For us, it was definitely worth it. But it was also the second night of the show and we were unable to book advance FP (due to our untraditional AP upgrade), so I wanted to make sure we'd see the show. Plus, we did the cheapest meal option (breakfast), it was only 1 adult and 1 child so not too expensive, and we had a really fun character meal too. Then we were able to get to the show just a little in advance and still sit in a section that seemed to have a pretty good view. Since I haven't been in any other sections, i can't tell you for sure what they are like, but I felt like we had a really straight-on view of things from where we were. I am leaning towards doing the dining package again when we go back, so that Dug can see the show. (Though I will check reviews on FP viewing later in the year to see if that's an option).
Thanks for the info. From what I've seen it appears that the seating under the dining package is kind of the prime section.
Then we got back in line and met the princess "Rella" herself at 8:45am. Izzy used her patented hug-tackle to bring her down
So, I don’t know if it was just our waitress (she wasn’t great) or if this is standard, but I was a bit disappointed with the food/drink service for Izzy. Granted, we brought her to this expensive meal before she turned 3 to save on the cost, so we weren’t expecting much...but they didn’t bring her ANY food (or even offer or stick around long enough for us to ask).
The first time we went, DD was under 3 and they went out of their way to take care of her. We didn't expect a plate and they offered one.
Then again, as I mentioned in my latest review, I wasn't thrilled with the service that time. Maybe service there has slipped in the past few years?
In my series of “unflattering princess facial expression” photos, I present this one
:
Not as good as Cinderella’s eyes bugging out at Akershus, but still fun. Reminder of that one
:
I don't know... it's probably closer than you think.
It was kind-of like Izzy was in a fog during this meet – maybe in awe of meeting her idol?
Or just 2.5-year-old zoned out?
Probably a combination of both.
She gave me the empty gift card (no longer needed) and the remaining gift card, but NOT the Tables in Wonderland card.
Uh oh...
Naturally, Izzy liked the stuffed animals in the gift shop afterwards:
Of course! That's why they're there!
While he was in there, I looked around for something Izzy and I could do with a low wait. This one fit the bill, plus she really enjoys it:
Yep... been there done that. Teacups always fit the need.
Heck, the Barnstormer is downright roomy in comparison.
At any rate, after he got out of there, he went straight to a FP kiosk to try to change his FP+ to something else. He ended up getting a bit emotional while talking about it to the CM working there. The CM was an older gentleman and said that he also couldn’t ride, as his legs were too long. He was very sympathetic and gave Dug a handwritten FP for anything (on an official form) and a bottle of water. Very nice! (I kinda wonder if he deals with this a lot?)
I'm really sorry he couldn't ride it. It was nice that the CM tried to do something nice for him, but it was all around a bad situation.
We did standby, which didn’t appear to be too long, but it sure felt long.
I can imagine... it's so low capacity that it just moves so slow.
I must have gotten in touch with Dug while we waited, as he came over. He decided not to wait and just to get back on the train and head to the lunch ADR that we needed to get to. But Izzy and I stuck it out. Even though it was starting to rain lightly. We were only a few families back when the CMs abruptly shut down the meet, ushered Woody and Jessie to shelter, and basically sent us all away. Boo.
That stinks... too bad that you waited and got so close before they shut it down.
Nice!
Izzy liked the snow, just a true Minnesotan should.
I’m not sure how much of her meal Izzy ate, though, as she was too busy immersing herself in the “grey stuff”:
Clearly she's smart enough to go straight for the good stuff.
She had made a number of unsuccessful attempts this day, but still had not actually peed.
I took her in and she, once again, sat there insisting that she didn’t have to go. I told her to keep trying and she refused.
So, we left the stall and found the water dispenser. I got her a little cup of water, figuring she could drink that and we’d go back into the stall and try again. Well, guess how that one turned out…
She took ONE SIP of water and immediately peed all over the floor!
Oh, I feel your pain. Definitely reminds me of our scene with DD at DHS when she refused to pee all day until the floodgates broke.
He nonchalantly handed me one of those poles with the thing you can stick paper towels in to make a mop.
Really? This is unacceptable. I realize that it is probably not his job to clean up pee, but this isn't the kind of customer service Disney was built on. He should have called for custodial staff while you were allowed to go care for Izzy.
What could possibly go wrong?
Famous last words.
(I like having a shelf and hooks by the door like that).
You may remember me foreshadowing this a bit at Cinderella’s Royal Table. I didn’t realize at the time that I hadn’t gotten the card back. It wasn’t until this point, when I was getting everything ready for the rest of the night (including dinner at Beaches ‘n’ Cream) that I found it was gone.
We made a call to the Beach Club concierge for help with this and they weren’t very helpful at all…at first. Eventually, we must have grown on them, as they did arrange for me to pick up a new TiW card at Epcot. Yes, at Epcot.
Woo hoo, this “swim time” is just getting more and more fun!
What? Really? They resist helping to start with and then send you to EPCOT? Weird.
We resigned ourselves to just doing the photo shoot, as we weren’t about to stand up the photographer. Then I’d have to book it over to Epcot after the shoot, get the TiW card, then get back for dinner.
Busy evening...
So, despite the foul moods, we did end up with a selection of decent pictures. Here are the highlights:
For a non cooperative Izzy, you got some great ones!
While that was happening, I was at Guest Relations at the International Gateway to get a new TiW card. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, as they had received the request and knew what to do. However, there is a special printer they had to use for this and, naturally, that printer was having problems.
You just can't catch a break.
At any rate, by the time they were dealt with (given in to
), we were now fairly late for our own ADR. So, the CM checking us in told us she was going to assign us an extra 20 minute wait time because of it. Of course.
Because that’s the way this night was going.
Well, I guess it is a place with limited seating so that's probably a justifiable thing, but it definitely stings when you just saw another family pretty much impose their will on a CM while making you stand there waiting to check in. I probably would have been pretty ticked off like Dug was.
As we were waiting and holding back tears about our awful evening, some members of that angry family approached us and they weren’t very happy.
I’ve honestly blocked this memory out, so I don’t recall what exactly was said, but I know they were very upset with Dug for calling them out on their behavior.
And, to make matters worse, Dug was still so upset about our mess of an evening that he wasn’t really processing the situation and easily could have said some things to make them angrier, without being fully aware of the consequences. Maybe it was just me, but they seemed like they were ready for an altercation.
Clearly, they were already over the top angry about their own situation. And from the second they approached us, it felt somewhat threatening to me.
But I’m not sure that Dug was fully aware, as he was more wrapped up in his own thoughts by then.
I get it... I can relate to Dug. I'd have felt that way. I'm glad you were able to neutralize things.
I’m sure you’re shocked that Izzy ordered macaroni and cheese
:
WHAT?????
Random post, but Izzy's preschool class talked about transportation the other day and today Dug saw this hanging on the wall:
I think we're training her right!
That's fantastic! She's really growing up!
Those butter-licking pictures crack me up!
So she is either too distracted to eat or too focused on eating to be distracted. Not much in between, huh?
So, then this was a free meal?
Hahahahaha, no, of course not.
It somehow magically got charged to that credit card that “wasn’t on file.”
But, at least we didn’t have plans for a small child to take a nap in the room on one of those afternoons!
That would have made life difficult.
So, yeah, for a stay of under 24 hours, it was a lot that went wrong.
It really was... that was a bumpy stay at BCV.
We made it here in plenty of time (for once!
):
Of course... that's the one you're on time for.
I think we were all ready to go home, but not necessarily to face reality.
Totally understand!
Candy still in hand!
She was sound asleep by 1:38pm. I think she slept through most of the flight, so that was nice. I guess that’s the benefit of having the late night prior.
That's great. Always makes the flight easier when they can nap.
We stopped into the restrooms for Izzy to go potty. I had put a pull-up on her for the plane ride, just in case, but I think it stayed dry and she actually went potty in the restroom.
So she figured it out by the time the trip was over?
She took us back to our car (in Dug’s sister’s driveway) and we drove home. After we got home, my step-mom stopped by our house to drop off Bailey (they dog-sat for us) AND she even brought us pizza for dinner! So nice!
Makes the return to reality when you have someone to help you settle back in.
I am most likely going to call it, “I Think I Might Be a Disneyland Person!” – so, that gives you some idea how I liked DLR.
Sounds exciting! I haven't made it to your Aulani TR yet. Honestly, I probably won't. I'm so far behind, Aulani isn't on our radar so I'll probably just wait until the DL TR and try to jump in at the beginning.
*Spring 2018 – France & Disneyland Paris
*August 2018 – 7 Night Alaskan cruise on the Disney Wonder
Both look amazing! I hope you can make it work. That will be an awesome spring/summer!