17 Disney Days! Too much? 5 kids! Too many?!

Congrats on your new baby too! Our new baby is due New Year's week so we will be celebrating both a new year and a new bundle of joy :goodvibes I have to commend you on making all of those neat matching shirts and all the other custom goodies for your trip. To do all that along with planing your trip, caring for and adjusting to a newborn baby, and taking care of four other young children is truly inspiring :worship:

That's great! How exciting!


Crazy might be a better word for us than inspiring! We're really paying for dragging the kids on such a long trip now. Everyone got run down and ate too much sugar so their immunity is down. Zoe is fighting a fever, Jacob pink eye, and Ella an ear infection. All while I am back to work and we're still trying to get in the groove of normal life. :sad2: My kids are so rarely sick... I feel bad for wearing them out and letting them eat junk!
 
After our nice (and HOT) day at Animal Kingdom, we couldn't wait to hit the pool back at POP Century!

Ella and I took a detour through the cafeteria after arriving by bus. Entering from the store, I saw the station I had been looking for the night before but couldn't find...ice cream! One thing I remembered from the last time we stayed at a value resort 8 years ago was making ice cream sandwiches from freshly baked cookies and your choice of ice cream.

I was looking for a snack and couldn't resist. I could have chosen other kinds of cookies, but stuck with chocolate chip and I also stuck with vanilla ice cream. Maybe boring, but good!


The pool was a nice cool relief! I enjoyed the music and the kids enjoyed the activities. I didn't think Marc would do the photo scavenger hunt with them, since it was getting close to dinner time and they would be running all over the place, so they started late. I didn't think they stood a chance of winning either, so I was so surprised that the winners arrived 10 seconds before them! That drove Jacob nuts!

We didn't want to go back to the room or get dressed to eat dinner, so we all dried off and sat outside the cafeteria while Marc went in to get food for everyone. Of course it took a long time having to go to several stations.

Marc had the veggie burger again.


I had the bacon cheddar angus burger.

It was a pretty good burger at least for this type of restaurant. The fries were good too.

You can see Jacob's kids meal in the background of these pictures, A hotdog, grapes, carrots, and water.
Everything was at least as good as you'd expect from a counter service restaurant maybe a little better, until...

Ella and Zoe had macaroni and cheese. I don't know if the menu board indicated it was baked or not since I didn't go in, but it certainly looks less than appetizing. Ella ate a little but overall it was a flop. It was dry and I'm not sure what the crumbly stuff was on top (I assume bread crumbs) but it didn't add anything good to it and made it look burnt in our opinion.


And finally the worst meal of this evening...

What?! No picture? I think Disney may have had their secret agents delete it from my camera for fear of word spreading about the ridiculousness of this entrée! Max asked for the Italian sausage kids meal. He got a very small portion of bun with exactly 2 small slices of Italian sausage (see the picture of my pasta from the night before) covered in marinara sauce and a few sautéed green pepper and onion pieces which he did not appreciate. There was less than an ounce of meat on this "Italian Sausage Sandwich." Pitiful. He didn't even try it anyway, but it had been so long before Max decided he wouldn't eat it that Marc didn't feel right about going in and asking to have it exchanged for a hotdog or something else.

Here is our dessert tray:

One of the kids had pudding. Two others asked to split the tie die cheesecake. The ice cream sundae was for me and another kids to split. And the cupcake was for Marc.

Again the service was lacking... Marc told them at the register when he went to pay for the other desserts that he wanted to get a sundae but didn't know if he was supposed to pay for it now or at the ice cream counter. They said he could pay there and then take the receipt to the counter and they would make him whatever he wanted. He said he didn't know what he wanted to order yet. She said, that's okay, I'll just charge you for a sundae and even if you order something more expensive that would be okay. So he paid and went to the ice cream counter.

They were also onboard with him ordering whatever he wanted even though he had paid for a slightly less expensive item. He ordered a brownie sundae with 2 scoops of chocolate ice cream and one scoop of vanilla. At first they put all chocolate ice cream on and when they realized it, Marc said it was fine, but they insisted on remaking it. This all sounds strange, but fine so far, right? Well we ended up with a regular sundae (no brownie) with 2 scoops vanilla and 1 scoop chocolate after all of that. Whatever! We didn't bother saying anything.

Marc took the cupcake back to the room and we tried it later. I'm not sure what it was called, Maybe "The King" but it was designed to be the flavors Elvis supposedly liked. The cake was chocolate, it had a peanut butter frosting with candied bacon sprinkles and banana filling.


Neither of us liked it. I knew I wouldn't, but Marc always likes to try strange flavor combinations. (It would have been good without the banana filling and bacon topping!)
 
Since both the breakfast sandwich and muffin were a bomb yesterday, Marc brought me a breakfast platter from the cafeteria this morning. It was huge and each kid picked something off of it in addition to eating their instant oatmeal.



The food was okay. I wish I could just get a couple of fried eggs and some fresh berries. I guess I am spoiled by DVC rooms where I can get just that since they have a full kitchen. Not complaining...I just don't like/eat fast food and the food court offerings are awfully similar.
 


I just started reading along, and am enjoying your TR and blog!

I noticed you flew out of O'Hare - so you must be from the Chicago area? We're on the Illinois/Iowa border, so we might be sort-of-neighbors!

I have to agree with your kids that the tie-dye cheesecake looks like playdough - although I have to admit I have a thing about not eating food that is a non-natural color. Especially blue. I don't know why, but anything blue just looks fake to me! :rotfl:

I love the t-shirts, too! We did matching trips for the 5 of us on our trip. I used namefills from marneb over on the Creative DISigns board. It was so much fun!

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!
 
I just started reading along, and am enjoying your TR and blog!

I noticed you flew out of O'Hare - so you must be from the Chicago area? We're on the Illinois/Iowa border, so we might be sort-of-neighbors!

I have to agree with your kids that the tie-dye cheesecake looks like playdough - although I have to admit I have a thing about not eating food that is a non-natural color. Especially blue. I don't know why, but anything blue just looks fake to me! :rotfl:

I love the t-shirts, too! We did matching trips for the 5 of us on our trip. I used namefills from marneb over on the Creative DISigns board. It was so much fun!

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

Thanks for reading along! I will have to find time to read your report too. I want to see your shirts!

We are in the far west suburbs of Chicago (in the Fox Valley.) I had to drive to Iowa last Friday to the chiropractic school in Davenport. Are you in that area?

Edit: Just had to say that I took a quick peek at your TR and your kids are so cute. I look forward to reading yours too!
 


Lunch today was at the Plaza Restaurant. It is located at the end of Main Street closest to the castle. The adjoining ice cream shop is pictured here.


Surprisingly, this is the first time we have dined here. It looked very busy and is quite a small restaurant. We had an ADR and were seated pretty quickly. That was the only thing quick about this place though. It took a long time for our waitress to come, it took a long time to get our drinks. I bet we hadn't even ordered until we sat there 20 minutes or so.

I had Chicken Strawberry Salad without the gorgonzola
Here is the description: fresh garden greens, grilled chicken breast, fresh strawberries, gorgonzola cheese, tossed in a white zinfandel vinaigrette dressing


Marc had the Plaza Club with broccoli slaw:
-smoked ham, turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise layered on toasted multi-grain bread


Marc and I both thought the food was good. He especially enjoyed the broccoli slaw. The food quality did not however merit a two hour dining experience! The only way to describe how slow the service was, is to tell you that Zoe took a nap during lunch but did not miss a thing.

I should also mention that the mayor of Main Street came in for some kind of interactive entertainment during lunch. We were in the far room, so did not really catch what was going on.

Three of the kids had peanut butter and jelly sandwich kids meals for lunch. It's cute that they cut it in a Mickey head shape, but it makes it even smaller. Here is a picture next to my 4 year old's hand.


Jacob wanted tomato soup which was offered as a kid's meal appetizer, but he wanted a bigger portion to serve as his lunch. Unfortunately he didn't like it. (Sorry the picture is after he stirred in the croutons and tasted it.)


The real draw of this restaurant is the ice cream creations. We had plenty of time to contemplate what we wanted as we saw lots go by to other tables. You could guess who was on a dining plan there by seeing tables where everyone had there own huge dessert (much of which went to waste.)

The kids meals included a choice of the Mickeylodeon (not described on the menu, but we guessed was a sundae), milk and cookies, or fresh fruit.

Ella picked the milk and cookies:


Jacob and Max got the Mickeylodeon:


And Zoe, Marc, and I shared a brownie sundae: (It's even bigger than it appears, and was quite delicious!)


If not for the extremely slow nature of the service, we would surely dine here again. I think it was just our waitress, so we may give it another try anyway.
 
We decided to walk across Hourglass Lake to Art of Animation Resort. We wanted a new selection of food and also wanted to see the resort. We will be staying there a few nights when we go back in November.

There a few pictures of the scenery in our blog.

Here is the inside of the cafeteria:


It is set up almost exactly like Everything POP and the other large food courts/ cafeterias/ quick service at the value resorts. There are many stations serving different food. You order and pick up your food from each station and then pay for it at a central check out.

So again, for the seven of us including a baby and rambunctious toddler, we had the same problem of it taking a long time to go through this process and not having enough hands to carry food even if we did try to get it all at once.


The food choices are unique here. And the ice cream counter is actually a gelato counter here.

This time, Marc got the kids their food first while I waited at a table with Zach and Zoe.

Max had mini corndogs and fries. He apparently liked the presentation.


Jacob had a grilled cheese sandwich which I just noticed is in the shape of a goldfish. He says he loved it. I've never heard him say that about grilled cheese before!


Ella had the kids' cheese pizza. And Zoe just shared with everybody.


Then he went to get my meal and by the time he came back, the kids were finished eating.
I had a meatball sandwich with Ceasar salad. They would not let us substitute the salad for anything else. I had had enough salad today since my lunch was a salad, but that's okay, the sandwich was filling enough and the few bites of the salad I had was good.


We ate in shifts tonight. I was finished by the time he brought his food back. Oh well. It was relatively peaceful. Marc claims his meal here was his favorite of the whole trip!
He thinks his entrée was called Buttered Chicken, but the closest thing I could find on online menus was this:
Tandori Boneless Chicken Thigh - with Naan bread and 2 sides
Side Items: Roasted Cauliflower with Tomatoes, Acorn Squash, Spinach and Paneer cheese, Basmati rice, multigrain rice, pickled vegetables or slow-cooked lentils


Don't forget dessert!

The boys picked a muffin and a cookie

The rest of us shared the next two desserts...
A brownie that probably had a special name but I don't remember it. This looked like it would be too sweet for me, but it was really good and the consistency of the brownie was almost like it was undercooked, but it tasted so good that way!


Mini cupcakes: red velvet, carrot, vanilla, chocolate
These weren't as moist as the full size cupcakes we've had from other places around WDW.


I didn't prefer this restaurant over Everything POP, but Marc did. He is really looking forward to eating there again when we stay there in November. To be fair, I didn't really get to see much of the menu so my viewpoint is limited. I did like that they had real utensils instead of eating with plastic ones.
 
I love your report and you have a beautiful family.

I was tempted to read ahead, but I am enjoying the extended posting here added to your blog, so I will wait. Looking forward to more. :thumbsup2
 
Just found your report, love it! Your kids are so adorable! My youngest is 13 but he still gets excited when we go to Disney. Can't wait for our next trip!
 
I love your report and you have a beautiful family.

I was tempted to read ahead, but I am enjoying the extended posting here added to your blog, so I will wait. Looking forward to more. :thumbsup2

Yay! Thanks! I plan to add some more this afternoon. Good to know there are people reading along!!!
 
Just found your report, love it! Your kids are so adorable! My youngest is 13 but he still gets excited when we go to Disney. Can't wait for our next trip!

Thank you! I often wonder how our Disney trips will change as our kids get older. So far, my almost nine year old still gets so excited and even likes getting character autographs and taking pictures with characters even thought they talk all the time about how it's just some person inside a costume. However, their love for Disney changes, I'm sure it will still be a lot of fun!
 
Today we slept in a little (or at least tried), packed up all of our stuff, and called to have it moved over to Bay Lake Tower for us. It's great that Disney will move your luggage from one hotel to another free of charge.

We didn't have any plans (read Fast Passes) at EPCOT until 10am, so we all ate breakfast at Everything POP today.

We sought out the area with a TV for a relatively quiet breakfast.


Most of us had the POP waffle:

I would have chosen French toast and one of the kids wanted pancakes, but we only wanted to stand in one line, so we agreed on waffles.
Again, the service was disappointing here. Not only did it take forever to get our food even though there were just a couple people before us in the line, but they also were going to leave off the meat. I asked if it was included (since the menu board pictures it that way) and she said, "Yes, you can get it with bacon or sausage."
"Is it less money to get it without," I asked. :confused:
"No," she replied.
And then it took several more minutes to get the meat. :sad2:

Meanwhile, Marc was waiting in a different line to get his food which went much faster. He skipped the line he really wanted because it was too long and ended up with this platter instead...


Glad to be done with this food court, we headed to EPCOT and would be looking forward to Contempo Café instead of Everything POP tonight!
 
Thank you! I often wonder how our Disney trips will change as our kids get older. So far, my almost nine year old still gets so excited and even likes getting character autographs and taking pictures with characters even thought they talk all the time about how it's just some person inside a costume. However, their love for Disney changes, I'm sure it will still be a lot of fun!

I am sure it depends on the family. But my 18 & 19 year old daughters still love to go too! This year for the first time we are going on two trips. First in November with our son then in march with our daughters. Hopefully next year we will find a time that all three kids can go together.
 

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