Trip Report Day 2 - Animal Kingdom & DisneyQuest

Today was Animal Kingdom. We got up early, headed to the Lounge, and almost emptied one of the bottles of water, since we filled our travel bottle with it. Then it was off to Tusker House for Breakfast.
 
As many of you know, this is my favourite of the Character Meals. Today didn`t disappoint, we got pictures with all of the characters, the food was good, we didn`t feel rushed, and we finished just as the last character (Daisy, I think) came around. Plus, Rin got a birthday cupcake. Yay!
 
Final Thoughts
Am I Glad I Ate Here? - Yes. Simply, yes.
Would I Go Back? - Again, yes. Although it has gone slightly downhill from last visit.
Rating:    Me -  8/10
                 Rin - 8.5/10
Cost - $55.45
 
We did several things at AK, but I can’t remember the exact order. We hit up Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Dinosaur, Kali River Rapids, Rafiki’s Planet Watch and Panganii Forest Exploration Trail.
 
On Kilimanjaro, we were right in front, and the driver immediately noticed Rin’s birthday pin. She had the whole truck wish her a happy birthday. Also, the shaking bridge effect wasn’t working. I’m not sure if it was down, or if we were running too ahead/behind to experience it.
 
On Dinosaur, Rin kept her eyes closed basically the entire time. We both got a kick out of Bill Nye narrating the beginning, then Hodgins from CSI being the scientist.
 
Rafiki’s Planet Watch was interesting, and we really enjoyed Affection Section, the petting zoo area. The donkey was quite vocal for a few minutes while we were there. We also got to meet Jiminy Cricket in the building near Affection Section. And a rather small corn snake that Rin wouldn`t go near. In fact, as we passed it, she almost broke my hand from gripping it so hard. She later told me that even though she was apparently terrified, she had the urge to touch it. There's something wrong with that woman.
 
Today, we ate lunch at Yak & Yeti. This restaurant is most definitely not Disney owned. They even have pamphlets in the lobby area about their other restaurants and their loyalty card. Rin got a Mango Iced Tea to drink, and I had a Berry Cherry Limeade. Turns out the Berry Cherry wasn’t included with the Dining Plan, but our waiter was sure to tell me that when I ordered. I went ahead with it anyway. I wish I hadn’t. It really wasn’t good, at all. Rin also wished she hadn’t gotten the tea (she works in a tea store now, so she can't stand bad tea), so she switched to Coke.
 
The one appetizer we both really wanted was the Dim Sum Basket for Two. This wasn’t included either. So I got the Thai Chicken Chili Wings. They were messy, but I wish I could have just made these into a meal. They were covered in sauce, but they were still crispy, and the flavour had pervaded not only the sauce, but also the breading and chicken itself. So good.
 
Rin had the Pot Stickers. The menu said they could be pan seared or steamed, but our waiter never asked which she wanted. We’re not really sure how they were prepared. They seemed to have sear marks, but looked and tasted steamed, as though they weren’t fully cooked. She wasn’t as happy with her choice as I was with mine.
 
When we ordered our mains, I was torn between the Crispy Honey Chicken and the Bourbon Chicken, so I asked our waiter about them. My answer was along the lines of “They’re the same chicken and both sauces are sweet.” I went with the Honey Chicken, but I think I made the wrong choice. It wasn’t actually crispy, and the sauce was just too overpowering.
 
Rin loves Beef and Broccoli, so that’s what she got here. She too was disappointed. The sauce didn’t quite seem right, and the beef was thicker than she’s used to. It had an odd texture to it as well, as though they were using low quality beef, or possibly stewing beef.
 
Then, dessert. I had the Chocolate Pudding Cake. I expected something like a lava cake, with a sauce in the middle. This was so much better. It was just regular layer cake, but it was all made with pudding ingredients mixed in. So rich, I actually wasn’t able to finish it. But it was so good. Rin had the Sorbet Trio of lemon, raspberry and mango. She really liked it, and thought that the lemon was the best. It tasted just like frozen lemonade.
 
Final Thoughts
Am I Glad I Ate Here? - Yes and no. Those wings were seriously amazing, and the dessert was good. But everything else, including the service was mediocre.
Would I Go Back? - Um. I think I would. I wasn’t too happy with my main, nor was Rin, but there are several other items that we’d both like to try. Plus the apps and desserts made up for the mains. Rating:  Me - 6/10               Rin - 5/10
Cost - $79.28
 
After we were done at AK later that day, we headed over to Downtown Disney. We basically went straight to Raglan Road, no time to look around beforehand. Unfortunately I lost my receipt on this one, but I remember what we got, just might not have the cost right.
 
Our waiter was great. I think his name was Joe, from somewhere in New York. Sadly, not Irish. But amazing, easily one of the most hospitable servers we had on the trip. He explained everything to us, and again, the appetizer platter we wanted wasn’t included in the Dining Plan. So I got the Drunk Chicken (after being assured by Joe that it didn’t taste like whisky) and Rin had the Scallop Tart.
 
My chicken was very good, and not only did it not taste like whisky, I could barely taste the Dalkey Honey Mustard sauce, which was nice, since I’m not a mustard fan. Rin had a foodgasm (yes, a foodgasm, look it up) when she tried her Scallop Tart. I tried it myself, and even I have to admit, it wasn’t bad. And I don’t like seafood. It was huge too, and she liked it so much, she finished the whole thing.
 
When our mains were brought out, they were brought by Jonathan, an authentic Irishman. When he spoke, Rin... well... this is a family place, so I’ll leave that one to your imagination.
 
I had the Burger’R’Way, which was quite tasty. And I just realized I forgot to include this one in my ‘Burger Report’ post. Sorry Chinners. Interestingly enough, it was topped with Canadian bacon as opposed to regular bacon. Nothing wrong with that, I was just surprised.
 
Rin had the Fish and Chips. They came out in an interesting dish, reminiscent of how you’d get it all wrapped in newspaper in England. She enjoyed it, the chips were a bit of a letdown though. The fish was good, but nothing to write home about.
 
On to dessert. This is probably the reason we ate here. Rin really wanted Ger’s Bread & Butter Pudding. She almost died, it was so big. And delicious. The people at the table next to us actually commented, and waited for her to try it just to see her reaction. It didn’t disappoint. It was possibly better than the Scallop Tart, but so big she couldn’t finish it. So we took it back to the room, but again, I don’t think she ever ate anymore because of all of the other food. I think there's a trend beginning here...
 
I had the Dunbrody Kiss. Like the description said, it was chocolaty. And good. Maybe a bit too dark. But I can’t remember much more than that.
 
Final Thoughts  
Am I Glad I Ate Here? - Yes. I failed to mention the entertainment, but there was a band and dancers as well. The dancers were blocked by a pole, but the band was good. The food, service and entertainment all combined to create a venue that will likely be a regular spot for us in the future.
Would I Go Back? - Yes. In a heartbeat.
Rating:    Me - 8/10                 Rin - 8.5/10 Cost - $74.55
 
After dinner, we headed over to DisneyQuest for a bit. We played air hockey (which Rin destroyed me at both games) and Guitar Hero (where I gained back some of my manliness). We did the (new?) Comix VR game, where I placed first and Rin placed second (in a group of 5). We tried the Aliens game, which we both sucked at. And finally, we did two rounds out the Buzz Lightyear thing. Rin drove first, and we got some good shots in, although I’m not sure we actually hit anyone. Then when I drove, we spent the whole time spinning, since we could never get away from anyone. In think we yelled far too much those two rounds, we both came off a bit hoarse. At this point, DQ was shutting down, so we went back to the room for some sleep.

Trip Report Day 1 - Arrival & Hollywood Studios

First off, I should note that we woke up at the ridiculous time of 3:00am NDT (that’s 1:30am Florida time). Why do I mention this? I think it may have coloured my impressions for late in the day, particularly the supper at Narcoossee’s.

Oh, I should also mention that my Trip Reports are likely going to be ridiculously long, detailed, and possibly boring. I’ll try to through in some humour though. You’ve been warned.

Our flight was on Air Canada, departing at 5:50am, connecting through Montreal (and some Burger King breakfast), and on to arrive at MCO at 12:10pm. The flight was uneventful, I slept a bit, Rin slept a lot, and I watched Super 8 (which I enjoyed) as well as part of Green Lantern.

Some of you may know that we had planned on doing the Archery Experience shortly after we arrived, but we felt the expense was unneeded, and we didn’t want to have to rush out of the airport. So once we arrived, it was a leisurely stroll to baggage, on to the Alamo Electronic Kiosks (which were amazingly fast, point to Alamo) and on to the garage. Here, I left Rin with all of the luggage at the front of the garage, and went skipping (yes, I skipped, real men skip) through the row of cars to find the one I wanted. After jumping in and out of every car there, I finally found two I liked, at the very end of the row. I was going between a Mazda 3 and a Hyundai Elantra. While I think the Mazda would have been more fun to drive, I went with the Elantra, since it had XM Satellite Radio, and I love AltNation.

So I waved Rin to come down, and she just stood there. I waved again, she waved back. Oh yeah, the luggage. So I sprinted back to her, and told her to hurry since I didn’t want anyone to take our car. She asked why I didn’t just grab the keys. I didn’t have an answer to that. Still don’t. So I grabbed the two biggest suitcases and proceeded to sprint back to the car. Sprinting with big suitcases is actually more like jogging...

We left the garage, and it was nice to be back in Florida. Sun, palm trees, warmth. Then we hit the toll roads. I've never understood toll roads. If you don't have money to build a road, don't build it. Simple. The main toll booths are still manned, but we did run across a couple on secondary exits that require exact coins, so be aware of that if you’ll be doing a lot of driving. I even saw a sign for a single exit that was SunPass only, but that was later in the trip, on the way to Tampa. Also, if you’re using a GPS, and it tells you to ‘Keep Left’ at the tolls, like mine did, don’t. The left lanes are all SunPass only.

Now, I’m going to sound a bit stuck up here, but only because I’ve stayed Club Level twice before, and I was expecting the same service. When we arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge, the Security Guard took my ID, gave me my parking pass, and Welcomed me Home. That felt nice, it was the first I’d heard it in almost 3 years. He even radioed ahead to let the attendants know that a Club Level guest was arriving.

We pulled under the porte-cochere, hopped out of the car, and everyone just stood around looking at us. We started getting all of our luggage out, still, everyone stood looking at us. As we started hauling everything in, someone finally approached us, asked if we were the Brandeaus, and offered to escort us to the Lounge for check-in. Not once were we offered Bell Service, nor any help with our luggage.

Once at the Lounge, check-in was a bit of an ordeal. The girl couldn’t figure out how to assign us a room since none were ready (which was understandable, since we were there almost 3 hours before check-in), and once they did figure it all out, they told us we’d have to take our luggage back downstairs to check it with Bell Service. Internally, I almost exploded. I didn’t pay over $400/night to continuously cart my luggage around. Luckily, before the last few things were finalized (and after I’d wandered over to grab some lemonade and a cookie from the food area, yum yum, free food), she corrected herself and offered to have Bell Service come pick up our luggage. We were told we’d get a text when our room was ready.

So, after all was said and done, we decided to explore the resort. Even though we’d stayed here for around 11 nights over the course of 2 trips, we’d never really explored properly. We wandered the lobby, checked out the gift shop a bit (we’d been here many times before for Rin), and wandered out onto the Savannah. My, it was hot. Not just “Oh, we’re in Florida” hot, but “I think we’ve somehow wound up in hell” hot.

But, we had water, sunscreen, and our room wasn’t yet ready, so we sat on a couple of rocking chairs watching the animals, then wandered to other parts of the Savannah. We came across a (relatively new?) female Cast Member by the name of She-Earl (Seriously. We think it might be pronounced like Cheryl.) from South Africa. We talked for a long time, about the animals, about how hot it was (she found the weather to be ridiculous, so it wasn’t just us), about the various parks and the rides in them, and about snacks throughout the World. We probably talked to her for around 2 hours, until I got a text saying our room was ready.

So off to our room. Two Queens instead of the King I had requested, but we were expecting that. AKL really needs more Club Level King Rooms. The one thing I was not expecting was the lack of Welcome/Birthday Package for Rin that has always been given to us for a special occasion (it has a small gift, note and, in this case, Birthday Pin). Strike... um... 3, I think. We got our luggage, unpacked, and I went back up to the Lounge to get scissors and ask about the package for Rin. It turns out they were behind on delivering them, and by the time I got back to the room, she had received it. Yay! They now give a replica Baobob Tree and AKL Pen. I should mention too that Carmen (the woman that I was dealing with at this point, I think I referred to her as Carmella on a 'live' post) was amazing, and made up for any previous issues. She even gave me three roses out of their flower arrangement to give to Rin as a birthday gift. The only problem with Carmen is that she wasn't there the whole time.

After some more messing about the room and the Lodge, including grabbing some of the free appetizers and pop, we headed to Hollywood Studios. Don’t ask me why we went there, we always do Magic Kingdom first. It just kinda happened. (EDIT: I figured it out. MNSSHP was on that night, so if we'd gone to MK, we would've been kicked out shortly) We mostly just wandered, but I think we hit Tower of Terror (a constant favorite), Star Tours (we were both happy with the update) and Rock’n’Roller Coaster (which seemed better than we remembered).

I also had my first true “I’m Home” moment as we walked toward the Sorcerer Mickey Hat from near Toy Story Mania. It was night, so everything was lit up, and something about it just felt right. Rin can attest that I actually held out my arms, and spun around a few times, like you see in cheesey movies.

Oh! I almost forgot. There was a wicked electrical storm going on, and we could see it perfectly from Streets of America. There was some awesome lightning, and I think I got a few good shots on my camera, but I haven’t looked yet to be sure. I forgot how much I missed lightning storms, we never get them here.

Alright, so, onto Narcoossee’s for supper. It was about 9:30pm at this point, so we’d been up for around 20 hours. Our waiter was Amer, from Germany, and Rin and I both really liked him. I’ve been looking forward to this meal since we ate here in 2009. We both ordered Chocolate Milkshakes to drink, but it turned out they’d been changed to Chocolate Smoothies. They were nothing like the fabulous milkshake I had had in 2009, but they were acceptable.

We placed the rest of our orders, and were brought some Sourdough Bread. It was ok, but a little crustier that I’d prefer, and I’m a huge fan of crusty bread. I’m also not a big fan of sourdough.

Then came the appetizers. Rin had the Lump Crab Cakes, and thought they were good, but that she’d had better elsewhere. I had the Rhode Island Calamari, and this is where I think exhaustion caught up to me. Nothing seemed right. First off, I had asked for it with Garlic Toast, which they didn’t do. Second, the calamari had rings and tentacles, and I don’t like the tentacles. Third, it just didn’t taste good. But again, I may have just been over tired.

Next came our mains. I had really wanted the Tanglewood Farms Chicken Breast with Bacon Vinaigrette that was recently taken off the menu. I asked the Club Level concierge to call ahead to request it, but she said it would be best just to ask our server. They didn’t have any Bacon Vinaigrette, so no chicken for me. I had the Grilled Filet Mignon instead, cooked Medium. The menu online says that it comes with Potato Gratin, but mine came with Roasted Potatoes and Vegetables. I can’t remember if I requested that, or if that’s how it comes now. It was ok, but nothing spectacular. I feel that I had much better steak later in the trip.

Rin had the Surf and Turf which she enjoyed. She felt the lobster was quite good, but that she too had better steak later in the trip.

Finally, dessert. We were both full at this point, so got the desserts to go. We never ate them since we were always full from everything else we ate.

Final Thoughts

Am I Glad I Ate Here? - Despite the fact that I was disappointed with the meal, I am glad I ate here. Basically, it gave me closure, and the knowledge that I won’t be going back any time soon. I’ll always treasure my first meal here, but I feel that it’s just not worth it to go back.

Would I Go Back? - Well, again, no. At least, not any time soon.

Rating: Me -  6/10

              Rin - 7.5/10

Cost - $170.81 (Note that we were on the Deluxe Dining Plan, so these costs are just for reference, we didn’t actually pay that much)

After the meal, we were done. Hell, I had had enough of this day in the middle of the meal (I think I may have almost fallen asleep at the table), so we went back to the room, looked at the animals for a few minutes, and slept. Glorious sleep.