Returning to Jamerica! Day 13 - Crazy Golf / DTD / Bahama Breeze / Wishes

[JoJo88]

Returning to Jamerica! November 2013

INDEX

Day 13 – Crazy Golf / DTD / Bahama Breeze / Wishes

Tuesday 19th November

After a busy(ish) day yesterday, not to mention the emotionally charged evening, we’d decided that we wouldn’t be rushing off anywhere first thing and so a nice lie in was most welcome

We had loose plans to maybe visit Blizzard Beach again, however, on checking out the window, and on the weather forecast, it looked a bit iffy, with the possibility of rain so we decided to give it a miss. One thing we’d never done before was the Disney Mini Golf courses, and considering you got a round free every day (before 4pm) with the Ultimate ticket, this seemed like a good idea. Anything after that we’d decide as we went, although there was one thing set in stone, which was to be at the Magic Kingdom that evening to finally, after 4 years of waiting, see Wishes!

We had breakfast at the villa and headed off to the Winter Summerland courses which are coincidentally right next to Blizzard Beach, arriving just after 11am.

The car park for Blizzard Beach was completely empty so we were happy with our decision to skip it, thinking that others probably came to the same conclusion as us, that it wasn’t a good day for a water park.

We got to the mini golf counter and flashed our Ultimate tickets, which did indeed entitle us to a free round of golf. We chose the Winter course and then selected a coloured ball each, and a club and were off.

I won’t bore you with a play by play commentary of what happened (mainly because I can’t actually remember!) but I will say that we had so much fun, it’s a lovely little course with a few surprises along the way, I’m only gutted we didn’t think to do it on any of our previous holidays!

Have a few photos instead

We did play mini golf on our last holiday, but we’d chosen to go to Congo River Golf on the 192 instead, and that had incurred some foul play from the youngest member of the family, due to being a bit of a sore loser. However, two years on and Daniel is a lot more chilled out (most of the time) so we had no such tears & tantrums this time round.

The snowman had a little watery surprise for us. As you can see, Daniel was trying to get caught by it while Simon was trying to dodge it!

We had a lot of fun going round the course, Simon diligently kept score but then on completion of the match decided it didn’t matter who’d won, it was the taking part that mattered. Which can only mean one thing – I beat him!

It took about an hour in total, and of course by the time we’d finished the sun had shone through and it was a glorious day. Occasionally we could hear screams coming from Blizzard Beach, Summit Plummet I presume, which only highlighted that perhaps bringing our swimming cozzies with us would have been a good idea. We could all have done with a dip and a cool down by that point. Not to mention the fact that the car park was virtually empty still so we’d have had the place almost to ourselves!

After enjoying one of the extra little perks of the Ultimate ticket, I discreetly asked Simon if we should give one of the other added extras a go. I say discreetly because I was thinking of Disney Quest, somewhere I’d managed to keep secret from the boys, as I knew that if we took them there, we’d never hear the end of it. I know that might sound a little bit cruel, but spending hours on end in darkened rooms playing arcade games isn’t my idea of fun, especially when there’s so much more fun to be had outside!

However, Simon agreed that we might as well give it a go, something I hoped we wouldn’t live to regret!

We pulled up at the west side of Downtown Disney without telling the boys what we were doing and made our way round to the entrance where Simon got side-tracked for a few minutes and showed us his hula-hooping skills

The boys were still a little bit bemused when we boarded the lift inside Disney Quest until we emerged on whichever level it was and they saw the electronic wonderland before them. Adam’s eyes were like saucers, pretty much like his Dad’s were at Blizzard Beach when faced with the thongs at the top of Toboggan Racers…..

We all (except Grandma) had a go at one game, Pinball Slam where you had to balance on a little platform and then, looking at the huge screen in front of you which was a Pinball table (you were the ball), you had to try and get yourself into the goal while slamming each other out the way by tilting the platform.

It sounded fun, but none of us found it very easy to get our balls to move (well I didn’t anyway, I suppose it depends on how vigorously the others tilted their platforms as to whether they did or not……) and so we left that one making a mental not to skip it on any future visits!

We then had a go on Buzz Lightyear’s Astroblasters, but this caused a bit of upset for Daniel as he wasn’t tall enough to have a go. He wasn’t even able to go with Simon. This is a bit like bumper cars, but you are in an enclosed vehicle and there are huge balls all over the floor which, when you travel over them they suck up into your car and you then shoot them at each other through a big cannon.

Sounds fun right? Wrong…… When your car gets hit on target, it send you spinning, and I spent the entire time just going round and round in circles, desperately trying to hang on to my breakfast!

Adam led the way round the various levels and machines and really was in his element, Daniel too. However, one thing we did find was that because there was no limit on the amount of machines the boys could use, they were just darting from one to the other without properly finishing the game on any of them. We were only talking about this the other day, and although unlimited access sounds (and is) good, it might have been better if you collected tokens when you went in, so that children felt like they were using up credits if that makes sense?

We had a lot of fun on the four way ice hockey table though, a game that we did actually complete!

However, after the game, Adam in his haste to get onto something else managed to trip over his own feet, sending himself sprawling across the floor, taking a layer of skin off his knee in the process. It wasn’t deep enough that it was bleeding much, but had gone down far enough that eventually it was incredibly tender and sore for him. Still, he was distracted enough by all the fun on offer that it didn’t bother him too much at the time.

After about an hour Mum & I were beginning to crave daylight. It was ever so dark & dingy in Disney Quest, although thankfully it was empty. I can imagine it is awful when it’s busy. Eventually we managed to bribe the boys away from technology and out into the real world, with the promise of a visit to Goofy’s Candy Co.

We got back into the car and parked up a little closer to DTD Market Place as it really had turned out to be a very hot day (something that Simon reminded me of quite frequently!) and we didn’t fancy walking too far.

We made our way to the sweet shop, but first I called into Guest Services as Adam was complaining that his knee was sore and it did look quite painful. There was a huge line for the counters, but thankfully a passing CM saw us and asked if she could help. I explained what had happened and she disappeared off for a few minutes, returning with a wipe and a ‘band aid’ so that I could patch Adam up.

When we got to Goofy’s, Adam chose some candy floss whereas Daniel went for a couple of chocolate covered strawberries, thereby combining his treat with clocking up his 5 a day.

As we walked past Ghiradelli a CM was giving away peppermint bark squares which were absolutely delicious, so I popped in the shop to get some to take home. I ended up getting a pick ‘n’ mix bag of 80 by filling in a little form with my choices. It cost $25.95 and saw me through the bleak winter months when we got home.

I didn’t love all the flavours but most of them were delicious and one of my reasons for heading back to DTD in August is to stock up on some more! Mum also got herself some bars of choccie and a lovely CM saw Daniel waiting patiently for us so she nipped off round the back and came back with some milk chocolate for him to try.

We considered going to Earl of Sandwich but for whatever (regretful) reason we didn’t in the end and had a combination of hot dogs and fries along with some nice cold drinks. (Did I mention that it was now a lovely hot day? No? Well Simon did!)

Continued in the next post...

[JoJo88]

Continued from above...

Once we were all fed and watered we headed back to the car and the villa for a cool down in the pool. Talking of the journey home, and something I haven’t mentioned before, is that we found yet another Sherberth Road short cut to use when heading ‘out’ of WDW. So, as you approach the junction to turn right to get back onto Hwy 192 from Sherberth Road, if the lights are on red, instead of waiting there, take the little road just before the junction which travels along the back of the shops, and then you can join the 192 a little further up. It only saves a couple of minutes, but means you don’t have to wait at the lights. Every second counts

After a splash around in the pool, we all got showered and changed ready to go out for tea. Bahama Breeze was our choice for the evening, so with the car practically on auto-pilot we made our way once again to Rolling Oaks.

We were seated in a little booth in an extremely quiet restaurant, looking forward to a repeat of our meal from earlier in the holiday. Our drinks order was taken and we were left to study the menu. That is until our server came along and asked if we would mind checking our seats to see if we could find a mobile phone. Funnily enough, I’d heard a muffled mobile ring a few minutes before which had seemed odd as there wasn’t anyone else sat anywhere near us. However, we couldn’t find anything and told the server as much. A few minutes later the manager came along and asked once again if we could check as she had been sat there earlier doing some paperwork and was sure that was where her phone must be. So once again we all scrabbled about checking, but no, no phone. Simon suggested she check in her car as it’s quite a common place for a phone to get lost so off she went. You’d have thought that would have been the end of it, but no, instead of leaving us alone, once again the Manager came back to report that she couldn’t find her phone…… Okay, we get it, you’ve lost your phone, but honestly, we do not have it. Really it would have been easier if we’d asked to move so that she could have got forensics in, but we didn’t………

Eventually though we were left alone long enough to decide what we wanted to eat and gave our order. I’m afraid I don’t have any photos of tonight’s food, but we had a lot of the same things as before so you’re not missing much 

Simon
Cheese Burger with Yellow Rice & Black Beans $9.99
Key Lime Pie $6.29
Soft Drink $2.49

Mum
Chicken Cilantro Lite $10.49
Soft Drink $2.49

Adam & Me to share
Chicken Sliders $4.75
Cheeseburger Sliders $4.75
Chicken Quesadilla $5.50
Soft Drink $2.48
Kid’s Soft Drink $1.29

Daniel
Chicken Fingers $4.79
Kid’s Soft Drink $1.29

And because the appetizers were on a half price happy hour, we ordered more chicken sliders. Big mistake!

We barely made a dent in the first lot of sliders that we had. Firstly because they were huge, but also, unlike last time, they really weren’t very nice at all. The chicken in them didn’t seem as good and they were quite burnt on the outside. Not only was some of our food not up to scratch, but we had to wait absolutely ages for EVERYTHING, from our drinks, to our food, to the bill. Most of the food was okay, Mum enjoyed her Cilantro once again and Simon’s burger was nice, but the sliders were not, and the whole experience just wasn’t as good as usual.

The bill came to $65.66 (including tax) which is great value for money, even on an off day! And thankfully, as we’ve been to Bahama Breeze several times, this one dodgy experience won’t put us off going back. We’ll perhaps make sure our eyes match the size of our bellies next time though

We popped into Target afterwards as Adam wanted to pick something up for his friends back home, and I snapped a couple of pictures of the lovely veg & fruit platters they have in there. They look so appealing don’t they?!

Adam chose something for his friends, I forget what it was and we piled back into the car and went on our way to the Magic Kingdom.

We parked up (having to pay the parking charge – sometimes they just wave you through in the evening, but it wasn’t our lucky night tonight), and walked over to the TTC. We hadn’t taken the ferry yet and so that seemed like the right thing to do, especially with this being our last visit to the Magic Kingdom for this holiday

We didn’t wait long for the ferryboat, and were lucky enough to get near the front so that we could watch the view appear before us. It was dark by now but we could see the castle lit up in all its finery.

It was around 6.45 by the time we entered the park, and we took a slow stroll up (or is it down?) Main Street, turning right at the top to head to Tomorrowland. The boys knew we were there to see the fireworks and understood that it might be too busy for them to ride anything. However, when we got to Space Mountain we were delighted to see that the wait time was only ten minutes. And that usually means a walk on as it takes that long to get through the line! Not only that, there were still Fast Passes available, but we didn’t bother picking any up.

Mum sat this one out as usual so just the four of us went off to ride, leaving Mum to enjoy the music that was coming from a nearby disco.

We had a fun ride as usual and as we were deposited back into the gift shop, the boys asked if they could go again, so we asked if they’d like to go by themselves which they did. It’s funny that Magic Kingdom is so familiar to the boys now that they don’t feel any anxiety in doing that kind of thing by themselves, and us too in letting them!

Saying that, we waited right by the exit so that there was no chance of missing them, but we did seem to wait an age, almost wondering if something had happened – a ride breakdown or something, and that they’d come out through a different exit! But no, eventually they reappeared and we then wandered over to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. We all went on this, Mum included, who I sat with. The boys sat together and poor Simon went all by himself. His ride photo looked a little like this…..

After Buzz we decided to head to our chosen spot to view Wishes - Main Street Station. It was about 8pm by now and already people were pitched up ready for the evening entertainment.

We got to the station and there were already people up there, but not so many that we couldn’t get ourselves a spot at the front railings. As we still had an hour to wait I volunteered to go off to Starbucks and get some drinks and snacks, and Starbucks, formerly known as Main Street Bakery (actually, it’s still known as MSB!), seemed like as good a place as any. Daniel had said he wanted some popcorn so I had a look in the shops on the way but all they had was the gift bag type flavoured stuff which he doesn’t like.

The queue in Starbucks was huge, but moved fairly quickly. Here’s what we had:

Mum didn’t have anything, instead she was going to make her own pilgrimage to get herself & Daniel a soft drink.

I had mistakenly thought the cookie would make up for the lack of popcorn for Daniel but he didn’t like it so off I trotted again to a nearby cart for a box of his chosen snack.

The station started to fill up quite a bit, and there was a lovely atmosphere up there waiting for the entertainment to start. I had a mess around with the settings on my camera to help pass the time

None of them were great, but I had no intention of trying to snap the fireworks anyway, instead I wanted to just enjoy the moment I’ve since bought a new camera (so that Daniel can have the old one!), still only a point & click, but I’m determined to learn how to use it properly, and find out what all the settings mean! If anyone has any advice that they’d be willing to share, I’d be very grateful!

Before Wishes was due to start, we also had Celebrate the Magic to look forward to. This is where images are projected onto the castle with a fabulously emotional soundtrack to go with it.

Before the show had even started I began to feel a bit wobbly, and I could see on Adam’s face that he was feeling the same way.

At around 8.45 the beautifully lit castle went dark, the music started, and for around 15 minutes we were treated to a completely magical spectacle. The view from the station was slightly obscured by the Christmas decorations that were strung between the buildings, but it didn’t matter, they were easy to ignore. What wasn’t so easy to ignore was the tears that were flooding my eyes! And a quick look around at the others I could see that Adam had succumbed, as had Mum, but what surprised me most of all was that little Daniel was breaking his heart crying, which made me even worse!

Celebrate the Magic paved the way perfectly for Wishes, and to finally get to see Magic Kingdom’s trademark firework show was certainly worth the wait. We’d seen Holiday Wishes on our first visit, Hallowishes next time, but had never seen ‘proper’ Wishes before. If you’ve read my previous report (Living in Jamerica - HERE) you might remember that on our first Florida holiday in 2009, on the day we went to MVMCP we had a phone call from home to say that my Grandma had passed away. Watching the fireworks that evening had obviously been very emotional, and on our return to Florida in 2011 and watching Hallowishes, I had also thought of Grandma. So, once again, staring into the distant sky watching the colours explode, Grandma was brought to mind, and once again I knew she would be up there smiling down on us.

Wishes was just perfect, and as it came to a close we made our way quietly down the stairs and out to the ferry port. I know that I was reminiscing over what had been a brilliant holiday, and I’m pretty sure the others were doing the same thing.

Adam is like me, he’s very sentimental and emotional and always has been, but Daniel completely surprised me with his reaction to what we had just seen.

The journey home was a quiet one, and once back at the villa we chilled out for a little while before heading upstairs in preparation for our last full day

Day 14 - Hollywood Studios / Longhorn Steakhouse

[Helen0705]

Another lovely day for the five of you .
I was in tears reading about you lot in tears
It is really emotional watching Wishes - and yes you can bet your Grandma was watching over you all that evening .
Hel xx

[mariechez]

Now crying . We also haven't made use of the crazy golf but will on my next visit and also never been to EoS that is also on my list. Lovely report. Thank you.

[lovedisney89]

Such a lovely day! The Disney crazy golf courses are so much fun

Sad your report is nearly over but looking forward to the next!

[Guest]

Another great day, now don't get me wrong I love Wishes as much as the next person but could never shed a tear over some fireworks...

Shame about Bahama Breeze, give the LBV one a go next time, we had a fantastic time there. Look forward to the next day.

[mariechez]

Originally Posted by disneyoli

Another great day, now don't get me wrong I love Wishes as much as the next person but could never shed a tear over some fireworks...

Shame about Bahama Breeze, give the LBV one a go next time, we had a fantastic time there. Look forward to the next day.

See more...

Shame on you lol, they always make me cry.

[JoJo88]

Originally Posted by Helen0705

Another lovely day for the five of you .
I was in tears reading about you lot in tears
It is really emotional watching Wishes - and yes you can bet your Grandma was watching over you all that evening .
Hel xx

See more...

Thanks Hel x

Originally Posted by mariechez

Now crying . We also haven't made use of the crazy golf but will on my next visit and also never been to EoS that is also on my list. Lovely report. Thank you.

See more...

Awww, sorry Marie! Thanks for reading x

Originally Posted by lovedisney89

Such a lovely day! The Disney crazy golf courses are so much fun

Sad your report is nearly over but looking forward to the next!

See more...

Thanks Sarah x

Originally Posted by disneyoli

Another great day, now don't get me wrong I love Wishes as much as the next person but could never shed a tear over some fireworks...

Shame about Bahama Breeze, give the LBV one a go next time, we had a fantastic time there. Look forward to the next day.

See more...

don't you find the music really emotional? Celebrate the Magic started me off, by the time Wishes came on I was gone!

Originally Posted by mariechez

Shame on you lol, they always make me cry.

See more...

Thank you x

[KittyBlackDog]

Another lovely day. Shame that BB wasn't up to scratch albeit being at a good price (and all love those bills!)

Don't hate me but I love that you all got emotional over wishes, it brought a tear to my eye thinking of you all standing in a similar position to us on our last night watching wishes and doing the same.

We've not done the mini golf yet as we are always too busy/forget it's an option with our tickets. Maybe next time

Thanks again for sharing and making the time it takes to write up all the reports.

That's my hit for a while

[feebee]

Such A Lovely Day - Fireworks are so emotional, especially within Disney xxxx