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Old 16 Feb 19, 10:08 AM  
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HelenJNT
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#USAnumber3 - Helen & Andy - Nov18. Day 2: Disney Hollywood Studios & Cape May Cafe

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Day 2: Disney Hollywood Studios & Cape May Café

Firstly, apologies for the delay on this instalment, and thank you for all the great comments thus far. I’m hoping the report will come along a little faster now as I’m acutely conscious that I have NO notes and it was over three months ago now (sob) so I need to get it down pronto.

Secondly, here is the Magic Kingdom Tomorrowland mug I bought in Starbucks the previous day, and at the time cleverly only managed to get a photo of the box it came in.





And we're back in the room... read on and get comfy for today is a long one.


Whilst the Beach Club might have ridiculously comfortable beds, the rooms are light. This might be great during the day or when trying to apply make-up, but it isn’t overly conducive to a great night’s sleep. The vanity area also has a little night light thing on the shaver point which illuminates the whole room and needed to be covered up every night before we went to sleep.

So, it was no great surprise that I was wide awake again at midnight and again at about 03:30. And once again I failed to sleep past 05:30 (which, let’s face it, actually isn’t that bad when you think that my brain was trying to tell me it was in fact 09:30). Andy seemed to have no such issues though, managing to stay asleep for the whole night and yet struggling to wake up in the morning.

This morning, it was important that we were up and at ‘em early though. It was our first visit to the new Toy Story Land at Disney Hollywood Studios and we hadn’t been able to get a fast pass for the Slinky Dog Coaster until about day 12 of the holiday so if we wanted to ride it more than once, we needed to be in the standby line as early as possible.



Obviously, Andy chose this morning to do his best impression of a log; it seemed that nothing was going to get him going today. So, I started crashing around the room and turning on lights, refusing to feel guilty when he told me he was still asleep. Nope. He was given a firm 30 minute warning; we had agreed the night before that we needed to be out of the room by 07:20 for an 08:00 rope drop.

Walk on by…
Fast forward, and we ended up leaving the room at 07:45. Now I know this was only 25 minutes later than we had planned but I was acutely aware of the fact that we were walking to DHS, didn’t know the route, and knew we had to factor in some extra time as the pathway was a lot longer due to all the new construction.



Andy set off like a gazelle, walking at least three times as fast as me, as I was lagging behind. It was so humid this morning, even so early, and I was really struggling. I can’t keep up with him at the best of times, let alone when my muscles haven’t warmed up after walking 10 miles the previous day, its 98% humidity and 28c at 08:00.



What should be a perfectly pleasant walk along the river now spits you out right in the centre of a building site. There are loads of green hoardings with promises of Great Things to come.



It then feels like you’re going a bit mad as the path twists and turns and every time you think you’re getting to the end of it, there’s yet another fence panel you need to walk round. I was experiencing the kind of rage you only ever get at WDW; the kind that makes you really belligerent and annoyed. Plus I was drenched with sweat and my legs were killing me, which is never a good mood elevator.



By the time we got to the gates, it was 08:10, rope drop had been and gone, and we were in a large queue of people trying to get through the turnstiles. I’m not proud of it but some words were had. I was narked that there was only one morning on this holiday when we had to get up early (today) which he refused to do, and he was narked that I was too unfit to be able to keep up with him as he burned rubber to get to the park at the right time. Stalemate.


The sound of silence

We made it through the turnstiles and were ushered into Toy Story Land. It was massively busy, people everywhere, and the queue for Slinky Dog started at the entrance to the Land, with a promise of 75 minutes (at 08:15ish).



Andy and I had not uttered a word to each other since we got through the gates and I was seething that we were now in a 75 minute queue when it could so easily have been avoided if we’d got there 30 minutes earlier as I knew they’d rope drop early to start walking people towards the ride. When I finally broke the silence to point this out, Andy just said he would rather be in a queue inside the park than a boring queue at the gates.



We queued in further silence for about 40 minutes, which was fun. However, in the interests of keeping the peace I did apologise for getting so mad and we were fine. Good job really or this might have been a really short instalment.



I’d deliberately avoided everything about Toy Story Land on social media (not the easiest of tasks when you follow a lot of Disney accounts and read a ton of trip reports) as I wanted to experience it with my own eyeballs first. I think this photo is from a later day as there is no way we were at the entrance to the ride at 08:06 and it definitely wasn’t a 50 min wait.



The queue for Slinky isn’t the most exciting but it’s really well done, with lots to look at once you get into the main area under cover.



As you’d expect, there are giant toys everywhere and it has a really nice nostalgic feel to it.



You can see the ride whizzing around, but you can’t actually see the loading area til you’re right at the end, which is a bit frustrating as you don’t know how much queue you have left. I do remember marvelling at a lady wearing a woolly poncho and opaque tights which completely boggled me as I was still failing to dry out from my humid hustle this morning.







Luckily for Andy and me, we were probably 40 or so people from the front when we were called forward as a two. And we got the back row too which was cool – as we all know, the back of a ride is faster, and also you don’t have a great big plastic dog head in front of you, obscuring the view.

The ride vehicle itself felt quite roomy and they load you fast, so before we knew it, we were off! I know this is meant to be a kids’ coaster, but it goes really high! I couldn’t believe it – you get such a great view from the top – I could see Everest to my right, and a really good view of Star Wars land below as well. It whipped past so fast though that it was impossible to make a lot out other than a load of grey concrete at the moment. The ride is super smooth (I said a few times that I felt like I was flying) and so much fun – we were laughing our heads off all the way round – the argument was totally forgotten.



The on-ride photo is so shockingly bad though! I haven’t seen anyone brave enough to post theirs on here yet. So here is one I took myself instead.



Once we had disembarked, we went to have a look at the Alien Swirling Saucers ride. It didn’t look overly exciting and the wait time was about 50 minutes so we weren’t bothered about getting in the queue for it; we would try and pick up a fast pass for it later on in the trip.



We consulted the app to see what the wait times were like in the rest of the park. Both Rock & Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror were down – it really seemed like we weren’t having a lot of joy what with so many broken down rides during EMH – first Epcot yesterday, and then the headliners at DHS down today.

We wandered back into the centre of the park, and decided we would check out Min & Bill’s Dockside Diner as we had really enjoyed the breakfast burritos there last year. Fail – it was closed. Oh.

We took advantage of it being fairly quiet in the park - apart from Toy Story Land - and had a few photopasses done. They’re hilariously bad - see for yourselves!











We could be lifted, from the shadows
A quick check of the app and we saw that Tower of Terror was back up again, with a 13 minute wait time so we ran (no, we didn’t – haven’t you learned anything about me today?) over there as we knew that meant it was a walk-on.



We got to go through the main queue which we hadn’t done before, and it was great to see the gardens and all of the theming inside the lobby area.





It’s quite cool the way the queue takes you right up close to the main building and you can see the lifts opening and closing really clearly. I am sure I read somewhere that the screams are piped out though – can anyone confirm?





Once we were loaded in to the lift (neither of us were remotely scared, by the way, just excited), I couldn’t find my seatbelt. This led to a bit of scuffling around and some side-eyes from the people around me, Andy included. I tried to explain to the kid next to me that he had my seat belt and was pulling it the wrong way, but he wasn’t having any of it.

The lift operator came over to see what was going on, and the kid kicked up a bit of a fuss when the cast member tried to help him out but finally, he let the seatbelt go and I was able to strap myself in. We haven’t ridden ToT a lot, but every time without fail, someone gets the lap belts wrong. Same on Soarin’. Hilariously/shamefully (delete as appropriate), there’s a bit in the ride video where you first sit down, and you can clearly see me giving the kid a dirty look. Oops.

We had a really good group on the ride. A lady behind us was on her own and was clearly a fan of the ride as she was yelling along to all the words. Usually this sort of thing irritates me, but she was actually quite endearing. Although I don’t know whether any of the first time riders felt the same way as me when she let out a massive prank scream just as we moved to the drop zone and they all screamed back as she had made them jump out of their skins. Hehehehe. The drops on the ride were brilliant; I don’t know if it was because there was no queue as the ride had just re-opened, but it felt like we were on it forever, bouncing up and down. I know this makes no sense, but it felt like we were going up a lot more than down. Anyway, it was a hoot. Andy says this is definitely his favourite ride in WDW now.



What next? Even with Toy Story open, there still isn’t a lot to do in DHS, and the problem is that Toy Story brings the visitors, and therefore the wait times were consistently longer for the other rides. However, a quick check of the app showed that Star Tours was only at 15 minutes, so we hotfooted it (again, no, it was a slow but purposeful stroll) over there.



I’ll take your brain to another dimension…
By the time we arrived at Star Tours the wait time had gone up to 20 minutes. It was about 09:50 by this point and lots of people were already using their fast passes. As a result, it looked like a fairly lengthy queue. I used the time up by attempting to use mobile ordering for the first time. We just missed this being rolled out on our last trip, so I was interested to see what it would be like.

Given the pitiful lack of quick service choice at DHS, we opted to place our order at Woody’s Lunchbox (snort). I’d been wanting to try the breakfast there for some time, and we were pretty hungry by this point – the temptation to over-order was strong. There wasn’t a great amount on the menu that Andy could eat as quite a few of the items contained pork or bacon, but in the end we both went for the Breakfast Bowl – “a hearty portion of potato barrels smothered in smoked brisket country gravy, scrambled eggs, and a sprinkling of green onions”. So basically, tater tots, some questionable meaty sauce and some spring onions. Right up my alley, I won’t lie. I added on a couple of orange juices, and put the order through.

A couple of small observations on placing the order – it didn’t seem overly easy (or should that be over-easy, haha) to customise the orders, and also it took the credits before giving a confirmation that the order had been placed, which was a little confusing at the time. Also, it was really hard to navigate the app once the order had been put through, so I couldn’t easily locate the order number again once it had flashed up for a millisecond and then gone away again.



However, no time to worry about it, for as luck would have it, Andy and I were being called forward as a party of two (huzzah) to take a trip to Naboo (hey, that rhymes). The ride hadn’t been updated again since we were there last year, so it was still the same one with the red salt plains and some of the newer bits. It’s good, I like it, but Andy and I were saying it would be lovely if they would sometimes throw in the original footage, but I guess that’ll never happen. Behind us were a Spanish family having an absolute whale of a time, they whooped and shrieked through the whole ride and were the literal definition of #BestDayEver.









While we were on the ride, I had had a reminder on the app that we needed to go and pick up our breakfast by 10:30 as that was when Woody’s Lunchbox finishes serving breakfast. It’s actually a bit of a trek over to Toy Story Land from Star Tours as you have to cross the whole hub again and cut down the side of One Man’s Dream. I don’t know if you’ll be able to cut through Star Wars land once it opens; it was a little frustrating to have to go all the way around as logic (and previous knowledge of the park) kept telling me it was just behind the Muppets but there you go.



Roll out the barrel(s)…
We made our way back into Toy Story Land but again, didn’t really have the time to appreciate it and take it all in as we only had a few minutes before the end of breakfast service at 10:30, so had to step on it in order to get over to Woody’s Lunchbox (SO many jokes waiting to happen) in time.



The seating area is pretty small but really nicely done, with tables and chairs made out of things like ice lolly sticks (possibly not so nice for those who are triggered by such items), and Babybel cheeses. Disney does some really weird sponsored collabs – you still see Craisins knocking around on some menus - but I guess Babybel have locked Disney in for some time given that they feature so heavily on the rather permanent-looking furniture.

Andy managed to pounce on a table where people were just leaving, and promptly parked himself down on a building block, or maybe a on a piece of the official snack cheese of Toy Story Land. Ahem.



I went over to the counter service area to work out what the hell to do with this mobile ordering business and it was all a bit confusing. I finally spotted a window on the far right with a sticker on it saying it was the mobile order pick-up but it felt fairly chaotic as there were a ton of people just milling around and getting in the way.

I was still trying to navigate MDE to find where my order reference number had disappeared off to as you to check back into it once you arrive at the quick service location to tell them you’ve arrived, which took me a while to find, and I actually ended up navigating back to it via the email I had been sent when had placed the order. Eventually my name was called, and I went up to the window.

One chap who was watching the proceedings like a hawk merrily informed me that my food had been sat there for ages getting cold, so I’m not sure whether the “I’m here” thing actually works when they have a pipeline of orders to get out at the end of a particular meal serving time.

Finally I had the food, anyway. It had been a long time since we had eaten anything (yes, remember, this is standard for a Helen and Andy trip report). I stopped at the condiment station and picked up napkins, salt and pepper, ketchup (for Andy) and hot sauce (for me).

I had half-heartedly joked in my pre-trip report that one of my objectives for this trip was to get outside of as many portions of tater tots (or potato barrels, as they are known as in WDW) after falling head over heels in love with them during our last trip. So needless to say, I was very excited for this breakfast as it would be #2 in the Tater Tot tally.



As breakfasts go, this was actually pretty decent although not one for the sweet toothed folk among you. The bowl was larger than I was expecting and was a decent portion of said potato barrels and scrambled egg, with a serving of slightly weird and distinctly jazzy-looking white gravy (I don’t mean jazzy, but something that has a similar spelling…can I say that here…? Too late). There didn’t appear to be any beef in the gravy (this isn’t getting any better, is it? ) which pleased me as I wasn’t sure how I felt about beef for breakfast. There was also a good handful of spring onions on the top too.

I had a taste and felt it was fairly bland so added a few drops of hot sauce, which improved the whole thing immeasurably. It also served to turn the gravy pink, which in any other meal would be pretty minging but based on the appearance of it, made it significantly more palatable.

Continued below...

Edited at 12:31 PM.
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Old 16 Feb 19, 10:09 AM  
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HelenJNT
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She’s a maniac, maniac
It was time for our Toy Story Midway Mania fast pass. The new entrance to this ride is pretty spectacular, and it does feel like you’re walking into an old-school carnival ride, rather than the previous entrance that just felt like you were, well, walking into an old school.



The queue felt a lot longer in terms of distance to the boarding area, but it wasn’t long before we were collecting our 3D glasses and heading down the stairs.



















We always discuss which character we want on our ride vehicle – I said I wanted Alien this time and my wish came true. Magic, eh?



Andy, the walking talking advertisement for FUN!

I don’t know if the game itself has had an update since the new Land opened, but somehow the graphics felt sharper somehow. It was as enjoyable as ever, even though the ride kept breaking down. Sadly, unlike Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, where you can rack up a pretty decent score when you stall, it doesn’t apply to TSMM, as the shooters are immediately disabled. Shame.



I won anyway, which caused Andy to mumble something about how his accuracy score was higher. Yeah, yeah. The exit of the ride is LONG now. It’s a nice ramble through Andy’s back yard (steady on) but it seems to go on forever, especially when you have to keep stopping and hanging back for people to take photos.



The wait times for the three Toy Story rides were all well over 90 minutes now, longer for Slinky Dog, so we stopped for a quick photo pass with a big old plastic alien (cos that’s what you do on holiday…). The poor photographer was having a really hard time as people without photo pass kept muscling in to take photos of each other. I feel sorry for people who don’t have the memory maker as they are forever being shooed out of the way by photographers.







Immediately following this was our fast pass for Tower of Terror, which we were pleasantly pleased to be able to ride again – so far it was about 11:15 and we had already done three of the headliners in the park (one of them twice), and Star Tours.



I STILL can’t do “scared” and as a result, have many photos like this one where I look like I’m slapping myself in the face.

Considering we’d spent an hour in a queue and stopped for breakfast, this wasn’t too bad really.









We were on the front row this time (my fave) and didn’t put our hands up as we know all too well how annoying it is for people behind who have their ride photos obscured by other people’s mitts.




When you call my name, it’s like a little prayer
We had quite a long break between fast passes at this point, so decided to head to Starbucks, along with the rest of everyone in the park. I took this photo actually to demonstrate the size of the queue, but appeared to have only documented the bra of the lady in front of me, so apologies.



Oh, they’ve got rid of the little seating area on the terrace here (with those high wrought iron stools and tables which were hotter than the sun) to make room for more people to queue.

It took about 20 minutes to get to the front of the queue. I would never ever queue this long for a drink at home, certainly not a non-alcoholic one anyway. It’s funny the things you do on holiday, isn’t it?

We had our standard order – I was in no rush to try the dragonfruit & mango again – strawberry acai refresher for me, and a very berry hibiscus for Andy. Just a reminder here that if you’re using snack credits, you can have any size drink in Starbucks on the dining plan, so obviously we went for a trenta, which would be about a pint were it not for ¾ of a pint of ice.



We went out of Starbucks and sat on the seats outside to the right instead which were lovely and shady at that time of day. It was pretty hot, about 30c, and so humid – I was flagging a bit as really wasn’t expecting it to be as soggy as it was.

You’re as cold as ice
Drinks rapidly consumed, we consulted the app for the time of the next show. Best timed for us was Frozen Ever After, which was starting in about 15 minutes so off we went to the Hyperion Theatre.



We’ve typically tossed away fast passes on this show before due to the daft tiering system in Hollywood Studios but there was no need to do that on this trip as the Toy Story rides are all now Tier One, with everything else bumped down to Tier Two. Much better, although it does make for even longer queues for Star Tours (as no-one fast passes it any more when they can get TOT and Rock & Rollercoaster on the same day now).



The seats we got were probably better than the fast pass seats anyway – pretty central but near the front. Behind us were some very excited teenage girls who were singing Let It Go at the top of their lungs before anything had even happened. Whilst I do have some admiration for Americans’ apparent lack of inhibition, I have to say that Andy and I were cringing into our seats a little bit.



We do really like this show. This time we were treated to the award-winning Ben Ptashinsky in the role of Erik, the narrator, and all the hype about him is true – he was fantastic.





All the cast always are in this, we had a great time. And thankfully, unlike last year, the show hadn’t yet switched over to the slightly odd Christmas version so we didn’t have to sit through all that again.



Our seats were actually better than ones we had had with FP+ previously, although we were right in the direction of the vents that blow out the fake snow at the end so we emerged pretty drenched.



Pink gets me high as a kite
It was time for our Rock & Rollercoaster fast pass, so we made our way over there.













Andy took a couple of photos of me in the courtyard, and I made sure I checked them, as you do. We both noticed that I looked a little pink in the face, which I just put down to the humidity and didn’t think anything more of it...



We rode the ride and this time I made sure to pull the harness all the way down. Last year I didn’t, and I came off in agony as my cheeks (face!) had been battered either side of the harness all the way around the ride. Better to emerge with sore boobs than a bruised face, I think. Yeah, it’s not exactly a relaxing holiday when you’re having to weigh up this kind of stuff.









Took this one for you, Rach




After the ride we decided it was time for a beer, and went over to the Baseline Tap. We really enjoyed our time there last year – the beer is good, the barmen are handsome and it’s a great spot to sit in the sun and watch the world go by.



Andy went in to get the drinks (large Sierra Nevadas), and he also decided to get one of the jumbo pretzels with mustard dip as we realised we were peckish.





We set a new world record for theme park drinking, as the beers were gone in no time at all…so Andy went back in for another round.



While he was gone, I started to feel a bit weird – my ears were burning, so I figured someone must have been having a good chat about me. Then I looked down at where my hands should have been, and saw a pair of lobster red claws. Bright red.



Andy came back to the table and noticed straight away. In the space of about 30 seconds, the skin on my arms was coming out in bright red blotches too. I had morphed into Anger from Inside Out.

Andy asked if I felt OK, and I thought I did, just a little tipsy from having downed a strong beer in two gulps – otherwise I felt fine. By this point the skin on my chest had also turned crimson – but it definitely wasn’t sunburn – and we both freaked out.

Abandoning the beers, we decided to go back to the hotel and get me a cold shower to see if that would help. My first thought was maybe I was dehydrated, but I’ve never had that reaction before, so we started wondering whether I had had an allergy to the Strawberry Acai refresher from Starbucks. I have psoriasis, and sometimes my skin flares instantly if I have too many red/nightshade foods with skins (specific I know), such as strawberries, red peppers, tomatoes etc. But again, this wasn’t like that as there was no itching or anything. I was sulking that it would be just my luck to have developed a sudden reaction to one of my favourite holiday drinks. Yes, I was fretting about this, whilst A had convinced himself I’d be spending the rest of the holiday in hospital.

I still see it all in my head - in burning red
We decided to get the boat back to the hotel and stand/sit on the outside deck so I could get some breeze on my skin. We had a bit of a wait for a boat but got on the first one and stood outside.



The beer buzz had worn off and I was feeling alright. Apart from looking like Mushu. That was not fine. I think that explains why this photo is in b&w.



The boat first docked at the Swan and Dolphin and we sat down on the seat at the back of the boat but then Andy got up again and gave his seat to a lady with a baby. I specifically remember this as he instructed me in no uncertain terms that I had to point out his heroism in the trip report.

We got back to the Beach Club about 4.30pm and went straight into the shop to buy some water and snacks.



Back in the room I had a cool shower, put some of the complementary Aloe Vera gel on, and lay down on the bed for a while, which turned into a full-on nap for an hour or so.



When I woke up, I was back to my normal skin shade, no trace of redness anywhere. However, we were both still pretty freaked out by the episode so decided to chill out around the Boardwalk that evening rather than heading back into a park.



We hadn’t made a meal reservation for that evening as we wanted to play it by ear. We had a quick look on the app as decided we wanted to go to ESPN but there were no tables available for a reasonable time. We would have gone out to try and score a walk-up but by that point, the heavens had totally opened, and the rain was torrential. I was SO pleased to see the rain given how humid it had been over the past couple of days, but it didn’t really help the dinner conundrum.

Looking on the app, we saw there was availability for the Cape May Café clam bake buffet in our hotel. We already had this booked for a few nights’ time but decided to make a reservation for tonight anyway as a) if we liked it, it was easy and we would go twice, or b) if we didn’t, we still had time to cancel the future reservation and do something else instead.

We were ravenous by this point so made the booking for an hour’s time (20:10). At this point, I had a bit of a revelation. My redness hadn’t been brought on by the strawberry drink, the sunshine or the beer. It was the bloody soapy snow they pumped all over us during the Frozen Sing-Along! I had received a full-on face and lung-ful of it at the end of the show, and must have had some kind of topical reaction to it. Who knew?

Feeling happy that that was the answer, we got ready for dinner and wandered down to the lobby to check in – which was literally 30 seconds from the room. We didn’t make the most of the dining when we stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge as we were only on the quick service dining plan then, so we were feeling pretty smug that we could just saunter out of the room and to a restaurant tonight with no hassle or travel.



Clambake, gonna have a clambake
All checked in, we sat in reception for 15 minutes or so, waiting for the buzzer to go off. It didn’t take us long to answer the trivia question…



Once the buzzer went off, we were shown to our table. The layout of Cape May Café is a little weird. The main room has a square area which has buffet food on all four sides, and a load of tables and booths. We weren’t shown in there though, we were put up in a little windowless room off to one side, which I wasn’t keen on at all. The beige colour scheme and lift muzak wasn’t very atmospheric or Disney, and there was nothing interesting to look at at all. Sure, it was away from the commotion of the main buffet and there weren’t any screaming kids, but it felt like so many soulless hotels or conferences I’ve been to for work.

Our server was Juli, a lovely bustling lady who was full of smiles and chat, and served to brighten up the somewhat dismal room. She handed us a cocktail menu, which looked pretty good actually but we just wanted basic drinks so Andy had a beer and I ordered a white wine. I like white wine with seafood and I was planning on getting well stuck in as we were so hungry.

The buffet was good. Andy won’t eat shellfish at all (his limits are tuna, cod and salmon) but there was plenty for him to go at. I didn’t take any photos of the buffet I’m afraid but there was loads of stuff on there – four different types of salad, a couple of soups (clam chowder and minestrone). We each started with a bowl of the soup and a great big plate of the SouthWest salad, which was really beautifully unhealthy with fried tortilla chips and tons of delicious dressing. I had the clam chowder, which was delicious and tasted like the creamiest leek and potato soup – actually not fishy at all - and Andy had the minestrone, which he enjoyed.



On to the main courses – Andy went straight to the meat serving station and came back with a plate of hand-carved steak, and some mash and green beans. He was happy as anything – he finds buffets a bit too much sometimes and I think he was pleased to come back with a “proper” plate of food rather than what I always seem to do which is have a spoonful of everything and hope for the best. Doing my bit for diversity and inclusion.



I filled my plate with some salmon with a lovely pesto dressing (yum, really nicely cooked considering it was under a hot lamp), mashed potato, snow crab legs and claws, and some corn on the cob. They had a barrel of melted butter on the buffet which you could pour into a little pot and was basically my idea of heaven. Could do with one of those at home for the popcorn machine…or just neat…glug.



Here begins one of my more amusing/bemusing Disney dining experiences. Our friendly server, Juli, came over to me as she could see I was struggling to open the crab legs. She decided she needed to give me a lesson on how to get the meat out. I was told all I needed to do was go “crack! crack! crack!” with the tools and I would soon be in sweet meaty heaven. Well, I have deconstructed a few crabs and lobster in my time and I was getting nowhere with these ones. They were bendy and were refusing to crack once, let alone three times. Hmmm.

Why is it whenever I write about these mad adventures, I immediately hear the theme tune from Benny Hill circling my ears? Anyway, Juli took it upon herself to go and get some plastic gloves so she could, erm, crack my legs for me. Gloves in hand, she happily reappeared, only to drop the gloves on the floor, and have to go back and get some more. All the while I was sitting there, the rest of my food getting cold, watching Andy finish one plate of food and go back for more. AWKWARD.

Juli came back and tried to open the crab legs (which is a sentence I never thought I would say…) and failed. She proclaimed her confusion, and set off back to the buffet to go and get some more. All the while I am just sat at the table like a lemon. She tried again, working her way through an entire bucket of crab pieces. Like poor Whitney said, the crack was wack.

Juli, probably quite rightly, said that this was unacceptable and rushed off “to tell chef”. Grateful of the break, I got stuck in to the rest of the plate, which was basically just prawns, a bit of the steak, salad, mash and corn. All very nice, but, well, it wasn’t what I’d come for. Come for the crack, stay for the salad. There’s an Irish joke in there somewhere but it’s late and I have also been typing this day since DECEMBER so need to get it done!



I eventually stood poor Juli down and said it didn’t matter. She was very apologetic and sweet but a) I felt so weird having someone prepare my food for me as you would for a toddler, and b) after the day I had had, accidentally turning red and all, I didn’t fancy taking my chances with bendy seafood. I ended up having a bit of everything else, the steak, more salmon, mash and lots of pieces of the lovely corn. Managed to spill hot butter on my new t-shirt so that was a right result too. They should give you a bib, like you get at Red Lobster. After all, I had spent a lot of the day looking like a red lobster. Maybe if we’d gone there, it might have been better, as I don’t think we rinsed much value out of this buffet.



We weren’t really stuffed, so we went in on the desserts, which were a selection of mini desserts set up on a separate table. I don’t have any stand-out memories of these, I think they were just OK, but we were getting to them at the end of the night and I think they had been poked and prodded by several little fingers (not the one from Game of Thrones, although that would be fun) so we had to seek out ones that didn’t look like they had been mauled.

So, all in all, probably not the best experience. Juli got the full 20% as she was simply lovely, but it felt like something of a high maintenance and not very satisfactory meal. If you’re going to go, I’d suggest going to an earlier sitting and maybe get your plate of desserts (as they are cold) at the start, where you’ve got more of a chance of scoring an unfingered tart. As it were.

We went back up to the room, and the first thing we did was cancel our reservation for later in the week. It was scheduled for the end of a Universal day so actually it felt better having it cancelled than needing to rush back for it.

I have a memory that the family next door were in full screaming Waltons mode again but we were both so exhausted that we just fell asleep. After I had tried – and failed – to get the butter stain out of my t-shirt by rubbing some shampoo into it to try to dissolve the grease.

Well. What a day. Think there’s something in there for everyone. Arguments, tater tots with “jazzy” white gravy, chameleon skin, new rides and bendy crabs. Never say you don’t get variety in a Helen & Andy trip report….

Here are our essential stats for the day:




Join me for the next instalment (which should be along sooner than this one was) where we have a totally perfect day at Animal Kingdom – yes, it can be done – and visit Disney Springs... which can now be found here

Edited at 07:01 PM.
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Old 16 Feb 19, 02:13 PM  
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Lisa_Lollipop
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Hurrah, so happy you are back with a new instalment (and apologies for mine and Rach's persistent pestering!)

I don't think it is possible to make it through a Disney trip without having some sort of argument with your significant other! If anyone tells you they have managed it then they are for sure lying! The good thing is that when in the happiest place on earth these squabbles are soon forgotten, good old Slinky Dog for causing the perfect distraction

I love how after so many years of dodging ToT it is now a favourite ride! And great you got to experience the standby queue, as great as FPs are you definitely miss out on some amazing theming with some rides by taking the quicker route in!

I am totally with A that winning on accuracy score is totally a thing... mainly because it is the only way I can ever beat Paul on TSMM (yep I refuse to drop 'Midway' too!)

Have you even been to DHS if you don't take a photo of the giant guitar with the Hollywood Tower Hotel in the background as you leave Rock 'n' Rollercoaster?! Textbook.

And massive brownie points to A for giving up his seat for the lady with a baby... he will be pleased to know his act of chivalry featured in todays instalment I am sure!

Such a fab read as always, literally has given me butterflies of excitement thinking about being out there later this year. Can't wait for the next day!
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Old 16 Feb 19, 02:38 PM  
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great report x
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Old 16 Feb 19, 05:00 PM  
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Another fab read
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Old 16 Feb 19, 05:25 PM  
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A day of some good some not so

We did the Cape May Buffet and Mick didn’t enjoy it as much as I did

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Old 16 Feb 19, 06:08 PM  
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“scoring an unfingered tart” just shot right to the top of the ‘things you don’t expect to read in a trip report, but are thrilled when you do’ list - as with the previous day’s stolen Starbucks, I’m sure this says more about me than you

Ooh, I could feel the rage during the missed rope drop situation. It is definitely impossible to do a Disney trip without having hiss angry words at your significant other at some point. Glad slinky was worth it and all was forgotten.

Thoroughly enjoying your photo pass pics again, the one where it looks like you’ve been forced to hug each other is my favourite.

Glad your poor skin returned to normal fairly quickly and it wasn’t anything serious. Thanks for another great update.
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Old 16 Feb 19, 06:44 PM  
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Love your reports x
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Old 16 Feb 19, 09:23 PM  
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I'd have been fuming if we'd missed rope drop! Still I guess you did have to make the peace.

You managed to do ToT twice in one day, and without a beer to give you courage. I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's horrific and hilarious in equal measure. I really HATE the front row though and would not have enjoyed your second ride of the day.

Shame about your blotchiness taking over, it sounds like you needed a bit of a nap though from all the wake ups in the night. I hope it wasn't a recurring bit of blotchy redness.

2 for 2 on the tots, now the big question on all our lips is can you score 3 for 3?
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Old 16 Feb 19, 10:24 PM  
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What a disaster Cape May was 😟 love your report though 👍
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