Yo Ho Yo Ho a Tipsy Life for Me - A November '17 Dining Adventure - Complete 5/27

[ncc1701]

Didn't know about the no draft beer. Since we went to dinner it was straight to wine for me.

The fried clam strip brings me back to childhood trips eating at Howard Johnsons on the PA Turnpike. My dinner of choice was fried calms on a hot dog bun with fries.I may need to get them next time. Bummer your rolls didn't have the honey butter flavoring, they are so good.

 

[kastoney]

That French fry combination sounds really odd and definitely delicious.

It was definitely both of those things!

Aw, that's so disappointing, but your truffle fries sounded delicious.

Definitely disappointing but the truffle fries did make up for it!

I have never heard of Mr. Kamal and his great French fries, sounds tasty. I love clam strips too and they are hard to find. We enjoyed the Boathouse the one time we dined there. The truffle fries look very good. Andi loved that dole whip stuffie because it is her favorite Disney snack!

Glad to know I"m not alone in the clam strip club. I don't know why they are so good, but I can never pass them up!

The truffle fries sound delish!

They most definitely were!

That does sound like an odd combo

Odd, yes. Delicious though, indeedy!

Looks delicious! And it doesn't have eyeballs

Somehow I think it would be better if it did

We're still talking about the stuffed one, right?

Of course we are. Didn't you know stuffing could melt

YUM!! Boathouse is definitely one of my absolute favorites - so glad you enjoyed it too! I have to give that burger another try. I had it once and liked it but it was just so messy - way too much sauce. Looks like Jason may have gotten the spiced mayo on the side - I think that’s the way to go. Now I’m craving it for breakfast!

The burger was most definitely messy for Jason too, but the flavor definitely outweighed the messy. I think they sauce you see is the lemon aioli for the truffle fries and he got the sauce on the burger as is.

People are crazy! I mean I get it, some people can't get fat passes for it and some just love it that much. But that is just a long time to be in line!

This was the first of 2 times this trip that the line was that long. We almost felt guilty walking by and seeing the poor kids in line. There is absolutely nothing worth that in my mind.

So, Jason ran a race, went to Animal Kingdom with you, went to Disney Springs AND went to the Christmas Party?!?! Man, that man has some energy!!!!

Yes, he is definitely a feet of wonder! He's a year younger than me so I credit that to his energy

So cute!!! We have the mickey bar plush from our September trip. And were looking for this gal in February but couldn't find her. We love them, but maybe we all like food too much.

We didn't see the Mickey bar but I know Casey would love it. The dole whip was at a kiosk across from Tamu Refreshments. Very random location, but Casey somehow spotted it !

I say that in Disneyland has a whole line of food plush! I might have to buy them all!
http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2018/03/22/more-disney-food-merch-spotted/#more-187324

I saw these the other day. Love, love, love the pretzel. Hope you all pick a few up on your trip!

This also looks great. I will eat clam strips but no clam bellies!

What is a clam belly? I don't think I've ever heard of these

I'd like to meet this Mr. Kamal. Sounds like he's made the term mixologist into a whole new thing

You got that right. Next up I heard he is trying tater tots with humus and some kimchi aioli

How does that happen?! And repeatedly, usually!

I know its strange right. Just a few minutes ago I finished my glass of wine and somehow it replenished itself. I have no idea how this happens

I continue to be amazed at Casey's palate

She is definitely quite the eater. We are most definitely lucky in that department.

Those fries... OMG. And the burger looked heavenly too - I love me a good burger.

Me too and this was a thing of beauty!

I never knew such a thing existed...but I'd totally buy one

It was a great buy. She sleeps with it every night.

These look good. The price doesn't surprise me, at Disney I feel like everything is way overpriced. It is annoying thought when you spend a lot and could still eat more after.

I think a lot if overpriced but most things seem fair to me for the quality. This calamari though should not have cost more than $10-$12 given the size, Disney or not.

This looks delicious. I think the fries look really good too. Truffle fries are the best!

Truffle anything is the best!

 

[kastoney]

Aha! Awesome tip on the truffle fry upgrade at Boathouse. I was trying to figure out how we could get both the clam strip bucket AND truffle fries and you solved that for me. Everything else that sounds good to me there is an appetizer or salad. I will have to force the boys to share some plates for that meal.

Glad I could help! The truffle fries were definitely worth the upgrade. They were so good!

your boathouse reviews just reminded me of why I will probably never go to the boathouse. Like people in the south meh on Homecomin', it's the food of my home, lol. There is even a place here with an amazing burger and truffle fries, $5 on sundays in the winter!

I'm definitely jealous of those of you who can get great seafood at home. Stuck in the mid-atlantic I can't get the food seafood or the southern food so both are welcomed to me! But let me know where that $5 burger and truffle fry place is. I'll meet ya there

I only like the rings though but my kid won't touch that with a 10 foot pole! I love the stuff Casey chooses. I'm a little jealous that you can share so much with her!

We are definitely lucky Casey has the palate she does and my wasteline is more than happy to share it with her

Yum! I adore anything truffle. At home we make truffle popcorn. Get this: air pop popcorn, toss with a little truffle oil and truffle salt. TDF!

Yum, that sounds awesome!!!!!!!!!!

My DS loves calamari and when we were at the beach this past summer he got a piece that was a suction cup and he pulled the breading off and suctioned it to his hand and held it up so we could see. (I have a funny picture of it somewhere.) He is so used to getting the rings only most places that he thought it was the coolest thing.

That is awesome. I'd love to see that picture. I also can't believe that Casey has never thought of doing this because it has her written all over it !

Look at those legs! Guess he's gotta run to keep his figure while indulging in all the Disney yumminess

At least one of us needs to keep their figure up

Both Casey and the Dole Whip stuffie are incredibly cute though!

They are both pretty awesome!

Mr. Kamal's is a true hidden gem! We had these too and loved them. They go great with a beer from harambe market or Dawa bar! I just wish they would bring back the samosas. YUM.

I think we got the beer from the Margarita stand across the way, but I'm sure Harmabe or Dawa has better options.

Maybe they think it's fancy enough that people will either go for wine or a cocktail or suck it up for a bottled beer? I think that's really odd too...

I have no idea what they were thinking. I think even iHOP has draft beer

This sounds amazing. I'm going to have to make note of this. My next trip is so short I don't know when I will make time to eat all the things I want to but I may have to hit up the Boathouse again very soon!

I'm hopeful we get back there again soon. I really want to sit outside and nosh on some delicious appetizers

I saw this news earlier: http://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories...eekly-saturday-night-shine-beginning-april-7/

and couldn't help but think of you and @Lisa F since Chez Fart Smith's is having this new "Shine Party" event. CheF art will even be on hand for the first one! We have a reservation for April 6, hoping maybe I will see him a day early!!!

Chef Fart is really stepping up his game. Moonpies and Moonshine is a thing of genius. He may finally earn losing that "g" with that one. Hope you get to see him! Take a picture for me if you do!

Random aside my best friend ran into Emeril in a whole foods a few years back. He walked up to her in the store and offered to help her find something. It took her a few minutes to figure out who he was. Apparently he was filming a new TV show there and was doing some promo for it. This of course is all urban legend as she had no photographic evidence of it. So make sure you head this working if you see Chez Fart!

The title caught my attention (love it) and once I clicked on the review, it's none other than my favorite food reviewer @kastoney !!! I'm going back to start from the beginning This is the perfect pick me up before my April trip

Hi there Stranger! Glad to see you back here.

Didn't know about the no draft beer. Since we went to dinner it was straight to wine for me.

The fried clam strip brings me back to childhood trips eating at Howard Johnsons on the PA Turnpike. My dinner of choice was fried calms on a hot dog bun with fries.I may need to get them next time. Bummer your rolls didn't have the honey butter flavoring, they are so good.

I'm normally more of a wine girl myself, but lunch I tend to go more beer and fried seafood is just clamoring for it !

We may have been children crossing in the night on the PA turnpike! I don't recall what I ate, but I remember those orange booths like it was yesterday. My mothers family was from Pittisburgh and we stopped at the HoJo in Breezewood every time we traveled up there!

 

[Tracy161]

I know its strange right. Just a few minutes ago I finished my glass of wine and somehow it replenished itself. I have no idea how this happens

So strange! I guess Disney magic?!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Boathouse is on my list...I'm glad you liked it!
LOOOOOVE the stuffed dole whip!!!!

 

[kastoney]

Christmas in November



Since today is Easter I find it only fitting that we celebrate our November Christmas Party! We've never done a Halloween or Christmas Party before so this was a first (and foreshadowing probably last) for us. Unfortunately it was the first party of the year so thanks to every blogger on the planet it had sold out and was much more crowded than we anticipated. Good news though is we had gotten discounted tickets so it was an easier pill to swallow.

We arrived at the party around 6 and went up on the train platform to watch the castle lighting show. Disney was doing some filming from there so they had part of it blocked off, but a very nice cast member was gracious enough to get a photo for us.

Christmas card photo, check!

From there we had a first ceremonial ride on the pooper, before riding space with a 5 minute wait twice in a row. My nostalgic kid also wanted to ride Carousel of Progress but we vetoed a non-ride that we can walk on any other day of the week.

Bellies rumbling it was time for our first snack of the evening from Auntie Galaxy's where we got some Santa Cookies and a Blue Icey.

This is where we somehow decided that taking Snack Selfies - aka a Snalfie - was in order. This is also where we realized that given the cheap grocery store quality of our cookie, our snack expectations were to be dramatically lowered.

Next stop was Cosmic Rays for a Snickerdoodle and Hot Chocolate.

Improvement from the Santa cookie, but still a long way to go.

From there we took a ride in a honey pot and two of us decided to flash their gang signals before spinning into an oblivion.


Then it was on to riding in an elephant's belly and the world's shortest roller coaster, not once but twice, for a solid 48 seconds of ride time.

Wanting to get the most food for our ticket price we were off to Pete's Silly Sideshow for a Peppermint Cookie and Chocolate Milk.

The peppermint cookie was my favorite cookie of the night, but I don't do milk so skipped right over dat one.

Then we cruised in a seashell under the sea and decided to finally meet some characters. Unfortunately the princesses had a 60+ minute wait time so we drowned our sorrows in some sadly non-alcoholic cider and chocolate from the Friars Nook.

Note the chocolate in Jason's mouth!

We skipped Pinocchio's Village as they were a repeat of Cosmic Rays and instead hung with another boy that will never grow up and 999 ghosts.

Next stop was Liberty Square where we found some Egg Nog (sadly sans rum) and some cookies from an Alligator named Ginger, which seemed much more apt for Adventureland.


We meandered our way to Frontierland to ride the wildest ride in the West, but for some reason they put us all in one car so I just skipped it. Clearly they did not have a good view of my ample derrière.

It was close to fireworks time and Casey was getting tired and not having any of it. I resigned myself to watching it from the bridge by Splash Mountain, but then Casey had to go to the bathroom so we missed most of the first half. At this point I realized all Casey wanted to do was ride stuff, so I gave up on watching the parade later, and just let the kid be a kid.

We then got our last snack of the evening from Tortuga Tavern, a pretzel!
In our quest to eat something that wasn't sugar laden we devoured these so quickly that we apparently forgot to take a snalfie.

We ended the night with a barrage of rides from boats with pirates and jingles to trains with dwarfs and planes with barnstormers to space shuttles in the dark. The ladder of which we rode 5 times in a row to end the night.

Somewhere in there Casey actually let me get some photographic evidence that we were indeed at a Christmas Party.

And she even had a little life left in her to enjoy the snoap on main street.


We ended up shutting the party down and didn't get back to Caribbean Beach until after 1. Casey was a trooper til the end though.


Overall the Christmas party was a great way to ride attractions with little to no wait (mine train was only 30 minutes) and what kid (or grown-up) doesn't want to substitute cookies and hot chocolate for dinner? Now I of course could have used some tipsy drinks in there, but my liver was grateful for the break. But given that we had next to no interest in waiting over an hour to meet characters and Casey could have cared less about the fireworks or parade, in the end it probably wasn't worth the money for us. I'm glad we tried it though and good news is Christmas would surprisingly redeem itself the next night.

Up next...do we finally reach our food and wine limit????​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Happy Easter! Or is it Merry Christmas? Glad you were able to try out the Christmas party. Love your Christmas outfits. It's been years and years since I've done it but I also recall not being all that impressed with the party. Mulled wine, eggnog (but not for me - yuck!) and other cocktails would definitely kick the festivities up a notch. I don't know why they couldn't do that for special party nights. It sounds like the rides and reduced wait times are definitely the main attraction of the party. 30 min for mine train is awesome! Although seeing it 'snoap' on Main St is pretty cool too. It's been years but as I recall the fireworks and parade didn't hold a candle to the Halloween party so I'm not sure you missed too much there. Looking forward to more. I sure hope you don't reach your F&W limit! But it sounds like fun to try!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Happy Easter. I hope you all had eggs for breakfast of the chocolate variety like we did. I’ve always fancied doing a Christmas party at MK but I’m not so sure I could sell the value of it to my other half as he doesn’t really eat sweet things weirdo isn’t he
Mind you don’t think it’s the snacks you go for given your review but the short wait times sound perfect and who doesn’t love snoap on Main Street
Great Christmas card photo of you guys

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Happy Easter! Glad you got to at least enjoy the snacks of the Christmas party and the rides. I’m with you on the worth of the event price wise.

Very cute photo with Goofy!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Love, love, love the pic of you all and Goofy! Super cute! Also, love the pic of Jason and Casey at the end of the night!
I'm glad you got to experience MVMCP. We are debating going to MNSSHP again in October...I just like the minimal wait for rides part...

 

[disneyAndi14]

Our 1 hour Christmas party in November was very crowded as well and the peppermint cookie was my favorite too.

Glad you were able to ride many things that night!

 

[Sailormoon2]

We ended the night with a barrage of rides from boats with pirates and jingles to trains with dwarfs and planes with barnstormers to space shuttles in the dark. The ladder of which we rode 5 times in a row to end the night.

That is an impressive amount of rides and re-rides! I'll assume this was more by virtue of going on during the fireworks and parade times more than just because you were at a party.
Casey's make-up is fantastic by the way...I almost want to do something similar on my next visit! (Is 40 too old for face paint??)

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Hey Happy Easter! I am finally caught up on your always fab reviews. I think I need the Boathouse truffle fries in my life! They look amazing. Looks like the Christmas party was a lot of fun as well. You have had so much good food this trip. You have me wanting to go back to Sanaa as well. I haven't been there in many many years now.

 

[richkaryn]

That is awesome. I'd love to see that picture. I also can't believe that Casey has never thought of doing this because it has her written all over it !

I had to hunt for it because I have since gotten a new phone...but here it is.

 

[buzzrelly]

Happy Easter!

I love all of your snack-selfies…hilarious!

Since today is Easter I find it only fitting that we celebrate our November Christmas Party!

Of course!

We've never done a Halloween or Christmas Party before so this was a first (and foreshadowing probably last) for us. Unfortunately it was the first party of the year so thanks to every blogger on the planet it had sold out and was much more crowded than we anticipated.

Bummer…don't count out the Halloween Party yet, though…I personally prefer that to the Christmas Party.

a very nice cast member was gracious enough to get a photo for us.

Christmas card photo, check!

Perfect

This is also where we realized that given the cheap grocery store quality of our cookie, our snack expectations were to be dramatically lowered.

Poor showing, Disney, I've seen those same mass-produced cookies at Walmart

We ended up shutting the party down and didn't get back to Caribbean Beach until after 1. Casey was a trooper til the end though.

So sweet

 

[Tracy161]

Love this picture! And your shirts!

This is where we somehow decided that taking Snack Selfies - aka a Snalfie - was in order.

YES! Excellent idea... well executed, too!

Overall the Christmas party was a great way to ride attractions with little to no wait (mine train was only 30 minutes) and what kid (or grown-up) doesn't want to substitute cookies and hot chocolate for dinner?

You sure got on a ton of rides - that might be a driving force for my attendance at one of these things someday.

 

[Xclusive2WDW]

Happy Easter!!! I really appreciate the honest review of the Christmas party. Touring plans was there that same party and it seemed very busy, and I would have been just like Casey. . . ready to ride Going during the spring this year, but perhaps next year I'll see if it is worth doing a night of just a party and not having an extra day of park tickets. I can't wait for your next review!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Loving your report.

We are also planning on doing the first party of the year this November. It'll just be DD12 and myself and we already decided not to do rides and just focus on the party stuff. Parade, fireworks, shows, dance parties, treats and meeting the 7 Dwarves. But we will have 8 day hoppers with plenty of time to ride MK rides. DD is older and understands but I'm sure at 6 she would've lost her mind and want to ride ALL OF THE RIDES!

 

[TeeterTots]

Happy Easter (Monday). Love the Christmas party recap. It looks fun but not sure it would be worth it for us either.

 

[areno79]

The peppermint cookie is definitely the best snack option they have...but overall the snacks are disappointing.