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

[Pinkocto]

We'll have to go on it until you get all six songs!

I like the sound of this!!!!

He won't be visiting nearly as often anymore.

That's not good news.

You have less than two months until you go, but we're not only 63 days from when we meet up now!

Fun demo, but odd the food brought to you was not quite the same. Sorry you were worn out. Guy seems like a fun person to go see, not surprised his was sold out.

 

[PrincessInOz]

What an awesome looking couple of meals.

Thankfully, I'd eaten dinner before stopping in here.....so I don't quite feel so hungry now.

Looks like a fantastic DisMeet. You have all the luck!

 

[Steppesister]

and all’s well that ends well

I learned this again, and again, and... again.

And I don’t know what this was the pkondz had. Some sort of fizz with egg whites or something like that.

Oddly enough, I have just been learning about flips and fizzes, and more specifically a Pisco Sour. A co-worker told me about a cocktail she orders when in Peru. I tried a couple recently and really enjoyed them. I know my Grandparents drank Gin Fizzes fairly often before the days of everyone freaking out about egg whites. They're becoming popular again with the introduction of pasteurized eggs.

yummy!

I know that Liesa went with the Sauteed Escargot, Parsley Garlic Butter, Toasted Brioche. This was definitely the most odd presentation I have seen for Escargot.

Odd, yes. Delicious? Oh YES!!!!

This was good, but not at all what I expected.

Nor I, but I can tell you it also was perfection in a bowl.

In lieu of dessert, Liesa went with the cheese plate. She was getting full, so she let me have a good portion of this so I didn’t have to order my own.

I am SO glad you helped me with this! I was so full by then.

we made our way out of the park with Liesa as we offered to drive her back to her hotel.

Wherein more drama ensues. But that's in my NEXT chapter.

in the end on the way back to her hotel we settled on Trader Sam’s for the afternoon the next day.

I'm SO glad that we chose this place. It was perfect for another fun meetup and I got a chance to compare the 2 TSs.

Liesa and I were texting and rather than make it out there by noon to 1:00PMish like we had hoped, we didn’t make it there until around 3PM.

This actually worked out well; I took a little downtime on the comfy outdoor couches by the big fireplace in front of the place. Nice!

We got a table inside after much lurking and we ordered some drinks and appetizers. Due to unforseen circumstances, pkondz was even able to join us.

Took a bit to get one, I remember. Worth it! (And I'll let him share his story on how it came to be another foursome. )

Looks familiar! (Because I have one just like it. )

We got an order of the Chicken and Lettuce cups for the table.

More deliciousness! I LOVE most iterations of lettuce cups.

Eventually Liesa ordered an Uh-ohah, sorry if I’m stealing your fire!

Story on, Friend. No worries or thunder stealing here. I'll get there eventually.

though as I understand it, their story continues just a little longer.

For a bit, yes.

 

[Steppesister]

I know you had been really looking forward to Guy's demo for quite a while. I"m sorry you were so pooped out from our visit the prior days that you could hardly enjoy it to its fullest. It also kinda stinks that what you were served was pretty different than what was cooked. The marg looked yummy though.

 

[franandaj]

That looked interesting. I have to admit though that my favourite would probably have been the Margarita.

Corinna

I do have to say that the Margarita was my favorite part of the demo.

Hi Alison
I would just like to coment on your day and a half in Disney land with Liesa.Pkondz and Kay.It must have been great for them to meet up with yourselves and have yourself and Fran guide them around the park.With a meal at club 33 involved as well what a memorable day it must have been. Just a pity that the fire works had to be stopped before the end. Then Traders Sams the next day for another meet up Wow.

It was a great few days and I had a lot of fun! I'm sure that's why I was so tired for the Guy Fieri demo.

Dang... that's a great place to take the group for lunch!!!!

Yes, it definitely is!

Looks like a good time with good friends. Sorry the fireworks show couldn't go to completion, but it sounds like maybe if it was the old show it might have been over by the time they had to shut it down?

We did have fun that day, but you're right the fireworks show did go for probably longer than the one you saw. I remember that one and it was really sad, but it was the one that they showed when DL first opened. Funny how thing have changed.

Sounds like an exhausting F&W visit with Guy Fieri. I hope it was all at least good even if you were too tired to really fully take everything in.

I did appreciate the food and drink offerings, its just driving out there several days in a row and having the stimulus of the parks can be exhausting. That's why I'm glad we can sometimes stay out there!

 

[franandaj]

I like the sound of this!!!!

It may take us a few days, but we'll get through it!

That's not good news.

I know. Definitely sad, but hopefully he will still make it down occasionally.

Fun demo, but odd the food brought to you was not quite the same. Sorry you were worn out. Guy seems like a fun person to go see, not surprised his was sold out.

Yeah, I don't know why he made something on stage that was not what they brought us.

What an awesome looking couple of meals.

Thankfully, I'd eaten dinner before stopping in here.....so I don't quite feel so hungry now.

Looks like a fantastic DisMeet. You have all the luck!

You should know to eat before reading my posts!

It's not luck, it's living within 1/2 an hour of Disneyland!

I learned this again, and again, and... again.

Oddly enough, I have just been learning about flips and fizzes, and more specifically a Pisco Sour. A co-worker told me about a cocktail she orders when in Peru. I tried a couple recently and really enjoyed them. I know my Grandparents drank Gin Fizzes fairly often before the days of everyone freaking out about egg whites. They're becoming popular again with the introduction of pasteurized eggs.

yummy!

Huh. Interesting. I'm sure Disney only uses pasteurized eggs as they freak out about raw oysters and won't serve them at their restaurants.

Odd, yes. Delicious? Oh YES!!!!

I'm glad you enjoyed them.

Nor I, but I can tell you it also was perfection in a bowl.

It was very good!

I am SO glad you helped me with this! I was so full by then.

I was too, but I still love a good cheese course!

Wherein more drama ensues. But that's in my NEXT chapter.

Well, I guess I"m looking forward to that.

I'm SO glad that we chose this place. It was perfect for another fun meetup and I got a chance to compare the 2 TSs.

They are quite different aren't they?

This actually worked out well; I took a little downtime on the comfy outdoor couches by the big fireplace in front of the place. Nice!

I didn't want to disclose that. I saved it for your TR.

Took a bit to get one, I remember. Worth it! (And I'll let him share his story on how it came to be another foursome. )

Again, thought I'd let him talk about this one as well....

Looks familiar! (Because I have one just like it. )

Maybe then it was your drink? I don't remember too well. I do know that pkondz gave me his Margarita because he didn't like it.

More deliciousness! I LOVE most iterations of lettuce cups.

Lettuce cups = delicious (at least in most cases)

Story on, Friend. No worries or thunder stealing here. I'll get there eventually.

Cool.

For a bit, yes.

Well I'm curious to hear it....

I know you had been really looking forward to Guy's demo for quite a while. I"m sorry you were so pooped out from our visit the prior days that you could hardly enjoy it to its fullest. It also kinda stinks that what you were served was pretty different than what was cooked. The marg looked yummy though.

It was inevitable. Our first two days we pushed it hard and even though we only had a brief meeting on Friday the stress of the morning stuff made it a tiring day as well. After three days of pushing it, the fourth day I was tired waking up so when the demo came around at 6PM I couldn't help but be tired.

 

[franandaj]

April 7


If you’ve been keeping track since the beginning of this F&W saga, you’ll remember that I was able to get one weekend at the VGC through waitlisting and stalking. Finally the day had come that we were checking in and jedijill had flown in for the weekend and was going to be crashing on our couch in the one bedroom villa. I love it that there are two bathrooms in these units so that is an option. Fran and I don’t mind sharing the room, but we don’t share a bathroom with anyone besides the two of us!

So I’m not sure of the particulars on that day, but I know from the pictures that Fran and I went to DCA and we got some snacks at the F&W booths. She tried the Deviled Eggs with Trout and liked them.



She also got the salmon, this wasn’t as good.



There was nothing from this booth that I wanted other than a glass of Riesling (sorry no picture), so instead I went back to the Bacon Booth and got a wedge salad. We had big dinner plans and I didn’t want to spoil my appetite.



Then we went over to the AP area and got our pictures taken. I’m not sure if Jill was with us at this point, I don’t remember.





I’m thinking that she hadn’t arrived yet. While at the AP area, they offered us complimentary seats at the 6PM culinary demo, but unfortunately we had a dinner reservation, hence why I only ate a wedge salad.

Once we met up with Jill we waited for our room to become ready and I told her about a wine tasting thing that had popped up on my Facebook News Feed. She was totally interested. It took place at the Napa Rose and there was availability for the session the next day. We had hoped to do Sunday, but it was showing no availability (turns out they had canceled that one a couple weeks ago). We decided to book it for the two of us, and Fran said that she was happy to spend the time sleeping while we drank wine.

Finally we got the text that the room was ready and we headed up to our Villa!

Sorry if you’re sick of seeing these pictures, but I just love the rooms here at the VGC!





















We had a killer view!





This was during extensive remodeling, the pool was still closed.



And they had all this material staged there for the pool deck.



Based on our last stay at the hotel, Fran and I came dressed for dinner, so that we didn’t have to hassle if the room wasn’t ready. But we didn’t have to worry about that. We had a 6:30 reservation at S55 so we started to head over there around 6PM. We met Jenny and her DH in the lobby and they sent their kids off to the parks so we could have adult time.

I started off with my regular Belvedere Gibson.



Besides the obvious part of getting together with friends, our purpose was to get rid of some of my wines that were well overdue for drinking. You see it was around this time that we had moved the wine cabinet to the new house. I had to take all the wine out for moving, and as I did that it made me realize just how many nice wines (and even average wines) I have that are well aged and ready to be drank.

PSA: If you’re planning to come to So Cal and enjoy finely aged wines, let me know, I would be happy to share a bottle of two over a dinner that is worthy of the corkage fees!

So back to the Steakhouse…I failed at taking people pictures, but did get all the food! It seems that all the rage at Steakhouses these days is to serve a piece of thick cut bacon as an appetizer. We were all over that! However, now that I look at the menu, they don’t seem to have it anymore. Now they have Pork Belly and Octopus. While I like both, I’m not sure I like them together. This was our bacon dish. Yummy!



We also got these toasted raviolis which are not on the menu any longer.



Our main reason for coming to dinner was to enjoy some nicely aged wines from my cellar, so here are the first two bottles that we opened.





We got the onion soup au gratin which was excellent.



Fran, Jill and I split the Cowboy Ribeye, which they brought to the table already sliced.



I believe Jenny and Michael split the Filet, but I didn’t get a picture.

We got three desserts and sort of just shared them. 24-Layer Chocolate Cake (Chocolate Sponge Cake, Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate and Nutella, Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato)

Fried New York-style Cheesecake (Meyer Lemon Macaroon, Strawberry Sorbet, Sugar Cookie Streusel)

Tres Leches Cake (California Navel Orange, Candied Pecans, Grand Marnier, Tangerine Sorbet)



At the end of the evening, Jenny posted this picture on Instagram with the caption “Only one survived.”



It was on this night that Jenny decided that if they were going to make their move to So Cal that they needed to make a positive statement, so it was that night she started saying, “We live here, we are just homeless!” Thus was born the hashtag, #WeLiveHere

And now when I am posting this, they do live here and are NOT homeless!

 

[Pinkocto]

Those desserts look A-MAY-ZING!!!

Your view is sooooo cool!!! I can never see too many pictures of those villas, and I'm even more excited to have a 1BR for our upcoming visit.

How fun to have Jill come and share the weekend.

I like your gray top.

Did they do a huge refurb of the pool?

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Finally catching up again over here! I needed to check out your version of your meetup with @Steppesister and @pkondz just so I know what actually happened...

So I’m offering the second and alternate view of three DISers meeting up at the end of March. You see @pkondz and his daughter had made a trip to the Southwestern US, and @Steppesister decided to tag along for the Disneyland part. Since I live here, most of you know I’m usually happy to take a day or two (if I’m not swamped) to come out for a DISmeet!

And we're all grateful for it!

I must confess that I did not take these pictures that day, but instead of providing an update with no pictures, I have recycled some pictures from the past.

Cool! A DISboard clip show.

The one I do remember was at the end he said, “It’s been great traveling with you today, if you had a good time, my name is John, if not, my name is Ponzi!”

Next up was Indiana Jones, we were able to survive our journey despite encounters with rats, snakes and treacherous caverns.

It hurts whenever I see this.

By this time, we had worked up quite an appetite. The Plaza Inn was our choice for this meal and I split this Chicken Dinner plate with pkondz. Who says he doesn’t know how to share?

What, did he give you the mashed potatoes or something?

I specifically “engineered” our route into Carsland to take the same one that I had when I entered it for the first time. As you will see from everyone elses posts, they thought it was just as stunning.

Good call!

We had lots of laughs, especially watching Liesa spill her drink!

Looks like you guys are having a blast.

But first we took a picture to document the meet and the fact that we all clean up decently.

Not too shabby at all! So great that you were able to give them that experience.

I was able to dig up a few pictures of the lounge itself.

I think I actually prefer the ambience in the lounge to the club. Is that sacrilege?

I love this picture of the musicians. When the instruments in the picture are playing in the ambient music, the performers leave the picture and take their place at their instruments in the bar. Very cool!

No way! That's really cool!

We behaved ourselves for the most part, however, I do remember Liesa offering a taste of her wine to pkondz, telling him that it was “a little woody.” He seemed to take offense at this and retorted something back that made us all laugh.

“Due to high winds, the fireworks have been cancelled this evening.”

This was a trying day. For us we had a situation brewing that we had to address before we could actually go have fun. I can’t talk about it in case it actually comes to fruition, but we couldn’t leave until we had this completely solved on our end.

That doesn't sound fun. Hope it turned out ok.

After a while, the crazy antics got to be a little loud and we got tired of the constant clanging and sirens wailing and decided to part company.

I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did with @pkondz carrying on like that.

Teriyaki Chicken Pineapple sliders

That sounds yummy!

It was pretty good, but there was a big difference between what he cooked on stage and what we were served

That doesn't even look like the same dish!

Sorry that day was so exhausting. It sounds like you've been running ragged lately!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Finally the day had come that we were checking in and jedijill had flown in for the weekend and was going to be crashing on our couch in the one bedroom villa.

How nice that she was able to join you.

I’m thinking that she hadn’t arrived yet. While at the AP area, they offered us complimentary seats at the 6PM culinary demo, but unfortunately we had a dinner reservation, hence why I only ate a wedge salad.

That is nice that they offered this. What a shame that this clashed with your plans.

t seems that all the rage at Steakhouses these days is to serve a piece of thick cut bacon as an appetizer.

This is a trend I can get behind.

We also got these toasted raviolis which are not on the menu any longer.

They look lovely. What a shame that they are no longer on the menu.

Fran, Jill and I split the Cowboy Ribeye, which they brought to the table already sliced.

That looks amazing.

Corinna

 

[jedijill]

You've had some awesome Dis meets this year!

Thanks so much of inviting me for the weekend! It was so much fun spending time with you guys and Jenny and her family! That wine was AMAZING!!!! You know I'm up for helping you drink as much as you need! Dinner at S55 was great! So tasty and I'm glad we all split food...it was soooo much!

Jill in CO

 

[Steppesister]

Huh. Interesting. I'm sure Disney only uses pasteurized eggs as they freak out about raw oysters and won't serve them at their restaurants.

I"m sure of it! And yeah, come to think of it, now that you've mentioned it, I've never seen oysters or an oyster bar at any Disney park. Now I know!

It was very good!

Yes!! I'd have that again in a heartbeat!

I was too, but I still love a good cheese course!

Me too... but food (and drink) overload!

Well, I guess I"m looking forward to that.

Eventually, I'll find time to write again!

They are quite different aren't they?

Yes, I had no idea! I like them both though!

I didn't want to disclose that. I saved it for your TR.

I've never done tandem TRs before, and I like how while they are the same, they are also quite unique to the author's personalities and photos. Fun!

Again, thought I'd let him talk about this one as well....

It'll be nice to hear his rendition as well!

Maybe then it was your drink? I don't remember too well. I do know that pkondz gave me his Margarita because he didn't like it.

Not quite. Well, not THAT one anyway.

Well I'm curious to hear it....

It was inevitable. Our first two days we pushed it hard and even though we only had a brief meeting on Friday the stress of the morning stuff made it a tiring day as well. After three days of pushing it, the fourth day I was tired waking up so when the demo came around at 6PM I couldn't help but be tired.

 

[Steppesister]

Alison,

If I could hop on a plane tomorrow I would come to share in those aged beauties and pay all the corkage fees myself. Yum!!

Dinner looked amazing, but holy smokedogs! That cake! WOWZA!! Sounded like you all had a really wonderful time together and I'm glad Jill (hi @jedijill ) could camp out on your couch in the Villa. Yes, you are right, those rooms are simply gorgeous; What a view!!

I gotta say it: I love deviled eggs. Those look really yummy! With trout, nice combo there!

Lastly, you two look great all gussied up for dinner.

 

[franandaj]

I'm not ignoring your comments and such, but I just found out about photobucket's upcoming highway robbery! Some of you are already affected by this money grab, if you had a free account, your pictures are toast and the only option is to take the $399 per year option. Luckily I ran out of storage years ago and upgraded to a Plus account, so I have until Dec. 31, 2018 until my pictures are history. In the meantime please indulge me as I try out an alternative option for photo hosting. I know it works, but I'm trying a few options that might be a little less time consuming, so let's look at few pictures from my own hosting site, and see how posting them works out here.


The first test.


I like to write up my updates in advance in Google documents. I’m going to just paste the URL of the picture into this document and then paste it into the browser to see if I can keep doing it the same way that I have been, just using a different site for the hosting.


http://www.longproperties.biz/2520_NOOK.jpg


http://www.longproperties.biz/AKL5.jpg


http://www.longproperties.biz/SpringConcert.jpg


I’m hoping that these images come up with just typing the URL. If so I’m going to redo my next couple updates that I’ve already written before posting them. Then I will go back and edit my previous TRs (with as much time as I have ) as I have time…..



So let’s see how this test goes!

 

[franandaj]

I'm not ignoring your comments and such, but I just found out about photobucket's upcoming highway robbery! Some of you are already affected by this money grab, if you had a free account, your pictures are toast and the only option is to take the $399 per year option. Luckily I ran out of storage years ago and upgraded to a Plus account, so I have until Dec. 31, 2018 until my pictures are history. In the meantime please indulge me as I try out an alternative option for photo hosting. I know it works, but I'm trying a few options that might be a little less time consuming, so let's look at few pictures from my own hosting site, and see how posting them works out here.


The first test.


I like to write up my updates in advance in Google documents. I’m going to just paste the URL of the picture into this document and then paste it into the browser to see if I can keep doing it the same way that I have been, just using a different site for the hosting.


http://www.longproperties.biz/2520_NOOK.jpg


http://www.longproperties.biz/AKL5.jpg


http://www.longproperties.biz/SpringConcert.jpg


I’m hoping that these images come up with just typing the URL. If so I’m going to redo my next couple updates that I’ve already written before posting them. Then I will go back and edit my previous TRs (with as much time as I have ) as I have time…..



So let’s see how this test goes!

OK so obviously that test did not work. Looks like I will have to do it the slow way by using the photo icon.

 

[Steppesister]

WHAT THE.... YOU KNOW WHAT?!!?!

$399 as in Three. Hundred. Ninety. Nine. Dollars!? What kind of moron would pay that?

Buh-bye PB.

You suck!

(And no, I do not have time to go back and re-do all my TRs. Such a colossal shame. Color me pissed.)

...hoping there is supposed to be a decimal point in there between the 3 and the first 9.

 

[franandaj]

WHAT THE.... YOU KNOW WHAT?!!?!

$399 as in Three. Hundred. Ninety. Nine. Dollars!? What kind of moron would pay that?

Buh-bye PB.

You suck!

(And no, I do not have time to go back and re-do all my TRs. Such a colossal shame. Color me pissed.)

...hoping there is supposed to be a decimal point in there between the 3 and the first 9.

I read it on another TR and was like...."whaaaaaaaat? That must be the price with the conversion to the Euro (it was someone in Europe), I had noticed that some people's signatures were wonky." Then today I did some investigating, yup Three Hundred Ninety Nine US Greenback dollars per year! Uh-uh, no way. I think I'm paying $89 per year for the Plus plan. i'm not willing to invest more than $100 per year to write TRs, so I figured out a way, it will just be a little more labor intensive when I am posting the updates and I will have more chance of people posting inbetween multi post updates. It might change the way that I think about posts and keep them to 35 pics per post with more frequent updates.

 

[irene_dsc]

I'm not ignoring your comments and such, but I just found out about photobucket's upcoming highway robbery! Some of you are already affected by this money grab, if you had a free account, your pictures are toast and the only option is to take the $399 per year option. Luckily I ran out of storage years ago and upgraded to a Plus account, so I have until Dec. 31, 2018 until my pictures are history.

$399??? Oh.My.Goldfish. That is crazy! I haven't used photobucket in years, so it definitely doesn't affect my most recent TR (so recent, 2015!). I can't remember what I used for my first one. It does mean my photos from one of my old parenting forums will all go away, but I doubt anyone has looked at that in years. At least I didn't use it for storage!

I have been using the upload image in post thing all along, but saving things down so they aren't quite as huge on the page. It's been a while, so I forget what settings I was using.

 

[dizneeat]

So I stirred up a hornets' nest with my photobucket post.

And if you think about using another hosting site ..... I am pretty happy with my new one so far ......... now that I kind of figured it out.

 

[Pinkocto]

Wowza!!! Such a pain in the rear I haven't had time to look into how it affects my $24.99 yearly perscription. Guess I'll be finding something else as well.