'Mingos and 10K of FUN .…………. 2/21 Dance Party Update!

[Biggie Smalls]

Introductions

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! I hope I can maintain this enthusiasm as I try to document our 8 day Magical (and not so magical) post holiday/birthday/ Marathon weekend trip. Going into this trip my biggest fear was leaving the trip divorced because my husband and I didn’t survive a week with DS2+. (just kidding… but not really).

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See we have never vacationed with our incredibly active son alone. We have been lucky to always have family or friends with us so we get some kind of break over the vacation. But this would be a solo style family trip and we went into it with a little apprehension since J is at the end of terrible twos and entering into sassy mouth 3’s. A little forewarning that I write just like I talk, so please do not hold horrible grammar, too many parenthesis, and bad punctuation against me!!

A few introductions and details on our trip!!


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The (hopefully consistent) writer of this journey is myself, Tabitha (32). We live in the D.C area and I am a Wedding and Private Event planner. I have the joy of working for myself so I have more flexibility in my schedule to plan, but very specific times of year we can travel due to the wedding season. I have been a LONG time lover of Disney and have been probably over a dozen times to the World.

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Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom, and I really don’t get the appeal of Epcot. Favorite Characters- Ariel, Minnie Mouse, and Daisy Duck. I particularly love Daisy, bc if you watch Mickey Mouse club house she has this insane smokers raspy voice. She sometimes says things that are a little snarcky and in my mind she is the off cousin of the Beauvais sisters on the Simpsons.

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Meet DH Joe. He tolerates my planning crazy, but always loves our vacations. This year particularly I think I impressed him when we had the first few days of new adventures and short waits. He has a very dry sense of humor and tends to want to stay out of photos so he let me handle the character interactions.

Favorite Characters- The Jungle Book Baloo and Louis
Favorite Park: Animal Kingdom


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And Finally bringing up the rear is the adorable (I know Im biased) Jackson. He will be turning 3 a month after we get home in February. I had no idea how he would handle this trip but he LOVED it. We danced with characters, gave too many kisses to Pluto, and pressed Pennies like it was his job. He loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jake the Pirate.

History of the Trip

This trip developed because at the beginning of 2014 I decided that I wanted to make a life change and get healthy. I made a HUGE decision to have Gastric Bypass surgery. I went under the knife in March and shortly thereafter decided that I wanted to set a goal of RUNNING a 10k. Where better to do this than DISNEY! So I convinced the hubs that a family vacation was needed around the Marthon Weekend and we began planning.

We wanted to go Saturday the 3rd until Sunday the 11th so I could cheer our friends on for the Marthon on Sunday. We went back and forth on deciding where to stay but ultimately went with Art of Animation, Cars suite for the extra space and kitchen area. The special deal for discounted rooms did not start until January 5th so I cashed in points to stay at Residence Inn right past Downtown Disney for the 3-5th, and AoA for 5-11th. I cant wait to share the rest of our trip and I hope people follow along!! ​

 

[Biggie Smalls]

All of the Updates!!!!

Day ONE / Travel and MK
Travel Day
Go Go Speed Racer
White Rabbit, Meet my new friend!
I would love you so much more..

Day Two / DHS
Scariest Hour of the Trip
Tram Rides are the BEST rides NEW!
Turn on the Lights!
Show me your guns

Day Three / Resort Hopping and DTD
Movin on Up!
Just keep Swimming; just keep swimming
Please don't Puke

Day Four AK/Carriage Ride and Trails End!
Safari Hat to the Rescue, Tusker House Breakfast
Show Me Your Roar
Ok- NOW you should scream
A little jungle fun
Carriage ride and Trails End

Day Five- MK all day Baby
Main Street USA
Baby Bounce wit me
A whole new world to the underworld
Shake that boom boom (NEW 2.21)

 

[cadek]

Following along from our January FB group. It's my dream to do the WDW Marathon some year... and all of the other RunDisney races. For now I'll stick to marathons closer to home, and less expensive!

Going into this trip my biggest fear was leaving the trip divorced because my husband and I didn’t survive a week with DS2+. (just kidding… but not really).

Funny, I have a trip to WDW that I refer to as the "divorce trip", but WDW was not the reason for the divorce! Looking back now, best thing ever, though it didn't seem like it at the time. Anyway...

I can't wait to read more!

 

[desheag]

I'm here from the January FB group!!! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[sunnysideup3]

YAY! I'm joining in, over from the January FB group. I can't wait to read more about your trip. We had a 17 month old along with us this time (in addition to our 7 year old) and it was a new experience with someone that size!

 

[Biggie Smalls]

Away we go… free snacks ahead.

I thought it would be a great idea to pick up a last minute New Years Eve wedding for extra cash for the trip. I didn’t take into account Christmas, planning for the wedding, New Years, and the mass amount of people shopping would make getting ready for the trip a little more stressful. The 2 days after a large wedding can be a little hazy for me, and so when I got out of my funk I needed to really get to packing! Eek!

With JetBlue you get one free bag per person, PLUS a carry on each, PLUS our car seat and stroller. So we made sure to break up our bags to “pre Disney hotel” and “Disney hotel” so that we could set some of them aside and not open them at all for the first two nights. We also had a carry on bag with our Magic Bands, extra change of warm weather clothes, and Jackson items.

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I tried my best to go to bed early the night before but I literally woke up every hour looking at the clock in my excitement.5Am rolled around and we were off. Joe packed up the cars after doing a last minute sweep of the house, I managed to get Jackson up pretty easily by letting him know we were FINALLY going on a plane to see Mickey. We left our two adorable dogs
back home in the care of our neighbor and set off.

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It was about 40 degrees when we left, and I couldn’t wait to get to the sunshine! We rolled through the McDonalds drive through (gross, but it made Jackson happy) with Joe and I splitting a sausage biscuit and Jackson inhaling one all by himself.

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We were on the road by 7:00 for our 9:50 flight. It takes about 35 minutes to get to the airport, and today we drove to a friends in Arlington and parked at her house then called Uber to grab us the additional 1 mile to the airport.

SO EASY! 10 minutes after requesting the van pulled up and we were off again. We got Jackson a Dusty Crop hopper suitcase for Christmas, which did not leave his side all day. It pulled behind and was the cutest thing I have ever seen! We arrived at Reagan International around 9am, breezed through the kiosk check in and dropped our bags. Our first little pixie dust of the trip is that the gate agent gifted Jackson wings to put on his shirt. He was so proud of them!

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My biggest pet peeve with this airport is that there is not a Starbucks INSIDE security, so no coffee addiction for me this morning. Security was not an issue, they bomb residue tested Jacksons drink and scanned the car seat out of the bag but otherwise all good. We waited by the gate for a bit, with Jackson starting to get antsy we had our first timeout of the trip. We firmly believe that rules maintain through vacation, so he had a little meltdown and timeout in a small corner right before boarding. I tried to take this with a grain of salt but its so hard to stay positive when your kid is trying to win a “loudest screaming toddler” contest at gate 5.

Joe and I are pretty good at flying with Jackson, he takes the car seat on early and I bring jack on at the last moment to avoid longer sitting still. Once settled we pushed off the gate right on time and were in the air. Jackson and I on one side and joe sitting with a nice lady on our right. Jack usually passes right out but not today. We played and snacked while Dad was miserable with plane sickness across the aisle.

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You can see his little wings here.


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He gets really woozy so he tried to sleep it off. Finally Jackson dozed off about halfway there and we snacked on an abundance of free snacks on the plane. We are used to flying el-cheapo eair like Spirit where the flights are insanely cheap but you have to pay for everything from bags to food. So when the flight attendant came through with a bucket of unlimited snacks we might have gone a little crazy.

Have I said how much I LOVE JetBlue. We landed at 12:15 and jumped off the plane. We did a quick change and potty break (always a fight with a 3 year old!) and onto the fake o rail.

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I rented a car from Alamo for the trip. It was super easy, as I did pre-check in and all we had to do was go to the car we wanted load up, and drive out. They check ID’s and paperwork at the gate. It literally took all of 15 minutes. We went straight to Magic Kingdom for our first Disney Park of the trip!!

 

[JoeyEmmaMomma]

Followed you over from the FB group!
Your son is a cutie.

 

[AprilRenee]

Joining in from the jan 2015 fb group
We took our almost 3 yr old too! (Birthday is in April) and we had major airport meltdowns too! I kinda started wondering if we had made a mistake taking our 2 yr old on a week trip to Disney! Lol thankfully once he figured out the "Disney routine" he was good to go!

 

[BandMom1]

I'm from the Jan fb page too! Love your trip report so far...we seem to have the same sense of humor

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Following from the FB group. We will be there in ten days!!!

 

[LuvEeyore]

Joining from the Jan FB page. I was there at the same time you were.1/3-1/9
Can't wait to hear more.

 

[Biggie Smalls]

When I left off we had picked up our rental car from Alamo.

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I wanted to say that I am actually a huge lover of DME and really struggled with if I should or not to rent a car. I really almost did not do it because when I looked up the cost of the full 8 days of our frip (Saturday-Sunday) the cost would have been $300 even after discounts. I started playing around with the numbers and found out that if I booked it for one day (Saturday the 3rd returning Sunday the 4th) then again for an entire week of Sunday-Sunday it would have only been $125 total. CRAY-ZY

I talked it over with Joe and he said that I could return it during Jacksons nap and do the swap for our week long rental and it would totally be worth saving $175 over! We also decided on the rental because I wanted to be able to go about freely with Jackson and get to and from everything hopefully faster than waiting for a bus. Ill let you know at the end if I think that worked well for us or not!

Back to the road! We were driving, and $2.25 in tolls later we were merging onto the road leading into Disney. You know the one with the big bright fun sign that everyone just HAS to get photos of? The one with the bright flashing lights on the road that say “NO STOPPING” by it? The one that I purposely drove 15 miles an hour through to get those photos of? Haha. I am sure people wanted to kill me, but hey- I didn’t stop did I?


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We drove right up to the gates of MK without any big problems and scanned our first gift card for parking ($17 YU-UCK) and moved our way to Scar Villians lot. We were motioned to the furthest possible parking spot by no less than 10 parking attendants. For real- so many people directing parking and yet it always took 25 minutes to get coffee inside the park due to lack of staff.


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I did not go too crazy with the clothes this trip, I had a few embroidered pieces made for Jackson, and I made sure to theme my clothes for wherever we were going if possible. Joe just kinda tried to join in if possible but honestly could have cared less… Today Jack had a cute mickey Shirt with a yellow J on the front, I did a cropped dehlia's mickey T with a cardigan and shorts, and joe was in a plaid button down and shorts that generally matched.

Our daily stroller “pack” included
1 bag with a change of clothes for Jackson incase of accidents
1 portable potty. I swear by this collapsable potty normally and it has liners in case your child wont sit on the potty when it is totally unfolded. This works well for us since J wont use potties with automatic flushers as they scare the you know what out of him.

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1 bag with sunscreen, hand sanitizer, wipes, penny tube, extra pens, extra charger and misc helpful doo- dads

I bought a lightweight cross body bag right before we left in a neutral grey which Joe would wear and I kept his siggy book, small wallet, phones, and sometimes the camera in it. It never bothered us all week and I really think it was a great investment.

We decided to skip the tram and walk the short distance to the front of TTC and jump on the monorail. Jackson is a HUGE train fan so he was in pig heaven. Joe was vaguely pissed he had to take ANOTHER form of transportation to get to the front of the park. We had a fast pass for the 3:30 parade and it was only 2:00 so we stopped for a few photos in the front of the gates, and again on Main Street.

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I saw that the wait for Mickey was only 25 minutes so I said What the heck and jumped in line. This moment would determine how the remainder of the trip was going to go and if Jack would be terrified of characters the whole week

We had packed a few souvenirs in our suitcase to give out over the week. I scored major deals on Cyber Money, so I broke out a small stuffed Donald in line and Jackson was tickled pink and played so well in line that I was relieved. We did have a small meltdown in the beginning as he had lost his airline pin on his T-shirt entering into the park. Joe traced his steps but never found it. I felt absolutely horrible and Jack asked for it every day.

(Click on tiny photo below for the best video ever!!)


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After about 25 minutes (true to the sign) we were led into the small room with just us and Mickey. For some reason Jackson never realized he wsas there and when we wound around the queue I got set my phone to video and had the single best moment of the entire trip. Jackson came around the last bend, saw Mickey and lit up like Christmas morning. He gasped in excitement and just TOOK off running into Mickey’s arms. Biggest, best hug on earth. I was in tears and joe was just grinning from ear to ear.

(Click on tiny photo below for the best video ever!!)


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Jackson hugged him, kissed his nose (gross), and had him sign his book. It went by entirely too fast, but the experience set the beginning of what would be the best trip! We walked out of the room on cloud 9, and Jackson going on and on about his “best friend” mickey mouse.


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Seriously folks- those 5 minutes made every moment of planning and every dollar saved worth it.

We left from there and made our way down Main Street to get the boys settled into their spot right in front of the castle for FP+ Parade and went off to find lunch. I was surprised how thick the crowds were already around the hub and really had to do some weaving to get to Tomorrowland Terrace.


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As I was in line I realized that there was NO WAY I was going to be able to get all of our food back to our spot and I felt super weird about bringing the tray all the way back out there. I ordered a Steak Salad for myself, hamburger for joe with Fries, and nuggets, fries, grapes, and milk for Jackson. Joe would eat burgers every day for the rest of his life if he could.

(Im a HORRIBLE Dis'r with no photos this time. I inhaled my salad.)

I made some super mommy moves and managed to piled all of the boys food onto one place, turning Jackson’s plate upside down to make a plate sandwich and hold everything in, and layered my closed salad on the bottom. I put the milk and grapes in my purse and set off to get back. The walkway by the hub construction/ice cream shop was super full so I went around the long way by Stitch and down the bridge to get back.

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(kinda looked like this but less groooooossss)

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(stolen from the internet!)

I did not lose a SINGLE fry ☺ woot woot. Everyone settled in and inhaled their food before the parade started. While I was gone, the boys met this amazing Parade attendant named Eduardo who was gifting Jackson with a million stickers and chatting up a storm. It was great to have our first magic so soon in the trip. Im going to leave off here and start with the most. amazing. parade. ever on the next one!!!

 

[Biggie Smalls]

YAY! I'm joining in, over from the January FB group. I can't wait to read more about your trip. We had a 17 month old along with us this time (in addition to our 7 year old) and it was a new experience with someone that size!

Aww little people are the best! thanks for following along

Followed you over from the FB group!
Your son is a cutie.

Thanks! Im partial but he is a little ladies man for sure!

Joining in from the jan 2015 fb group
We took our almost 3 yr old too! (Birthday is in April) and we had major airport meltdowns too! I kinda started wondering if we had made a mistake taking our 2 yr old on a week trip to Disney! Lol thankfully once he figured out the "Disney routine" he was good to go!

yea it definitely took him a day or so to get in the groove, and he really understood that "timeout" travels to disney world too. We actually had two separate people stop us and commend us for actually trying to keep him in line. That meant a ton to me that people understood where we were coming from and had patience with us as we dealt with our son.

I'm from the Jan fb page too! Love your trip report so far...we seem to have the same sense of humor

So your a member of the snarky club too? thanks for following along!

Following from the FB group. We will be there in ten days!!!

Can I go in your suitcase? I fold up well and promise to not eat a lot!!

Joining from the Jan FB page. I was there at the same time you were.1/3-1/9
Can't wait to hear more.

Where did you stay? I hated how cold it got on Thursday but it could have been worse right!?

 

[Biggie Smalls]

After grabbing lunch, Jackson noshed in his stroller and managed to get ketchup on his shirt in less than 2 minutes. I mean really, kid?! Reallllly?? Eduardo the (AMAZING) parade attendant passed around us a few times and really took a fondness for Jackson bc he stood with us for most of the parade pointing people out to Jackson and making sure he new everything that was happening. It was SUPER cute!


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I cant say how much I loved this Parade. I might be in the minority but I love a good Parade and the theming and colors on this one are just so striking. All of these photos are from my phone so be kind! Also for those thinking about FP+ the parade, it really helped that we were in the area right in front of the castle so there was not construction in the background (we had that later in the week on main street), and we had plenty of room to spread out and not feel that we were on top of people. Lack of shade could be an issue if you went in hotter months but we felt fine with a slight breeze and warm sun. I would definitely recommend this to parents who are worried about lining up getting in the way from nap trips back to the resort and having to get back for the parade in time.


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As the White Rabbit and Alice came by, she came right over to Jack and started fawning all over him with tickles and hugs. She them proceeded to call of the White Rabbit and the Dum’s and introduced them to “her new friend!”. It was just the cutest thing and he was giggling and laughing the whole time. It was one of those Disney moments you just cant plan for!

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After the Parade we hit up a FP+ for Peter Pans flight. I had a lot of rides/experiences that were firsts for me and PPF was the start of a lot of firsts. We liked it, but Jackson had a hard time seeing everything down below. From there we went to hop on the train in New Fantasy Land. The wait was pretty long but Jackson was so adorable just looking out over the side and commenting on every little thing he saw.


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Carried his buddy Donald with him all day.

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We went around the whole park and at getting back got some of Jackson's favorite buttery popcorn treat and wandered through the park. We didn't want to force anything for our first day and the waits were pretty steep since it was the end of the holiday week. Most rides were 30-50 minute waits and we didn't feel like forcing Jackson to wait on our first day.

We caught our next fast pass for SPLASH MOUNTAIN!!! eeeeeek. It is my favorite ride and when I found out that it would be down for refurb from the 4th through our trip I knew we needed to get it in on our first day. We took turns with Joe going first, and I waited with Jackson in the play area nearby.

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We had a small accident, where he hid in the back of the area and managed to pee all over his shorts/socks. He totally refused to come out and thought it was HILARIOUS that his mom had to crawl into the door and drag him out.

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If you were in the play area/ride exit and saw a crazed mother carrying her child like a wet towel with one leg and one arm I apologize. I was somewhere between raged about the accident and sad that this was even happening. If you have ever potty trained a little terrorist you know that we all live in fear of the Poop. All I could think as I toted his funky tail to the bathroom is that there had to be a poop trail following me that I was being silently judged for by the parents still in the play area.


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I was able to get him to a bathroom and do a change of clothes but was super disappointed that he was reverting back to pre-potty training accidents. Joe finally got back from his 20 minute jaunt around the briar patch and I raced over to get in our time window. I was about 10 minutes after it closed but they let me go through no problem. Ended up on the back row of the boat alone which worked out well since without another passenger it was so light I never got wet!!!

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Homegirl in front of me was in an outfit I really couldn't wrap my head around. Im all about a good disband or role playing but she really didnt make sense. She was a cross between frontierland CM, alice in wonderland, and Oregon Trail. She had full blown thick tights and long sleeves and all I could think was that she must a warm funky mess by the end of the day. Alas- to each their own.


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This ride started out ride photo quest to outdo each other. We always had to ride alone on big rides bc of Jackson so it was funny to get home every night and review our photos.

Leaving off here before our first ADR of the week!

 

[rteetz]

Joining in! That interaction with Mickey was priceless. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[roamingcat]

Joining in.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Joining in.

I love Jackson's reaction to seeing Mickey for the first time. I can't wait to watch the FoF and MSEP on our first day. We also love the train that goes around the park.

 

[AprilRenee]

So sad we missed the parade! Just couldn't make it work with naptime...even with a fp But it looks awesome and that FP location is fabulous!

LOL at the girl in the splash log with you. Odd!!! I wonder what she was going for!

 

[Biggie Smalls]

After getting through out jaunt into the briar patch we made tracks to our first ADR of the trip. See I have never ever made an ADR in the 10 plus trips I have taken at Disney. I can thank the Dis for helping me see the error of my ways. I wanted one sit down meal a day to ensure that everyone could take a break, eat REAL food, and to try something new.
Having come from having Gastric Bypass earlier in the year, I had to really look through the menus and work out what would be the best options for me ahead of time when making our ADR's. My diet is more protein/veggie nutrient heavy in order to get the most out the food I am eating each day. Jackson being right under 3 was great as he could share with us on Buffets/family style meals. This meant we wouldn't have to worry about his food being out of pocket which is great because our two meals together equal one Adult size portion. On average I eat about 1 cup of food per meal, so things can be wasted when we go out ot eat and I cant carry food home with me (such as the case with Disney). Typically at home I take food home and have lunch for a few days afterward so not to be wasteful.


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I did Liberty Tree Tavern as our first meal since I heard great things and thanksgiving is such a favorite meal of ours. (If you are not a fan of thanksgiving we CANT be friends. Traitor)

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We had a 6:50 ressie, got there right at 6:50 and only waited about 10 minutes before they “hear ye, hear ye Roberts Family of 4’d” us to our table. We were on the left side of the restaurant all the way in the furthest room. We had a table in the middle of the room which as a mother makes me nervous that my kid is going to project he fork at an unfortunately timed passerby.


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I couldn’t tell you our servers name as he was not only unmemorable but wicked slow. I had water, Joe a tea, and Jackson the prerequisite chocolate milk that comes with all vacation bribery.

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After about 15 minute he brought out rolls and the salad with plates. The title of this sections comes from this little exchange….

Joe: “I could eat this salad for every meal for the rest of my life”
Me: “I would love you so much more if you were covered in this salad dressing”
Joe: “So your saying this is my “Get out of Divorce” ticket if I ever really mess up?”
Me: “Yes… yes it is”
Joe: Really contemplating how to smuggle that delicious sauce of the Gods home in his pants.


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I know I sound crazy, but the Strawberry Vinaigrette was heaven on a plate. Maybe I was just insanely hungry, but I could have eaten 100 more of those salads all week and I HATE salad.About 15 minutes after we were totally done he pulled our plates (which I may or may not have licked completely clean unabashedly)

15 minutes after that he brought out the family style entrees. We were hoping that Jackson would try some of the food offerings but he was straight up refusing anything but bread.


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For the entrée they had garlic string beans (very very garlic-y) , rich creamy mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, and a thick gravy that was more “southern style” than not. The meats were pork tenderloin (small pink portion), sliced tenderloin, and turkey on top of a bed of “wet” stuffing. The meat was all perfectly cooked with just the right amount of juiciness and seasoned outside. Stuffing was not really to my liking, but Joe at it all.

After stuffing ourselves on dinner, Jackson was getting SUPER antsy and had to be taken outside once for a talking to. I almost passed on dessert because I was super afraid of a meltdown, but Joe insisted we wait it out because it was part of the meal. He totally earned his worth with that thought process because had I not had the AMAZINGNESS that is the Liberty Tree Dessert I would have just about died.

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It was called Johnny Appleseed Cake, which consisted of a heaping white cake with craisins and apples topped with mounds of ice cream. The cake had a slight spice cake flavor to it, the sauce was heavenly, and even though I don’t understand the Disney obsession with Craisins; they totally worked. I am VERY fickle about desserts post surgery and this one didn’t make me sick (as you will see was not the case for the rest of the week) and I probably polished off half of this sucker.
Dinner was roughly $80 after 18% tip, 2 dinners and drinks.


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From there we wandered out stuffed and so incredibly happy. I was on cloud 9 for sure. We wandered through the Tangled bathrooms and made our way to our next First, Philharmagic. It was great and Jackson actually really loved it. We only waited about 5 minutes for it to start and we got a seat right in the middle!

After that we had FP+ for Winnie the Pooh (another first). Um folks- that ride is scary. Weird clown on an acid trip kind of scary. NO THANK YOU. We were perfectly happy never riding that again. I think we might have rode Buzz Lightyear after that, but honestly I think we started making our way out of the park.

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I do remember we were heading out right after Wishes finished and they made us route around the backside of the park and through the cast member area. That really takes some of the magic out of the day seeing CM lounging and goofing off, plus the back entrances to the kitchens from Tonys. We ended up popping out at the hat store so we ran over and got a few photos with the Christmas tree before we headed to the hotel for the night.

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[AprilRenee]

Wow!! That all looked so yummy! I've never wanted to eat there before but I think it may have just gone on my list of must-dos for our next trip!