Yes! That and the Disney cartoons are about the only TV we watch at Disney. It is just a nice break from real life and the rest of the world. We were disapointed when those chanels didn't work at first, but they fixed them and we were good to go.
It was a great food day, but the next couple would rival it. It is so hard to pick a favorite. Marshall sure was more into the characters than I expected, but he likes pretty much everything.
I would say thumbs up, because they left what we love at the Marketplace untouched. We want to spend more time exploring the new stuff to become more familiar with it, but we doubt it will be a huge deal for us. We do enjoy the World of Disney, Lego store, and other Marketplace shops so we were glad they are as we remembered. The rest is a massive addition, and very different, but overall well done so thumbs up.
Thanks and welcome! We really do enjoy going through the trip and getting a good record of what we did. The old Trip Reports are fun, and we enjoy re-reading them too. It helps with the planning too since we see what combinations worked well for us.
We ate at Yak & Yeti on Tuesday night. Our favorite pot stickers were excellent. And I enjoyed my favorite drink, a Yak Attack. But they didn't have the Mandarin Chicken salad that I had in February.
DH loved his Korean barbeque beef. The restaurant was freezing cold, though, and we couldn't wait to get out.I like the new mugs because they are less bulky when trying to take them to the park. And I like not having to line up the hole in the lid with the handle of the mug.
It looks like the building on the right in that picture might be open to the outdoors. I haven't figured out what the buildings will be. But if it really is a new counter service, it will be a bit out of the way to go there for breakfast unless you are taking a boat afterwards. I wonder if one of the buildings will be a new pool bar like they have at POR.
That is a very nice picture.
I had the cheesecake for the first time in June and I loved it. We hope to make it over to Wolfgang Puck Express in December.
Aw, that is cute.
We buy a glass mug for every new family member, Mickey for boys and Minnie for girls. The name is engraved on the mug and we pull them out for family events. It is nice to have some sort of tradition.
We really tend to enjoy Yak and Yeti and it always ranks among our favorite meals. It is on our "must do" list. Both desserts are unique, so the best answer is probably to try them both if you can find someone willing to share with you.
I'm glad we weren't the only ones confused. I suppose we'll figure it out, but it is definitely different.Love the boat ride, as usual! Can't wait to try it (I've probably said this several times already...lol). DS is really new and confusing now. We had a T-Rex ADR and I was heading there ahead of my parents, with the boys, and thought I got lost so I turned back and went another way, which took forever but did get me there. I eventually found out that I could've just kept going the original way though.
Thank you. We love getting ornaments, and looking at each one and remembering the trip at Christmas.
It is a shame to have a meal in an atmosphere where you just want to get out. We have been very comfortable at Yak and Yeti before, and even this time we were, we just had to walk across the aisle to chat with each other. We missed seeing the Tree of Life awakening, so I guess we will have to keep that on the list for next time. Maybe, just maybe by then there will be Rivers of Light.We ate at Yak & Yeti on Tuesday night. Our favorite pot stickers were excellent. And I enjoyed my favorite drink, a Yak Attack. But they didn't have the Mandarin Chicken salad that I had in February.
We were there for dinner and saw the Awakening of the Tree of Life afterwards. It wasn't what I was expecting at all, but it was very nice.
I completely agree. I wouldn't have chosen them, but I like them more, especially because of not having to think about the lid orientation. We will bring a marker to mark the bottoms to tell which is which next time though, because with the lids off they are identical.
My thought is it will be somewhat centrally located when you consider the new footprint of the resort. It would be on the way to the main building for many of the cabins. I am thinking it will have a covered eating area with indoor/outdoor tables. It may be like a pool snack bar similar to what they added at the Poly, and it would be great to have another potential mug refill station and some QS food to share the load with Roaring Fork.
We really do feel better that it wasn't just us. It is just so totally different. We really haven't felt that lost at Disney in a long time.
That sounds neat, and everybody has their own special mug. It must be a fun occasion when you get them out.We buy a glass mug for every new family member, Mickey for boys and Minnie for girls. The name is engraved on the mug and we pull them out for family events. It is nice to have some sort of tradition.
Thanks! We're glad you're here. We shoudl have another update together soon. We went through the next day of pictures, we just have to get enough time to write about it.
We made our way successfully from Rafiki's on the train back to Africa, and then made the walk over to Asia and arrived slightly ahead of schedule for our 2:00 ADR at Yak and Yeti. This was our hardest ADR to get, in that 2:00 was the best lunch time we could get for a party of 8.
We waited outside for a minute to gather our group and while we were waiting a little boy was playing with his brother and hit his head on the big bell that's right outside the door.
It was just the wrong height and cut his forehead and it was bleeding. It wasn't horrible, but did drip a bit on the ground and the poor kid was prety upset.
I watched for a minute and mom seemed to have things under control but the puddle of blood was getting larger so I went inside and let them know what had happened.
It turned out the family spoke Portuguese, and in true Disney fashion they found a Cast Member that spoke Portuguese from the restaurant in under a minute. Soon after they called us saying our tables were ready. They had split up our party due to its size, and we wound up with two tables for four that were near each other. This annoyed me a bit because we did have a reservation for 8, but it was the best they could do and we're all friends so John and Brandy ate with my parents and we had a little bit of seclusion for our immediate family.
It worked out just fine and gave Paul and I a minute to catch up. It's amazing how much tag teaming we did during the trip and it was a great chance for us to regroup.
He always looks so happy...or sleepy
That's true. It was one of many times during the trip where I was like "Hi, what have you been up to?" where usually the two of us are together all the time and don't need to catch up. It is just busier with the bigger group. The food at Yak and Yeti was excellent as always, and I went with my ususal ribs.
I got a noodle dish that was really good and Marshall really enjoyed sharing it too.
Brandy got the Kobe Cheeseburger, and I think it was one of his favorite food items of the trip.
I wasn't quite as impressed as usual with Yak and Yeti, but it was really good. The desserts were impressive, and we went with our usual combination of the Cream Cheese wontons and...
MANGO PIE! It could be my favorite Disney dessert.
I always have a hard time remembering what it is, because it reminds me of slightly flavored cheesecake, but it is great, and we shareed both desserts. My favorite here is the wontons though.
It is hard to choose a bad dessert anywhere in Disneyworld but these two in particular are in the top 5 on property as far as I'm concerned.
Yes, and it remains in strong contention for my favorite Table Service restaurant overall. It is a must do for us.
After we ate, we decided to head out of the park and back to the resort. We had fastpasses for Kali River Rapids, but nobody really wanted to wait around for them so we shopped on our way to the buses.
on our way out of the park we got a few large scattered rain drips like the sky could open up soon. The breeze that came along with the raindrops helped cool things off alot. On the island we talked with a CM about the Babirusas. We learned everything there is to know about these wild porcines however I remember none of the details except they were hoping for baby babirusas.
On our way to the buses, we were talking about wanting to check out the Contemporary since we hadn't been there yet, and since our bus was shared with theirs we could just ride it over there. Grandma and Grandpa had headed back ahead of us, so it was just the 6 of us left. We got on the bus at 4:37, and made it to WL at 4:52 but stayed on and got to CR at 5:00.
Marshall had fallen asleep at lunch and was still napping when we got to the Contemporary which made for peaceful meandering. We filled our mugs and hit the giftshop.
It was nice having our mugs with us from the morning, and they were easier to carry in the stroller cupholders since they were the new style without handles. We enjoyed shopping at all three gift shops at the Contemporary.
I saw a watch I liked, but wasn't sure if it was "Mickey" enough to justify the cost.
Once we were done upstairs at the CR, we headed out toward the boat dock. We got a picture with the metal Mickey, then got on a Blue flag boat to Fort Wilderness at 6:12.
It got to Fort Wilderness at 6:16, where it started sprinkling.
It was more accurately raining on one side of the boat but not the other. Poor John and Brandy picked the wrong side of the boat.
On the way we also got a view of the new restaurant they are building at WL to go with the Villas expansion. We are thinking it will be a Quick Service place to expand on the QS capacity of the resort by having it as well as Roaring Fork.
As we got to WL the rain let up, and we had a dry walk up to our rooms, and we were there by 6:30.
We decided to hang out in the rooms for a little bit before heading out again. Allie worked on homework, Marshall played on the floor, and I iced my ankle which I had twisted the weekend before the trip.
We got a nice sunset shot of the castle too:
That is going to be one pricey view when re-categorized. I'm so glad you guys got to experience it heavily discounted
It was some good downtime but it didn't take long before we were experiencing some cabin fever.
I like the short breaks at the room. It doesn't take long before we are ready to be out and about again, but we head out refreshed. We all headed out at 7:30 and caught a bus for Disney Springs (still Downtown Disney to me) at 7:45.
It was pretty disorienting when the bus pulled up and dropped us off, everything was NEW!
I can not recall ever feeling that lost at Disney. We roughly knew where we should have been, but nothing was familiar at all. It felt like we were at an outlet mall near home, not at our beloved Downtown Disney. We walked through the new stuff and were pleasantly surprised when we got to the World of Disney store. Poof, we were right back in our familiar zone, having crossed through what just two years ago was just a parking lot and now had sprung into a full scale mall.
It was a strange experience. We never really got over and finished exploring all of the new stuff but it did feel very much like some of the outdoor malls which we have many of around us.
We then walked to a familiar dinner destination, one of our very favorite Quick Service spots: Wolfgang Puck Express
Lunch had officially worn off and we were all ready for dinner.
I had my usual here as well, the meatloaf sandwich.
Allie and Grandma shared a cheese pizza, which Allie really enjoyed and was talking about just the other day.
I had pasta and it was amazing, Marshall enjoyed it too. For dessert we split a cheesecake. It makes me sad they no longer have the creme brule here. It was one of my favorites. They do brulee the top of the cheesecake though so it kinda makes up for it.
After dinner, we headed to the art store to see if they still had Marshall's dumbo print, because that was where we had seen it and I inadvertently put the plan for his existence into motion.
Plus we needed to own it now, we have the baby, and the babys room so...
The only issue is it wasn't there. At least the one we remembered wasn't. They had a more expensive framed one that seemed close but wasn't exactly what we remembered, and it was $400.
Very much out of our budget and really not the same. We even questioned if it was the same print, it just looked different. So we left empty handed and went over to pick out our traditional personalized Christmas ornament.
We get one special personalized ornament every trip, and they are some of our very favorites on the tree each year. We knew that the special thing about this year's trip was that it was Marshall's first, so that was our plan. While Melissa waited in line to drop it off for personalization, I got some pictures of the kids playing with the stuffed Mickeys and Minnies.
Marshall quickly grew tired and fussy and the personalization line moves sooo sloowww. So I left Paul to finish up and took Marsh outside to nurse and chillax.
By the time I got to the front of the line it was after 10 PM, and I forgot to tell them we wanted it shipped to our resort. The guy said it would be ready at 11 tonight, and since it was less than an hour I figured that'd work well.
Paul took Allie to ride the carousel because she had been so patient waiting.
It blows me away how much she wants to ride this little carousel. It is tiny, and not particularly special, but she loves it and wants to ride it every time, and as a Daddy I provide the $3.
Then we went around to World of Disney.
It surprised us that they had taken away some of the World of Disney store for the Starbucks, but it still is a massive store, and it was fun to show it to Brandy and John who thought the World of DIsney at DLR was big. It had to be getting pretty late, but Allie insisted on posing with mouse ears:
I ran back to the christmas store to get there before they closed at 11 hoping they had gotten our ornament done. They had it done and sitting on the personalization table, and I picked it up at 10:50. Then I ran back across to World of Disney and met back up with everyone. Since it was late we decided to head back, and got to the bus stop at 11:12 and on a bus at 11:19. We then got "home" to WL at 11:38 PM, successfully finishing off what must have been the longest day of the trip.
In the room we opened up the ornament to take a look at it, and got a picture of Marshall sleeping with it.
. I think Paul keeps track of every minute, and I tend to, umm, like to chat. You have a wonderful family and two very lucky and adorable grandkids.
Welcome! We're just getting started (and it gets drawn out when work gets in the way) but that's ok, there's lots more to come. We're glad you're here to follow along again.
That was nice that you finally got to see the opening show. It must be hard to get out early with the time zone difference. We have only seen it once or twice. It is really hard to get MK before show time.
She looks like a very friendly Fairy Godmother. I can see both of you in the mirror. That is a big camera lens.
I really like the way Allie's hair turned out. It is so much nicer than the tight bun that most girls have.
Allie looks lovely. I like the shoulders on her Anna dress and the way the CM made the straps look like part of the dress with those rubber bands.
We caught the Elena welcome show at the Castle during our trip. I had no idea who Elena was, but that didn't matter. She had a great singing voice.
I hate those self service machines. I would rather go to a cashier. I think it is faster when a CM places the order.
I agree with you that lunch at BOG is really nice. It is a great place to use a counter service credit. And it is a lot easier to get to than Wolfgang Puck. My favorite is the braised pork and raspberry lemon tart. DH tried the roast beef the last time we were there and he really liked it.
We LOVE our camera, and are surprised how much we carry it at Disney. We didn't bring any really big lenses, just out trusty 24-105mm F4.0 that we love for park stuff. It isn't crazy heavy and the results can be pretty nice.She looks like a very friendly Fairy Godmother. I can see both of you in the mirror. That is a big camera lens.
Allie likes having different hair, I think that's her favorite part of BBB. This time she got a couple of days out of the hair stuff. The Fairy Godmother did a great job and really made her look great, down to tying up the dress.
We usually don't mind the technology, but it sure isn't faster, especially when the person that comes to "help" has no idea what the problem is. Oh well. BOG was amazing, and there's more to try next time. That tart looked good, but I'm getting another Roast Beef sandwich.
Ahh yes. It is funny how everyone talks about rope drop like everyone does it, and for us it just usually isn't happening. We really enjoyed it though, and will shoot for doing it again (although we didn't do it again on this trip...)
No, there's just something cute about a girl getting a fancy makeover. I still can't believe how excited Allie was to do it her first time, and it wasn't her first trip. She just got old enough to get into it at the perfect time, and she had a ball. I think she'll do it again next time too. Time to start dress shopping. We considered getting a haircut for Marshall on Main Street, but it just wouldn't be the same. We still might do it sometime though.
I really thought it was calmer than some stuff she has ridden, but oh well. I remember being scared of Space Mountain for a very long time.
It was great, and we do love it at dinner too. The cupcakes were great, we just felt like we could use a couple of them. Mmmm, that would be good.
They give the girls a bunch of options, and Allie likes the colored options. They always check with the parents to make sure it is ok, but it makes it so much fun for her that we are fine with it. She did the more classic bun her first time, but really enjoys the colors.
Oh well, it will be cool to see her. We didn't get to meet her in or watch the show this time, so that's on our list for next time.I love the picture of Elena waving. I booked a fp+ to meet her with Cinderella. The kids watch her show all the time. When I told them my fp news, it was crickets.
