Poor Unfortunate Souls: So Wet, So Full ~ Updated 12/22: Day 8 - Complete & New TR!

[Dugette]

Yay for blue skies!! What a wonderful sight that must have been!!

It felt kind-of miraculous at the time. The forecasts had all been in agreement that the rest of our trip would be rain and it stopped and the blue sky emerged...

You are slowly convincing me to try F&W this year. Every update makes me hungry! Maybe that should be a reason to avoid it instead?

You should go! Just plan well for what you want to try and skip a meal! I always get hungry when I look at our pictures too!

Wet shoes are the worst, I hope you dry out soon!!

I just hated that feeling! Luckily, the dry out is coming!

 

[Mom&RN]

Ugh wet shoes.... I hate wet shoes. I've never seen the big metal globe left open and out in the middle of the lake like that, I wonder if they had technical difficulties or if the weather was so bad the night before they decided not to move it?? Sounds like you had good luck with yummy food and I bet the crowd level was great with all that rain

 

[KatGarcia]

I'm still here, I swear! Life has kept me from catching up but my DD has decided to go to bed earlier and earlier and that means I get more time for DIS-ing. LOL

 

[smile4stamps]

Mmmm Artist Point looks good! Can't wait to enjoy the tasty bites this October!!

Yeah for blue skies!!! I think I would be signing "Hallelujah!!"

 

[Dugette]

Ugh wet shoes.... I hate wet shoes. I've never seen the big metal globe left open and out in the middle of the lake like that, I wonder if they had technical difficulties or if the weather was so bad the night before they decided not to move it?? Sounds like you had good luck with yummy food and I bet the crowd level was great with all that rain

That seemed so weird with the globe being left open. My guess is that it had something to do with the weather the day before, but I don't know. It was so rainy the previous day that I heard the F&W booths shut down, I think. True, crowds weren't too bad.

I'm still here, I swear! Life has kept me from catching up but my DD has decided to go to bed earlier and earlier and that means I get more time for DIS-ing. LOL

No problem....catch up when you can. I don't even have our DD on the outside yet, but I can't keep up with the DIS!

Mmmm Artist Point looks good! Can't wait to enjoy the tasty bites this October!!

Yeah for blue skies!!! I think I would be signing "Hallelujah!!"

AP was great! You'll have a wonderful time on your October trip, I bet!

Those blue skies and changing forecasts were awesome. It was so depressing thinking about several more days of solid rainfall. Thank goodness things changed!

 

[Nermel9]

Yum, I love the Belgium booth at F&W! I keep thinking I should maybe move our trip to the end of November instead of the middle, but...I have to get some Food and Wine in, so I'll just keep it where it is!

Huh, why is the Illuminations globe open like that? Weird!

Yay for blue skies!!!

 

[Dugette]

Yum, I love the Belgium booth at F&W! I keep thinking I should maybe move our trip to the end of November instead of the middle, but...I have to get some Food and Wine in, so I'll just keep it where it is!

Huh, why is the Illuminations globe open like that? Weird!

Yay for blue skies!!!

Good plan...get some Food & Wine in whenever possible! Epcot seems strange without it!

The globe gets weirder in the next update.

I just watched my video from this day and there's a ton of just looking up at the beautiful blue sky in it!

 

[Dugette]

The first place we wandered, while squinting under those bright blue skies, was the little train village. It was very empty and no trains were running, so we had a chance to get quite a few pictures and video. (On my video, I can hear a little kid narrating, “As you can see, there’s a lot of detail…”):

I love miniature Food & Wine! I bet the samples at those tiny booths are only like $1.50 each! I just noticed there's even a cranberry bog...nice!

As we left the train village, we noticed that the Illuminations globe, still open and in the middle of the lagoon, was now spinning around. Odd.

Time for more eating! And where better than Italy? The second we stepped near the line, the CM at the register had us come forward, skipping the line, as an anniversary treat. He then sang us an Italian “happy anniversary” song. Very sweet. I love Italians (I am one-quarter Italian…). And the food’s good too! Oh, and we chatted with the CMs there a bit about where they were from (Napoli & Cinque Terra), as we’d honeymooned in Northern Italy in 2005. Nice folks.

We got a cannoli:

Okay, it’s dangerous for me to work on this TR while pregnant and not having had a real dinner yet…now I want a cannoli RIGHT NOW! But I don’t think I’m willing to go out and hunt one down. So, moving on, we also got the baked ravioli:

We grabbed a seat on the steps of the bridge over by the water, along with a lot of other people who had come out to enjoy F&W in the sunshine. We chatted about how Disney is very good at treating people well on their anniversaries and making people want to come back for every anniversary. In fact, we realized that they’d managed to get us to celebrate half of our anniversaries there! (never on the actual day—Oct. 1st—but “close enough” in 2009, 2010, & 2011) (For a second there, I was sad that we will miss spending this year’s anniversary there…then I realized we’ll have a newborn at that time, so it will all be okay!)

I held our seat while Dug went over to Poland to grab us some more goodies. Here was the view from our stairway-seat:

Dug soon returned with the Kielbasa and Pierogie, which were cooked just right:

After we finished up our Polish goodness, we made our way over to the Maelstrom to grab Fast Passes. They were for 3:35pm. There was a decent line at Maelstrom…we could tell the park was getting busier now.

Next, we headed over to Mexico and into the pyramid:

As we made our way down to La Cava del Tequila, we noticed Mexican Donald stationed just outside…perhaps he was craving a margarita, too?

We headed in and grabbed one of the only available tables (maybe the only one…that place is small, but popular!) We really liked the atmosphere in there. A few pictures from our table:

So, I admittedly don’t really understand Twitter, but Dug had been following/interacting with La Cava via Twitter leading up to our arrival. I guess that he’d been hoping that the semi-famous tequila ambassador Hilda would teach him about tequila, as he’d never tried it before. So, he had to send her a picture so she could find us:

As we waited, we were going to get the free chips and salsa that they had been offering to Twitter followers. However, we were told that the offer had expired. So, we ordered some chips and guac instead and Dug tweeted about the offer expiring. Mmmmm, chips and guac:

Dug was going to try a tequila tasting, but I wasn’t brave enough for that. I’d heard good things about the Avocado Margarita on the DIS, though, so I got one of those. So good!

Anyway, Hilda did come out and greet us, which was cool. I can’t remember much anymore, but I think she gave Dug some advice on tequilas and his tasting. We took pictures of his tasting:

Before:

During:

After:

He enjoyed his first tasting experience!

Also, La Cava apparently takes their Tweets very seriously, as we were brought a free order of chips and salsa:

At this point, it was kind-of silly, as we were already completely stuffed full of chips and guac, but it was a nice gesture. We ate what we could.

Then Hilda came back out with an anniversary gift for us. According to Dug’s notes, these were samples of chilled Herradura tequila (I think a pretty expensive one?):

I tried it too. I preferred my delicious avocado margarita, but Dug described this as “very smooth” and enjoyed it.

At some point, I discovered that this bar seemed to have a (female) “Norm”, but she shared my (real) name. Very strange to hear everyone calling out my name to someone else. I believe she’s the blurry blonde in this picture:

And isn’t that chair on the other side of our table creepy? It looks like someone’s sitting there!

After our enjoyable experience, we headed out of La Cava. And bid farewell to the pyramid:

We had Fast Passes for the Maelstrom to redeem!

A couple of fun tweets from Dug:

There was a lizard in the bathroom with me in Norway. This is not the tequila talking.

Went on Maelstrom, which is much freakier after 4 shots of tequila.

After our ride, we headed out of Epcot for our afternoon nap:

Up next: A night at the Magic Kingdom, the Memories show, and…more rain!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Okay, clearly I am so far behind or oblivious that I didn't realize your news! Congratulations, that's so exciting! And a little princess to boot.

 

[smile4stamps]

Ha-Ha.. pictures can be so deceiving!! When I saw your first pic of the Tequila tasting I thought they were decent size! Then I saw the thimblefuls in Dug's hand and realized how small they were!!!

 

[DisneyDreamerMN]

La Cava looks awesome! I told my DH that he should follow them on Twitter (I don't tweet because I don't get it). DH was like, um no, not doing that. I really want to go there though! Was the margarita sweet or more savory?

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

What a fun update! I thought they were full sized shots too, until you see him holding it. Still...I don't know how good I would be at walking around Epcot after doing that tasting. I'd probably be good entertainment for the people around me.

F&W looks like so much fun. I wish that we could go during that time of year to try all of the new things.

 

[jc040404]

Went on Maelstrom, which is much freakier after 4 shots of tequila.

Dug's tweets are awesome!!

That chair is too creepy. I had to look twice because I thought someone was sitting there. Eek!

 

[Dugette]

Okay, clearly I am so far behind or oblivious that I didn't realize your news! Congratulations, that's so exciting! And a little princess to boot.

Thank you! I knew you were away from the DIS for awhile, so I wasn't sure if you'd caught up yet. We're so excited!

Ha-Ha.. pictures can be so deceiving!! When I saw your first pic of the Tequila tasting I thought they were decent size! Then I saw the thimblefuls in Dug's hand and realized how small they were!!!

Yeah, they were pretty small. But that's really all we needed...

La Cava looks awesome! I told my DH that he should follow them on Twitter (I don't tweet because I don't get it). DH was like, um no, not doing that. I really want to go there though! Was the margarita sweet or more savory?

They are pretty big on Twitter there (you can see their little "follow us on Twitter" things on the tables in the pics), so it wouldn't be weird or anything, if that's what he's worried about. Then again, I'm like you and just don't get Twitter. FWIW, Dug actually has a regular Twitter account and a Disney twitter account...not sure if you could convince DH to set up something like that, though. I think I'd say the margarita was on the sweet side, but I can't really remember. It was very unique and refreshing, though. Guess I have to have another one someday...

What a fun update! I thought they were full sized shots too, until you see him holding it. Still...I don't know how good I would be at walking around Epcot after doing that tasting. I'd probably be good entertainment for the people around me.

Dug sure was good entertainment. I have some video of him being very silly after those shots.

F&W looks like so much fun. I wish that we could go during that time of year to try all of the new things.

Someday, maybe. It really is a lot of fun, probably our favorite time to go. I know it doesn't really work with your schedule, though.

Dug's tweets are awesome!!

That chair is too creepy. I had to look twice because I thought someone was sitting there. Eek!

Glad you are enjoying the tweets! It's fun to add them in sometimes.

That chair is really creepy. It freaked me out a bit while we were there and it freaks me out in the pictures now. Too real looking! (I bet especially after several shots of tequila!)

 

[Dugette]

After our lovely nap at Pop Century, we got all bundled up in our fleeces to spend the (late EMH) night in the Magic Kingdom. It was not raining for once, but it was about 72 degrees and very windy. Naturally, we packed our rain gear in the backpack as well.

As we waited for our MK bus, I thought it was interesting that the Epcot bus coming through said “Free Shuttle. Epcot” on its display. Different.

Our bus arrived and soon we were meandering our way into the Halloween-decorated Magic Kingdom:

Pretty!

Main Street was fairly crowded, as we were nearing the time of the first The Magic, The Memories, and You show of the night, which would be followed by Wishes, then a second showing of the Memories show, then the Main Street Electrical Parade. Our agenda for the evening included catching all of these. We made our way down Main Street, near the Hub, and found a spot to stand. Soon, the Memories show began. We LOVED this show. Very impressive effects they can do on the castle! We knew that we’d need to find a closer spot for the second showing so that we could see some of the detail better.

Next up was Wishes:

Great, as always. (Side note: As I was watching my video tonight to prepare to write this update, Dug Baby was moving all around during the Wishes and MSEP soundtracks…perhaps she already likes the sounds of WDW! )

After Wishes, we made our way further up into the Hub, with a goal of finding a place to sit with a good view for the second Memories show. We ended up with seats on the edge of one of the planters in the Hub. Very good view:

We waited for a bit, then the show began. I don’t think our pictures can do it justice, but this at least gives a taste of some of the cool things they do:

Such a great show! Even better up close! Really visually stunning.

We kept our seats to wait for the Main Street Electrical Parade. Between events, we admired how the MK janitors just spring into action the second they are able to, tidying up everything in sight.

I should also mention that it lightly rained on and off during a lot of this time. I pulled out my trusty new hat to keep my hair dry, but didn’t really need anything more than that at this point.

Soon, we heard the sounds of the MSEP beginning. We had a great vantage point, seeing the floats pass right in front of the castle. A sampling:

I think this one captures the essence of the last couple days of the trip well, with the umbrella in the middle of the shot:

After the parade was over, Dug was pretty hungry. We went to check out the Lunching Pad, but it was closed. The hours there are so limited that almost every time we want to go there (early or late), they are closed. Oh, well. Dug had to settle for Cosmic Ray’s instead. Hey, at least it was indoors, as the weather decided another downpour was in order.

Dug got a Bacon Cheeseburger and Fries with a Carrot Cake for dessert (using a CS credit). He took advantage of the toppings bar, but still said everything was pretty bland:

I believe I shared a few bites, but I wasn’t particularly hungry yet.

We enjoyed Sonny Eclipse while we (Dug) ate:

We savored the dryness while we could, as we would soon be heading out into the downpour.

Up next: We ride some rides! And fail to ride some closed-for-technical-problems rides! Fun!

 

[TheThomsLuvDisney]

Woo-Hoo an update! Glad to see you and baby Dug are back!!

 

[smile4stamps]

Thanks for a wonderful update. In DL The MM&Y show doesn't get as rave of reviews so I never stopped to watch it. It definitely sounds like something I want to stop for at MK!!

 

[Dugette]

Woo-Hoo an update! Glad to see you and baby Dug are back!!

Yeah, this poor TR has been a bit neglected. I've been updating the PTR a bit more often, but I don't want this one to be incomplete...there's a lot more trip to report on!

Thanks for a wonderful update. In DL The MM&Y show doesn't get as rave of reviews so I never stopped to watch it. It definitely sounds like something I want to stop for at MK!!

I would definitely recommend it at MK. All the effects they do on the castle are pretty amazing. The closer to the Hub area, the better the view of them. We were really impressed!

 

[KatGarcia]

catching up! How have you been???

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

THe photos of the castle were so cool. We have not seen that show yet, but your pictures make me feel like it is worth it to actually stake out a spot ahead of time and watch it. It's such a bummer to keep hearing about the rain on your trip. Glad you made the best of it and didn't let it slow you down.