Tales of the Flowers: WDW Friday and Whispering Canyon Cafe

After flying to Dallas Texas, driving to Mississippi and continuing onward to Florida, on Friday morning it was finally time to head into the Magic Kingdom! First stop was the parking lot of the Ticket and Transportation Center.

Alli is quick to point out the monorails at home. She's going to be seeing a whole lot more of them on this trip.

Looking forward to all the fun stuff we'll be doing.
Ian - I see the castle!

Thankfully the parks don't seem to be too busy right now.

As we were walking down Main Street, Ian asked what we're doing first. When I told him Winnie the Pooh, he was quick to ask if he could play on the honey wall... How in the world does he even remember that?
When you're in the fastpass line, you completely bypass the honey walls. Ian wound his way between people to get back to them.

Alli usually loves this ride back home. I was surprised she was tentative for this one.

But she had no inhibitions after getting off the ride. She sprinted ahead of everyone to the exit, where Disney has strategically placed a bunch of plush animals.

And boy does Alli love plush animals. Hugs for everyone. One for Pooh.

One for Tigger.

And you can't forget Eeyore.

Well hello Jacob! Aren't you on the wrong coast? He's in town visiting his dad for Thanksgiving. Jacob and his sister-in-law Nicole are both here.
Not only that, but it's his birthday today too! So we get to celebrate with him here in Florida!

Ian's getting more bold on roller coasters. Look at those hands up while riding Goofy's Barnstormer.

The carrousel has a short line, and it's always a favorite.

With all that spinning, the kids wanted to go on the Pop Pop ride too.

Get that sword out guys!

Time for a treat! The line to get a Dole Whip was pretty backed up. I really liked the mobile ordering option, being able to skip the line and just wait to be called.

They're doing really good business here. The Dole Whip barely has time to get cold before it's time to serve. Ours was melty almost immediately.

Ian - There's a hole in the middle!
Yes. Yes there is.

We spent the rest of the afternoon going on the usual kid rides. Little Mermaid, Peter Pan (which I love that you can get a fastpass for), and it's a small world.
Boy the Tomorrowland Speedway was really popular on this trip.

Constantly checking the WDW app for fastpasses really paid off. Even though the posted wait time for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is 110 minutes, I found three fastpasses available almost immediately! Ian's been asking about riding it, but I didn't think we'd get the chance this trip. He was really excited when he got off the Speedway and I told him what he was riding next. He rode with Gram and Pop Pop since they've never had the chance to ride it before.

Oh yeah! Look at those hands!

Ian recently got tall enough to ride Space Mountain back home. He was excited to go on it here was WDW too. Using our fast passes we quickly made it past the first cast member. And then when they re-check fast passes, that was quick too.

Finally at the front of the line, the cast member asked to measure his height. Yeah, I know he's close to 40". Go ahead and show them buddy.
Oh wait. It's 44" here? Oops. Space Mountain will have to wait a little longer.

Pop Pop took Ian through the exit, while Mom and I took a ride through Space.

While were at Space Mountain, T and Alli enjoyed a ride on Tomorrowland Speedway. Alli has decided "I do it all by myself" and doesn't want any help steering. The results are a bumpy but fun ride around the track.

Well he didn't get to go on Space Mountain, so Jr Space Mountain will have to suffice.

The park is closing early at 6pm tonight due to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

Alli showing off her bandaids she's earned today.

Time for dinner.
When we heard of an all-you-can-eat bbq restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge, our minds immediately started thinking back to the delicious Big Thunder Ranch BBQ. It was our favorite place to eat at Disneyland, hands down. Could the Whispering Canyon Cafe possibly compare? We checked in once we arrived.

And enjoyed the giant lobby while we waited for our table.

I don't know how that could be comfortable.

I hadn't done much research at all into this place except for the menu. I hadn't realized it was one of those restaurants where the waiters go out of their way to be obnoxious.

Poor Alli. She was seated with her back to the aisle. The server noticed her, came right up behind her and yelled "WELCOME TO THE WHISPERING CANYON CAFE!!!"
Naturally Alli freaked out. He continued his loud screaming while he went over the menu and everything else. Even after he left, this was Alli for the next 10 minutes, while constantly looking over her shoulder.

When he came back, Ian was quick to tell him to stop yelling so much. When the server demanded why he should stop yelling, Ian said his sister Alli didn't like it. The volume went down just a smidge after that.

Drink orders? My mother started off with a water with lemon, which was met with an eye roll and mouthing the words "I need lemons for my water."
When he asked Ian what he wanted to drink, he said don't you dare ask for lemons... So Ian asked for limes.
Once the drinks arrived, we received a plate with both plus a knife. Guess we have to slice our own lemons and limes here.

Alli was still holding her ears and looking over her shoulder, so to get her away from the aisle, we swapped seats. That made it a little better.
I forget how it happened, but once again our server found some way to scare her. Then to make her feel better he started throwing napkins and straws at her. "All kids love paper products" he said.

So what brings us here? The food! Could it possibly compare?
In short, no. Not really. Nothing stood out as being particularly good. When they came back to ask what we wanted seconds of, it was hard to pick anything. After polling the table on what the favorite part of the meal was, I think the cornbread loaf that's served before the meal arrives was the winner.

This is also one of those restaurants where if you ask your server for ketchup, they yell KETCHUP! and every bottle of ketchup from every other table gets delivered to you. In the end, you have a table with 20 bottles of ketchup. For Ian's chicken nugget meal, our server asked if he wanted ketchup, but thankfully Ian enjoys ranch dressing more.

During the meal, all the men in the restaurant were rounded up and made to encircle the main dining room and learn a song to perform. Only the manliest of songs would do.