DisneyBarb
11-24-2013, 08:42 AM
Who - Me, OCD planner!
DH - converted hubby of 25 years
DD - Celebrating 18th birthday (next week)
DS - Mini me (15) who has the same Disney passion that I do.
Where - Poly
How - JetBlue
I'm usually pretty sad the last full day of the trip. For some reason I"m not as sad as I have been in the past. This may be due to the fact that DS and I are planning an alone trip next Christmas for a belated 16th birthday celebration (I had taken my daughter to NYC for a few nights for hers).
The plan was to go to DTD for some shopping. Since the kids are older, we don't generally buy souvenirs, but needed to get some items for my sister in law and family for taking care of our dog.
When the kids were young we gave them a set amount each trip that they could spend, this way we didn't have to listen to "I want" all trip, it worked out great!.
We ate at the Kona Cafe, which we do each trip at least once. Food was great, service was fine.
We had to run to the make the DTD bus that was leaving but the bus driver waited for us. How nice!
We had a nice morning, walking around getting some things (I got a really nice Chrismtas decoration with all the characters in a sleigh). I had a gift card, rewards card and used my Disney Visa. I wish I had remembered before this that I got a discount on merchandise using the Visa! (my DH had bought some shirts in the park).
The kids wanted to see Forrest Gumps boat at Planet Hollywood but alas it was in the back, partially covered up and not "floatable" as the women outside PH told us.
Made our way back, and DH and I reminisced about our younger days at Pleasure Island when we would spend quite a bit of time enjoying it, especially the Blues Brother band that played at the end of the street.
We were at our Bus stop but another bus (Grand Floridian shares the stop) was there and we saw the Poly bus not being able to get through. The bus drive waived us over and we hopped on. We were the only people on the bus and he was quiet a character (from Brooklyn). He would play a recording like "We have a princess on the bus", "we have a birthday girl on the bus", things I have never heard played in all the years I have gone. We enjoyed talking to him.
Went back for our rest and then headed off to Epcot. We had 5:30 ADRs at Teppan Edo. We also had FP for Soarin, MS and TT. We strolled our way through the countries which was nice. We hadn't done that in a long time.
Teppan lobby was not nearly as crowded as in previous years. My DD wore her birthday button and myself and DH wore our (anniversary) buttons. Disney is magical, because not in a million years did I think DH would wear his button! It was fun!
We hadn't been to Teppan in a few visits (we have a similar place near us which is outstanding). My DH loves it! We met a lovely family whos grandmother worked at Epcot. They were very nice to talk to and hadn't been in 10 years while and couldn't believe how much Disney had changed. DD got the Chef hat and birthday songs were sung (the family we were with had some bdays also). I love the ambience and the chef and staff were outstanding. However, the food is a notch below our local place and more expensive (we get salad, soup and shrimp at our local place included).
We had FP to Soarin (it was about 7:15 at this point). Made our way to it and it was a 5 min wait, so we did standby then came back and did FP. Again, this is what we are used to in Nov (spoiled I know!). What a nice way ride to end our trip.
Kids and I decided we wanted to go back to the Poly and catch the fireworks from the beach. It apparently had rained while we were at dinner (how lucky!) so brought towels to bring down to wipe down the chairs. The beach was packed but what a great way to end a great trip!
Overall thoughts -
I like the Marketplace area of DtD, I'm looking forward to when the area becomes Disney Springs.
Bus service and monorail service was great, all cast members were great.
Again, we did not use FP+ except for Soarin although we did not need them. I could ride Soarin over and over again.
Next - heading home and final thoughts
DH - converted hubby of 25 years
DD - Celebrating 18th birthday (next week)
DS - Mini me (15) who has the same Disney passion that I do.
Where - Poly
How - JetBlue
I'm usually pretty sad the last full day of the trip. For some reason I"m not as sad as I have been in the past. This may be due to the fact that DS and I are planning an alone trip next Christmas for a belated 16th birthday celebration (I had taken my daughter to NYC for a few nights for hers).
The plan was to go to DTD for some shopping. Since the kids are older, we don't generally buy souvenirs, but needed to get some items for my sister in law and family for taking care of our dog.
When the kids were young we gave them a set amount each trip that they could spend, this way we didn't have to listen to "I want" all trip, it worked out great!.
We ate at the Kona Cafe, which we do each trip at least once. Food was great, service was fine.
We had to run to the make the DTD bus that was leaving but the bus driver waited for us. How nice!
We had a nice morning, walking around getting some things (I got a really nice Chrismtas decoration with all the characters in a sleigh). I had a gift card, rewards card and used my Disney Visa. I wish I had remembered before this that I got a discount on merchandise using the Visa! (my DH had bought some shirts in the park).
The kids wanted to see Forrest Gumps boat at Planet Hollywood but alas it was in the back, partially covered up and not "floatable" as the women outside PH told us.
Made our way back, and DH and I reminisced about our younger days at Pleasure Island when we would spend quite a bit of time enjoying it, especially the Blues Brother band that played at the end of the street.
We were at our Bus stop but another bus (Grand Floridian shares the stop) was there and we saw the Poly bus not being able to get through. The bus drive waived us over and we hopped on. We were the only people on the bus and he was quiet a character (from Brooklyn). He would play a recording like "We have a princess on the bus", "we have a birthday girl on the bus", things I have never heard played in all the years I have gone. We enjoyed talking to him.
Went back for our rest and then headed off to Epcot. We had 5:30 ADRs at Teppan Edo. We also had FP for Soarin, MS and TT. We strolled our way through the countries which was nice. We hadn't done that in a long time.
Teppan lobby was not nearly as crowded as in previous years. My DD wore her birthday button and myself and DH wore our (anniversary) buttons. Disney is magical, because not in a million years did I think DH would wear his button! It was fun!
We hadn't been to Teppan in a few visits (we have a similar place near us which is outstanding). My DH loves it! We met a lovely family whos grandmother worked at Epcot. They were very nice to talk to and hadn't been in 10 years while and couldn't believe how much Disney had changed. DD got the Chef hat and birthday songs were sung (the family we were with had some bdays also). I love the ambience and the chef and staff were outstanding. However, the food is a notch below our local place and more expensive (we get salad, soup and shrimp at our local place included).
We had FP to Soarin (it was about 7:15 at this point). Made our way to it and it was a 5 min wait, so we did standby then came back and did FP. Again, this is what we are used to in Nov (spoiled I know!). What a nice way ride to end our trip.
Kids and I decided we wanted to go back to the Poly and catch the fireworks from the beach. It apparently had rained while we were at dinner (how lucky!) so brought towels to bring down to wipe down the chairs. The beach was packed but what a great way to end a great trip!
Overall thoughts -
I like the Marketplace area of DtD, I'm looking forward to when the area becomes Disney Springs.
Bus service and monorail service was great, all cast members were great.
Again, we did not use FP+ except for Soarin although we did not need them. I could ride Soarin over and over again.
Next - heading home and final thoughts