"Are you done with that?!" A photo heavy, gluttonous, Jan 2012 Trip Report! NEW PG32

[-Hope-]

I love it too, it's one of my favorites! Are WE going to have a meltdown when it's just us? That's what I want to know!

About what?

Oh no, we BOTH want to stop to take pictures!

Oh no, we BOTH want to arrive before RD!

Oh no, we BOTH want to beat the crowds to the headliners and come back to look around later!

Oh no, we BOTH want to stop and have a margarita!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

About what?

Oh no, we BOTH want to stop to take pictures!

Oh no, we BOTH want to arrive before RD!

Oh no, we BOTH want to beat the crowds to the headliners and come back to look around later!

Oh no, we BOTH want to stop and have a margarita!

We're the perfect match for Disney! It's ok though, even if we have a meltdown, we will probably have it together! More margaritas all around!

 

[jecskc]

Looking forward to your Via Napoli update. We have a Ressie there in April. Loving your TR

 

[Victoriasmom98]

I've never had a marguerita meldown......I should try that!

 

[jpmom97]

Yay, so excited to see an update! Finally remembered how to subscribe!

 

[katt789]

Yay updates!! I have yet to eat at Sunshine Seasons, I always think I should, but then end up eating through WS instead. That sucks about the meal plan stuff not working out. I find that sometimes, the dining plan is just more of a hassle than anything else. haha. I love the shots around WS, you guys got some great ones! Oh magaritas! I love me some tequila, and margaritas, but HOLY, those margaritas sure are STRONG, I couldn't finish mine in Sept!
Looking fwd to another update!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

That's awesome that they were able to ride TT first thing with no wait! It sounds like you guys did a lot in Future World that morning!

That stinks about the difficulties with Savannah's meal at Sunshine Seasons! I guess it just depends on the CM you get sometimes, the substitutions you're able to make!

I'm glad you guys were able to keep making your lap around World Showcase! I know it's not the most thrilling area, but it is still fun in its own way!

 

[Rozz]

Enjoying your trip report! I laughed about your experience in Columbia Harbor House. We have to go to WDW when everyone else does and one thing we count on is being able to go upstairs and find a table since it's rarely crowded up there. This worked out for us in 2011. We had a quiet lunch upstairs with a great view from a window table. Here you were in January when it's "low crowd level" and it's packed! You experienced some pretty high crowd levels! I'll have to remember this for when we get to go off-season. I don't want to have my expectations be too high about low crowds and then have so many higher crowd level situations. Sounds like you still had a fantastic trip!

 

[Dreamsdocometrue9112]

Great update! But, AHH, a meltdown?! How can anyone have a homesick meltdown in DISNEY?! I wish it was my home! I would definitely grab myself a margarita to ease that situation, too!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Looking forward to your Via Napoli update. We have a Ressie there in April. Loving your TR

Oh I think you'll like it! I took quite a few pics, can't wait to write up my report on it!

I've never had a marguerita meldown......I should try that!

Oh they are totally worth it Ann! All you have to do is have a meltdown (or have someone else in your party have one) and then just head to Mexico, get a Margarita, and suck it down! If the alcohol doesn't get to you and calm those nerves, the brain freeze will!

Yay, so excited to see an update! Finally remembered how to subscribe!

I'm glad you figured out how to sub! I just figured out how to multiple quote without doing it by hand. I used to cut and paste and then go back and quote again...over and over! Then I realized all I had to do was click the multiquote button!

Yay updates!! I have yet to eat at Sunshine Seasons, I always think I should, but then end up eating through WS instead. That sucks about the meal plan stuff not working out. I find that sometimes, the dining plan is just more of a hassle than anything else. haha. I love the shots around WS, you guys got some great ones! Oh magaritas! I love me some tequila, and margaritas, but HOLY, those margaritas sure are STRONG, I couldn't finish mine in Sept!
Looking fwd to another update!

I purposefully went there because of Savannah. It's hard to find her anything to eat in WS, if you can believe that, but it's b/c not only is she vegetarian, but not really willing to try new things, so I went to SS thinking at least they had mac-n-cheese!

That's awesome that they were able to ride TT first thing with no wait! It sounds like you guys did a lot in Future World that morning!

That stinks about the difficulties with Savannah's meal at Sunshine Seasons! I guess it just depends on the CM you get sometimes, the substitutions you're able to make!

I'm glad you guys were able to keep making your lap around World Showcase! I know it's not the most thrilling area, but it is still fun in its own way!

Yep, the last couple times I missed some things not only at FW, but WS too, so I had two full days set aside for Epcot to make sure we didn't miss anything! I wish Savannah would have done Kim Possible b/c I think she would have enjoyed it more. Rey and I LOVE WS, so I wasn't about to miss it!

Enjoying your trip report! I laughed about your experience in Columbia Harbor House. We have to go to WDW when everyone else does and one thing we count on is being able to go upstairs and find a table since it's rarely crowded up there. This worked out for us in 2011. We had a quiet lunch upstairs with a great view from a window table. Here you were in January when it's "low crowd level" and it's packed! You experienced some pretty high crowd levels! I'll have to remember this for when we get to go off-season. I don't want to have my expectations be too high about low crowds and then have so many higher crowd level situations. Sounds like you still had a fantastic trip!

I cannot believe it's been empty during BUSY times! Yep, I definitely think my EXPECTATIONS about low crowds added to my unhappiness with them. Now that I'm looking back it doesn't seem that bad, but there were a few times just the masses were uncomfortable. I don't know how people do it during peek times!

Great update! But, AHH, a meltdown?! How can anyone have a homesick meltdown in DISNEY?! I wish it was my home! I would definitely grab myself a margarita to ease that situation, too!

I know, right?!?! I feel AT HOME when I'm at WDW, but there was no convincing Savannah, she missed her pets and she's just a homebody, I guess. She did have fun, but she is pretty pleased to be home now.

 

[DrMomof3]

My eldest had quite a few Savannah-style melt-downs on our August trip. totally with you on that!
We love TT. One of my family's favs.
Margaritas make everything better!!!

Amanda

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

My eldest had quite a few Savannah-style melt-downs on our August trip. totally with you on that!
We love TT. One of my family's favs.
Margaritas make everything better!!!

Amanda

I'm glad I'm not alone Amanda! You would think it would be the teenagers that do it, but nope, not in my family!

 

[JDailey]

Still reading along and enjoying everything!!

 

[akayek31]

I love Mexico too! They have my fiesta margaritas. That's why we are going to Epcot three times this trip

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Still reading along and enjoying everything!!

I'm glad you are enjoying it!!!

I love Mexico too! They have my fiesta margaritas. That's why we are going to Epcot three times this trip

I had one of those our 2nd Epcot day! I did not, however, get to go into the Tequila bar...next trip for sure!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Onward we went! After our group shot, we spent some time in Germany!

Rey got his favorite October-something-or-the-other-beer and I'm a horrible wife and didn't take a picture! The girls found the kitcot station in the back of one of the stores and had their passports signed.

As we were walking out, we noticed a whole SHELF full of Duffy bears! Rey comforted Savannah in her HORROR.

The girls decided they needed a snack and what better place to use a snack credit than the caramel shop! I resisted b/c I wanted to save most of my snack credits on Babycakes. It was hard though, the place SMELLS out of this world! Goodies everywhere!

The girls both decided on the rice crispy treats. These things were MASSIVE. They cut them up for them b/c they were so large.

We all found a bench and rested our feet for a bit while the girls enjoyed their snack and Rey his beer...yet again...I cannot believe I didn't get a single shot of Rey and his beer?!?!? WAIT! If you look back at the bottom of the Duffy pic with Rey and Savannah, you can just barely see it!

While sitting there, they made friends with a duck. Savannah was in love and told me to take pictures. What can I say, she's a sucker for animals.

We finally got up and we passed up Italy since we planned on spending more time there later when we had an ADR at Via Napoli for dinner. As we came up on America, we saw a BUNCH of characters! What luck! Uh...kind of. Turns out they were all finishing up, this seemed to be a theme for us, we would come upon a character and they would be leaving! We did have time for Leslee to see Chip & Dale.

Savannah didn't get her pic with them or autographs, she just let Leslee go. Most of the time she wasn't getting autographs b/c she already has most of them, she would just get them if it was someone she didn't have already. We didn't spend any time in America, we really wanted to explore all the other countries and well, we kinda live here. It was starting to get a little busy! Enough that I took a crowd picture b/c I thought it was busier than when we came the 3rd week in October during F&W 2009. This was Monday, January 30th, 2012:

Onward to Japan and we sped up b/c we heard the drums! We had missed them last time and Rey really wanted to see them this time! Luckily, they had just started!

We spent a LOT of time in the Japan store! Dylan has been studying Japan for the last year or so and everyone really enjoyed looking around at all the unique stuff they had. Savannah found some Totoro stuff that she really wanted, it was expensive! She decided to wait until our last Epcot day to decide if she wanted to get anything.

I came out to have a seat and saw Miyuku (sp?) working her candy creations and sent Dallas in to tell them to come out and watch! It was just amazing, she is an incredibly talented artist!

It was getting later and we were tired and thinking maybe we could get dinner earlier than our 6pm ADR. So, we headed back to Italy to see if Via Napoli would take us early...an hour early! Up next...authentic Italian pizza!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

When we got back to Via Napoli, it seemed like it was already getting busy, or at least a lot of people were at the podium! The family waited outside and I checked in, nearly an hour early! The entry/waiting area wasn't big, but it was gorgeous. It was a big wall of windows into the restaurant with a beautiful chandelier.

They didn't have any trouble with us being early, just told me it would be 10 minutes or so. It wasn't even that long before they called me and I waved the family in! I was worried that we wouldn't enjoy sitting smack dab in the middle of the room at one of the huge tables, but I had no need to worry, they led us around to a quiet corner with a view of the chef's! This was just the beginning of our TS seating luck and we had it the whole trip! Here's the quiet corner/window table we had:

I made sure Dallas had the best view, he's got a real culinary interest AND the thing he makes most is homemade pizza! If you look at where he's sitting above, this was his view straight ahead of him:

Perfect!
Rey trying to decide, you can see the entry/podium area in this shot:

Here's a pic of the wood fire ovens, the chefs were moving so fast they were blurry in all my pics!

I told you I took lots of pictures!
Our waiter was great...why are Italian accents so hot? He was cute too! Of course I didn't mention this to my family.
We ordered and our pizza didn't take terribly long. Here they are:
Dallas got the Prosciutto e Melone, definitely the most daring of all of us. It has fontina (greens?), mozzarella, prosciutto, and cantelope! No sauce.

He LOVED it. He has not been able to recreate this (I can't even find prosciutto in this town!) but he really enjoyed it and it gave him some other ideas for making his pizzas. He said the cantelope wasn't overpowering at all and he finished the whole thing!

Dylan had pepperoni...I didn't even take a picture? It looked good, but like a pepperoni pizza folks.
But then I did take a picture of Savannah's? Savannah & Leslee both had the Quattro Formaggi (cheese) pizza.

Neither of them really liked it. So here's the thing, this is wood fired pizza and I think it's a unique taste. They are kids and like pizza hut. They also didn't care for the cheese, but they ate enough that they weren't hungry.
Rey and I both had the Ortolano, which had veggies on it! Uh...YUM!

We loved it! The freshness of the pizza was out of this world and I really liked the flavor that the wood firing brought to it. I can see how some people might not like that "burned" taste, but we did! The verdict was 4 to 2 at Via Napoli...but wait, there was still dessert!

Anybody who knows Rey knows that he loves Tiramisu. It's not very easy to find, my mom tried to get some for Christmas one year and bring it out and it was more like cake, not Tiramisu. So, Rey was super excited to have some! The waiter laughed as he went around the table and EVERY SINGLE ONE of them ordered it! Not me! I wanted to try something different so I orderd the Zeppole di Ricotta (yet, I'm reading all these things off my WDW menu app! LOL) which were ricotta cheese fritters.
So they all had theirs:

which I thought tasted pretty good! You notice I had some, right? This is where the whole TR title came from! Dylan remarked that he thought it was funny that I would order something different and then still get some of what everyone else ordered b/c I kept asking to taste everyone's as well!
and my dessert:

Oooh, these were good, especially with the fresh whipped cream they came with. It had chocolate sauce as well, but I didn't like it as much.

We were properly stuff and really pleased with Via Napoli! When we came out, the sun was going down but the boats were still running, so we grabbed the Germany boat and I snapped this picture and thought of my BBF Hope and her dd, Kya, who loves France and anything to do with it!

We headed over to TT to use our FPs from earlier in the day (too bad this policy is going away, it was nice to save them for later!) Dylan chasing Dallas, I'm not sure why he was chasing him, but there's no catching Dallas, he runs around 9-10 miles a week and Dylan doesn't run at all. He never did catch him.

We rode TT, I think that was Savannah & Leslee's 4th time for the day! I kept trying to get a shot that I had in my head of the ride, but this wasn't it. Good enough I guess!

At this point it was 7pm! Is anyone keeping track? Nearly 11 hours at Epcot! EEK! I was having a LOT of pain, I wrote down it was like walking on daggers.

So out we headed, stopping for a picture! Not the best, but most of the photopass photographers didn't know how to use my camera. I had a prime lens on it, which means no zooming in and out and every time I handed off my camera to a photopass photographer, they would get confused. But, the PP pics came out pretty good, I should get those in a couple weeks here!

I hobbled back to the car and Rey wanted to go to Walgreens again. WHAT?!?! But, but...I'm tired and my feet hurt! Sigh...so off to Walgreens we went for milk. I think we were delirious at this point, we were laughing at the silliest things. Dylan kept saying "Mother...Dallas likes me." and we were rolling. We made it to Walgreens and Rey came out with not only milk, but Mike's hard lemonade margaritas for me. Good man!

Then we headed back...or tried to! We made it on property:

but after that, I have no idea what we were doing. I think going in circles following signs! At one point Rey looked up at the street sign and said "Why does that say Buena Vista?" and we were all hysterical laughing at this statement. Apparently Rey can READ street signs, but not understand what they mean! It was going to be the TR name, and for the remainder of the trip, every time we were driving and we would come upon Buena Vista Dr, someone would say "Why does that say Buena Vista?"

40 minutes later, we finally made it back to the room and I was in some major pain. I took some Ibuprofen and watched Illuminations from the bed. Then crashed. I do think I got up and tried to soak my feet in epsom salts at some point, but that didn't help. I was wondering if a wheel chair was in my future park touring!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

WOW an 11 hour day at Epcot!! That's awesome! (And exhausting!)

Your table at VN looks great! How cool to get to watch the chefs at work!

 

[giantstoindy]

What a great day! It's funny you mentioned about the hours you spent. Before I make hotel ressies, I need to know how many nights to book. So I make a list of all the parks and how many hours I want to spend in each. I think I'm averaging about 16 hours a day! Let's just say when in Disney, I don't sleep. Via Napoli looks delish! Tiramisu is absolutely my favorite dessert so I'm going to try to make it for a birthday this year but vegan. Yes, this will involve a Whole Foods visit for soy whipped cream.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

WOW an 11 hour day at Epcot!! That's awesome! (And exhausting!)

Your table at VN looks great! How cool to get to watch the chefs at work!

We really enjoyed it! It was especially fun since Dallas loves making pizza. I need to see if I can find a better crust recipe for him or an "authentic" Italian crust recipe!

What a great day! It's funny you mentioned about the hours you spent. Before I make hotel ressies, I need to know how many nights to book. So I make a list of all the parks and how many hours I want to spend in each. I think I'm averaging about 16 hours a day! Let's just say when in Disney, I don't sleep. Via Napoli looks delish! Tiramisu is absolutely my favorite dessert so I'm going to try to make it for a birthday this year but vegan. Yes, this will involve a Whole Foods visit for soy whipped cream.

That will be an interesting undertaking! Let me know what you come up with! I have lots of raw vegan recipes, but usually only make them around holidays b/c they are almost always made with tons of nuts and end up being REALLY heavy and just not something I want to eat all the time.