What Are You Celebrating?? Air Conditioning!! A July 2010 TR UPDATE 12/11 p24

[Mndisneygirl]

I have gotten my act together and resized a ton of pictures, AND found a little time, so I am FINALLY ready to proceed! Of course, I don’t have my journal with me at work today, so I may have to amend this after I get home!
I believe I left you all hanging at the Spirit of Aloha dinner show. I was enjoying a nice glass of red wine and bread, pineapple and salad. This was the meal where Paige discovered she liked ribs! … as long as someone cut the meat off the bone for her. Guess who that someone was?
Sarah wouldn’t go anywhere near the ribs, but I think she ate some chicken. When our wonderful server noticed she wasn’t eating much, he offered (or did we ask?) to bring her some PBJ. He was nice enough to bring TWO sandwiches for her! At least we didn’t need to worry about someone being hungry all night! We enjoyed the food – chicken, ribs, rice and veggies. Well, we didn’t really enjoy the veggies! HA!

The show was fun – they tell a little story about a young woman who is heading off to college or somewhere. They throw a party and do some traditional Polynesian dancing and singing. We had pretty good seats, but you can tell we weren’t in the front row – lots of heads in our pictures!

Auntie Winnie or whatever her name was

At one point they had all the kids come up to dance. You can just see Sarah toward the center of the picture, next to the girl with the blond Hannah Montana hairdo. Paige wouldn't go up.

Then it was time for dessert! They made a big fuss about this chocolate volcano. Then a few servers paraded around the seats with "volcanoes" with sparklers sticking out of them. No, this was not our dessert.
This was our dessert:

It was pretty good - chocolate mousse like, with some sort of caramel on the bottom and a raspberry sauce for the "lava"!

Then it was time for the traditional dancers. I enjoyed this a lot!

They also invited/dragged a few guests on stage to dance. This guy with the hat was my favorite. Somehow he reminded me of Chris Farley.

More dancing...

This guy was amazing!

blurry action shot

I kept worrying he'd catch his hair or his little leaf fronds on his legs on fire!! He was funny too. He'd make faces and encourage us to cheer for him!

We really enjoyed the luau. I'd read many reviews and comments that the food was not worth 2 credits, etc. But to me, the value is in what you get out of it. We enjoyed most of the food, got plenty to eat and drink and had great service. The show was fun and interesting. I could have done without the hokey storyline, but it makes sense with them doing different types of dancing. I would not say the food was worth two TS by any means. But I thought it was a decent value for us, and we were in a situation where we needed to do some 2TS meals anyway. It was a fun, different experience from what we'd done, so I'm glad we did it. I probably won't do it again for quite a while.

coming up... how did we end our first full day?

 

[Mndisneygirl]

After dinner, we wandered around the Poly a bit, soaking in the atmosphere, admiring the views, and of course, shopping!

I'm pretty sure that sign says "Stay out of the Dam Lakes!"

Hanging out with a Tiki guy!

I'm not sure about Sarah's pose.

Then we hopped on the monorail and headed back to Magic Kingdom! We wanted to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and get a good spot for Summer Nightastic fireworks.
One out of two ain't bad. You'll see.

When we were walking down the ramp from the monorail, I noticed this:

Not to be judgmental, (but I'm going to be a little bit)... That was a man walking with a young girl, maybe around 10 years old. No adult woman in sight. I found his choice of handbag interesting. Nuf said.
When we headed into MK - I thought it was a bit crowded. Made me nervous about seeing the parade and fireworks. I'd heard that it was a good spot to watch parades from back in Frontierland, but was worried then I wouldn't have a spot for the fireworks since there wasn't much time in between.

I did like the pink hue to the castle!
Here's where I can't remember what we did. I want to say we went back and used our jungle cruise FPs. I'll have to check tonight.
I know I took these shots near Crystal Palace.
Trying to be all artsy!

At some point, we decided there wasn't going to be good viewing for the MSEP. So we decided to work on a spot for fireworks instead. We parked ourselves on the bridge to Tomorrowland near the rose garden. I'm pretty certain that Dave went to get us some snack. Again, I'll have to check my notes on that.

Well, at least a drink - there's a cup in the picture!!

The time stamp on my pictures is Central Time, so this castle shot would have been around 9:20 while we were waiting for fireworks. I did not take any pictures of the fireworks (I'm not good at it!). I just sat and enjoyed.
I have heard a lot of people say that this was the best show...I liked it a lot, but didn't get all warm and fuzzy or amazed by it like I do with Wishes or Holiday Wishes. There were definitely a LOT of fireworks though! It was fun, and we were exhausted.
We headed back toward the buses and made our way back to the Beach Club. (I have no independent recollection of this for some reason. No I didn't drink that much wine!)

I'm fairly certain this is on the walk back from the bus stop to BC's entrance. This is what happens when a)I wait too long to do my TR and b)I don't have my notes and c) DH isn't here for me to ask questions. It gets a little fuzzy.
So we were pretty dang tired after that long day and it looks like we got back to BC around 11 p.m.
I thought it was a fabulous day!

Our next day (Friday) was going to be EPCOT and BC!!!

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

YAY!!!

AWESOME UPDATES!!!!!

The Spirit of Aloha show looks VERY intriguing! We just might have to try that one, I mean since we will be staying there and all! Tsk, Tsk, Tsk Sheree - you should have eaten your broccoli!!! The dessert looked interesting! Glad you at least got to see the Fireworks! MK looked jammed that night - I think that was a 9 day!!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

loved the pics...and yeah, a grown man with a kid and a purse? HOPEFULLY, his wife was sick somewhere and he was trying to help her WOW...

 

[Charleston Princess]

The Luau looks like so much fun!!! The food looks very tasty -- even the broccoli!

What a shame that you didn't get a good spot for MSEP, but glad you enjoyed the fireworks! What a fun day overall!

 

[Lady Lallie]

The luau looks like so much fun!!

I like your artsy shots with the balloon and the castle.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

YAY!!!

AWESOME UPDATES!!!!!

The Spirit of Aloha show looks VERY intriguing! We just might have to try that one, I mean since we will be staying there and all! Tsk, Tsk, Tsk Sheree - you should have eaten your broccoli!!! The dessert looked interesting! Glad you at least got to see the Fireworks! MK looked jammed that night - I think that was a 9 day!!

I know - about time right!? I ate so much of my salad, MOTHER, that I didn't want any more veggies! Most of our days were 8 or 9 crowd levels anyway. It didn't feel bad any other time except parade/fireworks time.

loved the pics...and yeah, a grown man with a kid and a purse? HOPEFULLY, his wife was sick somewhere and he was trying to help her WOW...

You just never know!

The Luau looks like so much fun!!! The food looks very tasty -- even the broccoli!

What a shame that you didn't get a good spot for MSEP, but glad you enjoyed the fireworks! What a fun day overall!

Well, we were able to see bits of the parade, and I thought I had some pictures, but I don't seem to know where they are. Maybe they are from the day we went back to MK the following week. We really had a great day overall.

The luau looks like so much fun!!

I like your artsy shots with the balloon and the castle.

We enjoyed it and I'd say it was worth it for us. I'm sure not everybody wants to spend that much for that food, but it was fun.
Thanks on the pictures - it was funny - DH at first was moving the balloon out of the way for me and I said - NO! I'm trying to be artsy! I wanted a different castle shot than all the other ones I had!

I forgot last night to check my notes so I still don't know if my story was right! We had torrential rains ALL DAY! Then I spent about an hour messing around with itunes trying to get my two computers to talk to each other and share like nice kids. Problem is one's a mac and one's a pc and they don't like each other. Got what I wanted out of them though and went to bed.

 

[manntra]

The luau looks fun! The food has never really appealed to me so I have never tried it out....although the dessert looks very good!!!
Hmmmmm interesting choice of bags....
The Castle looks so pretty in pink (the light pink)...I used to love that movie

Tracy

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

I ate so much of my salad, MOTHER, that I didn't want any more veggies!

Well then I guess that's all right then!! As long as you ate some of your veggies!!!

 

[jenjolt]

So...did I mention that if I had a Disney Character that I totally embrace it would be the White Rabbit because I'm always late for important dates LOL!!! How I missed this I don't know, but I'm here and I'm going to spend my Sunday afternoon catching up!!! Can't wait!!!

 

[natebenma]

Great update, Sheree!

Thanks so much for the great photos of the Spirit of Aloha show! We have never done it, so it is really nice to get a "taste" of it from your descriptions.

It is fun to hang around the Poly for a bit. A great resort. If we could tear ourselves away from staying at the BC, this would be our next choice.

Neat idea for the pictures of the castle and the single balloon. They came out great!

Looking forward to hearing about your fun at EPCOT and the BC!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

The luau looks fun! The food has never really appealed to me so I have never tried it out....although the dessert looks very good!!!
Hmmmmm interesting choice of bags....
The Castle looks so pretty in pink (the light pink)...I used to love that movie

Tracy

Yeah, the food was decent, I really liked the salad and bread. It's nice that you can have beer and wine included too.
That bag - ...
You must be a product of the 80s too!!! I just sat and watched St. Elmo's Fire and the Breakfast Club recently! Love that Brat Pack!

Well then I guess that's all right then!! As long as you ate some of your veggies!!!

I tried to be good! At least some of the time!

So...did I mention that if I had a Disney Character that I totally embrace it would be the White Rabbit because I'm always late for important dates LOL!!! How I missed this I don't know, but I'm here and I'm going to spend my Sunday afternoon catching up!!! Can't wait!!!

Better late than never!!! Jen!!! I'm glad you're here!

Great update, Sheree!

Thanks so much for the great photos of the Spirit of Aloha show! We have never done it, so it is really nice to get a "taste" of it from your descriptions.

It is fun to hang around the Poly for a bit. A great resort. If we could tear ourselves away from staying at the BC, this would be our next choice.

Neat idea for the pictures of the castle and the single balloon. They came out great!

Looking forward to hearing about your fun at EPCOT and the BC!

Oh, I'm glad you appreciate my pictures - DH took a bunch since he had a better view.
I would love to stay at the Poly - for about 10 days!!! Never a good enough deal for my budget though!
I sort of stumbled on the photo with the balloon - it was kind of cute.


I went back through my notes and discovered that we did ride Jungle Cruise after we went back to MK and the girls wanted to go back to BTMRR, but without FPs, I figured it would kill any chance to see the parade. I guess we should have, since we didn't see much of the parade anyway!
We bought Sarah one of those $10 balloons with the Mickey head inside the clear balloon. She named it (I can't remember what - Ashley or something). We took the bus back to BC without much of a wait - no crowds . The girls barely got their PJs on before falling asleep. The plan was to sleep in (as much as we do) the next day.

 

[Monny2AE]

Great update! The Luau looks like fun but I agree that it probably isn't worth 2 credits. It is one of those things that I think you should do once though. We saw it on our honeymoon and then again with my whole family in 2004. I do remember the pineapple, breads and rice being my faves!

Had to laugh at your 80's movies comment. St. Elmo's Fire was on a few weeks ago and DH had no clue what I was watching. He apparently didn't grow up watching all those girly 80's movies with Molly Ringwold and the brat pack. The only one he knew of was Goonies and Breakfast Club! So sad.

 

[Queila]

The luau looks awesome. Great memories for he girls. I am sure the food was delicious too.

Thanks for posting the pictures. You have a beautiful family.

Q

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Great update! The Luau looks like fun but I agree that it probably isn't worth 2 credits. It is one of those things that I think you should do once though. We saw it on our honeymoon and then again with my whole family in 2004. I do remember the pineapple, breads and rice being my faves!

Had to laugh at your 80's movies comment. St. Elmo's Fire was on a few weeks ago and DH had no clue what I was watching. He apparently didn't grow up watching all those girly 80's movies with Molly Ringwold and the brat pack. The only one he knew of was Goonies and Breakfast Club! So sad.

I'm not sure my DH would know them either, except for I've watched them so many times. He does know that one of my all-time favorites (not a brat pack movie) is When Harry Met Sally, and I will recite every line while watching. He just laughs at me.

The luau looks awesome. Great memories for he girls. I am sure the food was delicious too.

Thanks for posting the pictures. You have a beautiful family.

Q

Thank you! I'm glad that the girls will now start talking about our trips because they remember them. Just yesterday Paige made a comment about something that she remembered from our Disney Cruise (I did not remember it at all!).

 

[stayhomemom77]

Gee, when I recite every line of my favourite movies and programs my hubby nicely tells me to shut up!!

I think I'm jealous.

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

I'm here. Gotta get caught up!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Gee, when I recite every line of my favourite movies and programs my hubby nicely tells me to shut up!!

I think I'm jealous.

Keep in mind that he is usually not around, but if he hears me, it's worth a laugh. Or an eye roll. Personally I think he's just jealous cuz I know the movie so well.

I'm here. Gotta get caught up!

Nice to "see" you again!!! How have you been???

 

[Mndisneygirl]

So Friday morning, we slept in a bit. At least for us. I got up around 7:15, took my dramamine (planning ahead for some rides). We got down to the Marketplace around 9 and grabbed a couple pastries for breakfast. We headed to the "back door" aka the "private entrance", or to the rest of the world, the International Gateway. It's all of a 5 minute walk from the Beach Club - so nice!!
It seemed so empty back there - of course World Showcase didn't open until 11. We made our way to the Land - of course we were headed to Soarin'!!

DH had never ridden it before. The wait time was listed at 20 minutes, so we decided to get in line. Of course, it turned out to be more like 30, and it felt rather long. Not sure if Sarah was nervous, or what...

The girls were fighting a bit in line - we had to separate them, which tells me that 30 minutes is too long for them to wait! HA! In the end, the wait was worth it - we got the FRONT ROW! It was so great - there's only about one point where I feel a little queasy/uneasy, and I just shut my eyes for a moment. I love the smells in this ride!!! The girls and I pretended to kick the people fishing in the river! Aren't we naughty?
After our flight, we went to ride Journey Into Imagination with Figment. I don't remember ever riding this before! It's cute and the kids liked it except for the skunk stink part! We explored the Imagination area (I forget what it's called!)

We browsed around in the gift shop for a bit and I bought my boss a cute little magnetic Figment. She had told me before I left that Figment and Pluto were her favorite characters. A CM gave each of the girls a bag with activity sheets and stickers. They thought that was pretty cool!
We got FPs for Test Track (the kids have never ridden it and it had been a while for us too). Then we rode Nemo.

We passed up on Spaceship Earth - couldn't believe the long line!! The sign was posted at no wait, but something must have been down on the ride, because I've NEVER seen the line that long - winding around the side of the building!
Dave and Sarah tried to catch a little mist from the fountain to keep cool. We also hit up the misting stations, but did not find them terribly refreshing!

We headed toward Coral Reef, getting there a bit early for our 11:55 lunch ADR.

So I stopped in the restroom after we checked in. Of course, the buzzer went off while I was in there. I think there was only one other family waiting. We hardly needed a buzzer, but whatever. We were seated about 10 minutes early.
The lobby and hallway to the dining area

We were seated on the level above the tables next to the aquarium, but had a really nice view.

We were served a basket of bread with butter - thank goodness - Sarah would at least eat that! We ordered our lunches - Sarah was none too thrilled with her options, but we convinced her to order the chicken breast. (But it's grilled!!!) Dave and I both ordered the sampler appetizer which came with crab cake, "land and sea" and creamy lobster soup (just a small cup).

This was really good! I really liked the beef and DH really liked the soup. I have come to learn, that as much as I want to, I'm not going to like fish all that much - including crab cakes. Except I love seafood!! I know weird. But I still ordered the Mahi Mahi - trying to expand my horizons, mix it up a bit. Dave got the NY Strip, and Paige got pizza. We were also able to get virgin strawberry daquiris or pina coladas as our drinks!!!

My Mahi Mahi

Dave's steak

Paige's pizza, veggies and apples (she loved it all!)

I thought I'd taken pictures of Sarah's meal and dessert, but maybe not. I'll post them if I find them. Both Dave and I ordered the Chocolate Wave (warm chocolate cake with a white chocolate center) Yummy!! and the kids got ice cream sundaes.
In any case, we all enjoyed our meals, but I just couldn't eat more than half my fish. I just don't have a taste for it I guess. When we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon, we both loved the mahi mahi. Go figure. Dave said his steak here was better than the one he had at Captain's Grille! I was glad, because it has received some not so great reviews (as had Captain's) and I hoped the food was good enough to go with the cool atmosphere.
We enjoyed watching the fish, and saw sharks, turtles, rays in the tank.

Just a picture of the table near us.

This is the check in desk area in the lobby.

My receipt shows that our food would have cost us $125.13!!! We used a TS credit and paid the tip.
I think I'd give Coral Reef a 7 out of 10. I would go back, but not in any rush to do so. I'd definitely order something different for my entree!

Next up...How would we survive the heat in the afternoon at Epcot??? Would we get to ride Test Track? Where would we eat dinner? (just where we planned!) Plus - our magical moment!!!!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

We have never been to Coral reef....I don't know if we would like it...we are not really super into seafood..not very adventurous I guess. There are a few that I would eat, but I doubt any of it would be on that menu!!! LOL
Ready for the next part!!!