Having Annual Passes means infinite Disney trips, right? *COMPLETED* 6/5 California Grill Brunch

[FSU Girl]

Trip 2 - 8/18-8/20
Satu'li Canteen continued



It was pretty dark out when we got back to the hotel, but we did see four zebra hanging out outside. I was really excited since they were the reason I wanted this room.





I was in love with this bathroom. It was HUGE! And I thought the wall mural was so cute from the Lion King.



We liked this place so much that we booked it for our first night when we go in January with the kids. (If Bay Lake opens up for that first night though we will probably switch so we can have all three nights in the same place.)

Overall it was a great first day. It was crowded, but not too hot since we were there at night. Up Next The Mara...​

 

[kastoney]

Sorry your first meal was a bit of a bust, but at least you are in Disney! Loving your room at AKL. We used to do the 1 bedrooms when Casey was little and still napped. Miss all the room now!

 

[Niki Andiokno]

So sorry for your disappointing Bowl. We tried the curry pods when we went to satuli canteen and want to go back for bowls. I think I'll change my mind on the chicken. I love the report though. Keep it coming.

 

[Texans_loyal]

Kidani is my favorite resort! the smell, the music, the animals are all perfect!

 

[FSU Girl]

Sorry your first meal was a bit of a bust, but at least you are in Disney! Loving your room at AKL. We used to do the 1 bedrooms when Casey was little and still napped. Miss all the room now!

Yes, and all my other meals were great so it only went up from there. The room was great! I feel like it might have been the biggest I've stayed at while at Disney.

So sorry for your disappointing Bowl. We tried the curry pods when we went to satuli canteen and want to go back for bowls. I think I'll change my mind on the chicken. I love the report though. Keep it coming.

I think next time I'll try the steak, it looked good on other people's plates.

Kidani is my favorite resort! the smell, the music, the animals are all perfect!

It was a great hotel I can't wait to go back. Watching the animals from the balcony is great

 

[TeresaNJ]

Enjoying your reviews! We'll be at Kidani in a few weeks. Looking forward to trying Satu'li Canteen for the first time.

 

[ariane37]

Finally posting! I'm pretty positive we'll do Yachtsman in Nov. we went once back in 2016 and we've wanted to go back ever since. Love your "redrum" reference lol" Stephen King is my favorite author and besides that, these halls (aswell as those at BWV) really are loooooong!
We've done Cape May dinner but not breakfast, the characters outfits are so cute!

Oldest DS and I did the night safari this month and yes, we weren't impressed. I think other than daylight, sunset might be the way to go

 

[FSU Girl]

Enjoying your reviews! We'll be at Kidani in a few weeks. Looking forward to trying Satu'li Canteen for the first time.

Thanks You're going to love Kidani, it's a great hotel. I hope your meal at Satu'li Canteen is as good as my first time there was.

Finally posting! I'm pretty positive we'll do Yachtsman in Nov. we went once back in 2016 and we've wanted to go back ever since. Love your "redrum" reference lol" Stephen King is my favorite author and besides that, these halls (aswell as those at BWV) really are loooooong!
We've done Cape May dinner but not breakfast, the characters outfits are so cute!

Oldest DS and I did the night safari this month and yes, we weren't impressed. I think other than daylight, sunset might be the way to go

Yachtsman is so good you should definitely go, I want to go again LOL.

My boyfriend's actually the one who took that picture and thought up the quote, but I totally agreed with it and had to include it here. They just seem to go on forever. We didn't get much of the long halls at BWV since our room was pretty close to the elevator.

I really liked the breakfast at Cape May, I think the beachy outfits for the characters is pretty unique.

I'll have to try and go at sunset for the safari. I have a fast pass for it over Labor day around 6:30-7:30 so maybe we can time it right to catch it as the sun sets.

 

[FSU Girl]

Trip 2 - 8/18-8/20
The Mara



Saturday was Photopass Day, where they had rare characters in all four parks for meet and greets. I wanted to take pictures with some, but the villains in Hollywood Studios had over three hour wait times and the ones I saw at Animal Kingdom were pretty long too. While we were walking to go to Starbucks I took a picture of Flik with Princess Atta (I think that's her name)



There was a long line in Starbucks and the a/c wasn't particularly cold, which was a shame.

So I didn't take a picture of what I got, but I did take one the next day and it was the exact same items (Caramel Macchiato and a slow roasted ham Swiss cheese on a croissant) I did take a picture of my boyfriend's food and drink.



He got chocolate milk and egg and bacon sandwich with Gouda cheese. You can see my drink a little in the picture.

So the plan for today was to get to Animal Kingdom early and ride out three fast passes and then head back to the hotel to go swim. I was able to move up two of our fast passes and we were finished around noon, but it was so hot and I felt so sweaty and gross I just wanted to go back and shower and relax in the room. Our room was also on the opposite side of the hotel from the pool and I just didn't feel like walking all the way there.

On the bus ride back they stop at our hotel first (Kidani) and then go to Jambo (the main hotel). Since there isn't a quick service at Kidani we decided to stay on the bus and go over to Jambo for lunch. I really wanted to show the impressive lobby to my boyfriend and figured this was a good way to do it.



It wasn't really crowded, which was a nice change from the super crowded park. You get in line to order something that needs to be cooked and they'll give you a pager when it's ready.



My boyfriend got the Falafel Burger. From the menu online: Sun-dried Tomato Hummus, Garlic Yogurt, and Cucumber, on a Brioche Bun with a choice of side.
He really liked this, said it had a lot of flavor and finished it pretty quickly. He got it with a side of fries.



Here's another picture from a different angle.



I got the Crispy Chicken BLT minus the T (I hate tomatoes, although I like ketchup and tomato sauce. IDK I'm strange)
From the website: Buttermilk Ranch, Artisanal Cheese Bread, and choice of side. I got it with a side of fries.
I loved this sandwich. It was really tasty and very filling. There were two pieces of chicken on the sandwich, which surprised me when I bit into it. It was too big to eat like that and I had to cut it in half.






I cut it pretty sloppy, but here it shows how there are two pieces of chicken stacked on top of each other.

I love honey mustard and I was extra excited to find it at the condiments table in packets.



I used these for my sandwich and fries. So The Mara was a total hit and we will definitely be going back. I wish it was easier to get to from our hotel instead of having to get to the main building, but the food was definitely worth the effort. Up next Be Our Guest Dinner...

​

 

[FSU Girl]

Trip 2 - 8/18-8/20
The Mara Bonus

Since we had decided to just go back to the room instead of swimming we hung out on our balcony watching the animals. They had put out a lot of food to lure the animals to hang out nearby.



Our room was on the third floor, which provided a good vantage point to watch the animals from.





Here was a giraffe and I think they are called an Ankole Cattle. This giraffe was hilarious. He had this really long stick with a couple leaves on it he was trying to eat, but he kept dropping the stick on the ground. It's a whole production from a giraffe to lean down. He had to spread his legs wide and use his long tongue to scoop it back up. He dropped the thing probably five or six times.



A truck was out putting food for the zebras. This zebra didn't seem to want it and only ate the grass nearby.



I believe there are only four zebras on this savanna and they were all right here outside my balcony. I couldn't be more excited. I had requested the sunset savanna specifically so I could see zebra.

There was also some white animal with really long twisted horns that was out here. He was pretty funny. He was sleeping in the shade of a tree, but when the sun moved the shade would shift and he'd get up and move with the shadow. I didn't blame him, it was 104 out.

We relaxed a little longer at the hotel before taking the bus over to Magic Kingdom for our dinner at Be Our Guest! ​

 

[Raeven]

I was in love with this bathroom. It was HUGE! And I thought the wall mural was so cute from the Lion King.

I love this bathroom too! I love big bathrooms with glass door showers.

He got chocolate milk and egg and bacon sandwich with Gouda cheese.

I hate tomatoes, although I like ketchup and tomato sauce. IDK I'm strange

I feel the same way for most of my life I hated tomatoes, but I like ketchup and sauce; my dad is the same way. I'm still not the biggest fan of tomatoes (I won't eat them by themselves), but I don't mind/like them in other things now.

 

[FSU Girl]

I feel the same way for most of my life I hated tomatoes, but I like ketchup and sauce; my dad is the same way. I'm still not the biggest fan of tomatoes (I won't eat them by themselves), but I don't mind/like them in other things now.

I don't think my hatred of tomatoes is going anywhere, if anything it's worse now lol. When it's cooked I guess it doesn't taste too tomato-y

 

[FSU Girl]

So trip update.

We just booked another trip for my birthday in May. I've been playing around with the dates, originally had us going in the middle of May, but just changed it to April 29 (Sunday) through May 4 (Friday). I currently have a theme park view Contemporary room booked, but who knows if I'll change it before then. Yesterday this room was a one-bedroom theme park villa at Bay Lake.

I also changed our hotel for our end of September trip from the Yacht Club to the Contemporary. A Bay Lake view room in the tower became available with an annual pass discount that was only a little more than the Yacht Club room. I figured it would be better since our of the four days we will be spending two of them at the Magic Kingdom. And it's my favorite hotel.

 

[ariane37]

. I wanted to take pictures with some, but the villains in Hollywood Studios had over three hour wait times and the ones I saw at Animal Kingdom were pretty long too. While we were walking to go to Starbucks I took a picture of Flik with Princess Atta (I think that's her name)

Ugh, I heard about this! One of my fellow TA's waited FOUR HOURS in line for the villains which was crazy! I was bummed we left before Photopass day but no way would I have waited in those lines. Neat that you got to see Princess Atta though

I got the Crispy Chicken BLT minus the T

that looks delicious! We never ate at the Mara when we stayed at Jambo, and earlier this year at Kidani we only went to the Mara for some snacks.

We just booked another trip for my birthday in May.

Yay!!!

 

[FSU Girl]

Ugh, I heard about this! One of my fellow TA's waited FOUR HOURS in line for the villains which was crazy! I was bummed we left before Photopass day but no way would I have waited in those lines. Neat that you got to see Princess Atta though


that looks delicious! We never ate at the Mara when we stayed at Jambo, and earlier this year at Kidani we only went to the Mara for some snacks.


Yay!!!

I'm hoping to meet the villains at the Halloween Party I'm going to in a month, but not if the lines are just as long. You should eat at the Mara it was really good! It's ranking pretty high for me on my list of Quick Services.

 

[FSU Girl]

Trip 2 - 8/18-8/20
Be Our Guest Dinner

So the main reason for this weekend trip was all because I was able to get Be Our Guest dinner reservations. When we first bought the annual passes I started making reservations for hard to get restaurants every weekend in case we'd go up. A lot of them were really hard to get even at 180 and I never saw another dinner reservation pop up at the 180 day mark except for this one.

Even though we had a car we decided to take the bus over to Magic Kingdom since it drops off right in the front. We left our room an hour and a half early and barely made it on time to our 6:10pm reservation. The bus for Magic Kingdom I guess was running late. The time on the board kept changing and we waited about 20 minutes for it to arrive. Once on the bus it seemed to be going well until we were on the road by the Contemporary and a car stalled out under the bridge. So we sat there waiting for the police to move the car and I nervously checked the time over and over. I heard other people on the bus freaking out because they had dinner reservations even earlier than ours and were going to have to run. Then the car in front of us let a bus in when there wasn't any room and he caused problems blocking the other lane. Our bus driver didn't look happy and had tried honking at him a few times before this happened.

Eventually we were moving again and once the bus parked we rushed through security and across the park at a speed walk pace. My poor little legs. My boyfriend is 6' 3'' and I'm 5' 3'' so I have to take two steps for every one of his. It was fun keeping up with him when we had to walk extra fast

We made it to the check in desk with a minute to spare and then they told us they were running late, but we could wait on the bridge for our name to be called.



We got the text our table was ready and we were allowed to go by the front doors. It was another ten minute wait after that before they called our name, but at least this was in the shade. It was insanely hot out. My weather app said it felt like 104!



I saw many other people given a Lumiere to hold as they walked to their table, but we didn't get one when we were escorted in.






I was really excited to be back here. Our first dinner here the waiter was a little rude and we barely saw him our whole meal. This time we had a lovely lady who was super nice and friendly and very attentive. It made the experience so much better.



A picture of the menu. I went with what I had had last time and really liked: the Sauteed shrimp and scallops. My boyfriend got the Braised Beef, which was a different dish than his first time here.



You can also order wine or beer at this restaurant. It is only available during dinner and one of the few places you can get alcohol in the Magic Kingdom. I was very dehydrated and stuck with just water.



We were seated in the main ballroom. There are three rooms you can eat at inside Be Our Guest. There is the main ballroom, which is the only room we've eaten in so far. There is the west wing that is a lot darker and has thunder and flashes of lightning every so often. It looks cool, but a lot of people go into to take pictures, which could get annoying and little kids might be scared of all the noise. There is also the rose library room. It's mainly used during lunch and as an overflow room during dinner.




I had to take a picture of my seat. It was in the very corner of the room and I was super close to the dessert cart. I was a little concerned when we were first seated here, but it turned out to be okay. They had to bring my boyfriend a different chair though because his was broken.



The bread was really good and nice and hot.



This was the Braised Beef dish that my boyfriend ordered. I had been a little conflicted of what I should get and was on the fence between my dish and this one. He gave me a piece to try and it was really good, but I'm glad I stuck with my original choice.

​

 

[FSU Girl]

Trip 2 - 8/18-8/20
Be Our Guest Dinner Continued



My dish, the Sauteed shrimp and scallops. It came in a lobster sauce and was really good. One thing I find weird is they don't have Parmesan cheese here, but the dish was fine without it.



I think I might have liked it just a little.

For dessert I was trying to decide between two cupcakes they had on the menu and wasn't even considering the Grey Stuff. The last time we had it, it came on this hard as a rock chocolate cake thing and I hated it. So our waitress brings over the dessert cart and the most delicious looking dessert of course was the Grey Stuff. It was presented completely different and I decided to get that instead. I'm always keeping my boyfriend on his toes with my split second decisions.



It was on some sort of cheesecake thing and was really delicious. I tried cutting it down the middle for us to share, but my piece might have accidentally been a little larger.

After dinner we went and met the Beast. He was ever the gentleman and bowed to me I'm not sure how to post videos here, but I took one of his grand entrance since he was on break when we arrived. They play dramatic music and he walks through the ballroom and over to his study (it's where you order food during the breakfast and lunch services)



Those men in armor actually talk when you walk by.



I'm always amused by this picture. In the movie his pants are not flesh colored and I'm not sure who decided it would be a good idea to change it that way. I personally think it makes him look half naked.



A pretty tapestry on the wall right before you leave.

So we said farewell to an amazing dinner and got one ride in on buzz lightyear (I've never been on this before and wasn't really impressed. I like the toy story ride way better) After the ride it was about an hour before fireworks and I really wanted to stay and watch. We had seen the new fireworks from the California Grill back in May, but I knew they'd be spectacular watching from in front of the castle. What I didn't expect was there to already be hundreds of people already staking out there spots an hour before. I thought we had plenty of time, but we ended up a couple people back from behind a fence. The view was great though.



I'm not a fan of large crowds and my boyfriend is even worse with them and I don't think we've ever been so surrounded by people before.



There was just a sea of people every direction we turned. And we were at the center of them all.





The Happily Ever After fireworks were AMAZING. I don't think I've ever been so blown away by fireworks before. It was something really special watching them from in front of the Castle and it was just so good! My mouth was open in awe the entire time.

Leaving was stressful and I've decided the next time we stay and watch these we are going to splurge and get the dessert package so we can be away from the masses. We hung back and let most people leave, but a lot of people hung back with either the same idea or to watch the mini show they do later. So we decided to head to the buses after a couple minutes. Luckily they had a second bus waiting because the first bus got filled really quick. We did have to stand the ride back, but it wasn't too bad.

Today was such a great day I couldn't wait for our next day. We were trying Ohana for the first time!​

 

[BabyPiglet]

I've never really been interested in BOG for dinner, but those entrees look delicious!

 

[kastoney]

Your Mara lunch looks great. Funny I just read about both of your dishes being new items on the disney food blog the other day and now I have confirmation they are as good as they claimed Especially that falafel. I love all things falafel and in burger form sounds divine.

Speaking of divine, I am usually the first critic of BoG due to a less than magical experience several years ago but your pasta looks amazing. I'd always scoped this out before when it was in the phyllo dough, but the pasta seems to take it to the next level (except for those little mushroom buggars). Glad the experience and fireworks made for an amazing night for you both!

 

[FSU Girl]

I've never really been interested in BOG for dinner, but those entrees look delicious!

I think it's an experience that should be done at least once. I know some people don't like the food there, but I thought my meal was really good and would order it again definitely. Being in Beast's castle was an added bonus.

Your Mara lunch looks great. Funny I just read about both of your dishes being new items on the disney food blog the other day and now I have confirmation they are as good as they claimed Especially that falafel. I love all things falafel and in burger form sounds divine.

Speaking of divine, I am usually the first critic of BoG due to a less than magical experience several years ago but your pasta looks amazing. I'd always scoped this out before when it was in the phyllo dough, but the pasta seems to take it to the next level (except for those little mushroom buggars). Glad the experience and fireworks made for an amazing night for you both!

Oh that's cool that they are new dishes I had no idea. I glanced over the Mara menu before leaving because I figured we'd eat there once, but I didn't really decide what I wanted until we were in line. I hope they stay on the menu for a long time because they were great. You should try giving Be Our Guest another try. I've read reviews of the dish when it was in the dough and it seems like people definitely like the pasta better. I never got to try the dough version. I'm sure if you told them no mushrooms they'd leave them out of the dish. It was a great night