Disney dangled the visual weinee & Mickeystoontown gobbled it up! 10/26

[PhoenixStrength]

You have to keep us updated on the "cotton ball" tree seeds and if anything good grows. They certainly look like cotton balls to me too. And at thinking they could be poisonous after handling them.

I like your mood lighting theory

No worries about a baby manatee next trip, the manatees are both boys! When I was there, just a few days before you, they were doing a demonstration and feeding for the manatees upstairs. They give lots of info on both of them, and I took a picture of this above their tank:




So their "wrestling" won't be leading to repopulating the species

 

[mickeystoontown]

You have to keep us updated on the "cotton ball" tree seeds and if anything good grows. They certainly look like cotton balls to me too. And at thinking they could be poisonous after handling them.

I think that I'll go ahead and plant them in pots so that I can move them under shelter when it gets cold which could be as late as November or December here. Heck, what am I saying, sometimes, we wear short sleeve shirts at Christmastime.

I like your mood lighting theory

No worries about a baby manatee next trip, the manatees are both boys! When I was there, just a few days before you, they were doing a demonstration and feeding for the manatees upstairs. They give lots of info on both of them, and I took a picture of this above their tank:




So their "wrestling" won't be leading to repopulating the species

Ahhh, I guess they really were just wrestling and playing with each other. It sure did look like hanky panky.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I was going to ask too if you had a cotton tree yet!

I'm an update behind, so first, I love the pics of you and John. So cute!

That's what we get when we ask John to smile for the picture.

Those resorts do look gorgeous. If we ever hit the jackpot though, I want to try Poly or Boardwalk.

If I hit the jackpot, I'm staying at every resort! I agree about the Polynesian. It's gorgeous!

And LOL about the bird poop Mickey! I'd love it if it really were bird poop that happened to land in the shape of Mickey.

Wouldn't that be something!

Love your Seas with Nemo and Friends shots and the aquariums. I've never seen that Goofy either! The Mickey, yes, but not the Goofy. I'll have to look for him.

I love manatees. I've seen them in the wild and it is so cool!

Oh cool, manatees in the wild! We saw just one while on the cruise ship.

 

[QueenJen]

DH and I took our 'once in a lifetime' trip to DW this past Dec. (I don't remember if we had even made it home before he planted the seed of going back again)

We spent a good chunk of our 2 week park time at Epcot' which we loved. After reading your Epcot updates, I just looked at DH and said that we apparently missed a big section of Epcot. So much we didn't see/do. Thanks for sharing and I guess we need to slow down and take in a bit more in each area.

 

[wendy3]

A-MAZ-ING Disney trained their birds how to poop Mickey heads!

OMG, I was drinking a soda when I read this and it made diet coke come out my nose. So, so funny!!

I think we were eating at Cape May when you were at our Beach Club. We've stayed at Beach, Wilderness Lodge, Boardwalk, Dolphin, Animal Kingdom, Coronado Springs, and Pop Century but we keep coming back to our Beach Club. We do rent points, which brings the price down to what we can afford. It's all about location ("location, location"). Epcot and Disney Studios are our two favorite parks, so there you go!

(Sorry about the late post - it's the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally here and we are all crazy busy and working insane hours)

 

[themommy]

What ta heck kinda tree is that? If you figure it out let us know please. I don't ever remember seeing a tree like that there (or anywhere for that matter). I must have missed the seeds popping. Very cool though.

Manatees hugging! hehe Ya know just because they are both boys does not mean....well you get it. My mom had birds like that. Pete and Repete.

 

[amandaw]

I agree...I love how EPCOT looks with all the F&G topiaries and extra flowers out. It really is so pretty!

That cotton tree is so unique!

That's so cute about the little boys at the bathroom.

 

[natebenma]

Dee, really, zombies?

Yes, Lisa, zombies!

We have just started watching the first couple of seasons of The Walking Dead. It is one of the only tv shows we all watch together. Whatever it takes for family time!



I don't necessarily care for horror movies or tv shows, but I will confess that Stephen King is my all-time favorite author and I have spent a lot of time defending his books to non-believers!

 

[natebenma]

Pretty pictures looking towards the Imagination pavilion!

You KNOW I love those fish pictures!

The hidden Goofy is really cool. I wonder when they added that. Those are the kind of touches I love.

 

[Chicago Mo]

Love your report titles!!!



Your pictures turned out great!!! even with the saturated blue! Hey manatee's need love too!!!

Sorry you didn't get your BIG spoon! let me know if you want me to pick it up for you!!

 

[ddstratton]

Love the updates! I've never seen a tree like that before -- it'll be interesting to know if your seeds grow.

 

[mickeystoontown]

DH and I took our 'once in a lifetime' trip to DW this past Dec. (I don't remember if we had even made it home before he planted the seed of going back again)

We spent a good chunk of our 2 week park time at Epcot' which we loved. After reading your Epcot updates, I just looked at DH and said that we apparently missed a big section of Epcot. So much we didn't see/do. Thanks for sharing and I guess we need to slow down and take in a bit more in each area.

It's funny how the once in a lifetime trip turns into return trips. We thought that our first trip to Disney would be our one and only trip.

There's so much to see and do at Epcot. Make sure that you check out all of the nooks and crannies as there always seems to be something hiding back there.

 

[mickeystoontown]

OMG, I was drinking a soda when I read this and it made diet coke come out my nose. So, so funny!!



I think we were eating at Cape May when you were at our Beach Club. We've stayed at Beach, Wilderness Lodge, Boardwalk, Dolphin, Animal Kingdom, Coronado Springs, and Pop Century but we keep coming back to our Beach Club. We do rent points, which brings the price down to what we can afford. It's all about location ("location, location"). Epcot and Disney Studios are our two favorite parks, so there you go!

I wish that I weren't so scared of renting points. I have priced out various options many times and it wouldn't be as expensive as going through Disney.

(Sorry about the late post - it's the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally here and we are all crazy busy and working insane hours)

Oooh, the motorcycle rally! I get you were busy!

What ta heck kinda tree is that? If you figure it out let us know please. I don't ever remember seeing a tree like that there (or anywhere for that matter). I must have missed the seeds popping. Very cool though.

Manatees hugging! hehe Ya know just because they are both boys does not mean....well you get it. My mom had birds like that. Pete and Repete.

I have no idea what kind of tree it is. I think that we may just have to take the Behind the Seeds tour again just so I can ask about that tree.

The boys sure were acting like they were doing "it". I guess they were just tussling around with one another.

I agree...I love how EPCOT looks with all the F&G topiaries and extra flowers out. It really is so pretty!

That cotton tree is so unique!

That's so cute about the little boys at the bathroom.

I love the extra flowers and topiaries too! It's so pretty and the colors so vibrant.

The little kids at the bathroom were adorable and it was so sweet when they all hugged me.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yes, Lisa, zombies!

We have just started watching the first couple of seasons of The Walking Dead. It is one of the only tv shows we all watch together. Whatever it takes for family time!



I don't necessarily care for horror movies or tv shows, but I will confess that Stephen King is my all-time favorite author and I have spent a lot of time defending his books to non-believers!

All in the name of family time/unity! Gotta do what you gotta do. I tried to read a few Stephen King books but just couldn't get into them. As far as horror movies go, I can't watch 'em unless they are on television so that the blood and gore is cut out.

Pretty pictures looking towards the Imagination pavilion!

You KNOW I love those fish pictures!

The hidden Goofy is really cool. I wonder when they added that. Those are the kind of touches I love.

This was the first time that I had ever seen the hidden Goofy! He was just too cute!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Love your report titles!!!



Your pictures turned out great!!! even with the saturated blue! Hey manatee's need love too!!!

Sorry you didn't get your BIG spoon! let me know if you want me to pick it up for you!!

The titles are usually easy to come up with since we are the ones who either utter the words or others around us do. Yeah, we say a lot of "interesting" things while on vaca.

Thanks for the offer on the big spoon. I think that I can live without it until we go back in May.

Love the updates! I've never seen a tree like that before -- it'll be interesting to know if your seeds grow.

Isn't that a neat looking tree!?! I wish that they'd put signs underneath some of the more unusual plants and trees so that we'd know what they were.

 

[Dizzy4DL]

Okay, so you need to know that I have a serious Google problem. I can't help myself sometimes.

It IS sometimes called a Cotton Tree! Here you go: http://www.tree-nation.com/forests/discussions/3794/highlight-a-fact-about-cotton-tree

 

[mickeystoontown]

Okay, so you need to know that I have a serious Google problem. I can't help myself sometimes.

It IS sometimes called a Cotton Tree! Here you go: http://www.tree-nation.com/forests/discussions/3794/highlight-a-fact-about-cotton-tree

How coooooooool! THERE REALLY IS A COTTON TREE!

 

[mickeystoontown]

It’s simply too cute! What are you talking about? Dig in!

Having wandered around The Living Seas and letting time pass, it was finally time to check in for our dinner ADR at the Coral Reef. Our ADR was for 8:40 p.m. which was a little later than I wanted but the only time available when I decided to rearrange our schedule a bit. We checked in and were given a pager and, almost immediately after we sat down on the bench to wait, it went off.

We were seated in one of the tables on the highest tier which is where we’ve been seated every single time that we’ve eaten there. Honestly though, it didn’t matter much to us because you have a view of the tank no matter where you are seated. This was our view from our table:



For some stupid reason, Photobucket will not uploaded a few of my pictures. I’ve tried repeatedly and I always get an error on the same ones. Oh well, I can do this without ‘em.

Our waitress came soon after we were seated and took our drink orders and gave us our menu.



Because I like lists and notes and such, I had printed out the menus for each restaurant we were going to dine in and I pretty much knew what I wanted to order. It took only a few minutes for John and Hunter to decide as well. The waitress came back with a basket of warm rolls:




and took our orders. The rolls were better this trip than they have been in the past. We like fluffy rolls with lots of omph in the inside. A lot of the Disney restaurants serve rolls that are lots of crust and not a lot of omph inside. We like crusty breads but not crusty rolls. Yes, there’s a difference.

There was a very large party beside us that took up two booths and you could tell that they were one big happy extended family. Except for this one mid-30s mother who always had a scowl on her face. I’m not sure why she was scowling because she didn’t do a dang thing all dinner long. The dad would get up and help their three young children cut their meat, butter their bread, wipe their faces, etc.

Mama just sat there as pretty as you please. Wait, let me restate that, scowling as you please and visiting with the person beside her. She had her glass of wine and didn’t do a thing. Poor daddy was p....oops...whooped. You could tell it too. The rest of the party was having a really good time visiting and laughing and Poppa (that’s what they called him) even got a birthday cake. That’s the only time that Mrs. Scowly Pants even smiled. Ya’ll don’t go thinking that all I did was stare at them the entire trip. It couldn’t be helped that I saw just about their every move because they were right there in my line of vision.

Annnnnyway, our entrees came out and they were just as delicious as they look. I ordered the New York strip steak with mashed potatoes and asparagus:



Hunter also ordered the steak but substituted fries with sauce on the side:



John ordered the lobster Orecchiette Pasta:



Everything was very good with the exception of the ends of the asparagus which were a bit on the tough side but I ate the rest of it.

Dessert time rolled around and Hunter said that he didn’t want anything. The waitress kept insisting that he needed something since we were on the dining plan and we were celebrating his birthday. He ended up ordering the chocolate wave which was brought out with a birthday candle. The waitress lit the candle and sang Happy Birthday



Birthday boy blowing out his candle:



John ordered the Baileys and Jack Daniel's Mousse:



We have a running joke with Jesse about any sort of food item that contains alcohol. He doesn’t drink but he almost always orders anything on a menu that has alcohol in it. We are always teasing him and telling him that he’s a closet drinker and just pretends to not like it. We took this picture and sent it to Jesse saying that we wished he were there:



I ordered a turtle cheesecake. I was expecting a plain piece of turtle cheesecake and when it came out, I said “It’s simply too cute!” but turned right around and said to myself “What are you talking about? Dig in!”. I’m so glad that I did because it was absolutely delicious!



John ended up eating almost all of Hunter’s chocolate wave because, like I said, Hunter wasn’t really wasn’t feeling dessert but ordered it to please the waitress.

Throughout the meal, our waitress checked up on us frequently and replenished our drinks and took away dishes. The service was exceptional and the food was great. Another thumbs up for our dinner at the Coral Reef.

We wobbled out of the restaurant and saw that there were still quite a bit of people leaving after Illuminations. We sat off to the side and let them filter out before making our way to the bus stop.



By the time we walked to the bus stop, there weren’t many people waiting and our bus pulled up about 5 minutes later. Our ride back to the resort was super quick and we were walking to our building in Jamaica. I glanced over at Building 41 and, yep, the security guards were there. A nighttime mission to scope out a possible new room sighting was a no-go.

**Up next: It’s Slinky! It’s Slinky! Everyone knows it’s a slinky!

 

[MonsterWDWmom]

The steaks look so good I may have to try coral reef one of these days.

I can't stand when I see 1 grumpy person with a bunch of happy people I mean common you are in Disney!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Ya know, one year we ate at Coral Reef and Dave said it was the best steak he had that whole trip! Yours looked good!!
at your observation of scowling lady!!

I suppose the "too cute" turtle cheesecake picture was one that would not upload - stupid photo bucket!!