We Conqured the World! Feb 9-15th

[Miaka1]

Disney world trip report
Feb 9th-15th.

So our trip consisted of Me, my DH, and my two DD’s ages 9 and 10. It was the girls first trip to Disney world and my husband’s second (his first trip was our honeymoon 12 years ago) my parents are DVC members so we used their points to stay at Old Key West. We stayed 6 nights and had 5 day park hopper passes. We drove from Dallas, staying overnight in Gainesville FL. We arrived at OKW about 10am.
Check in and the Hotel:
We arrived very early for check in and the plan was, to check in and park the car and hit down town Disney until our room was ready. Well much to my surprise our room was ready, and we were staying near the hospitality house! (I had always stayed off of Turtle Pond, so this was a big surprise for me) We had a two bedroom villa, and hearing “welcome home” really made my day! Our room (or rooms I should say) were great! We had a view of the golf course, and everything was bright and squeaky clean. There was a cute little heart swan made out of two towels on the master bed, which was awesome. The only thing I can complain about, in regards to the room is that the blankets were very light. While I don’t like to be hot when I sleep, I just can’t ever get comfy without the weight of a heavy blanket. Other than that the room was great. I really liked being close enough to the hospitality house that I could pop in and buy an energy drink, or go lay in a hammock drinking a fruity adult beverage.
Down Town Disney:
After we got quickly settled in the room, we headed out to DTD. DH and I didn’t see DTD on our honeymoon, so this was a new experience for us. We took the boat from OKW, and went exploring. It was more crowded than I expected, but it was a Sunday. We were going to do DisneyQuest but really were just too tired and it seemed really crowded (huge groups of people hanging around the entrance) so instead we looked for a place to have lunch. We ended up eating outdoors at Splitsville. Kids got a large meat lovers pizza, I had a spicy shrimp noodle bowl and DH had a bacon cheese burger. The food was very good and we didn’t spend any more than we would have at Chili’s. Good food, and good value, I would eat there again.
After lunch we walked around to the Marketplace side and took pictures of the Lego art and did some major shopping at the HUGE Disney store and Christmas shop. We met a very nice CM who helped us find a Pasquel and Flounder plushy, who took time to talk the girls about what they should see on their first trip.
After much shopping we went to get on the boat back to OKW. After we boarded the boat, as we were about to leave, the driver suddenly says “everyone off the boat now, we are leaking gas!” You would have thought someone shouted fire in a movie theater!! I’ve never seen so many people panic so quickly. We stayed seated until everyone else had exited the boat then calmly got off. We ended up having to wait another 10 minutes for a boat, but no big deal, we were not in a hurry. It was kinda gross though seeing how much gasoline the boat dumped into the water, with ducks swimming around not 10 feet away, but I tried not to think about it.
After we got back to the hotel we rested a bit then set off to find a grocery store. We ended up at a Winn Dixie not too far from OKW and stocked up on food for the week. Most everything was priced on par with the more expensive grocery stores in Dallas (Tom thumb, or Central Market) except the milk. Milk was almost 5 dollars a gallon! (Yikes) but we got enough food to make breakfast each day and a couple of dinners. Sunday night I cooked dinner, and also made enchiladas to have later in the week. Then we went to bed early so we could head out fully rested Monday morning.

Monday and the Magic Kingdom:
Being the cook in the family I got up early and made a large breakfast for everyone. Pancakes, eggs, bacon and orange juice and milk. Then we hopped the bus to the magic kingdom. We got to the Magic Kingdom and were through the bag check and into the park by 8:15. We took some cute pictures of the girls in front of the Mickey Flowers, and then hit the gift shop to buy hats, since for some reason my daughters cannot smile for pictures if the sun is on their face. (and I didn’t want tons pictures of them with teary eyes at Disney.) After buying hats we found a nice spot under a tree with a high concrete wall around it to watch the “welcome to the Magic Kingdom” show. I have been to Disney world 10 times and never seen this. It was definitely worth it! Seeing the dancers and Mickey get off the train really set the perfect tone for the day. (and I may or may not have cried a little toward the end. ) After the welcome show we headed into the park. Our first FP was for Enchanted Tales with Belle. We got there right on time and they said there was no wait, so we walked right in and rescheduled the FP for Jungle Cruise later in the day. ETWB was awesome! DD1 got to be Maurice and DD2 got to be Mrs. Potts. They were super cute and really enjoyed it. After ETWB we went and walked onto Under the Sea, then waited about 15 minutes at Arial’s Grotto. Photo Pass photographer got some pretty good pictures and the CM playing Ariel did a great job interacting with the girls.
After Ariel we walked road Barnstormer with a 10 minute wait and then practically walked onto Dumbo. Kids were kinda disappointed that they didn’t get to play in the play area, because there was no wait! By the time we were done with Dumbo the park was filling up, we waited about 2 ride cycles for teacups (not real sure how long that was) Then it was time for our second FP and we headed all the way over to Big Thunder Mountain. After BTM we found a spot in Liberty Square and had lunch. We had sandwiches, chips, and apples that we brought with us into the park. The kids were fascinated by the long beaked birds that were walking around the tables looking for scraps. I never did find out what kind of birds those were.
With full bellies we rode Haunted Mansion, I really like how they re-did the line, all the interactive stuff was cool. Then we went and used our FP for PeterPan. After PPF we rode Small World. We actually waited probably 25 minutes, I was surprised at the line for this, but it did move quickly, so it wasn’t too bad. By now the park was really starting to get full. We waited 30 minutes to ride Winnie the pooh, but again all the neat stuff to do while waiting in line made the wait seem short. By now DH and I were getting tired, so we wanted to sit. We went and did the Enchanted Tiki Room ( I am so glad they got rid of Iago!) DD2 really liked the show, but DD1 was kinda bored. For me it was nostalgic, I love those singing birds! We then went and did Pirates, line was LONG! Probably 40 minutes, and not entertaining, nothing really interesting to look at, but at least it wasn’t in the sun. After Pirates we headed over to Tom Sawyer Island for a bit before our ADR. We ate at Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner. Our reservation was for 6:30, and after advise I’ve read on the DIS boards we got there about 30 minutes early in hopes of getting seated early. No such luck. We were seated about 10 minutes after our ADR time. I really love the food at LTT. It was SO good. Everything about it was good. The only thing that wasn’t well liked, was the kids didn’t like how much onion was used to make the green beans. (they still cleared their plates and had seconds, but it was their least favorite thing) The salad was DH’s favorite, he just loves the dressing they use, and my favorite was probably …..all of it. It was SO good!
By the time we were finished with dinner the main street electrical parade was right in front of the restaurant. We couldn’t really leave until it passed. Once it had passed we headed over to the nearest smoking area (yes, DH and I are smokers, don’t judge please) the closest area is right behind the castle, and after we were done Celebrate the magic was about to start. We ended up standing on the left side of the castle. We had a great spot of Celebrate the Magic, but when wishes started directly after we could not see any of the fireworks due to the trees, but we were kind of stuck there because of all the people. After the fireworks ended we headed straight to adventure land. We walked onto jungle cruise, Aladdin’s flying carpet and pirates again. Then we walked around and did big thunder mountain at night (which was awesome!) again, we walked right on. Then we walked back around and did Haunted Mansion again. I guess DH and I are getting old, because we both agreed that pirates and HM were so much better at night because we could see everything. So many more details stood out. After HM we still had a little time before the park closed so we went and road Space Mountain and Buzz Light year space ranger spin. By then it was time to go home and sleep. We left the park as they were playing the closing music (again, I might have cried a little) We got back to the hotel by about 12:15, kids fell asleep on the bus, and then went right to bed. Best first day ever! (we never did use our Jungle Cruise FP, after the fireworks park emptied so much that we didn’t need it)

Day 2, Animal Kingdom:
So our second day we went to Animal Kingdom. We were not there for the park opening, but arrived about 9:30 in time to use our first FP, for Kilimanjaro Safari’s. The animals were awesome. Since we are a family of four, we took up one whole row and placed a child on each side, so they got to see everything! At one point the Zebra’s were so close we could almost reach out and touch them. The animals were nice and active and our guide was really good too. After KS we walked forest exploration trail. Kids were not really enthused, but our next FP was for Dinosaur so we headed that way. We brought ear plugs for me and the girls, because I remember the ride being very loud, and I’m glad I did. The dino at the end hurt my ears, even with the ear plugs! We then looked at the primeval whirl ride and said no way (it looked like the teacups on a roller coaster, got nauseous just by looking at it!) We took the kids over to play in the bone yard for a bit, it was nice to just sit and watch them play. Then we headed back toward Asia. Kids really wanted to ride the Kali River Rapids. As we were walking past the Nemo theater they were doing “last call” they said the theater wasn’t really crowded so we hopped in and had good seats. We were on the left hand side (facing the stage) in the front of the second tier of seating, right where some of the performers come out! Kids complained that they didn’t want to watch a show for all of 30 seconds, then they were enthralled. I have had the “Just keep swimming “ song stuck in my head ever since!!!
After the show we went and did the KRR, I was so disappointed! We waited in line for about 15 minute for a pretty crappy ride. This was probably my least favorite ride at Disney world. You get on, you go up a hill, around a corner and then down a waterfall. Then you get off. That’s it??? Really? Lame. By this point it was about 1:15, so we went and found a table to sit at and ate our sandwiches. Birds at Animal kingdom are brave and annoying. We saw them hop up on tables and practically try to eat food out of people’s mouths. DH made a comment about not feeding the birds and not 2 minutes later one pooped on him. So we ate quickly and left that area. After lunch we were trying to decide what to do. Our next FP wasn’t until 4pm and we were all kinda bored. So we decided to just go wait in line for Expedition Everest instead of using the FP. We waited about 40 minutes. The ride pic we got was awesome. DH and I look like we are having a great time, while both kids have their eyes squeezed shut and screaming. 
So after EE we decided to head back to the hotel. DH had a headache, so he went to go lay down and I took the kids to the pool. Kids played at the pool while I soaked in the hot tub. This is one place where the magic bands came in very handy. I was able to go to the gurgling suitcase, order a cocktail and pay for it, without having to worry about my wallet at the pool. Very nice! (and I highly recommend the turtle krawl cocktail at the gurgling suitcase. YUM!) So we swam and relaxed for about an hour, then I cooked the enchiladas I had made Sunday night, and after dinner we went back to the Magic Kingdom!
This time at the Magic Kingdom we focused on seeing characters. We did the talking Mickey, and it was awesome!! He was great with the girls, and then I threw him off script when I asked him “Mickey, since Valentines day is Friday, are you going to ask Minnie to marry you?” He got flustered and basically had to start over. (I know lots of people ask him this, but it really seemed like he was genuinely surprised at my question, and his reaction was darling!) Mickey then did a card trick for the girls that was really cute and the photopass photographer got some great pics! After Mickey we went and tried to see some princesses. There was only a 10 minute wait to see Cinderella and “guest” so we saw her, (guest was Aurora) and then went to go see Rapunzel. Wait time only said 10 minutes, but I could see the line, so I asked, and they said, no the wait time was closer to 90 minutes. So we skipped said, no thank you We then went and saw the MickeysPhilharmagic and then we went and rode Winnie the pooh, tomorrow land speedway, and then dumbo, and barnstormer again. Then we went into Pete’s silly side show, there was no wait at all. So we saw Minnie and Daisy and then went back around and saw Donald and Goofy. By now it was getting close to park closing DH went to go smoke again by the castle so I took the girls on the carousel and we finished the ride about the same time he finished smoking, so we went and got in line for Peter pan, rode that and then it was time to go. Second night closing out the Magic Kingdom and I still didn’t get to see Wishes or the parade.

Day 3 Epcot:
Our day in Epcot started with the Princess story book breakfast at Akershus. We were seated as soon as we got there, even though it was about 15 minutes before our ADR. The food was so good. Forget Mickey waffles, give me bagels and lox! The plate for the table came out quickly and was fresh and hot. The pastries tasted fresh, the fruit was good, and our waiter was really attentive to filling our drinks. The picture with Belle turned out great. My kids were wearing the princess dresses my mother had made them. DD1 was wearing a princess Aurora dress and DD2 was dressed as Merida. So the picture with Belle had bright yellow, pink and blue. It’s a really nice picture. The girls really enjoyed seeing the princesses, and I really enjoyed not having to wait in line to see them. We got to see Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White an Arial in her human form. After breakfast we did Figment, but skipped Captain Eo, then we did Nemo and Turtle Talk with crush. (we had a FP for Crush, but didn’t need to use it, so I tried to reschedule it, but didn’t see anything worth it, so I decided not to bother) after Crush they were feeding the dolphins, so that was really neat! We finished up the Living Seas just in time to head to the Land pavilion to ride Soarin. We had a FP but still ended up waiting 30 minutes, that’s ok, DH and the kids say it was worth it. I personally did not like the ride. I had never ridden it before, so I thought I would give it a try. I don’t like heights, I don’t like to fly and I’m not wild about simulators. So, I didn’t really care for the ride. Everyone else thought it was awesome. After Soarin we did Living with the Land and it was SO interesting. If we had more time we would have loved to do the tour where they show you how they grow everything. It is definitely on the list for next trip! We finished up the Land Pavilion with lunch at the Sunshine Seasons. DH had a sandwich which had this great spicy mayo on it, I had a spicy Thai chicken with noodles (not really spicy and didn’t taste Thai, but still good) and both kids had mac and cheese. We also had some sushi and bought some trail mix for later. We spent about $45.00 on lunch, which isn’t too bad.
After lunch we did Space Ship Earth, which became DD2’s favorite ride at all of Disney World. I am so glad my kids like science and space. They just thought it was the coolest ride ever. We then went and used our FP for Mission Space, we rode the green side, and it was just thrilling enough for me. We really didn’t need to the FP for this, since we did green side, I wish I had know that, but again, I’m not sure what I would have scheduled in its place. After Mission Space we did Test Track. Couldn’t fast pass this, since we did Soarin. Waited 45 minutes, but I really liked how we got to design a car. My biggest complaint about Test Track was since there were 4 of us we ended up with 2 single riders sitting with us and the person sitting with the girls was a very obnoxious teenager who did a pose for the camera and ended up totally covering my kids faces. 
So far it had been a good day, but that quickly changed. When we finished TT, I really needed to use the restroom, but the kids were having a good time exploring the cool stuff after the ride, so DH agreed to stay with the girls while I went to the closest restroom. (not too far, but not in the TT pavilion) When I got back from the restroom DH comes up to me completely panicked because he cannot find DD1. Now DD1 is 10 years old, but she is still very immature and very very shy. We confirm that she is no longer in the TT area, and I am heading up to alert the CM in the gift shop that I have lost my child when DH gets a call on his cell phone. Its DD1 using a cast members phone. She is over by the restrooms. We go over to the restrooms and find DD1 with a cast member and a small group of woman (who were from Brazil, I think) Apparently DD1 had heard me say I was going to the restroom, and she looked up and didn’t see me or her daddy, so she asked a CM where the restroom was and went off to find us. When we were not there, she panicked and was standing in the restroom looking so upset that this very nice woman asked her what was wrong. The woman then took DD1 to a cast member, who let DD1 use her cell phone to call us. Scared 10 years off my life! And DD1 burst into tears when she saw us and had a good 10 minute cry, and did not stop holding my hand the rest of the day.
After our lost child scare we headed out to World Showcase. By now the sky was getting pretty cloudy and the wind was picking up. We did whatever they are calling Rio de Tiempo now and that in my opinion was a waste of time. Seriously this told nothing about Mexican culture. We looked around the market place but didn’t see anything we couldn’t live without so we moved on to Norway. Now the sky was starting to spit, but we were not worried, we had our rain ponchos, purchased at Walmart so we felt prepared. After Maelstorm, which the kids really liked, it was raining cats and dogs. No amount of rain gear would have been effective! Major wind gusts and lots of lightning! We quickly, but carefully made our way to China. We sat down and tried to dry off, but we were all soaked from the knees down. After waiting about 5 minutes, the Chinese acrobats came out, and that was neat (although their musical choice was interesting) Kids really liked the show, and DH and I liked that we could sit down and not move for a few minutes!
By the time the show ended, rain was down to a steady light rain. Not exactly a drizzle, but definitely manageable. So we continued our trek around the world. We didn’t see any shows, but did go into each countries gift shop. Kids got to talk to a CM from each country and picked up a couple of words in each language. The Japan pavilion was everyone’s favorite. We are huge anime fans in our house, so we spent a lot of time in japan. We talked to a couple of CM’s about what anime they like, and how to watch anime (that hasn’t been dubbed in English) in the U.S. and I got to use my very limited Japanese. I think the CM’s thought I was amusing, with my amature Japanese with a strong Texas accent, but they did humor me and praised my pronunciation. Kids went crazy in the gift shop. We came out with a pokemon plush, a hello kitty plush, pocky, taiyaki (redbean filled snack cake, Japanese version of a Twinkie) , the cutest rice bowls with a crabs painted on them (my kitchen is decorated with crabs) and other small Japanese snacks and toys. At this point it is almost 7:45 and we haven’t had dinner yet, so we went to go find food.
I was very surprised at the lack of counter service seating anywhere in world showcase and because of the rain, things seemed to be closed. We ended up walking all the way back around to Mexico for food. We live in Dallas, so Mexican food really isn’t a treat, but that’s ok, it was still good. By the time we were doe eating it was about 15 minutes until Illuminations started. So we found ourselves a spot on the bridge between Mexico and Future World and it was the perfect spot. Since it was still raining it seemed like half the park was crowded under the awning at the Mexican counter service restaurant. We were already wet, so standing in the very light rain didn’t faze us at all. Illuminations was amazing! The girls suddenly forgot how cold they were (it was about 50 degrees by this point) or how wet they were and just enjoyed the show. Afterwards we headed back to OKW, everyone took a hot back and all the clothes went into the wash. When I finally got to bed it was pretty late, but it had been a good day.

Day 4 Hollywood Studios and the Luau:
Once again, my day started with cooking breakfast for everyone, on this day it was cinnamon rolls and sausage and eggs. After breakfast we bundled up and headed to DHS. It had been warm enough to swim on Tuesday, now I was regretting not bringing my winter coat. The temperature was somewhere in the 40s. Brrrrr!
We got to DHS in time for rope drop, and headed straight to Toy Story. By the time we got there it was only a 10 minute wait, and I almost wish It had been a little longer, because the queuing area is just SO cool. DH killed everyone’s score on the ride, I think he outscored me by 50k points!! After the ride was over, we turned right around and got back on with our FP. By the time we got to the FP line, the wait time was up to 60 minutes! We rode The Great Movie ride next and man does that ride need an update! I really love it though, and wished we had ridden it more than once. When we left the GMR characters were hanging out in front of Mickey’s hat so we got in line to meet chip and dale. Chip and Dale left before we got to the front of the line though, and Stitch came out and replaced him. We love Stitch so this was awesome! The only bad thing was, there was no photopass photographer. We took pics though, and got autographs and then headed out to Star Tours. We rode Star Tours twice, once with FP, once without, Then we saw Muppet Vision 3D. After Muppet Vision we decided to eat at Pizza Planet. I was seriously disappointed. The pizza was very greasy and didn’t come with hardly any toppings. The salads that came with the pizza had so much dressing on them, the kids wouldn’t eat it, and I could barely choke it down. I will not eat there again.
After lunch we headed to Tower of Terror. We had FP, so we walked right on. Then we did Rockin Roller Coaster. No FP, but the wait wasn’t too bad, only 40 minutes. After RnRc we had to leave to head to the Luau. Now, every time we had been at the Magic Kingdom in the last 3 days the monorail was running, but I knew there was supposed to be construction on it. The kids really wanted to ride the monorail, because it is so iconic. So I double checked with a CM who was directing people where to go for their busses, about whether or not it was running. She told me that I needed to take bus 25 to the ticket and transportation center and then take the monorail to the Polynesian. So we head over to bus 25 and discover that bus 25 goes to the magic kingdom. Ok, that’s fine that is in the right direction anyways. So we end up standing all the way to the Magic Kingdom because it was so crowded. When we get there, we find out that the monorail is NOT running and neither are the boats, because of the wind. Instead there is a bus. So we ended up having to wait for about 30 minutes, because the first bus was so full we couldn’t fit. Again we ended up standing, but at least it wasn’t too far.
The luau was awesome; with some of the best food I ate the entire trip. We ended up getting there early enough to explore the resort a little bit. I just love how pretty everything at the Polynesian is. The lobby is beautiful, and all the landscaping just gives you that peaceful serene feeling. I also really liked the lights they use to light the paths. They are flaming large tiki torches. We walked out to the pool area and down to bay lake. I couldn’t believe the amount of people swimming, but the pool did look like a lot of fun. The Luau was great, and the food was the best part! The pineapple coconut rolls were my favorite, and I asked for the recipe so those are on my list of things to make! The salads were very cold and fresh, and the hot food came out very hot. Everyone got full and really enjoyed the show. I felt bad for the dancers though, because it was still pretty cold and windy and they were in grass skirts and swimsuit tops. DH and I decided to buy the fruity drink that comes in the coconut and while that was cute, it was not worth the money, and the coconut wasn’t all that. Probably won’t buy that again. After the luau the monorails were running again, so we headed back to the magic kingdom. It was awesome seeing the Grand Floridian at night. We got to the Magic Kingdom just as Wishes was ending, so we quickly headed off of main street. We rode Winnie the Pooh again, Space Mountain, HM, and Pirates. We also finally got to see Rapunzel. See the reason meeting Rapunzel was such a big deal, is that Pasqual that DH had bought on Sunday when we were in DTD had been sitting on his shoulder every day, in every park the entire week. DH attached him with safety pins underneath his shirt, so you couldn’t see the pins. Everywhere we went DH got a lot of attention, and everyone thought it was very cute. By Tuesday afternoon cast members kept telling us that Rapunzel was looking for us, and we needed to go see her. I kept explaining that we really didn’t want to wait over 40 minutes to meet a princess. So Thursday, we finally got to go see her, the wait wasn’t bad, and it was as if she knew we were coming. She was very glad we had found Pasquel and gave us a whole lesson on what he eats (chocolate soup is his favorite) we spent probably 20 minutes talking with her. DH even gave her a kiss on the hand, and I have to hand it to the photopass photographer, because DH was trying to be sneaky so no one would catch a picture, but he wasn’t sneaky enough! After Rapunzel we headed back to OKW.

Day 5 Last day in the park:
On Friday we slept in. We were not in a rush and didn’t have any set plans besides dinner at 8:30. So we slept until we woke up, then ate and decided we wanted to go to DHS to ride ToT and RnR again. We also wanted to go meet Merida. So after breakfast we headed to the MK and it was a zoo. OMG, the crowds! Every other day this week had been around a crowd lvl 4, and Friday was predicted to be a 7. I knew that ahead of time, but the seas of people were very intimidating. We waited an hour to see Merida, and while we were waiting I scheduled our FP’s for ToT and RnR. I was able to get the times close together and early enough we wouldn’t miss dinner. After Merida we were going to try to find something to eat, but there was a line coming out of Cosmic Rays Starlight Café that spilled into the street that didn’t seem to be moving, so we headed down Main street thinking we would find something, but I didn’t realize that everything on Main street you had to have an ADR for. So we decided we would just head straight to DHS, but we get out to the bus and the line is insane. We would have had to wait for at least 3 busses. Instead of dealing with that craziness we took the bus back to OKW and ate at Olivia’s. The food was meh. Mine was good, I had the shrimp po’boy, DH had a burger, DD1 had a club sandwich and DD2 had the tiniest kids pizza I have ever seen. We got our food pretty quickly and then our server vanished never to be seen again. We finally had to grab another server to get our check, so we could get to DHS in time to use our FP’s.
We got to DHS, waited 20 minutes with our FP to ride ToT, and then waited about 10 minutes with our RnRc FP. After we did both of those rides, we went and watched the Indiana Jones stunt show, we got there pretty close to the show starting, but sat in the second row on the side. Very good spot to see everything. After the show we went and did star tours again, because there was almost no wait, and then we did Muppet vision.
We decided it was time to head to MK for dinner; standing on the bus was starting to get old. We got to MK about an hour and a half before our ADR and we were going to go ride something, but the wait times were just crazy. We ended up riding the Liberty Belle river boat, which were nice, very peaceful and great views at night. After the ride was over we headed over to Crystal Palace. We checked in early and they told us the wait time was about 30 minutes past your ADR time, regardless of how early we checked in. Great…… Oh well, we sat ad people watched and waited about an hour.. By the time we got seated we were starving. We hit the buffet and there was no food on it. Almost every single dish was empty. We ended up eating chicken nuggets and mac and cheese to start with, while they refilled the food. When we went back the food was there, but it was pretty gross. The Crystal Palace is described as American Cuisine. The buffet had Paella, a Spanish rice dish with mussels, Thai rice noodles with chicken, a marinated chicken that tasted like it had been soaking in soy sauce, with jasmine rice. There were two cold pasta dishes that both tasted like mayonnaise and then there was meat. I asked the CM at the meat station what all there was. She said “We have what you see in front of you, do you need a sign to figure out what it is?” There was turkey and there was raw roast beef (I like rare meat, but this was a little extreme). I saw other people with pork chops and steak so I asked our waiter how we get that, and he said to talk to the CM at the meat station, so I went back and was told they were all out of cook to order meat. She said this as she was handing someone a steak. Supposedly there were potatoes, but those never got refilled. We ate salad, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese and desert. Worst food I have ever had at Disney.
Our waiter was not the best either. He sloshed every single drink that he sat down and never attempted to clean it up. The last time he brought drinks he spilled a lot, getting our autograph books wet! As he was walking I way I had to raise my voice to get him to return and clean up the mess he made. He brought us some paper towels so we could clean, never apologized and we didn’t see him again until we told another server that we had to have our check NOW!” (Wishes was starting soon!)
Would I eat at Crystal Palace again? NO, but I am glad we ate there. My DD1, who is reaching that age where she has to have attitude about everything, and doesn’t smile a lot, had the biggest smile on her face when she was hugging the pooh characters. She was so happy. It had been a while since I have gotten to see that smile, so that was worth it. The food though, was just plain nasty!
We basically had to threaten to walk out without paying before our server showed back up, we scanned our ban and left quickly. We made it out to the porch of the Crystal Palace about 2 minutes before Wishes started. We had a great spot, and while we were standing, it was not crowded where we were, and we could see everything. Wishes was beautiful, I loved the music and the fireworks, and yea, I cried.
After wishes ended we made a mad dash for liberty square. We wanted to stay to watch the electrical parade, but we did not want to be on Main Street. We ended up sitting near the Hall of Presidents, and since this was the second parade, it seemed like not a lot of people were watching it. We had great seats. We let the kids break out all the glow bracelets and glow sticks we had bought them and they spent the time before the parade making glow art. By the time the parade started my kids were the only ones with any glow stuff on. They had their flashing Mickey ears and a total of 30 glow sticks that had become bracelets, necklaces, flowers and swirly things. During the parade every walking character came up and said hi to us, and told us they liked our glow stuff. The kids thought it was awesome! I love the MSEP it brings back so many memories from when I was a kid. After the parade we were all pretty tired, so we began the slow walk out of the park. Saying good by to the castle, taking one last picture, and then one more one last picture. We stopped in the candy store and bought rice crispy treats, and popcorn, and munched our way back to OKW. We packed up and got everything ready to leave.

Saturday, check out and leaving the world:
Saturday we slept until I woke up, and then loaded the car. We checked out very quickly, and walked around OKW one last time. Then we hopped the bus and headed back to DTD. We spent the rest of our gift cards, and bought pretty much everything we could possibly want. We then headed back to OKW and got in the car and headed home. It was an awesome trip.

Crowds: Monday the 10th-Thursday the 13th the crowds were pretty light. We didn’t have to wait long for anything, and walked onto a whole bunch of stuff, especially when the park opened and after the fireworks.
Friday, Valentine’s Day and the Friday before president’s day had horrible crowds. Avoid the park at all costs!

Food we LOVED: Sunshine Seasons, LTT, the food served at the Spirits of Aloha.
Food that was liked: Splitsville in DTD was good, filling and not as expensive as I thought it would be. Akershus breakfast was good, although I liked it a lot better than the kids. They would have rather had Mickey waffles. Food at the CS at the Mexico pavilion was good too. Coming from Texas, it tasted like tex-mex. Not super traditional Mexican, but still yummy.

Worst food ever: Crystal Palace. Service was bad, food was bad. Characters were good.

Magic Bands and FP:
I loved the MB, it was great getting into the room without having to dig out a room key, and going to the pool without bringing my wallet was nice too. We had no issues using our FP. We only got the blue Mickey a couple times, and that was because DD2 had a hard time positioning Mickey just right. After the second day though, she got it and we had NO problems.
We were able to schedule same day FP, and reschedule them in the park. The park wifi worked ok, but my 4GLTE worked better, so I used that most of the time. My battery life wasn’t fazed. I have a Sony Xperia z1s and the battery life is amazing!
Park Hopper was worth it! Loved going back to the MK almost every night to ride tons of stuff after the fireworks!
Memory Maker:
I’m still on the fence as to whether or not this was worth it. I haven’t printed out any of the MM pictures yet, and they still haven’t found all of them, so I will let you know later.
CM interaction:
It seemed like everyone at Disney was grumpy. The characters were great, but any regular CM, was rude. Wait staff seemed to be extremely slow no matter where we ate and no one at Disney seems to understand the concept that a simple apology when you have been waiting 30 minutest to have your tea refilled goes along way.

So there it is, my trip report. I am sad its over, but DH says we are going to go ahead and aim to go back in 2 years. So planning is already happening! Next time we are going to stay 10 days at the hotel and do 7 day Park Hoppers, so we have some days for relaxing. We really tried to do too much.

 

[44disney]

Very nice report! Sounds like you rode all of the great stuff and got to see your favorite characters as well. Glad you got to meet Rapunzel for so long!

Sunshine Seasons is our favorite lunch place in Epcot -- portions are large and there are a lot of choices. I agree with you about the pizza at DHS -- pretty uninspired.

We will be staying at OKR in June -- can't wait!

A ten day trip sounds fabulous...