Trip Report A Very Dapper, Not So Scary, Sept-Oct Trip Report

Welcome, first off, thank you for deciding to read my trip report. This is my second ever trip report, I hope it turns out better than my first one! If you would like to read that, there is a link in my signature. I also invite you to check out my pre-trip report here.

Cast- Myself, and my wife, Cara. We are both 31 year old New Yorkers. This is our 3rd trip to Disney together, since we started dating in 2007, but the 2nd this year.

When- We left New York, Saturday, September 27th at 7:00 am, and left Orlando, Saturday, October 4th, at 8:00 pm.

Why- Ever since our trip in January, we had been talking about going during, Epcot Food and Wine Festival. We also found out about this event called Dapper Day, and wanted to visit during Halloween season. All three of these happened during this week, so it was like the perfect storm. 30% off the room helped, as did wanting to go back with a group of 2, instead of 7.

Where- For the first time (in forever) we stayed at the Boardwalk Inn. After our last visit, we knew we wanted to try something besides AKL, which we liked, but it was too far from the action. We love Epcot, and knew we want to stay at an Epcot resort. BWI was the cheapest of the the three (by far) this week, so there you have it.

 

[PMC0849]

Day 2- Drinking (and Eating) Around the World, also Manatees
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This was the day I think I was most excited for. Ever since I heard about drinking around the world, I knew it was the activity for me. With the Food and Wine Festival going on, it was an expanded world too. We had a reservation for the "Sunday Mornings With..." event today, this one was with a pastry chef from Chicago, Gale Gand. So, we were running a bit late, but made it over to the festival center, before anything began. We got seated with a nice couple, who visit during F&W every year, and a couple from Las Vegas, there on their honeymoon.

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Okay, so when we sat down we were greeted with a glass of prosecco, some fruit and yogurt, and some nice pastries. A little while later a woman came out and started talking. I think she hosts all of these types of things during F&W, (and as we found out later, tells the same jokes at each one). So, the chicken dish was a bit disappointing. Cara, and I both agreed that the quiche was the best part. it reminded me very much of mediocre wedding food. It was funny, my plate was missing the asparagus, and Cara's was missing the bacon and leek salad. The deserts I liked, there was the orange blueberry scone, the lemon curd, and the caramel chocolate bread pudding. I love bread pudding. I think we may have gotten more wine too, I can't remember. During the meal, the chef and the host were demonstrating how to make the deserts, which we got recipes for. Overall, I thought the presentation dragged on a little long, and I started getting bored, and was more interested in going to our FP for Test Track, which we were going to be late for. Overall this was an interesting experience, but, I am not sure I would do it again. I am on the fence. Anyway we went over to Test Track, for our first FP, it ended up being the only FP we made it to that day, as we spent a lot of time in World Showcase, and Maelstrom had no FPs available all day.

Look at this baby!

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We had a FP for Mission Space after this, but Cara was unsure about riding it with a fool stomach, so we skipped it and went on Ellen's Energy Adventure instead. Now neither of us had been on this in it's current form. I always remembered a ride at Epcot with Dinosaurs from when I was a kid, but couldn't remember what it was. Well, I found out it was the Ellen ride... This was a good, long, way to digest our food, to prepare for the culinary onslaught we were about to embark on. The ride, however, is incredibly outdated, and could use new movie, you can even bring back Elle, Bill Nye, and Alex Trebek. My favorite parts were Einstein during the Jeopardy, where he just kind of stood around looking stoned, and the realization I knew this ride from the '80s thanks to the Dinosaurs.

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This ride became sort of a running gag for us the rest of the trip. Every time we were near this area, one of us would jokingly suggest we ride it again, saying we should leave another park to go ride Ellen's Energy Adventure. I don't know why exactly, it isn't that bad, it is really corny though. After EEA I was ready to head to WS, but Cara wanted to head back into the festival center for a little.

Here's the good stuff! I love High West's labels.
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We checked out the little stores here, and made it over to the chocolate area, and got ourselves a free piece of chocolate. They also had these cool sculptures made by different places throughout WDW, that were made entirely out of chocolate.

I hope the real Avatarland is made of chocolate.
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The pictures of the chocolate sculptures didn't turn out too well, but I thought I should share them, they were pretty cool. I thought the Brother Bear one was the best, and a random movie to base you sculpture on. It was finally time to head to the WS for our drinking adventure around the world.

 

[PMC0849]

Day 2 - Drinking (and Eating) Around the World, also Manatees - Part 2
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We had ADRs that night at Le Cellier, so we decided we would start in Mexico, but before we even got close to Mexico there were several F&W kiosks to try out. First up was Patagonia.

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Our strategy was to share food at each Marketplace, we usually ordered our own drinks at each Marketplace or pavilion, but we occasionally shared one. At Patagonia we had the Beef Skewer and we each had a glass of the malbec. The skewer was great! the wine was also very good.

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Next we got the mussels from New Zealand, which were also good. I think we both preferred the beef skewer though. There were other things at each marketplace we wanted to come back for, and we never did, which I kind of regret. There was just too much! We could have spent the whole 7 days at Epcot and still not tried it all. Hmm... 7 days at Epcot... It is my favorite park, nah, I would miss so much else that I love.

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In Australia we shared the lamb chop, and a glass of riesling. Originally, I was going to get a Cooper's Brewery Pale Ale, but they were out. We both liked the lamb chop too, the F&W marketplaces were off to a good start, and that was just the first 3 we visited. We decided to take a little break from the food when we hit Mexico, and we went inside to get some margaritas. We stopped by La Cava del Tequila, where Cara got the avocado margarita which we had heard a lot about, and I just got a normal margarita. It was really hot today, and this was the perfect little pit stop. We drank our margaritas and looked around inside Mexico a little bit.

I had never noticed people inside the pavilion making the glass figures before.
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We ventured back outside, and noticed Mexican Donald Duck was meeting people. We decided to get in the short line while we were finishing our margaritas. We were in line behind a mother and young daughter, whom loved "Frozen" and she proceeded to tell us that Elsa was her favorite princess. I had to point out many kids born when Cara and I were feel the same way about Ariel, or Belle. This prompted the girls mother to turn around and quietly tell us that "Ariel was the s*%t!" I had to agree with her, Elsa has nothing on Ariel. However, I would still like to see a X-Men Frozen crossover where Iceman and Elsa meet. I had finished my margarita while in line but Cara still had some left as we were approaching Donald, who instructed her to put it down during the pictures.

Notice Cara's margarita in the corner? lol

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We both get a kick out of Mexican Donald, ever since our first trip together 7 years ago. We even bought his stuffed animal, which is still sitting on our very crowded toy shelf. Next up was the farm fresh marketplace.

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Here we had the Nueske's pepper bacon hash, and I had a Orlando Brewing Company I-4 IPA. The beer was really good, the bacon hash was not very memorable actually. Neither of us were crazy about it, it had so much promise. China however, would rectify everything, with what may have been our favorite thing we tried at a marketplace.

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The Beijing roasted duck in a steamed bun with hoisin sauce was really good, we both loved it, and talked about it a lot during the rest of the trip. I wish we would have gotten another one at some point, but there was just too much food!! We underestimated everything. I also had a Tsingtao beer, which was okay, very much like most American lagers. Cara had a glass of the Su Yuen Riesling, which I think she said she liked. We wandered deeper into the China Pavilion, but those pictures will and the rest of day 2 will have to wait for future posts. I took a lot of pictures during this day, and it is going to take several posts to get them all up. It was a very interesting day, lol. We ran into several other people doing the same thing as us during our trip around the world. I noticed that WS during this time of year was heavily adults, it may be the only place in the parks I have seen were the adults significantly outnumber the children. Anyway stay tuned, there is a lot of the world yet to see! and that means even more pictures of food!

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[mrdrift]

What a great start to the report. Day one couldn't go any better and day two seems really awesome with all the food and drinks in the pictures. Waiting to read more on this trip report.

 

[Mickey2006]

Thanks for the food and wine pics! My husband and I are headed there in just over a week. You have definitely whetted my appetite. Looking forward to more....

 

[Zipadeelady]

I've never heard of Dapper Day but love the idea of it. I hope they continue to do it at WDW!! Love the outfits too!!

 

[dancingtodisney]

Dapper Day??! I've never heard of it but it sounds like lots of fun! Your outfits were amazing BTW! It's funny how people feel the need to comment on things that don't affect them! Tower of Terror is also my favourite, you can never ride it enough!

 

[PMC0849]

What a great start to the report. Day one couldn't go any better and day two seems really awesome with all the food and drinks in the pictures. Waiting to read more on this trip report.

Thank you for following. There are plenty more food and drink pictures to come!

Thanks for the food and wine pics! My husband and I are headed there in just over a week. You have definitely whetted my appetite. Looking forward to more....

Food and Wine is amazing! You guys are going to love it. I wish I was going back, there is so much we didn't get to try.

I've never heard of Dapper Day but love the idea of it. I hope they continue to do it at WDW!! Love the outfits too!!

It was a blast! They already have a date for WDW coming for Spring 2015, they should add a day in fall as well. I know I would love to attend.

Dapper Day??! I've never heard of it but it sounds like lots of fun! Your outfits were amazing BTW! It's funny how people feel the need to comment on things that don't affect them! Tower of Terror is also my favourite, you can never ride it enough!

Thank you! We had to think a lot about what we would wear, I have had that suit for awhile now, but only worn it like once or twice before this. Cara bought that hat especially for this day. I once saw a video blog from a couple who lives in Orlando, where they tried what they called the Tower of Terror challenge. I assume they made this up, but essentially you try to ride it 13 times in one day! I would love to try that someday.

 

[PMC0849]

Happy to hear Donald made her put the drink down. I'd heard the characters won't take a picture with alcohol, but that confirms it. (Not dissing alcohol, just glad to hear that in general).

Great report so far!

Thank you! Yeah, for some reason it never crossed my mind, but it makes total sense. I did find it weird that Donald was the one asking us to put it down, and not the CM handler.

 

[PMC0849]

Day 2- Drinking (and Eating) Around the World, also Manatees - Part 3
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Okay, who's ready for more Food and Wine at Epcot? Well first we have to finish our adventures in China. We didn't really do much but look at some of the stores.

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It was time to move on. Sadly we always seem to miss Mulan. I love the movie, and would love to meet her one day, of course I wish she was warrior Mulan, and not princess Mulan, but it's not that big of a deal. We meandered over to the next F&W marketplace, which happened to be South Korea.

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We shared the kimchi dog, and the Soju fruit slushy. Both were good, the hot dog lacked the snap I like when biting into a hot dog, so I assume they were not natural casing hot dogs. It was still pretty good. With every foot into. We skipped Africa for now and went straight to the Brewer's Collection. The crowds were definitely getting a little more boisterous. I think there were many people drinking around the world this day.

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Cara had the Schöfferhofer Grapefruit, and I had and IPA, I think, I can't remember. The grapefruit beer is very refreshing and pleasant; I have had it several times in Brooklyn, at the Simpsons trivia we attend. I think I remember liking it.

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We were starting to get a little full, so we skipped a few marketplaces for the time being. We did grab a chocolate cannoli from Italy, and than we each got a glass of prosecco. We hung out in Italy for awhile and took in some of the sites.

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So, these two didn't actually know each other, they just decided to have an impromptu arm wrestling match, or they reenacting Sylvester Stallone's finest film, "Over the Top". How is that movie not present on the Great Movie Ride? The guy in this picture will come back into this trip report later in the day, but for now I will leave you guessing in what capacity.

We also saw this woman with her awesome tattoo!

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We kept seeing people with these sparkling red drinks, and we both wanted one. We eventually found where they were selling them, near the exit to Italy. It was a little sweeter than I like most of my wine, but I did actually enjoy it. Now I can't remember exactly where it was, but we did see the long line for people waiting for the Hanson concert that was starting shortly. Now, no offense for those who like Hanson, but wow. I was surprised how many people were waiting for this concert.

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I have never done the American Adventure before. I really don't know why. I really wanted to see it, so we stepped into the waiting area, and heard a little of this lovely choir singing. After they were done Cara, who is in a choir here in NYC, started talking to one of the members about how great they were. From there we were told we could head up to the theater for the show.

 

[PMC0849]

Day 2- Drinking (and Eating) Around the World, also Manatees - Part 4

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Okay, so funny story. We had had a fair amount to drink at this point. About the time they let us head up to the theater, I noticed I had to use the restroom. I thought I could make it through the show. Just incase we decided to sit on an aisle seat. See that picture of Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson? That is as far as I got, . I got up and left the theater, while Cara stayed behind. Afterwards I asked a CM if there was any chance I could rejoin my wife, and that she was seated right next to the doors to the theater, I was denied. I was not surprised by that request, but thought I had to ask anyway. I hung out in the America pavilion while the show went on. I ended up buying some cookies and caramel corn while I waited too.

I got almost no pictures of Spaceship Earth this trip, which I found odd.
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I met up with Cara, she enjoyed the show. I was really mad at myself for not being able to make it through. Cara promised me we would come back, and she would watch it again with me later in the trip. We headed over to Japan, which may be one of the most fun pavilions. There is just so much to see here.

This may be my favorite picture of drinks I took.
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We stopped by the Japan marketplace where we got the spicy hand roll, and we each got a glass of the sake. The CM was so happy we ordered just the regular sake, she thanked us for doing that. I guess not many people had ordered that. We both have drank sake a lot here, when we go to nice japanese restaurants. So we both like it. I must say, we were gifted with some healthy pours of sake here. It was good sake too, very mild, if you have never tried it, and our curious, this is a nice intro sake. The hand roll was good too, but it was not very spicy to be honest. I am actually pretty sensitive to spice, so I was worried when we ordered it, and I thought, I wish it was a little spicier, haha. By this time we were both a little tipsy, so it was the perfect time to enter the giant Japanese pavilion store!!

Picka-whatchu lookin at...

Love this!
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So, we met this group from Miami, they were all wearing these T-Shirts, Every Person Comes Out Tipsy, it was pretty funny. There was a girl with them who asked a CM what here two favorite candies were that they sold, I overheard this, and just told her I was going to follow them, if she didn't mind, which she did not. The CM lead us to a chocolate thing, and some kind of gummies. We both bought one of each, but got different flavors of gummies, we agreed to trade one with each other to see the difference. They were pretty good, sadly I cannot remember what they were called, since we have eaten them all now, and thrown away the packages. Cara and I chatted with the Miami group for a little before seeing more of Japan.

I have always wanted to try this. It is always so loud, and fun looking.

Best picture of the trip?

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I think I could seriously spend hours in the Japan pavilion alone. There is so much random stuff to see, I love it. We have never tried Teppan Edo either, is it worth it? I have been to similar restaurants before, and the food is always good, nothing spectacular, but the show is so much fun. We talked about making lunch reservations here for our last day, but didn't. We are considering it for our next trip, which, if things work out well, might fall during F&W next year. I cannot stress how awesome F&W was. Epcot was already our favorite, but throw in F&W... We met some fun people, and some interesting people this day. But the best of that is yet to come. Hope you are enjoying day 2, because it is still not over, and may need a few more installments to finish. I took a lot more pictures too. I could have had a whole post with 20 pictures in China, and Japan alone. Also if you have never drank around the world, and enjoy having a spirited beverage or 2 (or 12), I highly recommend this activity, it was so much fun. Probably my new favorite thing to do at Epcot, but as I write that, I remember how much I love Test Track, and Spaceship Earth, and how peaceful and cool the Aquarium is, plus how much fun we have joking around about rides like Ellen's Energy Adventure, and Imagination. Oh, I want to go back to Epcot. If only we didn't have a finite amount of money, and had no responsibilities, and other things . Stay tuned for more!!

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[DisneyFreakEst1994]

I'm so jealous you guys got to do Dapper Day! I have been dying to for years, but I never seem to be there when its going on maybe one day soon. I'm going to WDW next week Monday-Sunday and I am so excited. Your TR is definitely helping the pass. Cant wait to read more!

 

[bmarkelon]

Love your Food and Wine pics! And I spent a ton of time in Japan last trip too, so much to look at!! While I was shopping I had told my dad to grab me a sake and he comes back with some nasty citrus flavored one, I really just wanted plain old sake man! Looking forward to more and your Le Cellier dinner, I just booked that for my April trip…haven't' been in years!

 

[PMC0849]

I'm so jealous you guys got to do Dapper Day! I have been dying to for years, but I never seem to be there when its going on maybe one day soon. I'm going to WDW next week Monday-Sunday and I am so excited. Your TR is definitely helping the pass. Cant wait to read more!

Lucky! I wish I was going back so soon. Glad I can help pass the time. If you ever get a chance to go during Dapper Day, DO IT!! It was a lot of fun. They seem to only do it once in spring and fall in DL and WDW, and once in fall in DLP, as of right now. The next one in WDW is in March according to the website.

was in F &W past weekend and this hash/bacon/pepper dish was # uno for us..especially paired with...

following along with ur dapper TR.

Maybe we just got a bland batch of the bacon hash. We didn't hate it, just we preferred the other things we had. The avocado margarita was really good, I wish I had gotten that instead of the regular one. next time.

Love your Food and Wine pics! And I spent a ton of time in Japan last trip too, so much to look at!! While I was shopping I had told my dad to grab me a sake and he comes back with some nasty citrus flavored one, I really just wanted plain old sake man! Looking forward to more and your Le Cellier dinner, I just booked that for my April trip…haven't' been in years!

Every time I am amazed by how much there is to see in Japan. Yeah they had a flavored sake, and some kind of sake cocktail, I can't imagine them being that good. Hope you have a great time in April!

 

[PMC0849]

Day 2- Drinking (and Eating) Around the World, also Manatees - Part 5
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Time for the fifth installment in my second day, of this trip report. We moved on to Morocco, which may be the most overlooked pavilion at Epcot. We have had two very nice meals at restaurant Marrakesh. I kind of want to try Spice Table, has anyone been here? how was it? I have always enjoyed looking at the stores and other things here. Plus, we had a very short wait, and wonderful meet and greet with Aladdin and Jasmine, when we were here in January. We stopped by the Morocco marketplace for what would be our last food and wine treat of the day .

"I wish I could stay in Disney World, forever"

A CM yelled at me for taking this picture. I just thought it was a funny painting.
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I usually don't like baklava, but this was pretty good. It is usually too sweet for me, but this was just right. I also had a casa beer, which was fine. We saw this place selling these paintings of cats, I took a couple of pictures of them before the CM yelled at me and said, I could not take pictures of them. I have never been told I can't take a picture of something at Disney. Oh well, no big deal.

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I have only ever seen yellow dress Belle before, so it was fun to see village Belle. There was almost nobody waiting to meet Belle, maybe because WS was 90% adults this day. We chatted with here for awhile, and had a wonderful interaction with her, but I can't for the life of me remember the specifics. I really enjoy character meet and greets, especially face characters, and it's even better when it is a character from my childhood, like Belle. Ariel and Belle, are 100 times better than Anna and Elsa, I'm I right other children of the 80s?

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We each got a glass of wine in France, I think we ended up getting refills too, this was the Beaujolais I believe. We had decided to stop eating around this time, so we would be hungry for Le Cellier. This is where things got interesting. We sat down in France to drink our wine, when a group of guys asked if they could share the table with us. They had obviously been drinking around the world too. Turns out they were all staying at Shades of Green for the weekend, and knew each other from their time serving. I think a couple of them may still be serving. Remember that guy who was arm wrestling earlier? Well he was with this group, he asked to see my camera, I let him. His friends warned me this would be a bad idea, but nothing bad happened. He actually took a few interesting pictures.

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They invited us to come with them to the Rose and Crown, we said we might meet them there. We wanted to look around in France, and England before heading over there. Which we did.

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We arrived at the Rose and Crown, and it was packed. Clearly a lot of people were finishing up their day at the bar here. I have always wanted to come here, but I actually want to eat here sometime, but I would settle for a drink this time around.

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We ran into our new friends from earlier, and we all sat around chatting and having a beer. Cara had a cider, and I had a black and tan, which was pretty good. I exchanged e-mails with one of the guys so I could send him the pictures his friend took. We had some time to kill before our Le Cellier reservation, so we headed over to the aquarium area.

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[PMC0849]

Day 2- Drinking (and Eating) Around the World, also Manatees - Part 6
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When we were here in January, Cara and I didn't really look around in the aquarium. My brother Trevor, and his girlfriend Brittany were with us that morning. We rode Nemo, and then were going to see Turtle Talk, however, Brittany had dropped her wallet on Nemo. So Cara and I went to Turtle Talk, while Trevor and Brittany went to find her wallet. They missed Turtle Talk, and when we got out and met up, they told us they aquarium wasn't that interesting, so we moved on. I should always know never to listen to my brother Trevor. Now we had one goal in mind when heading over this time, to see the manatees.

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After watching the Manatees for awhile we headed over to Le Cellier. January was our first time eating here, so I can't say whether it was better before, I don't even know what people mean when they say it was better before. We really enjoyed it in winter, and were really excited to go back.

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I know, neither of us got the filet, blasphemy!! We decided to share the heirloom tomato salad, and an order of one of the poutines. If you go to Le Cellier, and do not get poutine, you are missing out. I have never had it in Canada, so I'm sure any Canadians will tell me it's not that good here, but it is just as good if not better, than this Montreal style deli here in Brooklyn. We didn't actually order the beer cheese soup this time, but our wonderful waitress, Marina, overheard us talking about it, and then some appeared, with a wink in our direction!! We also each had a glass of Canadian wine to finish off drinking around the world day. Cara had a strip steak for her entree, and I had the ribeye. I love ribeye it is my favorite cut of steak, we also got a side of mushrooms, and a side of spinach. Everything was excellent, the steaks were pretty perfect, I may start ordering rare at disney. Rareness is always inconsistent at any restaurant, I think Disney always plays it safe, so when you order medium rare it is more in between medium and medium rare. The mushrooms actually ended up being the thing we talked about most this trip, they were really good! I think we must have skipped desert tonight, I don't have a picture of one, and I can't remember ordering one. We had Marina as our server in January too. She is excellent, by far the best server we have had at Disney, and maybe anywhere we have eaten in recent memory. Cara has gone so far to say next time we eat here we have to request her, assuming she is still working there. We were one of the last couple tables in the restaurant when we had finished, we headed to the exit, but before we left we asked to speak to the manager. We just wanted to tell her how great Marina was. I think she was pleasantly surprised, since I assume most people ask to speak to her when they are complaining about something. As soon as we stepped outside the restaurant it started to pour. Now, some of you may have noticed the large backpack I was lugging around, we came somewhat prepared for this. It rained a lot in January, never this hard but a lot. We each had a raincoat in my backpack, we also stored our phones and my camera in there at this point, since it had a water proof cover. We also had changes of shoes in there the rest of the trip. So raingear on we headed towards the international gateway. There were a few other people still lingering in Epcot after it had closed, now they were running towards the exit or cover. We saw one couple huddled under the cover at the international gateway. We walked back to the BWI in the rain. Hung up our raincoats and pants, which got a little wet, and turned in for the night. Up next Animal Kingdom, and a return to MGM, I mean DHS.

 

[Disney Shib]

Loving your trip report!

 

[mrdrift]

What a wonderful day at Epcot. All of the Food and Wine pictures turned out really good. If you could choose your favorite drink and food item what would you choose? I'm sure this is a tough question since all of looked really good. Following along.

 

[PMC0849]

Turns out we did have desert at Le Cellier. Cara reminded me, after she read the latest update, that we got a creme brulee, I just don't remember it, and didn't take a picture.

Loving your trip report!

Thank you! Glad you are enjoying it.

What a wonderful day at Epcot. All of the Food and Wine pictures turned out really good. If you could choose your favorite drink and food item what would you choose? I'm sure this is a tough question since all of looked really good. Following along.

Hmm... that's a really tough choice. The sake or I-4 Ipa were probably my favorite drink, foodwise I may have liked the tuna poke, or shrimp tacos best. Those will show up in a future posting.

 

[PMC0849]

Day 3 - Disco Yetis, Tigers, and Pooh Bears, oh my!
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Today there were morning EMH at Animal Kingdom. Our last trip, we had breakfast at Boma before we headed to the airport, and everyone in my family loved it. My plan, which I think worked perfectly, was to go to AK for EMH, then have a late breakfast at Boma, to act as like a brunch. We got to AK around 8:30, and it was pretty empty.

Stupid lamp
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I can't think of Animal Kingdom, without remembering my biggest Disney regret. When Cara and I went in 2007, it was my first time coming since AK was built. The whole way there the character I decided I wanted to meet was Launchpad, well we arrive at AK one day during that trip, and right where the photopass guy is in the above picture was Launchpad. There was a very large group, so I decided to wait, assuming he would be there later, he never was, and now my chances of meeting the Ducktales star are practically 0. Anyway we had a FP for Dinosaur at 9:00 so we slowly walked toward Dinoland USA.

Yes, that is a Haunted Mansion/Joker mash-up t-shirt

This funny looking scientist made me smile
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We had some time before our FP for Dinosaur, so we decided to ride Primeval Whirl. This ride is silly, the whole area it is in looks cheap, but the ride itself is a lot more fun than it has any business being. It felt like the line was barely moving, and there were only like 15 people waiting, guess they were still working the early morning bugs out of the system. After we got off the ride it was time for our Dinosaur FP!

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Dinosaur is a fun, underrated ride, I think part of that is it's based around a mediocre, very forgettable movie. How many of you list "DInosaur" as even a top 10 Disney movie? Now please correct me if I am wrong, but the Indiana Jones ride, in DL, is essentially the same, with Indiana Jones theme, right? I usually love in the pictures, usually everyone is just looking unimpressed at the Dinosaur, but every once and awhile, someone looks like they were genuinely scared. Sadly this didn't happen in our picture. After Dinosaur, it was time to head to AKL for our ADR at Boma. We timed this perfectly, I do wish we could have arrived at AK a little earlier, but everything worked out well. We got to the AKL bus stop as a bus was pulling up. Since it was about 9:45 we were the only people leaving the park. We had a private bus driver to the AKL, he was a lot of fun too. He kept talking to us in a pretty thick southern accent, and telling us how lucky we were to have him as our private driver, and jokingly saying just give him a call when we wanted to go anywhere. I think his name was Ray, but I can't remember.

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We actually got to Boma early! Now, if you know Cara and me, we are never, ever early, even on time is a rare occurrence. We always seem to arrive at a restaurant 14-15 minutes after our reservation time starts. In Disney we are a little better, as long as we are in the park that our ADR is at. We were pretty good at getting places on time during this trip though. We waited a few minuted before we were seated, and pretty much went right to the buffet. I didn't get pictures of all the food we had. I got some of the bobotie, the african spiced hash, french toast bread pudding, and more! It was all very good. I can't remember everything Cara had, there was a lot of overlap. I also got some Mickey waffles, since I had to at some point, and didn't know when I would get another chance. Cara, also had a mimosa. After we had finished, our waitress disappeared, she must have gone on break, or went to have a cigarette. She went from being very attentive, to no where in site! Eventually we had to flag down another waitress to try and get our bill. Shortly after this our waitress came back, and went and got our bill, and off we were, back to the Animal Kingdom. We had FPs for Everest coming up!

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Everest is probably the best roller coaster at WDW, maybe even in Orlando. If the the yeti would get fixed, I could say this for sure. Now I have more fun on space mountain, but Everest is the more thrilling ride. Sadly you couldn't see either of our faces in the post ride picture, they had been replaced by the hands of the people in front of us, D'oh! Our next FP was for Kilimanjaro Safari, but we had some time to kill, so we went and watched the gibbons, and then went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

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I kept looking down every time the gibbons did something. Eventually I was able to snap a few pictures of them swinging around, and being great. They kept eating something off the top of these posts. I will try to get the next installment out later today, but can't make any promises. I took a lot of pictures on the Jungle Trek, and on the safari, so stay tuned!!

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[PMC0849]

Day 3 - Disco Yetis, Tigers, and Pooh Bears, oh my! - Part 2

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I personally love the bats, I know they offer a route that bypasses them for those who are scared, but really what is to be scared of? They just hang there, occasionally licking themselves.

This guy was sleeping right under one of the viewing windows.

Aw, just like our cats at home.

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The Maharaja Trek was really cool, we skipped it last time for some reason, and since we did the other one last time, we skipped it this trip . When we were in one of the bird exhibits, one of the CMs talked to us at length about some of the birds. He was even trying to show us the nests they had built, but the rain had apparently destroyed them. Just one of the examples we saw today of AK CMs who really are passionate about what they do. Next up we had our final FP for Kilimanjaro Safari.

This guy was missing a tusk, we were wondering what happened. Maybe Disney is secretly in the ivory game...

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