Wait, weren't you just at Disney World? An August '14 Pre-Trip Report *updated 8/24*

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 6 - Frozen party clothes​

Not sure if this really qualified as part of a Pre-Trip Report update - but I justified it to myself given the fact I am sure these clothes will make it down with us come August


Yesterday, Olivia had a birthday party to attend (actually, it was for Tara's birthday - for those of you that read my last trip report she was with us on that trip with her family). Not surprisingly, the theme of said party was Frozen... and people were encouraged to dress up. Which is awesome since it is sooooo easy to find Frozen costumes/dolls/anything

Fortunately I was able to find a toddler Elsa doll online with not too much of a mark-up for Olivia to give Tara and also got an Elsa inspired dress off of Etsy for Olivia to wear. We were super happy with the quality of the construction and it looked great - and considering that it was a reasonable price to boot! We figured we should get something for Peter so we got him an Olaf shirt.

Couple of pictures from the photo session I held with this kids:

Kids together:

Olivia modeling the dress/showing off her curtsy prowess:

Close-up of Peter's shirt

Olivia had a blast at the party - Tara's mother was super creative with the activities including a Nock-Down the Snow Monster game (made our of marshmallows)

TTFN!

 

[missangelalexis]

Love the outfits!!

 

[Imagineer5]

Adorable! The Elsa dress is gorgeous!! And love the olaf shirt too! What a fun party! I have been working on acquiring Frozen stuff for Aria's easter basket, not an easy task!!

 

[Leshaface]

Oh goodness, so cute! The dress is fabulous and I love Peter's shirt! I just got the Blu-ray in today and we're going to hopefully watch it tomorrow night. Very excited to see what all the hype is about.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Love the outfits!!

Thanks! - we were very happy with both (we got both off of Etsy and both are of high quality)

Adorable! The Elsa dress is gorgeous!! And love the olaf shirt too! What a fun party! I have been working on acquiring Frozen stuff for Aria's easter basket, not an easy task!!

Thank you - very happy with the dress! Tara's mom had so much trouble finding Frozen stuff for the party but she got lucky at a Party City arriving right as they were stocking the shelves one day. She looked on eBay and people wanted $50 for one pack of paper napkins!

Oh goodness, so cute! The dress is fabulous and I love Peter's shirt! I just got the Blu-ray in today and we're going to hopefully watch it tomorrow night. Very excited to see what all the hype is about.

Thank you! You guys will love the movie - I think of the recent Disney animated movies one of the most balanced as far as action and drama and comedy. And being constructed (and starring) basically a Broadway team the music is great and really adds to the film.

 

[teekathepony]

Hi! I thought I'd join in too, your My Disney Experience screencap of your family including infant "TBD" was too funny to resist. (Btw, congrats on the new baby girl coming, and love the name!)

 

[KatMark]

I hope you don't mind me joining in. I've seen you on other threads (Brenda's comes to mind off the top of my head...emmysmommy; we've had the pleasure of meeting with her and we will be seeing her in September and meeting her hubby for the first time).

Congrats on the new addition to your family that is coming (and I LOVE the name, Emma).

We've gone that week in August and enjoyed it very much.

I love your kids outfits for the party. Very cute.

 

[emmysmommy]

Hi Phil! Sorry to fall so far behind.

How exciting that you will have another little princess! I love the name Emma! Not that I'm a Friends fan but the name Emma reminds me of the episode where Rachel covets the baby of Emma that Monica picked out for her future daughter and begs Monica to give her the name. Ok, that will make no sense if you never saw the episode. In any event, how AWESOME!!

Yay for those summer discounts and getting a great deal on your park tickets.

I want a Frozen themed party for my birthday! The kids are adorable.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Hi! I thought I'd join in too, your My Disney Experience screencap of your family including infant "TBD" was too funny to resist. (Btw, congrats on the new baby girl coming, and love the name!)

Welcome, thanks for joining! I thought that was funny too, though happy to have been able to change it! Thank you!

I hope you don't mind me joining in. I've seen you on other threads (Brenda's comes to mind off the top of my head...emmysmommy; we've had the pleasure of meeting with her and we will be seeing her in September and meeting her hubby for the first time).

Congrats on the new addition to your family that is coming (and I LOVE the name, Emma).

We've gone that week in August and enjoyed it very much.

I love your kids outfits for the party. Very cute.

Thanks so much for joining, and welcome! I recall seeing you post on various threads, definitely in Brenda's.

Thank you!

The last week in August is the week we used to go when I was a kid, so kinda nice to re-live that a bit and keep the tradition going. I know it can get hot but, even more than normal, we will definitely have mid-day breaks so it should be fine.

Hi Phil! Sorry to fall so far behind.

How exciting that you will have another little princess! I love the name Emma! Not that I'm a Friends fan but the name Emma reminds me of the episode where Rachel covets the baby of Emma that Monica picked out for her future daughter and begs Monica to give her the name. Ok, that will make no sense if you never saw the episode. In any event, how AWESOME!!

Yay for those summer discounts and getting a great deal on your park tickets.

I want a Frozen themed party for my birthday! The kids are adorable.

No worries about falling behind ... probably not a thread that will have daily updates or anything

Thanks - super happy to see all the positive response to the name! Must admit I did not think about that scene in Friends when we picked it. Though now that I think about it, it is a fairly common name on TV now with both the guidance counselor on Glee and the main character on Once Upon a Time being named Emma.

Very happy so far with how the discounts are working out

Yeah, a Frozen themed party would be pretty cool. Actually, where we live in the North East it seemed like Elsa was visiting for the past few months

 

[amberg93]

Joining in. I do think it's funny that they put the TBD for the baby Also, I'm super jealous about your royal rooms at POR! I want to stay in them but then Marie and I always have to go and be reasonable.

Of course now it looks better with her name actually there. I love the name Emma! (Though right now it reminds me of the Webseries Emma Approved adapted from Jane Austen's Emma but still, awesome name!)

As for the Olivia, my DW wants to name one of our daughters Olivia. At least she'll be in good company with yours (Although did you know about the TV show based on the book series of Olivia the pig books? They're super cute, but I always got the theme stuck in my head every time I read your TR and you mentioned Olivia )

I love Olivia's dress for her party though, I bet she was over the top overjoyed with it because it is super cute.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Joining in. I do think it's funny that they put the TBD for the baby Also, I'm super jealous about your royal rooms at POR! I want to stay in them but then Marie and I always have to go and be reasonable.

Of course now it looks better with her name actually there. I love the name Emma! (Though right now it reminds me of the Webseries Emma Approved adapted from Jane Austen's Emma but still, awesome name!)

As for the Olivia, my DW wants to name one of our daughters Olivia. At least she'll be in good company with yours (Although did you know about the TV show based on the book series of Olivia the pig books? They're super cute, but I always got the theme stuck in my head every time I read your TR and you mentioned Olivia )

I love Olivia's dress for her party though, I bet she was over the top overjoyed with it because it is super cute.

Welcome and thanks for joining the (what I hope is) fun!

Maybe it's just after seeing the quote for the Contemporary that the Royal Rooms at Port Orleans looked "reasonable" to me

We do know the series "Olivia" and have several of the books. One of the lines from the books I quote at her quite a bit: "you know Olivia, you sometimes wear me out ... but I love you anyway"

Olivia actually is a fairly common name around us. One of Olivia's good friends is named Olivia. They each refer to the other as "the other Olivia"

Olivia loved the dress and they had so much fun at the party - super cute seeing all the little girls dressed up - about 80% of them in some form of an Elsa dress and this 1 girl in the full Anna get-up (dress, wig, boots, etc.)

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 7 - Passholder Magic Band and Disney Jr. Live & Aladdin​

So one exciting thing happened related to our trip - the Passholder Magic Band related to my Annual Pass showed up!

This was just the one - we will be getting our full set in a bit, but I am glad to get the one to play around with and will perhaps set it up to experiment with FP+


Other Disney related developments:

1) Disney Jr. Live:

My company offered discounts to see Disney Jr. Live - so we are taking the kids to see it on Saturday April 12th.

I had a bit of a heart attack as when I first when to check for tickets and checked for "best available" and the tickets came back that cost $107.00 each

I then narrowed down the scope a bit and got some for $25 each which was more like what I was thinking ... though we are definitely not front and center


2) Aladdin on Broadway:

For my birthday we got tickets to go see this and I am super excited. Judi, Olivia, and I are going this Sunday (Grandma will watch Peter) and for this we did splurge and sit front and center!

Will probably post some pictures from it along with a review.

TTFN

 

[KatMark]

I love it! I just caught up on all of my other threads, updated my own TR and can now keep up (at least for now) with everyone else.

for Mickey mail. Always exciting to see that in the mailbox.

$107? Yes, that wouldn't happen here either. I hope you enjoy it.

And lucky you...what a nice birthday present. We expect pictures.

 

[khaleesi]

Love the birthday party outfits! And I love Etsy. I've been able to find some really unique stuff on there.

So, with the AP band... do you just keep reusing it for the duration of your AP pass? Very exciting, either way. Yay for Mickey mail!!

I didn't realize Aladdin was on Broadway! Awesome!! Not that I will be making it to Broadway, but at some point hopefully they will tour!!

 

[caitlinnf]

I am so jealous about Aladdin on Broadway!!! I hope it's amazing.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I love it! I just caught up on all of my other threads, updated my own TR and can now keep up (at least for now) with everyone else.

for Mickey mail. Always exciting to see that in the mailbox.

$107? Yes, that wouldn't happen here either. I hope you enjoy it.

And lucky you...what a nice birthday present. We expect pictures.

Congrats on being caught up!

yes, Mickey Mail is very exciting, though Olivia was a bit disappointed that there was no MB for her ... but it will be coming

Hope we enjoy the show too ... and I think I will enjoy it much more for the $25/ticket that we wound up paying

Pictures of Aladdin to come in next post, along with full review and bonus dining review!

Love the birthday party outfits! And I love Etsy. I've been able to find some really unique stuff on there.

So, with the AP band... do you just keep reusing it for the duration of your AP pass? Very exciting, either way. Yay for Mickey mail!!

I didn't realize Aladdin was on Broadway! Awesome!! Not that I will be making it to Broadway, but at some point hopefully they will tour!!

Etsy is pretty cool ... definitely can waste, I mean, spend lots of time on there just looking at stuff

To be honest, I am not sure how the AP MB fully works - I know I am getting another one for our upcoming scheduled on-site. I am hoping that bands can be re-used in the future ... especially now that off-site guest can get them by paying for them, would be kinda not great if people had to re-buy them for every trip.

Aladdin just opened on Broadway after having a trial run up in Toronto. Next post will have a review! I am sure they will tour at some point, but probably will be a little while.

I am so jealous about Aladdin on Broadway!!! I hope it's amazing.

The show was very good - super funny. Next update will have a full review though!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 8 - Aladdin on Broadway review​

So not directly related to this being a pre-trip report ... but Disney related so thought I would share the below review of Aladdin on Broadway as well as a bonus dining review from our brunch before the show.

*************************

*** Sunday, March 30th ***​

For my birthday this year I selected getting tickets to see Aladdin on Broadway when I got an e-mail about an early ticket opportunity for Disney Visa card holders.

This also would be an opportunity for Judi and I to have a day out with just Olivia as we weren't sure if Peter would sit through the whole thing. Instead, he got to have a day alone with Grandma, so first part of the day was driving down to Long Island to drop him off there.

We then took the train in to Penn Station.

Olivia waiting for the train:

Olivia on the train watching Long Island go by:

Most interesting part of the train ride was related to how the actual train gets on to the island of Manhattan. For those of you not familiar with NYC, there are 3 major train systems for getting people from the surrounding areas into/onto Manhattan. Where we live we would take Metro North which utilizes bridges to get onto the island. From Long Island, the train system is the LIRR and that uses tunnels to go under the east river to get there. This would be a first for Olivia and she didn't really get the concept and though we were literally going to be going "under the water" and would see fish out the windows and stuff. But once we actually went into the tunnel and related it a bit to the Subway (which she has been on in the past) it made more sense to her


Before the show, we had reservations for brunch at Etcetera Etcetera on 44th st between 8th and 9th avenues. (Theater was on 4nd street near 7th ave). ... so figured I would include a dining review.

First, the menu:

and an odd picture of Olivia as I was taking a picture of the flower on the table:

Olivia got an orange juice to drink, which she enjoyed squeezing the slice of orange that came with it into the drink:

I started with a Bloody Mary - which was quite good. Not super, super spicy (like I know some people like it) but more balanced, which is how I like them:

We also got a nice breadbasket of mini-muffins and focaccia to start:

To eat, Olivia got the blueberry pancakes which she enjoyed (Judi and I tried them as well and both thought they were quite good - could tell had a bit of cornmeal or buckwheat flour in them):

I got the Bergamo Eggs: Scrambled eggs with taleggio cheese, grilled pancetta and polenta croutons

These were very cheesy and rich - almost a bit too much. Also, the polenta was more of a cake on the bottom rather than croutons on tip like I was expecting. A bite all together was quite good - but if you got a bit with too much cheese it was a bit much.

Judi got the Milanese Eggs: Sunny side up eggs on a bed of asparagus with onion potatoes (though she got her eggs over medium)

She also thought this was quite good - though she commented the potatoes were very oniony

Overall we very much enjoyed brunch. The wait staff was very friendly, the food came out quickly but we didn't feel rushed and the pricing wasn't outrageous. It was pretty far down towards 9th ave so depending on where you are going could be a little out of the way, but if the right opportunity came up we would definitely go back.


Following brunch we walked down towards the theater and first up was to stop by the ticket office as the tickets we got qualified as "VIP tickets" which meant we had to pick up our "VIP Packets" which included a lanyard, a pin, a gift from the merchandise table (which was a photo of Genie) and a certificate for a free non-alcoholic drink in souvenir cup.


We then went in and after briefly checking out the souvenir stands (Olivia was told she could pick one thing) we found our seats - a couple of shots of first the theater and then of Olivia and I waiting in our seats

They were pretty adament about not being able to take pictures during the show and even Olivia reminded me to "put my cell phone away" but when I saw others taking pictures during the curtain call, I couldn't resist capturing one:

Ok, enough pictures, onto the review of the show:

It was really, really great - totally fun and very, very funny. I don't think it will "change" Broadway or anything like the Lion King did but it was certainly an enjoyable time at the theater and you could tell people enjoyed it - especially the kids (but tons of the humor was aimed at adults - especially Disney-loving adults)

As far as the performances, I will first say that the cast as a whole was very good and seemed really invested in the show ... I didn't notice anyone who seemed to be just going through the motions or anything. I did want to comment on a few specifically:

Aladdin - played by Adam Jacobs: Adam did a great job and really fit the role. He came off as optimistic and bright eyed - but also with a twinkle in his eye that he can be crafty when needed. The inclusion of the song "Proud of your boy" I think really helped develop the character beyond just wanting to win the girl.

Genie - played by James Monroe Iglehart: Absolutely tremendous. It's like he was born to play the role. Big voice, able to pull the dancing off and a great sense of comic timing and nuances. Taps a bit into Robin Williams but really his own version with a bit of Oprah Winfrey and Damon Waynes' In Living Color Men on Film character included ... but also with some Neil Patrick Harris love of theater history, but a modern take on it.

Jafar - played by Jonathan Freeman: Obviously he knows the role, having voiced Jafar in the original movie. He has great stage presence - though I will say this version of Jafar was more conniving and political than downright evil wizard (with the exception of a few spots).


Those are the main performances, but there are two other performances I wanted to touch on:

Jasmine - played by Courtney Reed: In reading reviews of the musical prior to seeing it, hers was the performance most panned with some saying she took away from the overall show. I have to disagree with that. While perhaps not the strongest performance (Aladdin and Genie were a better) I think she held her own. Plus you can tell she was really enjoying herself (her show notes indicate that she "can't believe she gets to play her favorite Disney princess" - and you get that sense). One thing I will say, she has a bit of "pop star" to her voice versus Broadway star - so think more Demi Lavato instead of Idina Menzel

Iago - played by Don Darryl Rivera: This is probably the performance that most surprised me - in an absolute positive way. He fit the role so well, and had such great timing in his comedic lines that it was just a pleasure to watch and quite a few times I found myself forgetting that in the movie this role was a bird rather than a person he so took over the role. Not bad considering this is his Broadway debut!


I should also note the staging of the action and the set in general as it really was terrific - the way the pieces representing the building of Agrabah moved around and were able to realistically have Aladdin move around the rooftops (without being over the top) was great. And I found the Cave of Wonders part to be phenomenal.

There were a negative though: The magic carpet scenes were good but a little one note and the "Whole New World" scene, while interesting and certainly not bad, did not capture the wonder of the scene from the movie. Also, the three attendants of Jasmine I thought were very underused.

However, the biggest complaint I have is that the show ends on a bit of a whimper. Again, while not bad, the part of Jafar taking over and the Aladdin outsmarting him happens really fast and seems almost rushed and then the closing bit is just a recap of past songs/performances ... just didn't build to a crescendo. It really palled in comparison to the ending scene of the first act - "Friend Like Me" in the Cave of Wonder - which truly felt like a finale and had much of the audience standing and applauding before it was even over.

While these are really minor gripes I do think they were enough to keep this show from truly being amazing or game changing. I do think it has some legs, largely because James Monroe Iglehart's Genie is that good, but think more Beauty and the Beast rather than The Lion King as far as Broadway impact.

If anyone has any specific questions or would like more info on any parts, let me know.


One the way out we did pick up a few souvenirs - they were raising money for a charity and for a certain donation you got an apron, so Judi got one of those, and Olivia picked to have a Jasmine doll, and we got an Aladdin one for Peter:

We stopped for dessert at Crumbs Bakery (which, actually was a bit disappointing - not bad, just not special) and then had the worst part of the trip as it started to absolutely pour on our walk back to Penn Station. But overall it was a great day out with Olivia, really enjoyed the show, and Grandma wound up doing find with Peter.

TTFN

 

[middlesista]

WOW - what a great experience! Making some wonderful memories for Olivia.

 

[caitlinnf]

What a fun outing! Olivia looks adorable all dressed up for the show.

 

[missangelalexis]

Congrats on getting your AP band!

Awesome that you will be seeing Disney Jr live!

I'm glad you enjoyed Aladdin! Sounds like it was a really fun day for the 3 of you