Two Sisters finally get to go to WDW together! - TR has started!

[jenjolt]

So happy you got all you wanted!! I have to agree a breakfast is a great way to start and end a trip!!!! This year I will be ending my trip at Ohana's and am very much looking forward to that!!

LOL...tweaking...what a horrible word LOL!! Hope you have as much fun as me and LL changing and redoing your plans between now and then LOL!

 

[John's Mom]

Congrats on getting all your ADRs!

I made our ADRs in September and I'm still making changes.

Kathy

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

I'm so glad you guys got everything you wanted!!! Yeah!!

Heather

 

[tiggrbaby]

Hooray for successful ADRs!

 

[tarak]

That's great that you got all your ADR's! Let the tweaking begin!

 

[If U Had Wings]

That's horrible? Was that at the Prater in Vienna? I was on that giant ferris wheel, too!

Yes it was Prater. I was having a hard time remembering the name, but as soon as I saw it I remembered. We had a fun time there (except for the flume ride ).

Let the tweaking begin!

Listen to LL, she knows about tweaking!

Congrats on getting all your ADRS! That's great.

 

[TyRy]

Congrats on getting everything you wanted!!

I love nodnol's reponse to you, how true that is!

 

[nodnol]

Hi everyone!

My DH and I spent the last weekend on the island Usedom in the Baltic Sea, I had a kind of DIS moment there, I want to share with you!

We stayed at a guesthouse (at least that is what you would call it in the UK, I'm not sure about the US... Flossbolna, please correct me if that's the wrong term!) not far from the pier. We could actually see (at least part of) the pier from our balcony, but the weather was very rainy and foggy, so it's not really there on the pictures...

BUT before we enjoyed the view, we were greeted by these when we entered our room:

Towel animals! Before Flossbolna lured mi into the DIS, I had never heard of or seen any towel animals!!!

On the second day, returning after a swim in the salt-water pool (indoor and heated!!!) we found this fellow in our bathroom.

I know, these are not as elaborate as the ones at DWD, but they certainly put a smile on my face!

I have to admit though, there are different interpretations about there species between my DH, Flossbolna and myself - I'm convinced they're swans.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Hi everyone!

My DH and I spent the last weekend on the island Usedom in the Baltic Sea, I had a kind of DIS moment there, I want to share with you!

We stayed at a guesthouse (at least that is what you would call it in the UK, I'm not sure about the US... Flossbolna, please correct me if that's the wrong term!) not far from the pier. We could actually see (at least part of) the pier from our balcony, but the weather was very rainy and foggy, so it's not really there on the pictures...

BUT before we enjoyed the view, we were greeted by these when we entered our room:

Towel animals! Before Flossbolna lured mi into the DIS, I had never heard of or seen any towel animals!!!

On the second day, returning after a swim in the salt-water pool (indoor and heated!!!) we found this fellow in our bathroom.

I know, these are not as elaborate as the ones at DWD, but they certainly put a smile on my face!

I have to admit though, there are different interpretations about there species between my DH, Flossbolna and myself - I'm convinced they're swans.

Lovely! I'd go with swans, too, much more romantic!

 

[PNO4TE]

nodnol - sounds like you were at a Bed and Breakfast, or B & B. And I loved your towel animals!

 

[If U Had Wings]

They look like swans to me too. They are adorable!

 

[tarak]

I vote for swans as well! I'd never heard of towel animals either. I thought it was just a Disney thing.

 

[Flossbolna]

I have to admit though, there are different interpretations about there species between my DH, Flossbolna and myself - I'm convinced they're swans.

ok, since I was mentioned already, I guess I need to tell everyone, that I thought the towel animal in the sink looked like a snake... It might be the camera angle, though...

nodnol, now you have to tell us what your DH came up with???

And on a slightly more PTR related note: I can tell you that nodnol and I managed to see another movie from that long list I came up with months ago: Apollo 13. While not a Disney film, I think it is a great film to see for Mission Space. We will watch another movie tomorrow - something classical animation, maybe Alice in Wonderland in honor of PPP!

 

[nodnol]

Lovely! I'd go with swans, too, much more romantic!

that's what I thought too

nodnol - sounds like you were at a Bed and Breakfast, or B & B. And I loved your towel animals!

Thank you for the correct term , I always associate persons who rent out one or too rooms at their home as a B&B, but I guess you're right, it was just a big B&B, because the people were really very nice. I would love to stay there in summer onetime!

They look like swans to me too. They are adorable!

and there were little chocolates as well - you can see them on the sheet of paper (which explained how to not look the door in order to open it when returning to the room, of course we managed to do it wrong )

I vote for swans as well! I'd never heard of towel animals either. I thought it was just a Disney thing.

Me too!!!

ok, since I was mentioned already, I guess I need to tell everyone, that I thought the towel animal in the sink looked like a snake... It might be the camera angle, though...

nodnol, now you have to tell us what your DH came up with???

And on a slightly more PTR related note: I can tell you that nodnol and I managed to see another movie from that long list I came up with months ago: Apollo 13. While not a Disney film, I think it is a great film to see for Mission Space. We will watch another movie tomorrow - something classical animation, maybe Alice in Wonderland in honor of PPP!

I asked my DH, what he thought they were, because quite frankly a can't remember his reaction... I guess, I got so excited and worried that he might dump his backpack on them before we could take a picture...
He sad "Well, sea snake, kissing worms ... or swans"

Just for you to see, that we didn't only stay indoors, I'll post some more pictures of Usedom.
The first one is the "sea view" from our window, you can actually see a bit of the pier between two houses. But it must be nice in summer...

This one is the much nicer (and older pier) in the next village

and wintertime on the beach

Usedom is famous for its 19th century architecture, but as only DH took pictures, we have about 100 seagulls, but not one of a nice building, or he has hidden them somewhere...

 

[Flossbolna]

I was expecting something along the lines of "kissing worms"

and wintertime on the beach

Thanks for the pictures! I guess we need to explain that those little "huts" are "Strandkörbe" - the English translation in my trusted online dictionary is: roofed wicker beach chair. It is more like a bench with a hood on top, you can actually recline it and it has something you can pull out in the front, so it can be used similar to a beachchair. They provide great shelter from the wind and are very common on the German coasts - Baltic Sea and North Sea. You only see the backsides of them in the picture. People rent them for the duration of their vacation and then build sand castles in front of them.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Love the pictures of the piers. I just love pictures of beachy landscapes. Just beautiful!

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

...Floss-I have to go with nodnol -I do think they are supposed to be swans...not snakes......although I can see how you could have seen that...

Hmm...a therapist would have a field day with that...they might say that nodnol is more optimistic... and you are more likely to look for danger lurking around the corner...older sister thing?

(btw I forgot to mention-that I totally agree with you on the Country Bears...I'm not to fond of them myself...I always imagine what wonderful things the imagineers could do in that space...)

Love the photos of Usedom...looks a bit brooding...atmospheric...I think the beach in the winter is Romantic...not as in lovely dovey but the 19th century definition of Romantic...very cool...


Speaking of the 19th century...David just asked me last night...why so many Classical Musicians were German...(he listens to music at bedtime...relaxes him...so we usually listen to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms...and David being David wants to know why so much classical music was composed by Germans... the only thing I could say was that different countries in Europe became more known for different "arts" because that is where the best schools/teachers for those things were...?

ie. Painting in Italy, and then later France, Music in Germany and Austria, and Writing in England...(ok that is a personal prejudice...but Chaucer, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, etc. etc....I'll admit I'm biased on the writing one...since I can't really read German or Italian and only a bit of French...

but still there is something to it...

Do you know why so many of the Classical Composers were German...did you learn anything about that in school?...

and if I have to tie this back to Disney...Have you ever seen the old Disney Silly Symphony Cartoons?...awesome...

 

[Flossbolna]

I am really behind with replies... Sorry! I still love it when people post on our PTR!!

Congrats on the ADRs!

Let the tweaking begin!

Well, so far we have been really good. No new ideas so far!

Hurray!...

Those are all excellent choices...I think you will be really pleased with everything you got...

Changes? What Changes...?

Oh I see...you have been reading LL's trip report...hmmm...

so how many versions are you going to have...?

(BTW-I do it too...especially when you read TGM...his recommendations sometimes come out later and make you want to changes things around...)

At the moment I am waiting for touringplans to update their calendar. TGM is online and his recommendations having changed too much. I think after three trips with TGM I have figured out his basic system, but it still is nice to get confirmation. And most of the times he agrees with touringplans.

Typical DISer fashion.

Congratulations on getting all your ADRs! I've heard a few nightmarish stories about the big ADR day, so it's great seeing your TA was able to get them ALL!

ADR day must have been horrible, it was great to let the TA do it. She is very good, even though I sometimes would wish faster replies, but I guess I can't expect to be treated like the only client.

So happy you got all you wanted!! I have to agree a breakfast is a great way to start and end a trip!!!! This year I will be ending my trip at Ohana's and am very much looking forward to that!!

LOL...tweaking...what a horrible word LOL!! Hope you have as much fun as me and LL changing and redoing your plans between now and then LOL!

Yes, we are really happy with our choices! So happy indeed that we have not started to second guess them yet. And we still have lots of planning to do - which attractions we want to see and such.

Congrats on getting all your ADRs!

I made our ADRs in September and I'm still making changes.

Kathy

I must say, nodnol is really a good influence on me. She is very much in favour of putting our planning energy into other areas

I'm so glad you guys got everything you wanted!!! Yeah!!

Heather

Oh, we are feeling like dancing bananas, too!

Hooray for successful ADRs!

It's great to get what you want!

That's great that you got all your ADR's! Let the tweaking begin!

No tweaking so far. I wonder wether we will manage to keep it that way...

Yes it was Prater. I was having a hard time remembering the name, but as soon as I saw it I remembered. We had a fun time there (except for the flume ride ).

Listen to LL, she knows about tweaking!

Congrats on getting all your ADRS! That's great.

The Prater is a great place, so special to Vienna. Only Copenhagen has something comparable and I should really do my mini TR about Copenhagen...

Congrats on getting everything you wanted!!

I love nodnol's reponse to you, how true that is!

I guess Nodnol has started to read too much on the DIS. Have you noticed that she is up to 20 posts!

 

[Flossbolna]

nodnol - sounds like you were at a Bed and Breakfast, or B & B. And I loved your towel animals!

I always got the impression that B&B's are rather beautified places in the US. But they are larger than the B&B's in the UK, where it is ofteh just three rooms rented out in someone's private house. The place nodnol stayed at is more simple, but rather like a B&B. I guess the German concept is rather unique to central Europe...

...Floss-I have to go with nodnol -I do think they are supposed to be swans...not snakes......although I can see how you could have seen that...

Hmm...a therapist would have a field day with that...they might say that nodnol is more optimistic... and you are more likely to look for danger lurking around the corner...older sister thing?

(btw I forgot to mention-that I totally agree with you on the Country Bears...I'm not to fond of them myself...I always imagine what wonderful things the imagineers could do in that space...)

Love the photos of Usedom...looks a bit brooding...atmospheric...I think the beach in the winter is Romantic...not as in lovely dovey but the 19th century definition of Romantic...very cool...


Speaking of the 19th century...David just asked me last night...why so many Classical Musicians were German...(he listens to music at bedtime...relaxes him...so we usually listen to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms...and David being David wants to know why so much classical music was composed by Germans... the only thing I could say was that different countries in Europe became more known for different "arts" because that is where the best schools/teachers for those things were...?

ie. Painting in Italy, and then later France, Music in Germany and Austria, and Writing in England...(ok that is a personal prejudice...but Chaucer, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, etc. etc....I'll admit I'm biased on the writing one...since I can't really read German or Italian and only a bit of French...

but still there is something to it...

Do you know why so many of the Classical Composers were German...did you learn anything about that in school?...

and if I have to tie this back to Disney...Have you ever seen the old Disney Silly Symphony Cartoons?...awesome...

Love your armchair psychology: actually, I am the sunnier person of the two of us! When we were on our trip in the USA in 1992, Katharina always got told off for not smiling when someone was taking her picture.

I agree that the beach in winter is romantic in its way, have you ever heard of the painter Caspar David Friedrich? He was a German romantic landscape painter and a lot of his paintings are of the sea in rough weather. If you are intersted, check out his wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_David_Friedrich

Ok, and since that started us on the tpoic of fine art - let's continue there. After I left an essay about German holidays on your TR, you set me another essay topic here!

I am not sure why there are so many German composers in that time frame. I think part of it might be that Germany at that time was not one country, but it was seperated into mayn different kingdoms, principalities, free cities, etc. All those kings and princes each had their own court and employed musicians. Maybe that made it easier for people to pursue a career in music and therefore more people with extraordinary talents could follow their vocation?

Really, the Germans rather see themselves as the people of writers and philosophers. We had some extraordinary writers: Goethe and Schiller are the two biggest names and then quite a few philosophers starting with Kant. But German engineering is something we are particular proud of as well and in the 15th/16th and early 20th century German painters like Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Dürer and then Kandinsky or Max Ernst are quite big names.

I think to a certain extent if a nation is prosperous, they will excell in many areas. And until Europe was so stupid to get itself into the first world war, it was probably the most affluent region in the world.

I have seen bits of the Silly Symphony cartoons. I guess I need to check them out one day properly!

 

[Flossbolna]

Let's start with Main Street. There isn't much to say about it, I think. We saw it and went through. We did not really explore here. I think our opinion was: it's pretty.

I guess what belongs in this category is the Disneyland Railroad. We were not overly impressed with it, especially not the Grand Canyon Diorama. I had read about it in the Birnbaum guide and I think I was expecting something along the lines of Pirates of the Caribbean... We were postively shocked how cheesy it was. And just imagine our utter shock in 1995 when we realized that they had exported this pointless thing to Disneyland Paris!! (Sorry for that spoiler, I try to keep most DLP references to when I am going to post about our trips there...)

Here is the appropriate page from the album:

I am actually amazed how small those houses on Main Street look!

Katharina is eating a huge apple in that picture. We thought that this was really funny. A few years ago our cousin from the USA had visited us and kept telling us about everything: "it's bigger in America" We got a bit fed up with it, so every time we saw something in the USA that really was bigger we found it rather hilarious...

Now let's move on to Fantasyland! While there is a castle at DL, it is as tiny as the Main Street houses:

We always heard that the castle looked like Neuschwanstein (a castle in Bavaria) and I think I was a bit dissapointed. This is Neuschwanstein:

Now I know, that Neuschwanstein was more a template for Cinderella's Castle in WDW... I still think that DL's Sleeping Beauty Castle is cute, it really isn't so impressive. They did a much better job at WDW and at DLP (my favourite castle of them all)!

But, DL has something all other parks lack and that we fell in love with: the Matterhorn! We absolutely adored that ride and went on it quite often during the two days we were there! We loved sharing our bob sled and that you could get two different rides, depending on which side you lined up for. It was fast, but not too fast and it had interesting scenery along the way. We loved the theme! And we loved the CM's uniforms!! We thought they were hilarious!! Let's see a picture:

on the bottom left, there is a lady with a yellow shirt and grey short trousers standing to the middle of the pic. She is a CM and what she is wearing is supposed to be “Lederhosen”. The orginal looks like this:

They are made from leather, not the smooth, but the velvety variety and the short ones (there are knee breeches as well) are generelly grey.

I have searched the net and found this picture of a male Matterhorn CM:

You can see the uniform much better there. The shorts look quite good, don't they? Well, they were not made from leather, but from velour!! This looked so funny to us.

I was very impressed with It's a Small World, at leat on the outside: the Birnbaum guide had stressed how wonderful Disney is, because the facade was not just painted gold, but was actually gilded, so it would withstand the elements much better. I still remember being absolutely amazed at that. So far being gilded was something that I associated with churches and picture frames. I knew what a hard job it was since my grandfather used to work as a church conservator. We kind of expected it to be one of the main attractions of DL from everything we read and our aunt told us...

But!! We hated the ride!! We thought it was sooooo cheesy, the song was so horrible, all these shrieking children singing. And of course we could not get that song out of our head! I think we swore to never go on that ride ever again!

I still remember enjoying the Storybook Boats and the crazy Circus train (both attractions that aren't at WDW, but they are at DLP and when they were added there, we were really happy about the addition).

The rest of Fantasyland did not impress us too much. I remember being rather disappointed by the dark rides. I thought they were cheap and boring and Snowhite was way too scary to me. Nodnol and I were really looking forward to Mr Toad's Wild Ride. It sounded like it was going to be something like a mini coaster from descriptions we read – it was not! We did not understand the story at all and it was not nearly as exciting as we were lead to believe...

One thing we really enjoyed in Fantasyland was the Sword in the Stone Ceremony. I know that I had seen the film in the cinema and really loved it (I guess I need to get that as our next DVD...). By chance we saw how Merlin came out and asked children wether they wanted to try pulling the sword from the stone. At first a few boys tried it without luck and then a really small girl was called up and she became the king of the day! We thought that this was so sweet. I guess it was one of that moments when we first encountered what you call Disney magic!

I hope my report does not sound too negative. We really loved DL, but I think the memories of things we found strange are just easier to remember... And we are rather oppinionated people (some more than me... )

So, this concludes our visit to Fantasyland. Next time we will visit Tomorrowland!