Pasta and Potatoes Conquer Orlando - October 2-10, 2013 (Updated 1/31)

[IowaTater]

Wow! What a whirlwind couple of months it's been!

We made it back from WDW in one piece and since then, I managed to make it back to Iowa for my sister's baby shower (which had it's fair share of disasters), saw Barenaked Ladies in concert for DH's birthday, watched my beloved Cardinals make it to the World Series (only to have them crash & burn in the end), and my part-time job has gone into complete Christmas season mode.

But I'm here...ready to finally start my TR.

Everyone all buckled in?? Good, because. Here. We. Go!!!

 

[SAT887]

Joining in from the Oct FB page! I'm going to read up when I have a bit more time!

 

[PrincessInOz]

 

[IowaTater]

That is what DH and I would randomly say to each other from the time we put the down payment on our trip up until we finally arrived at our resort.

"Guess what, honey? We're going to Walt Disney World!!"

And on October 2, 2013, our magical trip finally began. DH had to work the night before so I was left finalizing all the last minute details. I think we finally went to bed around 11 pm but of course, I barely slept.

I finally got out of bed around 5:30 am to get ready while DH slept for a bit longer. When he finally rolled out of bed at 6:30 am, we loaded up the car and drove to the in-laws' house. DFIL was dropping us off at the airport on his way to work, as our flight left at 9:05 am.

We made it to the airport, through check-in, and through security with no issues so after grabbing a bagel at a kiosk, we headed to our terminal. DH played on his laptop while I indulged in my favorite activity...people watching. It was so neat seeing all of the families with all their Disney things. We even were lucky enough to meet a Make-A-Wish family.

Unfortunately, flying makes me very nervous. It's not so much the height or fear of crashing. It's the fact that I'm always scared that I won't fit in the seats (which is my biggest fear everywhere). Since we had never flown AirTran before, I was even more nervous than usual. Luckily, they were very nice and discreet when I asked for a seat belt extension. The only minor issue I ran into was that our seats were in the emergency exit area so they had to move us to a different row.

After that, the flight was very relaxing. I had made a playlist for my MP3 player that included all kinds of Disney and Universal songs, which I listened to while I read my magazines that I had stockpiled for the trip. DH napped

We landed right on time and headed to the Magical Express location. Let me tell you, it was so nice not having to wait for our luggage! DH was a little apprehensive about it but he got over it by the time our luggage arrived in our room. I can honestly say, we <3 Magical Express!



We arrived at ASMu and got checked in. Then, hit the second minor snag of the trip. I had sent a box of food items & toiletries by UPS earlier in the week that was scheduled to arrive on the day of our check-in. I received a text message from UPS as soon as we landed that our package had been delivered. Unfortunately, the front desk did not have our package and we were informed that is was probably with all the other deliveries that they get but it would probably take a couple of days to find it. I politely explained that all of our toiletries were in that box and that we would need it sooner than that, to which the polite lady behind the desk informed me that I could buy whatever I needed in the gift shop I then explained to her that the whole reason we sent the box was so that we didn't have to buy the items in the gift shop. After making a few more phone calls, we were told that they would do their best to get our delivery to us by the following day.

Since I had no interest in wasting precious park time arguing with a CM, we headed to our room to unpack what luggage we did have.



Just the sight of this made me feel better. We quickly unpacked our luggage that we had and packed our park bag so we could head to MK. We were supposed to meet our friends, Mike and Daniella, there. We headed to our food court, got our mugs and a quick lunch (sorry, no pictures of that), then hopped the bus to MK.



We set a text message to our friends to find out where they were, stopped to get our PP+ card, and then of course had to get our first photograph PP+ was seriously the best investment we made. Otherwise, we would have had tons of pictures of just DH or just myself. Plus with as many rides we rode and characters we met, it just made more sense for us to get the PP+ card.




We attempted to find our friends but apparently kept missing them so DH and I decided to hit Philharmagic. Neither one of us had been to it and the wait was only about 5 minutes so we headed right to the front of the doors. We really liked it! It's very similar to MuppetVision in concept but I really liked all the Disney movie songs. DH and I even sang along!

Since it was getting late in the day and we still hadn't connected with our friends, DH and I decided to stakeout a spot for one of my favorite things...



I love this parade. It's so interactive and colorful and the music is so catchy! The last time I was at WDW, we didn't know about the parade and just barely caught a glimpse of it behind a sea of people. This time, we had a front row seat and I enjoyed every minute of it!


This little guy even tried to carry on a conversation with DH and I.

The first time of many I got goosebumps.




My favorite movie. I even named my first stuffed animal Elliott.

After the parade was over, DH and I decided to head back to our hotel room to get a good night's rest. Because the following day, we would be heading back to MK for a jam-packed day of fun!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Guess what?

We probably crossed each other in Main Street on this night. I was staking out a spot for the fireworks on Main Street and if you headed back to the resort after MSEP and walked down Main Street, you would have passed me somewhere outside the Bakery.


Great start. I hope that your package with the toiletries arrive sooner rather than later.

 

[IowaTater]

Guess what?

We probably crossed each other in Main Street on this night. I was staking out a spot for the fireworks on Main Street and if you headed back to the resort after MSEP and walked down Main Street, you would have passed me somewhere outside the Bakery.


Great start. I hope that your package with the toiletries arrive sooner rather than later.

Oh my goodness! It was so packed with people trying to leave and people trying to find places to view fireworks, all my attention was focused on not losing DH and not tripping over someone. Yet again, we were in the same park at the same time and we still managed to miss each other LOL.

 

[IowaTater]

Normally, DH and I like to sleep in but we knew that was NOT happening on this vacation! I had called the night before to set up a wake up call and at 6:00 am sharp, Mike Wazowski was calling us to get our lazy bums out of bed!

After hitting the shower and reloading our park bag, we were on our way back to MK! Luckily, our UPS delivery was sitting in our room with our luggage when we arrived back the night before so we also grabbed a couple of little boxes of cereal for breakfast because we had very important lunch reservations that day.

MK was having EMH that morning so the entrance was barely crowded at all. We got to enjoy the opening show, even though the WDW Railroad was down for refurbishment. There was a slight rush into the park but DH and I had something we needed to do first. DH wanted to try out the Sorceror's of the Magic Kingdom game. So we headed off to the fire station to get our starter cards. After getting some instructions on how to play the game, we were off to find our first attraction.



Because of EMH, we basically walked right into ETWB and it was a fairly small group. The Enchanted Mirror was amazing but my favorite was the Talking Wardrobe. The thing I love about Disney is all the small details that go into the attractions and I certainly wasn't let down this time.

As the CM handed out all the parts to the kids, I got more and more antsy but the only adult parts they handed out were for the 2 knights. I was a little bummed until they asked if there was any who didn't get a part that wanted one. My hand shot into the air as DH rolled his eyes and all the other adults looked at me like I had lost my mind. But thanks to the DIS, I knew that anyone that was in the performance got their picture taken with Belle

Here I am as the Laughing Mirror.


And with Belle afterward.


I will say that even though I liked EWTB, I don't think we would do it again. We probably would have skipped it all together if it hadn't been for Belle and the short line. I think it's something that's just more fun for little kids.

Oh, before I get too much further into our TR, I also have to mention that DH and I got our "Happy Anniversary" buttons on the day we checked in and wore them every day we were at WDW. We did get a little bit of extra pixie dust (which I'll get into later) but most of the time we just received well-wishes, which was just as nice. All of the characters we met loved to see the buttons and it was a great conversation starter.

After leaving ETWB, it was still too early for our lunch reservation so we decided to head to another ride that neither of us had been on.


We really enjoyed this ride. It was a nice relaxing break in the day and we loved all of the music and animatronics. The only thing I wish is that I wish there had been a line so that I could have enjoyed the queue a bit more. The way it was, we walked right on to this ride as well.

After exiting the ride, we decided we need a little bit more Little Mermaid fix, so we headed over to Ariel's Grotto. There was just a short wait so we went ahead and got in line. We hadn't been in line more than a minute or two when a CM told us that they were having electrical problems so Ariel would have to return to the sea for a bit. They gave us "front of the Line" passes so that we could come back whenever it was convenient for us.

At this point, I needed a break because the heat & humidity was more than I had bargained for. Of we went to find a place to cool off.

(continued in next post)

 

[IowaTater]

DH decided that he was going to use this trip to make up for the fact that I never got to go on a Disney vacation as a kid. So as I cooled off here...



...DH found another opportunity for us to meet some characters here...



We were literally the only people there! Unfortunately, Daisy was not out yet but we got to meet Minnie, who just gushed over the fact that we were celebrating our anniversary...





...Goofy, who of course was up to his usual goofiness...




...And the Astounding Donaldo!



After running through the water playground again while DH talked to his parents on his cellphone, we decided to head back to Ariel's Grotto to see if she was available yet. Luckily she was and straight to the head of class we went. We had great interaction with Ariel! I complimented her on her handwriting and she told us how Scuttle told her that humans practice their handwriting so she practiced her handwriting every day to make it look nice.



It was nearly time for our lunch reservation but we still had a few more minutes before we could check in. Stay tuned!

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a great morning and collection of character interactions. And well done for getting in the cast of ETwB. Great picture with Belle.

 

[IowaTater]

What a great morning and collection of character interactions. And well done for getting in the cast of ETwB. Great picture with Belle.

It was great. I had made autograph books with personalized pages for each of the characters I wanted to meet. All the characters loved it! I think they get a little bored signing blank pages all the time.

Belle has always been one of my favorites because I'm a bookworm as well so I could relate to her.

 

[IowaTater]

So when I left off, we had just met Ariel and were heading to our lunch reservation. We arrived at the check in desk and they STILL weren't ready for us. So we decided to grab a frosty cold one at a nearby tavern.



After pulling up a table by the nice cozy fire...



...DH went to order our beverages. Since DH isn't that adventurous, he got the standard Coke, light ice, and I got...



...Le Fou's Brew! I wasn't sure if I was going to like it because I'm not a fan of marshmallow and I wasn't too sure about the foam part but I loved it!!! It really hit the spot on that hot day.

By the time we finished our drinks, we figured it HAD to be time for us to check in so off we went to our lunch reservation. At this point, I couldn't wait any long because we were going to eat at...





DH and I were not part of the lucky (unlucky??) group that got to test out the new MB system but after checking the Be Our Guest FP+ site almost every day, I discovered that we could indeed make FP reservations for lunch anyway. I had also preordered our meals so after checking in, we were sent to the castle doors. Since BOG was not open yet, we got to witness the little opening ceremony that they put on, which was cute.

Once we got inside the castle, we were directed to the CM who was taking care of the preorders. Unfortunately, she was not able to locate our order on her tablet so we were told to go to the cashier to place our order. When we got over to the cashier, she magically found our order!

I really wanted to eat in the West Wing and since we were one of the first people to get in, there were still plenty of seats left in there but boy, did they fill up quickly! The CMs were constantly having to turn people away and poor DH started getting a headache from all the flash photography (he has epilepsy).

The West Wing is really neat, though. I can understand why it's so popular. Not only does it have thunder and lightning but the portrait of the Prince turns into Beast every so often. It also has the magical rose which petals fall.


(It's a horrible picture. Sorry)

Our waitress brought around our meals on a cart (Ooh la la) and we dug in! I had the braised pork and it was excellent! It was near the top of my list for the best meal we had. It was so tender and the mashed potatoes had just the right amount of lumpiness.



DH had the roast beef sandwich, which he said was really good as well. The only issue he had with it was that he had ordered it plain and when it arrived, it was fully loaded with the horseradish cream sauce. Our waitress was very nice about it though and quickly brought him a new order, plain.



And, of course, for dessert, we both had The Master's Cupcake. And the dishes are correct. It was delicious!!! It was sweet without being overly sweet and wasn't too rich. It was a perfect way to end the meal.



The beautiful stained glass window as you leave the castle.


Continued...

 

[IowaTater]

With our bellies full from the deliciousness of our meals at BOG, DH and I didn't really want to ride anything too intense right away so we decided to head over to...



It's no secret that I'm a lover of the willy-nilly-silly ole bear. My mom used to dress my brother and me in matching Pooh outfits and Pooh was my first tattoo and still, somehow, I had never sat DH down to watch The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh with me! He had no clue what a Hefflelump or a Woozle was nor did he understand the importance of making sure you fit through doorways before you gorge on honey. There was little wait here as well. I want to say it was only about 10 minutes. I think we both enjoyed the ride. I know I especially like the "flood" part of the ride.

Even after enjoying our leisurely ride in a honey pot, we still weren't ready for anything big yet so we decided to take our chances meeting some princesses. The day before, we passed the area were the Merida M&G was and the line was almost back to the smoking section behind the Castle. I mentioned to DH that I most definitely wanted to meet Merida but I was willing to wait until a later time. As we started to walk in that direction, DH realized that we were going to walk right past the new Princess Fairytale Hall. Much to our surprise, the wait was only about 10-15 per side so we decided it was time to meet some royalty.

First up was Princess Aurora...



...and Snow White, who both just gushed over my homemade autograph book.



Since the other side of the line was still short, we went back in and met Rapunzel, who was absolutely precious (I love the look on her face in this one)...





...and Cinderella, who told me to clasp my hands over my heart because that's where our dreams come from.



Then it was off to meet Merida! Her M&G area is wonderful, except for the lack of shade. I thought the theming was excellent.



Right as we got to front of the line, the CM informed us that Merida would need to take a break to feed Angus his apples but that she would be right back. He wasn't kidding! She was only gone for about 3 minutes before she returned. And I love that she didn't break character at all, even when she was leaving.



We were now ready to ride some bigger rides, but DH had other plans. See, I love him to Reece's Pieces but he has a habit of becoming a bit....gung ho? overzealous? determined?...I'm not sure what word would describe it best. He gets something in his head and basically is like a bloodhound on a scent trail. This trip it was character M&G, pressed pennies, and SOMK Good gravy, I think we walked more in MK because of that darned game than anything else. And most of the time, we couldn't get the sensor to work.

Anyway, DH discovered that most of his missions were in Adventureland so we hiked it over to Adventureland with the promise that we could do some rides when we got there. That lasted until the first mission. Then it was walking to the back of Adventureland and then to the front and then to the back again, hitting up pressed coin machines along the way. I finally had a mini meltdown and informed DH that we did not spend $6,000 to come to Florida and play a stupid game

DH finally agreed but I think it was mainly because he kept losing the missions. Since it was close by, we chose POTC first. We both really like this ride and the movies so we were excited to see the additions that have been made to it. We were a bit disappointed that the Davy Jones effect was not working but I love the mermaid addition! It was so neat. It was also fun finding the hidden Captain Jacks throughout the ride. The couple seated behind us kept talking about "George" but luckily, our ride didn't get stuck or anything.

We realized as we were unboarding our boat that our time at MK was running out for the day so we rushed over to The Jungle Cruise. Unfortunately, by that time, the wait was at 45 minutes and we knew if we attempted it, we'd be late for our dinner reservations. Because we were both getting a bit cranky, we decided to just leave for dinner.

We had originally discussed taking the bus to dinner but DH thought taking a boat would be more fun. We headed to the boat dock and luckily grabbed a boat just as it was arriving. The captains made sure the ferry was loaded to the gills and we set sail for...



We were super early and were the first couple to get our complimentary photo taken (thank you, PP+)...



When it was time for us to be seated, we were pleasantly surprised. We got our own little 2-person table right up by the stage! Our lovely waitress got our drinks for us as the host sat a huge group behind us. He saw our St. Louis Cardinals shirts and told us that he was originally from Jefferson City. It was so neat running into someone from our neck of the woods. It was even nicer that he was a St. Louis Cardinals fan and kept us updated on that night's playoff game score throughout the evening!

Our waitress was great. She joked with us and treated us like a member of the family. And oh Mylanta, let's talk about the food!

First up was the cornbread, which I apparently did not take a picture of. DH is a true cornbread head. He could eat it with every meal. I had one little piece and thought it was good. DH polished off what was left of my mini loaf as well as his full loaf.

Up next was the salad...



Yummy! The dressing was a creamy Italian, I believe and it was very good. And I liked that the salad wasn't completely drenched in the dressing either. Since DH does not do veggies, the salad was all mine. But of course, I couldn't fill up on salad because we had more food coming!




Ribs, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, baked beans, and corn. Everything was fantastic, although I didn't really care too much for the baked beans. They were a little bit too spicy for my taste. But the corn reminded me of the sweet corn I grew up with in Iowa. Our sweet waitress noticed that DH wasn't really eating anything except the fried chicken and ribs so she was nice enough to bring him a big dish of mac & cheese without him asking for it. He said it was the best he's ever had!

In between courses, the performers put on a really wonderful show. We laughed and sang along. It reminded us of the shows we see in Branson a lot. It was definitely fun for the whole family.




Finally, it was time for our fun-filled evening to come to an end. But not before dessert!



A big ole honkin' strawberry shortcake. That small amount that's missing in the picture was all we (I) had room for but it was fantabulous. It was light and fluffy and the shortcake part almost had a funnel cake taste to it. Definitely a sweet way to end a great meal. I would say that this was my favorite meal of the whole trip, between the food, the service, and the entertainment.

But as always, the fun has to end so we waddled our way over to the buses so we could get back to our resort. Once there, we hit the food court to refill our mugs again before going to our room. They were playing Finding Nemo at the pool and we debated staying to watch it but I knew I was too exhausted. We took our showers, put on our jammies, and watched TV until we both fell asleep.

Stay tuned for Day 3 - Hollywood Studios!!!

 

[SAT887]

Looks like a great trip so far! I have to say even with the hiccups PP+ is a win for having pictures with everyone in it! Plus, I would never buy the meal or ride photos out of pocket!!

Was the picture of you with Belle a PP pic? Love all the character meets and the "flood" part on the Pooh ride is my favorite too!!

Hoop Dee Doo is so much fun!! We've gone a couple times but we generally save it now for when we go with "first timers"

Can't wait to read more!

 

[PrincessInOz]

What fantastic M&G pictures. You look like you had a great time with all the princesses.

Love the food porn.

 

[IowaTater]

Looks like a great trip so far! I have to say even with the hiccups PP+ is a win for having pictures with everyone in it! Plus, I would never buy the meal or ride photos out of pocket!!

Was the picture of you with Belle a PP pic? Love all the character meets and the "flood" part on the Pooh ride is my favorite too!!

Hoop Dee Doo is so much fun!! We've gone a couple times but we generally save it now for when we go with "first timers"

Can't wait to read more!

I really liked having PP+, especially since it was just DH and I. Luckily, the only trouble we had was on Day 3, we discovered that some of our photos from that day were missing but they were able to find them for us at the PhotoPass desk at Grand Floridian. We never buy meal or ride photos out of pocket either so that was another reason we got PP+. It was just another thing we didn't have to budget for.

The picture of myself and Belle is a PP picture but it's one of the few I'm not overjoyed with. It's still better than the one that DH took but it's a little dark and blurry

Stick around! We still have 6 more days left!!

 

[IowaTater]

What fantastic M&G pictures. You look like you had a great time with all the princesses.

Love the food porn.

It was a lot of fun meeting them all. It's kind of funny though. I had all these things I was going to say or ask them and when the time came, I just completely clammed up

I didn't take as many food porn pictures as I wanted because I kept forgetting LOL. When I got home and showed my family some of the pictures, my dad said
"Jeez, you think you have enough pictures of food!" He just doesn't understand!

 

[heidijanesmith]

Go Hawks! DH and I are born and bred Iowans. I love your DH's hat in the 1st page pics

Nice to see a fellow Hawkeye enjoying Disney!

 

[IowaTater]

This morning we woke up yet again to Mike Wazowski telling us it was time to get out of bed. We quickly went about our WDW morning ritual of showers, reloading the park bag, and stopping by the food court to refill our mugs before grabbing a bus. Today we were heading to our favorite park, DHS!!!



DHS was having EMH that morning and we made it in plenty of time for RD so I took some time taking pictures.



Unfortunately, we were towards the back of the crowd but DHS seemed to be having a lot of trouble reading MBs that day so we were sent to a line where they were only doing the room keys. First stop, FP for Toy Story Mania! There was already a huge line already but the FB return time was as 11:00 am so we grabbed our FP and just took a leisurely walk, enjoying the sights.

Surprisingly, Buzz and Woody were already out so we decided to go ahead and see them. The line was just barely at the door so we only waiting about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, just as we got the the front of the line, Woody had to go help Mrs. Potato Head find one of her earrings but Buzz was still around.



We still had some time to kill so we headed over to the Backlot Tour. We really enjoyed it. DH and I are big movie buffs so it was really neat seeing all the movie props.



"You are the Nav-i-ga-tor!"


And of course, Catastrophe Canyon was just awesome! I took a long series of pictures but I'll only bore you with this one.


We even enjoyed the prop house at the end of the Tour. Most of the people just blew through it, which was kind of nice because then we didn't really have to fight anyone to get a good view.




Just as we left the Backlot Tour area, we realized we were right by the Monsters U M&G. They weren't out yet but they would be shortly so DH and I took turns stacking out our spot in line while the other one took care of personal business. DH went first and then I went but when I came back, DH was not where I had left him! After a slight moment of panic, I realized that they had completely opened up the line and he was near the front of it. Monsters, Inc. is one of my favorite movies and even though I haven't seen Monsters U yet, I love me some Sulley & Mike. Sulley was so full of hugs that day!



We still had some time to kill so we decided to wander along the streets of New York. And I had to find time to sing in the rain.



As we headed to our next attraction, we realized that Life is a Highway and you can really Find Yourself while at WDW...



...as long you know "what we're going to do today".


DH was absolutely thrilled to meet Phineas and Ferb. Even though we don't have kids, we still have a tendency to watch the Disney Channel more than normal adult should. Since we were right there, we decided to hit up one of my favorite attractions.




I have to do Muppet Visions every time we go. It's just one of those classic attractions that never gets old. DH and I grew up watching The Muppets and it's so nice seeing younger kids enjoying it as well.

By the time Muppet Vision let out, it was time to head back over to Pixar Place for...



As you can see from my picture, the standby wait time is 45 minutes. I know in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't sound like a lot (especially since by the end of the day it was up to 90) but I was so glad that we had grabbed FP (which by that point, they had already run out of). TSM is now ranked in our top 10 favorite WDW rides. We loved it and if we could have, we would have rode it again. DH and I have a very competitive streak so this ride was perfect for us. He of course beat me but it was a blast anyway!

I guess the game play was more strenuous than we thought because we were starving! I guess it's a good thing I had made lunch reservations kind of early.

Where would our adventures take us in the afternoon? Stay tuned to find out!

 

[IowaTater]

Go Hawks! DH and I are born and bred Iowans. I love your DH's hat in the 1st page pics

Nice to see a fellow Hawkeye enjoying Disney!

Go Hawks! I'm a born & bred Iowan and I've lured DH into it. LOL His family are not big on sports though, so it didn't take a lot of arm-twisting.

Welcome aboard!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I must have missed the last update!


Looks like you had a great time at DHS. I know a lot of Dis-sers don't seem to think it's a full day park; but I rather enjoy the shows and looking at the displays myself.