You may have already seen the first post on the new blog home...but in case you haven't, I'm moving my Disney blog over to http://www.maryalbright.com/blog. If you get to MaryAlbright.com, click on DisneyBlog and all the posts from this blog are archived there.
So visit me and subscribe over there. This will be the last post on this blog.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
WDW Scavenger Hunt News - Finally!
So with all the excitement last week, I just hadn't had a chance to talk about the fact that FINALLY....D23 announced that tickets for the WDW Scavenger Hunt will be available starting February 24.
I've had this event on my radar since it was announced. Two days to go through all four parks.
It's like the Amazing Race for Disney World!
I feel like that classic Disney commercial - "I can't sleep - I'm too excited!"
The dates have been announced for what seems like for-e-ver. I book a villa at BCV and sat tight because I was not going to book airfare until I know this event was for sure going to happen.
Now that I know it's happening, I'm sitting tight, biting my nails, watching for an airfare sale. I rarely plan last minute trips. Waiting this long to buy airfare gives me the willies. But I'm playing chicken with Delta and we'll see when I flinch.
DD and I will be a team. The boys have their trip to BSA SeaBase in June so I can kinda justify a girls adventure. A little.
I'm a little excited to see if this plays out the way I want it to. I need Tink to send some pixie dust this way!
I've had this event on my radar since it was announced. Two days to go through all four parks.
It's like the Amazing Race for Disney World!
I feel like that classic Disney commercial - "I can't sleep - I'm too excited!"
The dates have been announced for what seems like for-e-ver. I book a villa at BCV and sat tight because I was not going to book airfare until I know this event was for sure going to happen.
Now that I know it's happening, I'm sitting tight, biting my nails, watching for an airfare sale. I rarely plan last minute trips. Waiting this long to buy airfare gives me the willies. But I'm playing chicken with Delta and we'll see when I flinch.
DD and I will be a team. The boys have their trip to BSA SeaBase in June so I can kinda justify a girls adventure. A little.
I'm a little excited to see if this plays out the way I want it to. I need Tink to send some pixie dust this way!
Friday, February 4, 2011
DCL Online Check-In Determines Port Arrival Times
DCL has some new check-in and port arrival time information:
Each arrival time slot has a limited number of spaces. Therefore, Guest should complete their online check-in as soon as possible in order to have access to the largest selection of available arrival times.
•This is not applicable to Concierge and Platinum Guests, who can arrive at any time.
•Guest who purchase Disney Cruise Line Air or Ground Transportation will not need to select a time.
•For Guest with independently purchased air, only times appropriate for their flight arrival time will appear.
If you have already fully completed the online check-in process for an upcoming cruise (prior to these enhancements), any submitted information will be transferred over. However, Guests are encouraged to login and select a Port Arrival time.
Also
New Online Cruise Check-In Process
Enhanced online check-in process for Disney Cruise Line, “My Online Check-In.”
From DCL: You now can look forward to a more intuitive and streamlined input with improved technology that makes it easier and quicker to complete the necessary forms. In addition, a new animated video has been created featuring Goofy, who can help you walk through the process.
Here are some of the enhancements:
• More easily understood, smaller sections to simplify the process.
• Ability to easily enter information for the entire traveling party.
• Ability to enter shared information (such as home address) once and apply to additional members of the traveling party.
• If a Guest has cruised with Disney before some information automatically populates, such as address or passport information, reducing input time.
Guests are given access to “My Online Check-in” as follows:
•Concierge and Platinum Castaway Club: 120 days in advance
•Gold Castaway Club: 105 days in advance
•Silver Castaway Club: 90 days in advance
•First Time Cruiser: 75 days in advance
So...if you want that early arrival time, you need to get online and get yourself checked in as soon as you can.
Each arrival time slot has a limited number of spaces. Therefore, Guest should complete their online check-in as soon as possible in order to have access to the largest selection of available arrival times.
•This is not applicable to Concierge and Platinum Guests, who can arrive at any time.
•Guest who purchase Disney Cruise Line Air or Ground Transportation will not need to select a time.
•For Guest with independently purchased air, only times appropriate for their flight arrival time will appear.
If you have already fully completed the online check-in process for an upcoming cruise (prior to these enhancements), any submitted information will be transferred over. However, Guests are encouraged to login and select a Port Arrival time.
Also
New Online Cruise Check-In Process
Enhanced online check-in process for Disney Cruise Line, “My Online Check-In.”
From DCL: You now can look forward to a more intuitive and streamlined input with improved technology that makes it easier and quicker to complete the necessary forms. In addition, a new animated video has been created featuring Goofy, who can help you walk through the process.
Here are some of the enhancements:
• More easily understood, smaller sections to simplify the process.
• Ability to easily enter information for the entire traveling party.
• Ability to enter shared information (such as home address) once and apply to additional members of the traveling party.
• If a Guest has cruised with Disney before some information automatically populates, such as address or passport information, reducing input time.
Guests are given access to “My Online Check-in” as follows:
•Concierge and Platinum Castaway Club: 120 days in advance
•Gold Castaway Club: 105 days in advance
•Silver Castaway Club: 90 days in advance
•First Time Cruiser: 75 days in advance
So...if you want that early arrival time, you need to get online and get yourself checked in as soon as you can.
Star Wars Weekends Dates Officially Announced!
It's that time again!
From the latest Star Wars Beacon Newsletter:
The official dates for 2011 Star Wars Weekends are:
May 20-22
May 27-29
June 3-5
June 10-12
If you've never been to Star Wars Weekends (and you are a fan), it's a MUST-SEE!
I'm currently torn between doing Destination D the week before opening OR doing a quick weekend in May just for SWW.
Stay tuned! More announcements will be forthcoming!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Mary's Magical Meanderings?
Good grief that doesn't sound very appealing...
I'm thinking that my original title for this blog was just too cutesy and I need something different. Got any ideas?
I'm currently working on maryalbright.com (nothing much there yet, so don't meander over there until there's something worth looking at.) and I might see if I can re-direct this blog over there OR maybe export the content and start with a fresh URL.
I can't just do news all the time...I guess I haven't as my trip reports are interspersed between news and gossip discussion.
So, please comment here, on Facebook or Twitter or even send me an email.
How should I re-brand this blog?
Thanks for your input!
I'm thinking that my original title for this blog was just too cutesy and I need something different. Got any ideas?
I'm currently working on maryalbright.com (nothing much there yet, so don't meander over there until there's something worth looking at.) and I might see if I can re-direct this blog over there OR maybe export the content and start with a fresh URL.
I can't just do news all the time...I guess I haven't as my trip reports are interspersed between news and gossip discussion.
So, please comment here, on Facebook or Twitter or even send me an email.
How should I re-brand this blog?
Thanks for your input!
This Week: The Disney Dream, Fantasyland Updates, Star Wars 2.0 News
Lots of great news came out this week and boy, it's been fun to read! Especially since before a couple of days ago, Minnesota was really living up to its "Great White North" nickname in terms of cold! It's been a bear of a winter this year. We've had a boatload of snow (love it) and some serious Arctic cold for a while (hate it).
Disney Dream Takes Its Maiden Voyage!
Last week, the Dream did a two-day media preview, but this week it left on the "official" Maiden Voyage. So far, I'm seriously impressed with all the stuff I'm seeing. And that's saying something, because I'm not a fan of cruising. I'm sooooo not in love with being stuck on a boat, even though I know there's supposed to be tons to do. And I'm not a sit-by-the-pool-and-read type. I'm a get-in-the-pool-and-swim type and I know that the pools on ships are teeny-tiny.
But I'm digressing...Anyway...I'm really thinking that I could handle a 5-Day Double-Dip on the Dream for next Spring Break. I'd have to get 2 cabins (ouch) because the last cruise we did, my son was all upset to hear his parents snoring! So I'm thinking that I'd get an inside cabin and a verandah cabin across the hall from each other. We'll have to see if I can talk the lone holdout into giving it a shot.
Fantasyland Update
So Disney announced a ton of Fantasyland updates to its current expansion.
I'm all about the food so I was pleased as punch to see a snippet on the Be Our Guest Restaurant that will be in the "mysterious" West Wing of the Beast's Castle. Here's what Disney had to say about it:
Set in the halls of the Beast's Castle, this location will seat up to 550 guests and offer "great food fast" service by day and be full table service in the evening.
Sounds pretty exciting to me! Not your usual fast food, but maybe a step up from that. And I'm just dying to see what the menu looks like!
I'm also very intrigued by the re-imagining of Snow White's Scary Adventures as it becomes the Seven Dwarves Mine Ride. The ride vehicle is supposed to be state-of-the-art and able to swing side to side to the fun music as you visit the mine! Sounds like fun!
Star Wars 2.0 and Star Wars Weekends
Meg Crofton announced that Star Tours will open in 3D on May 20, 2011, which will also be the first Star Wars Weekend of this year.
There are usually four weekends, so if that pattern holds, the following should be the Star Wars Weekends this year:
Disney Dream Takes Its Maiden Voyage!
Last week, the Dream did a two-day media preview, but this week it left on the "official" Maiden Voyage. So far, I'm seriously impressed with all the stuff I'm seeing. And that's saying something, because I'm not a fan of cruising. I'm sooooo not in love with being stuck on a boat, even though I know there's supposed to be tons to do. And I'm not a sit-by-the-pool-and-read type. I'm a get-in-the-pool-and-swim type and I know that the pools on ships are teeny-tiny.
But I'm digressing...Anyway...I'm really thinking that I could handle a 5-Day Double-Dip on the Dream for next Spring Break. I'd have to get 2 cabins (ouch) because the last cruise we did, my son was all upset to hear his parents snoring! So I'm thinking that I'd get an inside cabin and a verandah cabin across the hall from each other. We'll have to see if I can talk the lone holdout into giving it a shot.
Fantasyland Update
So Disney announced a ton of Fantasyland updates to its current expansion.
I'm all about the food so I was pleased as punch to see a snippet on the Be Our Guest Restaurant that will be in the "mysterious" West Wing of the Beast's Castle. Here's what Disney had to say about it:
Set in the halls of the Beast's Castle, this location will seat up to 550 guests and offer "great food fast" service by day and be full table service in the evening.
Sounds pretty exciting to me! Not your usual fast food, but maybe a step up from that. And I'm just dying to see what the menu looks like!
I'm also very intrigued by the re-imagining of Snow White's Scary Adventures as it becomes the Seven Dwarves Mine Ride. The ride vehicle is supposed to be state-of-the-art and able to swing side to side to the fun music as you visit the mine! Sounds like fun!
Star Wars 2.0 and Star Wars Weekends
Meg Crofton announced that Star Tours will open in 3D on May 20, 2011, which will also be the first Star Wars Weekend of this year.
There are usually four weekends, so if that pattern holds, the following should be the Star Wars Weekends this year:
- May 20-22
- May 27-29
- June 3-5
- June 10-12
So, what do you think about all of this?
Monday, January 17, 2011
Disney Marathon, 5K, or Obstacle Course?
So Disney just did the Disney Marathon last weekend at Disney World.
Actually, there were several different races:
Actually, there were several different races:
- Marathon
- Half Marathon
- Marathon Relay
- Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge
- Buzz and Woody's Best Friends 5K
- Mickey's Marathon Kids Fest
Basically, if you want to run, there's something for everybody in this Marathon weekend. And what better venue than running through Disney Parks!
I'm soooooo not a runner. Meaning, I don't run just to run. I need more motivation than that. I can't just run down the road, on a treadmill, around a track. It's boring. Now, if I had to run through Disney World where I could be completely distracted from the fact that I'm running miles and miles because I get to see the parks at the same time...well, I might be open to that.
Disney has several other endurance events during the year.
- The Princess Half Marathon at WDW in February (and the related shorter races)
- The Wine & Dine Half Marathon at WDW in October (and the related shorter races)
- Expedition Everest Challenge at WDW in May
I'm not a fan of E:E at AK. Love the theming; the drop is not my thing. So I almost overlooked that last event there because to me, that sounded like riding E:E over...and over...and over again.
Then I looked a little deeper. Obstacle course? Scavenger Hunt? Through AK? Only 5K (~3 miles)?
Hmmm...that sounds more like my type of thing.
I'm all about obstacle courses and scavenger hunts. Make it interesting! This sounds like a very lite Amazing Race-type thing. (Though can you imagine what a real Amazing Race type thing would be like at WDW! I'd be on top of that in a heartbeat!)
I regularly do 5 miles on the elliptical at the YMCA. I know, I know...it's not that same as running on hard ground.
Dude...don't care. I'm not road racing...I'm racing at WDW!
Plus, if the scavenger hunt is the same concept...the clues you get are totally based on your knowledge of Animal Kingdom. Shouldn't be a problem.
So...I'm seriously thinking about it.
Should I do it? What do you think?
Friday, January 7, 2011
Southwest Revamps Rapid Rewards. More Free Seats or Not?
Southwest had quite the fan following. Many travelers love their operation and they have quite the presence in Orlando. Lots of WDW visitors come in on a Southwest jet. Loyalists are members of the Rapid Rewards program where you earn "credits" toward free flights.
Changes were rumored to be coming and yesterday, Southwest announced the New Rapid Rewards Program effective March 1.
Summing up what's new:
Changes were rumored to be coming and yesterday, Southwest announced the New Rapid Rewards Program effective March 1.
Summing up what's new:
- Now you earn "points" instead of credits for every dollar you spend
- Any seat is available on any plane at any time. No blackouts.
- Points don't expire. Ever.
- The amount of points you earn depends on the number of dollars you spend on your fare.
Lower fares require fewer points.
If you still have credits, don't worry - they are still there and you can still use them.
Want the deets? Check it out.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
A Look Back at Disney 2010
Before I get back to my photo posts, I thought it would be fun to talk about some of the interesting news/happenings with Disney in 2010.
The Art of Animation Resort was announced and is moving along nicely. In fact, some new concept art was just released:
This one is from the Lion King section
The Art of Animation Resort was announced and is moving along nicely. In fact, some new concept art was just released:
This one is from the Lion King section
And we also have Cars, Finding Nemo and Little Mermaid
Expansion was the name of the game this year. Both Disney World and Disneyland worked on expanding different areas of their respective parks.
Disney World started the Fantasyland expansion and re-introduced the Main Street Electrical Parage in Magic Kingdom. We also saw the return of Captain EO to Epcot and the long-awaited Star Wars 2.0 upgrade was announced.
Disneyland launched World of Color and made progress on CarsLand among other things.
DVC made progress on Aulani, its resort in Hawaii. It welcomes its first guest in August 2011.
The long awaited Disney Dream cruise ship was completed and as we speak, is making its way toward Florida for its first voyage.
I had two great trips to Disney in 2010 and enjoyed them both! The private parties in June were fantastic, but Christmas season at Disney World is my absolute favorite.
As we start off 2011, I'm excited for Destination D and the WDW Scavenger Hunt in May and we'll just have to see what happens as the year moves on.
I'm actually going to be moving the blog in January to a new platform and website. Look for more announcements on that in a week or so.
Have a fabulous start to 2011!
Monday, December 27, 2010
Photo Post from our Disney Trip - Part 2
That's right...near midday and what's the wait time for the Jungle Cruise?
and just because I like Christmas and this lamp is just so dang cool...
Hey, let's head to Pirates of the Caribbean. WAIT! Pirate Goofy!
Just for Aunt Mikey...Davy Crockett Donald Duck!
What's the wait for Buzz Lightyear? Yeah, that's 40 minutes. Thank goodness for magic Fastpasses.
Finally! Tomorrowland Terrace is actually open and serving!
and I don't like it, but they even have sushi!
Photo Post from our Disney Trip - Part 1
I'm going to try and post some photos this week from our trip that was right after Thanksgiving. I'll try to keep them succinct so that you aren't scrolling all the live long day.
We did a portrait session. Here's a family shot:
My boys...walking to Adventureland...
Hindu Caitlin...in line for the Magic Carpets of Aladdin.
We did a portrait session. Here's a family shot:
My crazy kids with their Key To The World Cards:
Just getting off the monorail to go to Magic Kingdom. This was around 10:30am the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
It's really not too crowded.
On Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse
The boys getting ready to fly on a magic carpet.
Bryan realizing that, yet again, Stefan will be driving the carpet toward the spitting camel trying to get his dad wet.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Joy To The Small World
I know, I know...I owe you all pictures. There's at least one video as well. Everything is in my photobucket account...I just need to get it organized.
Since we're days away from Christmas, and since you are a part of my small world, I thought I'd totally jump on Disney's theme ~ Joy to the Small World ~ and share a couple of things.
First, you need to watch this video of last year's commercial. I'm pretty sure I posted this last year, but even if I did...it's worth repeating...
Second, this year, you can make this cool video greeting card with the Joy to The Small World theme. The cool part you can create Small World dolls for each person in your family. I did one for mine and posted it to Facebook. If you aren't connected to me on Facebook yet, here's the video greeting card:
If I don't see you or talk to you, in person or in cyberspace, have a Merry Christmas!
Mary
Since we're days away from Christmas, and since you are a part of my small world, I thought I'd totally jump on Disney's theme ~ Joy to the Small World ~ and share a couple of things.
First, you need to watch this video of last year's commercial. I'm pretty sure I posted this last year, but even if I did...it's worth repeating...
Second, this year, you can make this cool video greeting card with the Joy to The Small World theme. The cool part you can create Small World dolls for each person in your family. I did one for mine and posted it to Facebook. If you aren't connected to me on Facebook yet, here's the video greeting card:
If I don't see you or talk to you, in person or in cyberspace, have a Merry Christmas!
Mary
Sunday, December 5, 2010
I have Test Track Hair
December 2.
Oops. I somehow skipped over December 2. Sorry!
This morning, we had some breakfast in the room before heading to Epcot for the morning.
The kids were hot to trot to get on Test Track so we headed there first.
I have to say that there's nothing like walking through Epcot in the morning, with no one else around, while the Christmas music is playing. Priceless.
We got the Future World just before the official rope drop. We got to see the first family to get to ride Test Track get in a Test Track car and ride on over there.
Once the rope dropped we and about 25% of the other people in line headed to Test Track, while the rest of the group headed the other way for Soarin'. More power to 'em.
The wait time said 20 minutes, which we knew was bogus because it just opened up. We walked in, through the prep room and seriously, right onto a vehicle.
Let me tell you, it was a little cold on the loop out there. The kids were all, "woo-hoo" outside and when the vehicle came back in, Stefan said, "Hey. My teeth are cold."
We got off, pondered getting a fast pass, but the CM said it was still like a 5 minute wait. He was right. We rode again. Then we got Fastpasses and headed over to Mission:Space.
Both the green and orange sides were 5 minute waits. That was pretty much the case.
Seriously, go on the orange side. It's the closest experience you'll get to real lift-off. It amazes me every single time.
We got off and headed to do the Mission:Space race. We ended up being Team Orion and were facing a teenage team as Team Triton.
I was about to blow a gasket because our mission support people were not giving us the correct fixes and we couldn't boost as many times in the first half of the game.
Yeah...I'm a little competitive.
Somehow, in the second half, we caught up, and despite my thinking that we were completely out of it, we ended up winning by 2 percentage points. Not sure I'm buying it, but it was still fun.
The Mission:Space store was starting to get lots of TRON stuff! The kids are super excited for it. We got Stefan the TRON warm-up jacket for his birthday to wear for swim meets. It glows in the dark like the light cycle rider suit. It's wicked cool.
After an environmental break, we headed over to Test Track to use our Fast Passes and rode for the third time.
Even though my hair is shorter, I totally had Test Track Hair.
The kids headed for Soarin' and Bryan and I decided to shop. We were on a mission to find a few things that we hadn't found yet.
Cate texted that she and Stefan had detoured to The Sum of All Thrills and were making a custom rollercoaster. So we headed over there to wait for them.
By the time they got out, I was starving and so was Bryan. He wanted to eat around the world. We went ahead to World Showcase and the kids caught up just after Bryan had gotten his Rice Cream from Norway.
Then we stopped at China and the kids had orange chicken and fried rice.
Finally, Cate and I got to stop at Karamel Kuche in Germany. We picked up a chocolate and caramel covered marshmallow skewer (yum!), chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and caramel drizzle (Cate ate this) and a German Chocolate Caramel, which was a caramel mixed with coconut, coated with milk chocolate and drizzled with dark and white chocolate.
Can you say sugar buzz?
I only at the marshmallow thing at that time because I still hadn't eaten a real lunch.
I decided I wanted the shawarma platter at Morocco. Yum. Chicken - good. Hummus - good. Moroccan bread - good. Couscous salad - good.
The boys had meandered off, but they caught up to us at Morocco.
We headed to France. The boys stopped to get a chocolate crepe. I wanted to see if anything in the Boulangerie Patisserie tempted me.
Nothing did. So we headed home.
We had a relaxing afternoon. I tried to register for a conference. (Didn't get in.)
We had dinner in and some extra pool time. All in all...a nice day.
Oops. I somehow skipped over December 2. Sorry!
This morning, we had some breakfast in the room before heading to Epcot for the morning.
The kids were hot to trot to get on Test Track so we headed there first.
I have to say that there's nothing like walking through Epcot in the morning, with no one else around, while the Christmas music is playing. Priceless.
We got the Future World just before the official rope drop. We got to see the first family to get to ride Test Track get in a Test Track car and ride on over there.
Once the rope dropped we and about 25% of the other people in line headed to Test Track, while the rest of the group headed the other way for Soarin'. More power to 'em.
The wait time said 20 minutes, which we knew was bogus because it just opened up. We walked in, through the prep room and seriously, right onto a vehicle.
Let me tell you, it was a little cold on the loop out there. The kids were all, "woo-hoo" outside and when the vehicle came back in, Stefan said, "Hey. My teeth are cold."
We got off, pondered getting a fast pass, but the CM said it was still like a 5 minute wait. He was right. We rode again. Then we got Fastpasses and headed over to Mission:Space.
Both the green and orange sides were 5 minute waits. That was pretty much the case.
Seriously, go on the orange side. It's the closest experience you'll get to real lift-off. It amazes me every single time.
We got off and headed to do the Mission:Space race. We ended up being Team Orion and were facing a teenage team as Team Triton.
I was about to blow a gasket because our mission support people were not giving us the correct fixes and we couldn't boost as many times in the first half of the game.
Yeah...I'm a little competitive.
Somehow, in the second half, we caught up, and despite my thinking that we were completely out of it, we ended up winning by 2 percentage points. Not sure I'm buying it, but it was still fun.
The Mission:Space store was starting to get lots of TRON stuff! The kids are super excited for it. We got Stefan the TRON warm-up jacket for his birthday to wear for swim meets. It glows in the dark like the light cycle rider suit. It's wicked cool.
After an environmental break, we headed over to Test Track to use our Fast Passes and rode for the third time.
Even though my hair is shorter, I totally had Test Track Hair.
The kids headed for Soarin' and Bryan and I decided to shop. We were on a mission to find a few things that we hadn't found yet.
Cate texted that she and Stefan had detoured to The Sum of All Thrills and were making a custom rollercoaster. So we headed over there to wait for them.
By the time they got out, I was starving and so was Bryan. He wanted to eat around the world. We went ahead to World Showcase and the kids caught up just after Bryan had gotten his Rice Cream from Norway.
Then we stopped at China and the kids had orange chicken and fried rice.
Finally, Cate and I got to stop at Karamel Kuche in Germany. We picked up a chocolate and caramel covered marshmallow skewer (yum!), chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and caramel drizzle (Cate ate this) and a German Chocolate Caramel, which was a caramel mixed with coconut, coated with milk chocolate and drizzled with dark and white chocolate.
Can you say sugar buzz?
I only at the marshmallow thing at that time because I still hadn't eaten a real lunch.
I decided I wanted the shawarma platter at Morocco. Yum. Chicken - good. Hummus - good. Moroccan bread - good. Couscous salad - good.
The boys had meandered off, but they caught up to us at Morocco.
We headed to France. The boys stopped to get a chocolate crepe. I wanted to see if anything in the Boulangerie Patisserie tempted me.
Nothing did. So we headed home.
We had a relaxing afternoon. I tried to register for a conference. (Didn't get in.)
We had dinner in and some extra pool time. All in all...a nice day.
My Brush With Fame & Our Last Full Day
Friday, December 3.
Well, we'd made it to the last full day of the week. Usually, we plan on using that last day to be a catch-up day. It's the opportunity to do any attractions we had missed during the week or to catch our favorites one last time.
I sent Bryan and the kids off to Animal Kingdom - they wanted to hit Kilimanjaro Safaris.
I was on my own this morning and this was a good thing. I finally had worked out a time to meet with Lou Mongello of WDW Radio.
If you haven't caught Lou's show, you need to boogie on over to WDW Radio and listen. He does a weekly show and it's pretty darn good. You'll see...lots of awards, lots of followers and lots of fun.
Lou had a meet at Epcot at 9am so we decided to connect for coffee afterward.
He texted, "Let's meet on the Epcot side of the fountain."
I texted back, "Can do. For reference, I've got a periwinkle jacket on."
I got a little grief from him..."Periwinkle? Guys don't know what color periwinkle is."
We found a bench, in the sun (as it was cool that morning), under the monorail and had a nice business chat.
The bonus: Lou only had two fans stop by during our chat. Seriously, I'm surprised it was only two times. Hence, my brush with fame.
I'm bummed that I missed out on attending the 200th show shindig that's happening today, December 5. It sounds like a lot of fun and it's a live show at Ariel's at the Beach Club to boot! Attending (or hosting) an event there is on my bucket list.
Why was I meeting with Lou? Well, send me an email. I'm not ready to put this out in open forum.
Stefan had texted me and asked where I was...there was on their way back from AK. It was almost lunch time so we decided to head to Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel at Downtown Disney for lunch. I met them at the front of the Beach Club and we headed out.
Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel are in the building that formerly was McDonald's at DTD. Pollo Campero has some pretty famous chicken and different side dishes. Fresh A-Peel makes fresh salads, wraps, burgers and hot dogs.
Caitlin and Stefan each got the 2 piece meal from Pollo Campero. Cate got the white meat and Stefan got the dark meat. It came with your choice of side. Stefan ordered french fries and Cate ordered black beans and rice. Bryan chose the 1/4 Citrus Grilled Chicken and got the Sweet Baked Plantains as his side dish.
I went over to Fresh A-Peel originally thinking burger, but I changed my mind and ordered the Citrus Grilled Chicken Chopped Salad as a wrap. It came with chopped lettuce, roasted corn, black beans and a pineapple vinaigrette. I passed on the red peppers. It was also freakin' huge. Think 6" Subway-sized.
My grade: Yumatrocious! Fabulous flavor. Definitely a must-do again for me.
While I didn't get specific reviews from the rest of the family, the "ums" , "yums" and quickly emptied plates are indications that their Pollo Campero food was more than passable.
Stefan wanted to hit the Lego store so we went through there on the way to World of Disney.
I have to say I was a little surprised at how busy it was on a Friday at noon. Maybe because it was a Friday is why it was so busy. But it sure felt like a Saturday or something with all the people there.
After we browsed through World of Disney, we went over to Basin so Cate could get her annual tube of bath bombs. As she was looking around, I tried out the salt scrub samples. Big mistake. That stuff made my hands so smooth...now I really want some. But even though it was a huge jar, I was not ready to pay $30 for it. We'll have to leave that one on the wish list.
After Basin, we decided to head home for one last swim. The kids and Bryan headed down to the pool while I foolishly allowed myself to get distracted with all the Disney Social Media Moms Conference chatter. The short summary is they didn't accept me as an attendee. If you want the long story, email me.
I headed down to the pool and swam a few laps in the "doughnut" - the lazy river part of Stormalong Bay. Against the current. Which was hard, by the way. But I was trying to work some of my frustrations out.
You know how sometimes you just know that chocolate will make you feel a little better? I was hoping swimming my butt off, against the current, would get rid of some of that lingering adrenaline that was coursing through my veins.
Since I didn't have chocolate, and I was so not in the mood to make spaghetti, I asked Bryan to see if he could find out if there was any prayer of getting into Cape May for dinner.
This was at 4:30pm and Cape May opens at 5pm.
Bryan came back and there were no ressies available, but he was going to stand in the check-in line and see if he could get us a walk-up ressie. I ushered the kids out of the pool and back to the room to get changed, just in case.
Stefan changed first and headed to the lobby with Bryan's clothes so he could change. Cate and I arrived shortly thereafter to find that Bryan had gotten us in and we already had a beeper-thingie.
A few minutes after 5pm, our beeper-thingie went off and we were seated.
Seriously, folks, if you've never been to Cape May Cafe for dinner, give it a try. Not only do they have all you can eat crab legs, but the rest of their buffet offerings are just yummy.
Here's just a few of the things I had myself:
Baby Red Potatoes
Mashed Potatoes
Corn on the Cob
Steamed Cabbage
Beef Tips in a spicy sauce
Multi-Grain Rolls and butter
Roast Beef
Pork Tenderloin
Tomato and Mozzarella Salad - I had to visit this one twice
Citrus Chicken Orzo Salad - I had to visit this one twice AND I'm searching out the recipe. Freakin' good!
Fresh fruit
The kids, my teenagers, love the fact that you get crayons and can draw on the paper that's on your table. Hey, whatever makes you happy, kiddo.
There happens to be a lot of choices for dessert here. I had an Oreo BonBon and a Key Lime Tart. But there were also mini cheesecakes, caramel flan, brownies, cookies, mini cupcakes and more.
For someone staying at the Beach Club, this is uber-convenient. It's also a pretty popular place. I don't like it. I shouldn't be telling you how good it is because then it will be even harder for us to get into!
We were thinking of heading to MGM to take in the Osbourne Family Lights, but alas, the full-tummy-sleepies were kicking in and I hadn't even started packing yet.
So we headed back to the room and watched The Polar Express.
After the kids went to bed, Bryan and I started packing up.
Bad news: We did too much shopping. So much so that we couldn't fit everything in the bags we had brought with us.
After researching the options, it was most cost-effective to hit the UPS Store on the way to the airport and ship the rest of the stuff home.
We had one really large Disney bag full of stuff and a medium sized bag of stuff to ship home. I didn't ask Bryan how much it weighed at the end, but I'm guessing we shipped home 20lbs or so of stuff.
Good gravy train.
Well, that's all for the text version of this report for now. I'll do a series of photo posts so you can put pictures with the stories you've already read.
Well, we'd made it to the last full day of the week. Usually, we plan on using that last day to be a catch-up day. It's the opportunity to do any attractions we had missed during the week or to catch our favorites one last time.
I sent Bryan and the kids off to Animal Kingdom - they wanted to hit Kilimanjaro Safaris.
I was on my own this morning and this was a good thing. I finally had worked out a time to meet with Lou Mongello of WDW Radio.
If you haven't caught Lou's show, you need to boogie on over to WDW Radio and listen. He does a weekly show and it's pretty darn good. You'll see...lots of awards, lots of followers and lots of fun.
Lou had a meet at Epcot at 9am so we decided to connect for coffee afterward.
He texted, "Let's meet on the Epcot side of the fountain."
I texted back, "Can do. For reference, I've got a periwinkle jacket on."
I got a little grief from him..."Periwinkle? Guys don't know what color periwinkle is."
We found a bench, in the sun (as it was cool that morning), under the monorail and had a nice business chat.
The bonus: Lou only had two fans stop by during our chat. Seriously, I'm surprised it was only two times. Hence, my brush with fame.
I'm bummed that I missed out on attending the 200th show shindig that's happening today, December 5. It sounds like a lot of fun and it's a live show at Ariel's at the Beach Club to boot! Attending (or hosting) an event there is on my bucket list.
Why was I meeting with Lou? Well, send me an email. I'm not ready to put this out in open forum.
Stefan had texted me and asked where I was...there was on their way back from AK. It was almost lunch time so we decided to head to Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel at Downtown Disney for lunch. I met them at the front of the Beach Club and we headed out.
Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel are in the building that formerly was McDonald's at DTD. Pollo Campero has some pretty famous chicken and different side dishes. Fresh A-Peel makes fresh salads, wraps, burgers and hot dogs.
Caitlin and Stefan each got the 2 piece meal from Pollo Campero. Cate got the white meat and Stefan got the dark meat. It came with your choice of side. Stefan ordered french fries and Cate ordered black beans and rice. Bryan chose the 1/4 Citrus Grilled Chicken and got the Sweet Baked Plantains as his side dish.
I went over to Fresh A-Peel originally thinking burger, but I changed my mind and ordered the Citrus Grilled Chicken Chopped Salad as a wrap. It came with chopped lettuce, roasted corn, black beans and a pineapple vinaigrette. I passed on the red peppers. It was also freakin' huge. Think 6" Subway-sized.
My grade: Yumatrocious! Fabulous flavor. Definitely a must-do again for me.
While I didn't get specific reviews from the rest of the family, the "ums" , "yums" and quickly emptied plates are indications that their Pollo Campero food was more than passable.
Stefan wanted to hit the Lego store so we went through there on the way to World of Disney.
I have to say I was a little surprised at how busy it was on a Friday at noon. Maybe because it was a Friday is why it was so busy. But it sure felt like a Saturday or something with all the people there.
After we browsed through World of Disney, we went over to Basin so Cate could get her annual tube of bath bombs. As she was looking around, I tried out the salt scrub samples. Big mistake. That stuff made my hands so smooth...now I really want some. But even though it was a huge jar, I was not ready to pay $30 for it. We'll have to leave that one on the wish list.
After Basin, we decided to head home for one last swim. The kids and Bryan headed down to the pool while I foolishly allowed myself to get distracted with all the Disney Social Media Moms Conference chatter. The short summary is they didn't accept me as an attendee. If you want the long story, email me.
I headed down to the pool and swam a few laps in the "doughnut" - the lazy river part of Stormalong Bay. Against the current. Which was hard, by the way. But I was trying to work some of my frustrations out.
You know how sometimes you just know that chocolate will make you feel a little better? I was hoping swimming my butt off, against the current, would get rid of some of that lingering adrenaline that was coursing through my veins.
Since I didn't have chocolate, and I was so not in the mood to make spaghetti, I asked Bryan to see if he could find out if there was any prayer of getting into Cape May for dinner.
This was at 4:30pm and Cape May opens at 5pm.
Bryan came back and there were no ressies available, but he was going to stand in the check-in line and see if he could get us a walk-up ressie. I ushered the kids out of the pool and back to the room to get changed, just in case.
Stefan changed first and headed to the lobby with Bryan's clothes so he could change. Cate and I arrived shortly thereafter to find that Bryan had gotten us in and we already had a beeper-thingie.
A few minutes after 5pm, our beeper-thingie went off and we were seated.
Seriously, folks, if you've never been to Cape May Cafe for dinner, give it a try. Not only do they have all you can eat crab legs, but the rest of their buffet offerings are just yummy.
Here's just a few of the things I had myself:
Baby Red Potatoes
Mashed Potatoes
Corn on the Cob
Steamed Cabbage
Beef Tips in a spicy sauce
Multi-Grain Rolls and butter
Roast Beef
Pork Tenderloin
Tomato and Mozzarella Salad - I had to visit this one twice
Citrus Chicken Orzo Salad - I had to visit this one twice AND I'm searching out the recipe. Freakin' good!
Fresh fruit
The kids, my teenagers, love the fact that you get crayons and can draw on the paper that's on your table. Hey, whatever makes you happy, kiddo.
There happens to be a lot of choices for dessert here. I had an Oreo BonBon and a Key Lime Tart. But there were also mini cheesecakes, caramel flan, brownies, cookies, mini cupcakes and more.
For someone staying at the Beach Club, this is uber-convenient. It's also a pretty popular place. I don't like it. I shouldn't be telling you how good it is because then it will be even harder for us to get into!
We were thinking of heading to MGM to take in the Osbourne Family Lights, but alas, the full-tummy-sleepies were kicking in and I hadn't even started packing yet.
So we headed back to the room and watched The Polar Express.
After the kids went to bed, Bryan and I started packing up.
Bad news: We did too much shopping. So much so that we couldn't fit everything in the bags we had brought with us.
After researching the options, it was most cost-effective to hit the UPS Store on the way to the airport and ship the rest of the stuff home.
We had one really large Disney bag full of stuff and a medium sized bag of stuff to ship home. I didn't ask Bryan how much it weighed at the end, but I'm guessing we shipped home 20lbs or so of stuff.
Good gravy train.
Well, that's all for the text version of this report for now. I'll do a series of photo posts so you can put pictures with the stories you've already read.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Dec 1 - Dining with an Imagineer
Yep, that's right we had lunch with a real Imagineer!!!!!!
I'm on a break right now so I'm getting caught up from yesterday.
I had scoped out dining with an Imagineer a while back. They don't have these opportunities very often. As we found out during our lunch, it really depends on the availability of the Imagineers. They try to have it once a week for lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby at MGM. They also have a dinner at Flying Fish on the Boardwalk, but that's really hit or miss. It's maybe once or twice a month. I would have loved to have done the Flying Fish thing because we've never eaten there, but hey, any opportunity was great.
We headed to MGM for the morning, thinking we'd take in the park for a couple of hours before lunch. We got up, drove that super long drive to MGM (like 2 minutes), parked in the front row and walked to the park entrance.
We and hundreds of our new closest friends waiting to make the fast walk to Toy Story Midway Mania at rope drop...only to find that the ride was down for "technical difficulties" and no one had any idea when it would be back up.
They weren't even going to start a queue. We waited for 10 minutes and decided to move onward. Bryan wanted to do the Animation Academy. Stefan had zero interest in doing that so he headed to Rockin' Roller Coaster and was going to ride that until we showed up there.
Bryan, Cate and I walked over to the Animation Academy area and got in the holding area to wait for the first class at 9:30am. Meanwhile, Stefan texted me to say that RNR was down with "technical difficulties." I felt bad for the people who didn't have Park Hoppers. Toy Story down. RNR down. Star Tours under refurb. That's three main attractions out of commission.
Anywho...we got in to the class and the animator was so nice...she let the class pick which character we'd like. We were in a class with a lot of repeat classmates so trying to find a character that everyone hadn't drawn was a challenge for our animator. We ended up drawing Dale.
After the class, we texted Stefan to find out where he was. It turns out RNR was running again, but he was stuck on it. More technical difficulties.
Cate joined up with Stefan while Bryan and I shopped a bit. Then we decided to check and see if Toy Story was up yet. It was and it had a 50 minute wait. No thanks. We decided to go see Voyage of the Little Mermaid since we hadn't done that for a real long time. Very enjoyable show.
We still had a little time before lunch so we checked out Pin Central.
Then Chip & Dale came out and Bryan thought it would be cool if Dale signed his picture. So we got in line for that. By the time we were done, it was time to check in at the Brown Derby.
There were a total of 10 of us at this dining experience. We were seated in the exclusive Bamboo Room inside the Brown Derby. It was a beautiful room off the side of the restaurant. There we met our Imagineer, Dan Flynn.
Dan was a great Imagineer to have for this event. He was very engaging and willing to talk about details (that were public knowledge, of course.) which was completely fun.
Our lunch started with the manager taking a group photo, like she always does for all diners in the Bamboo Room.
Our server handed out our personalized menus and took our drink orders.
We all had the same Lobster & Mussel Soup and the famous Brown Derby Cobb Salad.
For the main dish, we had the choice of an Oak Grilled Filet of Beef, Thai Chicken Noodle Bowl or Blackened Grouper.
For dessert, we could choose from the famous Grapefruit Cake or Chocolate Creme Brulee.
Bryan, Stefan and I chose the filet. Caitlin had the noodle bowl, which was gigantic, by the way!
Cate & I had the Grapefruit Cake. We both thought it was a good blend of sweet and puckery.
Bryan & Stefan had the creme brulee. I didn't really ask them about it, but both dishes were scraped pretty clean so I'm pretty sure it was yummy!
Back to our Imagineer...Dan is in show development. That means if it's not a ride vehicle or the building the vehicle houses, he's involved. I got the impression that it involves all those thematic pieces that gives us the Disney "magic."
Right now, he's working on the new resort in Hawaii, Aulani. He was telling us about this one effect that's in the lobby that they were currently constructing that is a series of bowls in the stream. Each bowl has a fountain. Inside each fountain is an LED light. But it's been designed so that at night, it doesn't just light up, it looks like the bowls are on fire. How wicked cool is that?
He also told us about how they've taken great pains to make this resort reflect the Hawaiian culture. That Hawaiian comes before Disney.
I asked him about what he thought was a cool aspect of the resort that he's been involved in. He told us about the "Hawaiian Adventure" game that they are constructing around the resort. He described it as a next generation Kim Possible game. Woo-hoo! Love that game!
Anyway, they are going to use wireless technology for it. Dan said, "Think iPad, but smaller" in terms of the handset you'll use to play the game. And it's going to be smart tech. Your game will be tied to your room key so you'll never play the same elements twice. So if you are in room 123, and you check-in to the game with that room number, you'll always have new stuff to find.
I also asked Dan about the Star Tours refurb and what he knew about it. Since he's not on that project right now, he didn't have anything new to say. But what he did have to say rocked my world.
At one point, he was part of that project. He was out in LA and got to experience a "draft" of the ride in one of their simulators. I say "draft" because Dan said he only got to experience the visuals. There was no audio whatsoever - that's how early in the process this was. Keep in mind that this is going to be 3D.
Dan said that he was blown away by what he experienced...WITH NO SOUND. He knew the programmer and asked if the guy would set him up once more.
Here's another juicy tidbit...the programmer said that that was the first draft ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) sent over and that they were embarrassed by it. Embarrassed by it!
Oh my gosh...if that was ILM's draft, and they were embarrassed by it, and the Imagineer said he was blown away by the draft with no sound...
Can you freakin' imagine how cool Star Tours 2.0 is going to be? I get a sugar rush thinking about it.
I commented that I had read that there were something like 53 different permutations one could experience on the new Star Tours. Dan replied, "Something like that."
Stefan asked him if there was a Tron ride coming to Magic Kingdom. Dan replied, "I don't know." in a pretty monotone tone of voice. Hmmmm...was he messing with us? Who knows?
At the end of the meal, we were each presented with a commemorative plate that Dan had signed and dated for each of us. Way cool!
I loved this experience. My only thoughts on improvement would be to make it even smaller. A group of 10 was really too many. We were at a long table and it felt awkward making conversation. It also was rather lengthy. Our ADR was for 11:30am and we didn't leave until shortly after 2pm.
We had to scoot because I had made Photopass portrait reservations for 2:30pm at the Beach Club. We still needed to change and get there on time!
Thankfully, we made it. Our photographer was a peach to work with and very accommodating with the shots I asked for. We got the DVC discount and just got everything put on CD. I'll share some pics later.
We had a relaxing rest of the afternoon. After dinner, we headed over to Fantasia Gardens for some mini golf. The sun had gone down and it was a little brisk, but we had a good time.
Coming up: December 2!
I'm on a break right now so I'm getting caught up from yesterday.
I had scoped out dining with an Imagineer a while back. They don't have these opportunities very often. As we found out during our lunch, it really depends on the availability of the Imagineers. They try to have it once a week for lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby at MGM. They also have a dinner at Flying Fish on the Boardwalk, but that's really hit or miss. It's maybe once or twice a month. I would have loved to have done the Flying Fish thing because we've never eaten there, but hey, any opportunity was great.
We headed to MGM for the morning, thinking we'd take in the park for a couple of hours before lunch. We got up, drove that super long drive to MGM (like 2 minutes), parked in the front row and walked to the park entrance.
We and hundreds of our new closest friends waiting to make the fast walk to Toy Story Midway Mania at rope drop...only to find that the ride was down for "technical difficulties" and no one had any idea when it would be back up.
They weren't even going to start a queue. We waited for 10 minutes and decided to move onward. Bryan wanted to do the Animation Academy. Stefan had zero interest in doing that so he headed to Rockin' Roller Coaster and was going to ride that until we showed up there.
Bryan, Cate and I walked over to the Animation Academy area and got in the holding area to wait for the first class at 9:30am. Meanwhile, Stefan texted me to say that RNR was down with "technical difficulties." I felt bad for the people who didn't have Park Hoppers. Toy Story down. RNR down. Star Tours under refurb. That's three main attractions out of commission.
Anywho...we got in to the class and the animator was so nice...she let the class pick which character we'd like. We were in a class with a lot of repeat classmates so trying to find a character that everyone hadn't drawn was a challenge for our animator. We ended up drawing Dale.
After the class, we texted Stefan to find out where he was. It turns out RNR was running again, but he was stuck on it. More technical difficulties.
Cate joined up with Stefan while Bryan and I shopped a bit. Then we decided to check and see if Toy Story was up yet. It was and it had a 50 minute wait. No thanks. We decided to go see Voyage of the Little Mermaid since we hadn't done that for a real long time. Very enjoyable show.
We still had a little time before lunch so we checked out Pin Central.
Then Chip & Dale came out and Bryan thought it would be cool if Dale signed his picture. So we got in line for that. By the time we were done, it was time to check in at the Brown Derby.
There were a total of 10 of us at this dining experience. We were seated in the exclusive Bamboo Room inside the Brown Derby. It was a beautiful room off the side of the restaurant. There we met our Imagineer, Dan Flynn.
Dan was a great Imagineer to have for this event. He was very engaging and willing to talk about details (that were public knowledge, of course.) which was completely fun.
Our lunch started with the manager taking a group photo, like she always does for all diners in the Bamboo Room.
Our server handed out our personalized menus and took our drink orders.
We all had the same Lobster & Mussel Soup and the famous Brown Derby Cobb Salad.
For the main dish, we had the choice of an Oak Grilled Filet of Beef, Thai Chicken Noodle Bowl or Blackened Grouper.
For dessert, we could choose from the famous Grapefruit Cake or Chocolate Creme Brulee.
Bryan, Stefan and I chose the filet. Caitlin had the noodle bowl, which was gigantic, by the way!
Cate & I had the Grapefruit Cake. We both thought it was a good blend of sweet and puckery.
Bryan & Stefan had the creme brulee. I didn't really ask them about it, but both dishes were scraped pretty clean so I'm pretty sure it was yummy!
Back to our Imagineer...Dan is in show development. That means if it's not a ride vehicle or the building the vehicle houses, he's involved. I got the impression that it involves all those thematic pieces that gives us the Disney "magic."
Right now, he's working on the new resort in Hawaii, Aulani. He was telling us about this one effect that's in the lobby that they were currently constructing that is a series of bowls in the stream. Each bowl has a fountain. Inside each fountain is an LED light. But it's been designed so that at night, it doesn't just light up, it looks like the bowls are on fire. How wicked cool is that?
He also told us about how they've taken great pains to make this resort reflect the Hawaiian culture. That Hawaiian comes before Disney.
I asked him about what he thought was a cool aspect of the resort that he's been involved in. He told us about the "Hawaiian Adventure" game that they are constructing around the resort. He described it as a next generation Kim Possible game. Woo-hoo! Love that game!
Anyway, they are going to use wireless technology for it. Dan said, "Think iPad, but smaller" in terms of the handset you'll use to play the game. And it's going to be smart tech. Your game will be tied to your room key so you'll never play the same elements twice. So if you are in room 123, and you check-in to the game with that room number, you'll always have new stuff to find.
I also asked Dan about the Star Tours refurb and what he knew about it. Since he's not on that project right now, he didn't have anything new to say. But what he did have to say rocked my world.
At one point, he was part of that project. He was out in LA and got to experience a "draft" of the ride in one of their simulators. I say "draft" because Dan said he only got to experience the visuals. There was no audio whatsoever - that's how early in the process this was. Keep in mind that this is going to be 3D.
Dan said that he was blown away by what he experienced...WITH NO SOUND. He knew the programmer and asked if the guy would set him up once more.
Here's another juicy tidbit...the programmer said that that was the first draft ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) sent over and that they were embarrassed by it. Embarrassed by it!
Oh my gosh...if that was ILM's draft, and they were embarrassed by it, and the Imagineer said he was blown away by the draft with no sound...
Can you freakin' imagine how cool Star Tours 2.0 is going to be? I get a sugar rush thinking about it.
I commented that I had read that there were something like 53 different permutations one could experience on the new Star Tours. Dan replied, "Something like that."
Stefan asked him if there was a Tron ride coming to Magic Kingdom. Dan replied, "I don't know." in a pretty monotone tone of voice. Hmmmm...was he messing with us? Who knows?
At the end of the meal, we were each presented with a commemorative plate that Dan had signed and dated for each of us. Way cool!
I loved this experience. My only thoughts on improvement would be to make it even smaller. A group of 10 was really too many. We were at a long table and it felt awkward making conversation. It also was rather lengthy. Our ADR was for 11:30am and we didn't leave until shortly after 2pm.
We had to scoot because I had made Photopass portrait reservations for 2:30pm at the Beach Club. We still needed to change and get there on time!
Thankfully, we made it. Our photographer was a peach to work with and very accommodating with the shots I asked for. We got the DVC discount and just got everything put on CD. I'll share some pics later.
We had a relaxing rest of the afternoon. After dinner, we headed over to Fantasia Gardens for some mini golf. The sun had gone down and it was a little brisk, but we had a good time.
Coming up: December 2!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tues. Nov. 30 ~ Lazy Day
Tues. Nov. 30
We had very few firm plans for today. Which was fine because yesterday was long. My feet and legs were still a little sore when I got up this morning.
Bryan headed out to SuperTarget to pick up a few more groceries...but that was the cover reason for going out to pick up The Sorcerer's Apprentice that came out on DVD today.
After breakfast, the kids decided to go swimming. We headed to the quiet pool since Stormalong Bay didn't open until 10am. We were the only ones in the pool. There's something cool about watching your kids race to be the first to get Dad's watch from the bottom of the pool. The simplest things entertain my kids.
It got to be 10am and we headed for SAB, though Bryan decided to stay at Dune's Cove for that hot tub. The kids and I played around for a bit, but I wanted to head back and make some cookies with my new edible pixie dust. :-) Sugar cookie dough was on Bryan's shopping list this morning so I made that.
They came back to some cookies with their lunch. We watched the opening gambit of the Sorcerer's Apprentice and then decided to head to MGM Studios.
Whew. Long drive. (FYI...it's like a 5 minute drive if you hit the lights right. I'm not kidding.)
We decided to use our last set of magic Fastpasses from our volunteering since we were arriving after midday. We headed to Will Call and got those taken care of.
And off we went to Toy Story Midway Mania. Thanks goodness for the instant Fastpasses. Regular FPs were gone for the day and the stand-by line was 70 minutes. (Insert smilie pulling its hair out.)
After that, the boys decided they'd go to the Great Movie Ride and us girls went to the Magic of Animation show. Very cool show that was about 15 minutes long. After that, you can meet two sets of characters or head to Animation Academy to learn from a real animator. Score!
Cate loves to draw and I knew she would love this class. For 25 minutes, we had an animator walk us through drawing a character. This class was doing Tigger. It was very cool, very fun and highly entertaining. We got to bring out drawings home, signed and all!
We met up with the boys at Rock N Roller Coaster so Cate could go with them. They used a magic fastpass, but really didn't need to. Wait time was posted as 20 minutes...Bryan said it was virtual walk on. When I walked by Tower of Terror, it was only 5 minutes. This was like at 2pm in the afternoon. Crazy.
I headed to the shops on Sunset Blvd. I'm on a mission to find what all is part of this "Nerds Rock" line that Disney is carrying. It has Minnie and Mickey with glasses on and lots of quotes like, "Nerds Rock", "Party with the Smarty" and Cate just loves them! So far, I'm only seeing some shirts, eyeglasses case, wallet and pajamas. I'm hoping for a notepad. But so far, no luck.
We all met up one more time and hit Toy Story again with another magic fastpass. Bryan and Cate wanted to go to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show. I went with them and Stefan went back to RNR. Stef rode RNR four times using the single rider line while we were in the show.
Then we headed home. We were all bushed. We had reservations for Garden Grill but I just did not want to walk anymore today. We settled for burgers from Hurricane Hannah's in the room while finished the Sorcerer's Apprentice.
I might head down to the hot tub to soak my feet and legs, but that's about as far as I'm planning on going tonight.
Tomorrow is loosely structured. We're doing the Lunch with an Imagineer and then we have a Photopass Portrait session in the afternoon. I'm really hoping that the rain has moved out before our photo session as I'd like to do a few outside shots.
We had very few firm plans for today. Which was fine because yesterday was long. My feet and legs were still a little sore when I got up this morning.
Bryan headed out to SuperTarget to pick up a few more groceries...but that was the cover reason for going out to pick up The Sorcerer's Apprentice that came out on DVD today.
After breakfast, the kids decided to go swimming. We headed to the quiet pool since Stormalong Bay didn't open until 10am. We were the only ones in the pool. There's something cool about watching your kids race to be the first to get Dad's watch from the bottom of the pool. The simplest things entertain my kids.
It got to be 10am and we headed for SAB, though Bryan decided to stay at Dune's Cove for that hot tub. The kids and I played around for a bit, but I wanted to head back and make some cookies with my new edible pixie dust. :-) Sugar cookie dough was on Bryan's shopping list this morning so I made that.
They came back to some cookies with their lunch. We watched the opening gambit of the Sorcerer's Apprentice and then decided to head to MGM Studios.
Whew. Long drive. (FYI...it's like a 5 minute drive if you hit the lights right. I'm not kidding.)
We decided to use our last set of magic Fastpasses from our volunteering since we were arriving after midday. We headed to Will Call and got those taken care of.
And off we went to Toy Story Midway Mania. Thanks goodness for the instant Fastpasses. Regular FPs were gone for the day and the stand-by line was 70 minutes. (Insert smilie pulling its hair out.)
After that, the boys decided they'd go to the Great Movie Ride and us girls went to the Magic of Animation show. Very cool show that was about 15 minutes long. After that, you can meet two sets of characters or head to Animation Academy to learn from a real animator. Score!
Cate loves to draw and I knew she would love this class. For 25 minutes, we had an animator walk us through drawing a character. This class was doing Tigger. It was very cool, very fun and highly entertaining. We got to bring out drawings home, signed and all!
We met up with the boys at Rock N Roller Coaster so Cate could go with them. They used a magic fastpass, but really didn't need to. Wait time was posted as 20 minutes...Bryan said it was virtual walk on. When I walked by Tower of Terror, it was only 5 minutes. This was like at 2pm in the afternoon. Crazy.
I headed to the shops on Sunset Blvd. I'm on a mission to find what all is part of this "Nerds Rock" line that Disney is carrying. It has Minnie and Mickey with glasses on and lots of quotes like, "Nerds Rock", "Party with the Smarty" and Cate just loves them! So far, I'm only seeing some shirts, eyeglasses case, wallet and pajamas. I'm hoping for a notepad. But so far, no luck.
We all met up one more time and hit Toy Story again with another magic fastpass. Bryan and Cate wanted to go to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show. I went with them and Stefan went back to RNR. Stef rode RNR four times using the single rider line while we were in the show.
Then we headed home. We were all bushed. We had reservations for Garden Grill but I just did not want to walk anymore today. We settled for burgers from Hurricane Hannah's in the room while finished the Sorcerer's Apprentice.
I might head down to the hot tub to soak my feet and legs, but that's about as far as I'm planning on going tonight.
Tomorrow is loosely structured. We're doing the Lunch with an Imagineer and then we have a Photopass Portrait session in the afternoon. I'm really hoping that the rain has moved out before our photo session as I'd like to do a few outside shots.
Mon. Nov. 29 ~ It was Magical!
Mon. Nov. 29
Today was our morning to have our traditional breakfast at Crystal Palace before the park opens. I always make a reservation at 8:05am so we can eat, see characters and be out of there before the rest of the park opens.
We've got this one down to a science:
Everyone is up at 7am
We leave the room at 7:15am.
Get in the car and drive to Magic Kingdom.
Park in the first row and walk to the monorail.
Funny thing happened this time. We were wearing matching shirts today - the painted Mickeys I had made for a past trip. As we were walking to the monorail, Cate was just plain wound up. I asked her if she was a little excited. Her response, "Of course, I'm excited. It's Crystal Palace Day." Of course, it was more funny because she was hopping along while talking. A Cast Member saw us and decided to play along. He said to Cate, "Ma'am this is the Magic Kingdom. We don't allow that kind of excitement before 8am here." It was classic.
Anywho...rode the resort monorail around to MK and it was 7:45am. They were already letting people through the turnstiles so we walked right in I have to say, there's nothing like walking down Main Street with all the Christmas decorations and like only 20 other people in your field of vision. Wicked cool.
Bryan checked us in at CP. I took some pics of the kids with the castle as a backdrop and then we were called in. We were actually the first family to be sat on the left half of the restaurant.
Food is always good here. We saw Piglet and Tigger, but didn't wait for Pooh and Eeyore so we paid for our meal and meandered off.
At this time, it was around 8:30am and still very empty in MK. Remember, official opening isn't until 9am and the only people inside the park are those with breakfast ressies.
Since we never really have time to see Walt and Mickey at the hub (because it's always so crowded), we took the time to do that. I never had noticed the smaller statues of eight other characters that surround the hub either. The benefits of it not being wall to wall people and being able to take in those details. I took a few pics of the kids by the poinsettia trees and Cate took a pic of Bryan and me. We also got to see the old time fire engine drive by. Very cool!
We always head for Frontierland, so I thought for a change of pace, we'd head to Tomorrowland instead. We took the roundabout way through the Rose Garden. I think I'd only walked through there one time before. Again, it was so nice to be able to do it when it was so quiet.
Tomorrowland was roped off so we just hung out there. I took a couple of pics of an empty Tomorrowland. We decided we'd get Fastpasses for Buzz, ride Buzz and then the other three would hit Space Mountain before we all did Buzz again.
Well those plans got pitched because as the Cast Members walked up to the rope, we were asked if we'd like to be the first family to ride Buzz Lightyear! Heck, yea!
So they motioned us under the rope and took us, and only us, through Tomorrowland and over to Buzz. We got on Buzz and rode by ourselves completely! At the end, they gave us souvenir ride photos, which we have never done on that ride. Very cool!
We went over and got Fastpasses for Buzz. The kids headed for Space and I suggested that Bryan and I shop. Well I ended up shopping by myself at the Merchant of Venus for a bit and I had five Cast Members falling all over themselves, asking if I needed help. Seriously, that needs to happen everywhere!
I found a few things that I put on my must-have list before Cate texted me wondering where I was. What was funny is that each of us, at that moment, was waiting for the male member of our party to get out of the bathroom. Talk about weird synchronization.
Anywho...we headed over to the Mad Tea Party and spun around before going to Philharmagic, which was fabulous as always!
Bryan has always wanted to head back to Tom Sawyer's Island so he and the kids headed over there and I went back to the ye Olde Christmas Shoppe and made some acquisitions. My favorite so far: Edible Pixie Dust aka Mickey Head Christmas Cookie Sprinkles!
I love my family, but it was nice to shop unencumbered or worrying about who was antsy to leave or what.
I wandered through Adventureland's shops and then came upon the Golden Goose of character meet and greets for Bryan - Ariel. And not just any Ariel...this was Ariel in her blue dress, which is not easy to find. I texted him about it and then headed down Main Street.
Did a little more browsing and identifying things for my own personal wish list while listening to a great acapella group singing Christmas carols on Main Street. Love. It.
By that time, it was approaching noon and we were bushed and ready to head home. Except for Bryan. He was still in line to meet Ariel. I took the kids home and Bryan came back on the bus.
We had some leftovers and then hit the pool. Great pool day. Temp was around 80 degrees and it was mostly sunny. Fun times.
Cate, Bryan and I made Mickey Tye-Dye T-shirts at the pool activities table. They're being washed right now. I'm a little disappointed in mine...not very distinctive ears. But we'll see what the others look like.
We came back and got cleaned up because we had another dining experience waiting for us. I made a reservation for the new La Hacienda de San Angel, the new table-service place in Mexico in Epcot that's right on the lakeside.
We walked around and got checked in. Nice open restaurant and very well themed. We were shown to a half circle booth facing the water. I had scoped out the menu earlier and we had decided to get both the mixed grill items that were for 2 people each so we could sample a lot of stuff.
I was a little leery because I don't do onions and I didn't want to be picking onions out of my food. No worries. The food was fabulous. Amazingly yummy. It had a bit of a kick, but it wasn't a four-alarm fire or anything.
It had been a long day and we were pretty bushed. Stefan headed home, but Cate and I thought we'd hit the Karamel Kuche in Germany for a dessert.
Didn't happen. We got distracted saving the world, a la Kim Possible style, got tired and headed home.
Bryan, meanwhile, made a stop and saw Mexican Donald before heading home, too.
All in all, a very fun day.
Today was our morning to have our traditional breakfast at Crystal Palace before the park opens. I always make a reservation at 8:05am so we can eat, see characters and be out of there before the rest of the park opens.
We've got this one down to a science:
Everyone is up at 7am
We leave the room at 7:15am.
Get in the car and drive to Magic Kingdom.
Park in the first row and walk to the monorail.
Funny thing happened this time. We were wearing matching shirts today - the painted Mickeys I had made for a past trip. As we were walking to the monorail, Cate was just plain wound up. I asked her if she was a little excited. Her response, "Of course, I'm excited. It's Crystal Palace Day." Of course, it was more funny because she was hopping along while talking. A Cast Member saw us and decided to play along. He said to Cate, "Ma'am this is the Magic Kingdom. We don't allow that kind of excitement before 8am here." It was classic.
Anywho...rode the resort monorail around to MK and it was 7:45am. They were already letting people through the turnstiles so we walked right in I have to say, there's nothing like walking down Main Street with all the Christmas decorations and like only 20 other people in your field of vision. Wicked cool.
Bryan checked us in at CP. I took some pics of the kids with the castle as a backdrop and then we were called in. We were actually the first family to be sat on the left half of the restaurant.
Food is always good here. We saw Piglet and Tigger, but didn't wait for Pooh and Eeyore so we paid for our meal and meandered off.
At this time, it was around 8:30am and still very empty in MK. Remember, official opening isn't until 9am and the only people inside the park are those with breakfast ressies.
Since we never really have time to see Walt and Mickey at the hub (because it's always so crowded), we took the time to do that. I never had noticed the smaller statues of eight other characters that surround the hub either. The benefits of it not being wall to wall people and being able to take in those details. I took a few pics of the kids by the poinsettia trees and Cate took a pic of Bryan and me. We also got to see the old time fire engine drive by. Very cool!
We always head for Frontierland, so I thought for a change of pace, we'd head to Tomorrowland instead. We took the roundabout way through the Rose Garden. I think I'd only walked through there one time before. Again, it was so nice to be able to do it when it was so quiet.
Tomorrowland was roped off so we just hung out there. I took a couple of pics of an empty Tomorrowland. We decided we'd get Fastpasses for Buzz, ride Buzz and then the other three would hit Space Mountain before we all did Buzz again.
Well those plans got pitched because as the Cast Members walked up to the rope, we were asked if we'd like to be the first family to ride Buzz Lightyear! Heck, yea!
So they motioned us under the rope and took us, and only us, through Tomorrowland and over to Buzz. We got on Buzz and rode by ourselves completely! At the end, they gave us souvenir ride photos, which we have never done on that ride. Very cool!
We went over and got Fastpasses for Buzz. The kids headed for Space and I suggested that Bryan and I shop. Well I ended up shopping by myself at the Merchant of Venus for a bit and I had five Cast Members falling all over themselves, asking if I needed help. Seriously, that needs to happen everywhere!
I found a few things that I put on my must-have list before Cate texted me wondering where I was. What was funny is that each of us, at that moment, was waiting for the male member of our party to get out of the bathroom. Talk about weird synchronization.
Anywho...we headed over to the Mad Tea Party and spun around before going to Philharmagic, which was fabulous as always!
Bryan has always wanted to head back to Tom Sawyer's Island so he and the kids headed over there and I went back to the ye Olde Christmas Shoppe and made some acquisitions. My favorite so far: Edible Pixie Dust aka Mickey Head Christmas Cookie Sprinkles!
I love my family, but it was nice to shop unencumbered or worrying about who was antsy to leave or what.
I wandered through Adventureland's shops and then came upon the Golden Goose of character meet and greets for Bryan - Ariel. And not just any Ariel...this was Ariel in her blue dress, which is not easy to find. I texted him about it and then headed down Main Street.
Did a little more browsing and identifying things for my own personal wish list while listening to a great acapella group singing Christmas carols on Main Street. Love. It.
By that time, it was approaching noon and we were bushed and ready to head home. Except for Bryan. He was still in line to meet Ariel. I took the kids home and Bryan came back on the bus.
We had some leftovers and then hit the pool. Great pool day. Temp was around 80 degrees and it was mostly sunny. Fun times.
Cate, Bryan and I made Mickey Tye-Dye T-shirts at the pool activities table. They're being washed right now. I'm a little disappointed in mine...not very distinctive ears. But we'll see what the others look like.
We came back and got cleaned up because we had another dining experience waiting for us. I made a reservation for the new La Hacienda de San Angel, the new table-service place in Mexico in Epcot that's right on the lakeside.
We walked around and got checked in. Nice open restaurant and very well themed. We were shown to a half circle booth facing the water. I had scoped out the menu earlier and we had decided to get both the mixed grill items that were for 2 people each so we could sample a lot of stuff.
I was a little leery because I don't do onions and I didn't want to be picking onions out of my food. No worries. The food was fabulous. Amazingly yummy. It had a bit of a kick, but it wasn't a four-alarm fire or anything.
It had been a long day and we were pretty bushed. Stefan headed home, but Cate and I thought we'd hit the Karamel Kuche in Germany for a dessert.
Didn't happen. We got distracted saving the world, a la Kim Possible style, got tired and headed home.
Bryan, meanwhile, made a stop and saw Mexican Donald before heading home, too.
All in all, a very fun day.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Sun. Nov. 28 - Animal Kingdom and More
Sun. Nov. 28
I have to say, it's a great vacation when you don't "have" to get up early every single day. It's been nice to not feel rushed.
We got up and I made pancakes for breakfast today. No one had any other preference, so we headed to Animal Kingdom.
We got there about 9:15am and headed for Dinoland. We love Primeval Whirl and figured that just about everyone else heads for Everest or Kilimanjaro Safaris. We waiting maybe 5 minutes before getting on PW. Seriously fun. We were going to do it again, but by the time we exited, the line was too long. Ok, too long that I didn't want to wait in it. It said it was only 10 minutes, but this one looked way more than 10 minutes long to me. PW is a slow loader, too. But I digress...
Stefan needed his first Mickey head ice cream of the day. He got his treat, which Cate & I did some quality control on. :-)
Cate & Bryan wanted to do Dinosaur; Stefan and I had zero interest in that so we decided to walk to Asia in preparation for Kali River Rapids.
Once Bryan and Cate caught up, the kids and I divested all out stuff on to Bryan and headed to Kali.
Thank goodness we gave him all our stuff. We've ridden Kali many, many times and we've gotten wet. We don't mind being wet at all, but this was a colossal soaking! The wettest we've ever gotten. I think our ridemates were a little appalled at how wet we were. Thank goodness is was warmer today than it was on Saturday.
Cate wanted to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek, so we meandered through there. Nice easy walk.
Stefan was hungry again when we got out of there. Seriously...I'm not kidding when I say this kid has a hollow leg. He got the side order of chicken fried rice from Yak & Yeti. He thought it was a little dry, but ate the whole thing.
He wanted to get on the safari, but it was a 60 minute wait by that time and we didn't want to wait an hour for a Fastpass return time so we headed out of the park.
Once we got back, we had leftovers for lunch. That's a bonus thing for cooking in the room - leftovers!
We're having turkey dinner tonight so we needed to get that in the oven. We got one of those dinners from SuperTarget. Basically, cook from frozen without babysitting.
We headed for the pool and spent a good, long, enjoyable time just fooling around. It was never crowded. Stefan actually volunteered to help herd a mama duck and her ducklings out of the pool area, but it wasn't working too well. At least he did his Boy Scout good deed for the day.
Bryan decided the kids needed ice cream so he went over to Beaches & Cream and got Stefan a cone and Cate a hot fudge sundae.
Once we got back to the room, I started a load of laundry and then Bryan and I headed for Downtown Disney. That place was crazy busy. But we were target shopping/browsing. We headed to Mickey's Pantry to check out the Spice & Tea Exchange. Wicked cool place. If you like to cook, you'll love what this place has to offer.
We popped in to the Christmas store, but it was just too busy for browsing so we left. I wanted to stop by the new Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel and see what it looked like. Pretty cool place. We didn't eat there, but I stopped into the little corner that is Babycakes.
Babycakes makes gluten free treats and uses agave sugar in its frostings. I bought two chocolate cupcake tops with chocolate frosting, a banana bread cupcake with chocolate frosting and a frosting shot. Yes, that's right - a frosting shot. What a great idea!
I'm sorry to say that I'm not a fan of Babycakes. The flavor just was not right and while agave is natural, it just tasted artificial to me. My kids didn't like it either and that's saying something. Sorry, Babycakes.
Back at home, we had the turkey dinner and right now, I'm so stuffed I can barely see straight. I'm going to pull up a piece of couch and watch some TV for a while. Stefan says he wants to head to MGM...I just don't think I can make it tonight. Though walking off some of this turkey is probably a good thing. We'll see how it goes.
One final thought for today...that I should have included in the post for yesterday...you know it's a great vacation when your teenage daughter randomly says to you while walking through Epcot, "Mom, I'm so happy. I don't know why, but I'm so happy."
Checkmark in the Awesome column for me.
I have to say, it's a great vacation when you don't "have" to get up early every single day. It's been nice to not feel rushed.
We got up and I made pancakes for breakfast today. No one had any other preference, so we headed to Animal Kingdom.
We got there about 9:15am and headed for Dinoland. We love Primeval Whirl and figured that just about everyone else heads for Everest or Kilimanjaro Safaris. We waiting maybe 5 minutes before getting on PW. Seriously fun. We were going to do it again, but by the time we exited, the line was too long. Ok, too long that I didn't want to wait in it. It said it was only 10 minutes, but this one looked way more than 10 minutes long to me. PW is a slow loader, too. But I digress...
Stefan needed his first Mickey head ice cream of the day. He got his treat, which Cate & I did some quality control on. :-)
Cate & Bryan wanted to do Dinosaur; Stefan and I had zero interest in that so we decided to walk to Asia in preparation for Kali River Rapids.
Once Bryan and Cate caught up, the kids and I divested all out stuff on to Bryan and headed to Kali.
Thank goodness we gave him all our stuff. We've ridden Kali many, many times and we've gotten wet. We don't mind being wet at all, but this was a colossal soaking! The wettest we've ever gotten. I think our ridemates were a little appalled at how wet we were. Thank goodness is was warmer today than it was on Saturday.
Cate wanted to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek, so we meandered through there. Nice easy walk.
Stefan was hungry again when we got out of there. Seriously...I'm not kidding when I say this kid has a hollow leg. He got the side order of chicken fried rice from Yak & Yeti. He thought it was a little dry, but ate the whole thing.
He wanted to get on the safari, but it was a 60 minute wait by that time and we didn't want to wait an hour for a Fastpass return time so we headed out of the park.
Once we got back, we had leftovers for lunch. That's a bonus thing for cooking in the room - leftovers!
We're having turkey dinner tonight so we needed to get that in the oven. We got one of those dinners from SuperTarget. Basically, cook from frozen without babysitting.
We headed for the pool and spent a good, long, enjoyable time just fooling around. It was never crowded. Stefan actually volunteered to help herd a mama duck and her ducklings out of the pool area, but it wasn't working too well. At least he did his Boy Scout good deed for the day.
Bryan decided the kids needed ice cream so he went over to Beaches & Cream and got Stefan a cone and Cate a hot fudge sundae.
Once we got back to the room, I started a load of laundry and then Bryan and I headed for Downtown Disney. That place was crazy busy. But we were target shopping/browsing. We headed to Mickey's Pantry to check out the Spice & Tea Exchange. Wicked cool place. If you like to cook, you'll love what this place has to offer.
We popped in to the Christmas store, but it was just too busy for browsing so we left. I wanted to stop by the new Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel and see what it looked like. Pretty cool place. We didn't eat there, but I stopped into the little corner that is Babycakes.
Babycakes makes gluten free treats and uses agave sugar in its frostings. I bought two chocolate cupcake tops with chocolate frosting, a banana bread cupcake with chocolate frosting and a frosting shot. Yes, that's right - a frosting shot. What a great idea!
I'm sorry to say that I'm not a fan of Babycakes. The flavor just was not right and while agave is natural, it just tasted artificial to me. My kids didn't like it either and that's saying something. Sorry, Babycakes.
Back at home, we had the turkey dinner and right now, I'm so stuffed I can barely see straight. I'm going to pull up a piece of couch and watch some TV for a while. Stefan says he wants to head to MGM...I just don't think I can make it tonight. Though walking off some of this turkey is probably a good thing. We'll see how it goes.
One final thought for today...that I should have included in the post for yesterday...you know it's a great vacation when your teenage daughter randomly says to you while walking through Epcot, "Mom, I'm so happy. I don't know why, but I'm so happy."
Checkmark in the Awesome column for me.
Nov. 27 - Welcome to Magic Kingdom
Sat. Nov. 27
I've never been a park commando. I just don't like scheduling every single second of a day. I am one to make plans, but this is probably the loosest set of vacation plans I've ever had.
We got up and the kids watched a little TV over a breakfast of cinnamon streusel muffins. Stefan asked where we were going to go today. We had no firm plans, but I'd scoped out predictions and found that Magic Kingdom was a good day.
That's right. Magic Kingdom. On a Saturday. The Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.
We didn't leave the room to be there at rope drop and I thought that might be a problem. As we drove to MK and saw the sheer number of cars pulling into the parking lot, I started to wonder a little bit more.
After we got off the tram, we headed to Will Call because I figured that just in case it was crazy, we could use one of our Give A Day, Get a Day Fastpass Cards here. Just to review: These cards give you 6 Fastpasses on your choice of major attractions within your choice of park on one day.
After getting the FP cards, we headed to the monorail station. The Express Monorail line was really backed up, but no one was waiting for the Resort Monorail. We hopped the line and got on the Resort Monorail as it had just pulled in to the station.
After entering Magic Kingdom, we walked down a pretty busy Main Street. For the first time visitor, you might have looked at those crowds and thought, "I'm toast. There's no way I'm getting on any rides today."
I could not believe the number of things we did... without the Fastpasses.
For the first 60-90 minutes...everything was a walk-on. I'm not kidding!
Bryan and the kids wanted to do Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Once they walked off, we had to have the traditional ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpets so that Stefan could try and get Bryan wet from the spitting camel. He was successful, by the way.
The kids and I walked right on to the Jungle Cruise. Sara, our skipper, was a freakin' hoot!
Bryan joined back up with us and we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. Whoa! Pirate Goofy was out so we had to jump in line to meet him.
Both side of POTC were open, but everyone else was walking onto the left hand side. We walked through the right hand side and, you guessed it, walked right on to the next boat.
We headed to Frontierland to hit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR). The wait time said 20 minutes. I looked at how fast people were walking in and I did not want to use a FP...I totally thought it wouldn't be a wait. The kids wanted to, and since we had 6 FPs, we used one.
That was a total waste! We walked in, joined back into the line and walked right into an empty spot to await the next train to arrive. It was not anywhere close to a 20 minute wait.
Stefan had the munchies when we were done; he was in search for his favorite Mickey head ice cream bar. We mosied in the direction of Liberty Square. Bryan decided he needed a funnel cake. He and kids headed to Sleepy Hollow and I wandered over the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe.
Lots of fun new stuff in the Christmas shop; I'll be back on Monday to make some actual purchases.
For all our luck in no lines for attractions, we waiting the lonnnnnggggest time for that darn funnel cake. I'm not kidding. I think we waiting 10 minutes and that was after I rejoined Bryan and the kids.
By that time, everyone was getting a little more hungry than snacks could cover. We decided we'd do Philharmagic, Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain before heading home.
Philharmagic, oddly enough, had a weird waiting line and seemed rather long. We decided to ditch it and do it on another day.
Another odd factoid: The Fastpass machines for The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh are near the Philharmagic Stand By Entrance. I'm sure it has to do with the Fantasyland construction, but that was just plain weird to me to have the FP machines so far from that ride.
We headed over to Tomorrowland. Buzz had a listed wait time of 30 minutes. Fastpass! By the way, those GADGAD Fastpass cards give you instant Fastpasses. No waiting! We got right on.
Bryan and the kids headed over to Space Mountain (Mary does not do Space.) and I decided to do the TTA, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, or Wedway People Mover. I did a short video, which I'll upload to YouTube and link here in a later blog post.
Once I was done, I decided to take advantage of not having my tribe with me and I'd do a little shopping on Main Street. I texted Caitlin where I was going and headed in that direction.
I cut through Tomorrowland Terrace and it was open! It seems like this place is never open and I was glad to see it!
It's sporting a different menu - not just Asian food, but a smorgasbord of stuff, including sushi.
I shopped for a bit before the tribe caught up with me. At that point, the natives were restless for some food so we headed back to BCV and made hot ham and cheese sandwiches.
After lunch, it was time to hit the pool!
It was a bit of a cold day today so the pool was a bit empty. Bryan camped out in the hot tub and the kids and I swam about a little. But we were the star family of the day at the poolside games that afternoon. That means we were the participatory ones that weren't afraid to make fools of themselves in a t-shirt relay and pool deck dancing. Seriously, though, I think the lifeguards and recreation staff were glad to have participants. They wanted to make sure we'd be back for the campfire and the movie under the stars, which was Toy Story 3.
We headed back to the room and had a little down time before making chicken stir fry for dinner.
After dinner, we were a little antsy, so we headed to the Beach Club lobby and checked out the gingerbreak carousel. There are 11 hidden Mickeys within the structure. So far, I've only found 9. We'll take a crack at it again.
We headed outside and Cate decided to go pearl diving. She got a beautiful blue pearl and decided to get a silver ring for it. Good grief, they suck you in with the jewelry part...but she doesn't ask for much so when she sees something she really gets into, you kinda have to jump on it.
The movie didn't start until 8pm so we decided to walk over to Epcot and waste a little time. That's the nice thing about the Beach Club Villas...great location.
The kids wanted to head to Test Track so Bryan and I headed to MouseGears. It turns out TT had a pretty long wait and the kids didn't want to do single rider so we headed back to the World Showcase.
Bryan needed coffee so we stopped in one of those gift shops and got the Disney Holiday Cheer. We'll see if he likes it tomorrow. He's finishing up the coffee in the room today.
We caught up to the kids in Norway and it was around 7:30pm. We figured we better hoof it back so they could get to the movie on time. We had a brief stop in Germany - Bryan to the Christmas Brewmaster's stall and Cate and I to Karmel Kuchen. Stefan wanted to head off to Japan.
Karmel Kuchen was packed! We walked through so we could look at the diabetic-inducing goodies and wow! We're going to stop here on another day when it's not packed.
Cate & I headed out toward Japan. Good grief, was it crowded. Hello...it's opening weekend for Candlelight Processional, knucklehead. What were you thinking?
Bryan caught up with us in Japan, we picked up Stefan and headed home. The kids lasted a little bit, but got tired and came back to the room. We vegged until it was bedtime.
Tomorrow: Sun. Nov. 28 - Animal Kingdom
I've never been a park commando. I just don't like scheduling every single second of a day. I am one to make plans, but this is probably the loosest set of vacation plans I've ever had.
We got up and the kids watched a little TV over a breakfast of cinnamon streusel muffins. Stefan asked where we were going to go today. We had no firm plans, but I'd scoped out predictions and found that Magic Kingdom was a good day.
That's right. Magic Kingdom. On a Saturday. The Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.
We didn't leave the room to be there at rope drop and I thought that might be a problem. As we drove to MK and saw the sheer number of cars pulling into the parking lot, I started to wonder a little bit more.
After we got off the tram, we headed to Will Call because I figured that just in case it was crazy, we could use one of our Give A Day, Get a Day Fastpass Cards here. Just to review: These cards give you 6 Fastpasses on your choice of major attractions within your choice of park on one day.
After getting the FP cards, we headed to the monorail station. The Express Monorail line was really backed up, but no one was waiting for the Resort Monorail. We hopped the line and got on the Resort Monorail as it had just pulled in to the station.
After entering Magic Kingdom, we walked down a pretty busy Main Street. For the first time visitor, you might have looked at those crowds and thought, "I'm toast. There's no way I'm getting on any rides today."
I could not believe the number of things we did... without the Fastpasses.
For the first 60-90 minutes...everything was a walk-on. I'm not kidding!
Bryan and the kids wanted to do Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Once they walked off, we had to have the traditional ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpets so that Stefan could try and get Bryan wet from the spitting camel. He was successful, by the way.
The kids and I walked right on to the Jungle Cruise. Sara, our skipper, was a freakin' hoot!
Bryan joined back up with us and we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. Whoa! Pirate Goofy was out so we had to jump in line to meet him.
Both side of POTC were open, but everyone else was walking onto the left hand side. We walked through the right hand side and, you guessed it, walked right on to the next boat.
We headed to Frontierland to hit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR). The wait time said 20 minutes. I looked at how fast people were walking in and I did not want to use a FP...I totally thought it wouldn't be a wait. The kids wanted to, and since we had 6 FPs, we used one.
That was a total waste! We walked in, joined back into the line and walked right into an empty spot to await the next train to arrive. It was not anywhere close to a 20 minute wait.
Stefan had the munchies when we were done; he was in search for his favorite Mickey head ice cream bar. We mosied in the direction of Liberty Square. Bryan decided he needed a funnel cake. He and kids headed to Sleepy Hollow and I wandered over the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe.
Lots of fun new stuff in the Christmas shop; I'll be back on Monday to make some actual purchases.
For all our luck in no lines for attractions, we waiting the lonnnnnggggest time for that darn funnel cake. I'm not kidding. I think we waiting 10 minutes and that was after I rejoined Bryan and the kids.
By that time, everyone was getting a little more hungry than snacks could cover. We decided we'd do Philharmagic, Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain before heading home.
Philharmagic, oddly enough, had a weird waiting line and seemed rather long. We decided to ditch it and do it on another day.
Another odd factoid: The Fastpass machines for The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh are near the Philharmagic Stand By Entrance. I'm sure it has to do with the Fantasyland construction, but that was just plain weird to me to have the FP machines so far from that ride.
We headed over to Tomorrowland. Buzz had a listed wait time of 30 minutes. Fastpass! By the way, those GADGAD Fastpass cards give you instant Fastpasses. No waiting! We got right on.
Bryan and the kids headed over to Space Mountain (Mary does not do Space.) and I decided to do the TTA, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, or Wedway People Mover. I did a short video, which I'll upload to YouTube and link here in a later blog post.
Once I was done, I decided to take advantage of not having my tribe with me and I'd do a little shopping on Main Street. I texted Caitlin where I was going and headed in that direction.
I cut through Tomorrowland Terrace and it was open! It seems like this place is never open and I was glad to see it!
It's sporting a different menu - not just Asian food, but a smorgasbord of stuff, including sushi.
I shopped for a bit before the tribe caught up with me. At that point, the natives were restless for some food so we headed back to BCV and made hot ham and cheese sandwiches.
After lunch, it was time to hit the pool!
It was a bit of a cold day today so the pool was a bit empty. Bryan camped out in the hot tub and the kids and I swam about a little. But we were the star family of the day at the poolside games that afternoon. That means we were the participatory ones that weren't afraid to make fools of themselves in a t-shirt relay and pool deck dancing. Seriously, though, I think the lifeguards and recreation staff were glad to have participants. They wanted to make sure we'd be back for the campfire and the movie under the stars, which was Toy Story 3.
We headed back to the room and had a little down time before making chicken stir fry for dinner.
After dinner, we were a little antsy, so we headed to the Beach Club lobby and checked out the gingerbreak carousel. There are 11 hidden Mickeys within the structure. So far, I've only found 9. We'll take a crack at it again.
We headed outside and Cate decided to go pearl diving. She got a beautiful blue pearl and decided to get a silver ring for it. Good grief, they suck you in with the jewelry part...but she doesn't ask for much so when she sees something she really gets into, you kinda have to jump on it.
The movie didn't start until 8pm so we decided to walk over to Epcot and waste a little time. That's the nice thing about the Beach Club Villas...great location.
The kids wanted to head to Test Track so Bryan and I headed to MouseGears. It turns out TT had a pretty long wait and the kids didn't want to do single rider so we headed back to the World Showcase.
Bryan needed coffee so we stopped in one of those gift shops and got the Disney Holiday Cheer. We'll see if he likes it tomorrow. He's finishing up the coffee in the room today.
We caught up to the kids in Norway and it was around 7:30pm. We figured we better hoof it back so they could get to the movie on time. We had a brief stop in Germany - Bryan to the Christmas Brewmaster's stall and Cate and I to Karmel Kuchen. Stefan wanted to head off to Japan.
Karmel Kuchen was packed! We walked through so we could look at the diabetic-inducing goodies and wow! We're going to stop here on another day when it's not packed.
Cate & I headed out toward Japan. Good grief, was it crowded. Hello...it's opening weekend for Candlelight Processional, knucklehead. What were you thinking?
Bryan caught up with us in Japan, we picked up Stefan and headed home. The kids lasted a little bit, but got tired and came back to the room. We vegged until it was bedtime.
Tomorrow: Sun. Nov. 28 - Animal Kingdom
Saturday, November 27, 2010
We're Here at Disney World!
Here we go! My attempt at blogging from The World!
Cast of Characters:
Mary ~ The planner
Bryan ~ My DH (aka the 3rd child)
Stefan, 14
Caitlin, 14
November 26 - Arrival Day
Grandma Z picked us up at 7:30am and we headed to MSP for our 10am flight. The airport was not busy, at all. I'm seriously think that Black Friday is the day to fly.
I checked a bag this time around because I was bringing a Pampered Chef pan and a good knife to leave in my Owner's Locker. Since it's free to check a bag as a Delta Amex holder, I figured I'd just do that because people would need to eat and I could wait for the bag while they ate.
I've been traveling carry-on for years now...Oh.My.Gosh...it was murder waiting for that bag to come out! Seriously...I could have been half way to WDW by the time the bag showed up. Thank goodness this was a one-time bag checking.
Once we got the bag, we headed over to National Car Rental. I'm an Executive Emerald Aisle member so we got to choose from both sides of the EA. Lots of Suburbans, Expeditions and other larger SUVs. However, we already knew that we needed a Gibbs car. For those of you who aren't NCIS fans, that means we were looking for a Dodge Charger.
We had black, steel grey, silver and white to choose from. Took the black one!
Exited with no problem, as usual, and went on our way.
Our plan was to stop at the SuperTarget on Orange Blossom Trail to get groceries for the week. This time around, I made a menu for each day, added in the 3 ADRs we're doing, and planned meals for everything else.
We even got one of the Small Turkey Dinners from their deli...except they were out of the small turkey breast. So they gave us the 12Lb turkey but only charged us for the Small Dinner. Great customer service!
Had a small hiccup at checkout...my credit card wasn't working. I used another method of payment, but was fuming because I had just used this card and it wasn't for Black Friday! It was one of those afternoons. We got out of the store and it's raining. Everyone else loaded up the car in the rain while I'm going through the calling tree at the credit card co. It turns out that they put a hold on it because I hadn't called them to tell them I was in FL and they were concerned that someone had stolen my number. Yet another good case of customer service in that they were looking out for me, the customer. So now I know I need to call them when I travel with this specific card.
We made it to BCV and checked in quickly. We're in room 452 which is way at the end of the hallway that's perpendicular to the main BCV hallway.
Nice quiet location. But a bear to have to haul all the groceries to. Should we have gotten a bell cart? Absolutely. My arms are still a little sore from hauling everything to the room. I'm not kidding.
We didn't hit a park on Friday. I made sloppy joe's for dinner and man, did that hit the spot! We lounged in the room for the night, with the exception of Cate and I hitting Dune's Cove for a swim and hot tub soaking.
Next up: Saturday morning at Magic Kingdom .
Cast of Characters:
Mary ~ The planner
Bryan ~ My DH (aka the 3rd child)
Stefan, 14
Caitlin, 14
November 26 - Arrival Day
Grandma Z picked us up at 7:30am and we headed to MSP for our 10am flight. The airport was not busy, at all. I'm seriously think that Black Friday is the day to fly.
I checked a bag this time around because I was bringing a Pampered Chef pan and a good knife to leave in my Owner's Locker. Since it's free to check a bag as a Delta Amex holder, I figured I'd just do that because people would need to eat and I could wait for the bag while they ate.
I've been traveling carry-on for years now...Oh.My.Gosh...it was murder waiting for that bag to come out! Seriously...I could have been half way to WDW by the time the bag showed up. Thank goodness this was a one-time bag checking.
Once we got the bag, we headed over to National Car Rental. I'm an Executive Emerald Aisle member so we got to choose from both sides of the EA. Lots of Suburbans, Expeditions and other larger SUVs. However, we already knew that we needed a Gibbs car. For those of you who aren't NCIS fans, that means we were looking for a Dodge Charger.
We had black, steel grey, silver and white to choose from. Took the black one!
Exited with no problem, as usual, and went on our way.
Our plan was to stop at the SuperTarget on Orange Blossom Trail to get groceries for the week. This time around, I made a menu for each day, added in the 3 ADRs we're doing, and planned meals for everything else.
We even got one of the Small Turkey Dinners from their deli...except they were out of the small turkey breast. So they gave us the 12Lb turkey but only charged us for the Small Dinner. Great customer service!
Had a small hiccup at checkout...my credit card wasn't working. I used another method of payment, but was fuming because I had just used this card and it wasn't for Black Friday! It was one of those afternoons. We got out of the store and it's raining. Everyone else loaded up the car in the rain while I'm going through the calling tree at the credit card co. It turns out that they put a hold on it because I hadn't called them to tell them I was in FL and they were concerned that someone had stolen my number. Yet another good case of customer service in that they were looking out for me, the customer. So now I know I need to call them when I travel with this specific card.
We made it to BCV and checked in quickly. We're in room 452 which is way at the end of the hallway that's perpendicular to the main BCV hallway.
Nice quiet location. But a bear to have to haul all the groceries to. Should we have gotten a bell cart? Absolutely. My arms are still a little sore from hauling everything to the room. I'm not kidding.
We didn't hit a park on Friday. I made sloppy joe's for dinner and man, did that hit the spot! We lounged in the room for the night, with the exception of Cate and I hitting Dune's Cove for a swim and hot tub soaking.
Next up: Saturday morning at Magic Kingdom .
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