This place has really gone downhill since we checked in! - A September 2019 Trip Report. COMPLETED 12/31

Skipper's Canteen opened either right before or just after my last trip, so I haven't been there yet! I'd love to give it a try sometime as I've only heard great things. I'm glad you enjoyed your meal!
 
Skipper's Canteen opened either right before or just after my last trip, so I haven't been there yet! I'd love to give it a try sometime as I've only heard great things. I'm glad you enjoyed your meal!

We love it! My former favorite dish was the spiced beef mac and cheese, but sadly that's no longer on the menu.
 
Day 3, Part 3: “Does your mother dress you every morning?”

We made our way to Tomorrowland, and Buzz Lightyear. I had a Fastpass booked for this and assumed it was a one hour window, but it turns out they close the window early on party nights so the FP line had already closed. The standby line wasn’t long though, so we got in, and spent the time discussing the high point targets. I knew my dad would forget what they were pretty much the second we sat in our vehicle, so I told him to just listen to me and shoot where I shoot.

It was a little stressful to direct him and answer his questions while I was focused on my own score, but it paid off, because we both made Galactic Hero!

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Helped in some part by the fact that the ride stopped for a few minutes towards the end, of course. That’s always useful!

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We stopped at the gift shop to get our stickers. So proud!

We made our way to the bathrooms near Space Mountain. It wasn’t quite 7 pm yet, but close enough that we decided to go ahead and finish putting on our costumes.

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I was so excited to debut mine! I love Cranium Command and have been obsessed with the story of missing Buzzy ever since it broke. I think they caught the guy who took him? I’ve heard so many conflicting stories from people who “know” what happened. I just hope he’s found safe and sound.

My dad, who was dressed as Buzzy’s commander General Knowledge, just had to put on his fake moustache. He was a real trooper with that thing. He said it was really itchy and the adhesive wasn’t great, but he kept it on pretty much all night. The epaulets on his shoulder are the pieces that had been falling apart, and we found that wearing his backpack made it worse, so wearing it mostly fell to me. Sadly, that made it difficult to see the message on my back, so I found myself carrying it by the straps a lot.

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Then we needed bags to hold all the candy we intended to collect during the evening. We saw a bunch of cast members standing around holding empty bags, and asked if we could have one. They said no, we had to get in line. There was no one around but okay, we got into the arbitrary switchbacks. Then when we got there they said the bags, which were the same as the other bags, were for DVC members only.

Oh, but we’re DVC members! Except we didn’t have our cards with us. I had a virtual card on my phone, but it was expired. The lady did not seem to believe us, and I was too soured by the experience to take time out to log in on my phone and get a new card, so we cut our losses and walked ten feet to the Monsters Inc entrance to get the EXACT SAME BAGS that they were handing out to the plebs.
I guess that’s a perk our dues pay for? Whatever, haha.

I was eager to see Monsters Inc since I heard they were doing special Halloween shows. We got some candy in the waiting area and the doors to the theater were open so we just walked right on through. To our surprise, instead of doing set shows throughout the night like they do during the day, they instead were just doing rolling acts so people could come and go as they pleased. So Mac and Jeeves would do an extended set, Marty Wazowski would do an extended set, etc.

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We sat down and tried to do some more work on Dad’s epaulets so we didn’t have to worry about it throughout the night. We ended up cannibalizing some safety pins from the back of my jacket to keep it on.

After that was done and we’d had our fill of watching the Monsters, we exited the attraction past yet another candy stop. And then I noticed there was a treat stop at the Carousel of Progress. The line was really long, so we figured it must be really good candy.

Alas, it was squeezable applesauce. As we walked away, my dad said in dismay, “That’s not candy! They should tell you if it’s not really candy!”

But I assured him there would be way more candy than he could handle before the night was through. He asked me how we would find these stops, and I showed him the big sign found at every one. He seemed satisfied.

Just to remind y’all, this man is a dentist.

I believe from here we made our way to Frontierland by passing through the hub and Liberty Square. In the hub, we got some sweet free Photopass.

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I know we stopped at several more treat stops along the way. At one, I believe in the Diamond Horseshoe, my dad was so eager to get to the barrel of candy that he cut in front of a mom pushing her kid in a stroller, who I then had to apologize to.

Again, he is a grown, sane man. Who is a dentist.

The thing is, he didn’t intend to eat any candy except for the peanut M&M’s. In fact, whenever he received candy that WASN’T peanut M&M’s, he started vocally debating with himself the ethics of asking the cast members if they would make sure to only give him peanut M&M’s. Ultimately decided that was too much of a hassle, but he was still disappointed any time he got any other type of candy. Which was a lot. As those barrels held pretty wide varieties.

Besides candy, we were also delighting in getting recognized. Backtracking to Liberty Square, a castmember enthusiastically yelled at me, “Does your mother dress you in the mornings???”
Which I completely forgot was a line from the Cranium Command pre-show. D’oh! I was so ashamed. I’ve rewatched the main show so many times, but not so much the pre-show. If I’d had it down as well, I would have yelled back, “Why yes, sir, she does!”

Anyway, we had a good chat about the attraction and how much we loved it. I asked about Buzzy, but since he was on duty I don’t think he could comment much. He just said something like, “I’m sure he’s enjoying a nice vacation somewhere.”

Yeah, that’s what parents say about pets when they die ☹

Another castmember in training recognized us in Frontierland. She really wanted to chat more but was busy. She asked me to come by the next day when she was on duty at Soarin. I told her I’d try but unfortunately we never made it there. So if you’re reading this nice lady, I’m sorry! I did want to get back there!

After we’d hit all the Liberty Square and Frontierland stops, I decided it was finally time to try Pirates of the Caribbean. I’d been looking forward to this ride more than any other that could be ridden during the party. It was the only thing that I was bummed to miss last year since I didn’t attend the party. The posted wait time was 30 minutes but we waited maybe 15 at most. I had no idea what to expect and I’d heard mixed reviews about the experiences with the live actors, but I was glad Disney was trying something new.

There were a couple of live actors in the queue, including one in the dungeon area that we saw but didn’t hear since we didn’t make it to that part of the line before he left. But another pirate was standing at the switchback just before you go down the final ramp to load onto the ride, and we had a great interaction! He gave me instructions for finding treasure and then coming back to share it with him. Of course I promised that I would 😉

We saw three actors on the ride itself. One was a woman in the fort scene, yelling from the tower in front of the boat right after you go down the flume. The next two were a man and woman in the scene right after the auction. They were all pretty funny from what I could tell, but the speed of the boat made it harder to get good interactions the way I’d been able to do in the queue.

After we went up the speed ramp into the post-ride gift shop, we were given chocolate coins.

Overall, I thought the additions were cute! They didn’t blow me away, but they upgraded an otherwise rote experience.

We next stopped for more candy, according to my notes. Not 100% sure where, but I know one of them was in the Jungle Cruise queue.

After that, we made our way back to Liberty Square. Now that it was proper dark, I wanted to check out the Haunted Mansion. We had debated whether to try to get seats for the first parade, or wait for the last parade. We were tired and weren’t 100% sure we could both make it to the end of the night. But it was still earlier for the first parade to get spots than my dad was comfortable with. He didn’t love the idea of sitting around for 30-40 minutes, especially not when there was candy to collect and other fun stuff we could be doing. I warned him that if we stood in the HM line, which was quite long, we might miss the first parade, and made sure he was okay with that before we got in.

We enjoyed watching the live actors in the queue. I like seeing the opera singer, but there was a butler character that I didn’t recognize from past years. So that was neat! Enjoy my blurry photos. We were being moved along pretty quickly.

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All-in-all it took us about 40 minutes from when we got into the queue to when we finally got off the ride. There was a bottleneck right before the building entrance. This was definitely a must-do for us, so I’m glad we got it done, but it pretty much guaranteed that we missed the first parade. We miiiiight have been able to snag a last-minute spot, but it would have been obstructed and to me, the party parade is worth getting a front-row seat for. I was also pretty sure we’d missed the Headless Horseman, and I could not fathom missing that.

So I proposed instead, we do the treat stops in Fantasyland, since we hadn’t been there yet and it would be away from the parade route. After we’d done those, the first parade would be done, and we could get to the castle to see the Hocus Pocus show and the fireworks.

We stopped at a couple more treat stops and discovered our absolute favorite hidden gem of the party. Mickey’s Philharmagic, aside from having a few different treat stops in the pre and post-show areas, was playing classic Disney cartoons on the screen on a rotation. Spooky ones, of course (Which to me, could basically boil down to all of them; I find old cartoons so creepy).

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The theater was super quiet and only a few people were scattered about watching. Most folks were walking behind the back row to get to the next candy stop outside. Honestly, if we hadn’t had to get to the castle for the fireworks, we probably could have hung out here for hours, and we were sad that we didn’t discover this until the end of the night. It was so perfect for our chill style of touring, and I can see myself coming back here for future parties if my little one needs a quiet place to relax for awhile. Or heck, if anyone in our party does.

We stayed for maybe 10 or 15 minutes before we moved on. We got some more candy and then, finally, it was time to camp out in front of the castle.

It was fairly crowded when we got there, which didn’t surprise me. We found a good spot that seemed like it would allow us to see the castle well for both shows and transition easily when it was time to set up for the parade. My feet and legs were aching so I decided to pop a squat for awhile, though I was dreading the act of standing up, which even then was starting to become difficult with my extra midsection weight. Dad did remarkably well. I think he just kinda stood there, taking the crowds in stride. Probably checked his phone and chatted with me a bit while we waited. We weren’t terribly early, so we only had to stand there for about 15-20 minutes before the fireworks started.

I LOVED Hallowishes, so I was sad to see it go, but after seeing it at the most recent party I attended in 2017, I realized how outdated the effects were compared to Happily Ever After. I knew we couldn’t expect Disney to keep the same audio and fireworks and just improve the castle projections, so I wasn’t surprised when they announced a new fireworks show. I also love Happily Ever After, actually more than Wishes, so I had high hopes, especially after hearing about the Jack Skellington puppet.

Honestly, though, my reaction was meh. The puppet was cool, from what I could see of it. I’m short so even with our decent spot there were a lot of heads obstructing my view. But over a month later, and I really couldn’t tell you much about it. I remember the first time I saw Hallowishes it completely blew me away, and I cannot remember a single thing about this show other than I thought it was weird they basically had two storylines going: Jack telling stories, and the Fab Five going trick or treating. It was like they were trying to appeal to too many demographics and have a fireworks show that was super plot-driven, which is silly, because it’s fireworks. Play me some villain songs, and sync them to fireworks. That’s literally all you have to do to impress me.

I’m not upset we took the time to see it; it’s a new show, and you’re paying for the ticket, so that’s just what you have to do. If we go back next year, though, with a 9-10 month old, I’m not going to feel like we need to take the time out to see it. We’ll either do other things during the show or go back to the room early.

Same with the Hocus Pocus show right after the fireworks, honestly. I saw it in 2017 and it’s the same show now. My dad has never seen Hocus Pocus (or if he has, he doesn’t remember) so I think he just played with his phone while it was going on. My view was even worse here because all the action takes place on the stage. If it hadn’t been right between the fireworks and the parade, I would have been cool with skipping it. In fact, maybe the smart thing to do would have been to leave the castle and get a parade viewing spot closer to the front of the park, so it wouldn’t be so difficult to leave later. Oh well.

I like Hocus Pocus, don’t get me wrong. But I wouldn’t say it’s something I ride or die for. I think the stage show is good, but it’s the same as the one I saw a couple years ago, so it wasn’t a big deal to me. Like I said, if it hadn’t been right between the fireworks and the parade, I could have done without it.

But soon enough it was over, and a lot of people cleared out. And thanks to where we’d been standing, all we had to do was turn around to face the road, and we had a perfect viewing spot for the parade! But of course, the headless horseman came through first. I was so happy we got to see him! When I last came in 2017, it had been raining for much of the evening, so the ground was too wet for him to ride.
Even though there are very few changes to this parade from year to year, I honestly never get tired of seeing it. There were a few additions this year. A gliding ghost bride with the Haunted Mansion section, and new Toy Story and Incredibles sections. I thought the bride was great, everything else was meh to me.

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One really cool thing I noticed: If you’re a Haunted Mansion fan you may have noticed that in the ballroom scene, the women are leading the dance. That’s because when the animatronics were programmed for the Pepper’s Ghost effect, the imagineers failed to take into account that everything projected would be a mirror image. So the physical animatronics have the men leading, but when riders see the reflection, the women lead. As the dancers in the parade approached, I wondered who was leading. And guess what! The women do! I thought that was the coolest detail.

Once the parade was over, we decided it was time to head out. The party was ending and we considered it a great success. Sadly, the process of leaving was not successful, due to my own poor planning.
As you may know, the parade route goes from Frontierland to Main Street. Which means since we were watching it in the hub, we were heading towards the exit at the same time that the parade was also heading that way. So we made it to the park-like area in front of the train station and were not allowed to go any further for awhile because of the floats. Which I understood, but then it just seemed like people weren’t moving even though they were able to. After an eternity of standing there, or maybe just five minutes, I noticed we could better escape by hanging to the left near Tony’s and exiting under the archway.

From there we left the park and went to the bus station. We were the first ones in line for a Boardwalk bus, which I knew meant we had just missed another bus back. I wish that the bus stations at the parks gave you approximate wait times like the ones at the resorts. I think we waited about 15 minutes before a bus finally came.

We got back to the resort pretty late, and as we settled into bed, I took some time to call DH. I’d been texting him over the past few days but was missing his voice. We talked for a few minutes, and I mentioned that Sunday was probably the best day for him to come visit. After that, we collapsed and fell asleep, knowing that we had pretty early morning plans the next day. I also texted him some pics of the newest size equivalent of our baby, since it was after midnight transitioning into a new gestational week.

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Overall, I’m really glad we did the Halloween party. I’d been looking forward to it ever since our trip last year, when my dad said he wanted to try it. I had honestly been preparing myself for him to think it was dumb, but he enjoyed himself, even though he agreed it was definitely meant for younger kids. Still not sure if we’ll return in 2020. Depends on baby’s temperament and other factors. I think the party can be fun with just adults, though. You just have to come in prepared with the different activity options, and decide what sounds like the most fun to you.
 
Thanks for the report on the party! Sounds like it was a fun time overall. I've done the Christmas party 2 or 3 times but never the Halloween party. I'd love to see the parade! And score some candy :cool1: I've read some TR's that say the party nights have been SO crowded. Doesn't seem like it was an issue for you and your Dad.
 


Thanks for the report on the party! Sounds like it was a fun time overall. I've done the Christmas party 2 or 3 times but never the Halloween party. I'd love to see the parade! And score some candy :cool1: I've read some TR's that say the party nights have been SO crowded. Doesn't seem like it was an issue for you and your Dad.

Glad you enjoyed! Yeah, it really didn't feel more crowded than a normal day. I think a lot of it is luck of the draw and where you hang out.
 
I am enjoying your trip report and only on Day 2 Part 2. We love staying at BWV and have had standard view (overlooking the quiet pool), garden/pool view (overlooking the lawn area above Wayland Galleries which gave us a huge balcony looking out towards our left at the lake) and twice Boardwalk views above the mercantile shop and way down by Jellyrolls). I did have to chuckle when you said you enjoyed the It's a Small Mexico attraction lol. That's what my youngest son called it for the longest time!

Now to continue to the rest of the trip!
 
Skipper Canteens is one of my fav restaurants in MK. The Tastes Like Chicken Because it is is sooooo good. I order it every time!!!
Love the bump! Super cute pics!
 


I am enjoying your trip report and only on Day 2 Part 2. We love staying at BWV and have had standard view (overlooking the quiet pool), garden/pool view (overlooking the lawn area above Wayland Galleries which gave us a huge balcony looking out towards our left at the lake) and twice Boardwalk views above the mercantile shop and way down by Jellyrolls). I did have to chuckle when you said you enjoyed the It's a Small Mexico attraction lol. That's what my youngest son called it for the longest time!

Now to continue to the rest of the trip!

Sounds like great views! I was hoping we'd be facing the Boardwalk this trip, maybe about where you were staying above the gallery. But we enjoyed our view either way.

Skipper Canteens is one of my fav restaurants in MK. The Tastes Like Chicken Because it is is sooooo good. I order it every time!!!
Love the bump! Super cute pics!

It's delicious! I really wish they still had the mac and cheese though.
 
Quick non-trip update! Our baby shower was Saturday and it was SO lovely. It was hosted by two close friends, with help from one of their husbands and my BIL's girlfriend, who did most of the cooking. My husband and I are big Trekkies, so the shower was actually Star Trek themed. My friends are new to Trek but they really went all out for us. We are so lucky to have them! I wanted to share some pictures that my husband's sister took. She's a professional photographer and I did NOT expect her to take a lot of pictures since she was a guest, but she did anyway. Imgur uploaded them weird, so they're not in any particular order.

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Opening presents!

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In doing research for the party, my friends discovered that there was actually a Rachelis Sector mentioned in an episode of The Next Generation. I don't know if it's real in real life, or just in the Trek universe. Note also the picture on the left side. They had printed out photos from all the series, framed them, and placed them around the house, along with the occasional Tribble. :rotfl:

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Told you I've gotten way bigger since the trip!

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They made cupcakes with the classic Trek colors, and handmade white chocolate Starfleet insignias!

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The Trek colors were everywhere! They also got transporter coasters, which you can kind of see on the table in the middle. On the right are some clipboards with a trivia contest. Guess who won? (ME!)

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My BIL attempted to "help" by making Star Trek-themed labels for the food.

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Our two main hosts got uniform dresses for the occasion. My husband arrived in a nice button-down shirt but as soon as he saw their outfits, he rushed back home to change :rotfl2:

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My mom and sister flew down for the weekend to attend. :goodvibes We also went to the Magic Kingdom on Sunday!

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My husband loves mid-century modern architecture and decor (I do too, but it's a particular passion of his) and one of our favorite off-registry gifts was this book, "Baby's First Eames." We have the chair on the right-hand side of the pages he's opened to (a replica; the real thing costs thousands of $$$!)

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One of my friends gave an incredible toast that still makes me tear up when I think about it! :blush:


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A tradition in my husband's family is swording open a bottle of champagne at special occasions. Unfortunately, this was not the bottle we normally use (I swear I've done it before!) so DH had to step in and do it instead.

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Here my husband attempts to throw his niece into the garbage can, which is another family tradition. He did it to her dad when they were younger. :laughing:

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Those shoes made me look so tall! Or at least normal sized.

Thanks for letting me take this quick detour! I'll be back soon with Day 4 of our trip.
 
Day 4 (September 21st), Part 1: Breakfast in Paris

I kind of knew this morning would be terrible. I’d known for months.

And yet, somehow, it was still a shock to me when my alarm went up at about 8 am and I was NOT THOROUGHLY RESTED.

We had our only morning event of the trip. There was really no way around it. Friday was the only night that we could go to MNSSHP and the event we wanted to do was only on this Saturday morning. So up we were at what felt like the crack of dawn. Luckily, we wouldn’t have far to go, but by now you probably know how slow we are to get up and get ready. We are basically descendants of sloths.

I have in my notes that my dad ate yogurt. This was significant because I told him that this was a breakfast event, and given what we paid for it, they would likely feed us very well, and if not he could always come back and get more food from the room after. He did not believe me. He would, as usual, regret that.

I snagged this picture of our Halloween candy haul before we left the room, just to give you an idea of how we did. The bags were really heavy.

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We finally made our way out of the room sometime after 9, and I believe right after we passed through the International Gateway, we discovered something very sad. My gift card that I’d been wearing around my wrist had fallen off. The bracelet was there, but the gift card was gone. And this had been a freshly reloaded one.

I wasn’t too too shocked. It was a couple of years old. Still, that wasn’t a small amount of money we would be losing if we couldn’t find it. At this point we were almost late to our destination and I didn’t see the point of searching around for it, especially after Dad confirmed that he had the receipt from when we reloaded the card a couple of days back. It had the card number on it, so surely we would be able to go to a store or Guest Relations and get it sorted after. Plus, there was a chance it was still in the room.

We decided to focus on the positives and checked in to our event at Chefs de France: The Parisian breakfast!

After I found out I was pregnant, I knew that would limit our options as far as dining events we could do. Many of them involve wine or liquor tasting, and while I could just opt out, we wouldn’t pay any less for me to not be drinking. So we decided to go with an event where alcohol was not the main focus. It’s probably not one we would normally pick, but I’m still glad we got to try it.

Of course, as we were waiting in line to check in, we were offered free mimosas.

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I took a few sips, I will admit. But after that I handed the remainder off to my dad and just stuck to regular orange juice.

Soon enough we were brought to our table. The restaurant was pretty packed. I’ve eaten here before and liked it, but only for lunch or dinner.

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We were brought drinks and told to help ourselves from the buffet. There were a wide variety of sweet and savory options. I tried to get a little bit of everything. Throughout the meal, we were offered more mimosas and any other non-alcoholic drinks we wanted. I know my dad got a coffee drink at some point. Maybe a cappuccino?

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I wasn’t sure what to expect from this event and admittedly hadn’t done a ton of research on it. We’d done the tequila tasting lunch last year and that was basically a guided meal, with a woman who explained every course and every tequila to us, along with the proper way to drink each kind. So I guess I’d been expecting something similar out of this experience, where someone would explain to us the different options, what they were called, their origins, etc. But it was really just a regular ol’ breakfast buffet. Which was fine, but I really missed having that aspect. I wish there was a meal like that which didn’t center around alcohol so preggos and other people who don’t drink could partake, but I either couldn’t find one or was unable to find one that was happening during our stay. But part of what I love about F&W events is the education, and while we were certainly well fed, I didn’t feel like I really learned anything. Oh well!

Dad liked the food, although of course, he kind of regretted eating the yogurt. I tried to tell him we’d be well-fed, but he didn’t listen! When will he learn?

After a few full plates each and very full bellies, we headed back to the Boardwalk, where we found…our gift card! It was on the table, thankfully. I attached it to the bracelet with a safety pin, as it looked like the metal loop that held it on before had fallen off and was no longer secure. We agreed that once we used up this card, we would toss it and finally invest in a new one.

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After that, we napped. I’m not always a day napper, but dang if I didn’t need one today. We’d gone so hard the night before, and then of course had our early morning. The abundant amounts of food we’d stuffed ourselves with didn’t help either. I can’t remember how long I slept but it was for a couple of hours I believe. My dad claims he didn’t nap and is not able to but I’m suspicious of that. There were a couple of times I opened my eyes and he looked pretty asleep to me.

Either way, the nap helped a ton, and when I woke up I was ready to re-tackle the day. And that meant going back to Epcot!
 
It looks like you had a great time at MNNSHP! I loved the factoid about the ballroom scene in Haunted Mansion - I'll have to look for that next time!

Your shower looked like great fun! I must admit I know nothing about Star Trek, but I'm thrilled that the two of you seemed to enjoy everything so much. Your hosts went all out!

Your brunch looked very tasty but it's a bummer that you didn't have any education included. I'm also so glad you found your gift card!
 
It looks like you had a great time at MNNSHP! I loved the factoid about the ballroom scene in Haunted Mansion - I'll have to look for that next time!

Your shower looked like great fun! I must admit I know nothing about Star Trek, but I'm thrilled that the two of you seemed to enjoy everything so much. Your hosts went all out!

Your brunch looked very tasty but it's a bummer that you didn't have any education included. I'm also so glad you found your gift card!

The shower was excellent! I would have been happy with anything but they really made sure it was special. I have to admit I'm craving that French food right now :rolleyes:
 
Day 4, Part 2: The Tank Bully

We went to Canada, and while Dad waited in line at the kiosk for a beer and more popcorn, I went into the former O Canada! Theater to get the frozen apple pie.

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It was a long line and most people were obviously getting the alcoholic options, but I’m glad I tried it. I wouldn’t say I’d rush to go back, but I know it’s been around for a few years and people always rave about it, so I’m glad I checked it off the list. It was tasty, but didn’t blow me away.

With the popcorn on hand and our bellies still pretty full from breakfast, we didn’t feel the need to stop at any more booths for awhile. So we decided to spend some time at The Seas.

Not to get off track, but I have a funny story related to The Seas. Recently I was having dinner with some friends (the same ones who hosted my baby shower). Both girls have lived in the Orlando area their entire lives and have been to Disney a fair amount. We were discussing dolphins and how smart they are and I mentioned seeing them play memory games at Epcot. And they were both stunned. “Where in Epcot?” they asked. I told them about The Seas. “Is it new?” No, it’s been there since the 80’s. “Are you sure? Where is it? I’ve never heard of this!” They thought I must be wrong or mistaken about when it opened, but then of course they remembered who they were talking to. I guess they’ve literally never turned right after going towards Soarin!

This is an area I never really get tired of. Always something new and cool to see. We spent a good amount of time in the tropical fish area, where we became obsessed with this little clam that was being harassed by a mean fish. He would circle the tank, poke the clam, then circle, poke, repeat. At one point a seahorse came into protect the clam!



My dog Nova loves to poke at lizards and other small creatures and generally harass them, so I took to calling the fish the Nova of the tank. Or, if you prefer, just the bully. They’re both bullies.

We went to the ocean viewing area as well. My dad became concerned when he saw a shark circling around with the other fish, and asked a castmember why there were sharks in there. She explained that as long as the sharks are fed, they leave the fish alone.

My husband’s sister loves turtles, so I had to snag this picture when I saw a sea turtle floating around.

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After a decent amount of time in The Seas, we decided it was time to hit up some more booths. We entered World Showcase via Mexico, and I waited in line at the China booth for this bad boy.

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Boba! I love boba. None of the food options really appealed to me, but I wanted to get me some boba tea. I love the black milk teas with the tapioca bobas, so this was a no-brainer for me. Since I can’t drink alcohol, I get my fun drink fix elsewhere.

We then stopped at the Outpost stand and got the Nigerian meat pie. My dad was questioning whether it was beef or pork and wasn’t convinced the castmembers were right about it being beef, until he noticed the word “Beef” literally stamped on it. You can kind of see it in the picture.

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This was really good. I love pretty much anything that involves meat inside pastries, and this was my favorite meat-pastry combo of the festival.

Next up was Japan. I had two things I wanted to try here: the frothy ramen and the teriyaki chicken bao.

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Both were great, but the ramen took the top spot for me. What an unexpected dish. It was the perfect little snack. The bun was okay. Definitely not my favorite meat-pastry combo.

I also have in my notes that my dad picked up a black beer from the Brazil booth, but it seems I didn’t get a picture. But I know this was a significant get because he’d been talking about wanting to try it ever since day one of our trip. I don’t think it exceeded his expectations, unfortunately. I think he found it to be a bit much. The man who loves dark beer may have finally met his match!

By now it was about 3:30 and we had evening plans at Hollywood Studios, but we wanted to sneak in some pool time first. So we left via International Gateway.

Up next, our night in Hollywood!
 
Everyone ready for Thanksgiving? I don't think I shared it here, but I was recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes. While a bummer, I'm looking forward to indulging once baby comes. I asked my husband if when his family come to see us and the baby, they can swing by the Polynesian on their way from Tampa and pick me up some Tonga Toast :rolleyes:

Day 4, Part 3: The Raymond Luxury Yacht Club and a new game: "Is This the Millenium Falcon?"

We spent some time in the quiet pool first after getting back to the Boardwalk. I don’t have any pictures or notes of significance, so I think it was just a nice, quiet break. I probably floated on some noodles while dad swam some laps.

After that, we went back to the room to freshen up, and then headed back out. Probably stopped at the gym to grab scented washcloths, as usual.

We debated whether to walk or take a boat to Hollywood Studios. Can’t remember our exact reasoning, but we ended up taking the boat. Probably because we saw one docked.

While we waited to board, a man in front of us said he recognized us from our costumes the night before. He called my dad, “General,” but oddly enough when we started talking about Cranium Command, he actually had no idea what we were talking about. I guess he just thought we were dressed as random military characters, lol.

I was a little worried that we would not make our first Fastpass window but not too much. It wasn’t super crucial. So I tried to just enjoy the boat ride. But honestly, being on it reminded me why I prefer walking to the Friendship boats. It always feels so crowded and echoey in there, like we’re actually about to dock at Ellis Island in the early 20th century. I think if we were ever to stay at an Epcot resort again, now that the Skyliner’s open, if for some reason we didn’t want to walk to Hollywood Studios I would just have us take the Skyliner from Epcot. Or drive.

First of course, the boat stopped at the Yacht and Beach Club, which my dad took to calling, the “YATCH Club” (rhymes with thatch). That got us remembering a funny Monty Python skit, Raymond Luxury Yacht.

I couldn't find a clip that included video of the sketch, so here's one that at least has the audio.


Therefore, from then on, the Yacht Club became the Raymond Luxury Yatch Club. Or if we were feeling really slap-happy, the Throatwobbler Mangrove Club.

I don’t know about you, but I hope to stay at the Throatwobbler Mangrove Club one day!

Soon enough we were at Hollywood Studios. Our Fastpass window, for the Indiana Jones show, had indeed ended a few minutes before we stepped through the gates, and as it was for a show I knew they wouldn’t let us in late, but I wasn’t worried. We decided to make our way there anyway.

This show is pretty much the same every time, so it wasn’t critical that we see it, but it’s still a fun show, and there are always rumors it’s about to be retired, so I thought it was worth us seeing. I certainly knew none of the other HS shows would interest my dad, anyway.

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I tried (and failed, obviously) to get a picture of the idol, since as of 12:01 am my baby was apparently the same size as it. So I thought it was funny we were there that particular day and week. The show was fun, like I said, same as always, but we enjoyed it.

After we had some time until our next Fastpass, so I suggested we finally check out the one (of two), the only (of two)…

Galaxy’s Edge!

I am not a huge Star Wars person (as you saw a few posts ago, I am clearly a Trekkie), so I haven’t been keeping up super religiously with updates about GE. I kept seeing messages in the app that I should check to see if there were wait times just to get into the land, so I was nervous that we wouldn’t even be able to get in and walk around.

You probably know where this is going.

We walked right in. Didn’t even need to Jedi mind trick anyone.

Yeah, the land was pretty much as empty as everyone said. We had no problem walking around, didn’t have to fight any crowds or anything.

Of course it helped that we weren’t eating at any of the restaurants or going on Smuggler’s Run, which had only a 60 minute wait. I offered to wait in line with my dad if he wanted to ride it, mainly as an excuse for me to get to see the queue (since it does look cool), but he declined, as he’s not a fan of simulators and would really only be interested if I also could go on it with him.

So, no Millenium Falcon for us this time! Maybe next time.

And of course, he was very excited once we did find the Millenium Falcon.

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Or what he thought was the Millenium Falcon. He literally yelled, “Is that the Millenium Falcon???” Mind you, he’s seen Star Wars. I remember when I was a kid, he wanted me to watch Spaceballs with him, but wouldn’t let me until I’d seen the original trilogy, because then the jokes would be funnier. So he’s definitely seen it. I know he’s not a huge nerd for it, but I still had to laugh. The Falcon design is so iconic! Oh well. Guess he’s just getting old.

If he was impressed by that, imagine how he’d feel seeing the real thing!

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“Dad, look, it’s the Enterprise!”

He was more like, “Cool, cool.” No winning with this guy!

We also browsed around the shops. I tried to take a video of this little cat-type creature in a cage. It didn’t turn out great, because I didn’t want to obstruct anyone else’s view so I rushed it, but here it is anyway.


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“Dad, look! Isn’t that from Battlestar Galactica?”

We weren’t interested in food since we had an ADR coming up, and of course alcohol was out for me, but I did decided to take a pit stop at one food establishment, the milk stand.

I was a little nervous and not sure what to expect. I’d heard not just mixed reviews on the options here, but also mixed descriptions. But I thought, hey, when in Batuu, and decided to just get one cup of blue milk for us to split. If we hated it, we never had to get it again.

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Verdict? We liked it! I wouldn’t say it’s a must get, but it was pretty refreshing, like a light tropical fruit smoothie. Next time I’ll have to get it with the rum!

We sipped it while we walked from Batuu to Toy Story Land, as we were finally coming up on our next Fastpass. But I knew we would probably not be able to take the milk through the line, so we stood quietly near the bathrooms and people watched while we finished up the drink. We also looked up Toy Story Mania tips, to help us maximize our points when we did ride.

After a quick bathroom break, it was time to get in line! Toy Story Mania is actually the only ride at Hollywood Studios that’s really safe for pregnant women. I’ve heard that Alien Swirling Saucers is kind of okay, but a couple sites said they wouldn’t recommend it, so I deem TSM the only true pregnancy-safe ride currently operating at Hollywood Studios.

Which meant we intended to enjoy the heck out of it.

A few tips we picked up from our quick research: In the barnyard scene, focus on the henhouse in the lower corner and try to get as many chickens as possible, then attack the fox. In the alien ring toss game, try to get all of the aliens out of the spaceship at the same time. This will trigger a robot that opens its mouth, and you can get a lot of points by tossing rings in there.

There were a few more, but I can’t remember them all. So, how did we do with this new knowledge?

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Not super great! I don’t even think we got best in car. But we licked our wounds and left.

At first I thought maybe we could check in early for dinner, but then I noticed that One Man’s Dream was still open. My dad had never been here and we spend so little time at Hollywood Studios and usually only in the evening, so by the time we pass it it’s often closed. So I decided it was a good use of our time to take a quick detour here.

I’ve been in here a bunch but I love seeing the exhibits, especially the Disney parks models. Had to get a couple of pictures of those.

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My dad found it interesting but I don’t think it blew him away or anything. By the time we were done it was time to go check in for dinner!

I’ll take a break here, but up next we have dinner, and some further attempts to establish our legacies.
 
Day 4, Part 4: Mildly Impressive Accomplishments

We made our way to the other side of the park to check in for the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater. This is another favorite and oft-requested restaurant of my dad’s. He loves the atmosphere, even though he knows the food is far from perfect.

Of all the reservations on this trip, this was actually the hardest to get. I was surprised. We actually had to move our Hollywood Studios day that I had originally chosen (based on crowd levels) just so we could eat here.

Right after we checked in, Dad snuck over to Baseline to pick up some beer. I’m pretty sure they called us to our table…er, car, before he got back, but he returned a moment later and we were led to our car. We were in the backseat of a car on the right side of the dining area, a couple rows from the back.

Our waitress was super nice. I wish I remembered her name! She loved my dad’s magic band, which was decorated with a firefighter-themed decal. And he of course loved the attention for being a firefighter!

I’m never sure what to get here, but the specialty burger sounded really good, so I went with that. Pretty sure it had bacon, BBQ sauce, and pimento cheese, among other things. And of course fries.

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It was dark and I didn’t get a picture of my dad’s meal, but I want to say he got some kind of salad with chicken. Maybe the buffalo chicken salad?

Anyway, the food was good and the show was entertaining as always. I particularly love the clips of newsreels about what the “future” was going to be like in the 50’s. Some of it kind of came true, like video phones, but not quite in the way they envisioned it. And others are downright creepy and I’m glad they never happened. Like the one about babies being taken care of via robot arms. 😬

The bill came, and Dad put his credit card down, which has “Dr.” before his name. Well, now the waitress was REALLY impressed. She wanted to know what he was a doctor of, so he told her he was a dentist, grinning like an idiot. A firefighter AND a dentist??? I have never seen anyone so impressed by him.

Then she turned to me and asked, “And what do you do??” Because surely the daughter of a dentist-firefighter must have wild ambitions of her own.

I sank in my seat a bit and mumbled, “I work in marketing.”

I swear, I’m not ashamed of what I do! I like my job. I don’t envy the long hours my dad works or the stress it puts on him, though of course I’m very proud of him. But in the face of his accomplishments, which are definitely easy to quantify, it’s hard to sound impressive when I say, “I work in marketing.”

Thankfully, she had the good sense to not seem too disappointed. As did my father.

We finished settling the bill and my dad finished basking in the admiration of a complete stranger. We debated a few options. Go back to the hotel, wait for one of the nighttime shows, or go back to Toy Story Land and see if we couldn’t get some more high scores on Toy Story Mania.

The wait was posted at 10 minutes, so we went with Toy Story Mania.

On the walk over, we tried to familiarize ourselves with the tips again. The line really was a walk-on, or rather, the wait was however long it took you to walk through the queue.

So how’d we do?

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Still not so great! My dad is very forgetful, especially under pressure. So while the ride was actually happening, he promptly forgot all the tips we’d just read. Which meant he was yelling at me asking what to do. Which meant instead of concentrating on my own turret, I had to also yell the tips back at him. I wondered if it would be better to just be selfish. The problem was, the alien level especially was much harder if you don’t work as a team to get all the aliens out of the spaceship.

So mostly I just got mad at him.

Still, we weren’t deterred. It was barely 9:30, and the park didn’t close until 10. No one else was riding this ride. Well, hardly anyone else. So we went through again.

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Ugh, can’t crack the beaver prize! Maybe these tips were bogus. Maybe we just weren’t very good. Maybe I needed a new riding partner. That’s one of the reasons I’m having a kid, honestly.

When the car pulled back into the loading area, we noticed there was pretty much no one waiting for a car and not for our row, so we asked if we could just ride again. The cast members obliged. I tried to coach my dad ahead of time. You would think a firefighter dentist would be more on the ball about remembering things like, “Pull string, shoot targets,” but I guess his mental capacity is all tied up in putting out fires and fixing teeth.

But this time my selfishness must have paid off, because I got a small victory!

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Yes, that’s MY score winning best in vehicle! And yes, there were other people in the vehicle, thank you very much.

And dad’s score went down. I’m not saying I’m glad it did, but it serves him right for relying on me.

By now it was just about 10 pm, and we had time for one more ride before they kicked us out. So we vowed to put our all into it. And how did we do?

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We finally broke our ceiling! No more beavers for us. Cats all the way!

That kind of sounds like an innuendo, but as you can see, it’s not.

Satisfied that our hard work had somewhat paid off, we left the park and headed home. I do believe we walked this time instead of taking the boat, which would have had a substantial line, but I can’t 100% remember and didn’t put it in my notes.

I do know that once we got back, I discovered my first instance of gestational swelling. I can’t imagine what could have caused it. Okay, I can. The massive amount of salt I surely had with my dinner. I’ve gotten some swelling since then, but so far it hasn’t been as bad as that evening. I had to use soap and water to get my wedding ring off! I know swelling during pregnancy is common but can also be a sign of other conditions, so don’t worry, my doctor is aware.

Once I got the ring off, we pretty much collapsed right into bed, ready for the day ahead.
 
Day 5 (September 22nd), Part 1: Chillaxin

Happy Thanksgiving eve! I hope you're enjoying the report so far. Wanted to squeeze in one more update before my long weekend.

We have one non-park day every trip, and this was it. So we took our time getting up, and had some light breakfast in the room. I called DH around noon, his usual wake up time on weekends, to see if he was still planning on coming. He was, and while we were on the phone we also had to sort out some conflicts with upcoming appointments. Nothing too excited. Just the boring grown-up stuff I try to avoid while on vacation, but alas!

We had no solid plans, no reservations or anything, so I told hubby to take his time getting here if he wanted, just let me know when he was on the way.

My dad kind of needled me for a more specific ETA for DH, but that’s more his personality than an indication of any need for an ETA. He just likes to know what’s going to happen and when, but I was not about to bug DH to be here by any specific time if we didn’t have any need for that. Instead, I distracted Dad by challenging him to a game of billiards.

We got dressed and made our way to the Community Hall. I think we played two rounds. He won both, but I put up a good fight.

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Then we cashed in our craft activity tickets that we’d won the other night at trivia. Dad had chosen to paint magnets, and I chose to decorate bows.

I kind of regretted my pick. There’s not a whole lot I can do with this. I wouldn’t wear it, and it’ll be quite awhile before my daughter can (if her parents are any indication, she’ll be born bald and stay that way for awhile).

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As we started the crafts, DH texted to say he was on his way over, but it looked like there was some traffic so I knew we didn’t have to rush. If needed, he could just meet us in the hall, but I knew he wouldn’t be too thrilled about standing around while we did arts and crafts.

We finished up just as he was parking and I told him to wait in the lobby. I took my bow and the cast members took the magnets my dad had painted to get them glazed and fired. They said he could pick them up the next day, and they’d also call our room to remind us.

Then it was time to be reunited with my hubby! We met up with him in the lobby, and then went back to the room to change for the pool.

While we got ready, DH explained that he would have left earlier, but our dog was acting very sweet and he felt bad leaving her alone. Completely understandable! I really missed her and wished he could have brought her. Put a hat on her or something.

We headed over to the quiet pool and spent some time floating around. I found a big floating lounge that didn’t seem to belong to anyone, and claimed it for myself. DH floated with me while my dad swam some laps.

I remember while we were floating something happened that might only be funny to me. I wear liquid makeup and tend to use the back of my left hand as a pallet, where I pump the makeup onto it, spread it out a bit, and dab it onto my face. I have a bad habit of not always washing it thoroughly off my hand, so I just kind of have this permanent makeup spot on the back of my left hand. This has been going on for awhile, like several years, so you’d think my husband would have noticed by now. But for some reason, he picked that day to finally notice it, as I was floating peacefully in the pool, and practically screeched, “Uh, why is there makeup on your hand? Did you injure it or something?”

I explained why it was there, but I don’t think he really got it (he doesn’t get how makeup works at all, honestly. He barely grasps the concept that when I put it on my face, I look different). Oh well!

After we were done with the pool, we decided to chill and maybe do the hot tub. We realized that we left fruit and other snacks in the room, and we were definitely in the mood for a snack, so Dad and DH went back up while I waited in a lounge chair.

I was given a very important job, though. I had to observe the hot tub and see if there were other people in it, because both Dad and DH HATE using hot tubs if there are more than like, two other people in it, and even that’s pushing it. So I texted them updates. “Big family is in the hot tub.” “Big family is leaving hot tub.” “People are walking by eyeing the hot tub.” It was honestly not a fun job, because I wasn’t the one who would get to enjoy the hot tub. So after awhile I’m pretty sure I just gave up. I think they expected that I would somehow become a hot tub scarecrow and do something to discourage other people from using it. But that definitely wasn’t going to happen.

Eventually, they came back, we snacked a bit, and then decided to venture over. I think there were two, maybe three other people in there? If there was a third, he was on his way out. This was deemed acceptable.

I dipped my feet in and of course my giant belly was out and of course one of the other people in the hot tub had to talk to me about it. I’m used to it. She asked how far along I was, I told her. She asked if it was my first, I said yes. She asked if we knew what we were having, I said a girl. That’s always an interesting part of the exchange because a lot of people believe that how you carry depends on if you’re having a boy or girl. She was quite surprised. “Oh, really? It looks like you’re carrying a boy.” Honestly, her reaction surprised me a bit. I know people like to play the game of how certain symptoms mean you’re having a girl or boy, but I thought everyone knew they’re pretty much old wives’ tales. Not a big deal and she wasn’t rude or anything, just something I noticed.

After a bit of hot tub time we decided to head back to the room and start thinking about dinner. Unfortunately, I had to walk back barefoot, because now it was my feet’s turn to swell up. The sandals I had worn down to the pool had definitely fit earlier, since I used them to walk over to the pool. Alas, no longer. I was like the ugly stepsister trying to squeeze them in. Not sure exactly what made them swell, if anything, but I resigned myself after a few minutes and carried them back with me.

On our way back to the room, we were excited to show DH the gym and let him indulge in a cool scented towel with us. But another disappointment! They were completely out of towels! How could this be? We whined, we moaned, but DH didn’t get what the big deal was, so we all went back up to the room, where we changed and got ready for our evening.

Up next, a night at the Boardwalk!
 
Day 5, Part 2: "Why is it so loud???"

We mingled in the room for awhile, trying to figure out what to do for dinner. We limited ourselves to just the Epcot resorts, which definitely cut down our options. I found a reservation at Ale and Compass, which Dad said he was fine with, but honestly there was like, one thing on the menu that he could or would eat, so I decided we could definitely do better. He liked Italian, and I found a later reservation at Trattoria al Forno, but the menu didn’t really appeal to him. I think he’s used to Italian restaurants in New York, where the menus are a mile long. Disney restaurants tend to only have a few options per meal by comparison.

One thing Dad knew for sure he wanted was a beer, so I suggested we take our conversation over to Big River Grille, where we didn’t need a reservation, get drinks, and decide from there if we wanted to eat there or go somewhere else. We could drive, of course, but I preferred not to.

When we came down we checked out a magic show that was going on. Don’t think I would ever get tired of these! It’s so cool to have this kind of entertainment so close to your hotel room.

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Once that was over we walked over to Big River Grille. I think this is a hidden gem at Disney. It’s their only onsite microbrewery. Although I thought it was actually owned and run by Disney but it turns out I was mistaken. When my Dad asked the bartender if we could get beers to go, the bartender said no, since they’re not technically a Disney establishment. Not 100% sure what that had to do with it, but no biggie. We sat down and settled in.

Dad and DH both got beers, and I went with a virgin Moscow Mule. Sadly, since my GD diagnosis, these are no longer on the table for me. No drinks with sugar until baby comes!

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We spent at least a good hour there, catching up and discussing plans for our February trip. I had initially planned to leave the baby with DH for half the time, and have her at Disney with me for the other half, but now that I’ve learned more about what it’s like to care for a newborn, I was realizing that probably wasn’t going to be possible since I plan to breastfeed. So we decided it would probably be best if I just have the baby the whole time, and DH comes for two or three nights as his work schedule allows. We’ll see if it works out and if he can handle all the Disney!

We also discussed dinner. My dad ordered chips and salsa but I knew we’d need something more substantial (I had a sneaking suspicion that my husband hadn’t eaten anything else all day, besides the poolside snacks). I looked on Open Table and found there were lots of seatings available for Il Mulino at the Swan, which none of us had ever been to. Since there were lots of times available, we decided not to tie ourselves down to a reservation and just head over when we were ready to eat. I’d heard great things about this restaurant and it seemed like a real hidden gem.

We finally headed out around 8 or 8:15, according to the timestamps on my photos. We arrived at the Swan and went to the hostess stand at Il Mulino, which was just to the left of the entranceway from the Boardwalk area. The restaurant was pretty empty! We weren’t the only ones there but it was a large dining area and it wasn’t very full. The bar had a decent number of people at high tops and at the bar itself, but there were a lot of available tables in the main dining area.

We were brought to our table and perused the menus. I believe Dad and DH ordered beer and/or wine. Can’t remember for sure, but I know they drank. We were brought out bread and some charcuterie as complimentary appetizers.

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My dad couldn’t eat the sausage but was a fan of the eggplant, which was cold, especially on the bread. It was really tasty!

Everything we got was delicious, in fact. This far into the future I can’t remember specific details, but I remember we all enjoyed our meals. I got the gnocchi Bolognese. I love gnocchi.

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My dad ordered the chicken parmesan.

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DH got spaghetti with seafood and I believe it also came with a spicy red sauce. He usually orders spaghetti and meatballs at Italian places but I don’t think he regretted his choice to try something new.

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Sadly, we were way too full after to order dessert! I had visions of maybe getting ice cream at Ample Hills later on, but that never came to fruition.

On our way back to the Boardwalk, we passed Jellyrolls, which DH had been saying might be a cool thing for us to check out with my dad. He and I had been once before, years ago, and I had thought it would be stupid for us to stay at the Boardwalk and NOT go to Jellyrolls. We encouraged my dad to take a look inside to see if he was interested. He stuck his head in for about half a second before deciding it was NOT for him. Too loud and rowdy, and he didn’t get the concept of dueling pianos even after we tried to explain it to him. I know he’s healthy and vibrant for his age but he really sounded like an old man in that moment. “Why is it so loud in there? I don’t understand why anyone would want it to be so loud. What do they do?” It was pretty hilarious. So, needless to say, we did not get to Jellyrolls that night or any other night of our trip. Oh well! In February we’ll be back at the Polynesian and my beloved Trader Sam’s anyway.

We went up to the lobby, intending to head back to the room, but I decided to take us on a detour towards the Inn side of the Boardwalk. I should have gotten pictures, but I wanted to show Dad and DH the mutoscopes in the hallway. I think these things are so cool. For those of you who have never tried them, they’re very old machines that Disney has restored and put on display in the Boardwalk and sometimes other parts of property, like the train station at the Magic Kingdom. In the old days, they would cost money to use but at Disney you can use them for free. They look like this:

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Basically you stick your eyes into a little screen, crank the handle, and you get to see a short film or cartoon. Like this one:


We spent a few minutes on those. I do like seeing the real antiques at the Boardwalk, and I think it’s neat that some of them are actually interactive.

After that, we went back to the room and chilled for awhile. We were all very tired. I would have insisted DH stay the night but didn’t want him to leave the dog by herself. I gave him my passholder coasters to take back to the house (forgot to mention that we picked them up the day before! It was an uneventful process), plus some extra Halloween candy. He left sometime around 11, and soon after he left, Dad and I went to sleep ourselves.

Up next: I can’t believe it, but it’s finally time to talk about our last full day!!!
 
Quick non-trip update! Our baby shower was Saturday and it was SO lovely. It was hosted by two close friends, with help from one of their husbands and my BIL's girlfriend, who did most of the cooking. My husband and I are big Trekkies, so the shower was actually Star Trek themed. My friends are new to Trek but they really went all out for us. We are so lucky to have them! I wanted to share some pictures that my husband's sister took. She's a professional photographer and I did NOT expect her to take a lot of pictures since she was a guest, but she did anyway. Imgur uploaded them weird, so they're not in any particular order.

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Opening presents!

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In doing research for the party, my friends discovered that there was actually a Rachelis Sector mentioned in an episode of The Next Generation. I don't know if it's real in real life, or just in the Trek universe. Note also the picture on the left side. They had printed out photos from all the series, framed them, and placed them around the house, along with the occasional Tribble. :rotfl:

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Told you I've gotten way bigger since the trip!

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They made cupcakes with the classic Trek colors, and handmade white chocolate Starfleet insignias!

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The Trek colors were everywhere! They also got transporter coasters, which you can kind of see on the table in the middle. On the right are some clipboards with a trivia contest. Guess who won? (ME!)

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My BIL attempted to "help" by making Star Trek-themed labels for the food.

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Our two main hosts got uniform dresses for the occasion. My husband arrived in a nice button-down shirt but as soon as he saw their outfits, he rushed back home to change :rotfl2:

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My mom and sister flew down for the weekend to attend. :goodvibes We also went to the Magic Kingdom on Sunday!

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My husband loves mid-century modern architecture and decor (I do too, but it's a particular passion of his) and one of our favorite off-registry gifts was this book, "Baby's First Eames." We have the chair on the right-hand side of the pages he's opened to (a replica; the real thing costs thousands of $$$!)

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One of my friends gave an incredible toast that still makes me tear up when I think about it! :blush:


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A tradition in my husband's family is swording open a bottle of champagne at special occasions. Unfortunately, this was not the bottle we normally use (I swear I've done it before!) so DH had to step in and do it instead.

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Here my husband attempts to throw his niece into the garbage can, which is another family tradition. He did it to her dad when they were younger. :laughing:

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Those shoes made me look so tall! Or at least normal sized.

Thanks for letting me take this quick detour! I'll be back soon with Day 4 of our trip.
looks like a great time...what wonderful friends..
 

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