lynnek
11-23-2010, 10:22 PM
We started our day at Chef Mickey’s. This was my first encounter with a character meal. DD2 really isn’t interested in posing for pictures, so after Minnie comes by, we kept her in the highchair and had the other two come behind her for a photo. It was busy and that was at 7:00. I was worried I didn’t have enough character meals, since we weren’t waiting in lines at the parks to really see anyone. She just seemed to want to wave and keep going with what she was doing. Good, I don’t think DH could handle much more of these.
We headed to MK and took a left at Adventureland. Why was everyone headed to Fantasyland again? Is there some pre-planned trip thing that says the best way to do this park is head to Fantasyland first? I would say not. This was also a holiday party day, so we were expecting it to be bit crazy We had already done most of Tomorrowland—I forgot, somewhere between all the mountains on EMH night we were able to go on the teacups as well as do the Monster’s Inc thing---loved Mike’s nephew? The little orange guy—DD2 thought he was fun.
DD1 got to open Adventureland! :thumbsup:The CM asked her if she’d like to change from a princess to a pirate for a bit. She was so thrilled. She got to hold his large pirate flag and walk with the CM’s in. The Cm’s really try and make such a difference. We had read a book on Walt Disney, when he was talking about Disneyland being built, he talked about the best attraction not being there yet. He was referring to all the people, but to us, the CM’s are an attraction all on their own.
DH took the older two off to Pirates—he hadn’t ridden it yet and of course they were up for it! I was on a mission to ride Aladdin’s carpet---again and again and again. We were on the first ride, by ourselves. (This is not EMH morning?!) The CM gave us two Aladdin button pins for making this our favorite ride. DD1 and the boys are headed for the mountains. We headed for Yankee Traders—my kind of store. But it’s not open??! Liberty Square was deserted. We headed back for the bridge to see them come down Splash Mountain and they got soaked!!! Worse than Kali Rapids. We met them in the shop at the end—that one was open. They were thinking about getting new shirts for the day, but ended up passing. I did find little Mickey crackers (kinda like fish crackers, but shaped like Mickeys). That store only had the $4.95 bags, so I wasn’t able to purchase them with snack credits. DD2 found them in a smaller quantity at CBR, so we were able to get them for DD1---she hated them. Try them, I can’t blame her! DD1 and DS offered to escort me to Thunder Mtn with the Fast Passes, but I declined and let DH go—maybe the wind who dry him off?? I went to try this Fast Pass thing and try and get them, yet again for Peter Pan. I put a card in and two tickets came out. Thought it was a mistake! Turned to ask the CM standing near there, an older gentleman, and he had a huge grin on his face.:mickey: He says, those are bonus fast passes for Philharmagic—that doesn’t happen all the time! Well, O.K.!!! I’m having a good day!!
We headed back to Thunder Mtn to pick up the others and wander over to Yankee Traders. While I was in there, DH had the three kids on the jail thing, taking pictures. DD2 fell off of it. Poor peanut had a skinned knee and wanted Mom.Now! I got her calmed down and suggested to DH he familiarize himself with the First Aid station! :doctor:(If I am present, DD2 can get a bit dramatic) DD1 and DS went on Haunted Mansion, again! They love that one! I sat on the porch of Yankee Traders with a nice gentleman from Philadelphia. We compared notes—kind of like on Intercot. DH and DD2 came back, DD2 very proud of her lovely bandaid, caught site of me and her bottom lip started to quiver. Timing was good though, DD1 and DS were coming out of Haunted Mansion so we were able to head right over to It’s a Small World! I love this ride! It’s just so neat! We stalled for a bit, with animals hanging over our heads, DD2 was getting pretty nervous—I don’t remember an elephant, but if it was there, I’m sure she saw it.
We were ready to use fast passes and chose to go into Philharmagic, because I had read that it featured Donald—one of DD2’s favorites. This was not a good choice. We were among the first people in the holding room, so the wait was longer than we thought. We didn’t put the 3D glasses on DD2, since this worked for the bug thing. As usual, it was quite loud, but Donald was getting chased. Kind of hard to explain to her if he had listened to Mickey, none of this would be happening. She laughed everytime she saw him, got upset everytime something happened to him.:( I felt I was on a rollercoaster!! By the time we were done with this, we decided to head over to the Grand Floridian—we had lunch reservations, and it was crazy in Fantasyland. Oh well, no Peter Pan. We had switched our reservation from Crystal Palace to GF Café—DH was happy after seeing the madhouse on the porch at CP!!
Lunch at Grand Floridian Café took forever!! We wanted a relaxing meal, that’s why we chose to go there—away from the park. But really!! 2.5 hrs. We allowed DD1 and DS to order whatever beverage they wanted at lunch and then milks at breakfast and dinner. Both tried to order smoothies. Nope, can’t do that on the dining plan as a beverage. What? Just when I think I’m getting the hang of this. I objected. By the end of the meal, the CM told me she would try and do this just for us. Eye roll. We weren’t thrilled here with the entrees—really thought the GF burger would be good, it really wasn’t . We got the Pasta, thinking DD2 would like some too. Both DH and DD2 didn’t. Desserts were excellent though!! We tried them all!
We were then trying to determine how to separate for the afternoon. Because the lunch took so long, we were in no man’s land for a nap. DD1 had an appt at BBB at 4. We had hauled her dress and shoes around all day. I had checked in, in the a.m. to see the procedure for this place, since we hadn’t been there. Also, when I had booked it, they had not asked what she wanted done. I thought maybe for timing purposes they might want to know. Nope, just let them know when we arrive. But, be prepared to wait. Usually by that time in the afternoon, they are running late, sometimes as much as an hour. I was mad at myself for not thinking about that!! We had dinner reservations at Ohana’s. A bit of leeway with time, but adding in an hour, plus lots of additional people circling the park because of the Christmas Party, I was getting nervous. I called the reservation phone line, they had no idea, said they might be able to check, came back on a bit later and said they weren’t running behind. I called back 15 minutes later, they were running ½ hour behind at this point. What? I cancelled. They asked me if I would approve the $10 cancellation fee—no, I’m not approving the concept of you charging me $$ because of your lack of planning (it would help if you got an idea of which pkg these princesses might want when taking the reservation). I haven’t been charged. I do understand the need for a cancellation fee. I actually gave DD1 the choice. The others could easily go to Ohana’s and we could meet up with them after. Ohana’s was really her cup of tea though—this was the one she wanted to go to.
So glad she chose this! She got to dance with her Dad, put lei’s on all of us, do some hula dancing, and coconut races. We all enjoyed this dinner! It was loud and crazy, DD2 loved it too. And yes, the dessert is ridiculously good. I kept telling DH and DS to save room, save room. This was the first visit to the Poly. OOOhhhhhh, the stores here…….We really like the feel of this one! This is the other top contender on DS and DD1’s resort fav’s.
We headed to MK and took a left at Adventureland. Why was everyone headed to Fantasyland again? Is there some pre-planned trip thing that says the best way to do this park is head to Fantasyland first? I would say not. This was also a holiday party day, so we were expecting it to be bit crazy We had already done most of Tomorrowland—I forgot, somewhere between all the mountains on EMH night we were able to go on the teacups as well as do the Monster’s Inc thing---loved Mike’s nephew? The little orange guy—DD2 thought he was fun.
DD1 got to open Adventureland! :thumbsup:The CM asked her if she’d like to change from a princess to a pirate for a bit. She was so thrilled. She got to hold his large pirate flag and walk with the CM’s in. The Cm’s really try and make such a difference. We had read a book on Walt Disney, when he was talking about Disneyland being built, he talked about the best attraction not being there yet. He was referring to all the people, but to us, the CM’s are an attraction all on their own.
DH took the older two off to Pirates—he hadn’t ridden it yet and of course they were up for it! I was on a mission to ride Aladdin’s carpet---again and again and again. We were on the first ride, by ourselves. (This is not EMH morning?!) The CM gave us two Aladdin button pins for making this our favorite ride. DD1 and the boys are headed for the mountains. We headed for Yankee Traders—my kind of store. But it’s not open??! Liberty Square was deserted. We headed back for the bridge to see them come down Splash Mountain and they got soaked!!! Worse than Kali Rapids. We met them in the shop at the end—that one was open. They were thinking about getting new shirts for the day, but ended up passing. I did find little Mickey crackers (kinda like fish crackers, but shaped like Mickeys). That store only had the $4.95 bags, so I wasn’t able to purchase them with snack credits. DD2 found them in a smaller quantity at CBR, so we were able to get them for DD1---she hated them. Try them, I can’t blame her! DD1 and DS offered to escort me to Thunder Mtn with the Fast Passes, but I declined and let DH go—maybe the wind who dry him off?? I went to try this Fast Pass thing and try and get them, yet again for Peter Pan. I put a card in and two tickets came out. Thought it was a mistake! Turned to ask the CM standing near there, an older gentleman, and he had a huge grin on his face.:mickey: He says, those are bonus fast passes for Philharmagic—that doesn’t happen all the time! Well, O.K.!!! I’m having a good day!!
We headed back to Thunder Mtn to pick up the others and wander over to Yankee Traders. While I was in there, DH had the three kids on the jail thing, taking pictures. DD2 fell off of it. Poor peanut had a skinned knee and wanted Mom.Now! I got her calmed down and suggested to DH he familiarize himself with the First Aid station! :doctor:(If I am present, DD2 can get a bit dramatic) DD1 and DS went on Haunted Mansion, again! They love that one! I sat on the porch of Yankee Traders with a nice gentleman from Philadelphia. We compared notes—kind of like on Intercot. DH and DD2 came back, DD2 very proud of her lovely bandaid, caught site of me and her bottom lip started to quiver. Timing was good though, DD1 and DS were coming out of Haunted Mansion so we were able to head right over to It’s a Small World! I love this ride! It’s just so neat! We stalled for a bit, with animals hanging over our heads, DD2 was getting pretty nervous—I don’t remember an elephant, but if it was there, I’m sure she saw it.
We were ready to use fast passes and chose to go into Philharmagic, because I had read that it featured Donald—one of DD2’s favorites. This was not a good choice. We were among the first people in the holding room, so the wait was longer than we thought. We didn’t put the 3D glasses on DD2, since this worked for the bug thing. As usual, it was quite loud, but Donald was getting chased. Kind of hard to explain to her if he had listened to Mickey, none of this would be happening. She laughed everytime she saw him, got upset everytime something happened to him.:( I felt I was on a rollercoaster!! By the time we were done with this, we decided to head over to the Grand Floridian—we had lunch reservations, and it was crazy in Fantasyland. Oh well, no Peter Pan. We had switched our reservation from Crystal Palace to GF Café—DH was happy after seeing the madhouse on the porch at CP!!
Lunch at Grand Floridian Café took forever!! We wanted a relaxing meal, that’s why we chose to go there—away from the park. But really!! 2.5 hrs. We allowed DD1 and DS to order whatever beverage they wanted at lunch and then milks at breakfast and dinner. Both tried to order smoothies. Nope, can’t do that on the dining plan as a beverage. What? Just when I think I’m getting the hang of this. I objected. By the end of the meal, the CM told me she would try and do this just for us. Eye roll. We weren’t thrilled here with the entrees—really thought the GF burger would be good, it really wasn’t . We got the Pasta, thinking DD2 would like some too. Both DH and DD2 didn’t. Desserts were excellent though!! We tried them all!
We were then trying to determine how to separate for the afternoon. Because the lunch took so long, we were in no man’s land for a nap. DD1 had an appt at BBB at 4. We had hauled her dress and shoes around all day. I had checked in, in the a.m. to see the procedure for this place, since we hadn’t been there. Also, when I had booked it, they had not asked what she wanted done. I thought maybe for timing purposes they might want to know. Nope, just let them know when we arrive. But, be prepared to wait. Usually by that time in the afternoon, they are running late, sometimes as much as an hour. I was mad at myself for not thinking about that!! We had dinner reservations at Ohana’s. A bit of leeway with time, but adding in an hour, plus lots of additional people circling the park because of the Christmas Party, I was getting nervous. I called the reservation phone line, they had no idea, said they might be able to check, came back on a bit later and said they weren’t running behind. I called back 15 minutes later, they were running ½ hour behind at this point. What? I cancelled. They asked me if I would approve the $10 cancellation fee—no, I’m not approving the concept of you charging me $$ because of your lack of planning (it would help if you got an idea of which pkg these princesses might want when taking the reservation). I haven’t been charged. I do understand the need for a cancellation fee. I actually gave DD1 the choice. The others could easily go to Ohana’s and we could meet up with them after. Ohana’s was really her cup of tea though—this was the one she wanted to go to.
So glad she chose this! She got to dance with her Dad, put lei’s on all of us, do some hula dancing, and coconut races. We all enjoyed this dinner! It was loud and crazy, DD2 loved it too. And yes, the dessert is ridiculously good. I kept telling DH and DS to save room, save room. This was the first visit to the Poly. OOOhhhhhh, the stores here…….We really like the feel of this one! This is the other top contender on DS and DD1’s resort fav’s.