Live-ish TR WDW/DC/NYC/DL- now with photos!

[Minniemum]

Welcome home!

 

[Busy Busy]

Great TR - you need a holiday after your holiday - you packed so much in!!

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Welcome home. Great trip report!

 

[Mum from oz]

Late to the party, but great TR!! Welcome home, sounds like you had a fantastic time!

 

[Saskiwi]

Okaaaaayyyy....
Thinking back now to last Sunday: we started the day at DL and caught up on a few faves we hadn't managed the day before; Tarzan's Treehouse, which DS10 likes; POC yet again, Toad's Wild Ride which we all love - that ride has the BEST detailing inside - have you ever noticed the little frog lamp on the CM's desk where they dispatch the ride vehicles? It's like a little Tiffany lamp, made of stained glass, but in the shape of a frog/toad! Also, as you exit the ride, the light above the exit has little brass frogs/toads all around it - just too cute and the reason we love Dis so much: details, details, details...
We wandered about and did some other FL rides, like Snow White and Pinocchio and even squeezed in a whirl on Dumbo and the Tea Cups (not me!) and Alice in Wonderland.
We decided on making it a 'snacky' meal day, starting with 2 tigger tails for morning tea from Pooh Corner - man, those things are full-on! - marshmallow, caramel, white chocolate, orange sugar and then dark chocolate drizzled on the outside.. We rode the Pooh ride, as DS10 was keen to see the Country Bears left-overs, which are hidden on the wall inside the ride: Max, Buff and Melvin, the moose, buffalo and stag heads are still hanging there, if you know when to turn around and look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Countrybearjam_heads.jpg

At 10am I queued up at Innoventions for the boys to do the Ironman "suit up" experience where they put you in the Ironman suit (virtually) and you can see yourself on screen doing all sorts of cool stuff in it.
We did Splash and HM again and then hit Cafe Orleans for some of their amazing garlic parmesan pommes frites and we split a Monte Cristo between the 4 or us as well - no way I could do one on my own! We had a great waitress who told us the chef would be happy to email us the recipe for the pommes frites and gave us a form to fill out with our email - they are the best fries, even if the secret recipe is probably just: "toss with tonnes of crushed garlic and parmesan"!

We headed back to DCA after our snack lunch, and got FPs for Screamin and decided we would check out Carsland at night to see all the lights. We rode some other rides - can't remember what! And then headed over to DTD for a wander and made our way to the DL Hotel for a drink and something to eat at Trader Sam's.

We LOVED this place on our last visit, but it was always too busy to get a seat inside, which is where you really want to be to see all the "magic"!
So we arrived about 5pm and got a table. DH ordered a 'Krakatoa' (one of the many rum cocktails) and I got a margarita, plus a couple of mocktail for the kids and an assortment of their great bar food: sticky wings, crumbed green beans with aioli, a burger for the boys to split, and flatbread with pulled pork.
When you order a 'Krakatoa' the volcanoes outside the "windows" in the bar erupt, when a 'Shipwreck' is ordered the ship in a bottle behind the bar sinks and the bar staff squirt the place with water, and when you order an "Uh Oa"..well, let's just say more silliness ensues....
All lots of fun - so much fun, we had to order another round of drinks and some fish tacos - all the food is very tropical and tasty - one of our fave Disney dining spots on either coast!
(We were using the kids iPods for photos, so no flash - sorry!)



After purchasing a couple more of their tiki mugs to add to our collection at home, we wandered back into DCA and checked out the lights at Carsland, which looks even better at night - very atmospheric. We queued up and rode RSR in the single rider lane, which only took about 20 mins, vs the 75 min standby wait time.

We decided we needed to do TSMM one more time, so queued for that while WOC was on, about 20-30 mins and finished the night with a hot fudge sundae at Ghiradellis, which was pretty good, but not life-altering, IYKWIM...

 

[Saskiwi]

Last Day!

Our flight wasn't til 10pm, so we stayed in the parks until early afternoon. We started at DL and did a couple of rides, including Star Tours for the boys, and then headed to DCA and and caught up with Sully and rode Monsters Inc, which had a surprising 20 min wait - probably because of all the hype around the new Monsters University movie.


I love the rooms in the Animation Building, so we went and spent some time in there - in fact one of my favourite things to do is just sit in the main lobby there and watch all the great Disney animation on the 360 degree screens - a great place to hideout and it never seems super busy..
We recorded ourselves singing 'Hakuna Matata' in Ursula's Grotto and spent some time checking our Dis-alter egos in The Beast's Library

Then at 11.30 we made our way to Carthay Circle Theatre and the Carthay Lounge. We wanted to check this new location out, but didn't want to commit to the full meal at the restaurant, but they have a good bar menu in the lounge downstairs, so we found ourselves a seat in the very smart, art deco, 1920's-decorated bar.
Lots of great old pics of Walt and the gang from way back when and cool jazz versions of the Disney song classics playing in the background (yes, of course, available on CD too -"The Circle Sessions", just $17.95 from your friendly bartender- we bought a copy!)
The food here is really top notch: bar snacks we tried included Vietnamese twice cooked beef tacos with pineapple salsa and duck confit sliders - some of the best things we ate on our entire trip!
DH and I just had a beer (they have a lot of local craft beers on the menu which is good to see -we tried a nice hoppy local IPA) and sodas for the boys of course.. a most pleasant way to spend our last meal in Disney!
Again, no flash so apologies for the pic quality...


One last trip Soaring over California and it was time to head back to Hojos to pick up the car and our bags and start heading towards LAX and that long flight home via Sydney. Last stop was in Carsland to buy a couple of sodas from the Cosy Cone:

 

[Minniemum]

I love that our flights back home to Aus/NZ are late at night. It gives you time to really savour your last day.

 

[Naughty Nurse]

Thanks so much for the great read of you USA adventure...I especially found it informative as we are currently planning a similar family trip in 2015 with my sister (her 2 kids), my mother, and our family...but slightly different with our route going Lancaster PA (husband hometown), then Niagara Falls, Washington DC, New York, Disneyworld, Las Vegas and Grand Canyon, and ending in LA with disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm.

I especially loved reading about your Disneyland trip as we are heading there on 20th July for 10 days...and sound like our plans are similar as we are staying at HOJO as well...glad to hear you recommend it...we have 3 rooms with my in-laws also coming...glad to hear it is so close and only 8-10min walk.

In regards to food...we have already decided to visit Mimi's (and sign up the week before to get the free muffin)...we also plan on visiting Cafe Orleans as have read heaps of good things about those fries you mentioned, so can't wait to try them.

I can't remember reading if you visited any character breakfasts at all...we are undecided which ones to visit...any suggestions would be most welcome.
And any other suggestions you have about food...what to try and what to avoid would be great to hear.


After reading your report though...I am dreading the heat...as it is getting quite cold here...so we will most likely experience a rude shock when we get there with the heat...although as my husband just said...we will have a month to adjust as we are spending a month in his hometown first. You must be feeling quite cold now being back home.

Do you have another trip planned already?