TR Dec 2010:"Dad, you're such a Dork." A Disney Dad's trip with his DD. Complete 1/19

[Emma's Dad]

Hey Colin,

I just stumbled in here and found your TR. Looking forward to more!

I like your pictures! You've got some very nice shots in here. What type of camera do you use?

Something tells me it's a Nikon D40.... hehe


Very nice start to a cool dad/daughter trip!! The pictures are amazing! Glad to hear DD hasn't rules you as "uncool" yet. Looking forward to more!

 

[Disney Commando]

It was Great meeting up with you, Hunter really liked Taylor (if he tells you the Dino history, he likes you) He was alittle upset when we got into Dinosaur and she wasn't there we ended up going on 3 times in a row

If we are there the same time in August hopefully we can meet up again

 

[Sonnyeclipse]

After a long day and a pretty late night, getting up was tough on Day 2. However, we had something to look forward to, breakfast at Kona Café. The last time we had breakfast there was 2007 and it was fantastic.

We showered and headed for the lobby. Our ADR was for 7:30 so our plan was to catch a cab. It was EMH at the Magic Kingdom so we hoped to catch some of that after breakfast. There was one cab outside Kidani so we hopped in and were off to the Poly.

After a cab ride that seemed to take forever, we arrived at the Poly at around 7:10. Since we were early, we decided to walk around and take a few photos until they opened. We both love the Poly and really want to stay there someday. DD wants to stay at Aulani for her 16th birthday and if we can’t pull that off, I’m thinking we’ll try at least a few nights at the Poly.

The time arrived and we were seated at 7:30. The first thing that kind of irked me was they seemed to seat everyone in one corner, despite the fact that the entire restaurant was empty. I thought they at least could have spread us out a bit. Our waitress arrived and I ordered my Tonga toast while DD ordered French toast. My coffee was poured, the juice was delivered and our breakfast was put in front of us. I mean this food came in less than two minutes.

Now, I love prompt service but this was a little ridiculous. I didn’t even have a chance to have a drink of coffee and this food was obviously precooked and sitting under lights. We started to eat and to be honest; my Tonga toast was not really great. It wasn’t real warm and was overdone. DD enjoyed her French toast but I was a little disappointed in my food. Our bill also then appeared when we were still eating. Are we in a hurry to get us out of here or what? I had a Tables in Wonderland card and I think our waitress was a little irked that she had to rerun the bill. What about asking us if we wanted anything else? Where did that question go?

I paid the bill and we left what was the quickest sit down breakfast I have ever had. I guess you can assume that I wasn’t real happy with it. The food was not great and we were definitely being rushed despite that fact that the restaurant was less than half full. We hit the monorail for our journey over to the Magic Kingdom.

When we got on the monorail, we were welcomed by a gentleman who was freaking out at his wife. He was upset that they had been directed to take the resort monorail instead of the express and apparently somehow, it was her fault…

We pulled out of the Poly and stopped almost immediately to wait for traffic ahead. Well, that really caused this guy to huff and puff. It was kind of comical. I thought maybe he was late for an ADR but saw him shortly after he arrived so that wasn’t the case.

We eventually arrived and Mr. Krankypants proceeded to run down the ramp with his stroller. He really wanted to be the first on Dumbo didn’t he?

DD and I headed for Space Mountain as we had about ½ hour left of EMH. We basically walked on that and grabbed a fast pass for later. We walked onto Buzz and then decided to try and get Peter Pan in before the park opened for everyone else. It was cool and cloudy so I was thinking it wasn’t really going to be a busy day.

We hit Peter pan and I had hoped to snap some photos on what is one of the hardest rides to get a good photo. Well, they all turned out blurry so I’ll have to try next trip.

We then hit Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder and Splash and walked on all three attractions. As we were walking through Frontierland, I said to DD that there was almost no one there. It was unbelievable how dead the park was. We hit Pirates next and we had a boat to ourselves. This was fantastic! I actually finally got some good photos on Splash, HM and Pirates due to my new 35mm lens. DD was getting a little frustrated with my lens changing and picture taking by this point but I was in a zone. It was at this point where she was probably thinking, "what is the matter with this guy?"

We decided to have an early lunch and we wanted to catch up with the DisDad that we had met up with the night before. We hit Pecos Bills and both ordered the Taco salad which was very good. We then headed for Main St for our meet.

Our new friend wanted to get his haircut at the barber shop so we were planning a DisDad meet to watch the festivities. Well, the other DisDads did not show up but we got a kick out of watching it, especially when the Dapper Danes showed up for a song.

DD was getting impatient about this time so we decided to head over to the Grand Floridian to look at Xmas decorations and our plan was to meet back up later on.

We took the watercraft over which was kind of nice and we walked around the grounds a little bit before going in. We took a few photos of the gingerbread house and some of the decorations and then talked about what to do next. DD was anxious to do a little shopping so we thought we would catch the bus to DTD, do a little shopping and then head back to MK.

DTD seemed a little busier than I expected, I guess due to the holiday season. I picked up some things in the Christmas store for DW and then we hit Tren-D and DD was in heaven. She picked out this very nice Mickey sweater and I bought a nice shirt for DW. We walked around a little bit and decided to head back to Kidani to drop off our stuff before heading back to MK.

The bus stop was a zoo of people and that would tend to be the trend at the DTD bus stop during our stay. They really need to do something about the service to DTD. Our bus came after about 15 minutes and we were heading on the long trip back to Kidani. Like our cab ride in the morning, this seemed to take forever.

As we got back to our room, I received a text from my friend from PA saying they were at Animal Kingdom and wondering if we would join them. I did NOT want to go back to AK after being there all day yesterday so after several texts, we decided we would meet up in Epcot that night. So DD and I talked and decided we would just go to Epcot and not go back to the MK as planned. I was a little bummed as we wanted to meet up with some DisDads but I had promised my friend we would meet and they were leaving the next day.

We rested for a bit and then headed out on the bus for Epcot. As we entered the park, my annual pass decided not to work. The cast member suggested I go to guest services to get a re-issue as it was a little beat up. We hit Spaceship Earth first as this is one of my favorites and I was anxious to try out my new lens. I had great success in the morning and did get some good photos at SE too. I had never been successful doing dark rides but some friend over at the Magic in Pixels suggested I try a prime lens and it was doing the trick.

After that, we went over to get fast passes for Test track. Well, the cast member who let me in to the park did not “officially” check me in so I couldn’t get one. Off to guest services we go. There was a little bit of a line there so we waited about 10 minutes before a very nice cast member gave me a new AP and checked me into the park.

On a side note, I must commend the cast members at Guest services for what they put up with and how they handle themselves. Every person before us was complaining and one gentleman was quite rude about it and they handled it with class. There is a way to lodge a complaint without being rude and some people just don’t get that you sometimes get more with sugar than spice.

Anyway, we headed back to TT to get my FP and then DD wanted to do Sum of All Thrills. I designed a jet course with 6 or 7 loops and we had a lot of fun with the attraction. I like that they are putting more in Innoventions. I feel that it is a waste of space to some extent and am glad they are at least trying to put new things in there over the past few years. I think Stormstruck and Sum of All Thrills have been good additions. We received a text after this that our friends were just finishing dinner at the Rainforest Café and were heading for the bus. We decided we needed to eat before they arrived so headed for the nearest place, the Electric Umbrella.

It seems like every trip, I don’t plan on eating at the Electric Umbrella, and every trip I end up eating there. The meal was uneventful. The food there is OK and the restaurant was half empty. After eating, we decided to head to Nemo to see if we could get that in before our friends arrived. We were almost to the door when we received the text that they were here so we decided to wait for them.

They met us outside of Nemo and their kids were thrilled to see us. Their son is friends with my boys and their daughter looks up to my DD. We decided to ride Nemo and their son wanted to ride with me. He was explaining the attraction to me and then took me around the pavilion showing me everything like I had never been there before. I got a chuckle out of it as I could probably describe this attraction in my sleep; we had done it so many times.

After, we met up with my friend’s parents and all of the boys (and DD) decided we would go do Test Track while the girls went to World Showcase. It was about a 20 minute wait and we were riding. It was my friend’s father’s first trip on Test track and I think he was a little nervous but he had fun. This is one of DD’s favorite attractions and we had a ball, especially since we had the car full of friends.

We headed to World Showcase and met up with everyone else. My friend’s daughter had taken a turn for the worse and the day was catching up with her. She went from being happy and excited to very cranky. On top of that, they had left her stroller back at the Land so my friend had to head back to get it. When he came back, DD and I decided we were going to get back to the resort and beat the Illuminations crowd to the buses as Illuminations was due to start in 30 minutes. We said our goodbyes and made plans to get in touch the next day for a meet at DTD.

The bus back to Kidani was empty. There were two other people on it besides us and it was a very peaceful ride back. We were a little sad that this was our last night at Kidani but were looking forward to our first stay at the Boardwalk the next day and the ability to walk to the Studios and Epcot.

We arrived back at the room and saw that the Ankole cattle were again outside our room. The joke of the trip was that I had a special bond with the cattle and that they would follow me wherever I went. We watched TV for awhile and then fell asleep.

Next up – Day 3 – DVC Merry mixer, a trip down memory lane, and our new favorite place in Epcot.

 

[FreezinRafiki]

I paid the bill and we left what was the quickest sit down breakfast I have ever had. I guess you can assume that I wasn’t real happy with it. The food was not great and we were definitely being rushed despite that fact that the restaurant was less than half full. We hit the monorail for our journey over to the Magic Kingdom.

Bummer that Kona was bad for you. We've never been there, but I'm trying to wiggle it into our June trip. Mental note: get a later ADR, after all the pre-cooked food is gone and they're cooking to order.

We eventually arrived and Mr. Krankypants proceeded to run down the ramp with his stroller. He really wanted to be the first on Dumbo didn’t he?

Wow. Disney World is my happy place. It takes a lot to get me upset at that place. Wonder what this guy's issue was?

We then hit Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder and Splash and walked on all three attractions. As we were walking through Frontierland, I said to DD that there was almost no one there. It was unbelievable how dead the park was.

That's a pun worthy of the Jungle Cruise.

We hit Pirates next and we had a boat to ourselves. This was fantastic! I actually finally got some good photos on Splash, HM and Pirates due to my new 35mm lens. DD was getting a little frustrated with my lens changing and picture taking by this point but I was in a zone. It was at this point where she was probably thinking, "what is the matter with this guy?"

Teenagers. I think the photos are great!

We rested for a bit and then headed out on the bus for Epcot. As we entered the park, my annual pass decided not to work. The cast member suggested I go to guest services to get a re-issue as it was a little beat up.

I'm still confused why they can't use plastic for APs, rather than flimsy cardboard.

It seems like every trip, I don’t plan on eating at the Electric Umbrella, and every trip I end up eating there. The meal was uneventful. The food there is OK and the restaurant was half empty.

I have that same problem with Cosmic Ray's in the MK. Every trip we seem to end up in there 2 or 3 times. Now that we've discovered Sunshine Seasons over in Epcot, our days at the Electric Umbrella are over. I hope.

We arrived back at the room and saw that the Ankole cattle were again outside our room. The joke of the trip was that I had a special bond with the cattle and that they would follow me wherever I went.

 

[DisneyDaddy-O]

I've joined in on the fun. Great pics, very nice. I especially like taking pics at night and dark rides.

Can I ask what you are shooting with and what lens you used. That shot on SE and the one on SM are awesome.

 

[Sonnyeclipse]

We slept in a little bit on Friday. Our plan was to do Epcot in the morning, hit DTD for lunch, attend the DVC Merry Mixer at the Contemporary later in the afternoon and then head back to Epcot that evening. We were up and ready by about 8:15 or so and headed down to catch the bus.

Upon arriving at the bus stop, there was a fairly large crowd at our stop. At Kidani, MK and Epcot share one stop and I learned through listening to the angry crowd that these were mostly people waiting for a MK bus. What do you think happens next? Much to my delight and their disgust, the next bus was Epcot, apparently the third one in the last 20 minutes.

I thought the crowd was going to lynch the bus driver and I stood there thinking, how is this his fault? I realize people sometimes just want to yell at the nearest person to them but this driver has no control over what buses are going where so why not just ask him if he can tell you when a MK bus is coming instead of freaking out on him for something that isn’t his fault.

DD and I were the only ones to get on the bus, apparently because two buses had recently been there, and we were on our way to Epcot.. We arrived and walked up to the crowd at about 8:55 am. What timing….

Can I next say, how much I do NOT like the rope drop situation at Disney parks. I used to have to be at rope drop every day but I am at the point now where I do not like it at all. The reason being is that people can be so rude and they just kill me when they are practically pushing people over just to get to an attraction. While we are standing there, a lady feels she should come out of no where and squeeze herself into the 1 foot space in front of me. I thought, really? Did that really save you that much time while making me feel extremely uncomfortable? Then rope drop happens and people immediately wedge themselves between me and DD to the point I had to grab her hand to avoid getting separated and her getting trampled.

We arrived at the Land to get FP for Soarin and I again watched people get extremely frustrated when the FP line was not moving as fast as they thought it should. The sighing and huffing and puffing going on was downright hilarious.

With fast passes in hand, we headed over to Sunshine Seasons for breakfast. I had a bagel and DD had a cinnamon bun (sshhhh, don’t tell mom!). We had some time to kill so I suggested we head for Imagination so I could get some pictures of the attraction.

We walked in and immediately were boarded and there was not a soul in that pavilion with us besides the people working there. It is a crying shame what has become of this pavilion. I remember as a kid actually waiting in lines for this and now it is just sad that no one cares about it (not that I blame them). Attention Disney: REFURB please!!!

After that, we headed back to Soarin’ to cash in on our fast pass. We always hope for row 1 but this time, it was row 3. It’s still a great attraction no matter what, but we love being higher and not having feet hanging above our heads.

With Soarin complete, we decided we would walk to the Boardwalk, check in and head to DTD for lunch and hopefully to meet up with our friends from PA before they left for home.

We walked over and the lobby was quite busy when we arrived. We witnessed a couple ahead of us who decided to cut the line and I couldn’t believe no one said anything. We saw our share of rude tourists this trip and this was no exception. After about twenty minutes, we were at the registration desk. I had done online check-in so expected this to go quickly. I was wrong.

It took about 20 minutes for the cast member to check us in. When I asked why this was happening as I checked in on line, she said the computer upgrade had caused some problems with the reservation system. Our room was not ready so we left our bags with Bell services and headed to DTD.

DD had played with the make your own T-shirt concept the previous day and decided she wanted to make T-shirts for her brothers for X-mas. We spent about 20 minutes doing that and DD had a ball. After that it was time for lunch. I hadn’t heard from my friend so assumed they had changed plans. I convince DD to go over to Pleasure Island to try fish and chips. During our walk, I looked to my left and spied Pollo Campero and we headed in there to check it out.

We walked in and were greeted immediately by a manager who took us through the menu. He was really doing a nice job of meeting people as they came in and convincing them to give it a try. He sold us so we each tried the chicken with french fries.

The chicken and fries were awesome. We really enjoyed our meal and decided it was definitely the best counter service of the trip so far. I have heard that the burgers aren’t great but I really recommend the chicken with french fries. We decided we would still head over to PI and maybe hit the West side as well.

I have to tell you, I haven’t walked through Pleasure Island since they shut it down and it was really sad. I remembered my college graduation trip where my friend and I headed to Disney and spent a really fun night at Pleasure Island. Seeing the Adventurer’s club empty was very frustrating…

As we continued our walk, we ended up bumping into our friends from PA. They had left the kids with their parents and were trying to get last minute shopping in. We strolled the West side with them and went in a few shops before saying goodbye. We needed to get to the Contemporary for the DVC Merry mixer. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this but wanted to check it out as I may never have the opportunity again.

The bus stop was again a zoo and many people were complaining. Our bus arrived after about 10 minutes and then we had to load two ECV’s. Well, this bus driver was the slowest I had ever seen at getting this accomplished. It was 20 minutes from the time he pulled up until we left. This just added to everyone’s frustration and tempers were high before we finally were on our way.

We arrived at the Contemporary about 1 ½ hours early so I suggested we walk over to the Magic Kingdom to get in a few attractions. What we were met with was quite a difference from the day before. We headed for Frontierland hoping to do Splash or Pirates and the waits were both quite long. We decided on the Tiki room and once that was over it was pretty much time to head back to the Contemporary. This wasn’t the first time we would hit the MK to only do one attraction.

We took the monorail back to the Contemporary and proceeded downstairs to the convention center. We were met with a line of people like I have never seen. We walked all the way to the end of the line, only to find it out it turned a corner and the line was just as big going down the next hall. Luckily, the line moved fairly quickly and we were soon in.

I didn’t really know what to expect and was faced with a large convention room with music playing and several crowds around the outside of the room. I knew we were due some free stuff so joined a big line in one corner of the room. My one big complaint was that nothing was labeled so if you had never been to a Merry Mixer before, it was very confusing where to go. It turned out the line I was in was to purchase items. Most people were looking for pins and I bought a Vinylmation . DD had been complaining the whole time we were there and was even more frustrated to find out we had been waiting in a long line for me to buy a vinylmation. The silent eye rolls were beginning.

I then got in another line for a free calendar and another line for some very tasty krispie treats. After that, we had had enough and wanted to get back and get our room at the BW before our dinner that evening at Via Napoli. We were handed a Xmas ornament on the way out the door and we walked over to catch the bus to BW.

I was supposed to receive a text when our room was ready and it was almost 4:30 by this time and no text. I was getting a little frustrated with my BW experience so far. Upon arriving at the BW, I waited in line to get my room number and then grabbed our bags to put in our room. We were getting close to dinner so hightailed it over to Epcot to make our 5:45 ADR at Via Napoli.

We were seated pretty promptly and while waiting noticed a lot of people trying to get a walkup table, more than I have typically seen at a Disney restaurant. We ordered the pepperoni pizza to split and it was fantastic. Our service was average but this was a great pizza in my opinion. We devoured it and you had to roll us out of there when it was done. DD said to me, “we need to bring mom and the boys back here in August”.

Tonight was EMH at Epcot so our plan was to do some attractions, watch Illuminations and then I would take photos when the park cleared out a bit. We headed for Future World and upon looking at the tip board were faced with a problem. Neither of us wanted to wait for Soarin or Test Track, we didn’t want to do Nemo, Imagination or Energy and that only left Mission Space……within an hour of eating.

We braved Mission Space orange and I’m happy to report no ill effects. We decided to head to Norway after that to ride on the Maelstrom. It was a 20 minute wait and we were then on our way to Germany to the new caramel shop, Karamell-Küche as they were giving away a free bag of caramel corn to annual pass holders.

We were faced with a huge line as we arrived and decided to brave it. After a good twenty minutes, we each had our bag of popcorn, a bag of Werthers and a caramel coated pretzel and strawberry. It was all fantastic and we have found our new favorite store in Epcot.

Illuminations was about to start so we went looking for a spot. I had decided prior to this that I wasn’t going to stake out a spot way ahead of time and we would just get what we got when the time came. My plan was to not take photos so I didn’t really care if I had a great view along the railing. We found spot not far from Germany back from the rail by another rail which afforded us a pretty good view as no one could stand directly in front of us. Despite my earlier thoughts about photos, I decided to set up my camera and try to take a few. They didn't turn out great so I didn't include any here.


We watched what I believe is the most awesome show on earth (especially with the holiday tag) and then decided to walk around so I could snap some photos. I had a list of locations I wanted to shoot and the first was some of the countries at night. We made our way past Japan, France, and the UK and headed for the Imagination pavilion. The sky had a weird orange glow that night which messed with my head on some of these pictures.

At this point, DD was tired and I could sense her frustration with my picture taking mission. She kept asking me why I was taking pictures of everything and groaned every time I changed my lens or stopped to take more. Finally, I gave in and headed back to World Showcase to snap a few countries before making our exit.

It was so nice not to have to deal with buses and to just walk back to our resort. It was about 11:30 by this time and the boardwalk was deserted. I snapped a few photos along the way.

We arrived back in our room and discussed the plan for the next day. The original plan was to do morning EMH at the Studios so we could hit Toy Story Mania. Given the late hour, I volunteered to let DD sleep in. She was having none of it and wanted to get up so we could hit it early. Maybe my “darkness” was starting to rub off….

Next up Day 4 – DD overcomes her fears, my worst Disney meal ever and a crazy night at MK.

 

[Sonnyeclipse]

I've joined in on the fun. Great pics, very nice. I especially like taking pics at night and dark rides.

Can I ask what you are shooting with and what lens you used. That shot on SE and the one on SM are awesome.

I was using a nikon D40. All of the dark ride pictures were taken using a 35mm 1.8G AF-S DX lens. I had read that the fast prime 35mm and 50mm lenses were great for dark rides and they certainly were. I had never been able to get any good dark ride pics until this trip. I recently picked up a D90 so I'm hoping to get more dark ride pics in Feb.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Hi there, my name is Ty, I love reading TR's from the same time that I was there, I feel like I can relate to them more. But the more I read the more you remind me of my own Dad.
I was Daddy's girl and I hit the "My Dad's a dork" stage around the age of 15. We would have our bonding Daddy/daughter trips and my Dad would take his huge camera bag and take pictures of EVERYTHING, switching lenses and waiting for the perfect shot.

We lived in Germany and our DYA was taking a trip to Europa Park, my Dad signed up as one of the chaperones thinking we would have another bonding trip under our belts, but I ditched him to hang with my friends and my Dad was stuck with the fisher girls, they were 9 yrs old and rode nothing but the german version of it's a small world. My Dad has never complained about that.

I regret ditching him to this day. I wished I would have spent the day with my Dad.

It was when I was 19 and my Dad was walking me down the aisle to give me away at my wedding when I realized he wasn't a dork, but I still wish every day that I could get back the time I wasted being too cool for Dad.

I hope your DD always appreciates the time you give her. And trust me, you won't always be a dork in her eyes.

Loving your TR though and can't wait for more.

 

[Disney Commando]

Colin, 1st off Great pics, Just got to ask the pics of You and Taylor was it on a timer or did someone take them for you

 

[Sonnyeclipse]

Colin, 1st off Great pics, Just got to ask the pics of You and Taylor was it on a timer or did someone take them for you

Used a timer and my tripod.

 

[Sonnyeclipse]

We were up early on day 4 as we wanted to make sure we took advantage of EMH so we could hit Toy Story Mania. The popularity of that attraction still amazes me and you have to get there early or accept the fact that you will wait 60-100 minutes for the attraction. We decided we were going to take advantage of the ability to walk to the Studios so we walked over as opposed to waiting for the boat.

We arrived and were met with a bit of a crowd although not quite as large as I had expected. We positioned ourselves in the crowd for the dash to Toy Story Mania. My feelings about my dislike for the whole rope drop situation were documented on my Epcot day and this day was no different as people cut and ran trying to make sure they were at the attraction first. We arrived and waited in a small line for a fast pass. As we were leaving, the line for fast passes behind us was huge and stretched down to One Man’s Dream. Crazy.

We hit Starring Rolls for a breakfast of bagels and croissants before starting our day at the park. Again, our timing was great as when we were leaving, a line was starting to form. I was hoping the rest of our day would follow this pattern.

We headed down Sunset Blvd heading for DD’s favorite ride. Rock N Roller Coaster. In the theme of “kids say the darnedest things”, we heard a young boy asking his Dad to take him on “Tower of Terrorist” as we were walking…..Eeek.

We basically walked on the ride and it was great as usual. As we were leaving, I started in on her about trying Tower of Terror. She had done the ride when she was five and hated it so had refused to do it again on trips after that. I had been bugging her about it the whole trip and much to my surprise she let out a big sigh and said, “Alright, let’s get it over with.”

Again, there was no line up and this probably helped things as she was thrust into the attraction without having to think about it too much. I warned her when the drops were going to start to try and help her through it. Well, when we exited and I asked her if she was OK, her response was………….”can we do it again?” YES!! She had conquered her fear! (Now I just needed to work on Dinosaur).

We decided to do a little shopping after that as we were getting receipts that gave us a 20% discount on shopping at the main stores (Emporium, Mousegear, etc) at each of the parks but you had to shop between 9 and noon. We enjoyed and relatively un-crowded shopping experience and then headed back in the park to do some attractions.

First stop was Great Movie Ride which was a walk on. They really need to change this one up a bit. The story is getting a little old and we need to get some updates with some more recent movies. I did manage to finally get a few photos on this ride but a lot of them still didn’t turn out. After that, we used our fast pass for Toy Story Mania.

I do like this attraction but can’t imagine waiting 90 minutes to do it. We were on it pretty quickly and I do recall breaking 200,000 for the first time. After that, we hit one of my favorites, One Man’s Dream. I loved walking through and looking at the displays but DD doesn’t have the patience for it so we kind of went through it pretty quickly. She did agree to watch the film and despite the fact she had seen it before, I think she actually paid attention to it this time as she started asking me questions after it was over. Maybe there is hope to turn her into a Disney “dork” like her Dad??

We then headed for another attraction that we both enjoy, the Art of Animation. Although, it is a shadow of what it once was, I do enjoy the film with Mushu and find it quite funny. We also seem to get the same host every time and she does a nice job. One of the main reasons we enjoy this is the drawing class and unfortunately it had just begun as we walked up so we would have to wait for the next class. DD was not into waiting so we split.

We had some time to kill before the one last thing that DD wanted to do, the American Idol Experience. We walked around the park a bit and remarked that we really missed Star Tours as there didn’t seem to be much left to do and it was only 11AM. We decided to hit the Writer’s Stop for a snack and had the delicious carrot cake cookie. MMMM.

After that, we decided to head over and wait for American Idol. I am one that can take or leave this attraction. I expected to really dislike it, but I actually can put up with it. DD LOVES it. As we watched, I wasn’t real impressed with any of the contestants and the guy that won was probably the worst singer in my opinion. He just knew how to work the crowd. I noticed as we were leaving that a lot of cast members were hitting people up to try out. It must have been a slow day for contestants.

We decided to leave the park after that and walked back to the Boardwalk for a little rest. We had an ADR at the Magic Kingdom so after a little rest, decided to head over and maybe catch a few attractions before dinner.

We were totally caught off guard by what we encountered. The Magic Kingdom was PACKED. My Lines app told me it was going to be a 9/10 and it certainly was. It was really hard to believe after the empty park we had encountered two days earlier. As we walked around, there were tour groups and cheerleaders everywhere. Now I saw why the park hours were changed to close at 1 AM. Wait times were all close to an hour and the only thing we seemed to have time to do was Carousel of Progress.

After that we headed back to Main St for our dinner at Tony’s Town Square.

I had read many poor reviews on this restaurant but really wanted to try in myself. I could never seem to get an ADR there but this trip I was successful and given the fact that DD loves Italian food, we decided it was a good idea.

We arrived and waited about 10 minutes before being seated. We were seated in a corner and the restaurant was quite busy. I was hopeful for a good experience. Our waitress arrived to give us recommendations and take our drink order. This was another time where I felt we were being rushed a bit as she was pushing us to order. I ordered chicken parmesan and DD ordered spaghetti.

Like the Kona, our meals seemed to arrive WAY too quickly and judging by the temperature, had obviously been sitting under lights. I almost sent them back but decided to try and push through it. As we started to eat, my fears were realized as the reviews I had read were spot on. The food was absolutely horrible. The sauce was not good at all and my chicken had very little cheese on it and just didn’t taste good either. I was contemplating sending them back but thought I would just receive more mediocre food so ate as much as I could.

As we were sitting there we noticed another table with numerous complaints about food temperature, steaks being over/under cooked and just all around poor taste of the food. The table was very frustrated with the meal and the waitress (which was the same one we had) just had an “oh well” attitude.


I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. We both agreed that this was, by far, the worst meal we had ever had at Walt Disney World and we would never be returning there again. Thank god all five of us weren’t there or I would have been really upset about the money spent on bad food.

Our plans for the evening were to spend it in Magic Kingdom. Given the crowd levels, we agreed to head to Epcot and then come back to the Magic Kingdom for the Main St Electrical parade that evening and hopefully the park would thin out after that.

The journey over was longer than expected as there seemed to be as many people leaving the Magic Kingdom as there was arriving. When we arrived, Epcot was busy but much more manageable. We hit Spaceship Earth, and then walked over to Mexico to do the Gran Fiesta Tour. I took a few photos and before we knew it, we had killed a few hours and were heading back to the Magic Kingdom.

The park was still quite busy although it did seem to have emptied out a bit from our earlier trip there. We had grabbed a fast pass for Space Mountain earlier so used that first. We walked through Fantasyland and all of the attractions there had waits so we headed for Liberty Square. The lineup for the Haunted Mansion wasn’t too bad so we decided to try that.

After the Haunted Mansion, Wishes was about to start. We had both agreed that we had seen Wishes many times so were going to skip going to get a viewing spot and would try to focus on attractions instead. We decided to head for Splash/Thunder and were pleasantly surprised that Splash had a five minute wait listed. It was still cool so it didn’t surprise me that the wait was low, I just didn’t expect it to be this low.

We actually had a boat to ourselves and it was a great experience. As we did the outside portion, Wishes was starting and it was great to actually watch a bit of Wishes while riding Splash. As we finished the attraction, we contemplated doing it again but decided to go stake out a spot for the Main St Electrical parade instead as I definitely wanted to take a few photos.

We found a pretty good spot on Main St and were lucky to get it as Main St was already crowded. I had never seen the parade when it was at WDW so was looking forward to it and I wasn’t disappointed. We both really enjoyed the parade and after seeing Spectromagic so many times, this was a nice change and I had some pretty good luck with photos.

We were both beat after that so decided to head back to the resort. We had done a lot of running around and it was a long day. The bus was absolutely stuffed on the way back and I was tired and not in the best mood. One thing that annoyed me this trip was watching people sit comfortably in their seats while the elderly, children and women holding babies stood. What have we become where we can’t be kind to each other? On this trip, I witnessed a lady struggling with her baby and being forced to stand. I couldn’t believe no one offered her a seat so I kind of yelled over at her that I would give her my seat and she politely declined and thanked me. I figure she probably didn’t want to wade through the cattle to get to me as she was not real close to where I was sitting.

Anyway, we arrived back at the Boardwalk at close to midnight and promptly hit the sack. We were disappointed that we didn’t get to do more at the Magic Kingdom and decided to change our Epcot plans for the next day and go back to Magic Kingdom instead. We also agreed we would sleep in as we needed it.

Next up – Day 5 – Magic Kingdom madness, my new favorite restaurant and a cold night at the Studios.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Have just stumbled across your TR...loving it so far!

It's a shame about your experiences at Kona and Tony's but am looking forward to hearing what is your favourite restaurant.

I think it's great that you and your daughter are getting to spend quality time together before she hits her teenage years. Looking forward to more!

TanzUnited99

 

[Sonnyeclipse]

Have just stumbled across your TR...loving it so far!

It's a shame about your experiences at Kona and Tony's but am looking forward to hearing what is your favourite restaurant.

I think it's great that you and your daughter are getting to spend quality time together before she hits her teenage years. Looking forward to more!

TanzUnited99

I was disappointed about those too. I didn't expect Tony's to be great based on the reviews I had read but really didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. Kona was the one that really let me down as I had a great experience there the last time. I'm not giving up on Kona though and am doing dinner there in Feb.

Thanks for reading.

 

[TanzUnited99]

I was disappointed about those too. I didn't expect Tony's to be great based on the reviews I had read but really didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. Kona was the one that really let me down as I had a great experience there the last time. I'm not giving up on Kona though and am doing dinner there in Feb.

Thanks for reading.

Fingers crossed that you have better luck in February...have also read great dinner reviews of Kona so maybe it was just a one off. You'll have to let us know on your return.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Colin, your pictures are absolutely incredible. You've got a great eye (I'm sure the tripod helps, too). Sorry your daughter was getting a little exasperated with the picture-taking, but I think it was definitely worth it!

Awesome job conquering ToT! She must be braver than I am.

I'm sorry Kona and Tony's didn't measure up. We did both restaurants on our trip and enjoyed our time at both--Kona was a great dinner and Tony's gave us no problems as well. That stinks that you had a bad experience.

 

[afwdwfan]

We decided we were going to take advantage of the ability to walk to the Studios so we walked over as opposed to waiting for the boat.

That is the exact reason I'd love to stay at one of those EPCOT/DHS area hotels. I'd love having the ability to just get up and walk to one of those parks.

In the theme of “kids say the darnedest things”, we heard a young boy asking his Dad to take him on “Tower of Terrorist” as we were walking…..Eeek.

Talk about a new age thrill ride...

Sorry you had some bad restaurant experiences. I love Italian too and have never tried Tony's. Fortunately there are other good options to get Italian food on property.

 

[Disney Commando]

Never been to Tony's, I try to stay out of the parks for dinner, since they are the busiest, I will now make it a point not to go there, even though DW wanted to try it

 

[Sonnyeclipse]

Our last full day began at around 8am. We awoke, got ready and headed for the bus to the Magic Kingdom. As usual, the bus was packed. I really was beginning to dislike the bus service from the Boardwalk to the Magic Kingdom. I understand that Disney needs to utilize the buses efficiently but it seemed like every bus was absolutely stuffed.

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom and immediately headed to the Main St Bakery to grab a bite for breakfast. The line was pretty long and after about 15 minutes we luckily scored a seat and had our usual bagel/croissant breakfast. After eating, we headed for Tomorrowland.

Buzz was only a ten minute wait so we hit that first. I had learned some tricks but can’t seem to hit those darn high scoring targets with any consistency. My hope this trip was to max out my score but I think the best I did was just over 500,000. We went over to grab a fast pass for Space afterwards and took a trip on the TTA. I know I’m old school but I really miss the old soundtrack. I loved the big voice with “Now approaching…..” Oh well, I have to accept change.

This picture has convinced me that weight loss needs to be in my future!

Our next stop was Fantasyland and Winnie the Pooh. I wanted to check out the new queue and since this was to be my last opportunity, we decided to wait in line. As much as I think the new queue is great and very well designed, I witnessed that it also can hold up the line and wind kids up to the point where an instant headache results upon entering the queue. I did manage to get some photos on the ride which was a first.

Next we headed to Frontierland to grab a fast pass for Big Thunder. The clouds were starting to look like rain was coming and sure enough, a downpour started just as we were making our way back to the main strip in Frontierland. We ducked into the Country Bear Jamboree to catch that show and it was still raining when we were let out.

We decided to stick to the indoor rides and headed over to do the Hall of Presidents as DD hadn’t seen it with the new script and the Obama AA. She was impressed and thought it was much better than she remembered. We then went over to hit Space Mountain with the fast pass we obtained earlier. It was still raining and we were starting to get a little hungry so grabbed a pretzel and churro back in Frontierland and took shelter by a vacant food cart. As we were eating, the rain was slowing so we decided to go brave Big Thunder as our fast pass time was now available.

It was still raining a bit as we rode and then something happened which I had never experienced before. About 2/3 through the ride, our train abruptly stopped. All the times I had rode Big Thunder, this had never happened before. The un-nerving part was I could still hear another train moving around on the track. I kept thinking to myself, why is there another train still moving if we are not and is it eventually going to catch up to us? Then, a scary thing happened. The train started moving with a very loud bang and an abrupt jerk forward, if I didn’t know better, I would swear the train behind us hit our train. I was in the second seat from the front so couldn’t see but I questioned it the whole rest of the ride. When we arrived back at the station, I was surprised no one said anything.


The wet weather was putting a damper on things so we decided to hop on the train, head back to Main St and head back to the Boardwalk to dry off. We boarded another crowded bus (where I witnessed another lady with a baby not getting a seat offered to her) and said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom for this trip.

When we arrived, we decided to pick up the next day’s breakfast at the Boardwalk bakery as it would save us time in the morning. We picked up our breakfast and headed back to the room. We packed up our bags and DD started getting her pressed pennies together to put in the binders we had purchased.

I haven’t talked about the pressed pennies so far but let me just say that they were a hit with DD as I thought they would be. She really enjoyed collecting them and got great satisfaction when she found a new machine that we hadn’t hit yet. We collected quite a few this trip and plan to make sure we get more on every trip.

After we were packed, we changed and walked over to the restaurant for tonight’s dinner, the Yachtsman’s Steakhouse. I figured this would be a good time to try this restaurant as it was only the two of us and the expense would be much lower than bringing five of us there.

We got our buzzer and within ten minutes we were seated. I was desperate for a good experience after our horrible dinner at Tony’s the night before. As soon as the server came up and started talking, I knew things were up. She was very personable and knowledgeable and was obviously a professional. We both ordered the filet and she brought us some very tasty bread to munch on while we were waiting. The onion bread was fantastic and she brought us more as soon as she saw how much we were enjoying it.

After a little while, our steaks arrived. These were definitely not sitting under lights. The steaks were flavorful, cooked perfectly and the potatoes with them were excellent. I was so pleased that we had tried this place as my experience was fantastic. It is pricey but I loved everything about it and the Yachtsman’s steakhouse is definitely one of my favorites, if not my favorite, restaurant in Disney.

We paid our bill and made the walk over to Epcot and hit the caramel shop one more time. The rain had brought a definite chill to the air and it was getting downright cold. I had kept my shorts on and I almost turned back to change. I decided to brave it out and we hit the caramel shop for some goodies to take home with us (the caramel corn is excellent).

We decided to try one last ride on Test Track before heading over to the Studios. We got in line and were witness to a large Brazilian tour group all around us in line being very loud and obnoxious. At one point, I saw more coming and let them go ahead to be with their group as I could just imagine them yelling back and forth to each other over our heads. I had half a headache by the time we exited Test Track. At this point, we decided to make our way to the International Gateway to take the boat to the Studios to attend evening EMH.

It was around 8pm when we boarded the boat and as we started to make the stops, the boat became more crowded to the point that I couldn’t believe they were continuing to let people on. I put my faith in the operators and finally we were off to the Studios in the most crowded boat I had ever been on.

We made a beeline for Tower of Terror and there was a very small wait to get on. Next stop was RNR coaster and the wait time said one hour. I looked at DD and knew she really wanted to do it so I agreed to wait. The wait time turned out to be more like 30 minutes which was a nice surprise.

It was really cold by this point and I figured I better start taking photos and making my way over to the Osborne Lights. I took several photos of the hat, Echo Lake and Hollywood Blvd before heading to my favorite WDW holiday experience. I just love the Osborne Lights and really want to get the whole family down one year to watch them.

It was a little more crowded than I anticipated especially for 10:30 at night, but was quite manageable. I started setting up for photos and after about 20 minutes, DD started in on me to leave. It was pretty cold so I got as many shots as I could but had to rush the last few as I could tell she really wanted to leave.

We made our way to the exit and looked at the lineup for the boat and decided to walk. It was COLD. I remarked to her that I couldn’t believe the last two times her and I were at WDW it was freezing cold. As it is just my luck, boats started streaming to the Studios as we were walking and I figure if we had waited in line, we would have been on a boat in no time. Oh well.

We got back to the room and finished packing everything, taking out only what we needed for the next day. The plan was to hit Animal Kingdom for EMH in the am as we had a 11:20 Magical Express pick up time. I did not hit any of the walking trails on Day 1, so that was my goal for the morning. We turned on Stacy and before I knew it, we were off to sleep.

 

[TanzUnited99]

on BTMRR experience. Think I would have been scared if that had happened.

Am glad you had a good dining experience at Yachtsman Steakhouse and the Osbourne Lights look fantastic.

Look forward to hearing about your am at AK

 

[carissanboys]

Hey Colin! You should be 40 and proud! I know easier said than done as I panic at turning 37 in 2 months.

Off to get caught up...