Chapter 15: In Which We Run Out Of Time And Money
After Tom Sawyer’s Island, my brother and his family went off on their own again, while we killed time by doing…something. Whatever it was, I’m sure it was very exciting and involved exploding helicopters and yet it couldn’t possibly measure up to whatever it was that you can come up with using your own imagination. Anyway, the plan was for us all to meet back up again at Be Our Guest for lunch. We’d grabbed a lunch ADR here for a few reasons:
1) It was one of the few places where our families could agree on a meal;
2) My kids hadn’t been inside yet and wanted to see the theming;
3) My brother’s daughter is a huge princess fan and couldn’t wait to see Beast’s castle; and
4) It’s a lot easier (and cheaper) to get a lunch ADR than dinner here.
We showed up a few minutes early for our reservation. However, I couldn’t check in yet because the entire party wasn’t present. So, we texted my brother and SIL and waited.
And waited. And waited. No response to our texts. Meanwhile, all sorts of people were streaming up to the restaurant and getting in line. We had not pre-ordered our food for lunch, so I knew it was going to take some time to get through the ordering process. We texted again. No response.
We tried to kill some time by taking photos. Thankfully, no giant birds were attacking the castle this morning.
We found a Photopass station and went for another loving, adorable family photo. But it was hot, and we were hungry and thirsty, and Captain Crankypants was back.
On the other hand, these photos will never not be funny.
Finally, about 15 minutes late, my brother’s family sauntered up without a care in the world. “Hey guys, ready for lunch?”
Yes, we are definitely ready.
We checked in and eventually got through the line and ordering process. It probably took another 20 minutes or so before we were looking for seats. Naturally, the West Wing and Main Ballroom had filled up by now, so we had to grab tables in the less-exciting Other Room For Overflow Guests.
Last time I was here, I’d had the “Croque Monsieur”, which is French for “hot ham and cheese sammich”. This time, I ordered the “French Dip Sandwich served on Baguette with Au Jus and Pommes Frites”. If you’re not up on your French, “Au Jus” translates to “With Juice” and “Pommes Frites” translates to “French Fries With A Fancy Title So We Can Justify Charging $9 For Them”. In other words, this is a roast beef sammie “with with juice” and fries.
And it was a perfectly decent lunch. I haven’t had dinner at Be Our Guest, but my sense is that you eat here more for the atmosphere than the food. My family seemed to agree. They were glad they’d been able to try it, but wouldn’t feel the need to come back on every trip.
Still, the Imagineers knocked the building itself out of the park, so we made sure to wander around and hover creepily over other people trying to eat their lunch while we snapped photos.
We had one last FP to use as a group—another ride on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
Having successfully conquered Big Thunder, Drew showed no fear this time around, and Julie and I silently offered prayers of thanksgiving for the fact that we didn’t have to wrestle him into the car this time around. Quite the opposite, in fact. I don’t know if you can zoom in on this photo or not, but it’s my favorite ride photo of the whole week. This one captured the pure, unbridled joy we hope to find when we visit Disney World.
That’s what makes it worthwhile.
Drew had perked up after having a meal, resting in air-conditioning and riding 7DMT. We let him choose what he wanted to do next. He said he wanted to go on the Ariel ride again. Fair enough. He was even willing to participate in a family photo this time around.
I got stuck with an uninvited guest.
While making our way through the queue, we found a hidden Nautilus, paying tribute to the old 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea ride that used to occupy this space.
After that, Drew wanted to ride on the Peoplemover again. Well, sure. It’s a pretty thrilling ride in and of itself.
Julie and I had planned a “date night” for the evening—not really a complete night out, but we’d be having dinner alone. My parents would be watching the kids. It was getting to be mid-afternoon and we’d done everything we wanted to do in the parks, so we figured this would be as good a time as any to split up. My parents ended up taking the kids back to the resort for some pool time (which they loved) and dinner at the food court (which was meh). Meanwhile, Julie and I finally had…
And we were immediately trapped, since they were setting up for the Celebrate Vague Achievements Parade or whatever it’s called. We ended up having to wait for the parade to go through before we could exit, so we wandered back through the castle and then killed some time in the shops.
As luck would have it, we were able to get some nice photos in front of the castle. Or at least we eventually got some nice photos after several takes, since Julie is incapable of keeping her eyes open for pictures.
See? This happens all the time.
There, that’s better.
We rode a bus to the Saratoga Springs resort, where we had an ADR for the Turf Club. We’d never been here before but had heard a lot of good things about it as one of the “hidden gems” among Disney restaurants.
We were able to get there early and meet up with Marv and Pat (
@GoofyFan1515 and
@Poolrat ) in the lounge to catch up for a while. However, no photo of this DISmeet exists, so I must unfortunately conclude that it didn’t actually happen. But we had a really nice time relaxing and chatting with the two of them in our imaginary meeting that never took place.
The Turf Club is small and feels almost hidden out of the way. Saratoga Springs doesn’t have a huge lobby or any signature building that draws attention to itself like some of the other resorts. The main building is almost non-descript. The Turf Club is way in the back. So I can see why most guests would ignore it. But it’s a nice, classy place for a quiet meal.
I had heard great things about the prime rib, so that’s what I ordered for dinner. Julie doesn’t go wild for steak (she’s weird) so she ordered some kind of chicken dish, which she thought was mediocre. Others must have agreed, because it’s not on the menu anymore. But my prime rib was fantastic.
That was one of my favorite meals on the whole trip. It was perfectly cooked, very tender, and extremely flavorful. As a bonus, we got a chocolate/peanut butter dome for dessert that was terrific as well. Sadly, this also appears to no longer be on the menu.
I would absolutely come back to the Turf Club for another meal. In fact, I wouldn’t even look at the menu. I’d just order the prime rib again. Let’s honor this place with a Drooling Homer Award.
We took a bus back to the Magic Kingdom. I said this wasn’t a true “date night”, because we were meeting back up with the kids for the evening. It was our last night at Disney World, so we didn’t want to spend it apart from everyone. The plan was to stay up and watch Happily Ever After (new to us) together. We figured we weren’t getting up early for Rope Drop the next morning—in fact, we were leaving, so all the more reason to sleep in and procrastinate—so it wouldn’t matter if we let everyone stay up late. Better to end our Disney time with a nighttime show.
And several thousand of our closest friends, many of whom are gifted with stinkeye.
We were able to find a spot near the hub that was only slightly obstructed with a light pole.
And there we camped.
As night fell, there were several rumbles of thunder off in the distance, and we started to worry that they might cancel the show. But thankfully the storms stayed away.
At one point, we could see some lightning in the distance, so I tried to see if I could capture a bolt flashing over Tomorrowland. Unfortunately, my shutter finger moves at less than light speed. But I thought the view looked kinda cool, so I kept one of the photos.
At last, it was time for the show to start. We’d only had to kick or step on 5 people in order to maintain our hold on the sidewalk we had claimed.
When Happily Ever After had first debuted, we’d watched a live stream on the Disney Parks Blog and come away unimpressed. The dirty secret about Disney’s nighttime shows is that they’re all basically Disney clip shows stitched together in an extremely loose “story”, and this appeared to be no different online. We couldn’t make out the projections on the castle at all.
So I’m happy to report that the show was much, much better in person. As it should be. Yes, it’s still a Disney clip show, but the projections and fireworks provide a ton of eye candy that make it a worthwhile end to the day. I’m glad we watched it, and I’m glad we all saw it together on our final evening. Here are way too many fireworks photos:
And with that last bit of extended pyrotechnics, Drew’s very first Walt Disney World vacation came to a close. I’ll wrap this up with some final thoughts.
Was it perfect? No, but what is? Looking back, it was somewhat stressful trying to coordinate 13 people and all of their plans. I think the solution that we settled upon—just plan a few rides/meals together and otherwise, everyone do their own thing—was the right one. But still, I was surprised at how little time we all actually spent together, and at how poor the communication was. It felt like we wasted a good bit of time waiting for others to show when we did have plans together. My own family came away with one shared thought: we would love to have a do-over at Disney World, next time with just the 6 of us!
I think we learned that it’s enough of a miracle that the 6 of us all generally want to tour Disney the same way, and share the same priorities as far as rides, meals, Rope Drop, etc. It’s impossible to get a large group to all agree in that same way.
Going in July made things a little tougher with heat and crowds, but since we are slaves to the school calendar there wasn’t much we could do about that. I thought we actually handled the heat and crowds just fine. We saw everything we wanted to see—it’s really just the new FP+ system that prevented us from getting more “big” rides than anything else.
Disney World will always be changing, and sometimes this will mean some exciting new entertainment (Flight of Passage, Slinky Dog Dash) and sometimes some headaches (fewer FP’s for big rides, the tier system, ever-increasing prices). For my own family, I like going back once every few years. I think that helps keep the novelty and magic alive for us. And as always, we just like variety. There are more things to see in the world besides Disney parks.
That being said, I think the cost is the number one factor keeping us from going back more often. I feel like it’s become harder and harder for a large middle-class family like ours to go to Disney World for a week. So, we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing. I imagine our next visit will be when Drew is 8 or 9, just before he gets charged as an adult.
I’m glad they’re adding new rides and experiences to Epcot, because we all felt the park really needed it this time around. I just hope it somehow keeps the original idea at its core and doesn’t turn into a hodge-podge of Disney characters. Next time, I think we might plan more time at AK and DHS—probably a given with Star Wars on the way. Hopefully the crowds will have died down by the time we get back.
Ha! I almost said that with a straight face!
We’ll always love Timeless, Nostalgic Disney. We’ll always be excited about Cutting-Edge, Magic Disney. And we’ll always grit our teeth when confronted with Greedy Corporate Disney.
Some things will never change.
And some things will.
Thanks for following along and putting up with my terrible jokes! I appreciate each and every one of you for taking the time to read and comment. It would be no fun if I was here all by myself!
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Coming Up Next: I’ll fill you in on our next adventure. Maybe it’ll be a bonus feature in this TR, if you’re interested.