"SON OF A ^!#$@ I FORGOT MY SHAMPOO" Disney World Trip Report 2015 Day 12

January 9, 2015

Today we were off to Epcot to focus on Future World.  This picture is not Future World.  Yes, we were back in China because the store really is that amazing!  We went to check it out and find out more about that wine.  We actually learned you can buy it by the bottle here!  You buy it here then they have you pick it up at the front of the park when you leave.  Needless to say, I have a taste of Disney in my fridge now.

 

We hit up any Photo Pass photographers we saw every day.  We saw one outside of Mexico and got this shot.  It was still really chilly so coats were everywhere!  This photographer also made my favorite photo of vacation:

This photographer got creative which makes great memories!  Definitely one for the scrapbooks.

We headed back to future world and The Land pavilion and grabbed some lunch at Sunshine Seasons.  Spicy Fish Tacos and a small serving of potato salad for Mom.  Feav had... wait, I have no idea because he was engulfing his and we had no pictures!  Guys and their food can not be bothered by pictures.

It was tough to resist Disney cheesecake long enough to get a picture but I did.  I told you guys I was a cheesecake fiend.  Lunch was fantastic and we were right beside Mom's Fast Pass for Soarin'.  Feav and I hung out in The Land pavilion while we waited.  There's a few attractions here but Soarin' was the only thing on our To Do list.

After Soarin' we headed out to a cold but beautiful and barren Future World.  How do people not love Disney?  I'll never understand.  Since it was pretty much an empty park, there were no lines for things like...

photos with Mickey!  Absolutely no line!  Can you believe that?  It wasn't freezing out, just chilly, yet people abandoned Epcot.  Maybe it was because it was marathon weekend and everyone was getting ready for the morning race?  Whatever the reason, thank you tourists!

We headed over to the Seas and Mom got her picture made with her favorite birds.  "Mine!  Mine! Mine!"  We skipped the Finding Nemo ride and went straight for my second favorite spot.

The Seas pavilion has this amazing walk though aquarium.  The window are from the ceiling to floor so I can roll all the way up and see everything.  There's tons of fish, rays, shark, ect.

Sometimes you'll even catch someone scuba diving.  There were actually quite a few divers in the tank.  I'm not sure if they were Cast Members or doing one of Disney's special programs but either way people loved them.

There's also various small tanks with lots of info about what's inside.  We didn't have time to find Nemo though!  We had a Fast Pass to Turtle Talk With Crush.  It is kind of like Monsters, Inc Laugh Floor but aimed 100% at kids.  Crush asks and answers questions from kids in the audience.    It always amazes me how Disney pulls it off!  After Crush it was time for our late dinner reservation.

Feav doing a little water tasting at The Coral Reef.  I loved that every drink was in a fancy glass.  It took us awhile to get our table.  There was a LARGE non-english speaking family ahead of us that was having all kinds of problems with the language barrier.  "How many children do you have eating?" "7"  "6"  "8"  I really wished I understood them and could translate.

We had never been to the Coral Reef but I had passed through here once during my wish trip and was mesmerized by the big fish tanks.  I thought it would be the coolest place to eat.  In reality it's a little sad when you realize you're having seafood while fish watch.  Luckily we were far away from the fishies!

Feav had baked cheese manicotti with lobster tail.  He wasn't that impressed.  It wasn't bad but wasn't that great.  There wasn't much lobster and it wasn't that filling.

Mom had seared rainbow trout.  She loved it.

Desert was unique but again just ok.  Mom had the turtle cheesecake which was actually a drawing of a turtle!  There was a puddle of white chocolate for the head and cocoa sprinkled for it's legs.  It was cute!  Feav had a chocolate wave.  They were good just not $10 good.  We were on the dining plan so we luckily weren't paying out of pocket.

After dinner, the parks were closing so we headed home sweet home.  Tomorrow was Magic Kingdom and we had a lot of catching up to do there!

"SON OF A ^!#$@ I FORGOT MY SHAMPOO" Disney World Trip Report 2015 Day 11

January 8, 2015

It was a COOOOOOOOLD day!  Ofcourse the only really cold day of of vacation would be the day we had been invited to participate in a test program for Disney's Be Our Guest restaurant's new Fast Pass lunch trial.  Since it was so cold we were worried I'd get sick if I was out so Mom made a solo trip while Feav & I spent the morning in our room.

You can tell by the pictures I wasn't the only one who decided to stay indoors.  The park was soooooo empty that Mom was able to get some great pictures.

The new 7 Dwarfs Mine rollercoaster was in full swing despite the chilly weather.  Those are some brave people!

Empty walkways at Disney are so rare!  Even in offseason these parks are usually hopping.  Today though it was unusually quiet.  The good thing about no crowds is it meant 1 thing...

No ride lines!  Mom couldn't resist walking on the Little Mermaid with no wait.   That's some pixie dust!

No lines at characters either!  Poor Alice was feeling the cold too and had broke out the winter attire.  It was almost time to head to the lunch reservations so Mom headed to Beast's Castle.

I think she found where the people had been hiding!  Between the test program & people just trying to get a table for lunch, there was a crowd.  The test program was also having issues. We were asked to test a Fast Pass lunch of sorts.  We picked our reservation time and what we wanted to eat off the menu.  I think it's a little silly to know exactly what you want months in advance, but I give Disney a pass since each restaurant ends up with a "must try" item.  Since the restaurant was new we weren't sure what that was yet, so he just picked what sounded good 3 months in advance as Disney wished.

Reservation time was here!  Where's the food?  You guessed it!  They lost the order.  Well we were guinea pigs so you can't get mad.  Mom reordered a lunch for Feav & herself and asked for it to go since she was bringing it back to our resort.

Unfortunately the waitress didn't understand what "to go" meant apparently.  Mom said again she needed it to go.  She was told to talk to the lady near the drinks for to go boxes.  So Mom had to either leave the food unattended or balance 4 plates (we had desert too!) and find the drink lady.  Be Our Guest lost our future lunch business.  We didn't blame them for losing the order since it was a test program but the service wasn't Disney quality and the food wasn't spectacular either.

 

Mom caught the parade on the way back to the resort.  Lunch may have been less than typical Disney quality but any day in the Magic Kingdom is... well, magical!

You never know who you'll run into!  Oh the perks of a cold day!  The crowds may have avoided the weather but the characters were out and loving photos with guests!  One last picture with Minnie, then resort time!

The sandwiches were just ok but at least we had The Grey Stuff!  It really was delicious!  It was still cold so we changed our plans some.  Our original dinner reservations were at the Magic Kingdom at Tony's.  If it was any other park we probably would've kept reservations but the walk to Magic Kingdom from the parking lot is long.  It also includes a ferry or monorail ride.  So we canceled Tony's and headed somewhere different!  Late reservations at...

Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary resort!  The Disney Dining Plan is definitely worth it if you want to do multiple Table Service restaurants.  This isn't somewhere we could typically afford but thanks to Stay, Play and Dine we could.

Chef Mickey's is an all you can eat buffet where the characters come visit you at your table one by one.  We had the most AMAZING server.  No, not Goofy!  She had the Chef make me a huge thing of chicken broth and even brought me ice to mix in so I didn't have to wait for it to cool.

She was even nice enough to make a family photo with Mom's birthday cupcake.  She made our meal better.  Now THAT'S the Disney I know!

She also loaded us up with goodies as we were leaving.  The restaurant was closing so she sent us back to the resort with the rest of my broth, in special cups with lightup straws no less, and deserts like this.  Raspberry cheesecake.  I could've eaten 50 of these!  They were amazing!

We took our goodies and headed to the our resort.  Tomorrow:  More Epcot!

"SON OF A ^!#$@ I FORGOT MY SHAMPOO" Disney World Trip Report 2015 Day 10

January 7, 2015

Wednesday was a short day at the parks.  Since Hollywood Studios isn't that big and since I had each park sectioned off on our itinerary, we weren't in the park very long.  It was laundry day Wednesday morning so we didn't venture out until late afternoon.  But, where's Feav?

Oh he was there too!  The Rockin' Rollercoaster is his favorite Disney right so we had Fast Passes ready!  Even with Fast Pass ready, it took awhile for him to get to ride.  Me & Mom people watched while waiting on Feav.  At one point we found a seat only to evacuate quick!  It was by the smoking section and wheeeeew...  Disney smoking areas are very concentrated it seems.  It was very overpowering so we moved away quickly.

Feav finished Rockin' Rollercoaster about the time his Tower of Terror Fast Pass was ready.  See what a little planning can do?  Scheduling Fast Passes can create headaches fast.  Running back & forth across crowded parks isn't very fun.  Instead of just focusing on most popular rides only, I focused only on what area of the park we'd be in.  It worked much better for us!

With Fast Passes cashed in, we headed to our dinner reservation. 50's Prime Time Cafe has turned into a tradition with us.

It's good old home cooked comfort food like you get when you go to your grandmother's house.  Another great thing is they play the part of family and treat you like a kid at the family table.  They'll had you silverware and tell you to set the table, tell you to keep your elbows off the table, and spoon feed you vegetables if necessary!  Feav had Grandma's Chicken Pot Pie and a Warm Apple Crisp.  Mom wasn't feeling well and just had a lemon water.  Our "cousin", as the call the waiters, could tell Mom didn't feel well & kept down the shenanigans this visit.

I had a 50's Cafe classic.  MmmmmHmmmmmm a Peanut Butter and Jelly milkshake!  I would ride all the way to Florida JUST for one of these.  They're amazing.  We enjoyed the meal as always and enjoyed the theming.  If you've never eaten here, I recommend it!

The park was closing and Mom was still not feeling well so we headed to the resort for the night.  Tomorrow: Magic Kingdom!

"SON OF A ^!#$@ I FORGOT MY SHAMPOO" Disney World Trip Report 2015 Day 9

January 6, 2015

Today we headed to Epcot!  Epcot is my favorite Disney theme park.  I fell in love with the World Showcase at age 8 and have been since.  When planning this trip I planned for short days.  Usually  if I'm not 100% I need to lie down at certain times of the day so I had plans for about 1/3 of a park each day.  Anything extra we did was bonus!

We took the boat from Future World to the World Showcase since today we were focusing on America, Italy, Germany, China, Norway and Mexico.  We had often rushed through here but not this trip!  We were checking out each countries museums and shops this time!  It was almost lunch time so we decided what country to eat at while we waited on the boat and hung out with these guys.  

We headed to America!  Our quick serve meal of the day!  A burger, fries, desert and drink.  Disney portions are huge.  We weren't prepared for dinner and a show, but that's what we got!

We quickly had a fan club!  These guys were making the rounds from table to table wanting food.  If someone fed them, they swarmed!  We also witnessed our first Disney meltdown.  Some teenager was going full throttle brat to her family!  Sister, you're at Disney!  Be happy!  Grandpa had all he could take & set her on the right path right there in front of everyone and I swear we were all silently applauding him.

Then there was this guy!  We were eating outside because it was so nice out but this guy...  He apparently wasn't getting the service he expected outside, so he decided to run inside and snatch and grab fries of peoples trays!  Disney wildlife is one of a kind!

After lunch we headed to America's National Treasures Exhibit.  There's a show here too but we opted to skip it and just check out the exhibit.  Interactive lamps guided us through the exhibit.  We normally skipped this so it was nice to finally check it out.

Next stop was Germany! The German pavilion is delightful.  There's the model train village and the stores full of goods from Germany.  We absolutely loved the Cuckoo Clocks!  Someday we are getting one, but not this day.  We made lots of pictures them then headed to the next country.

China here we come!  This country is one we usually walk right by, but never again will miss stopping by!  This country has some amazing plum wine and a store that's actually affordable!  We were in love with the store.  They had so many beautiful things without the normal Disney markup.  If you go to Epcot definitely check it out!  Oh, and the wine!

Up next was Norway which has interesting stores too.  If you're into vikings and trolls, this is the store for you.  Oh, or some movie called Frozen.  Honestly, since Frozen was the popular movie during this trip it looked like a plane full of glitter had crashed on the majority of Disney World!

It was pretty crowded in Norway which I guess shows how cool this pavilion is.  We moved on to our last country for the day!  Also, my favorite place at Disney.

Mexico and the boat ride though it have been my favorite thing about Disney since I was little.  It looks like your walking through a Mexican village at night.  It's always cool inside. 
It's perfect!

SQUIRREL!!!!!!  Disney has the best wildlife.  Have I said that already?  The animals are used to the crowds and aren't shy at all.  This guy popped up for a quick picture as we were leaving Epcot.  Why leave Epcot you're asking?  Because we were headed to our room for a break and then dinner reservations at Feav's favorite place.

You can see his happiness beaming out!  Nothing at Disney makes this one happier than dinner at 'Ohana.  It's an all you can eat family style Hawaiian feast.  There's Welcome Bread, Chicken Wings, Lettuce Wraps, Fried Dumplings, Grilled Shrimp. Pork Loin & Sirloin Steak, Egg Noodles, Stir Fried Vegetables, and 'Ohana Bread Pudding.

Why yes that blue thing in the window behind me is Cinderella's Castle at the Magic Kingdom.  Pretty spectacular view that I didn't really realize 'Ohana had.  Next time I'll try to time reservations so we'll be eating during Magic Kingdom's fireworks.  Things like that is why I like planning a year in advance.  If you time things right you can definitely make a little magic.

Speaking of magic, Mom was still getting Birthday magic!  After a great meal, we headed back to our resort.  It was time for hot chocolate!  Tomorrow:  Hollywood Studios!