Tiki Room, Cali Grill, Rider Switch and other Random Questions

I realized that I had a bunch of just random touring questions pop up as I tinker with my plan for our family trip at the end of May, so I decided to write em down and throw em out to you. As @profmatt says, I want your advice, damnit!

  1. Tiki Room or the The Captain Jack Pirate Tutorial thingie? One has got to go. I’ve already cut one from the schedule, and I just need your opinions to validate my choice. (FYI, we’ve never done either before.)

  2. I know the Unofficial Guide recommends walking training to get your littles ready for the miles you clock whilst in the park, but have any of you (who don’t live on Eastern time) ever done sleep training to get your littles ready for getting up at 7am Eastern time each day for Rope Drop?

  3. DW and I have a 7:45 ressie at Cali Grill for a night when HEA is scheduled for 9:15. We’ll be celebrating our 18th Anniversary. whoop whoop I want to do all that is within my power to guarantee that uhmazing fireworks view during dinner. Any suggested tips? Do we need to check-in early? Show up late? Is that too early of an ADR if we still want to be there at 9:15?

  4. Lastly, five magic words: Flight. Of. Passage. Rider. Switch. I don’t want to know the policy (I’ve read it. I understand it… I think.) or what anyone thinks the policy should be… all I’m looking for is for anyone with recent experience to share if every adult had to show that they had a FP+ to get the RS pass or if they could just do the wave-from-stroller move. Anyone?

Thank in advance for any thoughts or opinions on any of this craziness.

I cannot abide rudeness. I will not respond to demands for answers. Unacceptable.

7.45pm is perfect. You can’t go wrong. I think you’ll still be enjoying your meal at 9.15pm. No problem, you’re welcome to leave your table, go outside onto the terrace and enjoy the fireworks. In the infinitely unlikely event that you’ve finished dinner, you can hang around and wait. Have a drink in the bar, or take it outside. Besides, if you eat at CG, you’re welcome to return that night to see the fireworks regardless of when you ate. So whatever happens, you’re good to go.

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Perhaps you meant you want to see the fireworks from your table?

Be more assertive than I was. We entered the restaurant, saw the awesome view and knew we were in for a magical evening. Our server walked us to our table. Past the view, down a corridor, and into some ridiculous side room with a view of the toilet block. Not. Happy.

But being British I didn’t like to say anything. So I silently seethed all night. The entire 12 night trip was ruined and I vowed never to go to WDW again.

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And you’re obviously a man of your word.

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Indeed. Since that trip I have not returned to WDW. My resolve is iron.

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Great to hear.

I’ve read about that unfortunate dinner. I really am sorry. I’m praying this doesn’t happen to us. I know a lot of people at CG are celebrating a special event, but my plan is to remind them at check-in that this is our 18th Anniversary Dinner and then to ask for a table with a view of the fireworks and let them know that we’re willing to wait till such a table opens up. We’ll see.

You and me both — I’ve graciously forgiven CG and I’ve booked Sunday brunch. But they’re not taking me back to that side room. I shall refuse to go. I’ll bring my own table and chair if I have to, and set it up centre stage.

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“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” -Swayze

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  1. What ages are your kids? Tiki Room can be noisy, as more and more things sing/chant/drum plus the thunderstorm. I had fun watching the pirate tutorial (lots of humorous remarks by cast). I think they had 4 youngsters do it, most were 6 to 10 or so, but one was very young and needed extra efforts to coax him to do or say anything. Participants need to follow instructions, and be on stage without family. Everyone is standing outdoors in the sun. Trying to catch a show is tricky, since it’s only once per hour. It’s too bad you have to give up one of these.
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I can see it now ‘British tourist expelled from US for staging Disney World sit in’ The man, who is apparently known on certain corners of the internet for demanding advice and outright lying about plan changes, was removed by security at which point he started yelling unintelligible comments about an apparent ‘dessert party conspiracy’.

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I’m from NJ and on our 14th anniversary we had a free room in Atlantic City. I asked when we checked it if they had a room with a jacuzzi tub I explained that it was our anniversary, that did not seam to get us anywhere. I then told the lady that it was our 14th anniversary and that it itched twice as much, she just looked at me. I then explained to her “you know the 7 year itch 14 itches twice as much.” She laughed and the said lets see what we can do. OMG she gave us a huge two room suite with a hot tub in the bed room, and it was still FREE.

So with that said get your anniversary pin and let them know that it is and what you would like.

Good luck and happy anniversary.

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roflmao

Daughters 12, 9 and 6. Our son will be turning 3 on the trip. I mainly was thinking of him when I first put the pirate tutorial in the plan because he loves to sword fight and he’s too young for Jedi training… but I started questioning that when I actually watched a clip of the pirate tutorial on YouTube and wondered if he would still be just a tad too young for it on this trip… and then I feel shame admitting that we have never had a Dole Whip while watching one of Walt Disney’s original attractions (the Tiki Room) and then I started questioning my love for and loyalty to all things Disney and the universe started to go dark and and… well, you get the point.

GREAT story. Hilarious. Thanks for sharing.

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#2) We live in the pacific time zone and we got our grandkids on sleep training, as well as ourselves. I am glad we did. You may know how hard jet lag is on an adult, well try to get your kids up at 7am (4am pacific) on your first day of Disney. Would not go too well.

Thanks @donald263. What, specifically, was your regimen leading up to your trip?

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The kid were not of school age yet and can’t tell time yet. But I actually set out a 4 day plan on paper. And set everything back by a half hour each day. Get up a half hour early, eat supper a half hour early and bed a half hour latter. Did this for 4 nights and that took care of most of the jet lag. I thought it worked great. No cranky kids to start off the holidays.

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Love it. Great idea. Thanks for sharing.

FOP ride swap - Yes, we used the ride swap recently in September and FOP was one of the strict ones. Most of the rides would hand you the ticket. But I remember on FOP my wife coming over to me at the stroller saying they need you to scan.

I just read this excellent review of Brunch at the Top at Cali Grill and I’m now strongly considering switching my anniversary dinner to an anniversary brunch.

Anyone here had brunch recently at Cali Grill?

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Wow. That is a great review. I have a reservation but wasn’t that excited about it. I am now!

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