So we had just finished a very long day at the Magic Kingdom, and passed out cold.
The joke was on us though, we had to be up early for a very special morning! We had somewhere totally awesome to be:
It was time for breakfast at 'Ohana, the one place my boys requested, because they wanted to meet Stitch (we didn't know they'd get the special one on one meet and greet the previous day!!), and we knew this was the place to guarantee that happening!
Our reservation was at 8:00am, so before the new monorail schedule, my plan was to take the ferry to the Contemporary and ride the monorail to the Polynesian. I was a little worried about how we'd manage with the amended schedule, but I had faith that Disney would take care of us.
It was suggested to us by the CM at check in to ask the Magic Kingdom bus driver to drop us off on the way. So we asked, and he said no, but if we went with him to the Magic Kingdom there would be a bus for us to the Poly. I was nervous to say the least, but I knew we'd get there one way or another, even if we had to call a cab.
We boarded the bus, disembarked, and got into the line he pointed out to us. By line I mean...totally empty place with no other people around. I was still nervous, but I knew I had allowed us plenty of time. It was 7:13 at this point, we were ok. Soon, others filled in the line behind us. Hope!! And sure enough, before much longer we were on our way to the Polynesian (after a stop at the Contemporary, where we were greeted by no one. Totally empty bus stop).
We got upstairs and checked in early, about 7:30. We were seated quickly, there were hardly any other people in there besides us.
I did not take food pictures I guess...I found one of half-eaten bread, but I didn't think you'd want to see that!
Our friendly cousin took us to our table with a basket of the yummy pineapple bread and a cinnamon roll/raisin bread thing. Youngest DS, aka the King of Carbs, was allll over that! The pineapple bread was so yummy, I loved it!
Then our server came out and gave us our crack...er, I mean, Stitch juice (Disney POG juice)
I don't even know how much of this stuff we went through. I think at one point she just left the carafe. What can I say?
First to arrive at our table was Stitch!! He had a photopass photographer with him, so after a scan of our band, they were with our other Memory Maker photos. We took a few ourselves:
Next was Lilo. She was so cute!
Then Mickey, who was kind of a disappointment. He was the only rushed character, and I even saw him pull out of a hug from the kid at the table near us. Chill Mickey, don't be a Mouseketool!
Last was Pluto and he was GRRREAT!!
We enjoyed the food here. You are served family style on a skillet/platter thing that has scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage (yummy! and i don't usually eat sausage!), potatoes and Mickey waffles. What is it about Mickey waffles that are so darn good?? The don't taste like regular waffles, they taste like Disney perfection!
You can ask for more of anything you want, but we were good after one platter. We didn't want to gorge and make ourselves sick.
I might not have mentioned it yet, but all three of my guys were celebrating birthdays this trip. L and DH had bdays in July, and X would be celebrating his ACTUAL birthday on 8/8. They got many, many, many "happy birthdays" from the CMs, and this morning they scored free cupcakes and a birthday song from our 'Ohana server:
Overall, we enjoyed this meal, and I think I would book it again. I'd only ever had dinner here previously and didn't know what to expect, but we liked it!
After breakfast we went out to catch the monorail for Epcot.
Monorail selfie!!
We got there right after the opening and forged ahead. We stopped for some photopass pictures and wandered. We happened to pass the Character Spot with no wait, so we stopped in and met Mickey (who was MUCH better than breakfast Mickey), Goofy (who was phenomenal) and Minnie (who was sweet and charming). All of these pictures are on our Memory Maker, so they'll be shared later.
L asked the CMs where to find Chip and Dale, as they were priority number one for him today. Luckily they were meeting right around the corner. We have several photopass pics of this meet, but I snagged a couple, too! I did not cry, if you can believe that!
After this, I put the phone down and lay off the pictures. I am happy to report that I did not "live through the lens" this day, but a little sad I didn't get pictures of many of the things we did!
We'd had a great time with our animal friends, but it was time to get moving! We started by heading to our first FP+ of the day, Soarin', with a return time of 10:05-11:05am. I had never ridden Soarin' before, and was excited to see what the hype was all about. Unfortunately, after riding it, I still don't see what the hype IS all about. We all agreed we'd rather just go see an Imax movie (and after World Showcase, we agreed we'd just as soon watch Impressions de France or Reflections of China)
So good news Soarin' lovers! There will be four less fast passes being picked the next time we head to the world.
After Soarin' we learned how to Live with the Land, visited Nemo and his friends
then crossed the park for our next FP for Mission Space (return time of 11:30 -12:30). I rode the green side with X (he was afraid of getting sick) and DH and L rode the orange side.
The green side was much less crowded, so we finished before they did and went to the training lab and were part of the team up top at that little matching game thing they have in there. We thought that was pretty awesome!
We were already dragging at this point, so I suggested heading toward the World Showcase. I always start with Mexico, but we decided to mix it up and start with Canada...but first we stopped for a Cronut at the Refreshment Port.
Try the Cronut!! It's so good! We got one to share, but next time we will each get our own!!
This duck was hovering around and begging with about 5 or 6 of his buddies
First stop, Canada:
Second stop, England:
Then France:
where we saw Serveur Amusant
His act is great, but it stresses me out! We decided to de-stress with Las Hallas!! DH, X, and I chose the ham and cheese croissant (which I have pics of but they're boring), and L chose the winner of the day: the chocolate tart:
It doesn't look like much, but it was mouthwatering. So buttery and so delicious. Please try this!!
We were really winding down now, but X had been so patient, waiting to get to Japan and Mitsukoshi. He was thrilled!
We were beyond done by now, it was time to head back to the resort. We caught the Friendship boat in Germany and made our way to the bus stop, skipping our 3rd FP for Spaceship Earth.
The plan was to swim, rest, and return...but that's not exactly what happened. DH took the kids to the pool so i could take a nap, but the pool closed due to lightning in the area. A storm was rolling in. It poured and poured for hours. We decided to just hang out at the resort that night. DH and the kids went down to the arcade and I took a shower and relaxed. Later we had dinner at Roaring Forks again.
I had that roast beef and blue cheese sandwich I raved about earlier, DH had the pulled pork sandwich (which was good, but nothing special), and both boys had the pepperoni flatbread. We also got a vanilla cupcake (good, but just your average vanilla cupcake - grocery store-ish) and a s'mores cupcake. Holy Amazingness, Batman! The S'mores cupcake was really, really good!! I wholeheartedly recommend it...and I only had a couple bites, b/c I was shoveling in my sprinkled sugar cookie (remember, I mentioned that they became my obsession during the trip! I need to recreate them!!).
Then it was upstairs to relax on my balcony and watch the rain:
Chapter 5 coming up tomorrow!! It's oldest DS's 11th birthday on this day, and we have a great time!
Not sure why so many insist on riding it. Oh well, more fast passes for them to ride. 
She's 6, you don't mess with the 6 yr old! 
Did it on our Feb. trip as youngest DS didn't remember the cowboy scenario (it had been a couple years since we'd got that one). The "clue" is, the 2nd set of cars/train will be the cowboy one. If you want to, you can tell the CM you'd like to see that one and ask to wait. Because our Feb. trip was technically during a "slow" time, they were only loading one set of cars at a time so we had to wait a few extra minutes, but if late Aug. is still considered busier they may be loading both sets of cars at the same time so you could still load as soon as its your turn.
