All posts by [email protected]

January 26, 2017 – Luke’s Birthday!

March 19, 2017 [email protected] 1 Comment

Guest author (Handsome) Luke Ant… we don’t put full names on the Internet. So Luke Hasselhoff

Note: anything Italicized is written by me, Fallon.

January 26th 2017 was but a wonderous day. Long known as the celebration of the birth of Canada’s greatest superstar – Wayne Gretzky. As well as star of Ellen’s Energy Adventure Eileen Degeneres, Brian Fallon of the Gaslight Anthem, one of the Legion of Doom guys… Animal I think. Plus Eddie Van Halen. And me. The Eddie Van Halen of being me.

Anyhoo… this year Fallon decided she wanted to celebrate my birthday at Disneyland. So I’m all sure – why not?!?! I mean – Disneyland for my birthday. Heck yeah.

That morning we awoke at the ungodly early hour of like 8AM. *shudder* And trudged our way to Edmonton International Airport. Direct to LAX was in our future. Or so we thought. Because you know, that’s actually what happened.

*Once we got through customs at the YEG airport, we went for our old faithful at the US Terminal – Quiznos. Traditional on Rosemary Parmesan bread for me, and Mesquite Chicken on the same bread for Luke. Sorry, I only took a picture of mine. Also note – none of the disgusting things like onions are on it 🙂

We had tons of time before our flight left, so I grabbed a few magazines – wedding and hockey! It kept me entertained on the flight.

I had pre-ordered and pre-paid for food on the flight – once again our old faithful of WestJet flights – the ham and swiss croissant. I’ve ate a lot of these in my day.

We get to LAX and in my pursuit of a Pepsi (you’re not truly celebrating America until you’ve had a soda made with high-fructose corn syrup) – we veered too far away from our SuperShuttle pickup point. Whoops. BTW the bathroom trip that accompanied OperationCorn Pepsi Pursuit was glorious. I heard harps and shit. Literally.

Anyhoo, we get picked up in the shuttle by a guy who pretended it didn’t bother him that we weren’t at our proper pickup point because we pre-tipped and after picking up some other weary travellers were on our way to the Anaheim Ramada Maingate North. We get there and it’s definitely in the top 4 of Orange County Ramada hotels. I tell you what. They let us check in early by a couple minutes. I could tell the clerk was all about throwing caution to the wind and playing by his own rules.

The room was nothing fancy, but it was fine – especially for the price we paid on Hotwire!

It’s time to get Fallon’s super-duper ultra-platinum pass that so few ask for the folks at the gate are all but guaranteed to drop a “Let me get my manager” when you ask about it.

So after choosing the worst line 2-3 times, we get to the counter and Fallon asks about this supercalifragilisticexpialidocious annual pass and the cast member is all “Uh… lemme get my manager.”

Medium story short – we get it. Fallon’s major credit card is super stoked about this endeavour.

Now we’re hangry af. Let’s get to Trader Sam’s.

It’s our first venture all the way through Downtown Disney. We get to the Disneyland Hotel. And don’t get me wrong. It’s not the value of the Ramada Maingate North through h-o-t-w-i-r-e, hotwire.com. But it is clearly amazing. I must stay there one day. Hopefully after some sort of benefactor finds this posts and offers to set us up there. Great Expectations style. Minus all the other shitty things about Great Expectations.

We saunter into Trader Sam’s and find a seat. A Table for 4. There’s 2 of us. As Canadians – this puts us at quite an impasse. We know seats in this venue are at a premium and sitting outside is foolhardy. Yeah I said it. Sorry for the salty language. So we take the seat. That’s right America. 2 Canucks took your 4 spots. Only because we rationalized it because we were about to order a bounty of pricy deliciousness.

Fallon wants to get into the specifics of the meal in another POST. I typed that in caps so she can hyperlink the shit out of it later. (*I’ve now hyperlinked the shit out of it, just click on the word POST up above).

So we have drinks. Then appies. Pupu style. Then Drinks. Then supper/lunch. Then slizzard. Then instead of staying there all night we realize we’re $120US deep so maybe it’s time to call an audible and change up the evening’s plans. Especially since we’re that level of tipsy where it’s sunshine and rainbows and if people stopped drinking here there’d be 87% less alcohol related dumbassness in the world.

So we head out, look at some shops, don’t buy kickass cool Star Wars socks because we just spent that money on Pupu, then Fallon’s all – wannu see movie?

Sure. There’s an AMC in Downtown Disney. Let’s do that. We choose La La Land because we’d heard grumblings that it’s a critical darling so beloved that one day it may even win the Oscar for Best Picture for 2.75 minutes. We buy 2 tickets. It was like $29US or something (See tipsy). I’m all “This is what movies cost us in Canadian funds. What a racket?!”

We get a small popcorn and I demand an Icee because those aren’t available in Canada because our slushie drinks aren’t carbonated for some reason. It’s prolly the government’s fault. I choose blue raspberry. Because blue raspberries are definitely a thing that exist in real life. This was such a tiny little popcorn! And so expensive! It actually cost basically the same as it would in Canada, but once you factor in exchange rate – gross.

Before we take our seats, Fallon calls her grandmother because she wants to wish me a happy birthday. It was the last time we ever spoke. She passed away shortly after. There’s an unexpected bummer, right? It’s true. She was a remarkably sweet woman and I miss her.

So yeah… La La Land. The theatre was decent and thankfully the American cinema spares you of 11-14 actual commercials before the suble commercials/trailers kick in. We see it. It’s a delightful yarn. The stupid people behind us didn’t like the ending. But they were vapid and they can suck a butt.

After that we made our way back to the main entrance of Disneyland, summoned an Uber, headed home and hoped the “oh there’s a 12% chance I can get knifed in the parking lot of this hotel” had properly dissipated. It did. Neither of us got knifed. We partook in the background of some random musical number but hey – that’s what happens when you’ve gone back to Cali (Cali). It was a decent musical number. 6.5 out of 10.

Disney, Food Review

Via Napoli – Supper – January 8, 2017

March 17, 2017 [email protected] 1 Comment

After watching the animatronic show about US history in the American Pavilion, we had to rush to get over to the Italian Pavilion to get to our reservation on time. We made it, and checked in at the booth about a minute before our reservation at 6:35pm…and then stood around for 20 minutes. That place was slammed! So many people were trying to get in without a reservation, and were being turned away – there were some angry people.

We were finally led to our table, a little 2-top against a wall. I had read so many fantastic reviews of this place, I was really looking forward to trying it.

Shortly after being seated, a young man approached us to offer water. Luke took him up on his offer of sparkling water, and ordered a bottle of it.

Yes, I forgot to take a picture of it until later. I think carbonated water is one of the most disgusting things ever created, so I did not try any of this. Luke seemed to enjoy it though. This bottle cost $5.

Here’s a picture of the menu:

Once again, we had read the menu prior to our trip, and knew exactly what we wanted to eat.

To drink, I ordered a Blood Orange Acqua Frescas – our signature house-made fruit juice cooler, $6

This thing was delicious! Our server was really trying to push us into buying alcohol, but neither one of us were feeling like it at this point. Then we apparently angered our server even more by ordering a large pepperoni pizza to split instead of separate entrees…

Let’s start by saying this pizza was really tasty! I love Neapolitan style pizza more than any other kind, and this one did not disappoint.

Now for the bad – our actual server didn’t even bring it to us – another server did. Our server did not stop by even once to check on us to ask if everything was ok, or if we needed anything else. Had he come by, I would have probably ordered another one of those blood orange drinks. We saw him checking in on the other tables he was serving around us multiple times, but not once did he acknowledge us after taking our order. We assume it was because we weren’t drinking and our total bill wasn’t going to be very expensive compared to what other tables were spending – but I find this very unacceptable. Then, once we finished our pizza, we ended up sitting there for awhile before he finally reappeared with our bill – without even asking if we wanted anything else. How did he know we didn’t want to order dessert or a coffee or something? (We didn’t want those things, but a server should not just assume that). It was very clear he just wanted us out of there as quickly as possible so he could get someone else at the table. I do understand that they were extremely busy, but I expect so much more from a waiter working at Disney.

Our total bill came to $46.54. The pizza was great, but the service left a lot to be desired. We did leave a tip, but not even close to what we typically leave. I imagine we’ll be back to eat there again one day, but it’s not at the top of our list.

Disney, Food Review

Le Cellier – Lunch, January 8, 2017

March 16, 2017 [email protected] 1 Comment

After our morning at Epcot, it was soon time to check in for a meal I was very much looking forward to – Le Cellier! This signature restaurant is located in the Canada Pavilion at Epcot.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how beautiful the Canada pavilion is?

We checked in, and only had to wait a few minutes before being led to our table. As the hostess was seating us, she told us we were sitting in the “Prince Edward Island” section of the restaurant, so I asked where the New Brunswick section was – she quickly pointed to the corner and announced it was that table over there haha.

When our server arrived, she again told us we were in the PEI section, and started telling us facts about the Island (while I sat there grinning and nodding excitedly since I knew what she was talking about haha).

It’s pretty dark in that restaurant, so it was difficult to get great pictures. Here is the menu though:

And shortly before we went on this trip, they had introduced a Prixe Fixe menu for lunch only, here’s that menu:

We had looked over the menu for every restaurant before the trip, and we thought it would be silly to spend $50++ on steak at a Canadian themed restaurant in Florida when we live in Alberta – home to the best beef in the country, so we had decided on splitting a bunch of appetizers. But then, once Luke saw the prixe fixe menu he decided to go with that instead.

First, they bring you a bread basket. There were two of each kind (Luke had already taken his before I took the picture, and he had already dug into the butter). The long one is pretzel bread and the other one is a multigrain roll. The butter was sprinkled with maple sugar and sea salt (ooo, fancy!). Both bread offerings were really excellent, but the pretzel bread wins for best hands down.

You can also kind of see it in the back of the picture with the bread, but Luke ordered a La Fin du Monde to drink. It’s one of his favourite beers, and it just happens to be Canadian! I didn’t take a picture of my drink, but it was a Coke – pretty standard.

Now for the good stuff –

Le Cellier Signature Poutine – fresh-cut french fries, Canadian Cheddar, Truffles and Red-wine Reduction, $10

First of all – this is not a proper poutine (which is pronounced pou-tin, NOT pou-teen!). In Canada, a traditional poutine has brown gravy and big, thick, squeaky cheese curds. That said, this was one of the most amazing poutines I’ve ever had in my life. All of the ingredients worked so well together, and the fries were thinner, shoestring style like I prefer – and they were hot and fresh! I want more of this right now…

Luke’s prixe fixe lunch was a 3-course meal that cost $49. For his first course, he chose the:

Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup – Moosehead beer, Nueske’s Applewood-smoked bacon

I was looking forward to trying this, but also really apprehensive because of the beer. I was born and raised in New Brunswick, which is where the Moosehead Brewery is located. I’m not a huge fan of beer in general, but I really hate that kind. I was scared the soup would taste like beer, but it doesn’t at all! It was so rich and creamy and delicious.

For Luke’s main course in his prixe fixe lunch, he went with the:

Beef Tenderloin – with grilled asparagus, crispy onions and peppercorn butter.

I tried a small piece from the outside of this – I’m a steak well-done person, Luke is not, so the outside was the only part cooked enough for me. It was very tasty! I believe we were even told it was Alberta beef, which we laughed about since it’s the province we actually live in. Luke seemed to really enjoy this, and ate it all!

I didn’t order a main, but instead went for another side dish:

Loaded Mashed Potatoes – Nueske’s bacon, black diamond cheddar, chives, potato skin crisp, $9

These were really creamy, and really rich! The potato skin crisp was really enjoyable, and they were very generous with the bacon and cheese in these! I actually couldn’t finish them all myself, it was a bit too many potatoes after polishing off that poutine haha.

Luke’s third and final course was dessert. He went for the Maple Creme Brulee

I don’t think I had ever tried creme brulee before, and this was when I realized I don’t like it at all. I ate the chocolate stick and a raspberry haha. Luke loved this though, and ate it all.

Our bill came to a total of $85.99 – which isn’t terrible, but I also only had appetizers and Luke went for the lunch special. That said, we’d absolutely go back (even if it’s just for that poutine!).

Disney, Travel, Wedding

Flights

March 16, 2017 [email protected]

First of all – there are a number of airports in the Orlando area, but if you wish to use Disney’s Magical Express (the free transportation bus to your Disney hotel), you must fly into Orlando International Airport (MCO). This shouldn’t be an issue, as it is the largest and usually the cheapest option.

From the time you land in MCO until you reach your hotel, you can expect it to take at least an hour by the time you get to the Magical Express, wait for the bus to load and then the 30 minute drive to Disney. This might affect the flight time you choose.

When the Magical Express picks up you at the end of your trip, they will give you a time that is 3 hours prior to your flight if your first flight is Domestic, or 4 hours prior to your flight if your flight is international (on our last trip, we flew from MCO-Minneapolis-Edmonton, so that was considered domestic – it only looks at the first leg of your trip).

Security lines at MCO can be crazy sometimes. It all depends on what time your flight is leaving.

From Edmonton (YEG)

If traveling on Saturdays, WestJet does offer a direct flight to MCO. Obviously, the cost is a bit higher than a flight with layovers
The past two years that we’ve gone in January, the cost has been around $600/person round trip, and our flight times have been decent. I’d use that as a price point in finding a good flight.
WestJet is obviously our favourite airline, but Delta is our favourite American brand. You can also check United and American (and Air Canada if you like to punish yourself) for flights from YEG-MCO
WestJet flights typically have layovers in Toronto or Calgary. The new US terminal in Calgary is really nice!
Delta’s flights will usually take you to Minneapolis. We also had a 2nd layover in Detroit one year (which is a really nice airport!)
I used United Airlines to fly to Miami once, my layover was in Chicago (but I have no idea what the flight to MCO would be)

From Winnipeg

It looks like there are lots of options for non-stop flights with WestJet – Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays
All connecting flights with WestJet appear to go through Toronto.
Flight prices seem to be really decent – I did a quick search on Google Flights and there were options for under $500 return

From Toronto

Lucky bastards. There’s direct flights multiple times every day, and you can easily find one for under $400 return.

From Halifax

From a quick look, I think the flights will be in the $500 range.
WestJet appears to offer a direct flight on Sundays, but any other day of the week will require a transfer through Toronto.
It looks like a few of the US Airlines operate out of there as well, you have layovers in either Boston or New York. (United, American, etc)

From Fredericton/Moncton

All flights transfer through Toronto. From what I can tell, the only airline options are WestJet and Air Canada.
You should be able to find a return flight for under $600.

Disney, Food Review

Magic Kingdom Food

February 27, 2017 [email protected]

Quick Service:

Be Our Guest (breakfast & lunch only) – Beauty and the Beast themed restaurant, pricey for breakfast, lunch is probably the best. Make sure you pre-order to save yourself a ton of time! 2016 breakfast review here, 2017 breakfast review here, 2016 lunch review here
Casey’s Corner – hot dogs, corn dogs, french fries
Columbia Harbour House – sandwiches, shrimp, pot pie, nuggets, etc. One of the better reviewed quick serve options
Cosmic Ray’s – rotisserie chicken, cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets
Peco’s Bills – fajita platters, nachos, etc. Huge toppings bar. One of my favourite quick serve locations – 2016 review is here, 2017 review here
Pinocchio’s Village Haus – flatbreads, chicken parm, nuggets, etc
Tomorrowland Terrace – open seasonally, hamburgers, nuggets, hot dogs, etc

Table Service:

Be Our Guest (dinner only) – slightly French inspired. Can meet the Beast after you eat (only place to do so). 2016 review can be found here.
Cinderella’s Royal Table – princess character meal inside the castle, from reviews food is nothing special but it’s expensive – you’re paying for the characters and location
Crystal Palace – buffet with Pooh & friends. 2016 review here
Jungle Navigation Co. Skipper Canteen – chicken, steak, seafood, pork – Asian fusion
Liberty Tree Tavern – dinner is all you can eat turkey, pork and prime rib. Lunch has a few other options. I need to go just to try the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake at lunch!
Plaza Restaurant – mainly sandwiches/burgers
Tony’s Town Square – Italian restaurant close to the entrance of the park.

Disney, Food Review

Cafe Orleans – January 30, 2017

February 22, 2017 [email protected]

Cafe Orleans – Lunch – January 30, 2017

After really enjoying our meal here a few days prior, we checked the app and were able to get another reservation at Cafe Orleans no problem!

Both times we ate here, we heard them turning away anyone who didn’t have a reservation (or letting them know it would be at least a 45 minute wait until they could seat them) – so make a reservation if you’re interested in eating here!

This time we were at a small table inside the restaurant – there are not very many tables inside, it’s really tiny in there!

Here’s the menu, even though we knew exactly what we were going to order:

We both went for an order of their Pommes Frites – Traditional French Fried Potatoes tossed with Parmesan, Garlic, and Parsley served with Cajun Spice Remoulade.

These are so good. I love shoestring-style fries, and the gar-parm coating is delicious! I once again just shoved the cajun remoulade off to the side, I don’t feel that it really adds anything to them – they have more than enough flavour on their own!

Of course, we also both had to had a mint julep!

I had already drank some of mine by the time I remembered to take a picture… these things are amazing (and bottomless!). I think my glass ended up being refilled like four times (and we didn’t spend that much time there).

I have heard that in the few weeks since we were there, the recipe for the mint juleps has changed, and that makes me so sad if it’s true 🙁

Since we weren’t ordering full meals, we tried to eat as quickly as possible, and we also let our waitress know so she wouldn’t need to keep coming over to check on us.

Since I had the Premier Annual Passport, we saved 15% off our bill. Our bill was under $20 for 2 mint juleps and 2 orders of fries, and it was exactly what we wanted and it tasted amazing.

Cafe Orleans has solidified itself as one of our must-do’s on our Disneyland trips 🙂

Disney, Travel

Disney Springs

February 21, 2017 [email protected]

Formerly known as Downtown Disney, the name change happened just before our January 2016 trip. A large shopping/entertainment district with numerous restaurants, bars and stores.

You can reach Disney Springs by bus from any Disney hotel, or by boat from Old Key West, Saratoga Springs or Port Orleans. It’s a really nice, relaxing boat ride from OKW, and worth doing at least once.

This is the official website for the area, it has complete lists of all the dining/shopping available: Disney Springs.

The Disney Store (known as World of Disney) is the largest one you’ll find anywhere. The Lego store has some really awesome statues made of Lego blocks. The Uniqlo has Disney-branded clothing for a fraction of the cost of buying it at the Disney Store (tshirts were under $15 for Luke and I – and that was regular price).

There is a movie theater here as well as a bowling alley. Micheal Jordan’s son opened a store called The Trophy Room late last year which sells basketball sneakers and showcases some Micheal Jordan memorabilia.

Disney, Travel, Wedding

Itinerary

February 21, 2017 [email protected]

Since we are still early in the planning stages, this is of course subject to change! If you don’t want to participate in any of these things, that’s your choice – I’m not going to force you to do anything.

December 30 – Luke and I arrive in Orlando. Check in to Pop Century. Head to MK to catch midnight fireworks. Late supper reservation at Tony’s at 9:20pm.

December 31 -Brunch at Narcoossee’s (11am), Volunteer at Give Kids the World (3-6:30). Supper at Homecomin’ 8:50pm.

January 1 – Volunteer at Give Kids the World (11am-2:30pm). Check in to the Grand Floridian. Supper at 1900 Park Fare at 6:30pm. Desserts/drinks at California Grill 8:50pm.

January 2 – Check in to Old Key West for the remainder of the trip :), Park day Animal Kingdom. Breakfast at Boma, lunch at Tiffins, supper at Saana.

January 3 – Breakfast at Trail’s End, Race Expo, Epcot – snacks in World Showcase (Karamel Kuche, France ice cream, etc). Supper at Crew’s Cup Lounge.

January 4 – 5k race (Luke and I), Capt’ Cooks breakfast (Polynesian), Magic Kingdom morning, afternoon nap, evening at Hollywood Studios. Supper at Mama Melrose’s.

January 5 – Trattoria Al Forno breakfast. Hollywood Studios morning, Magic Kingdom afternoon, Liberty Tree Tavern 4:15pm, Happily Ever After dessert party.

January 6 – Hollywood Studios (Luke and I), lunch at 50’s Prime Time, back to Old Key West to greet family arriving this day, supper at Olivia’s or Disney Springs (staggered, as people arrive). Early bedtime for Luke.

January 7 – Marathon day (Luke). Early morning Fastpasses at Epcot, then watch Luke finish the race (probably around 1pm?) The marathon finishes just past Epcot, so he will enter through the park around mile 25. Disney Springs to Earl of Sandwich? Free afternoon – hotel swimming, park hop to Animal Kingdom (or other), shopping in Disney Springs, etc. Late supper reservation at ‘Ohana (9:45pm) -a Hawaiian-themed all you can eat meal. They bring unlimited chicken wings, pot stickers, salad, noodles, veggies, pineapple-coconut bread, skewers of meat (chicken, shrimp and steak) and bread pudding for dessert. It’s a lot of food, but it’s all really delicious! Cost for that is ~$45USD. Maybe a stop at Trader Sam’s (a super fun tiki bar) after ‘Ohana?

January 8 – Perhaps an Animal Kingdom park open until noon or so? Then Epcot day for everyone! I’d like for everyone to join us for this. I’m thinking get to the park around noon. Head to Le Cellier for 12:35 reservation (they have a prix fixe lunch menu that costs $49USD, but is for a 3 course meal; you can also order off the regular menu – their poutine with truffles was amazing and only costs $10USD). Spend the afternoon/early evening checking out the World Showcase and trying some different drinks from around the world – I’d like this to be like the bachelor/bachelorette party. Use 3 Fastpasses at some point (maybe use these at AK in the morning?). Supper at Garden Grill at 7:05pm (a character meal that is all you can eat, brought directly to your table). The food has been fantastic both times we’ve ate there, and the character interaction is a lot of fun. Cost: $45USD. After this, head out of the park and over to Jellyrolls – a dueling piano bar on the Boardwalk (walking distance from Epcot), or just go back to Old Key West and relax/go to bed.

January 9 – Magic Kingdom day! I know a few people are only planning on purchasing 2-day park tickets, but you can’t go to Disney and NOT go to Magic Kingdom. It’s the quintessential Disney park. We won’t need to tour the park all together this day, but it would be nice to meet up for lunch and supper. Pre-park open breakfast at Crystal Palace at 8:15am. Lunch at Be Our Guest at 1pm, a Beauty and the Beast themed restaurant located inside the Beast’s castle. Cost would be ~$25USD for an entree, drink and dessert (supper prices are significantly higher). For supper – on your own, since there’s no shortage of things to eat, and no shortage of quick serve food options – yum Peco’s Bills! If you’d like, they offer a Happily Ever After dessert party for a reserved view of the fireworks ($59)

January 10 – Wedding Day! Ceremony at Sea Breeze Point at noon. Immediately following the ceremony would be a cake and champagne ceremony, followed by family pictures. From there, we would head over to the reception at Homecomin’ in Disney Springs. Start time for the reception is 3:30. Following the reception, we will head back to Epcot and go to a dessert party (you will NOT require a park ticket for this, Luke and I will be covering it). There will be a selection of sweets, and a private viewing area for the nighttime show – Illuminations (this is why we skipped watching this on January 8th). After Illuminations (it’ll be about 9:30pm), head out of the park and back to OKW to go to bed. I know this seems early, but it’ll be a long day.

January 11 – Anyone wishing to check out Universal Studios, this would be the best day for it. If you are interested in the Harry Potter World there, you will need a park-to-park ticket which costs $165USD. Anyone not going to Universal – our plan is to head to Animal Kingdom (my favourite park!) For those heading to Animal Kingdom, we will be doing brunch at Tusker House at 10:45am – one of our favourite restaurants on Disney property. Cost is $45USD, but it is a character buffet, and the food is delicious! We always leave stuffed, and barely eat anything else the rest of the day.

January 12 – Other option for a Universal Studios Day (depending on which Disney Park you want to go to – AK or DHS). Hollywood Studios day for those still around! Leave the park and head to Beaches and Cream for lunch at 1:15pm (most amazing ice cream sundaes ever, and possibly the best grilled cheese I’ve ever ate), and then Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party that evening (so worth the money – I think Luke and I had 12 alcoholic drinks between us, plus the food was all great, and the VIP reserved viewing area for the fireworks was incredible).

January 13 – Go home day 🙁

Disney, Travel

January 3, 2017 – Disney Springs

February 20, 2017 [email protected] 1 Comment

January 3, 2017 – Arrival at Disney!

As soon as the bus dropped us off at Hospiltality House at Old Key West, we headed in to check-in. As Canadians, we can’t by-pass this step as Disney is unable to mail Magicbands outside the country. Check-in was extremely easy, we didn’t even need to wait in line (there was no line!). The cast member helping us was named Caleb I think? Carter maybe? It definitely started with a C, and he was very friendly! I feel bad for him, Luke and I hadn’t ate in hours by this point (and hadn’t ate much all day to be honest), and we were getting nervous we’d miss the ADR we had booked for tonight, so we were a little snappy with each other. I swear, we rarely, if ever, fight, but we were both more than a little hangry haha. We were both friendly to Caleb/Carter though – we’re not that type of people! He could clearly tell we were a little stressed out, so after giving us a map of the resort, our room number and our magicbands (purple for me, yellow for Luke), he helped us out by carrying some of our luggage to bell services. It was really appreciated! We actually stopped by the check-in area a few times over the next few days, hoping to see him working so we could apologize for how short we were being with each other, but he was never there

Once we arrived at bell services, we asked about our Garden Grocer order. One of the cast members got our names, and was back out with our order almost immediately. He then told us to follow him to one of the golf carts, loaded our groceries and luggage in and then drove us directly to our room! So awesome! I joked to Luke that we were on our first ride of the trip, he was taking some of the corners pretty quick in that golf cart and I thought I might fall out a few times haha. He helped us carry everything inside, and we tipped him and thanked him. We didn’t even have time to check out our room, we had to get moving! I grabbed my Dooney & Bourke Haunted Mansion purse I had treated myself to a few months back, and we headed out to the bus stop. We ended up being extremely lucky – we ended up with a room on the first floor in building 35, and the Turtle Pond bus stop was just across the road. It took us less than a minute to get there each day This was already a huge improvement over the All-Stars!

We didn’t wait long before a bus to Disney Springs pulled up – I think we waited maybe 5 minutes? We were both a little nervous as we sat on the bus – we were both really looking forward to our ADR, but we weren’t sure if we were going to make it on time! Luckily, Turtle Pond was one of the last stops on the Old Key West bus loop, so we were exiting the resort very quickly after a brief stop at Hospitality House. I knew OKW was close to the Springs, but I had no idea just how close! In less than 10 minutes, we were getting off the bus at the newly designed Disney Springs Of course, as soon as we stepped off the bus, we realized we had no idea where to go or how to get to our ADR…thank goodness for the MDE App!

We set off walking, and within a few minutes we saw this beautiful sign:

As I walked up to the check-in booth, I checked on the time – we were still 5 minutes early for our reservation! Go us! All that worrying for nothing

The actual review of the food can be found here – but just know we LOVED it. :love:

After eating, we decided to check out the Springs. When you first get off the bus, it definitely has an outdoor mall feel to it, but it’s still very nice. There’s so many new stores and restaurants since we were there in January 2016 as well!

We ended up at Uniqlo for quite awhile. There were so many great clothes to look at, and everything was reasonably priced! I told Luke I would buy him a present, and to pick out any shirt he wanted. He couldn’t decide between two of them, so I just bought both of them for him. They were just under $15 each – not bad at all! I also bought myself two new shirts there, but I can’t find a picture of one of them online (and it’s currently somewhere in the abyss that is my closet…).

I wish Uniqlo would ship to Canada, there were so many things I wanted from there! The only stores in Canada are in Toronto, which is quite far from where I live. Oh well, now I know to save extra money for Uniqlo shopping next January when we go back to Florida!

We stopped and purchased a FuelRod for our trip from the photo store – that was $30 well spent! I know when these were introduced last year, there was a lot of complaints about it, that you can buy phone chargers much cheaper than that. For us, we were immediately sold on the fact that you can exchange it for fresh ones as many times as you’d like from a simple vending machine type thing located inside the parks. If we didn’t drain it during the day, we would take it back and charge it in our room at night, but it was so convenient! The day we got engaged, I believe we swapped it out for fully charged FuelRods at least twice (so many people to call/text to let them know because we were so excited!). We only required one, and just shared it as needed. We brought it home with us, and used it for our Disneyland trip as well (they also have the vending machine swap stations around the parks).

I knew I wanted a few new Christmas ornaments – one with the year on it and and for each resort we would be staying at. I decided to get this done on our first night, since we were already in Disney Springs.

Sorry those pictures are all different sizes, I just took them from Google searches. The actual ornaments I bought are wrapped in tissue paper and put away with all of my other Christmas decorations. The 2017 ornament is awesome, it lights up and has the tree and the TOT on the back of the ears (so all 4 parks are represented).

After paying for our ornaments, we decided to head back to Old Key West and call it a night.

Up next: runDisney Expo and the first park of the trip!

Disney, Travel

Travel day – January 3, 2017

February 20, 2017 [email protected] 1 Comment

Before Vacation Started:

The company I work for shuts down for the week between Christmas and New Year’s, so I was off for a week and half before we even left for our trip. This gave me time to do laundry and make sure everything we wanted to take was clean and ready to go, I had time to go pick up any items we had wanted to buy, take down my Christmas trees and get most of my decorations put away. It was actually pretty nice to not be entirely stressed leading up to a trip. It also gave me time to post this on my Instagram (remember, these are in celsius since I’m Canadian!)

The day before we left, we drove out to my best friend’s and dropped off our two dogs. She has a dog of her own, plus she was looking after her dad’s two dogs. Her husband works away, so she looked after five dogs all on her own – I don’t know how she did it, but I was so grateful for her! Our dogs are so much happier staying there than they are at a kennel…

Also – yes, I only posted that stuff so I could post pictures of my dogs . Our neighbours would be looking after our cats and degus, so they came over to make sure they knew where everything was. Their three year old daughter figured she should just come with us on our trip, and climbed into my suitcase haha:

January 3, 2017

Our alarm went off at some ungodly hour – I believe it was 3:30am. We had completed most of our packing the night before, so it was just a matter of getting dressed in the clothes we had laid out, brushing our teeth/hair and putting the final few things in our bag (phone chargers, etc). We filled up the food dishes for our cats and degus (our neighbours would be checking in on them every day, but we knew they wouldn’t be over until after work – so at least 13 hours later, loaded everything into my car, and we pulled out of our garage at 4:15am. We had originally said our aim was to leave around 4am, so we weren’t doing too bad. Luckily we live close to the outskirts of the city, so we have easy access onto the highway, and we were pulling into the parking lot about 25 minutes later. Since it’s January, and we’re Canadian, we had decided to treat ourselves and book valet parking, since they will scrape all the snow off your car and have it turned on and heated up when you return. We had a discount that made the price comparable to regular-priced normal parking, so I was happy with our decision

Another perk to the valet parking we used is that it’s owned by WestJet – the airline we were flying to Orlando with. Inside the main building of the valet parking, they actually have a gate agent so we were able to check in, get our boarding passes and check our bags there – instead of lugging our suitcases onto the bus to the main terminal, then lugging them inside, then standing in line to see a gate agent there. This turned out to be a great thing, by the time we reached the main terminal the line up was HUGE! Since we had already completed it, we were able to head directly to security. Security wasn’t bad at all, within 15 minutes we were through and heading to our gate – which of course was all the way at one end. The Edmonton airport isn’t insanely large, so it really wasn’t a big deal. Once we reached our gate and verified that boarding hadn’t started yet, Luke went to Hudson News (the chain store that seems to be in every airport) and grabbed a microwaved breakfast sandwich and a coffee he deemed “terrible”, and a bottle of water for me.

On our first flight, we were row 6 so nice and close to the front of the plane. It was a really short flight, we were flying from Edmonton to Calgary which is only a 3 hour drive by car. I was of course checking in on facebook – I have some worriers in my family and they always want to know if we made it to our destination haha.

The flight itself only lasted about 45 minutes, and was very uneventful. Once we landed, we were off the plane very quickly since we were so close to the front. Calgary has a new International terminal that just opened a few months ago, so it was all new for us. We hopped on the new “Link” Shuttle to take us to the customs area. Here’s a little video I found, it was pretty neat and the new terminal looks great! When we got there, the line up was HUGE! We had to go through security again, which did take about 20-30 minutes due to the size of the line. It moved fine, but they could probably use a few more lines. Once through security, our boarding passes were scanned to check on the status of our suitcases. It popped up on the screen that it had not been processed yet, so we had to wait off to the side in a little seating area. Luke decided to use that time to go to the washroom, and he had barely closed the door when our names popped up on the screen saying we could proceed to a customs agent. We went to the electronic custom kiosks without any wait, got our print-outs and then went up to a customs agent (again, no wait). He scanned our boarding passes, and an actual picture of our suitcases appeared on the screen – we had to confirm that they were ours. This is so much easier than claiming your bags, and then checking them again once you reach the International terminal (like I’ve always had to do when I go through Toronto). Once we told the customs agent where we were headed, he made a few jokes about it and told us to have a great time

We made a stop at the Duty Free Store where Luke picked up a small bottle of Baileys to enjoy with his coffee while on vacation. I decided to run to the bathroom, and when I came out Luke had ordered us some food from Burger King. We had tons of time before our next flight left, so we sat and ate, and I checked in on facebook again.

We eventually headed to our gate. My only complaint of the new terminal was that there is not enough seating at the gates. I know there is still a lot of construction ongoing, so hopefully more will be installed soon! We boarded the plane, and were getting ready to push back a few minutes early but of course there was a pair who was late. The pilot came on and told us he was going to wait for them, since their luggage was already stored under the plane and it would take longer to pull it off the plane. So we ended up leaving a few minutes late.

I was able to sleep a bit on the plane. Luke watched the newest X-Men movie (his review was: meh?!). I woke up right before the flight attendants came around with food, so we both had a ham & swiss croissant (my WestJet go-to!). After eating, I slept a bit more, then woke up and played games on my phone. The flight was over 4 hours, and despite our late start we landed in Orlando right on time. We got onto the Fake-O-Rail and enjoyed our first view of the Florida sunshine

Yes – Luke had a Donal Duck backpack

We had booked our stay with a DVC Rental, and had asked them to add the Magical Express to our reservation. We had received a letter in the mail a few weeks prior to our departure with information on our pick-up from Saratoga Springs at the end of our trip. Since we were doing a split stay, we assumed our Old Key West info would show up before our trip – it didn’t. I had contacted the points rental company we had used, and they assured us that we were on the list, and would be allowed to board a bus at the airport to take us to our resort. But, because we never received our OKW Magical Express packet, we also never received our bright yellow luggage tags So our first stop after getting off the fake-o-rail was baggage claim. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s one of my favourite parts of using DME. Of course, one of our suitcases was one of the first ones to appear on the baggage carousel, and the other bag was one of the very last ones…

After collecting our bags, we went and checked in for Magical Express. They were able to find our names quickly, and instructed us into a line for Old Key West, Saratoga Springs and Port Orleans. We got into line – and were the only people in any of the lines. It was quite strange, that place was jam packed on our trip last year. We only stood in line for a few minutes before being directed to a bus. We were obviously the first people to load the bus, but then we ended up sitting for almost half an hour before we got moving (the bus was not even half full by the time we left the airport).

Pretty soon, we saw this glorious thing:

Sorry, it’s not the best picture but it’s the best I could do from the window of a moving bus in the dark…

Old Key West was the first drop-off location, and we were the only ones on the bus getting off there. We were also the only ones on the bus who had luggage under the bus, everyone else had correctly received their yellow tags We tipped our bus driver, and headed in to check-in – our trip was about to begin!

Next: Visiting the new Disney Springs!