AC's Fort/Bay Lake Tower February 2013 Trip Report

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Sounds like you had a great date night! Early ADRs in the MK are so worth it just for being on Main Street without the crowds!

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

Great date night, did you like the Yuengling? Your coming very close to their home brewery in a few weeks.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

I did like it. I had it one time previously; a few years ago while watching the town's Independence Day fireworks from my driveway.

Nothing says Fourth of July like fireworks and American made beer.

[Beckers 1,136]

You can tour their facility. My parents did it about a year ago? They really enjoyed it.

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

Great date night, did you like the Yuengling? Your coming very close to their home brewery in a few weeks.

Poor Michigan----no Yuengling. Just another reason Ohio is better.

We got hooked on Main Street with no people and ended up spending a ridiculous amount of money eating at the Crystal Palace multiple times in one trip. Don't make this mistake.

Then we took a trip with 7am park openings that didn't allow for an 8am breakfast and we learned to love the Welcome Show with a granola bar. Of course now my kids sing Casey Jr at the drop of a hat, but no people between you and the castle is priceless!!!!

[alexwyattmommy 181]

My grandparents are from outside Wilkes-Barre. Yuengling was the only beer in their fridge. They had this really cool skinny bottles that my Pop used to call short ones. They came the sturdiest case you ever saw.

Early morning pre-crowd MK is great for picture taking. Yours are great.

Date night looks like it was rousing success. :D

[Southern Blessings 4]

Date night looked like a lot of fun! I was thinking of making an ADR for MK just so we could be there w/o crowds.

[YENSIDCAMPER 66]

I concur with TCD, monorail drinking tour...Awesome.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

That GF bar looks like a real snoozer.

By any chance was there someone there named Chauncey? Or Wilberforce?

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Monorail Bar Tour! Genius!

That was a great way to finish off the date night!

I love all the early morning MK photos! Can't wait to hear about breakfast.

TCD

Breakast update coming up.

Drinks around the monorail line was definitely fun.

I think I may need to try the Lapu Lapu next time.

Sounds like you had a great date night! Early ADRs in the MK are so worth it just for being on Main Street without the crowds!

It was great being in the park without large crowds. I would like to stay after close until the point they kick you out to experience the same thing at night.

Great date night, did you like the Yuengling? Your coming very close to their home brewery in a few weeks.

You can tour their facility. My parents did it about a year ago? They really enjoyed it.

That is a good idea. Do they give away samples?

Poor Michigan----no Yuengling. Just another reason Ohio is better.

We got hooked on Main Street with no people and ended up spending a ridiculous amount of money eating at the Crystal Palace multiple times in one trip. Don't make this mistake.

Then we took a trip with 7am park openings that didn't allow for an 8am breakfast and we learned to love the Welcome Show with a granola bar. Of course now my kids sing Casey Jr at the drop of a hat, but no people between you and the castle is priceless!!!!

We can buy all we want at the store......just no brewery here.

We enjoy the welcome show and the early morning park too. Probably won't do more than one early morning MK ADR per trip though. I can see how it would become a habit though.

My grandparents are from outside Wilkes-Barre. Yuengling was the only beer in their fridge. They had this really cool skinny bottles that my Pop used to call short ones. They came the sturdiest case you ever saw.

Early morning pre-crowd MK is great for picture taking. Yours are great.

Date night looks like it was rousing success. :D

I love the old beer cases. Like everything else......it was better back when.

That's why I still buy Coke in the full-sized glass bottles at Costco......I'm old school like that.

Date night looked like a lot of fun! I was thinking of making an ADR for MK just so we could be there w/o crowds.

It was fun.

I would recommend the early morning ADR at MK. It is a very different experience being in the park with only a few other people around.

I concur with TCD, monorail drinking tour...Awesome.

See Lou. Riding the monorail can be a very good thing.

That GF bar looks like a real snoozer.

By any chance was there someone there named Chauncey? Or Wilberforce?

Mrs. Wilberforce was there telling stories about her trysts with Alec Guiness and Peter Sellers while on location.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

2-9-13 (continued)

When we left off we were in the hub, working our way to the castle for our Royal Table reservations.

We hung out near the hub for a couple more minutes just taking in the scenery:

Heading inside:

Looking back to the train station again. I love the American flags on top of all the buildings:

Getting closer:

We have arrived:

Moving inside:

Not quite as cool as Belle's Fiend Guards:

Greeted by our hostess with the mostest:

We headed up the spiral stairs and into the dining room:

DS with his sword and DD with her wand:

Ceiling pics:

Hanging out and coloring while waiting on breakfast:

and then we are interrupted by Dave's dream:

Photo Limit....

[alexwyattmommy 181]

More, more, more.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Shortly thereafter we received another visitor at our table:

We wants the redhead:

It's too cold this morning for that outfit but whatever works for her:

Heading downstairs after breakfast:

I got this pic when we got back outside:

Okay. Here's the thing.

The food at CRT sucked.

The pastry plate they bring you before the meal was okay.

The meals sucked.

They were all lukewarm to cold.

It was clear they make up a ton of plates prior to seating people and then start bringing them out to feed people regardless of how long they had been sitting around.

I was extremely underwhelmed.

That being said, I am still glad we did it so DD could have the experience.

She had a lot of fun with it and really enjoyed meeting all the princesses inside the castle.

She really would like to be able to go all the way up in the castle and was a bit disappointed that she couldn't.

Not mad, just a bit bummed.

She still talks about how much fun she had being in the castle and meeting the ladies, so it was worth it.

Will we be making this an every trip staple?

No.

DW and I left breakfast hungry.

That is not acceptable when you are paying that much money.

Yup, I know it's Disney and you are gonna spend money, but the food was downright gross.

Okay.....enough of my crappy food rant.

We were on a walk through Old Fantasyland after leaving the castle:

I can see our destination:

The closed mountain:

Across the way:

Here we are for the first ride of the day:

DS does not like coasters and DW decided she would stay with him while I took DD and go in "line":

A couple on ride pics:

DD had a blast on BTMRR. She loves it. It is also my favorite ride at MK. Good times were had.

On the way into Frontierland and near BTMRR, I overheard several people having a conversation about Splash Mountain.

Apparently they did not know Splash Mountain was closed until they got to the entrance to SM at the standby line.

They were talking about how WDW should have made it more clear that SM was closed before they walked all the way to the line entrance.

Let's see.

The times guide showed it closed.

Every Disney website showed it closed.

And if you missed all that, you could have seen one of several of these:

There were several on the outskirts of Frontierland.........you could not miss them.

Well.

Most people could not miss them.

After BTMRR, we took another walk:

Still not many people in the park.....and I am loving it.

Next we rode Peter Pan's Flight:

Limit.....

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

After PP, we moved across to IASW which is every fiends favorite one mile per hour boat ride as long as you don't include POTC, JC, the Mexico ride, Maelstrom, or Living with the Land:

Our family loves the Blue Hippo with the Googly eyes the best.

Continuing through Lou's House of Pain:

I thought I read somewhere before the trip that the end scene was covered up and they were possibly working on NextGen stuff in that last area of the ride. As you can see, it was not covered up:

After the slow boat to paradise was over, we were on a mission to meet up with some chicks. We'll pick up there in the next update.

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Sorry to hear about the food at breakfast. Having boys, I've not had to splurge on a meal in the castle. I think we eat at Beast's castle instead. Love the no people photos.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Sorry that the expensive breakfast sucked. I'm sure somebody in management figured out a long time ago that they can get away with serving sub-par food and people will still pack the place. So that's what they do. It's the Disney way.

I love all the empty park photos from after breakfast!

That's weird about the Small World signs- I guess that next gen/ new interactive ending thing was just a rumor?

TCD

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Sorry to hear about the food at breakfast. Having boys, I've not had to splurge on a meal in the castle. I think we eat at Beast's castle instead. Love the no people photos.

No people pics were fun to take. You could always do an early ADR at another MK eatery......you still can get in before the parks open.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Sorry that the expensive breakfast sucked. I'm sure somebody in management figured out a long time ago that they can get away with serving sub-par food and people will still pack the place. So that's what they do. It's the Disney way.

I love all the empty park photos from after breakfast!

That's weird about the Small World signs- I guess that next gen/ new interactive ending thing was just a rumor?

TCD

It was awesome to just let DD run ahead and be able to keep her in sight because there was no one else around.

I am wondering the same thing about IASW. Maybe it started as a rumor on another site? I don't remember.

[Beckers 1,136]

That is a good idea. Do they give away samples?

They do! Root beer too!

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

2-9-13 (continued)

We left IASW and were headed to meet up with some ladies we had never met before.

On our way:

Here we are:

Tiana spent an awful lot of time talking to DD and DS. She was taking time to do a lot of Q&A with the kids. It was nice for DD to have that experience and not be rushed through like many of the meet and greets.

Since that worked out so well, we continued and tried to check our next goal off the list. We were going to head over to let the kids meet Merida, but the walkway from the hub to her area was closed for maintenance. We said what the hey and walked down the Tomorrowland bridge and back around the long way. When we got there, Merida and her CM friends were talking around the big table with no guests anywhere around. She saw us walk up and walked briskly down the walkway to meet DD. She greeted DD very warmly and then walked her up the walkway and around to the area where the pictures are taken.

Merida talked to our kids for 5 or 6 minutes and then took numerous pictures. Afterward, a swarm of guests showed up and got in line all at once........they had re-opened the walkway from the hub.

Before we left, DD turned down a chance to shoot Merida's bow:

I don't think she trusted the CM....she was playing shy all of a sudden.

DS jumped in and pretty much said, "Give me that bow!":

Since there were no back straps on hoofs running around, he settles for shooting a target.

Next, we continued our character stroll.

We weren't late for anything.

Not even a very important date.

So we stopped to see this Snowshoe:

DD was still "playing" shy so she did not want to meet the White Rabbit.

On our way to Adventureland:

Did you see who that was?

Yup.

Mr. Pan himself.

I looked around for the Pan stalker, but didn't see her.

The kids stopped to meet Mr. Pan.....I used to love his peanut butter.

He told us to make sure to ride his ride before we left the park today.

We told him we already rode it.

He said, "You can go now then. There is nothing else to see here that can top that!"

He was funny....DW and I laughed. DD said, "Yeah we're going to AdventureLand. They have Tiki birds." DS added, "and dole whips."

Apparently they weren't buying what Mr. Pan was selling.

Sideways pic:

We are on our way to a ride the kids have never experienced before....the famous Jungle Cruise:

Continued in next post...........

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

It had been awhile since I heard so many corny jokes. Good times.

After the enjoyable trip through the jungle, we were headed to see Fritz:

We'll pick it up from there in awhile.

[Lou... 3,118]

Ok Aaron, to make up for it, your little princess and the rest of us at the Akershus, next trip. Make the res.

And will go shopping for a princess dress for her. Don't worry, it won't cost that much.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Ok....it's been like two minutes.....that's long enough.

Here we are at the Enchanted Tiki Room.

It's no longer Under New Management.

I am glad it is back to Old Management.

After Cho-time was done........we headed to another Meet and Greet the kids had never done before.

While waiting in line, they ate their lunch.

It was an advertised 35 minute wait, which we would never have waited for under normal circumstances......but when I looked inside, it did not look like a 35 minute wait.....so we waited in line and the kids ate lunch.

20 minutes later, here we were:

DD showed Tink her "twirly dress":

Tink loved the twirl:

Do you know who this fairy is?

If you said Perriwinkle, you were right. I had no idea. I asked the Photopass guy.

You learn something new every day.

Aftwerward, I could hardly contain my excitement at all the photopasses I had accrued this morning:

They kept asking if I wanted one. I kept on saying I did not need one.

And I somehow kept accumulating them anyway.

I thought it was humorous.

Next stop.....my favorite place in Adventureland:

After that delicious treat, we were en route to yet another meet and greet.

I took a few pics along the way:

As you can see, it was only noon. We accomplished a ton in one morning and I was more than satisfied.

It was a great morning with a lot of great experiences for the kids.

It was fun to watch them interact with all the characters..........and eat dole whips.

The MK train station and the American flag......doesn't get much better than that:

I stopped at the fire station quick while DW took the kids to get in line at the final destination of our morning:

The Dans were hanging out on that corner too and taking pics with the folks:

Continued in next post...........

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

We didn't have time for them now though. We had more important things to do.

The whole fam:

That was a good start to our day.

We had no park plans for the rest of the day.

We had plans to stay around the BLT/CR grounds for a bit and then head to another resort we had not been to in awhile that night.

That will be coming up in tomorrow's updates.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

They do! Root beer too!

Sounds like a plan to me!

Ok Aaron, to make up for it, your little princess and the rest of us at the Akershus, next trip. Make the res.

And will go shopping for a princess dress for her. Don't worry, it won't cost that much.

Akershus could definitely be in cards. Not worried about how much it costs for the dress if you're buying. :waycool: