Lions and Tigers and CGI Bears, Oh My! June '16 - COMPLETED 6/4, page 22

[HeyIt'sMe]

Loving your TR as always! I have been reading along but life and work have been insane so I haven't had much time to comment. Excuses, excuses.

We also like the green tea Kit Kats. Do you guys have a Cost Plus World Market near you? We found the green tea Kit Kats and some of the other international treats that you find at Epcot there. Score!

 

[ArielSRL]

Still loving the rope drop strategy! You guys got some great photos as well as accomplished so much! Love the character meets! I'm doing less character meals next trip because we are skipping the DDP and they can cost so much, specifically for children that eat NOTHING (something we have in common). So we'll need to add in more character meets.

I want to try Les Halles for breakfast one day. But the lunch looked nice, too! I need to look at menus.

Interesting candy!

 

[skywaywaver]

I was so excited to see another update but I saved it to read until now, while at my kids' swimming lessons. So consider yourself swimming-lesson-worthy.
Love the Kawaii exhibit and evil business cat. Really looking forward to Japan now. And yay for waived fees!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

EPCOT really is so photogenic ... next time you should try to get some shots of the monorail and/or monorail track .... seriously though, it does make that area look really cool and makes me wish the monorail went to other parks. Would be cool if it would go through Pandora or Star Wars Land or Zootopia ... or, wait, no Zootopia land that was just the train in the movie

That's cool you got one last ride on the old Soarin' movie. My understanding is that in Disney California Adventure they have had the digital version for a while so it wasn't that big of a deal for them to have it in EPCOT once they converted the theaters for the new movie, but I agree it feels a bit odd to have that new version of the old movie for such a short period of time

Interesting tidbit about Test Track in that they will keep you old designs on your MB even if you ride single ride in the future. I would not know that being that I have never ridden test track ... maybe this trip, but likely not given the whole tiering scenario

Looks like fun in EPCOT and you made out pretty well with short lines for Mary and Belle. Lunch looks good too and glad you got that fee waved for changing dinner locations. Feels like the whole point of that is so people don't double book ADRs and then just go to one of them or just not go at all ... if you are switching locations you are still eating on site for that meal so it shouldn't have a fee

Still can't imagine what it was like to be there that whole time and come back to those "beach closed" signs

 

[ALEXandFAB]

And Jack Sparrow gets it bad. Really bad.

The bed scene!

I think it's $10 a person, so that's a $40 hit we'll take for cancelling our existing ADRs.

OUCH

The wait has increased significantly since we entered the queue, BTW:

150 minutes?! No way.

"How long do nine minutes take?"

Um, what?

Kids .
Once, over a dinner of grilled chicken, my son turned to my husband mid-bite and asked, "Dad, what animal does chicken come from?". He was completely serious.

And look - artistic Duffys!

Oh, wow...love these.

The trip to Guest Services was productive, though, as Kristin got our cancellation fee for Rose and Crown waived.

Way to go Kristin!

 

[rndmr2]

Great updates! I was behind a little bit but I am caught up now.

Nice days at HS and Epcot

The wait for Kylo Ren (or, as Kristin thought he was named, that Dastardly Space Irishman Kyle O'Ren. Ok, so I made up everything before "Kyle". But still. Irish. Space Irish.)

It's funny that you mention this. I have a Nephew named Kyle and his nickname is Kylo. I don't remember how it came about, just that his mother started calling him that.

LOVE him!! So Glad he is a meetable (is that a word? LOL) character now!!

I love this picture with the Monorail and the fountain

OMG!! What is this new awesomeness?? I always loved getting Pocky at the store in Japan on our trips when I was younger. Now I have seen it in a few places near me recently but only the chocolate one in the red box.

 

[PrincessBrit]

Love your trip reports!

I'm interested in what strategies Kristin uses for getting such good responses from Guest Services? Like the $40 cancellation fee - did she just ask for them to waive the fee? Or did she offer any sort of argument/reasoning that really persuaded them?

I haven't had much dealing with Guest Services, but I'm a "no conflict" sort of person, so the thought of asking them to waive a fee or give me extra fastpasses for some reason sort of makes me anxious! (I think you mentioned in a previous trip report that she got extra fastpasses because ya'll had to wait so long for a bus to come that it either made you miss a fastpass or you had to rush to an ADR...).

Anyway - just wondering if she has any tips.

Excited to read the report of this report!

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

I am thoroughly enjoying your trip report. Love the humour too.
We are looking to RD Epcot for an EMH day - were you able to do Soarin' and Living with the Land standby and be done by 9:00am? We are coming from Beach Club, so not sure if that's an advantage or disadvantage in terms of RD.

 

[Clarf]

LOVE the Consuela voice. We use that one a lot too. Well, Jason and I do. Our kids don't watch Family Guy. Yet.

And Pee Wee's Big Holiday! Not quite as good as the original, but had some great parts. "I'm going to let you let me let you go." The scene with the balloons and the Amish group? Still hilarious.

But now onto your TR. I'm with you. Love all the Star Wars stuff and can't wait to see what the finished product looks like at Hollywood Studios. Kyle O'Renn Poor Kristin. Love that you used the picture of her giving the thumbs down twice.

We have to add Sci-Fi to our dining list next trip. Jason and I went there in 2001, but haven't been back since. I know our kids would love it though, and Jason loves a good steak.

I second that they should bring back the Animation Academy. We actually never did it at WDW, but they had it at the Disney exhibit that came to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago last year and we did it there and loved it. We Were all set to do it last year, but it was closed already. I hope they find a way to bring it back.


Ooooh, I forgot about your MK night. Yes for riding Haunted Mansion alone again! I don't know that I'll have that luxury for a few more years. Maybe I can convince them that Jason will protect them better from the ghosts.

Epcot looked empty! Especially WS. Wow, I thought June was crowded!

Way to go on the hat autographs, Emily. Cool idea!

So glad Kristin got your $40 back. She is so good at doing that stuff!

 

[bigbabyblues]

Apparenlty, green tea chocolate is a thing in Japan:

It is a thing in Japan! Our neighbor works for Toyota and travels to Japan a few times a year. He brought my kids green tea KitKats back from a trip last week. I'm not sure how good they were, he didn't bring me one. It seems like he had another flavor too, but my kids don't share, so I'm not sure what it was.

 

[gluestickgirl]

We <3 test track single rider. There are kiosks in the area where the ride dumps out where you can design a car. No time limit. My kids would make a car there and then hop in single rider.... And then do it all again.

The raspberry thing from Les Halles is a fave of mine - yum!

 

[LadyGrimm]

You seriously need to get your daughter to Tokyo Disney - Duffy culture is DEEP there. Loving the TR!

 

[saratriceratops]

Following along now! Great TR what a scary time to be there though

 

[SJSloan]

You had a perfectly timed trip. Old Soarin, New Soarin, AND Frozen!

Every time I've been to Epcot for rope drop we were never let in early to wait by Spaceship Earth or the Fountains. Is this a new thing? Or just for EMH?

I haven't rode Journey into the Imagination with Figment in years and husband and step-kids never have, in the 4 trips they've been. I'm a terrible Disney guide apparently, but it's never really been at the top of the list… Putting on the list for December!

We went to Les Halles last trip and I ordered a large white dessert that looked soft and fluffy like marshmallow… Bit into it and it was like hard meringue… Must be a French thing, but it was strange.

I can't wait to hear about Teppan Edo. It's pretty far down the list of my Disney ADRs because we regularly visit hibachi restaurants at home. But my husband has asked why we haven't done it yet. I may have to give in… ::sigh:: But thankfully I do all the planning.

 

[nilla]

We also like the green tea Kit Kats. Do you guys have a Cost Plus World Market near you? We found the green tea Kit Kats and some of the other international treats that you find at Epcot there. Score!

We don't! I think there's a Japanese store downtown that would have it, though. I might have to check it out.

Still loving the rope drop strategy! You guys got some great photos as well as accomplished so much! Love the character meets! I'm doing less character meals next trip because we are skipping the DDP and they can cost so much, specifically for children that eat NOTHING (something we have in common). So we'll need to add in more character meets.

I've grown tired of the character dinners, too. We don't do as many character M&Gs anymore, but we did a ton when the kids were smaller!

I was so excited to see another update but I saved it to read until now, while at my kids' swimming lessons. So consider yourself swimming-lesson-worthy.

I assume someone else is teaching the kids?

Thanks! After almost a week, we have another update coming tonight!

EPCOT really is so photogenic ... next time you should try to get some shots of the monorail and/or monorail track .... seriously though, it does make that area look really cool and makes me wish the monorail went to other parks.

They should! I'd love to take the monorail through those parks.

Once, over a dinner of grilled chicken, my son turned to my husband mid-bite and asked, "Dad, what animal does chicken come from?". He was completely serious.

The often miss the obvious!

Way to go Kristin!

She told the CM that there was nothing on the menu the kids would like, and he waived the charge. It was awesome!

It's funny that you mention this. I have a Nephew named Kyle and his nickname is Kylo. I don't remember how it came about, just that his mother started calling him that.

Has he sworn to join the First Order?

LOVE him!! So Glad he is a meetable (is that a word? LOL) character now!!

He was great! We love him in the movie, too. There's an Olaf antenna topper, but it's enormous, so I passed.

OMG!! What is this new awesomeness?? I always loved getting Pocky at the store in Japan on our trips when I was younger. Now I have seen it in a few places near me recently but only the chocolate one in the red box.

We haven't opened it yet, and I have no valid excuse for why! We see "cookies and cream", and it's over.

Love your trip reports!

Thanks!

I'm interested in what strategies Kristin uses for getting such good responses from Guest Services? Like the $40 cancellation fee - did she just ask for them to waive the fee? Or did she offer any sort of argument/reasoning that really persuaded them?

I haven't had much dealing with Guest Services, but I'm a "no conflict" sort of person, so the thought of asking them to waive a fee or give me extra fastpasses for some reason sort of makes me anxious! (I think you mentioned in a previous trip report that she got extra fastpasses because ya'll had to wait so long for a bus to come that it either made you miss a fastpass or you had to rush to an ADR...).

Anyway - just wondering if she has any tips.

See above

I am thoroughly enjoying your trip report. Love the humour too

Thank you! Another update tonight!

We are looking to RD Epcot for an EMH day - were you able to do Soarin' and Living with the Land standby and be done by 9:00am?

I'm pretty sure we did, but it was probably close.

LOVE the Consuela voice. We use that one a lot too. Well, Jason and I do. Our kids don't watch Family Guy. Yet.

Once Dylan turned 14, even the TV Ratings Board felt it was time for us to let him watch. We held out until then, even though all his friends were already watching it.

And Pee Wee's Big Holiday! Not quite as good as the original, but had some great parts. "I'm going to let you let me let you go." The scene with the balloons and the Amish group? Still hilarious.

"It's not that far of a drive, Ernie."

We have to add Sci-Fi to our dining list next trip. Jason and I went there in 2001, but haven't been back since. I know our kids would love it though, and Jason loves a good steak.

It's so much fun! Plus, we don't have to sit facing the kids!

I second that they should bring back the Animation Academy. We actually never did it at WDW, but they had it at the Disney exhibit that came to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago last year and we did it there and loved it. We Were all set to do it last year, but it was closed already. I hope they find a way to bring it back.

It's the thing I miss the most that they did away with! They were hyping it on DME last year, so I'm surprised it's gone entirely.

Yes for riding Haunted Mansion alone again!

It gets better later in the trip

Epcot looked empty! Especially WS. Wow, I thought June was crowded!

I didn't think the crowds were as bad as last year. Or maybe I didn't care. But Epcot sure was empty on most of the days we were there. I think the marquis attractions are what absorb everyone.

Way to go on the hat autographs, Emily. Cool idea!

She didn't even get the hat for that purpose. She needed something for autographs when she met A&E last year, and this made as much sense as anything.

It is a thing in Japan! Our neighbor works for Toyota and travels to Japan a few times a year. He brought my kids green tea KitKats back from a trip last week. I'm not sure how good they were, he didn't bring me one. It seems like he had another flavor too, but my kids don't share, so I'm not sure what it was.

I love them! I ate the last one the other night, though

We <3 test track single rider. There are kiosks in the area where the ride dumps out where you can design a car. No time limit. My kids would make a car there and then hop in single rider.... And then do it all again.

Is it the full design mode, like they have in the standby/FP queue? If so, that's fantastic! Thanks for the tip!

You seriously need to get your daughter to Tokyo Disney - Duffy culture is DEEP there. Loving the TR!

We ALL want to go to Tokyo Disney. The model in One Man's Dream doesn't help!

Following along now! Great TR what a scary time to be there though

They really do their best to isolate you from all of that when you're in Disney. Unless you go looking for information, you really don't get it.

You had a perfectly timed trip. Old Soarin, New Soarin, AND Frozen!

It worked out perfectly! They even delayed the Big Thunder refurb for us

Every time I've been to Epcot for rope drop we were never let in early to wait by Spaceship Earth or the Fountains. Is this a new thing? Or just for EMH?

We used to get in even further, i.e. past SE and closer to the big fountain. We haven't been to an Epcot rope drop in a while though, so I don't know when the current spot started.

I haven't rode Journey into the Imagination with Figment in years and husband and step-kids never have, in the 4 trips they've been. I'm a terrible Disney guide apparently, but it's never really been at the top of the list… Putting on the list for December!

It's fun, and there's never a wait! Worth a stop.

I can't wait to hear about Teppan Edo. It's pretty far down the list of my Disney ADRs because we regularly visit hibachi restaurants at home. But my husband has asked why we haven't done it yet. I may have to give in… ::sigh:: But thankfully I do all the planning.

Review coming up, right now!

 

[nilla]

After a little bit of swimming, Emily went back to the room, and I went on a quest to find a decent snack that wasn't just dough loaded with sugar. I would even accept some sort of meat-in-dough product. No such luck. Rix Express certainly had its share of doughnuts, muffins, cookies, and salty snacks covered with chocolate, but no such luck on the even marginally healthy front. So off to the Pepper Market I go.

The have fruit, but that's about the extent of it. I love fruit, but I'm not about to waste a snack credit on a banana. So it's back to the room I go, for yet another protein bar. I'm really pleased with the decision to bring 36 of these on the trip this year, since they're stepping up in a pinch. It probably won't be the last time.

Emily was now done getting changed, I got my snack, and Dylan and Kristin were finally done being lazy losers. Then, this happened:



If you can't tell from the picture, what's happening is the rain is coming down, down, down, in rushing, rising riv'lets. Which isn't surprising, since the forecast was calling for scattered or isolated thunderstorms for the majority of our trip. I guess "scattered or isolated" translates to "over without a trace in 20 minutes", because that's what happened here. Let's hope that luck continues, because I can deal with a 20-minute downpour over a complete washout.

It actually looked like it could storm at any time when we were in the pool, but held off. It was odd, since there were black clouds above us, and beautiful, clear skies to any side beyond that. I guess that's Florida.

I selected and resized the photos to upload to Photobucket (which is a pretty significant task, considering the quantity of photos we took), while the others got ready to go back to Epcot.

We got back to Epcot around 7:00, and once again, are powerless to resist the draw of the Epcot Ball (tm) Photo Spot:



Our ADRs for Teppan Edo are for 7:40, which means we should probably head right back there. Along the way, we grab some pictures of trees...



Lakes...



And areas of Scandinavia that will probably descend into chaos in the next few days:



I'm not sure what this building on the front end of the Germany pavilion is for (Snow White M&Gs happen elsewhere, I think), but we like it.



So much that we want our photo WITH the building:



Emily likes flowers, bushes, and Epcot. And Duffy.



We also like bridges.



But not enough to be photographed with it.

We eventually reach Japan.



I check in at the outside kiosk, and quickly figure out that "thank you very much" is Japanese for "I have no idea what you're saying." We finally bridge the language gap, and we get our bleeper. Absolutely Fabulous reference there, if you didn't catch it. Can't wait to see the new movie!

Now that I'm done bringing up completely unrelated films, it's off to kill the wait time in Mitsukoshi. Why not? Emily tries on a hat:



She said some random, adult male fixed the hat for her unsolicited, and without warning, but whatever. The bleeper's going off, and it's time to go!

 

[nilla]

We get seated, and the rest of the table is already there (tables seat 8). It was two separate couples, whom we neither introduced ourselves to nor found out anything about. But that's ok, because we're not here to socialize.

Tough decisions...



We decide what we want, and then, family shots!





And what I want is beer!



Kirin draft. I wanted a draft. And there it is. I also got unsweetened iced tea, which is now MY thing.

Salads came shortly after:



In a strange turn of events, Dylan is actually eating the salad. What?

Since I absolutely love sushi, I supplemented my already full meal with a volcano roll:



Our chef liked to loudly announce the food that was being served or prepared. The first example was "volcano sauce!" when he poured it on the roll. The kids were amused by this, and we ended up hearing it for the rest of the trip.

Since Teppan Edo is a hibachi place, the chef is required by U.S. restaurant regulations to cut up an onion, fill it with oil, light the inside on fire, and push the onion along the grill with a spatula while saying, "choo choo!" Our chef was in compliance:



"Mickey Mouse!"



That part was optional. "Bye bye, Mickey Moust!"

As for the meals, Dylan and Kristin got the filet mignon, I got steak and shrimp, and Emily got the chicken. All were fantastic, but for whatever reason, never to be photographed. We did take pictures of the kids eating, though:



Dylan ate great! He even ate the veggies. I let him try a shrimp, and he loved that as well. Unreal!

We asked him afterwards if he'd eat that stuff at home. He said only if we make it on a hibachi grill and exclaim, "soy sauce!" while making it.

Emily is a pro at chop sticks, and shows it at this meal.



We all bought our own, personal chop sticks on last year's trip. Emily's pretty much the only person who has used them since, and she uses them a lot.

The meal was great - we've had hibachi at home, but it's never as good. The desserts (which we also didn't photograph, for some reason), were really good, too - green tea mousse cake (me), ginger mousse cake (Kristin and Dylan), and vanilla soft serve (Emily).

Now, from where should we watch Illuminations?

 

[nilla]

How about here?



The deck right outside the restaurants seems like a good spot! So there we stayed. The view was great!





Whoa!





This is Dylan's favorite nighttime show at WDW, and I'm almost at the point where I agree with him. But Wishes is Wishes. Do we really have to pick?





The show's over now, and it's time to go. We get some more photos on the way out:







The parks, to me, are a totally different experience at night. I really love how they light this place up.

Family solidarity photo...



...and another...



...and another...



...and one more:



Ok, we're done. But one more photo:



Love how the concrete lights up! Alright, last picture:



Now one with the palm trees. THIS is the last one:



And we mean it this time. We're back to CSR by 10:15, and in bed shortly after.

 

[nilla]

...but first!

We have a message!

Mickey's Magical Room Telephone is flashing red, so that means someone tried to contact us. What could it be? Family emergency? Dog issues? Another evacuation?

Nope, just a friendly reminder that Hollywood Studios will be testing the BRAND NEW Star Wars fireworks late tonight, along with an apology in advance for disturbing us. Well, ok. We'll be listening!

We go through our usual Trivia Crack/Clash Royale/Repetitive Photo Task routine, and then it's light's out. Back to the Magic Kingdom tomorrow, and it's morning Extra Magic Hours! No time for nappin'!

(Up next, Day 5 - Friday - Magic Kingdom)

 

[ArielSRL]

Glad your rain shower was very brief! Photos look good. Dinner looks excellent. Great spot for Illuminations!