Mayhem Marauders Meet-up Part Deux!

[Amy]

I forgot to mention the light fixtures ~ those are some beautiful works of art they have lighting up the place

[NaCler]

Awesome report M-Dude. I love seeing the pics of the fancy food. I think it is pretty awesome that you enjoyed it enough the first night that you had to book it again on the same trip. At times I think I would love to try this, but I'm not big on fancy small food or wine, so I don't know if it would be worth the time or money. So, it's been nice to live vicariously through your report.

[Amy]

Awesome report M-Dude. I love seeing the pics of the fancy food. I think it is pretty awesome that you enjoyed it enough the first night that you had to book it again on the same trip. At times I think I would love to try this, but I'm not big on fancy small food or wine, so I don't know if it would be worth the time or money. So, it's been nice to live vicariously through your report.

That's exactly what I was thinking as I was reading and looking at the photos. I would love the experience, but I would just as soon tuck into a pizza at Via Napoli and have those awesome zeppoli for dessert

[Mousekedude]

Awesome report M-Dude. I love seeing the pics of the fancy food. I think it is pretty awesome that you enjoyed it enough the first night that you had to book it again on the same trip. At times I think I would love to try this, but I'm not big on fancy small food or wine, so I don't know if it would be worth the time or money. So, it's been nice to live vicariously through your report.

That's exactly what I was thinking as I was reading and looking at the photos. I would love the experience, but I would just as soon tuck into a pizza at Via Napoli and have those awesome zeppoli for dessert

Yeah, I understand, y'all. But we love that sort of thing, so we scrimp and save our pennies all year just so we can splurge once or twice on something special. It's worth it to us.

It's taking me a while to get all the photos together and stuff for my next big post, where I promised to tell about our special sneak preview of the Fantasyland expansion with Soarin.' So just to keep the ball rolling, here's a quickie post of a "less-than-magical" experience we had one evening.

We had a 7:00 p.m. ADR for dinner at La Hacienda, and we invited Soarin' to join us. We arrived at the check-in kiosk out front at 7:05, well within the limits for holding your reservation. Well, the line just to to check in was a mile long, so we stood there for almost 15 minutes. When it got down to the couple in front of us, I was pretty upset to hear the conversation between them and the check-in guy. They were all speaking in Spanish, and were probably sure that no one around them understood them, but I did because I speak Spanish. So they were saying that they didn't have a reservation but would really like to get in anyway, and the guy was doing all he could to make sure they did. They were all chit-chatting about being from the same part of Mexico, etc, and I was getting really annoyed that: (a) it was taking so long, and (b) the check-in guy was determined to get them in even though they didn't have a reservation. Bear in mind, the line was a mile long and the place was completely booked up. Can you say "favoritism?"

So finally he hands them a pager and tells them it will only be a few minutes, and they go inside the restaurant lobby to wait. So now it's my turn, and now it's 7:20 p.m., so the first thing I tell the guy is that I had a 7:00 reservation and have been standing in line for 15 minutes already just to check in, and that I'm not very happy about that. So he tells me that he just ran out of pagers (what?!! you just gave one to the jerks in front of us who HAD...NO...RESERVATIONS!!!) and that I'll have to go inside to check in!! So like an obedient little sheep I go inside and stand for ANOTHER 5 minutes or so to try and check in with the hostess at the desk. I'm not getting the "warm and fuzzies" from watching her because she seems new and looks confused. So when I finally get up to her and explain what just happened outside, she doesn't seem to know what to do and finally calls over some manager or something who confirms that we had a reservation, apologizes for the delay, and hands me a pager. He reassures me that it will only be about another 10 minutes or so (now I'm really upset... my reservation was for 7:00... it's now 7:30....!), but I thank him and take the pager. The chick now tells me I can go wait in the pyramid if I want. I ask her if the pager will reach that far, and she reassures me it will (I'm not so sure, so I ask her again, and she assures me again that it will..). So now it's 7:35 and we three head over to wait inside the pyramid. At 7:45 we've still heard nothing, so I go back over to the hostess to check with her, and she doesn't seem to know what's going, so I ask for a manager. One comes over, and I explain the whole thing to him (now I'm getting REALLY upset), and he promises that he has one couple to seat ahead of us and then he'll come right back and seat us.

Now it gets really ugly. TEN...MINUTES...LATER, they've seated FIVE OTHER FAMILIES and this guy still has not come back for us! So I stop one of the guests they just called as he starts to walk in with the hostess and I say, "Excuse me Sir, what time was your reservation for?" And he says "7:30". And I say, "how long have you been waiting?" And he says "about 20 minutes." (It is now almost 8:00). So NOW I'm R.E.A.L.L.Y U.P.S.E.T!!!!!!!!!

I go up to the chick at the counter again (Senorita Confusiada) and "very firmly" demand an explanation. She stutters something to the effect of "well, we called you and you didn't respond..." ............................. oh man, you think I was upset before this...?

I shook the pager up under her nose and cut her off in mid-sentence, and snarled "You most certainly did not!!! This thing never went off, and we have been back in the lobby right in front of your desk for the last 20 minutes too!! You never called us!!!!!!" With a look of total panic (guilt, maybe...?) she called a guy over to help her, and guess what? They seated us within 1 minute! My guess is that she had screwed up with the electronics somehow and didn't have the guts to admit it.

Once we were seated, I told the whole story to our server, who I figured would pass it on to a manager, and I fully expected a manager to at least come by our table and apologize, or comp us dessert, or something. Nothing. By the way, there were empty tables all over the place. Apparently Disney has a policy of "not overloading the servers," so if there aren't enough of them on a particular evening then they won't seat people even when there are a bunch of empty tables.

Well, fortunately the dinner was fabulous, our conversation with Soarin' was deep and meaningful, and we had a wonderful time. We even made it outside in time for Illuminations and got a pretty decent spot by Norway, so the evening wasn't a total loss. Here's a pic from Illuminations:


Thanks for listening to my rant. We now return to our regularly scheduled mayhem.........

[Amy]

Oh my goodness That was a horrible start to a lovely evening! Glad it all worked out and you were able to enjoy your meal though.
Your fireworks shot is AMAZING

[yodiwan1]

Wow, if that would have been us, my wife and I would have blown up way before you did. lol We were once eating at Garden Grill just as they opened for dinner. We had the very first reservation. Some how we watch 10 parties get seated before us, and are waiting for 20 minutes. They opened at 4pm btw. We are stanbding there, with a pager, when the hostess walks over and asks"Sir are you waiting for something?" ... I showed her my pager and said," Yes, I am waiting for you to call me. I was the first oen here and had a 4:00 ADR!" Her jaw dropped and she stood there for about 5 seconds before apologizing and got a manager. They gave us 50% off, and brought all the characters to us at one time which was pretty cool. Since the walk way is so narrow though we couldn't get a full group shot. ....Sorry the manager didn't take care of you guys M-dude! I can't believe you guys even stayed that long and didn't go elsewhere. As long as you were happy in the end, then I'm happy for ya!

[cy1229]

Having the right company present can make up for a barrel full of bad experiences, but surely the manager should have at least APOLOGIZED. I've never had bad service at a WDW restaurant *knock knock knock knock knock knock* and am so surprised to hear something this heinous going on. Glad you, M-holoic, and Soarin had a good meal.

[NaCler]

Sorry for the bad experience M-Dude. I can definitely see that happening at La Hacienda. I tried it on my last trip and noticed the same thing about the empty tables. They were turning guests away that did not have reservations but there were tons of empty tables inside. They definitely should have comped you something for your trouble. Maybe a couple of free jalapeno margaritas from La Cava???

[Mousekedude]

Thanks for the kind words, everybody. And NaCler, you bet! A couple of J.M.’s would have made up for the whole thing!

And now, it’s time for the promised post with sneak previews of the new Fantasyland expansion! Better get comfy… there’s a lot of pictures with this post.

The Mousekecouple Invade WDW, Aug-Sept 2012.... Part 5.

We were soooooo excited that Soarin’ had been so kind and generous as to get us in to this special event! It was open to only C.M.’s and a select few guests! We could tell it was something special because even the C.M.’s who guided us were just as excited as we were:



We entered the area at what is basically meant to represent a conglomeration of Belle’s house and the village town square from Beauty and the Beast:








The tour was limited to this area because it was the only part that’s really ready for guests… more or less. But we could see great progress being made on other areas behind the construction fences:





Naturally we all had to take pictures. Here’s Soarin’ getting some shots with her camera while I’m in the background getting some shots with my cell phone to send to the Boilers (Mouseoholic is wielding the “real” camera at this time ):




We had to rush this part because it was time to go inside “Maurice’s workshop” for the interactive adventure part of the tour, and the C.M.’s were waiting for us. When we got inside, we were all gathered into the main room to “await something special.” We snapped a few pics while we waited to see what the “something special” would be:






When the C.M.’s finally had the group gathered up and quieted down, they revealed what the “something special” was. You see that mirror in the last shot? Well it’s a “magic mirror” that transforms into a secret passageway that we would be able to walk through… directly into Beast’s castle! The special effects of the "transformation" were amazing! It was impossible to tell how they were doing it:






First stop was a sort-of parlor-slash-waiting area where we saw a perfect replica of the wardrobe from the movie:



As it turns out, this was a “staging” area for the interactive part of the tour (just like the “recording studio” preshow before you get to go on Rock ‘n Roller Coaster). In this case, the C.M.’s began pulling props out of the wardrobe and selecting random guests to play various parts in a play:




The idea was for guests to reenact the story of “Beauty and the Beast” in Beast’s library, after which we would be joined by Belle herself. So after selecting the participants, giving them their props, and practicing their parts, it was now time for us all to go into the Beast’s Library (we used a regular door this time ):




The attention to detail in the library was excellent. The animatronic “Lumiere” was so well done, and so lifelike, that it was hard to believe we were looking at a real object and not an animated projection on a screen (I regret not taking video ):



I thought the lighting sconce and chandelier were a nice touch… giving the illusion that there was a ceiling even though the area above was actually open for all the theater lighting and such:




Okay, so the group performed their little play, and then we all waited breathlessly for Belle to join us. Here’s the doorway through which she would be arriving:



Finally she swooped in, all smiles and grace! She first chatted with Lumiere and all the “characters” who had performed in the play, and then she mingled with the group as a whole:






With the interactive part of the tour now over, we all went back through a “magical corridor” which put us right back in the village square. As we came out into the sunlight, we looked back with happy new memories at the Beast’s castle up on the mountain:



That's it for now. More posts to come!

[Amy]

That looks awesome ~ I'm excited to see the magical mirror in person someday

[cy1229]

Magic Mirror??? AWESOMESAUCE!!!

Ok, geeks. Let's try and figure this one out. I say holographic projection.

But it's so COOL. Thanks for the photos M-dude!

[dstrawn9889]

nah, seems more like they moved the lower half of the wall, you can see in the mm pictures the rose sculpt moved down, like the paintings move upwards in the stretching room, and then the mirror glass is retracted while the graphics are running.

[NaCler]

Awesome pics and experience M-Dude. Why did they let you guys take pictures? Disney normally doesn't like people to take pics/videos during special previews and "back stage" tours. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they did so you could share them with us.

[Amy]

nah, seems more like they moved the lower half of the wall, you can see in the mm pictures the rose sculpt moved down, like the paintings move upwards in the stretching room, and then the mirror glass is retracted while the graphics are running.

I thought the same thing. It also appears to expand outwards as well.

[cy1229]

A holographic projection is more fun.