Monthly Archives: September 2018

Uncategorized

Park Pros and Cons

The other night, Fallon and I were talking about the pros and cons of each coast’s parks. Personally, I don’t typically make pro & con lists because I’m not a character on a network sitcom. But today that changes. Because I wanted to write something and was lacking a better idea. So here goes – the Pros and Cons of each set of American parks:

Disneyland Pros:

  1. The Original Park
  2. More rides per capita
  3. Better rides per capita (Yeah, I said it.)
  4. Better in-park food options
  5. Easier to get reservations
  6. Park hopping is super easy
  7. Maxpass > FP+
  8. In General – California > Florida
  9. Lodgings are closer and more affordable
  10. Character meet & greets are less structured, random and more plentiful
  11. More annual passholders = smarter park patrons
  12. Can cover both parks in 2-3 days
  13. Way less planning needed beforehand

 

Disneyland Cons:

  1. Population of So-Cal means things get slammed very often
  2. Parks themselves can seem more cramped because there’s less overall acreage
  3. Theming can be more inconsistent because of lack of space
  4. Surrounded by cheap hotels – so a + and a –
  5. No Magical Express from LAX/SNA
  6. Disney Hotels are very pricey
  7. Downtown Disney Construction
  8. Disneyland currently in political squabble with City of Anaheim
  9. Ana-CRIME amiright?
  10. Annual passholders are AKA Passholes
  11. Maxpass costs $10US/day

 

Walt Disney World Pros:

  1. Moar parks
  2. The WDW Bubble is great
  3. Less rides equals better theming overall 
  4. Better restaurants per capita when you include the 20something resorts
  5. Tables In Wonderland 20% off card for APs, DVC and FL Residents
  6. Easier transportation if you stay on property
  7. Mickey’s Magical Express gets you from MCO
  8.  FP+ is free and can be booked 60 days out if you stay on property/30  days if not
  9. Florida is more naturally entertaining
  10. Magic Bands can be used to pay for food, souvenirs, are your room key, get PhotoPass pics, are super handy
  11. Character meet & greets are better organized. Like, I swear there could have been 4 rooms to meet Anna and Elsa it was so efficient
  12. On property guests don’t have to carry their souvenirs and can have them shipped to their hotel 
  13. More space = better queues
  14. Tader Sam’s Grog Grotto > Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar
  15. Impossible to do it all in 1 trip
  16. Disney Springs is way better than Downtown Disney
  17. Earl of Sandwich

Walt Disney World Cons:

  1. More of a destination experience so it ends up costing way more
  2. 180 days beforehand for restaurant reservations? 60 Days out for FastPasses? WDW is A LOT of work.
  3. Fewer rides per park and often the DL versions are just better executed overall 
  4. Also surrounded by cheap hotels a la The Florida Project
  5. Park hopping can be very time consuming or costly if you Uber/Lyft (but Minnie Vans are sweet)
  6. Cheerleaders/Brazilian Tour Groups – because unsupervised teenagers
  7. Florida  Highway Construction/Toll Highways
  8. WDW is often viewed as a Once In A Lifetime trip and everyone is stressed about getting the appropriate bang for their buck
  9. Because it’s so much work beforehand many park patrons are clueless
  10. Quick serves can be pretty mediocre
  11. Re$ort parking
  12. Impossible to do it all in 1 trip
  13. No slow season anymore

I feel like we’ll need to continually add to this but for now I think it’s a solid start. Ultimately either is an awesome time and I’d take them both in a heartbeat.

Disney, Travel, Uncategorized

Treat Your Feets – Running Shoe Tips

If you’re going to spend a prolonged period of time at either Disneyland  or Walt Disney World – prepare to take a lot of steps. Tens of thousands of them. It’s a real test of more than just your Fitbit. When you add in the fact that good chunks of time get spent waiting in line surrounded by way more people that you can imagine – the importance of a good shoe cannot be understated. It’s the best tip I can give to anyone visiting the parks. Take care of your feet. How?

If you’re a sandals person – don’t wear flip flops. That’s for sure. If Birkenstocks are your jam – go wild with your most comfy pair. Some people even advocate for Crocs. If they’re comfy, sure – why not? Personally – I think sandals are gross. No one needs to smell your foot sweat. Contain your toe jam svp.

But if you are the type to wear your most comfy sneakers – I got your back.

If you have a store in your area that specializes in running/walking gear – go there and get a gait test. It should be free. Basically there are 3 types of ways people step. Some land square with every step (neutral shoe), some are a bit off-centre and their ankles/heels flex/pronate a bit so they need a shoe that counteracts that movement (stability shoe), and some people over-flex/pronate and they need a shoe that really accounts for that movement (motion-control shoe). Around these parts we have Running Room. I don’t know what the US/UK equivalent would be. But having the right shoe for the type of stepper you are makes a HUGE difference. Modern running/walking shoes are engineered to take the type of punishment a park day delivers. I’m a New Balance fan but Asics, Saucony, Mizuno, Roku, Brooks, Nike all are stellar too. Figure out whether you’re a Neutral, Stability or Motion-Control walker, get at least 2 pairs to rotate through (a shoe should have a day to recover from the type of punishment WDW can deliver) and combine them with a good pair of performance or running socks.

So there. Take care of your feet. It’s a marathon. Not a fashion show.

Disney, Food Review

Homecomin’ – December 31, 2017

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Easily one of our favourite meals from our 2017 trip was at Homecomin’. We actually loved it so much that we decided it was the perfect venue for our wedding reception- fried chicken while wearing a wedding dress? Yes please! We knew we would not be brave enough to enter any of the theme parks on New Year’s Eve, so we planned on spending time in Disney Springs that night. Despite having the reception booked at Homecomin’ the following week, we decided we needed to eat there on our own as well. We made a late reservation, 8:50pm since we were going to be volunteering at Give Kids the World until 6pm and we weren’t sure how long it would take to get back to Disney property.

After walking around Disney Springs, we checked in to Homecomin’ early where they told us we probably wouldn’t be seated until our ADR time since they were busy. They handed us a pager, and Luke decided to run to the public bathroom right across from the restaurant since we were expecting a 15-20 minute wait. Of course, the pager went off about 90 seconds later and we were led to a table in the bar side of the restaurant. – I was excited for a minimal wait since I’d been dreaming about their food haha!
We were handed menus which we didn’t really need since we knew exactly what we both wanted to order already.

Of course, first up were drinks! I ordered my favourite, the Moonshine Mash – watermelon infused moonshine, fresh watermelon, lime juice and simple syrup, $12. My drink was as delicious as I remembered it, and it was not the last one I had on this trip…

Luke opted for the Rumshine Punch –  strawberry rumshine, blackberry brandy, banana liqueur, pineapple juice and house-made grenadine, $12

For food, we both pretty much knew what we wanted before we even got there. Luke wanted a few appetizers so he ordered the Church Lady Deviled Eggs – HFK style whole deviled eggs, $12 and the Thigh-High Chicken Biscuits – three biscuits topped with Chef Art Smith’s famous fried chicken thighs and bread and butter pickles. Drizzled with honey, $15.

Luke had tried the deviled eggs the previous year, and they once again did not disappoint. I rarely (if ever eat eggs), so I skipped trying these. The chicken biscuits were a new item for us to try, but we’d read/heard lots of great things about them – and they were fantastic! I’m not even a big fan of chicken thighs, I prefer white meat, but this stuff was cooked so well I enjoyed it. I’m also not a big fan of pickles, so I did remove those from the few bites I had, but the honey was a nice addition to the already delicious biscuits. Luke loves their hot sauce, and added it to both his eggs and his chicken biscuits.

I wanted fried chicken, so I ordered Art’s Famous Fried Chicken – buttermilk brined for 24 hours then perfectly fried served with creamy mashed potatoes and a cheddar drop biscuit, $28.

At one point, Luke asked me if I was angry at him for something since I was being so quiet – I was just too busy stuffing my face with fried chicken that I didn’t even realize I wasn’t talking! I guess that’s a sign I was enjoying my meal haha. The chicken is so juicy and tender, the cheddar drop biscuits are amazing (I’ve heard that the secret ingredient in those is cream cheese, but I have no proof of this) and the mashed potatoes were creamy and  delicious. I did have a side of gravy as well – which is southern sausage gravy and has a really great flavour!

At some point, Luke ordered another drink, a Muleshine – Tim Smith’s Climax Moonshine, peach puree, fresh lime juice and a splash of Q Spectacular Ginger Beer, $13.

Luke loves mules, so I’m surprised he didn’t start with this drink! He actually preferred his first drink a bit more, but there was nothing left of this one.

Despite being stuffed, there’s always room for dessert when you’re at Homecomin’ – there’s only a few options, but all the ones we’ve tried have been great!

We decided to share something, so we ordered a slice of Hamilton County Chocolate Pecan Pie – a 100 year-old traditional Smith Family Farm recipe. Served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, $10.

This was amazing – my new favourite dessert! It seriously doesn’t look like much, but it was so rich and chocolately and filled with pecans – and those pecans by the scoop of ice cream were candied -yum! We actually have one of Chef Art Smith’s cookbooks, and Luke made this pie one day. It turned out really well, and was so delicious!

The place was really busy this night, since it was NYE. People were having a good time, and since we were sitting beside the bar we could see the amount of drinks the bartenders were making – it was a lot. The service was a little slow that night, since it was one of the bartenders assigned to our table – but no real complaints!

Our total bill came to $100.64 after saving 10% with my annual pass.

TIW black out day – But I was able to save 10% using my Annual Pass

Predicted food budget: $2631.67                                                                             Estimated Cost of this meal: $152.30 ( I budgeted more drinking, it was NYE after all! But, we were tired and didn’t feel like any more)     Actual Cost: $100.64                                                                             Over/Under: Under by $51.66                                                                 Remaining: $2346.73

Next meal: 1900 Park Fare

Disney, Travel

December 31, 2017

We slept in a bit, but we were still up by 9:30 or so. We got ready for the day, and headed towards the main building to call an Uber to take us to the Grand Floridian. 

As soon as we walked in the door, I spotted Richard! For those who don’t know, Richard is a long-time cast member at the Grand who was still working a few days each week as a greeter, despite being in his early 90’s. He’s a bit of a celebrity among the Disney Wedding groups, so of course I had to stop to talk to him, and get a picture with him! 

He was so adorable, and so friendly! I mentioned that we were getting married at Disney, but he was sad we were holding our ceremony at Sea Breeze Point and not the Wedding Pavilion. He’s known for helping Wedding Pavilion brides with the train on their dress while pictures are being taken on the staircase in the Grand Floridian. He unfortunately passed away in June 2018, so I am very glad I stopped to talk to him for a few minutes during this trip <3

The Christmas decorations were all still up at the Grand, and I naturally had to take pictures of the tree (and of course, the lobby itself)!

The entire lobby smelled like gingerbread, I’m sure partly thanks to the giant gingerbread house they had set up there, which was so adorable! I’m fairly certain they were pumping the smell of gingerbread into the lobby as well.

We were starting to get close to our dining reservation, so we headed outside and made our way over to Narcoossee’s for their brunch.

While we were eating, we received a push-notification that Magic Kingdom had reached capacity- no thank you to being in those crowds! This was as close to the castle as I wanted to be on this day:

Once we finished our meal, we thought we had lots of time, so we decided to go for a walk around the resort. We followed the pathway all the way over to the Wedding Pavilion- even though it was not the location of our wedding ceremony, I thought it was a beautiful venue and I wanted to see Picture Point (located just outside it). They’ve since restructured the pricing, but at the time when we signed our contract for our wedding, it was an extra $2000 to use the Wedding Pavilion for an Escape wedding – I just couldn’t justify that, since that was enough to cover our reception at Homecomin’…

I had to take a picture of the Franck’s door, even though I never got to go through it. Disney offers three packages for weddings – Memories (basically an elopement – for the couple and 4 guests, cost was $2500 when we signed our contract), Escape (the couple plus 18 guests, cost was $5000 for Sea Breeze Point when we signed our contract) and Wishes (started at $12,000 and could go as high as you’re willing to spend). I initially was looking at Memories, and just having parents there, but Luke really wanted more so we jumped up to Escape. With the two lower tier packages, all correspondence is completed through email/phone calls – however if you are having a Wishes wedding you actually have an in-person planning session which is held at Franck’s (including cake tasting!).

Picture Point is so perfect with Cinderella’s Castle perfectly framed behind it <3

We called an Uber as we walked back towards the main entrance. We sat down on a bench, and watched as the estimated time of arrival kept changing – we had forgot about all the traffic trying to head to Magic Kingdom! We were heading to Give Kids the World for a volunteer shift from 3-6:30, but we were supposed to be there at 2:30 to sign in, get trained, etc. We had gave ourselves plenty of time to get there on a normal day, but not New Years Eve! What a rookie mistake, we should have known better! We eventually realized we were not going to make it there by 2:30, so we called the GKTW Village but they didn’t seem too upset by it. Our Uber finally showed up – no fault of the driver for taking so long, the lines of cars we passed as we drove away from the Magic Kingdom area was insane!

We finally arrived at GKTW around 2:50, so at least we weren’t late for our shift to start. It had taken almost 45 minutes for our Uber to reach us at the Grand Floridian, so we would have been there early if it wasn’t for NYE traffic.

For those who don’t know, GKTW Village is a non-profit resort in Kissimmee which provides week long vacations for the families of children with life-threatening illnesses. They work with groups around the world like Make-A-Wish to make theme park dreams come true. I believe I heard that about 60% of wishes involve the Orlando area (Disney, Universal, etc), so this is where they stay. Everything on site is free for the families – they receive meal credits to use throughout the week, theme park tickets, etc. There are a few little rides on site – a train, Merry-go-Round, etc, and lot of organized activities. A lot of the day-to-day operations of the entire resort are run by volunteers, so we had decided it was a good way to spend NYE since we didn’t want to go to a park.

We checked in and were led to the Ice Cream Palace where a supervisor gave us a quick run-down of what we needed to do. Our shift began at 3, and lasted until 6:30pm.

There were eight kinds of ice cream available, plus non-dairy options were kept in a freezer in the back room to avoid cross-contamination. The families staying at the Village had no limit on what/how much they could order – or when! The ice cream palace opened every day for breakfast! There was hot fudge and hot caramel for sundaes, bananas for banana splits, milk and mixers for milkshakes, sprinkles, Oreo bits, etc for toppings and a Coke freestyle machine for drinks (or floats!).

The ice cream shop itself was decorated with a CandyLand theme, and was very bright, colourful and fun!

Our 3.5 hour shift wasn’t overly busy, but it did stay steady. Even when we had downtime, we kept busy by wiping down tables, restocking ice cream, making sure the napkin dispensers were full, etc.  Creativity was encouraged, and I made some crazy concoctions during our time there! A banana split with hot fudge and Oreo crumbs and a dozen cherries on top? Done! A milkshake with cherries and sprinkles blended into it? Done!

It was a really fun way to spend an afternoon, and all too soon our shift was over. It was dark out by this point, and we took our time walking through the village and seeing it all lit up. They actually celebrate Christmas one day every week, Halloween one day a week and have a birthday party for the children once a week, so I believe it stays decorated year round.

I’ve been asked a few times already how we went about even setting up this volunteer shift. It was actually very easy, you just need to fill out an application on their website, http://www.gktw.org/volunteer/

After we signed out, we called an Uber to take us back to Disney property. We were dropped off at Disney Springs and the driver dropped us off on the east side. I believe they are supposed to do drop offs on the west side by the old Cirque du Solieil building now, so I don’t know if this driver didn’t know that or if it was just easier with the NYE traffic. I prefer being dropped off on the east side, and it worked out perfectly for checking out the Christmas Tree Trail. Enjoy my million pictures from this!

We had lots of time before our supper reservation so we took our time looking at each tree, before walking around a very crowded World of Disney. We also stopped in Amorettes to see their Christmas display, but we decided not to buy anything at that point (which I now regret, as I never made it back there on this trip – Luke did, but he didn’t take pictures).

We were still a bit early, but we decided to go check in for our reservation at Homecomin’. We only had to wait a few minutes before they had a table ready for us!

Once we finished eating, we were tired and headed back to Pop Century. We packed up our stuff in preparation for our hotel move the following day, and were both asleep before midnight- we both woke up when we heard the fireworks and sleepily said “Happy New Year” before rolling over and going back to sleep. We are such party animals haha.

Total Fitbit Steps: 11,675

Next: January 1, 2018 – Part One