gregf71
11-15-2011, 02:38 PM
For our 10th wedding anniversary, my wife and I decided to have a second honeymoon, though this time taking our 5 year old daughter. Over 12 days in later October to early November we visited WDW and enjoyed a 4 night cruise on the Disney Dream. This is Part 1:
The Magical: :thumbsup:
• Disney’s Magical Express was easy and efficient.
• The Halloween surprise that we pre-ordered for our daughter was wonderful, especially the Mickey Jack O’Lantern and ghost necklace. She filled that pumpkin up at MNSSHP!
• The Dining Plan: We upgraded our free dining plan to the Deluxe plan and were very pleased. Using snack credits for Food & Wine Festival items was crazy cool! Plus, we have a 5 year old daughter who grazes through the day, usually eating smaller actual meals. She rarely ate most of her primary meals on our trip. Having the plan allowed my wife and I to order exactly what we wanted for ourselves (i.e. we did not have to order with the intent of sharing with our daughter) and had we paid out of pocket for all of her partially eaten meals, I think that we would have gone crazy.
• Best Table Service Meal: Le Cellier Steakhouse. Everything was prepared perfectly and tasted incredible. The Ice Wine Flight that we ordered with our maple crème brulees made our dessert simply sublime. Le Cellier was definitely worth two dining credits.
• Best Food & Wine Festival Food Item: the Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole Pineapple Chutney! My wife’s close second was the Griddled Greek Cheese with Pistachios and Honey. We tried escargots for the first time…chewy…tasted mostly the garlic…glad we did it, but don’t need to do it again.
• Best Food & Wine Festival Drink: For me it was the Honey Mead Wine at the Ireland booth. My wife’s vote would be the Sparkling Pomegranate Kir at the France booth.
• Best Dining Ambiance: Sci-Fi Dine In Theater! By the way, my wife said that the onion ring appetizer at Sci-Fi was the best rings that she has ever had in her life!
• Best Dinner I Wish I Could Have Enjoyed More: Boma….everything looked so good. Unfortunately, Expedition Everest did a number on me and I was not in the full dining mood when we visited Boma later that evening. My wife absolutely loved it though and highly recommends it!
• Best Free Thirst Quencher: Club Cool at Epcot! I loved the Mezzo Mix from Germany! Thought about having my 5 year old try the Beverly, but I am just not that mean.
• Best Character Meal: My vote would be Tusker House for the food quality (sweet fried plantains for breakfast) and overall experience. My wife would vote for 1900 Park Fare for the excellent food selection and the variety of characters: Mary Poppins, Alice, the Mad Hatter, Pooh, and Tigger. Our daughter? I think that she had the most fun at the Ohana breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, Minnie and Pluto, but the Princess breakfast at Akershus ranks up there as well.
• Most Refreshing Snack Item(s): It is a tie…Pineapple-Orange Swirl Dole Whip Float in the Magic Kingdom (we can only get pineapple Dole Whips at Disneyland) and the Frozen Coke in Epcot. We used several snack credits on these little beauties.
• Best Special Experience: Tommorowland Terrace Fireworks Dessert Party…this was worth every penny! Not only were the desserts excellent (the pistachio crème brulee was amazing) and plentiful, but the fact that we could just sit at tables and chill on the terrace before and during the fireworks show, away from the crowds, was wonderful.
• Best Entertainment: La Nouba! 10 minutes into the show we were concerned that our daughter was just not into it, but then suddenly she looked at us both, eyes as big as saucers, hugged our arms, and exclaimed that it was awesome!
• Most Unique Entertainment: Miyuki the candy artist in the Japanese pavilion in Epcot. Our daughter stood in amazement as she watched Miyuki make the unicorn she requested.
• Best Unique WDW Souvenirs: Though my wife would say it was her WDW 40th Anniversary Dooney purse, my vote is either the crystal Spaceship Earth that we got in Germany or the postcard coconut that we bought and mailed to ourselves at the Polynesian. It was a nice reminder of our wonderful trip when we got home and the mailman delivered our coconut!
• Best Convenience: Being able to ship our purchases home at the point of purchase instead of having to figure out how to pack them in our luggage. It was so worth the shipping charges; not to mention, since we were shipping them out of Florida, we didn’t have to pay the Florida sales tax.
• Best “New to You” Attractions: It has been 10 years since our last visit, so of the newer attractions we enjoyed Mickey’s Philharmagic and the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor were probably the best. My wife liked Expedition Everest, as did I, but it left me a little off for the rest of the day. And, though not new since 2001, we finally saw the Festival of the Lion King and really enjoyed it.
• Best Attraction That I Miss Terribly at Disneyland: the Peoplemover…man, did we enjoy riding that simple, yet perfect little ride.
• Beating the ghost pirate with my wife and daughter on Pirates of the Caribbean – Battle for Buccaneer Gold!
• PhotoPass: We took advantage of a pre-purchase deal on the PhotoPass website before our trip, buying a photo-CD of all of our pictures and getting a credit towards a photo book. So, we took advantage of as many PhotoPass opportunities as we could while at WDW. Upon our return home, we reviewed the pictures and decided that there were enough that we liked to complete the order (you can cancel the order and get a full refund if you do not like the pictures they took). Yesterday, I finished making our book on the PhotoPass site. The construction program is amazing! Not only could I load the PhotoPass images, but my personal shots as well, plus it gave me access to additional shots of the parks, water parks, resorts, characters, and even several Halloween specific images. The user interface is so flexible and much more user friendly than other photo book sites that I have used.
Part 2: The Not So Magical Moments...:mad:
The Magical: :thumbsup:
• Disney’s Magical Express was easy and efficient.
• The Halloween surprise that we pre-ordered for our daughter was wonderful, especially the Mickey Jack O’Lantern and ghost necklace. She filled that pumpkin up at MNSSHP!
• The Dining Plan: We upgraded our free dining plan to the Deluxe plan and were very pleased. Using snack credits for Food & Wine Festival items was crazy cool! Plus, we have a 5 year old daughter who grazes through the day, usually eating smaller actual meals. She rarely ate most of her primary meals on our trip. Having the plan allowed my wife and I to order exactly what we wanted for ourselves (i.e. we did not have to order with the intent of sharing with our daughter) and had we paid out of pocket for all of her partially eaten meals, I think that we would have gone crazy.
• Best Table Service Meal: Le Cellier Steakhouse. Everything was prepared perfectly and tasted incredible. The Ice Wine Flight that we ordered with our maple crème brulees made our dessert simply sublime. Le Cellier was definitely worth two dining credits.
• Best Food & Wine Festival Food Item: the Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole Pineapple Chutney! My wife’s close second was the Griddled Greek Cheese with Pistachios and Honey. We tried escargots for the first time…chewy…tasted mostly the garlic…glad we did it, but don’t need to do it again.
• Best Food & Wine Festival Drink: For me it was the Honey Mead Wine at the Ireland booth. My wife’s vote would be the Sparkling Pomegranate Kir at the France booth.
• Best Dining Ambiance: Sci-Fi Dine In Theater! By the way, my wife said that the onion ring appetizer at Sci-Fi was the best rings that she has ever had in her life!
• Best Dinner I Wish I Could Have Enjoyed More: Boma….everything looked so good. Unfortunately, Expedition Everest did a number on me and I was not in the full dining mood when we visited Boma later that evening. My wife absolutely loved it though and highly recommends it!
• Best Free Thirst Quencher: Club Cool at Epcot! I loved the Mezzo Mix from Germany! Thought about having my 5 year old try the Beverly, but I am just not that mean.
• Best Character Meal: My vote would be Tusker House for the food quality (sweet fried plantains for breakfast) and overall experience. My wife would vote for 1900 Park Fare for the excellent food selection and the variety of characters: Mary Poppins, Alice, the Mad Hatter, Pooh, and Tigger. Our daughter? I think that she had the most fun at the Ohana breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, Minnie and Pluto, but the Princess breakfast at Akershus ranks up there as well.
• Most Refreshing Snack Item(s): It is a tie…Pineapple-Orange Swirl Dole Whip Float in the Magic Kingdom (we can only get pineapple Dole Whips at Disneyland) and the Frozen Coke in Epcot. We used several snack credits on these little beauties.
• Best Special Experience: Tommorowland Terrace Fireworks Dessert Party…this was worth every penny! Not only were the desserts excellent (the pistachio crème brulee was amazing) and plentiful, but the fact that we could just sit at tables and chill on the terrace before and during the fireworks show, away from the crowds, was wonderful.
• Best Entertainment: La Nouba! 10 minutes into the show we were concerned that our daughter was just not into it, but then suddenly she looked at us both, eyes as big as saucers, hugged our arms, and exclaimed that it was awesome!
• Most Unique Entertainment: Miyuki the candy artist in the Japanese pavilion in Epcot. Our daughter stood in amazement as she watched Miyuki make the unicorn she requested.
• Best Unique WDW Souvenirs: Though my wife would say it was her WDW 40th Anniversary Dooney purse, my vote is either the crystal Spaceship Earth that we got in Germany or the postcard coconut that we bought and mailed to ourselves at the Polynesian. It was a nice reminder of our wonderful trip when we got home and the mailman delivered our coconut!
• Best Convenience: Being able to ship our purchases home at the point of purchase instead of having to figure out how to pack them in our luggage. It was so worth the shipping charges; not to mention, since we were shipping them out of Florida, we didn’t have to pay the Florida sales tax.
• Best “New to You” Attractions: It has been 10 years since our last visit, so of the newer attractions we enjoyed Mickey’s Philharmagic and the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor were probably the best. My wife liked Expedition Everest, as did I, but it left me a little off for the rest of the day. And, though not new since 2001, we finally saw the Festival of the Lion King and really enjoyed it.
• Best Attraction That I Miss Terribly at Disneyland: the Peoplemover…man, did we enjoy riding that simple, yet perfect little ride.
• Beating the ghost pirate with my wife and daughter on Pirates of the Caribbean – Battle for Buccaneer Gold!
• PhotoPass: We took advantage of a pre-purchase deal on the PhotoPass website before our trip, buying a photo-CD of all of our pictures and getting a credit towards a photo book. So, we took advantage of as many PhotoPass opportunities as we could while at WDW. Upon our return home, we reviewed the pictures and decided that there were enough that we liked to complete the order (you can cancel the order and get a full refund if you do not like the pictures they took). Yesterday, I finished making our book on the PhotoPass site. The construction program is amazing! Not only could I load the PhotoPass images, but my personal shots as well, plus it gave me access to additional shots of the parks, water parks, resorts, characters, and even several Halloween specific images. The user interface is so flexible and much more user friendly than other photo book sites that I have used.
Part 2: The Not So Magical Moments...:mad: