July 2016 quest for snacks - Gotta catch 'em all! Day 6 added

[Princesa]

Originally Posted by mossy51

Wow that cookie pizza looked amazing!

Good choice for Chef Mickeys for the first breakfast. We did that last year and loved it so much, that next year it will be our first and last breakfast! Mmmm Mickey Waffles!

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Yeah it's got such a good selection! We tend to do Chef Mickey's on the first day as we always do MK. We've done 1800 Park Fare on other days too, that's also a good selection. Can't beat meeting Mickey and co though!

[prettymiarose]

Love how you do more detailed experiences with the kids! The Walmart scene made me lol, we do the same, split up and group at the end, great read thank you

[waiting4disney]

Sounds like a great start.

[Princesa]

Thanks for the comments! I'm typing the next day up now so hopefully that should be on later today. I'm impressed with myself, I've done a few days already and been back a week. I still haven't unpacked the suitcases fully though...

[Princesa]

Day 3
Matilda was the first one awake this morning, which was new for her as she’d been the last up for the previous days. We woke up to her rummaging around in our room for her swimming costume. This was one of the god things about being in a villa: having the pool so near. I did have times where I missed staying onsite, and until this trip I’d been totally ‘onsite ‘til I die’, but we were really enjoying being in the villa. Everything is so spread about on Disney property that the extra 5 minutes in the car didn’t bother us. I’d missed planning all of our ADR’s with us not having the DDP this time, but it was also nice to do things day by day and not have to be in certain places at certain times. Plus we got to try offsite restaurants too, which we’d never really done when using the dining plan. I’d definitely stay in Disney again, but I’d definitely stay in a villa again too. I love both now.

Anyways, it was nice that the girls could swim whilst we pottered in the house or sat at the table. They’re only ten so they were never fully unsupervised, especially as our 3 year old niece was with us on this trip, but they’re part of a swimming club here at home and they’re good at swimming so they could jump in the pool when they wanted. I’m not really a swimmer or sunbather, so whenever we’ve stayed in a hotel we’ve had to get ready to go to the pool and sit with them, whereas this way they could go in the pool three times a day and I could just be nearby (obvs not with our niece, she was always watched carefully!).

We were heading to Epcot today and had some fastpasses booked. I hadn’t told the girls about the new Frozen ride as I hadn’t been able to get FP for it and I’d read about the queue length before we went, but they’d seen adverts for it on the side of the road. I’d explained that the queues were three hours and I just hadn’t been able to get a FP and they were sensible about it and although would have loved to go on it, they didn’t want to wait, so we’d chalked this up to something that we’d do next time we do Florida. I’d checked more than once every day for a FP for it, but just hadn’t got one, we’d only been able to check at 30 days with being in a villa. We stopped off at IHOP on the way to Epcot, despite us being to America a few times, we’d never done this. Breakfast is my favourite meal in America and there was too many options for me! I changed my mind three times before I finally ordered. Matt got a cup of fancy coffee, which was huge. I got the refill coffee and used lots of sugar and cream.

Missy got some sort of super chocolatey stack of pancakes and didn’t make a dent on them.

Matilda got something from the kids’ menu where she could make a face.

Matt had the Harvest Grain ’N Nut Pancakes with blueberries – he really liked these but they tasted far too healthy for me!

I got a combo breakfast which was French toast stuffed with peaches, two fried eggs, hash browns and I substituted my sausage for toast, which I think is a poor substitute really but I went with it. I was concerned that I only got one slice of the French toast, but when it came it was so filling that I ashamedly left a little bit of it. It was delicious though! I originally ordered apple stuffing and they came to say they didn’t have any, but I was pleased I changed to the peaches.

We all really enjoyed it here, we had a voucher from signing up to IHOP’s email list and they took it off one of the pancake stacks that Matt and Missy had.

We got to Epcot in time to ride Spaceship Earth and catch the end of our fastpass for Soarin’ Around the World. At the start of the ride they measured my niece and she was just tall enough to ride. We made our way into the fastpass line and this took ages! I don’t know how long the wait line was, but we must have queued for around 25 minutes in the FP line. This was the only ride we experienced a wait like this. When we got to the ride, my niece was pulled out again to be measured and told that she wasn’t tall enough, which was disappointing for her. We were told that we could use the child swap system, so my sister in law waited with her daughter whilst we all went on the ride. We really loved the new video, as much as I loved the ride of the old one, it had always annoyed me by being over California when we were in Orlando. So I much prefer the new one. When the ride stopped we exited as normal, thinking we’d be able to swap with my SIL. We ended up having to follow the corridor all the way back down to the start and my SIL appeared there, saying that the woman had forgot to get us after the ride to do the swap. We explained this at the start of the ride and they put my SIL back in the FP line with Missy and Matilda. So they got to ride again but they had to go back in the queue again too!

They went in the queue again, but we were well into our time for our next fastpass for Mission: Space and I was worried that we were going to miss it if they were in another 25 minute queue. I explained this to the cast members at the start of the ride and said how we’d been forgotten about with the child swap and so they were having to queue again and now we may not make it over to Mission: Space in time, and they handed us over enough fastpasses for all 7 of us to use. As we waited for the others to come off Soarin’, we realised that the fastpasses were to be used on any attraction in Epcot, excluding Illuminations. I was chuffed with this, as I was hoping that we could use it on the Frozen ride.

We all met back up and walked over to Mission: Space, which had a 5 minute queue for Green and a 10 minute queue for Orange. SIL and I went on Orange, whilst Matt, Missy and Matilda went on Green. The girls really wanted to go on Orange, but with Missy’s nosebleeds we thought she may be better off on Green. We had another faff with the childswap as we queued until the first check and then got told that someone would have to wait with her outside. We just thought we’d be able to swap at the doors to the ride for things, but on a few rides noticed that one parent would queue normally, then the parent who’d waited would get put in the FP line, so I’m not sure what the point of FP is when using child swap if you just get put into the FP line twice.

After we rode, we split up into two groups to go around World Showcase. Despite the Duffy cardboard cut outs being available in every country, the girls always want to get theirs from Mexico. We always end up with the stamp from Mexico and a couple of others, but never have collected them all. So we got our Duffys and headed around to Norway.

We hadn’t told the girls we were trying to go on Frozen in case we weren’t allowed. The queues were huge when we got there and bless the girls, they looked so longingly at the ride but didn’t say a word as it was well over 2.5 hours wait. We got to the FP and our tickets were accepted fine. The girls were so pleased! The FP queue for this was quite a wait too, but still not as long as Soarin’. Again, this was another brilliant ride and I was so pleased to have been able to get on it.

We wandered around the Showcase, stopping off at China where Missy found the giant unicorn teddy from the airport.

We got a funnel cake with ice cream and sat in the American pavilion to eat it.

As we passed Morocco, Matt spied baklava so we had to have some of that.

We got one of the Friendship boats over to the Journey into Imagination with Figment ride which the girls always love. We also used the photopass photobooth on the exit here, we’ve never seen this before but had fun playing in it.

We went back to the villa to get sorted and we headed out to find Teak Neighborhood Grill, after reading so much about it on the Dibb. It was a 40 minute journey and I was secretly worried that we wouldn’t get a table, but we were seated straight away with the option if indoor or outdoor. I chose to sit inside, with the air con, and they cleared down a table for us. There was live music playing, and as soon as we sat down I realised we couldn’t hear each other and the music was uncomfortably loud. We asked to move outside which was no problem, and it actually wasn’t that hot as they had fans and air con machines, so it was much better.

As it was Wednesday, cocktails were half price at $3, so we ordered a few of those!

The girls ordered lemonade, ignoring me when I said they needed to ask for Sprite if they wanted fizzy. So Matt ended up with Missy’s as it was the flat kind, Matilda liked it. Matt and I ordered soft pretzel rolls with dips as a starter, these were yummy.

Matt got The Pig burger: ham, bacon and pulled pork with cheese in a pretzel bun.

I got the Crispy Eggplant Flatbread. I was unsure of this as I don’t love aubergine, but they were deep fried and put on a pizza so actually really nice. We shared onion rings and sweet potato tots between us too, couldn’t finish it all though!

I can’t actually remember what the girls had… I think Matilda had chicken strips and fries, whilst Missy had a chicken burger with mashed potato. She’s fussy with mash and before we ordered I asked if the mash had skins in or was smooth. I was told there were no skins in with it, but when it came it was all lumpy so she wouldn’t eat it.

The girls got a brownie to share for dessert, they only need one as it was huge. We were too full for anything. We liked it here, we’d give it another go. I forgot to ask for the underground menu here, but everyone seemed happy with their burgers anyway! We paid up and headed home for the night.

[Jaynew]

Sounds like a great day. I'm def putting Teak on my offsite restaurant list. What's the underground menu?

[Princesa]

You're supposed to need a code word for the underground menu, but other people have said they've just asked. You can find it easily on Google, they change it monthly. It gives you a second menu to choose from with more burgers on.

[Princesa]

The girls had a pirate cruise booked today, so we just had cereal before heading to The Grand Floridian. They’d done a pirate cruise on our last trip, from Port Orleans, and it was something they’d asked to be able to do again so we booked it from a different hotel. We rocked up to GF and valet parked in plenty of time for them to be registered by 9:15. I love the huge lobby in here and watched the florists making one of the amazing displays.

We had to sign the girls in, giving the exact names of who could pick them up as ID would be needed. They asked us to check the spelling of the girls’ names as she could see that “Metilda” probably wasn’t right. So Matilda got a new sticker and we paid. It was around $80 with tax for both of them, which I think is really good for Disney prices and having them looked after for two hours.

We waved the girls goodbye and jumped onto the monorail over to MK. We had a FP for Big Thunder Mountain so headed around that way. As we passed Pirates of the Caribbean, the queue was saying 5 minutes so we went for that. We passed a group of people faffing around at the FP entrance for this and walked around the queue. When we got to the end, we’d actually beaten that group to the ride, so walk on was quicker than FP for us!

After Pirates we headed towards BTM and rode this. The queue area for this was so hot! I always panic when the line splits into two here, as if it’s a really important decision which side to go with and it would make more than two minutes difference overall! I do like this ride, but it’s a wee bit rickety.

We still had over an hour before we had to pick the girls up at The Grand Floridian, but we were worried that we’d get caught up and leave the girls there abandoned! We decided to chill out in Starbucks on Main Street before making our way back. Matt got a Caramel Macchiato Frappuccino and I got a Chocolately Chip Crème. Omg, this was amazing! We had more of these over the trip and I really want one now I’m back. We’re actually thinking of driving to our nearest Starbucks (half an hour away) just to see if we can get one this weekend.

We toddled back over to the hotel using the resort boat and sat in the lounge to wait. A bride was getting her wedding photos taken with her flower girl, so I sat and watched them for a while before going out to the marina to get the girls. They were just getting off the boat, so the timing was great.

The still hadn’t found the treasure so we followed them around the hotel whilst the looked for, and found, the treasure chest. They opened up the chest and were all given the treasure from inside, which included pirate mickey ears hats and a bag full of jewels and coins etc. It was a different prize than last time, so they must change it between the hotels which keeps it interesting. The girls loved this and would do it again, I think there’s one from Old Key West too so they could do that, though it was really handy for us to be able to go over to MK whilst waiting for them.

Sooo as we were already valet parked, we took the girls back over to MK and got the train around to Fantasyland. I love riding this wee train!

The girls sat at the front of The Barnstomer, which we had FP for.

They then did Dumbo ride and we actually queued this time so that they could play in the play area. He queue was so short we were offered the option of playing or going on the ride, so we took a buzzer and were just told to hand it in when we were ready to ride. It was nice just sitting in the air con before going on the ride.

After the ride we were ready for a snack so headed to Gaston’s Tavern. I wanted to try Lefou’s Brew so I got this, the girls got chocolate milks and chocolate croissants. I think Matt got a cold drink but I can’t remember… The Brew was OK, very sweet and there was a lot of it. I’m glad I tried it but I don’t think I’d choose it again.

We carried our drinks over to The Little Mermaid ride and rode this. We broke down where Ariel and Eric are on the boat, so I enjoyed singing like Scuttle loudly to the girls.


We’d fastpassed the Peter Pan ride next; the queues for this are always huge and I love this ride. It was once of the first rides we’d done on our first trip to Disney when the girls were 2. As we’d gone into the park a family had handed us their unused paper fastpasses and we went straight to use them, I’d been in the car with Missy and she just kept shouting how amazing it was, so it makes me think of that. We broke down on this too, as we were over London, so it was nice looking down on it all. It started with a big jump though!


We used the resort boat again to head back for our car. Whilst we waited for the valet to bring our car around, a cute little old guy was handing out flowers and he gave one to the girls. I’d read about the greeters in Libby/OhDarling’s last report, and whilst I’m not sure if it was the same guy, he was really cute.

We stopped off at the villa to cook a pizza which we’d bought from Walmart (huge and really tasty) and we grabbed our swimming stuff before heading to Blizzard Beach.

On our way here, a car in front of us started to break really suddenly and came to a complete stop. We had to swerve into the right hand lane to avoid missing them and luckily nothing was in that lane. We were shocked at what had gone wrong to make them brake so abruptly and as we looked back we could see that they’d stopped to take photos of the ‘Walt Disney World’ gates – unbelievable!

We did all the usual stuff here at BB and got a locker with this new automated craic. The machine wouldn’t take our money but we eventually had our locker and managed to squeeze everything into a small $10 locker rather than admit defeat and pay the extra $5 for a large locker! I took the girls into the ladies’ changing rooms and I totally forgot how hot the floor is when we came out! It was so painful. We were running between shadows and tiny drips of water, trying to stop the pain. Missy had brought her flip flops so she was fine, but I had to run back for Matilda who’d had to stop in a shaded area. I don’t know why they don’t have water being sprayed here as people were hopping around everywhere running from puddle to puddle. My feet were fine before I came here but as soon as we’d passed this part of the waterpark and made our way to the water, my foot started really hurting. I don’t actually know if I was just starting with a blister that day and it hadn’t been hurting until the heat upset it, or if I actually got a blister from the hot floor, but my foot became so sore I was hobbling around BB and it all blistered up that night. At the time of writing, this was three weeks ago and I still have the re blister on my foot, though it’s not sore now, just visible. So my tip here is to make sure you take some footwear for the waterpark!


Our fave slide here is the family raft Teamboat Springs, it’s so much fun! Yet so difficult to get out of gracefully at the end! Plus I was nearly dying on all the steps on the way up, feeling ashamed as the girls and Matt ran up ahead of me! I was blaming my foot but really I was so out of breath it was embarrassing!

The girls played in the kiddie area as we watched. The lifeguards blew their whistle and jumped in on two separate occasions. One I watched where a girl came off those hanging things which they have to cling onto before dropping into the water. The lifeguard had blown her whistle and jumped in as soon as the girl hit the water, she could see she was struggling straight away. The girls mum was at the side and didn’t seem concerned at all, just shouting encouragement to the child. Then the lifeguard got her float wrapped up in the lane dividers and was trying to pass the girl over and pretty much started drowning herself as the kid swam away from her! She got herself untangled and everyone got out of the water fine, but it was all rather dramatic. It must be so hard work lifeguarding and keeping an eye on all of these kids in places like this!


We had another go on Teamboat Springs (me cursing the steps and not using the ski lift) and went all the way around on the lazy river before heading back. We got Indian food from the takeaway on the shopping area off Formosa Gardens Blvd. We’d picked up a menu from this when we’d passed and it had a 20% voucher on it. We paid around $18 for each meal which included rice and half a naan though as we ordered three meals, they just gave us two full naan). We ordered a chicken korma, chicken tikka korma, and I got vegetable patties in a korma sauce – these were like vegetable pakoras in the sauce and I’d ordered them to try something different, I was glad I did. We ordered onion bahjis too and got loads of these!

We chilled out, had a few drinks and went to bed.

[mrmoo123]

Mmmmm that Indian looks good... I didn't think you could get Indian food in Florida like we have back home (Sanna being the closest think I've found).

[waiting4disney]

Sounds like you are all having great fun so far.