Flossbolna
Sea days are just so relaxing!
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2006
Continuing the Cruise Pattern: Dinner and Show
And then it was time for our lunch reservation. This was a “special” reservation as we had a Candlelight Processional package. This means that we would eat lunch and then we would receive tickets for preferred seating for the Candlelight Processional show that is held three times every evening at Epcot during the Christmas season.
Our choice was the Biergarten in Germany for this package. Partly because we had really enjoyed it on our last visit, but also because it was the least expensive of the options.
We also thought that it was a style of food that we would not get on the cruise.
The Biergarten has long tables that are set up in a crescent shape around a “town square” with a stage. All tables are for 8, so if your group is smaller, you share a table. We ended up at a table very close to the stage, not the best view:
We shared the table with a group of 6 people, one seemed to be a family friend who was currently on the College program. It kind of was not the best combination: one large group and us as a couple. But we knew that something like that could happen. However, after not such a great placement last time either, I think Biergarten now is a restaurant that will only be visited if I am part of a group of at least 4 people.
Yes. Dining here can be a challenge. You wind up with strangers and even if they're friendly, and this group was, it's awkward. I also really like this restaurant. But between having a cold and having just gone from Thanksgiving to a week on a cruise ship I'm not sure a buffet was a great choice for meal No. 1 at WDW!
There were some lovely Christmas decorations, unfortunately I missed out a bit with pictures, but managed to remember just before we left:
But you want food pictures!
Michael’s first plate had lots of salads:
I tried all the different sausage offerings:
I really was a bit disappointed as in my opinion they had cut down in variety quite a lot. We were there the last time for lunch as well and I remember there being far more selection in sausages and cold cuts as compared to this time.
Yes, They did. But many extra choices appeared as we were having desserts. Yes, they are dinner selections. But there's nothing stopping a late luncher from partaking in them either. We didn't since we were pretty much done by then.
But they still has the delicious cheese and beer soup:
I got seconds – including more soup!
The small sausage at around 1 and 2 o’clock was really delicious!
I know we had desserts, but I seem to have failed on the picture taking…
Outside I took some pictures of the German Christmas market area:
Michael did not feel that well and thought he should take some ibuprofen. I was wondering where we could buy some in Epcot, but Michael knew where to get it: at the First Aid Station! I had no idea, but we were able to get him a few pills there. Very convenient!
If only I could get my crystal meth there too! But alas ... ;-)
Once we had done that, it was time to get to the area for the Candlelight Processional. The First Aid Station is in the building called the Odyssey Building. It is the strangely shaped building kind of between Test Track and Mexico in the middle of the lake there. It used to be the home of a counter service restaurant called Odyssey. The CP was held at the theater outside the American pavilion. So, we thought the obvious way to get there would be to go past Mexico, Norway, China, Germany. No. We found out that that was stupid when we got to the theater. The line for the CP dining package ticket holder was only to the side that goes from the American pavilion towards Japan, France etc. So, we had to continue walking to find the end of the line. And we kept walking and walking and walking. By then the line was moving in our direction already. Since it was moving quickly it also already had started to really frazzle out. It seemed less of a line than just people walking in that direction. We thought that we would never find a real end of the line if people who came from the other side of the World Showcase would just kind of walk up to the end of the line and decided to just join in. Wow, were people getting angry at us!! So we stepped out again thinking that this was really getting stupid (we were getting close to the International Gateway by then!). Kind of 30 people after the people who had shouted at us, there was finally a more obvious end of the line, so I really don’t understand what these people had been so outraged about. They really could not have been standing in line for ages…
Remember when I mentioned I can be quite angry and aggressive with strangers? I came very close when we were yelled at like simple line-cutters. I'm sorry, but if Disney can't organize a line properly and some people are headed to a show and others are simply walking the World Showcase Promenade, then just how are people supposed to know who is who. And it's not like there's assigned seating. Even if we accidentally got in front of two dozen people, we didn't measurably decrease the quality of their viewing experience.
Well, we then walked all the way back to the American pavilion where we were herded into the theater. People were rushing around like crazy and it was really already very full. By the way, that was with showing up over 30 minutes before show time!!
We found a spot and then moved a few seats as the spot we had found was already inhabited by some ants and we did not feel like becoming close friends with them.
This was our view:
They kept trying to get more and more people into the theater and I think another family finally moved in with the ants because the CMs were very pushy about filling up all available space. In my opinion ant space is not available space. But they seemed to be able to deal with that…
I tried to get a CM lead's attention and she just rudely ignored me. So, we sat and people walked past us and had a chance to have ants in their pants. Some days ... well, you can't save the world, so why try?
After some more waiting the show finally started and I realized why it was called a “Processional” – the singers all had a procession walking up on stage!
As you can see, at the first show of the evening it is still light outside when it starts. It got dark during the show and I actually enjoyed that change of the light as the show progressed.
The CP consists of the choirs (local school choirs in yellow, CM choir in green) and the singers from the Voices of Liberty performing various carols. And then there is a celebrity narrator who reads the Christmas story. Our celebrity was Whoopi Goldberg. She was the reason why we got a reservation for that specific day. All the other celebrities for the rest of my stay night be celebrated in the US, but they were rather unknown to me. And I really like Whoopi Goldberg. So that was perfect!
Except that it was very warm out, so much so that Whoopi mentioned it. The joys of paradise. And I like the woman as well.
(bad zoom on my tiny camera with low light, this is the best I can offer!)
All in all the show was very enjoyable and I am glad that I have done it. However, this is really not a must repeat for me. I think I might have enjoyed it more if it had been full of Christmas carols that I am familiar with. I knew some that they performed (Oh Come, All Ye Faithful has a German version and of course I am familiar with Silent Night), but most where foreign to me.
On a later visit to Epcot, I realized that you could easily hear and see a lot of it by just being in the walkway behind the theater. And I think I would be perfectly fine with that. Listening to the beautiful music I don’t need to see every single performer.
Michael and I continued on our tour around the World Showcase afterwards, browsed through the store in Japan. I love that store and could spend a fortune in there! I really need to travel to Japan – just for the souvenirs I could buy there!!
While we were there, a friend of Michael met up with us. We continued on to France where we all got treats. Michael had some ice cream, I had some champagne and our friend had ice cream in a warm brioche. Here it is being made:
He was not too convinced that this was a wonderful combination though.
These were Michael’s and my treats:
Some more shopping around in France:
And then I forced everyone to wait for the next showing of the film in France. Those World Showcase films are attractions that I haven’t done a lot, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity. I really enjoyed the film!
I started to realize that I needed some dinner at some point. And somehow we thought we would find something tasty at Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavilion. However, it was getting late and the selection was not that great. I finally picked a veggie sandwich:
It could have been really good, but somehow it just did not really work for me that evening. But it prevented me from being too hungry later on.
Worst meal of the WDW visit, really. I just had veggie soup and a side salad (that wound up back in the villa and had as a snack the next day or maybe two days later.) The soup tasted like it came out of a can. The salad was ordinary. You can get a better one at Wendy's for $1.49
After dinner we headed out to catch Illuminations. During the Christmas period Epcot is open until 9:30pm, so Illumination was at 9:30pm. I liked it that the park was open longer!
I was annoyed that my favourite spot to watch it from is now take over as a FP+ area and dessert party area. I loved the space just at the front of World Showcase when you come over the bridge from Future World between the two shops. We were standing behind that area. The view was not perfect, but it had the huge advantage of a speedy park exit after the fireworks. Illuminations gets a special additional ending during the Christmas season and I really liked that a lot!
After the show we quickly walked out to our bus stop and were lucky to quickly get on a bus which also left before it was too full as the next one was already pulling up. This was a nice bus ride back to the resort. Once back we finally started to unpack our stuff… It really was a very long day, but I enjoyed it a lot!
Up Next: Michael Throws Me Out
And then it was time for our lunch reservation. This was a “special” reservation as we had a Candlelight Processional package. This means that we would eat lunch and then we would receive tickets for preferred seating for the Candlelight Processional show that is held three times every evening at Epcot during the Christmas season.
Our choice was the Biergarten in Germany for this package. Partly because we had really enjoyed it on our last visit, but also because it was the least expensive of the options.
We also thought that it was a style of food that we would not get on the cruise.
The Biergarten has long tables that are set up in a crescent shape around a “town square” with a stage. All tables are for 8, so if your group is smaller, you share a table. We ended up at a table very close to the stage, not the best view:
We shared the table with a group of 6 people, one seemed to be a family friend who was currently on the College program. It kind of was not the best combination: one large group and us as a couple. But we knew that something like that could happen. However, after not such a great placement last time either, I think Biergarten now is a restaurant that will only be visited if I am part of a group of at least 4 people.
Yes. Dining here can be a challenge. You wind up with strangers and even if they're friendly, and this group was, it's awkward. I also really like this restaurant. But between having a cold and having just gone from Thanksgiving to a week on a cruise ship I'm not sure a buffet was a great choice for meal No. 1 at WDW!
There were some lovely Christmas decorations, unfortunately I missed out a bit with pictures, but managed to remember just before we left:
But you want food pictures!
Michael’s first plate had lots of salads:
I tried all the different sausage offerings:
I really was a bit disappointed as in my opinion they had cut down in variety quite a lot. We were there the last time for lunch as well and I remember there being far more selection in sausages and cold cuts as compared to this time.
Yes, They did. But many extra choices appeared as we were having desserts. Yes, they are dinner selections. But there's nothing stopping a late luncher from partaking in them either. We didn't since we were pretty much done by then.
But they still has the delicious cheese and beer soup:
I got seconds – including more soup!
The small sausage at around 1 and 2 o’clock was really delicious!
I know we had desserts, but I seem to have failed on the picture taking…
Outside I took some pictures of the German Christmas market area:
Michael did not feel that well and thought he should take some ibuprofen. I was wondering where we could buy some in Epcot, but Michael knew where to get it: at the First Aid Station! I had no idea, but we were able to get him a few pills there. Very convenient!
If only I could get my crystal meth there too! But alas ... ;-)
Once we had done that, it was time to get to the area for the Candlelight Processional. The First Aid Station is in the building called the Odyssey Building. It is the strangely shaped building kind of between Test Track and Mexico in the middle of the lake there. It used to be the home of a counter service restaurant called Odyssey. The CP was held at the theater outside the American pavilion. So, we thought the obvious way to get there would be to go past Mexico, Norway, China, Germany. No. We found out that that was stupid when we got to the theater. The line for the CP dining package ticket holder was only to the side that goes from the American pavilion towards Japan, France etc. So, we had to continue walking to find the end of the line. And we kept walking and walking and walking. By then the line was moving in our direction already. Since it was moving quickly it also already had started to really frazzle out. It seemed less of a line than just people walking in that direction. We thought that we would never find a real end of the line if people who came from the other side of the World Showcase would just kind of walk up to the end of the line and decided to just join in. Wow, were people getting angry at us!! So we stepped out again thinking that this was really getting stupid (we were getting close to the International Gateway by then!). Kind of 30 people after the people who had shouted at us, there was finally a more obvious end of the line, so I really don’t understand what these people had been so outraged about. They really could not have been standing in line for ages…
Remember when I mentioned I can be quite angry and aggressive with strangers? I came very close when we were yelled at like simple line-cutters. I'm sorry, but if Disney can't organize a line properly and some people are headed to a show and others are simply walking the World Showcase Promenade, then just how are people supposed to know who is who. And it's not like there's assigned seating. Even if we accidentally got in front of two dozen people, we didn't measurably decrease the quality of their viewing experience.
Well, we then walked all the way back to the American pavilion where we were herded into the theater. People were rushing around like crazy and it was really already very full. By the way, that was with showing up over 30 minutes before show time!!
We found a spot and then moved a few seats as the spot we had found was already inhabited by some ants and we did not feel like becoming close friends with them.
This was our view:
They kept trying to get more and more people into the theater and I think another family finally moved in with the ants because the CMs were very pushy about filling up all available space. In my opinion ant space is not available space. But they seemed to be able to deal with that…
I tried to get a CM lead's attention and she just rudely ignored me. So, we sat and people walked past us and had a chance to have ants in their pants. Some days ... well, you can't save the world, so why try?
After some more waiting the show finally started and I realized why it was called a “Processional” – the singers all had a procession walking up on stage!
As you can see, at the first show of the evening it is still light outside when it starts. It got dark during the show and I actually enjoyed that change of the light as the show progressed.
The CP consists of the choirs (local school choirs in yellow, CM choir in green) and the singers from the Voices of Liberty performing various carols. And then there is a celebrity narrator who reads the Christmas story. Our celebrity was Whoopi Goldberg. She was the reason why we got a reservation for that specific day. All the other celebrities for the rest of my stay night be celebrated in the US, but they were rather unknown to me. And I really like Whoopi Goldberg. So that was perfect!
Except that it was very warm out, so much so that Whoopi mentioned it. The joys of paradise. And I like the woman as well.
(bad zoom on my tiny camera with low light, this is the best I can offer!)
All in all the show was very enjoyable and I am glad that I have done it. However, this is really not a must repeat for me. I think I might have enjoyed it more if it had been full of Christmas carols that I am familiar with. I knew some that they performed (Oh Come, All Ye Faithful has a German version and of course I am familiar with Silent Night), but most where foreign to me.
On a later visit to Epcot, I realized that you could easily hear and see a lot of it by just being in the walkway behind the theater. And I think I would be perfectly fine with that. Listening to the beautiful music I don’t need to see every single performer.
Michael and I continued on our tour around the World Showcase afterwards, browsed through the store in Japan. I love that store and could spend a fortune in there! I really need to travel to Japan – just for the souvenirs I could buy there!!
While we were there, a friend of Michael met up with us. We continued on to France where we all got treats. Michael had some ice cream, I had some champagne and our friend had ice cream in a warm brioche. Here it is being made:
He was not too convinced that this was a wonderful combination though.
These were Michael’s and my treats:
Some more shopping around in France:
And then I forced everyone to wait for the next showing of the film in France. Those World Showcase films are attractions that I haven’t done a lot, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity. I really enjoyed the film!
I started to realize that I needed some dinner at some point. And somehow we thought we would find something tasty at Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavilion. However, it was getting late and the selection was not that great. I finally picked a veggie sandwich:
It could have been really good, but somehow it just did not really work for me that evening. But it prevented me from being too hungry later on.
Worst meal of the WDW visit, really. I just had veggie soup and a side salad (that wound up back in the villa and had as a snack the next day or maybe two days later.) The soup tasted like it came out of a can. The salad was ordinary. You can get a better one at Wendy's for $1.49
After dinner we headed out to catch Illuminations. During the Christmas period Epcot is open until 9:30pm, so Illumination was at 9:30pm. I liked it that the park was open longer!
I was annoyed that my favourite spot to watch it from is now take over as a FP+ area and dessert party area. I loved the space just at the front of World Showcase when you come over the bridge from Future World between the two shops. We were standing behind that area. The view was not perfect, but it had the huge advantage of a speedy park exit after the fireworks. Illuminations gets a special additional ending during the Christmas season and I really liked that a lot!
After the show we quickly walked out to our bus stop and were lucky to quickly get on a bus which also left before it was too full as the next one was already pulling up. This was a nice bus ride back to the resort. Once back we finally started to unpack our stuff… It really was a very long day, but I enjoyed it a lot!
Up Next: Michael Throws Me Out
That's probably in the back bathrooms of the American Adventure!
