Anchors Away! The TCD Gang Has Another Dream (cruise)

[Helmsey......Todd 134]

Sounds like a fantastic day!
Were you guys the only ones at the bar while enjoying your Konk Koolers?

[Beckers 1,136]

I've been lobbying ( unsuccessfully ) to book the DCL that leaves from NYC in October to Canada. This report makes me think I should give up now and start lobbying for a Caribbean one. I really just want to go to castaway cay.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

34 minutes ago, Momof6....aka Marty said:

What an amazing day!

True.  It may have been our best day ever on Castaway Cay.  My only regret it that I didn't squeeze in a bit of snorkeling.

31 minutes ago, Specularius said:

I feel a little cheated that we did not get to enjoy Pelican Plunge on our first ever visit the last week of May. It was closed for refurbishment. Loving the report.

Nuts!  That is a shame.  Of course, there was no Pelican Plunge for our first few cruises.

You'll just have to go back!

24 minutes ago, Helmsey......Todd said:

Sounds like a fantastic day!
Were you guys the only ones at the bar while enjoying your Konk Koolers?

At first we were.

Then a strange young man came up, and sat there by himself at the bar, vaping and had a drink.

He totally eavesdropped on our conversation and kept interjecting comments.  It was actually funny.  We all wondered where the heck he came from and what he was doing on a Disney Cruise.

5 minutes ago, Beckers said:

I've been lobbying ( unsuccessfully ) to book the DCL that leaves from NYC in October to Canada. This report makes me think I should give up now and start lobbying for a Caribbean one. I really just want to go to castaway cay.

A cruise to Canada would be fun.

But, I'd lobby for a Bahamas or Caribbean cruise too.

Have your parents cruised on DCL?  It would really make a great family trip.  A great Christmas present?

TCD

[parrothead7368 aka Norm 101]

I've done a Canadian cruise, not DCL, but they all stop mostly the same places. It was ok, you couldn't really be outside, because it was cold and a hurricane came up the coast and the ride was rough. I don't think I would do it again, but of course DCL may be better with better entertainment etc.

Best Regards,

Norm

[Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5]

On ‎7‎/‎6‎/‎2016 at 1:56 PM, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

Hey- it's great to see a post from you, Heidi.

I hope all is well with you and the family.

 

 

Thanks Andrew! We are all good! Celebrating my 5-year anniversary of being diagnosed with cancer today, which means that next month it will be 5-years since my boys and I spotted you and the twins in line at Toy Story Mania! Time flies!!!

Congrats on the 5k!! I used to run in a lot of races, but I know that I couldn't have done one in the heat you described!

Sounds like a wonderful cruise and wonderful family time for the 5 of you.

next month we are going on another western National Park trip and ending it with 5 days at Disneyland. It will be our 3rd Disneyland trip, but our last one was 4 years ago. I know you have some Disneyland trip reports on here and I need to go and read them for hints and tips!

Thanks for sharing your trip!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

You make the 5K sound not so fun.

No selfie of you and Mrs. TCD on the beach?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

17 hours ago, parrothead7368 aka Norm said:

I've done a Canadian cruise, not DCL, but they all stop mostly the same places. It was ok, you couldn't really be outside, because it was cold and a hurricane came up the coast and the ride was rough. I don't think I would do it again, but of course DCL may be better with better entertainment etc.

Best Regards,

Norm

I thing a cruise to Canada would be fun on a DCL ship.  But, I'd still prefer a cruise with sunshine and warm weather.

9 hours ago, Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM said:

Thanks Andrew! We are all good! Celebrating my 5-year anniversary of being diagnosed with cancer today, which means that next month it will be 5-years since my boys and I spotted you and the twins in line at Toy Story Mania! Time flies!!!

Congrats on the 5k!! I used to run in a lot of races, but I know that I couldn't have done one in the heat you described!

Sounds like a wonderful cruise and wonderful family time for the 5 of you.

next month we are going on another western National Park trip and ending it with 5 days at Disneyland. It will be our 3rd Disneyland trip, but our last one was 4 years ago. I know you have some Disneyland trip reports on here and I need to go and read them for hints and tips!

Thanks for sharing your trip!

Five years?  Awesome!!! 

That's great that you're making it back to Disneyland.  I hope you have your room booked at the Park Vue.  You will be making in time to enjoy the 60th Anniversary stuff.  I highly recommend the Paint the Night Parade and Disneyland Forever fireworks.  Make time to see both of those on Main Street.  Also, don't miss Hyperspace Mountain. 

I'm sure you've heard that the train, Fantasmic, and the boats around Tom Sawyer island are down because of the Star Wars Land construction.  That's too bad, but there's still plenty to do and see.

7 hours ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

You make the 5K sound not so fun.

No selfie of you and Mrs. TCD on the beach?

The 5K was fun, and I'd do it again.  But, the heat was brutal.

I failed on the beach photos.  I remember that day- I was covered in sunscreen, sweat and seawater all day.  I tried not to touch anything.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The end of a 3 night cruise sneaks up on you.

As soon as you get in your groove and start having fun, it's time to pack up and go home.

The end of this TR has snuck up on me too.

This is my last batch of photos from the cruise!

The last update ended with us boarding the ship at 4:33 pm.  We usually have cabins in the forward part of the ship, but this time, we were in the aft.  That was nice coming back from Castaway Cay, because all we had to do was take the elevator from Deck 1 to Deck 10, and we were at our cabins.

Traditionally, we hit the pools and Aqua Duck right after Castaway Cay.  On past cruises, we wouldn't even bother to go to the rooms- just head up to Deck 11 and watch the sail away from there.

This time, our cabins were conveniently located on our way to Deck 11, and we had our verandahs, so we watched the sail away from there.

Here's our view from the verandahs.  This photo was taken at 4:41 pm, and there are no guests walking up to the ship:

Those carts down there are full of wet towels which will be laundered on the ship and used by the next cruisers:

There are still no more guests coming.  Maybe we were the last to board after all?:

At 4:43, the last two guests to board came walking quickly up to the ship.  Congrats to them:

You can see the showers to the left of those two guests.  All that sand on the ground came off the feet of guests who tracked it all the way here from the beach.

After loading the big laundry bins on the ship, the carts took off:

There are a bunch of golf carts parked over here.  I think they use those to bring guests to the private cabanas they have on the family and adult beaches:

All aboard time was 4:45.  By 4:46, they were already starting to untie the ship:

All of those utility carts kept on leaving:

More rope untying:

At 4:55, just ten minutes after the all-aboard time,  the captain fired up the engines, and we were on our way:

Do you see that little boat speeding away over there?  That's some of the workers who ride over from neighboring islands to work on Castaway Cay- also over on the left, you can see that some pretty heavy rain is coming out of those dark clouds:

Those lucky Castmembers down there are some of the crew that lives on Castaway Cay:

It was so insignificant that I didn't mention it, but we did have one cloud drop a couple of minutes of rain on us while we were on the island.  Other than that, we had blue skies for this whole cruise, but over there on the horizon, there is rain.  I thought maybe we would be going through that, but we never did:

I don't know what these CM's have to do on the island, but I'd like to be one of them some day:

I don't know if you can see them, but the CM's had big Mickey gloves on their hands to wave at us.  We could shout down to them, and hear them shout back, "see your real soon," and other Disney speak:

There's the gangway- they will be dragging it back over to another Disney ship in a couple of days:

After watching the sail away, we headed up to the pool.   We decided to skip tonight's show, and try to get some Aqua Duck rides in, and just chill on the less crowded deck.  We did exactly that.  Then we had to go back to our rooms, and get our stuff packed.

The girls headed out for some pre-dinner photos:

Dinner tonight was at the Royal Palace.  We had never done this dining rotation, and we liked finishing up in the nicest restaurant.

After dinner, we rushed back to our rooms to get our suitcases out in the hall.

We had a crab and a cobra on our beds:

Then we headed to the Atrium for the final See You Real Soon show.

They have all the characters come out for this:

The characters all head down to the atrium and guests can meet them:

The twins found their favorites.  This photo also shows the matching shirts that were mentioned on the list of fun.  If you've seen Finding Dory, you know who Gerald is.  Mrs. TCD and Twin #1 found those shirts at our local Disney Store and surprised us with them on the cruise.  We all had one, and put them on after dinner on our last night on the ship.  I failed to get a group photo of that:

Sadly, that's the last photo I have from the cruise.

After the big atrium party, we wandered the ship a bit, and ended up back in the cabins where we had a final round of Mickey Bars from room service.

The next morning, we hit the Cabanas buffet early, which was nice since it was just one deck up, and then returned to our rooms to vacate them by the 8 am deadline.  We headed straight off of the ship, got in the Big Blue Excursion and headed west.  We dropped Twin #2 back at school, and we were home a bit past 11 am.

And that is that.

It was a great cruise, and I really want to do another one.

And a lot sooner than how long it had been between our last two DCL cruises.

If you're sad it's over, don't be.

I have some bonus content to post.

TCD

[Seals 111]

I didn't know there were Gerald shirts. I must get one. 

I'm curious if you had your own table at dinner or were seated with others. As a family of 5, both times I requested our own table and both times we were seated with a family of 3 (the first time was a disappointment; the second time worked out great).

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

43 minutes ago, Seals said:

I didn't know there were Gerald shirts. I must get one. 

I'm curious if you had your own table at dinner or were seated with others. As a family of 5, both times I requested our own table and both times we were seated with a family of 3 (the first time was a disappointment; the second time worked out great).

We did have our own table at dinner. 

We have had a mixture of tablemates on prior cruises, and sometimes we have had our own table.

For the first time ever on this cruise, I requested a private table.  On our last cruise, we had a party of three seated with us- it was a mother and teenage daughter, and a teenage nephew.  They were from Canada, and had traveled extensively, and really didn't seem to like anything much about the cruise or Disney.  They were very nice, and we had polite conversation with them every night, but it was awkward.  Since we now don't get to eat many meals together, it was nice to have a private table. 

Our cruise clearly wasn't completely sold out, and we had late seating.  There were empty tables around us in the dining rooms, so I don't think it was much trouble for them to grant the request for a private table.  From what I've heard, they are more accommodating with that kind of request if you have late seating.

TCD

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Great ending! The See You Real Soon show is not to be missed.

Bring on the bonus!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DaveInTN 3,247]

That's it?  We're only 5 pages in and it's over??

I want my money back.  

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

31 minutes ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

Great ending! The See You Real Soon show is not to be missed.

Bring on the bonus!

Thanks.  I'm glad we made it to that last show.

5 minutes ago, DaveInTN said:

That's it?  We're only 5 pages in and it's over??

I want my money back.  

I know how you feel.  That cruise flew by way too fast.

There were things that I meant to photograph that I didn't.

There are lots of things that I meant to do and see that I didn't.

I need a do-over.

TCD

[Specularius 102]

For our cruise in May, we left port on Monday morning and returned to port on Friday morning, and it went by way to fast. I think a 3 day would just zoom by. I had no idea about a "See You Real Soon" show. We missed it. 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

1 hour ago, Specularius said:

For our cruise in May, we left port on Monday morning and returned to port on Friday morning, and it went by way to fast. I think a 3 day would just zoom by. I had no idea about a "See You Real Soon" show. We missed it. 

So you missed Pelican Plunge and the See Your Real Soon show.

You need to book another cruise!

TCD

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Loved everything about the cruise report.  Looking forward to bonus content.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

I really really really want to go on a Disney Cruise!

Looking forward to the bonus content.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

What a great Castaway Cay day!  I'm looking forward to the bonus material too.

[Specularius 102]

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

So you missed Pelican Plunge and the See Your Real Soon show.

You need to book another cruise!

TCD

We did before we left the boat. Going again June 2nd through the 7th of 2017. This one includes two days at Castaway Cay. Speaking of the Cay, this is how you can tell you had a full day on the Cay:

Yes, she was snoring at the table in Animators Palate. 

[Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5]

On ‎7‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 8:29 AM, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

Five years?  Awesome!!! 

That's great that you're making it back to Disneyland.  I hope you have your room booked at the Park Vue.  You will be making in time to enjoy the 60th Anniversary stuff.  I highly recommend the Paint the Night Parade and Disneyland Forever fireworks.  Make time to see both of those on Main Street.  Also, don't miss Hyperspace Mountain. 

I'm sure you've heard that the train, Fantasmic, and the boats around Tom Sawyer island are down because of the Star Wars Land construction.  That's too bad, but there's still plenty to do and see.

 

Thanks! Yes, 5 years is a great milestone!!

We do have our room booked at the Park Vue!! It will be our third stay there. Last month I was actually considering canceling the Park Vue and staying at Disney's Paradise Pier, so that we could have the Magic Morning everyday. It would have cost about $800 more, which I was ok with, but once I mentioned it to the boys and told them we would get Magic Mornings everyday, BUT there would be no free continental breakfast and a MUCH longer walk between the hotel and park, they said to forget it!!! So the Park Vue won out over a Disney Resort! Now, if I could have gotten the Grand Californian for the same price as the Paradise Pier, I would have snapped that up, but holy moly, they really jack the prices up at that place!

I am excited for the Paint the Night Parade and the fireworks. I need to read your report to see if there is a special place on Main Street that we should grab for viewing.

I am a bit bummed about the train being closed, as I love the Disneyland train ride.

Great rest of the cruise!! I actually felt sad for you and Mrs. TCD when it ended and you dropped one twin back off at school. As happy as we both are, I am sure, that our kids are leading the productive and happy lives that they do, it is still sad to have them all grown up and not as available anymore! Hoping you can have another trip with them all soon!

I know I felt like I hit the lottery when both of my boys said they wanted to come on our western trip and were able to work it out with their schedules. Being away for 2 1/2 weeks with a 20 and 23 year old, who have busy schedules, is no easy feat, but much to my delight it all worked out!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On ‎7‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 2:01 PM, Momof6....aka Marty said:

Loved everything about the cruise report.  Looking forward to bonus content.

Thanks!  I hope to have some bonus content for you today.

On ‎7‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 2:22 PM, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

I really really really want to go on a Disney Cruise!

Looking forward to the bonus content.

I hope that you can find a way to take a Disney Cruise some day.  The problem is that they are so danged expensive!

On ‎7‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 2:43 PM, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said:

What a great Castaway Cay day!  I'm looking forward to the bonus material too.

It was another great day on Castaway Cay.  That island is the main reason I have resisted the temptation to go on other cruiselines.  None of their private islands come close.

On ‎7‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 3:12 PM, Specularius said:

We did before we left the boat. Going again June 2nd through the 7th of 2017. This one includes two days at Castaway Cay. Speaking of the Cay, this is how you can tell you had a full day on the Cay:

Yes, she was snoring at the table in Animators Palate. 

LOL.  That photo is awesome!

That's great news that you booked a Double Dip cruise.  I saw that they were offering those next summer.  We did a 5 night Double Dip cruise on the Dream back in 2012.  For us, that is the perfect cruise.  7 nights can feel too long.  3 and 4 feel to short.  5 nights and two trips to Castaway Cay are perfect!  I want to do one of those next summer, but we can't plan something like that this far out.

12 hours ago, Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM said:

Thanks! Yes, 5 years is a great milestone!!

We do have our room booked at the Park Vue!! It will be our third stay there. Last month I was actually considering canceling the Park Vue and staying at Disney's Paradise Pier, so that we could have the Magic Morning everyday. It would have cost about $800 more, which I was ok with, but once I mentioned it to the boys and told them we would get Magic Mornings everyday, BUT there would be no free continental breakfast and a MUCH longer walk between the hotel and park, they said to forget it!!! So the Park Vue won out over a Disney Resort! Now, if I could have gotten the Grand Californian for the same price as the Paradise Pier, I would have snapped that up, but holy moly, they really jack the prices up at that place!

I am excited for the Paint the Night Parade and the fireworks. I need to read your report to see if there is a special place on Main Street that we should grab for viewing.

I am a bit bummed about the train being closed, as I love the Disneyland train ride.

Great rest of the cruise!! I actually felt sad for you and Mrs. TCD when it ended and you dropped one twin back off at school. As happy as we both are, I am sure, that our kids are leading the productive and happy lives that they do, it is still sad to have them all grown up and not as available anymore! Hoping you can have another trip with them all soon!

I know I felt like I hit the lottery when both of my boys said they wanted to come on our western trip and were able to work it out with their schedules. Being away for 2 1/2 weeks with a 20 and 23 year old, who have busy schedules, is no easy feat, but much to my delight it all worked out!

I think you made the right choice to stay in Park Vue.  I personally have never stepped foot on the Paradise Pier property, but the twins went to events there, and they both felt that it doesn't even measure up to a WDW value resort.  And, as you know, it costs a lot more than one of those.  Plus that location isn't the best, and you have to pay for parking there to boot.

The Magic Mornings would have been nice, but I think you get one when you buy a multi-day pass, even if you're staying off site.  We have used the Magic Mornings at DCA to get to Radiator Springs Racers, but it still only gets you one ride.  You can do that at rope drop on a normal day.

Have a great trip.  I'd really like to get back to Disneyland before they end the 60th anniversary stuff, and there's a chance that I will.  But so far, the twins' schedules are not cooperating.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Here's some of that bonus content I promised.

The cruise ended on Monday, June 27.

Exactly a week before July 4th.

Before this cruise was booked, I had managed to book a campsite at the Fort for the 4th of July weekend.

The arrival date for that reservation was Friday, July 1.  When the cruise came along, I tried to change that, but since I wanted to stay on the night of the 4th, there was no way to do it. 

That weekend had been planned well in advance, and I had booked FP+'s at the 60 day mark.  This was before the new stuff like Soarin' and the Frozen ride has opened up for FP+ reservations, so these were heavily in the MK, but they were good ones- like for the Mine Train.  I also even had some dining reservations.  I hate having to plan that far ahead, as it destroys the ability to be flexible. 

I knew that trying to do a camping trip so close to the cruise would not be ideal.  And, my reservation was for a partial site.  With a Friday arrival, that meant my chances of getting stuck in the 2000 loop were high.

So, I had to cancel the Fort reservation.

I still wanted to try to be at WDW for the 4th.

I asked Twin #1 to see if she could find us a CM rate at a Disney hotel for two nights- the 3rd and 4th.  To my surprise, she came up with a lot of choices.  No campsites or cabins, though.  She got us a good deal on a room at Port Orleans French Quarter.  Which, for some reason, is my favorite moderate level resort. 

Twin #1 had gone back to Gainesville after the cruise.  But, she headed down to Orlando on the 1st, and spent two nights with Twin #2. Twin #2 had to work some, but they did hang out together, and had hit all of the parks.  Crowds weren't too bad, they reported.  Maybe because it was unmercifully hot.

When the 3rd rolled around,  we agreed that we wouldn't have any park plans for the afternoon.  I had lined up our FP+'s for the MK that night, and we had a dinner reservation for the Plaza (which was one of the last ones anyone made as they no longer are accepting reservations), and then we planned to watch the 4th of July fireworks from inside the park.  It was a good plan.  The plan for the afternoon was to enjoy our air conditioned room and the POFQ pool.

Since I would be arriving at near lunch time, our lunch plans were for me to stop and get some WaWa Hoagies on the way, and we would eat them at the hotel.  If our room wasn't ready, we'd grab a table in the Food Court.

All went according to plan, and I met the twins at the hotel.  Our room was ready, and we headed in.

It pains me to admit it, but this was a bit nicer than the TCD camper:

We were in a great location, not far from the pool or main building.  This was the view from our room:

We ate our sandwiches in the room, and then headed down to the pool.

July 3rd was in the height of the WDW gator hiding frenzy.  After the unfortunate alligator attack incident, the crocodile floats had been removed from the Festival of Fantasy Parade  and EWP, and Louis the alligator was not allowed to perform in the new stage show at the MK.  I wondered what was done about all of the gators used at POFQ.

Now we know- nothing:

They had a new splash area at the pool which was added since the last time I had been here:

The pool was busy, but there were still plenty of open chairs and space to enjoy the pool.  We spent a good hour there, and then headed back to the room.

The dock for boat transportation to Disney Springs is near the pool, which meant it was near our room:

I really like the layout and atmosphere of this resort.  It's like a really clean family friendly version of the French Quarter of New Orleans:

There goes one of the Disney Springs boats:

The afternoon was hot and sunny.  The normal weather patterns for this time of year would mean that we could expect an afternoon thunderstorm.  But, we didn't get any rain.  Which meant it was hot.  The weather app on my phone said it felt like 109 today.  And I believe it.

Our first FP+ at the MK was for Space Mountain.  Then, we had our dinner reservation, and we could then ride Big Thunder Mountain and finish at the Mine Train before finding a spot for the fireworks.  It was a good plan.

Since we were taking the bus to the MK, I built in some extra time to get there, but it wasn't needed, as a bus pulled up right when we got to the bus stop.

That meant we had time to stop and watch Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire (MRFF) or, as we say, Merf, before heading to Space Mountain:

It's a good show with some characters that are under-represented in the parks- here you can see Olaf,  Goofy dancing with Tiana, and Prince Naveen dancing with Minnie Mouse:

But no Louis the alligator.

The standby time for Space Mountain was 45 minutes, which isn't bad considering this was July 3rd.  We got to head right in with our FP+'s:

Check out this lady's headgear:

That deserves a closer look:

What the Fort?

After Space, we got to head right to the Plaza, where we got a table right under the AC vent.  Perfect.

But, not everything was perfect at the Plaza.

They aren't serving steak fries anymore:

That makes me very sad.  I loved the Plaza's steak fries.

With that and them no longer taking ADR's, I think it's going to be a long time before I'm back there.

Too bad.

My perfect plan for the evening called for us to catch the end of our BTMRR FP+ return window and then head right to the Mine Train for a ride before grabbing our Fireworks spot.

But those plans changed during dinner.

Twin #2 got a text that a friend of hers was working at Princess Fairy Tale Hall, and she wanted to go there and say hello.  This is a new friend she made at UCF, and this was the girl's first night working at this new position, so she really wanted to go.  Twin #1's friend went online, and changed our Big Thunder FP+'s to Princess FP+'s and we headed there instead.

That change was worth it.  Twin #2's friend was the best Tiana we had ever met:

The twins now each have several friends who are "friends" with various characters.  It's always fun to see them meet these friends when they are working.

That change in plans took longer than expected, because even though we had FP+'s, we had to wait until the right Tiana was in the right room before we met her. 

So, we had to skip those hard to get Mine Train FP+'s.

Oh well.

The fireworks weren't until 9, and we probably could have found a spot even if we had ridden the Mine Train, but places were filling up, and there have been times where we were not allowed to go to where we wanted to go, so we chose to get our spots.

The open up the old FP+ viewing areas to everyone on big nights like this, so we went there.  Here we are at 8:17 pm,  with about 45 minutes to go before the show:

It sure was cozy in here.  The girls wanted to leave.  But, I knew it would be worse out on the street:

We had to sit two and two, but we found enough space to sit and wait:

Hey- that's not a bad selfie!

Our view wasn't bad.  You want to be able to see the castle for these fireworks, if possible:

We were in this exact spot last year on July 3rd, and sat out a delay of over an hour while sitting in the rain and watching lightning.  Tonight, it was nice and dry, and we were treated to a nice sunset too:

Nobody was stopping anyone from coming in to this area, and things got pretty tight:

The show started right on time:

I've never seen fireworks photos that do the MK fireworks justice, and these certainly don't. This is my favorite fireworks show they do all year:

That's enough.

The MK was open until 1 am tonight, and then there were EMH's until 3 am.

Since we were resort guests, we needed to take advantage of that.

But, the park was packed, and would likely stay that way until much later.

We had a plan.

We headed to the Polynesian.

Oy, it was hard to get out of the park.

But we did.

And we headed to Trader Sam's.

This was the first time I've been inside there.

The twins are finally legal.

It was fun!

I started out with a Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Rum:

I really enjoyed all of the props and decorations:

This is an old prop from the Tiki Room, and it comes to life when a certain drink is ordered:

We were seated next to this window, which kept changing depending on what was happening in the bar:

We really had a great time in there.  Twin #2 got one of the drinks they serve in a pearl, and got a black pearl, which is a big deal.

The only part I didn't like was when the bill came.

Ouch, that place is expensive.  Even for Disney.

We stayed right up to closing time, which was 12 am.  On a Friday night.  That's too early.  But, they did me a favor.  I wouldn't want to see my bill if we had stayed longer.

Something special happens at closing, which I didn't know.

What a cool place.

Then we headed to the MK.

And it was still busy!

But, we had to do something.

So, the Country Bears at 1:10 am it was:

After that, we could have stayed and maybe the crowds would have dispersed a bit.  But, we were tired, and we had a long day planned for the 4th.  Starting with a breakfast reservation at Trail's End.

So we called it an early night.

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

27 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

But, not everything was perfect at the Plaza.

They aren't serving steak fries anymore:

 

And with that, the radical transformation of WDW is complete.

Always remember.  

 

[parrothead7368 aka Norm 101]

Blech, WaWa!!

We went to Port Orleans when we were down in November to try different QS places and check out how the other half lives. We liked it and would stay there if we ever had to stay in a hotel.

Best Regards,

Norm

[Travisma 1,317]

Just now, parrothead7368 aka Norm said:

Blech, WaWa!!

Best Regards,

Norm

A lot better than Subway or Quiznos!