Trip Report One enormous BirthdayversaryPalooza! aka 2 Broke Guys & a dog & Irma COMPLETED

We've been using the "2 Broke Guys" moniker for so long now, we've outlasted the TV show "2 Broke Girls" on which it was based. (Canceled!)

The idea was a year+ of saving Disney Chase Visa points to see if we could go to Victoria & Albert's for our 10 year wedding anniversary completely on their dime - and keeping a running total including additions and withdrawals (for little WDW trips along the way) much like they did at the end of every episode of that TV show - like this:

$1,678.91

And that figure is actually what we have left to spend on our trip - about double what we would need for our V&A dinner! Not to mention: points paid for our 2 AP's, some of our lodging for this trip, and many mini-trips along the way. All that meandering, planning, brainstorming and trip reporting is on this thread:

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...table-of-contents.909657/page-43#post-7874545

But that can take awhile. I'll give a little background in another post. Shout out to @dizfan917 for accidentally naming this thread in a post on that one, and to @Tuvalu for inspiring the "mother thread" with links to other thread(s) format.

Also to all those who have been following all this time! As those folks know, I go back and forth between posting with my phone and my laptop, and I'm more comfortable on the laptop. I'm using the phone now, whilst not asleep in Orlando, and anxious to get this first post out of the way before I do something to accidentally make it go poof! I will tag the others in a separate post.

Can't believe we're finally here!!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

We watch it (and Mr.Magoo's Christmas and the Muppet Family Christmas) every Christmas Eve!

Omg Magoo was not on last year! I looked everywhere. I love the songs from that one.

 

[Nemo14]

Omg Magoo was not on last year! I looked everywhere. I love the songs from that one.

We actually have it on VHS....

 

[dizfan917]

If the first day you USED your AP was September 19th... you might have been in Magic Kingdom two days later... Hmmmm.

I, too enjoyed your Emmett Otter reference. We love it when Emmett cuts down the 'Christmas branch'. adorable!

nice bone.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

If the first day you USED your AP was September 19th... you might have been in Magic Kingdom two days later... Hmmmm.

I, too enjoyed your Emmett Otter reference. We love it when Emmett cuts down the 'Christmas branch'. adorable!

nice bone.

Ha! Duh, you're absolutely right about the 19th, of course. My brain is still on vacation!

 

[monykalyn]

mmm Bday dinner sounds delicious!!
I'd guess around 45 gm carb for the tort, probably another 15 for the ice cream and if there was any fruit or chocolate sauce maybe another 5-10 grams? (I am a registered dietitian).

...you go to pick up your dog and you take a picture of this giant bone outside of Best Friends Pet Care because you think it looks vulgar from a certain angle:

View attachment 226049

And the next picture on your phone is this. No clue.

View attachment 226050

Back to the hotel, and off to bed!

I. am . dying.

AND Emmet Otter?? My kids think I've lost my marbles(they may be right) when I can watch this! (or Christmas vacation. Or The Christmas that almost wasn't. Or any Prep and Landing...)

 

[susan lees]

...you go to pick up your dog and you take a picture of this giant bone outside of Best Friends Pet Care because you think it looks vulgar from a certain angle:

View attachment 226049

And the next picture on your phone is this. No clue.

View attachment 226050

Back to the hotel, and off to bed!

Ha ha. I was scrolling down quite quickly there and got a bit of a shock lol. Happy birthday. Following along

 

[Tony the Tigger]

After dropping off the pup, we went to Hollywood studios. I had made a couple of fast passes, but we were starving and in need of a cocktail, so we went to see Julie at the Tune-In Lounge. (we checked in with her beforehand to make sure she would be there.)

My friend Rye was there also. Rye Manhattan.

After the first one of those hit me pretty hard (what the heck is going on lately?) we split a pot roast entrée that was delicious as always.

Just to be polite, I agreed to a second round of drinks.

Then we did the secret handshake and ordered the special no sugar added cheesecake that hasn't been on the menu for like two years but they still have it.

Turns out that became my second "birthday cake" served with candles LOL. I would show you the picture, but with my slow reflexes after drinking, I took the picture of it after it was half eaten. It's not a cute picture. You're welcome.

At this point, I realized I couldn't finish my second drink and passed it to Brian.

In retrospect, we think one of my back meds that seems like no big deal by itself must be interacting with alcohol. Either that, or at 46 you automatically go from "lightweight" to "sniff the cap and you're drunk."

Now, who should walk in but Craig the bartender from flying fish, his wife and baby! We were happy to see them, we all hung out for a while, and we took this fun pic:

And that's Julie photobombing behind the bar.

What I didn't realize right away (no comments from the peanut gallery) is the fact that Craig was here at the bar with us meant he was no longer working at the fish that night.

He had the opportunity to take the night off and spend it with his family, and I wholeheartedly support that decision. However…

We canceled our dinner reservation at the flying fish. Actually, we moved it to next Thursday. (See the added convenience of two back to back trips? They didn't even charge us the $10 fee for canceling.)

Now where are we going to have dinner? Well, we have plenty of time for that. We need to go back to the room, let Brian nap, submit a merchandise order for my store, pay a bill, and then plan on meeting Tigger and eating somewhere.

But first, one more pic with Julie and our other bartender, David.

We are bad at selfies. But I told you it's a fun place!

We went back to the room, Brian went right to sleep. I did my order which I distinctly remember submitting at 4:07 PM. Now I would start checking out dinner ideas, but let me just rest my head for a moment…

 

[Tony the Tigger]

...a moment or three...hours! That's right, "I who never nap" fell asleep for three hours. And when I woke up – my hair was still perfect!

At first, my heart sank. Did I just ruin my own birthday? I had so few things I wanted to do. I started researching Tigger. He and Pooh were only at their ride until 7:30 PM. There was no way we would make it.

I remembered the Crystal Palace, but I also remembered reading that the food was "meh," and that it was expensive, lots of kids, etc.

Did I really want to do all that to see Tigger? Did I really want to drag my husband through all that to see Tigger? What if dinner was awful?

But wait - @Tuvalu goes there. How bad can it be? (although I think she goes for breakfast?)

There was a reservation available at 8:40 PM.

I decided to research the food, and found a recent blog post with lots of detailed pictures, and thought it didn't look terrible. I made peace with the idea of doing this just to see Tigger, and if the food was palatable, that would be a bonus. The review also mentioned it could be hard to get a reservation. How? I'm here right now and a reservation was readily available! I went back to the app to book it.



The reservation was gone.

I called customer service to ask if they found anything I couldn't find. Nope. They said it was "booked for the night."



OK. We decided to just go to Magic Kingdom anyway and wing it. Maybe we would do the skipper canteen, where there were also reservations available. We also particularly love doing the MK attractions at night. I would be very OK with that.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Haha! Who am I? The guy who never gives up on getting ADRs, that's who!

While in the car on the way over, I kept trying. It was a little bit pathetic. But I kept trying, and finally an 8:45 PM reservation showed up. I asked Brian, "Should we do this?" And he said to book it. I grabbed it immediately!

 

[dizfan917]

Whoa, hello 46, goodbye any and all alcohol tolerance... bummer.

Do you remember talking to these four guys across from The Hall of Presidents waiting for the parade at MK? I just can't remember if it was you guys or not. I mean, how many gay couples are in the MK on a daily basis?

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Whoa, hello 46, goodbye any and all alcohol tolerance... bummer.

Do you remember talking to these four guys across from The Hall of Presidents waiting for the parade at MK? I just can't remember if it was you guys or not. I mean, how many gay couples are in the MK on a daily basis?

Apparently, a lot! We sat behind two guys and a baby on the tram to HS. Wanted to say something supportive but a) didn't want to be presumptuous and b) I'm a little socially awkward lol.

But the mystery is solved: if you were waiting for a parade, it was not us. We try hard to miss parades lol. But we were there at the same time!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

 

[Tony the Tigger]

So, I'm happy to report – the food was quite good!

I enjoy eating at Rose and Crown, so I was happy to see the Bangers and cabbage, and also mashed potatoes – which of course I turned into bangers-and-cabbage-and-mash LOL. And I remembered the obvious UK connection to Pooh.

The Jambolaya was good, but actually a little spicy for me, I had to cut it with some mash also LOL.

Basically I ate mashed potatoes.

They were awesome!

The honey glazed carrots were nice, the fish was nice, the cold salads were delightful.

If I'm going to point out anything slightly off about the food, it was the dessert. There was a little pastry called a banana cream pie (I almost squealed when I saw the sign) but it and the other mini pastries were meh. The ice cream was way too sweet, and I'm just not used to that anymore, and that station was surrounded by children with germs LOL touching handles and what not. I wanted hand sanitizer so badly.

I gave a few other dessert things a try, but none were worth cheating on my diet. To include, but hopefully not to sound ungrateful for, my third and final birthday cupcake. Meh.

Speaking of not sounding ungrateful, I've debated whether to say this or not, but I keep thinking it: it is not lost on me the juxtaposition of us having this wonderful splurging moment while so many people are seeing their lives washed away before them. It feels a little weird to be doing this right this moment.

Back to the fantasy world: I was surprised how much we enjoyed the character interactions. At first, I thought I really just wanted to see Tigger and kind of let the other ones pass. But they were so much fun, they really were in character, they were funny, they were adorable. There was a moment when Tigger and I were waiting for Brian to snap the picture and Tigger started slowly leaning forward like, "come on, take the picture already!" Then he went over to Brian and was pretending to slowly punch him in the jaw LOL.

Piglet snuck up behind me. I had no idea what Brian was laughing at. I turned around and there is piglet pulling his ears over his eyes and I just started cracking up.

I don't know why Eeyore isn't in any pictures, unless they are on Brian's phone. He was the first one to our table, and rubbed his nose on my head, which I found amusing. I watched him doing that to children around the room and it was very charming. We enjoyed watching them interact with other tables as much as with our own.

Bonus: we were stuffed!

And to finish, my birthday card:

Now to pick up our real animal, which was much more of an adventure than we expected…

 

[Tuvalu]

Tony ~

I called ahead to Crystal Palace and asked they give you celebrity treatment.

You're welcome.

Shirley

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Tony ~

I called ahead to Crystal Palace and asked they give you celebrity treatment.

You're welcome.

Shirley

We heart Shirley!!

We really had a great time there.

 

[Tuvalu]

We heart Shirley!!

We really had a great time there.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Took a video (but can't post it here) of one of the new (I think?) windows outside the store on Main Street. There were three scenes with figures that moved. One was BATB, I forget the third. They look great.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Well, it wasn't at first. (Btw, I love Snoopy at least as much as Mickey.)

There we were, leaving Crystal Palace around 9:40, thinking most people had gone already, until we got to the dreaded lines and ropes. We were finally crammed into a monorail car where there wasn't an inch to move, and a woman seemed to be hyperventilating. It seemed to take forever, and by the time we got to the TTC (way late to pick up Kylie) it was pouring. Correction: monsooning.

We put on our ponchos at the bottom of the monorail ramp. We walked as far as under the bridge and paused there. I told Brian to wait there, no sense in both of us getting soaked, and I am generally more mobile than he. He said I'd slip with my back. I said he can barely walk lol. In the end, he gave me the keys, and said I would never find the car (because he knows me.) I asked him which direction it was, and he pointed to the left.

I thought I'd be slick and walk along the trees. Big mistake. Huge. The trees offered zero protection, and next thing I knew, my sneakers were completely underwater. Moving onto the pavement didn't help much.

Trying to protect my phone and my bday card signed by Tigger LOL, I trudged onward. I kept pressing the unlock button on the key fob and looking for some lights. No good. My sneakers and shorts from just below the pockets down were soaked. Finally, I see the car.

And Brian standing next to it.

He said, "I knew you couldn't find the car. I walked right to it."

And stood there getting soaked because I had the keys.

Oh, boy.

With him driving and me navigating (and leaving a frantic voicemail for Best Friends Pet Care - "We're coming for Kylie!!!") we finally collected the pup after midnight.

Whew!

Back to the hotel, and to bed.

 

[Minthorne]

Omg Magoo was not on last year! I looked everywhere. I love the songs from that one.

And razzleberry dressing!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

And razzleberry dressing!

That would be nice!