We Stuffed our Faces and Searched for the Tronorail, It's Trip Report Time! *11/3

[princess_momma]

Hey girl! Sorry I've been MIA! Work has been crazy lately! And life as well! What can ya do?

I love your updates! What a lovely day at DTD!! Next time I hit up EOS I'm getting what you got. That Hawaiian BBQ looks SO GOOD!! YUM!

Also, you know the round characters you got a pic of? Landon has the Buzz one! I help out at my church's youth group and one of the kids just went to WDW a bit ago (Maybe when you were there even...hmmm...) and brought it back for Landon! It was so sweet! Landon loves it!

And thanks for all the pics of BLT!! I'm in love with it. It's my dream to stay there!! I love how you had that great monorail view!! That sounds so magical!

 

[MHTeacher]

I didn't realize I hadn't subscribed to your TR, but I have found it today, and I am caught up!

Flying gravel? That's a new one for me, too! Pretty funny, though!

I think any picture of me after finding out the exp. date on my Starbucks was over a month before, would have shown me throwing up, YUCK!

Love the pictures of BLT! Sounds as if you came to appreciate your room location .

 

[AGPrincess]

Subbing! Wow -- love that monorail view from your room, what fun! Also love all the BLT photos -- I really want to stay there sometime, or at least go over to walk around and see the pool. lol...and now I really want an original from Earl of Sandwich!

 

[Bridora]

I love all your BLT pictures. My dad and I are kind of in the same boat in that we usually like the resorts with more "theme" but all your pictures really make me want to stay there. I'm sure we'll make it over there eventually as we try to get into all the DVC resorts. I love those ones with the fireworks over the MK. What a view!

It's really a great place! You guys will have to stay there...I loved being able to walk to Magic Kingdom.

What an excellent view! I'd be so drawn to watching the monorail during any off time. Monorail = Disney!

I love the eating area. I find indoor benches/booths fascinating when they're in houses/apts/etc. Oh cool! I also love the Space Mountain artwork! All the artwork gives the space a splash of color while still keeping the clean, modern look. Love it!

I think I'd like to LIVE in the room you guys were in!

You are right about Monorail = Disney! It was so surreal to get to enjoy that every.single.day. while we were there.

We never ate at the table...the kids did use the bar for eating breakfast.

It's funny that you said you could live there, because I said the same thing to Max while we were there! It was definitely a great place!

You room is out of this world!!! How exciting to see the monorail that much!! and your view of MK and the fireworks? Do they pipe in the music on the rooftop? That's amazing that you had this experience, can't wait to read more!!!

It was so much fun staying there! They do pipe in the music on the roof...it would be a wonderful viewing spot! We really enjoyed BLT.

 

[Bridora]

Great update, B! Thanks for posting such wonderful pics of BLT. We are staying there this October in a studio for a Thursday-Sunday stay. We are looking forward to it.

We love the monorail. Our entire trip, we were looking for the Tron Monorail. Everytime we would see it we would say TRON!!! Love your view of the Monorail coming out of the Grand Canyon Station. I believe that is the express monorail to the Magic Kingdom, Correct?

We like Earl of Sandwich, we ate there on our last night but I do not think I took any pics. I will have to look. We take pics of our food too, the kids are like, Take a picture quick so I can eat. We had a few people looking at us crazy when were were taking food pics too.

Poor Luke, did not get his video! Too cute that he feels his video would be different than his sisters.

I really liked your view at BLT. What a nice day, DTD, Swimming, Dinner at The Wave, and Wishes! All in one day!

Looking forward to more.

Thanks! I do wish I'd gotten a couple more/better shots of the room. I didn't realize that I didn't get everything until I posted them.

I shouted out "Tronorail" every time I saw it....I'm sure that got me some looks, too, but I didn't see them!

The kids actually got tired of me taking pics of their food later on...

awesome view from your room!! i love seeing the monorail! i'd probably watch it all the time also, as my daughter too for she loves that sort of thing (ex. trains)

Yeah, it was sooo nice to watch the monorails go by...I bet your DD would love it!

We get so excited driving up to the welcome signs as well. We drive it enough to know which landmarks are getting close.

How cute that there is a kid’s check in book at the CR. I would have flipped out if I was under the impression that they could not find my reservation. You are so much more patient/calm that I. Great pictures of BLT.

We LOVE Earl of Sandwich! You are right…you get to pick a side or a dessert. We love that little chocolate pudding dessert you had a picture of. A first day at DTD seemed so lovely. I so did not see that keychain. I would have definitely bought it!

Totally understand what you mean about giving the kids extra time at the pool. The boys will take every single second I give them.

We hope to try to The Wave one day. We just keep pushing it off every time. Great pictures of Wishes from the room. I would not have been disappointed with the room location.

Well, that was one of those times when I tried to be as optimistic as possible to balance out Max! That doesn't always work, though...

Thanks on the pictures...I don't mean to sound like a spoiled brat about the room location...we just kind of had the location idealized in our brains and that didn't match up with where we ended up...It was an absolutely fabulous room and the location was better than we thought it would be.

WOW! Love your room and your view!! And watching Wishes from the roof--how fun!!

Thanks Becky!

 

[jenniferkeala808]

wow! those are great pics from your room! I can just imagine sitting there all day just mesmerized by all of the monorails going by! So much fun! And wow! you had a great view of Wishes also! I love all of the artwork in your unit! So beautiful!

 

[Bridora]

I love all your photos - your room and view are awesome.

Thanks!

Hey girl! Sorry I've been MIA! Work has been crazy lately! And life as well! What can ya do?

I love your updates! What a lovely day at DTD!! Next time I hit up EOS I'm getting what you got. That Hawaiian BBQ looks SO GOOD!! YUM!

Also, you know the round characters you got a pic of? Landon has the Buzz one! I help out at my church's youth group and one of the kids just went to WDW a bit ago (Maybe when you were there even...hmmm...) and brought it back for Landon! It was so sweet! Landon loves it!

And thanks for all the pics of BLT!! I'm in love with it. It's my dream to stay there!! I love how you had that great monorail view!! That sounds so magical!

That's ok...it's happened to me before, somehow when things get crazy the DIS is the first thing to go...

Thanks! The Hawaiian BBQ is a very good sandwich!

Awww, that was sweet of your youth group kid to think of Landon. Those little round guys are too cute!

I didn't realize I hadn't subscribed to your TR, but I have found it today, and I am caught up!

Flying gravel? That's a new one for me, too! Pretty funny, though!

I think any picture of me after finding out the exp. date on my Starbucks was over a month before, would have shown me throwing up, YUCK!

Love the pictures of BLT! Sounds as if you came to appreciate your room location .

Well, then...

I guess I was more upset that I couldn't finish it than I was about it being gross!

We did come to appreciate our location...it was just initial disappointment.

Subbing! Wow -- love that monorail view from your room, what fun! Also love all the BLT photos -- I really want to stay there sometime, or at least go over to walk around and see the pool. lol...and now I really want an original from Earl of Sandwich!

Hi!

Having the Monorail just outside our window was fun!

Thanks--I'm sure you would love it there.

 

[Bridora]

wow! those are great pics from your room! I can just imagine sitting there all day just mesmerized by all of the monorails going by! So much fun! And wow! you had a great view of Wishes also! I love all of the artwork in your unit! So beautiful!

Thanks! You sneaked in on me!

(How strange, I always thought it was "snuck" until I typed it and it got a little red line under it, and then "sneaked" has no red line. Is that a Southern thing? Sneaked just sounds so wrong!)

If I was in the room, I was looking out the window watching Monorails!

 

[*Meagan*]

After doing our little bit of exploring at Bay Lake Tower, we walked right over to the bus stop at the Contemporary. I can’t remember if the bus was just pulling up then or if it was already there, either way we didn’t have to wait for it! At 11:30 am we were on our 1st Disney bus of the trip on our way to Downtown Disney!

I think there was one other group of people on the bus with us. We swung by the Polynesian to see if anyone wanted to go with us, but no one got on. Our bus driver told them they were missing out, closed the door, and drove on. She was great! I didn’t get her name, but we chatted all the way to Downtown Disney with her. She asked us where we were from. She was raised in Louisiana, she said, so she knew where Arkansas was. She told us about a road trip she & her husband had taken from Florida all the way up to Washington State. We then talked about winning the lottery and the things we’d do with the money. Max promised to split the money with her if he won the lottery, but she said he wouldn't even be able to find her again. By 11:55 we were at Downtown Disney. Hooray! We bid our awesome driver farewell, Max took another good look at her so he could remember what she looked like, which made her laugh, and we ventured out in search of lunch.


But really, we knew exactly where we were going:

Earl of Sandwich!


It’s pretty much our tradition to have our check-in day lunch at Earl of Sandwich. Yum yum! I also need to mention that we were on the Dining Plan for this trip. It was our first time using it, too. That's where the "We Stuffed Our Faces" part of my title comes in. We got in line, which wasn’t too long, but then Luke needed to use the restroom. Max took him, but just after they rounded the corner, Allison said she needed to go too. I almost sent her running off after them, but thought better of it and abandoned our place in line. I sent Max a text letting him know where we were, but I don’t think he got it because when we got back to EoS the boys were back in line with puzzled looks on their faces. Ok, maybe not, but I still don’t think he got my text. The line was a bit longer by that time, but there was a friendly cast member chatting with the people in line, asking if anyone had questions. She was happy to explain to us our choices on the Dining Plan. We ordered our food and were lucky enough to find a table inside. And guess what? I took pictures of our food! If you read my “Prius and the Poly” trip report you will know that this is a big deal! The people at the table next to us didn't know that it was a big deal. I saw them looking at me like, "what in the world is that lady doing?!?" That was something I was just going to have to get used to because those looks kept coming at me all week long!

Luke’s Pizza Sandwich - Mozzarella & Marinara sauce (descriptions from allearsnet.com)




Since Allison is 10, she was on the Adult meal plan. While I was a bit worried about this, it was never really a problem.

Allison’s “Best BLT” minus the “T”. I guess that’s a “BL”! - Applewood bacon, lettuce, Roma tomatoes and seasoned mayonnaise

My “Hawaiian BBQ” - ham, grilled chicken, Hawaiian BBQ sauce, Swiss cheese and pineapple

Max’s “The Full Montagu” - roast beef and turkey with cheddar and Swiss cheese, romaine lettuce, tomato and Earl's mustard


Max must have forgotten to say “no tomato” !

Allison’s dessert.


I can’t remember how that worked, but I think I remember Luke getting a dessert, too…but I know I didn’t give him mine because at EoS I could substitute dessert for a side and I chose chips. I remember that because I posed my meal nicely for a picture:

Or maybe I got chips and dessert? Didn’t write that much down!


After lunch we went to the pin store and the kids picked out some new pins. This year was their first year to actually do any pin trading. They had each brought along pins just for trading. Luke got a new lanyard there, too.

After the pin store we went to Once Upon a Toy and spent quite a while looking at everything.

like the Build your own Lightsaber

and the My Little Ponies


The kids have recently gotten interested in Legos. Luke got quite a few sets for Christmas and then Allison asked her Granddaddy for some for her birthday. She got the cutest little house, but we haven’t had time to build it yet…So you know where we went next!

Allison’s shot of Lego people behind the registers.

Looking for just the right piece…

You can’t go to Downtown Disney without going to 2 places: World of Disney and Ghirardelli. The samples at Ghirardelli were soooo good, as always. Plus, Allison gave me hers because it had caramel in the middle and she doesn’t like it. Crazy, I know, but I wasn’t complaining!

We thought the Cinderella Castle in World of Disney was neat!

Allison took a picture of these guys…we thought all the rounded characters were cute!

I liked this keychain, but never went back for it.


…continued in next post…

OoO I really want one of those rounded characters... so ca-ute!!!!!!!!

 

[*Meagan*]

OMG I totally love your TR! Im looking forward to the rest!!!!!! We are on the wait list for BLT and really hoping to get it!!! SSR is our home resort.. and that is currently where our ressie is!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I had Hunter look at the pic of the pizza sandwich over the weekend. He said it looked pretty good to him so, hopefully, next trip, we'll be trying out Earl of Sandwich for the first time.

 

[Bridora]

Yesterday sure was a Monday! I didn't think I'd be able to do an update because the 1st is coming up and I have invoices and statements to send out for two businesses. BUT, my laptop decided to quit on me (I am Hoping it's just a fan issue). I decided I could do that billing at home (since it's for DH's business). Which freed up my time to do a TR installment. I was typing along and gathering up pictures from Photobucket when the internet here in the office went down. Yup! It never did come back up yesterday, either. But it's up now!

OoO I really want one of those rounded characters... so ca-ute!!!!!!!!

Aren't they?!

OMG I totally love your TR! Im looking forward to the rest!!!!!! We are on the wait list for BLT and really hoping to get it!!! SSR is our home resort.. and that is currently where our ressie is!

Thanks! I hope you get in to BLT!

I had Hunter look at the pic of the pizza sandwich over the weekend. He said it looked pretty good to him so, hopefully, next trip, we'll be trying out Earl of Sandwich for the first time.

Yay! You're going to love Earl of Sandwich!

 

[Bridora]

The next day, our first park day, was Friday May 28, 2010.

Magic Kingdom opened up at 9:00 am. There was a DIS meet at 2:30 in Epcot, France pavillion. I was up at 8:00 am in hopes of making it for Magic Kingdom rope drop. I mean, Magic Kingdom is a short walk away, surely we’ll make it!

I do believe we had a leisurely breakfast out on the balcony that morning.

Good morning Space Mountain!

Looking down & to the left from our balcony. The kids called those strips of concrete “mini sidewalks” and we were always having to tell them to get out of there!

Good morning, Monorail track, Grand Floridian!

We did not make rope drop.

We left BLT at 9:40 (what took us so long?) and walked over to Magic Kingdom. I’m going to guess and say we were in the park by 10:00 am.

It was wonderful to be back. I had the video camera out, so no shots of Cinderella Castle from me.
Our destination: Space Mountain. 2008 was the last time we’d ridden, and we were ready! We turned right at the end of Main St., walking past the Plaza Restaurant and through the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station. Just then, Luke says he needs to make a pit stop, luckily there are restrooms inside the Noodle Station that are open. Max & Allison, who have all our tickets anyway, keep going to get us some Fastpasses for Space Mountain.

While I was waiting for Luke, I was just hanging out in the dining area, looking around, so I snapped a few pictures for your guys:

Then I noticed this guy, and grabbed Luke’s camera (it must have been quicker to get to) to take his picture.

I wonder what he was looking for?


Luke & I then made our way over to Space Mountain and met Max & Allison.

They had Fastpasses with a return time of 11:20, but since the wait was just 20 minutes, we hopped in line!

We pretty much zoomed through the queue and only slowed down right before the control tower.

We rode on the right side.

Luke took the front seat, followed by Allison and then me, with Max in the first seat of the attached car. We loved it!

Somehow we totally missed our picture being displayed on the wall when we exited the cars. I saw I sign about picking up your photos when we got in the store. Strange. We spotted Stitch walking through the store. Max & the kids wandered over to the arcade while I went in search of our pictures. I never could get up to the counter to see them, but soon Allison came running up to me and said, “Luke is going to race Stitch!” She led me back to the arcade. It was empty except for us, Stitch, and the Cast Members with him.

It was the funniest thing! Stitch was having a bit of trouble steering his motorcycle. Everyone was laughing. It was great!

After Stitch left, the kids sat down on a Mario Kart game and were given a free game by a Cast Member! Awesome! This game put their faces on the screen, which was fun!

you can't really tell, but that's Allison!


We wandered around in there just a bit longer after their race. Then we decided to ride Buzz Lightyear, but the line looked so long, even though the wait time posted was 20 minutes. They had the line going outside & to the left of the building around the corner. We’d never seen it going that way before so we decided to hop on the TTA instead. We also had missed that on last year’s trip and were excited to get back on the “highway in the sky”.

I tried to snap a pic of the Buzz line while going up the TTA conveyor belt. Doesn't it just look soooo long?


…continued in next post…

 

[Bridora]

We were glad to be back on!

I sure can’t stand that new narration, though. It felt to me like it was some kind of advertisement for the rest of the park…and that voice just isn‘t right….I really miss the old stuff. At least the ride was still the same!

Going down…

We tried Buzz again after that. 15 minute wait, still going back & forth outside.

We got in line anyway at 11:20 and were on the ride at 11:38! Ha ha, I took notes!

We always love Buzz!


It was time to use our Space Mountain Fastpasses when we got off Buzz, so that’s what we did. 11:48 we hopped in line. The wait time posted was still just 20 minutes, but as we rounded the corner inside I heard a Cast Member saying the sign was broken. It didn’t matter to us anyway, because we were on the Fastpass side. This time we rode on the left side. Allison wanted to ride in the front this time, but it didn't quite work out. I took the last seat in the first car, with Allison in the front of the second followed by Luke and then Max.

Allison wasn’t feeling too hot after that ride, so we bought her a Coke in the gift shop and took a little snack break outside. I noticed some really cute Mickey watches on display, but more about those later.

Once Allison felt better we left Tommowland. The kids wanted to ride Haunted Mansion!

Max snapped this along the way. It’s up on the construction fence somewhere in Fantasyland!


At 12:25 the wait time for HM was 15 minutes, so of course we got in line.

We were in the stretching room at 12:35 and in a buggy at 12:43. Haunted Mansion is another one of our favorties!

We stopped to look for Mr. Toad. We did see him, but I don’t know if you can in this picture or not.

There he is!


By that time we were hungry for lunch! We love Columbia Harbor House, and since we were right there, we headed in.

Allison traded pins with this Cast Member on the way inside.


Time: 1:10 pm. While Allison & Max stayed in line, Luke & I went for a bathroom break. That sounds familiar! We headed upstairs. I spied on Max & Allison:

We went back downstairs and played checkers and chatted with a Cast Member while we waited on Max & Allison to get our food.

They also had some knot-tying instructions, so I gave that a try. Once we had our food, we headed back upstairs to see if we could get a table in our favorite spot. The part of the restaurant that sits above the walkway from Fantasyland to Liberty Square.

This is what you can see from there…picture from last year.

No luck. Boo. We did get a table by a window, though.


…continued in next post…

 

[Bridora]

Out the window…

Looking straight ahead from our table…

My Lighthouse Sandwich - hummus with tomato & broccoli slaw
(description again from allearsnet.com)

Max & Allison both had the Fried Fish Basket - Served with choice of either French Fries or Apple Slices, no need for 2 pictures!

Luke’s Chicken Nuggets, arranged in a Hidden Mickey!

He insisted I take this one, too!

…and our desserts - chocolate cakes! The kids still thought it was fun having me take food pics at this point!



I knew that as soon as we finished lunch we had to go over to Epcot to make the DIS meet.

At 1:55 we were boarding Monorail Orange to the Ticket & Transportation Center.

 

[ladybugmom]

Oh wow!! How fun that Luke got to race Stitch!! That was awesome that you were all alone in the arcade with him!! And then a free Mario Cart game!! NICE!! I just love eating at CHH for lunch!! We ate there twice this last trip! YUM! So you went to the DIS meet?! I hate that I missed it!

 

[RachelNinja]

WOW, getting to race Stitch sounds like SUCH a magical moment! Haha, the pic of Stitch leaning to the right makes him look a bit more human, but I'm sure that's just my imagination

I don't remember the last time I stood on the standby line for Buzz. That's definitely a FP ride for us, and we do it at least 3x per trip. But that line really did look long! And I LOVE Buzz, but I don't think I could wait in that line that wraps around.

I really like the pic in CHH where you circled Max and Allison waiting in line. It just really says Disney to me! Haha, not just because it's a line, but because it's just not a typical pic and it shows every bit of the Disney experience!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh my goodness.....I am sure that Luke was excited that the got to race Stitch! What a great memory!

You guys are booking it through the park and doing lots of great stuff and all before lunch time too!

 

[wdwgirl03]

That is awesome about Luke racing Stitch! I bet it was amusing watching the two of them. What a fun memory.

Looks like a great day so far!

 

[racefanof88]

I am finally all caught up again . Great view from your room. I would love to wake up and see the monorail every morning. . Great update, looking forward to more .