@Steenaca, I thought it was so sweet. And thanks for following along with us. 
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June 26 - The Resort Day that All Went Wrong - 1900 Park Fare Breakfast, Medical Concierge, a Trip to the Dentist, and Artist Point
This was supposed to be our lazy resort day, but boy, did this day go wrong. Even though they had gotten to sleep in a bit, the DDs were cranky and DD5 was ragey. She said that her ear hurt again. We had to eat, so after watching the animals out of our balcony for a bit, we went to 1900 PF for breakfast. We had done this on our departure day on our last trip and loved it, so I wanted to experience it again.
We self parked at the GF for our 1900 PF dinner and the walk was long, especially carrying DD3, so we splurged and used valet parking. DD5 was a grump. It was clear that something had to happen about this ear today.
I don’t know if we were too early or 1900 PF was running a bit behind, but the wait for our table seemed to last forever. The DDs were picking at each other and being naughty and they were hungry. We’ve never experienced this back up at dinner, but both times we’ve done breakfast at 1900, the wait for our table has seemed long.
Breakfast was just as delicious as I had remembered. There are so many options! I can’t say that I really enjoyed it though. I was looking at all of the info on urgent care and in room medical care we had been given the day before at first aid, trying to decide what to do about DD5.
The girls liked meeting Pooh, Alice, Mary Poppins, the Mad Hatter, and Tigger, who is by the exit.
In the car DH and I decided to call the Medical Concierge for DD5. It was going to be about $250-275 for a pediatrician to come to our room and check her out. To us, it was worth it. On our last trip my finger swelled because of an infection and we spent three hours at Centracare and it had cost us $220. For the extra $50, it was worth it to go with the Medical Concierge this time and hopefully not wait as long.
The Medical Concierge was coming to our room between 12-1, but they told us that we had to be in or room by 11. It seemed silly to us, but we hung out in the room, watched the animals, and I did a few loads of laundry. The joke in our house (or at least my joke) is that it isn’t really vacation until DH runs out of underwear. He never seems to pack enough. 
By the time I got back from the laundry room, the pediatrician was there. She was great with DD and let us know that…drum rolll…DD5 had a VERY mild case of swimmer’s ear. Ugh! I had seriously just paid $250 for that. 
At least it wasn’t an ear infection! She left us a prescription for some drops if DD5 kept complaining and told us to avoid the pool. Today was supposed to be our pool day. Oh, well! At least there is nothing seriously wrong with DD5. Something to be thankful for!
Wrong! Not ten minutes after the pediatrician left, DD5 declared that she felt a bubble by her tooth. I looked in her mouth and there was a giant abscess! Great! What are we going to do now? Sigh!
DD5 wanted to go to cookie decorating at Boma, so we did that while I tried to decide what to do. Our dentist at home and I were texting back and forth. He recommended that we get her in somewhere and have it checked out. I was stressed, but DD5 thought cookie decorating was really fun.
After cookie decorating, I sent DH, DD5, and DD3 off for pin trading and face painting while I started calling dentists. Today was Thursday and there was a big dental convention on Friday, so it seemed like no one could get her in, or if they could, they didn’t take our dental insurance. Ya’ll, I sat in our hotel room and just cried. I know it’s totally selfish, but I had spent so much time planning this trip and it seemed like it was all going to come crashing in around us. More calls, more crying…at least I have a pretty view, right?
I don’t generally let myself fall a part because it’s just exhausting, but I just can’t stop the tears. Eventually DH, DD3, anad DD5 get back. The DDs report that African face painting is awesome!
DH knows that I am at my wits end because I’m saying things like, “I just don’t know if I want to do Disney again,” and starts calling around. The first dentist he calls can get her in, but we have to leave now.
DD5 has extremely high dentist anxiety, but she agrees that she wants this tooth taken care of. I at least have the forethought to grab their outfits for Artists Point if DD5 still feels up to it after the dentist.
There is no need to recap all of the details at the dentist, but let’s just say that it was REALLY, REALLY bad. The dentist was so kind but DD5 was out of her mind with fear. Eventually, the dentist managed to get DD5’s crown off and it was full of infection. For some reason, she thought it was the crown and not the tooth that was causing the infection, so she left the tooth and gave us antibiotics.
While we are sitting outside the pharmacy waiting for DH to come back with the antibiotics, DD5 says she still wants to go to Artists Point. She desperately wants to meet the Evil Queen. I’m searching to see if there are any later reservation times and a 7:30 pops up, but I can’t modify it and by the time I get a CM on the phone, it’s gone. I just cried on the phone. The poor CM. She tells me that we have a 30 minute grace period after our ADR time and to tell them I called if we run into any trouble.
We don’t have time to go back to AKL to change, so DH and I are stuck in what we are wearing. My shirt has syrup DD3 wiped on me at 1900 PF this morning and DD5’s face paint smeared all over it. There were so very many tears at the dentist. 
WDW with littles is not for the faint of heart! 
We change the girls in the car and off we go to our ADR. We are on time, thankfully, but AP is running behind.
We spent 15 or 20 minutes checking out the Wilderness Lodge. The DDs did some pin trading and we spent a lot of time talking to CM Skip at the pin cart. DH bought some H2O shampoo, and we look at the Snow White themed art near AP.
Storybook Dining did not disappoint, and it might be my new favorite. I don’t know if it was because we were hungry (Lunch was missed in the fray and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast), or that the day had been so rotten that everything about it seemed magical, but it was just lovely.
The DDs loved their drinks. DD5 got the color changing lemonade and DD3 got the drink with cotton candy that “disappears.” She looked a little put out when the CM poured her drink over the cotton candy. I think she would have just preferred to eat it.
The adult appetizers were okay. The only one I really liked was the mushroom bisque. The kids had their own appetizers, which were adorable. I knew DD5 was finally feeling better when she joked about offering her apple slice to Snow White.
The character interaction was great so were the entrees. DH enjoyed his prime rib and I ordered the pork shank that the CM recommended. It was delicious.
I didn’t think anything could top our entrees, but the desserts were delicious as well. At this point DD5 was just itching to be done so that we could get to the Queen!
The Queen was fabulous and she spent so much time with DD5. Her manner is pretty aloof, but when she saw DD5, she declared, “Now that’s true love!” and probably spent a solid five minutes with DD5 teaching her all of the different Evil Queen poses and taking pictures with her. DD5 was in heaven!
I would highly recommend this meal and I regret not having snagged an ADR for this one for our Aug/Sept trip at 180 days.
As we were leaving Wilderness Lodge, we could see HEA fireworks. It was lovely and between that and Artists Point, our rotten day had been righted.
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So funny. My DH is the opposite, he usually comes home with at least 3 pair that never got worn.
My DS7 also had extreme dentist anxiety from around age 3 to 6 (now it’s milder, phew) and developed an abscess near the end of 3 weeks in Greece and ended up getting the tooth extracted under anaesthesia a month or so later – I feel your pain and I hope your DD5 is spared any further tooth drama! I’m so glad she didn’t miss out on the time with the queen! And that your harrowing day ended well.
If we end up making more trips I will be seeking buy-in from my kids on that dinner.
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June 27 (Part 1) - Animal Kingdom with Tusker House, Rainforest Cafe, and Tiffins with the Lion King Tier 1 Package
After some much needed rest, we were up and at it again for an 8:30 Tusker House Reservation. We had never done a PPO breakfast at AK, so I was interested to see how it would go. AK is DH’s favorite park and my least favorite. We’ve had some rough experiences here in the past. I think because there seems to be so little indoors and all of the pathways are so congested and hot. I had really tried to balance our touring plan this time to try to avoid meltdowns.
Walking through the empty park to Tusker House, I think I kind of fell in love with AK for the first time. It’s beautiful and there is so much to enjoy when you aren’t trying to navigate the masses. I just love the quiet and stillness with PPO breakfasts. A very nice CM even offered to take a picture of us all together in front of the Tree of Life since the photographers weren’t out yet.
Other than the fact that the room we were seated in smelled like awfully like body odor, we loved Tusker House. There were plenty of breakfast standards for my picky eaters and a few more adventurous things for me. I love plantains, so I was so excited to see them on the buffet. And they have POG juice, although I’m the only one in my family that drinks it.
The character interactions were solid and DD5 had a great time!
Our FOP FP wasn’t until 9:30 and we were done at Tusker House about 8:55. Our TP didn’t start until 9:30, so we had 30 free minutes. Since we were close to KS, DH suggest that we go there. We made it to KS a few minutes ahead of the rope drop crowd. DH kind of giggled as we watched the crowd head towards us. I couldn’t have planned it if I tried, but we were on the first safari of the day. KS makes me green, but the rest of my crew really enjoyed it. We even heard the lion roaring!
Afterwards, we leisurely made our way to Pandora. I made the mistake of trying to head there via the bridge by Tusker House. I didn’t realize that it is completely cut off in the morning.
So Pandora in the morning is a madhouse! Holy cow! Generally we try to zig when everyone else zags, but our FOP FP was at 9:30, so we were in the midst of the crazy. It took a while to try to figure out how to even get to the FP line because CMs open and close pathways with ropes to control the crowds. I don’t think I would schedule a FP in Pandora in the hour after opening again.
DD3 and I had FP for Navi and DH and DD5 had a FP for FOP. We were given a rider swap with no problem. I know this is a risk and I know some people consider this double dipping, but I paid for DD3’s ticket and I wasn’t letting her FP go to waste. I was also fully prepared to go to guest services if we hit resistance. There is no point in getting a FP for DD3 for ride she isn’t tall enough to go on and she can’t ride anything alone, so we had to split our FP this way.
DD3 and I went on Navi and then wandered back to Pongu Pongu to grab some snacks. The Night Blossom is delicious and she and I both love the bobba balls. The pineapple lumpia wasn’t as tasty, but maybe it was just too sweet for 10 AM. By the time DH and DD5 got off of FOP, it was time to head over to Nemo for our FP so we saved our rider swap for later. I was glad to see that that swap seemed like it was good for the entire day.
We got great seats at Nemo in the “bubble zone” (the only reason I got a FP for it). My girls love this show and we were singing the songs all week.
After we headed for our next FP at Everest. The FP for Everest were on my band and DD3’s and that’s when I had a light-bulb moment. The FOP swaps were on my band and DD5’s, if we got the Everest swaps on DH’s and DD3’s band, we could hold 2 rider swaps at once. We did some band swapping and DD5 and I were off to ride Everest. When DD5 and I were done, DH went again with DD5. Next DH and DD5 rode Kali. I won’t go on this one because I don’t want to get soaked and and DD3 is still too small. Afterwards, we ran into Kevin, so fun!
We were hot and hungry, so we headed to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. The girls love T-Rex, so we want to give this one a try. I didn’t have an ADR, but I did have my Landry’s card and we were seated within minutes.
DD3 was creeped out by the monkeys and kept asking to leave, so it ended up being a bit harder than I thought it would be. But they had PLASTIC straws! I exclaimed when I realized it and I must have been loud because the guy at the table next to us chimed in. He had asked for some straws to go.
Can I rant for a minute about the paper straws? We never minded them when they were just in AK, but they are awful. They feel so nasty in your mouth and how are you supposed to drink a slushy or a milkshake with them? By day 3, they were giving me the heebie jeebies and I just stopped using straws altogether when possible. I plan on throwing a pack of disposables in my park bag next time. We tried to bring silicone and metal ones on our last trip but I kept accidentally throwing them away or if I remembered to pull them out, what was I supposed to do with a wet, sticky straw? I appreciate Disney’s efforts to be eco-friendly, but I’d love to see them do something else besides replacing lids on cups and plastic straws. It seems like allowing the refillable mugs to be used in the parks would be a sensible eco-friendly move, but I’m sure that will never happen because it would affect their bottom line.
Anyway, Rainforest Cafe was fun and the food was decent and our server very kindly gave us all a reusable plastic straw that they use on their slushy drinks. We’ll have to wait a while to repeat this one until DD3 isn’t afraid of the monkeys any more.
We tapped back into the park and then headed to Tiffin’s to pick up our credentials for the Lion King Tier 1 package. So exciting!
I’ll pick this back up with part 2 later.
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I really like reading your trip report and you daughters are so cute! Your family reminds me of mine. We are going in September with a DD2 and DD4 and I bought multiple dresses for them similar to yours. You look like you are having so much fun it makes me so excited for our trip I
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Where do you find these adorable dresses?
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The majority of them came from Goldamae Clothing. Kim, the owner, is awesome and you can find her on Facebook. I also buy from Lil Bit of Sparkle, who also sells on Facebook. She made these AK safari dresses and she’s made a ton of custom tees for us. I would highly recommend both of these ladies.
This day is just so relatable. Sometimes a good cry just helps! Looks like Artist point was the bright spot!
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June 27 (Part r) - Animal Kingdom with Tusker House, Rainforest Cafe, and Tiffins with the Lion King Tier 1 Package
I can’t say enough good things about the Tier 1 Festival of the Lion King package. FOTLK and KS are two of my family’s favorite things at AK and other than the steep price, it seemed like a no brainer.
We went to the exit of FOLK and after checking in, a CM escorted us to our front row seats in the lion section. I’m pretty sure that had something to do with our last name. 
The DDs loved seeing the theater completely empty and having space to take some goofy pictures.
It’s a completely different experience form the first row. The tumble monkeys were playing with my girls and the mist was swirling around our feet. The DDs may (read: did) have thought this was cooler than the actual show.
When it was time for the part where each section makes it animal sound, a performer asked DD5 if she wanted to participate. DD5 LOVES this show and has always wanted to get picked. When we first brought her to this show at 3, she just sobbed when she didn’t get picked, and we always have to have the conversation about how her chance of getting picked are very small. But not that day! Her face right then was worth more than the cost of the package.
Her day was made a second time when both girls were asked to shake instruments near the finale. DD3 wasn’t about to do it, but DD5 was in heaven.
If you have kiddos that want to participate in the show, the Tier 1 package seems to be an almost sure fire way to make it happen.
While we were in the show, it was pouring. DH had forgotten to cover the stroller. 
I have to say, for Florida in June, we had been really lucky. This was the first rain that we encountered other than a storm that rolled through the night that we were at Jiko.
When the show was over a CM appeared almost instantly to whisk us out of the theater before the crowd. The stroller and and some of the items in our storage basket were soaked, but there was nothing we could do except throw some ponchos over it
We were with one other family in the safari, so it felt very intimate. It was much more informational than the regular safari and I would highly recommend it if you want to know a bit about the backstage magic or the animals that live on the safari. They do a great job of making it all feel very exclusive.
I would highly recommend this package (at least for this portion) if you are looking for a bit of a splurge on your next trip.
I had grabbed a FP to meet Mickey and Minnie and that is where we headed next. We had never met them here before and we had the most wonderful time. Mickey and Minnie loved DD5’s dress and completely played it up with her.
Next we were off to Dinoland. Personally, Dinoland isn’t to my tastes, but the rest of my crew loves it. DH bought some carnival tickets and let the DDs play. This quickly dissolved into tears because they weren’t winning. When they finally let DH play, he won them each a small prize. DH gave DD5 the last ticket and she wouldn’t let DD3 play with her. A CM felt bad for DD3 and gave her back the ticket to play again against her. It was such a kind gesture, but it resulted in an epic meltdown from DD5 because DD3 ended up with two prizes and DD5 only had one. Am I the only one that feels like these carnival games are the most un-Disney thing and have no place in the parks? I feel like my children always walk away from the games crying and DH hasn’t wizened up enough yet to just not buy tickets.
I tell myself that is was because she was hot, tired, had had a tooth pulled the day before, and infection must still be raging through her little body but DD5 was in epic, epic meltdown mode. She was crying and wailing and people were looking. I was mortified. Your kid melts down like that in the park and you just start imagining what everyone else is thinking about you. I wanted to just pull her out of the park and call it a day, but we were kind of stuck because of the Tier 1 package. We had our "experience’ but we hadn’t had our meal at Tiffins yet. 
I wasn’t sure what would happen if we didn’t show up.
We tried to take the DDs thorough Triceratops Spin to distracted DD5, but DD5 wouldn’t budge. You know the meltdown is epic when other mothers stop you to tell you that, “You are doing a really good job. We’ve all been there.’” 
We eventually got on Triceratops, but DD5 was still crying. In fact, she cried and kept melting down the entire way to Tiffins. It was mortifying. I told the CM at check in what was going on (I’m not sure how she could miss that my kids was in super meltdown mode), but she wasn’t very helpful. She told us just to check in when we were ready.
DD5 eventually stopped crying and wailing enough that we felt like we could check in. It wasn’t a very good start to our experience at Tiffins, which very much seems targeted at adults. We had done signature dining other places in our trip, but no where else felt uncomfortable like Tiffins did. I’m sure it’s not really that way and I was just hypersensitive because my kid was a mess, but I never felt like I could relax. It just felt like we didn’t belong there.
Our server was okay but kind of standoffish and there was hardly anything on the kids menu the DDs would eat. We ordered them both chicken and I had to promise DD5 that I would share my steak with her. While we waited on the food, DD5, very thankfully, fell asleep hard in my lap.
DH and I both ordered the surf and turf. It was delicious. The meat was tender and well flavored and the lobster was cooked well. I hate rubbery lobster.
DD5 eventually woke up. She was still a little sad, but she like the steak. At this point, I was so very, very tired. DD5’s meltdowns are completely draining, especially when they are in public like that, but DH declared that seeing Rivers of Light was the thing he was looking forward to most on this trip. Clearly, he doesn’t follow Disney blogs. It always gets such bad reviews that I probably never would have gone. DH never tells me what he wants to do on our trips, so since this was the thing he was looking forward to, it had to happen.
Since I was so sleepy, I ordered coffee with my dessert. Both were absolutely delicious. There is SO much bad, bad coffee at Disney, but this was divine. I sadly only got a few sips because we had to bail. The meal had taken two hours (At this point, we were very, very tired of two hour meals) and the DDs were SO done. Bye, bye yummy coffee.
We split up afterwards, DD5 and I still had a swap for FOP and DH and DD3 were going to go shopping. With some one on one time, DD5 perked back up and we had a lovely time on FOP together. In fact, she turned it around and decided that she was actually happy for her sister.
After FOP, we raced to find DH and DD3 to get our Rivers of Light tickets. We had done the dining package with our breakfast. DD5 delcared that we wanted some kind of light up wand. We had pushed them off on these so far and we were tired of them asking, so DH took the girls to pick something while I held our seats.
There was a big family group behind us and one of the sets of the parents were clearly having some kind of argument. The mom was angry and in tears and I heard the husband tell her, “Not everything has to be perfect!” Clearly, someone was having a worse day than we were, even with our Dinoland meltdown. I have no idea what the issue was, it wasn’t any of my business, but I know I hit this point every trip we take. Everyone is tired, the kids are reeling out of control, and I think, “I did this. This is all my fault.” Clearly this mom was the family’s planner too. Every trip I swear that I’m going to tone it down and make it better, but I get carried away trying to cram in as much as possible. Maybe I’ll figure out the right balance at some point.
Rivers of Light was just about what I expected. DH and the kids said that they liked it, but I almost fell asleep. Thankfully, I think it’s a one and done. From here on out, we’ll stick to Fantasmic and Illuminations.
That night we were thankful that we had taken the car. No crowded bus for us and just a quick ride to AKL. One of these times, we were going to get out of AK without one of a melting down, but it hasn’t happened so far.
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Sending you lots of hugs with this update. I’ve been loving your trip report and I know you heard this already from those other parents ‘on the ground’ but you were being a great mom during that meltdown, and we definitely have all been there.
Thank you again for such a wonderful trip report 
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Nope, you are not the only one. We conditioned our kids to stay away from these. This is as close to a scam as you can get.
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LOVE your trip report! Great pictures and your girls’ outfits are amazing!
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Oh man. I have totally been there (I feel like your oldest and mine are cut from the same temperament cloth) and you were and are doing a great job. Also, in case this helps, DS11 still has intense feelings and we’re still working on remembering that “feelings aren’t emergencies” but he outgrew that kind of meltdown around age 7 and now I’m one of the ones giving other mothers the “hang in there” messages.
The Tier 1 package sounds amazing. And thank you for the warning about the carnival games. I need to look at the map and see if we can avoid walking by them.
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Oh I so agree. you pay enough in park tickets you do not need.to.add.cheap carnival games.
It took me forever to.see.where to buy the tickets and i saw the price and walked away. They are not cheap.
I know sea.world.used to have them too. Still.may its been a long time since i was there last.
Now carnival games on the boardwalk make sense. Just not in a park.
Its like there ran out of money for cooler things and just threw the games in to not have big open space.
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@Steenaca,I love that line: “Feelings aren’t emergencies.” I’m going to have to remember that one.
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June 29 (Part 1)- MK with BOG breakfast, Tony’s Parade Package, BOG dinner, and the Garden Dessert Party
Without a doubt MK is my favorite park. I had the crew up early again, definitely too early since we were at MK about 7:15 and our reservation wasn’t until 8, but oh, well. We we positioned right in front of the tunnel and that had never happened before. There was no one in front of us. The CM standing in front of us was pleasant and spent a lot of time talking with the girls.
When it was “go” time, it felt so different to be one of the first ones in. A group or two got in front of us, but it seemed like there was so much more space to walk. We did stop for a castle pic, which didn’t turn out very good, and the rest of the crowd caught up to us, but for a few minutes, it almost felt like we had the park to ourselves.
We made it for BOG before the doors opened. That had also never happened to us before either and the CMs did a little rendition of “Be Our Guest” before officially opening the doors. I want to say this is the third time we’ve done PPO breakfast here. We had preordered but they still sent us through the regular line, which was odd.
DD5 loves the West Wing and we can only seem to snag a table there with a PPO breakfast, so off we went. The DDs wanted cereal (probably the most expensive cereal we’ve ever bought ), DH had the Feast ala Gaston and I tried the croissant doughnut. I have to admit I was getting tired of the standard bacon, eggs, and waffles, so it was delicious. Very sweet! But it was a fun treat. The DDs thought it was awesome that I had ordered us a cupcake to share with breakfast.
Breakfast took about 30 minutes and then we took everyone to go potty. DH and DD5 went to line up for 7DMT. Much to my surprise the CM started to walk them back at 8:40 instead of the usual 8:50. They got two rides in before rope drop and the fireworks went off when they were on their third ride. DD3 and I hung around near the exit and took some pictures.
It was so much fun to people watch. Several groups walked by, presumably heading to later BOG ADRs (?) and they were shocked to find that 7DMT was open. One couple was even arguing about it until I told them, yes, it was indeed open. And seriously, there is nothing like watching the rope drop crowd roll in to 7DMT. I’ve never seen anything like it my life!
Next we were off to meet Ariel. My girls love meeting her with her tail and then we rode Under the Sea. After we headed to Barnstormer. It was the first time DD3 was tall enough to ride. She declared that it “made my head hurt!”
While we were on our way over to the Barnstormer, a dad with a few kids was right in front of us. They were clearly walking with purpose and they had left the mom somewhere behind. They boarded the ride before us, rode once, and as they were starting to get off, the very confused mom came through the queue. The CM let the mom join them and ride again. Well played, Disney Planner Dad! We exited the same time as them and the dad hurried them off to Dumbo, which is where they were also headed. I was so curious if they were using a Touring Plan.
After Dumbo, we got stopped by a CM trying to set up DVC tours. I must have had “Sell Me DVC” written on my forehead because this was not the first time we had been aggressively approached on this trip. He offered us $150 in giftcards, 3 FP, and when we declined, he said that he could throw in Pandora rides too. Honestly, we aren’t interested in DVC at the moment. Maybe some day, but not right now. We finally got away when I firmly said that we were headed to meet Gaston and didn’t want to be late.
DD5 LOVES Gaston. We have pictures of her with him since she was tiny, including one of him kissing her little hand, but this time, the pictures were some of the best ones we have. We had a blast!
We changed DD5’s outfit before we headed to ETwB. She was so worried that Gaston was going to see her in her new outfit. We were running ahead of schedule, so we stopped to take some pictures outside of the Beast’s Castle. We got such cute magic shots! And great pics of DD5!
On the way to ETwB, we talked to DD5 about how we are happy with WHATEVER part we are given in the play. We are happy if we are the Beast. We are happy if we are a plate. We are happy if we are Mrs. Potts. We are happy if we are the salt shaker, etc. It’s like our mantra now before this attraction. We had a little fun while we waited. She was really into roaring. I’d be lying if I said we hadn’t rehearsed a bit for this one. 
When the CM said, “Give me your best roar.” DD5 did her best Beast impersonation and she was selected to play the Beast. I’d by lying if I said that when she got to dance with Belle later that I didn’t tear up a little. Parenting emotions are weird. DD3 even went up to Belle when it was time for pictures. I highly recommend this experience if you have littles. And I love that everyone who wants a part can have one.
We headed over to Philharmagic to get some more AC and then to the Speedway for our next FP. DD3 got to “drive” while I controlled the gas and she thought it was awesome.
We had extra time before our Buzz FP. I had set the walking speed on our plan to “Very Relaxed” knowing that we would probably get ahead of it, so we stopped for a snack a the Lunching Pad. The line was ridiculous. I hopped on mobile order but was disappointed to see that the Space Ranger Slush wasn’t offered on the app. I was just going to stand in line until a CM approached and said that I could mobile order. I told her I tried but that the Space Ranger wasn’t on there. She said to order Coke slushies and then tell them what I really wanted at the mobile order window. I thanked her profusely, we grabbed a table, ordered, told them what we really wanted, and had a treats in a snap.
I had a long list of snacks to try on this trip, but I think of everything I tried, the Space Ranger slushy was my favorite! DH’s too! It was the perfect combo of cold, tart, and sweet. The celebration doughnut was pretty tasty too!
We wrapped up our snack and then headed to Buzz for our FP. The FP line to tap in was backed up. I can’t remember if it’s always this way, but we did notice an uptick in foreign travelers this trip. It happened more than once that they would end up in the wrong line and back things up. A few big groups stalled out the line for a while.
We thought about riding the People Mover, but there was a line, so headed off to Tony’s for lunch. We had booked the parade package. Without the parade package, I would probably never darken the door of Tony’s. It has such a bad reputation and rightly so. We like the bread and dessert is usually fairly good, but the entrees are just a notch above gross. The previous time we had tried the trio, which was barely edible. This time DH tried the fettuccine Alfredo and I tried the scampi pasta. They were edible, but I can’t say that they were particularly tasty. I can’t figure out what they do the pasta in the kitchen there, but it just comes out in big, tough blobs.
It was okay though; the food at Tony’s wasn’t why we booked the package. It was purely for the parade viewing. We popped into the Emporium and bought an umbrella. There isn’t really any shade around the flagpole where the reserved viewing is. We were there early enough that we grabbed a bench and claimed our spot. We had plenty of space and the CMs did a great job of policing the area. When they dropped the ropes before the parade started a group tried to move into the reserved area and they wouldn’t let them stay.
The DDs love the FOF parade and it’s my favorite too. It’s so nice to watch it without people trying to cram in next to or in front of you. I’ll eat at Tony’s every time if it means this luxury.
DD5’s Beast dress had gotten a lot of attention throughout the day, but it felt like she was the star of the FOF parade. All of the characters on the ground and on the floats were pointing at her and telling her how much they loved her dress. She was grinning from ear to ear. I told her we had to take the picture of her below because I wanted to capture the “post FOF glow.” That is one happy kid! And she was really happy to see that the Maleficent dragon was back.
We rode It’s a Small World with a FP and then I grabbed another one for Buzz. A 9:00 PPF popped up when I went in to get another FP and I grabbed. DD3 never asks for anything, but she had said that she wanted to ride it again.
The sky was looking dark, so we decided to take the girls to the Carousel of Progress. DH and the DDs had never been before. It’s a nostalgic ride for me (I remember getting stuck and watching the same scene three times with my parents as a teen.), and when we got stuck on a scene, I had to text my mom and tell her what happened. DH and the DDs weren’t impressed, but it has AC, right?
The sky was getting darker and the wind was picking up, so we decided to head to BOG for our dinner reservation. BOG definitely does have a different feel at night. Again, I stink at being brief, so I’ll pick up there with part 2.
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How does this trip report get better with every update? Please, don’t ever give in to the temptation to be brief!
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I have been stalking this trip report! It’s so much fun to read!
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I came here in search of updated Storybook Dining reviews…because those I had read before had talked of bad service…but stayed to read the entire review. I’m so glad you had plenty of Pixie Dust to make up for a few dark spots on a wonderful trip!
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@StinsyLinson, our service at Storybook Dining was great. If anything, he seemed in a bit of a rush to get us out of the door. They were running behind so I think that had something to do with it. In that respect it’s no different than CRT. Thanks for reading! It was a really great trip overall!
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