From Europe to Africa in America - A Sisters' Expedition

[englishrose47]

Good evening !!Or for you Good morning !!! I am at work and everything is done and people sleeping soooo I have a little down time and thought I'd check out the boards !!!

 

[All7OfUs]

Oh, I love asparagus, but I actually prefer the white one (did we not have this discussion before on this TR???? )

That may have been Glenn's thread we talked about that??

 

[marvali]

I actually took a few pictures of the angels Katharina has given me for Christmas in the past years, if you are interested I can upload them and post them, even though the Christmas season is over.

Love to see them if you get the chance!

Yes, you could do that when you come to Germany with the DISgroup trip you panned last year!

You still have room for us all???

I had to smile at your comment, because it was so "American" for me. Here restaurants normally don't serve bread with a meal. But I do agree with your statement.

Interesting tidbit. I guess I need to get out more!!!

Remy's family has lots of hunters as well, so Katharina has quite a bit of experience with game meat as well and I think she commented on the venison that this has a very mild taste, so maybe you would be dissappointed. What I liked about the dish was that it was a bit of "fusion cooking" with the Asian influence in it.

No, wouldn't be disappointed. Don't care that much for the very strong "game" taste. My Dad and brother always took great pains to prepare deer and such so that "gamey" taste was minimized. I'm guessing the appetizer would be very tasty to me!

It was a great dish! I think AP always has at least one bufallo option on the menu, but sometime it is braised short ribs. I was very glad that we had a chance to get the steak because I don't like braised meat.

So is the taste of buffalo similar to any other meat (outside of tasting like chicken, of course)?

For whatever reason, every time I use DTD as a connection point to go somewhere, it is a real nightmare. But when I go to DTD to do shopping, the busses work fine. So, I wonder wether this is a ploy by Disney to punish me for not spending money at DTD!

You never know about Disney! My one experience going through DTD to travel somewhere else was definitely enough for me!

 

[dekkerdisneydreamer]

Good morning Katharina and Magdalene!

I found your TR from Liesa's, and have been reading through it (not the responses unfortunately) and have to tell you that I am really enjoying it! It is lovely to see WDW through a person's view that is not from America. You both add some refreshing remarks about the parks, and I have learned some things from you about the parks that I did not know before. I look forward to reading about Katharina's birthday celebration! Hopefully you wore your birthday button all day?

 

[glennbo123]

That may have been Glenn's thread we talked about that??

Yes, I think so. I still need to find some of that white asparagus to try.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Ah, but if you will be there for the Wine and Dine Marathon, you will miss me! I guess the biggest chance to meet each other will be in NYC, I am thinking about travelling to WDW via NYC for my 2012 trip...



I remember reading about the Coffee 3 Ways a lot on the boards. I am not sure wether this really is a trend, but to me it seems that the dessert options have become a bit bland, every place has a chocolate cake and a creme brulee. But since desserts aren't my favourite part of the meals anyway, I don't mind so much.

Ah, I didn't realize you were doing later October. You've probably mentioned your dates, but I blame my lack of memory on having a child and being interrupted 8282 times when I DIS! Meeting up in NYC sounds like a GREAT plan though!!

I haven't fully noticed that about the desserts, but now that you say it, you are right....dessert is not my favorite either, so it doesn't phase me much. I love creme brulee too! One thing I have noticed, just from TR posts, is any restaurant with a tiramisu, they all look the same.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Yes, I think so. I still need to find some of that white asparagus to try.

You can have all the asparagus you want. I'll keep the cheesecake.

 

[englishrose47]

You can have all the asparagus you want. I'll keep the cheesecake.

I'lltake it !!My Dad grew asparagus when I was growing up in England and sadly I was 21 before I tried it !!I LOVED it and Dad said "Dang it now there's less for us "

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I'lltake it !!My Dad grew asparagus when I was growing up in England and sadly I was 21 before I tried it !!I LOVED it and Dad said "Dang it now there's less for us "

I would have said the same thing, I'm sure.

 

[Flossbolna]

Good evening !!Or for you Good morning !!! I am at work and everything is done and people sleeping soooo I have a little down time and thought I'd check out the boards !!!

Sorry that there wasn't much to see on my thread... But update is around the corner!

That may have been Glenn's thread we talked about that??

Yes, it appears to have been...

Yes, I think so. I still need to find some of that white asparagus to try.

I did some googleing on it and it appears that people in the US were able to buy it imported from Peru (you can buy this here as well sometimes at ridiculous prices, but for you it might make more sense) where the season seems to be right now. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the season would be in May/June (oh, I am so looking forward to it!! ) and the stores where they were sightings seem to have been Whole Foods and Wegeman (or something like that), so perhaps that might be an option. Of course another option is this June family trip for the Glenbo clan to Germany!

You can have all the asparagus you want. I'll keep the cheesecake.

Wow, that's very nice of you!

I'lltake it !!My Dad grew asparagus when I was growing up in England and sadly I was 21 before I tried it !!I LOVED it and Dad said "Dang it now there's less for us "

Thanks for sharing this story. How amazing that your Dad grew asparagus.

I would have said the same thing, I'm sure.

I am glad that you can at least approve of Rosie's dad's humor if not of the vegetable...

 

[Flossbolna]

Love to see them if you get the chance!

Will try to post them in the next few days! Katharina has some angels as little figurines in the same style and I know her DH took some special pics of them, so perhaps she could add a picture as well.

You still have room for us all???

Of course, plenty of room on the floor in my living room!

Interesting tidbit. I guess I need to get out more!!!

I thought you might find it interesting, I always love to observe these tiny differences in cultures!

No, wouldn't be disappointed. Don't care that much for the very strong "game" taste. My Dad and brother always took great pains to prepare deer and such so that "gamey" taste was minimized. I'm guessing the appetizer would be very tasty to me!

It sounds like AP might be a great place for a date night for you and DW!

So is the taste of buffalo similar to any other meat (outside of tasting like chicken, of course)?

It is very similar to beef, but leaner. Therefore they recommend to not have it more cooked than medium, but prefereably medium rare. Otherwise it might become too dry. I found it to taste meatier than beef, but not like game. But I think some people might find the taste a tiny bit gamey. I think it tastes very much like the flavour of a beef stake had been condensed. I loved it very much!

In fact my parents took me to a steakhouse here in Nuremberg some time ago and they had buffalo on the menu. I convinced my father to try it and he loved it as well.

I had buffalo at Cali Grill as well (called bison there, but it's the same animal) and after that meal Cynthia and Liesa commented that it is not uncommon meat in the North West.

You never know about Disney! My one experience going through DTD to travel somewhere else was definitely enough for me!

I know what you mean... One of the things I like about my new home resort is that the BWV are pretty central on Disney property, so cab fares back to the resort after dining at another resort should be affordable.

 

[Flossbolna]

Good morning Katharina and Magdalene!

I found your TR from Liesa's, and have been reading through it (not the responses unfortunately) and have to tell you that I am really enjoying it! It is lovely to see WDW through a person's view that is not from America. You both add some refreshing remarks about the parks, and I have learned some things from you about the parks that I did not know before. I look forward to reading about Katharina's birthday celebration! Hopefully you wore your birthday button all day?

Hi and Sheresa!! How wonderful to have you along, there are some real highlights coming up!! Thank you very much for your sweet compliments about our TR, getting positive feedback is really what makes us write TRs.

Ah, I didn't realize you were doing later October. You've probably mentioned your dates, but I blame my lack of memory on having a child and being interrupted 8282 times when I DIS! Meeting up in NYC sounds like a GREAT plan though!!

I haven't fully noticed that about the desserts, but now that you say it, you are right....dessert is not my favorite either, so it doesn't phase me much. I love creme brulee too! One thing I have noticed, just from TR posts, is any restaurant with a tiramisu, they all look the same.

Don't worry, way too much information out there on the boards! Yes, it will mainly be an early November trip for my birthday on November 6th when I will celebrate my 40th together with the MK! We were born in the same year! I am really looking forward to all the special merchandise they seem to have, I hope some will still be around in November!

I love creme brulee as well, but not after every meal! Since I don't like tiramisu, I never really noticed. But I think I read somewhere that all the Disney desserts are produced at one central location and are then transported to the restaurants, so there might be something about it.... I think the bakeries all bake their stuff themselves, that's why there are real differences and I would suspect that the signature restaurants make their own as well. But the rest is all made in the same kitchen...

 

[All7OfUs]

Yes, I think so. I still need to find some of that white asparagus to try.

I just saw it at my local "regular" grocery store- and it was something like 4 X the price. I'll stick with green...

 

[Flossbolna]

February 3, 2010

Today was Katharina's 35th birthday (have a look at the date and try to remember this fact until next Thursday! ). The reason why I had put her celebration on every ADR, the day she would finally wear the birthday button and the day we had planned a few really nice things for.

We had several options of which park to go to and Katharina decided that she wanted to start her birthday with rope drop at AK, so we would have another early start.

Immediately after the Disney wake-up call Katharina's DH called to wish her a happy birthday which after the phone drama of the previous day was just the perfect start of the day for her I think.

We got Mickey waffles for breakfast again – the kid's meal once again. And Katharina got her presents. I used the glow cubes from our drinks the night before as “birthday candles” for the presentation, but was very sad when afterwards I remembered that I had taken some of the confetti from California Grill to use for that as well...

Magdalene isntructed me to write something about the presents I got, she even supplied me with some information, which was unnecessary, because of course I remember the beautiful necklace I got from her. Magdelene was so nice to even carry small presents from my parents a book and a Disney giftcard. There was also a virtual present, as my DH had told me on the phone that his parents had transferred some souvenir money for me to our account!

Well, I only provided the notes that we had on this subject! The giftcard was actually bought by me with money my parents had given me and I had to go on a secret mission to the AKL gift shop the day before in order to get it. I really enjoyed doing a bit of celebration preperation!

With phone call and presents we got to the bus later than usual, but due to the short bus ride to AK we arrived still early enough for a good position at the turnstile. Unfortunately that morning seemed to be much more busy than our previous days at AK – it was going to be evening EMH at AK and the Unofficial Guide's crowd calendar told us that this was the worst park of the day. They have since added individual crowd levels for the parks and it was a 4.6 on that day. Which felt pretty crowded to us, but more on that later!

We still managed a good position at the rope just behind the turnstiles. This day Katharina had camera duty again. We originally had planned to only have one camera between the two of us and to share picture taking duty quite equally between the two os us. But then when everything was new for Katharina I felt that I really should let her experience everything first hand and not through a camera lens. But now at the end of our trip, she took over a few times. I really hope that next time I will be able to dump the camera on her more often! I love having lots of pics and sometimes it is fun to take lots of them, but I can also appreciate to just look and let someone else document what is going on. Of course I sometimes could not resist to tell her which pictures she should take (but I think this worked both ways, she also requested pics when I had the camera).

So here are a few more pics of the opening show:

When the rope dropped there was quite a crowd around us and we walked towards the Tree of Life. When we arrived at Discovery Island where you have to turn left towards the Safari or right towards Expedition Evcrest, our goal was the coaster, so we turned right. And to our surprise, nearly nobody else did!! A wall of people continued on towards the Safari, I would say about 90 % or even more!

Here you can see the CMs with the rope in front of us:

And this is the view behind us:

Sorry for the blurry pictures, but it is not easy to take pictures while speedwalking...

We got a FP for EE and then went into the standby line and still made it onto the first train of the day. Afterwards we slowly walked back towards Africa while enjoying the scenery and getting some pictures:

The next pic is the gibbon area and we asked a CM there wether the pregnant mother which we heard about on our Wild by Design Tour already had had her baby and it wasn't born yet, so this is just the rocks:

Once we arrived in Africa the place was already hopping with people (while Asia had been so quiet) and the line for the Safari was more than 20 minutes. We had decided that we wanted to continue on to Epcot, so waiting for the Safari was not worth it, we rather wanted to use the EE FP. On the way back there we saw this blue grass hopper and got pictures with him:

As you see, it was not a very warm morning, we were wearing several layers...

After a second ride on EE Katharina did some shopping – this gift card had to be put to use... And of course she took advantage of the possibility to have the shopping sent to our resort. I think this is such a great feature and it was the last day we could use that. You cannot have anything sent to your resort on your last full day since it will only arrive by afternoon on the next day.

Katharina got this little hippo key chain:

One of the best purchases ever, I think. It puts a smile on my face everyday when I use it (so sometimes even more than once), remembering this great trip!

Some comfy socks (to be worn in bed against cold feet):

Not as good as the keychaine only because they are not worn daily...

and the tote bag that she had wanted to get from the beginning:

The shopping receipt is from 10:13 am and we left the park immediately after that to hop on to Epcot. When we left the park we encountered these crowds entering and were really happy that we were not going to stay inside AK!

Next: Chapter 31: Beware: Tantrum ahead!

 

[All7OfUs]

A-OK!! Next Thursday!! (Which also tells me this TR is a year in the making! )

I am stoked you got a fickle crowd and they all went left. WOOT!! Because that opened the door for 2 runs on the steam train through YetiLand.

LOVE the bag! But ya know what, Katharina? I love your keychain more! I did hte same thing in my Shop-Around-the-World. Just everyday items that I see and love all year long!

That was so great of the whole family to make your birthday so special! I love that you day started out with a phone call from Remy, and that there were loaded gift cards there for the spending.

I love you picture of the 'Fairy Duster' flower. At least that's what we called them in California when I was growing up.


I did see the baby monkey. He was so cute!! Sorry he hadn't made his debut yet.

 

[lovealldisney]

Nice update!

Katharina I love the little keychain it's so cute. I love the bag too!

I certainly hope neither one of you have the tantrum!

 

[glennbo123]

February 3, 2010

Today was Katharina's 35th birthday (have a look at the date and try to remember this fact until next Thursday! ).

Sending early 36th birthday wishes Katharina! I'm afraid I might forget next Thursday.

And to our surprise, nearly nobody else did!! A wall of people continued on towards the Safari, I would say about 90 % or even more!

Here you can see the CMs with the rope in front of us:

What? I've never seen the dash to Everest so empty!

I love that sign over the drinking fountain. It's one of my favorites in Animal Kingdom.

 

[Poolrat]

February 3, 2010

Today was Katharina's 35th birthday (have a look at the date and try to remember this fact until next Thursday! ).

I will try to remember but Happy Birthday to Katharina early just in case.

HMMMM I have not seen this bathroom before. I stumbled over many between Asia and Africa but I must have missed this one.

 

[3prettyprincesses]

Another fabulous update ladies! Katharina, I'll be at Hollywood Studios next Thursday so I'd like to wish you a happy birthday early too! I hope you have a wonderful day!

What a special birthday you had at Disney! What better place is there to celebrate, right? How nice that your DH called and then Magdalene had presents waiting. I had a good chuckle over Magdalene offering you suggestions as to what to write about it! Sisters are the best!

Ok, what is going on with the crowd pattern there at Animal Kingdom? Seriously, all those people heading for the safari could not have been members of the disboards. Because, as all good dissers know, you ALWAYS head for Expedition Everest first! Always. How great for you though, riding stand-by and having fastpasses for later. Perfect plan and I love a good plan!

Katharina, I love all of your souvenirs! I really, really do! The keychain is darling! And the socks look so comfy, I'm guessing it must get a wee bit chilly over there in Germany. That Mickey bag is adorable! I'd love one like that, may I ask how much it was if you remembered?

 

[englishrose47]

Great Update Magdalena !!! Sounds like a great Birthday for Katharina !!