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Hello everyone,
As Jon and I spend an increasing amount of time at the Walt Disney World Resort theme parks, I find it correspondingly redundant to post "trip reports", in the more traditional sense. You may have noticed that, for example, recently I posted a stand alone review of the Garden Grill, a report on meeting the stars of Cars 3, and my report on the DVC Moonlight Magic event here on Character Central, and over on Two Lost Boys, my review of Flower and Garden 2017 at Epcot. I thought that it would be nice to share the more "generic" things we saw, too, over the past two months, and so decided to make this report more of a round-up of multiple visits, rather than breaking it down into separate trip reports. We will actually be back at the parks again this week and next, and so you should expect to see a similar round-up and more specialised individual reports once I get around to doing them, too.
Let's start our February-March walk though the park with the Magic Kingdom.
We met Mary Poppins in her new location, where Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen used to meet, in the glen behind the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe, in Liberty Square. Due to the fact that Naveen no longer meets in the park on a daily basis, and Tiana is now in the Princess Fairytale Hall, the gazebo was stripped of its cute Princess and the Frog woodwork, and is now rather plain.
We also met Aladdin and Jasmine over in Adventureland, sporting their new royal attire.
For you foodies, we have been making our way around to various dining locations recently, trying a few different things that we haven't had previously. The "vegetarian" burrito (even though it looks like a taco, I know) is ok. Not the best option for us, but at least it's a little different.
The fruit and Nutella waffle at Sleepy Hollow is amazing, if a little calorie loaded - I would definitely recommend it!
At the Plaza Ice Cream Parlour I got mint chocolate chip sundae. Mint chocolate chip is my favourite kind of ice cream, and I have to say, this one did not disappoint!
At the Plaza Restaurant, we tried the unlimited milkshake for the first time. While it is $8 - which is a lot for a milkshake - it really is unlimited - they even let us take one to go! Again, I got the mint chocolate chip flavour.
We watched the parade to take photos of the Beast, but the park has been crowded a lot lately, so we didn't make a special effort to get a space for the whole parade.
Finally for the Magic Kingdom, we caught the Frontierland Hoedown, which when we were there featured Br'er Rabbit, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, Br'er Bear, Big Al, and I believe Wendell (for some reason I didn't take a photo of the other bear there, so I have to work from memory!).
Moving on to Epcot, and we met Belle in France, and Minnie Mouse and Pluto at the VISA meet 'n' greet at Imagination.
For the first time ever I also tried the school bread in Norway for breakfast one morning (I know! I'm a little late on that one!), and I have to admit, I can see why people love it so much. It really is very tasty.
At The Land one day we grabbed the French toast bread pudding breakfast platter, which also was very good.
At Disney's Hollywood Studios, we met Moana again. We're glad to have met her there several times, because if the rumours are true, she may be gone very soon! We shall see!
We watched the Beauty and the Beast preview again (we've seen the movie now anyway, and we loved it!), and took some photos of the props in the lobby area before the preview.
Speaking of Beauty and the Beast, we saw the show one day, as it had been a long time, and we wanted some more up to date photos for Character Central.
At Disney's Animal Kingdom, we ran into Governor Ratcliffe stalking guests at the entrance to the park, and met Mickey and Minnie Mouse on Discovery Island, and Donald Duck in Dinoland USA.
I took some photos of the Tree of Life, Everest, and of some of the food kiosks which have been going through a rebranding as of late.
As night fell, one evening we stayed to watch the new Rivers of Light show. First of all, it is far, far better than the Jungle Book Alive with Magic was. It is a pretty show, with nice music, good visuals, and the message of it is positive and encouraging. However, the effort that it takes to currently see it makes it not worth the hassle, for me. The problem is that they are running this show only once per night on most nights, and it really isn't that technically difficult. It's water screens and fountains, which I am certain are controlled by computer. It could easily be something that is programmed to run at intervals, where people can just pass by and enjoy it, rather than wasting a FastPass and hours of their time to sit and wait, etc.
At Disney Springs we stopped by B. B. Wolf's to grab a veggie hotdog - definitely one of the better fast food options in all of Walt Disney World!
At the Saratoga Springs resort we tried the spinach and egg wrap and a cinnamon bun for breakfast, both of which were very good. I actually enjoyed the wrap a lot more than I thought I would, and would get it again for sure.
Finally, Trader Sam's is a favourite hangout of ours, and on several evenings recently we have gotten drinks there with friends. I don't remember the names of all of the drinks individually, but I always like everything that I try there!
Ok, that's all for this round-up! As I said at the start of this report, we're going to be spending a lot of time at the parks this month again, so I'll have another round-up for you in a few weeks once I can get my photos in order!
Have a great day everyone,
Dan. |