The Holi-Canoli! Whirlwind Trip That Wasn't Supposed to Be - Page 30 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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What a great day at Busch Gardens! All your photos are reminding me of what a great park it is to visit - for us, it's the animals we love though, not the coasters! :
That ride does look scary! OK, so they both look kind of scary to me.
Once I rode it, it was fabulous!!! I hope to get to ride it again one day.
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Originally Posted by chezp
Wow, you're way braver than me going on those coasters!
I like the speed and the loops.
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Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
Seeing your photos of BG is making me want to go back there instead of WDW in a couple of weeks. Well, not really! But it is a nice park. I can understand why you were nervous looking at SheiKra. It's an intimidating coaster! But I don't think it's as intense as you'd expect it to be. But that's just me, and I have no problem floating around in space (just don't spin me around )! I agree, it's lots of fun and the huge splash is the best! Keep the wonderful updates coming!
I think for me, it was definitely the hanging there and looking straight down. UGH! Other than that, it was an amazing coaster. I'm with you...I don't think anything could pull me away from going to WDW if I'm going to be in the Orlando (or Florida) vicinity.
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Originally Posted by Cam22
Ok -- those coasters are way to much for me. I feel sorry for Luke because he loves coasters, all coasters -- the bigger, the scarier, the badder. But I do NOT, so he always rides alone. I think he'd enjoy a park day with you three.
Awwww, at least you let Luke ride them. I'm sure he enjoys it.
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Originally Posted by dsteiny23
Would Love to try that coaster!!! I remember the flume ride from High School some 24 years ago. We did get soaked though, but that was because the guys we rode with brought on the empty cups from lunch and were scooping the water and dumping it on us girls. Boys!!
And Oh My...the cakes!! They look FAB-U-LOUS. Could be because I just dumped my entire salad on the floor of my office.
Gonna have to get to BG at some point with the boys.
I bet your boys would like it especially if they like roller coasters. The cakes were actually very, very good. :yum:
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Originally Posted by a_bernard
we've been to Bush Gardens during 2 trips and really liked it too. Those cakes look really yummy
You'll have to try the BG in Williamsburg, VA, one day. It is wonderful!
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Originally Posted by MGW
BG looks like fun! I love Roller Coasters! Might have to go there soon.
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Originally Posted by Hugmonster
I think I might actually go outside the bubble and try BG. Those coasters look great!
It was a nice day trip away from WDW. The coasters were worth it.
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Wow, those are some coasters! Like you said, I wouldn't want to be a ride attendant! More great pictures too!
Thanks!
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Originally Posted by islandgirl
The roller coasters look awesome!! Sounds like you had a fun day. The cakes look yummy!!!
Victoria is 15! I can’t believe my baby girl is growing up. To surprise her, I booked breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. We loved this restaurant for dinner and had high expectations for breakfast.
We got up bright and early and drove to the Grand Floridian.
Michael had never been here, and he thought it was a very lovely resort.
We checked in and I made sure that Victoria’s birthday was noted on the reservation. I had made the ADR online and said it was for her birthday breakfast. Everything was in order, and we were seated immediately. It was pretty crowded in there. We were seated in the first room you enter right next to the doorway to the main room with the buffet.
There were no characters in our immediate vicinity, so we ordered our drinks and went to the buffet.
My plate...
Michael’s plate...
I didn’t get a picture of Victoria’s plate. I must have been too busy stuffing my face.
It took almost 20 minutes before our first character came to our table. Tigger! Tigger is one of Victoria’s favorite characters.
Two minutes later, Pooh showed up. He was so cute!
I went back for seconds. I just had to have Mickey waffles.
When Victoria was gone to the buffet, I reminded our waiter that it was Victoria’s birthday. He said, “Oh sure! That’s great.” I just wanted to make sure she got her cupcake. We’ve never celebrated a birthday at WDW before so this was a pretty big deal to us. I also asked for a refill of cranberry juice.
It took another 20 minutes before we saw Mary Poppins. She was lovely as ever. We are fast picture takers. We got all three of our pictures taken with her in 24 seconds. I know because my camera has the time each picture is taken down to the seconds. Needless to say, her visit was a very quick one.
Eight minutes later, Alice wandered over. She was very cute. It is killing Victoria that she is now taller than Alice. It makes her very sad.
The Mad Hatter was right behind Alice. He was the best part of the whole meal. He was hilarious.
We had seen everyone in the restaurant, had finished our meal (without the refill of cranberry juice I had asked for), and we sat. And we waited. Michael said the waiter’s tip was slowly going down. We hardly saw him anyway during our meal and now just sitting and waiting for our check was getting a little preposterous not to mention the fact he had totally forgotten Victoria’s birthday. Finally, he arrived with our check. I think he saw a perturbed look on our faces. Michael gave him our debit card, and the waiter took it away to run it through. When the waiter came back, he told us to wait because he had a cupcake for Victoria. Yeah. A little late there, dude. He brought out a cupcake in a to-go container that was too small for the cupcake, lit the candle, and he said happy birthday. Michael and I sang “Happy Birthday” to her. Poor thing. It was a bit of a let down.
Needless to say, I was a bit disconcerted. We were past ready to leave by now so Victoria squashed the cupcake in the too small to-go container, and we left. Victoria and I liked dinner at 1900 MUCH better than breakfast.
We left 1900 and walked into the lobby. When Victoria and I were here in September, they were working on the floor of the lobby. We got to see what they had been doing. I it! The Fab Five are in the marble floor of the lobby. Too cute!
We left the GF and had to pose with the car and carriage.
We drove back to the resort so Victoria could open presents!
Victoria is nuts about “Wicked.” We got her the pop-up book of the Broadway musical. She was ecstatic!
She loves scarves, and Michael found her some beautiful scarves from Taji, Iraq. She loved them!
We also got her a cute Vera Bradley purse.
Of course, the best present of all was having Daddy here with us!
After she opened presents we planned our day. Our plan was to go to DTD to get her birthday gift card from Disney. Then, she wanted to go to Blizzard Beach to celebrate her birthday. Afterwards, we would go to DTD to trick-or-treat. That was the plan. Here is what actually happened.
We all got dressed for BB and headed to DTD. I thought that you could go to any guest services and claim your birthday present from Disney. So, we went to GS in DTD. Thankfully there was no line. We walked up to the counter, birth certificate in hand, and the nice CM told us you had to go to one of the four parks to get your gift card or whatever you choose as your gift. I told her we weren’t going to a park today. She said that was the only place to go. I said, “So, we have to pay $14 to park just to get her gift card?”
She said, “Yes.”
“Really?” I was really surprised. Then I said, “I guess we’ll take a bus to DHS since it is closest and take a bus back here to get our car.”
She said, “Oh, you don’t have to take a bus. You can drive. It will be easier.”
I said, “But, I don’t want to pay $14 to park in order to get the gift card. We aren’t going to a park today. We are going to Blizzard Beach.”
She said, “I see what you are saying. Just a second....”
She was typing around on her computer and said, “I will give you the $14 in Disney Dollars, and you can give that to the parking attendant.”
I thought that was very nice but I said, “Oh no! You don’t have to do that. We can take a bus.”
But, she insisted we take the Disney Dollars. I thought that was very, very nice of her. So, $14 Disney Dollars in hand, we drive to DHS. Keep in mind, this is eating up our time at BB.
We pull up to the parking at DHS, and Michael says we are going to get the birthday gift card. The CM asks if we were going to stay in the park. Michael told him we weren’t, then the CM told Michael to follow a line and tell the next CM that we were only going to guest services, and we didn’t have to pay for parking. You would think CMs would all be on the same page when it came to parking and when it would be complimentary. Or maybe too many people would try to take advantage of that and go on into the park anyway when they said they weren’t going to stay. Who knows? But, due to all of this, I felt a little guilty holding $14 in Disney Dollars that were given to us to pay for parking. So, I gave them to Victoria.
We park in the handicapped parking because that is where we were directed to go. Go figure! We go to GS, and it couldn’t have been any easier from there. Victoria flashed them her birth certificate, and she was given the Disney gift card in return. She was stoked!
We walked back to the car with a dilemma on our hands. All of this birthday stuff had taken over two hours to sort through and now it was time for lunch. After much deliberation and some disappointment on Victoria’s part, we decide not to go to BB and go to DQ instead. We would have spent maybe two hours at BB before we would have to leave to get to the resort and shower and get ready for trick-or-treating at DTD. Victoria saw the logic in the decision.
We went back to the resort to have lunch. Michael and I went ahead and dressed for Halloween, and we put Victoria’s Alice costume in the car. We went to DTD and easily got a parking space, another plus to going so early in the day.
DQ was fun again.
We were there only a few hours and then it was time for Victoria to transform into Alice and go trick-or-treating. Victoria quickly changed in the car. We watched for passersby. She makes a lovely Alice, and I’m so glad she got to wear the costume again.
We got maps of the TorT spots and were given bags. We got in the first line. This TorT experience differed from MNSSHP because almost all of this candy was really good candy. Trick-or-treating was a madhouse! It was packed with every princess, villain, pirate, ninja, and Disney character you could possibly think of. Plus, it was blistering hot. Geez! It’s almost November!
Decorations were cute, but lines were extremely long for pictures with them so I didn’t take many pictures. We did get these.
We TorTed all the way from Cirque to T-Rex where we had reservations for Victoria’s birthday dinner. Seeing as how we could hardly move, we decided to see if T-Rex had room for us now before it really got crowded. There was room, and we walked right in. I took pictures as we were being seated.
This little fellow was right next to me. He was pretty quiet.
We could see through the bushes to the ice room or whatever it is called. It was really pretty in there and changed colors often.
The birthday girl!
Michael and Me - He was wearing a Jack Skellington shirt, and I was wearing a Sally shirt.
Our waiter was fantastic!!! He was talkative, entertaining and genuinely seemed like he cared about our first experience there. He was also glad to have a birthday girl at his table.
We looked over the menu and placed our orders. I started my meal off with the Jurassic Salad - iceberg and romaine lettuce, celery, carrots, tomatoes and black olives with bleu cheese dressing.
Victoria was just a little tired...
I am the only one that started with a salad. Once I was finished, our food came out right away. I ordered the Lost World Chicken Salad Sandwich - Rotisserie chicken with tarragon, celery, onions, toasted almonds and mayonnaise, served on a croissant with waffle fries. It was !!!
Michael ordered the Gigantosaurus Burger - Two 100% beef patties with all the fixins’ with pepper jack cheese and waffle fries.
Our birthday girl ordered the Triceratop Filet - charbroiled center-cut, aged tenderloin filet, topped with steak butter and served with garlic mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables.
We all enjoyed our meal and all the goings-on in the restaurant. It was a really fun place to eat. Our waiter took a family picture.
He soon came out with a huge group of waiters and presented Victoria with a cookie and ice cream and sang “Happy Birthday” to her. I got it on video, that’s why I don’t have pictures.
She ate her dessert, we paid the bill and left. I took pictures on our way out.
That dude looks scared!
I am so glad we ate there when we did. It was a very good call on our part. There was an enormous line of people waiting to get in. There is no telling how long we would have waited if we hadn’t gone in when we did.
We walked back through DTD. We felt like salmon swimming upstream. It was a madhouse. I took one last picture of DQ on our way out.
We got to our car and drove back home.
It wasn’t the way we had planned to spend Victoria’s birthday, but it was fun nonetheless and all worked out in the end.
I'm glad Victoria's birthday turned out to be fun in the end. Sorry your breakfast wasn't what you'd hoped for. T-Rex looks interesting and the food looks very good.
Liz
Great "birthday" day!!!! Wish 1900 had been a little more magical though. Love the gifts Victoria got-especially spending it in WDW w/her parents!. Glad your alternate plans worked out so well-cute Alice!!! and great dinner at T-Rex!!! The picture of Victoria with her head on the table was so funny! Love all of your pictures!!!
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I'm finally all caught up! What a great day at Busch Gardens, and looks like Victoria had a wonderful birthday. Sorry about the service at 1900 Park Fare though.
Happy Birthday to Victoria! Sorry the day didn't go exactly as planned, but sounds like it was still a good day and ended on a high note! Great pictures!
i love mickey waffles too. I love your Halloween ears. i didn't know that you could trick or treat at DTD? when i was there in september, they didn't have that. Victoria looks so happy opening her gifts, even though you guys didn't get to do blizzard beach, it looks like she had a really good birthday with breakfast, dinner (i love T-Rex too, i had the chicken salad croissant and really liked it), opening gifts, DQ and trick or treating. VEry nice and the gift card and the disney dollars. i am sure she had a wonderful day.
So sorry about the lack of birthday magic at 1900 Park Fare, it should have been much better for Victoria. You guys did some magic though to make her day very special!
Sounds like a great Birthday!
Sorry 1900 Park Fare didn't have great service and that you didn't make it to BB!
Glad you enjoyed dinner and that Victoria got to where her Alice costume again
i love mickey waffles too. I love your Halloween ears. i didn't know that you could trick or treat at DTD? when i was there in september, they didn't have that. Victoria looks so happy opening her gifts, even though you guys didn't get to do blizzard beach, it looks like she had a really good birthday with breakfast, dinner (i love T-Rex too, i had the chicken salad croissant and really liked it), opening gifts, DQ and trick or treating. VEry nice and the gift card and the disney dollars. i am sure she had a wonderful day.
They only have Trick-or-Treating in DTD on October 30th and 31st so you didn't miss it.
I LOVED my chicken salad croissant from T-Rex. It was heavenly.
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All your photos are reminding me of what a great park it is to visit - for us, it's the animals we love though, not the coasters! 
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Once I rode it, it was fabulous!!! I hope to get to ride it again one day. 
)! 
We did get soaked though, but that was because the guys we rode with brought on the empty cups from lunch and were scooping the water and dumping it on us girls. Boys!! 
roller coasters. He thought SheiKra looked so fun! 
I know because my camera has the time each picture is taken down to the seconds. Needless to say, her visit was a very quick one. 
Then, she wanted to go to Blizzard Beach to celebrate her birthday. Afterwards, we would go to DTD to trick-or-treat. That was the plan. Here is what actually happened.
She makes a lovely Alice, and I’m so glad she got to wear the costume again.
Love the gifts Victoria got-especially spending it in WDW w/her parents!. Glad your alternate plans worked out so well-cute Alice!!! 
Susan
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