[Dopey]

November 10th - 19th

Alright people I am back from a most enjoyable trip to our favorite place...

I don't think I'll write about every step we took. Just the highlights , there were quite a few and one disappointment

Let me introduce my people:
DH - Mike (oldish)
Marc - DS1 (age 14)
Tyler - DS2 (same age as Marc)

We got to Orlando around 10:30 pm, earlier than predicted. Quicksilver was a few minutes late, not their fault, our flight was early.
Check in at POR was painless, except for the CM who had the most terrible speech impediment. I could not understand a word she was saying and had to have her repeat everything

We finally stumbled into our room around 11:30. Nice room, clean and comfortable.
There were 4 or 5 towel animals waiting for us. Every morning thereafter, there were more of them and they got more elaborate as the days went on. Our mouse keeper, Johaina, was the best. I chatted and giggled with her nearly every day.

Now, as some of you know, my digital camera broke 2 days before our vacation, but that was ok, I would take my flip camera and add lots of little video snippets into the report, except, I couldn't find it anywhere. I knew that I had packed it, but it was nowhere to be found. Bummer. There was still hope for pictures though; I had purchased the Photo Pass. No problem or so I thought.

For the first two days I could not find any photographers in the parks. Once I finally found one, he waved me off and told me to find someone else to take our picture. Huh?

[BDavis932]

Glad to hear your trip started off great! Sorry to hear about your camera...hope you were able to get some photos of the trip!

[Dopey]

Originally Posted by BDavis932

Glad to hear your trip started off great! Sorry to hear about your camera...hope you were able to get some photos of the trip!

Hi and yes, I did get to take pictures. Lots of them, but I am having a heck of a time resizing them as fast as the buzzers want to see them

[asp8tis]

Welcome Back! I can't wait to hear more! Did your camera ever turn up??

[Dopey]

Originally Posted by asp8tis

Welcome Back! I can't wait to hear more! Did your camera ever turn up??

you'll have to stay tuned







it did

[Dopey]

Ok, here goes. Pictures at random-no rime nor reason. Cut me some slack, I have very little time until December 2nd. It's random or nothing, k?
Opening Ceremony MK
Attachment 30117


Character photos from behind, because I didn't have the patients to wait in line
Attachment 30115

Attachment 30116
Pinocchio wrestling with handler
Attachment 30118

[Dopey]

Ok, day one started bright and early. Too early for the teenagers and the "oldish" guy I didn't care. Off to the Magic Kingdom! No time to stop for breakfast before hand - 'we'll grab something scrumptious from the Bakery'. We did manage to make it to the park by 9:10. There were hardly any people on Main Street; they were all waiting in line at the Bakery. But lookie here, what was this? There were no lines in the ice cream shop next door and they sell pastries and coffee in the morning. Guess what! We aren't as dumb as we look; we got food before many of the waiting masses
I managed to pick the right parks for each of our days. We never really encountered any big crowds. It is nice to have enough days to say ' heck, we can always come back another day'. So when the crowds started to really get big for our taste at the MK one day, we left, knowing that we'd be back

We had some fantastic dinners at unexpected places and some terrible ones where we expected good things. We loved the dining plan. Too much food though. Way too much food.

Never once did we see the dream team, but lots of people with the special Mickey Ears and dream Fast Passes.
The CMs were wonderful across the board.

[Dopey]

We had dinner on our first night at Wolfgang Puck Cafe. We met friends there and it was a great experience. Our waiter was magnificent, the food was great and the company was wonderful.
Here is where we found out that you get too much food on the dining plan. OMG, we could have split the appetizer four ways and would still have been stuffed to the gills

We also had dinners at:
Raglan Road , Cape May Cafe California Grill , Tappan Edo , Boma and breakfast at the Crystal Palace with praisegirl43

The Cape May Cafe -- That's not going to happen again. We really loved it the first time we ate there, but this time; the food and service were truly awful. 'Nough said.

Raglan Road -- fantastic all the way around. The boys were wearing their Birthday buttons that night. We had a great waitress who paid lots of attention to my monkeys. During our main course she came back to ask if we had heard of Cirque du Soleil and we said 'yes' and that we were thinking of getting tickets for the show. She asked how we would like to go this night - she had 4 tickets that someone had left at the bar because they couldn't use them. We were thrilled to take them off her hands and had the best seats. Front and center! All I can say is 'Wow', what a show. The stage is much smaller than it appears on TV and the show is so much better than it appears on TV. This is what I count as receiving a Dream.

[Dopey]

Next was dinner at Boma -- again, a fantastic dinner. I venture to say it was the most enjoyable dinner we had this vacation. My people liked it so much that I cancelled our ADR for Ohana on our last night and changed it to Boma. I had one too many Zebra Domes, some for me, some for Miss Disney - you're welcome

On the night we were celebrating our anniversary, we had an ADR for California Grill. This was by far the most disappointing experience we had. Our waiter couldn't have been any snootier; the food was nothing to crow about. The veggies were totally over cooked, the steak had absolutely no flavor. Everything just tasted salty. It was truly awful.
The only redeeming value of the night was the location of our table and being able to see the fireworks at the MK without having to twist our necks. We were so sorry that we had changed our original ADR for the Yachtsman Steakhouse to this place.
I was mad that we all got out of our shorts and got dressed for the evening. And I could not believe how some people walked into this restaurant with the snooty attitude. I could not believe that they didn't turn people away that actually make their way up there in torn shirts, ratty t-shirts, cut-off jeans and flip-flops. I am sorry, it says there's a dress code, and I could not find that it was enforced. This is also the only place where we didn't leave a tip. We thought the 18 % included in the plan were more than enough for this guy's service.

On to happy things...

[Dopey]

Attachment 30119

Attachment 30120
Something blue from Morocco
Attachment 30121

Counter Service at Yak and Yeti...the food was really good and the restaurant really nice to sit in

Attachment 30122

food tastes better with horns (according to Tyler)
Attachment 30123

[Experiment6-2-6]

Originally Posted by Dopey

We had a great waitress who paid lots of attention to my monkeys. During our main course she came back to ask if we had heard of Cirque du Soleil and we said 'yes' and that we were thinking of getting tickets for the show. She asked how we would like to go this night - she had 4 tickets that someone had left at the bar because they couldn't use them. We were thrilled to take them off her hands and had the best seats. Front and center! All I can say is 'Wow', what a show. The stage is much smaller than it appears on TV and the show is so much better than it appears on TV. This is what I count as receiving a Dream.

You have monkeys?

And they let you bring them inside?

Congrats on the "dream"!

[Caseys Corner]

Keep it coming. It sounds great.

[Dana]

Welcome home Dopey! Loving every word of this report so far. Sorry about your CG experience...such a shame.

[roxie]

Originally Posted by Dopey

During our main course she came back to ask if we had heard of Cirque du Soleil and we said 'yes' and that we were thinking of getting tickets for the show. She asked how we would like to go this night - she had 4 tickets that someone had left at the bar because they couldn't use them. We were thrilled to take them off her hands and had the best seats. Front and center! All I can say is 'Wow', what a show. The stage is much smaller than it appears on TV and the show is so much better than it appears on TV. This is what I count as receiving a Dream.

I'd count that, too!

Love the blue tongues!

[roxie]

Originally Posted by Dopey

We finally stumbled into our room around 11:30. Nice room, clean and comfortable.
There were 4 or 5 towel animals waiting for us. Every morning thereafter, there were more of them and they got more elaborate as the days went on. Our mouse keeper, Johaina, was the best. I chatted and giggled with her nearly every day.

I am so glad to hear that Dopey!