Two trips are better than one! A June and September 2016 PTR-new trip report link

[pkondz]

( I might have accidentally on purpose had 2, oops!)

Good!

we decided to monorail it over to Epcot to see if we could catch Soarin' before we went back to the MK. It was a 90 minute standby wait mostly because they were having technical difficulties with one theater but it was worth it!

How much better is it? Details!

We then went back over to MK for EMH that ended up not being quite so magic just because wait times were still pretty long,

poop. Oh, well. A busy night in MK is better than a dull night at home.

and paid our respect to Canada.

Thanks!

Cool film by the way!

I thought it was pretty good, too. IMHO.

So My fav non boozy drink of the day... Strawberry oolong tea slushy from the China pavilion, yum!!

Heard of it. Haven't had the pleasure.

I'm kinda nervous about it now because ( insert sad music here) I have discovered I'm not a fan of the churro.

I didn't think the churro was all that great either, TBH.

Can anyone prove me wrong on that one?

Yes. Me.
I didn't much care for the churro. Thought it was kinda dry. The cronut? Yummmmm....

Churro cupcake

And yet it looks good.

Practically perfect in every way

great shot!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[Elevationist]

We are on the 11th floor and it's perfect. The resort itself is nice, yes a little "non Disneyesque" but the room and view make up for it in spades. I'm sitting here looking at the Poly and the GF, the castle and space mountain and listening to the ferry boat horns and occasionally you can hear Casey JR. Comin' down the track. It truly is magical.
We're just going to hang out here and have our own private Wishes party!

I AM A PEANUT BUTTER AND JEALOUS SANDWICH RIGHT NOW.

Strawberry cupcake from Roaring Forks at WL

OMG. I need this. Right now.

Dang that was good, could be my new fav! And then Dray and I shared this cup of loveliness

Milky Way Sundae

OMG! I had already planned on getting one of these in October. However, I was unaware that there's an actual Milky Way candy bar in the thing!!!!! I AM EVEN MORE EXCITED ABOUT THIS NOW.

We started with a couple of these little jewels

Yak attack

Ohhhhhhh. I'mma hafta to look up what's in this, because I might need to be Yak Attacking in October, too!

And my son got the duck

How was the duck, did he enjoy it? It's what I'm thinking of ordering when I'm there next.

Churro cupcake
I'm glad I tried it but it's just not for me. Sorry Mr. Churro I'm sure somebody loves you

Strangely enough, I'm not a huge churro person either, but this looks DELICIOUS. What was the cake part like?

 

[KathyM2]

Sorry Mr. Churro I'm sure somebody loves you

That'd be me lol. But I can see how they're not for everyone.

Loving your semi live TR...looks like a great time so far and you got a lot done despite some long wait times...also Yak attack...want...one....and the food looked great too!

 

[cinderkelly]

Hi guys!

We are home now and had a fantastic trip. I'm headed back to work this morning so as soon as I get some free time I will get to responses and wrap up our last couple of days!

​

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[cinderkelly]

How much better is it? Details!

I thought it was really good, the picture quality was really clear and vibrant. No more grainy picture and bits of "fuzz" on the screen. I'm really looking forward to seeing the new film in September!

poop. Oh, well. A busy night in MK is better than a dull night at home.

That is so true! It was fun just walking around at night seeing the sights!

I thought it was pretty good, too. IMHO.

They did a nice job with the Canada film! It looks like a beautiful place

Heard of it. Haven't had the pleasure

You've got to put the strawberry oolong slush on your list for next time. It's yummy and very refreshing.

I didn't much care for the churro. Thought it was kinda dry. The cronut? Yummmmm....

Didn't make it back to try the cronunt but I'll catch it next time and compare!

Oh my, I also am not necessarily craving churros either. I also don't particularly like mountains of icing on cake or cupcakes either. But that's OK, there's food enough for everyone! I hope you're having a nice relaxing time together!

I'm actually ok with the frosting. We had a really great time, not sure if I'd call it relaxing, it was more like go, go, go! I'm still going to bed early to try and recover

OMG. I need this. Right now.

The strawberry cupcake was to die for! It had a lemon curd filling that complemented the strawberry cake perfectly!

AM A PEANUT BUTTER AND JEALOUS SANDWICH RIGHT NOW.

I really did like the Contemporary. When we first booked it I wasn't sure I'd love it but in the end it really did feel like home. The proximity to MK is fantastic and access to the monorail doesn't suck either. But the view, worth every penny!

OMG! I had already planned on getting one of these in October. However, I was unaware that there's an actual Milky Way candy bar in the thing!!!!! I AM EVEN MORE EXCITED ABOUT THIS NOW.

You must get one! It was delicious!

Ohhhhhhh. I'mma hafta to look up what's in this, because I might need to be Yak Attacking in October, too!

If I remember it was like mango purée and some other stuff....sorry it's early and my brain isn't in thinking mode. But it was delish! And the best part was that you could get them to go!

How was the duck, did he enjoy it? It's what I'm thinking of ordering when I'm there next.

He really enjoyed the duck. If it were me I wish it was off the bone, but that's just my personal preference. The teriyaki Mahi Mahi was fabulous. I wasn't sure teriyaki on fish would work, but it was subtle. We both thought Y&Y was one of our favorites of the trip.

Strangely enough, I'm not a huge churro person either, but this looks DELICIOUS. What was the cake part like?

The cake part was like churro cake. Kind of spice cake with vanilla filling. It was ok, but a little too much cinnamon spice for me.

Loving your semi live TR...looks like a great time so far and you got a lot done despite some long wait times...also Yak attack...want...one....and the food looked great too!

Thanks Kathy! Everything was fantastic. That yak attack was so good, and pretty too!

Aahhhh, time flies so fast! But you sure picked a great picture for that post!

It did fly by really fast! And thanks!

Update coming soon, I promise! I've been busy adjusting being back at work, I've had a full schedule since we got home and we are teaching a class tonight and tomorrow. I feel like I'm still recovering from the trip, going to bed early every night but thankfully the Disney blues have not set in since we have another trip in 3 months! Yea!

 

[Steppesister]

Glad you made it home safely and that you had a wonderful time!! How could you not in the Happiest Place on Earth? Welcome back to reality!

 

[cinderkelly]

Hi y'all!

I finally have some time to sit down and get this TR wrapped up! My DD had her wisdom teeth pulled this morning so I get a day off of work to be the nurse

We left off at Disney Springs...had lunch at Wolfgang Puck Cafe, which was really very good, huge portion sizes and a good menu for a QS credit. After lunch we browsed in the a World of Disney store and Once Upon a Toy and picked up a few things to bring home to the hubs and the girls. It was really hot that day and some thunderstorms were rolling in so we decided to head back to the Contemporary and have a rest before our ADR at California Grill. We chilled out in the room for a bit, enjoying the view and the ambient "music" from below. For some reason it was very relaxing to me to listen to the occasional boat horn and whistle blow from the train. So after resting for a couple of hours we got all cleaned up and headed out for dinner. We were seated at a table kind of off to the side part of the restaurant which actually turned out to be cool because we could see Epcot fireworks from there first before the MK fireworks started. We each ordered a cocktail and the California Combination Roll to start with. Jumbo lump crab, avacado, cucumber, shrimp tempura. ( sorry for the lack of photo). It was good, but I would have rather had the dragon roll, but my son picked this one. Nothing outstanding or unique about it though, kinda almost bland. For my entree I ordered the scallops which were perfectly cooked with a corn and asparagus medley, and small strips of duck. It was yummy! Not exactly sure what the sauce was

My son got the halibut.


Wild Alaskan halibut with parsnip silk, roasted heirloom beats, arugula, macadamia vinaigrette, beet syrup. I had a taste of his and it was really nicely done as well.
Before we ordered dessert Wishes was getting close to starting so we asked Mike, our server if we could go out on the balcony to watch and he said it was no problem at all. It was just a bit breezy out but man what a fabulous view of the fireworks from up there. I may have cried, just a little . It was really spectacular! So after I got it back together and wishes was over we ordered dessert! Yea!

They brought my son a peaches and cream creme brûlée for his birthday on the house and he also ordered the key lime cheesecake and I got the chocolate pudding cake which was delicious but so very rich and thick! It was truly beautiful though. I had trouble finishing mine because it was so rich and almost too pretty to eat.

Creme brûlée

Chocolate pudding cake

No sugar added key lime cheesecake with passion fruit purée, blueberry jam swirl and lime zest. He said it was good but still kinda frozen.

After we finished dinner we waddled on back to the elevator and took it a whole 2 levels down to our room, that part was really nice!
Overall it was a really great dinner experience and I'm so glad we got to do it. I'm also so glad we were on the dining plan.....cha ching!! I did pay about $50 oop for the drinks and appetizer Plus cash on top of that for our server but it was worth every penny. For me California Grill is a terrific special occasion place, great food, nice but relaxing atmosphere and super service. I'm sure I will come back to it someday but there are so many other places to try first before I start doing repeats!

From the California Grill "observation deck"

Up next, our last full Disney day, breakfast with Pooh and Friends, dinner at Le Cellier and a tropical storm??​

 

[KathyM2]

Wow what a nice dinner and with a great view. Always wanted to try that place.

with a corn and asparagus medley

Was that popcorn on top?? Looked like it!!

 

[cinderkelly]

Was that popcorn on top?? Looked like it!!

It was ! My son said the exact same thing, "is that popcorn?" It was like miniature popcorn, I think it was more for garnish than for flavor

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[kastoney]

Ahhh, California Grill one of my personal favorites. Glad to hear it was such a special night for you two!!! Your scallops look amazing and I had the halibut your son had last time so I can attest to its wonderfulness!

 

[NJlauren]

All caught up!

Looks like you had an amazing trip, with some great meals! I'm jealous you got to ride Sorian over California again!

Hope your daughter is feeing better after Having her wisdom teeth out!

 

[cinderkelly]

Yummy, looks fantastic! I'm heading out to an educational dinner tonight - do you think I'll get lucky with a scallops or halibut dish?

So did you get lucky with your educational dinner and get scallops or halibut??

Ahhh, California Grill one of my personal favorites. Glad to hear it was such a special night for you two!!! Your scallops look amazing and I had the halibut your son had last time so I can attest to its wonderfulness!

It really was fantastic! I'd go back in a heartbeat, but so many other places to try first!

Hope your daughter is feeing better after Having her wisdom teeth out!

Thanks Lauren! She did great, was only in bed the day of her surgery and was back to normal the next day

 

[cinderkelly]

Let's try and get this June trip report wrapped up, shall we?

Our last full Disney day was upon us and we had a full day scheduled. To backtrack just a bit there was a tropical storm a brewin' in the gulf that I had been watching since we left Denver and nobody really knew where it was going or where it was going to go. So I woke up that morning half expecting to see nothing but rain rain and more rain out our glorious window. But low and behold blue skies and sunshine! I thought our friendship day breakfast with Pooh and his buddies was going to be a wash. So up and at 'em we were and got to the park around 7:30 for an 8:05 ADR at Crystal Palace. I was so excited to be able to get into an "empty" park ahead of the masses and was all proud that I got the coveted 8:05 ADR time. So we are walking up to the MK gates and what do we hear? The morning Welcome show??? What the heck?? What's with all these people at the gates so early? So it seems Disney pulled a fast one on me and changed the park opening hours to 8:00am instead of 9:00am overnight and I was clueless. Maybe due to the impending downpours we were expecting that afternoon? Who knows. So we checked in to the CP and had a nice breakfast with Pooh and the gang, the food was fine, standard breakfast stuff and the characters were fun. We saw Pooh and Piglet right away, then Tigger came by about 30 minutes in and Eeyore took FOREVER. If he wasn't my son's fav I would have given up and left. So breakfast took just over an hour. It was fun for a one time deal.


Piglet and I are the same size!
After breakfast we headed out to use up out morning FP+. Space mountain came first, the perfect ride right after breakfast! Then we took a turn on the railroad and it seems we were being stalked by one Miss Poppins

You missed your train Mary!!
After that we cooled of at Splash and took the wildest ride in the Wilderness again. We had an ADR in Epcot and knew the rain was fast approaching so we hopped on the monorail to do some resort sightseeing, first the Poly and then the GF. Both hotels are amazingly beautiful. I love the different immersive themes of them all.

Chillin'at the Grand. It was aeasome sitting in the lobby listening to the piano player!
Back on the monorail we go to Epcot... Still no rain, cool. It was like a race to see if we could make it Epcot and inside somewhere before the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down. We made it to the Land and onto LWTL when the skies opened up and it poured, like "get out the Arc kids" kinda poured. Water was leaking through the roof in the greenhouse section! But yea us! We were dry! So after that we decided to stay inside and endure the 60 minute wait for Soarin', hey got nothing else to do. This time we got to experience the new concourse ( looks like the other two) and the 60 minute wait didn't seem so bad, really.
By the time we walked out of the Land the rain had slowed down and we walked to Canada for our dinner. The service there was excellent and the food was good. Yes @pkondz i got the cheddar cheese soup! I thought it was actually quite good! I also got the filet with mushroom risotto

And Dray got the ribeye

His had much more flavor than mine and unfortunately my filet was a bit... Stringy ? Not super tender but nothing that I was going to send back. I got the maple creme brûlée for dessert and Dray got the Nanaimo Pie





Continued on next page..​

 

[cinderkelly]

Both desserts were fantastic! Of course I'm a sucker for creme brûlée and I didn't think the maple made it too sweet for my taste.
After dinner it was still kind of drizzly so we decided to head back to our room and call it a night. I had wondered if they were going to show wishes since it was raining but was so happy they did and we got to see it one last time from our room

The next morning was our last half day. We had a 5:15pm flight so we had to get our stuff to airline check in downstairs and be back to the resort by 2:15. I was actually kinda sad that morning because I never did get the "nice to have you but get out" package hanging on my door. I got nothing at all! So it was kind of like we had to leave without closure! Weird, I know. So I had to make a stop by the desk and check out and have them print our boarding passes at the baggage check desk. Love this perk BTW!
We then took one last stroll to the MK to use our last Fastpasses. First Space, then we had one for 7DMT and Splash. The 7D must have all been grumpy that day because the ride was down when our FP window opened. We tried to wait it out but time was a tickin' and our Splash window had opened up. So we went to ride that and ended up using our 7DMT FP for a double splash down which was fun because it was HOT! The crowds were a level 9 that day and CRAZY. It's amazing to me how fast 4 hours at Disney goes by! We decided to hop on BTMRR for our last ride of the trip and were awarded with another red card! I have a pic but it's not letting me upload it for some reason.. And then is was
Time to go

We had a couple of snack credits left so we used them on the fabulous Mickey Ice cream sandwiches for our walk back and some sour gummies to take home. We said our goodbyes to the castle


We only had about a 10 minute wait before the bus came and we were headed back to reality. Overall it was an amazing trip and I'm so glad I was able to spend some one on one time with my son.

Nice photobomb kid who sat behind us!

Some observations and facts...

LaFou's brew vs Butterbeer battle- Butterbeer wins for me hands down
As noted previously, the churro is not the life for me
Red cards- got one our first ride, our last ride and 4 more times during the course of the trip! Gotta be some kinda record!
Miles walked in 5 days - 61.4
Blisters -0
Favorite meal - Yak and Yeti both for service and food ( and adult beverages)
Smiles, laughs and heart pitter patters -
Infinite

Thanks for reading along! September can't come soon enough!


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[pkondz]

I thought it was really good, the picture quality was really clear and vibrant. No more grainy picture and bits of "fuzz" on the screen. I'm really looking forward to seeing the new film in September!

You're the second person I've heard say good things.

They did a nice job with the Canada film! It looks like a beautiful place

It is!

You've got to put the strawberry oolong slush on your list for next time. It's yummy and very refreshing.

It's officially on the list!

My DD had her wisdom teeth pulled this morning so I get a day off of work to be the nurse

How was she?

We left off at Disney Springs...had lunch at Wolfgang Puck Cafe, which was really very good, huge portion sizes and a good menu for a QS credit.

Heard good things...

For some reason it was very relaxing to me to listen to the occasional boat horn and whistle blow from the train.

I get that, actually. I had a white noise generator for a while and one of the settings added fog/boat horns into the "waves" sound.

We were seated at a table kind of off to the side part of the restaurant which actually turned out to be cool because we could see Epcot fireworks from there first before the MK fireworks started.

Nice!!

Before we ordered dessert Wishes was getting close to starting so we asked Mike, our server if we could go out on the balcony to watch and he said it was no problem at all. It was just a bit breezy out but man what a fabulous view of the fireworks from up there. I may have cried, just a little .

Totally get that. That's awesome.

So after I got it back together and wishes was over we ordered dessert! Yea!

What a great way to finish off Wishes!

After we finished dinner we waddled on back to the elevator and took it a whole 2 levels down to our room, that part was really nice!

For me California Grill is a terrific special occasion place, great food, nice but relaxing atmosphere and super service.

Gotta try to remember that.

Our last full Disney day was upon us and we had a full day scheduled.

Booo!!!!

So I woke up that morning half expecting to see nothing but rain rain and more rain out our glorious window. But low and behold blue skies and sunshine!

Good!

I was so excited to be able to get into an "empty" park ahead of the masses and was all proud that I got the coveted 8:05 ADR time. So we are walking up to the MK gates and what do we hear? The morning Welcome show??? What the heck?? What's with all these people at the gates so early? So it seems Disney pulled a fast one on me and changed the park opening hours to 8:00am instead of 9:00am overnight and I was clueless.

What the heck, Disney? Did you not get the memo that Kelly was coming in early to avoid this sort of thing?

Sheesh.

Eeyore took FOREVER

Stubborn mule.

Piglet and I are the same size!

Nah. He's a bit taller.

Then we took a turn on the railroad and it seems we were being stalked by one Miss Poppins

Practically perfect stalking.

Chillin'at the Grand. It was aeasome sitting in the lobby listening to the piano player!

I've never been inside. Really should some day.

It was like a race to see if we could make it Epcot and inside somewhere before the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down.

Gee, it's almost like you just visited Pooh and friends.

Yes @pkondz i got the cheddar cheese soup! I thought it was actually quite good! I also got the filet with mushroom risotto

You did! Good!
Maybe I've just had similar before so the thrill wasn't there for me?

However...

His had much more flavor than mine and unfortunately my filet was a bit... Stringy ? Not super tender but nothing that I was going to send back.

This surprised me. I'd heard such good things about the filet.

I got the maple creme brûlée for dessert and Dray got the Nanaimo Pie

MMM... to the first. Coconut (so, no) to the second.

I had wondered if they were going to show wishes since it was raining but was so happy they did and we got to see it one last time from our room

Nice way to end your last night.

I was actually kinda sad that morning because I never did get the "nice to have you but get out" package hanging on my door. I got nothing at all!

You really don't want one of those.
They're.... horrible.

So I had to make a stop by the desk and check out and have them print our boarding passes at the baggage check desk. Love this perk BTW!

They do that? I wonder if they do for international travel?

It's amazing to me how fast 4 hours at Disney goes by!

And then is was
Time to go

Yuck. No! Not going!

Overall it was an amazing trip and I'm so glad I was able to spend some one on one time with my son.

Nice photobomb kid who sat behind us!

LaFou's brew vs Butterbeer battle- Butterbeer wins for me hands down

I've heard this from pretty much everyone.

 

[KathyM2]

So it seems Disney pulled a fast one on me and changed the park opening hours to 8:00am instead of 9:00am overnight and I was clueless.

With the amount of planning a Disney trip takes these days...that would be kind of annoying to have them switcheroo at the last minute...but I guess what can you do. It didn't seem to affect your plans too much so that is good.

Loved your TR...lots of fun and I'm sure great memories!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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