Trip Report The Tractor's out of gas, Nobody tells me nothing

Welcome to our September, 2019 trip report. Our family was in WDW from September 20th - 28th and we had a fabulous time.

Ok...so this trip was supposed to be it. At least for a little while. I mean, we have been going to WDW every year for five years now. It was time to do something else. And in case you haven't noticed, WDW vacations are not cheap. Time to maybe try something a little more affordable.

These were some of the thoughts going around in my head as we embarked on our trip. I had shared with Sara that maybe in the coming years we should take a cruise, or go explore a city, or even relax on a beach. But then this September trip came, and wouldn't you know that Disney Magic did its thing and we had perhaps one of our favorite trips ever. Now as I sit here typing, I can't wait to head back. We haven't officially booked anything just yet so we don't know when that will be, but that decision will be kept for another day. For now, on with the report...

We were pretty busy in the weeks leading up to WDW, so Sara, who normally is packing at least a week in advance, couldn't really start until about two days before out trip. This led to a bit of stress, but of course we got everything together. We have two cats, Oliver and Jasmine, and they both were insistent that they wanted to come with us.

We officially started on Thursday, September 19th when Luke and Makayla returned from school. Sara and I had taken the afternoon to load up our van. We met the kids at the bus stop, but before we hit the road, Makayla had her soccer shots session. We had signed her up for soccer for 8 weeks on Thursdays after school without really thinking through how it would affect our trip. We decided in the end that we would let her play soccer, then leave after. So a bit later than normal, but around 5:15pm we were on our way from York, PA.

We stopped just north of Baltimore for some Chipotle for dinner and a potty break. Then we were back on the road. Since we were leaving later than usual, I made the decision to go around DC on 495 instead of my usually creative detour on 15/17. Thankfully traffic was pretty light. We made our way through Virginia and to our normal stop on the way, the Hampton Inn in Emporia, VA. For some reason, the hotel has a picture of cows with "happy" behind the front desk.

We woke up and ate breakfast the next morning, and then were on our way through NC/SC, and Georgia. We made sure to take breaks along the way for the necessities, like throwing a football around and playing tag.

In Georgia, we hit a bit of rain, and then in front of us we noticed a very faint rainbow.

It shows up even fainter in this photo Sara took than what it did as we were driving. But trust me, it was there. If you start at the green sign and sort of go up and to the left, that's where it was.

We made great time on our trip, and by 4:45 we were entering Florida. We were so excited. We had never made it to the Florida welcome center by 5pm before, and we were finally going to get to try the complimentary orange juice...

WHAT?????

We worked so hard .

Needless to say, this was a touch disappointing. We still managed to explore a bit.

One thing you will quickly learn about Luke, he typically either has a football or soccer ball with him. He loves to play all sports. That made him super excited for our hotel this year, the All Star Sports. He had been asking to stay there for our last several trips, and this time we were finally doing it.

We left the Florida welcome center and began the absolute longest drive from the Florida border to WDW.

 

[Lyear]

I woke up the next day and was relieved to be feeling fine after my rough night before. We all got up and ready and were out the door quickly. We had not seen this sign before on our trip. Must have been a couple of late party-ers the night before.

Today we started by heading to MK, but took a detour and hopped on the monorail to head to the Poly for breakfast at Kona Cafe. Luke practiced his zen techniques on the way!

We got checked in at Kona and only a short time later got a text that our table was ready. We had eaten at Kona about 3 years ago, and I remember the wait being extremely long. I was glad to get a short wait this time. We had a waiter (I wish I could remember his name now), he was having such fun. He had a smile on his face every time he came over to our table, and you could tell he was really enjoying his day. He also brought some really good coffee, and fruity juice for the kids (and Sara)!

Makayla patiently waiting for her food.

the kids decided to sit on the same side of the table this morning. Thankfully they were kind to each other during the meal.

For our meal, Luke went with the French Toast.

Makayla got an egg and veggie scramble.

Sara and I each went with our standard Kona meal - the Tonga Toast...yum yum .

We loved our Tonga Toast, but it really is so much to eat. We finished it, but our bellies were very, very full for the next few hours. Makayla wasn't that interested in eating, and it was a bit of a struggle to get her to eat anything. She did do a great job of entertaining herself with her placemat activities. Both children have taken after me in their love of Marvel.

Following our yummy breakfast, we spent some time around the Poly.

We went outside to explore a bit, and unfortunately that became the scene of a massive Makayla meltdown. It started in the little fake grassy area right outside the main building. Luke has a tiny camera that he uses very rarely, and he decided to break it out when we went outside and shoot a video. Makayla became very upset that she didn't have one and that Luke wouldn't share with her. She refused to engage in anything fun around the resort and kept crying the entire rest of the time we were there. I guess that's what a 5 year old does sometimes

 

[Lyear]

With grumpy Makayla, we made our way through bag check and back onto the monorail over to MK. She ended up getting a small time out on a bench once we got through the entrance, and with that little break she was finally able to pull herself back together .

Our first fastpass was Big Thunder Mountain, so we made our way over there. We stopped to cool off at the tiki sprayers.

It was early in the day, but it was already super hot out.

We made our way to the back of the park for Big Thunder Mountain, and Luke was excited that we got placed in the back two rows of the train, with him and me riding in the very back. As everyone knows, the back of the train is the place to be. I got through the ride with no ill effects on my stomach .

We stopped afterwards for a quick photopass photo

Splash Mountain was up next, but both kids really wanted to play in the Splash Mountain kids play area first. Luke was well beyond the recommended age, but he promised to play gently, and he did a really good job with that. There were certainly a few rough kids there, but he wasn't one of them .

The playground was busy and it took a looong time to get this photo lined up with no one else in it. There was one little boy who for some reason really wanted to be in the picture, and his mom eventually had to come over to get him to go do something else.

After some playtime, we entered the fastpass ride queue. Makayla had ridden Splash on our last visit and loved it. One of her favorite rides, and always wanted to watch videos of the ride on YouTube. But for some reason today, she was scared to go on it. We managed to convince her to try it, and she of course loved it, but she was scared at the time.

Splash was a great ride on this day because it truly was a hot Florida day. Temperatures were forecast to get into the 90's, with humidity on top. We had become so accustomed to winter trips that this was new to us. Despite the weather, we definitely would go on to have a fun filled day.

 

[Lyear]

After we had done Splash, we took the quick trip to Pirates for a walk on that was only about 20 minutes. We had done Pirates before, but this time it seemed to have an extra dose of energy as Luke and Makayla seemed to really like the fact that we were walking through a dungeon to get to the ride. We had a good time, but Makayla was slightly scared of the small drop. The picture makes us look about as disinterested as can be .

After the ride, the real fun began. The gift shop. All these swords and no place to play with them.

Seriously, I think a new business venture might be setting up a safe place for children to run around fighting each other with swords. Such a thing could exist...right?

We were able to coax the kids out of the gift shop and stayed in Adventureland. Our next attraction was the Swiss Family treehouse. A personal favorite in our house. This time, Makayla got to take the lead and explain what everything was.

Once we had finished, we did a bit more time in the Tiki sprayers, these were lovely on this day, and then went across the park to our final scheduled fastpass...7 dwarfs.

There was a bit of an argument over who was going to ride with who, but we eventually sorted it out like the loving family we are. Just a little bit of pouting was done . Luke and Sara were even lucky enough to land the front row!!!

Once we were done with 7 dwarfs, I was able to make another fastpass for us later in the day at Winnie the Pooh. Right now, we decided to get some extended AC time by seeing Philharmagic. Makayla really likes this show, Luke does not. In the end, AC won out! Makayla really enjoys this show, she giggles just about the whole time.

When we exited, we spent some time in the small hat shop, and got Luke's ear hat engraved while we again waited in the AC.

It was now about the middle of the afternoon, and we didn't have any immediate plans. We decided that we would head towards Tom Sawyer Island since that had been such a hit on our last visit. We stopped to get some stock photos on the way.

A little help was needed for this one.

coming up next...a HOT visit to Tom Sawyer Island.

 

[sheriffwoody]

I don't know if I've commented yet, but I'm enjoying following along!

 

[Lyear]

I don't know if I've commented yet, but I'm enjoying following along!

Thank you for the comment! I'm glad you're enjoying the report!

 

[Lyear]

We got in line to go over to Tom Sawyer Island, I was actually pretty surprised at how full the wait queue was. Thankfully we were able to get on the first boat. I talked briefly with one of the CM's who was originally from near us, and she was talking about how the heat had definitely returned after having gone away for a couple days.

We got over there, and both kids were very excited to do the barrel bridge. This had been the favorite Tom Sawyer attraction on our last visit. We went a few times. It took a while for them to get the hang of going out and around to the entrance, instead of trying to go against the flow of traffic backwards on the bridge.

Yes, you'll notice me out on the bridge. It's fun for all ages!

We then went through the cave. I was really hoping the cave would be a nice break from the heat of the day, but it wasn't as cool as I was hoping for. I don't mean to keep complaining about the heat, but honestly on this day it was unavoidably hot.

We went over to the fort and played around a bit. Sara was sure to find a small chair to sit in. Makayla liked seeing the room with the horse again, and enjoyed seeing the man sleeping.

We spent just a little time here before heading back towards the boat dock. We all enjoyed it, but were looking to get into something with AC.

We caught the riverboat just as we were crossing the bridge. Positioning the children was a bit of a challenge.

Some more photos on the way towards the exit.

Luke and Sara were able to enjoy a game of checkers while we waited at the dock for the boat to take us back.

We made our way onto the boat and back into Frontierland. We headed straight for Country Bears, and I was so thankful to be in a room with air conditioning. We sat down in the show and I was hoping it would just go on and on. I like how both Luke and Makayla still really like this show. Luke is beginning to show signs of thinking its boring, but it seems like there's enough to see and do that we can all have a good time.

 

[Lyear]

Once we finished with Country Bears, we headed back outside, where there was a hoedown happening right in front of us. Neither Luke nor Makayla were interested in joining in, even though Makayla got specifically invited by the CM in front. Makayla is definitely more of a stay with us girl.

We ended up going around the dance party, and did the little cut through to adventure land. It was time for a cool snack. We headed to sunshine tree terrace. We also tend to go for the dole whips, but wanted to try something different this time. Sara went with a limited time snack called "Red's Revenge." I believe it had strawberry fanta.

I went with a citrus swirl.

I had red a lot about these, so I was interested to try it. After trying it, I will be sticking with the Dole whips .

Sara took this photo while I was in line getting our snacks. Our kids, especially Luke, don't like to hear that they shouldn't climb on things.

After we had finished, it was Tiki Room time. More air conditioned goodness. Luke was especially unhappy that we were going in. Tiki Room as been dubbed boring by him, and he wanted nothing to do with it. Unfortunately for him, the rest of us all wanted to check it out. Makayla seems to especially enjoy this one.

 

[Lyear]

When we had finished Tiki Room, we still had a good amount of time before our next fastpass at Pooh. Luke really, really wanted to do Space Mountain again, but for Makayla there wasn't much over that way that interested her. We decided that we would split up. Sara took Luke over to do Space Mountain, while Makayla and I went the other way to do Splash Mountain.

For Luke, heading to Space Mountain meant that Sara wanted to get his picture in front of a sunny purple wall.

They actually got separated for the ride, but both had fun.

Afterwards, they spent some time at this thing.

For Makayla and me, we had a pretty long wait in the standby queue, but made the best of it. Makayla really liked seeing the birdhouses as we waited outside.

We were having fun looking at the different birdhouses as we moved along in line. A great example of the small details in WDW.

After a bit of time in line, we made it to the loading area, and had a great time on the ride...complete with a great on-ride photo.

We spent a bit more time in the little play area outside of Splash.

After a short while, it was time to get ourselves moving, as our time to meet up with Luke and Sara was fast approaching.

 

[Lyear]

Makayla and I walked over towards Pooh and got there a little bit ahead of Luke and Sara. Unfortunately, we realized the line for Pooh was closed. There were CM's out letting everyone know about the ride closure and that they didn't know when it would be coming back up. Sara and I grabbed a seat on the little cement fence they had there, while Luke and Makayla each went inside the little tree by the entrance.

Eventually, the CM's were saying the ride was expected to be down for a while, and that we should be getting bonus fastpasses real soon. So we waited around until we got them...and waited...and waited. Eventually, we had waited about 20-30 minutes, so we decided to head over to one of the blue umbrella kiosks for some assistance. We waited our turn, and the CM working there had just brought up our account info and was placing a call, when we got the email that our bonus fastpass had loaded.

Now we had a decision to make about what to do with our extra fastpasses. Luke right away announced that he wanted to do Space Mountain. Unfortunately Makayla isn't quite tall enough for that. We had spoken with a CM earlier in the day who had noticed Makayla wearing Tiana's dress, and asked if she had met Tiana yet. She had not, and I thought this might be a good time to get in to see her. We asked Luke about this, but as you might expect, our 8 year old boy was not a huge fan of meeting princesses. So in the end, we decided to split up again. Luke and Sara again went on Space Mountain...

While Makayla and I used our fastpass to meet Tiana and Rapunzel.

We only waited maybe 1 minute before we were led into the room to meet them. Rapunzel was first. Makayla is not scared about meeting princesses like she is with other characters, but she is very shy and quiet. I mentioned that we had been looking for Pasquale near her tower earlier, and Rapunzel started going on and on about Pasquale, to which Makayla nodded along . Rapunzel did a great job.

Makayla was even willing to get a photo with just Rapunzel and her.

And gave Rapunzel a hug at the end.

 

[Lyear]

After we said goodbye to Rapunzel, Tiana was waiting for us. She noticed Makayla's dress immediately and asked if Mama Odie had made her dress too. Unfortunately, Makayla and I aren't super familiar with Tiana's movie, so we didn't quite know how to respond . We did end up having a conversation about cooking though.

Makayla was sure to keep her eyes on the camerman.

She again was happy to pose with just her and Tiana.

and even had a one on one chat as we said goodbye.

Once we had finished, we realized that Pooh was open and didn't have much of a wait. We decided to do it standby. Sara and Luke were still not quite done with Space Mountain.

Unfortunately, Makayla ended up falling as she entered the honeypot vehicle, and that sent her into a crying fit that lasted about half the ride.

We met up with Luke and Makayla near Cosmic Ray's, and Sara announced she had a pretty bad headache. We ended up going into Cosmic Rays for our dinner. I didn't write down what we ordered. I know I tried their vegan sloppy joe, and it was pretty good. Luke probably had the mac and cheese, and Makayla likely had a peanut butter and jelly. Sara didn't eat much since she wasn't feeling well.

Our plan had been to find a spot for the fireworks and watch them this evening, but Sara decided she would rather go back to the hotel and have an early bedtime. I was ok with this, but felt bad since I know that skipping fireworks, especially at Magic Kingdom, must have meant she wasn't feeling well at all.

We made our way to the front of the park, and stopped briefly for a photos. Luke looks very stoic.

We exited the park before the fireworks began and found out bus back to the resort. We ended up going pretty much straight to bed that night. Our Thursday had come to an end earlier than planned, but we still had one full day, and then our departure day left to have a great time.

 

[Lyear]

I don't know how I missed this part of our Thursday night, since it was clearly written in my notes, but when we got back to the resort on Thursday, Sara and Makayla went straight to the room to go to bed, but Luke and I stayed out trying to find the eagles game. We went inside thinking it might be on one of the TV's in the food court, but weren't able to find it. We were ready to give up and go back to our room when we noticed the game on TV...at the poolside bar. It was a little weird asking if it was ok if Luke joined me at the bar to watch the game, and I honestly didn't know which way that conversation would go. Eventually the bartender said it would be ok if I stayed with him. So Luke and I took a seat and watched the Thursday night game between the Eagles and Packers. Luke was enjoying some complimentary chips while we watched the Eagles score a comeback victory. On the other side of Luke was a hard core Packers fan, who wasn't quite as thrilled with the outcome. Overall he was a nice guy though.

So we got a very late start to our sleep on Thursday night. Still, when the alarm went off, we got up and rolling. By this point we had settled into our morning routine, and we were out the door at a decent time, but right around the same time a most other people at the resort. When we got to the bus stop, the lines were long at almost every resort. We made it to Animal Kingdom betweeen 9 and 9:30. Kevin was out meeting guests as we walked by on Discovery Island. She attracted quite a crowd.

Our first fastpass would lead me to a repeat encounter with the Yeti that had leveled me two days ago. But we still had a little time before that, so we decided to check out the Maharanjah Jungle Trek. It was a great way to see a lot of animals, and we also did a lot of Wilderness Explorer stops.

Makayla was really excited to check out the tigers, but was a little disappointed that they weren't doing much.

I really like this next pic. It captures their energy perfectly.

Completing a Tiger badge page, where you learned that each tiger has individual stripes, and draw your own tiger stripes.

The bird area was very noisy this morning.

Hard to get a good pic of birds but they were flying all over the place while we were there.

 

[Lyear]

We finished up with the trek, then walked on over to Everest. I'm happy to report that I made it on and off the ride with no ill effects.

When we exited, I found Makayla and Sara over at another Wilderness Explorer site where they were learning about Asian folklores. We met Bironika who did such a great job. I asked Luke and Makayla to take a photo with her, intending to send it in for a cast compliment, but sadly never got around to doing it. But it was awesome to meet Bironika who you could tell was really enjoying her job.

Once we had finished, we were out of our Everest fastpass window, but Sara and Luke still had a rider swap they could use. We were also starting to come up on our FOP fastpass, and our scheduled called for us to eat before that. We decided that I would take Makayla over to Pandora to eat at Sa'tuli canteen.

This time Luke attempted the bunny ears while on the ride.

And a pic of the howler monkeys on the way to the restaurant, courtesy of Sara.

Once Makayla and I got into the restaurant, we went through and placed our order. It was slightly different than your normal restaurant as you are creating rice or noodle bowls with different ingredients, but we got the hang of it.

Luke wanted a kids quesadilla. He was not a big fan of the multicolored chips.

For Makayla, we decided to try a rice bowl with tofu, but she didn't eat very much of it.

Sara got a dish with red and sweet potatoes in a cream sauce.

I ordered myself a noodle dish with a black bean sauce.

Sara and I each thought the food was really good, but the kids...not so much.

When we had first arrived, I ordered the food and found a table, then decided to walk over about 2 tables away to a station to get silverware and napkins. At this point it was just Makayla and me. Makayla decided to take this opportunity to hide under the table away from me. So I grabbed the napkins and everything, and when I turn back around, I didn't see Makayla anywhere. The dad sitting at the table next to me saw the terror in my eyes, and quickly motioned to me that she was hiding under the table. So I was quickly reunited with my "lost/hiding" daughter. She thought it was great fun.

After our lunch, we tried the blue dessert. The menu says it is a blueberry, cream cheese mousse. We didn't quite know what to think. It wasn't our favorite dessert, but it was a sweet end to our meal and we enjoyed it.

Sara took a photo of the seating area.

And with that, we have reached the end of my notes about this trip. The remainder of the trip report will be based solely on photos and memories. It may be a bumpy ride .

 

[Lyear]

After our lunch, we were upon our FOP fastpass window. We did another rider swap. This time, I decided not to go all the way to Africa with Makayla. We hung out for a bit in Pandora and found a photopass photographer.

She told us to point out, but Makayla and I must have both misunderstood what direction she was telling us to point.

After this, we went over to Discovery Island and did a couple of the trails.

River Otters are some of my favorites!!

This squirrel was very entertaining, though we do see a lot of them at home in Pennsylvania as well . As you can see, we made sure to stay behind the rope!

This is probably the most photos I took at a single point the entire trip!!

 

[Lyear]

The direction board on Discovery Island is so intricate.

There was one point where our walking trail came out right behind where Dug and Russell were meeting guests. Like seriously I think I could have reached out and touched them as we walked by. Makayla was really scared to go past there and I had to hold her hand and walk quickly to make it through.

Eventually, we finished with our discovery and went back into Pandora to find Sara and Luke. Luke had had a great time on FOP and was excited to go again with me. We got in line again and I enjoyed the ride again. I was really doing my best to focus on all the small details of the ride, and it certainly has a lot of them. Lots of colors and small nuances that do make the ride a sight to behold.

While we were on the ride, Sara took Makayla into Africa. I asked her this evening what they did, and what she could remember was that during the time, Makayla had to use the restroom. That's it! Well, these photos are on her phone, so it looks like they enjoyed a performance in Harambe village.

Once we had finished well all met up and started our trek out of Pandora. Luke was really interested in doing Kali River Rapids since he hadn't gotten to do it the last time we were here.

A couple photos on our way.

We were looking straight at the sun...seems to have been a habit of ours on this trip.

 

[Lyear]

We made it through Discovery Island and over to Kali. After a brief moment of getting lost trying to find out where to park our stroller, we were in line. It had been probably 10 years since Sara and I had last ridden this ride together. Exploring the queue was like seeing it for the first time. And a little disclaimer, it's entirely possible they re-did the queue since the last time I was on it .

Unfortunately, it was a very slow moving queue. We'd find ourselves having plenty of times where the line wasn't really moving at all and we would just stand around. The excitement Luke had over trying a new ride quickly faded into some frustration that it was taking so long. And...it was hot, so all of us, and most of the people around us, were not in a great mood.

We struggled through however and in the end we all really enjoyed the ride. I remember getting soaked on the ride when i rode it before, but this time we didn't have anything that extreme. We got a little splashed, but it was nice on a hot Florida day.

Once we finished, both kids wanted to take turns using the sprayers on the bridge.

There was a small fountain near where our stroller was parked, and Luke and Makayla spent a little time checking that out.

Our next event was the Safari, so we got our stroller ready and started heading over towards Africa. On our way, we came across two characters we had never seen before. It seemed a bit strange, and we had no idea who these two were, but decided to check it out.

They signed autograph books, and in trying to make out the handwriting, it looks like their names are Toofan and Shirisha. They were the spirits of Fire and Air, if memory serves right. I've tried looking them up on the Disneyworld website, but haven't been able to find them. Right after we had finished, they packed up, and we didn't see them out meeting again. But it was fun getting to meet them. Sort of a spirit of the Animal Kingdom treat. Luke and Makayla didn't quite know what to make of the whole thing.

 

[Lyear]

Once we had one of our more memorable character interactions in our history, we made our way over to the Safari for our last FP. The safari is always a big hit with everyone. Luke really enjoys the bumpy ride, and Makayla really likes seeing the animals. Her favorite was the cheetah, but we had a little trouble spotting it. Here's some photos from out ride.

This giraffe got very up close and personal with our vehicle.

Another giraffe was busy eating as we went by.

Cheetah spotting.

 

[Lyear]

Once we had finished the Safari, we decided to do the Africa walking trail as a family.

The highlight of our trail was definitely the hippo area. We walked into the area where you can look underwater into their area. I had never seen one here before, but sure enough, this one was just hanging out right by the viewing window.

We probably stayed at least 10-15 minutes watching this hippo. It wasn't doing much. It had itself sort of perched up with its head resting on the rock. Every once it awhile it would bob its head up to get air, then come back down. Never had we been so excited to see so little, but it was extremely hard to pull the kids away from the hippo and further into the trail.

We continued on eventually, and when we came to the gorillas they were not around near the glass observing area. We were able to see them from the bridge. It was really crowded as everyone was trying to see them, so it was hard to find a great spot. The one that we were able to see pretty well appeared to be a mom with a baby.

Our day was almost done. Our final stop in Animal Kingdom would be to see Festival of the Lion King. Always one of my favorites, but we once again didn't get very lucky in our seating assignments. In fairness, we arrived just before the show started. Regardless of where we were seated, it was still fun to see the performance and sing along with the songs.

And with that, our day at Animal Kingdom had ended. We still had dinner plans for the evening however, and our dinner that night would end up being the most memorable of our entire trip.

 

[Lyear]

When we had exited Animal Kingdom, instead of heading for the All Star Sports bus station, we instead went to the Grand Floridian and Polynesian bus stop. Our destination was 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian. The first stop was the Poly, and then shortly after that we were going to the Grand Floridian. We had been in this resort once before about 3 years ago. That was a crazy tale of trying to find a restaurant that we didn't realize was under renovation, and then trying to figure out where to eat quickly in order to make it to a fireworks cruise on time. I think we were all looking forward to experiencing what the Grand Floridian had to offer.

As we walked in the main doors, I immediately wished we had taken time to go back to our resort to change (or even to go back in time and bring a nice outfit ). It seemed most people around us were fairly dressed up. My eyes instantly scanned the lobby, happy to see some others hanging out in shorts and T shirts. I didn't feel totally out of place at least.

We quickly made a left and found a small hallway that led to our restaurant. We checked in and were told they were running a bit behind, but they had a Slushy machine, so that made our day. A nice cool slushy after a hot day in the sun...yes please...sign me up for that .

There were not open seats in the small waiting area for the restaurant, so we made our way back into the lobby. I was praying that Makayla wouldn't spill her slushy on the nice furniture . That would be a totally us thing to do.

Sara always complains that I take pictures of her mid bite...and she got her revenge.

We were told that they would text us when our table was ready, so we took some time to explore. Photos courtesy of Sara.

It was shortly after taking this picture that the pianist stood up, waved and took a small bow, and left to a small round of applause. Shortly after, a small band took their place on the stage.

Around this time we got the text that our table was ready, and we got to take the golden elevator down to the main floor.

 

[Lyear]

Sara was smart enough to take a photo of the menu as we were back in the restaurant waiting to check into the hostess area. Lots of quality food on the menu, slightly less if you happen to be a vegetarian . Trust me we ate well.

We were led to our table, and before we had even decided where we were going to sit, Prince Charming was there ready for photos.

After we had said hello, we sat down and got our bearings. We were seated on the side of the restaurant under a small ceiling, but still were able to get good views of our surroundings.

We did what had become our standard for a buffet by this point in the week. Sara took Luke up first. Luke filled his own plate, while Sara grabbed food for herself and Makayla. Once she came back, I would go up to grab mine. I remember the food being good, especially the strawberry soup, but when I think back to our meal, that's not what I remember.

Shortly after Sara came back, it was time for Cinderella and Prince Charming to have their dance in the middle of the restaurant.

Soon after, Cinderella was over at our table. She noticed Makayla dressed in a Belle dress immediately, and talked about how her and Belle were great friends and would talk about different books they were reading. She certainly had Makayla's attention.

A small hug for Cinderella as she walked away.

I don't remember exactly what drink Sara ordered, but it was important enough for her to take a photo...so it's made it into the report.

And while I'm at it, here was my drink for the evening...I felt like trying something new, and it didn't disappoint.

 

[Lyear]

It was at this point that the true highlight of the evening began...when Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters came to say hello. First was Lady Tremaine. Luke and Makayla had seen the movie enough to know she wasn't the kindest person, and Sara and I had let them know a little beforehand what to expect. Turns out, they were scared to even make eye contact . Luke especially just kept looking over at me with a look that told me he was wishing the interaction would be over soon. Lady Tremaine even commented on how proper and quiet they were at the table.

Next was Drusilla. She noticed right away that Makayla's bow was not in the right place and took it upon herself to place it on top of her head, just like she had it. Makayla seems like she was sure that she didn't want to disagree.

Great pose.

Almost immediately after she left Makayla leaned over to Sara quietly and asked if she could move her bow back .

And finally, it was time for Anastasia. This was the most memorable interaction we had. A little background. As you may have realized, our kids are not the most talkative when it comes to meeting characters. Alone with just us, Makayla will go on and on, but when she meets someone new, she becomes very shy. Luke always trends towards being quieter.

Anastasia came over and started talking to the kids and signing their autograph book and asking questions, and both kids just stared at her. I did my best to try to persuade them to answer, but they weren't having any of it. Soon enough it was time for a photo. Anastasia stood behind them and let out a very shrill "CHEESE" as Sara took the photo. Both Luke and Makayla thought it was hilarious, but didn't want to say so at the time.

Once we had taken the photo, Anastasia said goodbye, and ended with "Thank you for the stimulating conversation." She shot a quick glance towards Sara and I letting her know it was all in good fun, and we laughed along. As she went to the nearby tables she would do her shrill "cheese" each time it was time to take a photo. Luke and Makayla started doing it at our table as well, and the entire rest of the night was filled with "cheese."

Once we had met everyone, we finished our meal and finalized the check before heading out. Our waitress explained to us that we had to use the back exit as there was a special photopass opportunity.