It's all about the mouse - 14th August 2018 day 14 Epcot, surprise resort stay reveal and BOG dinner

[Goldia]

Welcome to the It’s all about the mouse trip report. We are a family of four and this is our 4th trip to Orlando. I'm Abby, my DH is Dave and our children are Max (13) and Kate (11). This trip is all WDW and we stay inside the Disney bubble for the entirety of our holiday.

If you haven't read the previous day it can be found here

I feel like a little recap and back story is required for this day. It was supposed to be the check out and fly home day for our 2 week holiday. But due to bargainous flights being booked we had an extra 2 days of holiday, when I called WDW there was no availability at OKW, so this is our check out day for OKW and therefore the last day on DDP, we have to spend the credits or lose them.

We still have 2 more days onsite as we moved over to POR, this was a surprise for the kids (and Dave really). I had booked a Royal room as we had never been to POR and also because on our first WDW trip we had a Pirate room at CBR which was fab and I really wanted to see the Princess Room.

Also, this day was Kate's pick...as can be seen from the little postcard plans I had made.

I (wrongly) guessed that she would want to go to MK. At the weekend she said she wanted a morning at Epcot and wanted to ride Frozen. So, I managed to switch up all our FP and did get Frozen!

Before the trip I wasn't sure if we would be able to 'save' 4 extra credits for the BOG dinner as this is a 2TS credit meal now. So, I'd booked Liberty Tree Tavern as a back up. After seeing the really cute desserts at BOG in you tube videos I decided we absolutely had to have the Chip pudding, so the LTT ADR was cancelled. I didn't bother re-writing the card though.

That meant the cards were pretty useless today...but it's nice to change up the plans during the trip and make choices when you're out there.

Anyway, back to the actual day. My alarm went off at 6.15am. We got ourselves ready and packed up all our toiletries ready for Bell Services who were coming at 7.30am.

I made the kids go and stand in the bathroom while he collected the luggage as I didn’t want them to hear which resort we were going to. He was really friendly and asked if any of the bags needed to go in a fridge. This was handy as we had the snacks and chocolate packed up and this would have melted, so I pointed out the case they were in. He tagged them all up and the whole process only took about 10 minutes.

We went to the bus stop after he left as were headed to Epcot as this was Kate’s pick for today. We had Figment, Frozen and Spaceship Earth FPs. It was our aim to get on Test Track first thing and do Mission Space after.

We were at Epcot by about 8.30am, so well in time for rope drop. The Jammitors (never sure how to spell that) were out playing in front of Spaceship Earth.

We were on the left side of the flower bed as we were planning to head left to go to Test Track.

When the park was opened we made our way to TT and the posted wait time was 30 minutes but we were in the design studio by 9.08am.

Dave designed with Kate and Max and me were together. He of course created a real monstrosity and was only interested in it going fast.

As there was a spare screen next to us I decided to create my own car! Isn’t she a beauty?

Kate and Dave's effort.

For the stats, Max’s creation was overall best with a score of 201, Kate and Dave got 199 and I got 196. I was the winner for the Efficiency test though!

We went on Mission Space the orange mission. I was the pilot, I also managed to remember to press all my buttons.

We then decided we were ready for breakfast and ended up at our favourite Joffrey’s stand over by Ellen’s Energy Adventure (RIP) I must be the only person in the World who is sad to see the back of this ride. I was happy to throw caution to the wind today and we each had our own breakfast snack rather than sharing and we all had a drink. I know reckless...but we had loads of snack credits to use up.

That’s 8 of the snack credits in one go.

For drinks Kate and Max had a lemon and strawberry slushy swirl drink. Dave and myself had a Jamaican Cold Brew coffee, these are really tasty.

Kate had a pink donut, while Max of course had a chocolate donut.

Dave had a blueberry muffin.

And I had a cinnamon swirl.

We had our breakfast while watching the Jammitors drummers.

I do think that the drink and snack was too much for the kids really, probably too much for me too, but by this point in the trip our bellies have been sufficiently stretched.

We used our Figment FP, which as usual was enjoyable and had me humming (ok singing) the song.

We were on a mission to meet some characters we had not met before so we headed into World Showcase as Mulan was due out shortly.

It was exceptionally hot this morning, wow!

Max had a bit of a rest nearby.

We saw some tiny little frogs and interesting birds while waiting in line.

Mulan was her usual charming self.

We had some water and then mooched around the shop in China making the most of the air-con. We knew that Jasmine was out in Morocco soon so we wandered around World Showcase in the steaming heat, it really did feel hot today.

I was a little peeved (ok a lot) as Jasmine was not coming out this morning. There was a cast member telling us that she was off on an adventure with Aladdin and Apu. Hmph. So, we had walked all the way around for nothing. Our next FP was for Spaceship Earth! While this is only minor setback, at the end of the holiday when you haven’t really got much energy left it’s a right pain in the butt!

We sucked it up like the grown ups we are (ok just me the others were fine) and went off for our Spaceship Earth FP. It was a really long line for the FP, but we made it into the cool soon enough.

I was with Max and Dave and Kate rode together. The kids really like choosing the adventure at the end. Max choose for us to do an underwater adventure.

For lunch 3 of us wanted Mexican from the QS location in world showcase.

We shared beef tacos, chicken tacos and the beef chilli nachos. These were all huge and we enjoyed picking at the nachos.

For the three drinks we had a fresh lime margarita, Patron margarita and a Sangria plus cups of water. No messing around with ordering a soft drink for the kids (they had a slushy each earlier, don’t feel too sorry for them).

Max wanted to get something from the USA (nuggets obviously) but he had to wait a little bit. Unfortunately, during lunch Dave felt a bit squiffy – like he wasn’t getting enough air, even though we were outside in the covered area of the Mexican QS. He was fine after a few minutes, but it did mean that he didn’t fancy the margarita’s so I had to drink both of them by myself. Obviously, this was not such a burden for me!

3 QS credits used up for lunch, 6 remaining.

We had our 3rd FP for Frozen, it was a little early for it yet so we used the beautiful toilets in Norway and then made use of the air con again in the Norway shop.

The ride was great as per usual. We made Dave and Max get in first and we sat on the right side of the boat and this was a much better view.

We were hoping that we would make it off the ride in time to go and meet Jasmine before they closed the line. We checked in for the Frozen FP at 1.24pm (6 minutes early) but we were waved through by the cast member.

As soon as we got off the ride me and Kate had a race (fast walk) around World Showcase, while we tasked Dave to accompany Max to the USA QS so he could get his lunch. We passed through China, Germany, Italy, the outpost, USA the Guardians of the Galaxy show was on but we didn’t have time to stop for it, Japan and made it to Morocco!

This was last page of the autograph book, it was a very auspicious moment. The 2 margarita’s, added to the fact that we were racing as we didn't want to get there and find the line had closed, added to the fact that the World Showcase is boiling hot in the middle of the day meant that I was a bit sweaty by the time we met Jasmine (I know – lucky her).

Meanwhile, I didn’t hold out too much hope that the boys would remember or care enough to take photos of Max’s lunch, but I was wrong they didn't let me down. There were a few what’s app messages going back and forth between the boys and us girls and Max told me he made Dad get a photo of the food, drink and receipt.

He had nuggets and fries with a fanta.

1 QS meal used up.

Before leaving Epcot we stopped at the Japan QS to get 3 of the sushi meals.

I wanted to use some of our QS credits on meals that could be saved and eaten tomorrow for lunch and I thought that sushi would be something that would be easy to take back to the resort as it comes in the pack with a plastic lid on it.

As the 3 drinks we had the Colada green tea, a strawberry banana cocktail and a plum wine, because obviously Kate (ok me) wanted to celebrate the completion of the autograph book! My goodness, it’s a good job the QS cocktails aren’t that strong. Here I am with Kate and by the looks of it I was holding onto the Plum wine and the strawberry and banana cocktail, no wonder I was smiling.

The drinks were drunk, the food was put in a bag for tomorrow. We were off to the bus depot to do the surprise reveal of which resort we would be staying at for the last couple of days of the trip.

Kate was very excited. We stopped at the bus transportation sign where it shows you which number bus stop to go to for your resort.

I asked “Where do you think we are going? What number bus stop do we need?”
Max “Number 6”
Me “That’s AK theme park and we’re not staying in a park we’re staying in a hotel”
Max “Number 7”
Me “AKL no we’re not going there”
Max “Number 2”
Me “That’s Saratoga Springs and we’re not going there either. Where did we stay on our first trip” I was really keen for them to get it, so I felt they needed a bit of a clue.
Kate “Caribbean Beach”
Me “What special room did we have?”
Kate “We had a pirate room”
Me “That’s right. So, what would be nice to even it out?”
Max “Oh, we’re not getting a princess room are we?”
Kate, jumping for joy and clapping her hands “We’ve got a princess room”
Me “So where are we going?”
Kate “We’re going to Port Orleans Riverside. Yesss!”
Dave “I’m getting a Batman bed next year!”
Me “What number bus stop do we need?”
Both together “Number 4”

I videoed it on my phone and it was so lovely to watch it again, it was a brilliant to see her jumping for joy and being so excited.

I asked Kate a couple of days ago and she says that her Max didn’t over hear us at any point and so had no idea what resort it would be.

I'd decided to pick us all orange magic band for this stay.

After we had checked in and settled ourselves in the room. I couldn’t help myself but take loads of photos of the room.

It was beautiful. I loved it and it was an absolutely gorgeous room and fabulous resort.

Dave and myself went over to check out the resort and to use up our last remaining QS credits.

We got a pepperoni flatbread, a make your own salad with chicken and instead of the drinks we picked up a packet of Doritos and a packet of Lays.

2 QS credits used up – ZERO remaining.

I really needed a shower before we headed out for dinner, actually we all did, so we quickly sorted out the shower stuff and a change of clothes. We had 6.55pm ADR and I wanted to be out of the room by 6pm so it was another quick turnaround.

It was pretty wet walking to the bus stop.

And it was pouring with rain when we arrived at MK.

We had no choice but to wait in the bus depot waiting for the rain to stop. You can't even see the Poly or Grand Floridian it was so wet.

We spent about 30 minutes waiting for the rain to stop.

We arrived about 10 minutes late, it wasn’t a problem that we were late and we were shown to our table in the main room within a couple of minutes.

Kate ordered a sprite to drink. Max had a fanta. Dave and myself both had a glass of red wine. It’s a shame that the free glass of wine can’t be deducted from the cost of a bottle of wine as we may have shared a bottle, 1 glass was enough for me (no surprise given the 2 margarita’s at lunch and the Japan cocktails) but Dave had a 2nd glass of wine and likely I would have had a half glass and the bottle would have been finished.

The rolls were pretty basic and very boring really, nowhere near as nice as other signature restaurants.

I believe there is a plan for these to be changed to be baked in the kitchen but these were not good and were like the part-baked rolls you can buy and finish off in your oven. They were served cold, we might have found them more appealing if they had been served warm. It wasn’t hard to resist eating all of them.

As this is a 2 TS credit meal you get 3 courses and order off the menu for the starter and the main, then the dessert is the same for everyone.

Kate and Max both ordered the meat and cheese plate, this was really nicely presented. The kids were happy enough. There wasn’t much choice for them really. I convinced them that cheese and salami meats would be the best bet and it probably was the best option for them.

It came with a card explaining all the cheeses and meats, I don't think they appreciated this part of it so much.

Dave had the Escargot. He wasn’t overly happy with it. Again it was ok, not brilliant.

Unfortunately unappealing rolls and 3 starters that were a bit meh.

I had the French onion soup which I thought was delicious and I really enjoyed it. I would happily order this again, lots of yummy melted cheese, the soup was tasty. I loved it.

For the main course Kate had Poulet, chicken. She thought this was really nice, but she said it was a bit salty, apparently it was a nice salty not too salty. Not an overwhelming success really.

Max had filet mignon, we asked for the sauce to be on the side and mash with vegetables. He did enjoy this and thought the steak and the mash were good. He would have liked it better if the mash had been subbed for fries, we weren't offered any swaps and didn't ask so it's possible this could have been arranged.

Dave and myself also had the filet mignon with mash and vegetables, we didn’t have our sauce on the side. The steak was lovely really tasty.

The trio of puddings was delicious, but by now we were pretty full. Our server explained that we could eat everything on the plate. This caused some confusion as it wasn’t until after she had gone that we realised there was a paper picture of the rose, Max went straight for it and ate it! It turns out this was the right decision as it is edible.

The three puddings are raspberry macaroon, a dark chocolate truffle and a white chocolate ‘Chip’ cup. They certainly get 10 out of 10 for cuteness with the puddings, but they were all really rich. Max managed to eat all of his Chip, and had to help out Kate and myself by eating ours too. They were yummy but we were way too full by this point to finish it all.

We were brought a birthday card with the Beast and Belle’s signature with the bill. The card was a surprise as it’s none of our birthdays! Does everyone get this?

8 TS credits used up for dinner. ZERO remaining.

We went and met the Beast on our way out.

I'm not sure we will back to BOG for dinner any time soon. We like the theming and it's great to meet the Beast, but as it's now a 2 credit meal I don't think I would want to spend 2 credits here when I know we could go to Skippers Canteen and get a lovely 2 course steak dinner for 1 credit. It just doesn't seem quite up to the 2 TS standard of other signature restaurants. It's also such a loud big room that always reminds me of a school canteen with the hustle and bustle so I think this is one place which won't be a contender for next time.

We used a FP for Enchanted Tales with Belle, this is such a cute show. Back on our first trip Max was the Beast.

Then on our 2nd trip Kate was picked to be a plate and Dave was a guard.

None of us were picked today, but it was lovely to watch the show.

As we were leaving the park we nearly forgot to use up the last few snack credits. On the way out of the park the boys had gotten ahead of us in the rush of people leaving after HEA. Kate and myself just remembered by the train station about the credits and so popped in the Main Street Confectionery shop to spend the last few snack credits.

We had 8 snack credits to use up and got 2 packs of the Minnie biscuits, 2 of the rice krispy snacks with M&Ms, 2 rice krispys with chocolate and 2 of the Goofy’s bags of sweets.

We went straight back to the room and to bed.

It had been a brilliant day of finishing the autograph book, the reveal and then going to the new resort.

Statistics for the day:

Credits Used

16 snack 9 QS and 8 TS. We won the DDP battle – all credits were spent.

In total we had 112 snacks, 56 quick service and 56 table service credits and we used them all.

Credits Remaining

It didn’t look like we would get to a zero balance I admit I totally misjudged the snacks. Obviously not all the food was eaten during the 2 weeks DDP either so I guess it is only a small victory.

Parks: 2
Rides: 5
FP: 4
Characters: 3
Steps: 25,174

Tomorrow was our last full day and we explore POR and make use of both the main pool and the small pool near our room, plus we had an ADR booked for Beaches and Cream. I had one aim and one aim only – the Kitchen Sink! Did we manage it? Finally, our last night was spent in MK and we rode all 3 mountains.

[lumosq102]

Serious congratulations for finishing all that food! we were the same the one time we did the dining plan - a mad panic at the end as we realised that there were still so many snack credits left. we came home with so much stuff from the confectionery!

What a super day, and such a lovely reveal for your resort change. the room looks just lovely too. Port Orleans is one of my favourite places at WDW, full stop. it has such a restful vibe to it.

Finally - very nice work with the cocktails

[GALE88]

The princess room looks fab, what a nice surprise for Kate. Good job getting through all of your credits, and good idea to buy sushi for the next day. All the cocktails look yummy.

[MrsSilverStar]

What a great day! Lots of fab photos - loved Max’s classic miserable face on Spaceship Earth, Mr Jazz Hands in front of you all on Frozen, the Beast mauling you and then very cute pics of the kids when they were little!

Well done on spending all those credits, and your many cocktails!

The princess room looks so lovely, glad the reveal went so well.

BoG dinner is on our list for now...definitely more for the castle and Beast, rather than the food luckily!

[Palm trees]

What a lovely day, and a nice surprise for the kids (well particularly Kate!) With for me room move.

[caitlinsmummy]

What a fab day, I'm so glad you managed to get through all those snacks!

Kate looks so happy in the picture at the bus stop. I can just imagine her jumping up and down, such a lovely thing to do.

The Royal Room looks beautiful and so pretty and it's nice to see POR

Such a shame about BoG but I have heard that's it's just not worth the 2 credits. At least you've ticked it off the list and know that it's not somewhere you would consider next time.

Another busy fun filled day but I'm getting sad the reports coming to an end xx

[Cinderella]

Great surprise on the room :-)

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by lumosq102

Serious congratulations for finishing all that food! we were the same the one time we did the dining plan - a mad panic at the end as we realised that there were still so many snack credits left. we came home with so much stuff from the confectionery!

What a super day, and such a lovely reveal for your resort change. the room looks just lovely too. Port Orleans is one of my favourite places at WDW, full stop. it has such a restful vibe to it.

Finally - very nice work with the cocktails

See more...

Those krispy treats kept us going on the last couple of days, great pool snacks!

I'm glad I kept the room a secret the reveal was fun!

I did feel a bit tired in the afternoon after those cocktails I could have easily had a little nap.

Originally Posted by GALE88

The princess room looks fab, what a nice surprise for Kate. Good job getting through all of your credits, and good idea to buy sushi for the next day. All the cocktails look yummy.

See more...

It was such a cute room, I fell in love with it! The sushi kept really well in the fridge.

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

What a great day! Lots of fab photos - loved Max’s classic miserable face on Spaceship Earth, Mr Jazz Hands in front of you all on Frozen, the Beast mauling you and then very cute pics of the kids when they were little!

Well done on spending all those credits, and your many cocktails!

The princess room looks so lovely, glad the reveal went so well.

BoG dinner is on our list for now...definitely more for the castle and Beast, rather than the food luckily!

See more...

Max looked like he was really having fun we never seem to get a good photo on the frozen ride, but definitely get in the boat last, that's the best side for the scenes.

I really enjoy the enchanted tales with belle show, it's so cute. I couldn't resist putting in the old photos, Max was 9 when he was the beast, he looks so little with Belle.

You should absolutely do BOG, it's a fab restaurant and is a must do at least once. On our first meal there in 2016 we were sat right at the end of the room at a great table next to the window where the snow is falling outside. It was fabulous. This trip was ok, but I think that as the wonder had worn off a little due to eating there multiple times for breakfast it had lost some of its shine.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

What a lovely day, and a nice surprise for the kids (well particularly Kate!) With for me room move.

See more...

Yes Max wasn't overly keen to stay in a princess room it was a beautiful room.

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

What a fab day, I'm so glad you managed to get through all those snacks!

Kate looks so happy in the picture at the bus stop. I can just imagine her jumping up and down, such a lovely thing to do.

The Royal Room looks beautiful and so pretty and it's nice to see POR

Such a shame about BoG but I have heard that's it's just not worth the 2 credits. At least you've ticked it off the list and know that it's not somewhere you would consider next time.

Another busy fun filled day but I'm getting sad the reports coming to an end xx

See more...

I haven't watched the video of the reveal in a long time, so there's a plus for it taking me so long to post the trip report as it was lovely to see it again.

I'm really sad the report is coming to an end too. As you know there will be another just around the corner though

Originally Posted by Cinderella

Great surprise on the room :-)

See more...

I think I was as excited about it as the kids, well maybe more so than Max!

[Cazzius]

Hurrah! You beat the DDP. I don't think it's cheating to get some sushi and snacks for future use - smart thinking really, especially as you still had a few days on-site

Well done for keeping the Royal Room a secret, I am sure it was worth it to do the big reveal. The room looks really gorgeous too, I love all the little details. Port Orleans Riverside looks gorgeous too, I like how the buildings look like separate homes rather than a hotel block.

Your lunch at the Mexico QS looks really good. I love Mexican style food so may need to add it to the ever growing list.

I fancy dinner at BoG as I would like to meet the Beast but I must admit it doesn't look/sound like it is worth 2 TS credits at all. Good to know.

Thanks again for taking the time to write all of this up and share it with us