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

[wdwgirl03]

Wow, that looks like a pretty good-sized DIS meet! Very cool.

 

[Bridora]

Love your update B! BLT looks neat. I'm starting to like the looks of it more and more. I have never tried CHH but we may have to give it a shot. The food looks delish.

How fun that Stitch was racing Luke. That doesn't happen every day!

You got a lot done in the first part of your day! Sounds like a lot of fun.

Can't wait to hear about the DIS meet!

Thanks! You should try BLT and CHH!

I know - we were all very excited about the race!

AND you live in the castle beyond the Goblin City? With all those staircases?

Heck, yeah!

YAY, caught up on your great TR!!

I've been trying to talk my parents into buying more DVC points at BLT....it's not their style, but I may need to look into our own DVC next summer when we're there......

Yay!

We really liked it. I guess the style is not for everyone, though. I'm sure you could go over there for a tour when you're there. It's so nice to be right there by the MK and on the Monorail.

I love a good Dis-meet, so glad you made it in time! What a great pic of everyone. The heat can be brutal, we have been going in August the past 3 summers and it's HOT!! Great excuse to leave the park and go to the pool for the afternoon, it actually feels more like a relaxing vacation when we do that.

That was a great update!

I'm glad we found them! I bet you just melt in August! But a little break in the pool does feel soooo nice!

Thanks!

YAY for the DISmeet!! I hate that I didn't make it in time!

I know! We missed you.

 

[mickeystoontown]

It was nice to get to meet my fellow Dis friends at the meet. I realized after I got home that I didn't even get a picture of myself at the Dis Meet. I'm such a dumb bunny sometimes.

 

[Bridora]

YAY! Glad you made the DIS meet and had a good time. I hate that we didn't make it back over for that one on the 28th.

I didn't realize we'd be cutting it so close, though! Our time just evaporated! We missed you, but at least you made one of them!

I just wanted to say that you are doing SO GOOD at updating this time!! Good job! A DisMeet sounds so fun! I've always wanted to do one!! Mmmmm kaki goris look so good!! Are they better than normal slushies? What makes them different? I bet Landon would like them...

Can't wait for more! I can't believe you hadn't seen the tronorail yet and you were staying in a resort where you could see the monorail line! Nuts! I hope you see it soon!

Thanks Kimmy!

The DIS Meet was fun!

You will have to get a Kaki Gori when you are there!!! They have a little stand for them in Japan, it's outside just on the other side of the big temple. They're like the best sno-cone you've ever had, only better. The ice is shaved so so so fine & they put lots of syrup in them so they are really juicy! Get one!

I am always amazed at how long it can take us to get ready in the morning. I always think I am going to have extra time, and I always end up rushing to make it on time. Your morning at MK looked fun. How cool to race Stitch!

The Dis meet looked like fun as well. How cool to meet all of them!

I know! I don't know where the time goes in the mornings!

It was definitely cool for Luke to race Stitch!

And it was neat, too to meet some other DISers!

Don't you wish there was a place for DISers to meet in an ACed spot? Hehe. We are some of the biggest fanatics after all!

Oh yeah, like a DIS lounge or something! That would be a great idea!

Wow, that looks like a pretty good-sized DIS meet! Very cool.

There was a pretty good bunch of us, I think! It was fun.

 

[AlohaAnnie]

Great updates B! I was a bit behind but I read the last 3. Cute racin' stitch, DS would have loved that! We love Columbia Harbor House, it is one of our favorite places to eat. Nice wait times on rides and a wonderful DISmeet. Thanks for posting!

 

[Bridora]

It was nice to get to meet my fellow Dis friends at the meet. I realized after I got home that I didn't even get a picture of myself at the Dis Meet. I'm such a dumb bunny sometimes.

Ah ha! So you were taking a picture, too! At least John made it!

Great updates B! I was a bit behind but I read the last 3. Cute racin' stitch, DS would have loved that! We love Columbia Harbor House, it is one of our favorite places to eat. Nice wait times on rides and a wonderful DISmeet. Thanks for posting!

Thanks!

 

[Bridora]

After a fun swim in the BLT pool, we went back up to our room to get ready for our night at Epcot. According to the calendar on my phone we had a 7:30 ADR at Restaurant Marrakesh. Epcot had Evening Extra Magic Hours until Midnight!

We boarded Monorail Silver to take us to the TTC at 6:30.

The Tronorail, again, was not waiting to take us to Epcot.

But that was ok, because surely we’d see it at some point that night.

We were excited to get over to Morocco for dinner. We marched ourselves straight over to check in at Restaurant Marrakesh. We walked up at 7:25 to check in. After scanning the list, the hostess asked if it could be under another name. As the kids used to say, “What in the heck on the world?” Craziness! She even read off every name on the list, but we were not there. Luckily, once again, it was no big deal because they just penciled our name in and actually sat us immediately. Awesome! What else was awesome?

This iced mint tea!


I loved the atmosphere inside Restaurant Marrakesh. All the tile work was so pretty!

Then it was time to eat!


They brought us out this bread to start:

I’m pretty sure this was what Max had:

From allearsnet.com: Shish Kebab - grilled tenderloin of beef served with hummus


I had the Chicken Cous Cous:

- the national Moroccan dish - steamed tiny semolina pasta


Luke had a Kefta - Hamburger served on a bun with lettuce and tomatoes

Allison had either started eating hers already, or did not want me taking its picture! And I really cannot remember what she had. All our food was good! But the mint tea was the best!

The belly dancer came out and performed while we were eating. We were sitting on the upper left side of the restaurant, as you enter. We had a pretty good view, but I was using the video camera and did not get any still shots of her or the band.

Then it was time for dessert!


Max & I ordered two different desserts, but shared!


The Bastilla:

- crispy leaves of pastry topped with vanilla cream and sprinkled with toasted almonds



The Moroccan Symphony:

- Assorted pastries (this was basically different kinds of baklava) yummy!


I don’t have pictures of the kids’ desserts. I’m pretty sure they both had vanilla ice cream of some sort. The restaurants were good about substituting an adult portion of ice cream for Allison’s dessert choice.


That was our first time to eat at Restaurant Marrakesh & we thought it was very good!

We stayed and explored a bit in Morocco.

When we got out of there we headed back out toward Future World. Illuminations was just beginning so we stopped for a moment to watch it. We didn’t have the best spot, but weren’t too concerned because we’d be back later in the week. We started walking again and made our way over to Norway to ride Maelstrom, watching the big fireworks as we walked. At 9:15 there was no wait for Maelstrom, that’s the kind of wait we like!

I will insert here that we left our ponchos at home accidentally. Max has a pretty good sense of rain and had purchased some ponchos for us somewhere earlier in the day. Actually, it may have even been when we arrived back at Epcot that evening. It was a good thing because when we got off Maelstrom it was raining! We put on our ponchos and sloshed off toward Mexico. The rain wasn’t bad and the Extra Magic Hours had started! Woo hoo!

We hopped on the Gran Fiesta Tour and followed Donald Duck all around Mexico. Its always a fun little ride, but I do miss parts from before the refurb.


It was on to Future World after that. Still no Tronorail in sight! It was 10:00 and we hopped right on Spaceship Earth.

A glimpse of our Future:

Nothing will ever beat the very first time we rode this after they added this part in. I’m real big on experiencing the attractions after a refurb with as few spoilers as I can possibly manage and I had no idea about this part! I laughed so much it’s still funny!


…Continued in next post…

 

[Bridora]

After Spaceship Earth we went over to see about riding Test Track, but the wait was too long. We opted to do Mission: Space instead.

It had the longest wait I’ve probably seen at EMH ever. We actually had time to take pictures in the queue! Max took these next ones with his phone:

All the little rooms in there are so neat! Love that detail!

We were assigned to be team number 4!

Looks like Max was ‘Navigator’:

When we got back from Mars we decided Test Track would have to wait for another day. We crossed over to the Seas to visit Nemo. (& friends!)

Max was able to snap a few pictures while we jogged through the queue to catch the kids who were running. Sometimes, when your kids run ahead of you in an empty queue, the CMs at the ride loading area give you strange looks.

I’m pretty sure we visited Figment after Nemo.


After that, it was time to head back to BLT for the night.

At the end of the day we still hadn’t seen that darn Tronorail!



Next up is our ‘pool day’! A day set aside for swimming, Richard Petty, a water park, miniature golf, and dinner at Boma. Sounds like a little bit too much to me!

 

[heaven2dc]

I have never been over at Future World after dark. It looks so neat! Those rooms in the rocket or whatever it is called are so neat. I can't wait til my sons get to visit WDW for their first time this year!

That elusive Tron monorail - will you ever get to see it?!!

 

[creativeamanda]

We were amazed at the wait we had for Test Track for EMH as well, but we still persevered. The pictures in the Mission Space queue were awesome! I love them!

 

[ladybugmom]

Looks like a fun night!! I loved hanging out at Epcot for EMH when we were there! So do you ever find out why no one seems to have your reservations?!

 

[Queenofallthings]

Great update! We have never eaten in Morocco, but your pictures make me want to book it! It's a beautiful restaurant!

Love that addition to SE too, first time we went something wacky was happening to my hair (think Alfalfa from the Little Rascals) and my DD17 were laughing so hard we were crying!

 

[Bridora]

I have never been over at Future World after dark. It looks so neat! Those rooms in the rocket or whatever it is called are so neat. I can't wait til my sons get to visit WDW for their first time this year!

That elusive Tron monorail - will you ever get to see it?!!

It is neat! With everything all lit up, lots of bright colors against the dark night...

That is what we kept thinking - will we ever see the Tronorail?

We were amazed at the wait we had for Test Track for EMH as well, but we still persevered. The pictures in the Mission Space queue were awesome! I love them!

Thanks! It was neat to actually have the time to look at all the things they've got in there -- who knew?

Looks like a fun night!! I loved hanging out at Epcot for EMH when we were there! So do you ever find out why no one seems to have your reservations?!

It was fun--we really like the Evening EMHs!

Yes, we did find out what was up with that--its in my next update!

Great update! We have never eaten in Morocco, but your pictures make me want to book it! It's a beautiful restaurant!

Love that addition to SE too, first time we went something wacky was happening to my hair (think Alfalfa from the Little Rascals) and my DD17 were laughing so hard we were crying!

We liked it! Make sure you get that mint tea if you go!

How funny! I bet your hair made for a great picture!

 

[Bridora]

The whole ADR thing was really bothering me. We had not been on the list at either place we’d been to so far. And remember, I didn’t have my actual calendar that I had originally written the ADRs down in to check my phone calendar against. So that night when we returned to BLT I got online to make sure they still had our ADRs in the system.












And they did.












They had every ADR we had scheduled, even the ones we had already been to….










Only one hour earlier than my phone’s calendar had them.



What? There is no way that I put in each & every ADR one hour later than scheduled. Somehow, when we crossed over from the Central time zone into the Eastern time zone, my dear phone decided it needed to change the times in my calendar. Technically, when it’s 6:30 in Arkansas, it is 7:30 in Florida! I did think we’d been eating a bit later than we normally would. Craziness. But I was so glad I had checked. Being 1 hour late for every ADR could not have gone as well for our whole vacation as it had for our first two nights!



With that mystery figured out and all my ADR times fixed in my calendar, I read up a bit on Typhoon Lagoon. We had decided to make that our destination in the morning.





Saturday, May 29: Pool day turned Water Park day. (no pictures)


We took our time that morning and went down to the bus stop to wait for a bus to Typhoon Lagoon. We noticed a couple of Downtown Disney buses, but they were only for Downtown Disney, not sharing with Typhoon Lagoon. The driver of the 2nd Downtown Disney bus must have noticed we were in Water Park attire because he asked where we were going. When we told him Typhoon Lagoon, he told us it was closed and that we’d be waiting for a long time. Ok…. I did read that it tended to fill up quickly and you should get there early. It couldn’t have been much later than 10:30ish, and Typhoon Lagoon had opened at 10:00 am. Do that fill up that quickly? Anyway, we looked at each other and said, “Blizzard Beach”!


The Blizzard Beach/Animal Kingdom bus pulled up shortly and by 11:00 we were at Blizzard Beach, ready for our first Disney Water Park experience! We went straight in to rent a locker and get some towels. This was the first year we had placed charging privileges on our KTTW. We did that to make tipping easier with our Dining Plan meals. We just decided to use it for the locker/towel rental as well.




But there was a problem.




After trying 3 or so times, the CM decided there must be a spending limit on our card and that we must have exceeded it. I couldn’t imagine that we had spent that much, but what could we do? She called over a manager and they told us they could call BLT and have them extend our limit. We said, please do. So after speaking with BLT and learning that we had not exceeded any credit limit, they decided to try our card again. It finally worked, but I bet we spent 20 minutes in there. For all our trouble, they gave us 2 extra towels at no charge.

We found our locker and stuffed it full and set out for the slopes. We couldn’t find the place to board the ski lift, but that was ok because just a bit later we noticed no one was on it anymore and it was not moving. We did the family raft ride, “Teamboat Springs” I must say that I didn’t think I was really a “Water Park gal”, but boy was I wrong! What a fun time we had! After Teamboat Springs I think we did the Snow Stormers and the Toboggan Racers, basically some fun slides! Luke was dying to get on Cross Country Creek, the “lazy river” so we did that next. We noticed PhotoPass photographers wandering around in the lazy river, but did not have our picture made. Everyone but me was up for going on Summit Plummet, but they never made it over there. Somewhere around 1:30 it was really clouding up, you know those dark, thunderstom-y kind of clouds, and we were hungry. Max made the very wise decision to head back to BLT.


We cleared out our locker and returned the key. We’d paid a $5.00 deposit that morning and instead of getting it back we opted for the souvenir mug:

(I took its picture later on, on the balcony)


Somewhere during all this, Max must have decided that the Richard Petty thing wasn’t going to happen. Maybe it was because he didn’t think we’d have time or because he didn’t want everyone else to give up doing something so that only he could, or maybe it was because he thought it would be rained out. But whichever one it was, he didn’t get to do the Richard Petty Ride Along.


We headed back to BLT for some dry clothes and lunch.

 

[RachelNinja]

Mmm, the bastilla looks so good! When I'm craving sugar, that looks like it could hit the spot!

Ooo, I love the pics inside Mission: Space from the queue and on the ride vehicle! I think I'll always be too chicken to ride it (don't want to get sick even on the mild side, and I do have claustrophobia at certain times), so I liked seeing it.

Phew! Glad you figured out the issue with the ADRs! I would've been stressed out about it!

I don't think I'm a water park girl either, but who knows, maybe one day I'll head on over there for the tube rides! I don't like dropping into water at the end of a slide. Cute cup from Blizzard Beach! It looks a lot classier than most.

 

[MHTeacher]

Major update!

I can't believe you'd been arriving at your ADRs an hour late. Thank goodness you figured it out!

I don't believe we've ever done EvMHs at Epcot, and I can't tell you why! Every park's better at night!

 

[creativeamanda]

Wow about the ADRs. I wonder, though, why your calendar did that in your phone. I use the google calendars and that syncs with my phone, but I hadn't even thought of time zone changes! Good thing you got it all figured out.

 

[Bridora]

Mmm, the bastilla looks so good! When I'm craving sugar, that looks like it could hit the spot!

Ooo, I love the pics inside Mission: Space from the queue and on the ride vehicle! I think I'll always be too chicken to ride it (don't want to get sick even on the mild side, and I do have claustrophobia at certain times), so I liked seeing it.

Phew! Glad you figured out the issue with the ADRs! I would've been stressed out about it!

I don't think I'm a water park girl either, but who knows, maybe one day I'll head on over there for the tube rides! I don't like dropping into water at the end of a slide. Cute cup from Blizzard Beach! It looks a lot classier than most.

It was pretty good!

It's pretty neat in there. That's too bad you can't ride it. With all the warnings they repeat before you ride, even someone without issues could be freaked out about riding it. We only ride on the mild side, but the first time I rode was before they made the changes, by myself. So seeing all the signs about motion sickness, simulators, etc. coupled with the audio warnings made me a little nervous!

I know! about the ADRs!

It's a neat little cup, the part that says Blizzard Beach is a sleeve that can slide right off for cleaning!

Major update!

I can't believe you'd been arriving at your ADRs an hour late. Thank goodness you figured it out!

I don't believe we've ever done EvMHs at Epcot, and I can't tell you why! Every park's better at night!

I know it! I felt so silly when I realized we'd been showing up and hour late. I was glad no one ever turned their page back and saw our name!

You're right! You'll have to do Epcot EEMHs next time.

Wow about the ADRs. I wonder, though, why your calendar did that in your phone. I use the google calendars and that syncs with my phone, but I hadn't even thought of time zone changes! Good thing you got it all figured out.

I don't know! I think it must have something to do with the way I put them in? I remember seeing something about "local time" when looking at it. I don't know if there's an option for that? I haven't spent much time looking at it since then! I will have to figure it out before next time, though! And make sure I have my hand written calendar with me! I'll have to check out google calendars, too!

 

[Bridora]

Did I mention that it rained on the way back to BLT? When we got back we could tell it had been raining there, too. We got cleaned up and changed and decided that we’d have lunch at the Contempo Café, the food court in the Contemporary. Last year we used the touch screen ordering at Captain Cook’s at the Polynesian and the kids thought it was the best thing around, so they were excited to use one again!

Confusion at the dessert case. Do we get them now? Later? We waited, but should have gotten them before we went to the registers, duh!

Allison chose a pepperoni flat bread:

With dirt cake for dessert:

Luke had the cheeseburger meal:

There were a couple of choices that looked really good, so Max and I decided to divide and conquer. I ordered the Honey Lime Chicken sandwich with the house chips:

Description courtesy of allearsnet.com: served with pepper jack cheese on multigrain roll with salsa-Ranch dressing.


I had it without the salsa-Ranch dressing, but it was still very good!


Max ordered the Spice Crusted Mahi sandwich:

topped with citrus-apple slaw on a Kaiser roll

We halved our sandwiches and did a little half sandwich switcheroo. His was good, but the ‘green bean salad’ it was served with was not.


The dessert I had (some kind of cupcake)was good, but it wasn’t something I’d order had I not been on the dining plan.


Every so often, we were graced by the whoosh of a Monorail. Still not getting old:

There were birds flying and hopping around in there. We were watching this one little guy who kept coming close. I guess they must have to clean up bird poop from the area. I never saw one ‘go’ but I’m sure it happens.

Can you spot our “friend” on the light?


I was also carrying a Vera Bradley hipster for the very first time as my park bag. Wow, it was a great park bag! A cross-body bag beats carrying a backpack on your back and having to remove it and store/shove it down by your feet or in that tiny net on rides. I could just hop on and go! And, my DIS ID:

The windows kind of reminded me of Animal Kingdom Lodge. Anyone? It was my first time inside the Contemporary besides Monorail fly thrus. Possibly the Animal Kingdom Lodge windows should have reminded me of the Contemporary.

And that was lunch.


Max & the kids were dying to go in the arcade. Arcades just hold no appeal for me. Unless I’m playing, but that takes way too many quarters. They happily skipped in the arcade while I happily skipped downstairs to Contemporary Grounds for a latte.


Join me as my coffee & I walk the Contemporary:

My traveling companion

On the escalator

We took the stairs up the next level

I decided to hang out outside the arcade because no food or drinks were allowed inside. I found a nice little corner to sit in along the side of the arcade, with my back to the big window. I was very content to sit & people (but mostly Monorail) watch.

Looking up from my perch I saw:

It was a great little corner to have. I sent Max a text that said, “I am outside watching Monorails” Now, what I meant was outside the arcade, but when I read that text I thought, "Duh! I should be outside watching Monorails! So straight outside my coffee & I went.


…Continued in next post…

 

[Bridora]

We found a nice little spot that wasn’t too wet from the earlier rain.

Another perfect spot for Monorail watching!

See how close you are?


After a while of blissful Monorail watching and latte sipping I went back inside to the arcade to see what the rest of my bunch was doing. They were just finishing up and cashing in their tickets for some junky little arcade prizes.


We went in the shops on that level next. That’s when the kids got interested in (sucked in by) these little guys:

It was hard to miss the Vinylmation. They were everywhere. The kids each chose two. They had brought along their own money, so we didn’t mind.

trying on Mickey feet!


I found a cute Minnie tank top in one of the shops. We took our purchases back to the room. The kids were dying to open up their Vinylmations.

Going out onto the Skyway


It's hard to resist taking pictures from here:

Back in the room, the kids opened up their Vinylmation boxes, only to find that they had each purchased double figures! What are the chances of that?

They decided to trade each other one figure.


Vinylmation drama over, we headed down to check out the Community Center.

Elevator directory

Inside the elevator they had an ad for Welcome Home Wednesdays. I was really hoping we’d be able to make it!


It had started raining again, too.

...Continued in next post...