Adventure (and Food) is calling our names – 10/2010 PTR - Six More Hours!!! 10/1

[2_Eagle_Mom]

We don’t have any notes from this day – I’m using our pictures to remind me of what we did.

We decided to take it easy this morning. Sleep in till we woke up naturally and then meet up with Cliff in Epcot. We got to Epcot at about 8:45am and met Cliff outside the ticket booths and then made a beeline for the Land Pavilion. We were on a mission to get Fast Passes for Soarin’. Here I made a rookie mistake. I gathered up everyone’s tickets and stood in line to get our FPs.

At the time the stand-by line was about 10 minutes. But the pattern that we always use at Disneyland is to get the FP first then ride the ride. So I followed our normal patter and stood in the FP line. After a couple of minutes I was getting a little frustrated, why do people think that your entire party needs to stand in line to get FPs? Honestly, have one person be the designated ticket gatherer and have everyone else wait outside the ticketing area. After waiting I had the FPs in my hand. The stand-by line was now about 20 minutes. We decided to go ahead and do it now since we were already there. Lesson Learned: Get into the Soarin line FIRST then on your way out get the FPs if you arrive first thing in the morning. Unfortunately after all that we didn’t even make it back to use the FPs that day.

I’m pretty sure we went over to Mission Space and Test Track. By then World Showcase was opened so we walked over there.

(hail, hail, hail – haug)

We had our first AC cast member sighting in the UK. “Blondie” as he is known on the Yahoo boards was in the World Showcase Players gathering crowds for their performance of King Arthur. Jim’s been picked before, but not this time so we continued on our way.

We signed up our first Kim Possible Mission. On the way to pick up our Kimunicator we admired the topiaries.

We really liked the Kim Possible missions. It gave us an opportunity to notice items in each country that we hadn’t noticed before.

We had 1:00pm ADRs for the Biergarten. Everyone in our family loves the Biergarten and we have been every trip and this trip was no exception. We only had to wait a couple of minutes before we were seated and placed our beverage order. Jim ordered the “Big” beer and Cliff ordered a “smaller” one. We bellied up to the buffet and enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant. The band came on for their performance and although they didn’t do the Chicken Dance song (LOVE that song) it was a great lunch.

The rest of the afternoon we wandered around the park. Cliff just loves to have his picture taken (NOT) plus I promised I wouldn’t post his picture online so this is the best I can do.

We went back to our room for a short break and as it happened quite often, just as we were pulling up to the room the sky opened up and the rain came down.

We drove over to the Wilderness Lodge so we could check out Cliff’s room and view (sorry no pictures). We then took a relaxing boat trip over to the Magic Kingdom for the evening.

Sunset from the boat
We had dinner at the Columbia Harbor House – mmmm love the Tuna Sandwich. One of my favorite pictures from this trip.

Coming up next - AK, DHS (and another AC cast sighting) and Goofys Candy Company (I'm going to try and load my video)

 

[onelilspark]

Thought I'd stop by and say hi! I have a question: you mentioned that you were on WW, are you still doing it? I just started it, and I'd love any tips you have!

Have you been to F&W before?

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

Thought I'd stop by and say hi! I have a question: you mentioned that you were on WW, are you still doing it? I just started it, and I'd love any tips you have!

Have you been to F&W before?

Glad you hopped over!

I had been on WW for about 6 years. I originally lost 50lbs in about 3 years then the weight loss slowed to an extremely slow pace (to be honest I just lost my motivation to follow the program) I kept the weight off, but it took me another 3 years to lose another 8lbs. I decided I needed to try something different so I'm now tracking my calories/proteins/carbs/fat/fiber using SparkPeople and I also joined a WISH thread here on the DIS. I find I'm being much more accountable to my WISH thread since I can feel totally free about sharing my good and bad days. I had been doing WW at work and while it was good to not have to leave the office for the meetings I just didn't feel comfortable sharing EVERYTHING with the people at work. I've put the link to our WISH group in my siggie, feel free to drop on by and join - there are a lot of ladies that are doing WW and can share their tips/tricks with you. We have new members all the time and welcome everyone.

We went to F&W last year when I was trying to get back on track. The way that I was able to NOT go overboard on all the food that was around was to talk to Jim beforehand. I asked him if we could share any item that I was interested in (I'm a really picky eater, and he is not - the chance that I would want to eat something that he did not was very slim). He agreed so off we went. Whenever he ordered something if I wanted some of it, I'd ask him to save me the last bite. I was able to taste anything that I wanted but having the last bite made it so I wasn't tempted to keep nibbling. I also scoured the listings of all the food items at each kiosk and decided exactly what I wanted to try. There were a couple of places that I wanted my own plate (Germany - apple strudel - but don't buy it at the F&W kiosk, go to the counter and get twice as much for the basically the same price).

The other think I did was I ordered quite a few kids meals at the counter service places. The serving size is pretty good and you can now swap out fries for grapes or apple slices. I was never questioned why I was ordering a kids meal, although I didn't try this at any table service restaurant.

I do have a couple of items that I must have every single trip. One of them is a Mickey Premium Bar (8 points). I know that I'm going to get it and don't feel the least bit guilty because I watch all the other meals that day to balance it out.

The hardest part is trying to know how many points are in the items. Since there isn't a nutritional lable to read to figure out the points it is very frustrating. Drink lots of water and all the walking helps. I wore a pedometer and was very surprised at how many miles we walked (we averaged 8 miles and had a high of 13 miles during MNSSHP - we did a lot of trick-or-treating).

I just tried to not go hog wild on food because there is nothing worse than going home and having to lose those pounds again.

Feel free to ask any questions!

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

Jim’s notes start today so I have more information than just looking at pictures to remember what happened.

Our wonderful neighbors woke us up at 3:30 am with a blasting TV. We called the main desk to ask them to tell them to turn it down and luckily they did. We were able to fall back asleep for a couple more hours.

We were up, showered, dressed and out the door by 7:32am on our way to Animal Kingdom. This would be our first time on EE and we wanted to get fast passes so we could ride later in the day (we decided we wanted to wait for breakfast to settle a little before trying it).

We were let into the park early and saw the characters officially open the park.

We took a quick walk to EE got FP for later that morning. Then it was off to the Safari, we didn’t have to wait to long (around 20 minutes) back to EE for our FP ride, but we didn’t need to use them we were able to walk right on. We wanted to grab FPs for Kali River Rapids so we could ride that just before we left the park (I HATE walking around in wet clothes) but found out that they weren’t offering FPs at that time for Kali. Not quite sure why, but we decided we’d take our chances when we were ready to leave.

Cliff and I went on Primeval Whirl (Jim doesn’t like spinning rides) then stopped at Pizzafari for coffee for the boys. Cliff decided to hit the shops and Jim and I went to Camp Mickey/Minnie for pics with the big cheese. We only had a 10 minute wait, and just as it was our turn, Mickey needed to go grab a snack. I was hoping that he would bring back some cheesecake to share, but no such luck.

As a Scout Mom - I love this

We got our pictures (I have to find that CD) and headed out. Just as we were leaving the area I could tell that a migraine was coming on (I get optical migraines – pretty much get tunnel vision and everything gets fuzzy) we stopped and sat down and Jim got me a diet coke (sometimes caffeine stops it quicker). After about 20 minutes we decide to hit the First Aid station and see if they had any Tylenol. The wonderful cast member gave me an aspirin and Excedrin and told me to take one of each together. Since I didn’t really want to try any rides and couldn’t see much of anything we decided to see if we could get seated early for lunch. Thank goodness for cell phones, we called Cliff and he was able to talk to the cast member and get us and earlier seating. (We had 1:00pm ressies at Yak & Yeti, but they were able to seat us at 11:00am). Jim had to lead me around the park (eyes closed, head down trying to not get blasted by the sun) then had to read the entire menu to me. Luckily the migraine didn’t last throughout the entire lunch so I was able to see my food. We shared a Dim Sum Basket, I had the Baby Back Ribs and Jim had the Shrimp Lo Mein and a Yak Attack Daiquiri. (sorry I don’t have any pictures). We all really liked the lunch. The ribs were good (Jim and Cliff finished them off for me) not too spicy.

Our server must have been really good and fast because at 11:55 we were on our way to Kali River Rapids. Jim and Cliff are not huge AK fans so this was a really short stay. We got SOAKED of course. We still had the FPs from EE so I went over and gave them to a family that was just about to go into the stand-by line.

We left AK with plans to go back to our room and ordered Cliff a ticket to La Nuba for the next night) and then hit DHS.

We got to DHS just a tad before 2:00pm. The security people told us that there was supposed to be a shuttle launch in just a few minutes. So we waited and off in the distance we saw the vapor trail of the shuttle (it was very cool).

We wandered around the studios, saw Muppets, watched the Block Party Parade while trying to see if we could catch any streetmosphere acts. Normally Jim is not an AI fan but we had heard that some of the AC cast were working as judges so he was willing to check it out. We lucked out, were able to get 2nd row seats and we had our next AC sighting.

"Lancelot" as the "Simon" judge

Surprisingly the show was quiet good (we lucked out with three good singers).

After the show we met back up with Cliff and went to the Animation shop and just drooled over all the artwork that we would love to purchase if we could just hit those 6 lucky numbers.

We needed to hit DTD to pick up Cliff’s ticket by 6 so we wandered down watching more streetmosphere on the way out. After picking up the tickets we walked over to Earl of Sandwich (LOVE that place) wandered through World of Disney and then I was finally able to get the boys into Goofy’s Candy Company. I had heard about the rice krispy treats and I was bound and determined that I was going to get one this trip. I turned in my order and then decided to test out my new flip video camera. I hope this link works.
http://s647.photobucket.com/albums/uu200/2_Eagle_Mom/Skinny%20Island/?action=view&current=GoofysCandyVideo.flv
The answer is yes, it was FANTASTIC and it will now be a MUST DO for the beginning of every trip.

Since Cliff had driven to DHS and DTD we decided to take the launch back to OKW and have an easy night. It was starting to sprinkle as we were on the boat, but it was a wonderfully relaxing trip back to OKW. We borrowed Dinosaur and Road to Terabithia from Community Hall (free rentals for DVC owners) watched one of them (didn’t write that down) and were in bed by 11pm. We are SUCH the night animals aren’t we?

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

I've been working on another 2009 TR update but before I can post that I actually have purchases to talk about for this trip.

I was getting tired of shuffling all the cords for our electronics in their ziploc bags so on Saturday I went to the Container Store and bought a bunch of pouches - and they were on SALE! Now all the cords/accessories are now stored in separate bags. One for the GPS, one for my iPod stuff, one for my camera, one for my video camera, one for Jim and his camera, and one for Brendan (he can use it for his camera and iPod stuff). My bags are all blue and Jim and Brendan's are black so they shouldn't ever get confused and borrow my cords.

While I was there I noticed they also had some baggallini bags on sale as well (they are having a huge "travel sale") I've heard some great reveiws about the bags on the boards and there was one that looked like it would be the perfect park bag. Now last year when I was looking for the perfect park bag I finally settled on a bag that I found at the Eddie Baur outlet store. It was small enough that it wouldn't be too heavy to carry and fit inside the pouches on the rides, but looked like it would hold all my stuff. It worked well enought so I really don't need another park bag. I left the store and dismissed it.

Fast forward to Tuesday. I took today off to burn a PTO day and to get a bunch of chores done. I decided to get my sandals refirbished and found that instead of ordering the pre-paid pouch online I could go to the Mephisto store and pick up the bag and form thus saving a week on the time it would take to get my sandals back. New Mephisto sandals run $240 or I can spend $75 to get my old ones resoled, new insoles and leather refirbished. The downside is it can take 5-6 weeks so I need to get on it if I want to wear these sandals this summer. Well, guess where the Mephisto store is, but right across the street from the Container Store. I decided this was a sign and after I finished at the shoe store I went back in and looked at the bags. I decided to spring for it (heck, I can always use a new bag) and it was still on sale! I bought the wallet bagg and I'm so excited

Here are my purchases:

I tried stuffing my windbreaker jacket (it stuffs into a pouch) and I can fit it in the bag and still have room for other items. I still won't be able to carry a bottle of water, but Jim normally carries it and we share.

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

I had read quite a lot of PTRs and decided to borrow the idea of a Disney Movie night to pass the time before our trip. We have a lot of the movies but quite a few of them are on VHS. We started buying some of the movies on DVD and now on Blue Ray but found were bought duplicate DVDs (we are now the proud owners of 2 Wall-Es) and of course both of them are opened. I decided we needed to catalog all of our Disney movies. I found a list of Disney movies in chronological order and put together a spreadsheet to know exactly what we own. We were surprised at a couple of the movies that we did have and also surprised to find we didn't have a couple as well (no Sleeping Beauty or Fantasia 2000).

We've decided to watch the movies as much as possible in chronilogical order. The first night was Snow White and Pinocchio. I didn't do any themed food or anything, but maybe sometime in the future. On Thursday we watched Fantasia. Both Brendan and Charlotte fell asleep just after the dinosaur segment. We all reminised about how both Steven and Charlotte's brother had loved Fantasia when they were little and both would watch it every day if given the opportunity. The VHS tape WAS a little warped in places. We'll have to wait till this one comes out of the vault to purchase it on DVD.

Next up is The Reluctant Dragon - surprisingly we have it in a Walt Disney Treasures box set. To try and round out our collection we went to a half price book store and were able to find a couple of DVDs that we didn't have and we found a couple at Costco for under $10.

Just yesterday we found a travel DVD called "Disney Parks where dreams come true". It has behind the scenes of Disneyland Resort, Ultimate Walt Disney World and Undiscovered Disney Parks. We love watching travel videos so of course we had to have it. This morning Jim and I watched the Ultimate Walt Disney World. We didn't learn anything new, but it was cool seeing new shots of the parks/rides and attractions.

I've been working on the 09 TR but havne't gotten to uploading more pics. Hopefully later this week.

 

[onelilspark]

My friend and I watched all the animated Disney movies when we were in college. We made a list of all of them, then checked them off as we watched. Borrowed a lot from the other girls on the floor, but then headed to the local library to "rent" the rest. It was so much fun, plus it was cheap since we didn't have to go to Blockbuster to rent any

 

[Mndisneygirl]

I'm here! I came over from the WISH thread to visit.
I read all the chapter links (thank you!) and hopefully will have time to read the chit chat too!
Your trip looks like fun!
I love the movie nights idea - I'm going to do that too! We don't have that many weekends left and many of them are booked up with summer fun, but we'll try! I need to make a list too.

I've had to use pictures to remember stuff too - this trip I'm going to take better notes! I bought a journal last time and forgot it in the car - never got it out or used it. It's coming with me again!

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

Hi Sheree! Welcome!!!

Glad to have you join. I'd be terrible about taking notes, luckily Jim actually likes doing it. He started keeping notes when the kids were little and needed to write journals for school (yup we took them out of school to go to WDW) rotten parents aren't we? This time I'm planning on taking a lot of food porn and pictures of us in the park and not just scenery.

I can send you my spreadsheet if you would like. No need recreating the entire list.

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

My friend and I watched all the animated Disney movies when we were in college. We made a list of all of them, then checked them off as we watched. Borrowed a lot from the other girls on the floor, but then headed to the local library to "rent" the rest. It was so much fun, plus it was cheap since we didn't have to go to Blockbuster to rent any

Luckily I have a couple of friends that will most likely have anything that we don't have. I'm going to ask if we can borrow them when we get to that point.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Hi Sheree! Welcome!!!

Glad to have you join. I'd be terrible about taking notes, luckily Jim actually likes doing it. He started keeping notes when the kids were little and needed to write journals for school (yup we took them out of school to go to WDW) rotten parents aren't we? This time I'm planning on taking a lot of food porn and pictures of us in the park and not just scenery.

I can send you my spreadsheet if you would like. No need recreating the entire list.

I would LOVE that spreadsheet! Thank you! We've taken our kids out of school plenty to go to WDW. We're rotten parents too. Sometimes I think they learned more on vacation! Definitely different stuff.
Feel free to come on over to my PTR too! I'd love to have you. I don't have chapter links, but it's about 11 pages now.

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

I would LOVE that spreadsheet! Thank you! We've taken our kids out of school plenty to go to WDW. We're rotten parents too. Sometimes I think they learned more on vacation! Definitely different stuff.
Feel free to come on over to my PTR too! I'd love to have you. I don't have chapter links, but it's about 11 pages now.

I totally agree, my kids learned a ton while on vacation. We did have to stop once they were in Jr. High/High School it would just be too difficult making up the work (ok, to be honest - they were then taking stuff that I hadn't studied so I wouldn't be able to tell if they were doing the work right).

I'm already subcribed to your thread - I did want to ask you about the Hidden Mickey book. Who's the author? I didn't have luck finding it when I searched (might have been user error). PM me your email address and I'll send over the spreadsheet.

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

Today was our 25th Anniversary and we had lots of plans. We were out the door and ready for the day to start at 8:20am so we could get to Epcot for our Segway Tour around Worldshowcase. I had made us anniversary t-shirts. Charlotte had drawn the Mickey & Minnie for me and I added a design from OrchJoe from the DISign boards.

The back of the shirt

We met at Guest Services and were walked over to Innoventions to watch an instructional video and get instruction about how the Segways worked. Jim was very excited to do this tour. I tend to be the klutz of the family so I was worried that I would be falling off (heck, if I don’t hold on to the handrails on the treadmill I fall – Yup klutz). Anyway after we were all geared up with helmets and pads we were off to the indoor training grounds. Now getting on the thing is a little daunting when you first look at it. I mean it only has two wheels and you have to step right between the two of them, bending your knees and balance. Sounds complicated. Our Segway Tour Guide Anne was REALLY patient and had each one of us step on while she stood in front of the segway (brave woman). She promised us that in the many years that she had been teaching how to ride Segway’s she hadn’t lost anyone yet. Luckily Jim and I were in the back of the class and were able to watch the rest of the group struggle through their first step. Jim got to go first and after they had to extend the handle up so he wouldn’t be hunched over to steer he was able to stand on it after getting a good grasp of the “Segway Shuffle” (that’s a forward/back motion that you first have when you are trying to get your center of gravity). Maybe it was because I was last, or maybe because I just have a natural talent (yeah right) I actually got the hang of it quickly. The guide then explained to us that it is much easier for shorter people because our center of gravity is so much lower, but a taller person has difficulty because their center of gravity is higher and thus harder to get the hang of it. For once being short had its advantage. We also met our World Showcase Tour Guide, her name was Anna and she was from Brazil and it was her last day. She was finished with her year assignment and would be traveling for a little bit and then going back home.

We spent about 30 minutes or so learning how to maneuver the machines: going forward, backwards, right turns, left turns, quick stops, ducking under “branches” and “walking” the segway over obstacles (like hoses, not small children). After the indoor training was completed we got to “parade it” to the World Showcase. We smiled and waved to all the Disney guests that were green with envy that we were on segways and they weren’t! Jim and I always took the rear of the parade, it was fun to be in the back and watch everyone stop and stare at us. Plus we were able to chat with Anne and hear all about her career at Disney.

Our toured three countries (China, Japan and Italy). We stopped in each country and Anna told us a brief description of the architecture and scenery, but honestly I don’t remember much about it.

Both China and Japan were pretty much obstacle courses in Japan we went around the pond and up and over the bridge. In Italy we got to do our own thing and just cruise around and take pictures. We had a fantastic time but the tour was over too quickly, we had to take the Segways back to Innoventions.

We took pictures with Anna and Anne and we did a walk by the Velcro show and through the window we saw another AC Cast member, we waited for the next show, but he must have been on a break, the show was cute but we were sorry to miss Snoopy (AC Cast member nickname). We went out to the front of the park to finally track down a Photopass photographer. We did a photopass share with some other DIS members but hadn’t seen any photographers yet. Our first of MANY anniversary day photos.

We decided to head over to World Showcase and get some Fish & Chips for Jim. On the way we spotted an older gentleman bent over and what appeared to be his wife bending down to talk to him. It looked like he might be hurt so we went over and checked on them to make sure we didn’t need to call for assistance. They were very nice; the man had back issues and was trying to stretch it out. It was good to know he was fine and we were on our way to fish & chips. I took my mandatory one bite of fish and one French fry and let Jim enjoy the rest. On our way over to Morocco we picked up a Kimunicator pass to do another mission. I got the veggie platter in Morocco, for a picky eater and someone that normally does not try new things I tried this plate once and it is one of my favorites and normally get it at least once each trip. I love the falafel balls and taboule salad and the hummus is yummy.

We did the KP mission in China, then watched the movie, wandered over to Canada and watched the new version of that movie. I really like the updated version. I just wish they would add some sort of seating (heck you could add come low bar stool things that could swivel). By this time we decided to head back to the room to take a break before our dinner ressies.

We stopped at the International Gateway shop and I had a wonderful conversation with a cast member. In Jim’s notes he has “chatty guy” but I really liked our conversation he told me all about his family, his hobbies, etc.
By the time we were pulling up to the room the rains once again came and there was a huge thunderstorm. We were really glad that we weren’t out in it and could just watch from inside our nice comfy room.

Jim took a nap and I watched TV. We showered and changed and I surprised Jim by putting on a dress for dinner. I NEVER wear dresses but Jim is always trying me to get to buy them. I had smuggled the dress in my bag (trust me it was hard to not let him see it before I came out of the bathroom). He did like the new outfit and we took off for the Grand Floridian.

It was still sprinkling so we took an umbrella and I had my pashmina. When we arrived at the GF we asked the valet if we would be walking outside to get to Narcoosees and if we would need the umbrella he said no so off we went. Well, you do need to go outside the main building and walk outside to get to the restaurant. Oh well, pashmina to the rescue and we just puddle jumped our way to the restaurant in the sprinkling rain.

Dinner at Narcoosees was very nice. Sorry I didn’t take pictures of all of our dishes. Jim had the calamari appetizer and scallops for the entrée. I had the salad and the filet. We watched Wishes from the patio and then back to the table for dessert.

Jim's Almond Cheesecake

My chocolate cake

We ARE an old married couple and even though we slowly walked back to the car were back at OKW by 9:30pm to call home to talk to the boys.

Next up – Tonga Toast and MK

 

[gellybean]

I'm here and all caught up!!

I'm sad to admit I never made it to the Adventurer's Club.

Don't hate me.....




I'm sure I would have loved it!

Your trip sounds like a lot of fun. I can't wait to hear all about the Beach Club Villas. It's my sister's favorite resort, and I don't dare stay there on a trip she's not with me. I'll have to live vicariously through you.

 

[tlenzendorf]

Sounds like a great trip planned so far! I really wish I could go to the party! I went in 2003 to WDW with DD-then 4 and ex-hubby. We walked thru PI crossing from one end of DTD to the other and it looked like so much fun. I was excited to be able to go there in a few years and then they closed it down I'm also excited to hear about your F&W experiences since we are looking forward to it next October!

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

We LOVE F&W. If Jim could he would buy one of everything. I'll make sure to take more pics this year.

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

As I mentioned before we are trying to watch Disney movies in chronilogical order each week before we leave. Of course we have to work around everyones schedule and that can be challenging. Brendan works at McDonald's and he pretty much works all weekend long when Jim and I are off. So last week when Brendan and Charlotte were at the house we figured we would knock out a couple more movies. I had wanted to coordinate snacks with the movies, but since it was a last minute viewing I didn't have anything prepared.

Anyway, we watched The Reluctant Dragon and Dumbo. I think I've seen parts of the reluctant dragon before, but it was interesting seeing the movie and the behind the scenes movie that was on the DVD. Of course we loved Dumbo. This was another one of Steven's favorites when he was little. In fact we had a Dumbo themed birthday party for him.

No surprise that both kids fell asleep before the end of Dumbo. Do you see a pattern?

Next up Bambi and Saludos Amigos/Three Cabayeros.

 

[jenny105]

Hi! I've seen your trip report before but I'm not sure why I haven't commented until now Especially since we're going the same week! So jealous you're staying at BCV! I stayed there for 2 nights last year. Stormalong Bay is awesome and you just can't beat the location. Looking forward to reading more about your trip.

Are you going to visit Harry Potter? I read that you were worried about crowds and honestly, Universal in the fall on a weekday? Dead. It may be a little busier because of the new attraction but I think that area of the park will be crowded and the rest, not so much. All the crowds will be there over the summer I think!

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

Hi Jenny! Welcome!

We had thought about doing the HP thing, but we are trying to keep the costs down this trip and purchasing tickets for US just isn't in the cards. Plus I don't know how much pre-event stuff I'll be doing before the ConGaloosh event so I didn't want to get too many things planned.

We watched the preview show on TV and we've been looking at the stuff on the web and it looks REALLY cool, but it sounds like it is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. We are hoping that the US store in the airport will be selling butterbeer so we can taste it.

Aimee - We are really looking forward to BCV as well. Way back when we first joined the DVC we could go to stormalong bay, but haven't been since the kids were little. I'm really looking forward to relaxing in the lazy river and popping over to Beaches & Cream for an ice cream.

Tricia - I wish you were going as well. Hopefully it will be a great success and we'll be able to plan another one for 2011 and you could come to that. It doesn't show on the official site but I just heard we are at 60% capacity so it looks like there is interest out there to see the cast and revisit the good times. It was such a unique concept and entertainment. I just wish we would have been able to go more often. I still keep hope alive that they will bring back the club in some shape or form in the future.

We have plans for our next movie night on Thursday. I thought we could do chips/salsa and tropical fruit smoothies for Saludos Amigos in honor of the South American movie. But I need help with suggestions on what foods I can coordinate with Bambi. NOT going to do venison (as Brendan suggested - he has such a warped sence of humor).

Suggestions???

 

[jenny105]

I've seen pictures of HP and I think it looks amazing. So much detail went into it. I know the castle is part of the actual ride attraction. My co-worker went on a business trip to Universal last week and they took her to see it. She said it takes an hour to walk through the castle. I guess if you're not into Harry Potter, that'd be boring, but I love it and can't wait to see what it looks like. I'll give you a full report!