While ferrying across the lake, I used the opportunity of a seat and a breeze (well, the breeze wasn't really a factor here) to text my mom and tell her
how much we had loved Sanaa the evening before. (It had been one of my parents' recommended restaurants, and they were thrilled we had loved it as much as they had.)
We soon docked, and noticed these fun chalk drawings on the pavement of the TTC.
I wondered if guests had drawn them, but Wingnut pointed out that they were a bit too neat and tidy for the CM's to have just randomly passed out chalk. I still think they're fun and cute though!
We followed the signs to the bus area, and found a bench near the DHS stop.
It was around 80 degrees or so at that point, not blisteringly hot, but warm enough that a seat in the shade was pretty appreciated after walking around all morning.
A bus bound for DHS showed up after a few minutes (Animal Kingdom was the popular bus destination of the moment, seemingly), and we were soon making our way into the park, and towards the location of our midday snack...
Another legendary Disney treat we had not yet tried until now...
The Red Velvet cupcake from Starring Rolls!
It looks pretty epic, doesn't it?
Photographed with the water bottle for scale:
I was excited about finally giving this one a try. I had heard mixed reviews around the Dis about it, and figured that, well, I'm an opinionated girl, and it's high time I was able to weigh in!
Cross-section:
So was it amazing? Full of delicious wonder?
Eh...
The best way to describe the fundamental issues with this cupcake is to break it down by its parts. Some aspects were very very good. Some were really...not.
Starting from the bottom, the cake layer was the worst (and unfortunately largest) part of the treat. The texture of the cake itself was fine, but it was extremely bitter, as though WAY too much food coloring was used to achieve the cake's garnet hue. I've had many a red velvet cup/cake before, some redder than others, but never ever with this bitter a flavor.
The cream cheese frosting was not bad, it wasn't too sweet, which was appreciated. The outside of the frosting layer was coated in toffee crumbles, which lent some sweetness and texture to the cake. I had never had toffee and red velvet cake before, and thought it was an interesting combination.
In the top center of the frosting is a dollop of cheesecake. This part was pure brilliance. The cheesecake was very good, and I only wished there was more of it (say, instead of all of the red velvet cake underneath
).
When eaten all together, the cupcake was not bad. The frosting and toffee made up for the bitter aftertaste of the cake. But I found the inability to eat the cake on its own offputting enough to only eat half of the cupcake. (Wingnut wasn't too interested in a snack at this point, and only had a bite.)
I found myself regretting that I had not tried one of the other desserts we had seen (namely, the banana split trifle thing that had caught my eye), but I'm glad that we did give this one a try, if only to know what it was like!
(It is pretty though, isn't it?)
Snack mostly eaten, we decided to move on and visit a few of our favorite rides. We knew that it was way too late to attempt TSM (a stroll down
Pixar Place confirmed this), but there were plenty of less populated attractions to keep us amused!
We headed towards the Great Movie Ride, which had a wait as long as it took for you to walk down the back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth switchbacks in the movie clip room.
Whenever we go on this ride, we always, always, always get the gangster scene. I had been SO wanting to see the cowboy scene ever since I learned of its existence, but normally it wouldn't be running when we were there.
At the CM directing people into lines, I asked if it was possible for us to go on the cowboy side.
"You sure can!" she directed us towards the front of the rows.
I was all excited, another Disney goal to be accomplished! Wingnut was content to wait and see this mysterious other side of the ride as well.
A moment later, however, another CM was heading in our direction, telling us that they weren't absolutely positive that the cowboy side would be going live at the moment. He would go and check, if it was to be, it wouldn't be for a couple of cycles. If it wasn't happening right away, it wouldn't be running for another half hour or so. We were welcome to wait it out, whichever scenario it ended up being.
Wingnut left it up to me. I decided that if it was going to be running soon, then we could wait. If not, then we'd just hop on the gangster-destined car.
The mural behind the GMR loading area:
The CM came walking back towards us, all smiles and thumbs-ups. The cowboy side would be going live in a few moments!
A few minutes later, we were loaded into the front of our car, the rest of the car was filled up, and we were off to our journey through the movies!
I can't look at that photo without the "Hoooooooray for Hollywood" song starting up in my head.
I was super-excited when we got to this scene:
Essentially, the scene is the same concept as the gangster side, except with saloons and different hats. But I was thrilled to have FINALLY seen it!
Not sure why I took this one, but it's here.
Does anyone else love the movie montage scene at the end of this ride as much as I do?
Here, you'll enjoy this if so.
Exiting the ride, we thanked the CM's for their help, and were moving right along to our next destination.
(Yes, that's a hint!
)
)I love the TTA too. Astro Orbiter was so much higher and faster than I expected it to be!! I can't wait to hear about Citricos
That is so not like me. All I can figure is I must have known you were writing about getting stuck on IASW because, like Wingnut, that is on my list of the top ten things I don't want to happen at Disney. That song....over .....and ....over......and...... It happened to me once and that was enough. The worst part of that was we were trying desperately to get on last ride on Splash before the park closed. We barely made it.
Next time!
I love that ride sooooo much!
Believe it or not, one of my toes went THROUGH a link in the chain and got stuck, I pulled my foot back to get my toe out, the chain swung back really hard and hit me on the shin bone. I had a welt there for literally 2 months afterwards and I wish that was an exaggeration! 
You can't take me anywhere, I tell ya!
