Trip Report It’s broken. A Loco Christmas TR!

Hello everyone!

We just got back yesterday from our weeklong stay at WDW and as promised, I am here to deliver a full blown loco_driver TR. I have about a million pictures to sort through still, but we have enough to get started. Let’s do this!

When: December 4-11

Who: Me and the wife A, or Mrs. Loco if you will. Pickle the dog would not be making the trip.

Where: Split stay between OKW and Riviera.

With all the formalities out of the way, let’s do it to it!

 

[Darstarr]

Highlights included the pretzel rolls, nudle gratin

There is an exchange student from Germany going to my son’s high school and living with our friends/son’s lacrosse teammate. At a tournament a few weeks back I was talking to him and telling him how much I love Nudel Gratin and how I have been trying out recipes etc and asked if he could get me an authentic recipe from home. He had no idea what I was talking about so I googled it to show him. He still had no idea but had these wise words for me: “well, gratin is French….”
Is Epcot lying to us???

In his little speech at the end of the show he mentions how “lightning fast” life moves sometimes and how it’s good to slow down and enjoy things in life without burying our noses in our phone.

Love this!

 

[Loco_driver]

Is Epcot lying to us???

 

[Darstarr]

We will put fountains, it will look great…

 

[Loco_driver]

We too love the Candlelight Processional and booked our last trip to be able to make it to the last night.

As for thinking of the “Ricolaaaa” commercial when seeing the Alpine horns, I completely understand why you would but feel it is my duty to point out that it comes from a small country south of Germany

Oh yes of course. It says it right on the bag! I hear they also make good cheese!

HAHA OH YESSSS!!! I was waiting for this! Now not to bash on your other shirt choices but maychy matchy does it for mee!
Thank you for sharing again and lovely pictures of EPCOT!

There may be one more day of matchy matchy.

 

[Songbird76]

There is an exchange student from Germany going to my son’s high school and living with our friends/son’s lacrosse teammate. At a tournament a few weeks back I was talking to him and telling him how much I love Nudel Gratin and how I have been trying out recipes etc and asked if he could get me an authentic recipe from home. He had no idea what I was talking about so I googled it to show him. He still had no idea but had these wise words for me: “well, gratin is French….”
Is Epcot lying to us???

Love this!

I've never had that at Epcot, but is it the same as Spaetzle? That's a pasta with cheese dish from Germany. You could also look up "kartoffel gratin"...We have similar things here in the Netherlands...I'm surprised the kid wouldn't at least recognize it, but maybe it's not something his family eats?

 

[erstwo]

There is an exchange student from Germany going to my son’s high school and living with our friends/son’s lacrosse teammate. At a tournament a few weeks back I was talking to him and telling him how much I love Nudel Gratin and how I have been trying out recipes etc and asked if he could get me an authentic recipe from home. He had no idea what I was talking about so I googled it to show him. He still had no idea but had these wise words for me: “well, gratin is French….”
Is Epcot lying to us???

Love this!

I've never heard of Nudel Gratin either, but I wonder if it's just not a dish that is served in the exchange student's region of Germany. Most of us in the US think of Bavaria when we think of Germany, when in fact it's a very diverse and regional country in many ways - food included. For example, my mother in law grew up in a small town outside of Cologne (she came to the US in the late 1950s) and she would have been the first to tell you that her traditions and foods varied from what you might find in Munich or Berlin.
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Guess I should also say - I've really been enjoying this trip report! I've followed closely ever since "we left the woods of Texas".... My dad worked at paper companies when I was growing up and we moved to Houston twice with his job. People are always perplexed as to how there was a paper company in Houston. I sometimes have a hard time convincing people that there are in fact woods in Texas!

 

[Swissmiss]

I've never had that at Epcot, but is it the same as Spaetzle? That's a pasta with cheese dish from Germany. You could also look up "kartoffel gratin"...We have similar things here in the Netherlands...I'm surprised the kid wouldn't at least recognize it, but maybe it's not something his family eats?

Normally spatzle is served with meat and gravy (sauce) dishes - at least in Switzerland. I’ve never seen it or eaten it with cheese, so what you had must have been regional to an area of Germany.

 

[Swissmiss]

There is an exchange student from Germany going to my son’s high school and living with our friends/son’s lacrosse teammate. At a tournament a few weeks back I was talking to him and telling him how much I love Nudel Gratin and how I have been trying out recipes etc and asked if he could get me an authentic recipe from home. He had no idea what I was talking about so I googled it to show him. He still had no idea but had these wise words for me: “well, gratin is French….”
Is Epcot lying to us???

Love this!

So the curious person that I am, I did google this and found several recipes on both German and Swiss (German) cooking websites. so maybe the exchange student was pulling your leg (or didn‘t understand your accent and was too embarrassed to say so)

 

[Loco_driver]

I've never heard of Nudel Gratin either, but I wonder if it's just not a dish that is served in the exchange student's region of Germany. Most of us in the US think of Bavaria when we think of Germany, when in fact it's a very diverse and regional country in many ways - food included. For example, my mother in law grew up in a small town outside of Cologne (she came to the US in the late 1950s) and she would have been the first to tell you that her traditions and foods varied from what you might find in Munich or Berlin.
--------
Guess I should also say - I've really been enjoying this trip report! I've followed closely ever since "we left the woods of Texas".... My dad worked at paper companies when I was growing up and we moved to Houston twice with his job. People are always perplexed as to how there was a paper company in Houston. I sometimes have a hard time convincing people that there are in fact woods in Texas!

Ah yes the sweet sweet smell of paper mills. Yes the eastern half of Texas is almost entirely woods! We also have quite the extensive swamp and bayou collection.

 

[ArmoredRodent]

I sometimes have a hard time convincing people that there are in fact woods in Texas!

Indeed. In fact, the fastest growing area in Texas is Conroe, where the local forest is home to the endangered Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (though it is endangered largely because of the nearby population growth ), just north of The Woodlands, itself often rated the #1 area to live in Texas (and in some listings, in the U.S.). The Woodlands is a planned community from the 1970's, and the main roads are densely wooded on both sides so you can't see the neighborhoods next to the roads.

 

[Bullseye1967]

Indeed. In fact, the fastest growing area in Texas is Conroe, where the local forest is home to the endangered Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (though it is endangered largely because of the nearby population growth ), just north of The Woodlands, itself often rated the #1 area to live in Texas (and in some listings, in the U.S.). The Woodlands is a planned community from the 1970's, and the main roads are densely wooded on both sides so you can't see the neighborhoods next to the roads.

View attachment 612277

I actually played around with retiring to the Spring/Woodlands area. It is such a great area!!

 

[Loco_driver]

Indeed. In fact, the fastest growing area in Texas is Conroe, where the local forest is home to the endangered Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (though it is endangered largely because of the nearby population growth ), just north of The Woodlands, itself often rated the #1 area to live in Texas (and in some listings, in the U.S.). The Woodlands is a planned community from the 1970's, and the main roads are densely wooded on both sides so you can't see the neighborhoods next to the roads.

View attachment 612277

I worked in Conroe several years ago(although I lived to the east in Cleveland). I certainly preferred it to Houston, but man was it hot during august!

 

[Bullseye1967]

I worked in Conroe several years ago(although I lived to the east in Cleveland). I certainly preferred it to Houston, but man was it hot during august!

That was the main reason we didn't buy there.

 

[ArmoredRodent]

That was the main reason we didn't buy there.

The main reason we didn't buy in Conroe was traffic. We call it the town where traffic never sleeps. The infrastructure just hasn't caught up with the growth. Much like LBV and all of the Disney area not so long ago, except that there's nobody in Conroe to build infrastructure like Disney can. The Woodlands has rush hour traffic like most places, but the neighborhoods, even the newest, are generally designed with a higher degree of walkability/walk score.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day 6. Friday December 10, 2021.

Our last DHS day would be a short one. Park opening was 9 am and we were up plenty early for emh. Getting to DHS from riviera is a breeze. We boarded at 7:45 am.

We were through the the turnstiles at 7:57

Our only goal for the morning was to get a ride on MMRR. Guess what.

The CM at the entrance let us know that Mickey and Minnie would not be joining emh. They weren’t sure when the ride would open.

On to our outstanding plan B. Tower of terror was also having some troubles and was only running one side and the pre show wasn’t on.

Get ready for a lengthy story. Guess what ended up opening along with every other attraction.

We got in line just before 9 am opening. We made it through the queue in around 15 minutes. Seeing the pre show for the first time was fun. We boarded our train and began our journey, only to stop just past the load area. Turns out the row behind us couldn’t get their lap bar to go down. We got “evacuated” five feet from the station where they let us get on the next train. Our next attempt got stalled in the dance scene for a bit, but was otherwise ok. After our ride, there was a manager named Mary Kay waiting for us at the exit. She told us she didn’t feel like we had gotten a proper experience and wanted us to ride again. She led us directly back to the loading area where we got to ride again. I was really impressed that she went out of her way to make sure we had a good time. You don’t see that much with current management. It’s good to see some people still do things the right way.


After our double ride on runaway railway pretty much every ride was either broken down or had a crazy long wait. So we of course knew what to do.

We had a late breakfast at ronto roasters.

It was a busy day at the black spire outpost.

I need the Wookiee carving.

The sun was really beating down that day.

Here’s a droid.

This guy seemed really upset about something so we decided to get a selfie with him for some reason.

 

[Bullseye1967]

The main reason we didn't buy in Conroe was traffic. We call it the town where traffic never sleeps. The infrastructure just hasn't caught up with the growth. Much like LBV and all of the Disney area not so long ago, except that there's nobody in Conroe to build infrastructure like Disney can. The Woodlands has rush hour traffic like most places, but the neighborhoods, even the newest, are generally designed with a higher degree of walkability/walk score.

We loved the walkability of the area. I have fond memories of sitting in a Chick fil A eating outside and we watched a security guard on horseback go through the drive thru.

 

[Songbird76]

I've never heard of Nudel Gratin either, but I wonder if it's just not a dish that is served in the exchange student's region of Germany. Most of us in the US think of Bavaria when we think of Germany, when in fact it's a very diverse and regional country in many ways - food included. For example, my mother in law grew up in a small town outside of Cologne (she came to the US in the late 1950s) and she would have been the first to tell you that her traditions and foods varied from what you might find in Munich or Berlin.
--------
Guess I should also say - I've really been enjoying this trip report! I've followed closely ever since "we left the woods of Texas".... My dad worked at paper companies when I was growing up and we moved to Houston twice with his job. People are always perplexed as to how there was a paper company in Houston. I sometimes have a hard time convincing people that there are in fact woods in Texas!

That's also very true, and not just within Germany. If you think about history, borders change all the time. What used to be part of Poland is now in Germany, or vice versa, and Yugoslavia doesn't exist anymore....it's divided into different countries. Monarchs married into other countries....Marie Antoinette was Austrian born and married into French royalty. William of Orange (English monarch) was Dutch. Bavaria was a separate region with its own monarch. All those regional foods might be brought to a new place as people immigrated. Even what things are called differs regionally. We went to Biergarten in 2016 and our server recommended "Spazi", which is basically a mixture of Fanta orange soda and coke. When we traveled through Germany in 2018, we tried to order Spazi and no one knew what it was, but then we saw they had something called "Mezzo mix" and it turned out that in Western Germany, it's called Mezzo mix, and then in Bavaria it was Spazi, but somewhere else it's called Schwip Schwap. And I know that the big pretzels are much more prevalant in Bavaria than they are in Köln, while things like Schnitzel are popular not just in Germany, but in Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. So it depends on where you are what it's called and how it's presented.

 

[Songbird76]

Normally spatzle is served with meat and gravy (sauce) dishes - at least in Switzerland. I’ve never seen it or eaten it with cheese, so what you had must have been regional to an area of Germany.

I've never actually eaten it, but my favorite restaurant when we would go to South Dakota was owned by a German immigrant from Stuttgart and she had cheese Spaetzle on the menu. So that's the one I was familiar with.

 

[Swissmiss]

That's also very true, and not just within Germany. If you think about history, borders change all the time. What used to be part of Poland is now in Germany, or vice versa, and Yugoslavia doesn't exist anymore....it's divided into different countries. Monarchs married into other countries....Marie Antoinette was Austrian born and married into French royalty. William of Orange (English monarch) was Dutch. Bavaria was a separate region with its own monarch. All those regional foods might be brought to a new place as people immigrated. Even what things are called differs regionally. We went to Biergarten in 2016 and our server recommended "Spazi", which is basically a mixture of Fanta orange soda and coke. When we traveled through Germany in 2018, we tried to order Spazi and no one knew what it was, but then we saw they had something called "Mezzo mix" and it turned out that in Western Germany, it's called Mezzo mix, and then in Bavaria it was Spazi, but somewhere else it's called Schwip Schwap. And I know that the big pretzels are much more prevalant in Bavaria than they are in Köln, while things like Schnitzel are popular not just in Germany, but in Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. So it depends on where you are what it's called and how it's presented.

Soooooo true! When my daughter started school here we received a letter from her teacher with a list of things I needed to purchase. No big deal, I’d lived her for years and had become bilingual. Except there was a word I didn’t know and wasn’t in the dictionary as such. Asked ALL my colleagues, but they are French and not Swiss and no one had a clue. I didn’t even know what type of store to go into to purchase this article, and I was getting frustrated, until one day I am in my company cafeteria and telling this to the friend with whom am eating lunch. A friend from New Zealand was walking by at that precise moment and stopped to tell me « oh, you need a pair of china doll slippers » which I then knew exactly what I was looking for and what type of store to go into. On the first day of school I mentioned it to the teacher that perhaps it would be a good idea to provide a description as well, given the fact that 40% of the population in the city are foreigners. Even he admitted that he had no clue what it was when he started teaching here because he grew up in another canton and they don’t use the same word!

 

[Songbird76]

Soooooo true! When my daughter started school here we received a letter from her teacher with a list of things I needed to purchase. No big deal, I’d lived her for years and had become bilingual. Except there was a word I didn’t know and wasn’t in the dictionary as such. Asked ALL my colleagues, but they are French and not Swiss and no one had a clue. I didn’t even know what type of store to go into to purchase this article, and I was getting frustrated, until one day I am in my company cafeteria and telling this to the friend with whom am eating lunch. A friend from New Zealand was walking by at that precise moment and stopped to tell me « oh, you need a pair of china doll slippers » which I then knew exactly what I was looking for and what type of store to go into. On the first day of school I mentioned it to the teacher that perhaps it would be a good idea to provide a description as well, given the fact that 40% of the population in the city are foreigners. Even he admitted that he had no clue what it was when he started teaching here because he grew up in another canton and they don’t use the same word!

China doll slippers....is that part of a school uniform? I looked it up, and it looks like what I know as "Mary Janes". But I can't imagine why you would need those for school unless they were part of a uniform. So I guess I assumed you were Swiss and lived in Switzerland...from your post, I'm thinking I'm wrong. Are you American living in Europe, or Swiss living in an English speaking country?