Epcot and Halloween!

Yesterday was a busy day. We rose a bit late but still made it to EPCOT in time to see a part of the food and wine festival. That is great. The world pavilions have set up small booths and allow sampling of food from around the world! Desserts, meat and cheese dishes, the works. I still think if a person starts on one side of the world pavilions, by the time they reach the other side, they will have had a full meal.

In addition, you get a food passport. If you manage to try all the places, there is a special something you can get. What I have no idea.

That, and lunch at the Rose and Crown Pub, took a large part of the day. After that, we did stop by the Mission: Space. There T and myself tried out the Orange flight team simulation. That was cool! We were part of a four man crew that was flying to Mars. In reality, its a centrifuge with a story and movie attached to it. You do have controls to press, which keeps you busy, but its entertainment. I can see how it bothers some people, what with the centrifuge, being caught so close in when the ride closes.

However for those who are uncomfortable, there is the ground crew option. There you act as flight control for the ship launching. Pretty cool stuff.

It got a little close in for me one time, but I finally got over it when I started having something to do. Funny, that made all the difference, that I had something to do. Interesting how that works out sometimes.

Afterwards, there were more pictures of the Mexico and China pavilions. Then back to the room to rest and change.

We got our costumes on later that evening, then headed over to the Not So Scary Halloween event. There we found out the tickets had been printed with the wrong date. Sept 30 not Oct 30. Fortunately, guests services helped us out and got us in. We trick or treated a little, rode a few rides and enjoyed some of the parade as it trailed by. Yes, we missed some, but at least not everything. So it worked out ok in the end. They are genuinely nice folks at Disney. They hire very well.

By the time the fun was all over it was after midnight. We hit the room at 1 am and finally crashed. Busy, busy day. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.


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A day at the animal kingdom

Today was a day at Animal Kingdom. That place is amazing! The park itself is broken into multiple parts: Asia, Africa, Discovery Island, and Dino Land. We managed Africa, Discovery Island, and Asia. Dino Land was missed but the part closed at 5pm, which is fairly early.

I've heard more than once that Animal Kingdom is a "half day" park. I beg to differ. That is by far a full day park. However, that is based on personal preference.

Each area is reproduced from an area in the given region, Hambwe ( I may have spelled that wrong ) for East Africa to use an example. Asia is a conglomerate of India, Indonesia, China, and so on. It is Disney, so even the broken ruins are amazingly accurate.

Animal Kingdom is park rides and gift shop and part animal preserve. The overall message is "we don't own the land, we borrow it from our children." discussions of conservations are everywhere, and down dozens of paths are habitats for animals of all kinds from tigers, to birds, to Komodo dragons.

We started the day with a safari drive out in the preserve itself. From there, we explored Africa, then Asia. Following that, we explored lunch!

Lunch was at the Yack and Yeti. Great, great place. It's a Hindu type restaurant with some occasional non-hindu flair to the dishes. (Lo Mein for example). My favorite was a Kobe beef burger. If you're not a vegetarian, look up Kobe beef. Its worth an eat just once, if for no other reason than to say you've tried it. I must admit, its worth the try. It was delicious!

The meal was large, so once we rolled out, we shopped a bit, then enjoyed the street performing team of Hindu dancers and their DJ. Amazing music and dancing! Couldn't convince T to dance, so oh well.

Walking around that, we looked more in the marketplace, then headed over the Expedition Everest ride. It's an immense roller coaster. A huge attraction there. I wasn't up for the challenge but T and Wookieegunner were. They had a great time. I tried to get their picture on the last, quick downslope of the coaster, but I'm not sure I got it. I tried though. They had a blast. They got some awesome souvenirs to remember the moment by.

At the last, we took the walk to see the giant fruit bats, Komodo dragons and the tigers. Amazing stuff. Like everywhere, the humans are enclosed and the animals are not. The trappings are all Hindu or Indonesian ruins, and are as photogenic as the animals! I know I took over 400 pictures.

That tour, which is self guided, took us enough time that the park was closing when we were done. So we waited on a bench until the crowds thinned some ( which took time on its own ), before tracking down the bus for our resort.

Of the humorous moments, my favorite is that every time I turned around, other guests thought I was a Disney staff member! Fortunately I tried to pay attention to things like Park closing times, where restrooms were, how to get to the exit and so on. Luckily, all that covered the questions I was asked.

Tomorrow should be a busy day. Part day will be Epcot, the other part will be the Not So Scary Halloween that night. It will be a long day, but one I'm really looking forward to!

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Another fine day

Today was a slower day. Rose early, right when the sun broke the horizon. Despite the weather, now moving up the east coast, there was no rain. Just wind and temperate temperatures.

We took the bus to Jambo house, mostly to look for an explorer's vest for T. We found them, but they were not his size. Rather than give up, we took the bus to Downtown Disney. However, on getting down there, T and I realized a desperate need for coffee. Wookieegunner headed on to locate a sleep shirt for Jarissa.

T and myself almost settled for snack booth coffee. Instead, we chose the path leading to the Ghiradelli chocolate and soda shop. The hunch was correct, they served coffee ... Delightful coffee. This, they believed went well with the long list of chocolate offerings. I didn't try the chocolate, but the coffee was worth the trip. Wookieegunner was successful in his search, and after some photos of the LEGO statues, we hit the road again. This time back to our room.

T stayed in for a nap, but Wookieegunner and myself caught up with mom, and we went to Animal Kingdom Park for lunch and scooting around. There we heard music, ate some great food, and got scarves for Jarissa ( who was napping in the room ).

Animal Kingdom was great! This was no surprise. I finally saw the parade this time, it was Lion King and Jungle Book themed. We had great sets for it, we were on the glassed in, second floor balcony of the Yak and Yeti restaurant that overlooked the parade route. Easy to get pictures, and we got to sit down through the whole parade!

We stayed there until the park closed, so we returned to the room. The plan was to cook out on the grill then go to Disney Hollywood for the late night fun of extended hours.

Later we decided to skip Disney Hollywood in favor of back to Downtown Disney for hot chocolate and carmel sundays!!

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First day at Disneyworld

Catching up on the blog posts for the trip. The flight down was quiet, rather unremarkable really. The planes were comfortable. It was full flights but where we were was not that bad.

It took a half hour to get to the mid point, then only an hour and a half to Orlando! According to the pilot, we made better time than normal due to the storm off the coast. It gave us a great tailwind. That worked for me, all the better to get there.

Our room ... words fail me. It is amazing. It is in the Kadani Village, so everything is african themed. I personally love it. It has this minimalist quality that I adore. Beyond that, its two story - which I knew it would be - but reading about it, and actually seeing it is two different things. The master bedroom is downstairs, and two other bedrooms are upstairs. The kitchen is on the first floor. There is a door to the hallway on the first floor and a second door up stairs leading out the apartment also. All things being equal, excluding the kitchen, the bedroom areas are self-contained. Each has a very, very large full bath and huge beds. Oh, and in between the upstairs bedrooms is a common, 'living room'. Downstairs is the main living room. DVD players and widescreen / plasma screen tvs are everywhere! Amazing place.

Once we dropped off luggage, we headed over to Downtown Disney. There we made some themed tshirts at a custom tshirt place. While waiting on those to be done, we walked around looking at shops and storefronts in Downtown Disney. I have to say, there is a LOT to see. That s before you get to the statues, performers and all. I tried to get some pictures, but the lightning of Downtown Disney coupled with twilight of the day, played havoc with my camera. I got a few ok shots but nothing great.

Eventually, given it had been 6 pm, we thought about dinner. That began the 'Quest for the Meal'. We scoured Downtown Disney for a place to eat. Now, the trick is not to find a restaurant, but to find a restaurant that had a reasonable wait time.

We settled on an Irish place called Ragland Road. Took a really long time to get seated, but looking back, the food almost made up for that. The recipes are family recipes and fantastic. Mine was a braised beef in a stew sauce with mashed potatoes on the side and carrots. Also I had - along with others - what I can only describe as an Irish Cream Smoothie. Its made with huge amounts of Baileys Irish Creame, ice cream, and ice. It was real good! In any case, good meal. Dessert was a family recipe of bread pudding ... A kind I could actually eat! I was amazed - you see, I just don't like bread pudding.

After the meal it was well after 10pm. We headed for the buss, on the way I indulged and stopped at the LEGO store and got a few LEGO kits. It's Disney, best to enjoy, right?


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Prepping for the trip

Not my usual long post, but a start in any case. Today I'm preparing to fly to vacation. Yes! Another adventure! As always, packing is the greatest challenge. But its one I can overcome!

To the packing! ... And more later.


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