Our Free Dining- Food & Wine Fest - Soarin' Challenge TR - COMPLETED 11/18!! - Page 6 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Looks like a couple of fun days at DHS! Sorry you had such a disruptive family near you at Olivia's. As a mom of 2 young girls, I can honestly say I'd take my kids out of the restaurant if they refused to sit in their seats. I'd hate to ruin someone else's meal. It's just not right. : But good to see you ended up enjoying the meal.
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Looks like a couple of fun days at DHS! Sorry you had such a disruptive family near you at Olivia's. As a mom of 2 young girls, I can honestly say I'd take my kids out of the restaurant if they refused to sit in their seats. I'd hate to ruin someone else's meal. It's just not right. : But good to see you ended up enjoying the meal.
I know. It's just common courtesy, right? These parents were oblivious.
But, you're right; we didn't let it ruin the meal.
October 2nd continued
Another first-time TS restaurant for dinner
We decided to head out early for our dinner reservations (We had 6:55 ADRs for Cape May Café) and take some time to browse around in DTD. We got to the dock just as a boat was loading. The lady captain told us to use the exit stairs instead of walking the long way around to the ramp. She said “No one else will let you do this, but just this once it’s ok.” She was a riot! She had us singing Happy Birthday to the people on board who had a birthday this week or last. And as we passed other people – on shore or in another boat she would say, “Wave to the people!” “Or, “Here comes Captain Joe. Everyone say ‘Hi Captain Joe!’”. She also pointed out a solar powered automatic fish feeder along the way and said, “I’m the only boat captain who mentions this, but I think it’s interesting, don’t you?” She also pointed out the egrets, herons and other birds along the shore (which most other boat captains did as well). When we got to DTD we had our picture taken with her, and then gave her one of our “you’ve made our trip magical” cards. She liked that.
We walked around DTD for a while. Made stops at the Christmas store, Basin, Mickey’s Pastry, Arribas Brothers, and World of Disney. We tried to get into Ghirardelli to get a taste of the pumpkin spice chocolate, but there was such a line we couldn’t even get in the door. I didn’t need it that bad! We didn’t buy anything, just browsed around. At 5:30, even though it seemed early, we headed for the Pleasure Island bus stop to catch a bus for Beach Club. And took some pictures along the way.
We waited about 10 minutes for a bus. Once we got on, we found out that it made stops at The Swan, The Dolphin, and the Yacht Club before stopping at the Beach Club. Good thing we’d given ourselves enough time! We got to the Beach club about 6:25. After a bathroom stop and a few minutes to relax in the lobby, (what a bustling lobby!) we checked in for dinner.
We waited about 15 minutes before being seated. Our table was right next to the buffet. This was the first time we’d eaten at Cape May so we were looking forward to it. Definitely a popular place! The choices were great and the food was delicious! My favorites were a tortellini dish, the roasted pork at the carving station and the house salad which had cranberries and walnuts. I also liked the fried shrimp. Jeff had clams, mussels and crab legs along with lots of the side dishes and carved meats.
Desserts were yummy too. Chocolate Lava Cake I thought was delish – Jeff thought it was too rich. The raspberry (or strawberry?) cheesecakes were great too!
The verdict was - we really enjoyed the food! And the service was good too. I guess the only down side is the noise and also, since we were situated next to the buffet, there was lots of traffic. After dinner our intentions were to walk to the Boardwalk and look around there for the evening - but we forgot! And I guess that was ok because we were really pretty full! We ended up catching a bus for DTD and then hopping on a Port Orleans bus as soon as we got off the BC bus. With all the stops each bus made, it took us a good hour to get from door to door. Sometimes Disney transportation can be a pain, especially when going from resort to resort, but I guess that’s the price we pay by not renting a car. We like to dine at resort restaurants, so we put up with the transfers.
We were back to the resort at 9:00. I made a cup of tea and read for a while, then wrote in my journal.
Memories of our Fifth Day
The weather today was…beautiful!
The best thing today was…a relaxing morning at Writer’s Stop
The worst thing today was…my picture of Buzz Lightyear!
The funniest thing today was…Interacting with Vladimir Pooey on Sunset Blvd.
Today we tried…Cape May Cafe
And the result was…delicious food but quite a trek to get there and back
The most magical moment today was…Perfectly timed bus transfers to and from BC
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Our wakeup call was for 7:30. We had breakfast in the room again. We split the chocolate chip muffin from Beach Club (YUM!) along with our bowl of cereal. Normal morning routine of showers and ironing our clothes for the day, and we left for the bus at 8:30. As we approached the bus stop, sure enough, there was an AK bus just about finished loading and we rushed to catch it. That has happened so many times on this trip! We arrived at AK shortly after 9:00. Got some Photopass shots and then made our way to Asia to ride EE.
The photographer set up this silly shot which ended up being pretty cute:
We arrived in Asia and the stand by time for Everest at 9:35 was 5 minutes. We walked right through the line and were on our train in less than 2 minutes. When we got off we went right around to the entrance to ride it again. Stand-by time was still posted as 5 minutes. This time there was a little line, but it moves right along so it was only about a 3 or 4 minute wait. After getting off, we decided that we’d had our fill of EE for the day, and we headed off to other things.
We headed toward Africa to get on the Kilimanjaro Safari. We usually take the “back path” which is less crowded on the way to Africa, and along the way we came upon King Louie and Baloo and stopped for Photopass pics.
King Louie was a little too chummy!
Then we noticed Lady DeVine on the main walk through the trees, so when we were finished with King Louie and Baloo, we went down to watch her for a few minutes and got some nice pictures. She is so graceful! It’s always a pleasant surprise to run into Lady DeVine.
Then we went on to Kilimanjaro Safari, where we had about a 10 minute wait. It was a good safari with some great opportunities to take pictures of rhinos, giraffes, wart hogs, elephants, and of course the flamingos. As usual, the lioness was barely visible and not active.
After Kilimanjaro we headed back to Asia to see Flights of Wonder. We stopped on the way for a picture with Flik
There was an 11:30 FOW show and we arrived about 11:15; just in time to see part of a demonstration in front of the theater. There was a CM out front with an owl and she was answering questions and giving facts about owls.
Flights of Wonder is always a good show. I’m not crazy about birds and I get a little nervous when they fly so low over the crowd, but I enjoy watching this show because the birds are so well trained and they do some awesome stunts. And if you listen to the CM you’ll actually learn something!
We were starting to get hungry and so after the show we walked next door and got a QS meal at Yak & Yeti’s counter service place. I got honey chicken and Jeff got an Asian chicken sandwich.
We both got chocolate cake. Both meals were good and very filling! Too much for me to finish. It doesn’t look like there is much seating for this place, but it’s deceiving! When you walk around the back there are quite a few tables and we were able to find a good spot in the shade. AK is the only place we’ve encountered friendly ducks who like to walk around looking for scraps. I don’t mind ducks from a distance, but when I’m trying to eat and they’re under my table I get a little squeamish! Then we realized why they were so close – the lady at the table next to us was having fun feeding them her scraps. Why do people do this?? Can’t they read the signs?
After lunch we headed to the Maharaja Jungle Trek. This was ok, but I’m really not a “zoo” person. And it was pretty crowded around the tigers and in the bat house – of course the two most popular spots in this attraction – so it was hard to get up close. But it was nice to get out of the sun for a bit.
Last year I’d seen a hat that I liked in AK. We even have a picture of me trying it on. I don’t know why, but I didn’t buy it. So this year I was on a quest to find that hat. We looked in several of the souvenir shops but so far hadn’t seen it. But at one of the shops we saw some carved giraffes that we liked so we decided to buy one of those and had it sent to our resort.
After that we headed to Discovery Island and did Bugs Life. When we got out of there it was almost 1:30, which was start time for FOTLK. I asked Jeff if he wanted to see it again this year but he wasn’t too interested, so instead we went down to Camp Minnie Mickey to get in the character lines. I figured this was a good time since many folks were watching the FOTLK. In addition to the regular characters down the trails, there were several other characters in the open area. They didn’t have PP photographers, but most of them had CMs who were willing to take pictures with our camera. We did these characters first. There was Brer Bear, Thumper and Miss Bunny, Pluto and Chip and Dale. After these characters, we got in the line for Mickey. It was quite a long line and we noticed through the trees that Minnie only had 1 person in her line, so we headed over there. Then we went on to Goofy and another short line. When we got to Daisy there was no one in her line. After her, we checked on Mickey’s line again, but it was still long, so we skipped it.
We walked back to Discovery Island and took a look at Island Mercantile and Outfitters for the elusive hat, but they didn’t have it either. We did see another one, almost the same style, that I liked, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get it or keep looking.
Then we were near the information board and asked a CM where the character meet with the Pooh characters was. I know we’d done this last year, but I couldn’t remember where it was. She explained it was over toward Dinoland, and that we should turn right just before the bridge. Well, that’s why we hadn’t seen it - We’d decided to skip dinoland this year! Well, we followed her directions and sure enough there it was. So, we walked down the path (right behind Pooh who was returning to his post after a honey break)
and when we got there Pooh was the only one there. But they said the others were coming. It took a little time to get things up and running, but pretty soon we had our pictures taken with Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger.
After a bathroom stop we made our way to the exit, checking out several more souvenir kiosks along the way for the hat. Finally, at the souvenir shop just outside the park I decided to buy the “other” hat. It wasn’t the one I was looking for but I liked it almost as well.
We walked to the bus stop and waited about 20 minutes for a bus. Finally one came and we all got on, but there was a changeover of drivers, so it didn’t leave for another 10 minutes. Then a stop at Blizzard Beach where a lot more people got on. It was one of the more crowded daytime buses we’d been on.
Finally arrived back at POFQ almost an hour later and decided to relax in the room with some drinks from the pool bar. The Lava Smoothie is my fav!
I just found your TR. I am loving it. You got some great pics.
I just love OKW and Olivia's is a wonderful place to eat. I completely understand about the kids running around. I don't get why parents let their kids do that. I have never let my two girls do that anywhere. If I ever get to buy into DVC, I think I am going with OKW.
I am glad you only had the one day of rain and you definitely made the best of it.
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The food at the BC Marketplace is actually pretty good! 
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: But good to see you ended up enjoying the meal.
PassPorter Guide Author
Love the pictures! Glad you had a great time at CMC! 
Then a stop at Blizzard Beach where a lot more people got on. It was one of the more crowded daytime buses we’d been on. 
Liz 
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