Whew... That's a big 'Tato Head! 10 Amazing Days in May '14! **That's a wrap! 10-1**

[AprilRenee]

All that and the part I'm latching on to is: you got to see the baby giraffe at the zoo right after it was born???? How awesome is that!!
I just discovered the "antelope house" where you can go inside and see the inside giraffe cages and it's pretty much my new favorite part of the whole zoo!

 

[Adgie128]

I just caught up with your entire trip report. Looks like such a fun trip! I'm following along and waiting for more.

Is this your first W&D coming up? You're going to love it. Such an amazing weekend. Cannot wait for November!!

 

[anniebabymu]

fun safari! we got pretty close to that cute little baby giraffe too, but not that close! awesome pictures! I always forget how much I like doing the safari.

The Safari is fun! We love the Zoo... but to see them in their "natural" habitat is pretty cool.

how awesome that you got a surprise DISmeet on the bus! great way to start your day!

It was pretty cool! She recognized the girls shirts I had made first and then realized it was me!

I think our girls were destined to hang out--i'm pretty sure Madison needs some sort of IV for continuous food supplies and Hannah ALWAYS has to go to the bathroom "RIGHT NOW, I CANT WAIT!" i'm sure I was never that way as a child....

Aren't girls just so dramatic. If I don't get food RIGHT NOW, I'm going to DIE!!!

How werid they would not let the ADR people in, I've never seen that.

Neither had I! When Melody said they weren't letting dining people in "because it was so close to park opening time" (it was still like 10 minutes away!) I couldn't believe it! I'd be ticked!

Looks like a great safari! The morning ones really are the best! What a nice dismeet.

We had only been on one other Safari and it was towards the afternoon... so this morning one was most definitely awesome!

All that and the part I'm latching on to is: you got to see the baby giraffe at the zoo right after it was born???? How awesome is that!!
I just discovered the "antelope house" where you can go inside and see the inside giraffe cages and it's pretty much my new favorite part of the whole zoo!

It was soooooo awesome! It was back in 2008 when Addie was a baby... June 14th to be exact (it was mom and dad's anniversary!). We had just happened to go over towards the giraffes, not knowing anything was going on. There was a crowd of people around them, so we managed to get in there where we could see and we literally got over there 5 minutes after it was born! We stayed for about an hour waiting for the little baby to stand for the first time! He was soooooo close! So cute watching it wobble and fall down. Definitely a cool experience! I didn't realize they'd let the mom deliver the baby out in the open in front of everyone... so neat!

I just caught up with your entire trip report. Looks like such a fun trip! I'm following along and waiting for more.

Welcome! So glad you're enjoying my trip report! More to come soon... I promise!!

Is this your first W&D coming up? You're going to love it. Such an amazing weekend. Cannot wait for November!!

It is my first Wine and Dine... and my first 1/2 Marathon ever! Most I've done is the 10k on the 4th to submit my time to runDisney. Eeeeek! I'm REALLY excited... not only for the actual race (and running through 3 parks AND the Osbourne Lights, which I have yet to see in person!), but I think I may be even more excited to be there without children! Sounds awful, I know! Being with my sister and SIL in the parks is going to be awesome! My SIL is a big Disney lover... and I'm trying to convert my sister into a Disney believer. Ha ha! Are you doing it this year too?!?

 

[anniebabymu]

May 27th: Day 6, Part 3

After a quick stop at the potties, we were on our way to our first FP+ for the day! We were heading over to Expedition Everest! Our FP+ time was 9:05-10:05.



I had told myself that I was going to do all of the new roller coasters with Addie for her first time… even though I’m not the biggest coaster fan. Well, after my experience with Space Mountain, I decided to skip out on EE. But, we did go over, showed Harper and grabbed a Rider Swap in case Addie loved it and wanted to ride again.

And of course… any time Derek was in charge of getting the pics put on his band, he wasn’t the best at it. He missed out getting one of their rides and the one he did get, only his picture ended up on it! I was really hoping to see Addie’s face! Oh well… there’s always next time I guess!



He looks like he was enjoying himself! (This pic was taken at 9:38) Addie ended up LOVING it and demanded to ride again immediately! Thank goodness we got that Rider Swap! So glad she found another new to her ride that she loved! Now… she just needs to grow so she can ride RnRc and she’ll be set!

While Addie, Derek and my FIL were riding EE, Harper and I headed over to something a little more her (and mine, ha ha!) speed for now… Dinoland! We took a whirl on Tricera-Top Spin and of course Harper loved it. Then we looked around a bit and headed over to the Boneyard where she loved going on all the slides! While we were playing over there, I got a call from Derek that they were done and headed my way.

They were headed my way because it was time for our next FP+! Another ride we hadn’t been on… remember, this was the first time we really enjoyed the part to it’s (somewhat) fullest! We had a FP+ from 10:05-11:05 at Dinosaur! Since I didn’t ride EE, Derek said that he’d stay out with Harper while me, Addie and my FIL rode it first. So we grabbed a Rider Swap and he was on his way back to…



The Boneyard! Man, Harper loved that place!

While they were off having fun, we got in line for our FP+… for time reference, our PP pic was taken at 10:23. Like I said, this was our first time on this ride, and I had read that some people found this ride scary… so I didn’t tell Addie that she may get scared. I knew if I did that, she definitely wouldn’t want to ride it and I wanted to make sure she experienced everything she could. I just told her that it might be a little loud and that there were fake Dinosaurs around. After seeing people’s ride photos, I was prepared to be scared. Ha ha… as you can see from my ride photo, I’m like, “What… that’s it?” Ha ha!

Addie on the other hand HATED this ride. She hated how loud it was and she hated the Dinosaurs popping in and out. And for the record… this is the ONLY ride at Disney she’s ever hated! My FIL thought it was okay… really loud and he wished he would have taken his hearing aids out. Ha ha!!!

Okay… so here is our PRICELESS ride photos. First one is the one that they took and the second one is the one I had to zoom in on. I’m an awful parent, because I see Addie and to this day I can’t control my laughter.





Poor girl! This most definitely sums up her ride experience. Lol!!!

Since Addie hated the ride, Derek decided to not use the Rider Swap we got... so he still hasn't been on the ride!

When we hopped off, Derek and Harper were outside the entrance waiting on us. We checked the time and realized that the 11:00 showing of Nemo the Musical was starting in 15 minutes. We first thought we’d eat first and hit up the next show, but we got over to where we wanted to eat lunch and it wasn’t open yet! So we decided that the 11:00 show would be perfect. We turned around, got in line and made it in! We were in one of the last rows, but were pretty center… I thought they were great seats, especially since we got there right before show time!

We sat down and wouldn’t you know, Harper once again had wonderful timing. I took a sniff and immediately knew she pooped again… and the show was just about to start! Derek was on the aisle, so he took one for the team and took her out (didn’t want her stinking up the joint) to change her diaper… and he had a heck of a time getting back in after he was done. But he did get back in after the show had started.

It was our first time seeing this show and we LOVED it. We love Nemo in my house and it was on my must-do list because I had heard great things about it… and it was in the AC, so BIG bonus there!

After the show was over, we knew that lunch was most definitely needed next! Where was lunch? Flame Tree BBQ! We had eaten there the last time we went to Animal Kingdom and LOVED it, so we knew that’s where lunch would be! Derek and my FIL ordered food and I took the girls to find a spot to sit. Ended up finding an awesome spot in the shade by the covered area by the lake. There was a nice little breeze so it was perfect.

Lunch was, once again, awesome! Love Flame Tree BBQ! I got what I had gotten last time… the pulled pork and the chocolate mouse. Pulled pork was amazing, but the chocolate mouse was just ehhhh. Not my cup of tea. Derek got the Turkey Sandwich, which he thought was great, and the chocolate mouse and then the girls both got a Smucker’s Uncrustables, grapes and a cookie. I didn’t write it down, but I believe my FIL got the Smoked Chicken Salad and gobbled it up. He also got the Chocolate Mousse and loved it. Overall, a WONDERFUL lunch experience!

While at lunch, I got on Kenny the Pirate’s character app to see if there were any characters close to us… and much to our surprise Donald and Daisy were right next door! We had a bit of time to kill before our last FP+, so we decided meeting our favorite ducks was in order! To make it even better… they hardly had a wait! I don’t know if many people know they’re tucked back where they are now because there was no signage outside saying that they were back there… just two CM’s out front who told us, when we asked, that they were back there.

We waited maybe 15 minutes and it was our turn for a date with Daisy! Our PP pictures were taken at 12:47.







Great meet with Daisy!

Up next was Donald! Addie told me that before she met Donald, she was going to tell him that he was #1. She was getting a kick out of knowing she was going to tell him that and she hadn’t even met him yet!

Donald was ready for us!



And this is after Addie told Donald he was #1... Donald was flattered! Addie LOVED it!









After our meet and greet with Donald and Daisy, it was almost time for our last FP+ so we decided to start heading that way! We passed Dinoland and Derek decided he wanted to stop there and do Tricera-Top Spin with the girls since we had a few minutes to kill! This was his and Addie’s first time on it because Harper and I did it while they were on EE, and they thought it was an enjoyable little ride.

We hopped off and decided to head to the back of the park for our FP+… Kali River Rapids! This was a much needed FP+ because once again… it was HOT! We were ready to cool off a bit! We had a few minutes to kill before our time from 1:30-2:30, so we made a quick stop by the bathrooms. We got back there and we still had to wait a couple of minutes before we could get in.

It was FINALLY 1:30 and we were ready to go! We were also excited about this ride because Harper was *just* tall enough to ride it and could go with us! They measured her and the top of her head just hit that bar. Because she just hit it, she got a wristband to let them know that she was tall enough and that she needed to ride in the “special” seat with the lap bar.

Once again, this was our first time on the ride and it was fun! We got SOAKED! I think the kids got the wettest though! They were drenched… and every time more water would come they would just giggle. So glad we did this ride, but I’m even more glad we saved it to the end of the day so we didn’t walk around in wet clothes all day! The girls loved getting soaked on the ride… but didn’t like wearing wet clothes after the ride, so we stopped and changed their clothes since I was prepared and brought an extra set with us for them.

Since it was a little after 1:30 when we were finished with the ride, we decided to head out and back to Pop for some naps! It was a great day at Animal Kingdom and I think we were all happy that we spent more time in Animal Kingdom than we had in the past. “Planning” out our day was soooooo beneficial to us since it was basically our first time spending a good amount of time in the park. I felt like there was more that we could have done, but we did everything we felt like we really wanted to do! Wonderful day!!

We got to the buses and there was a bus waiting for us. So nice! We stopped by the water park and there was nobody, so we skipped the stop and headed right to Pop. We got back there around 2:00 and ended up falling asleep around 2:30. EVERYBODY took naps today… no pool time for Addie. We were all wiped out! We got a great nap in because we didn’t plan on meeting my in-laws until 5:30 to meet for dinner! Ahhhh… that was a wonderful nap. Ha ha!​

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Best part of this update? Awesome naps! I love a good nap !

Your picture my dinosaur is cracking me up! Poor Addie! Our girls didn't enjoy it either , but I think it's so fun. It's probably a good thing were not heading to AK on this trip because I'm sure I wouldn't be able to get them to go on it again. I'm hoping they forget about it by our next trip...

Your meet with Donald and daisy looks fun. I love Addie's face after telling Donald he's number 1.

Your lunch sounds great. We still need to try flame tree.

Sounds like a great AK day!

 

[LindseyLou2222]

Loving your TR! The girls outfits are adorable! Are they Etsy purchases? I have a Harper too! She'll be 3 in October.

 

[anniebabymu]

Best part of this update? Awesome naps! I love a good nap !

Oh yes... I love me some awesome naps too! Working nights, naps are my life! Ha ha!

Your picture my dinosaur is cracking me up! Poor Addie! Our girls didn't enjoy it either , but I think it's so fun. It's probably a good thing were not heading to AK on this trip because I'm sure I wouldn't be able to get them to go on it again. I'm hoping they forget about it by our next trip...

I don't think Addie will ever forget about it. She may be scarred for life! Ha ha! That picture is definitely worth a thousand words! Hopefully your girls will forget about it! If not, we'll just have to go together and ride without them!

Your meet with Donald and daisy looks fun. I love Addie's face after telling Donald he's number 1.

I love it too!

Your lunch sounds great. We still need to try flame tree.

You should definitely try Flame Tree! It's so yummy! I'd like to try something else for lunch sometime, but then that means I can't get that pulled pork sandwich! Ughhh... why does Disney have to have so much awesome food!?

Sounds like a great AK day!

It was! So glad we made a great day of it!

Loving your TR! The girls outfits are adorable! Are they Etsy purchases? I have a Harper too! She'll be 3 in October.

Thanks!! I'm hoping I can get a lot more written before school starts! Lord knows we'll be super busy then!

How fun you have a Harper too! Great minds! I just love that name... and it fits my Harper so well.

Actually, the only ETSY purchase I made for this past trip was our arrival day shirts! All the other shirts I "made". I say "made" because it really didn't take much creativity! Ha ha! They are all iron on vinyls that I bought from Miss Morgans Designs. Soooooo easy and soooooo cute! She has the cutest stuff and she's great to work with! I've been working with her on a custom vinyl for our Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon costumes! You should check her out!

 

[anniebabymu]

May 27th: Day 6, Part 4

After our awesome naps, we were headed to dinner! It was a place new to all of us and one that I was REALLY excited about! I had heard such great things about the atmosphere and the food… so it seemed like a winner in my book! Our plans for the evening included going to the Magic Kingdom after dinner to spend the remainder of the evening. Did everything work out as planned?? *Spoiler Alert* No, it didn’t. We’ll get into that in a bit!

So we met up at 5:30 with my FIL and my MIL, who was feeling MUCH better! She spent her day sleeping until 10:30 and lounging around the room resting. We were all soooooo glad that she was feeling better and could join us for what we hoped would be a fun-filled evening!

Addie on the other hand was still VERY sleepy! She fell back asleep on the bus!



We went to the buses and didn’t have to wait long before a Magic Kingdom bus appeared! We took that to the Magic Kingdom and had a decision to make… Ferry Boat or Bus?? Our decision was made pretty easily when we saw a bus pulling up to…



I had never been the Wilderness Lodge and was itching to get inside and check it out! My family is big into the outdoors and hunting. In fact, as a child, we only vacationed to Florida once… every other vacation was either camping or to Colorado! My dad is a big outdoorsman and I knew he would have loved this resort!

We got off the bus and were pretty early for our ADR, so we were excited to check things out!





We got inside and I immediately had to snap a bunch of pictures and send them to my dad… I think staying at the Wilderness Lodge (maybe in the winter) would be the only way I’ll ever get him to Disney with us! He hates crowds and heat… so getting him to Disney will be a HUGE feat!









So where was dinner?



Whispering Canyon Café of course!!

We checked in probably 20 minutes early for our ADR and had to wait a bit to be seated. We didn’t care because the girls quickly found themselves at home at the Lincoln Log table!











While the girls were playing my FIL went over to the main check-in desk to see if a particular person was working that night. He had “checked in” on Facebook at the Wilderness Lodge and one of the girls he used to work with told him that her son just moved down to Florida and is now the manager of custodial services. Turned out, he WAS working and they said he would come and say hi while we were at dinner! How fun is that!?

We were seated right at our ADR time… 6:50. And this was the beginning of our dinner from H.E.Double Hockey Sticks!

We were brought to our table by the Hostess and we sat down to check out the menu… even though we already knew what we planned to get! And we sat, and we sat, and we sat. We were seated for 15-20 minutes before our waitress finally came out. When she came out, I immediately knew that something wasn’t right with her. She was so flustered. It appeared that she was either new, just got ripped a new one by a supervisor, wasn’t normally a server and got thrown into the role because something happened to our original server. Maybe it was a combo of all of those. Whatever it was… it was awful.

We really are pretty simple people. We don’t ask for much and really are pretty easy to please. It takes a lot to upset us. And everything about our service was unacceptable. Oh my… just thinking about it all over again typing this up is making me irritated!

She took our drink order… and never came back. I say never came back, but she did. Like 10 minutes later. We all ordered the Family Style skillet and she set off to put our order in.

In the mean time, other tables around us were being seated with other servers and they had all ordered their food way before we did. We had been seated for almost an hour before our food finally came out. I’m not kidding. An hour. Normally we would be about done eating about then and waiting on our check. We still didn’t have food!

We finally got our food and thank goodness, it did not disappoint! The food was wonderful… but it would have been nice to have drinks to wash it down with. Oh yeah, once our food came out our server was nowhere. Finally she came around and we had to ask her for refills. When she did this we asked for refills of a few things, like mashed potatoes and corn on the cob… some of Addie’s favorites!

Maybe 10 minutes later we got our refills, but still no extra food. At this point our meal was pushing 1 hour and 45 minutes. I think we were all about done with this experience. If only our server would come back over we could ask for dessert, but of course that didn’t happen.

At some point during our marathon meal they did a little wooden horse race with the kids that the girls really enjoyed!



And hopefully this video works! You’ll have to let me know!



They loved that and they loved all the silliness going on! Addie so badly wanted to ask for ketchup… if only our server would come back! She was finally able to do it at one point in the evening. And then the son of my FIL’s old co-worker came in and said hi! That was pretty cool that he happened to be working that night!

Finally we were able to ask for our dessert, and to be honest… I don’t remember what we had because I was so checked out at that point I didn’t care to remember. Oh… and that extra food we asked for. Oh yeah, someone brought it out after our dessert came out. Needless to say, it went wasted because we didn’t want it anymore. We simply wanted to scarf our dessert down, maybe get a check eventually and LEAVE!

By the time we got our check and the bill settled we were in those seats for 2 ½ hours. No, you didn’t read that wrong… 2 hour and 30 minutes!!! Completely unacceptable. I wanted to get the heck out of that place, but Derek wanted to stop and ask for a manager. I finally got him to leave because I didn’t want to waste another minute there. I thought, maybe we could salvage the night and still head to the Magic Kingdom. In hindsight, he probably should have said something… but I didn’t want us being those people that made a stink about it, even though it was completely ridiculous.

Like I said… I don’t know what her deal was and I think if we had any other server than her we would have had a wonderful experience! The food was all delicious and the atmosphere was fun… but the service was more than awful! My sister, SIL and I have a breakfast reservation here in November for the day of our race so I hope we have a MUCH better experience there!

We decided to take a different form of transportation back to the Magic Kingdom… the boats! We hopped right on and had a fun ride. While we were on it we looked at the time and it was around 9:45. We knew that if we went to the Magic Kingdom we would be fighting the mass of people trying to get up to the Castle to see Wishes. And after dinner, our spirits were a little low and I don’t think any of us felt like dealing with that. So we made the decision to head to the buses once we docked.

As we were docking, the Electric Water Parade started going by! So we had fun watching that as we walked towards the buses. The great thing about going to the buses at that time was one was basically waiting for us. We hopped right on!

We got back to Pop in no time… threw the girls in a quick shower and they were tucked in bed at 10:30. We were in bed not much longer after them.

Thank goodness we had such a wonderful time at Animal Kingdom because that was definitely the bright side to our day! And you’ll be happy to hear… this was our only bad experience of the trip and the next day MORE than made up for it! ​

 

[Leleluvsdis]

Def write to disney about it!!!!!! He had a horrible check in experience 2 trips ago, and I wrote a letter to guest relations with extreme detail. After I sent it, I got a response within 10-20 minutes requesting a phone call from a manager. I set it up and we talked about 30 minutes about the experience. She did say one the the main role parties were no longer with the company, but the other would be addressed appropriately. They had a zero tolerance for that behavior. Long story short, the cm who checked us in was no longer with them, and the "manager" who we talked to about the situation day of, we later found out actually was not a manager at all but another front desk cm. the "manager" was most of the conversation. They are very receptive to feedback, and I will certainly ask for a manager on spot moving forward. When I talked to the "manager" about check in, it was by phone. The guest relations manager I spoke with about my letter gave me her extension in case I thought if anything else, and reiterated many times if no one tells them the troubles they have, they don't know to fix them. On our last trip, I also made it a point to thank those that we just pleasant or went above and beyond. Regardless of the type of feedback, I think it is all greatly appreciated.

 

[annegirl]

It's crazy because so many people just rave about that place but we had the worst dining experience of our trip when we ate there in 2010. It wasn't nearly as bad as yours. Our wait was almost that long but that was just to get seated... not for our food. But our waiter wasn't great, the food wasn't great, etc... We finally asked for our dessert to go because we just wanted out of there.

 

[disneyfam]

SQUEEE! I knew eventually I'd see my friends stepdaughter as Cinderella in one DIS trip report an so far yours is the first.

My friends daughter is the Cinderella at your Norway dinner. The one where the she twirled with the girls. Love that you said she was the best interaction of them all.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Glad the food and atmosphere were good. We've never been there but I always hear it's fun. Sorry about the bad advice though. That's awful! I always get irritated and want to talk to someone but then I'm the same as you and just want to get the heck out of there! Glad you're giving it another chance. I'm sure you'll have a better experience!

 

[AprilRenee]

What a disaster!! That's so sad cause whispering canyon was a highlight of our trip last time. We loved it and can't wait to take Caden there. It's one of our repeats this coming trip cause we loved it! I hope you have a much better experience on your marathon weekend

 

[Adgie128]

It is my first Wine and Dine... and my first 1/2 Marathon ever! Most I've done is the 10k on the 4th to submit my time to runDisney. Eeeeek! I'm REALLY excited... not only for the actual race (and running through 3 parks AND the Osbourne Lights, which I have yet to see in person!), but I think I may be even more excited to be there without children! Sounds awful, I know! Being with my sister and SIL in the parks is going to be awesome! My SIL is a big Disney lover... and I'm trying to convert my sister into a Disney believer. Ha ha! Are you doing it this year too?!?

I'm in for Wine and Dine 2014! I had only done a 10K before Wine and Dine last year, too. The runDisney energy is electric and it's really cool to have the support and energy of the other runners to carry you through to the finish line. It was hands down the most amazing Disney experience I've ever had. The Osbourne Lights and running through AK at night were unforgettable. You're going to love it!

I loved your updates. Isn't the WL so beautiful? Hopefully your return visit in November redeems WCC for you!

 

[wdwpirates]

I've read your whole report so far over this weekend. Loving it!! Your girls are adorable! And cool to see that your in-laws are so into it! Love that! Can't wait to read more.

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Sounds like a great day at AK!
The pics of Addie on Dinosaur are so funny! We have yet to visit the boneyard or do the Nemo show, a reason we have to go back right?
Cute Donald and Dasiy meet and greet!

What a terrible dinner experience! Sounds like it was just an off night, but whoa, that stinks! 2 1/2 hours is so ridiculous for dinner! but the video of the girls during the horse thing was super cute!

 

[plumsiren]

This is absolutely one of my favorite trip reports ever! So many good pictures and so much going on!!

 

[anniebabymu]

Just wanted to give a quick "Thanks!" to everyone who has commented or reached out here lately! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE new readers and I'm so glad everyone is enjoying my Trip Report as much as I am writing it! I can't believe it's down to the last few days!!

I also wanted to tell you to be patient... more is coming very soon! I'm in the process of uploading my last 239 photos to Photobucket. Yes, 239 photos! Whew! And after I hit "Submit Reply" on this post I'll be staring to type up Day 7! We most definitely have some EXCITING, fun-filled days coming up! Can't wait to share it with you!​

 

[anniebabymu]

Def write to disney about it!!!!!! He had a horrible check in experience 2 trips ago, and I wrote a letter to guest relations with extreme detail. After I sent it, I got a response within 10-20 minutes requesting a phone call from a manager. I set it up and we talked about 30 minutes about the experience. She did say one the the main role parties were no longer with the company, but the other would be addressed appropriately. They had a zero tolerance for that behavior. Long story short, the cm who checked us in was no longer with them, and the "manager" who we talked to about the situation day of, we later found out actually was not a manager at all but another front desk cm. the "manager" was most of the conversation. They are very receptive to feedback, and I will certainly ask for a manager on spot moving forward. When I talked to the "manager" about check in, it was by phone. The guest relations manager I spoke with about my letter gave me her extension in case I thought if anything else, and reiterated many times if no one tells them the troubles they have, they don't know to fix them. On our last trip, I also made it a point to thank those that we just pleasant or went above and beyond. Regardless of the type of feedback, I think it is all greatly appreciated.

Oh man! What an ordeal you had! So glad that you got some resolution on your situation. In hindsight, I know I should have let my hubs say something but I was still hopeful that we were going to get some Magic Kingdom time in still! But really, what's waiting an extra few minutes when we'd already been there 2 1/2 hours right?! Next time I won't make such a stink about wanting to leave. Well, let me back track... hopefully there will never be another experience like that at Disney! That was worse than your random sit-down restaurant at home!

It's crazy because so many people just rave about that place but we had the worst dining experience of our trip when we ate there in 2010. It wasn't nearly as bad as yours. Our wait was almost that long but that was just to get seated... not for our food. But our waiter wasn't great, the food wasn't great, etc... We finally asked for our dessert to go because we just wanted out of there.

I'm sooooo sorry you had a similar experience! When you've had nothing but great experiences in the past, you almost come to expect perfection out of Disney. And it's a huge disappointment when it's worse than "okay". I'm really hoping breakfast in November is a good experience and doesn't put this restaurant on my "Never to Eat At" list!

SQUEEE! I knew eventually I'd see my friends stepdaughter as Cinderella in one DIS trip report an so far yours is the first.

My friends daughter is the Cinderella at your Norway dinner. The one where the she twirled with the girls. Love that you said she was the best interaction of them all.

No way!! That's so awesome!!! I'm glad you got to see her! Feel free to "steal" my pic and show your friend if you'd like!

Glad the food and atmosphere were good. We've never been there but I always hear it's fun. Sorry about the bad advice though. That's awful! I always get irritated and want to talk to someone but then I'm the same as you and just want to get the heck out of there! Glad you're giving it another chance. I'm sure you'll have a better experience!

I better have a better experience! Honestly though, it wouldn't take much to make it better! Ha ha!

What a disaster!! That's so sad cause whispering canyon was a highlight of our trip last time. We loved it and can't wait to take Caden there. It's one of our repeats this coming trip cause we loved it! I hope you have a much better experience on your marathon weekend

Major disaster!! I hope so too!!!

I'm in for Wine and Dine 2014! I had only done a 10K before Wine and Dine last year, too. The runDisney energy is electric and it's really cool to have the support and energy of the other runners to carry you through to the finish line. It was hands down the most amazing Disney experience I've ever had. The Osbourne Lights and running through AK at night were unforgettable. You're going to love it!

That's so awesome you'll be running it too!!! I'm super excited for it. I'm not the fastest runner in the world and use Jeff Galloway's run/walk/run method, so I will most definitely NOT be running the whole thing. I absolutely CANNOT WAIT to get down there and run it!!! I am sooooooo excited about running through the parks and that medal is amazing! Everyone that talks about the Wine and Dine say it's so awesome and the best race course of the Disney races. Nothing else to say that I CAN'T WAIT!!! Ha ha!

Where are you staying for the race and how long will you be there? My sister, SIL and I will be at Pop from the 7-11. Only doing parks on the 9th and 10th though! So it will be a "relatively" quick trip. I know I'm not going to want to leave! Hopefully I can convince the hubs into letting me book a Bounce Back for 2015 while I'm there! Shhhhh... don't tell him all my evil plans!

I loved your updates. Isn't the WL so beautiful? Hopefully your return visit in November redeems WCC for you!

Oh my gosh... it is so beautiful! And one of the Deluxe resorts that's actually affordable! It really isn't that much more than the Royal Guest Rooms at POR where we stayed our 2nd trip. I definitely think I could get my hubs to agree to staying there one trip... after the construction is done that is! And Whispering Canyon better redeem itself!!!

I've read your whole report so far over this weekend. Loving it!! Your girls are adorable! And cool to see that your in-laws are so into it! Love that! Can't wait to read more.

Hi!!! Thanks so much for following along! And wow! All in one weekend!! Glad I sucked you in! Ha ha! I hope the rest of the report doesn't disappoint! And yes... it's absolutely amazing how awesome my in-laws are. They were most definitely troopers and never complained about our pace. In fact, my MIL LOVED it. She's much like me and a planner, planner, planner. Before she retired, her co-workers called her "Hard Copy" because she always saved everything and had a hard copy of everything in her folder. Lol! She loved having a "schedule" to follow and she even printed out all the planning spreadsheets I made before our trip! Ha ha! My MIL and FIL were most definitely the MVP's of our trip!

Sounds like a great day at AK!
The pics of Addie on Dinosaur are so funny! We have yet to visit the boneyard or do the Nemo show, a reason we have to go back right?
Cute Donald and Dasiy meet and greet!

WONDERFUL day at AK! Still makes me smile thinking about it! You must go to the Nemo show! It was amazing!! I've never seen the Lion King because it was under refurb while we were there (opening only days after we left... grrrr!) so I have a reason to go back too! Ha ha!

What a terrible dinner experience! Sounds like it was just an off night, but whoa, that stinks! 2 1/2 hours is so ridiculous for dinner! but the video of the girls during the horse thing was super cute!

I hope it was an off night for her... because I don't know how she could be so horrible all the time and still have a job! She wouldn't still be employed in the "real world" let alone Disney! The girls LOVED that wooden horse fun!

This is absolutely one of my favorite trip reports ever! So many good pictures and so much going on!!

Welcome!!! And thanks so much! For you to say one of your favorite trip reports ever makes me smile inside! We had the time of our life and I was really hoping that I would be able to convey that to everyone reading! And just think... this is WITHOUT food pics. Man, it really would be amazing with food pics! Thanks again and I hope you love the rest of my report (that will be coming soon!!) just as much!

 

[anniebabymu]

May 28th: Day 7, Part 1

I woke up this morning hoping it really was a new day and we could put the experience from last night’s dinner to rest… and the day did NOT disappoint!

Even though it wasn’t a recommended day for this park we were headed to today, we decided that we’d much rather hit up Morning Extra Magic Hours and get as much done as we could! This was really going to be our only day here that we were going to have, so the more time the better!

We met up with my in-laws outside our rooms at 7:00 and were at the bus stop by 7:05. And what do you know? A bus was right there! We hopped right on and were at our destination in 10 minutes!! I didn’t realize how close Pop Century is to…



I couldn’t believe how early we got there! We were the second family in our line at the “tapstyles”. Great spot for Rope Drop! When it got closer to 8:00 the line was HUGE!



While we were waiting, the girls nibbled on some breakfast in the stroller and we just hung out. Those minutes went by super fast! I should also mention that today was the day we were wearing our matching “family” shirts! The four of us had these shirts our last trip, then I found matching ones that for my in-laws! I loved how they turned out!



Our plans for park opening were this… Derek, Addie and my in-laws head to Star Tours and Harper and I make the mad dash to Toy Story Midway Mania! I warned my hubby that I was going to have to walk very quickly with the masses when they let us through and directed him on how to get over to Star Tours.

Park opened and Harper and I began the dash! We got over there before they officially opened the ride, so there was a bit of a line outside… right next to Buzz and Woody waving at everyone through their meet and greet window! Harper LOVED this. That girl loves her Toy Story! In minutes, the line was moving and we didn’t stop until we got to cars! We walked right on! But of course we had to stop and take some selfies before we loaded our car!





I don’t remember how I did, but I’m thinking it wasn’t so good since I was trying to help Harper shoot her gun pretty much the whole time. Anything for that sweet girl!

Harper loved the ride and we really did have a great time, just her and I! We hopped off the ride and got outside at 8:23... and the wait was up to 65 minutes already! Makes that mad dash totally worth it!



After TSMM, Harper and I were going to hang out in Pixar Place and wait for my MIL and Addie. My hubby and FIL had plans to ride Rock-n-Roller Coaster while all of us girls headed to a very important meet and greet! So when we came out of TSMM, I pulled out my phone getting ready to call my MIL and low and behold… I looked up and she and Addie were right in front of me! How’s that for timing!?

Of course, since we were in Pixar Place our very important Meet and Greet was Buzz and Woody! Knowing how much our family loves Toy Story, this was the one meet and greet that I knew we couldn’t go without this trip! And we had never met Buzz and Woody at Hollywood Studios, so it would be a first for us! The wait time was up to 30 minutes to meet them, but we were willing to wait!

While we were waiting to meet Buzz and Woody, Grandpa and daddy were waiting for RnRc! They had around a 30 minute wait posted too, but didn’t wait that long. I think it was more like 20-25 minutes. Derek loved it! And we can’t wait for Addie to be tall enough to ride it because I’m sure she’ll love it too! After they met back up with us, Derek was like, “I had no idea these rides existed!” Which is true, much like Animal Kingdom we really hadn’t dedicated a full day to Hollywood Studios that included things that adults would like. We focused mostly on characters and kids stuff. His eyes were opened up to a lot! He now LOVES Hollywood Studios! Anyways… here is their ride pic!



So while the boys were having fun together, we were having fun in the queue for the meet and greet!















And look who it is! We were finally at the front of the line!













The girls loved this meet and greet and Addie thought it was hilarious that Buzz had a stamp instead of signing. It was definitely worth the wait!

When we were done, I got out my phone and sent Derek a text telling him that we were done. He replied that they had just walked off the ride, so we made plans to meet up in the Animation Courtyard. Secretly, I was hoping that they would still be in line and we would have time to go to Starring Roles, because I still haven’t been there! Oh well… there’s always next time! We met up and had to figure out what to do next! ​