Holiday Party at Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show

Back during Epcot's Food and Wine Fest, my friend ended up with an extra ticket for Party for the Senses. (Think all of Food and Wine Fest consolidated under one roof, where everything is included in the ticket price and a live Cirque de Soleil show is taking place feet away from you.) Since I was already at Disney that day, they invited me to go with them. This was one of the most amazing nights of my life, so I invited my friend to be my date for my company's Christmas party at the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show to thank her for inviting me to the Party for the Senses.

The food at the show was not that great. My friend really liked it, but I thought the bread was stale, the beer was flat, the meat was rubbery, etc. I don't know if this is because it was my first real meal since the Mickey plague or if these were genuine complaints. However, everyone else seemed to really enjoy the food, so I kept my mouth shut.

The show was amazing! There was a live band.

The narrator is the Aunt, the Nephew has a crush on the Wahine (girl) who is about to leave for college on the mainland.

While developing the story, they dance a lot of songs using native dance moves and props (at least as far as I can tell. If you would like to sponsor a trip for me to go to Hawaii to verify this, please leave a comment.)

Wahine

I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure they lived Happily Ever After. It is Disney, after all.

Then they brought out the fire dancer!

The fire guy was awesome. 

As I said earlier, the show was great, the food was alright. I would do it again, as long as I didn't have to pay for it. But for dinner, a show, and all you can drink beer and wine, you really can't get a better deal at Disney. 

After the show, I walked my group down to the lake and we watched the fireworks. Pretty good way to end the evening.

Family Reunion (Day Four)

Day Four. Finally time to see Mickey! Since this was the last day of vacation, we took both cars. Marina and I were in mine, and J-Dawg, Sir, and Monster were in the other car. By the time J-Dawg got into the park, she was already throwing up. When she went to bed the night before, she said her tummy was a little upset, but she blamed the pizza. Marina and Monster both wanted to take pictures with characters, unfortunately, Monster wanted to meet Mickey and Marina wanted to meet Princesses, but first we got sprinkled with fairy dust. 

I went with Marina to meet Princesses and the others went to meet Mickey. 

While in with the Princesses, my glasses broke. The lens popped out and I needed a screwdriver to put it back in. I asked one of the cast members to radio out to see if anyone had an eyeglass repair kit, but she didn't understand my request. When we left the Princess meet and greet, I wanted to go to first aid to see if they had an eyeglass repair kit. They did!!! And we ran into everybody else at first aid. They gave J-Dawg anti-nausea medicine, but it came right back up.

We headed to Fantasyland and J-Dawg could barely keep her head up. Monster, Marina, and I hopped on the carousel. 

Then the girls got in line to meet Daisy and Minnie. J-Dawg sat on the floor out of the way.

Marina, Monster and I rode the Dumbo and Sir stayed with J-Dawg. 

By the time we were done on Dumbo, J-Dawg was in a wheelchair. Apparently, they keep a few emergency wheelchairs at strategic locations through out the park. We wheeled her to the Little Mermaid ride and then to the Ariel meet and greet. J-Dawg was doing her best, but the bug was winning. I told Marina, Monster, and Sir to go to Enchanted Tales with Belle, and I would meet up with them afterwards, since I know the park better than everyone else, I wouldn't get lost taking J-Dawg back to the infirmary. (Remember how I ran a 5k before meeting up with everybody on the first day of vacation? I asked J-Dawg if we had any plans for that morning, before I signed up to run. She said no, there were no plans for that morning, but she would not push me around the park in a wheelchair. I think she appreciated the irony.) (By the way, we had to pull over on the way to the infirmary. I tried to give her some privacy. Look at the pretty castle.)

I made sure she had napkins and little gift bags. (Recall the barf bags from Mission Space? They work much better than the little gift bags [which are infinitely better than nothing] and I deeply regret not taking them with me as I left the ride, but I left them for the next people on the ride, should they need them. If I had only know how badly we would need them I would have taken them!) The nurses got her settled and I met back up with everybody else. We rode Peter Pan and Small World and had lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus. Monster slept through lunch (poor thing) and then rode Jungle Cruise.  

J-Dawg called to say she was feeling better and asked that we come pick her up. So we grabbed J-Dawg and headed for the WEDway People Mover, one of the tamest rides ever. Almost guaranteed to not upset any tummies. Everybody wanted to ride facing forward, so I told the cast member that we were a group of 2, and they said they were a group of 3. I figured that was easier than saying 5 but insisting on two cars. I also assumed that the likelihood of being on two different trains was low. Wrong! Marina and I went ahead and the others were on the second car. Our car kept slowing down and their car was never in view behind ours. Seventy-five percent of the ride was over and our car had already come to two full and complete unscheduled stops when we got a text from the other car. J-Dawg was throwing up again. Time to end this vacation! As soon as the ride stopped, we loaded J-Dawg on the wheelchair and pushed her to the exit. Monster was crying at this point and Sir put her on his shoulders, and told her to let him know if she started to feel unwell. At that point, I saw that she was about to throw-up again, and yelled at Sir to get her down. Luckily, he was able to lean far enough forward to avoid getting anything on him and she threw up in the middle of Main Street.

Marina was still wearing my tiara as we were saying good-bye. I told her to keep it for the ride home, she was going to need it. I also told them to text me when they got home. The drive from Disney to their house should take just under four hours, it took over six. Sir got sick on the ride home.

As soon as I got home, I jumped in the shower and then changed my sheets. My dog, Captain Hook, couldn't figure out why I would walk in the house and not love on him immediately, especially after not seeing him for three full days. I did not want to take any chances that whatever they had had hitched a ride home on me, and that it was communicable to dogs.

I went to work the next morning and felt fine. When I got home, I microwaved a lean cuisine and played video games. A little while after I ate, I began to feel nauseated. I tried blaming the lean cuisine, but it was no use. I had IT. I texted out sick for the next day and spent it on the couch. No drinking and no eating  those are the rules. Luckily, other people already figured out what to do to avoid throwing up. They did not warn me that after it was done being a northern disease, it became a southern disease. So much yuck! After I threw up the first time, I texted J-Dawg to let her know that I was sick and to congratulate Marina for being the only one to escape without getting it. At which point, she told me that Marina got it too. Damn it Disney plague! (For the record, in my completely amateur opinion, I think we had a version of the Norovirus. It behaved very similarly to it, spread quickly, no immunity after contracting it, etc.)

So, I didn't really eat or drink anything Friday, which is why I was super dehydrated for the Reindeer Run through SeaWorld the following Saturday. Saturday night was my company's holiday party at Disney's Polynesian Resort. We went to the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show. Which is what my next post will be about.

Family Reunion (Day Three)

J-Dawg and Sir do some research on what could be upsetting Monster's tummy and come up with the plan of attack for the day:
1. We are going to get her some anti-nausea medicine.
2. We are going to take separate cars in case Monster has a repeat, that way she and a parent can go back to the hotel and everyone else can stay at the parks.
3. We are going to be flexibile and play the day by ear.

Sir and I take my car to get anti-nausea medicine and everyone else follows in the other car. We went straight to Whispering Canyon Cafe at Disney's Wilderness Lodge. The restaurant is adorable! They have Lincoln Logs in the waiting area. (I was typing Lincoln Logs for this blog post, and then I started to wonder if they weren't Linking Logs [you know, because they link to each other]. Looked it up, turns out they are not named for Abraham, but for Frank Lincoln Wright [who may have been named for Abraham Lincoln, I couldn't find an answer after 90 seconds of looking] son of Frank Lloyd Wright.) The banana bread french toast is awesome! The overall experience is fun: if someone asks for ketchup, the table with ketchup (yes, the table) brings over all 8 bottles, if you drink a lot, the glass sizes will start to fluxuate (the man sitting next to us had several different size glasses on his table from mason jar size, to regular glass size, to shot glass size, etc.), at one point the staff handed out hobby horses and the children (and a grandma) rode them around the restaurant. Monster slept through all of this.

When she did wake up, she was still not feeling well. J-Dawg and Sir decided to take her back to the hotel and Marina and I went to the parks. We decided to go back to the parks we had already been to and do the things we didn't have time for (or were not working) the first time. 

We went back to Animal Kingdom and rode Expedition Everest (Remember how I mentioned that this was not our first family trip to Disney? Well, for some reason, the ManBearPig episode of South Park really stuck with us, and the first time we rode Expedition Everest as a group, we raised our arms in the air (rollercoaster style) and then brought them forward (superhero style) and yelled ManBearPig. Now, every time I'm on that ride, I feel the need to yell ManBearPig. Although, if you've seen the episode, Excelsior might make more sense to yell.) 

We also rode Dinosaur, where you go back in time to save a dinosaur from the meteor shower. I remember the rie being really bouncy (and therefore, painful) but it wasn't as bad as I remembered. Here is a picture of the Carnosaurus trying to eat us. (The Carnosaurus was not the dinosaur we were trying to save.)

We rode the mousetrap rollercoaster in kiddie land. This one was as painful as I remember.

We watched It's Tough to be a Bug. Then headed to Hollywood Studios.

Once at Hollywood Studios, we rode Toy Story. I got the highest score in the car for a second time (go me!!!). 

I rode Star Wars with Marina. We watched the Muppets show. (The only time it rained was as soon as we made it under the awning. It rained hard for a few minutes, and then stopped. We timed that well.) Then we went to watch the Indian Jones Epic Stunt Spectular.

I had not watched the Indian Jones Epic Stunt Spectular in a really long time and wanted to see it while we were there. The Indian Jones Epic Stunt Spectular uses volunteers from the audience as extras. Marina (who had been wearing my tiara for the entire vacation) said she wanted to be picked to be an extra. The secret to being picked at Disney includes wearing a tiara and having a friend scream and point at you, while you jump up and down and also point at yourself. (Apparently, there were also children in front of us who turned around to point at her. I didn't see that, but Marina says one of the other volunteers told her it happened.) 

We did not get to see the whole show because IJESS takes place outside and some parts were too wet to use because of the earlier rainstorm. (The best part I remembered from childhood was when the plane would come out and chase Indy and a Nazi around [just like in Raiders of the lost Ark]. They didn't do it the day we saw it and I don't know if it's because of the rain, or just that they don't do it anymore.) While watching the show, J-Dawg texted to say that Monster was feeling better and that she was going to join us at Hollywood Studios. 


She got there in time to ride Tower of Terror.

Then Rockin' Rollercoaster and afterwards we went to watch Fantasmic. I think it's a great show, but I understand that not everybody likes it. It's Hollywood Studios version of fireworks: it's a nighttime show with lots of fire and explosions and characters show up dressed in lights. Totally worth doing (if you can fit it in your schedule). After Fantasmic we ordered pizza and headed back to the hotel. Monster was feeling much better and was running around the hotel room. Everybody ate too much pizza, we watched a Disney movie and then everyone went to sleep. Last day of vacation and finally time to go the Magic Kingdom!!!

Family Reunion (Day Two)

We chose to do Epcot on the same day we had reservations to do Disney’s Candlelight Processional. The Candlelight Processional takes place at the American Pavilion Amphitheater in Epcot.

When J-Dawg was in high school, her choir performed at the Candlelight Processional. This is the second time we’ve gone as a family.

We always do the dinner package because that is the only way to get guaranteed seats for the show. Monster just turned three in October, so J-Dawg booked reservations at Tutto Italia at 4 (ish) so we could go to the 6 (ish) show, and hopefully avoid a toddler meltdown due to being out way too late.

When we got to the park, we headed straight for Soarin’ for fast passes. While waiting for our fast pass time, we rode Living with the Land. I love this ride, even if I can never get its name right. I call it The Land ride. This ride is so neat, but there is no use trying to explain it to someone. If they ask, say, “Just ride it.” I tried explaining it to Marina, and she was like, “Pass.” And I was like, “STFU and ride it.” Afterwards, Marina was like, “Damn, that was a good ride.” (Seriously, ok, so it’s a boat ride, and there are vignettes of a rainforest and a prairie and a farm, and then we get to go through actual greenhouses and an aquaculture area and then another greenhouse. I understand that this does not necessarily sound like a good time, but it is, so just ride it, ok?)

Then we headed to Finding Nemo the ride at The Living Seas Pavilion. When I was a kid, my family would spend hours (literally hours) in The Living Seas Pavilion. I liked the ride and could tolerate a few minutes of looking at the aquariums, but then I was ready to move on to something else (poor little me, no patience). My parents have been scuba certified for most of my life and they really enjoyed looking at the exhibits. The Finding Nemo ride now compared to my memories of The Living Seas is disappointing. I remember a lot of natural light and lots of colorful fish. I think the quality has gone down since the ‘80s and ’90s, but I have no way to quantify my opinion. (Has anyone been to the Coral Sea Restaurant lately? They used to make 3 inch tall Mickey butter sculptures for the tables. They were awesome. Do they still?) The good news is that it is still an adequate aquarium. Monster enjoyed it, which was great because she was a little apprehensive about some of the rides and we had to baby-swap often.

Finally time for Soarin’. Monster was too short for the ride, so we didn’t have a choice about baby-swapping her. The first group rode while the other half ate breakfast/lunch. Then we traded. I think Soarin’ is great. Definitely worth the wait for a front row seat (if you’re using a fast pass).

We all headed to Test Track after Soarin’. Test Track had been closed for a few months while it went under renovations. New Test Track is awful! Ok, points for having an interactive portion where we can choose our own car avatars (and modify them to be more fuel efficient or more powerful, etc.). Negatives for keeping the track exactly the same and changing the scenery to look like Tron. Seriously. The entire ride looks like Tron. It was 25 years old the minute it opened.

Sir, J-Dawg, and Monster went to the World Showcase and Marina and I went to Misson: Space after Tron, I mean Test Track. I hate this ride! There is nothing wrong with the ride. It’s all me! I hate how confined you are once the safety bar comes down and then the screen leans in. This is the only ride in Disney history to have two intensity levels because people have actually died on this ride. When I ride this ride, I ride the mild version. Oh no! Marina wanted the intense experience. So, (foreshadowing) I started joking around with the cast member that he better make sure there were motion sickness bags in our Spaceship, because there was a possibility that I would need them. Smart man that he was, he disappeared long enough to grab a handful of bags and hand them to me. (I feel kinda bad because I think I freaked out the little girl who was riding in our spaceship with her father.) Everyone survived and Marina and I headed to World Showcase to meet up with the rest of the group.

We walked around for a while, rode the Norway ride, shopped in the various countries, and then headed to dinner at Tutto Italia. This was my first time here. The food was fine. (I feel so jaded. This was adequate, that was fine. But, really, Disney has trained me to expect the absolute best and anything less may still be good, but won’t be getting a glowing review from me.)

Purchasing the dining option to get the reserved seats is not cheap and we all felt the necessity to eat everything the waiter brought us. At one point, I leaned back and rubbed my tummy, and said that I felt like I was pregnant with a food baby. Of course the toddler hears this and then asks if I’m pregnant. For the record (because this point will be forgotten in the future, I can feel it) I made a joke and then the toddler asked if I was pregnant. She did not see a giant belly and then ask. Dinner was such an event that once we finished, it was time to head to the Candlelight Processional.

We approached the entrance and were let in immediately. The usher told us that the only seats available were in the front, off to the side. There were clearly other seats available so we asked the usher if we could sit there instead. He said no, those seats were reserved. We asked who they were reserved for and he said they were for the people who did not purchase the dining option. We were pissed! The people who did not purchase the dining option were going to get better seating than we were and according to Disney, the only way to get a guaranteed seat is to purchase the dining option. There is no reason to reserve seats for general admission. Grrrrr.

The orchestra is seated when we arrived in the Amphitheater. The show starts with processional of singers: the Cast Members form a Christmas tree center stage and the high school kids fill bleachers on either side of the tree. Then the narrator arrives. For our show it was James Denton, some guy from Desperate Housewives, and begins telling the story of Jesus (Which always makes me think of the first South Park Christmas Special [The one where Mr. Hanky is introduced] “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, an angel of the Lord came upon them, and they were so afraid, and the angel said unto them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, for born unto you this day in the city of David is the Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lord. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.”) and then the high school singers, Disney Cast Member choir, and the orchestra perform a Christmas song: O Holy Night, Away in a Manger, Do You Hear What I Hear, Little Drummer Boy, etc. They trade off for about an hour, we get to enjoy about a dozen Christmas songs, and then the choirs perform the recessional.

After the Candelight Processional we decide to head back to the hotel. We ride Spaceship Earth on the way out. Monster really enjoyed it and asked J-Dawg if she could ride again. Marina and I played the games at the exit while they re-rode. Turns out, Monster changed her mind once they got to the front of the line and that was the same time J-Dawg realized that her phone fell out of her pocket on the ride and was missing! (Good job Monster! We would have been back at the hotel when she noticed her phone was missing otherwise.) They were able to retreive her phone and we called it a night.

Two long park days and everyone is super tired. Once at the hotel, I set up the pull out bed in the living room and we watch a Disney movie before bedtime. At some point I fall asleep, because I am woken up by Marina screaming for J-Dawg. Monster threw-up in bed and Marina panicked. At this point, we assume it's a tummy ache kinda thing. We assume it's not food poisioning because there is nothing she ate that we didn't try a bite of (we are big fans of sharing). Monster sleeps with her parents and Marina shares the couch with me (poor thing couldn't get the window open to air out the room). We have breakfast reservations in the morning that we can't cancel without getting charged, so we all go back to bed and hope for the best in the morning.

Family Reunion (Day One)

In my last blog post I hinted that I had a fun story to tell about the week between the Jingle Run and the Reindeer Run. I know you’ve been checking back daily waiting for me to tell it, so here we go.

I finished the Jingle Run and headed straight for a family reunion at Disney with my big sister J-Dawg, her husband Sir, and their two daughters, Monster and Marina. (Little bit of back story: Sir is a high school teacher and one of his favorite students needed a ride home. He ended up driving her to the ghetto 30 minutes away because she was living there with someone else’s Grandma. Sir was like- oh hell no, you’re a good kid and you’re not going to stay here anymore. J-Dawg and Sir adopted her, and Marina has been their kid ever since. Marina is 20 years older than her little sister Monster.) I met up with everybody at Animal Kingdom and we went to watch the Finding Nemo stage show.

In December 2011 I renewed my Disney pass and told J-Dawg that if she wanted to go to Disney with me, she had to plan a trip before my pass expired in December 2012. The last time we had a family vacation to Disney was four or five years ago and everybody had fun, so we wanted to do it again eventually. We all love Christmas time at the park, so the vacation was planned for a week before my pass expired. Some people plan their pass schedule around Food and Wine Fest, I plan around Christmas.

Animal Kingdom is my least favorite of the Disney Parks. There’s just not a lot to do and it is very spread out. (In case you’re wondering Magic Kingdom is my favorite, Epcot and Hollywood Studios tie for second and Animal Kingdom comes in fourth. Not third, fourth.) The best things at Animal Kingdom are the Rainforest Café (which I totally went to for lunch as soon as I got there to reward myself with a Long Island Iced Tea and nachos for running.), Kilimanjaro Safari (20 minute ride though “Africa” to see lots of animals include giraffes, rhinos, zebras, and lots of birds), Expedition Everest (a rollercoaster featuring a yeti), It’s Tough to be a Bug (a 3-D show featuring the cast of A Bug’s Life) and, of course, Finding Nemo (a musical version of the movie with puppeteers).

After Finding Nemo, we wanted to ride Expedition Everest. When we got to that part of the park, I noticed that the ride was on the track, but was not moving. We decided to give it a few minutes, so we got snacks and drinks, and went back. It still wasn’t moving. We decided to head to Hollywood Studios.

I was the only one in the group who had been Toy Story, so I insisted that we head there immediately.  Although the queue is not interactive, there is a lot to look at. The ride is carnival game themed, but instead of throwing darts at balloon, you wear 3-D glass and use a gun with a pullback string to shoot darts at balloons, throw baseballs at plates, toss rings at the Toy Story aliens, etc. Everybody (including Monster) loved the ride. I got the highest score in the car, a first for me! (For the record, that says 189,400.)

After Toy Story we went to the new Pirates of the Caribbean Attraction that was next door. It was not officially open yet, they were still testing it. The attraction took place in a large room with a pirate ship and movie screen behind the ship. Captain Jack Sparrow showed up on the ship's sail and narrated the adventure. The show featured the monsters from each movie and then showed Captain Jack defeating them. I remember seeing the Kraken, mermaids, and zombie pirates. I can't remember if there was a fourth monster in the show.

Pirate Ship

Pirate Ship with Captain Jack Sparrow on the sail

Kraken monster on the screen behind the pirate ship

Background decoration

After the POTC show, we walked around and shopped for a while, then decided we were hungry. We ended up at the hotdog stand across from the Beauty and the Beast stage show. I ordered the truffle mac and cheese hotdog. Truffle mac and cheese: good. Hotdog: it's a hotdog. The bun. The bun. What can I say about the bun besides that it was stale? Nope, that's it, it was stale. And not good. Not good and stale. Disney please work on this! This is not the only example I have of your bread being substandard.

After dinner Sir stayed at the table with Monster and J-Dawg, Marina and I rode the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster Starring Aerosmith. We've all been on it before and everyone enjoyed it again this time. After the rollercoaster, we headed to the Tower of Terror. We were the last people to ride that night, and asked for the front row. 

J-Dawg was a little concerned that they were going to forget about us and that we would be trapped until morning. Luckily, she was wrong. (And we had people on the outside who could look for us if the cast members forgot about us.)

I'd never seen the ride locked up before; it's pretty creepy.

The park closed at 8, but the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights stayed open until 9. Thanks to the cast member who told us! Pictures do not do this justice. The lights are on for 10 minutes or so, then they go on and off in sync with Trans-Siberian Orchestra music. There is always a cat hidden in the lights some where and dozens of hidden Mickeys. I like trying to spot them. (All those little blurs in the Kermit picture are "snowflakes". Disney does not slack when it comes to Christmas magic!)

After a great first day in the parks, it was time to go back to the hotel/condo. I love staying in condo/timeshares. Good to know, because I learned this myself on this trip. There is so much more room than in a traditional hotel room. It's nice to have multiple bathrooms and bedrooms and chairs! Oh my! Marina and Monster were in the bedroom with twin beds, I was on the pull out couch and J-Dawg and Sir were in the master bedroom. We stayed up for a while watching Disney movies (naturally) and then tucked in to get up for Epcot in the morning.