Highway In The Sky Dining Tour

So I'm just minding my own business and DisTwitter throws this new Official Disney-Sponsored Monorail Bar Tour headline in my unsuspecting face. We loved our own little bar tour last year, so I clicked through to read the article, figuring it would be out of reach. But what's this? Food and drinks at four stops including a main course at Citricos all followed by a Contemporary rooftop viewing of Wishes? And it's how much? $150? Has to be a catch, I think to myself.

Later on I get another minute and look on the official Disney Dining website and see that, yes indeed it is as was advertised, and the $150 even includes gratuity. I read it again. It's true.

People were already beginning to talk about the price being steep. Silly people. People who haven't ever done their own Monorail Bar Tour. This is as reasonable, as close to a "deal" as you'll find in Disney food service. Trust me.

Our tour went to Mizners for a couple cocktails and appetizers, just drinks at the Contemporary, dinner at Captain Cook's and more drinks at Trader Sam's and it cost well over $200 for the two of us. We did see pieces of the Electrical Water Pageant, but certainly not Wishes from the roof.

The Highway In The Sky Dine Around (the official, and super-cool name of this event) begins with cocktails and apps at The Wave in the Contemporary, moves on to the Poly for tropical cocktails and more appetizers, heads to the Grand Floridian for diner at Citricos and the champagne and cheese in the lobby and finishes with desserts and cordials on the top of the Contemporary. The food and drinks alone are worth the money, I'm guessing. I mean, I don't know for sure what they are offering, but I'm guessing it's not potted meat on a Tricuit. And that doesn't even toucht he fact that there's no hassle at all. Disney books the times, Disney herds us from place to place, Disney makes sure we make the fireworks in time and don't spend all night in Mizners. And the price, after all taxes (and it includes gratuity remember), is $316.80. Deal.

The long and short of it is that I blathered all about this deal to Lisa at lunch later that day and one ting led to another and by that afternoon I had reservations for the Highway and two nights at Pop Century booked for the first weekend in February.

I can't wait. I hope they have a commemorative pin!

2 Days: Back To The Magic Kingdom To Say Good-Bye

I almost didn't write about our last day because it seemed kind of depressing to talk about leaving before we even arrived. But I was supposed to write it yesterday and didn't on account of getting caught up watching Season 1 of Agents of Shield with the lovely and talented Lisa and today it doesn't seem as bad, so here goes.

Thursday will be a half-day in Magic Kingdom before we head home. We'll try to fit in as many favorites as we can, but two things have me very excited about even this abbreviated day.

First, we'll be eating lunch at the Jungle Navigation Company's Skipper Canteen. This is a new place and a first for us, so that alone is exciting. But it's also an incredible menu featuring some unusual (especially for a theme park)  Asian-inspired dishes. I plan to get the whole, deep-fried Lion Fish, the lunch that smiles back. And as a bonus the whole place is Jungle Cruise themed with added throwbacks to the Society of  Explorers and Adventurers made famous in the old Adventurer's Club in the defunct but sorely missed Pleasure Island.

Second, we'll be leaving the Magic Kingdom Monday in full Halloween decor and entering Thursday morning to see it decked out for Christmas! The transformation is overnight and will allow us to experience two holiday trips to Disney in one week. I can't beleive how cool this is going to be!

Can you tell I'm excited?

4 Days: Our First Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Tuesday will be Epcot day! We hope to arrive at rope drop and hit the new Soarin' before crowds build. Our Test Track FastPass+ is for the 10-11 am window, so we figure we can get at least the Living With The Land boat ride in before heading over.

Then it'll be Food and Wine time! We've never experienced this, so we're very excited. We have all three been pouring over the menus of all the booths and I have a map now, so by the time we go we'll have a good game plan. There's just so much that looks good! I mean , it looks like I'd be perfectly happy living inside either the Belgium or New Zealand booths. I'm thinking of maybe lobster roll at Hops and Barley and some buttered chicken at the Africa booth. A few of the Asian dishes look great as well as many of the Latin American ones. I'm just looking forward to grazing all over the World Showcase.

We have FastPasses spread out in the late afternoon and early evening to try to draw us away from the feed bag for a while. You know, so we don't explode. It's evening Extra Magic Hours and I'm told the booths remain open for at least a portion of the extra time, so more chance to munch before stumbling to the bus depot to get back to bed to rest up for....

JAMBO!

98 Days: Disney Food Blog's Guide To The Epcot Food & Wine Festival

The lovely and talented Miss Lisa and I are sitting on the couch torturing ourselves with the DFB Guide to the 2016 Epcot Food and Wine Festival. It's approaching lunchtime and everything in this e-book looks delicious. The descriptions alone would have done it, but the folks at Disney Food Blog have photographed everything so well we are dying here.

I like to pride myself on being good at researching all things Disney, on planning well even for things we've never attended. I hesitated buying this because I thought why spend money on information I could just as easily track down on my own. But I was interested in the e-book format, in how it would work, and I also love the Disney Food Blog for its photos and well-written reviews, so I went ahead and bought this guide last week. I am so glad I did!

First off, the convenience of an e-book really can't be beat. I was worried it would be a hassle (or impossible) getting the book on several devices, but nothing could have been easier. After purchasing the book via a link on the Disney Food Blog website, we simply used another link sent immediately in an email to download the Guide onto my PC laptop, my wife's iPad Air and a shared Kindle Fire. It comes as a PDF and works well on all three devices. I've found myself actually using the laptop to read it more often because the photos are so great and I like seeing them really big. It's fun looking at it together with Lisa on different devices and shouting out the things we've found to each other, but then we're geeky like that.

The Guide itself covers everything you need or want to know about the Food and Wine Festival. There are schedules of guest chefs and demonstrations and special events along with instructions and advice on booking everything. All the booths are described with info on all menu items and photos of many of them (did I mention how great the photos are?). There are sample itineraries for visiting for one or more days or just an evening or doing the Festival with children. I'm particularly fond of the "crawls" section with everything from a beer crawl to a wine crawl to a sampling of each continent crawl and more. Basically, if you want to know it, you'll find it here along with lots you never even knew you'd want to know.

We will only be at the Food and Wine Festival one day during our trip. We didn't plan on it at all, really. The Festival happening while we are going to be in Disney was a pleasant surprise. But since it's happening I want to get the most out of it and the DFB Guide is going to help.

If you'd like to purchase a Guide for yourself, I'd use the above link to the Disney Food Blog website because they have a code for 20% off up right now. The regular price is only $14.95 and it is worth every penny of that, but hey, a deals a deal, right?

Pop Century Is Totally Rad

If this appeals to you, Pop Century may be a good choice

We consider ourselves "moderate people" when it comes to Disney resorts. Our favorite is Port Orleans French Quarter, but we've loved stays at Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs as well. We'll likely stick to the moderates for a week-long trip, but we were really and truly impressed with Pop Century on our recent weekend adults only, no parks Disney weekend.

A few years ago we spent one night in the All Star Movies Resort and thought it was great for a value resort. This time I wanted to try Pop Century because it looked somehow different. Better. And it certainly was. Pop isn't nice for a value resort, it's a wonderful resort in its own right. I can't quite put my finger on WHY it seemed in a different class from the All Stars, but it really did. I think maybe it was the trees. There seemed to be more and larger trees at Pop. It felt more like it was MEANT to be there. The All Stars seemed a bit like they were Disney's answer to lower cost accommodations, which of course both they and Pop and the adjacent Art of Animation are. It's just that Pop doesn't FEEL that way., It feels very Disney, very themed on purpose, very much like it is a true part of the

We were as far from the center as you could get. And that was fine :-)

magic. All Star Movies just didn't give us that.

Pop Century is big. Very big. When we received our room assignment in the 80s building way off to one side, I was a tad disappointed. On the map it's as far from the center (where the food court and bus stop are) as you can get. I figured we'd have a hike. We drove around and settled in and then walked to the bus stop and I was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't a long walk at all. And we walked though so much cool stuff! I mean it reads like a garage sale almost. Take a right past giant Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, walk through the giant Foosball game and past the (once again giant) Big Wheel, bear right at Goofy and the Corvette Stingray and you're there! I don't know if it was the distraction of all the cool stuff to look at or what, but we never felt like the walk was long at all, even
coming back from a 1:00 am bus.

How can you NOT smile when THIS greets you on your way back to your room?

So, how about all the stuff you hope to read in a review? Ok, the room was really nice. It was Disney without being over the top. We had a queen bed (with comfy pillows) and what appeared to be a handicapped accessible room, though it wasn't labeled as such. The shower was huge with no ledge at all, it was all on a level with the rest of the bathroom. It had a bench in the shower. All very cool and comfortable and spacious. There is a refrigerator in the room which we never used, but we we thought would certainly come in handy for milk for in-room breakfast.

It's a Pop Tart breakfast sandwich. Don't judge.

Speaking of breakfast, how about those Pop Tart sandwiches? Yep, the Pop Century food court offers a breakfast sandwich made of eggs, bacon and cheeses baked in between two strawberry Pop Tarts. It's just what it sounds like, if it sounds good to you, you'll love it (I did), but if not, don't try it. The food court was fairly chaotic, even with as few people staying at the resort as was the case. I can imagine it being a nightmare during more busy times. We didn't have a bad experience at all, but we saw how it easily could have gone downhill fast. But to be fair, I've never seen a Disney resort food court to which that wouldn't apply, so.......

Actually, the fact that this place was pretty thin is an over-riding caveat to this entire review. Add a few thousand souls and the bus situation, the food courts, the pools, the walks to and from....it could

View from the 4th floor elevator lobby.

all be very different and much less pleasant. But on the mid-September weekend we visited Pop Century was just great.

For a whole bunch more photos (they are really cool) check this out :-)

Especially uncrowded in the morning before it opens.... ;-)

Disney Springs: Love What You've Done With The Place!!

Here's the new logo and all :-)

We've always loved to use Downtown Disney as a first/last stop as we come and go from Walt Disney World. On the way in it's a toe in the water. On the way out it's a sort of decompression stop. This past trip we didn't stop on the way in because we were anxious to begin the Monorail Bar tour, but on the way out we got to be some of the last visitors to Downtown Disney.

As of Wednesday, Downtown Disney officially became Disney Springs, complete with a spiffy new website. While the name and the website are new, the changes that come along with the new moniker have been in the works for a while and will continue for a few years. It's a work in progress to be sure, there are construction walls everywhere, but it is coming along nicely and the newest additions are absolutely right up this guy's alley.

First off, the practical side. I LOVE the new parking garage. Parking was always a hassle here and this was a much needed addition. The garage is easy to get into and out of and looks to be big enough for most times of the year. You exit the garage in the West Side area, right next to Splittsville, which is sort of away from the more traditional shops we enjoy more, but also very close to the water taxi, so no big deal.

Under Construction, from the water taxi

Much of the new development is happening over on the West Side. It's largely not our thing. There are a lot "name," upscale stores that hold little interest for the Stites Fam, but the design tends to draw the people attracted to these stores over to that side, so it's kind of a good thing. In a little bit of a sick way.

In the middle, between Marketplace and West Side, are The Boat House and Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar, two new additions. If this is the direction Disney Springs is taking, sign us up. We didn't try out The Boathouse, but it looks terrific both from a menu standpoint and the outside themeing. I'm a sucker for wooden sport boats and there is quite a collection tied up to the Boathouse docks. Also, it is home base to the Amphicars. These are four-seat completely amphibious vehicles that look just like the old early 60s commercial models. They drive down the ramp into the water and back up with not even a pause while they tour passengers around the lake/lagoon/whatever that body of water is called. When we first heard of the Amphicars I assumed they'd be rentals like the water sprites. Turns out they are a chauffeured experience, which opens what I desperately hope to make my next career move  as an Amphicar driver. Man's gotta have goals, right?

These Amphicars are too cool

Then there's Jack Lindsey's Hanger Bar. This one warrants and will get its own blog post later, but for now let's just say it met and exceeded some very high expectations. The Hanger Bar is themed as the bar Jock Lindsey, Indiana Jones' favorite pilot, opened in his retirement to Central Florida. It's full, and I mean FULL, of.......stuff. You could spend hours just pouring over the posters, artifacts, trophies, books, newspaper clippings and all sorts of assorted bric-a-brac in this place. It's large enough to serve plenty of people but small enough to seem authentic. It has a big outdoor deck and also a Jungle Cruise-esque river boat hanging in dry dock that serves as seating as well. We sat on the boat (of course) and felt fully enveloped in the story. The menu is simply drinks and apps, it IS a bar and not a restaurant. That's a bit new for Disney, but in this case it works very well. The drinks we had were unique and delicious and the food was the same. I have been wracking my brain for some sort of word of criticism for the place, so I don't come off as a complete fan boy here, but I got nuthin'. Jock Lindesy's Hanger Bar is the best. Period.

Best. Bar. Ever.

It doesn't seem as if much if anything of the "old" Downtown Disney had to go to make room for the new, and Disney is doing a good job of hitting all sorts of interests and tastes in its new development. This is making Disney Springs into a destination in itself, which I'm sure was the idea. And I'm all for it. We'll be back for another no-parks trip and Disney Springs will figure huge into our plans. We can't wait to try the new Morimoto Asia restaurant that just opened a few days ago.

Always something new........

Refuting The Top 13 Reasons Not To Go To Disney, Part 5

So I'm happily looking at my Facebook newsfeed the other day and one of those "Sponsored" things is up there. It's from a site called Viral Travel (which sounds like a bad idea on the face of it) and is entitled 13 Reasons Not To Go To Disney. Of course I bite. Sue me. So its about what I expect, the same things we Disney fans expect from you non-Disney fans-- crowds, expense, capitalism, yadda yadda yadda. The thing is, many of these criticisms are true to a large extent, but avoidable. I hate to see people get spoiled on the Disney I love because they go about the whole experience unprepared logistically or mentally for the realities of the place. I figured just for kicks to take the 13 reasons one by one (or two by two) and try to explain why they don't keep ME from the Magic. This part four, part one is here, two here, three here, and four here.

6. The Food Is Insanely Expensive

You know it’s bad when movie theater concessions look like a bargain in comparison. Have you ever paid $8 for a hot dog? At Disneyland you can have that privilege.

Anyone else notice a trend here? Everything is "insane" it seems. I wonder about that...

And just for the record, hot dogs are $7.79 with fries at Casey's Corner in the Magic Kingdom or $5.25 from a cart in either Storybrook Circus or Frontierland. Been to a ball game lately? I challenge you to find a cheaper hot dog at a major league ballpark.

Yes, food in the Disney parks is not as inexpensive as you could find outside the parks. But ALL theme parks are like that. And the circus. And the fair. And concerts. And sporting events. Anywhere you are a captive audience, you will be charged more for food. Welcome to capitalism.

The Lapu Lapu

One of the reasons we love Disney, though, is the food. Sure you can get burgers and dogs and mac-n-cheese, but you can also eat sushi and baklava and dole whips and Hawaiian barbeque and wiener schnitzel and creme brulee and pretty much anything else you can imagine. You can eat these things in a pagoda or a fish tank or with Winnie the Pooh or Cinderella. You can listen to your wedding song played on a ukulele while drinking a fruity rum concoction from a pineapple then watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks from your table while you finish your meal with bread pudding.

I'll just say that our last trip both the Lapu Lapu (the aforementioned pineapple drink) and breakfast lasagna
were life-changing experiences. 

Disney isn't about an $8 hotdog, even if that was the price. It's about having experiences you can't have in the real world, and for our family many of these experiences involve food.

Oh, and if you love food as much as we do, look into the Disney Dining Plan. This is basically pre-paying for your meals during your trip. You get, with our favorite option, a snack (we use this for breakfast usually), a counter service meal and a table service meal for each day of your trip.  It's a good deal if you are foodies and tend to clean your plate. But it is worth a whole post, or series of posts, on its own.

Mary Poppins On Stage

Outside the DPAC before the show

We didn't make it to Broadway for this one, but the next best thing came to us. Or kinda sorta close to us. Ok, a 3 1/2 hour drive away from us that required a vacation day to make work, but it was totally worth it. A couple weekends ago the lovely and talented Miss Lisa and I made a weekend out of going to see Mary Poppins the musical at the Durham Performing Arts Center, and it was a spectacular experience. I'm not at all qualified to "review" a Broadway style show, but I can tell you about what an awesome experience the whole weekend turned out to be.

This whole adventure started on a whim, like many Stites activities tend to. Lisa bought me the DVD of Mary Poppins for my birthday and one of the extras was a documentary on the making of the musical. I started out watching it by myself, but before long all three of us were glued to it and talking about how much we were able to appreciate better what went into putting on a show after our family's experience in Oz over the summer. During the rooftop chimney sweep scene, the musical features a bit of technical wizardry that had all of us floored. Bert takes a walk up the side of the set, across the top upside down and back down the other side. It's a really impressive piece of work and after seeing that we all decided it would be really cool to go see this show. Lisa wandered off and came back a few minutes later with the news that as luck would have it, Mary Poppins was coming to Durham in February and tickets were still available, but only a very few. We found a few seats for a Sunday night show, the final show as it turned out, and ordered them up.

Our trip went from being a family adventure to a couple's getaway after John's church youth group retreat got rescheduled for the same weekend. We were disappointed but found we'd crossed some sort of threshold in the parenting world. The morning of our last day in Durham we admitted to each other that this time we really didn't find ourselves missing John. That sounds terrible, I know, but it isn't a bad thing at all really. We were in touch with him and he with us all weekend. We were sharing our experiences, though different ones. He was having a blast in the mountains and wasn't missing us one bit either. We are all growing up and I find that it actually feels good. We had a great time as a couple, just us two, and it was perfect that way. I guess it's nice to have it pointed out so clearly that we haven't turned into one of those marriages that stays together for the kids' sake. We'll be OK, more than OK, for a long long, long time, and that feels great.

All it needed was a monorail running through it

So on with our little couple's excursion. Our show was on Sunday night, but since we were without kid from Friday morning to Monday afternoon, we decided to make a weekend out of it. We didn't go nuts and get up early on Saturday or anything, we just left about lunchtime and headed North toward our one bedroom suite just outside Durham. Lisa found that deal as well, a huge suite with a king bed and kitchen for about $85 a night. The girl is good. It was a fun drive through a very rare North Carolina snowstorm. We arrived without incident and found that our hotel looked like the Contemporary Resort in Disney World, without the monorail. Strange, but it amused the Hell out of us. The room turned out to be great, the hotel very nice and situated near a rather large mall/outdoor shopping complex. Off we went in search of dinner and amusement. We found both and spent the night laughing and talking and exploring.

Our show wasn't until 6:30 Sunday evening, so we had plenty of time to explore that day, too. We started the day with a morning bubble in the hot tub, and decided once again that we REALLY need to get one for the house, then headed out to see what we could see. We ended up on the Duke University campus and took in the cathedral (beautiful), some geocaching (unsuccessful), and the gardens. We even tried to find a spot in the gardens to play Pooh Sticks, but there was a sad lack of water in the creek beds. Oh well. Then we headed "into town" for an early dinner.

Oh my. Let me just say that if you go to Durham and are anywhere near the DPAC and don't stop into Bull City Burger and Brewery you must simply hate yourself. The place is awesome. It's a brewpub and they have taken the "sustainable restaurant" thing to new heights. These folks make their own bacon out of pigs fed on the leftover barley mash used to brew the beer. Their website explains it well, and despite it all being very "hipster," I was pretty impressed. And the food is not only delicious, but creative. I had a "bowl of pickled stuff" as an appetizer. Yep. It was like they knew I was coming and designed a menu just for me. We also tried their Bull Nuts, peanuts cooked up with bacon and sugar and rosemary and who knows what else. If you invite us to a party and ask us to bring a munchy, we are going to try making this, just so you know. The burgers were great, using beef from cows raised on a farm just outside the city and served on homemade buns. They probably grew the wheat on the roof or something. The condiments were even homemade. And the beer. Wow. I love beer and this place made me a very happy Jeffrey. We tried barley wine, which is a highly alcoholic, very slowly crafted brew served in a snifter so you feel all fancy-like drinking it. Let me just say that Youngen Horny Barley Wine is one of God's great gifts to humanity.

Nosebleeds, baby! :)

After dinner we were in fine spirits and walked the few short blocks to the beautiful Durham Performing Arts Center. This place was really cool and run very well. It was a sold out show, but the number of people never intruded on our experience. That may just as well be because we were having such a great time with each other that nothing was going to intrude, but the place was run with great precision. Our seats were in the back, the second to the last row of the very top balcony to be exact. We could have had better seats, honestly, but we could have had worse. I didn't mind at all, as being so high gave me a great look at the technical aspects of the show. A bird's eye view, I guess. I helped move sets on and off stage during our production of Wizard of Oz and wondered if I would see little dudes dressed all in black running on and off stage. Lisa said, no, she thought not. But we did, once! And we were very happy.

Mary Poppins was simply breathtaking. The music is terrific and the sets are incredible and the actors sang and danced and acted their hearts out (see, I told you I was not qualified to write a theater review). The Banks house slid onto the stage and opened up like a dollhouse. It was amazing. We were convinced this touring company wouldn't do the Bert walking upside down thing because we didn't see the framework they used in the show we saw on the dvd. Boy, were we wrong. They didn't need a frame, this Bert just walked up the side of the stage and across the top, dancing and singing all the way. We were speechless. Lisa and I are still singing songs from this show all day long, they are that good. All around a lovely experience.

We had taken off work on Monday after the show which turned out to be a good idea as we'd have gotten home really very late. As it was, we just rolled back to the hotel a few miles away, slept a nice night away and headed home at our leisure Monday morning.

Perfect weekend :)

Polynesian Escape

A recent blog post about alcoholic Dole Whips put me in a Polynesian resort frame of mind. Before I go any further, let me just say that spiced rum Dole Whips are the best idea since the wheel and they need to be a permanent fixture at the bars of the Polynesian. Period. I see no need to serve them at Aloha Isle in the Magic Kingdom because the Poly is such an easy trip from the park. That thought is what moved me to write this post.

The Magic Kingdom is my favorite Disney park by far. I could happily spend all day and night in there and not need an escape at all. But the Magic Kingdom lacks two things that make me a happy guy; adult beverages and really good dinner. Maybe the new Be Our Guest restaurant will change that, but until I get back to check that out, I'm still recommending the Poly as a great pop outside the park for a bite and a cocktail destination.

Pool Hoppin' circa 1976. Yes, that's me :)

Any of the monorail resorts would work, and the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness are only a boat ride away as well, but to me the Polynesian is special. It is the most "Disney" of the monorail resorts to me. The Contemporary doesn't excite me at all and the Grand Floridian seems just too much for me to feel comfortable. Though I've only stayed there once, and that when I was a young teenager, the Polynesian feels like home to me the way the Magic Kingdom does.Until we did stay there, it was our family's dream. We'd take the boat over from Fort Wilderness to eat or go to the pool (pool hopping was fine back then) or to play on the beach. Our week at the Polynesian was pure magic. The place is like being in another world, which is what Walt Disney World is all about to me. And that new world is right on the Magic Kingdom's doorstep, making it a draw for the Stites family.

The lovely Miss Lisa and I have fond Poly memories going back to our first trip to Disney together, a college graduation gift trip with my parents back in the summer of 1993. We were staying in a cabin at Fort Wilderness with my mom, dad and sister. One day we stayed in the Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours and closed the park out. We had to be about the last to leave because we just refused to let the night end. I took what turned out to be my last ride on Mr. Toad (even getting the Mr. Toad car) that night. We watched the Electrical Parade from the crest of the big Splash Mountain drop. It was one of those magical Disney days where everything goes not just right, but better than you could have dreamed and we didn't want it to end. Instead of taking the launch back to the campground, I had the brilliant idea that we take the monorail to the Poly and see if Kona Cafe was still open and perhaps get some dessert. It was and we had midnight (or well past midnight if I remember correctly) sundaes before catching the last boat back to Fort Wilderness. We were the only ones on the bus back to our campsite, it being 2 am by this point, and the driver just drove us right to our site rather than follow the route. It was perfect.

On my family's latest trip last September we worked in visits to the Poly in twice, once planned and once not. We arrived for our trip in the early afternoon of a Saturday and had park tickets for the day, so decided to visit the Magic Kingdom first. We had no reservations for dinner and figured we'd just find a counter service somewhere. As it turned out, we ended up taking the monorail to the Polynesian and eating at Captain Cook's Snack Company. This place gets very little discussion among the blogs and websites and Facebook pages I follow, and that's a shame. The menu is the best by far of the counter service monorail resorts, the others being basic sandwiches and burgers. Captain Cook's features Hawaiian BBQ pork on a sandwich or as part of an awesome nacho platter. There are also very good flatbread pizzas to be had. But the coup de grace is the self serve DOLE WHIP MACHINE!!!!! I mean, come on, is that not worth the trip in and of itself? What a "Welcome to Disney" dinner!

The Lapu Lapu

Our second trip to the Poly was a planned one, and the plan came together perfectly. We'd done a character breakfast that morning before park opening at the Crystal Palace and scheduled dinner at 'Ohana  late enough that we hoped to catch the Wishes fireworks show from the window. We showed up for our 8 pm ressies a few minutes early and requested a window seat. They told us the couldn't promise anything and the place was packed so I wasn't going to be heartbroken if we didn't get our request. I figured we'd have a bit of a wait, so we ordered drinks (the perfectly splendid Lapu Lapu) and settled in at the bar. Before the second Lapu Lapu was ready, they came to show us to our table, a window seat overlooking Cinderella Castle! As we sat down we noticed the strolling ukulele player was singing our wedding song, so we got right back up and danced before ordering. Dinner was family style, all you can eat and delicious. As we forced more and more dessert bread pudding into our already stuffed tummies, the lights went down and the Wishes music began playing in the restaurant and the fireworks began. We had the perfect seat, full bellies, pineapples full of rum and we were IN DISNEY WORLD! It was the beginning of the end of one of my best days ever. I say beginning of the end because after the fireworks, we went right back into the magic Kingdom to ride my son's favorite (the Tomorrowland Speedway) and close out the Extra Magic Hours. Perfection.

Check out more Poly pictures at Pooh Sticks on Facebook

Mr. Grumpy Goes To Disney

I'm sure I don't need to say, but be assured Mr. Grumpy wasn't me. And Mr. Grumpy certainly wasn't John, or, obviously, the lovely Miss Lisa. We met Mr. Grumpy while waiting in the pouring down rain for a bus back to the Caribbean Beach Resort from Hollywood Studios after Fantasmic was canceled on us. No one under that bus canopy was turning somersaults with joy and happiness, but Mr. Grumpy made us smile.

I'm a happy person. It takes a lot to get me down and I tend to see humor in everything. My wife and son are happy people as well and we all pretty much enjoy ourselves where ever we are and whatever we're doing. We giggle while shopping at Walmart. That's just the way we are. So while at Disney, we really don't find much of anything to complain about. Mr. Grumpy? Not so much. I find Disney to be a pretty close to perfect place, but I realize a lot of that is me and my attitude. I don't stress over things at Disney because there's no need. It's Disney. But I realize not everyone is like that. People spend a lot of money on a Disney vacation and their idea of perfection is something more than mine. Disney tends to make some people see every glass as half empty. Mr. Grumpy was one of these and he was adorable.

As we stood waiting for the bus to arrive, dripping wet, Mr. Grumpy hit on about all the common complaints about a Disney vacation.

The bus to the Magic Kingdom, 8 am on a Saturday

The Transportation -- This one got the conversation started, as we were waiting for a bus. I mentioned to Lisa the irony of the fact that the first time we had to wait for any significant amount of time for a bus was when it was pouring down rain on our heads because we couldn't fit under the canopy. "Are you staying at Caribbean Beach?" asked Mr. Grumpy. "I can't believe that. I feel like I've done nothing but wait for buses the whole time we've been here." 

It's a common complaint from people using the Disney transportation system. Buses, boats and monorails move guests around the whole huge property, and there are times you have to wait for whatever you plan to ride to arrive. I've stayed in the busy and the slow season, at a variety of resorts, and never found using Disney's transportation to be a problem or a frustration. I never put myself in a situation where I'm in that much of a rush. If running on Disney's schedule troubles you, it's an easy problem to solve by simply driving yourself where you want to go. We have friends who go this route and have just as relaxed a time on vacation as we do. It's just personal taste.

The resort loop monorail, about 10 am on a Saturday

But I honestly have no idea what Mr. Grumpy was talking about in this instance. We were staying in the same resort and we never waited more than 5 minutes to be picked up and maybe ten waiting for a bus back to our room. And we left the parks at closing, along with massive throngs of others, so that was quite an accomplishment, I thought. This particular night was unusual as we waited about 20 minutes in the rain. As I mentioned, the Fantasmic show had been canceled, so the park emptied out an hour or so before it was expected to and I guess that threw off the system. It happens, and 20 minutes isn't such a long wait. It would take close to that time to get to your car in the lot anyhow. We saw as many empty buses and monorails as we did standing room only ones this trip. We sometimes felt like we were being chauffeured.

Ride Lines and Park Crowds--After his bus comment, especially the Eeyore-ish way in which it was delivered, I knew I had a live one on the line. So I brought up the subject of crowds. I couldn't help it. Of course Mr. Grumpy was upset about that, too. "With this "free-dining" thing (I think he used air quotes here), everyone and their brother is here this week. We've done nothing but wait in line."

Again, we had a very different experience. I don't think we waited more than 20 minutes for any ride ever the entire trip. And we rode about everything -- most several times. Nothing without a FastPass option ever had a significant wait, and we used FastPasses to ride the rest if need be. Admittedly, we got a bunch of the more popular Fantasyland attractions done during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, when the park was very thinned out, but even going to what all the tips web sites said was the busiest park that day, we rarely found a line more than ten or twenty minutes. We never waited at all for Pirates of the Caribbean, for instance, no matter when we went. We just filed in and hopped on. It was awesome. Star Tours was the same way.

I suppose if you were heart set on riding the big name "E" Ticket rides without using the FastPass, you had to wait. But there is absolutely zero reason to do that.

The Restaurants--Again, I couldn't stop myself once Mr. Grumpy brought up Free Dining. Wasn't it a great thing, I asked, already knowing the answer. "Well, it makes all the restaurants crowded, you can't get a table. And the food isn't what it used to be," was Mr. Grumpy's reliable reply.

We love the Dining Plan, particularly when it's free. We are a food-loving family and there were meals we were looking forward to as much as we were some of the rides and attractions. We had African cuisine at Boma, French at Les Chefs de France, a Morrocan lunch and homemade sausage and the best calamari ever at Mama Melrose's. We ate with the fishes at the Coral Reef, breakfasted with Mickey and Minnie and Donald and Goofy and Pluto at Chef Mickey's and started one day with a Friendship Celebration hosted by Pooh and Piglet and Eeyore and Tigger featuring the best French toast ever and a life-altering experience with breakfast lasagna. We had English fish and chips and American burgers and Polynesian meat-on-a-stick. We ate well, very well. The food was plentiful and very good.

We also noticed a difference from the last time we used the Dining Plan. A few years ago, we arrived a bit early for our reservations and often waited until long after our ressie time to actually be seated. Mr. Grumpy to the contrary, this year was very different. We arrived sometimes a good half hour before our appointed time and got seated right away, despite the waiting rooms looking very crowded. It was great! We never once waited for a table more than ten minutes, and that was when we arrived early. And not only did we not wait for our seats, we got what we considered the "best seats in the house" everytime. If there was a view or a window, we got it.

The reason we found Mr. Grumpy so amusingly cute was that his heart didn't really appear to be in his grousing. It seemed like a personality trait that he just couldn't leave behind, or didn't want to. He seemed genuinely happy to be complaining. He made us smile, and we waved goodbye with nothing but love as we pulled away on the bus, being the last family allowed aboard and leaving Mr. Grumpy, who was right behind us in line, standing in the rain waiting. Again.

Relaxing At Disney

Is it possible? The conventional wisdom is that you need a vacation to recover after a Disney vacation. With four theme parks, two water parks and everything else there is to see and do, it's easy to run yourselves ragged trying to see and do it all. Even just touring one park can be hectic, trying to fit in all the rides, stressing over wait times and trying to maximize your use of Fast Passes. It can easily turn into a disaster, or at least wear you and your family completely out.

I will admit to being a Disney planner, but I'm in all other aspects of my life a very go with the flow, smell the roses, take the road less traveled by kind of guy. With eight days to spend in the parks, I was able to merge those two sides into what turned out to be the most relaxing Disney vacation ever. Our first full day at Disney is a perfect example of how this all worked out so well.

We arrived on a Saturday afternoon, well almost exactly at noon, truth be told. We ate at Downtown Disney, checked in our resort, rode the monorail around and went to the Magic Kingdom with the goal of riding the Tomorrowland Speedway and seeing the Main Street Electrical Parade and fireworks. We accomplished all this and turned in ready to rise early for a very full, very long day of experiencing the Magic Kingdom. With two ADRs, at Crystal Palace a half hour before park opening for breakfast and 'Ohana for dinner during the 9:00 fireworks, and then planning to return to the park to enjoy Extra Magic Hours, this could have been the most exhausting day of our trip. That's why I planned it for the beginning, when we'd all be fresh and excited. It turned out to be about the most relaxed.

We got an early start. A very early start. I made reservations for before the Magic Kingdom opened so we could get to walk around and take pictures before the crowds arrived. I was very excited about this, more excited than about anything else we planned to do. I was a bit nervous about getting to the park early enough to get the most out of this experience, my people not being known for their early morning vigor. So, I told them to be ready about 15 minutes before I really expected to leave to catch our bus. I was also nervous about catching a bus that early, almost two hours before the park opened. We asked the concierge the night before and she assured us buses ran just for the purpose of taking people like us to our early breakfast. I believed her (mostly), but wasn't sure they'd run very often, so I figured on a long wait at the bus stop. I turned out to be totally wrong on both counts.

Yep, I tried out the hammock :)

I woke up way too early, my normal Monday morning 4:15, so instead of lying there wishing I could sleep, I got up and dressed and walked all over the resort in the pre-dawn darkness. It was splendid. I highly recommend it to insomniacs. Having any part of Disney entirely to yourself is a rare and wonderful experience. When I got back to the room, I was shocked to find Lisa and John up and at 'em! We rolled out of the room at just a bit past seven, walked into the bus station and sat down only to have a bus for the Magic Kingdom roll right up. We rode the bus with one other family and got to the Magic Kingdom entrance by about 7:30. There were a few people milling about and some cast members stocking supplies on the turnstiles, but it was very quiet. I had read somewhere that the breakfast entrance was on the far left side, so we headed that way and saw an "Event" sign over the turnstiles and figured that looked like a likely place. A line immediately formed behind us. We laughed hoping we had guessed right, and it turned out we had. Lisa was the first ticket scanned that morning and she, John and I were the first three thru the turnstiles. We were let into a roped off area next to the little shop out there just before you enter the tunnels under the Main Street train depot. Again, the three of us were first in line. My family forgave me for lying to them about how early they needed to get up. Being the first people of the day walking down Main Street is worth losing a few minutes of shut eye. So far the plan was coming together splendidly.

It's good to be first

Our experience walking around an almost empty Main Street USA and Cinderella Castle was incredible, so incredible it deserves its own blog post. We ate the most wonderful breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger and Eeyore and Piglet at the Crystal Palace. I'll probably get around to reviewing this experience in a post later on as well, but I can tell you that this is one great time. The food is unbelievable and not just your usual Disney breakfast buffet fare. They have a puffed french toast that is out of this world and something they call breakfast lasagna that was a life-altering experience for me. The characters are really fun, too, and it was nice seeing everyone get into the act, adults and children alike. Disney is that kind of place. After breakfast, it was time to hit the Magic Kingdom.

We left the Crystal Palace about a half hour after the park opened. The throngs headed up Main Street were thinned out some and everyone was headed to their favorite rides. We had hit John's favorite, the Tomorrowland Speedway, the night before so we were taking a more unusual approach. We wanted to make sure we hit all the things we'd missed the last couple of visits, times when we were with the crowds headed to Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates and Space Ranger Spin. We sought the path less traveled. We headed for the Swiss Family Treehouse, the Hall of Presidents, Tom Sawyer Island, the Liberty Belle steamboat, and the Carousel of Progress. We experienced no lines, no crowds and no stress. We hit other rides along the way as we saw them with little wait. We rode the railroad around the park for a lap and a half, just to see the whole thing. We got fast passes for the "mountains" and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. We ate when we were hungry. We stopped to take pictures everywhere. We wandered. We didn't stand in any line more than 15 minutes long. We knew we'd be there for the next seven days, and that knowledge allowed us to slow down and take it easy and enjoy the park without a hint of rush.

Behold! The Lapu Lapu!!

Our dinner reservations were for 8:00 at the Polynesian. There was no rush fit anything in before dinner because the Magic Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours that night and would remain open for resort guests until midnight. We had plenty of time to eat and come back, which is exactly what we did. We left the park and monorailed it over to the Poly in plenty of time to make our reservation. We put in our name, requesting a window seat,  and sat at the bar to order a couple of hollowed out pineapples full of rum (the Lapu Lapu, another life-altering experience). Before our drinks were ready our table was, and we were taken to a window seat overlooking the Cinderella Castle, just as we'd hoped. As we sat down, we noticed a man behind us playing the ukulele while a few couples danced. Lisa and I realized at the same time that he was playing Elvis' "Can't Help Falling In Love," so we got up and joined in the dancing. When he was through, the ukulele player asked us our names and where we were from and got all kinds of excited when we told him we were celebrating our anniversary and he had just played our wedding song. He gave us leis. Food started to arrive, lots of food. 'Ohana is a "family style" restaurant where you share a huge salad and three different appetizers before being presented with grilled meat on skewers. We sat and ate and talked and laughed and waited for 9:00 and the Magic Kingdom fireworks to roll around. As we finished off the last of our Lapu Lapus and fit in the last few bites of bread pudding we could manage, the fireworks began. The music that accompanies the show in the park is pumped into the dining room so we sat and enjoyed the show just like we would have on Main Street, but without crowds or stress of any kind. Another plan perfectly come together. (BIG thank you to our pals the Iapaluccis for the heads up on this one, and for many other pieces of advice. Let me just say that while the wings at 'Ohana are very good, they don't measure up to Jen's home made version enjoyed in the company of great friends).

We also rode the WEDway Peoplemover. A lot :)

After dinner, we hopped a monorail back to the Magic Kingdom and rode a couple favorites (including the Carousel of Progress because it broke down on us earlier in the day, which is a story in itself) then decided to leave about a half hour before park closing so we could beat the crowds out the door. It turned out to be a very long day, we left the room about 7 am and got back after midnight, but none of us were the least bit stressed or worn out or frazzled. We'd done Disney our way, the Stites way, and it was perfect.

Eating Through The World

Ok, I love this mobile blogging thing. We are now staked out on a bridge between France and Great Britain in Epcot waiting for the Illuminations show to start. We are saving spots for sure, but we are also too stuffed to move. We have been eating our way through the parks.
We are using the dining plan, free with room and ticket combo. We love it. The plan no longer includes appetizers with dinner, but it still is almost more food than we can eat, and we can eat a lot!
We sometimes buy stuff to eat as well, like those delicious shrimp chips (blech!), but it's always just novelty stuff John sees and asks for. He asks for very little so I almost always agree to the freeze dried ice cream or weird fruit chewies.
I love the variety here. Today I had lamb for lunch in Morroco, shrimp chips and a frozen sake cocktail in Japan, beer and a pretzel in Germany and onion soup, duck and strawberry cake in France. Can't beat it. And I am already looking forward to my cinnamon bun at Starring Rolls in the Studios tomorrow morning :)

D Is For....Dining Plan

Ahhhh, the Disney Dining Plan. I get hungry just thinking about it. We LOVE the Disney Dining Plan here at the Stites house, though we've only used it once and even then didn't pay for it. For those of you who may not know, you can find out all the specifics from Disney here, and read a really good discussion of how to tell if it's right for you (including charts and graphs) here. In a nutshell, it's a way to pre-pay for your meals during your Disney vacation. You must stay at a Disney resort to participate.

From a marketing standpoint, the Disney Dining Plan (DDP) is genius. Sometimes when we've stayed on property, we've taken days to visit outside the Disney properties. At the time that meant Sea World, but today it could be Universal or any number of other attractions. I think the DDP was meant to make those trips "off property" less appealing. I mean, if you've already paid for your meals in Disney, why would you leave to go eat somewhere else? But that's all fine with me, we've reached the point where we really don't want to leave the property once we get to Disney World, heck, I don't even want to see my car for the duration of the trip. So the DDP suits us just fine.

There are several variations of the plan. The cheapest only covers 2 meals at counter service restaurants and one snack per day while the most expensive covers three meals a day, anywhere you like, plus two snacks. We like the mid-price plan, which includes one counter service and one table service meal per day, plus a snack. We find it works well, giving us flexibility and allowing us to experience some of the coolest restaurants Disney has to offer. The plan has been pared down over the years. The last time we used it, it included an appetizer, entree and dessert for each person at a table service meal, and also included tips. Now the appetizers have been dropped and tips are no longer included, but we still see it as a good deal.

We are taking advantage of the free dining plan again this trip, but were planning on buying it before we discovered that offer. We love the convenience of not having to worry about paying for food, it lowers my wife's stress level considerably. We also are huge fans of food and eating. It's ok, we'll admit it, we don't eat to live, we don't count calories and we don't concern ourselves with what is in the food we eat. We love to try new things, we love to eat until we are stuffed and we love all the things that are "bad" for you. Don't judge. The DDP was made for people like us. I've heard of people coming home with un-used snack or even meal credits. They split counter service lunches because "it's so much food." Not the Stiteses, we all get the big combo platter and all eat every bit of it, then walk around laughing about what gluttons we are. We are on vacation after all, if you can't over indulge then when can you?

This trip we are visiting several new places, including the all-you-can-eat, meat-on-a-stick 'Ohana. I hope they are prepared!

B Is For.....Boma

Apologies in advance for this being the worst dining review ever. I don't remember exactly what we ate and I have no idea what it cost, but I do know that Boma, the buffet restaurant inside Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, made a huge impression on my family and we can't wait to go back in September.

The last time we spent a week at Disney, back in late August of 2006, we had taken advantage of the free Disney Dining Plan offer that was current at the time.  When I was planning our dining reservations, or ADRs in Disney speak, I wanted to try some new places, as it had been quite a while since either of us had spent much time at Disney World. Disney's Animal Kingdom was new to us, and so was the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I found Boma and figured it would give us a great excuse to visit the new deluxe resort and maybe try something new, as Boma had an African-influenced menu. As an aside, visiting Disney's resorts is an attraction in itself. All of them have their own theme and charm, from the All-Stars to the high-end deluxe resorts, all are worth checking out. Eating in the resort restaurants gives you a great excuse and opportunity to poke around these places.

Boma is located on the bottom floor of the Animal Kingdom Lodge, across a hall from Jiko, the AKL's more upscale dining spot. Not that there is anything low-class or cheesy about Boma. The dining room is bright and open and full of African artwork. It is not a quiet place, but, hey, it's a buffet at a family resort, nobody should be surprised. The buffet itself is not your typical Western Sizzlin' steam table affair. Most of the food was at least finished right there at the buffet table and everything was always full, fresh and hot. I am having trouble remembering exactly what we ate, it was largely nothing we'd had before or since, but it wasn't so exotic as to scare off timid eaters. I do remember wishing I had a bigger stomach because everything was so very delicious.

When we planned this trip coming up in September, we wanted to try as many new places as we could. We did, however, all agree that a return to Boma was essential. I can't wait.

Disney Dinner, At Home!!!!

What's better than a night of Disney Parks behind the scenes shows on the TV? That would be sharing the fun with friends and turning it into a Disney food feast, of course! The food at Disney is one of our favorite parts of the experience, and it's fun and surprisingly easy to try duplicating some of Disney's dishes at home. Chip and Co. have recipes on their site and Disney cookbooks aren't hard to find. Our cookbook is almost 20 years old, so it has recipes from restaurants that no longer exist, which is kind of cool, really. Our feast included treats from Ohana, the Yachtsman Steakhouse, Le Cellier, the old Top of the World and a couple classic treats from the parks.

Jen's Ohana Wings and my own Onion-Cheese Soup

We started out with what my son has declared "the BEST chicken wings ever. Seriously. Ever"  and onion-cheese soup. The wings Jen made are part of the Ohana family-style dinner and are truly delicious. The soup was my contribution and came from our old Gourmet Mickey Cookbook attributed to the Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club Resort. I've had neither dish at the actual Disney location, but Jen says the wings pretty much nailed it. The soup may or may not be exactly like Disney's, but it was really good.

Poutine = Heaven

After devouring the wings and soup around the campfire, we moved inside for Jen's Poutine, a wonderful potato dish from the Canada Pavilion's Le Cellier restaurant. Poutine is basically baked potato wedges topped with caramelized onion and cheese, then covered with a red wine reduction sauce. While that may sound good, words can't describe the deliciousness of this dish. The reduction alone is good enough to eat with a spoon.

Lisa's Mickey Treats-on-a-stick!

For dessert, my lovely bride Lisa provided a classic Disney Parks treat, the Mickey Head Rice Crispy Treat! What could be better than a rice crispy treat that looks like Mickey, on a stick, with ears dipped in dark chocolate? Nothing. Period. For post-dessert TV watching treats we had Dole Whips! Both straight up and in a float, these things are hard to replicate exactly without a soft-serve machine, but ours were awesome and topped off a spectacular night.

Monorail Yellow

Disney also offers some fun and unique cocktails. The beverage I chose to accompany our meal may or may not be offered somewhere on the Disney property today, I don't know. It's the Monorail Yellow cocktail from the old Top of the World restaurant, the place that used to be at the top of the Contemporary resort. Top of the World has been replaced by the California Grill, but we brought the Monorail Yellow back for an encore. The original is a frozen concoction, but I turned it into a martini because I didn't want to bother getting out a blender. It worked nicely.


Trying to re-create some of your favorite Disney cuisine is fun and, thanks to the interwebs, not really hard. If you want to try for yourself, you can start searching either Chip and Co.'s recipe page or the Disney Family web site's recipe pages 

Valentine's Day Magic

I just needed to brag. One of our family's favorite things from Disney's kitchens is the Mickey-shaped marshmallow krispy treat on-a-stick. We always buy some as a good-bye gesture as we leave the property and we eat them on the drive home remembering what a great time we had. Well, the best wife in the world arranged for our friend to pick some up on her recent trip to give my son and I for Valentine's gifts. It's mid-February, chilly and rainy, and 210 days (who's counting, right?) from our Disney trip, but I have a Mickey treat, and that makes it much better. Big thanks to Lisa for having such a sweet idea and Jen for helping her make it happen. I'm a lucky guy.

This Looks Really Tasty

The Main Street Gazette blog reports on some tasty new offerings in the Magic Kingdom. Sleepy Hollow Refreshments, found in Liberty Square near the Hall of Presidents, has started serving waffle-sandwiches. They come in three varieties, fruit and nutella (pictured at left), ham prosciutto and swiss, and sweet and spicy chicken. The post at the above link describes all three sandwiches with pictures.