~Practically Perfect In Every Way~ 8/18-8/28 at The Polynesian!

[disneylove16]

After purchasing some Christmas ornaments, we headed to Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar for a drink.

I wished that I was hungry because I really wanted to try the Air Pirates Pretzels. There was just no way though. We had eaten so much, and we still had our Raglan Road ADR coming up.

This was another awesomely themed lounge. The attention to detail is incredible. DH got a bloody mary, I asked for a raspberry or strawberry mojito. Any time I've gotten any type of fruit mojito in the past, it has some fruit muddled into it. Here, they use a fruit flavored rum.

 

[disneylove16]

We relaxed and lingered over our drinks until it was time to head to Raglan Road for our ADR. This is probably my favorite restaurant in all of WDW. I'm obsessed with all things Scottish or Irish (and I'm of descent of both). I love the atmosphere of this restaurant more than I can describe. I love the music, the dancers, and of course, the food. The Salmon of Knowledge was my favorite meal last trip, and what I looked forward to eating most on this trip. Sadly, it was taken off the menu. They do have a different salmon dish now, I believe it was a citrus glazed salmon, but the description didn't sound like something I would like. I thought about getting the fish and chips, but had plans to get them from Cooke's of Dublin on a future DS day (which I never did). I ended up getting the Raglan Risotto, with chicken. It was tasty, but I think I'll try something different next time. DH got the steak, which he got last trip, and loves. We usually get the scallop forest, which I love, but we just weren't hungry enough for an appetizer this time.

When we left, we looked around a few more stores, then stopped at Haagen Dazs for a rockey road and a vanilla chip dazzler.

 

[disneylove16]

I had booked a FP for FOP at night, assuming I would want to ride it twice on our trip, and I was so thankful I did. It was worth going back to AK just to ride it again. We took a bus back to our resort, then took a bus to AK.

We rode FOP again, and it was just as amazing as the 1st time. After that, we rushed over to EE to ride that before park close. We were able to ride it twice, the 2nd time we got on line about 2 minutes before the park closed. DH and I both love EE at night. It's such a different experience, and so much fun.

UP NEXT: EPCOT, VIA NAPOLI

 

[PolyRob]

You covered so much ground in AK! I love how you entered FoP during daylight and left at night. What an amazing experience.

Those pet accessories are so cute! I have to try and find this in DS for my dog in October

 

[annie170]

That's too bad your service wasn't very good at Tusker House. I just love the food there with the more unusual options. The theming is one of my favorites.

Your picture with Daisy is adorable! Don't sell yourself short, you're very pretty!

The attention to detail in Pandora is incredible! The photos at night are just beautiful, too!

Disney Springs has become a full day attraction now with all the different things you can do there. I remember my first visit there in 1985 and it was so small!

Bummer about D-Luxe Burger. I bet your husband could have gotten another burger if his was undercooked. Come to think of it, I believe I read on another trip report about someone getting an undercooked burger there and getting a free replacement.

I'm of Irish/Scottish decent, also! I love watching the dancers at Raglan Road, probably more than the meal!

I agree with you about the dog accessories. I would definitely buy my granddogs some souvenirs.

Another ride of FoP and two on EE sounds like a perfect way to end a day!

 

[disneylove16]

You covered so much ground in AK! I love how you entered FoP during daylight and left at night. What an amazing experience.

Those pet accessories are so cute! I have to try and find this in DS for my dog in October

It was really nice coming out with Pandora all lit up! It's so breathtaking at night! The kiosk set up for the dog accessories had a pretty great selection, and loomed like they'll be there for a while (I hope!) I feel like a Disney pet store would do well there in DS!

That's too bad your service wasn't very good at Tusker House. I just love the food there with the more unusual options. The theming is one of my favorites.

Your picture with Daisy is adorable! Don't sell yourself short, you're very pretty!

The attention to detail in Pandora is incredible! The photos at night are just beautiful, too!

Disney Springs has become a full day attraction now with all the different things you can do there. I remember my first visit there in 1985 and it was so small!

Bummer about D-Luxe Burger. I bet your husband could have gotten another burger if his was undercooked. Come to think of it, I believe I read on another trip report about someone getting an undercooked burger there and getting a free replacement.

I'm of Irish/Scottish decent, also! I love watching the dancers at Raglan Road, probably more than the meal!

I agree with you about the dog accessories. I would definitely buy my granddogs some souvenirs.

Another ride of FoP and two on EE sounds like a perfect way to end a day!

Thank you so much for the compliment! I was referring to DH's fingers in the photo And I totally agree about Tusker House, they have such great options. I really enjoyed the food, and loved the atmosphere, so I would definitely go again. It may have just been an off night for our server.

Pandora is definitely breathtaking. I feel like I took so many photos there, because there were so many little details!

I know what you mean about DS, it just keeps growing.

I'm not surprised that DLuxe Burger replaced the burger for the guest you read about, their customer service was really great. I just have to laugh at DH sometimes... he was so worried about it being undercooked, but ate the entire burger

That's awesome you're Irish and Scottish too! I'm also 1/4 Danish, and 1/4 unknown (my grandma was adopted, so she's not certain, but did one of those DNA kits, and the results showed Scandinavian/Swedish/Eastern Europe descent. I've always been obsessed with Scotland and Ireland though. I would love to visit both countries someday!

How sweet, what kind of granddogs do you have?

And yes, we had a really great night at AK, we always tend to have so much fun closing that park!

 

[annie170]

I am so sorry. I didn't even notice your husband's finger in the photo. And you look beautiful in all your photos!

My granddogs are Lucy, a bassador. Half basset hound, half abrador. Picture basset hound body with lab coloring and head. She was rescued from a shelter after found living on the streets. Really sad story, but my daughter and son-in-law have fattened her up and spoiled her rotten in the last five years.

Another daughter rescued Murphy (I named him! He's a fine Irish dog!) from a boxer rescue site. He's half boxer and half unknown. He's one of the nicest dogs I've ever known and has all of us worried as he has some medical issues recently.

My father did two golf tours of Ireland in the '90's and brought back the most beautiful pictures. It's definitely on my bucket list, too!

 

[disneylove16]

I am so sorry. I didn't even notice your husband's finger in the photo. And you look beautiful in all your photos!

My granddogs are Lucy, a bassador. Half basset hound, half abrador. Picture basset hound body with lab coloring and head. She was rescued from a shelter after found living on the streets. Really sad story, but my daughter and son-in-law have fattened her up and spoiled her rotten in the last five years.

Another daughter rescued Murphy (I named him! He's a fine Irish dog!) from a boxer rescue site. He's half boxer and half unknown. He's one of the nicest dogs I've ever known and has all of us worried as he has some medical issues recently.

My father did two golf tours of Ireland in the '90's and brought back the most beautiful pictures. It's definitely on my bucket list, too!

No worries at all! And thank you, you're too sweet.

I love that your daughters rescued their dogs! Rescue dogs are the best and Murphy is a great name! I'm so sorry about the medical issues he's having, I know what that's like. I hope he pulls through it quickly.

And how fun that your dad got to go there for his golf tournament! That must have been amazing!

 

[disneylove16]

DAY 7: EPCOT​

We slept in a bit later again, since we were mainly doing World Showcase, and they open a bit later. Guess what we decided to do for breakfast?

I am definitely a creature of habit. We relaxed on our balcony with our coffees and danishes. We walked to TTC, and took them monorail to Epcot. We still made it to Epcot before World Showcase opened, so we explored some shops, and took our time. Sorry in advance about all the art photos. I pretty much took a picture of everything I wanted. And I totally regret not purchasing the cardstock art at the bottom, the one with the 4 parks. Next time.

I absolutely love Thomas Kinkade's artwork. Especially his Disney pieces.

​

 

[disneylove16]

We stopped by to see how long the line was for Baymax. We both love him, but the line was longer than we wanted to wait. So I tried to snap a photo in between guests.

We had some time to kill before our lunch ADR at Via Napoli, and Figment showed a 5 minute wait, so I wanted to ride it quick before heading over to WS. The wait ended up being about 40 minutes, and we had to practically run to our ADR (which we were still almost 10 minutes late for). There were no issues with us checking in though, and we didn't wait long at all to be seated.

During our sprint, I spotted Mariachi out in Mexico, and tried to snap a pic for DMIL. She loves Mariachi. It's a little blurry since DH would've probably thrown me into WS Lagoon if I stopped to take pictures!

 

[disneylove16]

This was one of the restaurants I was most excited about. It's one of those restaurants I'd always book an ADR for, then change out for something else. I'm so glad we kept the ADR this time. This was one of our favorite meals the whole trip. The food was so delicious. I've also read mixed things about customer service here, but everyone we interacted with, from hostesses to our server, was nice as can be! DH ordered a ceasar salad, which I ended up eating half of. It was a very generous serving size! DH got the individual pepperoni pizza, and I got the individual quattro formaggi pizza. We both loved everything. I was only able to eat half my pizza, and took the rest to go. DH later ate it cold at the resort.
We also each got the agua fresca, which is like a strawberry flavored juice. I'm used to Mexican aguas here in CA, and they definitely have a different flavor to them. This was nice though, very refreshing. For dessert, we ordered the tiramisu. I consider myself a self proclaimed tiramisu connoisseur, and this was pretty yummy!

 

[disneylove16]

After lunch, we did our rounds at WS. Again, the photos are probably out of order, I'm trying my best to bunch them together though.

This is my favorite fish n chips in all of WDW, I had to stop and get some!

 

[disneylove16]

Found this straggler that belongs in France!

 

[disneylove16]

We planned on room service for dinner that night. We were both going to get the Twilight Feast, but DH decided he wanted a burger and mac & cheese. When I called to order, I asked for 1 Twilight Feast, 1 burger (which is on the kid's menu, DH didn't like the description of the Hawaiian-style burger on the adults menu), 1 kids macaroni & cheese, and since I couldn't make substitutions for the Twilight Feast wings, I ordered an additional order of sticky wings. I asked to leave off the dumplings/potstickers and the steak, since I don't eat beef or pork, and DH didn't want it. The CM asked how many people were eating, which threw me off. I told her 2 adults, then worried that she was going to give me 2 orders of the Twilight Feast, so I explained the feast was for 1 adult, and the cheeseburger/mac & cheese was for 1 adult. She said she recommended the child's size feast if it's for 1 adult. I couldn't really argue that, without feeling a bit self conscious, so I ordered the child size. The food arrived very quickly. The dining menu states that gratuity is included, but DH still felt obligated to tip the CM. I don't know if 'Ohana doesn't serve the sauces for dipping the meat anymore, if they just forgot them, but what I was most upset about, is that they forgot the bread pudding!
I'm sure I could've called to have them bring some, but I was stuffed. The food was very good, and I loved the sticky wings! Also, look at the adorable little salt shaker they brought! For some reason they only brought salt, and the next time we ordered room service, they only brought a pepper But it made a set. And that little set made it's way home with me!

 

[disneylove16]

DAY 8: REST AT RESORT/DS​

My brother was coming with his wife and baby to see us at the resort, so we slept in a bit again. I went for my usual coffee and danish (I didn't take a photo this day, I probably realized they look the same each day ) but I did take these

​

When my brother got there, we got lunch at Oasis Bar & Grill again. We all got the chicken avocado wraps (again), so I think that's why I didn't take pictures. They were just as good as the first time. DB and DSIL ordered chicken tenders for my nephew. I don't know why when I picture chicken tenders, I assume they're going to be chicken fingers, like breaded/fried chicken. These were naked, grilled chicken tenders. Which is what they wanted, but just a heads up in case your kids are expecting chicken fingers. We enjoyed a few drinks, I got another lava flow (I think that's what it was called) and DH got a bloody Mary. DSIL got the same drink as me, and DB got a beer. I'm not sure why I didn't take photos of theirs.

After lunch and some catching up, DB and DSIL drove home to drop my nephew off with family so they could enjoy an adults night out. They, along with my cousin and her husband, would be meeting us for dinner at Morimoto Asia. DH and I napped, then showered and got ready for dinner. DB offered to pick us up, but we told him to just meet us at DS and we took the bus.

I was so excited to try this restaurant. I had planned on getting the angry lobster chow fun, I obsessed over it for months leading up to this dinner, but I don't know what happened. I ended up ordering the orange chicken which makes even less sense to me know, b/c DH ordered the same thing. So if I really wanted to try it, I could've tried his. I also really wanted to get the rock shrimp appetizer, but ended up getting portobello fries.
The restaurant was absolutely beautiful, and it has such a classy atmosphere.

We ordered the portabello fries, my cousin ordered the crab rangoon, and I think some type of egg roll, and DB ordered the tuna pizza

DH and I ordered the orange chicken, and a side of rice. Unfortunately, I have no idea what everyone else ordered, and I didn't take good pictures of their food to figure it out. I know my brother got Pad Thai, and his wife got some kind of soup.

The food was very good, I just feel like it's a very small amount of food for the high price. But, I think that's the case with most signature restaurants. You're paying for quality over quantity. Either way, as is the case with Chinese food, it left us hungry about an hour after. So after saying goodbye to my family (they were headed to a party to watch the Mayweather-McGregor fight), DH and I ate some more

 

[disneylove16]

DH and I were both hungry again, so we stayed at DS to find some more snacks/meals we wanted to try. DH was on the fence about BB Wolf's Sausage company before our trip, but decided to try one. He got the Greek dog, and really liked it.

It had been raining on and off all afternoon/night, and in case you can't tell, it started to pour while we were walking around.

We then stopped at Aristocrepes. DH got the roast beef crepe, I got the strawberry and cream one. DH liked his. Mine was absolutely delicious. And giant.

Then we stopped at Goofy's Candy Co. I wanted to do the make your own, and thought they had pretzel rods, or the chocolate chip cookies to use as a base, but they didn't. So we went with some premade treats.

We then headed back to the resort, ate our treats (except that giant cookie, that thing lasted us until the trip back home), and went to bed.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Love, love, love your trip report! Makes me feel like I'm back at WDW again.

 

[disneylove16]

Love, love, love your trip report! Makes me feel like I'm back at WDW again.

Thank you so much! I feel like I'm reliving the trip while posting too, it's great!

 

[disneylove16]

Day 9: DS ​

We had plans to go to AK today, and had Boma reservations for dinner. We ended up scrapping those plans. First, I changed to Whispering Canyon a few days earlier. Then, the day before I had a feeling we would be going back to DS, so I switched to House of Blues. For some reason, I wasn't feeling HOB that morning. I called to switch to another restaurant, and was told there was a $10 cancellation fee, since it was same day, which was fine with me, so I In the end, they never ended up charging it though. This day was the epitome of our laziness on the trip. It's almost like I wanted to do everything, so I didn't want to do anything. We went back and forth about what to do, and after having a super lazy morning, we decided to go back to DS. I woke up to this under my door, which put me in a sad state:

Make sure you look over this paper when you get it. It was missing my departure flight info, even though I had provided it when I booked. So I wasn't booked on a DME bus back to the airport. There's a phone # on the paper to call to give flight info, and they gave me a 4 am bus pickup time. While DH slept in, I sat out on the balcony, wondering where my vacation went. I go through this every trip. I look forward to it, and plan for almost a year, and time goes so slow. Then the trip goes by like a flash, and I get really sad on the last day. It's my Disney routine.

After my ridiculous little pity party, DH and I headed over to Kona Island for what would be my last delicious breakfast, and I took some more photos of the lobby.

Then, we headed to our last destination of the trip: DS. Again.

​

 

[disneylove16]

It was raining on and off throughout the day.

DH had wanted to try a Cuban for some time, so decided to get one from Bongos Cuban Cafe. I wasn't that interested in anything on the menu, but got the garlic bread as a snack.

Neither of us liked the food. DH said his sandwich was just ok, not inedible, but not good. He did like the fries though. And mine was pretty much just buttered bread, but it tasted like they used an oil spread or like a Pam spray. It didn't taste like butter, and I didn't taste any garlic. I'm not sure if its supposed to be grilled or toasty, but it was very soft and soggy-like, so I didn't like it.

Then we stopped by Candy Cauldron for a candy apple to take back to the resort.

After hitting some more stores (somehow we spent another small fortune at Under Armour ) we decided to get takeout from Art Smith's Homecoming. I thought I read somewhere that there was a takeout window. We couldn't find a window, so we just went inside, and I asked about it. The CM said you just order at the bar, and they package it to go. I figured we'd do just as well to just eat there then, and the CM said there was no wait at all if we wanted to sit down. So, we had lunch there.