Trip Report Been Back for 10 Months, what better time to write the TR...

Hey oh! I'm back on the boards! There was a long time when I was just too exhausted from working 14 hour days/not being at a computer at work for said 14 hours where I wasn't on these boards much, if at all. The combination of the work hours + not knowing when we'll be back in WDW meant I had to keep away or else I'd find myself longing for the lost World... Disney World (lost because I won't be there for a while). Well, I'm back at a desk job since February and slowly started reintegrating myself into the boards since. After much reading, and much more reading, and some talking with my gf about how "I should really write that trip report" it's finally time that I really DO write THIS trip report.

For those of you who don't know (or remember since it's been so long), I'm AJ and my travel partner/gf is Alex (Lexi on the boards). Here I am bothering her before we enter Animal Kingdom:

Nice necklace she has there right? Yeah, I found that on the street outside a restaurant after we had dinner one night. BOOM!

Our dates down in the World were October 9, 2013 (yikes) to October 16, 2013. A nice eight down jaunt during the Food and Wine Fest (a triumphant return, we'd been during 2010, but skipped it our next trip).

Any way, her and I teamed up to work on the PTR for this trip about, oh... 16 months ago. For all the things I don't remember being written by the two of us you can click this link. I hope you enjoy gratuitous food photos and a lot of digression because it is now time for what you actually came for, a Trip Report!

Day 1, October 9:

After a disappointing night of staying up late to watch the Rangers get dismantled by the by the SJ Sharks in San Jose (of course the game started at 10 PM) it was an early wake up call to catch the first flight out of JFK on JetBlue down to MCO (who on these boards really doesn't know what MCO is? We're all obsessed, we all know the airport code). We always end up getting the cheapest flight down there from JFK, it helps that Alex's parents live a 15 minute drive from the airport and that JetBlue gives the "one free checked bag per person" since our trips to WDW are the only time I'll travel with a suitcase.

We landed at MCO a little before 10 AM and were on our way to the DME bus. I won't get over how great DME is, I just throw a pair of shorts and a few other essentials in my carry-on in case our bags take longer to get to the hotel than expected. By 11 AM we were at our resort and in our room. We were thrilled that our room was ready when we got there (we've yet to have an issue with this, fingers crossed, knock on wood, whatever you want to say about that). We were staying at Pop Century and we're pretty impressed with the room to be honest. We had stayed at All-Star Movies back in 2010 and weren't too sure what to expect from Pop. All told, we were happy with it. Growing up in the 90's I wasn't too pumped when I found out our room number:

I was hoping for the 50's, 60's or 80's (even though I was born in the 80's, maybe that's why I have an affinity for the decade). Any who, here's a shot of our room:

Not too shabby eh? We prefer the two beds because we like to live as if we're in an episode of I Love Lucy. That's actually not true, the second bed always end up being something or a souvenir/park maps space.

I don't remember where I spotted this (there might be more of this in this TR considering it was 10 months since we were there), but I'm glad I got a shot of it:

Is it me or is 1986 the easiest year on this to spot? Maybe because it's the best year ever, without it, you wouldn't be so lucky to have this awesome TR to read. Also, without it, there'd be some serious funny business going on in the space time continuum.

Enough of this resort business, we didn't come here to spend time in the room (which is why we booked a value). We were in WDW and it was time to hit the parks! What better way to get yourself in the Disney spirit on your first day in the World than by making your first stop Magic Kingdom? Is there a better way? There really isn't.

Hello beautiful, you big lush green bush you. Oh, wait, I mean you back there! Isn't she a sight for sore eyes? (That's a phrase I've never understood, if my eyes are sore I don't want to be seeing any sights, I want to close my eyes. Depending on how sore maybe with a bag of ice on them.) Anyway! We wasted no time heading over to Tomorrowland (because it's the best) and hit up Space Mountain (because it's the best). You can't tell it's us in this photo, but I know it is. We're like shadow people (except much less horrifying):

Having gotten the momentous "First Ride" taken care of it was time for the (to me, in this case) less momentous "First Meal." For this we went over to Cosmic Ray's. It's something of a habit for us to get some QS meal when it comes to the first meal of the trip, something about being up since 5 AM and being on a plane for a few hours doesn't lend itself kindly to an elaborate sit down meal the first time I eat while I'm in WDW. (One or both of us would probably fall asleep at the table.) So what did this delicious first meal consist of? Alex decided on the kid's chicken nugget meal (because WDW has some awesome chicken nuggets, and lets not even get into the fries, they're the best) and I went with a plain old hot dog. Plain. Old. Hot Dog. Except when I hit up that sweet fixins' bar! Plain old hot dog? NAY! More like AMAZING CHEESE DOG WITH DICED ONIONS!

This is not really the type of meal that lends itself to a review in this space, it gets the job done. It's very good (I like hot dogs more than any normal person should, and WDW has some good dogs) and after being up rather early and on a plane it's good enough to supplement the adrenaline we work on on our first day in the World. After lunch we decided to grab a pair of Fast Passes to Buzz because, well because we could still. We knew that this would most likely be our last chance to get legit paper Fast Passes, so we got as many as we could. Look at these beauties:

Don't get me wrong, I think the Magic Band is pretty awesome. We only had one or two little hiccups while using ours on this trip when it came to Fast Pass usage, getting in the room the only reason it wouldn't work at the end of long days would probably be user error/laziness/exhaustion. There is something about those little paper tickets getting spit out of those Fast Pass machines though that I will miss. Oh well, onward and upward, or whatever they say.

To be honest, from what I remember there wasn't much of a line for a lot of the rides we got paper Fast Passes for. We did it more for a little collection of our own, when we did need to use the we would, but for the most part, we still have them. Back to Buzz, basically every on ride photo we have from Buzz throughout our three trips Alex and I have the same general look on our faces. That look is something like this:

I get very, very into this ride. Very into it. After such an intense spin on Buzz we decided to relax a bit on the PeopleMover.

 

[mrdrift]

Really a great trip report. Thanks for sharing the MNSSHP event, that is something my family wants to try if we are ever out in Florida during that time. Seems like you two had a wonderful time at MGM with some nice pictures. Loving all the lamp pictures also. Will be following.

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 3 - Part 7:

When you go in to the World Showcase through the International Gateway during the Food & Wine Festival, especially, you really have a load of options. Take that left and right there you have England and the Ireland booth or veer right and you're looking at France and just beyond that is the Belgium booth (remember, this was last year, I haven't seen/heard anything about the location of booths for this year's F&W, although three years ago the Ireland booth was in the same spot). Now, the thing of being any where near the French pavilion with Alex is that you're going to stop so she can get her Grey Goose Lemon Slush. Since I knew this was going to happen, I figured, what better time to get myself something from the French booth set up for the F&W Fest? I can't say I was really looking forward to so I went with a slush of my own. That slush was the Eiffel Sour Cosmo Slush.

If you couldn't tell, the Eiffel Sour is on the right. For those wondering it was made up of vodka, Grey Goose Cherry Noir, Grand Marnier and cranberry juice. This thing was super tart. I wouldn't recommend it, although, I've never had a cosmo, so I don't know if that's what it's supposed to taste like. After getting these we found a PhotoPass photographer without any line at all. He had just finished taking a couple shots of two girls and said since there was no one behind us he could take all the pictures we wanted, we ended up with about ten from him alone!

I'm only posting the two, I never realized how hard it was to plant one on someone while holding a martini glass. We didn't want to spend all our time in France, but still had some drink left in us and the New Zealand booth was close by so we decided to get a few more photopass shots before we decided to keep moving in that direction. Unfortunately we were only really happy with one of them, but hey, we killed some time.

Time for some eats! We skipped over the Belgium booth since it was all waffles topped with something different and I wasn't up for a waffle just yet, and well Alex just wasn't up for anything on the menu there. Our first stop...

Kiwiland! We decided to try out the mussels and the lamp meatball. For a drink Alex went with the Sauvignon blanc and I had the chardonnay. The chardonnay was quite good, the sauvignon blanc was a little too sweet for me, but Alex liked it.

As for the food, start on the right with those mussels. Those things were huge, and they tasted great. The garlic butter really brought the dish together. As for the meatball, holy cow. This thing was awesome. The "spicy" tomato chutney wasn't all that spicy, but, I've already gone over how I like my spice. The meatball itself was so tasty, and the flavor of the tomato was a great compliment. I could've eaten this all day. Once we finished this snack (more like, once I finished, since Alex doesn't eat seafood and only had a little bit of the meatball) it was on to Morocco so Alex could take herself some pictures!

She loves it in here, it's such a fun little spot to. It feels like it's completely set aside from the rest of the park, with most of the other pavilions I feel like you can see the rest of the park depending on where you look, but in Morocco you can get lost in this place and almost forget where you are. Oh, here's one more for the road:

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 3 - Part 8:

I took a pass on eating in Morocco at the moment, so it was on to Japan for us:

I had to go with the Spicy Hand Roll, any time I get sushi I usually only get a spicy tuna roll or a spicy salmon roll (this was basically both). I was surprised that Alex decided to get something here since she hates sushi, she ended up with the Teriyaki Chicken Hand Roll:

While I was ordering these I couldn't help but get a picture of one of the best tap handles I'd ever seen:

You could say that tap cuts right to the point. Back to the food, the spicy hand roll was very good. I was skeptical about ordering sushi from a stand, outside, in central Florida, on a 90 degree day. Alex wasn't a huge fan of the chicken hand roll, I agreed with her. It was a bit of a strange concept, but hey, at least we tried it. I'm sure some people loved it, but it's just not for us. I think Alex was kind of happy that she didn't like the roll because she had her stomach set on bigger and better food from Japan.

Beef udon from Katsura Grill. If I didn't know better, I'd say this is her favorite QS meal in the World. And the best part about it? It's too much food for her to finish! Lucky me! This really is a great meal. Oh, and that is another Tokyo Sunset, if you were wondering. She wasn't the only one enjoying this drink:

This light/ceiling combination is awesome:

For a QS spot, Katsura Grill is pretty great. The design, the little coy pond by the outdoor seating. Also the fact that it's raised above the rest of the pavilion (although, what isn't in Japan?) provides a nice view of World Showcase Lagoon and, of course, Spaceship Earth. I could talk about the Japanese pavilion all day but that's not why I'm here, and we weren't at Epcot this night to hang out in one pavilion the entire time. Next up was...

I liked that they had this booth, I'm always up for local stuff and I was excited to try that Organic Pale Ale (although, organic or not, I don't care, I just like IPAs). Seeing as how IPAs are a pretty dangerous beer if you're not careful I decided it was best to have some Shrimp Ceviche to go along with it:

I'm not sure what else was in there that they didn't write on the menu board but something in here was nice and spicy. The best thing about that is that I wasn't expecting it. I can tell you who wanted some but wasn't getting any...

That gentleman up there. Those ducks must love the Food and Wine Festival, I can't tell you how many people we see feeding these ducks throughout the World Showcase. Now, as far as that organic IPA went:

To me, it just tasted like another IPA. Nothing special, but that's not a bad thing when it comes to an IPA if you ask me. Nice amount of hops, which is always what I'm looking for when it comes to an IPA.

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 3 - Part 9:

Moving right along to the Hops & Barley stand, which was within the American Adventure pavilion (not in the building, but within the pavilion area).

Yet another booth where Alex would eat nothing, I don't know if we didn't pay enough attention to the menus but it wouldn't have changed much. I was looking forward to that Lobster Roll for quite a while. I do love a good lobster roll, and considering any decent lobster roll I can get up by me goes for at least $16, so a little less than half that for this lobster roll wasn't too bad.

I guess it was worth it, despite the size. It was very tasty, but look at that size. That's nothing! To drink with it, I got a Rogue Chocolate Stout, and Alex got herself the Fairy Tale Cuvee. We were down here for her birthday on her last trip so I bought her a bottle of this (since she love sparkling wine) but she was sick, unfortunately, so she had about two sips and there was no salvaging the bottle the next day. Well, now she got the actually try this and remember it. She wasn't too impressed. Oh well, now we know not to bother with it on future trips. As for that chocolate stout, it's a great beer, but a terrible choice to pair with that lobster roll. The other three beers, being Sam Adams beers, I can get them almost anywhere near me, so I wanted to try something different. I think my only issue with the chocolate stout (and I love stouts, I can drink Guinness for days, and milk stouts are great as well) was that it tasted more of coffee notes than chocolate notes. Just call it a coffee stout and I'll be ok with that. When we finished up here the sun was setting and it was at that great spot where it makes the sky look incredible:

We decided to really take our time to get over to Italy. We love getting photos in Italy, especially right here:

OK, that was enough picture taking for us, of scenery any way. Back to the eats!

Alex was really looking forward to the ravioli (which there was only on of, so it was a raviolo) and I was excited for the sausage and peppers. This stuff was no joke:

Oh, and you better believe Alex got herself some Prosecco over here. Back to this food though, holy smokes. That sauce they put with the sausage and peppers (yeah, and onions, but why say all that) is great. It's hard to expect anything less from the Italian pavilion though, they really bring it with the food. Alex's raviolo was basically a piece of pasta covering a molten piece of cheese, all of which was covered in cheese. You better let this baby cool down before you take a big bite or you'll be icing your tongue for the next week. Both are highly recommended. If any one goes to the F&W and decides to get the Italian Margarita, let me know how it is. The sight of this thing was ridiculous and we couldn't bring ourselves to order it.

That's all for tonight. Wish I could've written more, but there's always tomorrow. Thanks for stopping in! Here's one last photo for you all.

 

[Mom@disney]

Beautiful photos!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Love your report and your humor! I hope to go during food and wine someday!! All your food pics are making my stomach growl

 

[mrdrift]

Great pictures of the Food and Wine event, I must ask if Pleepleus is old enough for all the alcohol he seems to be drinking? Is there a law against getting a monkey wasted? Just playing around, love the that Pleepleus adds to your trip report. Reading all this about the food and know I'm craving the Lobster Roll, hard to find in California. Following along.

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 3 - Part 10:

Next up on tonight's journey around the World landed us right next store in Germany!

Let me start by saying I have no German ancestry at all, but I love Germany, specifically Bavaria. One day I want to go to Oktoberfest in Bavaria, because I think that would be great. I love the architecture, the cultural history... well, I don't love all of German history (namely the period between 1912 and 1949). But back to why we came here:

Sorry for the flash spot up there, but our other picture of this menu is blurry and not as easy to read. Alex was curious to try the Schinkennudeln (which, she wasn't curious to pronounce one bit) because she's a big fan of pasta, gratin AND ham, so the combination of the three had to be a hit. I, on the other hand, had decided it was time for some dessert so the Apple Strudel it was. I'll take apple strudel any day, and the fact that they put Werther's Original Karamel & Vanilla Sauce on top, ooo boy. I just wish it had been a larger portion:

I mean, just look at that apple strudel. Soak it all in (visually), as good as it looks, it tasted even better. My only problem? NO MILK! I'm a strong advocate of the ideology that desserts must be eaten with a nice cold glass of milk (2% or higher). A quick aside to this TR, Alex and I were recently in Key West for a wedding, and what dessert does one get in Key West? Well, Key Lime Pie of course, while we were out one night and I ordered this and requested a glass of milk as well. I was told that the restaurant had no milk at all, and that they never do! OUTRAGEOUS! I had to eat a piece of key lime pie with a dark & stormy! They serve coffee but don't have any milk! Give me a break! Any way, back to business here. That schinkennedln... Alex wasn't too impressed. It looked good, but she said the cheese they used (unnamed) wasn't that great, and it all just didn't work well together. So, for those of you following, I shouldn't have to tell you that Alex wasn't doing so hot on what she was ordering at these F&W booths (food wise any way, we were both on our way aside from that). Isn't Epcot great at night though?

Only thing wrong with that view up there is no SSE, but aside from that - outstanding. We skipped the Brewer's Collection tonight, as took a pass on the "Cheese" booth (a complete pass, the only reason we stopped here was for a stamp, didn't even get anything the entire trip. Nothing really struck our fancy), but made a quick pit stop at The Outpost so Alex could get a Bud (one of the few spots you can still get a regular Bud, not just Bud Light, in Epcot) blew past South Korea and wound up in...

The land just west of the Land of the Rising Sun (in actual geographic terms). That's right, China time! Before we stopped at the booth though Alex wanted a shot of not just the sky, but the light in front of it of course!

On our last trip to WDW we actually took time out to explore the China pavilion and this place is awesome. For any one that hasn't really just taken there time here, just go around, check this out, act like a goof, it's so much fun. Lets get back to business here:

This menu isn't as easy to read, but here's what you need to know:

Pork pot stickers and Happy Lychee with Vodka. These pot stickers are great, only qualm is that you only get two of them (as you can see) for four bucks. Two dollars per pot sticker? That's a huge rip off if you ask me, especially considering we can get an order of six from almost any Chinese restaurant near us that are just as good or better for $6, you can do the math. As for the Happy Lychee with Vodka...

Quite strong, the lychee flavor was sweet, but mixed with the vodka not sweet enough. I know vodka is described as a "flavorless" beverage but I don't think I've ever had a drink of vodka without wincing at the taste (it's gross, flat out, disgusting). It was worth giving this drink a try, but it definitely wasn't one of the drinks I would go back for seconds, or thirds... or (lets be honest, it's F&W) fourths, or fifths. One was enough for me here. I'll tell you who doesn't mind mixed vodka drinks one bit...

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 3 - Part 11:

Alexandra, that's who! She was kind of happy that I didn't really like this one and she didn't let the fact that she had a Bud right next to her stop her from enjoying it as well. I didn't want to spend the rest of our night in China, we had somewhere special to be. Somewhere that the food flowed like the falls of Niagara, but that's for later on. There was one more place I needed to stop before we got down to serious business. This was a place I'd been thinking of ever since we departed from our last trip. The one. The only...

That's right folks. No trip to WDW is complete without a stop at La Cava del Tequila. The last time we were here this was the final stop of our Drinking Around the World day. I may have mentioned this in my last TR, but DO NOT make this place the last stop on the day where you get at least one drink at twelve pavilions (I'm counting The Outpost in there). This time around I played it safe. I didn't get a drink EVERYWHERE, just in a good amount of the places. Also, I only got ONE margarita this time (not two, like the last time). There was one hell of a line to get into this place, and unfortunately, there was also this sign outside:

I knew they would be busy, but not THAT busy. I knew exactly what I was going to get, and Alex doesn't like tequila, so she wasn't getting anything here. The drink I was looking forward to was...

The Jalapeno Margarita. Although while this drink was being made (there's a decent amount of muddling that goes into it so it takes a little bit of time), Alex couldn't help herself from taking this picture:

(You knew it was coming. Feel free to count this mini lights if you're playing along.)

I had read that if you ask for the jalapeno with habanero that they'll substitute those in place the regular jalapeno, unfortunately when I requested this I was informed that they were out of habanero peppers, so it was just plain old jalapenos for me. If you've never been to Cava del Tequila (you're definitely missing out on some great margaritas) you should know that they make a really refreshing margarita. So refreshing in fact that I wasted no time drinking this entire margarita. It's amazing Alex was able to get this picture before it was all gone:

Yeah, straws are primarily wasted on me when it comes to alcoholic drinks. A word to the wise, if I may, do not chug the jalapeno margarita. The fact that it's deceivingly strong isn't so much the issue. The fact that IT'S MUDDLED JALAPENO PEPPERS (SEEDS AND ALL) is the issue. I think they added extra jalapeno seeds after I asked for habanero and they didn't have those. I was grateful for it, but holy cow, my lips were burning up. It was great! After this drink was demolished we moved on to the main event for the evening. THE 3D DESSERT PARTY!

There weren't really any signs saying what it was outside, just a couple CMs making sure you belonged in there. We really not sure why this photo came out so poorly, but, oh well. Getting a picture of the two of us when it isn't taken by a photopass photographer is hard enough for us, we try not complain. This event was sponsored in part by...

Pinnacle Vodka. For when you decide to buy (for some reason) French vodka, but can't afford Grey Goose, and also when you want your vodka to taste worse than vodka. I don't actually know if this was sponsored by Pinnacle Vodka at all, but this was the first table we saw when we walked in, and well... whatever, just enjoy the stupid picture. We went a little picture crazy here, so I hope you enjoy them:

Any one like some aqua fresca? We didn't try any of these, the only one that I would have tried was the watermelon, but since Alex is allergic to watermelon, that wasn't happening (this happens quite a bit with aqua fresca). Our first stop that involved something to be ingested was here:

As I've mentioned, Alex loves her some Prosecco. She was curious to try this one because, well, Skinny Girl. I was on a diet a few years back and went on a Skinny Girl kick. Here's a tip, if you're on a diet, don't drink an entire bottle in one night. Or just stick to whatever you'd normally drink, because unless you cut it out completely it doesn't make a difference. I should say, we got little guides for the 3D Dessert Party when we entered, and they were somehow color coated, I didn't understand it then and there's no way I can explain it, so just know that the different colors you see on the signs for things all mean something, but I don't know what. So, given that bit of useless information, I'll continue talking about the dessert party in my next post.

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 3 - Part 12:

I don't think I can express how excited I was to see this sign:

Accompanied by this cart:

Now, not only was the it called the 'teenie weenie hot dog cart' the cart itself was actually pretty teenie. Take a look at that guy, either he's huge or the cart is 'teenie'. Now, unfortunately, for me, there were no hot dogs in this cart at all! It was all ice cream! What a con! I wanted some hot dogs! Oh well. I was held over (for about two minutes) by this awesome home made donut flambeed in Jim Beam Red Stag (which, just tastes like regular Jim Beam if you ask me, especially when they alcohol is cooked off).

This donut was amazing. I didn't even need the ice cream with it, especially since I ended up eating about five more of these throughout the night. And don't think I was the only thing to find what I was going to eat the rest of the night, Alex found these bad boys and we couldn't get enough of them:

MINI PRETZEL STICKS! AND IN THAT BOX NO LESS! We were all set, didn't have to get anything else (but we would). On the left there is some not spicy nacho cheese and on the right is a mustard. We wished we could just get a huge bag of these and take them back to the room with us. Oh well.

I had a good mind to just take this entire bowl with me. While we were at one of the high top tables they had set up for people to stand and eat at (the only empty table there was, but we got one!) two guys came up and asked to share the table with us. Of course! Part of the fun of F&W is sharing a table with people and hearing what they've had that they liked and what they didn't, and just hearing their stories in the short time you're standing there with them. Turns out these two guys were there representing Kerrygold butter. The company sent the two of them to give the seminars about the butter and part of it was that they were given free tickets to this event. What's more, these two were originally from Ireland, so we got along with them swimmingly (we typically get along with Irish people very easily). So much so, we all ended up hanging with the rest of the night (like for the next four hours). I'm getting ahead of myself though. Here's another table they had set up:

All you can eat popcorn! We didn't try any though, it wasn't really for us. From left the flavors are salted butter, orange (2), don't know, garlic, strawberry (2) and plain buttered popcorn. After bringing back another two things of mini pretzels, the Irishmen and I ended up at this table...

Go figure, right?

We gave each of these several tries. And then several more tries. And finally, we decided that we needed several more tastes before all agreeing that the best was the Red Stag spiced. The honey and maple were a little sweet for me, the black cherry was nice, but a little strange. We also had to taste test quite a few of those "Hardcore Cider Cocktails," they were pretty tasty, I'd love to get the recipe and make it a constant during the winter. It was so tasty even Alex tried some...

She was able to give the prosecco a break for a sip of this. She enjoyed it, which is always a plus. We still had some exploring to do, we came upon this table, which we all decided was a little too healthy for us:

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 3 - Part 13:

Now this was more like it:

I gotta be honest, I didn't try too many of these, so I couldn't tell you. Also, I wouldn't remember any way. The dessert party was just about winding down, so we were all told to finish up (AKA drink up!) and start heading toward the exit. As we did, we were reminded to use our 3D glasses, that we were given as we entered, while we were watching Illuminations. We certainly did, I won't ruin it for anyone that might decide to do this in the future (which I strongly suggest you do), but just know that it was incredible. Pure Disney magic.

To close out my posting for this day of the trip, I leave you with some pictures of Illuminations because after Illuminations, we stopped at Rose & Crown for a couple pints with the Irishmen then decided to call it a night. Once again, thanks all for reading. More to come tomorrow when our fourth day brings on almost all over the place!

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 4 - Part 1:

Today was, if I remember correctly, the first time throughout our three trips together that we had a breakfast ADR booked. We decided it was finally time to try out Kona for breakfast. I had read so much about the Tonga Toast that I had to go there for breakfast, and since Alex is OK with eggs and bacon, she was fine with this as well. Considering our ADR was at 10:45 (and after a long day/night of drinking) we decided the night before that we weren't going to wake up even earlier and then wait for the MK bus so we could take the Monorail over to the Poly. So we were up and ready to go by about 10, so I guess we could have done all that, but we looked at each other and decided... cab it (this would be the first of a few cab rides this trip). I have to say, for $5-$10 I really can't complain about taking a taxi from Pop Century to the Polynesian. And (all the drivers we had any way) cabbies were really friendly, and we even had one that was from NYC. Small world. Once we made it to Poly we made our way upstairs, where we were greeted by this sign:

(Oh, 'Ohana, how we long for your greatness.) Today we were taking that left. We arrived a little earlier than our ADR time and checked in and were given our little buzzer thing. We didn't have an issue with this since it gave us the opportunity to get a few pictures in. We're glad we did too, since they're (or will be soon) getting rid of the fountain:

I think them getting rid of this fountain is a load of crap. We had a bit more time to after checking in than we expected, a lot more time actually, so we decided to head downstairs to the shop and get a couple more pictures:

Love seeing this group goofing down there. Finally, our buzzer was going off (it took like twenty minutes, and the place was half empty the whole time, I mean come on) and we were seated after making it back to the check in booth.

I don't think they liked us very much, maybe because of the fact we were wearing bathing suits, but we were OK sitting away from other people. Things picked up with a view of the menu:

Nice.

Great options on there, but as I said earlier, the Tonga Toast was what I had been looking forward to for a couple years, so I knew exactly what I was getting... yep, that's right. The Samoan. The old last minute audible on the food selection. Eggs benedict is one of my all time favorite breakfast meals, so I'm always up for trying a different take on it. Especially, smoked pork... mmmmmm. Alex decided to go with the Two Eggs Any Style, and that style was scrambled. First up, our delicious drinks:

Alex went with the mimosa, of course, her favorite way to start a breakfast, and why not? I can't go out for breakfast and not order chocolate milk, so that's what you see on the right, on the left is grapefruit juice. I love grapefruit juice, no better way to start a day (so long as it doesn't give me heartburn, which is not uncommon). Finally, it was time for some eats!

Look how fluffy those eggs are. And as you can see, she opted for the bacon (who wouldn't? Vegetarians aside.) Unfortunately the thing with a breakfast like this is "nothing special," so even though it was good, it's still just a breakfast. Now, this monster, on the other hand:

<Sigh> Major sigh. Let me put this out there, keep your damn arugula, no one actually likes that stuff, and don't put it on this plate if it wasn't on the menu. Oh well, once I moved that to the side and finally bit into this I was... underwhelmed. I actually didn't really like it at all. The eggs were poached perfectly and the biscuit it was on was fluffy as good be, but aside from that, the hollandaise was too lemony and the pork was... just not working for me. I should've went with the Tonga Toast (if there's a next time, that'll be it). We didn't wait around too long here, especially since it took us longer to be seated than we expected, so once we settled up we were on our way.

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 4 - Part 2:

But not before Alex looked above her head from where we were sitting:

Those lights don't know which way to go! On our way out, this guy was pointing us back the other way!

He didn't know what he was talking about! On our way to the bus stop we spotted this...

THE WDW K-9 UNIT! We were just really bummed we didn't see the actual k-9 that gave this unit its name. The thought never crossed our minds that WDW would have a K-9 unit, but, there's definitive proof that they do. How wonderful! The ducks aren't the only real animals to reside within WDW afrerall (Animal Kingdom aside). Today was our lazy day, so we decided we were heading to Typhoon Lagoon. We hadn't been to a water park together in either of our previous trips and something about this trip we decided, well, why not. We knew we weren't going to go to AK more than once, and we just wanted to give Typhoon Lagoon a try. I was in WDW with my family in January of 1996 and went to Blizzard Beach, that's the only time I can remember ever being at a water park in WDW. So today was our day. Since we didn't get a water proof camera before we left, or a water proof case for our camera, we decided to leave the camera in a locker, to be safe. Just as proof that we were there, we got these two before we had some fun:

There, proof that we went. We actually had a great time. We spent about three full laps in the lazy river. We went down all the slides. The only thing we didn't do was really get into the wave pool. We sat on the far edge for a bit, I was worried my bathing suit would get knocked down (this actually happened to one of my uncle's on his honeymoon, yep, he went on a Disneymoon before the internets was really a thing). I highly suggest the Typhoon Lagoon, it's a great way to break up the craziness of the parks. We had tossed around the idea of going to Typhoon Lagoon AND Blizzard Beach today, but we were having so much fun at the one that by the time we decided to head out it was almost closing time for both of them (like, 5 pm). We had just missed the bus back to Pop, so we talked it over and decided that instead of waiting however long it would have been for the next bus to Pop, we'd just walk over to Downtown Disney and see what we could get into over there. Actually, the main reason we went over here was because Alex wanted to eat at Pollo Campero since she'd worked up an appetite at the water park, and also hadn't really eaten much of her breakfast any way. Luckily, we didn't have any trouble crossing the road, but it was a longer walk than we thought it would be. Oh well, we made it:

It's such a shame that this place is gone. I'm excited to see how "Disney Springs" turns out when it's all finished up, but I don't think it was completely necessary to get rid of this joint. Alex said this is some of the best fried chicken she's ever had (which is a lot coming from her) and for me, well FREE SALSA. HELLO!

I had to get an order of chips because their pico is incredible, as is their salsa verde. The other two, I could leave them, but the pico and salsa verde, oh baby. Not to mention the free refill soda fountain. So hard to come by in WDW, guess what they didn't us a hard time for? Filling up our resort mugs. We paid for a drink, and it was free refills, so it's not like we were stealing anything, so I don't want to hear it. Once Alex had finished up it was we were heading over to Fulton's so I could get some oysters with the fantastic coconut porter I had the last time we had been there.

Fulton's is great, if you like good seafood, I highly recommend it. I have a mini review of it in my last TR (there's a link somewhere in one of these earlier posts). When we walked in Alex excused herself to the bathroom and I went to the bar to grab a seat and order up my oysters and beer. Before I sat down I noticed that they didn't have the coconut porter at all! So that right there meant that all bets were off. This was unfortunate because I really was looking forward to some oysters, but when you're really looking forward to a certain food and drink combo and one isn't available, well then that's it and I skip both. That's ok, we probably needed to head back to Pop so we could shower up and get ready for our dinner. Before hopping on our bus we decided stop at the gas station across the straight from Downtown Disney to pick up some beer for the room. If you're ever looking for a couple six packs to keep in your room fridge for a wind down from a long day of drinking in the parks, this is the place to get them. Six packs and snacks, we usually always end up with some beer and a bag chips and dip. Once we made it back over to the bus stop we had much better luck with the bus this time around, we actually had to pick up the pace so it wouldn't leave without us! And we made it! We were on our way.

After getting ready for the night we made our way to the MK bus stop so we could get to dinner. Dinner tonight was at (guesses anyone?)... well, we'll wait on getting to that. First, we had to hop on the monorail from MK to get to where our dinner spot was. Oh, monorail, how I love thee. For any one wondering:

(A nod to the marathon I've been watching since I started this TR)

Once we made it to our destination, we headed upstairs (AGAIN) but this time, I needed a drink. And a drink I would have:

Ah, the Backscratcher. For those of you unaccustomed to the backscratcher it's Bacardi superior, Myers' dark and passion fruit juice topped with Jack Daniel's. D-LISH. And yes, that is a backscratcher as a garnish. The best kinds of garnish are the ones that you can take home and don't just push around because they're some kind of crappy fruit or vegetable. Having had both the Lapu Lapu and the Backscratcher, I can honestly say, the backscratcher is the way to go. The lapu lapu is just the novelty of drinking out of a pineapple, but it tastes like crap. We weren't waiting here nearly as long as we were when we were about to have breakfast at Kona. We were really surprised that the wait for 'Ohana was so much less than the wait for Kona (when it was empty).

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 4 - Part 3:

My apologies in advance for the less than great lighting on some of these photos, but for any one that's every been to 'Ohana for dinner, you know where we're coming from. We were seated near the windows that overlook the walkway but still able to have a great few of the Castle. This is always a plus, and always something we request (the only time we'll actually request a certain table area at a restaurant in WDW, or any where really, because we could care less for the most part). Any way, after a short wait and meeting our 'Cousin' for the night, she brought us our delicious, delicious bread:

Did I mention that it's delicious? If I could buy the 'Ohana pineapple-coconut bread at home I'd probably go through at least three loaves a week. Hot on the heels of the hot bread was the salad:

I guess, since it's a salad it would be cold on the heels. Eh, semantics, whatever. Now, I don't know exactly what "lilikoi dressing" is aside from, outstanding. It's the only reason I eat this is because of the dressing. I can see no other reason to even touch salad at a place like 'Ohana when the food is so great and it just keeps coming (so long as you let it, and you better believe, we let it). I think my favorite part of the meal is what was coming next:

That's right, those noodles. I don't know why they bother with that broccoli crap. Oh wait, we took care of that when we asked for more noodles:

Yeah, save the broccoli for someone that pretends to like it. After this second plate of noodles the lights dimmed, and we all knew what that meant. Time for some fireworks! Unfortunately, for you, the reader, that also means no more shots of the food. Well, you can manage without seeing those phenomenal pot stickers, the juicy chicken (that was still on the menu when we went), the endless, spicy peel-n-eat shrimp, the amazing sirloin steak and the pork loin (which we could do without). Oh, and how could I forget to mention, the best dessert in the World: The 'Ohana Bread Pudding a la mode with Bananas-Caramel Sauce. When it comes to the dessert Alex requested to have just the ice cream on the side, on its own. She was happy to receive it, and I was happy to have that bread pudding all to myself. Any way, here's our view of Wishes - 'Ohana style (just Wishes from our seats):

Watching Wishes in the climate controlled comfort of 'Ohana is perfect, the way the pipe in the music, the way I can stuff my face with great food, especially the way we can sip on any type of drink we want. Our only issue with this dinner was that we felt like we were being rushed by our 'Cousin', that was fine though, rush us and we'll take even more time. We will not be hurried through a meal, especially not at WDW, not with what they're charging. The food was still great, and that's all there is to it in the end. Alex waned a picture of the open kitchen before we took off for the night:

This really is one of the coolest open kitchens around. Gotta hand it to them on this one. We decided to head back down to the store for a couple more pictures, especially of these two:

Oh, hey fellas! When we decided we'd had enough Poly for one day it was time to take a walk along the beach (one of the best spots in WDW, hands down. Watching Wishes from the beach is highly suggested) and here was our view of the Castle:

It's not the clearest, but it's still great. And if you're unfamiliar with the path that leads out of the Polynesian beach, it takes about ten minutes to walk from the beach and you end up Franck's Bridal Studio, which, in turn, is about a five minute walk from the Grand Floridian. It's really a great walk. For some reason we'd convinced ourselves that there was a walking path from the Grand Floridian to Magic Kingdom, we could have sworn that the last time we were in WDW there was. We were informed that we were very wrong. Oh well, we knew there was one from Contemporary to MK (duh, it's a literal stone's throw away), but what're you gonna do? Get some quick pictures of GF, that's what... in my next post that is!

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 4 - Part 4:

We were almost upon the Grand Floridian!

They were far along on the DVC Villas at GF when we were down there but there was no shortage of these babies:

We love spotting these, I could spend an entire vacation just looking for these and Hidden Mickeys (trust me, I've suggested it, and been shot down quicker than you can imagine). It was pretty cool to see all the new things that had been put up, it was like a ghost town (except, not because it wasn't completed, let alone deserted). Even the palm trees looked brand new!

I wouldn't mind staying at these new villas just so I could use these sweet grills:

If you can see that netted off gate behind the sign setting the rules of the grill (I don't think people should be allowed to use a grill, if they need ruless to help them to use said grill) is what used to be a full tennis court. It looked like with all the work they did, they just cut the tennis court in half and tossed up a couple basketball hoops. Strange if you asked me that they still left the lines from the tennis court, but that's their decision. And wouldn't you know it? Look what Alex found on our approach to the main building of the Grand Floridian:

A quintet of light fixtures to make your reading of this TR more interesting (if you're playing along, and who caught Pleepleus starring at those noodles at 'Ohana?). Finally, we made it inside:

The main reason we went in tonight was so we could move upstairs and catch the monorail, which we wasted no time doing:

What a wonderful sight this must be if you're staying here and coming home after a long day at the parks. Just step right off and there you are... ah, one day. And when we turned around we saw...

Dueling monorails! Lucky for us we were able to just hop right on monorail green and we were back at MK in no time. We still had a full night ahead of us seeing as how MK was open until 1 AM. As for me tonight though, this is the end of the road. Hope you enjoyed the day so far. Come back tomorrow for the conclusion and see what we get into! Thanks again for reading!

 

[ArtieJim]

It's never too late to report your trip. My DH purchased the Haunted Mansion Game of Life on our last visit. We are big HM fans ( who isn't? ) and we love it. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Thanks for reading so far. I'm extremely jealous of your Haunted Mansion Game of Life. Are there Doom Buggies instead of cars? I really wish I'd just bought it.

 

[ArtieJim]

better late then never with the TR!

Alex kept telling me the same thing, hope you're still enjoying it so far!

 

[ArtieJim]

Following along, great report!

Thanks! Hope you're enjoying yourself! Don't forget to play along!

 

[ArtieJim]

Great day at Hollywood Studios or MGM as you would call it. We were there a week before you and I looked all over the world for those Mickey popcorn buckets. Couldn't find them and no CM even knew what they were. I'm so jealous you got one. Their is something about the Disney buckets that make popcorn taste so much better. Patiently waiting to read more.

I can't get enough of the Disney buckets. On the trip before this one I picked up the R2-D2 bucket. I love that they have the little hook for you to latch the cover onto the bucket so it's not something else you're hanging onto throughout the day.

 

[ArtieJim]

Love your report and your humor! I hope to go during food and wine someday!! All your food pics are making my stomach growl

Plenty more food pics to come! (I think) You really should go during F&W, you'd love it. Sorry to hear that you're back from the World.