Mandy's Thanksgiving with boyfriend's parents trip report

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MrHub's picture
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That's a totally different band, not the same ones that are out now. The ones right now have the grey around them

Mandy's picture
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The grey part can come off for little wrists. I'm pretty sure I was offered purple. I was torn between two colors. Of course, now I don't the option to customize bands so I can't look and see. I might be wrong.

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mrhub wrote:
That's a totally different band, not the same ones that are out now. The ones right now have the grey around them

They are one in the same bands. They come apart to make them smaller for children and adults with small wrists.

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Look at the two pictures, the bands on the top are the ones out now. They are grey totally grey underneath. The picture that Annie posted, those bands have color on the underside, not the bands that are out now. I know the bands come apart, but they are still grey on the underside. Also if you take the bands apart to make them smaller, they no longer have the ridge around the outer edge, now look at the bottom picture, those bands have the ridge and it is colored. They might be the upgraded bands you will be able to buy later, after they have finished the testing.

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MrHub's picture
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Here are the colors being offered.

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Mandy's picture
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Thanks Mrhubs. I couldn't remember if purple was an option. I think it was pink and red that I couldn't decide upon when choosing a color now that I think about it.

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Hey, purple would be cool. Who knows what they will come out with once you can "Buy" a customized band.

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Boyfriends parents come next week! My work schedule works out pretty well next week for our ADRs minus Wednesday which I'm working to fix. I'm thinking that I will try to eat at new places for my snacks and quick service meals. I may even try the Grey Goose Slush in France. We are working to surprise my boyfriends dad with a few laps at the Richard Petty Driving experience. So we are just working on a few last minute details.

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Mandy wrote:
Boyfriends parents come next week! My work schedule works out pretty well next week for our ADRs minus Wednesday which I'm working to fix. I'm thinking that I will try to eat at new places for my snacks and quick service meals. I may even try the Grey Goose Slush in France. We are working to surprise my boyfriends dad with a few laps at the Richard Petty Driving experience. So we are just working on a few last minute details.

Oh that sounds like so much fun! I'm sure that they'll have a great time.

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Kristen K. wrote:
Mandy wrote:
Boyfriends parents come next week! My work schedule works out pretty well next week for our ADRs minus Wednesday which I'm working to fix. I'm thinking that I will try to eat at new places for my snacks and quick service meals. I may even try the Grey Goose Slush in France. We are working to surprise my boyfriends dad with a few laps at the Richard Petty Driving experience. So we are just working on a few last minute details.

Oh that sounds like so much fun! I'm sure that they'll have a great time.

They should. His mom has been here before for a night earlier this year and this is his dads first time as well.

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It's almost time!! yay yay yay His parents come on Tuesday!! That's one and a 1/2 days until they are here! They don't land until like 1 pm. We're so excited!

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Have an AWESOME TIME!!!

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Have fun Mandy! stars

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Yes enjoy Mandy!

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have a great time

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Tuesday is only a few hours away! Enjoy!

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Tomorrow is the day and I get have some excellent food! I get to experience magicbands! Unfortunately no fastpass+ for me, boo Sad

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So we're all having a great time! Tomorrow I believe is my boyfriends parents last full day here at the World. Saturday they go back home. I will get started on my trip report Saturday or Sunday.

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Yea! So where are you today! I will find you for a meetup!

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Sorry we were at MK for most of the day. I'm thinking about going to MK tomorrow to use my last quick service meal and maybe a snack. Not really sure what time I'll make it over.

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So the trip went really well. We had a couple bumps but we worked around them.

Day 1-Arrival
Franz (boyfriend) and I went to All-Star Sports resort after he got done at work so we would have everything ready for when his parents arrived. Since we had the magicbands shipped to us, we took them with us to the resort. Everything went fine until we set up the pin for the bands and cards. LILO (really didn't like her today) kept saying that my band wasn't connecting right to the pin. Well we took all of our bands to the grab n go food court to get the mugs to see who's band wasn't working. Turns out, it was Franz's band that was causing all the trouble. Once we got it fixed, we went to the gift shop to get some m&ms to make sure the band was working. It worked. The m&ms were on Mickey! By the time we got the room and sat down for a couple minutes Franz got the text message that said his parents were at the resort. So we went back to the lobby and there they were. We gave them there bands and showed them to the room. We were in 8233 which was in the visitor side of the baseball field.

Once his parents were ready to head out, we headed over to Epcot since we had dinner reservations at Teppan Edo that night. Since we were all hungry we, really I, wanted to go Kringla Bakery Og Kafe in Norway because I wanted some school bread.

I got the Norwegian Club with a fruit cup, school bread for dessert and a large Coke.

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His parents both got the Norwegian Club with a fruit cup as well. His mom got the gjetost cheesecake for dessert and I don't remember what his dad got for dessert. They both got orange juice for a drink. Franz got roast beef sandwich with no cheese with a fruit cup, large coke and a cinnamon roll for dessert.

After our nice surprising large lunch we decided to wait for Maelstorm. After the ride, his mom put on some of the sample perfume they had. We headed towards China and decided to take in Reflections of China. We spent a little bit of time in the gift shop looking around. This is where I found the purse inside of a purse inside of a purse inside of a purse inside of a purse. I know that's a lot of purses inside of a purse laugh

Pictures of China:
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We decided to head to test track. Neither of his parents had been on test track at all. This was his dads first time ever and his mom had been to Animal Kingdom back in May with us. We decided to do single rider since standby was like 90 minutes. His parents both enjoyed it including his mom. Then we decided to slowly head back towards Japan. His mom wanted to ride the boat but they had stopped for the night. We headed past Canada, Off Kilter was playing. We went through the gift shops that were located near the Pooh meet and greet. I found a picture of my name with the meaning attached to it . Boy did my parents get it right. We didn't really look around France but we did look around Morocco for a bit then we got to Japan. We had checked to see if we could get in earlier but they had a tight schedule. So we went to the historical part about Anime since no one was in there and there was seats to finalize some plans for later in the week and where they meet either both Franz and I or just one of us. While they were doing that, I went around and took some pictures until they needed me for something. Once that was over, we headed to the gift shop to look around.

Here are some pictures I got:
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We wandered around the gift shop until it was closer to dinner time. Around that time, they had closed the outside kiosk and had us check in upstairs. We were seated another lovely group of four from Ny. We had a great dinner. I had the steak and shrimp, Franz had the same, his dad had steak and chicken and his mom had chicken and shrimp I believe. It was very delicious. I had coke, Franz had a beer and I think coke as well, his mom had lemonade and his dad had coke. The chef was very nice along with the other two we had bringing us drinks and warm towels for our hands.

Here are some pictures from dinner:
Mickey
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Choo choo
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Volcano
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Everything cooking
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Yummy rice
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Yummy sauces
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My plate
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Dessert
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The food was delicious. Then it was time for dessert. I had vanilla ice cream, Franz had vanilla ice cream as well, his mom had the green tea cheese cake and his dad had the chocolate ginger cake. We all liked our meal so much. Franz had leftovers and his mom had leftovers as well. We were stuffed and the last table out of the restaurant. Ooops. But they didn't rush us.

We told to go around the left way, so going past France, UK and Canada to get out since they were trying to clear the park out. We had our own personal bus back to All-Star Sports. That was cool. Once we got off the bus we said our goodbyes and Franz and I headed home. We had a really nice day.

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Day 2

We met at DTD for lunch at Earl of Sandwich around noon. I had the Holiday Turkey with a brownie for dessert and a fountain beverage. I really don't remember what the others got for sandwiches. They choose pumpkin spice cupcake, chocolate cupcake and a vanilla bean cupcake. Franz also got a fountain beverage while both his parents got coffee. Sorry no pictures of the food. I remembered about the picture when most of my sandwich had been consumed. Oops.

Happy holidays!
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After lunch we wondered down towards the Pleasure Island boat stop but the boats weren't running due to high winds so we caught a bus to Art of Animation (were aiming for Pop but Art came first) to catch a Hollywood Studios bus. I was the tour guide since neither of his parents knew nothing about the park. They had scheduled a fastpass for the first Lights! Motor! Action! (LMA) show and they missed it. So we stopped by Sids to get it figured out. Original fastpasses were for 1:10 showing of LMA, a showing of Beauty and the Beast and Great Movie Ride (GMR). They got fastpasses for the second LMA, kept GMR and got a Fantasmic! fastpass. Once those were settled we went off to explore. I believe we went to the Magic of Disney Animation for the drawing class. We got to draw the one, the only, Olaf!!! clapping Here is my rendition of Olaf

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We headed down towards Toy Story but got sidetracked at Walt's One Mans Dream. By the time that ended we headed towards LMA but I wanted stop at Writers Stop (thank goodness his mom also wanted to take a peek inside) to use a couple snacks. Wanna take a guess to what I got? Well I got a mochacciano and carrot cake cookie! I snapped a picture of the cookie once we were seated.

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I had a general Hollywood Studios fastpass that I used to get in with them and the guy kindly accepted my fastpass even though I don't think he was supposed to. clapping I was able to snap a few pictures of the show.

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So after LMA we headed back up towards the hat and I think it was almost time for the GMR fastpasses and we got almost straight on. We had gotten the gangster scene waiting. I always get that scene and I'm tired of it. Since it was his parents first time on the ride, they liked it a lot! It was kinda chilly out so we sent his dad back to the resort to get them some warmer clothes like a jacket and scarf. While his dad went off, his mom and I took some time to look around the shops on Sunset. His mom had found a quiet place in the store to call her boyfriend and just check in with him. I looked around to see what I could get my parents for Christmas. When she was done, we headed to Beauty and the Beast since we didn't have anything to really do. While we waited, his mom finished the rest of the sandwich she had gotten at Earl. The show was fantastic as always but I felt Bell's voice was a little off for Bell at times. Gaston was great as always. Someone was having microphone issues but that got that fixed. Once the show ended, we headed to the corner of Sunset and Hollywood by the kids gift shop to wait for his dad. He showed up in like 5 minutes. Then we headed to Fantasmic!, I once again used a fastpass to get in with them. We had really crappy seating. We were technically in standing room but we were able to sit the whole time because I think everyone was too cold to stand. Despite having crappy seats, his parents still enjoyed the show then I explained where the best seats were and how to get them. We headed over to Toy Story since we went to the first showing of Fantasmic. clapping clapping I used fastpasses to get us all on the ride. They had so much fun and they were shocked at how many points I was able to get.

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After Toy Story we headed down towards The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights (SODLS). They were very amazed to see them. We slowly took our time walking up towards Sci-Fi since that's where we were having dinner this night. Our reservation wasn't until 9:20 but we arrived a little early 8:45. We checked in and we were called to get seated. This where the trouble happened. Franz was working the Orlando Magic game at the Amway Center and they let him go after half time about 8:40ish so of course he wasn't at the restaurant yet. Well the seater told us we couldn't be seated until he came. waiting The time kept passing by and the same seater kept coming over to us to inform us that the kitchen was closing soon and that we might miss our reservation. Around 9:20ish I got up to ask the kind ladies what would happen if we would end up missing the reservation. I wanted to know if they would just cancel it since we did show up but they refused to seat us. Well I didn't get to ask my question. They asked me if we knew what he wanted so we could order for him. I said yes we would. Alas we were finally seated! yay clapping

We had a kind server named Veronica. She couldn't get the band reader to work but we knew which dining plan we were on. I got the picnic burger with a coke, I ordered Franz a made to order burger with just bacon and a beer, his dad got the ribs and his mom got a steak I think. His mom got a lemonade to drink and his dad got a coke I believe. About 9:35 is when Franz finally made it. He had made it before the food had arrived. We filled him in on what had happened and we asked him about his day. Traffic was horrible and the person that was supposed to cover his station at work wouldn't because she was busy talking on the phone or something, he also had stopped by Krispy Kreme to get some doughnuts for our roommate and he stood at the counter for like 10 minutes he said and he was going to inform the manager about what happened because the person wouldn't take his order but took orders for 3 others before his. But he made it and he could relax.

Dinner was good, I ordered him the wrong thing but he didn't complain too much. I got the turtle cheesecake, Franz got the hot fudge sundae and I think one or both of his parents got the apple crumble. I don't really remember. Time out: Sorry no pictures for now. I can't find them on my phone because it was on like 2% battery during dinner. I might have taken some with my digital camera. I will get back to you on that. Time in.

We were the last family to leave. I'd say we had a pretty productive day. It was after 10 pm when we left the restaurant. The park was almost empty.

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Hey Mandy. Sounds like you had a great time! I was wondering...why were your FP+ seats for Fantasmic so bad? Did you get there late, or are they just seating the FP+ guests in a not so great section? I've been reading on other sites that the FP+ seats are reserved and are actually pretty good, but after reading your post, I'm worried.

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The seats weren't that bad but you can't see everything that goes on like down on the water but you can see everything on the stage and mountain. Fastpass seating is general seating. As far as I know, there is not a fp section. That might vary nightly but mostly, fastpasses are general seating. I could of gotten better seats by getting there earlier and waiting the 90 minutes before showtime. Here is a map of the seating area I found online.

F-Seating-West_080413_zps98ba0bed

We were in 4 between Jafar and Hades. Luckily we were in the second row and the people in front of us stay seated the whole time and I could looked down an isle to see the princesses, monkeys and Indians floating by on the water. I still enjoyed the show and had a great time. I recommend the dining package over fastpass for Fantasmic.

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Thanks, Mandy. I'm a little worried about the seating for the dinner package. I called WDW yesterday and the woman I spoke to said the seats for the dining package are in the last section on the side (Witch). She said every seat is fine, but that we might not be able to see everything being that far over to the right and that we might be able to see backstage (whichl kind of kills the magic for me). I have to think about it some more. If I keep my dining package, we won't be able to make it over to Animal Kingdom this trip (just not enough time), but if I keep my later reservation and the FP+ we could do Animal Kingdom in the AM and then head of to DHS. I'm torn.

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Seating for dining package is in the Mickey and Scar section. I think sometimes it even goes over to Sebastian depending on how many packages there are. If you do the fastpass, get there early. I believe they will accept fastpasses early for Fantasmic.

VelcroPooh

Love your Olaf!

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Thank you! Its a work in progress.

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Your TR is great!!! I can't see your pics though Sad but sounds like you all had an awesome time!!

Do you think Fantasmic is worth it?? I also have the dining package for February, but I really don't want to eat at 3 (which is when the reservations were available). Worth it?? Pass?? Your thoughts?

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Thanks! I changed my privacy settings back to public. That should do the trick for you to see them. Fantasmic is worth the dining package and not fastpass unless you get there around the 90(first showing/one show)/30 (second showing) minute mark. Dining package has the best seats in the house. The worst seats are Witch and Beast sections because they are the outer sections and you may see some backstage stuff but they usually do a good job with not doing that during the show. Standing section are also bad because you have a limited viewing of the show. I know Fantasmic really well, so I didn't mind being the standing section that one time.