afwdwfan
DIS Dad #460
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2010
The Day we Ignored Rope Drop
This was scheduled to be a bit of a flex day and was just what I needed. I slept in until about 8:30 and everyone else was still sleeping. I actually had been thinking about going to Boma to get a walk up table for 1 so that I could try it out, but ended up deciding against it and went to Mara to grab some food.
When everybody got up, we headed down to the pool and spent the morning there. I spent the entire time at the base of the slide watching DS and DD make 72,394 trips down the slide.
We checked in with everyone else by text… I think Mom and Dad had gone to EPCOT and Sis, BiL and Sis 2 were in AK… Maybe? Not that it matters, not their TR!
What we did find out though was that Sis was even more upset about missing Fantasmic than I realized. She went to the concierge that morning to beg for something to make up for missing it and they ended up giving her replacement passes for that evening. She had them for the whole group, and even though DW loves Fantasmic, after our water soaked evening in DHS the day before, DW just wasn’t even feeling it. We had plans to check out Pandora after dark that evening anyway, so we chose to stick with the plan.
We wanted to go spend a little bit of time in EPCOT so that’s what we did. When you need lunch, where better to go than World Showcase?
I mean, where can you find better chicken nuggets and fries than Liberty Inn????
It was a late lunch, but we’d had a late breakfast. We got to the park at about 2 and were just in time to see the Muppet Mobile lab show… which was kind of cool.
It also wasn’t very cool, in a literal sense. In fact it was hot. Really frickin hot.
We decided already that we were going to Liberty Inn, because, well chicken nuggets. But World Showcase was our plan for the afternoon so we headed that way. DW and DS decided to hop on the boats to save some walking, but with DD and LG in the stroller I decided to race them.
And I was standing in front of Liberty Inn before they ever even got on a boat.
Oh, and I beat the afternoon rain by about 2 minutes.
Want to guess who had the bag with the ponchos in it?
That’s right, not the 2 who didn’t want to walk and got soaked running from the dock!
Liberty Inn was actually very good. I had the BBQ sandwich and I’d get it again. I know there are some places that are more interesting or offer some special items that make you tend to poo-poo some of the more basic or vanilla restaurants, but for the most part there really aren’t any bad choices.
While we were eating, a family a couple of tables over from us had some drama. Like big time drama. I really thought they’d have to call security because (I assume husband/wife) the husband was getting very loud and aggressive, but finally he just walked out of the restaurant.
Hopefully to cool down.
I really felt sorry for the poor kids.
By the time we finished lunch the rain had ended. Actually, I think before we even got our food it ended. This was the typical Florida afternoon shower, not the monsoon from the day prior.
We continued our tour of World Showcase with a stop in Japan for some Kaki Gori. I know we just ate, but it was hot, remember? Actually, this was part of the reason we went to EPCOT… just to enjoy a few favorite snacks.
The next stop was in Germany for some caramel corn and my snack of choice, a Schofferhofer. I always enjoy a good beer. I’d heard good things about it and had to try it. I thought it was ok. If I’m in Germany and thirsty this summer, I’ll probably grab one, but I don’t know that I’ll go out of my way for it.
We continued on around to Norway where we hoped that we might be able to meet a couple of princesses. As we were parking our stroller, a CM walked up and asked if we wanted to meet Christof.
Well, sure.
She told us to follow her, and that he was on his way out. So we were first in line for a quick meet and greet with the kids’ favorite ice delivery specialist.
DW and I had been chatting with the awesome CM who introduced us to Christof and we asked about the line to meet Anna and Elsa. It was posted at 30 minutes, but she said it wouldn’t be nearly that long.
Boy was she right. We entered the queue and didn’t stop walking until we were being taken into a room to meet them!
Having accomplished our goals of lunch, Kaki Gori and princess time, we were ready to leave EPCOT. I know it has been a while, but I think you all know our rule…
You can’t walk past the pyramid without riding It’s a Small Mexico.
In this case, twice.
With that, we went back out to the car and drove over to Animal Kingdom.
As I mentioned, our plan that evening was to explore Pandora since our previous night in AK was spent at Rivers of Light. We had FP scheduled for Everest, an evening Safari and It’s a Small Moon.
Our whole group met up at Everest to use the FP’s, but then Sis and BiL decided to bail and go to DHS instead to see Fantasmic with their special passes that the concierge gifted them.
But then they were also texting me asking me to make/change FPs for them. I don’t remember what we did or didn’t get. My notes aren’t that detailed.
I’m sure you remember the update from November 2017 when I talked about our first day in AK???
No???
Well to fill in the blanks we used FP at Dinosaur for part of our group and grabbed a couple of Rider Swap passes. This seemed like a good time to use those.
After escaping the meteor shower, it was time to use our FP for our evening safari. It was kind of neat to see things at dusk, but aside from that, we still had animatronic lions so it was the standard show.
We headed into Pandora and used our FP for another ride on It’s a Small Moon. Again, for what it is, it’s a nice boat ride.
We took some time to explore Pandora after the sun went down. And it really is beautiful the way the plants “glow.” They did a good job with that whole land.
And I could care less about the subject material this land is based on.
Galaxy’s Edge is going to be bada…. Awesome.
Here’s a huge dump of all the pictures I took:
.
.
.
.
Ok. I deleted them all. I took a few and they all came out blurry. But it’s better to just enjoy it in the moment anyway, right?
Makes for kind of a crappy TR though. Not that we weren’t already there.
The plan for dinner that evening was Satu’li Canteen. I’d heard good things and just had to try it. It actually wasn’t very crowded that evening. I don’t remember what the kids got, but I recall that they weren’t overly impressed with the kids meal options and we had to make them pick something that wasn’t chicken nuggets and fries.
I had the cheeseburger pods and I really liked them. I looked back at the menu to try to find the actual name for them and it looks like they’re now off the adult menu and are a kid’s menu item. Seems appropriate that I’d like them, then.
As everyone was finishing up eating, I still had a Rider Swap pass from Flight of Passage in my pocket from our first day in AK. Mom, DS and I hurried up and ate so that we could go use that FP while Dad, DW and the other 2 kids finished eating.
All in all, it was kind of a nice, relaxing day. And it was nice to cap it off by trying a new restaurant and exploring a new land. And at the time of our trip, they truly were new!
This was scheduled to be a bit of a flex day and was just what I needed. I slept in until about 8:30 and everyone else was still sleeping. I actually had been thinking about going to Boma to get a walk up table for 1 so that I could try it out, but ended up deciding against it and went to Mara to grab some food.
When everybody got up, we headed down to the pool and spent the morning there. I spent the entire time at the base of the slide watching DS and DD make 72,394 trips down the slide.
We checked in with everyone else by text… I think Mom and Dad had gone to EPCOT and Sis, BiL and Sis 2 were in AK… Maybe? Not that it matters, not their TR!
What we did find out though was that Sis was even more upset about missing Fantasmic than I realized. She went to the concierge that morning to beg for something to make up for missing it and they ended up giving her replacement passes for that evening. She had them for the whole group, and even though DW loves Fantasmic, after our water soaked evening in DHS the day before, DW just wasn’t even feeling it. We had plans to check out Pandora after dark that evening anyway, so we chose to stick with the plan.
We wanted to go spend a little bit of time in EPCOT so that’s what we did. When you need lunch, where better to go than World Showcase?
I mean, where can you find better chicken nuggets and fries than Liberty Inn????
It was a late lunch, but we’d had a late breakfast. We got to the park at about 2 and were just in time to see the Muppet Mobile lab show… which was kind of cool.
It also wasn’t very cool, in a literal sense. In fact it was hot. Really frickin hot.
We decided already that we were going to Liberty Inn, because, well chicken nuggets. But World Showcase was our plan for the afternoon so we headed that way. DW and DS decided to hop on the boats to save some walking, but with DD and LG in the stroller I decided to race them.
And I was standing in front of Liberty Inn before they ever even got on a boat.
Oh, and I beat the afternoon rain by about 2 minutes.
Want to guess who had the bag with the ponchos in it?
That’s right, not the 2 who didn’t want to walk and got soaked running from the dock!
Liberty Inn was actually very good. I had the BBQ sandwich and I’d get it again. I know there are some places that are more interesting or offer some special items that make you tend to poo-poo some of the more basic or vanilla restaurants, but for the most part there really aren’t any bad choices.
While we were eating, a family a couple of tables over from us had some drama. Like big time drama. I really thought they’d have to call security because (I assume husband/wife) the husband was getting very loud and aggressive, but finally he just walked out of the restaurant.
Hopefully to cool down.
I really felt sorry for the poor kids.
By the time we finished lunch the rain had ended. Actually, I think before we even got our food it ended. This was the typical Florida afternoon shower, not the monsoon from the day prior.
We continued our tour of World Showcase with a stop in Japan for some Kaki Gori. I know we just ate, but it was hot, remember? Actually, this was part of the reason we went to EPCOT… just to enjoy a few favorite snacks.
The next stop was in Germany for some caramel corn and my snack of choice, a Schofferhofer. I always enjoy a good beer. I’d heard good things about it and had to try it. I thought it was ok. If I’m in Germany and thirsty this summer, I’ll probably grab one, but I don’t know that I’ll go out of my way for it.
We continued on around to Norway where we hoped that we might be able to meet a couple of princesses. As we were parking our stroller, a CM walked up and asked if we wanted to meet Christof.
Well, sure.
She told us to follow her, and that he was on his way out. So we were first in line for a quick meet and greet with the kids’ favorite ice delivery specialist.
DW and I had been chatting with the awesome CM who introduced us to Christof and we asked about the line to meet Anna and Elsa. It was posted at 30 minutes, but she said it wouldn’t be nearly that long.
Boy was she right. We entered the queue and didn’t stop walking until we were being taken into a room to meet them!
Having accomplished our goals of lunch, Kaki Gori and princess time, we were ready to leave EPCOT. I know it has been a while, but I think you all know our rule…
You can’t walk past the pyramid without riding It’s a Small Mexico.
In this case, twice.
With that, we went back out to the car and drove over to Animal Kingdom.
As I mentioned, our plan that evening was to explore Pandora since our previous night in AK was spent at Rivers of Light. We had FP scheduled for Everest, an evening Safari and It’s a Small Moon.
Our whole group met up at Everest to use the FP’s, but then Sis and BiL decided to bail and go to DHS instead to see Fantasmic with their special passes that the concierge gifted them.
But then they were also texting me asking me to make/change FPs for them. I don’t remember what we did or didn’t get. My notes aren’t that detailed.
I’m sure you remember the update from November 2017 when I talked about our first day in AK???
No???
Well to fill in the blanks we used FP at Dinosaur for part of our group and grabbed a couple of Rider Swap passes. This seemed like a good time to use those.
After escaping the meteor shower, it was time to use our FP for our evening safari. It was kind of neat to see things at dusk, but aside from that, we still had animatronic lions so it was the standard show.
We headed into Pandora and used our FP for another ride on It’s a Small Moon. Again, for what it is, it’s a nice boat ride.
We took some time to explore Pandora after the sun went down. And it really is beautiful the way the plants “glow.” They did a good job with that whole land.
And I could care less about the subject material this land is based on.
Galaxy’s Edge is going to be bada…. Awesome.
Here’s a huge dump of all the pictures I took:
.
.
.
.
Ok. I deleted them all. I took a few and they all came out blurry. But it’s better to just enjoy it in the moment anyway, right?
Makes for kind of a crappy TR though. Not that we weren’t already there.
The plan for dinner that evening was Satu’li Canteen. I’d heard good things and just had to try it. It actually wasn’t very crowded that evening. I don’t remember what the kids got, but I recall that they weren’t overly impressed with the kids meal options and we had to make them pick something that wasn’t chicken nuggets and fries.
I had the cheeseburger pods and I really liked them. I looked back at the menu to try to find the actual name for them and it looks like they’re now off the adult menu and are a kid’s menu item. Seems appropriate that I’d like them, then.
As everyone was finishing up eating, I still had a Rider Swap pass from Flight of Passage in my pocket from our first day in AK. Mom, DS and I hurried up and ate so that we could go use that FP while Dad, DW and the other 2 kids finished eating.
All in all, it was kind of a nice, relaxing day. And it was nice to cap it off by trying a new restaurant and exploring a new land. And at the time of our trip, they truly were new!