Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate's Life for We Halloween *2012* PTR has begun!

[BellaBaby]

Yes, so glad to see you back!! We're booking breakfast with Minnie and Friends based on your review!! So looking forward to more restaurant reviews as well!!

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Sherri, that was great. Colton is so cute.

He absolutely keeps me amused

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Yes, so glad to see you back!! We're booking breakfast with Minnie and Friends based on your review!! So looking forward to more restaurant reviews as well!!

You are really going to have a good time and stay tuned for more dining I mean we have to eat right? Next is Carnation Cafe for dinner and I believe day 3 was River Belle Terrace for breakfast and Blue Bayou for dinner no characters that day. Day 4 was Storytellers for breakfast so that is the next character meal. When are you going? hopefully I can get you some more of what you are interested in before you leave.

 

[BellaBaby]

Oh, there's plenty of time...our trip is 5/30-6/6.

I am interested in Blue Bayou and Carnation Cafe. I have not heard of River Belle Terrace, so I'll look forward to that one as well!

 

[TheColtonsMom]

So after being chosen the padawans went through their training.

The female CM JedI was really good with the kids and was Colton’s trainer.

After training Darth Vadar & Darth Maul appear and try to turn the padawans to the dark side of the force.

Darth Maul put on quite a preformance with his double ended lightsaber.

Then each child got a chance to battle either Darth Vadar

or Darth Maul, Colton battled Darth Maul and did great. Here are some pics of his battle

After the dark side was defeated they held a graduation ceremony and each child got a certificate for completing their training and was presented to the crowd as graduates. Colton loved every minute of it and taught his moves to more than a few unwitting children & adults who were in line with us over the next few days. Most notable was two girls about 12 and 14 whos parents we had struck up a conversation with and while we talked the 3 of them battled on the edge of the Rivers of America (they had light sabers too) for about 20 minutes they were completely enchanted with their own little JedI master.

At some point during the training we noticed the crowd seemed to have thinned considerably. Remember this was a day that the parks were closed due to crowds. It seems that NOS and Adventureland had lost power to many of the BIG rides HMH, POTC, IJ etc were all down and it appeared most of the locals had cleared out. This is what the in park grapevine told us anyway although I have seen no official word on this the park was much quieter and we did everything else in Tomorrowland except Space (we were working Colton up to this as I didn’t think that Space was the best 1st real roller coaster)

We enjoyed the Finding Nemo subs contrary to most of the posts on this board I was the only one who had ever been on them in their original state and I think enjoyment of this ride was much due to our son’s reactions and I noticed most people that really loved it had young kids who were having a good time with them.

Once Tomorrowland was done we hit the Matterhorn for a 20 minute wait, Now I wasn’t really thinking when we did this as I forgot how different the Matterhorn is in the dark and Colton was freaked out by the “Snow Monsters” red eyes. He said he will go on the Matterhorn again when he is a little bigger “like 12 or something.”

 

[skiingfast]

It's really great to hear you made the best of it on the disaster day. It's really funny about Colton's concern on driving. ITA about Nemo, it's a priority for me to ride.

 

[skiingfast]

I forgot to mention, the first time I took DS, Matterhorn was great. But DS did not like Harold. But now he talks about saying hi to Harold all the time and I'm sure on his next visit we will be on the bobsleds 4 or 5 times.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

I forgot to mention, the first time I took DS, Matterhorn was great. But DS did not like Harold. But now he talks about saying hi to Harold all the time and I'm sure on his next visit we will be on the bobsleds 4 or 5 times.

Colton has already said he wants to try it again in the daytime in October he is just going to look away from Harold. He did like the ride except for that one thing.

 

[skiingfast]

Colton has already said he wants to try it again in the daytime in October he is just going to look away from Harold. He did like the ride except for that one thing.

Daytime huh? Does he not like the dark parts on rides? Mine is like that.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Daytime huh? Does he not like the dark parts on rides? Mine is like that.

Sometimes yes sometimes no kinda depends on his mood but he did not like the dark when we first entered the mountain for sure.

 

[deejdigsdis]

I'm so glad Colton had a good Jedi training experience. I noticed in your pictures that you didn't get the same female Jedi that we had a couple of weeks ago. She halted my son's battle with Darth Maul -- not sure why she did that, but it seemed rude and totally unnecessary. Really put a damper on the whole thing for him.

And I agree about Nemo. I think I had low expectations after reading all the poor reviews on the DIS. When I finally rode it I was pleasantly surprised. My then 3 and 6 year olds were really excited throughout the ride, so I know that helped form my positive opinion as well.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Due to the low crowds we also did about half of Fantasyland before they closed it to get ready for the fireworks. Colton really loved the storybook land canal boats in the dark and was really excited to be picked to be the whale watcher. We went back to Tomorrowland and did BLAB again and watched the fireworks from onboard the Astro Orbiter.

After the fireworks we headed to Kodak to have the JedI Academy pics added to our Photopass card and then wandered Main Street towards Carnation Café for dinner.

We both had lattes first.

Baked Potato soup for appetizers. It was as fabulous as I remembered after 8 years.

Brant had the Meatloaf Stack which he said was awesome.

I had the Turkey Pot Pie and vegetables the pot pie was good but a little on the salty side for my taste.

Colton got the artist palette peanut butter & jelly which was fun and a big hit, with my kid anyway.

He also got the “special” buzz lightyear punch with the reusable toy story cup and the Buzz Lightyear light up clip on. I wish the clip on the clip on Buzz was a little better made, it really did not hang on well and spent most of the trip in our backpack as he kept falling off everything we tried to clip him to. Had it worked better we may have gotten more of these at other meals since after dark it is fun to have light up things but as it was it was useless during the trip although Colton has been using it as a nightlight since our return and it still lights up.

All in all I would recommend Carnation Cafe for lunch instead of dinner. #1 of course is that Chef Oscar circulates at lunch and I missed seeing him it had been 8 years! Also one of the benefits of this little outdoor eatery is the people watching and the lighting there is not the best. Our waiter/CM was wonderful and even played with Colton getting him started with his Artist Pallate.
We finished up our day looking at windows and shopping in the Main Street Shops. We got ice creams at Gibson Girl and since we really hadn’t caught up on sleep since our harrowing travel day we called it a night and headed for ART. Once again ART was not the horrible experience for us that many describe and we are planning on using them again when we go in October.

The granite floors in the bathroom at the Anabella Hotel feel really good on sore DL feet by the way. We showered and I popped in to the boards for a few minutes and we were all asleep almost as soon as our heads hit our pillows which is always the sign of a good day at DL.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

I'm so glad Colton had a good Jedi training experience. I noticed in your pictures that you didn't get the same female Jedi that we had a couple of weeks ago. She halted my son's battle with Darth Maul -- not sure why she did that, but it seemed rude and totally unnecessary. Really put a damper on the whole thing for him.

And I agree about Nemo. I think I had low expectations after reading all the poor reviews on the DIS. When I finally rode it I was pleasantly surprised. My then 3 and 6 year olds were really excited throughout the ride, so I know that helped form my positive opinion as well.

I'm sorry your son's Jedi experience wasn't as good as ours. Really I was a bit stressed about this as Colton had built it up so much that I was afraid it wouldn't live up to the hype. Leave it to Disney to exceed our expectations. He can still do every move of the routine he learned that day and he and Daddy are working with our green screen to do a movie of Colton as a Jedi fighting Colton as a sith lord, complete with appropriate backgrounds. I will link it here when all the CG gets done.

Amazing how they way our kids see something affects the way we see it.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

In the next episode Toon Town Morning Maddness, a surprise meet up and fast pass lines as long as stand-by lines. Did Colton take his first Jungle Cruise in the daytime or nighttime? And the long awaited first time ever eating at the Blue Bayou did it live up to 30 years of waiting?

 

[BellaBaby]

Thanks for the review of Carnation Cafe. We will book it as a lunch. The Artist Palette looks like it's right up my 2 younger ones alleys! I'm sure it was on the expensive side for a PB&J sandwich, but it's the way it's served I guess...so cute!!

My girls got the Tinkerbell light up clip ons awhile back at WDW and they kept falling off as well! I guess they haven't improved the design...

The Buzz looks cute tho and my little guy would love it!

Looking forward to more TR!!

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Thanks for the review of Carnation Cafe. We will book it as a lunch. The Artist Palette looks like it's right up my 2 younger ones alleys! I'm sure it was on the expensive side for a PB&J sandwich, but it's the way it's served I guess...so cute!!

My girls got the Tinkerbell light up clip ons awhile back at WDW and they kept falling off as well! I guess they haven't improved the design...

The Buzz looks cute tho and my little guy would love it!

Looking forward to more TR!!

I don't remember exactly what that cost I have the reciept somewhere but too lazy just now to go hunt, but I am sure just like everything at disney it could be made much cheaper in your kitchen at home LOL BTW we have done this at home now giving him a plate with the fixings to create his own sandwich he really likes it and hey 1 less step I am doing for him.

Really hope when they run out of this current light up they come up with something better, but he did use it as a nightlight at the hotel and since we came home It has been over a month and even though I constantly find it left on it still works so all it needs is a better clip.

 

[brookies_mommy]

Love you TR! Im just not coming in! all caught up too

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Love you TR! Im just not coming in! all caught up too

Not sure if I have chimed in on yours yet either but I am following along.

 

[brookies_mommy]

Not sure if I have chimed in on yours yet either but I am following along.

WOW! I really should stop useing my phone to reply on here! LOL Glad you got what I was "Trying" to say lol!!

And thanks.. About 2 weeks.. I'm excited!!!!

 

[skiingfast]

I'm thinking baked potato soup would be real tasty now.

Looking forward to the next day!