"Anythings possible, for a Possible!" - Oct 15-25 TR(Final thoughts 5/25-Post 249!)

[skier_pete]

We cannot go into Epcot without a stop at the Seas. DD is into animals in general, but has an especially big crush on sea creatures. Finding Nemo was probably the first movie that ever went into that whole "constant rotation" theme - when she was about 2.5 years old. She hasn't really watched it in a long time, but she always enjoys looking at the fishes.

After riding the Nemo ride (and me cursing the queue - who the heck designed this GIANT queue that you have to walk ALL the way through no matter how non-existant the line is) we went out into the aquarium. DD wanted to take a few pictures herself, so I let her have the camera for a bit:

Look we found him...can we go home now?

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

MY Bubbles!

Tad and Sheldon - but no sign of Pearl!

Uh, Oh...an eel!

DD wouldn't even pose for the traditional "Bruce" picture, so I volunteered to stand in:

We spent about an hour wandering around the pavillion. We were actually there for one of the scheduled Dolphin demonstrations, but just as they got all set for it, they said the Dolphin had been "distracted" and they cancelled it. (Boo!) We didn't see Turtle Talk with Crush - DD doesn't seem to care for it that much - which is fine by me. It's something that's neat the first few times, but after that it gets kind of stale.

So, it's now around 11 AM - we decide that we'll go a grab Soarin' FP and head over to see Captain EO. These are the only FP we bother with today, we are having dinner at the Garden Grill and I figure that we'll do the rest of the pavillion either before or after dinner. I go get the FP while DW and DD wait outside. DD is putting a band-aid on her foot, and DD is asking for ice cream. I tell DW that I'll take DD on ahead to get the ice cream, and we'll meet her at the Dancing Fountains by Imagination. Well, the ice cream stand was not operating (they couldn't accept money for some reason) so we headed over to Imagination. Well, after 10 minutes wait, no wife. Turns out she misunderstood (or I explained badly, I won't give all the fault to her) and went over to the main future world fountain. After I tried calling her (she NEVER EVER EVER hears her cell phone) she finally called me back a little later. I didn't get mad at her, knowing I could as well be to blame - though she was a bit miffed. In the meantime, DD was having fun playing with the fountains, and we took a few shots.

Mickey says: "How come my peeps can't come up with a better Pavillion based on imagination! Come On Guys!"

DW arrives - and we enter the queue for Captain Eo. DD has been resisting seeing it...she generally doesn't like the 3-D movies, and particularly hated HIStA. We kept telling her it was Micheal Jackson (she knows Beat it and Thriller - her and her friends like those two a lot) and it would be "like Star Wars but with dancing". Well, she throws a fit..."NOOOOO! NOOOO!" This gets old after 4 years and 5 visits. We tell her either we are going to see this or we're going back to the hotel and sitting in our room. Fight lasts about 10 minutes, finally they are letting people in, and I forget now how we finally cajoled her, but she went in.

Then, we had to sit through the pre-show....this is painfully boring...where they show you behind-the-scenes stuff of making Captain Eo, without actually showing you anything significant. Lots of hooey abour "3 great minds , George Lucas, Francis Ford Copolla, Micheal Jackson". Should've been an early indication of where Lucas was going with the Star Wars franchise...

We make it into the show....this is the first time seeing it for all of us. I speak for the family when I say: "Glad I saw it, never need to see it again!" People makes lots of excuses for it ("It was the eighties.") - yeah, well I grew up in the eighties - and much of the cinema of the eighties wasn't that bad. Hell, nothing in Star Wars was ever THAT bad. This stuff made "The Dark Crystal" look like genius....ugh. It was also really, really, LOUD, which is part of what DD hates about these 3-D movies. The only (marginally) redeeming part is the Micheal Jackson song & dance part - which was a pretty lousy song, but at least the dancing was good. Truthfully - HIStA is vastly superior.

Anyways, DD didn't completely hate it, but it left me feeling like - can we PLEASE replace this 3-D movie with sometime new and modern? I really hope once the DCA re-do and fantasy-land expansion are done, they put some money into this pavillion. Disney's whole basis of design is Imagination - It's called IMAGINEERING for god's sake. This ride/movie should be the HIGHLIGHT of Epcot. (I for one don't think the ride is as terrible as many do, nor do I think that the original "Journey to the Imagination" ride was any good - they were all low-level dark rides that were fine diversions but not top moments of the park. Now with Kodak gone and the outlet of the ride looking like a barren warehouse - just please, please, please do SOMETHING here!

OK, enough of my rant - it was coming up on noon-time, and food and wine were beckoning our hungry tummies!

Up next - 3/4 around the world in a few hours!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Love NEMO!

That's a great picture of you in the jaws of Bruce!

And I see you share a similar view of Captain Eo!

 

[skier_pete]

Love NEMO!

That's a great picture of you in the jaws of Bruce!

And I see you share a similar view of Captain Eo!

I don't know how anyone could view EO as more than a curiousity and relic of earlier times. It was fine that they brought it back, but if it's still there next November, I'll be a bit disappointed. (Though I actually expect it to be.)

 

[If U Had Wings]

I found it funny reading your recent posts. I think I'm completely opposite on these few attractions. I guess that's what makes Disney great. There is something for everyone.

While the main part of TT is too long, for me it's all worth it for that final spin outside around the track. I love it. For me that little bit rates up there with Soarin for one of my favorite things at Epcot. The Nemo ride and building I'm a little less excited about. The Crush attraction is my favorite part. Maybe it comes from too many years of being dragged to the Mystic Aquarium on class trips, but everything else bores me a bit.

I'll admit that EO is dated, I do like it much much more than HISTA. That film was just looking so worn and dated when I saw it back in December. This was a fun change. I use to love it as a kid, and as an adult I'm glad that I wasn't surrounded by screaming kids for once. The entire pavillion there needs to be overhauled. My favorite part was always the upper level play area. I loved those pin tables, and the rainbow corridor thing.

 

[skier_pete]

I found it funny reading your recent posts. I think I'm completely opposite on these few attractions. I guess that's what makes Disney great. There is something for everyone.

While the main part of TT is too long, for me it's all worth it for that final spin outside around the track. I love it. For me that little bit rates up there with Soarin for one of my favorite things at Epcot. The Nemo ride and building I'm a little less excited about. The Crush attraction is my favorite part. Maybe it comes from too many years of being dragged to the Mystic Aquarium on class trips, but everything else bores me a bit.

I'll admit that EO is dated, I do like it much much more than HISTA. That film was just looking so worn and dated when I saw it back in December. This was a fun change. I use to love it as a kid, and as an adult I'm glad that I wasn't surrounded by screaming kids for once. The entire pavillion there needs to be overhauled. My favorite part was always the upper level play area. I loved those pin tables, and the rainbow corridor thing.

Not sure how I expressed it badly - but the "Final Spin" is also the only part of TT I like...so we agree there.

And I guess I'm not saying I love The Seas per se, but my DD does. I grew up with Mystic and Boston aquariums, and so agree that The Seas is not much compared to them, but DD loves it - so there you go! I thought Crush was excellent the first time I saw it (back in the little theater where they have the fish tanks now), but after 4 or 5 times, each show seemed the same. I much like the "Laugh Floor" use of the same technology.

EO - well I guess we definitely differ there, though I did say that HISTA needs to go as well. I never had the fortune to see the upper level play area. The overhaul of that attraction is one thing EVERYONE agrees on!

 

[khertz]

What a great photo! I hope you printed it out & framed it. That's what I would have done, at least. lol

I have never really taken the time to explore The Seas exhibit. I guess I am not much of a sea life person. But now that we'll be taking a little one, I'm sure we'll spend more time in areas like that. Kids seem to love them! We have aquariums in the lobby at the hospital where I work, and the kids go NUTS over them, especially because they are all fish from Nemo.

Great updates!

 

[skier_pete]

What a great photo! I hope you printed it out & framed it. That's what I would have done, at least. lol

I have never really taken the time to explore The Seas exhibit. I guess I am not much of a sea life person. But now that we'll be taking a little one, I'm sure we'll spend more time in areas like that. Kids seem to love them! We have aquariums in the lobby at the hospital where I work, and the kids go NUTS over them, especially because they are all fish from Nemo.

Great updates!

Thanks! And your right that most kids do LOVE looking at fish. I think partly it's because - when you think about it - they are sort of "out of this world".

Thanks for the comments - I haven't thought to frame this one - I would probably crop it a bit if I did - get that CM on the right the heck outta there.

We do a calander every year featuring pictures of DD for the family - via VistaPrint - they are super cheap (maybe $12 each) and you can download the pictures right from home. I was thinking this year of also producing our own Disney calender as well...maybe that could be one of the months of the year!

 

[norybell]

I totally agree with you about TT being boring (except for the speed part). If I'm riding it in the dark -- when the fast bit feels even faster -- then I feel like it's worth it. In the daylight, no way.

I loved Captain EO, though, even more than I did as a kid! I felt like I was in a cheesy '80s music video, which I appreciate more now than I did back then. Not sure what that says about me...

I just read Realityland (which was awesome) and learned that when the Disney execs wanted to change Journey into Imagination the first time, they changed the placement of the queue in such a way that it was much harder to find (or something like that, I don't remember the exact details), and this led to fewer people riding it, and then they convinced Kodak that it had to change because it was unpopular. Even though they're the ones that made it less popular, on purpose. Which is such a bummer, because I loved the original!

 

[skier_pete]

I just read Realityland (which was awesome) and learned that when the Disney execs wanted to change Journey into Imagination the first time, they changed the placement of the queue in such a way that it was much harder to find (or something like that, I don't remember the exact details), and this led to fewer people riding it, and then they convinced Kodak that it had to change because it was unpopular. Even though they're the ones that made it less popular, on purpose. Which is such a bummer, because I loved the original!

I don't know that I would totally agree with that interpretation. In my memory - Journey to the Imagination was never a particular popular ride. I remember riding the original version in 1997 (I don't remember it at all from a kid) and thinking it was kind of *meh*.

If it had been popular in the first place - they never would have re-done the ride to the begin with. Now, the general consensus is Version 2 was pretty awful, and the fact that it was changed within a few years would indicate. However, I don't the lack of popularity can strictly be blamed on the queue. If you think about it - they tucked Soarin' away in the bottom back corner of the land pavillion - and NO-ONE has any problem finding that.

I've ridden Version 1 and Version 3 now - and my point is, neither was a particularly good ride. The character of "Figment" is a good character with good potential. I was thinking about what SHOULD be done with this ride - there should be a way to make this an immersive interactive event - kind of lilke the videos at the end of Spaceship Earth. As part of the queuing process...guests would "build" there own ride experience, selecting things like setting - choosing some of the characters, having there faces scanned to be included in the images....they'd be grouped into groups of ~16 (think about the current ride vehicle designs - 4 vehicles of 4 riders each = 16) and then, using the existing track set-up, change it so that there are both some live action elements and some 3-D / video elements. The ride itself would be a demonstration of how everyone's ideas/imagination is used to build the ride. Every ride would be a different experience based on the deicisions made by the group riding it. Figment (and even dreamfinder) could certainly be incorporated into THAT ride.

SkierPete

 

[skier_pete]

OK, what the heck is wrong with me! Every trip we go on I say to myself "I've got to take lots of pictures so I can post in my TR!" I really feel that's what people want to see in TRs. They don't care about my tammering. Pictures please, right?

Well, then I get home and go - how is it we walked 2/3 of the way around World Showcase eating various foods - and I didn't take a single picture of any of them?

Again, what's wrong with me. Perhaps I was drunk. (No, I wasn't really.) So, i apologize that this post is more "wordy" than I would have liked. I considered trying to dig up pix of the food on-line, but who was I kidding.

Well, before entering World Showcase - we went to the Kim Possible station at the entrance and picked up a pass to do the England one - the one that we hadn't done yet. DD loves the KP missions, and in fact it is totally what got her interested in KP, why she is dressed that way for Halloween, and why Disney is totally missing out on getting cash from us for merchandise, because instead I have to buy it all used on e-bay.

Anyways, entering WS, I stopped at the "15 Beers for 15 years" booth and got an Abita (sp?) which is a Lousiana beer that I find quite tasty. We started to the right (towards Canada / counter clock-wise) and stopped at the New Zealand booth. I had a lamb Slider and DW had the scallop both were very tasty.

One comment I have to make about food and wine - best use of snack credits EVER. While I don't go particular out of my way to maximize the DDP value, one of our rules is "if a snack is under $3, pay OOP, over $3, use a snack credit". Well, with food & wine, most things were $4 and up, and some as high as $7. We ended up using 11 snack credits (of our 15 we had available) on the day, and I think the average cost was about $5. It was also super-nice to not think about all the money your burning through.

We used one CS credit to get DD a hot dog and chips at a stand at this point. We wanted to try Greece, but the lines were huge, instead we got two of the Sausage and Polenta's at Canada - also very tasty. We next headed to England. (Can't be bothered with the Canadian pavillion - we'd just been to the REAL Canada two weeks before - the souvenir shops look exactly the same.) Though we didn't try any food in England DD and I did the KP mission while DW watched the World Showcase players perform. Very entertaining, plus at least one character was a former Adventurer's Club CM - Kungaloosh!

We also saw Alice and Mary Poppins, but the lines were pretty long and DD was continuing to be anti-character - so we moved onto:

France. DD and I did another KP mission. This was one we had done before, and for whatever reason most of the individual items were repeats from the last time. After that one, DD had had enough. But, meanwhile, DW went to get her picture taken with HER favorite character:

While trying to meet up after that, we ended up seeing them setting up for Server Amusant - we'd never seen this before, and it was a pretty impressive show. The one "waiter" stacked chairs one on top of the other, and then would balance on the top of them, doing handstands and such, while the other joked (silently except for a whistle) and got the crowd involved. It was very very entertaining:

After that, We kept moving around WS. The crowds built throughout the day, but it was never really terrible. Some lines for the booths were longer than others, but never real bad. We got a slushie in Morocco (non-alcoholic), the lamb chop from the Aussie booth (yum!), a crab cake and lobster roll in America (double-yum!) and spatzle and a sausage on a pretzel roll in Germany. I also got a big German beer here. Then, we discovered our new favorite thing in WS:

Karamel Kuche! Holy moly, did that place smell heavenly. I'm not a big sweet eater, but caramel sure tastes good, especially fresh caramel. Again, I didn't take pictures, but I had the chocolate / carmel coated marshmallows shown above, DD has a chocalate-carmel pretzle, and DW had a carmel/pecan concoction that was amazing! (recommend checking out this link to PrincessInOz's TR - she took some great pictures of the treats there! (Hope you don't mind me using your TR Princess!)

 

[skier_pete]

It was getting on near 4:30 PM - and we needed to be at dinner at 6 PM and DD wanted to do the mexico boat ride, so we took the boat from Germany/Italy across the WS lagoon, and headed to Mexico. DW wanted to pick up something at the store in Norway, so DD and I ended up doing the ride just the two of us. We got inside to Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros, and there was a line! Not just a small line, an honest-to-goodness take up the entire queue LINE. I'd NEVER seen that for this ride. I guess it was getting more and more crowded as we went on that day. I spoke with a CM in Mexico and they said it was NOTHING compared to the Saturday crowds for F&W.

Anyways, on our way back to The Land, we came across Duffy the Marketing Bear. DD didn't want pictures, but we took them anyways - after all, Duffy IS a brand-new character! I have photopass pictures, but no regular pics.

So, next up - THE GARDEN GRILL Review

 

[If U Had Wings]

Those caramel things look delicious! My mouth is watering a bit as I'm reading this. Yum!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Your Epcot F&W day sounds so much like mine! Eat, eat, watch entertainment, take a picture with Marie.....head to Karamell Kuche and pig out! And then Duffy.

I loved KP missions. My DS ended up doing everyone single one of them in May. I think the KPM helped make Epcot his favourite park for that trip.

What gives with the 3 Cabelleros? A line? That is unheard of!

Thanks for linking to my TR! Feel free to do that anytime!

 

[skier_pete]

Those caramel things look delicious! My mouth is watering a bit as I'm reading this. Yum!

Man, they were good. And the smell...oy!

Your Epcot F&W day sounds so much like mine! Eat, eat, watch entertainment, take a picture with Marie.....head to Karamell Kuche and pig out! And then Duffy.

I loved KP missions. My DS ended up doing everyone single one of them in May. I think the KPM helped make Epcot his favourite park for that trip.

What gives with the 3 Cabelleros? A line? That is unheard of!

Thanks for linking to my TR! Feel free to do that anytime!

When reading your TR I was thinking the same thing - just post a link and say "Just read this - it's what we did!" Your pictures at KK were so great, I just couldn't help but link to them! Not sure why I didn't take many pictures that day, sometimes we just get too busy actually enjoying ourselves!

 

[skier_pete]

Here's hoping everyone's Thanksgiving was good. I've been going through some rough stuff at work, but looks like I have time for an update.

We had a dinner reservation for Garden Grill at 6 PM. I would have to say, I have wanted to eat at this restaurant for a while, but we've always prioritized other restaurants above trying this one. But, I like the idea very much of the rotating restaurant overlooking the ride. However, the reviews on this restaurant have been very mixed. But, both DD and DW were very excited when they found out we were dining there.

We got there about 15 minutes before our ADR time, and waited about 10 minutes before we were seated. There are two rows of seats that are around the central hub. The lower seats have a MUCH better view of the Land ride. We were in the top row, and I have to say that in the future if we eat here again, I would tell the hostess that we would wait for a "lower" table. You really can't see much from the top level.

Once we were seated, the first thing I did was search our "laashley" and her family, another DISer traveling at the same time. It is always fun to meet a DISer. After that, we went back to our seating, and "ordered". You don't really order, though, as the meal is a family style standard fare meal. Before we even got our drinks, we had a couple of characters come through - Pluto and Chip:

The character interaction was great. Chip and Dale are especially fun. Dale "snuck" up on DW...coming up behind her and tapping her on the shoulder. She played along a screeched! I also have to say that the set-up of the restaurant (two levels that are circular) made it very easy to tell when a character was coming to your table. We also saw all the characters come through twice, which a nice treat.

After Pluto and Chip, DD and I walked around the whole restaurant, checking out the views of the Land ride. Our food came out quick. First and salad and some various breads, which were all very tasty. Dinner had three options - Turkey with stuffing, whitefish (forget what kind) over vegetables, and tenderloin beef and mashed potatos.

All of these were very good. The beef probably the least...the vegetables were the best, as well as the potatos. For kids, they had a separate "family style" plate that included broccoli, mac and cheese, chicken and sweet potato fries.

I was surprised that they would serve sweet potato fries to kids. Our DD did not want to even try them. The chicken was really the only hit. However, most of it was pretty palatable from my tastes...it's just we have one of the few children on the planet that doesn't really like mac and cheese.

As dinner arrived, so did Mickey and Dale:

We were very full, but there was still dessert left to get. The kids got a brownie sundae, while us adults got Apple Cobbler:

In actuality, I thought the sundae was better than the cobbler, though it wasn't bad either.

Overall, it was a very nice meal. The food was good and plentiful, and while I wouldn't go overboard with praise at it's quality, for a "family style" dinner it was all quite tasty with enough variety. The restaurant itself was very unique, and the character interaction strong. I would rate this one a 3.5 out of 5 stars. I do have to say, I would much prefer coming here over Chef Mickey's. While you get the whole "gang" at CM, the food there is probably the worst I've had at WDW. Though the variety here was less, the food quality was higher. Talking to DD - we will very likely choose to eat here again on our next trip. SHE said she would prefer it over CM as well.

After dinner, we headed downstairs to ride LwtL, but it was just past 7 PM, and the ride CLOSED at 7 PM. Drat! I guess we now knew at least one thing we were doing on our "extra" day!

So instead, we headed over to Soarin'. Once I get over my initial phobia trying to get me to run away screaming, I really enjoy Soarin'. It's actually the only ride that "scares" me. I have this odd fear of heights above water that several scenes in Soarin' trigger bad feelings in me...the opening scene over SF and the kayaking, as well as the monterey shore and the aircraft carrier later in the show. It's a real phobia, but I refuse to let irrational fears limit what I can do, so I usually just fight through it, and really enjoy most of the ride. (It helps that we've been to many of the real places shown in the movie as well.)

Once we wrapped that up, we headed over to Spaceship Earth. The ride got stuck at one point, and we had to sit and watch the roman's mumble about their road system for about 10 minutes. Afterwards, DD and I played the energy puck game in the exit area. By this time, it was about 8:15 PM, and we debated about whether to stay for Illuminations. The decision was "No!" thanks to our little No-bird, but she wanted to hop around the LED light squares on the ground outside SSE. This is one of her absolute favorite things. She ended up meeting another little girl there, and we talked with the parents while they played. Turned out they were also staying at AKL. WE ended up staying there until almost 9 PM, when we finally decided to call it a day and beat the Illuminations crowds.

Overall, we had a very good time on our only full Epcot day. We pretty much did everything we had wanted to do, with the exception of riding the Living with the Land ride.

Next up - Day 3 @ Typhoon Lagoon!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Sounds like Garden Grill was a great place to have a family dinner. I love the shot of your DD with Mickey! She looked like she could have stayed there all night.

 

[JLR]

Hi Pete. I enjoyed your day at Epcot! I had been looking for the wrong TR title (I thought yours was something like a trip on the wild side) and finally I checked the link on your signature in my TR to find this. At least I had several updates to enjoy! It is snowing out, so it is nice to read about sunny Disney!

You know, the cure for a phobia is to do what you're scared of. Therefore, I think you should show them this on your next trip and ask for an unlimited supply of Soarin FPs so you can ride it over and over to cure this very serious anxiety disorder

I'm sorry you missed LwtL - we had that problem with Monsters Inc. Always something to look forward to - but it sounds like you got that covered later in this trip. I did not have a good track record for getting back to the things I missed.

 

[laashley]

The carmel store sounds and looks so good. I was sad we didn't make time to check it out.

I have a question about picking the KP mission. How did you get the one you wanted, where did you get the ticket? We have always gotten the ticket at innoventions, then when we get to the country where we pick up the kimmunicator the mission was already chosen. Would appreciate some tips.

I agree with your review of Garden Grill. Loved the characters and the food was pretty good. The kids barely ate anything, but they had fun!

 

[skier_pete]

Sounds like Garden Grill was a great place to have a family dinner. I love the shot of your DD with Mickey! She looked like she could have stayed there all night.

Yup, she was having a great time at that restaurant. While she is generally not into the characters - she is SO into the classic Disney characters...she adores Mickey. But, of course we tell her that he is the guy in charge...the head honcho, the big cheese..."the Boss, the King, the Shah" to quote Genie - or more specifically Howard Ashman.

Hi Pete. I enjoyed your day at Epcot! I had been looking for the wrong TR title (I thought yours was something like a trip on the wild side) and finally I checked the link on your signature in my TR to find this. At least I had several updates to enjoy! It is snowing out, so it is nice to read about sunny Disney!

You know, the cure for a phobia is to do what you're scared of. Therefore, I think you should show them this on your next trip and ask for an unlimited supply of Soarin FPs so you can ride it over and over to cure this very serious anxiety disorder

I'm sorry you missed LwtL - we had that problem with Monsters Inc. Always something to look forward to - but it sounds like you got that covered later in this trip. I did not have a good track record for getting back to the things I missed.

"Goin' Wild Disney Style" was the pre-trip report. Glad you were able to catch up, though! I suspect Disney won't give me extra FP to cure my phobia. Personally, I think a phobia is not something you can "cure" per se...only you can train yourself enough to overcome it.

We DID get back to LwtL on our last day. DD really likes it for some reason. DW and I enjoy it too, though I always spend the first portion cracking Jungle Cruise jokes - "Look, there's ole Smiley - he's always looking for a handout...and there's his girlfriend Ginger. Stay away from Ginger - because Ginger Snaps!"

The carmel store sounds and looks so good. I was sad we didn't make time to check it out.

I have a question about picking the KP mission. How did you get the one you wanted, where did you get the ticket? We have always gotten the ticket at innoventions, then when we get to the country where we pick up the kimmunicator the mission was already chosen. Would appreciate some tips.

I agree with your review of Garden Grill. Loved the characters and the food was pretty good. The kids barely ate anything, but they had fun!

Guess you'll have to buy some caramel in December, right!

So, when you get your KP fastpass at Innovations (or where-ever), you've already been assigned a country - you can figure out which one by looking at the code at the bottom of the ticket (small print). It usually doesn't do any good to ask for a specific country at that point. Once you get to the station where they are giving out the Kimmunicators - at THAT point ask the CM nicely saying "You know, we've done most of them, but we've never gotten to do Germany (or your country of choice)...can we possibly do that one?" They will usually go over to the screen and can program your Kimmunicator to do the one you want. After you do the first one, the device itself gives you the option of picking additional ones (usually) but you are restricted to its list of choices at that point (I've seen where the choice is only 1 - other times the choice is among many.) so it's always good to ask to do the one you want first. I think my personal favorites are Germany, Japan and China, though we've done them all, and none of them are really bad.

 

[onescgirl]

We ate at GG for the 2nd time. We like the food, but the food is not our top restaurant. But, for characters & peace, it is one of our top restaurants.
My kids did not like the potato fries, but I LOVED them! I ate theirs.

I love the pictures of Dale & your DD, she looks adorable!

Does the top level rotate? For reason, I was thinking that I heard that it didn't. From reading the Dis, we knew to ask for the bottom level. I just hate that I didn't know that you didn't know, or I would've told you. I try to let everyone know to request the bottom level.