"Anythings possible, for a Possible!" - Oct 15-25 TR(Final thoughts 5/25-Post 249!)

[laashley]

I have never looked into the Family Magic tour, but it looks fun. I'm sure the kids would love it.

It's funny that you say you saw the Barbershop for the first time. I said that this trip. It really is tucked in the corner, isn't it?

Looking forward to your next update, 1900 Park Fare is a fun one.

 

[skier_pete]

Thanks for sharing Pete. I've always wondered about the Family Magic tour. Looks like it was a lot of the fun for the kids and any time you can get FP is good, right?

I always seem to pick up some comments on my TRs about the speed of which I write them and post updates - but then, I'm such an old fogie that if I don't get the words down on screen ASAP, I'm going to forget what we did...and even having pictures is NOT going to be any help!
Sorry - you couldn't find the MK file. You seemed to have done well remembering the family highlights for your morning.

Looking forward to seeing your night...

Yeah, I usually can reconstruct most days from memory/pictures/video pretty far out...it's the MK days that seem so jammed-packed with stuff. I managed to reconstruct most of the evening, and what I couldn't remember, I'm just faking it!

Count me as one that was impressed how fast you get your TRs up.My goal is about 6 months to finish it...I'm just a bit behind that I think.

I have never looked into the Family Magic tour, but it looks fun. I'm sure the kids would love it.

It's funny that you say you saw the Barbershop for the first time. I said that this trip. It really is tucked in the corner, isn't it?

Looking forward to your next update, 1900 Park Fare is a fun one.

It is tucked away! I just kind of always assumed it was somewhere along main street that I never noticed...not the case at all. Not sure why I didn't get a picture, but I was doing a lot of videotaping.

I had been considering the tour for a few trips. The problem I had was giving up 2 hours of prime (morning) park touring. While I would never recommend it to someone going for there first time, it is definitely a fun experience for the kids and gives them a chance to try something different. What makes it work so well is it is very participatory, the kids get to help with the clues...though the adults are roped into the antics too...so you better not be shy!

I'm going to try and get the Park Fare portion of the update up soon. I want to upload some more videos for the evening, since I really didn't take many pictures. If I can do that tonight, I'll get the next one up tomorrow hopefully.

 

[skier_pete]

After our break, we took the bus back to MK and the monorail around the resort loop to get off at the Grand Floridian. We had eaten at 1900 Park Fare in 2006, it was still Cinderella then, but you had the mice and the fairy godmother…now you have the step-family. This is MUCH better as the sisters are extremely entertaining. This is of course all about the cast. Cinderella and the Prince have to play it pretty straightlaced, while Drizella and Anastasia go really, really broad, and Lady Tremaine needs to be somewhere in between.

Anyways, before we sat down, we had a little bit of a wait. DW went shopping (I had to call her when our table was ready to get her out of the store!) while I kept DD entertained. She found a old-fashoined looking phone in a hall off the lobby, and pretended she was talking to someone on it.

“DAD! Can’t you see I’m on the phone!”

The interaction was really good. It was almost as entertaining watching the step-sisters interact with other guests as it was when they came by your table. At one point, a guest gave Anastasia a ring. She ran all over the restaurant yelling at her sister about the ring she got. They also sang “Sing sweet nightingale” at one point (from the movie). Click on the link below for the video.



Poor DD was really nervous about meeting these characters, especially Lady Tremaine. We kept telling her that they probably can’t be that mean to the guests or else Cinderella and the Prince would kick them out. You can still see she wasn’t all that thrilled to see Lady Tremaine. I tried to bait her a bit, but she was not having any of it. Made it seem like she really didn’t want to be there:

Then came Anastasia – she was the best. I again tried to bait her, saying she was much prettier than her sister. She was quite pleased but didn’t shout out to Drizella. You can see DD felt a lot more comfortable with her.

Next was Cinderella’s turn. What can you say about dear ‘Ella. Pretty and charming as ever:

The Prince was also very nice. We had a laugh about having to deal with In-Laws (*snark*):

Lastly was Drizzella. She was also a riot.

As far as the food goes, I am going to defer to my wife’s opinion. While it was quite good, I think I was reaching a point where I had eaten too much over too many days, and there wasn’t much there that appealed to me. However, DW loved it. They DID have a lot of different varieties, and it was sort of broken up by region like “France” “Italy” “Asian” “Middle East”. I didn’t take any pictures though.

 

[skier_pete]

Wrapping up the day, we headed from the Grand Floridian into Magic Kingdom. Our main goal was to see the Main Street Electrical Parade, and also use our Fast Passes for the evening. Because of all the MNSSHP going on and it being a Saturday, the parade route was very crowded. Even though it was almost an hour before the parade was to start, there was no real room on Main Street. We decided to head over to Frontierland since we weren’t worrying about seeing the fireworks. The park was VERY crowded by this time, but we prefer to get a spot in the front row, so we staked a spot on the sidewalk. (Man, I’m getting too old for this.)

Again, it turned out I didn’t take any pictures during the parade. I am not sure why, though it was probably mostly because I took video. I find it interesting the debate between Spectromagic and MSEP. They are both very similar in style in that they are both light parades, but they both have their supporters. While I don’t have a distinct hatred of one versus the other or any childhood familiarity, I would have to say that I prefer Spectromagic. This is mostly because of the music. I like Spectro’s bombastic “Shimmering…glimmering…Spectromagic!” verus the ‘80s electronica sound of MSEP. I also would argue that some portions of MSEP are too far removed from today’s kids (Pete’s Dragon? Really?) but you could argue the same for all the Fantasia floats in Spectro. So, while I would prefer Spectro come back, I guess I won’t mind having to see MSEP again come November.



After the parade, we decided to use our BTMRR Fastpasses. I had one the rare semi-confrontations with a fellow guest. As we were waiting in-line for the CM to check our FPs before entering the queue…this guy and his family comes flying up and by-passes the line of people cutting ahead of them. He gets through, but the CM stops the others. Our family gets into line, and then the rest of his family get in, so he’s waiting a bit behind me.
As we’re walking through the line I say to DW rather loudly: “Gee, must be nice to feel your entitled to cut in front of other people.”
The guy, obviously knowing this is what he was doing said “Are you talking about me?”
I said, “Yes I am” and left it at that.

I guess it was good that he wasn’t in a fighting mood, as I wasn’t looking for a fight either, I just didn’t understand why he would think he was entitled to skip the line we were waiting in.

Anyways, all arguments forgotten, by the time we got on the ride, the fireworks had started, and we got to watch a portion of Wishes from our BTMRR ride. Here’s part of the video embedded below:



That was pretty awesome. There is no sound at all from the show over here, so it’s just the fireworks. We really enjoyed seeing it!

After BTMRR we made our way across to Tomorrowland, and used our FP for Buzz Lightyear. Another funny story here…as were walking up to the ride, there’s a bunch of people standing around waiting for their FP return time. The time is about 10:45 PM. The CM at the entrance is saying really loud, “you can’t come in unless your return time is before 10:45 PM!” as we walked up. I handed him the FP and said “Well, we’re actually a little bit late.” He looks at the time and he’s obviously about to turn us away because the time says 11…then he realizes…it’s 11 AM not PM! He even says “Oh, it’s AM…go right ahead.” Yup, we used our FP 12 hours late!

Then, on the ride itself…this happened (click on the link):



Yup, DD did the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen…she maxed out the score on Buzz Lightyear without the ride ever stopping. Now, this is someone that usually can’t even score 100,000. I was trying to help her hit some of the target I knew were worth more, but I have no idea what things she hit late in the game, but it started racking up 100,000 at a time, and she hit 999,999 before the end! Amazing!

Well, we had one thing left to do and that is use our Space Mountain FP. Since DD still won’t ride it, we were going to switch off. DW took DD to ride Carousel of Progress while I rode SM. The FP line was about 25 minutes long (YIPES! All us late FP people I know) so by the time I got off we were really ready to call it a day. While we didn’t quite close down the park – it was open until 2 AM with the EMH – it was closing in on midnight before we headed out of the park. Another great day and another late night.

One more day to go!

 

[PrincessInOz]

"How cool was that?"

We got fireworks....and you got beaten by your DD!

 

[skier_pete]

"How cool was that?"

We got fireworks....and you got beaten by your DD!

Her beating me doesn't bother me at all...I spend most of the ride trying to help HER score. She not that great at it usually...so that's what made it amazing that she maxed out the game. There were a couple of really easy targets that were racking up 100,000 a shot for her. I don't know if they do that just randomly or what...

 

[laashley]

1900 PF is so fun, the stepsisters certainly are a hoot!

I bet that was a great night for your DD- fireworks from BTMRR and maxing it out on Buzz (or getting the bottom as she excitedly said over and over!).

 

[skier_pete]

1900 PF is so fun, the stepsisters certainly are a hoot!

I bet that was a great night for your DD- fireworks from BTMRR and maxing it out on Buzz (or getting the bottom as she excitedly said over and over!).

The fireworks over BTMRR were a lot of fun. What was weird is you don't hear any of the rest of the show...only the fireworks. While I love the presentation of Wishes, it was definitely a cool way to see it.

Wasn't that great that she got so excited. "I got the bottom! I got the bottom!" I was pretty excited too...watching these videos, I never noticed how high my voice goes when I get excited!

 

[onescgirl]

I'm glad your DD enjoyed the tour. That was funny where you said other kids not on the tour just started joining along crawling on the floor!
We loved 1900 Park Fare when we ate there. Your Prince Charming was real charming-looking!

 

[skier_pete]

I'm glad your DD enjoyed the tour. That was funny where you said other kids not on the tour just started joining along crawling on the floor!
We loved 1900 Park Fare when we ate there. Your Prince Charming was real charming-looking!

Sorry, didn't really look over Prince Charming that close. Looking at the photos now - he did look pretty "Prince Charming-y".

I didn't post the Sonny Eclipse video because it was kind of long (they crept up real slow so it took a while). I give that CM credit for crawling across the floor of Cosmic Rays. It was early in the day, but still!

 

[skier_pete]

This was an odd day for us. Why is that? Because we were going into a day at Disney World where we had absolutely NO PLANS whatsoever. I’m sure there’s plenty of you out there that do this on a regular basis, but for me, it is simply not in my nature. I’m an engineer by training and by personality…I can’t NOT have a plan.

But, our original plans for the trip had us leaving for home on this day. In the end, the flights ended up being much cheaper to fly out on Monday, so we ended up extending our stay by a day. I had booked breakfast at Boma today, but I knew we were unlikely to do that going in having just come off a meal at 1900 Park Fare the night before...but especially after we were so underwhelmed by the first meal we had there.

We hadn’t gotten to bed the night before until almost midnight, so we were slow to get up. In addition, we were going to need to move hotels. Part of the deal on the extra night stay was we needed to stay cheaper than AKL – so we were moving to Pop Century. We were essentially going to pack everything for going home, and ship it all over to Pop so that in the morning we would be ready to go.

We got up in the morning and decided definitely we weren’t going to eat at Boma, so we talked about plans for the day. Since this trip saw us spending so little time at Epcot, and since that park can definitely eat a lot of time, we thought we would at least start our day there. So, we decided to make a lunch reservation at Teppan Edo. We had never eaten there, and we all enjoyed Teppanaki style food very much, so we thought we’d give it a try. Plus, we were able to get an ADR there around 1 PM, which would’ve been difficult in a lot of places.

We also had 6 counter service meals left, so we got a breakfast to eat in the room while we packed. We actually ate out on the patio. DW and I got the big country breakfast, and for DD we got the waffles.

It was more than enough food, and we really enjoyed one last sit out on the patio looking at the animals. We even had FOUR giraffes in sight at the same time. Seeing the animals roaming around outside the room really never got old.

It was probably about 10:30 AM by the time we were all packed and had our bags ready. A few last pictures on the way out:

We decided that we might as well take a ride over to Pop and check in, that way we did not have to put all our personal items into storage. So, we went down to the bus stop. We had decided to try and transfer through either AK or Epcot…but arrived at the bus stop just missing a bus. We stood about 5 minutes waiting when DW suggested “Why don’t we just take a taxi?” I said, “You know what, I never thought of that.” She said, “Well, I’ve been thinking about it, but I didn’t think you’d want to spend the money.” I said, “No, it’s a great idea, and the perfect time to use a taxi!” Pop and AKL are really close to eachother, and so rather than two bus transfers, we would save a bunch of time and only cost $17. (The other thing is that we had had FANTASTIC “Bus Karma” this trip with not a lot of waiting for busses, and my feeling was this was going to be the time it was going to hit us – I was worried it would take us an hour to make the transit over.)

In the end, the taxi was great, he had us there in less than 20 minutes, I had done on-line check-in, and our room was ready, so we went up to our room. I hadn’t requested a room, but we had a great location in Building 9 right near the center of the building, very very close to the bus stops. Our view of the courtyard from our floor by the elevators, and the one and only picture of Pop Century.

I loved the location. We were in and out of Pop Century within an hour I think.Still, by the time we got to Epcot it was almost time for our ADR, so we headed right out to World Showcase and the Japanese pavilion. I should be pointed out that our clear and dry weather streak continued, today was the first day where the humidity started to creep up, and we were quite sweaty by the time we got to Japan. We had stopped to pick up a Kimmunicator for a KP mission on the way out, but we decided to eat first. Everyone was a bit hot and cranky by the time we got into the restaurant (not to mention all the travel of the morning) but we were glad to be sitting down.

For those of you unfamiliar with Teppanaki dining, it’s the type of restaurant where they have a large metal griddle in the middle of the table and the chef comes out and cooks your meal while putting on a show of it. For a long time, we had only one of these restaurants in Buffalo, but they recently opened 3 more, so we were curious to see if Disney did anything above and beyond the standard.

Our chef was very good. Surprisingly (to me anyways) he was caucasian. The reason I say this is that typically a Teppanaki chef is required to train for several years in Japan, which is why there are not a lot of caucasian Teppanaki chefs. I talked to our chef about this, and he indicated that he did train in Japan.

Anyways, he was a good cook and a pretty good entertainer.
ONION VOLCANO!

DD got a real kick out of the "training" chopsticks they gave her:

I forgot what our meals were, but pretty standard Teppan. Grilled Chicken/Steak/Shrimp, rice or noodles, and veggies. DD mostly ate the noodles and some white rice

For dessert - DD had a bowl of ice cream - her favorite:

DW tried the green tea pudding and I had the Ginger Cake. Both were very tasty:

The food and show were both very good, but no different from what I could see 15 minutes from my house for half the price. DD loved it, but I am unlikely to return here anytime soon.

2B Continued

 

[PrincessInOz]

Both your room views were fabulous!

I've never eaten at Teppan Edo. We have a few teppanyaki places in Melbourne and it is hard to go to Epcot and eat this cuisine.

I've seen other people rave about it in their TRs; so I'm kinda glad to hear your perspective....looks like it is the sort of place you go to once for the experience and then head home for more of the same.

 

[skier_pete]

Both your room views were fabulous!

I've never eaten at Teppan Edo. We have a few teppanyaki places in Melbourne and it is hard to go to Epcot and eat this cuisine.

I've seen other people rave about it in their TRs; so I'm kinda glad to hear your perspective....looks like it is the sort of place you go to once for the experience and then head home for more of the same.

You hit that nail right on the head there, Princess! I think if you've never been it would be a fun experience, but I wouldn't recommend it as something different or better than a normal Teppan meal. One thing I didn't mention, our bill total (which we didn't pay all of since we were on the DDP) ran to $138. This made it the 2nd most expensive meal of the trip behind Jiko. More expensive than Le Cellier by like $30. Definitely NOT worth that. Again we go out to one of these dinners as home for about $75.

 

[PrincessInOz]

You hit that nail right on the head there, Princess! I think if you've never been it would be a fun experience, but I wouldn't recommend it as something different or better than a normal Teppan meal. One thing I didn't mention, our bill total (which we didn't pay all of since we were on the DDP) ran to $138. This made it the 2nd most expensive meal of the trip behind Jiko. More expensive than Le Cellier by like $30. Definitely NOT worth that. Again we go out to one of these dinners as home for about $75.

That is $$$$ for the US!

 

[onescgirl]

What a great way to start your morning, brkfst on the balcony with that great view!
I'm curious to know which resort your DD liked the best? Pop looks like kids would love it there.

 

[skier_pete]

What a great way to start your morning, brkfst on the balcony with that great view!
I'm curious to know which resort your DD liked the best? Pop looks like kids would love it there.

It's hard to say...she has really liked all three we stayed at a lot. Probably AKL was the favorite for the animals, even though she would get to room, look at the animals for like two minutes, and then want to turn on the TV. However, she likes both Pop Century a POFQ as well. I think in general she likes the resorts that have water slide pools better. She really wants to go back to POFQ next trip. It's up to Disney to make it happen! C'mon free dining!

 

[laashley]

Nothing sounds better than spending your last morning at AKL with breakfast on the balcony! Then instead of going home, just moving over to Pop for a day.

I found last trip that sometimes it is good to not have a plan. It makes for a more relaxing day when you aren't rushing to do this or that.

Glad to hear your review of Teppen Edo. I have been debating putting it on our to-try list, still not sure where I stand. The kids might enjoy trying to use the chopsticks.

 

[Disneychix]

Hey there! Just had to stop in and let you know I saw you and your beautiful family at the Imagination Movers concert last night. However, I was 1)trying to convince my son to get to his seat (he didn't want to go into the aud, 2)nervous you would think I was a crazy stalker!, 3) trying to locate my seats which were opposite the aud from yours and 4)trying to convince my DH that I wasn't a crazy stalker when I pointed out that I 'knew' you from the DIS boards!

Hope you had fun! We sure did!!

 

[skier_pete]

Nothing sounds better than spending your last morning at AKL with breakfast on the balcony! Then instead of going home, just moving over to Pop for a day.

I found last trip that sometimes it is good to not have a plan. It makes for a more relaxing day when you aren't rushing to do this or that.

Glad to hear your review of Teppen Edo. I have been debating putting it on our to-try list, still not sure where I stand. The kids might enjoy trying to use the chopsticks.

It was sort of nice having an unplanned day. It's definitely a good way to go toward the end of a trip - since time is winding down. However, I find without a plan we don't DO very much.

Actually I plan a lot differently now I did 5 years ago when I first started planning trips. We usually know what parks on what days, but don't really have a set schedule for the day like we used to, just really ADRs and stuff...or a broad strategy..."first we'll hit Fantasyland, head to Adventureland, stop by BTMRR and then take the train over to Tomorrowland" type of plans. Or we have our 'plan' down the way we like it..."First EPCOT day we hit the character connection @ rope drop, grab FP for Soarin', visit the Seas, then the Land...."

Hey there! Just had to stop in and let you know I saw you and your beautiful family at the Imagination Movers concert last night. However, I was 1)trying to convince my son to get to his seat (he didn't want to go into the aud, 2)nervous you would think I was a crazy stalker!, 3) trying to locate my seats which were opposite the aud from yours and 4)trying to convince my DH that I wasn't a crazy stalker when I pointed out that I 'knew' you from the DIS boards!

Hope you had fun! We sure did!!

You definitely should have said 'HI'...while I'm not sure I would have recognized you - one mention of the "Disneychix" on the DIS and I would've remembered! I definitely wouldn't have thought you a crazy stalker. Now, if you had followed us home....

It was a great show. I was a little disappointed they didn't play more songs off the one CD we have so DD would've known more songs, but I thought the show was really good. We saw Choo Choo Soul a few years ago @ WDW when they were doing the Little Ones Extra Magic Hours and the Playhouse Disney concert series, and DD who was 4 @ the time, stood right at the front of the stage watching them sing (there was a mini-mosh-pit for the kids at that show). For this show - DD was dancing around for the first half and then got a bit wiped out so sat for much of the 2nd half. It was great the way they came out into the crowd. We had aisle seats, so she was able to run down the aisle to give Dave a high five.

To bad the merchandise was such a rip-off. She wanted scribble sticks (like drum sticks for those not in the know - but they have a light inside) and she had $20 to spend...they charged $20 EACH. We said we could NOT get two. I swear they sold them at Disney for like $10 a pair.

 

[khertz]

Every time I see a picture of that ginger cake, I want a HUGE piece myself, but I have never even tried it! It just looks so delicious!!