Celebrating 20 years at WDW - Bonus features, A few posts from May, Updated 9/11

[dolphingirl47]

I had never heard of it before but I figured it somehow incorporated spaetzle or something similar. I'll have to look into recipes.

I use fusilli or another kind of twisted pasta. I can share my recipe with you tomorrow. I just need to convert it into US measurements.

Corinna

 

[Mac Brew]

Hello
I have been lurking on your report.But I just had to come out of hiding just to mention about your experience of the Scottish dishes.Most ot the time the neeps ( turnip ) is mashed and on the plate separate from the mashed potatoes.They are sometimes mashed together but not always. As for the Tipsy Laird it is the first time I have seen it served with oats as an ingredient most unusual never seen it served like that in this part of Scotland it maybe a west coast thing.Loving your report.

 

[Mac Brew]

There is a scottish trifle that uses oats in it it is called Cranachan this one has toasted oats in it used on Burns night as an alternative to the Tipsy Laird.There is a website for scottish recipes :- scottishrecipes.co.uk , which has a few of our national dishes on it if you can put up with the advertising on it.

 

[franandaj]

Nice to see that you and Fran had a lot of food during the F&W Festival that day. There were times where I got a lot of different dishes during the F&W Festival but it is nice to see other types of dishes that I didn't try in October. The cronut was one of the dishes that I wanted to get but I was so stuffed that I missed it. But I was able to get the dole whip during my visit.

I always like to see what other people tried and how they felt about it. I know it's not a Disney Cronut, but next time you come to So Cal, there is place near my house that makes a pretty good cronut.

I had a similar experience. "Hey gang! Green was fun! Let's try Orange!"

It doesn't bother me, in fact I find green kind of boring.

I'm the same. I rarely if ever drink just water.

I drink so much water it isn't even funny. I have a "Big Gulp" sized water bottle that I fill 2-4 times a day with ice and water.

All right! Alison got lucky!
You go girl!

When I posted that, I thought of something really clever.


Too clever. I have no idea now.

Really??? Is that new?

I seem to remember getting one with Rum three years ago.

:
(And I haven't read the last chapter yet!!)

Hopefully you have time after tonight is over.

Interesting! I never listen to books..... unless I'm doing a solo road trip. Then I really like them.

We listen all the time. Once you read the last chapter and open the map, maybe it will make more sense to you.

Love the grass roof. Nice touch.

I didn't even notice.

That looks interesting. I didn't even have it on my radar, somehow.

I study the menus quite carefully and I had loved it that first time in 2009, not sure what was different the last two times.

Or add the right company. Might I suggest a middle aged Winnipeg lad?

That was all at Ireland? Huh! Not bad.

Quite good actually!

Okay buddy. What exactly are you doing behind that sign???

I thought about photoshopping him out of the picture. Too much work.

Looks good. Love a good stew.

My favorite though was still Belgium.

Answers my question.

Ha! Beat you to it!

She's probably right.

She usually is, but then again @Mac Brew has provided an alternate stance.

Would you believe I didn't have one this trip?
What the H is wrong with me?!?!?

Double the chocolate is double the fun!

I like you, Alison. You're a regular gal.

Well, who can??

Evidently me.

I'm with her--I can use the $5 on another cronut!

I'm not surprised!

OH boy! It was quite a night. I'm still cracking up so hard, every time I remember it. Or don't.

Marv finally told me what Fran said. It wasn't that bad.

HEY!!! Am I being disparaged here?! It was a collective "Life of the Party".

I thought we were all pretty lively!

OH, but it sure was mine! Mmmmm!

I'm still trying to figure out which savory was mine!

Then... done properly. Cheese IS dessert!

Absolutely!

I"m on her side. I'd pay $13-$15 for a full meal of them, but no way that for 1.

Most places that I've seen them offered as a full meal, they are usually $30+, OK I take that back. My mom sent me links to the two restaurants we are going to go to over Christmas while I'm there and at the Italian restaurant they are only $28 for the entree.

 

[franandaj]

Looks like a great time at F & W. Jo and I amuse ourselves at the UK and Irish menus ( Southern Ireland is an independant country and not part of the UK they would shudder... ) . Who varifies the menu? Fishermans pie sure a classic. But chocolate pudding? The irish like a darn good cup of black tea with milk not herbal. My Mum and Dad ( Irish ) would shudder. They always have a 'brew' on the go.

You know I have no idea who authenticates these menus. According to @Mac Brew the Scotland offerings don't seem to be all that correct either!

I like tatties and we say potato cakes. Not pancakes. I love these. But never mind.. Lol. No vege haggis this year at least!

We call them potato pancakes or Latkes. I love when we visit my old stomping grounds (San Fernando Valley) where they have lots of fantastic Jewish delis. They make the best Latkes!

Oh my re blondie wine and you meeting Kurt Russell. That guy is great. How lucky. I wonder why his wine is so rare now it sounds nice.

He makes very little of his wines, mostly enough to satisfy his family and the few events that are held often at Disney restaurants. He makes another one specifically for his mother. I can't remember what that one was called.

Lol re that lady complaining about $5 scallop. A perfect scallop like you say can command a high price here. I will give you $5 for one anyday!

Provided it is a Diver Scallop they are quite good. The tiny sea scallops you can keep!

I imsgine she won't be first in line for the new Remy $650 per person private dining for 20 guest only option. You and Fran will be rushing to book this next time on The Dream or Fantasy I expect like Jo and I....

Tell me more about this! I tried to find it online and couldn't find any information, sounds intriguing!

 

[pkondz]

It doesn't bother me, in fact I find green kind of boring.

Agreed. First time I rode it I loved it. Second time was okay. Didn't bother last time.

I drink so much water it isn't even funny. I have a "Big Gulp" sized water bottle that I fill 2-4 times a day with ice and water.

I probably don't drink enough of anything. Maybe a couple of small glasses a day.

I seem to remember getting one with Rum three years ago.

Well.... dang. And I was right there.

We listen all the time. Once you read the last chapter and open the map, maybe it will make more sense to you.

hope so

I thought about photoshopping him out of the picture. Too much work.

And too much fun to leave him in and speculate

 

[franandaj]

I use fusilli or another kind of twisted pasta. I can share my recipe with you tomorrow. I just need to convert it into US measurements.

Corinna

I can do that too. I've done it in the past. The hardest conversion I had was figuring out what aubergines were!

Hello
I have been lurking on your report.But I just had to come out of hiding just to mention about your experience of the Scottish dishes.Most ot the time the neeps ( turnip ) is mashed and on the plate separate from the mashed potatoes.They are sometimes mashed together but not always. As for the Tipsy Laird it is the first time I have seen it served with oats as an ingredient most unusual never seen it served like that in this part of Scotland it maybe a west coast thing.Loving your report.

I have seen you around on other folks reports and knew you were outside the US, but I hadn't been able to place where you were coming from. Thanks for the thoughts on the Scottish dishes! They did have the neeps on one side of the plate opposite the tatties. The one thing about the Tipsy Laird that I didn't like was the oats. Otherwise it was a great dessert.

There is a scottish trifle that uses oats in it it is called Cranachan this one has toasted oats in it used on Burns night as an alternative to the Tipsy Laird.There is a website for scottish recipes :- scottishrecipes.co.uk , which has a few of our national dishes on it if you can put up with the advertising on it.

Thanks for the link. Some interesting stuff there. I have in fact tried Haggis. Didn't care for it much, but there was a time when I knew some folks from the Clan MacLeod, one of them felt he needed to share the heritage with American friends. I can't say I'll be having it again, but I can say that I've tried it!

 

[franandaj]

Another little life update here….so remember the whole thing with the Dishwasher? Well the contractor got in there and checked it all out, turns out he was able to fix everything. Fran had spoken to him and she told me that the dishwasher was “fixed”. There was a “clog” that he cleared, so she asked me if I would rather save money or put in a new dishwasher. I decided on save money. Well a few days later, I spoke to the contractor and he knows I’m a little squeamish, so he mentioned that the dishwasher was fixed, and I said, “yeah, Fran told me it was a cloggage”. He told me that was all I wanted to know. Now I’m thinking about what kind of vermin was in there! Could Remy have been caught in the pipes? The good news is that the dishwasher is functioning again despite whatever was working against us, and the apartment is officially on the market even if the new stove hasn’t arrived yet. I’ve taken a few calls from the sign in front, but I still need to list it at online marketing sites.


Even though we have a moratorium on travel, I’ve still managed to work in a trip to San Jose to see my parents over the Christmas holiday. We’ll be spending an entire week there. Normally Fran likes to just pop up there and come back as soon as the holidays are over. We may even go up to “The City” and play tourist for a bit! We made a small amount of progress on the old house, but nothing substantial, I do have one room cleared out except for two pieces of furniture and empty boxes, but that still leaves two bedrooms, a bathroom, plus the living room, kitchen and dining room. Baby steps.



Day 4


I last left off with our second full day at the F&W Festival. These days were carefully selected as they were weekdays. Our strategy for the festival was to avoid WS on weekends as most touring strategies suggest that lines are long and the park is overall more crowded. The day was dawning on Day 4 of the vacation and I was a Friday morning.

Fran and I are a little strange in our sleeping habits. We like to sleep with the TV on as it functions as a night light and the drone of the sound lulls us to sleep. Normally I have news of some sort playing. Well today was no bueno. When I woke up at 5:30AM, the TV was not on. I tried futzing with the remote and Fran informed me that during the night the TV had stopped working. I decided that I might as well take a bath. After that I played on my phone for a little while before getting dressed. I fixed myself breakfast which consisted of coffee, V8, and corn flakes. I started a load of white laundry, and still had a little time to spare.

Today was a rope drop day for me, Fran took the option of not going in the park this morning and would just hang out until it was time for lunch. I caught the Friendship boat right as it pulled up to the dock.



I was boarded by 8:25AM, and i thought i would have the boat almost all to myself.





We stopped at the Swolphin before heading to DHS, and those hopes were crushed. A ton of people got on and everyone was squished in like sardines. It wasn't long before we arrived at DHS.



I went through security and the tapstiles before they stopped us on Hollywood Blvd. Sorry, no pictures in this part as I was on a mission. By 8:50 they let us in the park, and I made a beeline for RnRC just like about half the other people in the line up. They hadn’t actually opened the queue yet so a huge line formed all the way out the courtyard. I lost a little bit of time parking the scooter and backtracking to get in line, but pretty soon we were heading into the regular queue and onto the ride. As I passed under the wait time sign it said 15 minutes, which may have been fairly accurate.

I waited for the front row and it was awesome. And there had been some discussion previously about the preshow being shown at rope drop, I can confirm that on my visit, the preshow was in fact playing.



Then I grabbed my photo and headed right back over to the FP+ line just as the FP window opened.



Second ride accomplished I went back to the boat dock and caught the boat back to BCV. While I was waiting, I saw this boat go by. It was about the same time the day before (on my way to Epcot) that I saw an identical boat. I thought it was kind of odd, but I guess they even need to trim the “natural” foliage, and quite aggressively, I might add!



This time we didn't pick up a ton of passengers at the Swolphin.



It took half an hour and I was back in the room by 10:15. As I was arriving at the BCV I realized that with our noon reservation at B&C the next day, we would really be pushing our morning at DHS. We would have to be out of there at 11:30AM and since this was the only day I planned for both of us to go there, I hated to be so rushed. So I pulled up the app and checked to see if any later times for lunch had opened up. I had checked a couple weeks ago with no luck. Turns out today, they had a 2:10PM available for tomorrow. When I got back to the room I asked Fran how she felt about this and she was game. She was up and dressed, and since we were having a late lunch tomorrow, I checked to see if we could push our dinner reservation back, and I could. Then I checked to see if any more FP+ were available at DHS since I only had two, but there weren’t any I wanted. Well two out of three wins was not bad!

I put the laundry that I started that morning in the dryer. We still had time to do online stuff for a bit. I can't remember if this was the day that she HAD to order tickets for Game of Thrones in concert, but i know we were caught up in that one of our mornings. And before I forget, here are some pictures of the last couple pastries from our trip to the Boardwalk Bakery. I think she had this one for her breakfast this morning.



This was my coffee cake, but it had waaaaay too much sugar in it for me. I ate about ⅛ of it and got a massive sugar rush, so she finished it for me in the middle of the night one night.



We headed out to Epcot at 11:00AM, and stopped on the bridge to take a photopass photo.





We found Remy in France.





Then we proceeded to Monsieur Paul, but I looked longingly at Chefs de France. We canceled our reservation there last trip, so I made us a reservation there for March, since I have no idea after that when we will be back.





Looking back out at the park, it isn’t very crowded yet.



No one was at the restaurant yet so we went inside the Bakery/gift shop. I couldn't resist the Marie T-shirt, sippy cup and cap.









Fran purchased them for me as I went back to the restaurant since a queue was forming now. Soon they let us into the restaurant.















Seating was assigned and we paired with a couple from Ft. Lauderdale who were quite pleasant. They were nice enough, the man was about 20 years her senior and he admitted that he was 80 and seemed to enjoy complaining about everything in an old man kind of way.

We started off with a cocktail made with a French Aperitif, Lillet. It was quite good.



They gave us this breadstick coated with parmesan, Swiss, and some other spices I can't remember. It was delicious.



Our appetizer was a pate of pork, chicken and duck in a puff pastry crust.



We also got a breadstick.



It was served with a George de Boeuf Beaujolais Villages. Both were just incredible. I sopped up the leftover sauce on my plate with the bread, it was so good! They refilled my glass partway through this course.



[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

The main course was next. This was served with an Albert Bichot Macon Villages. It’s a Burgundy White, but for those who are used to California nomenclature, it’s a Chardonnay. Again a fantastic wine! This was my favorite wine, they refilled my glass during the course and Fran gave me half of her glass as she was slowing down.



When I read the English translation on the menu, with my limited French I realized that they had left something out in translation. What they failed to translate was that the dish would be served in a French style Casserole, le Creuset, a cookware manufacturer who also appeared to be the sponsor of the lunch.



The dish was made with tenderly cooked chicken breast, wild mushrooms, chunks of ham, peas, rich cream sauce, and a serving of rice on the side. I ended up dumping the rice into the casserole. It was very delicious!





We ended up taking home leftovers from this course. We put it in the freezer in a baggie and took it home with us. I ate it for breakfast once we were back in Long Beach.

They explained to us that French folk have cheese with every meal, so we were served a slice of Brie with walnuts and walnut bread.



Our wine was a Chateau Bon Ami Bordeaux, again wonderful wine!



I enjoyed the cheese most with the apricot drops. Fran gave up on her glass of wine so I poured her glass into mine. Seeing hers was empty, the server came by and immediately refilled hers. I finished that off waiting for dessert to be served. At one point the older gentleman (who was full of stories) told us all about how he met his wife, he was an avid boatman and basically she was the first one who didn't get violently ill on one of his wild rides, and when she was able to pilot the boat as well, he knew she was a keeper.

They explained that the Apple Tatin was invented by accident. Since I’m a little foggy on the details by this point, I’m turning to Wikipedia for clarification.

From Wikipedia: Research shows that the tarte Tatin was created accidentally at the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, France, about 100 miles (160 km) south of Paris, in the 1880s. The hotel was run by two sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin. There are conflicting stories concerning the tart's origin, but the most common is that Stéphanie Tatin, who did most of the cooking, was overworked one day. She started to make a traditional apple pie but left the apples cooking in butter and sugar for too long. Smelling the burning, she tried to rescue the dish by putting the pastry base on top of the pan of apples, quickly finishing the cooking by putting the whole pan in the oven. After turning out the upside down tart, she was surprised to find how much the hotel guests appreciated the dessert. In an alternative version of the tart's origin, Stéphanie baked a caramelized apple tart upside-down by mistake, regardless she served her guests the unusual dish.

This dessert was sooooo good, but I was getting so full by this point, I finished off a little over half of it. It was paired with a Champagne.



After everything was all done, they gave us a bling bag with a Paul Bocuse cookbook and an advertisement for the cookware our lunch was served in.



We said goodbye to our tablemates and headed out of the restaurant.

We stopped at the refreshment port and got each of us a Dragonberry Refresher with Bacardi Rum and headed towards the AP processing center in Innoventions East. For those of you counting, I think this was drink #9 in about 3 hours.



You see there was a special for AP holders that on your third day entering Epcot during F&W, you were eligible to receive a complimentary glass.



Glasses in tow we headed back to the resort. Fran had ordered a new pair of sandals which were waiting at the front desk so I went back to the room and she went to pick them up.

As soon as I got to the room, I got into bed for my nap. I knew beforehand that they would give us lots of wine at the lunch. I had no firm plans for that evening. The TV still wasn’t working. At some point I woke up to find that Fran was next to me, I think it was about 6:15 and I had that whole disoriented feeling that it was morning instead of night. I think it was then that I tried the TV and it finally worked. I fell back asleep until about 8PM when I finally woke up. Fran was in the living room working on her computer and watching TV.

After getting my bearings, I put on my pool throw and came out to join her. There was no way we were going out at this point. We planned to hit rope drop at DHS the next morning and if we went out tonight, there's no way that would happen. Instead I started a load of the rest of our laundry, and then we split a grilled cheese sandwich and a can of tomato soup.



Believe it or not this was the plan, or back up plan, depending on how you look at it. She went to bed shortly thereafter while I stayed up and put up an update and caught up on some DIS threads. I also had a load of laundry in the dryer. It sure made a racket! Then I took a soaker tub before going to bed.

 

[franandaj]

Agreed. First time I rode it I loved it. Second time was okay. Didn't bother last time.

It's one of my favorites, plus we don't have it out here.

I probably don't drink enough of anything. Maybe a couple of small glasses a day.

64 oz a day they say, or for you 2000 ml.

Well.... dang. And I was right there.

Now you know for next time. You can get them with or without Rum.

 

[rentayenta]

Great update! Glad you're going to your folks for Christmas. Drive or fly?

Lunch looks amazing! 9 drinks in 3 hours; that's reasonable.

Love the Marie garb- too cute.

Like the free AP glasses.

 

[dizneeat]

Yeah! Finally caught up again ..... well on this thread at least.

I admire you to be able to be up for rope drop at the Studios. We had trouble making it to Epcot by 9am and we stayed at the Yacht Club.

Love your ride photos from RnRC!

And your meal at France looks really good and all that wine. Well done on taking a nap afterwards.

I took a lot of notes, but I will make Tom sit down tomorrow and look at your photos - so he gets an idea of what is in store for him next summer.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

That lunch looks awesome! Lots of awesome food and wine! Then you pulled such a Dis_Yoda move and got even more alcohol after such an alcoholic lunch! Go you! No wonder you took such a nap afterwards with a needing just a grilled cheese for dinner.

 

[DnA2010]

Holy crap I was soo far behind! Haven't been on Disboards for a bit as life is crazy, but first stop - your TR
Few quick comments:
Apple strudel with raisins- yuck! Although we don't agree on the whole cilantro thing, I'm with you here!
Too much ice cream in a float?!
How was Fran's cronut?
Very nice photopass pic on the bridge

The parm/swiss breadstick at your meal looks sooo yummy!
GDB Beaujolais Villages is quite good- I had it the other day at a friends- yummy! I was totally counting your drinks and giggled when I saw your Dragonberry drink! Look at you go!

 

[franandaj]

Great update! Glad you're going to your folks for Christmas. Drive or fly?

We always switch the fall/winter holidays with my sister, they just never travel. So it's whether or not my parents cone to us or we go to them. Since our house is in a horrible state and we want them to come to us next year, we're going there this year. We are driving. Unless it's an overnight trip we'll drive. We're staying for a week this time!

Lunch looks amazing! 9 drinks in 3 hours; that's reasonable.

Not really, but

Love the Marie garb- too cute.

Like the free AP glasses.

I wear the hat all the time now. I was using the sippy cup, but then I got a Venti AP Days cup. Now it's hot coffee weather so I'm not using either, but I love them all!

Yeah! Finally caught up again ..... well on this thread at least.

I know how you feel!

I admire you to be able to be up for rope drop at the Studios. We had trouble making it to Epcot by 9am and we stayed at the Yacht Club.

Love your ride photos from RnRC!

There were only a couple rope drop days, and they were weekends, we don't get trips as long as yours, so we have to make the most of some of the parks!

And your meal at France looks really good and all that wine. Well done on taking a nap afterwards.

There was kind of no choice, either don't enjoy tell wine or take a nap after enjoying it!

I took a lot of notes, but I will make Tom sit down tomorrow and look at your photos - so he gets an idea of what is in store for him next summer.

The French lunches are very popular. They were offered on Fridays and Sundays. Jill tried to get us in the Sunday one but it sold out. She texted me when she struck out so I got up and got us in the Friday one. All these events are tough to get into.

I found the link and will post it to your thread.

 

[dizneeat]

I found the link and will post it to your thread.

Thank you!!!! You are the best.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

The Remy $650 pp grab came from information on 2 disboard threads. Folks in concierge had been called and asked if they wanted to book it.... You know to avoid the rush of iverbooking...

Glad you got your dishwasher fixed. Sure it wasn't blocked by balony left overs!

Nice to go see your parents and book some tourist time.

Nice morning in DHS. Love that they have a boat option from VBC. Great photo of you on RnRc.

Neat you managed to change both dining MDR times. Much better.

I love the Marie items you got. Nice of Fran to buy them for you.

Le Creuset is common here also. Looks nice but oh my how heavy! Try boiling pasta who can lift that pan!

Your lunch looks amazing. Interestimg re the history on the sisters. Thanks for that. Looks like a love,y restaurant.

We also love to fall asleep to the news.

 

[Malia78]

Love the second RnRC pic!

Very cool to read about your French Family Meal--I also did one if those. Interesting to compare the food.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I can do that too. I've done it in the past. The hardest conversion I had was figuring out what aubergines were!

I can imagine that aubergines would have been confusing. Sorry, I got a little behind this week. It was crazy. I was inspired to make Schinkennudeln on Friday though. Here you go:

1.10 Pounds short pasta (I prefer using fusilli or other twisted pasta)
7 ounces cubed ham or pancetta
1 cup light cream
1.5 cups of milk
1 cup grated cheese (Edam or Gouda)
1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic (whole)

Cook pasta in slightly salted water until al dente. Fry onions and garlic in a little butter or margarine. Add ham or pancetta and fry until starting to brown. Remove garlic. Add milk and cream and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and gentle simmer for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Put pasta into a ovenproof dish. Mix half of the cheese with the pasta. Pour over sauce and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Put into the oven, which has been pre-heated to 400 F and bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese has started to turn golden brown. I like to serve this with marinara sauce.

Well the contractor got in there and checked it all out, turns out he was able to fix everything.

I am glad that he managed to fix the dishwasher.

Even though we have a moratorium on travel, I’ve still managed to work in a trip to San Jose to see my parents over the Christmas holiday.

How nice that you get to spend Christmas with the family.

As I passed under the wait time sign it said 15 minutes, which may have been fairly accurate.

That is pretty good for this ride.

Turns out today, they had a 2:10PM available for tomorrow.

I am glad that you managed to change your reservation times.

I love those cups.

Lunch looked nice. I think I would have enjoyed most of this.

 

[Steppesister]

The good news is that the dishwasher is functioning again despite whatever was working against us, and the apartment is officially on the market even if the new stove hasn’t arrived yet. I’ve taken a few calls from the sign in front, but I still need to list it at online marketing sites.

Well, this is certainly exciting news!

Baby steps.

Slow and steady wins the race!

I decided that I might as well take a bath.

A bath is perfect for EVERY occasion and cures ALL conundrums.

I fixed myself breakfast which consisted of coffee, V8, and corn flakes.

I fail to to see the "I fixed myself" part in this menu.

And there had been some discussion previously about the preshow being shown at rope drop, I can confirm that on my visit, the preshow was in fact playing.

a

That was me. Sad I missed it.

LOVE THIS!

OMG, I haven't had pate in years! That looks amazing!

For those of you counting, I think this was drink #9 in about 3 hours.

Holy Crap, Alison!

And you guys are like whoa, A-Z in 14 days. Pssh, I ain't got nuthin' on you!