A Veritable Explosion of Pixie Dust:Our Land and Sea Extravaganza--Update(6/12)

[fnrsgrl]

We continued our meandering float trip:

We hopped out, and after a quick trip to get our towels:

And a run-in with my favorite character:

We headed over to do the three "falls" slides.

Here and here are the videos.

Next, I spent some time in the wave pool, while Josh went off to do the bigger slides.

Here is a little video I cut together of all of our time in the wave pool that day.

When Josh got back, we realized we were starting to get a little short on time, so we would need to make a plan for the next two or so hours before it was time to head out. First, we went to Surf Doggies and ordered a hot dog and nachos to share.

I forgot to take a picture until after we had eaten the hotdog, so just imagine a regular old standard hot dog. The food was decent, about what you would expect from a stand in a water park.

I don't have any pics of the next little bit because we kind of felt like we had enough pictures of those things, but we did one more Crush N Gusher slide, another full loop of Castaway Creek and spent a few more minutes in the wave pool.

Before we left, we had to do something that's kind of a Disney tradition for us. We got mini donuts! These are so delicious,I just have to have them whenever we are there. We also picked up a strawberry slush from a different stand.

Here is video of the tiny donut-making machine.

At this point, it was about three o'clock, and we had a dinner reservation, so it was time to head back to the resort to nap briefly and get cleaned up. See ya real soon, Typhoon Lagoon!

Up next: Signature Dining

 

[fnrsgrl]

My Favorite Way to Watch Wishes
Wednesday, May 16: Part Three​

After a wonderful day at Typhoon Lagoon, Josh and I headed back to Port Orleans to get ready for our dinner reservation. We actually had enough time for a short nap before getting changed and heading out.

We caught a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then took the monorail to the Contemporary, where we had reservations at my favorite restaurant in Disney World--California Grill!

We were pretty early, so we wandered around for a while, taking in the decor and doing some shopping.

Soon, it was time for our meal, and we headed up the elevator to the top floor and were seated right away.

We got some delicious crusty bread with sea salt butter.

Then, we ordered appetizers. I had the Sonoma Goat Cheese Ravioli.

This may possibly be my favorite food of all time, anywhere. I order it every time I go to California Grill, and if they take it off the menu during the revamp, I may never recover!

Josh had the Spicy Kazan Roll.

He loved this and has been raving about it ever since. It had just the right amount of spice for him.

We ordered our entrees, and then it was time for Wishes! We always schedule our California Grill ADR during Wishes, as it is our favorite place to watch the show from. We headed out to the balcony, umbrella in tow(it had started raining again), and, weirdly enough, some guy tried to buy it from us for twenty bucks, because he didn't want to get wet. He was seriously pushy about it, and he seemed really angry when we said no. Umm. . .we didn't want to get wet either, and it was our umbrella! It was really strange. Anyway, soon the show began.

Here is Josh's video.

When the fireworks were over, we headed back in, and our waiter brought our entrees right away. I had my other California Grill fave, the Pork Tenderloin with goat cheese polenta.

I love, love, love this! On this particular night, however, my love was slightly dampened by the heavy-handedness with the sauce. It was kind of hard to taste the pork around it. Oh, well--still awesome.

Josh had the Oak-Fired Filet of Beef.

He loved this! The beef was cooked perfectly,and I can attest that the horseradish mashed potatoes were delicious! We perused the dessert menu.

I decided on the Amarena Cherry Cremeaux.

This was just okay. It was basically creme brulee with some cherry stuff.

Josh had the Valrhona Chocolate Cake.

Which was amazingly delicious, as usual. I took a bathroom break, and was amused to see that they still had working payphones. Haven't seen one of those in a while!

We soon finished up, and since the Magic Kingdom was closed, we asked what would be the best way to get back to POR. We were told we could still catch a bus at the MK, but the monorail was closed, so we should walk over. Thus began one of the less magical experiences of our trip. First of all, it was raining, but we figured we had our umbrella, so no big deal. Secondly, being that we were dressed up, I was wearing four-inch heels. Now, I'm great in heels, but that distance, in the rain, after a rather long and exhausting day, was akin to torture. Then, we got there and were informed that the last bus had just left. Disney being Disney, the incredibly nice dispatcher was kind enough to call in another bus for us, and he did so with a phenomenally good attitude. As much could not be said, however, for the bus driver, who was clearly very angry about being called back in, and drove at speeds, and with such carelessness(in the rain, mind you) that we were actually rather nervous. We did make it back to our resort safely, and were rather glad for our warm dry bed, which we headed straight for! Next time, I think we'll save some CM's the irritation, and if it's late, take a taxi!

Next up: Takin' it Easy

 

[fnrsgrl]

The Tomorrow That Never Was and Always Will Be
Thursday, May 17: Part One​

Once again on this bright and sunny morning, Josh and I were out the door before the rest of our party(I forgot to mention that the previous day was planned as a date day for the two of us because my in-laws don't do waterparks), so we all made plans to meet up somewhere in the Magic Kingdom once they were ready. Josh and I quickly caught a bus over and arrived about twenty minutes after opening. We cleared security and headed in.

This seemed to be my trip for character hunting as another one of my most wanted characters was waiting very soon after we entered the park. We hopped in the short line and took some pictures while we waited.

We soon reached the front, and I was able to meet for the first time. . . . Daisy Duck! She was a lot of fun and loved our anniversary buttons.

After our meet and greet, we headed up Main Street in search of breakfast.

We stopped for a little photoshoot on the way.

We ended up at the Main Street bakery, where we enjoyed this warm fluffy cinnamon roll and some grapes before moving on.

We had decided to just sort of "go with the flow" on this day, and do whatever appealed to us at the moment, and since we usually start in Adventureland/Frontierland, we decided to begin our day in Tomorrowland, so we continued toward the right side of the castle.

In this little garden,

We found another PP photographer, and stopped, of course!

Continued in next post

 

[fnrsgrl]

After the pictures were done, we headed into Tomorrowland.

Our first stop was the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, which only had a very short wait for the next show.

There are so many fun little touches in the waiting areas for this show!

Soon, we entered the main show area, and really enjoyed the show. Having filled the laugh canister(and snapped a quick pic on our way out), we made our way out of the theater.

Our next attraction choice was Stitch's Great Escape, which is one of my favorites purely because I absolutely adore Stitch!

Having gotten our fill of a certain blue troublemaker, we headed back out into the sunshine,

Checked out the Merchant of Venus store,

And, noticing that it was short, got in the line for Buzz Lightyear.

Josh got a very nice score.

We looked around the gift shop, and I bought some little green alien figurines. I didn't buy this shirt, but I really liked it!

Continued in next post

 

[fnrsgrl]

After we saved the galaxy, we decided on a tamer ride and headed for the always line-free Peoplemover.

I love this ride! It's soooo relaxing and a really pretty way to see Tomorrowland.

We took a leisurely stroll through Tomorrowland.

And decided to finish up our tour of the future with Space Mountain, which had a pretty short wait.

Up next: More Characters!

 

[fnrsgrl]

The White Rabbit, Gooey Butter Cake and My First Daytime Parade
Thursday, May 17: Part Two
​

Having finished with Tomorrowland, we moved counter-clockwise to Fantasyland. Near the teacups, we saw Alice again--only, this time, she was with the White Rabbit. Obviously, I had to go meet him!

We continued walking through Fantasyland and soon came upon the construction walls. Josh was jumping up with the camera held over his head and randomly snapping pics in hopes of getting something interesting.

We made a pit stop near Pinocchio's Village Haus to use the restroom.

Next, we headed for Mickey's Philharmagic, which just so happens to be another personal favorite of mine!

Soon, our adventure was over, and we headed back out into Fantasyland.

Continued in next post.

 

[fnrsgrl]

After Philharmagic, we headed for Peter Pan's Flight.

Unfortunately, the wait was prohibitive, so we moved on.

Next thing we knew, we had entered Liberty Square. Our plan was to eat lunch at Columbia Harbor House.

However, neither of of us was really hungry yet, so we decided to do some shopping at the Yankee Trader.

Josh bought the silicone Mickey head ice cube mold, and then we decided to do the Haunted Mansion, and then, hopefully, we would be ready for lunch!

Continued in next post.

 

[fnrsgrl]

Once we had rejoined the living, we decided that we were indeed ready for lunch, so we headed back to Columbia Harbor House.

We got our food and went upstairs to eat it. I had the Broccoli Peppercorn Salad,which was delicious! I would order it again in a heartbeat.

I also had an apple pie.

Josh had the fried fish, a cup of clam chowder and also an apple pie. It was all good but nothing spectacular.

Continued in next post.

 

[fnrsgrl]

After lunch, it was time to explore Liberty Square.

We noticed Tiana greeting people in her garden, and went to join the line. A cast member let us know that the line had been cut off, and if we wanted to meet Tiana, we would have to show up half an hour before the next meet and greet. That gave us enough time to go do some more exploring, so we started by checking out the Christmas shop.

One of these days, I'm going to get another Christmas tree, so that I can make it a Disney tree! We looked around the rest of Liberty Square.

Then, we still had some time, so we moved on to Frontierland.

Josh checked out the shooting gallery.

We did some shopping.

And then we went to get some Splash Mountain Fastpasses.

It was time to line up for Tiana, so we walked back in that direction.

Continued in next post

 

[fnrsgrl]

We reached Tiana's greeting area at exactly the time we were told, but we were the very last ones allowed in line! On top of the thirty minutes before the greet started, we also had to wait through a huge line ahead of us. Apparently, Tiana is very popular! The CM in charge of the line was really friendly, and he and Josh had a long chat about superheroes and sci-fi movies and all that.

The mayor came by while we were waiting.

After what felt like a million years in line, it was our turn!

Tiana was amazing! She knew a ton about cooking, and after finding out where we were from, she even asked us about gooey butter cake, which is a local specialty. I was really impressed--totally worth the wait. The other great thing about waiting to see Tiana is that we were perfectly positioned for an incredible view of the afternoon parade, which I had never seen before. We were able to watch it by looking over a little bridge near the castle.

Here is Josh's video of the parade.

Up next: Our gorgeous day goes a bit awry.

 

[Mom2m&k]

Your trip report is great! You are doing a fantastic job for your first one...your pictures are beautiful! I am impressed you wore skirts/dresses everyday! They are adorable. I always pack them but then chicken out and never wear them! Can't wait to hear about the cruise.

 

[fnrsgrl]

Your trip report is great! You are doing a fantastic job for your first one...your pictures are beautiful! I am impressed you wore skirts/dresses everyday! They are adorable. I always pack them but then chicken out and never wear them! Can't wait to hear about the cruise.

Thank you so much! I love taking pictures--I would love to go back to school for it someday. I really looked for light, shortish(but not mini) sundresses because I thought they would be the coolest thing possible, and May in Florida is hot! I can't wait to get to the cruise, either. It was amazing!!

 

[fnrsgrl]

Magic Kingdom Mayhem
Thursday, May 17: Part Three​

After the parade was finished, we decided to explore the only land we had left--Adventureland!

We decided to ride Pirates, since the line was very short.

I love the gift shop at the end. It has many fun and unique souvenirs!

It was time for us to use our Splash Mountain Fastpasses, so we left Adventureland and headed back over to Frontierland.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, Splash Mountain was broken down, and they weren't sure when it would be back up. The CM at the Fastpass queue said that they would honor Fastpasses from that time frame later, so we decided to take a spin on the Railroad and see if Splash was running again by the time we got back.

It was at this point that things went a little crazy. On the train, we had an incident that I don't wish to go into too much detail about except to say that another park guest, with whom we had been required to share a seat, caused us to be exposed to something rather unpleasant. I was very upset, so we got off at the next stop in Main Street and headed straight for the First Aid building in hopes that they would have what was required to minimize the chances that this exposure would result in a problem for us. They did not, but they told us we could get a taxi at the TTC that could take us to an off-property pharmacy. We hopped a monorail over, and, I have to say that our taxi driver, although a little hard to understand, was wonderful! He got us to a pharmacy and back to our resort quickly, where we took precautions as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, we were now running very late for our dinner ADR, so Mom(we had decided not to meet up after all until dinner) called, and Disney was awesome enough to allow us to push our reservation back by a whole hour! As soon as we had gotten ourselves cleaned up and fixed up we headed straight over. Disaster averted!

Up next: Our unusual dinner entertainment.

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

Ok, I read your whole trip report today! Y'all look like so much fun! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[fnrsgrl]

Ok, I read your whole trip report today! Y'all look like so much fun! Can't wait to read more!!

Aww, thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

 

[fnrsgrl]

My Cousin and Her Maracas
Thursday, May 17art Four​

We rushed over to the Polynesian, and made it just in time for our new reservation at--Ohana! Before I get started with our experience this time, I just want to say that this was my second time at Ohana and everyone else's fifth or sixth time, and we normally love it! It must have just been a bad night.

We were seated quickly and the food came right away. First was the bread, which was good, but nothing special.

Then the salad which was crisp and fresh, with an interesting dressing.

Next were the wings and potstickers. I don't care for the wings, but everyone else loved them. Normally, the potstickers are my favorite part of this meal, but on this night, they were overcooked and too crispy to enjoy.

There were noodles and broccoli, which were both a bit bland.

Next came all of the meat, which again is normally great, but was really, really dry.

The real problem wasn't the food, however. It was the entertainment. The woman doing the "show" seemed drunk, and she was very loud and obnoxious and slurring her words. She shouted through the whole meal. We asked one of the servers about it, and he said that she was the backup entertainer and only there a couple of days a week. He also said that the CMs didn't much care for her either. At one point, she had these glittery maracas and was trying to get all the kids to parade around shaking them, but hardly any of them wanted to! Dad was getting really irritated, and made a comment about not wanting to hear any more of "my cousin and her maracas" while he was trying to eat. It was hilarious because he somehow made maracas sound like the most evil thing ever! If she's going to be the entertainment, we wouldn't go back.

Eventually, it was time for dessert. We really enjoyed the delicious bread pudding.

And some celebratory cupcakes.

Once we had finished our dinner, we decided to get in a little time at Downtown Disney, since we hadn't made it there at all yet. We got a bus over and were soon headed to Design-A-Tee.

Beth wanted to make a custom t-shirt to commemorate her graduation trip. While she did that, Mom and I browsed the attached scrapbooking shop, where I bought a scrapbooking kit and some stickers.

Next we headed to Basin, my favorite store at Disney, where I bought a couple of bath bombs.

Our last stop before closing time was the World of Disney,which we all browsed for half an hour or so.

Once the Marketplace closed, we got back together and went to the dock to take the boat back to POR.

There was a pretty significant wait, and we ended up on separate boats . We were going to be checking out the family's Royal Room, so we took a few pictures while we waited for their boat to arrive.

When they arrived, we all went together to check out their room. Apparently, I failed to take any overall pics, but here are some of the fun details.

Here is a video of the nifty headboard.


After that, we went straight to bed, in hopes of an early start the next day.

Up next: A ride breakdown

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!!

 

[fnrsgrl]

Count me in!!!

Hello! Thanks for joining in!

 

[fnrsgrl]

The One in Which We Spend an Eternity in Line
Friday, May 18: Part One​

On this day, we all got up insanely late. We needed to start out all together as a group so that we could get some pictures in our special matching t-shirts. The plan was to have an early lunch, get the pictures, take a quick spin on Toy Story Mania, and then Josh and I were going to head over to finish walking the World Showcase, since the rain had so rudely interrupted us on our previous visit. Josh and I were just a few minutes ahead of Mom, Dad and Beth, so we walked a bit more slowly than normal to the bus stop, taking some pictures of our beautiful resort along the way.

Once we had all met up at the bus stop, we caught a bus to DHS and were soon entering the park.

We stopped for a photographer near the hat, quickly put our t-shirts on over our regular clothes(it was way too hot to actually wear them) and had a fun little photo shoot.

We were all pretty hungry so we moved on quickly to Starring Rolls for lunch. I love this restaurant! It's great to have so many options for dessert, and the outside tables are really relaxing. We all had the exact same ham foccacia sandwich, and we all really liked it.

For dessert, Beth had the red velvet cupcake, which she loved.

Josh had tiramisu--his favorite!

Mom had the napoleon, which was delicious.

And I had the Banana Split, which was very tasty as well.

After lunch, we got some more pictures,

And headed for Toy Story.

Along the way, we saw a green army guy.

Continued in next post

 

[fnrsgrl]

There was a pretty long wait for Toy Story Mania, but we decided to get in line anyway.

At this point in the line, with about 40 minutes of wait time under our belts, there was an announcement. The ride had broken down, but should be up again fairly quickly. We spent about the next 15 to 20 minutes in this exact spot, playing cell phone games, listening to that announcement about five times, and getting annoyed.

Eventually, the line started moving again, and about ten or fifteen minutes later, we reached the ride platform.

Apparently, only a few cars are reserved for wheelchair users, and the line had gotten backed up from the delay, so because of the scooter,we spent another fifteen or twenty minutes waiting at the platform.

We did eventually get to ride, but, all told, our "quick trip" on Toy Story Mania had taken two hours. Therefore, Josh and I were rather anxious to move on once we got off the ride, and we headed straight for the boat dock to the Epcot Resort Area. While we waited in line, we watched this little guy.

Isn't he cute? Soon, we were on our way to our next park.

Up next: A journey around the world.