Chunkymonkey + Chubbyhubby's Mem day weekend at WDW = Updated Day III part 3

[GreatBiscuit]

Holy cow, you're zipping this puppy out quick! Loving the TR so far!

First off, sorry to hear about the layoffs, I know that's gotta be a bummer.

I love all of the pics - even had to go google Holga 135BC.

The cream cheese bagle looked AWESOME. I guess I'll have to add that to my snack credit must-do list.

I was also glad to discover that I am not the only one who always turns right at the end of Main Street USA.

The food pics from Columbia HH looked good as well, but alas, I am the only fish eater in my clan so I don't know if I can drag my group in there or not. We shall see.

Bummer on the Soarin & Test Track Fast Passes, but glad you found an alternative.

Looks like Day 1 was quite productive so far. Looking forward to more!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Holy cow, you're zipping this puppy out quick! Loving the TR so far!

First off, sorry to hear about the layoffs, I know that's gotta be a bummer.

I love all of the pics - even had to go google Holga 135BC.

The cream cheese bagle looked AWESOME. I guess I'll have to add that to my snack credit must-do list.

I was also glad to discover that I am not the only one who always turns right at the end of Main Street USA.

The food pics from Columbia HH looked good as well, but alas, I am the only fish eater in my clan so I don't know if I can drag my group in there or not. We shall see.

Bummer on the Soarin & Test Track Fast Passes, but glad you found an alternative.

Looks like Day 1 was quite productive so far. Looking forward to more!

Haha, thanks, the product of unemployment is that one has a lot of time on their hands. So on days when I'm not interviewing I have a lot of time to write and read TRs. Today happens to be free day so I've just been working on Day 1 of the TR all day. I have the conclusion of Day 1 coming up...it's pretty exciting.

The Holga 135BC is a pretty neat thing to play around with. It's one of those trial-and-error type cameras, you never know what you're going to get. You get some really bad shots, but you also get some winners. And the winners are what keep you playing and experimenting with the camera.

I love Tommorowland! It is always the first place I visit both at WDW and DLR.

The CC pretzel is the bomb, you definitely must try it.

Columbia HH had other options aside from fish so your family may be able to eat there. I think they had chicken fingers as well as chilli too.

Stay tuned for more!

 

[chunkymonkey]

After Spaceship Earth, we got on line to get our photopass pictures but only after getting my first frozen banana of the trip. I do love those frozen bananas here.

t was quite a wait with a few people getting their prints before us, so we had to wait while they each ran through several hundred pics, selected them, picked borders, themes etc. I was in AC so I couldn’t really complain, plus we had a lot of time until our 8:50 Biergarten ADRs. Finally it was our turn and we got to look at our whopping total of 5 pictures on our photopass and picked the best one out of the bunch. I didn’t really love any of the pictures, but hey, it was free!

In Innoventions we also got a ticket for the Kim Possible mission. It said to meet at Norway to get a Kimmunicator at 6:15pm. We thought if we had time we would check it out.

After that we decided to head over to the Living Seas ride with Nemo.

I absolutely love anything round, so I really like the puffer fish

I think this character is called Squirt?

The Nemo ride was cute and fun. I like the technology they have mixing the animation into the fish tanks. After the ride, DH had some fun with the seas exhibit they had upon exit.

We headed over to World Showcase to spend some time before dinner. We hit up Norway first, so I could try some school bread.

School bread tastes like a large dinner roll filled with pastry cream and dusted with flaky toasted coconut. It is served cold, and is a best selling item at the Kringla bakery and café. It was really quite yummy, but it is very rich with all the pastry cream. DH didn’t want any so I had to practically eat the whole thing myself! He did try a bite though and admitted it was good. DH got a coffee, and it was piping hot he had to wait about 10 minutes for it to cool down before he could drink it. It’s funny because I think most coffees at WDW tends to be served not hot enough.

DH also stopped at the Kim Possible mission kiosk in front of Norway to get his Kimmunicator. I didn’t really take part in this mission since I was working on finishing my school bread. So DH went off to do a few “missions” in Norway. There were some pretty cool things he did show me. If you stand in front of a chimney and pressed a button on the Kimmunicator, it let out some smoke. He also made a statue talk. I think he really enjoyed the missions since it was kind of like finding secret things at Disney. We saw other people with Kimmunicators too doing the same tasks so I guess it’s pretty popular.

After our snack we decided to go on the Maelstrom. Here’s some pics from the line

Here’s a Holga shot of the Maelstrom

When we got out of the Maelstrom…it was POURING. Everyone was inside the gift shop in Norway buying ponchos. Now this isn’t a light summer shower, this is pouring sheeting rain. It was also windy, and thunder and lightning were plastering the sky. It was nuts! So we wait in the gift shop along with everyone else. It was about 7:45pm at this point, and our ADRs were not until 8:50pm. So we walk back into Kringla bakery and café and grab a seat in the back. The back is open air but at least it was sheltered from the rain. I did have to grab a stack of napkins to wipe the seat and table because it was raining so hard, we did get some residual water blowing in.

Now we were sitting at the table waiting patiently when suddenly something drops onto our table. It was something dark. I though it was a leaf or a piece of branch from a tree. I was looking the other way and I turned to see what it was. IT WAS A FROG. I literally screamed and jumped away from the table. I am sure about 20 adults and 30 children were staring at me wondering what the heck was going on. I am just grossed out by frogs. I have never liked them, and am scared to death by them. The frog jumped down from the table, and I think it went somewhere else, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going back to that table.

DH thought we could try going to Biergarten and seeing if they could seat us earlier. I was so freaked out at this point by the frog I agreed even though it was still raining hard. I thought my flimsy disposable poncho could not handle the journey to Germany, so I went back into the gift shop and buy a Disney poncho. I also was wearing my cute little black dress, which wasn’t going to stay put in the wind and rain. I asked all the CMs working there if they had safety pins so I could pin the bottom of my dress together so it wouldn’t fly away. No one seemed to have a safety pin, so the best option was to buy a pin trading pin and pin the hem of my dress together. I picked out a cute one of Mickey and Minnie and hoped that it would at least hold my dress together on our walk to Biergarten. So I bought the pin, pinned the dress, donned the poncho and we walked out in the rain.

The walk to Germany was not as bad as I expected. My pin seems to hold up and keeps my dress from flying up, but our arms and legs are still pretty soaked. But I am glad we made it there without getting struck by lightning. I go up to the CM and she tells me that we can definitely be seated then. It was about 8:30 at this point.
Upon entering Biergarten, I realize that the show was just ending. The last performance was at 8pm so I guess we miss the last show. The place is about 60% full still. The CM seats us at a table. There are 2 other couples at the table, but we didn’t mind at all. We were just glad to be somewhere dry! I ordered and iced tea as a drink, which was included in the price of the buffet. DH gets a diet coke, and also orders their most popular beer, the Oktoberfest.

Since I was tired and hungry at this point, I didn’t really take many pictures of Biergarten, sorry, but I did snap a pic of my first round of the buffet. The lighting is very dim in the restaurant so pics did not turn out so good. It was either too dark, or the flash made everything too bright.

They had a lot of meat, sausages, carved liverkasse (german meatloaf, does not taste like liver at all, more like spam) carved pork loin, sauerbraten (german steaks marinated in vinegar-like sauce), sautéed potatos, mac n cheese, a bunch of assorted cold salads, sautéed veggies, salmon in a dill sauce, spaetzel (german pasta), the requisite sauerkraut and hot/sweet mustard sauces. They also had this really yummy casserole of mashed potatoes and sauerkraut but I think they ran out of it because I didn’t see it on my subsequent trips to the buffet (made about 3, and 1 dessert run). Bummer. But they had a potato leek soup that was delicious. It really hit the spot on a rainy day. The pretzel rolls were also tasty.

Dinner buffet was about 32 dollars a person. Lunch is cheaper but dinner had some additional options, like the sauerbraten, which I didn’t think was worth it since the meat was rather tough and dry. I didn’t know if it was because of the late hour of our dining or if this was the food normally. The place is really bustling though, and definitely lively with the show going on. I would say go for it if you are a big German food fan. If you are not into the heavy meats and buffet then you can probably skip it or try the cheaper lunch option.

Dessert was an assortment of fruit, chocolate cake, cheesecake, homemade apple strudel which was yummy, a berry compote with vanilla sauce which was also good, and fresh whole fruit. I ate about a bite of each dessert and most of the strudel before finally succumbing to buffet food coma. I took an apple and orange home for later.

As we were eating, we heard thundering noises outside. But ultimately determined that illuminations was definitely still on. So I guess that means the weather has lightened up enough that they were able to do the fire works. Guess we missed the show but we would catch it another night,. We paid our bill, and ventured outside to see if we would need the mighty ponchos or not. When we left, it had stopped raining, everyone was heading back to their resort so we walked towards the ferry launch over by the park exits located at France and UK.
Here’s a shot I took outside walking along the way, It was dark and wet.
Everythng was wet!

As we entered the Water launch area, luckily our boat was there. Got on and sat down. I was about 80% capacity. I was surprise since I thought there would be more passengers who were trying to get away from the rain.

The Swan was the last stop. So we finally get off , get to our rooms, showered, and crashed….we slept all night long.

End of Day I

 

[chunkymonkey]

Su-Lynn, you two look like you're having so much fun!

Please post lots-o-pix of Biergarten... we're thinking of trying it out for the first time!

Kathy

I'm sorry I dont' have any pics of Biergarten but I will try my best to describe it. It's very large, and has a lot of tables so if you're not a big family or just a couple you may have to share a larger table. They say their philosophy is to sit on communal tables for feast-like experience.

The buffet as you can see from my TR, was good but I don't think it was worth the dinner price. I may do lunch again. But if you've never been there, I say go for it since everyone has a different opinion and everyone should try something at least once, IMHO.

Thanks for stopping by again!

 

[Lynn5700]

OOH I love your updates!!! LOVE your photos!!! They are all great!

OMG I can't believe the frog lol!

Love Biergarten, YUM!!

I can't believe Maelstrom was 30 mins!!!! You had to stand outside, that stinks!

Sorry about the rain, grr.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Hey! Saw you on Topdogs page and came over. We were in WDW at the same time! And OMG how could it possibly rain that much!? Never in my life have I seen so much rain! It was crazy. I haven't started my TR yet. Still trying to finish up my March trip but hope to start May soon! Girl you update super fast! Dang. Your TR is so much fun...I'll be back. Marking it now.

 

[chunkymonkey]

OOH I love your updates!!! LOVE your photos!!! They are all great!

OMG I can't believe the frog lol!

Love Biergarten, YUM!!

I can't believe Maelstrom was 30 mins!!!! You had to stand outside, that stinks!

Sorry about the rain, grr.

Thanks Lynn! The frog was just super scary at the time, but as I look back now, it does seem pretty darn funny. I must have looked like an idiot jumping around, but by that time the frog had left so no one could see what I was freaked out about!

The wait for Maelstrom was pretty long, but luckily it didn't rain as we were on line. It was when we got out that it was pouring cats and dogs.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Hey! Saw you on Topdogs page and came over. We were in WDW at the same time! And OMG how could it possibly rain that much!? Never in my life have I seen so much rain! It was crazy. I haven't started my TR yet. Still trying to finish up my March trip but hope to start May soon! Girl you update super fast! Dang. Your TR is so much fun...I'll be back. Marking it now.

Hi there! I have started reading your trip report too! You have quite a lot of ifnformation and I really love all your pictures. CAn't believe we were there at the same time but it seems like a lot of people were there judging from all the rainy trip reports! I have never seen it rain that much in WDW, and we weren't even there for the worst of it! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on your May TR!

 

[chunkymonkey]

We woke up on Sunday at around 7am and I looked out the window. It was sunny again! Whew. But I knew from the weather reports on TV that the sun would not last so we packed up our ponchos again. We had let the ponchos air dry overnight so they wouldn’t get all mildew-y. So we showered, and got dressed, and ate some cereal and juice. I made sure I wasn’t wearing any cute dresses or skirts this time. It’s shorts and tanks for me for the rest of the trip! Bummer because I am not a shorts person. I like wearing skirts and dresses. Guess it’s just the girly girl in me.

We decided to walk back to Epcot today. We were determined to ride Soarin’ and TT so we headed there first. Our walk took us past the Boardwalk. It is such a lovely and quaint looking path.

We got to the gate right before Epcot opened

Once in, DH headed straight to Soarin’ for an FP, and I went over to TT to wait for him. It looked like that was what everyone was doing too, because once DH go to the land, there was a line for FP for Soarin’!?!?! hahaha. So it takes him a while to get the FP and walk over to TT, at this point the stand-by for TT was about 25 minutes. This is all within the first half hour of the park opening! We knew we were in for a crowded weekend. Maybe it’s because of the holiday weekend, or maybe because it was actually sunny today and everyone else who was rained out all week were packing the parks and doing everything they didn’t do before.

Waiting for TT

Finally we get onto the ride. And of course I had to take out my camera and shoot us as soon as we go outside for the big “loop”

My hair was just all over the place!

Meet DH and Cousin It with curly hair!

As we got off the ride, I knew to pull my photopass out so we can record the picture they take of you during the ride. This picture didn’t turn out so well, well of me really. DH is blocking my entire face because he had his hands up. Hahaha. We got some better pics later on so I will post them once I get there.

After I finished smoothing out my hair, we headed over to The Land. We stop to get an FP for TT so we could come back later. We still had some time before our Soarin’ FP so I sat in Sunshine Seasons and had some oatmeal and coffee. DH just had coffee. Sorry no pic, oatmeal is just not that interesting. Sunshine Seasons was pretty empty so it was nice to just sit there. We decided after our 2nd breakfast to go on Living with the Land boat ride. I thought this ride was a lot of fun and very informative. I enjoy looking at the innovative ways they grow fruits and vegetables and farm fish. It kinda made me want to eat at Garden Grill one day. Too bad it is only open for dinner now, and we already had ADRs that evening at the Brown Derby.

Jackfruit. I have had this before. It tastes very sweet with a floral finish. It’s a pretty exotic fruit. I was born in Singapore so I grew up with it, but I haven’t seen it outside of Southeast Asia so it was pretty neat to see it growing at WDW.

I am not sure what these are

Cotton

A nine pound lemon! I wonder if they will ever eat that

After the boat ride we headed into Soarin’. We absolutely love that ride. I always do it barefoot since I wear flip flops all the time. I really love the idea of flying so it is definitely a must do ride for me. I tried to spot the hidden mickey in the golf course but I didn’t find it.

After Soarin, we head back over to TT to use our FP. We could go on TT all day long and not get bored of it. It’s such a fun ride. I love going fast!

Before the ride I braided my bangs so they wouldn’t get in my face. Think it worked this time! I didn’t want to put my hair up because I really do like the way my hair feels as it’s blowing in the wind when you do the speed loop.

Here’s the pic of us from the TT cameras

Couldn’t resist one last pic outside of test track

Coming up…world showcase and street meat…

 

[topdog]

Whew!!! I made it. WOW!! You are quick. I can barely finish half of the first page and you are zipping it over and over.

Please let me know which pics are from Holga. I would like to see how different are those pictures compare to the common digital one.

Sorry to hear you lost your job. The economy is tough out there. I am in the financial business too but I got spared...for now. Hopefully, things get turn around soon. My close friend is not so lucky...he worked for Madoff on the trading side business.

BTW, I still visit NYC often. We still have an apartment in lower east side and my close friend lives at SI. Which borough you live at??

 

[castmemberb4]

I've never noticed the "I don't want to bite you" shark at Living Seas.
What happens when you stick your hand in there?
Lynn

 

[chunkymonkey]

I've never noticed the "I don't want to bite you" shark at Living Seas.
What happens when you stick your hand in there?
Lynn

It speaks to you! DH had fun sticking his hand in there. I think it says different things each time you stick your hand in.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Whew!!! I made it. WOW!! You are quick. I can barely finish half of the first page and you are zipping it over and over.

Please let me know which pics are from Holga. I would like to see how different are those pictures compare to the common digital one.

Sorry to hear you lost your job. The economy is tough out there. I am in the financial business too but I got spared...for now. Hopefully, things get turn around soon. My close friend is not so lucky...he worked for Madoff on the trading side business.

BTW, I still visit NYC often. We still have an apartment in lower east side and my close friend lives at SI. Which borough you live at??

Hi Topdog,

Yes I am pretty fast with the TR. I like to write it as quick as possible since it is fresh in my head. However it may slow down though since I have a busy weekend ahead of me!

Yeah things are tough out there in the job market. However, I am looking to doing some photography as a side business. Hopefully it will make me some money in the future. I am just building up my portfolio now. I'm sorry about your friend. Madoff was a big crook, it is sad indeed.

I live in Manhattan on the upper west side, near lincoln center. I really like the LES though, there is a lot of character to that area, although I do not visit that often, it's really fun there.

Here are some of the pictures I have taken with the Holga.

I have a few more that I will post later on. This is the Holga I have: Holga 135BC
It uses 35mm film instead of the regular 120 that most lomography cameras use, so I thought it would be easier and cheaper to find.

And here is a site to learn more about Lomography and the Holga: Lomography site

 

[KathyRN137]

We got to the gate right before Epcot opened

...and that's why you were able to do so much on a crowded weekend morning! Good job!!


Kathy

 

[daly7o9]

I am thoroughly enjoying your TR. And the best part is...I can see your pics! I sometimes read TRs at work...well, ok..more than sometimes, and our IT department blocks photobucket .

So sorry you were here during the rainy spell, but we really needed the rain. I hope that it didn't spoil your trip too much.

 

[chunkymonkey]

...and that's why you were able to do so much on a crowded weekend morning! Good job!!


Kathy

Thanks! We are definitely "power Disney" people - we want to fit a lot within a short amount of time. I guess being from NYC helps too...it's often overcrowded whereever you go so you're used to having to go places extra early so you don't miss anything!

 

[chunkymonkey]

I am thoroughly enjoying your TR. And the best part is...I can see your pics! I sometimes read TRs at work...well, ok..more than sometimes, and our IT department blocks photobucket .

So sorry you were here during the rainy spell, but we really needed the rain. I hope that it didn't spoil your trip too much.

Hi! Thanks for visiting! I am glad you are able to see the pictures, and I understand about not being able to see certain things at work. I used to work for large companies and they would block all external emails, like yahoo or hotmail and gmail. It sucks! Good thing for blackberries!

We didn't mind the rain too much - hey, we were in Disney so we were just glad to be there! We just put on our ponchos and moved on.

 

[chunkymonkey]

The new Pixar Studios movie. It was really really good. I won't give anything away, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I think it's great!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Did you meet them at DHS while you were there? They were so cute! Speaking of...my MAY trip report is up. Check it out in the picture link below.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Did you meet them at DHS while you were there? They were so cute! Speaking of...my MAY trip report is up. Check it out in the picture link below.

Hey Tammy. We didn't get ot meet them or take pictures with them because the line was really long to do so. I went over to your May TR and it looks awesome! Can't wait to read more!