You Guys Part of the Family? You've Got the Magic In Your Eyes!!->Updated 10/19x3!!!!

[DisneyKid4Life]

OMG I love that the pics cover both sides of the street. You're actually IN the parade pictures.

Sign of things to come maybe...

 

[katt789]

OMG I love that the pics cover both sides of the street. You're actually IN the parade pictures.

Sign of things to come maybe...

Haha its awesome!!

Ahahahah, hopefully!! God i hope so!!

 

[ronnmel]

Somehow I had missed these last updates. Great parade pictures.

I think the Tiki Room is cute, but nothing more. Like, I'm glad I saw it, but I doubt I will see it again any time soon. Unless, like you, I need a break from the rain (or crowds).

 

[Pluto0809]

You aren't kidding that the parade vehicles have been around for a while. Check out this photo I took in 1998 on my honeymoon.



Looks pretty familiar, huh?

I love all the pictures you got of the parade, especially the ones of Pluto!

Glad you got to experience the Tiki Room! I love it mainly because it reminds me of my childhood. Yes, it is a bit outdated but at least I get to feel 5 years old again!

 

[emmysmommy]

Katt you have like a dozen TRs right?? I finally started reading this one and oh my gosh.... what a rough start with the plane situation. I LOVE AKL - awesomeness! What a great gift to give your mom! Speaking as a mom, that would be the ultiamate gift from one of my kids! (Time with them AND WDW... doens't get any better than that.)

 

[katt789]

Somehow I had missed these last updates. Great parade pictures.

I think the Tiki Room is cute, but nothing more. Like, I'm glad I saw it, but I doubt I will see it again any time soon. Unless, like you, I need a break from the rain (or crowds).

Haha no worries, I fall super far behind on your TR like, every time you update, woooorst ever. Lawl. Thanks.

It's cute! I'll probably go again in Sept as we've got a first timer coming with us so we'll want to see everything!

You aren't kidding that the parade vehicles have been around for a while. Check out this photo I took in 1998 on my honeymoon.



Looks pretty familiar, huh?

I love all the pictures you got of the parade, especially the ones of Pluto!

Glad you got to experience the Tiki Room! I love it mainly because it reminds me of my childhood. Yes, it is a bit outdated but at least I get to feel 5 years old again!

Aahahahahaha that's hilarious!!
Thanks!!
It is cute! I have the Four Parks, 1 world CD and on it they have the iago/zazu version of the song and I would've liked to see that one, it sounded more upbeat baha. Plus, birds from two of my favorite movies!? Yes please!

Katt you have like a dozen TRs right?? I finally started reading this one and oh my gosh.... what a rough start with the plane situation. I LOVE AKL - awesomeness! What a great gift to give your mom! Speaking as a mom, that would be the ultiamate gift from one of my kids! (Time with them AND WDW... doens't get any better than that.)

Ahahahahaha...nooooo.......just two TR's a PTR and a dining one....bahahaha. I also have a May TR to start sometime soon too! Just waiting on Jess to upload some pictures lawl.

Glad you came over to check it out!! I honestly think AK will forever now be my favorite resort simply because of that, because walking into the lobby for the first time could not have felt better to be HOME!

 

[katt789]

With our Tiki Room adventures behind us, we headed over to Frontierland, and hit up Big Thunder. I had been concerned about some of the rides being down thanks to the rain, but it had pretty much stopped, and we didn’t even have to wait very long. Thankfully, when we were done with one mountain, we jumped over to Splash with our Fast Passes (hey, we were already wet, right?!) and we walked right onto that ride too!

Clearly Paige and I like to be dinosaurs. Rawr. On the way out, we definitely grabbed another fast pass for later, it was hot, and we love rides!! And now for this portion of the trip report we seriously have no pictures, between the three of us. We suck. Fantasyland was our next stop, Mickey’s Phillharmagic, specifically, so not long of a wait at all there. Since it was nearly time for our next fast pass, we headed BACK towards Frontierland, where we decided we needed another snack. I had made dinner ressies that evening, so we didn’t want to spoil that, but a nice little Mickey Soft Pretzel and a Churro were in order!

I don’t have a picture of the churro, but really, I’m sure you all know what they look like! Lawl. The three of us slowly meandered towards Splash while eating our snacks, and with the fast passes, walked right on again!

ETA: I'm loving how much fun my Mom looks like she's having in this picture, totally awesome. Also, the face of the guy behind her is priceless..

Yay! Clearly Paige and I like to ride in the front! Yay! Scary, more fun! I love it. Ugh. Splash Mountain, how I miss you! On our way back through Frontierland, we deviated into the pin store to browse around, I longingly looked at the Periwinkle pin the fairy pin pack, but just couldn’t bring myself to buy the entire pack for one pin, too expensive! And now….prepare yourselves for a slew of ridiculous pictures…Paige and I found more hats…

So attractive! I also put on the Sheriff’s hat and was all “Look everybody, I’m Woody, howdy, howdy, howdy!” And Mom was all “Is that someone from work” Uhm…no…catch up on your Disney movies! BAHA! (In reality, if we lived in the same place, I would have been over at her house on a weekly basis educating her on Disney life)

SEE! I can be Goofy!! (It was probably around this point that Mom realized just how crazy…and awesome…the next week would be with Paige, and she was probably happy that she was leaving. Ahahaha!) With our shenanigans behind us, we headed over to Liberty Square, we had some characters to meet! Even though it wasn’t cocoa puff, Paige still wanted to meet Tiana & Naveen, and I’m down for characters any day, so we jumped in line! It wasn’t closed, and I think they were already out, so we didn’t have to wait too long!

Paige had them sign her book, and she’s got a little Jack Skellington pen, and when you write with it, he dances. Naveen found this very amusing, and to our liking, he started playing around with it, pretending it was dancing. Tiana, Paige and I were all “HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?!” as we didn’t realize it was just by “writing” and thought there was some kind of switch or something!

Tiana then found out how he was doing it, and we were all not so impressed with his magic anymore. I must have been having a chat with Tiana, as I didn’t remember/notice the next bit happening. Naveen was talking to Paige, asking her her name and then spun her around, and was all “You get my joke, because I am turning the Paige”

He may not have been my Naveen, but this guy was hands down amazing, he was super schticky, had the lame jokes like in the movie. (Paige and I were both quoting “you get my joke, because your head, it is in the tuba” as we left) He was also a ringer look wise for Naveen, definitely good casting there!

 

[katt789]

Mom, Paige, and I finished up with our meet and greets, and made a quick dash over to Tomorrowland, we wanted to grab some fast passes for Space Mountain. Yup, read that right, we were getting fast passes for a ride I had never been on, thanks to being too scared, we’ll see how that works out later! Lawl. Then it was back to Main Street and headed back towards the train station!

We were actually headed down for dinner, and it would also prove to be interesting, as I had heard many mixed reviews about the place!

Tony’s!! I absolutely adore Lady and the Tramp beyond all belief, it was one of my favorite movies when I was growing up, and still is! Naturally, when we had one night left in the park, I had to book it. We checked in right on time (the half hour early) and then proceeded to wait…and wait….and wait….

Luckily they did have a bunch of stuff to look at and take pictures of all around the waiting area, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that little seating. For the amount of time we were waiting, it wasn’t cool, I know we ended up sitting on the floor, and Paige and I were fading fast.

Soon enough, we were being led into the restaurant and over to our table, over in the back right hand corner, opposite of the kitchen, a nice little corner table for the three of us! Our server came over relatively quickly to take a drink order, and Paige got an espresso shot, I had a latte, and Mom I think just got water, maybe a diet coke? And it did take QUITE a while for the coffees to find their way to the table!

Our server’s name was Shelley, and she was super friendly and awesome!! She briefed us over the menu, what Tony’s was known for, and then pointed out the little Lady & Tramp statue “outside in the alley” “behind the restaurant” Super Cuuute. She also took our dinner order at this point!

So adorable! Gotta love them! Such a good love story too, UGH! LOVE! While we were waiting for our meals to come out, I saw that a table had buns, and immediately was all “UGH! I want bread! Like, bread with oil & vinegar to dip it, that would be lovely right now” Paige agreed with me, and considering we were in an Italian Restaurant, it was fitting, right? Not even a minute or two later, Shelley swept by the table and plopped down a basket of warm buns, and OIL TO DIP IT IN!! Needless to say, I was beyond excited!

As you can see, there was also butter, and no vinegar, which would have made the dipping much more enjoyable, but hey, FREE MAGIC BUNS?! I’m down!! And yes, they were just included in the meal, we didn’t have to pay for them or anything, awesome!!

Since Tony’s is known for the Spaghetti with meatballs, that’s what Paige got, and she also asked for a side of vegetables so that she could feel a little healthy, baha!

I had the “Braised Lamb Shank” with a creamy parmesan polenta, Chianti demi-glace, and seasonal vegetables.

Mom had the “Grilled Pork Tenderloin” with a mushroom marsala sauce, mashed butternut squash, and seasonal vegetables.

Verdict on the food? Not so great, my friends, not so great! Paige said that for somewhere that was supposedly “known for their spaghetti” it certainly wasn’t very good, and we all agreed that her side of veggies looked like the kind you get out of a bag…and the freezer… I had flip flopped back and fourth many times on whether to get the lamb or not, as I love lamb chops, or lamb at like, Opa, but Mom had warned me that the shank was different, and to just be aware of that. It was super fatty tasting and just didn’t go well with me. Polenta too, I’ve tasted before, and it was actually decent, but not amazing, haha. I’m going to go with the thought that Mom’s entrée was the best out of the three, but I know she wasn’t as impressed as previous meals at Disney (but I mean, after the Filet at Le Cellier, who can be?! Lawl)

Needless to say, we didn’t eat much, but we had filled up on bread previous, thank goodness for that! While we ate, Shelley had a little bit more time to hang out, and she came by to check on us, and found out we were from Canada, and got all excited. I’m pretty sure she was from Wisconsin, and had spent a lot of time up in Canada, or had neighbors from Canada, something like that, but she said she just loved Canadians. We chatted for a bit about working with Disney, and she said that it would definitely be a good idea to send a quick e-mail to casting to try and get a response from the electronic submissions, and encouraged me to never stop following my dream. I know we also chatted a bit about New Fantasyland, and how excited we all were, and come Opening, she was moving over to Be Our Guest! Yaaay! We definitely knew if we were to come back for a dinner there to be requesting her as a server! She bussed our plates, and gave us a moment with the dessert menu, and then came back with an AWESOME SURPRISE!

FREE ICE CREAM!! WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE, AND SPRINKLES!!!! Shelley said it was because we were really awesome and were a great table that night, and hey, she loves Canadians! Heck yes! We thanked her profusely, and told her that she was seriously amazing.

Dining Review: Tony’s Town Square Restaurant
3/5
-The food was not good, I had a word that means poop written down, but I’m sure I can’t post that here haha
-Bread was hot & crispy & awesome, and that was it
-Coffee drinks took forever, and weren’t too good tasting
-Ice cream was awesome
-Service was beyond amazing, Shelley, you get a 5/5 and a GOLD STAR. I'm also going to add this in before posting: I seriously cannot rave about a server or person as much as I can about Shelly! For those of you who have me on facebook, you may have heard that in May I got into BOG with no wait, or ADR, and was added into Jess's party thanks to Shelly, we also spent so much time in there and ended up being the last people in the restaurant. Shelly's become a good friend over the course of the last few trips, and I HIGHLY recommend requesting her as a server if you ever dine at BOG!
-The themeing of the restaurant is great.

With our bellies full, and as much of the free ice cream that we could, eaten, we settled the bills, and started to head out, but made sure to stop and take some pictures of the rest of the Lady & the Tramp theme, and even found a Hidden Mickey!

Mom took a shot of Paige and I before Shelley happened to be walking by, and made sure that Mom could also get in and we could finish off the pic with everyone!! (I will say, on this day, I’m sure we got asked if we were sisters more than we did on the rest of the trip!!)

And with that, we once again thanked her, and were off! We had missed our Fast Pass window for Space, but I promised Paige we’d definitely have another chance to ride it, many chances! We had also missed Wishes, which she was super sad about, but again, we had Hallowishes & another night of Wishes to watch, and it would be just as magical. So, what else could we do in Magic Kingdom with some late extra magic hours? Stay tuned to find out!!

 

[shan23877]

Sorry dinner wasn't great. I'm glad that we tried Tony's once since we love Lady and the Tramp, but the food just wasn't that good. I really do think that there's a shortage of good non character meals in MK. We haven't tried LTT yet, but after that

How awesome that you made a friend in Shelly! She sounds fantastic.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

OOOOh Dinosaurs. I needed new ride photo poses.

I'm kind of at the point now where I'm never sure if it's real or a fake pose (referring to the guy behind you). Either way though, that one's awesome!

Yay more hat photos!

"Is that someone from work?" OMG too funny!

Looks like Paige has her own Naveen now. At least you don't have to share.

Yay for Shelley!! BOG...Shelley...got it!

And oh yes... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[cfw213]

Ahhh that guy on Splash is HILARIOUS!! He literally looks like hes gonna die.

Also, where is that Mickey dress from?? It's absolutely adorable!!

 

[Pluto0809]

I haven't been able to ride Splash Mountain since 2011. It was too cold in November and then it was closed in March. It better be warm enough in October. DH says he doesn't remember it at all from our Honeymoon. I'm really surprised because we got stuck in the "laughing place" room for 20 minutes and it took me years to get the song out of my head!

That pretzel looks yummy! That's another Disney treat I haven't had and need to try sometime.

I have never eaten at Tony's and after reading bad review after bad review here on the DIS, I really don't have a desire too. Definitely not going in October because DH does not like italian food very much.

 

[wiigirl]

All that food looked delish!

 

[ILGoofy]

I spent this week reading every single one of your trip reports, which either makes me awesome, or a total creeper. I vote awesome!

I can't possibly comment on everything, so I'll just say YAY to all the awesome parts and BOO to all the bad parts.

Here's the trick to exploring every nook and cranny in World Showcase and not getting bored: drink around the world while playing the Agent P game. Works. And the game just gets more and more magical as you go.

 

[katt789]

Sorry dinner wasn't great. I'm glad that we tried Tony's once since we love Lady and the Tramp, but the food just wasn't that good. I really do think that there's a shortage of good non character meals in MK. We haven't tried LTT yet, but after that

How awesome that you made a friend in Shelly! She sounds fantastic.

It's all good, i didn't have high hopes for it but love Lady and the Tramp so it was worth it! I do want to go back and try the chicken parm as I've heard it's good! There really is! I usually find myself eating cs in MK as there's so many choices! And yes, Shelly is great!!

OOOOh Dinosaurs. I needed new ride photo poses.

I'm kind of at the point now where I'm never sure if it's real or a fake pose (referring to the guy behind you). Either way though, that one's awesome!

Yay more hat photos!

"Is that someone from work?" OMG too funny!

Looks like Paige has her own Naveen now. At least you don't have to share.

Yay for Shelley!! BOG...Shelley...got it!

And oh yes... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Dinosaurs is great! Hat photos are awesome, there's always so many hilarious pics you can get with them!! Ahahahha, Paige and I found mulitple "boyfriends" during our trips, and I won't lie, they were usually the same people ahahahaha.

Great pics!

Thanks!!

 

[katt789]

Ahhh that guy on Splash is HILARIOUS!! He literally looks like hes gonna die.

Also, where is that Mickey dress from?? It's absolutely adorable!!

Ahaha I didn't even notice it until I posted it! It's great! I got it from the store in Adventureland that's beside the bathrooms. I've seen them around Disney in various locations as well.

I haven't been able to ride Splash Mountain since 2011. It was too cold in November and then it was closed in March. It better be warm enough in October. DH says he doesn't remember it at all from our Honeymoon. I'm really surprised because we got stuck in the "laughing place" room for 20 minutes and it took me years to get the song out of my head!

That pretzel looks yummy! That's another Disney treat I haven't had and need to try sometime.

I have never eaten at Tony's and after reading bad review after bad review here on the DIS, I really don't have a desire too. Definitely not going in October because DH does not like Italian food very much.

Splash my love, so sad it was down in Sept, but yeah, sometimes it's just too cold! They're pretty good! It's not a great place food wise, I'd go for like, dessert and a coffee or something, but if you want Italian, I'd definitely say go to Italy in WS!

All that food looked delish!

Ahaha, defs looks better than it was, but hey, that's all good!

I spent this week reading every single one of your trip reports, which either makes me awesome, or a total creeper. I vote awesome!

I can't possibly comment on everything, so I'll just say YAY to all the awesome parts and BOO to all the bad parts.

Here's the trick to exploring every nook and cranny in World Showcase and not getting bored: drink around the world while playing the Agent P game. Works. And the game just gets more and more magical as you go.

Ahaha, well welcome!! And I say awesome, that's a LOT of reading!! Yay!!

I've definitely thought of doing that! I want to try the Agent P game, so why not do it drunk!? Lawl.

 

[katt789]

Paige Mom and I started off down Main Street and just took in the sights during the night, it adds such a different perspective to things, all the lights and junk! So purdy!

I will never get over how beautiful the Partner’s Statue is! Also, I saw a “meme” I guess, on tumblr, that had a picture of it from behind, with the quote from Lion King going “Everything the light touches is our kingdom” “What about that dark shadowy place?” “That’s Universal! You must never go there!” HA! LAWL.

I decided that, whenever one can, they should probably walk right through Cinderella Castle, like, it’s not always open, and it’s beautiful, and you’re walking through a freaking castle, why not do it!?

We browsed past Peter Pan’s Flight, but the wait time was still posted at 45 minutes, uhm, no thanks friends! So we continued on to an old classic that Mom and I had either managed to miss, or avoid the entire trip, ahah!

Also managed to get a picture of the open clock! I wasn’t as fast as whoever had their camera out, and just snapped one with my phone, but hey, it still works, right?!

A deer for Jess!

We got a little clogged up at the end, but hey, you normally do, and the ride isn’t really all that bad, it’s a cute little ride, I definitely see why kids can love it so much, there’s so much shiny stuff to look at! Haha! With that done, we decided to go head into what parts of the Expansion were open, and get a good look at some flying elephants!

 

[katt789]

Storybook Circus was our next destination of the night! Mom and I had obviously explored it already, but it was new, and Paige needed to see it! Judging by the look of the line, we figured that Dumbo wouldn’t be that long of a wait, so Paige and I decided to go for a late night flight while Mom opted to go on the “watching” route and hung out while we waited!

With the 2 Dumbo’s and the different, interactive queue, we went through the line, and then were given a buzzer (like the ones you’re given at restaurants) and then directed into the little play area to wait. Now, if we had known that we would have to wait as long as we did in here, and that the play area was really for 12 and under, we probably would have opted out of riding Dumbo, but it was pretty cool to see the inside of everything!

It was really well done, and all Dumbo themed in there, the play area was cute, and if we wouldn’t have gotten in trouble, we definitely would have gone and ran around a bit, but no one wants to get kicked out of Disney!

After about a 15 or so minute wait sitting doing nothing, our buzzer went off, and out into the NEXT line we went!

Dumbo sure is pretty at night!! Yay!! I’ll give the new queue a whole lot of credit, it definitely would be entertaining for kids while they’re waiting, and it gives the parents a little time to sit down and relax in the air conditioning, it would be a nice break for people! Soon enough, Paige and I boarded our elephant, and we were off!

Yay! You all know how Dumbo works, you go up, down, around and around… we tried to get Mom’s attention, but she was definitely watching the OTHER Dumbo instead of the one we were on! Lawl.

When we were done with our flight through the night time sky, Paige and I went over to find Mom and then we decided that we were seriously too tired to do anything else. We hadn’t planned on staying out super late, but it was late enough for us! Mom had a flight to catch the next morning, and I had another WHOLE WEEK of “vacation” ahead of me, so I needed to rest up!

When we got to the end of Main Street, I automatically started heading up the stairs to the train station, Paige and Mom both kinda asked where I was going, and I just told them to follow me. I have a tradition that my trips usually end at the Magic Kingdom on an EMH night, and I love to just hang out at the top of the train station and watch down Main Street, staring down at the castle for a bit before officially saying good bye to Disney World. It’s my thing!

We got some lovely good night photos of everyone, and then headed out of Magic Kingdom, where Mom got another picture of me!

I told Mom EXACTLY what to do the next day, especially if there was not an envelope on her door handle at the hotel when she got home, gave her a big hug, and she went on her way…to the very empty bus stop for Animal Kingdom Lodge. Paige and I then began our trek over to the Art of Animation stop, and joined the huge line. I did make a point to point out the Pop line, which was even longer and moving slower. Ugh. I had prepped for this, so we didn’t really care about anything, I mean, we’d get home eventually.

When we got home, Paige and I stopped at the front desk to check about our room change. This is where we encountered the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Ugh. These women were absolutely screaming at all the resort cast members saying that they were physically shaking and “scarred for life” and crap because the busses were taking too to get back to the resort and they were holding their children and life was ending. The classiest of all was that as they angrily stormed away, they were all “HAVE A MAGICAL DAY MY ***” (I’m well aware half that sentence will be censored when I post it, but whatever! Ha!)

When the housewives stormed off, Paige and I approached the counter hesitantly, and did provide all the information we could that we had seen at the bus stop, especially saying that there were plenty of cast members around the terminal, the women had said there was no one in sight. The CM helping us was an awesome younger guy named Thomas, and he was AWESOME. We explained that we had put in a request for a room change, and they were supposed to have moved us during the day, but we didn’t know where to go. He double checked (and accidentally pulled up my AKL reservation and got all confused for a minute, haha!) our reservation, and then noticed our stuff hadn’t been moved, but they did have a room for us, and it was in building 9! Like we had wanted!

Since he needed to show us the new room, and check if our keys would work, he walked us through the resort to our old room to pick up the luggage and head over to the new room. Along the way we chatted about various things, and he told us some “backstage magic” kinda things, such as all the fact that there are 3 Hidden Jack Skellingtons and 1 Sally in Haunted Mansion! He was such a savoir of a cast member, and we mentioned that the resort CMs were so awesome for dealing with such crude people after the bus “situation” and that we understood, I mean, they have literally NOTHING to do with transportation. Ugh.

FINALLY, we were into our room, a nice room with TWO BEDS! With a quick change over of the keys so they would work, we were changed into pajamas and under the covers, our like a light!

Summary of the Day
Ups:
-Donald and Minnie playing at the character spot
-Perfect Snow White
-Shelley (server) at Tony’s
-Sharing the magic with Paige’s first full day at Disney
-Thomas (resort CM) being super awesome and getting our room changed

Downs:
-Really bad Rapunzel
-Food quality at Tony’s
-Housewives of New Jersey at the hotel

Food of the Day: Fish & Chips from UK, and the FREE Ice cream!!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Oh my, Magic Kingdom at night is just a whole other level of pretty.

AHHH Small World, My Eyes!!!

Oh yeah, I totally love the view from the train station.

OK how did that not get censored?
Real HW of New Jersey, OMG.
I just don't get some people but there are just those that are not happy unless they're making others unhappy.

Thomas sounded awesome though!

OK, now that both TR's are basically just you and Paige, I hope I don't get confused.