VILLAINS, ALIENS AND ALCOHOL, A JAN. 2016 TR W/ CLUB VILLAIN REVIEW *Final Update 3/27 *

[apr9twins]

This guy didn't stop talking the whole time, he talked like 8x more than any of the 3 of us, and then he exits like he's going to have an accident if he doesn't leave that second?! It was weird and funny at the same time. Actually all we could think of was that 1. he really did need the bathroom after his funny textured wagyu beef, or 2. they have some strange bedtime curfew that was approaching and they needed to hightail it back to the Poly or one of them would turn into a pumpkin. Or maybe since it was their honeymoon they were trying to......set a record every night or something? And so it had to be before midnight? Idk, it's a toss-up. But seriously, the most talkative one of the 4 of us, mid-conversation, and he's out of there. We shed a few tears after they left and paid our bill.

Oh, this is so funny! Couldn't sleep, and was quietly reading your great report while the rest of the house slept - and I got to this part and burst out laughing! Everytime I read the first sentence I started laughing again. Thank you for a great start to my day!

Everything sounds amazing so far. AKL is our home resort - isn't it wonderful?

 

[6travel]

We were discussing dessert with them and I said I was going with the fritters; he said they were ok but the cake (he'd tried a bite) was out of this world. He had a couple fritters left and offered me one, and in the spirit of forging new friendships (and mainly because I hate seeing perfectly good junk food go to waste ) I tried it. YES, I took food from a stranger and ate it! I did!

Only at Disney.

Or maybe since it was their honeymoon they were trying to......set a record every night or something?

Your dinner looked good. Your report makes me want to schedule and adults only trip to WDW.

 

[xlsm]

I'm caught up!

We always TALK about going to Cali Grill, but we are never able to pull the trigger and book. I think it's from all the mixed reviews...it makes it so hard to commit!! So weird about Chatty Charlie taking off on you in the middle of your conversation!

The Wishes view looks great!

I love those Poly bathrooms!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Sorry your Cali Grill experience wasn't better - it's been one of our favorites, but maybe we just got lucky/what we order (because I have read other not great reviews as well)

We always get flatbreads and the sushi (which we love there) and I usually get the pork. Actually, usually dessert has been a low point for us but haven't tried that chocolate pudding cake - but need to do that next time!

Funny story about your table neighbors - very odd but at least you got a bit of entertainment with your mean

 

[ariane37]

Oh, this is so funny! Couldn't sleep, and was quietly reading your great report while the rest of the house slept - and I got to this part and burst out laughing! Everytime I read the first sentence I started laughing again. Thank you for a great start to my day!

Everything sounds amazing so far. AKL is our home resort - isn't it wonderful?

You're welcome Glad I made you laugh!
Our trip really was great and yes, LOVE AKL! So much so that we're trying to rent points again for our Nov. trip. I'm dying to take the boys there so they can experience it. They've been there to eat a few times and I just know they'll love staying there as much as Steve and I did!

Your dinner looked good. Your report makes me want to schedule and adults only trip to WDW.

OMG we love our kid-free trips! Been on 2 of them and don't even miss the kids lol. But you know, mine are older than yours, plus we only have to find someone to watch 2 as opposed to your 4! But if and when you and Am can work it out, I highly suggest you do one

We always TALK about going to Cali Grill, but we are never able to pull the trigger and book. I think it's from all the mixed reviews...it makes it so hard to commit!! So weird about Chatty Charlie taking off on you in the middle of your conversation!

The Wishes view looks great!

Steve had been wanting to go for the food and I'd been wanting to go for the view, which truly was amazing. We had it booked for last Nov. with the boys but ended up canceling because Ricky wasn't that thrilled with the menu. I'm glad we've tried it and I'm glad it was just the 2 of us when we did. But you know, I really want to try just about every restaurant anyway, signature or not, at some point. And I have a feeling you might feel the same way

Sorry your Cali Grill experience wasn't better - it's been one of our favorites, but maybe we just got lucky/what we order (because I have read other not great reviews as well)

We always get flatbreads and the sushi (which we love there) and I usually get the pork. Actually, usually dessert has been a low point for us but haven't tried that chocolate pudding cake - but need to do that next time!

Funny story about your table neighbors - very odd but at least you got a bit of entertainment with your mean

I say give the dessert a try next time! The fritters were good, just not good enough for what I wanted right then, but that cake was amazing. Every restaurant has good and bad reviews and I'm glad we gave it a try. Like I said, that view of Wishes is amazing and that was worth it! I guess meeting new friends was worth it, too lol?

 

[ariane37]

**This ended up being a 4-park day for us, the first time we'd done more than 3. However it wasn't the 4-park "challenge" some people try to do because we didn't hit a headliner in each park. This was more of a last minute decision to do all 4, and it was a very cool, very fun, very relaxing non-rushed almost end to our adults only trip If we'd done this with the boy it would've had to have included more rides (not necessarily a bad thing) and not as much down time**

Tuesday 1/19 was our last full day. Our original plan - and by "our" I mean "my" - was a later breakfast at the Wave, MK with FP's starting around 11, 5:20 dinner at Citrico's and then Epcot for some drinking and hanging out on our last night since Epcot had PM EMH until 11:00. There were just 2 problems with this: 1. This was supposed to be the coldest night of our trip, 39/40 degrees which, while not ridiculously cold for us, IS ridiculously cold when you're standing out in it for hours and drinking cold stuff. 2. I knew Steve really wanted to go see FOTLK at Animal Kingdom.

AK wasn't in our plan at all this trip. I do enjoy AK; the boys like a handful of attractions there, we had a very fun day there in Nov., and all 4 of us think Festival of the Lion King is the best show in all of WDW. For Steve, it's one of the things that tops his list of favorites. Before we left he swore he didn't need to see it since he saw it in Nov. I asked him a million times, even said to him that I was just going to plan on AK for half a day anyway, but he kept saying no. Fast forward to our first full day of this trip, and from Saturday morning through Monday night I think he mentioned the fact that we weren't seeing FOTLK about 25 times. Ladies, let me introduce you to my 3rd child, Steven. Men reading this - ignore that last sentence

He FINALLY admitted after Cali Grill that he'd really like to go see Lion King, so when we'd gotten back to our room just before midnight I cancelled our Wave reservation. Animal Kingdom was opening at 9 so we were up, ready, and at the bus stop by.......8:30. Not as early as I'd wanted buy hey, no kids! So much easier to maneuver with just the 2 of us! The bus came 10 minutes later and we arrived at the park just as the RD crowd was disappearing around the bend. We took off after half of them towards the safari and got there right after 9 - again, so much quicker with just 2. We didn't even move as fast as we normally would, because we knew if we got there and had a 20-25 minute wait, neither of us would whine a la my youngest and dearest.

The following are the obligatory TR Safari pictures:

I like the hippos. Here we get to see their best and not-so-best sides


Painted Dogs! Now there are a number of TR's with pictures of them, but they were fairly new when we saw them. They weren't there yet when we went in Nov. I recently heard that they swap them out in the early evening for a short period of time with the hyenas while they're getting the hyenas used to being on the safari.




I think this is the first time we've seen one of the cheetahs actually moving around......


And finally, this pretty lady

We had quite a bit of animal traffic on this safari so when we got back it was almost time for the 10:00 FOTLK show. We made a restroom pit stop and headed in with about 2 minutes to spare. We've been in the warthog section for like the last 8 times we've seen the show, and we're always there about 15-20 minutes early. This time we lucked out and made it into the LION section, woo-hoo!! Think we'll stick with walking in at the last minute for awhile!





Who doesn't love them some tumble monkeys!

The show got out about 10:30. I didn't mention this yet but it was pretty much freezing today, by far the coldest day of our trip. We both had our winter (NorthFace) coats on, I had gloves, and after the show we went into Island Mercantile and I bought one of those non-hat thingy's that go over your ears. An ear wrap, maybe? Whatever they're called I bought one for $28 because my ears were frozen. I believe I could have bought one in Target before our trip for like $9.99 but whatever, everything feels more special when bought in WDW

We really didn't have anything else we wanted to do in the park, and since our little trip to AK had been rather spur of the moment and "off plan" next up was supposed to be MK with our first FP scheduled for 11:20 which was very soon. While waiting on line to pay for me ear covering, Steve suggested going to HS first and trying to get in one more ride on RnRC and ToT. I quickly checked to see if FP's were available because since ToT is my fave, I certainly wasn't going to argue! First I actually checked TSMM since we hadn't ridden that but of course no same day FP. In my 6 trips with FP+ we've never gotten a same day for TSMM. BUT, I was able to get ones for ToT and RnRC, the ToT one being 11:30-12:30. So we paid for my new headwear, grabbed us some Starbucks and headed towards the busses to catch one over to HS.

UP NEXT: PARK #2 HS: BEST SNACK (ALMOST)/WORST LUNCH EVER!

 

[ariane37]

As soon as we got to HS we hightailed it over to a certain hotel and tried to get in to the Tip Top Club. We were unsuccessful but it was still a good ride Because we'd hit our FP pretty much at the end, we went right to RnRC. By this time I was hungry; I'd had an energy bar before leaving the room but that was it. I decided it was finally time for me to try something I'd somehow missed on all our previous trips:



Here's a picture of the inside



If you aren't sure what this is, it's the famous Carrot Cake Cookie from Writer's Stop. Writer's Stop is no more but I hear you can get these at Sweet Spells now. I believe I mentioned earlier in my TR that school bread is my all-time favorite WDW snack; I think it's still in first place because it's more of a "different" kind of snack than this, but this is a truly beautiful thing!! I'm very very sad that I wasted so many years NOT eating this lol. It's huge too which is awesome. I snacked on it as we made our way towards GMR for our first ride of the trip. We're both fans of the ride itself but not so much fans of the updated voice-over script since TCM took over. We do like the new movie clips, though.

The posted wait was 20 and it was fairly accurate. Along the lines of not knowing how to get into Cali Grill, I'd never noticed this cool carpet outside the movie preview room, either!



I've attempted a few times to take pictures on this ride but they've always come out crappy, until now



Besides being one of my favorite scenes this is also where our ride vehicle got stuck for the first time. We were stuck for about 9 minutes, but our CM was really good and after about 3 minutes started telling us some interesting trivia. First she told us that there's a silhouette of Minnie in a tree when leaving the "dock" in the beginning of the ride. Then she told us a tidbit about Audrey Hepburn's handprints outside the theatre. Her handprints here in HS are the only actual prints of her hands anywhere. At the time Disney called her and asked her to come leave her handprints at the park, she had yet to be asked to leave her prints in front of the actual theatre in L.A. It was only after the Chinese theatre in L.A. found out about Disney asking her that they asked her to come leave her prints out there. Her response was, "They're where they need to be" Pretty cool, huh?



She had time for one more bit of trivia before we started moving again: in the Indiana Jones scene, a couple of the heiroglypics are in the shape of R2D2. I tried to find one but couldn't.
Eventually we set off on our journey through the movies once more and approached the first scene where you get a "surprise" visitor. I was certain we were getting the gangster scene because we'd been in the 1st ride vehicle. Awhile ago I'd learned here on the Boards that you'll know you're getting the cowboy scene if you're loaded into the 2nd ride vehicle. Back then it had been awhile since we'd gotten the cowboy one so on our next trip after reading that I asked if they were running the cowboy scene and they held us for a few extra minutes and sure enough, loaded us into the 2nd vehicle. Worked out that way ever since: first vehicle, gangster, second vehicle cowboy.

So I was pleasantly surprised when we cruised past the 1920's getaway car and into this scene



and then soon our CM host got out and into it



and just when I thought things couldn't get any worse-



Luckily the bank robber who hijacked our ride vehicle didn't stick around too long after setting the bank on fire, so we got out of there in one piece. Things were pretty calm for awhile but then they started getting weird. We were approaching the point in the ride where my 10 year old still closes his eyes and moves a little closer to me.......first we pass Sigourney Weaver, and then........



HA! He came pretty close this time!

We continued on and made it to another of my favorite scenes, the Wizard of Oz. Right after The Wicked Witch of the West appears we got stuck AGAIN, which was only cool because the witch was stuck in the up position with all the smoke around her so we got to stare at her for awhile longer than normal



While stuck, our tour guide CM gave us some Margaret Hamilton (actress who played the wicked witch in the movie) trivia. Before she was an actress, she was a schoolteacher. However, I can give you some trivia that's even MORE interesting (at least to me)! After living a good deal of her adult life in Manhattan, Margaret moved to Millbrook, NY, which is about 40 minutes from where I live but in the same county. She died in Connecticut but was cremated in Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery. Poughkeepsie, as mentioned earlier in this TR, is the next town over from me about 7 minutes away. I have a number of relatives in that cemetery. Her ashes were scattered in Amenia, NY which is also about 40 minutes from me

After what seemed like the longest Great Movie Ride EVER we were out, and both of us were starving now. Oh, back when Steve took the picture of Audrey's prints he also took this, which he found pretty humorous:



As much as I love HS I don't love being there when I'm starving unless we have a reservation for a TS restaurant, which we didn't. Plus it was 1:30 and we didn't want to fill up since our ADR for Citricos was at 5:20. We grudgingly decided to grab something light at ABC Commissary.

We've eaten here before with the kids and while it was not anything special it wasn't terrible. I went with the kids cheeseburger meal


Looks ok, but was NOT a good burger AT ALL. Luckily I still had half my carrot cake cookie to eat! Steve got the Asian salad with chicken





He liked it a lot. The best part of ABC Commissary for me was seeing THIS on our way out



The Goldberg's!!! Does anyone watch this? It's one of the best sitcoms on right now! If you were a pre-teen or teen in the '80's you must start watching this and catch up on the previous seasons. Last time we were here the case was full of props from The Middle episode when Sue won a trip to WDW, but now it had the signed Goldberg's script and these props from the show



After one more walk down Sunset Blvd. to get myself another Disney Alex & Ani at Once Upon a Time we were ready to leave HS. It was 2:30; we didn't feel like going back to the resort and had decided to do MK after dinner. The only logical thing to do was head to Epcot!

UP NEXT: PARK #3 AND DINNER AT CITRICOS!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Cool that you got to all 4 parks, and fun that it was a bit spur of the moment

You did get to see a lot of animals on the safari on the move/not sleeping, so that is definitely cool!

I love trivia like you learned on the GMR - and of the ones you learned the only one I already knew about was the R2D2 hieroglyphic

yeah, the counterservice options at DHS are pretty bad - hopefully the new lands up the game a bit.

 

[ariane37]

I love trivia like you learned on the GMR - and of the ones you learned the only one I already knew about was the R2D2 hieroglyphic

Thank you, love it! I have to look better next time!

yeah, the counterservice options at DHS are pretty bad - hopefully the new lands up the game a bit.

I sincerely hope so I try not to be completely negative about anything food-wise because everyone's tastes differ, but it's hard to argue in favor of the HS CS!

 

[6travel]

I agree with your DH on the Lion King.
Counter service at HS....when we travel our main goal is to find a place that serves Mac n Cheese for the youngest.

 

[ariane37]

I agree with your DH on the Lion King.
Counter service at HS....when we travel our main goal is to find a place that serves Mac n Cheese for the youngest.

We used to have to do that for our oldest DS when he was younger, but luckily we could look for mac n cheese OR chicken nuggets lol!

 

[ariane37]

We went to the front of the park and debated: bus or boat? A boat had just pulled away but there was also no bus waiting. We hadn't done the boat yet this trip and it is a nice scenic ride......but we opted to wait for the bus. As it was it wouldn't have mattered, because we saw a boat pull up as we pulled away on the bus. Within minutes we were at our next park-#3 of the day, Epcot! We'd used our FP's at HS; I attempted to get one now for TT but, not surprisingly, they were gone for the day. Oh well, we moved on to more important matters in WS



OMG look how dry my skin looks! I was not aware the kiosk in Italy had sangria, what a pleasant surprise Steve wanted to see the flag twirlers perform so he went over to wait for them to come out while I waited in line. This was pretty good; my preference is white sangria but I'll take this!

So, the flag twirlers. They do have a fancier, more proper Italian name but I can't remember it right now. They'd been doing their thing for about 5 minutes before I got back to Steve. We watched for another.....3 minutes? And Steve decided we could leave. As we walked away he sad he wasn't that impressed with the show and was surprised that had replaced the Ziti Sisters. He also commented that he didn't know which would be around longer, the flag twirlers or TradNation in Canada. I said well, at least the flag twirlers have good looking Italian men in tights As it happens I read here about a week ago that TradNation might be leaving soon. I do feel bad for them. And I do hope whatever act Disney hires next in Canada is good and entertaining!

We began walking and noticed Voices of Liberty were about to begin a set on the American Gardens stage, so we took a seat to watch. Pretty soon we had some company



I sent this picture to my sister right away because she's terrified of birds, and is horrified that they come so close to you at Disney and Universal. I had put my drink down on the seat next to me but picked it right up when this guy sat down, NOT sharing, dude! At least he didn't poop right next to it like the bird did at Flame Tree BBQ in AK on our Nov. trip.......

Voices of Liberty, as many of you probably know, sing beautifully. I'm mad at myself not only for waiting so long to try the carrot cake cookie but also for never having stopped to listen to them before! I do want to hear them actually singing inside in the rotunda when they sing more patriotic songs, as when they're outside they sing Disney songs. They also don't have on their cool colonial outfits outside, but sound wonderful nonetheless. I know my kids would have been bored so very glad Steve and I took the opportunity to hear them. I felt bad for 3 elderly women who came and sat in front of us about 50 seconds before VoL finished their last song. They'd just gotten comfortable when it was over.....they looked around like "where's everybody going? What's going on?" Plus it was the last show of the day so they were totally out of luck.

We headed out of the theatre and walked back toward the pavilion to use the bathrooms when we noticed a bunch of characters coming out of the big doors to the left of the Liberty Inn. This is a training area and sometimes, if you're lucky, you catch a few coming out to do meets. We saw Donald, Rafiki, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale. I went and had my picture taken with Donald because I hadn't met him in ages and also because he was in his sailor suit; I have pictures but they're truly hideous so we'll leave them out! It's always cool to bump into character training, even though these guys were all common ones you can easily find in the parks.

We walked around a little more and somehow ended up in France, right by the Grey Goose slush stand. Since my sangria was gone and Steve was getting a slush, I figured it was only fitting I get my final one of the trip, also. We caught a performance of Serveur Amusant which is Steve's favorite WS performer besides British Revolution. I didn't take any pictures, but here's one from when we watched in November



He goes up like 3 or 4 chairs higher and I always get so nervous! It's a fun act to watch and they do interact a bit with the audience. If you've never seen it, make a point to stop next time you're there.

It was getting late and we needed to go back to our room and change before dinner so we started back towards FW to catch the monorail. I wanted to make a quick stop in the gift shop though and look for more wine to bring home. I found what I wanted - more of the Once Upon a Vine line - and we monorailed it back to the TTC and walked to our room in Moorea.

Although we both preferred AKL over Poly, I like the retro vibes the Poly has. Even the signage has that type of look to it. This one is on the path from the TTC



And this is the seating area by the elevators on the first floor when you walk in to the longhouses



We changed quickly and headed back out. Our dinner reservation was for 5:20 at Citricos over at the GF. It was absolutely FREEZING outside, we hadn't taken our heavy coats off once all day and now we were loaded up with them, hats, and gloves so rather than walk to the Grand we just brisk walked through a couple longhouses to the GCH to catch the monorail from there, since the next stop after the TTC would have been the Poly anyway.

**It's dinner and basketball practice time, so I'll be back soon with my Citricos review**

 

[knewton64]

You have given me lots and lots of wicked ideas on my upcoming DISney mornings.....


and it entails Cinamon rolls..........



Luv yer TR





T.T.F.N.
&
CHEERS Y'ALL

 

[ariane37]

Luv yer TR

Thank you so much and thanks for reading!

You have given me lots and lots of wicked ideas on my upcoming DISney mornings.....


and it entails Cinamon rolls..........

The mere mention of them makes me want to book a flight down RIGHT NOW

 

[Vernie822]

I am embarrassingly behind!! But I soo enjoyed catching up on your trip.. Especially your Cali Grill review!

Yess! We have never stopped in the UK for a drink, sounds like we may have to try it.

I know I read about this on somebody's dining report but I can't remember who it was, but I'll be back for more Sunsets!

Love these! I had no idea they served them at Tokyo Dining!

Shortly before 9:00 we asked Mei where to go out for Illuminations. She showed us the door (in a good way) and we joined about 20 other people on the balcony. It was a really nice night out; a tad chilly but we were fine with sweatshirts on and the view looking down as people walked by was neat. The view got even better when the lights dimmed and Illuminations began

I am learning so much from this TR Your meals look pretty good, I have never even had Tokyo Dining on my radar.

Yes, I was totally eavesdropping. Finally we pulled up to Kidani. The dad goes, "Where are we?" Mom goes, "someplace called Key-danyi. Wilderness Lodge must be next." All I know is, those of us who didn't get off at Key-danyi got off at Jambo and they were still sitting on the bus, looking confused. I felt a little bad for them at the time. But now I think it's funny.

Hahahahaha... OH those poor people! It is hard not to eavesdrop when you are right across/next to people on the bus.

Unfortunately I wasn't a fan of these when I tried them a few years ago, and I wasn't a fan when I was a good wife and tried one again after Steve so happily presented them to me. I know how popular they are but.......just not my thang.

Welcome to the Zebra Dome Haters Club, party of 2!

You see, the reason this is so good is because even in the spots where there's no white frosting, there's GLAZED frosting. So basically every inch of the top and sides of this baby is covered in sugary frosting. If you don't like sweet in the morning it's not a good breakfast choice for you. If you can do sweet 24/7 like me, I'll meet you at Gaston's!
It was quite cold this morning so Steve got his coffee and I got hot tea. It didn't warm up much past the high 50's today. The day before at least hit mid-60's, but the remainder of our trip we'd pretty much be in our winter coats.

Holy moly.. Gotta try one of these! Dessert for breakfast is the best kind of breakfast. Nothing like a good sugar rush in the early morning.

and then the other bathroom had the tub, toilet and sink. I suppose if you have 4 staying there the setup is good, but for just Steve and I it was more than we needed. All nice though!

I was thinking the same thing. A little much for us though I'm sure if you had the boys there it would have been great to have been able to have both areas for getting ready. And you could have a whole bathroom to yourself!

I know this isn't much but I do love finding out these little details! The opening time has since changed - I think 3 or 3:30? I assume they still do it but just earlier....

I was happy to hear that they opened earlier now. We've never been any earlier than maybe 7, but we're going to try 4:00 next month. Gotta love Tambu Lounge!

But then it was over and we got to eat more!! For my entree I ordered the Oak-fired Filet of Beef served with Heirloom Tomato Risotto. I did remember to take a picture of this; behold the half-eaten filet with what appear to be teeth marks but are really only uneven knife cuts, I assure you:

Ooooh this looks so good. CG has always been on my list, I've probably had 4 reservations for it, but we always end up elsewhere because I don't know if Justin will like the menu. (Kind of like you with your boys! Lol)

No we didn't cry you sillies, we were totally ready to go and happily headed out. It was freezing, we were very glad all we had to do was hop on the monorail to the TTC and then make the short walk over to our room. Overall we weren't as impressed with Cali Grill as we'd been with the other 2 signatures we'd eaten at, Yachtsman and Narcoossee's.

Good to know! We really liked the Yachtsman. We are planning on Narcoossee's next month but I was back and forth between that and CG. I think we will stick w/ Narcoossee's!

If you aren't sure what this is, it's the famous Carrot Cake Cookie from Writer's Stop. Writer's Stop is no more but I hear you can get these at Sweet Spells now. I believe I mentioned earlier in my TR that school bread is my all-time favorite WDW snack; I think it's still in first place because it's more of a "different" kind of snack than this, but this is a truly beautiful thing!! I'm very very sad that I wasted so many years NOT eating this lol. It's huge too which is awesome. I snacked on it as we made our way towards GMR for our first ride of the trip. We're both fans of the ride itself but not so much fans of the updated voice-over script since TCM took over. We do like the new movie clips, though.

YUM!!! Looks way better than the burger, haha!

As much as I love HS I don't love being there when I'm starving unless we have a reservation for a TS restaurant, which we didn't. Plus it was 1:30 and we didn't want to fill up since our ADR for Citricos was at 5:20. We grudgingly decided to grab something light at ABC Commissary.

Excited to hear about Citrico's!

 

[ariane37]

I am embarrassingly behind!! But I soo enjoyed catching up on your trip.. Especially your Cali Grill review!

No worries, I think you have something pretty important on your mind right now But I'm glad you came back!

Love these! I had no idea they served them at Tokyo Dining!

I am learning so much from this TR Your meals look pretty good, I have never even had Tokyo Dining on my radar.

We really were so pleasantly surprised by Tokyo Dining! Give it a try when you get a chance. We're definitely going with the boys in Nov.

We are planning on Narcoossee's next month but I was back and forth between that and CG. I think we will stick w/ Narcoossee's!

Stick with Narcoossee's We loved our meal there last November and you still get a really nice view of Wishes with the music piped in. Plus, almond-crusted cheesecake!! We did the same thing with CG reservations as far as having them in the past and cancelling. I'm glad we did try it; I'd like to eventually do all the signatures and it really was beautiful seeing Wishes from up there. But I prefer Narcoossee's atmosphere in addition to the food. I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Welcome to the Zebra Dome Haters Club, party of 2!

We must stick together and not let others make us feel guilty!!

 

[LinderInWonderland]

I just want to say one thing:

I am with your sister. Birds are the worst. You wouldn't believe the cajoling it took to get me to see Wings of Wonder.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

seems like a fun time in WS - I have to say I am not a fan of Disney "downgrading" the country entertainment ... just feels like Disney nickel-and-diming things - and connected with other budget cuts is a bit upsetting/annoying especially when they announce price increases and tiering at the same time.

On the plus side, your sangria looks pretty good! I have to say, overall we've been pretty happy with sangria we have gotten at Disney with even the version we got at Garden Grill being pretty good.

Looking forward to your citricos review!

 

[ariane37]

I just want to say one thing:

I am with your sister. Birds are the worst. You wouldn't believe the cajoling it took to get me to see Wings of Wonder.

Well then, I won't describe what happened to Ricky at Universal last summer when he sat on a curb to eat popcorn! LOL birds in Florida are pretty fearless.....

seems like a fun time in WS - I have to say I am not a fan of Disney "downgrading" the country entertainment ... just feels like Disney nickel-and-diming things - and connected with other budget cuts is a bit upsetting/annoying especially when they announce price increases and tiering at the same time.

On the plus side, your sangria looks pretty good! I have to say, overall we've been pretty happy with sangria we have gotten at Disney with even the version we got at Garden Grill being pretty good.

Looking forward to your citricos review!

Ugh, I know what you mean about all the cuts and "downgrading". So far nothing has turned us off from going but a couple things have been discussed that would probably make us re-think our trips and I am disappointed in much that they've done recently. This "resort fee" thing that was brought up today is ridiculous! And a friend of mine is going over spring break later this month and is very surprised at the early park closings. She doesn't follow the goings-on as closely as I do so I filled her in today on the cutbacks and she was disappointed, also.

Citricos coming soon

 

[ariane37]

Well! That was a long break for dinner and basketball, wasn't it?? We do eat a lot and between both boys we have basketball 5/6 days a week, but PTA stuff put me behind, too. I'm usually at Chris's school at least 3 days a week for a varying # of hours a day, and the last couple weeks it's been a lot. But I'm back now with my review of Citricos! Which we loved, BTW

Unlike last November when we couldn't find Narcoossee's at the Grand, I knew right where Citricos was. And it shares a check-in stand with Victoria and Albert's, but unfortunately their door was closed so I couldn't peek in. Citricos opens at 5 and our reservation was for 5:20; we arrived a few minutes early and were one of only 3 parties in the whole restaurant. We had a table by the window and had a nice view of one of the GF's quiet pools and a couple of their room buildings so we saw guests walking to and from. It was still light when we arrived but became dark as we ate, so we were able to watch the sun set over the frozen tundra of the north.....of wait, we were in Florida! I forgot since my winter coat was draped over my chair and my gloves were shoved in the pockets! 40 degrees that night folks, just about the same as it was back home in NY!

Our waiter was Rony and he was awesome. He was attentive, always around, very knowledgeable regarding the menu and we had some good conversation with him each time we ordered a course. We both started with a beer, Steve with a Mich Ultra and I ordered a Blue Moon



I always prefer drinking beer right from the bottle but I decided I'd class up a little bit and drink from a glass tonight. Steve did too, his just isn't in the picture.

One cool thing Rony did that hasn't happened to us in any other Disney signature restaurant was to offer us a different color napkin based on the color of our pants. What's that you say?? Well, they have white linen napkins on the table, but as we all know white linen napkins + dark pants = tons of white lint ALL over said pants. So he asked/looke to see what color pants we were wearing and since I had black pants on, he brought me a black napkin! Steve had khakis so he kept the white. Maybe this happens often in the real world at fine dining restaurants but it was a first for us, and I thought it was neat. I assume all the servers there check their customers legwear

We ordered our appetizers and Rony quickly brought us bread and butter



As he put the bread down he pointed out that the bread had Kalamata olives in it. I was psyched! I LOVE Kalamata olives! I spread that Christmas tree sea-salt butter all over that bread and chowed down. I was delicious. You could taste the olives but the taste wasn't overpowering. Steve likes them but doesn't love them like I do, but still enjoyed the bread. I totally ate more bread than I should have, especially since I ordered this for my appetizer



This is the Arancini (Sicilian rice balls) appetizer. They were SO good, creamy and smooth and the sauce was perfect. They were filling but not too heavy; I ate every bite! I was sort of regretting eating 3 pieces of bread at this point but figured if there was enough of a break before my entrée came, I'd be ok.

For his appetizer Steve ordered the Sauteed Florida Local Shrimp, which came in a Chardonnay sauce with lemon, garlic and cilantro along with ripe tomatoes and feta



These shrimp were huge and Steve loved the feta and tomatoes with them. The sauce was light and fresh and Steve almost got another order. The main reason he didn't is because when Rony brought these apps, Steve went ahead and ordered the Citricos Green Salad, which I had no idea he was going to do!



Guys, I'm getting teary-eyed just looking at the pictures of this salad again. I had no plans to try this, but when Rony brought it he asked if we wanted him to cut it in half for us. Steve said yes; it actually was a shame because the presentation was beautiful. The above picture is after it was cut but that's what it looked like all around, it was a perfect circle. It stayed together fairly well for a little bit after being cut but then fanned out on our plates like this



The dressing MADE this salad. It was like no dressing I've ever tasted; we both wanted to lick it off our plates. We asked Rony what was in the dressing but neither of us can remember because I'm a bad Dis'er and he's a bad Dis'er husband; according to the website it's called Banyuls Vinaigrette. We both ate all of this and we had NO idea how we were going to eat our entrees! But so far everything we'd ordered had been absolutely delicious and was beating out Cali Grill by a mile.

Luckily there was a nice break until our entrees came. By now the sun had set and the lights were on outside the restaurant and it was really pretty looking out of the window. It was getting crowded but not loud; there were children, more than there had been at Cali Grill but again, it wasn't loud at all. However we didn't feel like we had to whisper. We each ordered another beer and just as we found room in our stomachs our food came.

Steve ordered the Red Wine-braised Beef Short Ribs with Jerusalem Artichoke Puree, spinach, and mushrooms and loved everything about it



I'm not sure what's on top of the short ribs, I forgot to ask him and I can't tell by the menu description. I ordered the Oak-grilled Beef Filet with Sauce Bordelaise, Potato Puree, Roasted Baby Carrots and Cipollini Onion Jam



This was perfectly cooked and the sauce was out of this world, as was the potato puree. Carrots aren't my thing so they remained uneaten but I can't say they were bad since I haven't enjoyed cooked carrots in about 40 years.......we both highly recommend Citricos. The only thing I"ll say about Cali Grill is that my filet there was awesome and I did absolutely love the risotto that came with it, but because the appetizers here were so much better and we preferred the atmosphere here, we enjoyed this meal more.

We were beyond full at this point and had no idea how we were going to walk around the MK. What we wanted was to crawl in a stroller and have someone push us onto the monorail and back to our room! However I was getting chilly even inside and decided I needed a warm (alcoholic) drink, so I ordered a Grams Cappucino which was cappuccino with Baileys and Kahlua. This was VERY strong and warmed me up just fine! But while I was waiting for it I saw one of the little princesses at the table next to us have this placed before her



That's the warm chocolate banana torte and yes, it comes with a chocolate tiara! That's what got me and boy was that tiara delicious! The whole thing was and went down swimmingly with my Grams Cappuccino. Although I must admit, while Steve and I made a nice dent in the torte we weren't able to quite finish it.

Eventually we rolled ourselves out of what was one of our best, if not THE best, meal of our trip and headed to the monorail to walk off some of said dinner in the MK. The band had started playing upstairs outside Mizner's Lounge



We listened for a few minutes and made our way out. It wasn't late yet, about 8:00 but MK wasn't too crowded at all. We caught some of the MSEP and grabbed a FP for BTMRR about 30 minutes out. We hit up HM first with a short wait and then headed over. Then we grabbed another FP for Space only 20 minutes out so we went right over to Tomorrowland and rode the PeopleMover, which was the first time we'd done this at night. Pretty cool! Steve still hadn't managed to get on Astro Orbiter so we checked the wait: 30 minutes and he wasn't willing. I told him since we had a PPO BOG breakfast tomorrow we could try after 7DMT. We headed to Space and then decided to do something that turned out to be a HUGE mistake:

If you know where we went you're either laughing at us or feeling sorry for us. If you don't know where we went, you're 1. smarter than we are and 2. luckier. This my friends is inside Stitch's Great Escape, something I can now say is one of Disney's biggest screw-ups E-V-E-R. Please don't take offense, but what the HELL is this thing? I can't even call it an attraction. I can't even say I'm sorry if you like it. I'd heard all the negative reviews. I knew most people would say stay away. But we could never talk the boys into trying it and as I've said before, I like to say I've tried everything in Disney at least once. So, we decided to see what it was about.​

WHICH IS NOTHING.
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This is terrible. Horrible. The beginning wasn't too bad but once we sat down?? OMIGOD. Not to mention I spent the entire time trying to get out from under the restraints like a toddler trying to undo their 5 pt. harness car seat . Most uncomfortable restraints anywhere. The smells didn't bother us so it wasn't that; it's just the whole thing! The basic storyline is decent but then it totally loses it. When it was finally over we walked out in silence. We looked at each other and, without saying a word, understood this would never be spoken of again......but when we got home we did tell the kids we promise to not ever suggest they ride this. Of course they wanted to know why and now Chris is like, "I want to see how bad it is!" Ride it by yourself then kid, ride it by yourself. I rather go through a 30 minute bag check line than sit through that again!

We were ready to go back to the resort at this point. Even though tomorrow was our last day, we'd be back at MK early and knew we'd be able to do some of our favorites before catching that darn ME back to the airport. Steve had been wanting to get me a new D & B purse on this trip as an early bday gift and I hadn't seen one yet that I liked, so we quickly stopped into Uptown Jewelers. My current Dooney and Bourke is/was the Runway Princess



which I am in love with, so that's why I was having trouble finding another that I wanted enough to spend the $$. We'd looked in every store that carried bags and I figured I'd just wait until our next visit. But then, lo and behold I spied this behind the counter

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and fell in love again! The older HM bag with the wallpaper print was ok but not enough for me to buy, but this one is AWESOME. It was also the only one they had in stock and the only place we'd seen it, so we scooped it up and left the park. A quick monorail ride had us back in our room where I packed up before we went to sleep, our last night at the Poly. We were having breakfast at BOG in the morning which was the only meal we had left to try there.

Oops! I forgot to say that we found doing 4 parks today easy and fun! Again we didn't do a headliner everywhere, specifically AK and Epcot, but given lines weren't crazy we could have fit one in each place if we'd wanted to. Not sure I'd try 4 with the boys because I'm sure I'd hear some complaining; I think 3 is their limit!

UP NEXT: BOG BREAKFAST AND TIME TO HEAD HOME

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