Trip Report A Short Trip To WDW

Hello Friends,

We are less than 24 hrs away from another trip to WDW. This is the first trip there for us since our Cruise/WDW trip October last year. It will be a short, 5-day trip, but it promises to be jam packed.

Of course, we will get to see the tail end of the F&G Festival. But the one we are looking forward to is doing the Wild Africa Trek at Animal Kingdom. We have always wanted to do this, but never found the time or opportunity till now. So we are definitely excited about ticking this off our list.

And certainly, we want to see the new nighttime show at Animal Kingdom. We have a fast-pass reservation for it, so hopefully, we have a good viewing area. We also plan to see Wishes, probably for the very last time before it ends this summer. It will be an emotional goodbye, because it was during Wishes many, many years ago that I realized how much I love WDW, and that even in the pouring rain, there was no other place that I'd rather be at that time.

I'm almost all packed, even though unlike our normal SOP, we will be leaving rather later than usual. So I have almost half a day tomorrow to figure out what I'm forgetting.

As usual, I'll try to post live while I'm on the trip, followed by a more comprehensive report either when I'm back in my room or when I'm back home.

Zz.

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

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Having lunch at Columbia harbour house.

Thanks for a great trip report!! Iove Columbia Harbor House!! I'm looking forward to one more lobster roll this year! Not sure if they are going to make CHH the HM restaurant or what...guess we'll find out at D23, but hopefully CHH will be open this fall!!

The WAT sounds amazing! What a cool experience! Glad you were able to check the item off your bucket list!
HIDDEN MICKEY'S FOR THE WIN!!! I love the Hidden Mickey hunt! It's a reminder of how detail oriented WDW is about everything!
The Hidden Mickey's are also a reminder to slow down and smell the Disney roses during a jam packed trip!

Zz

Of course, Disney theme park fanatics will always go looking for Hidden Mickeys whenever we are at the parks. Since it was such a short, jam-packed trip, I didn't have the luxury to spend time doing Hidden Mickey hunting. Still, we looked for the familiar ones that we remembered, and found one that we hadn't seen before.

This one, which I posted already during my "live" report, is in the Harambe Marketplace, towards the back. The Hidden Mickey is on the triangular-shaped shield lying on its side. So you'll see two black disks at the ears and the while disks as the head.
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The second one is in the Morocco pavilion. Across from the Marrakesh restaurant is a room that is usually closed, since it is used for a character meet-and-greet. Inside that room is a mural painting on the wall. The Hidden Mickey can be found is one of the tower or minaret in the mural.
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This one is on the 3 Caballeros ride in Mexico. The Hidden Mickey is formed by the 3 drums.
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I actually spotted 2 more hidden Mickeys at MK, but I didn't snap a photo of them since we were in a hurry to get to somewhere at that time.

Zz.

 

[sheriffwoody]

Loved your recap of the trek!! I am thinking about doing that on our next trip. It looks like a great experience, and I love that it includes a donation for conservation.

Your review of Rivers of Light was so much more detailed than mine. I totally agree about it not being dazzling! It's pretty, but...that's about it .

I may investigate if they'll stop us from going left and walking through Asia to exit, or maybe I'll just sit around for a while longer and let the crowd dissipate before walking out.

We went left. I don't even remember seeing signs telling us to go right. We just went left because that was the side we were on (sounds like we were in the same place as you). I think you were there after us though, so maybe they've changed it.

 

[ZapperZ]

Loved your recap of the trek!! I am thinking about doing that on our next trip. It looks like a great experience, and I love that it includes a donation for conservation.

Your review of Rivers of Light was so much more detailed than mine. I totally agree about it not being dazzling! It's pretty, but...that's about it .



We went left. I don't even remember seeing signs telling us to go right. We just went left because that was the side we were on (sounds like we were in the same place as you). I think you were there after us though, so maybe they've changed it.

I hope someone who has attended this recently, saw the sign directing them to the right, but went left and exited via Asia, will respond. Otherwise, if this is what I see again the next time I see Rivers of Light, I'm going to follow my instinct and go left. Going out through Dinoland is NUTS.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

This is a summary of the food that we ate. I didn't snap every single thing that I bought there, of course, and a few of these I've already posted during my live blogging.

We'll start, of course, with the light lunch that they provided us during Wild Africa Trek. If you've seen the before-and-after photos that I posted earlier, you would have noticed that we cleaned very last morsel of food from the Tiffin boxes. It was scrumptious. What I didn't tell you was that to wash all the food down, they had water AND guava juice! I think I had 3 cups full of that juice. It was nice and cold, and it hit the spot on the warm day that we did this.

We had dinner at Flame Tree BBQ with a nice spot for it. Now, I've had their smoked chicken since forever, and while the flavor remains consistently good, I swear that the half-chicken seems to be getting smaller and smaller as the years progressed, while the prices keep going up (isn't that always the case?). In any case, it is still one of my favorite meals for a quick-service, but I'm just afraid that in a few years, it will be the size of a cornish hen.

Of course, as many of you may have remembered, I had a lovely time sitting and relaxing at Harambe Marketplace enjoying a very nice sangria. I wouldn't mind many more of such relaxation at a Disney theme park.

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[ZapperZ]

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Next, we go to Epcot, which on average, is my favorite "food park" in WDW.

We had lunch at Spice Road Table. As someone who ate there during the first month that they opened, I'm sorry to say that the food quality has changed since then, so has the types of offerings. Don't get me wrong, it is still damn good, but it was such a novel concept of having a Mediterranean tapas there. But of course, the Disney Dining Plan took over! While they still have the small plates, it is just not the same anymore than what we had originally on the menu. We will definitely dine there again, but I wish they had stuck to the original concept.

The good news is that the Harrisa chicken roll (similar to the Filipino's fried lumpia) is still very good!

I had the vegetable platter. It was OK. There's nothing unusual or outstanding about it if you've had middle-eastern, Mediterranean-type cuisine before.

The beef/chicken skewers were good, but a bit confusing with the fries. It would have been nice if it had been served with couscous.

The one thing I do not understand is why they only have cold Moroccan mint tea here, and not the hot. They do serve hot mint tea in Marrakesh restaurant. In any case, Donald seems to have a linking for the cold version of the tea.

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[PacNWTigger]

After looking at your food pics my apple just isn't going to cut it for my afternoon snack anymore...

 

[ZapperZ]

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One last item from Epcot. We ate dinner at La Cantina de San Angel. We used to love the food here a lot, for a quick service. The tacos used to come with cilantro and onions, accompanied by multi-colored corn chips (I have pictures to prove it). Now, it seems that all they do is dump the filling in the taco, and you'd be lucky if you get a few pieces of cilantro. There was not a piece of onion in sight. This is accompanied by not-ready-for-prime-time rice and a sad looking (and tasting) refried beans. Ugh. The food quality has gone downhill over the years (a common theme in many cases).

Next, we jump to DHS.

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Er... what is there to say about the food here? We walked into the Commissary, and then we walked right out after we looked at the menu. I couldn't find anything that I wanted to eat there! So I settled for a stupid burger. Even Donald didn't care much for what we got.

Next, we made a quick stop at DS. It was hot, so what better way than to sit by the lagoon and enjoying some soft-served pineapple ice cream! Yum!

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[ZapperZ]

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Finally, we got to MK. We had lunch at Columbia Harbour House. I had my favorite item on the menu there, the grilled salmon served with couscous. Unfortunately, they used to have steam broccoli as the veggie with this, and it was often steamed to PERFECTION, a bit cooked, but still crisp! This time, they had green beans. In fact, green beams seemed to be the preferred veggies at CHH that day. They were good and not mushy (I HATE mushy veggies of any kind), but I prefer the broccoli, thankyouverymuch!

The other entree that we ordered was the potpie. Again, accompanied by the green beans.

They must either had a deal on green beams, or Disney just bought a green beans farm.

Luckily, they didn't mess with my Dole Whip float, or there would have been a riot at MK that day. Still, the cast member who did our float must either be new, or wasn't paying attention. Both of our float were tilting dangerously until I rescued them by scooping quickly into my mouth! Slurrrrrp!!!

We had our afternoon "tea", if you can call it that, with our favorite snack. Heck, who are we kidding? It is not a snack, it is a meal all onto itself! Our Nutella fruit waffle!!! (Yes, yes, I know this is not what it is called on the menu, but they still know what you want if you ordered it by calling it that!).

We had dinner at Starlight cafe. I had the roasted chicken. Didn't take any photo, because it was..... roasted chicken!

Didn't get to my most favorite restaurant in all of WDW on this trip - Boma. That's what usually happen when it is just a short trip. No time to do some stuff that we normally do.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

After looking at your food pics my apple just isn't going to cut it for my afternoon snack anymore...

Maybe if you dip it some caramel sauce.........

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Happy Memorial Day holidays to those in the US who are celebrating it.

I actually had a quiet Saturday (for a change), and caught up on more video editing. I've posted earlier the video of the rope bridge crossing that was part of the Wild Africa Trek adventure. Well this time, I've compiled the entire excursion into a video, which should give you a bit more idea on what it looked like. Unfortunately, we both forgot to take a video of the lunch we had (we were probably famished and gobbled up the food before we remembered to get video footage). So you'll have to live with the still photos that I took instead.

Anyway, enjoy!



Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

I was going to call these next set of photos as just some uncommon, miscellaneous stuff. But after I looked at them, I realize that they might also qualify as one of those "Where in Walt Disney World?"-type of photos. So that is what they are. A few of them are easier than others, but all of them were taken during this trip.

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[ZapperZ]

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Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Other's have uploaded this video already, but this is our version of it when we viewed Rivers of Light during this trip. I've posted my review, and my feelings, of this show, so I won't bash it anymore here.



Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

So I did a little test with a few of my non-Disney-fanatic friends, just to prove a point. I told them that we went on a vacation and did a few interesting stuff, and showed them this photo.

I didn't tell them where we were, but I asked them to guess. Of course, they were all over the place, a few even asked if we went to Africa or even Vietnam.

So you can imagine their surprise when I told them that this was at Walt Disney World. These people only have the pictures of castles and Princesses and Mickey Mouse in their heads when the subject of Disney theme parks come up. They were shocked to realize that one can also do an adventure that includes crossing on a rope bridge over a bunch of real crocodiles. Casual visitors and non-Disney fans often do not realize the extent, and the depth/breadth of activities that are available at WDW, and I think Disney is missing out on appealing to the part of the population that is not into Princesses and characters by not advertising more widely this type of excursion. Without knowing the existence of Wild Africa Trek, the picture that I'm showing above looks anything BUT a Disney theme park vacation.

Zz.