Silver Anniversary Trip, Day 8

[spencem]

Sunday, January 19th, Magic Kingdom, Yachtsman and Hollywood Studios

Today’s plan had us going to Magic Kingdom in the morning before a nap and then our anniversary dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse this evening. Yes, I know our actual anniversary was last week, but this was the ‘posh dinner’ on the itinerary that Julia and I were thinking of as our celebratory meal. Originally this had been booked for 7pm, but then Extra Magic Hours had been announced at Hollywood Studios from 8 to 10pm and so we had pulled the ADR forward to 5pm to make it worthwhile going to Hollywood Studios afterwards. What I hadn’t thought of until last night was that we had a FastPass booked for this afternoon. Thankfully when I went to change it I was able to swap a 14:50 Buzz to an early Pooh instead.

We were up and out the door about quarter to nine and in the queue for parking just 10 minutes later, French Quarter is really central to the parks.


Looks like another lovely quiet winter day is ahead of us.

It took us 40 minutes to get through security, again the whole security area is being expanded and rebuilt at the TTC and so hopefully these queues will be much shorter soon. The monorail looked to be having issues, with a long queue and so we instead headed over to the boat dock. This also had a line and we ended up waiting one boat before we were able to board. I quite like taking the ferry over, especially on that first MK morning, it builds the excitement of seeing the castle coming ever closer across the lake.


Ok, who knows who Richard Irvine was and how he got a ferry named after him?

While we waited for the boat to fill up I mentioned to Julia that if I had paid the $14,000 a week rate for one of the Polly bungalows and got the one nearest the ferry I would not be at all happy. Can you imagine the noise in high season when the boats run from 6am to 2am? Someone next to us overheard and asked me “HOW MUCH?” They agreed they wouldn’t want to stay there, even for Pop Century money.


Wouldn’t you love to be this close to the ferry?

The good thing about security moving over to the TTC is that you now just walk from the ferry and right into the park, well you will when they finish the construction around the ferry dock. We got into the park just after 10am, so a bit over the generally accepted hour from parking lot to park.


At least with the railroad being down you don’t have to wait for a train picture.

Brian and I were thinking about a coffee, but when we got to the bakery the queue was out of the door and so we decided that perhaps we didn’t need a drink quite that much.


Most of these people also wanted a coffee I think.

We were heading up into Fantasy land as our FastPass time was already open but were not in any particular hurry and so stopped for some pictures in the hub. Sadly, all of the PhotoPass ones were absolute rubbish and so I’ll just share one I took myself.


The partners who started it all.

Our FastPass got us past a half hour queue at Pooh. When Tigger asks “Is bouncing not the best thing” I replied that no, it give you sea sickness at which point Julia thought I genuinely was feeling ill on this kiddie ride. I’ve happily ridden everything on offer in Cedar Point, but been made ill by a kiddie bounce? I don’t think so dear.

We did have a look at getting some breakfast from the Friar Nook next door when we came off Pooh, but didn’t fancy any of their three options. We didn’t want to eat lunch late because of our early dinner later and would have been quite happy with a brunch instead, had there been one available in the park.

We pushed on to the Haunted Mansion, where on finding a long standby line Brian asked for a DAS return time. I had a poke around the gift shop and saw a couple of nice bits, but nothing so nice that I actually brought anything.

Sandra had a look at the menu for Columbia House and decided that we would eat our early lunch there, once they opened in a few minutes at 11am. By the time it opened there was quite a scrum of people waiting to get in, but we were basically at the front and so were soon ordering. I had the Harbour Salad with Chicken and Julia had the kids PB&J Uncrustables sandwich. When I tried to pay I was informed that we had no children’s meal credits on our plan. I replied that was ok and they could just use one of the adult credits, only to be told that was no longer possible. I told the guy that we had done it Friday night and he agreed that it used to be possible and showed me the blank area on his screen where the button used to be. It appears that the tills had received an update and no longer was it possible to use adult credits to pay for children’s meals. I was aware that Disney had clamped down on kids eating adult Quick Service meals, but to also stop the credits being used the other way around is madness. Julia’s meal was $6.92, which I paid for with a room charge, while mine was $17 with the drink. For Disney to turn down a voucher worth more than twice the value of the meal makes no sense at all. Indeed, my meal at the Polite Pig was something like $33 with the beer, so the policy makes even less sense. Be aware that if you have a 10 year old they are now forced to eat off the adult menus, good luck all of you with picky eaters!

Meal over, with only a slight bad taste at the latest Disney IT mess up, we returned to the Haunted Mansion where Brian’s return time was now active.


Who knows why the chimneys look like chess pieces?


I was delighted to have been added to the queue.


I don’t think Sandra and Brian got their ride picture for some reason.

By the time we’d shaken off the hitchhiker our FastPass time was open for Severn Dwarves and so we braved the impressive Fantasy Land crowds to get to the mine.


Glad we went at the dead time of year!


With the tree obscuring the view a bit the forced perspective on Beast’s castle almost works.

The FastPass queue was rather long for the ride, starting somewhere near the entrance to Be Our Guest, as the ride was running at reduced capacity for some reason. It must have been bad as there were announcements being made inside the actual queue apologising and suggesting that you might want to return later. Even with the delays we were on in only about 15 minutes, but that was at the expense of them loading nearly no one from the standby queue at all.


Whatever the issue was it meant we sat outside the Dwarves’ house long enough to get a good look for once.

We had a little while before our last FastPass at Big Thunder and so headed over to Phillarmagic, taking the time to get a picture of my favourite character, even if he was sleeping.


Mr Crane, the hardest working character in the Magic Kingdom.

We had a bit of a drama on the way over when we lost Julia. When she went to retrieve the ECV from stroller parking I said to her that we would meet ‘over there’ pointing to some seats by the outer castle wall. Julia interpreted ‘over there’ as at the Phillarmagic and so went straight there. A quick phone call and we were soon reunited. What did we all do before we could use our phones in the parks?

We only waited for the show running to finish before being let into the theatre, where they were rigorously enforcing the ‘move to the end of the row’ rule. It is always amusing to see those who had pushed their way to be directly in front of the doors get the worst seats in the house.

Just before we went in I got a notification that our FastPass for Big Thunder had been changed to an ‘any ride’ one, well any ride except Severn Dwarves, Peter Pan or meeting Mickey. Sure enough when Sandra checked MDE Big Thunder was down. We had a think and decided to use the replacement FP on Jungle Cruise and so took a walk down the newly widened path next to the castle once Mickey had once again sorted out Donald’s mess with the orchestra.


Another new Club33 building, I see they are in all four parks now.

As we passed Aloha Isle I spotted that there was hardly any queue and so called the others over to grab a Dole Whip. The Cast Member who served me had the most amazing accent, I just couldn’t place where on earth she could be from. Rather than stare at her name badge, on her chest, I asked her where she came from. Her accent changed as she told me Newcastle, but that she’d been in Florida for two years. She spoke with the most amazing blend of Geordie and Florida to tell me that when she’d first arrived no one could understand a word she said!


Sandra was disappointed to find American cider is not the same as ours.

Once we’d all finished our treats we wandered around the corner and found another enormous FP queue to stand in. Again, like it had for Severn Dwarves the FP queue moved really quickly, getting us on the ride in about 15 minutes. Sadly this was also at the expense of the standby queue, which was an eye watering 2 hours long.


My, what a lot of people.


Seriously, who waits two hours for Jungle Cruise?

Our skipper was excellent and we all had a hilarious cruise around the world’s rivers. Skipper Kate had a great mix of the script we all know and love put together with some new ad-lib. She was especially good when we waited to dock at the end and she had to fill the time.


How nice of the rhino to give them all a push up that pole.


All together now, “Don’t worry they’ve got their trunks on.”

We were done with the park now and so made our way slowly back to the exit for our afternoon nap before dinner. On the way around the hub we all commented on how lovely the flowers were on this tree, they were a real vibrant yellow.


Anyone know what species of tree this is?

As we walked down Main Street we kept our eyes out for a photographer with a short queue and sure enough while some had several groups waiting we found one with only one other family waiting. I’m glad we stopped as this photographer was excellent, she spent ages with us. So much so that we wondered why, then I realised that the castle show was coming to an end and the fireworks were about to go off. When we saw the pictures later we not only got the fireworks, but also some real balloons.


We started with the standard pictures.


It was good of the balloon seller to walk so close.


Fireworks did eventually fire.

Continued Below

[spencem]

We got the express monorail back to the TTC at about 2:30 and then had our usual down time followed today by getting changed into slightly nicer clothes for our meal. We left our hotel just after 4:30 and so were waiting outside the Yachtsman for their 5pm opening. We took advantage of the free valet parking with Julia’s disabled badge, but did tip as normal when we collected the car later.

We got shown to a fairly nice table in the bay window area, but not at the window itself.


Not a bad view at all.

Our server came and introduced himself and did the usual spiel about the dining plan and asked to scan our bands. Since we were two separate bookings we had two separate dinning plans and so needed to scan two bands at each meal. On this occasion neither mine nor Brian’s bands would scan, our server then asked to try Sandra’s and Julia’s and found they wouldn’t work either. He seemed to be about to tell us we had a problem when I pointed out mine had worked just a few minutes earlier to drive into the resort and that they had all worked a few hours ago to get us into Magic Kingdom and then our hotel rooms. I suggested the issue just might, might be with his reader rather than our bands. He saw sense and asked to take a pair of bands out the back to his manager. I’m not sure what they did, but after a few minutes he re-appeared and told us everything was now sorted.

Our meals were all superb and after the initial hiccup the service was also excellent, if a little bit over the top polite. I think it is just the style they are taught, but I find the constant “yes sir, certainly sir, I’ll get that right away sir” a little too much.

We asked about the possibility of swapping a dessert for an appetiser. We could have done, but all three options had seafood and so no good for me at all. We just had their excellent bread and roast garlic as our appetiser instead. For our mains Julia and I had,


Elk for me, cooked the recommended medium rare.


With a side of extremely tasty roasted brussel sprouts.


Julia had a cremated fillet, as she asked for it.


With half a head of broccoli.

My elk was delicious, it is a very dense meat, not tough but just very dense. You didn’t want to cut too large a piece each time. Julia’s steak was also very good, even with how she has it cooked it was still very tender.

Deserts were ordered, but before they arrived Julia and I were served up some extra treats for our celebrations. On the way back to the rooms last night Sandra had asked me if I had said anything to Disney about this being our anniversary meal. I reminded her that all the ADRs were in her name and she wandered off to talk to the front desk. She must have really laid it on thick about Julia having been hospitalised because the restaurant really did us proud. We got presented with personalised menus, a glass of champagne each and a desert each. Julia doesn’t drink as her medication and alcohol don’t play well together at all, so Sandra helped her out with the champagne.


Julia was very happy with her gifts.


Julia’s birthday chocolate mousse cake.


Same cake, but with a Mickey chocolate for our anniversary.

Brian and I had both been doubtful about our actual deserts when we ordered them. They were billed as S’mores Sundaes and we were expecting something very intricate and pretty, but also very small. What arrived was anything but small, those are full size marsh mellows and it had three scoops of the ice cream. I was quite glad that Julia helped me out eating mine. We had a chuckle that mine had arrived with an allergy stick in it to confirm it contained no seafood.


Not a small portion at all, easily shareable after such a filling meal.

Dinner took about 2 hours all in all and was excellent, this was the second meal we’ve had at Yachtsman and both were great. Julia had had enough for the night, especially after eating which often sets her disability off. She decided to head back to the hotel and was quite happy to drop us three off at Hollywood Studios on her way.


We were past security at quarter to eight, 15 minutes before park close.


As we hoped, there were many people leaving.

According to MDE there wasn’t much of a queue for Toy Story and so we made our way over to the ride, bypassing the small crowd waiting for the fireworks. There was not much of a queue at all, something like 20 minutes. I was a bit rusty as I’d not been on the ride for about 18 months and so was fairly happy with my 149,300 points.


Toy Story Land looks great at night.


One day I must try this ride, but I’m not too fond of spin’n’puke rides.

We thought we’d head over and see what all the fuss is about for Galaxy’s Edge and if they were doing DAS returns for Smugglers Run. Thankfully they were indeed and we got given a return time for just half an hour later. That gave me some time to have a wander around this amazing land.


Just stunning, especially at night.


Sadly there is no Adam Driver, if there was Julia would have been there in a flash.


Amazing level of detail, I presume they have copied the actual film prop.


Not sure why we were told to fold our arms.


The alien shopping mall was lovely and quiet.


The framing of the land with the arches is so well put together.


I love how the ships fire up their engines and then you hear them flying overhead, even if they don’t move.

Our time rolled around and so we presented ourselves to the soon to be in use FastPass entrance and were waved in. I’m guessing that taking this route we missed a load of detail in the main queue. If we had seen the standby line lower than half an hour we would have probably walked it, but it never was. Thankfully the two lines converge before the main pre-show and its incredible animatronic.


The fluidity of his movement is extremely lifelike.


We were called too soon to get our own photos in the iconic seat.


Our pilots lead the way to the cockpit.

The outside of the is ride is incredible, the attention to detail in the queue stunning, the pre-show amazing, the holding room straight from the film. Shame the ride itself is not as incredible. I was a gunner and so I could see something happening each time I pressed the fire button, even if it had no effect apart from some lines on screen much of the time. If I pressed at exactly the right time then something might explode, or maybe it was the other gunner pressing their button? I’m not at all convinced the pilots controls were doing much at all either. Since all I had to do was continuously press a button I could watch what Sandra was doing in front of me and out of the front window. It appeared to me that rather than actual flight controls what she was doing was choosing what option the next bit of film played. If her stick was forward at the correct time then next few seconds went one way, if it was back the film went another, kind of like those old adventure books. Chose up and turn to page 99, chose down and turn to page 110. All in all the experience was chaotic, with no one seeming to be in control of much. I’m very glad I’ve done it and I’d probably ride again with a FastPass or if the line was sub 30 minutes, but I certainly wouldn’t queue for hours for this ride. I can see why the standby line has fallen and they’ve been able to add FastPass so soon.

Cargo delivered, I think, we were in need of a drink and so went to see what the options were in Docking Bay 7. Brian and I both went for the speciality Moof Juice, which turned out to be a cup of ice with a tiny amount of drink in it. What little drink the was tasted good at first, but was soon diluted by the huge amount of ice. We had a further look around the shopping mall, which is incredibly detailed before heading over past the sadly closed Rise of the Resistance and back to earth. On the way we came across a photographer by the x-wing.


I got my own picture,


before getting a professional one taken.


Not many people wanted to visit the Muppets tonight.


It seems a bit odd that you have New York between the two Star Wars areas.

Star Tours was showing as a 15 minute wait, but in fact it was a walk on to a half empty speeder. It was so empty that our flight attendant told us we were free to move to any empty seat as we boarded. I’ve not seen the latest film, which was a bit of a problem as all of the segments shown were from it. I heard someone ask the Cast Member why they had seen exactly the same film twice in a day and they were told that all trips were being done exactly the same at the moment to promote the new film. Not sure how long this is lasting, but it was certainly the same later in the holiday when we rode again. I had a look around the gift shop on the way out and found Julia a small Porg.

The park was almost closed by now, we didn’t have time to get to any of the other rides and so headed for the exit. As we got to the cross roads the park closed and for the first time ever I watched cast members close the shop doors dead on closing time, normally the shops near the exit stay open long past park close.

We only waited about 10 minutes for a bus in the very nice and new to us bus station and were soon back at the hotel about quarter to 11. Julia was delighted with her new pet, especially when she discovered he came with a shoulder mount.


Aww, isn’t he cute.



Back to the index.

[mick]

A brilliant day

Joan

[Tinkermom]

Best day yet I think, so glad you had such a lovely anniversary meal.

[spencem]

Originally Posted by mick

A brilliant day

Joan

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Thanks

Originally Posted by Tinkermom

Best day yet I think, so glad you had such a lovely anniversary meal.

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Thank You, we would highly recommend Yachtsman.

[Palm trees]

Fantastic day, your dinner looks delicious and the photos of Star Wars land are great too.

[spencem]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

Fantastic day, your dinner looks delicious and the photos of Star Wars land are great too.

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Thank you, dinner certainly was good. We were lucky with the crowd levels that night in Galaxy's Edge, I don't think we saw it that quiet again.

[prettymiarose]

What a lovely day! Thanks for posting, really cheering me up. I started on your last day so now working my way from day 1 in between working from home

Love your writing & the small details you include. I have Crohn’s so we also used the DAS services on our last visit. It’s a real god send as I’d never be able to wait a long line.

Such a shame Julia had to spend a few days of the holiday in hospital but good to see she got back to enjoying the trip.
I’ve had the same experience & my insurance company was great so hopefully you won’t have any issues getting reimbursed.

Can’t believe Disney were so strategic to work out they can make cash by not allowing adults to take child meal credits! Not very Disney Magic!

Looking forward to reading on.

[spencem]

Originally Posted by prettymiarose

What a lovely day! Thanks for posting, really cheering me up. I started on your last day so now working my way from day 1 in between working from home

Love your writing & the small details you include. I have Crohn’s so we also used the DAS services on our last visit. It’s a real god send as I’d never be able to wait a long line.

Such a shame Julia had to spend a few days of the holiday in hospital but good to see she got back to enjoying the trip.
I’ve had the same experience & my insurance company was great so hopefully you won’t have any issues getting reimbursed.

Can’t believe Disney were so strategic to work out they can make cash by not allowing adults to take child meal credits! Not very Disney Magic!

Looking forward to reading on.

See more...

Thanks for your kind words.

I'm not sure Disney stratergised stopping adults eating kids meals as much as they didn't think through the updates they made to their cash registers to stop kids eating adult meals.

[prettymiarose]

Oh I see. Silly really!