Araminta18
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2016
Saturday, August 17, 2019 (part 2):
Storybook Dining, Hollywood Studios, and Trader Sams
Storybook Dining, Hollywood Studios, and Trader Sams
So, in the vein of things I should have done, we probably should have slept more and not rushed over to our 4 pm ADR. But I/we wanted to make the most use of Trevor's limited park time, and I also really really wanted Trevor to meet Grumpy at Storybook Dining at Wilderness Lodge, so...there we were. We grabbed an Uber a little before 3:40 pm, and arrived at Wilderness Lodge at 3:59 pm. I'd been stalking Storybook Dining for ADRs for the entire time (the whole 2/3 weeks lol) that I'd been planning this trip and finally managed to get us a 4 pm ADR a few days before. Huzzah!
It was Trevor's first time at Wilderness Lodge, but we didn't have a lot of time to take in the lobby, as we quickly headed over to Artist Point and got checked in. We were seated immediately, and had a great spot, right near the center of the room.
(see, poor tired Trevor!)
We had a fantastic server though--super nice and very much on top of things. We told her that Trevor had an after-5 ticket and so our goal was to get out of there by about 5 so we could head over to Hollywood Studios and she did all the right things to make that happen for us, but in such a way that we never felt like she was rushing us. It was fantastic.
They'd changed up the menu since I'd eaten here in February with my mom. First off, the appetizers!
Mushroom Bisque (ok, but not amazing); Hunter's Terrine: chicken, clack truffle, stone fruit preserve, house-made pickles (different, but not bad); and Wicked Shrimp Cocktail (Trevor liked it; I don't eat shrimp).
Overall I liked the appetizers they had before, not so much this time around. They weren't bad, but more interesting/odd than delicious. Oh well.
For our main course, I got the "Stroll through Nature: Asparagus, Leeks, Arugula, Gnocchi, Sage, Parmesan". I'd gotten this dish in February when it was butternut squash, and it was AMAZING. This time wasn't as good, but still delicious.
Trevor got the Prime Rib. He liked it, but it was too much food. And while it was good, it wasn't like amazing or anything. Oh well.
Then dessert! This was basically the same as before.
Gooseberry pies, the apple mousse with a sour center, and the cake with mouse and cream in the little glass. All good.
And the final dessert is the "Hunter's Gift to the Queen", with the popcorn and the chocolate hearts. The dry ice makes this dessert, cause otherwise it's a bit odd--just a few bits of popcorn and a couple chocolate hearts.
But, as is always the case with character meals, you're not usually there for the food. And this was no different. We were here for the characters, specifically Grumpy! Grumpy is one of Trevor's favorite characters, so I wanted him to meet Grumpy. But all the characters were fun.
We also got a great video of Dopey and Grumpy's entrance.
And of course the interaction with Grumpy was the best. Grumpy loved Trevor's "harumph" button.
And was also a big fan of Trevor's beard:
Then they took a grumpy picture together.
I then asked them to take a smiling picture. Trevor started to smile, and Grumpy did not like that! He covered Trevor's smile with his hand. Cracked me up.
After we met Grumpy, Grumpy and Dopey ran into each other in the table right behind ours, and ended up having this hilarious "fight" where Dopey kept calling Grumpy old and imitating an old man. It was hilariously funny. The characters at this meal completely make it.
See, this is Dopey pretending to use a walker, and Grumpy with his hands on his hips, all indignant.
So, in February you used to just go up and meet the Queen whenever you wanted, but now they give you a laminated "invitation" to meet the Queen. Our waiter, on point again, brought us out the 'invitation" super early, so we got in line and were the very first group waiting to meet the Queen when she came out.
It was a good thing we'd gotten in line, 'cause about 30 seconds after we sat down in the line in her waiting area, this huge family came and got in line right after us, and we heard them discussing the various permutations of pictures and poses that they wanted. Phew!
We had a fun meet with the Queen--she's a really fun character to meet. She called Trevor my huntsman, and then we talked about the "little men" since Trevor had the Grumpy shirt on. I don't remember this interaction as well as I should....oops! And dang, I really should have fixed the tag on my ears--why are the tags on Disney ears SO huge?
Also, the Queen is making the most bizarre face in this picture. I think she's trying to be scary but it mostly looks deranged. Which I guess works, for the evil Queen? Anyways.
The time stamp on that last photo is 5:10. We did a quick pit stop and then the buses were being odd so we decided to grab an uber over to Hollywood Studios. Per my receipt, we arrived at 5:35 pm at Hollywood Studios. We first rode Star Tours, and then headed over to Toy Story Land where we rode Toy Story Midway Mania. I was ahead the whole ride and then right there at the end Trevor pulled ahead. BOOO. I mean, good job Trevor!
After Toy Story, we headed over to ride Slinky Dog Dash. Yay! We were having all sorts of fun trying to take selfies (my selfie skills are still as bad as ever) and a kind guest took pity on us and took our picture.
You know, I think the camera on Slinky is slightly better calibrated than it was before? The pictures are semi-decent some of the time, as opposed to horrible almost all the time. And i didn't get any pictures this time of Slinky's head all by itself.
At that point I started looking for more fastpasses, and Toy Story Mania was plentiful. My pride not having recovered from it's recent defeat, we tried that again. I won! But not by much.
From there, we went back to Star Tours, since it's one of Trevor's favorites and the only Star Wars ride he'd get this trip.
After Star Tours, it was a bit past 8 pm, and with the park closing at 9, I'd been trying to get us another Slinky fastpass on the app. But no luck. What I did have luck with (oddly enough) was Tower of Terror! So we meandered down to Tower of Terror, doing some shopping and taking some pictures along the way.
Trevor is really not a huge fan of heights or drops, but he tries Tower of Terror once every few years or so. Despite the look of absolute terror on his face and his closed eyes, he said he had fun. I had fun.
When we got off Tower of Terror, it was 8:57. The park closed at 9. Trevor and I really wanted to ride Slinky again, so we decided to try running from Tower of Terror all the way to Slinky to see if we could get in line before the park closed. We're nuts. But as soon as we got off the ride, we took off running. We discovered that we are out of shape! I told Trevor to leave me behind, 'cause if he could make it into the line, at least he could ride again. So we're running and running and then stopping and walking 'cause tired, and then running again...we made it back to Slinky at like 9:04 or so. But they were still letting people get in line! According to the CMs, they were staying open a little bit later that night--I think they closed the line at like 9:10 or a little bit after. We were one of the last people in line, and we ended up waiting 15/20 minutes. Which was good 'cause we needed that time to recover and catch our breath! We were so sweaty and gross...oh well! It was a great ride though, and a great memory.
As we were on the ride, the fireworks started going off! That was really neat. And we got some fun pictures of the fireworks from Toy Story land as we slowly walked out of the park.
You'd think that with us being tired (especially after that run) and the early early morning flight out Trevor had, that we'd head back to the hotel and go to bed. You'd be wrong. Where were we going? The Polynesian! We really really really wanted to try getting in to Trader Sams. But when we got there at 10:15 (we took an Uber...might not have been faster but at least we had a dedicated seat), they were full and the CM said we could put our name on the list but she wouldn't guarantee we'd get in, since they do last seating at 11:15 and she thought the wait would be longer than an hour. So we looked around the gift shop in the Polynesian and then decided to crash on one of the couches in the lobby to wait for the text.
The cups are complimentary water. Party animals, aren't we?
Well, 11:15 came and went and no text. But we decided to just pop back by Trader Sams and ask about any space, since it closed at midnight. When we asked, the CM let us in! We got a seat at the surfboard and were able to order a drink before last call. Unfortunately since we don't drink, our drinks didn't trigger any of the fun effects. We did get to see one of the effects though, from someone else's drink order. It was fun! Though I feel like we've just had a tiny taste of the Trader Sams experience and we now need to go and make sure we get in earlier to have the full experience. Here's hoping we can get in at Disneyland next year!
We sprung for the souvenir tiki cups for the non-alcoholic drinks, which were pretty fun. Our drinks were also good, though I liked Trevor's more than mine. I got the Skipper Sipper: Tropical Juices, Organic Agave Nectar, Falernum, Mint, and fresh Lime Juice topped with Soda Water. It tasted really heavily of mint and pineapple--I liked it, but Trevor gave me a sip of his, and I liked that better. He got the Schweitzer Falls: Tropical Juices and Sam’s Gorilla Grog topped with Sprite. We wanted to order food too, but we were too late. Oh well
Finally it was closing time and the birds sang at us to leave. A good end to the night, and next time we'll definitely come earlier! As we walked out of the Polynesian to catch our uber, Trevor got all excited about the torches and the fire.
My pyromaniac.
We took an Uber back to All Star Movies and were back in the room by about 12;25 am. Then it was time for Trevor pack up and such. Poor guy had to be on the Magical Express at about 3:00am, since his flight took off at 6:20 am. It was the cheapest flight by far, otherwise we would have gotten him a later flight, but for $150/$200, he can deal with being up a bit early. But first we had to pack him up. He was flying home Southwest, and I was flying home Delta, so we wanted to take advantage of the 2 free checked bags on Southwest. Trevor was taking all the candy home, and a bunch of our dirty clothes and such, and several of the souvenirs. But that took a bit of time, so we didn't actually go to sleep until about 1 am, and then woke up at 2:40. I kissed Trevor goodbye and then went back to sleep as he headed off on the Tragical Express and back to DC. Too early!
Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 21552 (9.3 miles)
Ride count: 7 (Star Tours x2, Toy Story Mania x2, Slinky Dog x2, and Tower of Terror)
Next up: my first entirely solo day! What will I do?
Last edited: