the EIGHTEEN years, TEARS, CHEERS & Hurricane FEARS TR
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oldmom · 10-08-2008, 02:00 PM

waiting for more

tinker_me_happy · 10-08-2008, 04:44 PM

Hopefully I'll be able to write some more tomorrow. In the middle of a four day stretch of 13 hour shifts!

tinker_me_happy · 10-09-2008, 11:38 AM

Preamble: So in July of 2007 Alicia and I were lucky enough to go to WDW with my BFF Pauline and her daughter Haley after the girls had been in a National Dance competition together. We took a few extra days in Orlando and spent 2 1/2 days at Disney. It was Alicia’s first trip. Pauline has been numerous times, and was determined that we would see as much as possible in the little amount of time we had. All of the planning was left up to her, which was fine with me! One of the things she requested was that we eat at Sci-fi café, since it was something she had always wanted to do and her family was reluctant to try. I was open to trying anything! We ate there and had a blast. SO much so, that as you read earlier, I took my family, who also enjoyed having lunch there!
Another thing Pauline ALWAYS wanted to do was to eat at San Angel Inn in Mexico. But sadly, we did not have time with our schedule, and her family “would never” eat there. So of course We HAD to book a meal there and try it out. And what does Alicia HAVE to do? Why Gloat of course! She had to send Pauline a picture to let her know we were “there” having lunch!

On the bright side, we did convince her that she should take her family in for desserts and drinks! Even if they don’t get a meal, she could still enjoy the ambience. OR better yet I told her, "send your boys off on their own to fend for themselves for a meal and You, Haley and Your Mom go and enjoy San Angel Inn!!"

Backt to our Regularly scheduledd TR:
We had an 11:30 ressie, which is apparently when they start seating. We were 15 minutes early as directed so got to stand around and wait. The band came out and played which was nice, and we poked around the shops a bit. Well, the boys did, Alicia did her usual, though not quite as bad, freak out about being too far away from the podium with the beeper thing. I tried telling her that someone was ON the boat ride when their beeper went off, but she didn’t want to hear it! I also tried to get them to GO on the boat ride while we waited, but again my family looked at me like I was nuts. SO you all tell me… Am I nuts?
I took this while we waited:

Anyway we were finally seated, and we got a riverside seat.

Unfortunately my dinky point and shoot doesn’t take great in the dark pictures and by this point in the trip Corey just stopped taking his camera out of the room! A strange thing happened when the waitress came over with the menu. My tummy was just NOT happy! I think it was totally psycosomatic bad memories of the first night when I used the bathroom there, but I wasn’t feeling hungry at all. I wasn’t feeling sick, but really didn’t want to eat. Either that, or the French toast loaf still had me full from breakfast.
Of course, one can not be in Mexico and not order a margarita. So order I did!!

I thought about getting the less expensive drink (thinking I might not finish it), but went for the top of the line! I forgot that Jeff and Alicia hadn’t eaten breakfast, so my eyes kind of bugged out when he ordered. He got both a soup and a salad from the appetizer section AND a meal! I had the Mexican salad and was only able to eat about 1/4 of it. The kids had enchiladas but I can’t remember who had what. Jeff ate everything he ordered! The kids finished most of their food, but not all of it. I DID finish my margarita, but only because I let Jeff and each of the kids take a sip (yea, bad mommy, but it really WAS only a sip!). No one had room for dessert. The ambience was amazing, but I had a really hard time adjusting to the light. Usually, my eyes will adjust, but even after being inside the dark for as long as we were, they never really did. I think the problem was the lanterns on the table threw just enough light to mess up my eyes, but not enough light for me to see well! The food was ok. Not bad, not great. The service was good, the waitress was attentive without being over bearing. Mostly I enjoyed the restaurant for the fun of having tried it. I would be more inclined to come back for desserts and drinks, and not a meal, because of the price, but I am really glad we ate here. I cannot say anything bad about it, but it is not on my “Must Do Again” list either. Over all, we were just having fun enjoying lunch and talking about the weather. Corey Evan and I shared our wind storm morning with Jeff and Alicia while we ate. One more picture before we left:

I tried to talk them into the boat ride AGAIN when we were done, but they were party poopers once more and said no. So we did some window shopping instead. Once everyone was done, we headed out of Mexico and over to FW. How about some free soda guys?
Club Cool it is! Ok this was definitely an experience! I should have paid more attention to the names of things but I didn’t. I just had my eye on Beverly. Now of course NO ONE in my house knows anything about Beverly but me. Not that I’ve ever tasted it, but I’ve read the reviews. SO, sweet mother that I am, I tell everyone to save Beverly for last. I want us to try it all together! They all agree. Am I being mean?

NO, I just want to SEE everyone’s face!
The boys liked the one that was a cross between mountain dew and sprite. Alicia was sort of “Meh” about all of them. Personally I am not a big soda fan, so I didn’t care for any of them. Evan went back for seconds on a couple! And now, the big taste test… Beverly time!
Ok… I am a mean mother… but pay back is a *itch! I suppose I SHOULD have warned them. Of course the FACES

would not have been so PURE if I had! It was priceless!!

I really should have just had my camera out and snapped a picture (but I think that would have given it away!) Let me say they did NOT like the Beverly! It was pretty nasty! Though I didn’t think it was as horrible as most people say it is! Actually if you have ever had Akvavit, you wouldn’t think Beverly was bad at all! Well our Cool Club experience was an interesting one, but we didn’t think it would be a place we would be frequenting on future trips! Though it did lead to lots of laughing! Even my little mean streak of having everyone try the Beverly together (Oh, yes I drank it too!) got a good chuckle out of us!

The weather was just nasty so the boys decided to head back to the hotel. Jeff Alicia and I headed over to Mousegears to do some shopping. There was not really a lot of stuff I needed or wanted to buy, but I really wanted a sweatshirt! I was hoping to find one here since the store was pretty big! After going around and around and around about 6 times, I FINALLY found a cute zip up pink Minnie hoodie Child Xtra Large that fit! I looked at the pins and found a great Tink pin and made my way to a check out. Of course Alicia and Jeff were no where to be found! At the check out they had a special if you spent $40 you could get a Mickey watch for $15, so I bought that too! At first I thought I would give it to Jeff, then I thought I’d keep it for myself, then I thought I’d give it to him! Oye! So indecisive. When the CM showed me the two sizes, I realized the SMALL would be the perfect size for Jeff and way too big for me, so that answered that!

Purchases in hand, I managed to find my way back to the door and found Alicia and Jeff along the way! We braved the winds and rain and headed back to the room to find a couple of sleepy boys ready for a nap! Everyone wanted the bathroom and the computer and some down time, so Fay go ahead and do your thing! We’re going to sit back, and relax for a while!

Up next... We have Boma Ressies for dinner... do we make it?

Minnie Lor · 10-09-2008, 12:20 PM

Oh I hope you make Boma but I'm guessing that you don't. So sorry that the weather was so crummy. I guess it's good that you stayed in a nice resort since you all were there so much. It really would've been

if you had a couple of rooms at Pop or AllStars.

mcc0313 · 10-09-2008, 12:22 PM

Glad you were able to try San Angel Inn...from reviews I think I would probably go for dessert and drinks as well, the ambiance looks so cool but I have never been to excited about the menu...but who knows as I love the Catina outside for lunch.

Glad everyone enjoyed their meal and maybe the sign of being not hungry was a good one, let you stomach relax a bit....it definitely could have been that French Toast Loaf. I had one for breakfast and that was it until dinner later that evening.

Glad you all made it back to the room somewhat dry....can't wait to hear if you made it to Boma.

**Colexis Mom** · 10-09-2008, 02:26 PM

Sounds like a good time at San Angel Inn!

Can't wait to hear about Boma!!

tinker_me_happy · 10-09-2008, 03:16 PM

The boys crashed and took a good nap. Jeff finished off a third novel and Alicia fell asleep on the couch. I read a bit and then got a bit stir crazy. We had dinner ressies for Boma at 7:20 and it was pushing 3:30pm. The weather was not cooperating and the updates on the Disney TV were not good as far as Disney transportation being available. A decision had to be made. Since we had no car and we could not be sure of getting a taxi or the availability of Disney buses, I opted to try and change our Boma ressie.

I called down to the front desk to see if Cape May had anything available and sure enough there was a late sitting! Thankfully my family is used to eating late, so the 8:45 ressie, while later than I would have liked, didn’t completely freak everyone out. I figured we could go down a bit early and see if they could seat us sooner. Sadly Boma was cancelled as soon as we were able to secure a place at Cape May. I knew I would be able to try it again on another trip, but it was just one more thing I was sad that the boys wouldn’t be able to do. Once that was settled, and I didn’t have to worry, I was able to settle down a bit. I did read for a while, but I do not do well sitting in a room!

Ok, our suite was pretty big, but still… I decided to go down to the Marketplace and “rent” a movie. Jeff came with me and boy did we have an “adventure”! The movie area is at a smaller check out from the main check out area. We went and asked to look at the list and got a bit of attitude from the CM. Apparently we were disturbing her work! Oh well! While we were looking, a man came up, so we moved out of the way so the irritable CM could wait on him. He had JUST purchased an umbrella and hadn’t even gotten it outside and realized it was broken. It was obvious to ME that he hadn’t taken it outside, you could tell just from looking at the thing! Well the CM YELLED at him to go to the other check out area, that she didn’t “HAVE THOSE” at her desk.

Jeff and I just exchanged looks without saying a word.

I then asked Miss Nicey-Nice about a movie on the list. The way it appeared, the ones that were “in” were listed in the book, and the ones that were “out” showed they were “out”. Well I saw “Candleshoe” which I hadn’t seen in YEARS and thought the kids might like. Apparently someone had borrowed/rented the movie and whomever lent it out didn’t do the paperwork properly because it showed it as available in the book, but it wasn’t in the case with the movies. I was bummed, but no big deal. Well apparently Miss Nicey-nice had to make a big deal about it, but she snapped at me! Excuse me? Don’t yell at me “That movie is NOT available”.

So I begin to look again and another patron comes up to the counter. Now at this point I don’t really want a movie, but it’s yucky outside and I’m killing time, and the entertainment factor is worth it to stay and see what happens with the grouchy CM, so Jeff and I move over again and let the CM wait on the very nice lady who stepped up next.
This woman was also a guest at the Beach Club. BUT she was also an employee of Disney at one of the stores in DTD. I guess they had all just gotten new ID cards or something and there was a problem with theirs. So she was trying to purchase something and before the CM even began ringing her up she VERY politely explained to her the situation and asked Miss Nicey-Nice if she had the memo on how to ring her out. Well Miss Nicey-Nice had no clue what she was talking about so the Guest/Employee again VERY POLITELY asked if it would be possible to speak to the manager. Well this set Miss Nicey-Nice over the EDGE! Seriously I do not know what was wrong with that woman! Any way she yelled at the Guest/Employee and then went off to get the manager.

While she was gone, Jeff said something to Guest/Employee lady, to the effect of “Don’t feel bad, she’s been treating everyone like that!” At that point Jeff decides to go shop around Marketplace a bit and I decide I’m picking out a movie Just to irk Miss Nicey-Nice even though I have no intention of watching it! Who knows, maybe the kids will watch something I bring back.
Anyway the manager comes over and Guest/Employee lady asks him VERY POLITELY if he is aware of the ID problem and HE IS and he knows how to fix it, but he is not very pleasant. As a matter of fact he seems put out! Then Guest/Employee lady says something to the manager about how Miss Nicey-Nice has been treating not only her, but other guests (and DRAGS ME INTO IT- Thanks JEFF who is no where to be seen!) the manager becomes RUDE to her! Well I’m not happy with Jeff for ditching, or the Manager for his behavior either!!! I could NOT believe the manager of the STORE would be so RUDE to a patron! I don’t care if the woman was an employee at another store or not.

Basically he told her to mind her own business and if the other guests had issues they could bring it to his attention themselves. Well after the way he treated her so poorly, both in her trying to make a purchase as a guest, and in her trying to point out the bad behavior of his employee, I didn’t want any part of talking to the man! Honestly I have never seen such atrocious behavior on the part of hotel employees ANYWHERE!!! While the manager was helping the Guest/Employee lady I was getting my movie from the CM, so I didn’t stick around. I bee-lined it out of there! Those people were HORRID! The worst of it all, was I DID write to the Manager of the Beach Club when I got home with my concerns and NEVER heard back from him!
So Jeff and I returned to the room with the movie, but the kids weren’t interested in watching it. The boys napped until almost dinner time. Alicia played on the computer and Jeff and I read. We did head down to Cape May around 8:15 with the hopes of being seated early. The lobby of the Beach Club was PACKED with people! And the weather outside was still miserable! I guess everyone had the same idea we did, because it was still pretty busy in the restaurant.

Up next… Dinner at Cape May!

Meggera · 10-09-2008, 05:16 PM

Wow!

I can't believe the CM and Manager you encountered!

You were at Disney, right? The happiest place on Earth? I guess to some, it's just a paycheck. What a shame! I'm sorry you had to deal with it. I hope your next installment is on a happier note.

tinker_me_happy · 10-09-2008, 05:52 PM

Surprisingly the wait wasn’t too horrible.

I think we were seated by 8:40. Everyone was pretty hungry by now!!

The food looked wonderful as we walked in too! One thing I thought was strange, was the desserts right in the front as you walk in. It was just an odd spot for them, kind of behind the hostess/check in spot. We were seated and ordered our drinks and the boys headed off to the buffet. Alicia and I waited till they came back before heading over. Corey came back with mac and cheese and chicken fingers. Umm Ok.

I found some YUMMY green beans, salad, and sliced turkey. Jeff ended up sampling everything!! Evan and Alicia tried lots of stuff too. I was not too happy that Corey had only mac and cheese and a couple of chicken fingers on his plate, but he was happy and was eating! I asked him if he was going to try anything else and he said probably not.

When I shook my head in disbelief, he just shrugged his shoulders!

He did go back up and try a few more things, but mostly he was happy eating mac and cheese and chicken fingers!! Oh well! Jeff more than made up for his lack of variety by eating some of everything! And going back for more!

We sampled the desserts and I think by far filled our bellies at this meal more than any other!

I was very pleasantly surprised with the quality of food and the fact that everything was fresh even at the end of the night! I would DEFINITELY recommend this restaurant for families with picky eaters as there is something for everyone! Though we missed out on our Boma experience, we had another great meal and were very pleased with the Cape May dinner Buffet!

The next morning we headed back DHS for the day. I was hoping that the yucky weather would keep people away, but apparently so did everyone else!!

I guess everybody in the Disney area thought it would be a good idea to visit DHS on August 20th! The crowd was unbelievable! We tried to get FP for TSMWM but they were already gone. No single rider line either. The wait times for everything was LONG LONG LONG so we decided to just head for our ADR at Sci-Fi café. The boys were really looking forward to this one! We had an 11:30 ADR and arrived about 11:20. We barely sat down in the waiting area and they were calling our name. I did have time to snap a couple of shots:

The food was ok. Nothing special. Not bad, Not great. But the shakes were YUMMY. Everyone got one! I would have had two, but I know better!! The boys had ribs, Alicia the chicken sandwich, Jeff the burger and I had the turkey sandwich. Alicia also ordered the spinach artichoke dip for an appy, but no one was really in the mood to share. Jeff had a couple of bites, but half of it went uneaten. Mostly they had fun watching the old B movie trailers. The boys especially found it amusing! They had a great time! Again worth it for atmosphere!! Definitely would eat here for lunch, but probably not dinner. Wouldn’t be disappointed if we couldn’t get an ADR, but would definitely stop and ask if space was available as a last minute stop in kind of place. I would recommend this place to people who have never been, more for the fun different experience than the average food served.

cont next post...

Meggera · 10-09-2008, 07:21 PM

I can't get over the crowd in such yucky weather. Sorry Sci-Fi was only so-so. I hope your day gets better. Another great update!

tinker_me_happy · 10-09-2008, 07:47 PM

We headed back to the hotel for a bit, but I don’t remember what we did. I might have taken a nap, but the BIG excitement of the day was our last line etiquette encounter and BOY was it a doozy!

We headed back to the boat dock in the rain and waited in line for a boat. Yup, another long line. There was another group of people who decided that even though they had ponchos on, it would suit them better to stand in the exit line and not get rained on. OK. Well we were the people at the edge of the cover. We were getting wet. Not horribly, but like EVERYONE there, we were getting rained on! The people in front of us had some kids in carriages, and they were kind enough to squish up as best they could so the boys could take cover. People under the cover all moved down a bit so others could squeeze in, but there just wasn’t a lot of room. When the boat pulled up, the people who were waiting in the exit row DID NOT get out of the way! As a matter of fact, the man had the NERVE to yell at one of the exiting passangers to watch out!

(Umm… excuse me, but You are in Their way!) after the people had all exited, the boat captains started letting people on and the line jumpers, who “just wanted to stay dry” decided to go down the exit lane! While we were heading down, Jeff said something to them about being rude and cutting others and blocking the exit row, and the woman said "We were getting wet!". As if none of the other people there waiting were! But BETTER than anything else, the captains would not let those people out of the exit line until everyone else was on the boat! YAY CAPTAINS!!
BUT even better... the rude lady HAD to come in the boat and make a big scene. She YELLED at Jeff and said very loudly SO EVERYONE would hear “I wasn’t going to take a seat you know! I was just trying to stay dry like everybody else” then she turned around and stormed outside and sat on the seat on the outside! Well it was really funny because there was room for her and her family on the inside of the boat, she just would have had to stand. BUT she CHOSE to sit outside and GET WET!

She was absolutely wrong in blocking the exit and her behavior towards people in line while waiting! She had ponchos on so I don’t understand why she was making such a big deal about it… oh wait… witches melt when they get wet don’t they? What was even funnier was they got off at the Swalphin too! (Same place our last rude line encounter guests stayed... not to mean that All Swalphin guests are rude, I just thought the coincidence was funny). I guess the sense of entitlement some people have far outweighs their common sense!

We went back to DHS for dinner at Hollywood and Vine. I was not all that impressed with this buffet. I would NOT recommend this restaurant if you have picky eaters. EVERYTHING had been spiced and way too heavily. I didn’t dislike the taste of the spices, but I thought it was overkill. I had to go and get our airline boarding passes printed while we were waiting for dinner, so Jeff ordered me a beer. That was ok, but I would have gone for a Frozen Cocktail! HOWEVER: The dessert bar here was by far the best of all the buffets though! The kids perhaps liked this the best! After dinner the boys went back to the hotel, but Alicia and I decided to be adventurous and stay at the park. I really wanted to ride Toy Story again. The wait time was listed as 70 minutes. She was NOT happy but stood in line with me. We ended up waiting about 80 minutes. Probably NOT something I would do again (wait that long for a ride) but it was the end of our trip, and I felt like we didn’t really get to do much in terms of rides the past week! I took some fun pictures along the way.

After TSMWM We headed over towards RnRC. We stopped for a last couple of photopass pics along the way. One thing I will say about my Girl - She and I know How to Have us some fun!

Fantasmic was just about to start… Do you want to head in? NAH! Rock n Roller Coaster it is!! As we got up to the beginning of the line, they dropped the wait time from 40 to 30 minutes! Alicia was happy about that. I guess the long wait at Toy Story paid off! The CM said it was probably only about 15 minutes though! As we were going through the queue I said “WOW,I don’t remember this. And Hey, I don’t remember that!” Alicia just shook her head and laughed at me!

“Mom, we went through the fast pass line last time!” OH… I really am a dork sometimes!

Of course this is the ride that I did that I didn’t realize went upside down until 8 months AFTER I rode it! (and only then because I READ it on Passporter!) But there IS a reason. I wear glasses. And last year I took them off when we rode. SO I probably had my eyes closed the whole time after the take off! THIS year, however, I was determined to see the ride, so I bought a little strap to put on my glasses so they wouldn’t fall off. We had a BLAST on the ride, but I’m not so sure I like it better with my eyes open!!

Alicia of course LOVES her roller coasters.

We shopped in the store a bit when we came off the ride. The picture didn’t come out very good so we didn’t buy it. ! I asked her if she wanted to go again, but she was getting kind of tired too, so we decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel. Luckily this time our boat ride was uneventful!

Up next our last day at Disney World…