LIVE trip report! BLT 8/15 - 8/27. WHO SAYS YOU CANT HAVE ICE CREAM FOR BREAKFAST?

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/21 Day 7

We started the morning late. Kids slept until 9:30 because we were out late the night before with the Halloween party. Once we got ready to go we headed over to Animal kingdom for around 12 in the afternoon.

Upon arrival the first thing we did was take a
PhotoPass of our family in a giant hakuna matata Lion King frame outside the entrance. It came out great in the line was short so I was glad we did it.

After that we went over to dinoland to take pictures with Scrooge McDuck because he's one of the few characters we have not yet met. We waited about 10 minutes and we only waited that long because when we got there he took a break shortly after we got in line.

Then we had our first Fastpass for the day at Navi River journey. After that we walked around Pandora for a little while taking in the amazing sites to see.


We stopped and got the Mt Everest photopass and magic shot once we entered Asia as there was no line for that.

We then went to walk the Asia Majaraha jungle trek. It was a really hot day and around 130 at this point. We saw less animals than we've ever seen on this before and I'd assume it was due to the heat. But we still had fun regardless.


Then we really needed a break in the ac, so we went to watch the 2:30 Nemo show! I love this show and see it Everytime we go. You're going to think I'm crazy, ready? I tear up Everytime I watch this show at the part where Nemo sings "not my dad", where he thinks because his dad isn't brave that he would never come for him. Maybe I'm just a cry baby but it hits me in some sort of soft spot. Probably because I'm not a very brave person and my kids may feel like Nemo did, but as mom's we know we would literally face any fear for our children. Anyone else tear up or am I alone on this??

After that I walked around the Everest gift shop because I had never been in there before. I found a sweatshirt I really liked but they didn't have it in my size so we left. Every time I come to Disney I try to buy a new zip-up hoodie because coming from New England I get a lot of use out of sweatshirts, and I'm a huge fan of wearing them!! On our last trip I bought one from the Pandora gift shop that I love!!

At this point it was about 4 p.m. and we had a dinner reservation at my favorite restaurant on all of Disney property yak & yeti!! I get the chicken lo mein and it is delicious! Our waiter Christian was fabulous, the best we've had this trip!


After our very filling meal we went over to do the Safari ride. We had a FastPass to do it at 5:30. The animals weren't super active so it wasn't one of the best ones I've been on. But we did see a lot of rhinos, giraffes, a cheetah and the lions were out however they were sleeping.

After that it was about 6:30 and we were pretty beat from the night before so we headed back to our hotel to get some rest. Tomorrow is our first non-park day, but we hope to make it fun with a very special meal at dinner time . Can anyone guess what that might be??

 

[Gerweniel]

Anyone else tear up or am I alone on this??

LOL, not alone at all! I tear up also, not only there! My sons got used to it. Now I travel solo and it is a lot weirder, but hey, I'm an emotional lady and WDW brings back floods of great memories and experiences!
Have a wonderful day today and can't wait to find out what the special meal is!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/22 Day 8 (morning)

This morning we had a reservation at our hotel at The wave for breakfast! We've done this breakfast before and it is my favorite breakfast buffet on property. It's always quiet, you can get last miny reservations, and they offer food no one else seems to have at buffets.

They have sweet potato pancakes with a special nut butter you can put on them, they are delicious. They also have my favorite devilled eggs on the buffet. Not to mention it's more affordable then many other buffets. It's a hidden gem!!

I've heard rumors about them turning it into Incredibles Steakhouse, which makes me sad. Once they re-theme it and add characters I'm assuming the prices will go way up, availability will decrease, and the quality of the food will go down with it. It makes me sad to see such a wonderfull place go, but it's only a rumor for now. I'll have to enjoy it while I can.

Here are some buffet pictures. Enjoy these, I'll update again later tonight on the rest of our day!!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/22 Day 8 Second half of day!

We relaxed in our room for a while and then headed Magic Kingdom at 3pm. We saw Prince John wandering upon entering and my youngest, who lives Robin Hood, got a picture with him.

Then we headed over to the country bear jamboree, because we hadn't done it yet this trip! I heard a rumour about a toy story override but I hope they don't touch it. I love the humor for adults in it.

Then we had a buzz Fastpass so we did that again. Then we went straight to pirates, which we also hadn't done yet. It was fun. It started pouring while we were on it, so we came out to rain, but it ended within minutes.


We then decided to exit the park to get ready for our dinner. Upon exiting we saw Friar Tuck wandering and managed to get a picture of him too!!

Then after getting ready at the hotel we boarded a boat to the wilderness Lodge for our Storybook Dining meal. I was really excited for this meal but was a little disappointed.

The ambience was great and the characters were fun, especially the queen. That's where it ended.

For the price (which was extremely expensive) it was not worth it. The appetizers were not good, even the kid appetizers were a few carrot sticks, apple slices and a mini muffin. The adult appetizers were pretty underwhelming and to a very specific taste. We had tiny cauldrons of mushroom soup, a platter (pictures) with a few crackers, pickles and some weird slices of meat.


For my meal I got the chicken, which was very good. Service was slow.

Dessert was fun and presented nicely, but they definitely weren't desserts that I couldn't find anywhere else.

Overall for our family, it was a one and done!! I'm glad we did it to meet those characters but wouldn't spend that kind of money again!

Anyone else have a better experience there? Or same?

 

[Gerweniel]

Yikes. Sorry you didn't enjoy the dinner. Was the interaction with the Queen fun? She's my favorite character. I see the menu has changed a bit. The Hunter's Terrine appetizer does not look very appetizing!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

Yikes. Sorry you didn't enjoy the dinner. Was the interaction with the Queen fun? She's my favorite character. I see the menu has changed a bit. The Hunter's Terrine appetizer does not look very appetizing!

Yes! The queen was definitely the best part! That and grumpy and dopey. The food to me just wasn't super appealing, especially the appetizer. I feel for the expense they could have done better!!

I was thinking we would get the appetizer I've seen on blogs which were like puff pastry filled with meat, but they have apparently gotten rid of that. It would have been the only one I liked I'm sure.

The hype is definitely the characters, if they didn't have those, my opinion is this would fail. Artist point food was much better.

This was the mushroom soup app, which was about the size of a small ramekin, and was just okay.

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/23. Day 9

So far today we headed over to Animal Kingdom lodge, which is one of our favorite places. it's definitely our favorite resort to stay at and we've stayed at kidani many times!! So first we spend some time out back looking around at the animals while waiting for our reservation time of 10:10am.



Then we sat down to eat at boma for breakfast. The one thing I don't like at this buffet compared to others is that there's only one buffet line whereas if you compare it to Crystal palace they have two different sides of the buffet that are the exact same which I think helps to reduce the long lines. But we still really enjoy boma breakfast.

My kids love that they have donuts there because we haven't found those at any other buffet before!
after breakfast we hopped a bus to Animal kingdom park as my husband has a FastPass for flight of passage, but then the sky darkened. And it was supposed to rain for about an hour straight so instead we went back to our hotel, while my husband stayed at Animal kingdom to do his fast pass on his own.

My parents are coming in today to meet with us for the next 2 days. So we're hanging around our community room at Bay Lake until we meet up with them later.

Tomorrow we will have some non-park day fun with my parents.

I will post an update tonight on the second half of today!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/23. Day 9 Second half of day!

My parents arrived today to meet us for the next 2 days. We met them outside our resort, they are staying at Coronado springs, and brought them into the contemporary main building.

We weren't sure what time they would arrive so did not make any dinner reservations but we took them to eat at Contempo Cafe. I got a BBQ chicken pizza and it was delicious!! We all enjoyed our meals and had a great time catching up.

After our meals we took them to our room, which is a 1 bedroom suite incase I never mentioned that. They had never been in a DVC property before so we showed them around our room and building. They loved all the outdoor games and amenities like the mini golf course, bocce, shuffleboard, chess, connect 4, pool table, ping pong and foosball. Lots to do!

Then we took them onto the boat and we just did the ft wilderness, wilderness Lodge loop to take a ride around the lake. We got the singing captain which was fun. He sang Brown eyed girl, heigh ho, bear necessities and Brandy.


They really enjoyed the boat ride, it was getting dark and there was a beautiful breeze, enough so that I had a sweatshirt on. When we finished the whole loop we got off back at our resort and said our goodbyes to my parents for the night. We wanted to get the kids in bed by 9 since we have an early breakfast with my parents in the morning.

Tomorrow will be a non park day, but we still have some plans including breakfast and dinner. Stay tuned!

 

[mom2cgj]

Overall we loved the wave, though we have been there before for breakfast and lunch, we had never tried dinner, which was great! I'd recommend it and it's a quick walk from the magic kingdom which makes it accessible not just to those staying at contemporary.

We love the Wave! One of our best meals ever was there before a Pirates and Pals Cruise. Seems like it isn't talked about as much as some other places, but we think it's great!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/24 Day 10 First half

We met up with my parents in our lobby at 8am for our 8:05 reservation at The Wave for breakfast! We enjoyed it very much, as we did the first time. It was my parents first time dining there and they agreed that it hit the spot!!

Afterwards we took a walk over to MK to catch a bus to the Swan/Dolphin and then walked over to Fantasia mini golf. Upon arriving we had about a 10 minute wait. Our party of 7 had to be separated into a group of 3 and group of 4, which was fine by us. We were still close by eachother. It was VERY hot and we were all covered in sweat by the end.


Afterwards we walked back over to the Swan and hopped in a boat to Hollywood studios. Upon arriving there we hopped a bus to Coronado Springs to see my parents hotel room. We loved the new Grand Destino tower!! It's beautiful. We cooled off in their room and felt much better. Then we went to the lobby to have some drinks and a few appetizers.






Heading to Disney Springs soon. Will update later.

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/24 Day 10 Second half

So after we finished up at Coronado Springs we headed to Disney Springs. We started with the marketplace, since its my favorite part...I'm nostalgic like that. The newer section to me is just like any high end outdoor shopping mall and loses a little of the Disney charm. Though I do love the "springs" because of the beauty color of the water.

My youngest decided to buy a star wars Lego at the Lego store. We typically let our kids but one souvenir a piece when we come down. Anything additional they want they need to buy with their own money.

We went into the cute little irish store connected to the Raglan Road restaurant. My parents purchased two Guinness beer glasses for their collection at home.


I typically buy a zip up hoodie Everytime I come, but this time most of the sweatshirts have been pullover, which I hate, because Everytime you pull it over your head it messes up your hair. So I prefer zipup. The only ones I've seen so far I liked we're a expedition Everest one (which they didn't have my size) and a star wars one, but I'm wondering if it looks too guyish. Any opinions? And I don't love star wars, just like the look and material of the sweatshirt.

We browsed around shops for a couple hours and then went to our dinner at House of Blues. I had the pulled pork sandwich, which was delicious!! My dad got beef brisket tacos which he enjoyed too! I've always had a good meal there, it's never overly crowded and it's pretty affordable for Disney standards so that keeps me coming back.



After that, we all decided to part ways back to our hotel since we are meeting up early tomorrow at Epcot!!!

A much more busy day tomorrow...so stay tuned

 

[Minniemoo15]

Thanks for your report! I was looking for an arrival dinner on the monorail for us (we are staying at Poly). You have convinced me that The Wave is the way to go.

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

Thanks for your report! I was looking for an arrival dinner on the monorail for us (we are staying at Poly). You have convinced me that The Wave is the way to go.

You won't regret it! Glad I could help!!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/25. Day 11

Today was a very long day! It was the last day my parents were going to be in visiting with us in Disney. We met at Epcot at 9 a.m. The first ride we did was spaceship earth because there was no line upon walking into the park. Then it was 9:30 a.m. and we went to ride soarin which was only a 15 minute wait. We've been in Disney since the 15th and the crowds were way worse than they've ever been for our trips in August before. However today the crowds were amazingly low. Soarin's wait was very low all day. We weren't bumping into other people when walking, it was like night and day. So I'm gathering a lot of people left yesterday. My parents had never been on soarin and my father gets very motion sick as do I. But since soarin didn't bother me much except for two parts where I close my eyes, I brought my parents on. surprisingly my father loved it and they both really enjoyed that right a lot they said it was the best one they did all day!!

Then we quickly hit living with the land with fastpasses! My favorite ride!

After that we went on figment because it was also no wait. After that we headed directly into the Pixar short films which were starting with in a minute. It was very hot today when standing in the sun, the latter part of the day had a breeze, but heat was very noticeable.

Our second Fastpass of the day was up next at 11:20 which was the Epcot character spot. I wanted one place where we could get quite a few pictures with my parents!! This fit the bill and we only waited about 10 min with the Fastpass.

After that we walked over into Mexico and did the Mexican boat ride. after that we went next door to Frozen my parents rode with my husband and my youngest. It was a 35 minute wait and I just didn't feel like waiting that long since it's not one of my favorite rides. So me and my two older children walked around in the Norway gift shops. I absolutely love all the sweatshirts and coats that they have in that store. We also took the obligatory photo with the giant troll!


By then it was 1:05 and we had our lunch reservation at the coral reef. I ordered a sirloin steak as did almost everyone else in my party because none of us eat seafood. It may seem a strange choice of restaurant when we don't like seafood but we love the ambiance of the aquarium and figured my five-year-old would like it! The food was excellent and the service was also very quick and friendly! I've never understood why people say bad things about it because we've always had a good meal there! the only thing I wish was different was that the butter was served soft, it was cold and hard, though the rolls we're warm which helped it spread.

At the end of the meal I went to the bathroom, I've been noticing that the bathrooms in the restaurants are very dirty in comparison with the ones that are in the park. so I've started leaving the restaurants to go find the closest park bathrooms to use instead.

Then we had a little bit of time so we went on the Nemo ride. The time was approaching 2:45 so we headed over to our behind the seeds tour!! I had done this to her once many years ago before my youngest was born and we enjoyed it, so we booked one with my parents! it was very informative and fun the kids enjoyed feeding the fish and my youngest is very into gardening & hydroponics so he asked a lot of questions. The only downside is they used to allow the children to release of vial of ladybugs and they no longer do that. So keep that in mind when choosing to book. Most children I would think should be 6 or older to go on this tour, as it's a lot of walking and it gets very hot.



Then we decided to park hop on the monorail over to magic kingdom. The crowds here were also extremely low!!! It was magical!!

Upon entering the park we headed straight to people-mover because our legs were very tired and we wanted a longer ride with a rest. after that we were still very sweaty from the beginning of the day so we did carousel of Progress which finally allowed us to dry off. An oldie but a goodie!!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/25 Day 11 Continued.....

We were able to get some last-minute fast passes for jungle Cruise so we hopped on that. We had a fabulous experience. Our skipper was fabulous!! The name on her nametage was Jamie, but she called herself Sara Kate!! She had one joke I had never heard before when we reached the hippos.. she said don't worry I'll scare them away like I do all people.. then she turned and yelled at the hippos "commitment" it was hysterical!!


We had eaten dinner and weren't super hungry but knew we should eat something. We stopped and got my youngest a fruit bowl and a Mickey pretzel. all the varsity of us had it over to storybook treats and got the Minnie mouse hot fudge sundae which was amazing!! It really hit the spot! No line for that either! Then I noticed today they reopened the new widened path to the left of the castle! So I took a pic for you all!


The lights were all on and magic kingdom looked fantastic, so we stayed a little longer and grabbed a last minute Ariel ride. Mine train was down unfortunately because my youngest was hoping to ride it today, didn't happen. By then it was 8:40pm and we decided to call it a night. we got a last family photo in front of the castle all lit up and then left magic kingdom. My parents are headed back home early tomorrow morning so we didn't stay out too late!

It was a fabulous day!!

Tomorrow is our last full day at Disney since we head out Tuesday morning. And we are headed too......Hollywood Studios!
Stay tuned ...

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/26 Day 12. First half of day!!

This morning we headed over to Hollywood Studios( my least favorite park). Upon entering the park we headed over to meet BB8 because we had skipped him last time due to a longer wait. It was posted 10 minute wait, but we were the only ones there so it went really quick. He loved to hear that we met Chewbacca, but got worried about us joining the dark side when we told him we met Kylo Ren too. On the way through the star wars giftshop my two youngest played with the light sabers (no surprise) and my DH picked out a really cute hat for himself. It's a gray jersey look material with metal silver lettering that says Lucasfilms. He looks good in it....but since I don't post family pics on here you'll just have to trust me .

We had Slinky Fp for my DH and youngest. So we went straight there after bb8. When my 5 year old got off he said it was really fast, he had only done barnstormer before. He said he would not go on this again until he's bigger. My DH said that it was much faster and larger then mine train. So for any of you looking for a good transition from barnstormer to something bigger, he suggests mine train before Slinky!!

We then went to see the Muppet show, as we have many trips before. It was cute as always and provided some much needed AC.

Then we stopped in the Muppet gift shop. I saw a picture from UP that was beautiful and sent it to my sister in law because her nursery was supposed to be UP themed.

Then we had toy story mania Fastpasses for me and my two older children. my oldest decided not to ride so that my younger one could which was very nice of him. We waited about 20 minutes even with a FastPass which was our longest FastPass wait by a lot!! When we got out we were 5 minutes late to our lunch reservation already...so u walked very fast.

We had lunch at Hollywood and Vine because they just started with the characters in their Halloween costumes!!! We met Minnie, Mickey, Donald, daisy and goofy! The character interaction was great, our waiter was fabulous, and the Halloween desserts impressed. The food was middle of the road, as most buffets are. It was a good last table service meal for our trip. They even have us little gift bags upon leaving with a few small candies inside per person, which was a nice touch! I was told Donald was in a new Halloween costume this year and I enjoyed it a lot! See the photo below.






Now we're back at our room doing laundry and packing for our trip home tomorrow. If we get enough done we are headed back out tonight hopefully somewhere fun!

Stay tuned for the second half of today!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/26 Day 12 second half of day!

Well we had ambitious plans but those ended up by the wayside. after getting all of our laundry done and getting ourselves pre-packed for tomorrow, we decided to take the kids down to the arcade in the contemporary. it's something we've never utilized at a Disney resort before but they all really like arcade game so we figured we'd give it a try. We were going to head over to magic kingdom but it started storming and raining so we figured we'd stay in.


After playing lots of video games for about an hour, which was how long it took us to use about 2,000 points on a card in case anyone is wondering. the best part is that all the games in there are very family-friendly there are no shooting games which I appreciated.

Then most of us came back to the room to eat leftover groceries we had from garden grocer that we never got around to for dinner. But me and my five-year-old split a barbecue chicken pizza from Contempo Cafe. It really hit the spot.

Now the kids are all getting their showers and since we won't have time tomorrow morning to do it. It's still storming so its lasting longer then normal.

Oh, and I did go back down to the gift shop to buy that Black Star wars sweatshirt. I decided to wear it home!! Happy I did it!

I will post a wrap-up post tomorrow once we have officially left Disney world!!

 

[Gerweniel]

I've enjoyed your report and pictures. Get home safely!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

8/27 Day 13

Headed to the airport on magical express this morning at 7:15am. Shortly after boarding the bus we got an email from JetBlue that our flight was delayed...ugghh. second delayed flight from this vacation. We get in much later now then intended which is annoying since we have a lot to do before tomorrow when my oldest starts school and I start a new job. So is life....

At least they have some interesting shops to look around in.

Overall the trip was one of our best! Kids behaved, it only rained a handful of times for very short periods and the transportation (bus, monorail) was very efficient. We love the convenience of BLT and being able to walk to MK. I don't love the pool there, I felt that it was kind of small for the size of the resort, but it served its purpose. Having the boat to get to other resorts was nice as well. It's our 2nd time staying at BLT and it likely won't be our last. Though our favorite is Kidani.

We enjoyed most of our dining choices, though Storybook dining we would not do again!

One thing I would really like...is charging stations within the parks. You need MDE a lot while in the parks as well as taking picturres, which runs your battery, and if you don't go back to your room at all it's tough to conserve your phone battery. So that's what thing I hope they bring in the future!!

Thanks for reading along and joining me the past two weeks! If you have any questions on our experiences, hotel, dining etc don't hesitate to ask!!

See ya real soon!!

 

[Gerweniel]

Thanks for your report! Safe travels and best wishes for your new job! I'm going to brave the terrine appetizer @ Storybook as I really want to see the Evil Queen. I leave in 11 days and couldn't be more excited.