Trip Report *COMPLETED* 6 Parks, F&W Fest, MNSSHP & One HUGEEE Surprise!!!

Hi everyone! We got back from our Disney vacation two days ago and I am still exhausted and unfortunately sick, but I wanted to jump right into the report because if I don’t do it now, it will never get done!

You can find my pre-trip report here, http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/first-trip-in-6-years-with-a-wdw-first-timer.915675/ but here is a quick recap:

Who: My boyfriend, Mark, and yours truly

What: 5-Day Park Hopper Tickets, Food & Wine Festival, One night at Mickey’s Not-So-Scary-Halloween Party, One day at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure and one HUUUUGE surprise, but I’m not giving anything away just yet!! You’ll have to follow along J

When: September 26th-October 3rd

Where: POP Century

Why: Mark’s first trip to Disney, and my first time back since being an AP 6 years ago!

Now that we have the particulars out of the way, let’s dive on in!

 

[Second Star to the Right]

What you experienced trying to get down Main Street was awful...but unfortunately has become the norm rather than an exception!
Every time we try to either enter or exit the park during evening activity (parade, castle show, fireworks) it is pretty much the chaos you described.

For what it's worth, the inside entrance to the bakery is always roped off. It changed when the bakery was refurbished into Starbucks. They should have just built a new wall there, rather than tease us with a rope.

I can't believe it has gotten that bad. They have a really terrible way of managing the crowds. And I completely agree, they should have just built a wall if it's such an issue!

 

[CinderMama]

Yay! So much love for Mary Poppins ! Enjoying your report, thanks for sharing!

 

[Second Star to the Right]

The Canada booth was close to Patagonia, and the line for it wasn't very long so we took advantage since I know that one can get fairly backed-up. I forgot to take a picture of the sign, but we ordered the Le Cellier Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon

The meat was a bit tougher, but nothing outrageous. The mushroom sauce was delicious!

At this point, we felt like we were baking because it was just so darn hot outside. We both agreed to go to whatever air-conditioned placed would be closest. I figured Journey Into Imagination probably wouldn't have much of a wait, and it would get us off our feet and out of the sun for at least a few minutes.

The wait was about 15 minutes, but it might have been shorter. Mark thought it was a cute ride. I explained to him the controversy that emerges about this ride and how many people hope it returns to it's former glory soon.

When we got out of Journey I saw Mary Poppins and Bert were out for pictures! I ran over to get into line since this was an absolute must-do for me today, but of course, as soon as I got there they said they weren't taking any more pictures with people. Mary was heading back for pictures in the UK, but I didn't want to walk all the way over there since our first FP+ of the day was in The Seas and it was approaching soon. I knew she would be in the UK again later that day, so I made a mental note to make sure we got over there in time.

After that, we really need some energy, so we stopped off at Starbucks for a drink. After that, we headed over to The Seas to see what Nemo and Friends were up to. There was no wait for the ride, we walked right on.

MINE!

After that, we enjoyed walking around the viewing area and taking some pictures of the fishies

It's the little touches like this, that make Disney so great.

Shark(bait hoo-ha-ha). I can't help it.

 

[Second Star to the Right]

Turtle Time!

At this point, I started getting really bummed because the poor turtle just waned to go to the other side of the gate

LOTS of lettuce and 2 manatees. One was an orphan, and one was a boating accident rescue

 

[Tiggerish]

Oh, now I feel bad for that turtle, too. Wonder what's on the other side that he so wants to get to?

 

[Second Star to the Right]

By that point it was time for our FP+ for Turtle Talk with Crush. Any time I say the name of this attraction I have to laugh because it reminds me of when I was making the FP+ reservations for it. The online experience was giving me technical issues, so I actually had to call and have a CM make the reservations for me. Mark was in the room when he heard me say, "Yes, the next FastPass will be for Turtle Talk with Crush" to which he immediately responded with, "What the hell is Turtle Talk with Crush???"

Jellies!! And not the kind you wore in the 90's. Although, if you got a rock stuck in one of those bad-boys I'm sure it would hurt just as much as a jellyfish sting.

Flotsam & Jetsam

Pearl

We loved Turtle Talk with Crush, it was so cute, and Crush was hilarious. There was one kid who had a question, and Crush asked him where he's from and after a brief pause the little boy goes "Brandon Street" Crush replies with "Wow, that is some pinpoint accuracy right there!" So funny. His parents were right next to us and they were shaking their heads. I would definitely do that again.

 

[Second Star to the Right]

Oh, now I feel bad for that turtle, too. Wonder what's on the other side that he so wants to get to?

We checked around the corner and it was just more open water. I felt so bad, he had one of his arms through the bars at one point

 

[Second Star to the Right]

After Turtle Talk with Crush we headed over to the U.K. to catch Mary Poppins

Will these take me to the Ministry of Magic? Oh wait...wrong theme park.

She liked my shoes AND my ears and wants me to bring some for Bert next time. Ok!!

She even noticed the quote on the shoes and recited it verbatim without looking at my shoes. She was an awesome Mary Poppins!

Mission accomplished!

We perused the shops in the U.K. for a bit and then made our journey to France. We used another QS credit and ordered three items from the France booth menu, which I forgot to take a picture of.

The snack at the top of the picture is the Boeuf Bourguignon, below that and to the left is the Gruyere and Cognac Onion Soup, and to the right of that is the Croissant aux Escargot.

The soup was very good and I'm not a huge fan of onion soup.

The croissant was the best part of this, I honestly didn't taste much else besides it, but I'm not complaining because it was a really good croissant!

The beef was the best out of all three dishes. Surprisingly tender and had great flavor.

As we were eating we caught Aurora walking by

I had to stop in even though I didn't plan on getting anything because we were full at that point.

 

[mcstensrud]

Still following along waiting for the Huuuge Surprise!
Awesome Report so far.

 

[Second Star to the Right]

Still following along waiting for the Huuuge Surprise!
Awesome Report so far.

Thank you!

 

[Second Star to the Right]

Happy Monday, everyone! This weekend was a busy one spent out of town, so I'm just getting a chance to catch up now. Last we left off, we were enjoying the views at Boulangerie Patisserie. I could order one of everything from there. It all looks so yummy! We were going to try and watch Impressions de France but the next showing wasn't starting for awhile, so we decided to keep moving.

We stopped by the Brazil booth and got the Crispy Pork Belly with Black Beans

We both enjoyed this dish. You can't really go wrong with better bacon, plus I love black beans!

Mark was still hungry at this point, so we stopped at Tangierene Café for some Shawarma. I wasn't hungry at that point, the snacks were doing a good job of keeping me full. I also don't have much of an appetite when it's 1000 degrees outside.

Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? Brownie points for those who get this.

I didn't try and of the shawarma, but I did take a bite of the baklava and that was pretty yummy! Mark said the rest of it was good, but he didn't love the dressing that was on the greens.

I love the random Ratatouille's scattered in the World Showcase

On our continued walk around the world, we decided we would hit up the Japan booth. We got the garlic shrimp with rice. This was absolutely nothing special. In fact, it was the worst snack we had out of all the booths. The shrimp was rubbery with no real garlic flavor. Disappointing, but again, you can't win them all! You can see the shrimp dish is being propped up by a nice cup of ice water. That was about my 7th of the day at that point. We were so thankful that Disney gives cups of ice water out for free.

 

[Second Star to the Right]

Our next food adventure would lead us to Hops & Barley outside of the America are of the WS. Mark and I are from New England, so we couldn't wait to see what their interpretation of a New England lobster roll would be.

Now, let me preface this by saying that SOME New Englanders think that a true lobster roll is served cold and with mayonnaise. Well, those people are wrong. So, so, so wrong.

THIS is NOT a New England Lobster Roll, Disney. You do not cover up the delicious lobster taste with a whole bunch of mayo, dill and parsley. A true NE lobster roll is served warm, on a toasted bun dripping with delicious melted butter. It was a valiant try, but alas, you have failed.

In all honesty, it still tasted good, it's just not what we are used to. Check out that lump of claw meat though!!!

As we were leaving America, we turned a corner and saw there was no line for a picture with Smee! Mark was SO hoping Captain Hook would be with him, but we had no such luck. We were happy when we realized we still had LEGO Captain Hook and LEGO Peter Pan with us though. Perfect photo opportunity!

Since there was no line, we took advantage and asked if we could take a selfie with Smee since we had the minifigs with us. This would be a great picture...if I wasn't slightly stupid and had my Peter Pan turned around. Derp! It was so bright though and I could barely tell if we were even in the picture. Then Smee knocked my ears sideways, so I got all distracted and here is the end result.

Right next to where Smee was taking pictures was one of the Joffrey's Coffee & Tea Carts that I had been wanting to stop at. I have recently become a big fan of the iced chai lattes at Starbucks, and Joffrey's was offering a spiked version...yes please!

Again, I forgot to take a picture, but this is the frozen chai tea latte with Grey Goose. They offer it hot, frozen or iced and you choose between Baileys or Grey Goose. I figured go all out and get the Grey Goose. It was very good! It was so hot out that it started melting immediately and became quite messy since the whipped cream took over, but I really enjoyed it. Great excuse for a cool-me-down drink

Our next stop along the world would be Germany.

A girl has some options!

I had just finished my frozen spiked chai latte and was starting to feel a little thirsty again...and we were in Germany...so why not?! A coworker of Mark's had told him we had to try the grapefruit beer in Germany, and I didn't want to disappoint, so I ordered one Schöfferhofer to test it out.

One sip and I was in love!! I gave Mark a taste and he immediately started searching for liquor stores in our area that carry this beer. It had just the right hint of grapefruit flavor. It was so delicious on such a hot day! And now I'm craving one!

We wandered around the glass shop for quite some time because Mark's mom collects different figurines for her curio and we thought that might be a nice gift for her. We didn't really see anything that we absolutely loved for her though, so we would just have to keep looking!

 

[Tiggerish]

The Smee selfie turned out great! (well, except maybe for the backwards Peter, but hey, that's what Photoshop is for, or you could always say that he and Hook were engaged in battle at the time)

We, too, are hooked on the Schöfferhofer. Found it locally at Stew Leonard's. Can't recall if Total Wine carries it, but Total Wine does have McKenzie's Hard Cider. I highly recommend the green apple, and my hubby likes the black cherry.

 

[Second Star to the Right]

After Germany, we had a FP+ to redeem and it was for one of the attractions I had been looking forward to the most on this trip...Frozen Ever After!! I had been periodically checking the MDE App throughout the trip so far to see the wait times for FEA, and I didn't see anything below 60 minutes during the day so I knew our FP+ would be the only time we would get to ride it so I am really grateful we were able to secure a FP+ for it.

I understand there is quite the controversy surrounding this ride and the fact that a made-up city replaced an actual country in the World Showcase, but I don't really care. I agree that it's rather silly, and they could have put it another park, but I couldn't wait to see what the ride was like. I was so good at avoiding spoiler pictures and videos, and now it was finally our turn to see it!

The queue is adorable. I actually wouldn't have minded a bit more time to look around, but it only took about 10-15 minutes to get to the boats.

I didn't take any pictures or videos while on the ride because I really just wanted to enjoy it in the moment. What can I say? I loved it! I thought the technology was great, and of course the music is awesome. It's like the Little Mermaid ride for me, I could have ridden that all day just for the music alone. I really wish we had another opportunity to ride it, but time just didn't allow it. Next trip!

We caught these guys on our way out. They were fun. They were trying to get a little boy and his sister to act like they were rowing a boat with them, and the little boy wanted nothing to do with them

 

[Second Star to the Right]

The Smee selfie turned out great! (well, except maybe for the backwards Peter, but hey, that's what Photoshop is for, or you could always say that he and Hook were engaged in battle at the time)

We, too, are hooked on the Schöfferhofer. Found it locally at Stew Leonard's. Can't recall if Total Wine carries it, but Total Wine does have McKenzie's Hard Cider. I highly recommend the green apple, and my hubby likes the black cherry.

I said exactly the same thing about Peter and Hook being in a battle with each other! Mark just shook his head and laughed.

I will have to be on the lookout for the Hard Cider, I love green apple anything so that sounds like a must. Thank you!! Luckily, there are at least 5 liquor stores in the area that carry the Schöfferhofer. I might go pick some up tonight!

 

[Princess Leia]

Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? Brownie points for those who get this.
View attachment 170019

 

[Second Star to the Right]

You get all the brownie points and then some because you used another quote from the same movie to answer me. Brilliant!

 

[Tiggerish]

SO. CLEVER.
*applause*

 

[sgtbtlbailey]

I LOVE your Mary Poppins TOMS! Care to share where you got them? You two are so cute together. Enjoying this TR : )

 

[Second Star to the Right]

I LOVE your Mary Poppins TOMS! Care to share where you got them? You two are so cute together. Enjoying this TR : )

Sure thing! I ordered them from Etsy. The Etsy artist goes by the shop name "ButterMakesMeHappy". She was awesome to work with. She sent me pictures along the way and made sure I was getting exactly what I wanted.