Castaway Cay Sandwich - 13 Glorious Days of Disney! - COMPLETED!! - Page 6 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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What a fun educational experience at MK for both kids and their parents!
Oh yes, it was fun for the parents too! It was hard not to raise my hand when there was a question, lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAyers
Looks like you all had a great time! The YES program looks interesting and fun, I might look into that for my DS.
There are so many interesting classes, check it out!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackid2
The Yes Program sounds so cool, hopefully its still around when my boys are older.
It's really awesome, I hope they get to do it. I'm not sure of the age limit, but it's worth looking into.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
The YES Program sounds like fun! I wonder if my boys would be willing to do that.
Check out some of the classes, you may be surprised.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
The YES program sounds awesome!!
Totally worth it!
**************
Friday Sept 5, con't
(Like I said before, I'm sorry that some of the pics are humongous. I figured out that they are the ones from Dex's Samsung, so I think I'll just leave those out. They don't auto-resize when I upload them to Photobucket for some reason. Then I have to fiddle with them and on my slow computer and it's maddening. I deleted the pic of us on the boat on Splash, it was getting very annoying. )
We were pretty hungry after all the fun that morning. I had planned for us to try the waffle sandwiches at Sleepy Hollow. They sounded really good especially now, so we walked over there. We were then disappointed because they don't serve the sandwiches until 11:00! I'm not sure if that's always the case or just that time, but we had to settle for a regular waffle for Max and Titus. I knew that we had FPs for Be Our Guest for lunch at 1:05, so I think Dh and I waited, or maybe we had a granola bar or something, I can't remember . The kids had to eat quickly because there was a gang of ducks taking over the eating area. It was time to go when a large duck hopped up on the table next to us bothering the family there. We had had such a great morning already, we were sort of at a loss for what to do next. I wanted to see the Hall of Presidents, but I wanted to save it for later when we'd need a sit down kind of attraction. We were near the Liberty Square Riverboat and we'd never been on that so that's where we headed. It was here were we experienced something very cool for the rest of the day: 5-10 minute waits for all the rides!
Ahhh... Just what the doctor ordered. A nice relaxing sit down after a morning of excitement. We didn't know where the best place to see the river from, so we went to the top deck of the boat. I tried really hard, but I couldn't quite fully make out the narrative coming from the speakers, I just enjoyed the view and tried to get some good shots.
I told Max to remember this fence. He will be reading Tom Sawyer this year.
Cool! I remembered this scene from one of the Kingdom Keeper's books.
Wow - We're still in Disney World?
I loved that you could hear the river pirates from the boat.
By this time, Titus had had enough of relaxing - he had a need, a need for speed... On Space Mountain. On the way there, we stopped by our family favorite and must-do: It's a Small World. You just can't go to the Magic Kingdom without a ride on it!
The little "hand" on the clock
The "backside" of the castle...
And now finally over to Tomorrowland before Titus had a heart attack from NOT riding Space Mountain
Never gets old
Max and Dh didn't feel like taking a wild ride through space, so they sat in the shade and enjoyed some frozen cokes and a pretzel at The Lunching Pad. Titus however could barely stop himself from running through the queue. He'd been waiting for such a long time to ride SM again.
He finally got to play one of these in the queue.
Such a ride junky.
Trying to take a nice photo. Really, I was scared. Titus was laughing at me screaming from the car ahead. Whatever dude.
Dh wanted to take a ride on the TTA.
Maxie
Wierd. Where are the cars?
Our FPs for lunch had ripened. I have to say it was cool just walking up to the desk. Sorry folks in line! I know everyone has a FP now, so that's good. We had time to study the menu before actually going into the kiosk area.
One of these guys is snoring
They sent us to an actual live cast member (only a tiny bit disappointed, I would have liked the kids to have interacted with the on-screen menu). The problem ended up being that Titus wasn't that hungry and Max and Dh just had frozen cokes and a pretzel so they weren't that hungry either. It took us a while to find a table for four. I did not want to sit in the main ballroom (cafeteria) and there was nothing in the West Wing. People were just in there milling around taking pictures in the dark (with flash). I know you have the right to do this, but I'd probably be annoyed if I was trying to enjoy my meal in there. We went to the Rose Gallery, which is where I ate before and after waiting for a bit, snagged a table.
"Croque Monsieur - grilled sandwich of carved ham, Gruyere cheese, and bechamel with Pommes frites." I used quotes here because anyone who has ever eaten a real croque monsieur or pommes frites knows that what I had was grilled ham and cheese on multigrain bread and french fries. Not the real thing. Getting tired of multigrain everything at Disney
This is the Braised Pork: Slow-cooked pork with vegetables and bacon served with mashed potatoes and green beans jardiniere. This was actually good food. But since Dh wasn't hungry, he only ate half.
French onion soup. Good to Max, bland to me.
The Master's Cupcake (the "grey stuff" cupcake) We were waiting to try this, it was pretty good, but it was a normal sized cupcake, and totally not worth $4.19. Titus ate a few bites of his "Feast a la Beast" (a smaller version of the slow cooked pork). So that was a complete waste, totally validating why the Dining Plan doesn't work for us.
So without trying to sound like a food critic (or Debbie Downer), this was a one and done for us. Well 2 and done for me The food was expensive, but I can accept that. It just bothers me that some of the menu items can really be better if they just tried. Maybe the dinner is better. Since I know Be Our Guest isn't really a French restaurant, I'll just leave it at that. I would have liked to have had a do-over and gone back over to Sleepy Hollow for my spicy chicken waffle sandwich. Oh well. I have in my PassPorter notes: "Titus' stomach shrinks in DW. Frustrated - everyone's hunger times are different when we vacation. Need to just "let it go"."
I can't remember why we ended up back on the other side. I think maybe we were just strolling around.
We had done all what we wanted to do for the day in MK except for the parade. I wanted them to see the new Festival of Fantasy. I wanted to score the same spot I had when I got such a great view, right in front of Casey's Corner. It was hot, but we had a place to sit and staked out our places before the CMs could rope off the area. While we waited, random CMs would come and entertain the growing crowd. I loved these guys...
The view from across the street
Finally it started! I didn't take as many pictures this time because I just wanted to see it, but I couldn't help taking just a few
My photos here are all washed out. The colors are more vivid in real life. I think my iPhone was over exposing for some reason
Titus begged for just one more ride on Space Mountain before we left and it was only a 10 minute wait, so we relented. Here's some scrim in front of the construction.
Whew! That was a great day at the Magic Kingdom! We headed back thoroughly satisfied and bushed. On the way back to the room, I told the kids that this was Disney Cruise Line 1.0 - they had a good laugh
Some rain coming in.
We relaxed the rest of the evening. The kids wanted to go to the pool, but it was raining still. I made "Bubble Up Pizza" in the room for dinner. It was filling and everyone liked it, so it's now on the "hotel food" list for future reference .
I don't ride the riverboat on every trip, but I do enjoy it when I do. It's amazing how, right in the middle of MK you get those views that look like real wilderness. Fun to see the back of Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion, too. Too bad the lunch experience at BOG was not a big hit. Dinner is a completely different affair, and I enjoyed it very much, but not enough to replace one of my "must do's".
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Love your photos; you took one of my favorite hippo in Small World! I love that ride; it's my MIL's favorite, so we will be riding it for sure NEXT WEEK!
One of the Dapper Dans you saw was my friend, Myron. Nicest guy you'd ever meet. That reminds me; I need to message him to tell him when we arrive.
Sorry BOG wasn't great! I still haven't gotten to go for a rode on the Liberty Belle, looks so relaxing!
It was so nice, I hope you get the chance to do it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I don't ride the riverboat on every trip, but I do enjoy it when I do. It's amazing how, right in the middle of MK you get those views that look like real wilderness. Fun to see the back of Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion, too. Too bad the lunch experience at BOG was not a big hit. Dinner is a completely different affair, and I enjoyed it very much, but not enough to replace one of my "must do's".
I hope I didn't make it sound too bad From all the reviews I'd read, I was expecting something else. Those reviews were probably about dinner
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pics from MK! Sorry BoG was disappointing!
Maybe I was just there on an off day?
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
You packed a lot into your time at the Magic Kingdom! Love your photos of the parade. I can't wait to see this in the spring!
I really didn't realize how much we did until I wrote it all out!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Great pictures and finish to your day at MK. Love the parade photos. Sorry BoG was a disappointment
I love the parade!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
You all covered quite a bit of ground with fun this day. I love the Dapper Dans, too. We got to listen to them on our last trip.
I didn't know they were the Dapper Dans, cool!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Great day at MK! Sorry BoG was a disappointment
I hope I didn't make BoG sound like it was terrible, it wasn't. I know it's in the Magic Kingdom, so I needed to take that into consideration.
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydeva
OK what is "bubble up pizza"???
Bubble up pizza is a kind of pizza casserole. You mix up chunks of refrigerated dough, pizza sauce, cheese, etc. and bake it up. It tasted pretty good for having been made in our room
Quote:
Originally Posted by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince
Love your photos; you took one of my favorite hippo in Small World! I love that ride; it's my MIL's favorite, so we will be riding it for sure NEXT WEEK!
One of the Dapper Dans you saw was my friend, Myron. Nicest guy you'd ever meet. That reminds me; I need to message him to tell him when we arrive.
That is so neat! Live CM entertainment is my favorite kind in all of DW.
*********************
Saturday, Sept 6 - Epcot
We "slept in" until 7:30am (ha ha). While the kids dozed, I made cinnamon rolls and coffee - it smelled so good in there! Eventually, we got ourselves together and went to catch the bus to Epcot. We had kind of a loose idea of when the bus would come because of the electronic sign at the bus stop. They seemed to come around the same time for each bus.
I was excited for the day because there some new things that we wanted to experience. We had FP+s for Soarin', Mission Space, and the preferred view for Illuminations. Titus and I wanted to explore some of Perry's WS Adventure and the kids were getting their nerves up for MS - Orange. After 5 trips of trying to eat in Japan, today was the day. Hopefully. We also wanted to explore The Seas for the first time.
We made it to Epcot right in the middle of our FP time for Soarin' around 10:30.
Posted wait: 30 minutes. FP wait 5 minutes.
Boarding...
Next I had to convince Dh that there was an aquarium over in the Seas. He remembered being over there for Turtle Talk a while back, but he couldn't remember anything else. I can't believe we've never explored this place! We spent some good quality time here just exploring and taking tons of pictures.
Fish Lips
Hey! Are those humans in there? We weren't the first to ask the CM how to go "up top and see" #luckyducks
Watching the manatees was my favorite part. Even though these were males, we couldn't help singing, "Barbara Manateeeeee..."
This was cool.
We couldn't figure out what this was. I guess it's access to the tanks for the divers.
Eels!
Dory's translucent! If you look closely, you can see her brain - awesome!
Titus' take on posing with Bruce, is a more "reality based" version.
After we'd had our fill of fish life, we ventured over to Innoventions. Titus would've dragged us over there if he could have. The boys wanted to ride Sum of All Thrills, I did too actually. Dh was fine sitting this one out, preferring to have a sit-down instead.
I tried to take pics of the boys riding their vehicle, but it was too dark and they were moving too much to get any good shots. It was time for lunch first. Just to be sure it wasn't all about me, I gave the choice of Sunshine Seasons or Katsura Grill in Japan. To my surprise, everyone wanted to go to Japan. Dh doesn't like what they have at SS and the kids love Asian food, so off we went, counter clockwise around the World Showcase. It was pretty hot and humid and I was secretly hoping that there would be enough seats since it was lunchtime. I did not want to sit outside :
Walking through Morocco. Next time, I'll have to get them to actually walk into Morocco.
Katsura Grill.
(Getting kind of overcast now.)
One of the prettiest places in the World Showcase.
Tempura Shrimp Udon. Oooohhhh so good.
Titus had the Chicken Cutlet Curry. I had a proud mom moment when he said that it was good, but not as good as the katsu I make at home. I think my head swelled just a little... Max and Dh both had the Shogun Combo (teriyaki chicken and beef), which they liked a lot. No pics of theirs - they were so hungry, it would've been dangerous to stop them from eating to pose their food for the camera.
I tried to get them to look around the pavilion, but Dh was already gone. I don't think he even knows (or cares) that there's actual stuff to do and see in the pavilions. He still wants to know what there is to "do", sigh. He wanted to ride Spaceship Earth, then the kids wanted to go over to Test Track and Mission Space.
First a quick stop in Germany at the Karamell-Kuche. This CM is making deliciousness for all to see. No pics in here, we were like Fred Flintstone riding an aroma wave. We got caramel corn, a plain, peanut caramel apple (Dh, of course), some kind of cookie, a brownie, and some Werther's that I hadn't seen before, chocolate, I think. Everything was SOOOOO good.
I love Spaceship Earth! Here are some of my favorite parts:
I wanted to dress like her for the Halloween party, but it was going to be just too darned hot!
I watched "Jobs" after the trip. It's amazing to me that the Apple Company came out of a garage like this.
We're so small...
Hilarity! I was wearing my Minnie ears...
We couldn't get a FP for Test Track because of Soarin' so we had to stand in line. I clocked the stand-by time with the Touring Plans app at 42 minutes. We hadn't seen the new upgrade yet, so it was ok. We'd gotten by with 5-10 minute waits the day before, so we felt we were "due". We loved all the new stuff. My kids are budding "gear heads" and I love cars too.
65.4 miles per hour baby!
The last ride of the day was Mission Space. The kids chickened out and decided that the green side would be just fine. It was fun like always, but the kids vowed that the next time, they'd "man up" for the orange side. They didn't know that next time would be a week later!
We had one more Must Do before Illuminations. Well two more. The kids wanted to go to Club Cool and Dh wanted to try the Bourbon Lemonade from the American Pavilion. I had talked it up so much that he had to have it. He headed to WS and I took the kids to Club Cool. I didn't say a thing about any particular drink (wink-wink) but just sampled randomly. I had some good laughs when we got to the Beverly.
Max, taste this one. At first he was like, "Hm, this is pretty good." Then, "Blech!"
Titus was the opposite. "EEWW" at first, then, "hm, I kinda like it". Weird, lol.
My favorite was the one from Thailand, I can't remember what the name is .
Dh never made it over to America, as they had started to close the kiosks He met us in Mexico, but it was crowded by that time and no good places to see the show. I didn't take many pics - again, I just wanted to enjoy the show this time. but I took a few of these which I love...
We headed to the buses happy and tired. And hungry? Dh used his phone to search for decent pizza delivery places (never enough pizza) and found a place with good reviews called Flippers. We ordered on the way back to the room and ended up enjoying a pretty good pizza while we packed. Tomorrow would be cruise day!
What a great day! So glad you were able to explore the Seas, that's one of my favourite things to do in Epcot. I love the shot of IllumiNations with the Glow with the Show ears - so cool!
Great day at Epcot! The gardens around the Japan pavilion are so beautiful and peaceful. Next time you have to explore the nooks and crannies of the Morocco pavilion a bit. No, there's nothing to "DO" for your DH, but it's wonderful! I love all the shots from the Seas.
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I'm not sure if that's always the case or just that time, but we had to settle for a regular waffle for Max and Titus. I knew that we had FPs for Be Our Guest for lunch at 1:05, so I think Dh and I waited, or maybe we had a granola bar or something, I can't remember 
. The kids had to eat quickly because there was a gang of ducks taking over the eating area. It was time to go when a large duck hopped up on the table next to us bothering the family there. We had had such a great morning already, we were sort of at a loss for what to do next. I wanted to see the Hall of Presidents, but I wanted to save it for later when we'd need a sit down kind of attraction. We were near the Liberty Square Riverboat and we'd never been on that so that's where we headed. It was here were we experienced something very cool for the rest of the day: 5-10 minute waits for all the rides! 
It took us a while to find a table for four. I did not want to sit in the main ballroom (cafeteria) and there was nothing in the West Wing. People were just in there milling around taking pictures in the dark (with flash). I know you have the right to do this, but I'd probably be annoyed if I was trying to enjoy my meal in there. We went to the Rose Gallery, which is where I ate before and after waiting for a bit, snagged a table. 
.
PassPorter Guide Author
Bubble up pizza is a kind of pizza casserole. You mix up chunks of refrigerated dough, pizza sauce, cheese, etc. and bake it up. It tasted pretty good for having been made in our room 
Eventually, we got ourselves together and went to catch the bus to Epcot. We had kind of a loose idea of when the bus would come because of the electronic sign at the bus stop. They seemed to come around the same time for each bus.
After 5 trips of trying to eat in Japan, today was the day. Hopefully. 
We also wanted to explore The Seas for the first time.
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