Trick or Treat & Eat Some Sweets! Oct 2018 TR - LInk to new TR 5/17/19!

[Pluto0809]

I'm so sorry for your loss I know you spoke of your Great Aunt a lot on your TRs.

Really nice early morning photos of the resort! And sounds like a good morning at Sea World! Love the penguins!

Thank you. Sea World was a whole lot of fun that day.

Yes. That's how I was able to do my Drink-Through-the-Alphabet Game a couple of years ago.

Yeah, this seems to be the norm although I've found a few exceptions.

 

[Pluto0809]

Silly Sea Lions and Scary Sharks

Another reason we picked The Spice Mill for lunch was for its closeness to the Sea Lion High theater. This show was my top priority for the day because it had been closed for renovations back in 2015.

Once again we managed to find excellent seats. The park was really not very crowded that day.



The basic premise of the show was that Clyde and Seamore (the Sea Lions) were failing several classes in High School and needed to quickly prove they could pass those classes in order to receive scholarships. Yep, it was pretty cheesy and a whole lot of fun. There were also some otters involved and a walrus at the end. The funniest part of the show was when one of the otters would not do his trick. He was supposed to run across the stage carrying the “scholarships” but wouldn’t do it. So they had some random stage hand run across with them. It totally threw off the human actors who had to improvise their lines for a minute or two. Any ways, we all really enjoyed the show and I will shut up now and share some of the many pictures I took.























After the show I have an hour gap between pictures because we decided to ride the new coaster, The Mako. When we got to the entrance the wait time said 20 minutes which we didn’t think was too bad. You are not allowed to carry anything onto the rides so we gave all of our bags/cell phones/cameras, etc. to Mom since she wasn’t going to ride. The area around the entrance was pretty crowded so she said she would find a bench somewhere and we would just have to find her afterwards.

At first the line moved pretty nicely. The queue weaved in and out on ground level and then eventually you had to climb several flights of steps to get to the loading area. We were about ½ up the steps when the line came to an abrupt halt. We stood there for a good 15 minutes not moving as we watched them send the ride vehicle through without passengers a few times. And they were only running one vehicle that day on all three coasters for some reason. We knew it was going to be a lot longer than 20 minutes but without our cell phones we had no way of letting Mom know what was going on.

We finally started moving again and made it up to the loading area which was pure chaos. No one was directing people into the lines so we just picked one. The coaster seated 4 across but because there was no one directing people into lines, they were sending out the one lone vehicle with a lot of vacant seats each time.

It also seemed to take a long time to load and several times they had to make people leave because they were too large and the lap bar would not lock. At one point, a worker was pretty much putting her full weight into the lap bar to try to get it to lock with no success.

40 minutes later we were finally on the coaster. This one was definitely a one and done for me. There are no loops or anything but there were huge hills and the lap bar was designed in a way to give you a ton of air up and over the hills. It felt very unsafe to me, I was sure I was going to fall out at any minute. And watching the loading beforehand with the lap bars not locking for everyone did not help my confidence in the ride. Needless to say I hated the coaster and was very relieved to be off of it and back on solid ground at the end.

When we exited the ride, we had no idea where Mom might be but we turned left, got lucky and found her pretty quickly. She was a bit worried since we took so long but we explained about the long line and the ride being down for a bit.

We decided to head to Shark Encounter next which was a walk through and would hopefully be a little less scary than the Mako "shark" we just rode.
Outside of the building were some cute birds.





Inside the building, there were lots of tanks of different fish.





And then towards the end, there was an underwater viewing tunnel that took you through the shark tank.



I didn’t get very good pictures in this area, the lighting was weird, but it was cool to see the sharks swimming all around and above you.





After Shark Encounter, we headed over to Pacific Point Preserve which is home to a whole bunch of Sea Lions and birds.





I swear this next guy knew I was taking his picture and posed for me. More likely he was hoping I had some fish to feed him.





Mom did sneak off and buy some fish so we could feed the Sea Lions. Other than having to touch the slimy fish, it was pretty fun to feed them. You had to throw the fish pretty quickly so that the birds didn’t swoop down and steal them. The Sea Lions were very good at catching those fish. Here’s a few more pictures I took before we moved on to the next activity.







Our next stop was Turtle Trek which is a 3D movie about the life of a Sea Turtle. I did get us a little lost on the way there, it’s kind of back out of the way and I definitely don’t know that park like I know Disney! We did eventually make it there and spent some time in the waiting area checking out the Manatees and the Sea Turtles. Sea World does great work rehabbing and releasing many of these animals back into the wild but they also have some that will never be able to live in the wild again. They have some with missing limbs or damaged shells thanks to boat strikes and fishing nets. One of the Sea Turtles was even missing a leg due to an alligator attack. The ones that can’t be released back into the wild, live out their lives at the parks.









The show itself is pretty cool. It’s 3D in the round and I swear at time the fish and other sea creatures seemed to be swimming right by us. John did get a little nauseous from it (didn’t bother me) and said he had to close his eyes a few times.

We continued on to check out the rest of the Manatee Rehabilitation area and we stopped for a quick picture of John and Jocelyn. I think this was the only picture we took all day with any of us in it.



We only had one more area of the park to hit up after we finished in the Manatee area. We decided to do some shopping and then head to see Wild Arctic and the Killer Whale show, One Ocean.

I ended up picking up a magnet for my file cabinet at work.



And a Sea Turtle to go with the Shamu I bought back in 2015.



Up Next: One Ocean and Disney Springs

 

[pkondz]

If I'm remembering correctly, it is tucked back in a corner so it is possible you never saw it.

Very possible.

I have no idea how I spotted it or why we ever thought it was a good idea to ride it.

OK, you got me there with that one. I think being banned would be my worst nightmare.

What about being banned and being put in a small room filled with spiders?

Yikes, that doesn't sound like fun at all.

It's a pain in the neck.

Very true. I have found a few exceptions though. The Ice Cream Martini's in France left me reeling as did the drinks at Abracadabar on the Boardwalk.

So you're recommending these spots then, are you?

Oh man, let's not even think of going there!

I always think my photos are going to look 10 times better than they do. Which is expecting a lot from my little point and shoot.

Don't expect professional photos from a non-professional camera.
Unless it's a phone, of course.

I read a story once where someone actually did that at ASMu. It was over at the Broadway section where the walkway between the buildings looks like an actual road. They thought it was a real road and drove right up to the front door of the building!

I think they should allow it!
That could be a VIP package.
"Oh! You paid for VIP parking. Just drive on through and park in front of your room."

I don't mind them but then again I have the palette of a 2 year old so don't take my word.

It is a very fun coaster, we have a similar one here in Atlanta at Six Flags. I will say that if you ever ride that type, be very mindful of your neck. There is one part where you go through a reverse loop. In other words you start at the top of the loop and go head first down and then are on your back at the bottom. You pull some serious Gs during the loop and when we rode in October, my head snapped back hard onto the headrest.

Yep, it was definitely not anamatronic penguins in that area!

More like aromatic penguins.

Once again my awkward sentence structure comes back to haunt me. I guess what I should have said was that we were getting hungry but we didn't want to go in search of food without visiting the aquarium that was right there first.

Nah. I like my version better.

 

[missjackiemcg]

That rollercoaster experience sounds terrifying...especially the lapbar issues. Yikes.

Mom did sneak off and buy some fish so we could feed the Sea Lions. Other than having to touch the slimy fish, it was pretty fun to feed them. You had to throw the fish pretty quickly so that the birds didn’t swoop down and steal them.

We had a similar experience at Gatorland! You can buy meat to toss to the alligators, but the birds are REALLY aggressive and yank it from your fingers or swoop down and grab it out of your hand. They're scarier to me than the gators LOL

 

[pkondz]

Another reason we picked The Spice Mill for lunch was for its closeness to the Sea Lion High theater.

Of course. You often see sea lions with those big pepper mills.

Once again we managed to find excellent seats.

Center, just out of the splash zone. Nice.

The basic premise of the show was that Clyde and Seamore (the Sea Lions) were failing several classes in High School and needed to quickly prove they could pass those classes in order to receive scholarships.

High stakes! The pressure!!!

There were also some otters involved

There otter be.

The funniest part of the show was when one of the otters would not do his trick. He was supposed to run across the stage carrying the “scholarships” but wouldn’t do it. So they had some random stage hand run across with them.

That would've been fun to see!

Whoa. Big boy.

You are not allowed to carry anything onto the rides so we gave all of our bags/cell phones/cameras, etc. to Mom since she wasn’t going to ride.

Weighted down by all the electronics, she collapsed to the ground.

We knew it was going to be a lot longer than 20 minutes but without our cell phones we had no way of letting Mom know what was going on.

You needed a couple of tin cans with a realllllly long string.

At one point, a worker was pretty much putting her full weight into the lap bar to try to get it to lock with no success.

40 minutes later we were finally on the coaster.

Hmmm... on the one hand... it's twice the wait you thought it would be. On the other hand... 40 minutes for a new coaster isn't too bad.

This one was definitely a one and done for me. There are no loops or anything but there were huge hills and the lap bar was designed in a way to give you a ton of air up and over the hills. It felt very unsafe to me, I was sure I was going to fall out at any minute. And watching the loading beforehand with the lap bars not locking for everyone did not help my confidence in the ride. Needless to say I hated the coaster and was very relieved to be off of it and back on solid ground at the end.

Sorry it wasn't a good experience.

And then towards the end, there was an underwater viewing tunnel that took you through the shark tank.

Love those.

it was cool to see the sharks swimming all around and above you.

I swear this next guy knew I was taking his picture and posed for me. More likely he was hoping I had some fish to feed him.

"Say cheese!"

Mom did sneak off and buy some fish so we could feed the Sea Lions.

So he was right to hope for fish!!

They have some with missing limbs or damaged shells thanks to boat strikes and fishing nets.

Not surprised. I forget the name, but one of the ones at Epcot suffered the same fate. Very little tail left.

One of the Sea Turtles was even missing a leg due to an alligator attack.

I suppose this isn't overly surprising.

Wow! Lot of them.

The show itself is pretty cool. It’s 3D in the round and I swear at time the fish and other sea creatures seemed to be swimming right by us.

Cool!

John did get a little nauseous from it (didn’t bother me) and said he had to close his eyes a few times.

Too bad. But... surprising to me.

I ended up picking up a magnet for my file cabinet at work.

Magnets too????

And a Sea Turtle to go with the Shamu I bought back in 2015.

And turtles???

Where will it end!!!!!

 

[missangelalexis]

The Sea Lion show sounds cute! And feeding them sounds fun too!

 

[disneyAndi14]

The rides at Sea World freaked me out just looking at them, haha!

We did the 3D show and I remember enjoying that

The manatees are so fun to watch.

 

[Tracy161]

Sounds like a great afternoon at SeaWorld! Yikes, your description of the coaster made me nervous just reading about it!

 

[Lesley Wake]

We finally started moving again and made it up to the loading area which was pure chaos. No one was directing people into the lines so we just picked one. The coaster seated 4 across but because there was no one directing people into lines, they were sending out the one lone vehicle with a lot of vacant seats each time.

It also seemed to take a long time to load and several times they had to make people leave because they were too large and the lap bar would not lock. At one point, a worker was pretty much putting her full weight into the lap bar to try to get it to lock with no success.

Ugh, I hate it when its that chaotic! Once I went to Six Flags with my school and there was a group of friends trying to ride a coaster. We just ended up filing into multiple random lines and barely any of us were on the same coaster, so it took a lot of time to regroup at the end. I prefer Disney's organizational methods better!

 

[ariane37]

The basic premise of the show was that Clyde and Seamore (the Sea Lions) were failing several classes in High School and needed to quickly prove they could pass those classes in order to receive scholarships.

OMG I swear we saw this show last time we were there in 2011! It sounds so familiar.....if it is the one we saw it really was cute.

We had a similar experience at Gatorland! You can buy meat to toss to the alligators, but the birds are REALLY aggressive and yank it from your fingers or swoop down and grab it out of your hand.

And I did this too! I was in Gatorland way back in 1991. I want to say they gave us whole chickens to throw to the gators? And the birds almost attacked you! It was a cool place though that I always wanted to bring the boys.

 

[missjackiemcg]

And I did this too! I was in Gatorland way back in 1991. I want to say they gave us whole chickens to throw to the gators? And the birds almost attacked you! It was a cool place though that I always wanted to bring the boys.

Rob is a huge alligator lover (and Florida Gators fan--Chomp, Chomp!), so that's his "must" when we go to WDW, but I've managed to only make it work in our schedule twice LOL Jimmy loved it though, so I have a hunch we'll be back there soon!

 

[Terra Nova guy]

I haven't been to SeaWorld in years now, I think 2013 was the last time.

It looks like the sea lion show premise hasn't changed in a while. It was a fun show but yeah, kind of cheesy. I would see it again if I went though.

I haven't had much of a desire to go back to SeaWorld. The coasters are just too intense - it sounds like Mako really is not the one for me. The other exhibits are nice but just not really enough to plan a day away from Disney for me.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Yay I am finally all caught up on your TR! I love all the detail that you post. Makes me feel like I'm at Food and Wine all over again!
So sorry again about your Great Aunt. It sounds like she was very special to your family.
Sea World looks fun. The Sea Lions are so cute!

 

[Steppesister]

40 minutes later we were finally on the coaster. This one was definitely a one and done for me. There are no loops or anything but there were huge hills and the lap bar was designed in a way to give you a ton of air up and over the hills. It felt very unsafe to me, I was sure I was going to fall out at any minute. And watching the loading beforehand with the lap bars not locking for everyone did not help my confidence in the ride. Needless to say I hated the coaster and was very relieved to be off of it and back on solid ground at the end.

Nope, nope, noppity NOPE!

Pretty one! I like it!

 

[Pluto0809]

What about being banned and being put in a small room filled with spiders?

Hmmm, add a few clowns and I think you have definitely found my worst nightmare.

So you're recommending these spots then, are you?

Don't expect professional photos from a non-professional camera.
Unless it's a phone, of course.

I always think my little camera will do better than it does. I don't want to upgrade though because I just don't have the desire to learn a more complicated camera.

More like aromatic penguins.

Definitely true in this case!

That rollercoaster experience sounds terrifying...especially the lapbar issues. Yikes.

I was not happy riding that one at all and the more I watched the loading the more nervous I got. I was pretty worked up about it by the time we actually got on the coaster.

We had a similar experience at Gatorland! You can buy meat to toss to the alligators, but the birds are REALLY aggressive and yank it from your fingers or swoop down and grab it out of your hand. They're scarier to me than the gators LOL

Gatorland is definitely on my list of places to go in Florida! I might try to fit this one in on our next Universal trip. I must get back to Universal soon since the new HP coaster is opening this summer.

 

[Pluto0809]

Of course. You often see sea lions with those big pepper mills.

Center, just out of the splash zone. Nice.

We did have great luck with seats that day.

That would've been fun to see!

That was the best part of the show. It was hilarious to watch the actors scramble to explain the random guy running across the stage.

Whoa. Big boy.

He was huge! The picture does not do him justice.

Weighted down by all the electronics, she collapsed to the ground.

Pretty much!

You needed a couple of tin cans with a realllllly long string.

I was seriously stressed not having my phone so I could let her know what was going on. Guess that's just a sign of the times we live in. I can't figure out for the life of me how we survived before smart phones.

Hmmm... on the one hand... it's twice the wait you thought it would be. On the other hand... 40 minutes for a new coaster isn't too bad.

I just wish they had been running more than one car on the track. That would have made the line so much better.

Love those.

The shark tunnel was very cool although it didn't come close to the one at the Georgia Aquarium with the Whale Sharks.

So he was right to hope for fish!!

There were lots of people throwing fish, so yep he was definitely begging at that point!

Not surprised. I forget the name, but one of the ones at Epcot suffered the same fate. Very little tail left.

I love stopping to check out those guys in Epcot. I can't remember the names either. I may have a picture of them somewhere but I'll never find it at this point. I have way too many pictures from Disney!

Magnets too????

Of course. I like to get one from any place I've visited. I used to do key chains but they are not as easy to display as magnets so I switched a few years ago. I still have three drawers on my file cabinet to fill up so I have a ways to go!

 

[pkondz]

That was the best part of the show. It was hilarious to watch the actors scramble to explain the random guy running across the stage.

He was huge! The picture does not do him justice.

eep!

I was seriously stressed not having my phone so I could let her know what was going on. Guess that's just a sign of the times we live in. I can't figure out for the life of me how we survived before smart phones.

Ah yes... someone would say something like "Did you hear that..." And there was no way of checking, so you just believed it.

The shark tunnel was very cool although it didn't come close to the one at the Georgia Aquarium with the Whale Sharks.

Nothing does.

I love stopping to check out those guys in Epcot. I can't remember the names either. I may have a picture of them somewhere but I'll never find it at this point. I have way too many pictures from Disney!

Going backstage and learning more about them was one of the best parts of that tour.

Of course.

of course...

I still have three drawers on my file cabinet to fill up so I have a ways to go!

 

[Pluto0809]

The Sea Lion show sounds cute! And feeding them sounds fun too!

It was a very fun show and we had a blast feeding them afterwards.

The rides at Sea World freaked me out just looking at them, haha!

We did the 3D show and I remember enjoying that

The manatees are so fun to watch.

All three coasters are pretty intense at Sea World but luckily they have a lot of other stuff to do. I really liked the 3D show too, it was cool how it felt like the fish were all around you.

Sounds like a great afternoon at SeaWorld! Yikes, your description of the coaster made me nervous just reading about it!

We did have a very fun day but that coaster was definitely a one and done for me!

Ugh, I hate it when its that chaotic! Once I went to Six Flags with my school and there was a group of friends trying to ride a coaster. We just ended up filing into multiple random lines and barely any of us were on the same coaster, so it took a lot of time to regroup at the end. I prefer Disney's organizational methods better!

It seems like most amusement parks are like that. I grew up in Pittsburgh PA and we always went to a park called Kennywood. I always remember having to count people in front of you to try to get on the same ride together. I think we are all a bit spoiled by Disney.

OMG I swear we saw this show last time we were there in 2011! It sounds so familiar.....if it is the one we saw it really was cute.

I'm not sure if it was the same or not but they've had a Sea Lion show forever so you definitely did see one. I remember watching the Clyde and Seamore show growing up but I think it might have been pirate themed then?

And I did this too! I was in Gatorland way back in 1991. I want to say they gave us whole chickens to throw to the gators? And the birds almost attacked you! It was a cool place though that I always wanted to bring the boys.

Gatorland is definitely on my list to visit someday. I want to head back for some Universal time in order to catch the new Potter coaster. So maybe during that trip since we usually rent a car for the Universal trips.

I haven't been to SeaWorld in years now, I think 2013 was the last time.

It looks like the sea lion show premise hasn't changed in a while. It was a fun show but yeah, kind of cheesy. I would see it again if I went though.

I haven't had much of a desire to go back to SeaWorld. The coasters are just too intense - it sounds like Mako really is not the one for me. The other exhibits are nice but just not really enough to plan a day away from Disney for me.

I know the show was closed for renovation when we were there in 2015 but I'm not sure if they were changing the show or just sprucing up the existing one.

The coasters are definitely intense. I prefer the milder ones like SDD and 7DMT at WDW.

Yay I am finally all caught up on your TR! I love all the detail that you post. Makes me feel like I'm at Food and Wine all over again!
So sorry again about your Great Aunt. It sounds like she was very special to your family.
Sea World looks fun. The Sea Lions are so cute!

Wow, thanks for hopping aboard and getting caught up. I'm still way behind on your TRs and everyone else's too. I have just been too busy at work lately which sucks.

I ended up signing up for the 2019 Fall Feast 5K yesterday so it looks like I'm going back this year for Wine and Dine again.

Nope, nope, noppity NOPE!

I will not be riding that coaster again!

Pretty one! I like it!

Thanks! It's even sparklier (I think I just made up a word there) in person! You can't go wrong with sparkles and turtles I always say.

 

[Pluto0809]

One Ocean and Disney Springs Part 1

Before heading over to the other side of the park to visit Wild Arctic, we made a quick stop at the Manta Aquarium. You can actually see part of this aquarium from the line for the Manta but Jocelyn and I hadn’t seen much that morning since we walked straight onto the coaster. This one was small like the Jewel of the Sea Aquarium we visited before lunch but at least it didn’t end in a gift shop this time.











Then we started the hike over to the other side to see the last section of the park. We passed by the lake where they were already setting up for the Christmas show that started later that year.



One of the things we didn’t get to do during the day was the Sky Tower that you can see in the next picture. John really wanted to do it but then we found out it was an additional cost above our park tickets so he said to forget it.



We made it over to Wild Arctic and since we are wimps, we got it line for the stationary movie. There is also a wilder flight simulator version but with John and me both subject to motion sickness, we decided to go the safe route.

The movie is basically a helicopter “ride” out to Base Station Wild Arctic where you get to see Beluga Whales, Walruses and Seals. Of course since it’s a simulator ride, you run into all kinds of problems on the way there that makes the ride jerky and bumpy. Even sitting in the theater without moving seats, it made me slightly nauseous so I’m really glad we chose the stationary version.

Once you get “off” the helicopter, you make your way through the building to see the animals. It’s really dark in the building so most of my pictures did not come out. I didn’t get any of the Belugas and only one of the seals and one of the walruses.



I wish this second photo had come out better because the Walrus was right up against the glass and he was huge!



We finished up in Wild Arctic with a tiny bit of time to spare before the One Ocean show started. The theater was right across the way from the Wild Arctic building so we used the restroom, grabbed some snacks and then found seats in the theater. I ended up just getting a drink and finishing up my cookies from lunch. Mom got some gummy candies and John and Jocelyn popcorn.

Once again we had no problem getting great seats walking in 15 minutes before show time.



The show was mainly a showcase of the whales doing tricks, sort of like the Dolphin show earlier that day. The main difference here though is that the trainers do not get in the water with the animals. So sit back and enjoy the photos I took during the show.

















I’m definitely glad we weren’t sitting in the front rows!





Continued in Next Post

 

[Pluto0809]

One Ocean and Disney Springs Part 2

And that folks, was the end of our Sea World day. The only thing we didn’t get in (other than the Sky Tower) that we had planned on was the Pets Ahoy show which is basically a showcase of rescued dogs and cats. We had planned on seeing it but the 40 minute wait for the Mako ate up too much time. It wasn’t really a priority though and none of us were that sad to miss it.

On the way out of the park I did stop to make a few pressed pennies. Here they are with the one pin I traded for later that night at DS.



Once we exited the park, Jocelyn called us an Uber which showed up very quickly. The driver was a nice young man and we spent most of the trip to Disney Springs chatting with him about driving for Uber. One thing I didn’t know was that the driver has no idea where you are going until he picks you up. So when he accepts the job, he doesn’t know if he will be driving 5 miles or 100 miles. I guess that sort of makes sense so the drivers don’t always pick the choicest destinations. He also told us that he hangs out mostly at Universal because that’s where most of the business is. He said he would hang around Disney Springs for about 10 minutes after he dropped us off, but if he didn’t get a customer by then, he would drive back over to Universal to pick up one there.

He ended up dropping us off in the ride share area which is way down at the far end of the West Side. If you look at this Disney Springs map, you will see a looped road to the left of the Cirque du Soleil building. That’s the ride share area.



It’s even further than it looks on the map and it took us about 5 minutes to walk to the Cirque du Soleil building. We were still quite a bit early for our 7:30 pm ADR. We had left Sea World a little bit before the 6 pm closing time plus our Uber to DS had been very fast. We decided to shop our way towards our dinner destination.

First stop was the Soccer store so Jocelyn and John could look at the jerseys for their nephew. They wanted to spend some time in there so Jocelyn suggested we split up a bit and meet at the restaurant. Before Mom and I headed out though, I managed to find a LFC decal for Jim. It’s his favorite team so I snagged it for him to put on his truck.



Mom and I stopped briefly in the Star Wars store but didn’t seen anything so we moved on to the newish Disney Style. This store is awesome and I could drop some serious dough here. But I restrained myself and came out with only one shirt. I definitely plan to wear this one in May.



After finishing up in there, we moved on to Ever After Jewelry Co. because we both wanted to look at rings. On the way there, I managed to take exactly one picture of the DS Halloween decorations.



When we arrived at the store, the first thing I noticed was a bunch of Princess and the Frog purses. If you remember, Tiana is John’s favorite princess and he had been searching for merchandise the whole week. So of course I had to take pictures of all of them to show him. And since I’m kind of short on pictures for this update, you get to see them too. For some reason, he didn’t want any of them for himself.











I think the Ray one was my favorite, I tend to gravitate towards Disney sidekicks for some reason, especially the animal ones.

I had three or maybe four different rings I wanted to try on and we found a CM to help us out. I was looking for a gold one this time and spent some time agonizing over two different choices. In the end I just picked one to buy and seriously regretted it later. I love the one I got but I really wish I had gotten both of them. I’m hoping they still have the other one in May because it will be coming home with me. Anyway, here’s the one I did end up buying.



Mom didn’t see anything she liked and it was getting close to our ADR time so we headed out and over to Homecomin’. It took us a few minutes to find our way there. We could see it across the water but had to go around a bit to get there. John and Jocelyn were waiting for us and I checked us in 15 minutes before our ADR. It had been threatening rain all day so I asked that we be seated indoors.

We found two benches and had a seat. The benches were small and only three adults could fit on one so Mom, John and Jocelyn sat on one bench and I was on a second a little ways away. While I was sitting there, a Grandma (at least I think that’s what she was) and two boys came up. One of the boys was in a wheelchair so the other two joined me on my bench. They had been there for a few minutes when the boy in the wheelchair got up and basically sat half in my lap and half on the bench so that he could see what his brother was doing on his phone. He also sat on top of my bag which was by my side and contained my camera, phone, sun glasses and other breakable items. I kind of made an “ooof” sound as he sat on me and gave him a good glare as I pulled my bag out from under him. But he continued to sit half on me and half on the bench for about 5 minutes before they got up and left with him back in the wheelchair. I was not amused but at least nothing was broken in my bag and the rest of my gang got a good chuckle out of it.

Finally about 15 minutes after our ADR time, we were called in to our seat. I started out the night with a Moonshine Mash – Watermelon-infused moonshine, fresh watermelon, lime juice and simple syrup – because I had read about it on the DIS.



While it was very good, it was also small and mostly ice so I’m not sure it was worth the cost.

For dinner, Jocelyn and I both got Art’s Famous Fried Chicken Buttermilk-brined for 24 hours then perfectly fried and served with creamy mashed potatoes and cheddar drop biscuit – but I subbed out the mashed potatoes for mac and cheese.





John got the Capitol Meatloaf – served over creamy mashed potatoes with roasted baby carrots, Brussel sprouts, and sides of tomato and sausage gravies.



Mom ordered the Fried Chicken & Donuts – fried chicken served with house-made sugar doughnuts and creamy mashed potatoes – but the waitress came back and said that they were out of the doughnuts so Mom ended up getting the same as Jocelyn and I.

But then when the brought the meal, the waitress said they did have the doughnuts so she brought us a basket of them for free.



I am going to be honest and say I was not the biggest fan of Homecomin’. I know a lot of people like it but it was not my favorite. The chicken was good but nothing out of this world and I found the mac and cheese to be pretty disgusting. It was really dry and tasted more like cardboard than mac and cheese. I definitely would not pay the upcharge to order it again. I did try a bit of Mom’s mashed potatoes and liked those much better. I didn’t try the doughnuts because I’m not really a fan of doughnuts in general. What made me really say that I wouldn’t be back for a while happened much later that night. I woke up sometime in the middle of the night with the worst heartburn I have ever had. I thought for sure I was going to throw up for a while. That definitely soured me from wanting to go back there for a while. Who knows, the heartburn may have just been related to the whole week of weird/rich food but in my mind I now associate it with Homecomin’.

After dinner, we continued our shopping at World of Disney which was wall to wall people. I didn’t find anything new to buy in there but both Mom and Jocelyn purchased something. We moved on to Arribas Brothers so Mom could look at rings. She didn’t’ see anything she wanted so we went on to the Co-Op to look around there. Jocelyn and Mom both bought some stuff to take home to their dogs. I had purchased the Star Wars toy earlier in the week so I didn’t get anything there either.

At the pin store, I finally found something else to buy. I got the 2018 Mickey Vinyl to go with my ones from previous years.





It was getting pretty late at this point but there was one more place I needed to visit. We headed into the Art Store because I wanted to get one of the Precious Moments Disney dolls. I knew I wanted the Dumbo one so I told the CM and she headed to the back to get it for me. As I was standing there waiting for her to come back another lady approached me and asked if I was the one buying the Dumbo doll. I said yes and she introduced herself to me. She was Linda Rick, the designer of the Disney Precious Moments dolls! I was a bit on the awestruck side and totally forgot to ask for a picture. But she did sign my Dumbo doll for me.





She also told me that they were having a special showing of the dolls at the Art Store at MK the next day. I knew we would be in MK for a bit so I said I would try to stop by.

After that it was time to head out for the night. It was sprinkling a bit as we walked to the buses but it never developed into a full out rain. The line for the bus was massive and there is only one bus stop for all three All Star resorts. Three buses came pretty quickly but there were so many people in line that we didn’t get on any of those. We ended up waiting about a half hour before getting on bus #4 and the line was just as long then as when we got in it! It was well past midnight before we made it to our room and we pretty much collapsed into bed as soon as we got there. Luckily I knew this was going to be a long day so I had nothing scheduled the next day until noon.

I already posted my one measly pin trade above so here’s my Fitbit stats for the day.



Up Next: We Need Ketchup!