Mendelson
06-05-2015, 09:03 PM
Hi all – just returned from six great Disney days with a seven-day Eastern Caribbean Fantasy cruise sandwiched in between. As Mickey now has all my money and even claims on future income, I’m not sure if I have enough left to pay for an internet connection to upload this. We’ll see if it works….
Traveling were me and my wife and our two kids, aged 21 and 4. Yes, a big gap. We’re all pretty well seasoned on WDW and have taken one Fantasy cruise in the past.
Pre-cruise
For our first two days, May 21 and 22, we rented DVC points to stay at the Boardwalk, our first time there. We loved this place! Room was comfy, the location is awesome, and our particular room location was excellent. We’d stayed at the Beach Club in January, our first time at Yacht/Beach/Boardwalk, and really like staying in the Crescent Lake area. Boardwalk has a great feel. I wish I'd discovered DVC point rental loooong before I actually did.
Thursday afternoon we headed to the Studios for the day after arriving, and after TSM and some time at the playground, actually convinced my son to ride Star Tours. Far from being traumatized, he loved it, which really surprised me. We went to meet Baymax but the line was a bit long and he said he didn't care too much to meet him (which was okay, since we met him in January), so after a little RnR and some other stuff, we moved to the day's pièce de résistance: that night I’d made ressies at Beaches and Cream for the purpose of having one dish. Just one dish, you ask? No way, Jose, you may say. But yes, one goal on this trip was to have this concoction, which I ordered for my entrée because why not, I’m on vacation (I also ordered it for my dessert!.... [nooooo, not really]). I know, it’s easily a dish I could throw together at home, but there’s just something about having it on property…. Finally, full of ice cream and sugar, having gotten up at 5am, we were in bed early this night.
I had long planned to make Friday the 22nd our MK day….I had planned this before they announced it was the start of the 24-hour MK day. So the park opened at 6am - we strolled in around 8:30 and, being rope-drop people, I was not used to walking into a park already so full. With some strategizing and FP usage we managed to get around the park okay, including getting over to TSI, which my son just absolutely loves. Unfortunately he recently has taken to hiding from us on occasion for fun and at 4yo is sometimes pretty good at it. We lost him for about 15 minutes on TSI, but ultimately he showed up, none the worse. I still have no idea where he actually was. Also this day we got to experience the new Peter Pan queue for the first time, which is a nice addition to that ride. And for the first time he appreciated seeing the ring in the HM queue (this is his favorite ride).
The big negative this day? And I mean big!? I went to get a DW Float and was told by the CM that vanilla Dole Whip is gone and being phased out (only currently available at the Poly). !??!? The pineapple-pineapple float is TOO MUCH pineapple. Why would they change this? I blame MyMagic+ !!!! :-) (Special note to Bob Iger - I have a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you bring back vanilla Dole Whip now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will make you watch the Country Bear Jamboree over and over and over.)
We had reservations for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue this night and we got out of MK just in time, as it was getting crowded. We’ve never done this show before and we just loved it. Very glad to have seen it and the food was so much better than I was expecting! Ft. Wilderness is a fascinating property. After that my wife went back to the hotel but the kids and I made our way to Epcot for Illuminations. On our way to Epcot on the monorail we saw what seemed like MILES of cars waiting to get into Epcot. Do they direct overflow parking there from the MK (because the 24-hour night was revving up?)? It was odd.
Saturday morning we spent some pool time before heading to the boat.
More to come...
Traveling were me and my wife and our two kids, aged 21 and 4. Yes, a big gap. We’re all pretty well seasoned on WDW and have taken one Fantasy cruise in the past.
Pre-cruise
For our first two days, May 21 and 22, we rented DVC points to stay at the Boardwalk, our first time there. We loved this place! Room was comfy, the location is awesome, and our particular room location was excellent. We’d stayed at the Beach Club in January, our first time at Yacht/Beach/Boardwalk, and really like staying in the Crescent Lake area. Boardwalk has a great feel. I wish I'd discovered DVC point rental loooong before I actually did.
Thursday afternoon we headed to the Studios for the day after arriving, and after TSM and some time at the playground, actually convinced my son to ride Star Tours. Far from being traumatized, he loved it, which really surprised me. We went to meet Baymax but the line was a bit long and he said he didn't care too much to meet him (which was okay, since we met him in January), so after a little RnR and some other stuff, we moved to the day's pièce de résistance: that night I’d made ressies at Beaches and Cream for the purpose of having one dish. Just one dish, you ask? No way, Jose, you may say. But yes, one goal on this trip was to have this concoction, which I ordered for my entrée because why not, I’m on vacation (I also ordered it for my dessert!.... [nooooo, not really]). I know, it’s easily a dish I could throw together at home, but there’s just something about having it on property…. Finally, full of ice cream and sugar, having gotten up at 5am, we were in bed early this night.
I had long planned to make Friday the 22nd our MK day….I had planned this before they announced it was the start of the 24-hour MK day. So the park opened at 6am - we strolled in around 8:30 and, being rope-drop people, I was not used to walking into a park already so full. With some strategizing and FP usage we managed to get around the park okay, including getting over to TSI, which my son just absolutely loves. Unfortunately he recently has taken to hiding from us on occasion for fun and at 4yo is sometimes pretty good at it. We lost him for about 15 minutes on TSI, but ultimately he showed up, none the worse. I still have no idea where he actually was. Also this day we got to experience the new Peter Pan queue for the first time, which is a nice addition to that ride. And for the first time he appreciated seeing the ring in the HM queue (this is his favorite ride).
The big negative this day? And I mean big!? I went to get a DW Float and was told by the CM that vanilla Dole Whip is gone and being phased out (only currently available at the Poly). !??!? The pineapple-pineapple float is TOO MUCH pineapple. Why would they change this? I blame MyMagic+ !!!! :-) (Special note to Bob Iger - I have a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you bring back vanilla Dole Whip now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will make you watch the Country Bear Jamboree over and over and over.)
We had reservations for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue this night and we got out of MK just in time, as it was getting crowded. We’ve never done this show before and we just loved it. Very glad to have seen it and the food was so much better than I was expecting! Ft. Wilderness is a fascinating property. After that my wife went back to the hotel but the kids and I made our way to Epcot for Illuminations. On our way to Epcot on the monorail we saw what seemed like MILES of cars waiting to get into Epcot. Do they direct overflow parking there from the MK (because the 24-hour night was revving up?)? It was odd.
Saturday morning we spent some pool time before heading to the boat.
More to come...