Mom's buying so we're flying TR About This Page:

[shnewell]

We were away for the weekend, so I got several pages behind!

Glad you enjoyed your meal at Chef Mickey's! We have always liked eating there.

Sorry about the mini-golf meltdown. After my own similar experiences with my family, I've concluded that mini-golf in hot weather just doesn't work! But, I'm glad that everyone's spirits seem to have gotten better at Epcot. We've never made time for the Disney Visa M&G because I can never convince DH to slow down long enough to do it. It's on my list for December, though, since we'll be there with both sets of grandparents as well!

[coffeechef]

sorry that mini golf ended up being a not so mini PITA. If there ever is a next time playing minigolf and Lenny wants to keep score, perhaps he should just keep his own score if he wants record his successes, like a hole in one. The boys and I play and none of us are great at it, though I do have video of my 9 yr old nephew getting a hole in one. I have a neice that gets upset if she is not winning and her Dad will throw a fit at her having a fit. I have experiened that so I know what you must have been feeling trying to be the mediator. Glad that Epcot eased the pain a bit, though I can see how it would be hard to have better spirits as you try to recover from all the turmoil that mini golf created.
LWTL has grown on me thru the years and I like the farmhouse scene there. I imagine living there and waking up to living on a small farm, of course I don't imagine the chores and hard work that goes with that.
Can't wait to read about your GG dinner and hope that you felt better emotionally by Dinner time

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by mommapants

Hi Darlene - I'm catching up from the weekend but wanted to ask you a quick question - does the press penny still cost 50 cents or has it gone up. I was in Baltimore this weekend and the pressed pennies there were $1.00 and thought WDW might be that too. Thanks

Yes, the pennies are still 50 cents plus the penny. $1.00 . That's outrageous IMO

Originally Posted by mushu22

Loving your TR. Even the bad parts, makes it more real. What does KWIM mean.? Can't wait for more.

Thanks, I'm glad you like my TR. KWIM = know what I mean? There's a link at the top of the page to "shorthands" which will tell you more of them.

Originally Posted by truenancy

Men. Can't live 'em, can't get 'em to stay back at the hotel. He seems to have perked up quite a bit at Epcot, though. It's tough to predict, though, isn't it?

Men - unpredictable?? You think . And they dare call us unpredictable. And you're right - can't live with em, can't leave them in the hotel.

Originally Posted by mommapants

I didn't know Kodak pulled their sponsorship - where have I been?

Sorry mini golf didn't turn out as planned.

Where/what is the Disney Visa M&G, I've read a little about it as I'm a card holder. Is it the Character spot - do you make a reservation for it, is it only special dates/times?

Thanks for the Chef Mickey's update. We have an ADR for 7:15pm and was wondering how long the meal may last. I'm trying to bump it up to 6:30 but not having any luck with it.

I'm pretty sure Kodak pulled their sponsorship of Imagination. At least I know there was lots of talk a few months back about it. The Visa M&G is in Innoventions over by Where's the Fire. You can only get the pictures with the Visa card and you do have to show it while you're in line. If you don't have it, you will be asked to get out of line. The times I think are either 1 to 4 or 1:30 to 4:30 (something like that - but the specific times I know are at StitchKingdom.com) and it's everyday and all you have to do is show up and wait.

For character meals, the norm for us is about 1 1/2 hours from start to finish. Good luck with moving your time

Originally Posted by jimmymac

I'm glad you were able to salvage the day after the golf fiasco. I love rreading your TRs

Thanks Jim - me too. And I'm glad you're still enjoying my TR

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by shnewell

We were away for the weekend, so I got several pages behind!

Glad you enjoyed your meal at Chef Mickey's! We have always liked eating there.

Sorry about the mini-golf meltdown. After my own similar experiences with my family, I've concluded that mini-golf in hot weather just doesn't work! But, I'm glad that everyone's spirits seem to have gotten better at Epcot. We've never made time for the Disney Visa M&G because I can never convince DH to slow down long enough to do it. It's on my list for December, though, since we'll be there with both sets of grandparents as well!

In our case mini golf with Abby + Lenny = asking for trouble. I should have known from the start but I wasn't thinking and paid the price for it because it's not the first time he's complained at mini golf. I've already told him the next time we go, he's not playing AT ALL! No ifs ands or buts about it. That should be fun having both sets of grandparents there - I hope you remember to go. And here's the important thing to remember - you get one free picture for EACH Disney Visa you have so if you and your hubby each have an account, that's 2 photos and if your and/or his parents have any, you'll get a free print for each account they have too. And each time you visit Epcot you can get in line again. The limit is just once a day for getting the prints.

Originally Posted by coffeechef

sorry that mini golf ended up being a not so mini PITA. If there ever is a next time playing minigolf and Lenny wants to keep score, perhaps he should just keep his own score if he wants record his successes, like a hole in one. The boys and I play and none of us are great at it, though I do have video of my 9 yr old nephew getting a hole in one. I have a neice that gets upset if she is not winning and her Dad will throw a fit at her having a fit. I have experiened that so I know what you must have been feeling trying to be the mediator. Glad that Epcot eased the pain a bit, though I can see how it would be hard to have better spirits as you try to recover from all the turmoil that mini golf created.
LWTL has grown on me thru the years and I like the farmhouse scene there. I imagine living there and waking up to living on a small farm, of course I don't imagine the chores and hard work that goes with that.
Can't wait to read about your GG dinner and hope that you felt better emotionally by Dinner time

No, there won't be a next time for Lenny. As I said above, I've already told him he is never playing mini golf at Disney again. While I feel bad for you and your experiences at mini golf - it's comforting to know I'm not the only one who has had bad experiences at it. For LWTL - the farmhouse is my favorite scence too and I don't blame you for not imagining the work that goes along with it - I'd probably ignore that part too . I'm going to post in a few minutes so you'll find out how our dinner went.

[omd]

Sounds like Lenny took his "Grumpy" pill before playing golf. I agree that next time he should not play at all. I'm glad that the day got better. I don't think I would have liked the uncomfortable Pluto hug either.

[CinderAbby]

Monday July 25th Part 2

When we got to the GG, the restaurant wasn’t even open yet, so we had to wait a few minutes before our pager went off unlike all the other restaurants where it seemed to go off immediately.

As soon as the Characters came out to start dinner, our pager went off. When a CM came to seat us, he asked if we’d ever eaten there before. Lenny said we had and asked if we could have a table with chairs. The CM then handed the manager our slip and he took care of it for us. We were shown to our table where we had Lisa from Connecticut as our Server. She did a really good job and was very personable. We enjoyed having her as our server and even let the manager know at the end of the meal. And the characters as usual were really fun. We saw Pluto 3 times, Mickey twice, Chip twice and Dale once. One of the times we saw Chip, it was really funny because he was trying to leave for a break and Abby caught him and called "Wait Chip, don’t go!!" and he immediately turned around, ran to Abby and gave her a really big hug. It was just so cute.

Dale was causing trouble but pointing at Abby, almost as if saying "she started it. Abby then got in on the action pointing back at Chip.

Wait Chip , don’t go!!

　
The food at this meal was good too. I was disappointed in the maple butter as it wasn’t the same from last year. This time it was butter with maple syrup drizzled on top of it so nothing like it was last year . It was just okay and not nearly as enjoyable. The rest of the food was good however, which is a good thing too as this is one of the restaurants where I didn’t get to see the chef. I don’t know if it’s because it was overlooked or just not on our seating slip to begin with. I didn’t have any problems with what I ate so I’m not going to make a big deal out of it. Lenny had all the fish and said it was really good. I tried the rice, the beef, the turkey and the potatoes and it all tasted good but after the salad and rolls, I couldn’t eat a lot of it. Abby tried the same things I did but she mainly lived on the rolls we got and some of the turkey. For dessert, we got the Raspberry Peach Cobbler and Lisa automatically brought out the kids dessert for Abby. We never mentioned it or asked about it so I liked the fact that she just did it . So overall, it was another really good meal at the GG and I wouldn’t hesitate to go back again.

After dinner, we headed downstairs as Abby wanted Living with the Land again.

This entire row was nothing but Parsley. All I could think was "Rapunzel (my bunny ) would have a field day with all that parsley."

　
Afterwards I was able to get another ride on Soarin’. Out of all the rides that I can’t do, it kind of amazes me that I can do this one without a problem . I enjoyed it again and from here, I had to stop and look at a times guide to figure out what was getting ready to close and what was staying open because not everything in FW has the same hours. From the times guide, I learned with the exception of Imagination, everything else we wanted to do in Epcot would stay open at least until 8:40 (that’s the time Turtle Talk with Crush closed). With the knowledge that Imagination was going to be closing early for the night, Abby wanted to go there before heading back to the Seas. I said okay and that’s the order we did things. This time however when we got off Imagination, Abby very briefly played in Imageworks and soon we went back to Nemo. We rode the Clammobiles again and I was disappointed that the Angler fish wasn’t working (it hadn’t really dawned on me the first time we rode it). That scene just doesn’t make sense without it working and I agree with whomever on here said that Disney should at least turn the lights off of it if it’s not going to work. After we found Nemo , we went to see Crush.

There wasn’t a huge line for it nor was there a long wait either and in no time we were inside. Abby sat down front and we sat in the back. I don’t know how Disney does this show but we enjoy it. I have to laugh here though about our experience. Usually when I’m inside the pavilions at Epcot I get no reception with my phone. Today for some reason, right in the middle of Crush, my phone rang - it was my mother. I have it set to POTC (the movie) music and it starts off softly so I grabbed my phone real quick and hit ignore to stop it. We finished watching the show and once we were out of there I grabbed my phone to return my mothers call since I figured hey I got reception in there, I might get it in the rest of the building. Nope, I didn’t . I have no idea how I was able to get a phone call in the middle of the building when I couldn’t even get reception in the gift shop area at the edge of the building. It was strange I tell you.

We spent a bit of time looking at all the different tanks and all the sea life. I even found not one but 2 hidden Mickey’s.

　
When Abby was content with everything she saw we finally made our way to Abby’s "must do" of Epcot - Mexico (here’s a quick funny story - all week long, that’s all Abby watched - Stacy and the must dos of Disney.) I called my mother on the walk over to World Showcase and talked with her until we got to Mexico.

As usual, there was next to no line for this ride and as we started, Abby told me to watch for the Volcano because it has a hidden Mickey. We came around the pyramid and Abby spotted it first but by the time I spotted it and had the camera ready, it was all gone . I still think of this as a Mexican IASW ride and because Abby enjoys it, I can’t help but enjoy it.

As we came to the end, I said to Lenny we should see if we could stay on it and ride a second time instead of getting of, getting the scooter, going around, and getting in line again. He didn’t think the CM would let us but when the entire boat of people in front of us stayed on for a second ride, I asked if we could stay too. Because everyone else in our boat got off and they had already lined people up to fill it, the CM asked if we could get out and move to this side for the next boat to unload. Once that one was empty, we would be able to get back on. I thanked her in English as we got off , then I thanked her in what little Spanish I know when we got back on and we set off to find Donald again.

By the time we got off it was getting late - it was about 20 after 8 and I didn’t want to be in the park for Illuminations . If there’s one thing I really don’t care for it’s the mob scene of leaving with everyone else so we started making our way out of the park. As we got closer to SSE, Lenny asked if we could go on it this year as we totally missed it last year. Abby for whatever reason thought it was a roller coaster inside and said she didn’t want to. When I told her no, it’s a really slow moving ride just like Imagination or Nemo, she changed her mind and said she’d try it.

There’s not much I can say about this ride. It is what it is and I actually enjoy the little cartoon at the end more than I enjoy the rest of the ride.

I mean it’s okay but even though we missed the ride last year, I didn’t "miss" it, KWIM? It wouldn’t have bothered me had we not gone on it this year but Lenny wanted it. When we got off SSE, we started heading out of the park again but then we remembered our pictures from the Disney Visa M&G. I actually wanted to try and get out of the park ahead of the masses and would have been happy to skip them but Lenny wanted them so we went in the camera store. I was told the printers were down and it would be a while before they were back up again. When I asked what a while would be one person said 30 minutes and another said only 5 minutes . I must have given them a look because they both then said no, it would be about 5 minutes for the printers, not 30. Taking them at their word I said "if it’s only 5 minutes, that’s not a problem as it will take me that long just to pick a photo." By the time we were done picking photos and adding borders Illuminations was over and the masses were heading by. I wasn't thrilled but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I thanked the girl for her time, made one last minute purchase for Lenny and then we left the camera store.

We had only gone a few feet when I was approached by a CM taking surveys. He said he only needed one more survey for the day regarding our experiences in the park. I didn’t really want to do it so I said "if you need info about World Showcase, we didn’t get to it so I can’t help you." He told me no, they wanted info based on what we had done for the day. I still didn’t want to do it but I agreed. I told him "just let me tell them to go without me and then I’ll take it." The CM seemed concerned that we were splitting up but I told him it was okay, that Abby needed to just get in the car and Lenny would need time to break down the scooter and put it in the car so it would be fine. He thanked me for my time and showed me where the computer was. When the CM said he needed only one survey, he wasn’t kidding. As I was taking mine, all the other computers were being shut down and packed up for the night. And when he said it was based only on what we did, that’s all it was. I don’t think it even took 5 minutes for me to do the survey because we had done so little that day. I have to admit though, the only thing we did that day that I didn’t give a good rating to was Imagination. I don’t like the ride, they should never have gotten rid of the original one so therefore I gave it a just okay rating (because Abby likes it) and when I got the question of whether I would recommend it to anyone I put no I would never recommend it to anyone .

As soon as I was done, I let a CM know that I had finished and she thanked me and then I managed to find my way out of the park. With so many different people going different ways, I wasn’t sure which way to go but I finally recognized where I was at and made my way back to the parking lot. Lenny was just finishing up the scooter when I arrived and got in. I was so quick with the survey he was surprised to find me already sitting in the car. He started the car and we went back to the hotel for the night. Vacation was catching up to us and we were all tired so it didn’t take long before we were all asleep for the night .

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by omd

Sounds like Lenny took his "Grumpy" pill before playing golf. I agree that next time he should not play at all. I'm glad that the day got better. I don't think I would have liked the uncomfortable Pluto hug either.

Thanks Olive - Lenny took something alright - I just don't know if it was his Grumpy pill, more than Grumpy pill or what but I'm not going to do it again. He can stay in the car or the hotel and just Abby and I will go - it'll save us money too which is always a good thing . I don't know what was up with Pluto but I know it'll make me stop and think before I get too close to a character again.

[Shawnam1868]

Sorry about the "issues" at mini golf. There are certain things we can't do as a family because of the competitiveness of my family. All of us, with the exception of my 11yo, are highly competitive and there have been times that we've gone the whole weekend with someone getting the silent treatment. And when someone, usually dh or 14yo don't win or get their way, forget it. I want to get a new family.

We've never done Garden Grill, but I think I might give it a try. It looks fun.

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by Shawnam1868

Sorry about the "issues" at mini golf. There are certain things we can't do as a family because of the competitiveness of my family. All of us, with the exception of my 11yo, are highly competitive and there have been times that we've gone the whole weekend with someone getting the silent treatment. And when someone, usually dh or 14yo don't win or get their way, forget it. I want to get a new family.

We've never done Garden Grill, but I think I might give it a try. It looks fun.

Sorry to tell you Shawna put you can't pick your family. You're stuck with 'em . I'd give you mine, but I'd be on the losing end of the deal. Instead of only have 2 family members (three if you throw in my mother ) I'd have what - 4 (you do have 3 kids, don't you) so I'll stick with mine - and just leave one of them home (well the hotel) next time.

GG is fun - it really is. And we always go for an early dinner so there's not a lot of people and it's nice and quiet.

[tinker_me_happy]

Originally Posted by CinderAbby

You're not kidding - I always thought Golf was a quiet sport - not that day it wasn't .

I take it you've never seen Happy Gilmore?

[aprild]

Another great update Darlene!

Thanks for your review of Garden Grill. We'll definitely have it on our "must try" list, if not for this trip then the next one.

Abby has such a sweet smile and those pics of her with Chip and Dale are just ADORABLE! She looks so mischievous in the one where they are pointing at each other.

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by tinker_me_happy

I take it you've never seen Happy Gilmore?

No, I haven't Karen. Should I??

Originally Posted by aprild

Another great update Darlene!

Thanks for your review of Garden Grill. We'll definitely have it on our "must try" list, if not for this trip then the next one.

Abby has such a sweet smile and those pics of her with Chip and Dale are just ADORABLE! She looks so mischievous in the one where they are pointing at each other.

Thanks April. You have to try GG - it is a lot of fun and instead of the typcial scenery of the other TS restaurants, this one rotates and you get the scenery from the Living with the Land ride below. Abby can be very mischievous and I said something to Dale (I think I said sure, point and blame her) so I laughed when she started pointing back at Dale. She stopped so I told her to do it again so I could get the picture. If I'm not mistaken, Dale had her pen and wouldn't give it back - he kept pulling it away from her when she reached for it.

[lauriep]

Character meals are definitely the way to go for your family! Abby just enjoys the heck out of them! Chip and Dale are always such fun. They've changed the menu since I was at GG-- for the better, I think. Soarin' is an iffy ride for me. Sometimes I get dizzy and sometimes not. I think I've figured out that if I sit on the end of a row the angle does make me dizzy. It may be just that sometimes the film isn't synched right. When it doesn't affect me, I love it, though, so I keep trying!

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Character meals are definitely the way to go for your family! Abby just enjoys the heck out of them! Chip and Dale are always such fun. They've changed the menu since I was at GG-- for the better, I think. Soarin' is an iffy ride for me. Sometimes I get dizzy and sometimes not. I think I've figured out that if I sit on the end of a row the angle does make me dizzy. It may be just that sometimes the film isn't synched right. When it doesn't affect me, I love it, though, so I keep trying!

That's why I schedule so many of them. They're buffet or family style which works really well for us. They're character meals which means we don't have to stand in lines during the day. And because Abby can see the characters coming and how they interact, etc, she enjoys them far more than her character meetings in the parks. So all around they just really work for us.

As for Soarin, it must just be the angle you're watching from - especially if you're on not only the end of the row of seats but the sides as well - they're kind of angled to begin with. I've noticed for myself, if we sit on those side seats near the outer edge, it's almost a distraction to see the screen and then the black line of the wall - and if you're seeing that, that could be whats doing it.

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you had a great time at Epcot and a great meal! Love the pictures!