1/5-1/12 - Danny and Melissa mosey about the Disney World tundra.

Howdy, fellow World travelers! I've just returned from a fantastic Disney vacation and thought I'd dive right in to my very first trip report. In posts to come, you'll see a few photos and read all about the anomalous cold, some belated Christmas decorations, our trying new things and our laid-back approach to navigating the parks this year, but first, introductions:

I am Melissa. I'm 24 and this was my fourth trip to the World.

Here I am in Disneyland in for my birthday in 2008. I'm a sucker for the ears.

My travel companion is my boyfriend, Danny. His 30th birthday was our reason for celebrating and choosing this particular week to travel.

Danny obliged my taking many, many teacup photos that trip.

Last but not least, we have Simon, the Travel Monkey. He's originally from Duluth, Minnesota. He showed up in our house one Christmas day and became rather attached to us. After exploring his way around the place, he set his sites on more far-flung adventures.

Simon on a flight from New York City to Sacramento.

We woke at an ungodly hour. Our flight was to depart from the Westchester Country airport in White Plains, NY at 6:05 AM. We were using U.S. Airways for this flight. It was our first experience with both that airline and that airport. We weren't sure what to expect from the drive or airport security, so we decided to wake at 2:20 AM and be on the road by 3:00. The airport is 48 miles from our house, but we were parking at a nearby hotel as their long-term parking was about 60% cheaper than the airport's. And so the adventure begins.

We left the house a few minutes before 3:00 AM, Google Maps directions in hand. We got a little turned around when Google's directions conflicted with our instincts and we chose to follow the printout rather than logic. A minor setback, considering how much time we had. We arrived at the hotel about 15 minutes before their first shuttle to the airport was scheduled to depart. In no time at all, we were at the tiny White Plains airport, waiting to drop off our checked bags. This, by the way, was supposed to happen at 4:30 AM, but U.S. Airways opens their counters 30 minutes after the other airlines there. We didn't actually get to the security line until 5:15. Luckily, TSA was quite efficient at moving the people through this morning. We got through security with enough time grab bagels for breakfast and sit for a moment before boarding.

The Westchester County airport is one of the smallest I've ever seen. So was the plane that we boarded. It was a Canadair CRJ-200LR, a 50 passenger little beauty flown by Air Wisconsin, who have a contract with U.S. Airways. Our flight attendant was Jackie Brown. Seriously, she bore a striking resemblance to Pam Grier in both appearance and voice. She even had a little of that foxy attitude that makes Jackie Brown one of my favorite movies. Danny laughed when I made the comparison, but he wasn't so happy when it resulted in me singing "Long Time Woman" and "Across 110th Street" throughout our layover at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. By the way, this was another downside to flying out of White Plains: no direct flights. We resolved to stick to JetBlue for service to Orlando from now on. The advantage to this layover was the nice view as we landed. We could even see a couple landmarks from the terminal.

Here is a fuzzy photo of the U.S. Capitol.

And just beyond the plane here is the Washington Monument. It's always bothered me that the marble on this structure is two different colors, but what can I say? I'm retentive.
​

The second leg of the flight was fairly uneventful. We were in a Boeing 737-400, which means three seats on either side of the aisle. I gave Danny the window seat since Simon was in his backpack and Simon likes to see out the window. I shared the middle seat with the Kent State sweatshirt-clad arm of the man in the aisle seat. The families in front of and behind us were all going to Disney as well, but I didn't strike up conversation with any of them because they were all absorbed in their own conversations and excitement. Plus Kent State guy was asleep and I was trying not to disturb him, lest he take up more of my space.

Before too long, we were landing. We experienced a happy occurrence in that our airline occupied the terminal closest to the Magical Express counter, so there was no opportunity to run to the wrong side of the airport searching for it, as we are known to do. We got in line and were loaded onto a bus almost immediately. Our bus would be stopping at Saratoga Springs and Old Key West before dropping us off at Port Orleans French Quarter. Its final stop was, to my surprise, not Riverside but Fort Wilderness. I don't think I'll ever fully grasp the intricacies of Disney's transportation systems.

Almost home! We were so excited. Except for Simon. It was a little too cold for him.

A little note about the ride to French Quarter: I'm so upset with myself for not writing down our Magical Express driver's name so that I might appropriately sing his praises. He had the whole bus in stitches both before and after the video. He really was great at amplifying our excitement -- as if we didn't already have enough, right? The family sitting in front of us on the bus were first-timers and their two adorable daughters were ecstatic. But more on them later. He was also incredibly informative, delivering a bit of bad news: This week, temperatures would be cold. They would stay that way for the duration of our trip. He said that Florida hadn't seen a week this cold since the 1970s. Boo.

We got to French Quarter and disembarked as quickly as possible. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Christmas decorations were still in place. I really hadn't expected to see any at all by the time we arrived.

The framed photos on the tree were stills from The Princess and the Frog. There was quite a bit of movie theming in the main building of the resort. More on that to come.

We checked in and Danny received his birthday button. We opted not to do online check-in because we wanted to be able to reiterate our room requests to a person as we checked in. Our only request was that our room not overlook a parking lot. We received room 2317, which I thought was pretty ideally located. For those of you not familiar with the French Quarter, we had a courtyard view in building 2, and our third-story room was adjacent to the stairs and mere steps from the elevator. That came in handy at the end of a few particularly long days. Our building was also the closest to the boat launch on the Sassagoula River, where one can take a boat to Downtown Disney. I regret that we hardly used that service during our stay because it was so cold outside. Nor did we use the pool, which was also right next to our building.

It was about noon by the time we got to our room and we were famished. We dropped off our carry-ons, left a tip for the bellmen who would be bringing up our checked bags when they arrived, and ventured back out to grab lunch before heading to the Magic Kingdom. Simon elected to stay in the room and watch Phineas and Ferb as it was just too cold for him. We headed down to Sassagoula Floatworks for a bite to eat. I took photos, but they don't look particularly appealing, so I won't be posting them. Lunch was serviceable, but we were quite hungry and didn't care to admire the meal the way that we would others during the week.

Up Next: The Magic Kingdom and dinner at the Kona Café.
​

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

Next we walked over to Morocco. I think that this is one of the most beautiful and most overlooked pavilions in the World Showcase. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures to illustrate this point because every time I was there we were either battling freezing rain or sun casting big shadows. I also can't say much for the shops in this area. I've often considered having henna done on my feet while I'm there, but as you can imagine, that wasn't even a fleeting thought during this trip, where temperatures barely ever reached 50__°F and were often much colder. Some day, I'll spend some real quality time in this pavilion and report back. I'd love to try some of the food here too but it's just never worked out that way so far.

On our last trip, my husband and I also picked Morocco as our favorite pavilion. The attention to detail there is exceptional and the architecture is just gorgeous.
I've eaten at Marrakesh and it was amazing! You should defintely check it out sometime

Oh and those Remy pictures are adorable!

 

[lpet11984]

Can't wait to hear the next installment, particularly about your next trip to Kouzzina-- we are headed there in Feb as a part of my bachelorette trip. We are also foodies of some sort, so I'm anxious to hear your perspective!

 

[Sweet Melissa]

On our last trip, my husband and I also picked Morocco as our favorite pavilion. The attention to detail there is exceptional and the architecture is just gorgeous.
I've eaten at Marrakesh and it was amazing! You should definitely check it out sometime

Oh and those Remy pictures are adorable!

Thank you. My Remy photos disappointed me a little when I saw them on the screen. I didn't want to annoy the people around me with a flash, so they were a little less sharp than they should have been. And thanks too for the Marrakesh recommendation. It's a shame we've overlooked it this long, but it will unfortunately probably not make it in to the rotation on the next trip either.

Can't wait to hear the next installment, particularly about your next trip to Kouzzina-- we are headed there in Feb as a part of my bachelorette trip. We are also foodies of some sort, so I'm anxious to hear your perspective!

Best wishes and I hope you have a great time on your upcoming trip. I really enjoyed Kouzzina. In fact, when I was thinking about the upcoming installment of this trip report last night, I started craving the pastitsio I had for dinner while I was there. I'm going to have to try to recreate it at home soon.

 

[princessmelinda]

I LOVE the Remy pictures! I really LOLed when you said "I'm nude!" hahaha. The creme brulee looks to die for too! I ate at Les Chefs De France my last trip and you inspired me to eat there again this trip .

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Love your report so far Melissa! Looks like you guys had a great time! Can't wait to read more.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

1/6 - Future World, the Boardwalk and Kouzzina

We headed back toward Future World after lunch at Chefs. I had to stop and take photos of the big tree that sits between World Showcase and Future World on the way out.

Although I love EPCOT, I really don't go there for the rides. We like Soarin' and Spaceship Earth, but we really don't care about Test Track or Mission: Space at all. I think that because of that we've overlooked some other rides in Future World that should have commanded our attention much earlier. One of those is Journey into Imagination with Figment. We walked on and had a ... what would you call those ride vehicles? A tram? We had a tram to ourselves. It was my first time riding it, and if Danny had ridden before it had been so long that he didn't remember it. I thought it was a decent little ride but having not experienced its previous incarnations I have nothing with which to compare it. I think I missed the boat on the ride becoming a favorite of mine. I don't know if I could ever have the reverence for Figment that many EPCOT fans do. I will remember the ride for future trips, though. It's cute aside from the fragrance room, which grossed me out only slightly less than Stitch's Great Escape.

Afterward we rode Spaceship Earth. I really like this ride, but I've ridden it so much and others write about it so much that I really don't have anything to add. Notable on this ride was that we made it all the way through without the omnimover stopping once. I think that's only happened to me once before. After that, I was dying to get out of the cold and off my sore feet for a while, so we decided to ride Ellen's Universe of Energy for the first time. I thought that the ride was really cute and it didn't seem nearly as long as its announced 48 minute runtime. Ellen has always been a little silly and over-the-top, but she was a good fit for this attraction. The only thing that really irked me was the bad math on Jeopardy. Ellen's Energy Adventure was filmed in 1996, when the first round of Jeopardy had six categories with five clues ranging from $100-500. Even if Jaimie Lee Curtis had answered every question correctly, she would only have $9000 at the end of the first round. The Daily Double clue would have needed to be a $100 value and be the very last clue on the board, she would have had to wager her entire $8900 and answer it correctly to have the $17,800 she has at the end of that round. The fact that a $100 clue is never the Daily Double notwithstanding, I just think that Stupid Judy would have made the news with a performance like that. And then, she gains no money in the second round, Einstein never rings in at all, and Ellen manages to have the exact same total as Judy going in to Final Jeopardy. It's just implausible, but a cute ride nevertheless. I'll definitely revisit it on future trips to EPCOT.

After the ride, Danny and I were both feeling like we needed a little pick-me-up. It was some time in the 4:00 hour and we were a long way from our 7:00 PM dinner reservation at Kouzzina. We decided to pull up a table in the Electric Umbrella so that I could take notes on the events of the day for this report and we could share a Coke. Large crowds at the counter and an inefficient staff thwarted that plan. Danny stood in line for about five minutes while I was writing and didn't move at all. He came back, defeated, and I packed up. We decided to walk back to the Boardwalk and fool around there for a while.

I was very happy to see that the gingerbread gazebo was still in place in the Boardwalk lobby. The whole vignette was clever and funny.

I thought that the chocolate Stitch was particularly well done.

What a shopping list!

In addition to trying new attractions and restaurants on this trip, we made it a goal to visit at least five resort lounges during our stay. We made the Belle Vue lounge our second. Usually how this works is that I order one of the $10 cocktails out of the blue book and Danny has whatever appealing beer the bar has on draft. This time it was the Vanilla Blossom for me and a Drifter's Pale Ale for him.

Here are our partial drinks. Some day I'll remember to shoot before I taste.

My Vanilla Blossom was a mixture of Stoli Vanil, St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, agave nectar and lemon juice. The garnish was very young mint leaves and a lemon wedge. I really adore vanilla and loved everything about this drink. Vanilla was definitely the most present flavor in the drink. The agave nectar made it sweet, but the lemon juice kept it from being cloying or syrupy. I've been curious about St. Germain for a while now, but had not yet tried it. Sadly, I'm still curious about it as I'm not sure I could really taste it in this drink. I couldn't really pick out anything other than vanilla and a honeylike sweetness. Danny's Drifter's Pale Ale was delicious by his account. It had a citrus fragrance that I could smell from across the table. He said it was very hoppy, which he likes.

As I said earlier, our reservation for Kouzzina was at 7:00 PM. We checked in at 6:45 and were seated right at 7:00. We were lead through the bustling restaurant to, in my opinion, the worst table in the house. To say that my seat was ridiculously close to the family next to me would be an understatement. Our table was adjacent to a pillar that was attached to a curved L-shaped booth. My chair literally blocked the family seated there from entering or exiting one side of the booth. Our little two-top table should just not have existed. I don't know if you can quite tell just how close I was to the booth in the photo below, which I took after the family seated in the booth had crawled out of the other end.

I'd like to thank the family seated at the booth for ignoring us so diligently. I really didn't want to be so intimate with them.

I regret that this was the only photo I took while at the restaurant. I didn't feel comfortable snapping pictures of our meal while we were that close to other diners. In hindsight, I needn't have worried. The restaurant was loud and hectic, and the chefs seemed to shout "Opa!" whenever they felt it was getting a little too quiet. Or maybe just at regular intervals. Our server, Sandra, was incongruous with this atmosphere. She was really quiet and nearly invisible which, snobby though it seems, is really ideal for Danny and me. We tend to get absorbed in our own conversations and Sandra did not demand much of our time or attention, nor did we hers.

Although we did enjoy our drinks at breakfast, we didn't order any more alcoholic beverages with dinner. Although I'm sure the wine flights are lovely, I don't really feel like I missed out. We ordered the Kouzzina spreads and shared that as an appetizer. The harissa yogurt, kalamata olive spread and chickpea hummus came with grilled pita bread, which was a fine vehicle for all three dips. The hummus was my favorite of the three spreads and was also the most savory. It was really well blended and tasted almost creamy. The flavor was simple, which is a good thing in my opinion. Too often hummus is overpowered by too much garlic, tahini or something else, but that wasn't the case here. The kalamata olive and fig spread was Danny's favorite and my least. Danny loves kalamatas and thought that the figs were a great compliment. I found it all too sweet as the figs were a lot more apparent than the olives were to me. I liked the harissa yogurt. It was Danny's least favorite of the three. I detected a lot of cinnamon rather than the traditional coriander and cumin that one would expect from a harissa sauce and it could easily be overwhelming in large amounts or to someone who isn't a fan of cinnamon. Danny thought that the cinnamon flavor was too strong but said that he thought it was an interesting combination of flavors. He said he would have liked it better as part of another dish rather than on its own. All in all, the spreads were a winner as there was something for both of us. My only complaint was that there really wasn't enough pita to convey all of the sauces. We'd have had to spread them quite liberally to eat all of the dips.

For dinner, I was torn between the Fisherman's Stew and the Pastitsio. I finally decided on continuing the cinnamon flavor party and ordered the pastitsio, which was filling but worth every bite. The pastitsio was served in a round casserole-style dish. The top layer was a thick béchamel sauce that made for a heavenly mix with the middle layer, cinnamon-stewed chicken. Underneath it all was a well-cooked bucatini pasta that I really enjoyed. Even though the bucatini was cooked more thoroughly than I ever cook my pasta at home, I don't think I would have liked it al dente in this dish. Something about a slightly overcooked pasta just boasts comfort food to me. I loved my meal, and I'll have to fight the urge not to order the pastitsio again the next time I visit Kouzzina for dinner (and yes, there will be a next time). There are still many other things on the menu that sound just as good to me and I must try some of them soon.

Danny ordered the whole pan-roasted fish. The catch of the day was a porgie, which we hadn't heard of but were told is in the snapper family. The runner who brought out our food offered to filet the fish for Danny, but he opted to de-bone it himself. The fish had a light spice rub on the skin and was stuffed with aromatics, most noticeably lemons and bay leaves. It came on a bed of greens. Danny isn't exactly sure which kind anymore but thinks it was escarole. The fish was topped with roasted vegetables, which Danny thought tasted a little too lemony. The fish itself did not suffer from that problem, however. He really enjoyed the flavor of the fish itself and found it light, moist and cooked well. His only complaint was that there were still several scales on the fish ... more than he could overlook. He enjoyed the meal despite this and also looks forward to returning.

We decided to skip dessert and headed back to EPCOT. We left the restaurant right as the 8:00 Wishes show was beginning at Magic Kingdom and were treated to a surprisingly good view of the show from the Boardwalk. Some of the top floor balconies in the Inn probably have a great vantage point for watching this. I never knew! We entered EPCOT through the International Gateway and scoped out some of the Illuminations Dessert Party locations to see if any were being set up for events that night. We were disappointed to see that most of the locations were not being used but were roped off to the public anyway.

We finally set up camp just behind one of the torches, number 17, which is between the Canada and Mexico pavilions.

The view was surprisingly good and there was nobody around the area there. By the time the show started, people had lined up along the fence, but crowds were the lightest I've ever seen for an Illuminations viewing. I have to admit that I don't care for the show as much as some do. I think that the globe sequence is a little too long and it feels more like an intermission than a segue. If I were traveling solo, I would probably have skipped it. But it's Danny's favorite fireworks show and he had braved the cold the night before so that I could see Wishes so I returned the favor. I actually enjoyed it more than I usually do this time because the blasts of heat from the flame-throwing barge were really delightful on my frozen face. When the show ended, we hightailed it back to the bus stops. Although we had shared a bus with Riverside on the ride to EPCOT that morning, the bus back was for French Quarter only. Even though the park had just closed, the bus wasn't completely full when we departed for the hotel. I think I could really enjoy the January low season if it weren't for freakish arctic blasts that keep temperatures hovering only slightly above freezing.

We slept soundly that night and prepared for another early wake-up the next day.

Coming Next: Rope drop at Hollywood Studios and our shortest trip to the movie geek paradise ever.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

I LOVE the Remy pictures! I really LOLed when you said "I'm nude!" hahaha. The creme brulee looks to die for too! I ate at Les Chefs De France my last trip and you inspired me to eat there again this trip .

Thanks. I definitely want to go back to Chefs again for lunch some time, too. I also heartily recommend Bistro de Paris upstairs for dinner.

Love your report so far Melissa! Looks like you guys had a great time! Can't wait to read more.

Welcome home, Liz! We did have a great time. I hope you did too. I thought of you when we arrived and saw that the Christmas decorations were still up. I know you said that you hadn't expected to see any at all. I was happy that you had the chance to.

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Welcome home, Liz! We did have a great time. I hope you did too. I thought of you when we arrived and saw that the Christmas decorations were still up. I know you said that you hadn't expected to see any at all. I was happy that you had the chance to.

Thank you! We had a wodnerful trip. :lol: Yeah I know! The whole thing was weird...i guess it fit well with the weather. I'll be posting a TR soon!

 

[disneyfankev]

great report melissa thanks. white plains airport is a nice little airport which i use for all my flights. stick with jetblue if you can and be careful with airtran they move flight times and change nonstops to stopovers.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

Thank you! We had a wodnerful trip. :lol: Yeah I know! The whole thing was weird...i guess it fit well with the weather. I'll be posting a TR soon!

We thought the same thing. At one point I remarked to Danny that I thought it was a little late for Christmas music. He replied that they were just capitalizing on the cold weather.

great report melissa thanks. white plains airport is a nice little airport which i use for all my flights. stick with jetblue if you can and be careful with airtran they move flight times and change nonstops to stopovers.

Yeah, I really prefer JetBlue. I use them more often than anybody else, although the last two times I've flown to my hometown (Sacramento) it's been a better deal to use other airlines. When price is not a factor, though, I choose them every time.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

1/7 - Rope Drop at Hollywood Studios

This is going to be a short post. I appear to have brought home a cold and it really started hitting me last night. Luckily, my feeling unwell has timed itself with our shortest visit to any of the parks, an early morning in Hollywood Studios.

We woke at 6:30 AM and were out the door by eight. Today we would be going to Hollywood Studios in the morning and Animal Kingdom in the afternoon. I wish I could blame Simon for how long it took to get ready that day, but the truth is that my very long hair takes about a day and a half to wash. We must have just missed our bus when we arrived at the stop at eight. The next Hollywood Studios bus arrived until 8:36 that morning. When it did, it still had to stop at all four Riverside stops before we could make our way to the park. The turnstiles were already opened by the time we walked up.

Christmas decorations were still present. I wish I had giant film reels for my tree at home.

I was worried that I would miss the opening show. I did not, but I was quite far back in the crowd so I didn't take any photos. Director Otto von Bonn Bahn and his assistant, aspiring actress Paige Turner, opened the park that day. I thought that it was cute that the page was called Paige. She reminded us, "I'm not a wannabe, I'm a gonna be." The opening show was quick and very funny. I think that if anybody has the opportunity to watch any of the Citizens of Hollywood performers, they're not to be missed. This is especially true for me since learning that some of the talent were let go just days after we were there.

After rope drop, we headed for the Toy Story Midway Mania, along with, well, basically everybody else who was waiting at the ropes. By the time we got to Pixar Place, the posted wait time was 30 minutes, but we were on the ride in less than 15.

"Who's your favorite toy? I'll give you a hint: my name is Mr. Potato Head."

Danny beat me, as usual. I did close the gap a little this time, however. Our final scores were about 149,000 to 99,000. I think we're going to have to buy the Wii version of the game so that I can practice. After the ride, I went to Starring Rolls Café to get us some breakfast while Danny went to the Tower of Terror to grab Fastpasses. We snacked on some pastries and then headed for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. The wait was about 30 minutes, just enough time to kill before our return to Tower of Terror. We got a very appreciative elevator full of riders on at the Tower. I'm not sure if many of them were first timers or if they were just very excited. There was lots of screaming and a round of nervous laughter when the ride ended. I love groups like that.

After hitting the big rides, we headed toward Min and Bill's Dockside Diner for a drink, but they weren't open. Instead, we had fun reading the addresses on the shipping crates next to the boat.

We knew we had limited time before we had to get to Animal Kingdom for our lunch reservation at Yak & Yeti. We debated all the other things we had yet to do at Hollywood studios. Should we ride the Great Movie Ride? Take the Backlot tour for the first time? Skip the tour but see the AFI Villains exhibit? In the end, we decided that we would have plenty of spare time over the weekend to revisit Hollywood Studios if we wanted, and Simon was bothering us to hurry up and get to Animal Kingdom because he wanted to visit the other monkeys. So off we went.

Coming Next: We visit Simon's favorite park and have lunch at Yak & Yeti.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

1/7 - An afternoon in Animal Kingdom

We arrived in Animal Kingdom just before noon. Danny and I are fond of the Animal Kingdom, but it's probably our least favorite park. If we didn't have time to visit them all, Animal Kingdom would be the first cut. However, it's Simon's favorite park so we go for him. We were delighted that it had actually warmed up enough for us to remove our winter coats, so we checked them in a locker and made our way to Africa. We rode the Kilimanjaro Safari for the first time.

I don't remember our driver's name. She was fun and appropriately informative about the animals. Yet I still don't remember everything I learned about the animals I saw now.

This was our third or fourth visit to Animal Kingdom and for some reason, we'd never done this safari before. I'm not sure why we stuck to the walk-through areas for animal sightseeing before this. Now that we know better, all I can think is, "What were we waiting for?" What a fun ride. I understand that the poaching storyline is a bit toned down from its former script, but not having experienced the old spiel, I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

After the ride, Simon was disappointed that he hadn't seen any monkeys on the safari. I tried to tell him that it was his own fault for hiding in my tote bag instead of looking around, but he wasn't having it. So we headed back to Asia where we knew we could spot some monkeys before our lunch reservation at Yak and Yeti. Unfortunately, the monkeys weren't very active when we got there and I didn't take any photos.

We checked in for our 1:00 PM reservation at Yak and Yeti about 20 minutes early. The waiting area was quite busy and we worried that we might have to wait a while to be seated, but we were seated less than five minutes after we checked in. It appeared as though they had just opened more sections to seat people. We were led upstairs to a table for two adjacent to the staircase and given menus. In the few moments between sitting down and our server, Adam, greeting us, we had already decided what to order. To drink, Danny had a Safari Amber Ale and I had a Cherry Infusion, which was Skyy cherry vodka, sweet and sour and a splash of grenadine poured table-side over a mound of shaved ice in a cocktail glass.

"Nice presentation." I remarked as Adam poured my drink from a shaker.
"We have our moments," was his reply.

Danny thought that his beer was a little too mild. My drink was strong, but it wasn't particularly flavorful either. I feared it would be worse as the ice began to melt, but that wasn't really a problem. The snowball stayed perfectly intact throughout the meal and actually prevented me from drinking the last of the liquid that became trapped underneath it.

Our lunch order was another selection of appetizers. We asked for two cups of wonton soup, the dim sum basket for two and an order of seared ahi tuna. Adam suggested that we have the soup come out first and the other appetizers afterward and we agreed.

The soup was pretty great. The broth had a good flavor and the pork was a little smoky. I really appreciated that the scallions were still crisp. It was obvious that they hadn't been swimming around in the broth for ages. After we finished our soup, the other appetizers arrived.

The tuna was the winner of the bunch. It was cooked rare and had a nice sear on the outside. The pepper rub tasted great and the bell pepper salad and wasabi mayonnaise that came with it were good compliments. I dislike horseradish, so my liking the wasabi mayonnaise is actually kind of remarkable.

The dim sum basket was mostly standard fare. Starting from twelve o'clock and working clockwise, we have shrimp siu mai, pork pot stickers, pork siu mai steamed on a banana leaf and finally cha su bao, which we had never before encountered but are like a spongy bread stuffed with pork. The bread itself was pretty chewy and flavorless, but the filling was interesting. It was kind of sweet with a dessert-y seasoning. I couldn't put my finger on what exactly I was tasting ... maybe there was some ground ginger in there? Danny had a bone to pick with this appetizer because it is said to be an appetizer for two, but the number of items in the basket was not divisible by two. He thought that there should have been an even number of pieces if it's really intended to be split. I thought that the amount of food was good for sharing, but he was right. Maybe there should have been two pot stickers instead of three and four pieces of each kind of siu mai.

After lunch we walked right on by Everest. We normally do enjoy the ride, but the fastpass return time was hours away and we just didn't want to stand in the line. Instead, we caught Finding Nemo: The Musical. It was our first time seeing the show and the theater was just opening as we got in line. We were seated toward the top of the theater next to an adorable family of four. The father was taking photos of his wife and kids as we sat down. I got to extend one of my favorite forms of Disney guest kindness and asked him if he would like me to take a photo of all four of them. Several times a day I'll see couples taking pictures of each other at various park landmarks or one member of a family photographing the rest, and I'll stop and ask if they'd like a photo all together. Most of the time the family is grateful to surrender their camera for a quick shot or two. I probably did this for at least 20 different families while touring the parks this vacation and only one person turned down my offer.

After quenching my shutterbug thirst, Danny and I settled in to watch the show. I thought that it was a really cute condensed version of the film. I enjoyed the original songs and the puppetry. It really whet my appetite for more of the live shows performed throughout the World, which I admit we often skip.

After Nemo, we walked over to DinoLand U.S.A. and saw that the posted wait time for Dinosaur was only five minutes. "Five minutes? That can't be right," I thought to myself, but we got in line anyway knowing that we would likely not be back to Animal Kingdom this trip and that we wanted to ride regardless. Sure enough, after about five minutes of standing in line, a man behind us went back to the wait time screen and reported that the posted wait time now read 40 minutes. Oh well. The line moves fast enough when one is engaged in a good conversation, as I so often am with Danny (and Simon). We had another appreciative -- or should I say terrified? -- group for this ride. One girl behind us was screaming like a horror film starlet at every turn. Her screams turned to fearful whimpering, however, when the ride shut down momentarily and we were plunged into complete blackness. This happened twice, both times after stopping in front of carnivorous Animatronic dinosaurs, just as the ride was supposed to move on to the next scene. It really took us out of the ride's atmosphere both times, but I could see how smaller children would be mortified at being stuck in the dark on a ride like that. Luckily, neither "breakdown" lasted long and we were back in present-time soon enough.

After the ride, we went back toward Discovery Island and let Simon visit with some more animals (safely, from appropriate viewing areas, of course). Then we headed out. We were still a couple hours away from our reservation at Jiko, but we do love the Animal Kingdom Lodge and could spend many hours there just hanging out, so that's what we did.

Next: We hang out in Jambo House and have dinner at Jiko

 

[HollyBelle]

Mmm... that ahi tuna looks really good and perfectly prepared! I'm looking forward to your review of Jiko, as it's one of my favorites.

And like you, I'm always offering to take another couple's/family's picture. You're right in that it's a fun way to spread the magic.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

1/7 - The Animal Kingdom Lodge and Dinner at Jiko

There are no photos to accompany this post, but we had a great time at the Lodge that night and I wanted to write a bit about it.

When the bus arrived at Jambo House, we headed to Victoria Falls Lounge, one of my favorite resort lounges and number three on our quest to visit at least five during the trip. We had a lot of time to spend, so we ordered and drank leisurely. My first drink of the evening was a Pomegranate Splash and Danny's was a Sweet Tea-ka. There's a history to my love of pomegranates. When I was little, my grandfather bought a bunch of pomegranate trees and planted them, some in our back yard and some in my uncle's. After a few years of pruning, we let them start bearing fruit and it became a family project to pick the pomegranates and give them to grandpa, who would carefully cut them open, juice them, and store the juice. When he had several gallons, he, my grandmother and my great-grandparents would make jelly from the juice. Now that the awesomeness of pomegranates is widely known, I still think of the fruit as being a thing that is special to my family. So anyway, back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, I really enjoyed my drink. Danny liked his as well. He said it reminded him of lemon Snapple iced tea, which is one of his favorite beverages.

My second drink was another Vanilla Blossom. Danny's was a Habanero-Lime Margarita. He enjoyed it, but expected a bit more heat from a drink with "habanero" in the name. He said he tasted a little spice, but no real heat to speak of. It was basically just a normal margarita with a slightly spicy aftertaste.

After two drinks apiece and over an hour spent in Victoria Falls, we took our third round to go and went outside to look at the animals before the sun set. Outside, we met a young man named Rev from Botswana who was working at the Animal Kingdom Lodge with the International Program. He told us about some of the animals we were seeing and about his experiences working for Disney. He had been in the program for about six months and said that he felt extremely proud to be representing his country and working for the Animal Kingdom Lodge. He said that he felt the Lodge was very authentic in their representation of Africa, and that their treatment of the wildlife was really top-notch. He was also quite pleased to note the vast collection of African art on display in the lodge. He had nothing but good things to say about the International Program and his experiences here. He also painted a vivid verbal portrait of Botswana. I'd love to go there some day and experience the life he spoke of.

After the sun set, we said goodbye to Rev and went back inside the lodge. We still had a while before our dinner reservation so we sat around the indoor fire pit and chatted with other guests of the lodge. Crowds were starting to pick up at this point in the week as people arriving for the marathon weekend trickled in. We met a few runners and wished them well in their upcoming events. Finally it was time to check in at Jiko.

Our reservation was at 7:00 PM. We checked in at 6:45 and were seated on time. Our server, Mike, greeted us and went over some of the new items on the menu. We started with the Chef's Specialty flatbread, which contained figs, goat cheese, leeks and smoked bacon. Danny loved it and managed to eat more than half of it. Once again, I was defeated by the figs. The flatbread was a little too sweet for me. I guess I just prefer my figs in Newton form. I wasn't bothered, though. The "friendship" bread with tandoori butter is so heavenly that I didn't need anything else.

Mike's educating us on the new menu items was wasted on me. I've known was I was ordering for ... years, really. Jiko is our favorite restaurant of all that we've tried so far and although there are many great things on the menu, my order is always the same: the oak-grilled filet mignon with macaroni and cheese and red wine sauce. I'm such a cliché, I know. I asked that my steak be cooked as the chef recommended it, which Mike said would be medium. The steak tasted good, but it was a little chewy outside and difficult to cut. That disappointed me, but not enough to bother me. The macaroni was outstanding as always. I wish there were more of it. The red wine reduction is the star of the plate, though. I've read some dining reports lately that say that the sauce has changed and that it's overwhelming, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. I think it really makes the dish.

Danny had the roasted lamb loin with herbed couscous, sun-dried cherries and red curry sauce. The lamb was also cooked medium at the chef's suggestion. I actually thought that Danny's meat was better than mine. It was lightly seasoned and juicy. It wasn't at all gamey, which I know is a common complaint of lamb. Danny loved the lamb, couscous and sauce together and thought that they were all good separately too. He was especially fond of the red curry sauce. I'll have to stop by the recipes thread and see if I can find a recipe for it so that I can make it at home.

We skipped dessert, partly because none of Jiko's offerings tempted us but mostly because we were too full anyway. We took a bus from the lodge to Downtown Disney and walked through the shops for a while before taking a boat back to the French Quarter. We turned in early and slept well in preparation for another full day at EPCOT the next day.

Coming Up: More World Showcase fun in EPCOT.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

Mmm... that ahi tuna looks really good and perfectly prepared! I'm looking forward to your review of Jiko, as it's one of my favorites.

And like you, I'm always offering to take another couple's/family's picture. You're right in that it's a fun way to spread the magic.

Jiko is one of my favorites too. In fact, I think I'd call it my very favorite. Danny agrees. We haven't tried some of the really well-loved places yet, but I just don't think that a trip to the World would be complete for us without a dinner at Jiko.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

1/8 - EPCOT and lunch at Le Cellier

We slept in until a leisurely 8:15 this morning. Our bodies needed it and so did our spirits. Today was the ugliest day of the trip. The temperature was dropping and there were intermittent showers all day. I'll be posting a few pictures, but gray skies in Disney always make me a little sad. Simon elected to stay in the room today as he has an extreme aversion to rain. I don't blame him. That poor little monkey didn't get much exposure on this trip. Luckily, he gets to travel to Aruba with Danny's parents in a few weeks. He'll have a fine time sipping banana daiquiris on the beach.

We didn't actually mosey in to EPCOT until sometime after 10:00 AM that morning. We wandered around Mouse Gear and picked out some souvenirs for ourselves. Danny was happy to find some cool EPCOT T-shirts there. It's his favorite park and the shirts were much more his style than the normal selection of men's Disney clothing, which consist largely of Mickey Mouse, Grumpy and Tigger merch. I'm finding the same problem with women's clothing, though. About half of the merchandise I found for adult women featured Tinkerbell, a character I find to be spoiled, selfish, angry and vain. I'm more of an Alice in Wonderland kind of gal. She hasn't received much merchandising love from Disney since the film's 50th anniversary in 2001, at which time I bought quite a bit of cool stuff in Disneyland. No matter. Minnie Mouse will always be there for me, and Tren-D in Downtown Disney has some nice Alice gear.

We were getting a bit hungry at that point. There were still a few minutes before World Showcase would open and hours before our lunch reservation at Le Cellier, so we decided to grab a soft pretzel to snack on. The pretzels were pricey at $4 apiece and the $1 cheese sauce that came with them was kind of gross. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I definitely won't be back for another in the future. After our "breakfast", we went to the Mexico pavilion and took a ride with the Three Caballeros on the Gran Fiesta Tour. I know most dislike the addition of these characters to the ride, but I don't mind it.

Not a fan of the Rio del Tiempo overhaul? Neither are these kids.

After the ride, we peeked in to the new Cava del Tequila, which we were told would open at noon. We'd be back. Biding our time, we walked to Norway and visited the stave church so that we could look at its exhibit on Vikings. I don't think I'd ever been inside the church before and I enjoyed reading up on the men featured in the exhibit. After our morning history lesson, we went on to see another piece of Norwegian history, namely Maelstrom and the hideous time capsule that is The Spirit of Norway. It's another EPCOT travelogue in desperate need of an update. I always felt bad when hustling through the theater without stopping after exiting Maelstrom. Now that I've seen the movie, I won't feel bad anymore.

Hoping to cleanse our filmic palates after The Spirit of Norway, we went to watch Reflections of China, another first for us. I'm not really fond of the CircleVision 360° format, but I forgive this movie. It's a little more informative than the other EPCOT travelogues and the photography is beautiful. I'll definitely see it again on future trips, something I don't feel compelled to do with the others.

We toasted our mini-film festival back at la Cava. Cava is an interesting word in Spanish. It can refer to a type of sparkling wine, a cellar where wine and water are kept, a vault, a truck or a ditch. I'm sure they were going for the cellar translation here, but it is awfully fun to refer to the place as the Ditch, isn't it? For those of you who haven't been there yet, the space is small but they've done a lot with it. Rodrigo y Gabriela songs were playing on the speakers when we came in. The room is dimly lit, decorated in warm colors and features woven upholstery, mismatched painted furniture and murals of agave farmers. Here are a couple photos, with and without flash, of the tables across the aisle from where we sat:

A server came from behind the bar to take our order. I never did catch her name. We each ordered a margarita. Jalapeño Lime for Danny, Blood Orange for me. We both liked both drinks, but each liked our own the best. I guess that means we did well, right?

The Lima y Jalapeno and Naranja Roja margaritas from la Cava del Tequila.

Both drinks came rimmed with Himalayan hibiscus rock salt. All of the specialty drinks on the menu come with either that salt rim or a cactus-lemongrass one. I found it to be a good compliment to both drinks but Danny felt it could have been saltier. He also might have liked a little more lime, or more acidity in general. He said that it was about as spicy as the habanero-lime margarita he had at the Victoria Falls lounge the night before but that the jalapeño had a better flavor. I hear that this is made with actual jalapeños and limes, but as we didn't watch the construction of the drink, I couldn't say for sure.

I loved the flavor of my blood orange margarita. It was sweet, but not overly so. The orange flavor was also moderate rather than overbearing. I like oranges, but it's not my favorite flavor ever, so I was glad that it didn't overtake the tequila. The blood orange foam on the top of the drink was interesting, mostly in that I could actually taste a flavor other than "foamy." We didn't order any food here, but maybe we will on our next trip. I do want to note that the menu looked a little different than menus I've seen online. There were only three types of tostadas in the food section rather than the larger menu that appeared on websites when the place first opened. I'm not sure if the bar just decided to pare back the food offerings as time went on or if the initial menu was only intended to run during the Food & Wine festival. I guess I'll find out when September rolls around. All in all the Ditch was a hit with us and we'll be frequenting it on future visits to the World Showcase. $26.63 plus tip for two drinks hurt a little, but they were also some of the best drinks we had on the trip.

It was raining when we exited the Mexico pavilion, so we ducked in to one of the stores between Mexico and Canada. I decided to pick up another EPCOT tee for Danny as an early birthday present. We also each chose one of the Vinylmations figurines. Danny picked one from the Urban series and I chose one of the Cutesters (naturally). We decided to wait until later to open them, just to prolong our curiosity, I suppose. We lallygagged a bit more and took our time walking to and around the Canada Pavilion. At 1:20, we checked in for our 1:40 lunch reservation at Le Cellier. We thought that we would have a wait ahead of us because the other people waiting at the front of the restaurant appeared to be quite hunkered down, but our name was called after about five minutes and we were seated.

We were led to a table for two near the center of the restaurant and greeted by our server, Brendan. Danny and I ordered the Appetizer Trio for Two, which comes with samples of the Canadian Cheddar cheese soup, lump crab and a tomato stack.

The soup was my main interest here and I abandoned my usual "save the best for last" ideology and had it first, finishing it completely before touching anything else on the plate. Brendan told us, as have many fans of the restaurant, to have the soup with the pretzel bread, which he said was the best of the three complimentary breads that accompany meals at Le Cellier. His recommendation was spot on. The soup and pretzel bread really lived up to their reputation. I didn't like the other breads as much. The multi-grain was a little hard and the sourdough was nice, but not sour enough for a girl who grew up an hour from San Francisco and its world-famous sourdough. The tomato stack was good, but it puzzled us a little. Is there some element in this particular tomato stack that makes it expressly Canadian? Or is it just a tasty compliment to the beer cheese soup? The lump crab was probably left to sit a little too long as we didn't touch it until after we had finished the soup. It was room temperature at that point and I'm sure that is not how it was intended to be served. It tasted fine, but I don't even feel like I should add any additional commentary to that because we didn't eat it at the right temperature.

For his entrée, Danny ordered the maple barbecued grilled chicken sandwich with Black Diamond Cheddar and pancetta. I'm withholding the photo because it's washed out, slightly fuzzy, and just not very pretty. He chose the German potato salad as a side. He thought his choice was a "safe" one, but he enjoyed it nevertheless. The chicken was moist, the pancetta thin, crispy and just salty enough. The maple barbecue sauce was appropriately sweet and had a delicious flavor. Of course, how could it not be delicious? It's maple. He also enjoyed the potato salad. He said that the potatoes were a little hard, but that they weren't undercooked. He liked that the potato salad was German-style and therefore a little spicy.

I ordered the Salmon BLT for lunch, but when the runner brought out our food, he brought me the King Salmon Two Ways. At first I was confused and asked if the order was meant for another table. I explained that I had ordered the salmon BLT. The runner apologized and took the food back to the kitchen. Moments later, Brendan came to our table, apologizing profusely and told me that my sandwich was on the way. True to his word, a salmon BLT was placed in front of me less than a minute later. It was fantastic.

The sandwich comes with seared salmon, pancetta, watercress, vine-ripened tomato and chive sour cream. I loved everything about it. The salmon was moist and flaky and had a great meaty flavor. The chive sour cream tasted good with the salmon and wasn't slathered on the sandwich too heavily the way condiments often are. The pancetta added a nice, crispy texture and a little saltiness to the sandwich. The watercress tasted light and fresh.

Enticed by the promise of more mapley goodness, we ordered the maple crème brûlée to share for dessert. Brendan told us that our dessert was on him because he felt bad about the mishap with my salmon order. I told him that it wasn't a grave error and that he didn't have to do that. He told me, "Don't argue with free dessert." The man had a point. The crème brûlée was fantastic. I love maple in any dessert, but combine it with the silky texture of a nice custard and a perfectly crunchy, caramelized surface and it's pure heaven. It was my favorite dessert of the trip. It saddened me to leave any of it behind, but we didn't want to overstuff ourselves by finishing it all.

Happy and well fed, we left Le Cellier to complete our second day in EPCOT.

Coming next: More World Showcase tourism, Dinner at Coral Reef and a birthday surprise for Danny.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Looking forward to the next chapter, very nice report Melissa! :sohappy:

 

[DecWDW]

I'm really enjoying this TR. It makes me want to rush back and try all the food and drinks you've had! I'm sitting at my desk on a very rainy day and your TR makes me wish I was sitting in The Ditch on a rainy WDW day!

 

[Sweet Melissa]

Looking forward to the next chapter, very nice report Melissa! :sohappy:

Thanks, Tig! I just got home from an unpleasant dental appointment, so I'm going to try and take a nap to sleep through the icky sore-meets-numb feeling that I'm experiencing right now. I'll try to post the next installment later on tonight though.

I'm really enjoying this TR. It makes me want to rush back and try all the food and drinks you've had! I'm sitting at my desk on a very rainy day and your TR makes me wish I was sitting in The Ditch on a rainy WDW day!

Thanks, Dec. I really did enjoy the Ditch. I think something like it could do pretty well in California Adventure, too. Maybe some day you'll be able to hop over there for a tequila-infused escape. In the meantime, keep warm and dry! I know the state really needs the precipitation, but it gets scary when evacuations are urged.

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Great Safari shots! And that Salmon BLT looks so good :slurp: