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John and Donna Gross "The Full Mickey - At a Discount!" The Wall Street Journal
Beth, our travel agent, visited WDW in November, 2005: "Hi, John. Just back from a few days with The Mouse and I thought I'd report. This was a trip to do things I'd never done before - either because they didn't exist that last time I was there, or because I was always too chicken to try, or because I just never got around to it before. First, we had to swing over to Epcot's Guest Relations window to pick up our temporary Dining Experience card. I was so busy doing vacations for everyone else I'd forgotten to renew early! (No park admission necessary, since the window is outside the turnstiles.) The parking toll attendant collected our $9, but printed a new parking tag that clearly showed the time of day we were entering. After picking up the Dining Experience card, we went back to the toll plaza and they refunded the $9 since we'd clearly been there for under a half hour. Getting the fresh tag printed is important! Then we checked into Port Orleans French Quarter right about 3:00. I'd requested a room on the end on the first floor with a garden view near the main building. Sure that they'd only be able to pull of a part of that detailed request, I was amazed to discover that our room, 2101, fit every single request! Check-in took awhile since our girl was "earning her ears," but we finally got to the room and quickly put away our stuff before heading over to the boat dock. It was a lovely evening, and we didn't mind the 15 minute wait before the boat showed up. There was still plenty of time before dinner, so we strolled along from where we were dropped off (near the Rainforest Cafe) toward Pleasure Island. Our reservations for Raglan Road were for 6:30, but we arrived really early. They were happy to accommodate us." Beth's trip report continues below. |
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Beth continues her trip report: "Raglan Road is HUGE, but it still has a warm, comfy feel to it. We were too early to catch any of the entertainment, but still enjoyed the authentic Irish decor and ambiance. At first glance, the menu would maybe leave something to be desired - but don't let it fool you. The seemingly everyday fare is anything but! We shared a side order of crispy onions (very thin, very crispy) as an appetizer. They were served in the cutest little pail! All three of us - my daughter, the onion-hater included - loved them. The two adults both ordered Pie in the Sky. It's sort of a chicken and mushroom soup (or thin stew) served in a small crock and topped with a nice round of puff pastry, and a little salad of greens to the side. Not a lot of food, but filling enough for us ladies and deemed absolutely wonderful by us both. My almost-eight-year-old daughter shocked us by ordering the Bean Bag, a child's version of Chef Kevin's signature dish, Kevin's Kudos. It's honey-glazed, roasted loin of bacon with braised cabbage and creamed potato. The bacon would be called ham by most Americans - but it's fabulous no matter what you call it. We found the cabbage to be undercooked, but the potatoes and bacon were magnificent and plentiful - WAY too much food for even a big eater like my child. Children's meals range from $7.95 to $10.00. Adult entrees run $11.99 to $28.99. Save your pennies and do this one. You'll be happy you did! We then strolled through Pleasure Island for a bit, but found it to be crowded and noisy even early on a Thursday night, so we turned around and sauntered over to Ghirardelli to use the 2-for-1 sundae coupon they'd emailed us for my daughter's birthday. (Sign up on their website.) Then we hopped the boat back to the resort and had a good night's sleep." Friday we headed down the path to Port Orleans Riverside for a yummy breakfast at Boatwright's. I'm not big on breakfast foods, but their sweet potato pancakes are pure heaven! Then we crammed ourselves onto the bus to MGM and headed right for Star Tours. This is one of the ones I was always afraid of. (Claustrophobia, motion sickness, you name it.) I slathered on some herbal oil behind my ears that's supposed to take care of motion sickness and mentally tried to prepare myself for the claustrophobia bit. We had a short wait - maybe 10 minutes - to get on, and it turns out I was worried for nothing! I admit I closed my eyes a few times, but the pod was large enough and the temperature cool enough that I was OK! My daughter announced she was very proud of me for facing my fears, and with that we took off for Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Play It! I was all ready to be bored to tears, but it was surprisingly entertaining. I didn't care for the show's host (who made a few political statements that would have been best kept to himself), but playing the game was fun. And yes, even my daughter enjoyed it! We were all ready to walk to Epcot, but a bus pulled up just as we exited the MGM gates so we took the lazy way over. After entering Epcot we went straight to The Land to experience Soarin,' but were dismayed to see that, even though it was just after 11:00 in the morning, all the FastPasses for the day had already been given out! (Big signs outside the pavilion and inside as well announced this sad fact.) So we went in anyway, determined to ride. The standby time listed was 90 minutes, and a cast member assured us it would really take that long - but it didn't. It only took 60 minutes of waiting. That's a long time, but when you're mentally prepared for 90 minutes it's a wonderful thing! There are plenty of places you can read about this ride so I won't go into it except to say that it was well worth the wait, and I'd stand in line again for it if I had to. After exiting Soarin' we sauntered across the park to Test Track to grab a FastPass - and just in the nick of time! It was about 12:30 at that point, and we snagged the last Test Track FastPasses for the day. They told us to be back between 8 and 9 PM! At that point, we were hungry and a bit tired, so we took the bus back to French Quarter and had a mediocre lunch at the resort's food court before going to the room. Our travel companion napped while I took my daughter out to the serpent pool for 45 minutes. It was a gorgeous day and all the kids seemed to be having fun. (It's a great pool for kids.) Then we went back to the room for a short nap as well. About 5:00 we got up, freshened ourselves, and went back to Epcot. We were early, though, and they wouldn't allow us to enter the attraction more than 5 minutes before our stated pass time, so we shopped and did a little people-watching. Finally, we got to head into Test Track, another first for me. It is most definitely NOT what my daughter refers to as a "mommy ride," but I lived through Star Tours so I figured it couldn't be that bad! Well, claustrophobia wasn't a problem and the herbal oil behind the ears was good for the motion sickness, but that's the closest I've ever come - or ever care to come - to being on a rollercoaster. Those of you that love this ride are probably laughing, but when our little car went flying into that outdoor curve every muscle in my body was tensed. Some may call it exhilarating. I call it insane. And yes, my daughter loved it, and no, she did NOT talk me into doing Mission: Space! Instead, we actually skipped Illuminations (something only those of us who are at WDW often would/should even think about doing) and got a seat on the bus back to the hotel. We had dinner at the food court and dropped into bed with a smiles on our faces. Saturday we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel's food court. The bacon, egg and cheese croissant was fine, but the apple muffins were horrible. Definitely skip those! We took the bus to Animal Kingdom and went in search of DeVine. Her schedule is NOT listed in the park programming for the day, but ask a cast member and they can tell you when and where to look for her. She was just as amazing as I heard she was! >> Note from John: DeVine is a woman disguised in vines. Unbelievable! For photos, click here and here. Then we trotted over to the theater to see Tarzan Rocks, a show that is scheduled to close early next year. Hint: Arrive about 30 minutes early and sit in the front row of the upper tier, as close to the center as you can. (The very center is reserved seating.) This is a real high-energy show, and while I don't think it's nearly as good as the Lion King show, there are certain elements that are impressive. The end of the show is timed just perfectly for getting to Flights of Wonder. We almost skipped this show - again - and I'm so glad we didn't. We all really enjoyed it. It's educational, entertaining, and a great chance to sit down for a few minutes. We exited that show just in time to get to get over to Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends. I have one word for this show: yuk. The actress was weak, the stage was small, there were only a few animals and they did nothing more than move quickly across the stage... so much potential here, and it just totally disappointing. Amazingly, though, my daughter loved it. (Of course, she liked the apple muffin at breakfast, too!) We decided to do a "light" lunch at the Rainforest Cafe located at the Animal Kingdom's entrance. Big mistake. It was even more noisy and crowded than normal. I joined their Safari Club long ago for the food discount and the expedited seating, but we still had to wait about 15 minutes - only to discover that there's really nothing light on the menu. I ended up ordering an appetizer (Blue Crab Dip with tri-color tortilla chips) while the other adult ordered a Caesar side salad. Both were good, but more food than we really wanted. My daughter ordered a kid serving of pasta with butter - hard to screw up! It took a long time to come, so by the time we left we really didn't have all that much time to kill before our dinner reservations! So we took a bus to the Polynesian to see exactly where 'Ohana was located and then did a little walking tour of the resort. Next, we jumped on the monorail (front cab!) and rode to the Contemporary for some shopping before riding back to the Poly. We settled into the lounge for pre-dinner drinks and to catch some football scores. The dinner reservations were for 5:05 and we were called promptly at that time. I didn't really know what to expect from 'Ohana, but the food was outstanding. Shortly after being seated (next to a window with a great lake and castle view) we were given a big bowl of fried wonton chips and three dipping sauces. I wasn't crazy about the red and green ones, but the peanut sauce is pure heaven. Then a big bowl of salad came. The lime dressing was great, but not adequately coating the lettuce so you really have to toss the salad a bit before serving. Then came a bowl of peel-n-eat shrimp and a bowl of chicken wings. The shrimp were called "spicy-sweet and sour," but it's not what you'd expect. These big babies were just plain yummy. The wings were coated with sort of a thick barbecue sauce. Very good! Fortunately, this course is followed with warm, moist hand towels and lemons for cleaning up. Our scalloped potatoes and stir-fried veggies came next. The veggies were good and the potatoes were exceptional. Next came the meats: steak, turkey, pork loin, and pork sausage. They are served from long skewers, and each was very good - especially when dipped in the peanut sauce! Finally, just when we thought we couldn't eat another bite, the dessert came - a big bowl of bread pudding with a hunk of vanilla ice cream and bananas foster sauce in a pitcher on the side. Truly heaven. If you're not a banana lover, don't worry; you can't taste the bananas at all (and they're only in the sauce so maybe they can leave them out for you). All in all, simply fabulous food! My only two gripes would be that the service is a little lacking, and then there's a lady who pops in twice to "entertain." If she'd just sing and play her ukulele that would be fine, but she gets the kids up out of their seats both times to dance and play. I'm trying to keep mine calm and get her to eat, so a lady trying to get her out of her chair to play is the last thing I need! In any case, I'd go back again in a heartbeat. After 'Ohana we rode the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom to check out the refurbished It's a Small World attraction. You know the park is crowded when there's a long line for that! The line moved quickly, though, and we were boarding our boat 15 minutes or so later. The attraction looks significantly nicer than it did before. Everything works now, the colors and costumes are all bright and sparkling... even the ceiling and the carpeting look better! It's not my favorite ride, but it's sure better than it was from a visual perspective. Unfortunately, you can no longer understand the words to the song - in any language! Good thing we all know the words already! Next, I finally gave in and allowed my daughter to try Stitch's Great Escape. I sat on a wall outside and talked with a woman from New Jersey while our respective travel parties checked out this one without us. Happily, my daughter deemed it "not scary at all." Sadly, she wants to do it the next time we go. I've deemed it the dumbest attraction at WDW - although now I realize that Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends might tie for that honor. Anyway, we did a few more things before skipping the parade and Wishes and heading back to the hotel for some ice cream before bedtime. This was a very short trip, and Sunday morning it was already time to go. We thought we'd do something REALLY different, though, and ride over to the Celebration Hotel for breakfast. (For those not familiar, the town of Celebration was created by Disney and is right across from WDW.) The hotel's Plantation Room is a 4-diamond restaurant so we were expecting big things, but were very disappointed. The brunch wasn't starting for another 45 minutes, so we did the regular breakfast. You get a choice of Continental ($9.95) or full American ($13.95) with no discount for children. The Continental offering is a small buffet area with cold cereal, pastries and muffins, yogurt, fruit and cheeses. Coffee and juice are included. The fruit was good, but the pastries were all either dried out or just plan stale. We ate a lot of little muffins. In all fairness, there was a chef preparing omelets, Belgian waffles, pancakes and French toast to order for takers of the American Breakfast. What we saw looked and smelled very good, but the chef prepared the requested items and disappeared for long periods of time. What's more, I got the impression that this was an "either/or" thing, not a little of each, and not unlimited. The service was horrid. We had to flag down our server for every beverage refill, and even for our check (although by then we were the only ones there so it should have been easy to see that we were finished and waiting). In short, we could have had better food and better service for a fraction of the price if we'd have gone to Perkins - or even McDonalds. Perhaps I wasn't in the best frame of mind to see a room, but I asked anyway. The receptionist was clearly not pleased that she had to get up from her desk, but given that there was no one else around she wasn't exactly busy. She led us to a standard room around the corner. There are many different room configurations here, and I'm hoping (for the sake of people that pay a lot to stay here) that the room we were shown is one of the smallest. Size aside, it was fine - but for over $200 a night I expected more. I don't know what exactly, but more. In summary, the town is quaint with lots of little shops and plenty of restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, so if you want a romantic getaway for two it would work - but if you have the kids along, choose a Disney deluxe resort instead. It's going to be awhile before I give this hotel - and it's restaurant - another chance. I'll be going back to WDW in a few weeks. That's all for now!"
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