A LONG Birthday, Dining, and Pictures Trip Report 9/25-10/2

This is my first attempt at a trip report. Suggestions and constructive criticism are welcome. I really loved reading the details about what people did and ate while I was preparing for my trip, so I've tried to give lots of detail where applicable.



Anyway. Some background:



The Dates: September 25th through October 2nd.

The Players: Myself, 24, DH 25, and Dear Mother (DM) age unspecified

The Where: DH and I stayed at All Star Movies, and DM stayed at All Star Music

The Why: DM and I went this same week last year, and left the day before my birthday to come home. What a bummer that was, so to make it up to myself for leaving and forcing myself to come back to work ON my birthday last year, I booked this trip for the same week in 2005. I was really looking forward to spending my birthday week in the parks!

Plus, this was the first trip that DH and I had taken to WDW together. We’ve both been many times before, but never together. (We would have honeymooned here if it wasn’t for the ungodly heat and crowds the second week of July.)


So… here we go!



“Unbirthday” Day 1:



Woke up at some ridiculous hour. (4:00 AM!) Well, “woke up” is saying it nicely. I was too excited to sleep much that night. Were a little late getting to the airport but we did make it in time for our 6:30 AM flight. We were a little hesitant about using the Magical Express service, and we didn’t actually make up our minds until we were checking in our luggage. Be we decided to give it a chance, and sent our bags along with their little yellow tags on them.



The only issue we had with ME before we left was that for some odd reason they just refused to keep track of our returning flight info. It took several calls to straighten it all out.



Landed on time and headed right past the greeter with the gloves for the ME check-in. We were the first in line, showed our docs and headed onto a bus. The bus was only partially filled when we left the airport. I was a bit nervous that they would make us wait till it filled entirely... those busses can fit a lot of people!

Made a few stops before reaching the All Stars. DM got off at Music and her room was ready. Our preferred room wasn’t ready in time, so we headed over to DM’s room to drop off our carry-ons, and then it was off to EPCOT!



After picking up my Epcot birthday button, we headed straight for Soarin, the wait was about 30 min, and since I hadn’t eaten anything at that point all day, we grabbed FPs and ate lunch at Seasons. Before the trip I was sad that they had messed around with one of my favorite counter service places… now? What a great change! I’m not so fond of the sterile airport feeling of the place, but the food selection was wonderful!



Here’s where we got to try out the FREE Dining Plan for the first time. After a little confusion about what was a “combo meal” and what was just an entrée, we all selected our choices. DH and DM both got the Black Forest Ham and Salami Grinders. DH got a bag of chips, DM got a little container of Jicama Slaw. Both of them got a slice of Butterfinger Cheesecake.

I was more adventurous and got the Rotisserie Flatbread, and Key Lime Pie.



Both DH and DM raved about that sandwich for the rest of the trip. They both loved it, and after trying a bite of DH’s I had to admit that they had made the better choice. My beef was OK. The greens were a little wilted, and they had some dressing on them that was at first pleasant tasting, but soon developed a sharp aftertaste. The flatbread itself was wonderful, and I ended up leaving most of the greens on my plate and just eating that by itself. Both loved their cheesecake, but I, again, picked the wrong dessert. My key lime pie was just not mixed properly before baking. There were big swirls of mix left in the custard part, so upon biting into it I would get a really uneven taste, with one bite being too overpowering, and the next would taste like nothing.



By the time we finished eating, it was off to Soarin. I may be in the minority here, but I just wasn’t impressed. Maybe it was that I was all hyped up from the great reviews, I had really unrealistic expectations, but it was really disappointing. We even got really good seats, row B2, but I just wasn’t impressed. It was a nice ride, with lots of beautiful scenery, and the orange and pine smells were a nice touch, but I expected our seats to move more. I dunno. We all left a little disappointed.

 

[DisneyBunny]

Day 4 Coming soon....

 

[DisneyBunny]

“Unbirthday” Day 4:



Woke up early and headed over to MGM to see the opening. We ended up being one of the first people there, and we were the first people at the turnstile. While we waited, I liked watching all of the CMs get ready for the day… pushing carts, moving things… including one big guy who was on the other side of the turnstiles. He was dressed in street clothes, but as soon as he turned to his side, I could see the clear plastic earpiece in one ear. It really surprised me that to have this (huge 300 pound, heavily muscled) plainclothes security guard look more “touristy” he was wearing a Universal Studios hat! I just love that attention to detail.



Having never seen the opening of MGM before, I was curious to see what kind of show they would put on. I love the openings they do at Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Animal Kingdom, but for some reason we’ve never been to an opening of MGM before. Well I soon learned that I hadn’t been missing much.



All they did was select a family to hold the black clacker thingy (God, I’m even in the business and I can’t remember what that thing’s called… vacation brain I guess)



So a perky “director” came over and told everyone to yell action, and then the turnstiles would open. Whaaaa? I kept looking round for a character or something… it was a little disappointing.



From there we hit the rope at the corner of Hollywood and Vine and waited for 9:00 to roll around. Chatted with a few nice bellhop CMs who wished me a happy birthday.



Then finally we spy some characters walking down the street followed by a freaking FLEET of handlers. It was only Minnie, Chip, Dale, and Pooh, but there must have been 20 something handlers following. Go figure. We got some attention from the characters, seeing as how we were right up alongside the rope. Minnie saw my button and gave me a big birthday hug.

The rope dropped and we hustle off to RnRC, and Tower. From there we wandered around trying to figure out how to best manage our time until the noon showing of LMA. DM and I decided to see Playhouse Disney, since we had never seen it before. DH chose to sit that one out.



It was a really cute show. I can only wait till we have kids so that we can take them. DM, a former Kindergarten teacher, was pointing out all the skills they were using (large motor skills etc…), and how the timing between action and sitting was arranged. I would never have noticed those kinds of things. People sometimes just assume that it’s really easy to make a show for kids, especially little ones. Just put some characters on stage with some music, and you’re done! Having DM watch it with me really helped me appreciate it more. They really do have a good thing going there.



Then it was off to eat! Pizza Planet this time. DM and I both got the veggie pizza combo with a salad, and rice krispie treat for dessert. DH got the pepperoni. The pizzas weren’t bad, but the salad could use a little help. All iceberg lettuce with only 2 tomatoes. (I know the pic has 4, DH doesn’t care for tomatoes)

I did ask for garlic to sprinkle on the pizza, but all they had was red peppers and parmesan cheese. I took a packet of peppers. I remember them having garlic before… it’s possible they’ve just done away with it. Also we had to specifically ask for these, they weren’t sitting out on the counter, nor were they on the condiment/napkin bar.

 

[DisneyBunny]

From lunch we strolled around the streets of America, looking at the unlit Osbourne lights. One year we’ll make it down to see them all lit. I can only imagine how it must look when they’re all ablaze. I stopped for the customary photo op too.

We hit LMA, and I must say I was really really disappointed. All of a sudden, Indy Jones seems so much fresher, and much superior, even though I’m really tired of that show. I’m not normally an overly critical person, but I doubt I’ll be wasting my time on this show again. There was too much wait time in between stunts, and I picked out that the “replays” weren’t really replays within the first 30 seconds of them being shown – just pre-recoded footage. Maybe it’s because I have a trained eye for those kinds of things, but it really spoiled a lot of it for me. I felt like I was being pandered to. Yes, I know Indy uses the same “we’re taping this for real!” ploy, but it felt worse being shown something that was so obviously filmed on a different day.



Not to mention the fact that the car “chases” weren’t really chases at all, just a lot of flashy chorography. Learning how the stunts work was nice, but not enough to really fill the space in-between stunts. Lastly, the “man-on-fire” didn’t actually catch fire, so we watched the “rehearsal footage” from earlier. This wasn’t really covered up well, with the actors really fudging their lines.



The show ended just as it started to lightly rain. We headed over to Muppet Vision and arrived just as the crowd was heading into the theater. I wanted to see the whole pre-show from the beginning, since that’s half the fun! So we stayed while the last stragglers went into the theater. I finally got a few good shots of the great boxes and gags.

And my personal favorite.....

After the show we headed into the store to find some Muppet merchandise, and more specifically a T-shirt for DH that said “It’s not easy being green.” I was really surprised to find so very little Muppet stuff for sale, and certainly no T-shirt for DH. Only a handful of T-shirts, some stuffed animals and the like, and the rest of the store was just the usual assortment of merchandise.



From there we hit Star Tours, VoTLM, and had another ride on the ToT.



We took the boat from MGM to Epcot, something that I had never done before. Maybe one day we’ll be able to afford one of those nice hotels…

 

[DisneyBunny]

Dinner was in Italy this night. We were seated fairly quickly, but our table was in the very crowded and super noisy back room, and unfortunately DM had a raging headache at this point. We asked to move to the bigger room, and were quickly accommodated.



They served us a super yummy cheese filled oil to dip our bread in… second favorite bread of the whole trip… it was so hard not to fill up on all the cheese!

For our appetizers, DH got the Caesar Salad. It was really large, especially for the price, and I could have made a meal out of just that. The giant crouton was really tasteless, and bland – just like a giant dry cracker.

DM and I both got the mozzarella and tomato salad. This was excellent, but I wouldn’t pay $10 for it. that’s $2 for each slice of tomato and cheese, and $2 for each olive. It was very tasty, but pricy!

For our entrée, DM and I both got the Fettuccini with Shrimp. Both of us felt that it was waaaay too little pasta for the price ($26!), and while the pasta and shrimp were cooked well, it just wasn’t what we expected. I felt it should have had a bit more flavor.

DH got the pork shank, and just loved it. No need for a knife – it fell off the bone. I wished I had gotten that instead. The potatoes were yummy too!

For dessert, DH wanted to order the Cannoli Maximus, but DM and I certainly had no room for such a massive dessert. Interestingly, they would have given it to us if all three of us would have used it as our dessert on the dining plan.



The options were very tempting….

DH and I split the sampler. I don’t know where they get off saying that it’s for 2 people. I didn’t have much room left, but I still could have finished it off all by me onsie. But they all tasted good – there just wasn’t enough to really share.

DM got the normal sized cannoli, and she thought that something was missing in the crème filling. I tried it, and thought maybe there just wasn’t enough vanilla or chocolate chips in it. It was still good, and DM did finish it all.

From there we waddled back to the hotel, for another night’s rest.



Next up: Day 5: the Animal Kingdom

 

[DisneyBunny]

“Unbirthday” Day 5:



Woke up a little late this morning, but with a little hustle we still got to the Animal Kingdom early enough to make it to the front of the rope at Discovery Island. I was happy to see the jeep pull up with Minnie, Pluto and Goofy in it to start the opening ceremony…. But where was Mickey?

The last time I was at an opening of AK, Mickey was on the Jeep… I thought that was odd… until… (Insert 2001: A Space Odyssey Theme here…)

Mickey appeared! It was like our own big, group Hidden Mickey hunt! I really liked this version of the opening to the last one. It added a bit more to the “Mickey and friends are on safari!” theme.



The jeep took off and we followed it all the way to the safari, getting on the first truck of the day. The amount of animals that were up and about was just incredible. I think this was my most thrilling safari in that sense. I got to see the black rhino for the first time, and a zebra stopped right in front of our truck, and we had to wait for it to pass. It just took its good old time… which didn’t bother us any!

From there we went to the opposite end of the park for Dinosaur. I had only ridden this once before, but wow! What a scary ride. I overheard a mom telling her young kids in line that it wasn’t going to be scary at all. I’m not sure if she knew otherwise or not, but that kid most certainly didn’t have a good time.



From there it was off to it’s Tough to be a Bug. And once again, we encountered the same deal with a parent taking a screaming toddler into the theater. I just have to wonder at parents who drag their kids into shows when they’re obviously miserable, only to have them freak out when the theater plunges into darkness and huge spiders descend from the ceiling. If they don’t want to go into the theater, don’t make them! And if there’s a chance they could freak out, try to sit at the end of a row, so your quick exit can be facilitated. Mostly that’s what I’d like to tell the parents of a certain under 2 child who had a conniption at this show. She was so scared to go into the dark theater, and was obviously hot and tired. Not a good combo, especially for a frightening show like this.



But other than that, it was a good, if short, show.

 

[DisneyBunny]

Then it was lunchtime! Normally we eat at the Tusker House when we visit the AK, but this time I thought we’d give the Flame Tree BBQ a try.



DM and I both got the half slab of ribs and the key lime pie. I liked them, but then again, I’m not much of a rib fan. Too much work for such little meat IMHO. But they were seasoned very well, and this key lime pie was a great improvement over the key lime pie at Seasons. It was actual key lime pie – evidenced by the fact that it’s not lime green in color. It was good, and a bit on the tart side.

DH got the pulled pork sandwich. He was a little disappointed that you couldn’t swap the side items for this meal. He’s not fond of baked beans, and wanted fries or one of the other side items, but it wasn’t going to happen. He liked his sandwich.

The place wasn’t crowded at all, seeing as how we were eating a mere minutes after it opened, but we still headed all the way down the seating areas until we got to the one next to the water. What a great view of Everest!

After seeing so many pictures of it nearing completion, it’s hard to believe that it looked like this almost exactly a year ago.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d711b3127cce9b15e53913ae00000016108AZtGrVi2bNf

 

[DisneyBunny]

Almost as soon as we got settled, a boat came out from under the bridge next to Everest. I thought it was just touring, or perhaps one of the defunct Discovery River Boats. But upon closer inspection, it was a boat with Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto on it!

The speakers onboard were playing the same “Welcome to our world” song they used in the opening ceremony. I was so excited to see them that I left my food and ran to the railing to wave. I think they saw me and came slowly sailing our way. It was like it was a private showing just for us while we ate lunch. They waved and posed for pictures. Mickey even got his big camera out and took a few “pictures” of us while I was doing the same to him! Too cute. As they sailed closer, one of the CMs on the boat spied my Animal Kingdom birthday button and shouted as loudly as she could a happy birthday to me. It was so special. It felt like they were doing it just for us. They sailed past us eventually, and I headed back to the table so I could actually eat something.

After lunch we headed off to the Festival of the Lion King. It was just wonderful as always. One of my favorite shows on property. From there DM left us to see her cousin who was to meet us that afternoon for Epcot and dinner.



DH and I went on another spin on Dinosaur, and then headed up to the one area I’ve never visited – Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Ugh. I haven’t been missing much. I must say that that train ride, “Wildlife Express,” has to be one of the poorest designed “rides” in the whole of the WDW. (Especially being neither “wildlife” or “express.”)


In many ways I almost preferred Dinorama to this area of the park. The station itself wasn’t too bad. Perhaps it would have been more interesting if there was something going on behind the glass walls, or if we had petted the animals in the Affection Section, but I wasn’t going to wait in line during the hottest part of the day, just to have to compete with kids who really wanted to pet the animals. So we passed that up, and headed back on the train. Passing such highlights as - a road! A dumpster! Trees! Another dumpster! And fencing! Everybody now….. Oooooooh… Aaaaaaahh…


I had just about had it with the heat in the Animal Kingdom, so DH and I headed back to Epcot.


We hit SSE again. I just love the beef jerky smell… that really reminded me of our lunch that day. From there we saw Figment, and then M:S and TT. TT was loading REALLY slowly that afternoon for some reason. But the really funny part was that as we pulled up to the loading dock, who should be waiting at the gate to ride in our car, in our seats, for the next ride – DM and her cousin! What are the odds of not just meeting them in the whole of Epcot, not just seeing each other at the same ride, but end up giving up our seats so they can ride them? It was a really neat co-inky-.


DH and I headed up to dinner that night, soon followed by DM and her cousin. Tonight was dinner in Le Chefs de France. Not too many pictures tonight. I was too busy talking to snap away. But I did get this one of DH’s and my appetizer. The $24 cheese plate.

Oh, too yummy! We ate everything except the pates. I really don’t like pate much. I still couldn’t get over how they let us get that huge appetizer on the plan, but when I asked if I could get an Orangina to drink, I was told that only sodas, tea, and coffee were included. This was a strange occurrence, and one that was challenged the very next night. But I’ll get to that later.


DM got the onion soup. It was excellent as always. DC (dear cousin) got the escargots. DH and DM got to try one, and they really liked them, and said they were good. I declined to try one, not because I don’t like them, but because I was too busy stuffing my face with Brie!


DM and DC got the chicken for dinner. Both said it was good and tender, but they thought that the price was a bit steep for just chicken.


I got a steak with fried potatoes. DH got a steak with green beans. His steak was vastly superior to mine. I wouldn’t have paid $23 for mine, but it was good.


DC got crème brulee for dessert. DM got the chocolate mousse, and I got the assorted sorbets. Everyone liked their desserts, I loved my sorbet. I had never had kiwi sorbet before…. Sooo good and refreshing.


When the bills came, I noticed that DH’s and I my account was 2 table service credits short. I asked our waiter, who said he only deducted two. He got the manager, who told us that this wasn’t their problem, it must have happened elsewhere. I know I would have caught something like this, since I go over all the receipts with a fine toothed comb (even if we’re not actually paying for it). The manager wasn’t all that helpful, and told us that we had to go back to our hotel to fix the problem.


We said farewell to DC at this point, and headed out of the park. On our way out, I snapped this pic of everyone's favorite FWF stand:

Then we caught the bus over to MGM for Fantasmic. We got there late because of the commotion with the bill, and got really bad seats. We decided that rather than sit there on the far end of the stadium and be one of the last people out, we’d rather stand up in the back of the center section, and make a quicker exit.


Well, we tried. But two very rude (!) CMs told us in no uncertain terms, that we weren’t allowed to stand behind the last row of seats. Now I could understand if we were blocking someone, like a handicapped section, or standing in a walkway, but we weren’t. I know that stadium can handle tons of people who stand, so I had no idea why were rudely told to move.


We ended up getting really good seats just as they opened up the dinner package section to the rest of the guests. But even rude CMs couldn’t mar this wonderful show. I noticed that the timing of some of the boats were off, but no matter. Just as we were starting the “Mickey walks on water” section of the show, it started to lightly rain.


DH called this the “mass exodus.” You’d think people would be just as glad as we were to get some cooling relief from the day’s heat, but people scrambled out like it was raining acid.


It was also funny to see the rain “help” put out the fires in the last sequence. What a great show.


After the show, we headed back to the hotel to fix our dining problem. It turns out that Italy had charged once for our dinner while we were there, and then at around noon the next day, they decided to charge us again??? Odd. But the helpful CM behind the counter fixed it for us quickly, and then it was off to bed.

 

[FanofDinsey1981]

the cheese plate looks divine! I will have to put that on my 'to eat' list. :slurp:

 

[DisneyBunny]

If anyone out there's still reading... :lookaroun
Sorry I've been so slow on posting the next day. (Silly work... who needs it? )
Day 6 is coming soon!

 

[Yellow Shoes]

I'm looking forward to the next installment.

I'm especially enjoying your food pictures. With the dining plan, food becomes as important a part of the Disney experience as hotels and rides.

I have read many complaints that the portions were small and the bill huge at L'Originale Alfredo di Roma. Your photos confirm that $26 doesn't buy a lot of spaghetti.

Thanks again. I always feel a little goofy taking pictures of my food, but I get over it.

 

[FanofDinsey1981]

yay! there is more! I am also enjoying the food pictures. I am off to WDW in two days, I am enjoying your report!

 

[DisneyBunny]

Thanks for the encouragement - I’m glad someone’s getting something out of this report!



“Unbirthday” Day 6:


Got up early enough to make it to the opening ceremony for Epcot. We passed the F&WF topiaries on the way in. It amazes me how they weren’t up one night, and when we came back the next day – there they were!

This was the first time I had seen the family of the day make their grand entrance in a Test Track vehicle. (but then again, the last time I was at Epcot for an opening, it was the day after Hurricane Jeanne, and the parks opened an hour late… so it very well could have been a modified opening ceremony) I thought it was a great touch, and I would have loved to driven around in a TT car all through the park. Maybe one day….

From the opening, we scurried over to Soarin’ for the first ride of the day. This time I didn’t request a row, and we got stuck in the worst possible location…. The bottom left hand corner. Poor DH was sitting in the very end seat, and he commented afterwards that he was glad we had better seats for our first ride, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have ridden Soarin’ ever again. He commented that almost a quarter of his vision was the black area to the side of the screen, and it really ruined the illusion.



Then we went on Livin’ with the Land. Someone remind me, when did they remove the song from this ride? I loved that song…. I’m getting old… I can’t remember how long it’s been since I heard that sung. Anyways, we spotted a few hidden Mickey’s along the way… always a bonus. Including one of my favorite HMs…

 

[DisneyBunny]

From there we all hit Imagination and HISTA. Oh PLEASE replace this awful show soon! DH and DM didn’t want to waste their time on it, but I wanted to see everything in the park, so they acquiesced just to make me happy. I’m glad we did it, but it’ll be the last time we see that show in quite some time. I never realized how bad the 3D is, until I saw it this time. And we had prime seats too – dead center. Plus, it’s from a really dated franchise… I’m totally biased, but seeing what they can do with Philharmagic, this show looks really bad in comparison.



From there we wandered into the World Showcase to see all the booths for the F&WF.

So much to choose from! I was pleased to find that all of the food options at the booths counted as a snack item! Since we hadn’t used very many of our snack allotments yet, DH decided to eat around the world instead of getting lunch that day. DM and I decided that we’d rather go back to Seasons for lunch instead though.



So after the first showing of the day of the American Adventure, we headed back to the Land for lunch, stopping so DH could get some shrimp at the Florida Shrimp stand – which turned out to be his most expensive snack - $4.50!



DM and I got lunch at Seasons, with DM getting the exact same meal she got on our first day. I tried the turkey and Munster on Foccacia, with a side of tomato and mozzarella salad. Both were excellent, with the bread being very soft, and the salad was obviously made only shortly before. My strawberry shortcake was also very very good. The cake was fresh, and there was a balance between strawberries, whipped cream, and cake. It was a much better choice than the key lime pie from last time.

From lunch we headed back to the hotel for a swim, since the crowds and the heat were starting to build. This time I went over to swim in DM’s pool at All Star Music. It was considerably less crowded than the Fantasia pool at Movies. We swam for a while, and when it started to rain, we headed back to our rooms to shower, and rest up for dinner.

 

[DisneyBunny]

When we returned to Epcot that evening we noticed a marked increase in the crowd level. It was rather difficult to make our way around the World Showcase to get to China. We left enough time before dinner to catch the movie before we ate. I really do like the new film, and I must say that it put us in the right mood to enjoy our dinners.



We checked into China a few minutes early. We only had a few minutes to wait until we were seated. We were lead to a table in the exact center of an extremely crowded room. DH, who has eaten there before on multiple trips was almost completely positive that extra tables had been added to accommodate the Free Dining people. There was only 2 inches between our table and the ones on either side of us! He commented that it wasn’t nearly that bunched up the last time he was there.



When we got our menus, our waiter told us that the specialty drinks and smoothies were included on the dining plan…. I found this interesting, since France told us that only Coke products, coffee and tea were included. So I took advantage of this, (since I was getting tired of soft drinks all week) and ordered a mango strawberry smoothie. DM ordered the strawberry one.

For our appetizers DH and I split the Appetizer Tri-Star Medley, which included a pot sticker, egg roll, and a Shao Mai for each of us. They were sooooo good. I had never tried Shao Mai before, and I’m now a fan!

DM got the Sha Cha beef skewers. While she said they were good, I don’t think she’d order them again, especially if she had to pay for them.

For our entrees, DM and I had been drooling all week long over the Sea Treasures dinner, which included lobster, shrimp, scallops and veggies in a spicy sauce. We certainly wouldn’t have gotten it if it wasn’t free (It was $29!!), but maybe in the future if they do away with the dining plan, we could split one. It was just excellent. I’ve heard about the so-so reviews for Nine Dragons, saying that they offer just really expensive average-tasting, Chinese food. Well, I’ve had nothing like this at any Chinese restaurant in my area. It was spicy, without being overpowering, and had so much flavor! Both DM and I were sorely disappointed that we couldn’t finish it off.

DH got the Canton Pepper Beef, and he declared it excellent as well. In fact he raved about it even after we got home, saying it was the best food he’s ever gotten there.

 

[DisneyBunny]

At this point we were revved up for dessert, especially myself. I had heard that they had red bean ice cream there, and I had wanted to try it for ages. Well, much to our surprise, 3 little chocolate cakes showed up at our table without our ordering them… this was very strange. Our waited told us that this was the only dessert that was included on the dining plan, so that’s what we had to eat.

I was really quite disappointed, since I had my heart set on trying my ice cream, but I didn’t want to argue. I did think it was odd that they were so lenient with the drinks, but not about the desserts.



The cake was very very dry, and reminded me of a stale gingerbread cake. Since our water glasses almost never stayed full, I really couldn’t finish the cake without something to wash it down. I left most of mine, and both DH and DM did too. This was, I believe, the first dessert we all left behind the whole trip.



On our way out from dinner, I had to stop and try the rice cream at the Scandinavia booth. This was the only time I had to actually pay for food during the entire trip! I know, I could have used one of my snack options for it, but I wasn’t going to waste my snack on something that cost me just a dollar. I’d rather spend it on a drink on a hot day, instead. The rice cream was good. But I don’t know if I’d want to brave a princess meal to get it the next time I’m down.

From there it was off to fight the crowds at the bus stop, and head back to the room to get some sleep. I had to get rested for my actual birthday!

 

[FanofDinsey1981]

ooo the food looks so good! Iam excited to go to the Food and Wine festival, I have never been before. I though I did hear that the crowds are pretty bad after the noon hour, but we planned ALL afternoon to make our way through.

thanks for the update!

 

[castlecake2.0]

Great report so far, all the pictures are brilliant! Making me hungry too.


As a side nte does anybody else recognise the ' 10 ' in front of spaceship earth from another location a few years back?

 

[DisneyBunny]

As a side nte does anybody else recognise the ' 10 ' in front of spaceship earth from another location a few years back?

No, can't say that I do... anyone else recognize that? :veryconfu

 

[Pippa]

Fabulous report!!! Especially the food pics, i am thinking of the dining plan for our next trip and it looks great. I think i would come back at least 10lbs heavier!!!

 

[castlecake2.0]

No, can't say that I do... anyone else recognize that? :veryconfu

I believe those are the same numbers that were in front of the Train Station for the 100 years of magic celebration.