Mimosas, Mickey Ears and Magic! 17 Days of Disney Delights *Complete

I absolutely love your reports! I've said it before, but it's because of you that I had to try the Gnocchi Sea/Gnocchi Do on our first trip 6 years ago. They actually made it just for me as they had taken it off of the menu. I see that it's now back on. So keeping my fingers crossed that it's still there next August.

I have to agree with you regarding "The Shape of Water". It was horrible. I am currently in school going for a degree as a Sign Language Interpreter. I was excited to see this movie just to try out my sign language skills (which are still in the early stages :rotfl:). It was just awful. Thankfully we rented it from Redbox and didn't see it in the theater.

I think I am in the minority regarding Homecomin'. We just weren't that excited about it. It was the one restaurant that I was so excited for last year. I made the ADR and never changed it. The ONLY one that never changed. I HAD to try it. It was just so heavy! And I wasn't real excited about the breading on the chicken. The hushpuppies were amazing and I wish I could find the recipe for Art's pimento cheese. Oh my goodness...it was delicious.

Yak & Yeti is one of our favorites. Their Ahi Tuna nachos are absolutely incredible! They are a must do for us. And last trip we tried the pulled pork nachos at Captain Cook's. Yep...they are delicious. Lick your plate clean delicious! Another must do.

Congrats on your new house. That's exciting. I can't wait to hear more of your report.
 
What do you mean you only ride Figment once every 5 trips? Don't make me sing the song!

That dessert looks. . . interesting!

Congrats on the house!
 
We also love San Angel Inn, we had a great meal and the nicest wait staff! The atmosphere in there can’t be beat!

The dessert looks really interesting, love Blaze pizza as well! I think we tried it because of your rave reviews:thanks:
 


Were you aware of the Blaze Pizza app for your phone? You get a free pizza after purchasing 10 and they frequently send out promotions for B1G1 offers or free drinks. They also have great gift card offers periodically. They gave a free pizza with the purchase of a $25 gift card at Christmas.

Did you know about moviepass? For about $10/ month or less on an annual basis when they have a sale going, you can see one movie per day. The company is loosing money and may not be around long, but we love it. The AMC in Disney Springs accepts it. We have seen around forty movies in the past 5 months.
 
May I ask where in the parks? I need this in my life.


Congratulations!!!! That is the best reason to have to cancel Disney!


Hmmm, I wonder why :crazy2:


No, you really can't!!!! Congrats on the Eagles. I was still bitter over my Steelers "loss" to the Patriots earlier in the year so I was routing for them from here.


Yikes! I was going to comment on how good this looked. Bummer the looks and taste didn't match.


I so hate this ride, but my daughter loves it. I think we may need to become DVC members just so we can hit the lounge while she rides it :P


Hey Frida, how ya doing? This is everything. I've never seen this before.


Yum. We've had this once and it was so good.


I'm with you in the San Angel Fandom. Our service has never been great, but the food is always flavorful and you cannot beat the atmosphere. And of course the avocado margaritas :drinking1


This is gorgeous! Glad to hear it tasted equally as good.


Yum! You can order pizza for me any day of the week. They just put one in about 20 minutes from our house and we plan on checking it out soon.

I am pretty sure I got mine at the dress shop in Disney Springs, but I know I saw them a few times during the trip.

Thank you! We are super excited, but having some serious Disney withdrawal already lol.

:laughing: Yeah he is permanently banned from our future trips.

It was a sweet victory to finally win the Super Bowl. Long time coming!

That's a plan! She can just meet you there after the ride.

Glad you like San Angel too! I love this place. And yeah, I'm so mad at myself for not getting the margarita this time. What was I thinking?

Jealous! I wish there was a Blaze that close to me. Although maybe its a good thing that there isn't one that close. :laughing:

I'm so bummed that this wasn't good - I wanted to make a trip to Saratoga just for it, but bread pudding should be really gooey, not dry!



This is such a cute paint by numbers! Like it a lot more than the Figment paintings I've seen.



Blaze is really delicious, I was just able to try it in my city. It isn't very close here so it's super tempting at Disney World. Mmm, drooling just thinking about it.

Oh yeah, it was so bad. Definitely do not make the trip there for that. You will be even more disappointed than I was.

I loved this one! I like that they switched them up a lot more this time.

Love Blaze! I wish we had one nearby. I don't have it in me to drive into Philly for it as that is the closest one to me.

Congratulations on the house!!! That’s fantastic! Sorry it is eating into vacation funds but it will be so worth it! Also congrats on the Super Bowl win - you guys are having quite a year! Have you guys seen “that” friend again? I also really enjoy San Angel... but I think they’ve tried to pack waaay too many tables into the space. Are they displaying the finished paint by numbers mural anywhere? Hope they didn’t trash it. I haven’t tried Blaze yet ... sounds like I need to change that!

Thank you so much! It really will be worth it. And now I can display all my Disney stuff in the new house, so it's a big win. The Super Bowl was amazing. So exciting to finally have a win. We definitely have not seen him since that day. He has tried to reach out to my hubby a few times and wanted us to plan a day when he was up here for a visit but I shut that right down. I will not forget what he did lol. I agree with you about San Angel. They could do the seating quite a bit better there. They displayed the final ones down by Universe of Energy during the Festival, but I wonder where they are now. Definitely try Blaze! It's amazing!

Congrats on the house! Sounds like a great reason to shorten your trip!

Thank you! It is. It will be hard, but totally worth it. I'm looking into a big October/November 2019 trip for our 10 year anniversary, so we'll still get there.

That looks delicious!

It was ridiculously good. I can't wait to have it again.

That's great news on the house purchase, will you be moving in soon?

It's nice to know that you are such a good wife, going out for beer and food for the game! I hope you are appreciated :goodvibes

We are looking to be in the house at the start of September. We are putting on a new roof, all new windows and siding and remodeling the bathroom and kitchen and painting the whole interior, so we are waiting for work to be done before we get in there.

I really am a good wife. :goodvibes Haha but seriously he does appreciate it. He has his good husband moments too, so we both win.

Congrats on the house! Bummer that you had to cancel your January WDW trip though. We're going this upcoming January with my son and his family. I've never been in January before, never really wanted to go at that time, but my grandsons have January birthdays, so we're celebrating them at WDW. Their birthdays are January 18th & 21st, and they'll be 13 and 6. It will be the 6 year old's second trip, as he was only 9 months old on his first, so this is technically like his first trip. He's so super excited! I thought maybe our trips would coincide and we could have a DIS meet, darn it! Even though we're South Jersey neighbors, I figured I'd have a better chance of meeting you in WDW than at home, lol! I am excited about seeing the FOTAs for the first time! We haven't tried Blaze pizza yet, but i'm dying to try it. San Angel is one of my favorites also, and I don't know why it gets so much hate. It is a beautiful restaurant, and I always have a good meal there. Oh well, makes it easier to get reservations, right?

Thank you! That sounds like an awesome January trip! So much to celebrate. Sad we will miss out on a chance for a DIS meet though! You are so right about San Angel. It's better when people don't like it so you can get in whenever you want. :thumbsup2
 
I absolutely love your reports! I've said it before, but it's because of you that I had to try the Gnocchi Sea/Gnocchi Do on our first trip 6 years ago. They actually made it just for me as they had taken it off of the menu. I see that it's now back on. So keeping my fingers crossed that it's still there next August.

I have to agree with you regarding "The Shape of Water". It was horrible. I am currently in school going for a degree as a Sign Language Interpreter. I was excited to see this movie just to try out my sign language skills (which are still in the early stages :rotfl:). It was just awful. Thankfully we rented it from Redbox and didn't see it in the theater.

I think I am in the minority regarding Homecomin'. We just weren't that excited about it. It was the one restaurant that I was so excited for last year. I made the ADR and never changed it. The ONLY one that never changed. I HAD to try it. It was just so heavy! And I wasn't real excited about the breading on the chicken. The hushpuppies were amazing and I wish I could find the recipe for Art's pimento cheese. Oh my goodness...it was delicious.

Yak & Yeti is one of our favorites. Their Ahi Tuna nachos are absolutely incredible! They are a must do for us. And last trip we tried the pulled pork nachos at Captain Cook's. Yep...they are delicious. Lick your plate clean delicious! Another must do.

Congrats on your new house. That's exciting. I can't wait to hear more of your report.

Thank you! I hope it's still there for you too!

Glad you agree with me about Shape of Water! Ugh that was so bad. Very cool that you are learning sign language though!

That's sad that Homecomin' was a disappointment for you. It has lost a little bit of shine for us, but overall we still enjoy it. I really want to try out their new brunch menu.

I love Y&Y! I think I will miss that the most skipping our next trip. The pulled pork nachos are amazing too!

Thank you! We can't wait to get moved in!

What do you mean you only ride Figment once every 5 trips? Don't make me sing the song!

That dessert looks. . . interesting!

Congrats on the house!

:rotfl: I LOVE Figment but I hate that ride. I just hate it lol. I miss the old ride still. I'll never get over it.

Fantastic reviews and photos, can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip :)

Thank you so much! :goodvibes

We also love San Angel Inn, we had a great meal and the nicest wait staff! The atmosphere in there can’t be beat!

The dessert looks really interesting, love Blaze pizza as well! I think we tried it because of your rave reviews:thanks:

I agree! You really cannot beat the atmosphere. And we always have good food and good service too.

Glad you loved Blaze too! It's so good!

Were you aware of the Blaze Pizza app for your phone? You get a free pizza after purchasing 10 and they frequently send out promotions for B1G1 offers or free drinks. They also have great gift card offers periodically. They gave a free pizza with the purchase of a $25 gift card at Christmas.

Did you know about moviepass? For about $10/ month or less on an annual basis when they have a sale going, you can see one movie per day. The company is loosing money and may not be around long, but we love it. The AMC in Disney Springs accepts it. We have seen around forty movies in the past 5 months.

I need to download the app! I always forget about it.

I keep thinking about Movie Pass. My mom just got it. I kept hearing awful things about getting the card and the customer service so I've been a little scared to try. There was a whole big thing at the Disney Springs AMC while we were there where they stopped accepting Movie Pass and we saw people freak out in line a couple of times. They must have gone back to accepting it. Glad to hear that you have had a positive experience! I know I would benefit from it, so I'll have to look into it again.
 


The next day we were at Hollywood Studios for the final time this trip. There was so much construction happening at the park entrance/bus area. Can't wait till that mess is done. I got my first look at the concept art for the Skyliners in person.



We did a few rides including Star Tours twice and we briefly caught the cute stage show as we were in line.



After debating what to do for lunch we ended up snagging a reservation for Mama Melrose for the second time. Why not!

Our only hope was not to have the same weird server we had the first time and so of course... we got him again. :rotfl2: And he was worse. :rotfl:

The first time we got him he told us about specials for that day, so Rob asked if there were any specials to which he said, "We don't have specials. This is what we have on the menu." Ummm okay bruh.

Regardless of our server the meal was great. We started with the rolls and olive oil.



Rob got an appetizer and went with the Fresh Mozzarella and Vine-ripened Tomatoes with balsamic drizzle, olive oil and sweet basil leaves. He really enjoys this here.



I skipped an app this time and went right for the entree. This time I got my favorite item here, the Shrimp Campanelle. Sauteed shrimp and Campanelle pasta tossed in a four-cheese sauce with cauliflower, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh spinach and sweet onions.



This is always very good and is a super huge portion.

Rob got his favorite once again, the Saltimbocca. Pork Tenderloin topped with Prosciutto, Sage, Fontina Cheese, Tuscan Mashed Potatoes, Broccolini, and Lemon Caper Sauce.



It was unfortunate we had the same server again that we did not care for, but overall we had a great meal here. I can't wait for more places to open with Toy Story Land and Star Wars Galaxy's Edge coming because Mama Melrose is about all we will eat in here anymore.

And with that, we said goodbye to Hollywood Studios!

 
We then headed to Disney Springs for the afternoon.



Unfortunately we saw maybe the worst movie of the trip, Downsizing.



It was really bad. Like, really really bad.

After the movie I wanted some gelato from Vivoli. I got my favorite, the sweet rice.



It's so good! I highly recommend this flavor. It's so super creamy and I love the texture with the rice in this. It's so perfect. I am glad I got to have it this trip. Totally worth a stop in here!

Now it is time to relax in the room before one of our favorite dinners.
 
It is time for what is always a favorite meal for me. It's 'Ohana time people!



I just love it here. Love, love, love it! I can never get a reservation here. I try multiple times a day leading up to the trip and then I will randomly land a same day reservation at some point. So if you can't get a reservation here, just keep trying. It always works for me. :thumbsup2

We got a 7:45pm reservation with fireworks scheduled for 8pm, so it was perfect to see them during dinner.

We checked in and were seated within 5 minutes at a table fairly close to the window where we could see the castle. They were clearing the table in front of us that was right up against the window and unfortunately some people from a table further behind us had their unruly kids go up in front of us to watch the fireworks. The worst part was these kids couldn't care less about the fireworks and were shouting and jumping around and it took away from us watching the fireworks. I don't care if they wanted to get up to the window and watch them, but the parents could have done a better job of caring about everyone around us. They made the kids go up there and kept yelling at them to stay there even though they obviously had no interest in the fireworks and were being disruptive of people's experience.

But other than that it was a great night. I was not feeling the greatest and felt like I was getting a cold. I wanted some juice and they said they could get me Stitch juice. At dinner? Heck yeah!



This was a great surprise to be able to get this at dinner time. It was just what I wanted.

We started with the pineapple coconut bread.



This is always delicious. Especially paired with the salad.

Speaking of the salad. This had lots of dressing, which was great.



My favorite part of the meal here is the noodles, veggies, dumplings and wings. I forgot to get a pic right away. This is after we both had a huge serving from this dish.



Honestly, I could fill up just on noodles, veggies and dumplings. Those dumplings are so good! And I love the way they cook the veggies here as well as the choice of veggies. SO good!

Our server was great! He came over at one point and decorated me with leis while I was eating. These are somehow still in my car. :rotfl:



They came over with the meat skewers and gave us so much we never even needed seconds. Look at all this chicken!



Then he gave me a ton of steak.



Then came the shrimp.



Oh my gosh. Everything was delicious. We couldn't possibly eat it all. We were so full, but we had to save room for the best dessert on the planet. Their famous bread pudding1



We somehow finished this. It's too good not to eat it all. I was sad to waste so much other food and I just heard they will give you boxes here now which I wish I had none, because those noodles and dumplings would have been coming with me for a midnight snack.

This place is hit or miss for people, but for us it is always a hit. The food is so good and you get so much that it is totally worth the money for us. We always walk away stuffed. And this time the service was even better than usual. It was such a great meal! Aloha!

 
The next day was a gorgeous, perfect AK day!



Unfortunately I still felt kinda ick, so I stopped for a hot beverage to help soothe my throat at Starbucks.



It was ever so slightly chilly too so this was perfect. The line at Starbucks was massive but kept moving pretty well.

Sick or not we were ready to tackle this final day at AK.



After doing the walking trails and Everest we headed for Pandora to have our very first meal at Satu'li Canteen. Excited!

The atmosphere is really neat when you first walk in.



I was going to try Mobile Ordering here, but as it turned out we beat the crowds and there was no line at all. Perfect!

We got to look over the menu, but I already knew what I wanted after much Instagram research prior to the trip. :laughing:



I got the Satu'li Bowl with slow roasted sliced grilled beef, mixed whole grain and rice and charred onion chimichurri.



No lie, I wish I could eat this every day. I would eat this for lunch every single day if I could. It was perfect. The beef was tender and flavorful and the chimichurri sauce added so much flavor to the entire dish. Yum!

Rob got the cheeseburger pod with veggie chips.



Here is the inside of the pod.



He was not crazy about these. He liked the chips though. I had a chip and they were really crunchy and good. I told him to get a bowl but he didn't listen to me. His loss!

He also got the Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse.



The inside.



This he enjoyed much more than his entree.

I loved it here! I like that they give you real silverware and plates too. Very quality for a counter service. The seating area is very nice too. Lots of options.



After lunch it was time for a ride on FOP! Yesssss!!!!





Since I skipped dessert at Satu'li Canteen I stopped at Pongu Pongu after the ride for a treat I already know I love.





Pongu Lumpia for me please!



This pineapple, cream cheese dessert is heaven! I really love it.

It was seriously such a beautiful day. We stopped on the bridge just to soak it all in.



I wish I never had to leave.
 
Okay, so at the start of the trip we stopped at the Community Center to rent a movie to watch in the room. They had Avatar which was perfect because we hadn't watched it in years and it's one of the few movies I don't own and what better time to watch it than when you are visiting Pandora. It took us almost the whole trip to finish this darn movie. :rotfl2: We kept falling asleep every time we put it on. But finally after all this time we chilled in the room after our day at AK and finished the movie so we could return it.



After dropping off the movie off we made the nice walk over to the West Side in Disney Springs. It's seriously so pretty.









Then we arrived at our destination. Where else but AMC?!



We were finally in the awesome updated Dolby theater with the reclining seats.





After the movie we had reservations at a new favorite for us, T-Rex!



We got seated pretty quickly, but geez it was crowed where we were. Cool it on cramming in every possible body you can fit in a small space.



Rob started with a drink, which was some kind of special they had with Captain Morgan, obviously lol.



For his entree Rob got the Mastadon Stuffed Chicken. Marinated chicken breast stuffed with artichoke hearts and creamy spinach, topped with sun-dried tomatoes and lemon butter. Served with red skinned mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables.



He really enjoyed his meal and said it had a lot of flavor and was a lot of food.

I went with the same thing I had previously here, the Colosso Beef Nachos. Tortilla chips topped with Monterey Jack, black beans, pico de gallo, green onions, sour cream.



These are literally the perfect nachos. Perfect. I wouldn't change anything. It is all of my favorite nachos toppings with nothing I want to omit. And I love this kind of real melted cheese and not fake cheese sauce on my nachos. They are so good! And I can't even begin to eat them all.

Service was good here tonight. My only complaint was being packed in, but the food was excellent. I don't mind it being noisy in here, as I know that is a big complaint. It's cheesy in here, but it's okay. It's part of the charm if you ask me. I know it's geared towards families with kids, but this grown up family of two enjoys it. :goodvibes I think I would stick to lunch time here from now on though. And maybe sit at the bar as it is pretty cool looking.



After that we walked around DS a bit and then headed back to the room and were in for the evening.
 
Oh no! It's our final park day of the trip. :sad:

We got to MK right at rope drop and started making our way around the park.



First we hit up Jungle Cruise for a glimpse of the backside of water.



Then we did POTC which now posts the most ridiculous ride photo op in the park. See our enthused faces. :rotfl2:



Then it was time for a breakfast of champions. A churro! My favorite.



After a ride on BTMR and Peter Pan and SDMT and a viewing of Philharmagic it was time for another snack I wanted to try this trip. The salted caramel pretzel.



Here is what the inside looks like.



This was just okay. It could have been better. It wasn't like, an obey gooey caramel. And the chocolate sauce was overkill. I was glad I tried it, but I'm in no hurry to have it again.

I also got a frozen coke/blue raspberry mix from Lunching Pad. And it came with a Mickey straw for the win.



Now that I had my snack I can take in the splendor that is the People Mover.



And just like that, we are out of MK for the day and for the trip.



It is always so sad to leave MK. I am constantly turning around for that one last look at the castle. *Sigh*

 
After MK we went back to the room and I changed into my new rose gold spirit jersey as it was getting pretty chilly. Rob did an awesome job snapping this photo.



Then we headed to Raglan Road for a late lunch. We were torn on where to eat, but in the end we decided to come here since we had only done brunch here so far this trip.

I got my favorite here, the Burger 'R' Way. Char-grilled sirloin burger with bacon, tomato chutney, and Dubliner cheddar.





The tomato chutney and the onion bun are what make this burger so darn good. I love it. It is for sure my favorite thing on the lunch or dinner menu.

Rob got a sandwich that neither of us remember what it is. :laughing: My best guess is that it is the Prosciutto Chicken Sandwich. Chicken breast with crispy prosciutto and Cubliner cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato & herb aioli.



I remember him liking this, but he doesn't remember it it all. Sorry, epic note taking fail!

I was in serious need of some coffee as my throat was still bothering me today, so we stopped at Starbucks so I could get something to drink. Smoked butterscotch is one of my favorite season flavors. Yum!



Then we saw Phantom Thread tying our personal best for movies in a single trip at 14. This was good, but kinda slow and it had a very odd ending.



Then we made the pretty walk back to SSR.



This was a short down time at the room as we were back an hour later for our record breaking 15th movie. Jumanji! This was good. I just love The Rock and the plot was better than expected. Plus I got a few laughs so it was a win.



After the movie you will never guess where we went for a late dinner?



Yup, more Blaze. The one girl literally recognizes Rob now. :rotfl:
 
Wow all those posts. I love AK and can't wait to go again in December to see Pandora. My on the last day is nostalgic and the balloons in front of the castle make a great picture :goodvibes
 
Awesome reviews, as always! I am totally intrigued by that gelato. What does it actually taste like? Reading your latest updates have me really wanting Disney food...ASAP!
 
Here is one thing I like a lot about you guys: you do Disney your way. I would never think about going to the movies on our trip because I'm always go go go go go, which my husband doesn't like. We never had an AMC until recently so now that we're earning points and they have that new A-list rewards thing I think he would like relaxing more and taking time to do other things. I try, I really do, but it's ingrained in me to do as much as I can in the small amount of time that I have. You do both, and you seem to have a blast and not be missing out on a single thing. I could learn from you. :thumbsup2

I want to try that pretzel. It's on my list! Sorry you didn't enjoy it more!

I really like 'Ohana, but my hubby doesn't so it doesn't make the cut. :confused3
 
I love your reviews-you’re fair but honest. And you really take the most relaxing vacations!
But you really should think about getting a MoviePass! My husband has had it over a year and loves it. He uses it everywhere we travel. He’s never had any problems. He paid upfront 6.99 a month for the year-even if they go out of business tomorrow he’s already seen enough movies to have gone way over that. You can pay by the month as well.
 

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