Zip-ah-de-doo-da, Zip-ah-dee-EH! Two Canadians Visit WDW for the 1st Time - COMPLETE!

[fallonkendra]

I haven't done Hoop Dee Doo yet, but every time I see a review I am always tempted. It looks like fun and the food is right up my alley, good old fashioned comfort food (and mostly meat)!

I would definitely recommend going to Hoop Dee Doo at least once! I'm a picky eater, but this food was right up my alley, it was all so delicious! The show itself is entertaining, and I enjoyed the audience participation involved.

I love Ghirardelli hot cocoa! I don't remember if I've ever had the salted caramel one, but I've had a few of them and they're all so good. Perfect for cold, rainy weather.

Hoop De Doo sounds like a good experience. Luke really looks like he's into that washboard playing! So funny.

That hot cocoa was so good! Is it bad that I'm secretly hoping for at least one cool day on our next trip so I can justify getting another one? Haha. I don't feel the need to go to see it every time I go to Disney, but it's worth going to at least once!

Haha, he was going to town on that washboard! It was a lot of fun!

I've never been to Hoop De Doo but I want to try it sometime! Every review I've read has said there is too much food. It all looks really good though and now I really want to try the strawberry shortcake!

There was so much food, since they bring out the same size portions to every table, whether there are 2 people sitting there or 6 people sitting there (although at a certain point they start bringing out 2-3 pails of the same stuff for larger tables). You can also request more of anything - but I can't imagine that happens very often!

That strawberry shortcake was so different than what I'm used to, but it was so awesome! Where I'm from, we always made strawberry shortcake with homemade biscuits, not shortcake.

 

[cosmicmommy]

Thanks for reading along!



Yes, our meal at Peco's Bills was $24 for a single meal, We did spilt it, it was quite a bit of food after we went to the topping station. I didn't write down the exact cost breakdown, but I want to say it was $15 for the steak fajita platter (which comes with rice, beans, steak, veggies- onions and green peppers, and 3 soft flour tortillas), $5 for the order of churros - served with chocolate sauce (which counts as your dessert item if you are on the dining plan) and another couple of dollars for the pop (or soda for you Americans haha). When we said we were using a quick service dining credit, the guy handed us the largest cup available though, we were expecting a regular, not a large. It was a nice surprise since we were splitting the meal.

We had so much fun with pictures on this trip, which you'll see if you keep reading It's usually difficult to get Luke to pose for photos, but he loves Disney so much that he put up with me asking to stop at pretty much every Photopass person we saw!

Most people don't know what degus are, and certain places actually have laws against owning them as pets (I know California for sure, and Newfoundland here in Canada). They make amazing little pets though! They are full of personality and can live to be 6-8 years old (which is one of the big reasons I wanted them, I knew I wouldn't be able to handle losing hamsters or gerbils who only live ~2 years). Here's a picture of some of my boys, these five are actually brothers from the same litter who I adopted from a local humane society when they were only 6 weeks old. This picture was taken shortly after that, they are fully grown now (I'd say 2 of them could fit in that dish now) and just celebrated their second birthday last month!

[GALLERY=]IMG_2343 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]



It was a great first full day at Disney! I'm curious to see if we were ever in the same park on the same day!

Have you thought about future Disney races you might participate in?

I had a pair of these little guys when I was in high school. Frick and Frack. Frack was a cage-escapee often (he opened it and let them both out, but Frick was more timid) and he sadly met an early end in the toilet. Not sure if he drowned or froze. Frick lived for about 7 years and was a fairly mellow fellow - he only bit me once.

 

[ariane37]

I love the picture of the Mickey tie on your Kitty, but if I tried to do that to either of my cats I'd get the look of death lol!
That Christmas store is even more dangerous than Hot Topic We buy an ornament every year with the date on it but I never get out with just the one ornament. There's so much cool stuff in there! I like the All-Star ornament you got and that's a great idea using a Sharpie to write on it yourself, saves some $$ instead of having them do it there. I'd make a mess even doing something simple like that!

Glad you enjoyed HDDR We did it a couple years ago and all enjoyed it, Chris even asks to go back and I'm sure one of these trips we will. Definitely worth the price but as you said, not necessarily something to do each trip. We had category 1 seats and were right up in front of the stage.

 

[Chrystmasangel]

Hello! I found your trip report from another... but honestly I am following so many dreaming that I can't remember who's. LOL Loving it so far. Sucks that you weren't feeling well! Sick and Disney is just not magical!

I can't believe they are stopping the Osborne lights. They are just so amazing. I can't say I would have made the same choice as you, as Be Our Guest isn't going any where and the lights were, but I am glad you enjoyed your choice.

IMG

My son actually picked out this EXACT ornament on our Christmas 2014 trip.

 

[fallonkendra]

I had a pair of these little guys when I was in high school. Frick and Frack. Frack was a cage-escapee often (he opened it and let them both out, but Frick was more timid) and he sadly met an early end in the toilet. Not sure if he drowned or froze. Frick lived for about 7 years and was a fairly mellow fellow - he only bit me once.

They are such awesome little creatures! It's great to find someone else who actually knows what they are haha. Of the 7 I have, one guy is 3.5 years old and the other 6 are all 2.5 years old - so hopefully they live to be 7+!

I love the picture of the Mickey tie on your Kitty, but if I tried to do that to either of my cats I'd get the look of death lol!

Trust me, he was not happy about wearing that tie... he was meowing VERY loudly haha.

That Christmas store is even more dangerous than Hot Topic We buy an ornament every year with the date on it but I never get out with just the one ornament. There's so much cool stuff in there! I like the All-Star ornament you got and that's a great idea using a Sharpie to write on it yourself, saves some $$ instead of having them do it there. I'd make a mess even doing something simple like that!

I still haven't wrote the date on it yet, I'm terrified I'll end up hating my writing on it. If we weren't in such a rush I probably would have just had them write the date on it there, but I guess I'll just need to accept it however it turns out!

I didn't do too bad on this trip, I came home with 3 Christmas ornaments...I easily could have spent hundreds of dollars on them though!

I hear you on Hot Topic! Before we got in Edmonton last fall, I only got to go to one about once a year. I went to one in North Dakota in 2014, and I think I ended up spending over $200US (which is a lot more in Canadian!) Then when I got to the one in Anaheim in 2015 I spent another $150-$200 US haha. It's probably a good thing I only get to the one in my city a few times per year though, I can't get out of that store without spending at least $50. The last thing I bought was the Little Mermaid bikini they had a few months back. It's super cute, but I wear a bathing suit maybe once per year, and bikinis are not my go-to...

Glad you enjoyed HDDR We did it a couple years ago and all enjoyed it, Chris even asks to go back and I'm sure one of these trips we will. Definitely worth the price but as you said, not necessarily something to do each trip. We had category 1 seats and were right up in front of the stage.

You should definitely try and get back there at some point! I think your boys would really enjoy the food (although sadly, they do not offer mussels for your older boy to eat haha).

Hello! I found your trip report from another... but honestly I am following so many dreaming that I can't remember who's. LOL Loving it so far. Sucks that you weren't feeling well! Sick and Disney is just not magical!

Thanks for joining in!

I was sad about ending our park day at Animal Kingdom a little early, but it turned out to be for the best! Our original plans had us not going to bed until about 8:30pm that night, so it would have made for a really tough run for Luke the next morning. By me getting sick, he actually was able to nap for a few hours in the afternoon, then be back in bed at a reasonable time for the night. I felt fine on the rest of the trip though!

I can't believe they are stopping the Osborne lights. They are just so amazing. I can't say I would have made the same choice as you, as Be Our Guest isn't going any where and the lights were, but I am glad you enjoyed your choice.

I would have loved to see the Osborne lights, but when I thought they were going to be over before we even got to Florida. When I realized they would still be on during our first park day, I already had our supper reservation for BOG and all of our fastpasses set up. I just really didn't want to get into the hassle of trying to rearrange our entire schedule, so I accepted the fact that I would not be seeing the lights. I'm happy, we ended up having a really great night at Magic Kingdom, so no complaints about my decision

My son actually picked out this EXACT ornament on our Christmas 2014 trip.

Luke's favourite movie is Wall-E, so I wasn't surprised when he found this one and told me he was going to buy it. It's so cute, clearly your son has great taste!

 

[fallonkendra]

Day 6 – Part One – A (New To Us) Park - January 10, 2016​

We woke up a little later than planned on this day, but it wasn’t too terrible. After waking up, we got ready, ate a few of the snacks from our stash in our room (thank you Amazon order that we shipped direct to the hotel!) and then headed out. We didn’t have to wait long for our bus, and the ride itself was fairly short. It wasn’t long before we were pulling up to Epcot – the only park we hadn’t been in yet! We arrived shortly before 10am, so almost an hour after rope drop, and the security line was crazy long! It was moving, and the wait really wasn’t too bad. Luke once again was selected for additional screening (by the end of the trip, he just headed to the metal detectors on his own without being asked, since this was now the third day in a row he was selected haha) We honestly didn’t mind, anything to help keep the parks safer!

After entering the park, we were met with this beautiful sight:

We didn’t stop for any Photopass pictures, since we were running short on time for our first FastPass. We started heading towards Future World East. It took quite a bit longer than usual to get there, due to the marathon which was going through the park. At this point, most of the runners looked like people who were used to doing this, the people who had run a marathon or two (or fifty) in the past. It was really amazing how organized Disney is with the entire thing, the way they would corral the park visitors into one section, then change the race course ever so slightly and then move park visitors to the next section. It’s hard to explain, but it was very impressive! We didn’t mind the extra time it took to get to our first Fast Pass at all, we enjoyed watching the race and clapping our encouragement for the people who were nearing the end of a full marathon.

Once we were given the go-ahead to cross into Future World East, we hopped into the Fast Pass for Test Track (we made it with a few minutes to spare!). We didn’t have to wait very long before we were standing in front of a screen designing our own vehicle. For some reason, I didn’t think to take a picture of the monstrosity we created – just know that it was our goal to make it as ugly as possible haha…Shortly after that we boarded the back row of a blue car.

This ride is basically the same as Radiator Springs at Disney California Adventure – and we ended up in the exact same seats in the car as we did on our April 2015 trip to California haha –

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Yes, I took a picture of the preview screen haha, we didn’t buy any of our on-ride photos from either trip to Disneyland.

Test Track is fun, and the ability to design your own car at Epcot is really neat, but I think I prefer DL’s version more. The ride just fits so well with the Cars theme, and the dark part of the ride is phenomenal! At Epcot you’re just taking turns and dealing with road conditions, at DCA you’re avoiding Mack and tipping tractors with Mater, etc. I also love the first open-air part of Radiator Springs when you’re slowly driving along the waterfall is really awesome too! Test Track is definitely a can’t miss ride for me at Epcot, but the overall theming does pale in comparison to DCA’s Radiator Springs.

After looking around at the different cars and stuff for a few minutes we decided to start heading over towards Fast Pass #2. We had time, so we stopped along the way to do a little shopping at Mouse Gear. Luke found these awesome Wall-E and Eve coffee mugs he had to have (it’s his favourite movie) so we bought those and had them shipped back to our hotel (again, I LOVE this option when staying on site). Note - not my picture, taken from a google search.

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The marathon was still in full swing, so we again had a chance to watch and cheer on the participants. By this point the people running by were just ordinary people doing an extraordinary thing, not the seasoned veterans of marathon running we had saw earlier. From where we were watching, they only had a little over a mile to go before finishing the race, so some people looked to be in excruciating pain. These people had been running for hours at this point, they were limping and bleeding, but they were still going and they were forcing smiles for the hundreds of people cheering them on. I had never been that close to the finish line of a marathon as the everyday people went by (I’ve gone to Luke’s races before, but he’s using only running 10km, so by the time we leave it’s still only the elite athletes finishing the full marathon). It was really powerful stuff to witness.

When we got to Fast Pass #2 for Spaceship Earth, there was only a 10 minute wait in the standby line. With our Fastpasses we walked onto the ride. I did enjoy this ride, but I’ll admit neither one of us were paying super close attention. We were both still thinking about watching those marathon runners. While were we looking around after getting off the ride, Luke told me that he was really inspired by watching the marathon for a few minutes, and as of that moment he realized it was something he wanted to do. He completed a half marathon a few years ago, but that was his ultimate goal at the time and afterwards he scaled back and has been doing 10km races since then (with a few 5km’s in there as well). He also decided that he wants his first ever full marathon to be a runDisney event (which is more than fine with me!). He started discussing timelines – he was able to comfortably run a 10km a few days earlier, so that was his base. He decided to aim to run a half marathon in early 2017 (at the time, we were thinking Star Wars weekend or Tinker Bell weekend at Disneyland, this has since been changed to WDW Marathon Weekend) and then come back to Florida in January 2018 so he could run a full. I was really excited about this – we hadn’t even come home yet and we had already decided on a return date! (PS: Luke is actually going to be running a half marathon in January 2017 during Marathon weekend, and we’re both also signed up for the 5km, so you can check out my PTR here).

After this, we realized we were both a little hungry. We knew we wanted a quick service option, so we went to Sunshine Seasons. This place is great! The menu was much larger than I thought it was going to be, and we had no trouble finding things that sounded great! It also was not busy at all – and we were there right at lunch time (around 12:30)

I opted for the pork chop, served with BBQ sauce, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. I also grabbed a bottle of water and a coconut macaroon for dessert. If you want to see my thoughts on this meal, check out my dining report here

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Luke went for some kind of pressed sandwich (a Cuban maybe?), served with potato salad and he also grabbed a bottle of water and a key lime tart.

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We used 2 quick service credits for this meal.

 

[DisneyJo]

Loving your TR and how exciting you already have plans to go back, I can run 5K but would never consider going any further so well done to Luke

 

[SarahDisney]

I love Test Track, but I definitely agree that Radiator Springs Racers is better. It takes everything they did with Test Track, combines it with the amazing theming and design in Cars Land, and basically just creates perfection. They're both awesome, though.

Those Wall-E & Eve mugs are adorable!!

I think it's really amazing that Luke was inspired to run a marathon from seeing the runners! It's definitely a difficult goal to achieve, but seeing how many ordinary people can do this extraordinary thing is truly inspirational. I'm sure Luke will have an awesome time in 2018 and I know you'll both love your races in 2017!

 

[fallonkendra]

Loving your TR and how exciting you already have plans to go back, I can run 5K but would never consider going any further so well done to Luke

Thanks for reading along! I'm really excited to go back, a little under 5 months until we back in Florida!

I think Luke (and all distance runners) are a little crazy, but I'm also very proud of him. I'm looking forward to my first 5k in January, but I can't myself going for anything longer.

I love Test Track, but I definitely agree that Radiator Springs Racers is better. It takes everything they did with Test Track, combines it with the amazing theming and design in Cars Land, and basically just creates perfection. They're both awesome, though.

Exactly! I absolutely love the theming of Cars Land, it is so well done! Now you're making me want to go back to Disneyland...

Those Wall-E & Eve mugs are adorable!!

I know! As soon as Luke found them I knew we HAD to own them! They are actually still sitting in the box though, we haven't even used them yet...

I think it's really amazing that Luke was inspired to run a marathon from seeing the runners! It's definitely a difficult goal to achieve, but seeing how many ordinary people can do this extraordinary thing is truly inspirational. I'm sure Luke will have an awesome time in 2018 and I know you'll both love your races in 2017!

I think our 2018 trip will be amazing - Luke is trying to run his first ever marathon and I'll turn 30 on the same trip - so it will be a memorable one! I can't wait to cheer him on in his half marathon in 2017 and then again at the full in 2018

 

[fallonkendra]

I've really fallen off from updating this report, I'm sorry about that! It's been a little crazy in my life the past little bit - my Crohn's has gotten worse, I'm in the process of changing my medications and then my grandmother was admitted to the hospital so I dropped everything and flew across the country to spend 10 days with her. I *should* have the next part of my trip report posted later today though!

 

[DVCShannon]

I really enjoyed your safari pictures, I can't wait to see the animals with my own eyes! I think Disney does a great job, forgetting you're at a theme park and taken you to new places wherever you go!

 

[DVCShannon]

I really enjoyed you taking us on your safari adventure! Disney does a great job, forgetting you're in a theme park and taking you to new places wherever you go! Thank you for sharing

 

[fallonkendra]

Day Six - Part Two - An Afternoon at Epcot - January 10, 2016​

From where we were sitting, we could see that there was no line for Living With the Land, so we walked straight onto that. Ever since we bought our house I have been in love with gardening, so I really enjoyed this ride and found it quite interesting! I think I’d like to do the Behind the Seeds tour at some point in my life. (I apologize if my pictures are out of order)

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After this, it was time for our third Fastpass of the day – The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We didn’t need a fastpass for this, but there’s not a ton of options with the tiered system at Epcot. I thought this ride was super cute, and we spent quite a bit of time looking around the aquariums afterwards. I loved the manatees – so adorable, just floating around eating their buckets of lettuce!

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We headed over to watch the Pixar Short Film Festival. We are both HUGE Pixar fans, so we knew we wanted to check this out. We walked right in, and stood in a large room waiting for the next show to start. There were a few screens around the room showing interviews with Pixar animators and directors to keep you occupied while waiting. Once the doors opened, we entered the theater and took a seat with our 3D glasses. The three short films shown were “Get A Horse”, “For the Birds” and “La Luna”. I had saw all three of these shorts before (“For the Birds” was shown in theater before Monsters Inc, “Get A Horse” was shown in theaters before Frozen and “La Luna” was shown in theaters before Brave), but the 4D was fun! Sorry for no pictures!

We stopped to get a few Photopass pictures by the fountains close by the theater.

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[fallonkendra]

Day Six - Part Three - World Showcase and Garden Grill - January 10, 2016​

It was finally time for us to enter World Showcase! We entered Canada first, where we stopped to watch the slightly outdated 14 minute film celebrating the beauty of our home country. I loved the look of the main building (where Le Cellier is located), which was designed to look like a hotel in Ottawa, but it was a little strange that it was nestled amongst the Rocky Mountains – which are not even remotely close to Ontario. And then the gardens are designed to look like Victoria… But I understand, Canada is a huge country and it’s just a fake representation to show how pretty our country is.

Luke stopped at the beer cart to buy a La Fin du Monde. It’s not a very common beer in Alberta, so he had never tried it before, but he really enjoyed it! He actually picked up a few when we were in New Brunswick this past June, where they were super cheap (NB is right beside Quebec, where La Fin du Monde is from). He’s also searched for it and bought it once or twice in Alberta, but it’s quite expensive here.

We took our time and looked around the Canadian store – so much maple syrup! I didn’t buy anything, since obviously we can get all of that stuff here at home. Way back in the day, when I was in Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts for you Americans) we actually went to see maple syrup being made once. Fresh, hot maple syrup poured directly onto fresh snow is incredible – try it if you ever have the chance! One of my best friends also taps trees every year and has a maple syrup shack built with her dad, so I usually end up with a bottle from her each year. The store also had lots of NHL hockey stuff (it is true, us Canadians really do love our hockey), but not all of the Canadian teams were represented – I couldn’t find anything with the Oilers logo? I wouldn’t have bought it from there anyways, but still. I did find this tshirt though, which made me laugh - but it's actually true in a lot of ways, us Canadians do love maple syrup, beer and hockey...:

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Our next stop was England. We looked around the shops a bit – they were full of Doctor Who merch – a show I’ve never watched a single episode of. The British Invasion band was playing, so we stopped to watch them for a few minutes.

We then crossed the International Gateway over to France. We looked around a bit, and then stumbled across L’Artisan des Glaces - which made me so excited! I don’t eat ice cream very often (dairy isn’t always my best friend), but I had to try one of the flavours from here. I went for the cinnamon apple crumble, and Luke chose the salted caramel. We used a snack credit each on a single scoop (cost = $4.69). We started eating our ice cream, and then realized what time it was – it was almost time for our supper reservation! We set off walking, eating our amazingly delicious ice cream along the way. It was so good! I loved the flavours of both, but I think I’d give the slight edge to mine. Sorry for no pictures!

We checked in for supper and only had to wait a few minutes before we were led to our table at the revolving restaurant Garden Grill! I was really looking forward to seeing Mickey in his farmer’s outfit, and Luke was looking forward to Chip and Dale. I was also excited to eat food which Disney had grown themselves!

I had never ate at a revolving restaurant before, but the movement was so slow you barely noticed it at all. I could tell we were moving, but it did not give me an overwhelming feeling while I ate (which I was actually a little scared of).

The first course they brought out to our table was the salad, a lot of which was grown on property (as seen in Living With the Land). I’m not a fan of eggs or tomatoes, so I didn’t eat any of those from the salad, but the rest of it was good! I even enjoyed the dressing which came on the salad, and that is something I’m typically very fussy about. They also brought out a basket of bread with butter that had sea salt and orange blossom honey on it. I don’t think I have a refined enough palate, since I could not taste any orange flavour at all…It was still good though – it’s hard to go wrong with warm rolls!

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The meal was excellent, there was so much food brought to our table! There was no way the two of us could have ever finished everything, but we gave it our best shot! The dessert was awesome too! For a more in-depth description of our food, check out my dining report HERE

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The stars of this meal were the characters! I loved the outfit Mickey wears here - so cute! Chip and Dale were a lot of fun too. The restaurant isn't very big, so we ended up seeing each character a few times and getting some really cute pictures!

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[ariane37]

Yours is the 2nd review of GG dinner I've read in the last couple days and both are very positive. We haven't had dinner there since 2007 and I said to Steve that I think it's time we revisit!

We watched the Pixar shorts back in January; I'd seen "Get a Horse" and "La Luna" before too but still enjoyed seeing them again. I'm curious to see if they've changed them when we get there this weekend

Another thing I did in January for the first time was try a La Fin du Monde, and I loved it! Looked for it when I got home and unlike some other beers I've tried in WDW, I couldn't find it in our grocery stores. Had to go to a beer/soda store (who would have though lol) and it is a tad more expensive than other beers, but still worth it once in awhile.

 

[fallonkendra]

I really enjoyed you taking us on your safari adventure! Disney does a great job, forgetting you're in a theme park and taking you to new places wherever you go! Thank you for sharing

Thanks! Spoiler alert - we end up going back to Animal Kingdom to go on the Safari

 

[Terra Nova guy]

I hope everything is going better for you now, with your Crohn's and your grandmother.

From where we were sitting, we could see that there was no line for Living With the Land, so we walked straight onto that. Ever since we bought our house I have been in love with gardening, so I really enjoyed this ride and found it quite interesting! I think I’d like to do the Behind the Seeds tour at some point in my life.

I am fascinated by Living with the Land, too! I've been that way since my first (and only) trip as a kid. For some reason when I was 9 I loved that ride, and I have ever since. I would like to do Behind the Seeds as well.

We entered Canada first, where we stopped to watch the slightly outdated 14 minute film celebrating the beauty of our home country. I loved the look of the main building (where Le Cellier is located), which was designed to look like a hotel in Ottawa, but it was a little strange that it was nestled amongst the Rocky Mountains – which are not even remotely close to Ontario. And then the gardens are designed to look like Victoria… But I understand, Canada is a huge country and it’s just a fake representation to show how pretty our country is.

They did a pretty good job with the pavilion, like you say considering how big our country is. I do wish there was a little bit of East Coast represented though. Peggy's Cove lighthouse, or something. I also think it time for a new movie. Last time I was there, when introducing the movie they made a point of saying the song was sung by the 2006 Canadian Idol winner. Yeah, that's 10 years, time to freshen it up!

I did find this tshirt though, which made me laugh - but it's actually true in a lot of ways, us Canadians do love maple syrup, beer and hockey...:

It makes me laugh too. I would have been tempted to by this shirt.

 

[fallonkendra]

Yours is the 2nd review of GG dinner I've read in the last couple days and both are very positive. We haven't had dinner there since 2007 and I said to Steve that I think it's time we revisit!

I have very simple tastes, and Garden Grill was right up my alley! We both enjoyed it so much, it's already an ADR for our upcoming trip in 2017...

We watched the Pixar shorts back in January; I'd seen "Get a Horse" and "La Luna" before too but still enjoyed seeing them again. I'm curious to see if they've changed them when we get there this weekend

Oh! That would be great if they changed them up! If they are still the same, we'd probably skip them next time, but if it's different then I would absolutely go again! I don't think that would be something that would be too difficult for them to change either...

Another thing I did in January for the first time was try a La Fin du Monde, and I loved it! Looked for it when I got home and unlike some other beers I've tried in WDW, I couldn't find it in our grocery stores. Had to go to a beer/soda store (who would have though lol) and it is a tad more expensive than other beers, but still worth it once in awhile.

Luke was able to find La Fin du Monde in my home province for only $6.50 for a giant bottle (which is like $5USD) but they charge over $9 for the same bottle here in Alberta He say it's one of his favourite beers now (I tried it, it just tasted like beer to me, but I'm not a fan of the stuff at all...)

I hope everything is going better for you now, with your Crohn's and your grandmother.

I'm still waiting to hear from my doctor about the new medication for my Crohn's, but I've been feeling much better this week (last week had some rough days...).
My grandmother is still in the hospital, she will more than likely be there for awhile, but I was able to fly back to Alberta and feel comfortable saying see you later instead of goodbye.

I am fascinated by Living with the Land, too! I've been that way since my first (and only) trip as a kid. For some reason when I was 9 I loved that ride, and I have ever since. I would like to do Behind the Seeds as well.

Some of the vertical gardening is so interesting! I still have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to gardening, but I was able to grow peas, carrots and lettuce this year, and my cucumber plant has a single tiny little one on it... I need to pay more attention on Living With the Land next time I'm on it to try and get a few pointers haha.

They did a pretty good job with the pavilion, like you say considering how big our country is. I do wish there was a little bit of East Coast represented though. Peggy's Cove lighthouse, or something. I also think it time for a new movie. Last time I was there, when introducing the movie they made a point of saying the song was sung by the 2006 Canadian Idol winner. Yeah, that's 10 years, time to freshen it up!

I always feel like the Maritimes are forgotten It drives me bonkers whenever anyone says that Toronto is in Eastern Canada - NO IT ISN'T! THERE'S FIVE MORE PROVINCES EAST OF ONTARIO!

The video could really use a refresh!

It makes me laugh too. I would have been tempted to by this shirt.

We laughed about that shirt for awhile...

 

[Rory CB]

Ever since we bought our house I have been in love with gardening, so I really enjoyed this ride and found it quite interesting! I think I’d like to do the Behind the Seeds tour at some point in my life. (I apologize if my pictures are out of order)​

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I went on the Behind the Seeds tour *years* ago (ok now I am counting, 15 years, maybe?) and I loved it - I assume a lot has changed, but learning about how all of it worked was amazing and the subject matter can't have changed that much.

 

[fallonkendra]

Day Six - Part Four - January 10, 2016 - Rushing Through the World​

After scanning our Magicbands to use up a table service credit each, and leaving a tip in cash, we headed out of the restaurant and headed over to the character spot and hopped in line to meet Baymax. We had a bit of a wait, but it wasn't too bad (maybe 10-15 minutes). It was a really cute character meet, but I wish the costume was designed a little bit differently. It was inflatable, so it didn't give him very much for range of motion - he couldn't even fist bump (bah la la la la)! Yes, I tried.

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I guess I did eat a lot at Garden Grill, I look like I put on about 10 pounds from the Photopass pictures we had taken earlier in the day...

After this we entered the World Showcase - again through Canada. We stopped and jumped in line so Luke could get another La Fin du Monde. Random fact - Luke was able to buy giant bottles of this while we were in New Brunswick for only $6.50/each. The same bottle in Alberta (where we live) cost $11!

While we were standing in line, a VERY intoxicated girl came and got in line behind us with her friends. We started talking to them, and found out it was her 21st birthday so she was finally legal drinking age in the US and wanted to enjoy it by drinking around the world. (Side note: this law is ridiculous. You can join the Army at 18 but can't have a drink until you are 21? Really? I thought my home province of New Brunswick was crazy for having a legal drinking age of 19 - three Canadian provinces (Manitoba, Quebec and Alberta) have 18 as the legal drinking age. Ok, rant over). Canada was the last stop for her, so she was 11 drinks deep at that point and feeling pretty good haha. She mentioned she was going to order a Moosehead because the name made her laugh, but I made a disgusted face (it's made in NB, so it was very common among my friends when we were 19-20). Luke told her to go for a Kokanee instead (a British Columbia beer) since it was cheaper and tastes slightly better. I then told her to end her night with a bang, and order the shot of Crown Royale . For anyone who doesn't know, it's whiskey, so the poor girl! That's what she ended up ordering, and she took it like a champ! (I went through a stage where Crown on the rocks was my drink of choice, but now the thought of that makes me gag haha). After she had her shot of whiskey, we stood around talking to her and her friends for another few minutes. Her friends were fairly sober, but were all clearly being entertained by birthday girl. At some point, Justin Bieber came up because we're Canadian and he's Canadian and we were standing in the Canadian pavilion. Birthday girl's friends informed her that the ducks currently roaming around our feet were actually presents from Bieber to Disney World, and they had traveled down with Luke and I...the girl just stared at them in shock. After this, we said our goodbyes - I hope she had fun on her birthday and wasn't in too much pain the next day!

We had spent time looking around the UK pavilion earlier in the day, so we just skipped over it this time. We did have to stop in France though, I had a very important purchase to make!

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Grey goose slushie! It was a little expensive - correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was $12 which is over $15 Canadian - but so worth it! It was so good, and it was one of the few alcoholic drinks I had on the entire vacation. I will not even hesitate about buying one on our next trip - seriously. That thing was amazing. Here's another picture of it looking beautiful...

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We spent a bit of time looking around the Morocco pavilion, but I guess I didn't feel the need to take any pictures... Same for Japan. We looked around a bit, then stopped to use the bathrooms at the American Adventure pavilion. And that's all we saw of that one haha, but for what it's worth the bathrooms were very large! We were quickly running out of time, so we only spent a few minutes at the Italy pavilion so I could get to the Germany pavilion quicker. I spent 2 weeks in Germany back in 2005 when I was 17, and I fell in love with Haribo gummy candies while there. I can buy them here in Canada, but they can sometimes be hard to find. After loading up on candy in Germany (I also had to buy some chocolate there, so good). We spent a few minutes in the China pavilion and then realized it was almost time for Illuminations. We just walked past Norway and Mexico, but never actually made it in to look around either I did snap this picture though...

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I also took these pictures at some point in the night, but I have no idea where...

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We found a spot to watch Illuminations and I sat on the ground to wait. I was so tired! We were outside the Mexico pavilion, closer to the main walkway to get back to Future World - not the best spot, but we were able to see some of the show. I was so exhausted all of a sudden that I didn't even care. I did get these pictures though:

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Once the show ended we started making our way to the front of the park to catch a bus. We did stop for a few Photopass pictures along the way:

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Once we got back to our room, we both fell asleep almost instantly - and we had a very early morning planned for the next day!

Also worth mentioning - at some point during this day we went on Mission Space (green). Neither one of us were fans, I can't even imagine what the orange side is like... We also went to Club Cool to sample some various Coca-Cola products from around the world at one point. I loved this! I knew about it, but I still had to try the Beverly - I'm not into bitter at all. My favourite was the bubblegum tasting one . My note taking wasn't the greatest on this day, so I have no idea when either of these things happened (and my picture taking was lackluster this day as well...)

Up next - PPO breakfast reservations!