speedway has a surprisingly short line, 25 minutes posted. We wait 15. People Mover 25 posted, we wait 12 or so. Lingering in Tomorrowland, we get ice cream from Auntie Gravity's and eat it nearby.

Tron construction photos:



Our next LL is Splash starting at 12:35. So we head over to the whole Adventure/Frontierland area and, for the first time ever (unbelievable I know) take in the Country Bear Jamboree Show. What struck me most was that every number seemed to last about 45 seconds or less. I don't know why that seemed so odd and notable, but it did. From there we walked back to the Tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room, which has long been a favorite. By now, we have just a bit more time to kill before we can ride Splash Mountain so we slow walk, back tracking again, until our window opens. I neither demand nor disapprove of the upcoming re-theming, but I'm glad we got in another ride before the switch.




Lunch at Pecos Bill, another first for us. It's good and we should have tried it sooner. We have a few more attractions we want to hit before we're done. Passing through the hub we stop for our only family portrait. I realize the high midday sun is a challenge, but it probably was the worst WDW family pictures we've ever taken. The light is absurdly harsh and the color seems off. Plus we never could get one image with all 4 of us looking decent. This is the best.


There was also this.


This is a bit better.





Then we head behind the castle, where we hit Small World with a brief wait, and Philharmagic. I think I grabbed a LL for the latter even though I know they're useless, but maybe I stopped someone else from wasting one. The newish Coco scene works well. I'm glad Philharmagic is getting a bit of a refresh as it is one of my personal favorites. After that, we head back to Tomorrowland for Carousel of Progress, which is a standard last attraction for us at MK.

If we did anything in the afternoon besides hang out and chill, I don't remember.

Dinner was at Topolino's.
I would give it 5 out of 5 stars.
We started with escargot and gnocchi.
For entrees, I had the veal chop, which is their signature dish. They have reason to be proud of it. We also ordered scallops (x2) and a pasta. I think we had 3 desserts, maybe 4. Total for that plus 1 drink was $319 before discount and tip.
Our waiter was very much a professional.
My one warning is that it is a small menu (not unusual for a quality restaurant) so check it out before you go and find that maybe someone in your party is not pleased with the choices. To be clear, we had no issues, but I suppose some might.

 

[mgarbowski]

Day 7, Friday New Years Eve Hollywood Studios, Dinner Boathouse, Disney Springs

Another Day at Hollywood Studios because I made park reservations back when the ROTR boarding group lottery was a big thing and we wanted to maximize chances to win.
I'll wrap this up briefly.

We amble in midmorning, and find that Rock and Roller Coaster is down. I'm a little bit sad over that because it is Big Girl's favorite and this was our last trip with her for a while. So we ride Tower of Terror, Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway (another first), and Star Tours in pretty quick order. Runaway Railway reminds us again of Remy and ROTR in its motion. Not bad, but probably the least favorite of the three.

I've no memory and no notes of our afternoon. Dinner was at the Boathouse.



Bonus points to The Boathouse for not having a limited or more expensive NYE menu.
Bonus points deducted for presenting the menu via QR code link to a PDF in Google docs, which is just too complicated, and even less satisfactory than opening the menu in a browser. Due to the vagaries of opening someone else's Google doc it sometimes disappears when you close the app, instead of keeping a tab open like a browser would, and this means you have to rescan the code to find the menu again. It also has extremely tiny print, even compared to other phone-based restaurant menus we dealt with on the trip. The restaurant menu QR code fad was already dead in New York for several months, and I assumed it died everywhere because New York has held on to every Covid idea, both the good and the bad, longer than almost anywhere else. It needs to die in Florida as well.
Total cost for 4 adults before discount or tip $222 for 4 entrees, 2 appetizers and one drink.
We ate here before once a few years ago - that was lunch on arrival day and we paired it with a ride in one of the amphicars which was a lot of fun.
This was last night of the trip dinner on New Years Eve, and really was the last fun part of the trip because we had a 7am flight the next day with 3:15am wake up call so we were not staying out. late. Disney Springs was surprisingly uncrowded compared to a night earlier in the trip. We keep meatless Fridays so seafood on this day was a natural choice for us.
We shared coconut shrimp and calamari appetizers. Entrees were fish tacos, a lobster roll, crab cakes, and lobster tail ($57). The lobster tail was not worth the price, though that's more a lobster tail issue than the Boathouse. Plus I order lobster maybe once every 2-3 years anywhere so I just have to shut up and pay when I do.
Everything was good to very good. Nothing was extraordinary. The service was solid, and when we asked to speed things along because of our early wake up, they did so. And to be clear, it wasn't dragging until that point.
I would rate it 4 of 5 stars, though it was a close call between that and a 3. If we did not need a seafood restaurant almost every trip and if there were more decent alternatives it might be lower, but this is likely to be a semi-regular option for us the next few trips. Paddlefish and Flying Fish gave me 2 of my least satisfying dining experiences at WDW. Based on other people's experiences those might have been outlier poor nights, but they were very real to me. We should probably try Todd English's bluezoo and Cape May, and return to Narcoosee's, which was lovely our one time there.

The skies were awesome that evening.

Day 8 Travel Home


We once again fell victim to the big Omicron wave flight reshuffling, and had to leave obscenely early in the morning. We also were unable to check in in advance or even at a kiosk, which left us on the regular check in line. As I get older, and as technology and phones have made the process more streamlined and efficient, my airport time anxiety is worse than ever when things break down. I just hated that whole morning until we were through security. The line to check in was not even that bad as things go, but I just have no tolerance for it any more. At least our PreCheck worked and that was fast and smooth. Everything else about getting home was fine.

Final Notes

• Quick service food seems to have improved considerably since our pre-Covid visits
• Mobile order mostly worked well. We liked it before. it's less convenient when everyone has to do it, but not bad. The only time we had to wait for a slot was lunch at Flame Tree in Animal Kingdom.
• We did have 2 mobile order glitches. Once it told us to pick up at window 4 in the Commissary and we waited and waited and eventually the CM went sleuthing and found our order sitting by window 2. In another instance I went to pickup an afternoon snack of fries and cookie at the Contempo Cafe. I waited 20+ minutes and it was not busy at all. So I went to inquire and was told that's just how it goes sometimes. I went back to the table area to wait some more and finally the same CM came out with an embarrassed look and my order, plus 2 free cookies.
• Opening our room door with my phone never worked. I use my phone everywhere: Apple Pay at stores and gas stations, entrance to sporting events, paying for subway and bus rides, airplane tickets, etc. It just didn't work to open our room door and yes I had Magic Mobile Pass activated. As a consequence I never tried using my watch or phone for park entrance, though I have heard those work well. But when I tried to open my hotel door it always opened my Apple credit card as if I were trying to pay for something.
• On the plus side, on our last pre-Covid trip the finger scanners at park entrances failed for me repeatedly and I had to try 4-5 times every time, which was odd because they never gave me trouble before, and I had no issues this trip.
• The new (to me) security walk through scan things are mostly wonderful, though we never did figure out why it repeatedly singled out Little Girl for a bag check even after she removed her eyeglass case and whatever else the signs said to remove.
• I don't remember that they used to check ID on top of looking up your ADR when you drive into a resort for an ADR. Is that new, or am I just not remembering? Regardless, is it really an issue that there are people who can reference a valid ADR but are not the person who booked the ADR trying to scm their way to drive in to Coronado Springs or Riviera?
• Mildly surprised to have actual shampoo bottles and not dispensers in the BLT studio rooms. Will that come with a refresh? I thought they installed them pretty much everywhere.

Next trip this summer.