From the Sea to the World - Completed!

[Flossbolna]

What great reviews. I agree that the wild Africa trek is overpriced at $200... It was fun but not that fun.

That was nice if AKL to try to make up for BOG. Looks like Jiko made up for it in a bug way!

Awesome trips coming up!

Jill in CO

It's such a shame that the Wild Africa Trek is not slightly more affordable as I would be recommending it to everyone. But just as you say: it is fun, but not that fun.

I am still so amazed at how generous AKL was! Totally unexpected!

 

[Flossbolna]

cant wait to read your trip report

I hope you enjoy it!

Catching up and I must say I really enjoyed reading your review of Biergarten in particular. We had an ADR there in November but cancelled because we were so full from breakfast! It is good to know it is for the most part authentic. I am British and found eating at the Rose and Crown to be incredibly unauthentic! I am glad to hear that is not the case for all the restaurants in WS.

Meg~ Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Hi Meg, in the past I looked at the menu of Biergarten and thought some things were just rather strange, but in recent years it seems to have gone more authentic again - maybe they do have a German chef working there now. Also, I think it being a buffet helps being able to offer authentic dishes. I was rather amused how some of my table mates chose to combine things which we never would combine in Germany! For example mustard for the pretzel bread. Here you just eat butter with a pretzel, maybe swiss cheese (sliced and sprinkled with salt and paprika powered), so if they were offering a started of pretzel bread they would most likely have it on the menu with mustard. And I would think this is totally unauthentic. Does that make sense?

But I have read quite a few very positive reviews of Biergarten in recent time, it seems like they are starting to get a better reputation.

 

[Flossbolna]

That's great that the concierge arranged for you two to have a free meal at Jiko to make up for BoG. It looked really good too! I like your picture of the tea and the fact that it's being poured -- very good shot!

Oh, it was so amazing! I really could not believe it at first!

And thanks for the compliment on the tea picture! It is always so difficult to take good pictures of drinks...

Sounds like a wonderful evening at Jiko! I'm really glad it was a great meal to make up for your BoG experience...and the fact that it was free makes it extra special.

I think I'd go with the steak like Michael did. It's one of those rules of life: when it doubt, order the steak.

The steak is a great choice at Jiko! And the free meal was truly extra special!

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 19:

Not the end of the world – but the end of the trip. This was going to be our last full day at WDW, so we were going to make sure to have lots of fun!

We started the day with a visit to AK. And yes, this time we managed to get out to a park some kind early in the day! I kind of felt that we ought to make the most of being so close to that park. Our first stop was to pick up a FP for the Safari.

On the way there there were far too many photo opportunities. It is just such a beautiful park!

After getting a FP our first stop was the Pangani Forest Trail. I think those animal trails are one of the highlights of AK and so far we only had managed the one in Asia. Yes, that's the downside of relaxed touring: you end up with must dos not done yet on your last full day!

We got quite some entertainment from the gorillas. They were all very active and playing around.

The baby was playing with a metal bowl.

and the bachelors were having a small argument it seemed.

After the trail we rushed over to the Festival of the Lion King and just made into the show as they were beginning with it. No pictures her, it's too dark to get good pictures with my camera. But I enjoyed the show a lot! It seems odd that it is now no longer there, but in the process of being relocated. I hope they do a good job with the new building, it would be great if it included upgrades to the show!

I took one last picture of the sign for Camp Minnie Mickey – which is now part of Yesterland as it is in the process of being transformed into Pandora (still not sure what blue aliens have to do with Animal Kingdom…)

And the it was time for our FPs. Today we saw so many animals on the safari. It really made me think what a shame it was that today was not the day of our Wild Africa Trek as it would have been even better! I even got some nice cheetah pictures:

And a lion face:

Lovely Mr warthog:

We headed back to AKL and got some lunch at the Mara. Michael had a burger with a side of couscous and I had a falafel in pita bread, also with couscous. Surprisingly we got different couscous: I had a cold couscous salad, while he got a warm couscous dish. Both were excellent though! The falafel was also excellent. It was quite a large portion.

Next: Are we going to drown in Bay Lake?

 

[saintstickets]

Wasn't the Wild Africa Trek fantastic?!? DW and I did this during our trip this past October and thought it was fantastic. Yours was even better with the discount!

I thought it was time to say something about the upcoming Disney travel plans, especially since I now have two big things coming up (and maybe a third...).

First: The next trip will be a version of this one, but we could call it "From the Sea to the Land" - yes, I am going to cruise to Disneyland!

This will be quite a trip. Michael and I will start out in Fort Lauderdale again. This time we are staying directly at the beach in a very nice hotel for which I got an incredible deal through a German package holiday provider. After four nights on the beach we will board the Disney Wonder on May 2nd (which is exactly one year after we disembarked from the fabulous cruise I wrote about in this trip report). The 15-night cruise will take us to Key West, Cozumel (Mexico), Cartagena (Columbia), through the Panama Canal, on to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas (both Mexico) and then finally to San Diego. From there we head up to Anaheim to stay for a week at the Villas at the Grand Californian. Besides touring Disneyland, we will also see some other local sights.

I already have a new notebook sitting here for trip notes and am planning to write about this epic adventure. I don't know how long it will take me to write about it since it is going to be nearly four weeks long! Hopefully those many sea days will not be too eventful, so there is not too much to write about in the TR!

Then the next trip that got booked this past week involves Katharina. We are going to do another sister Disney trip! But not to WDW and neither to DLP. We are going to go on a cruise!!

Last week they came out with the summer schedule for 2015 when the Disney Magic will be in Europe again. For a one week sister trip it is just much more practical (and once you factor in plane tickets, also more economical) to cruise in Europe. However, it turned out that the cruises were priced differently than we originally thought and even though I had not considered it at all at first, we ended up booking a 7-night cruise from Copenhagen to the Norwegian Fjords. Or maybe I should say that my lovely travel agent Brook booked it for us.

I hope that by now Katharina is able to remember the name of the ship that we are going to be on, earlier this week she was very confused about this... It is still over a year away, but now that it is booked, I am horribly excited about it. Especially once I started looking into the places the cruise goes to. Wow, this is going to be soooo beautiful!

So - the more reason to get this TR done as soon as possible as there will be plenty more to write about!!

What a trip you have planned!!! That sounds so great. Can't wait to read about that trip. DW and I are going on our first DCL this coming October and are looking at the Alaska cruise next year.

I'm glad you enjoyed Jiko's. It is one of our favorite restaurants. The atmosphere at night along with the great food makes it a special place.

This has been a great TR!! Can't wait for more.

 

[Flossbolna]

Wasn't the Wild Africa Trek fantastic?!? DW and I did this during our trip this past October and thought it was fantastic. Yours was even better with the discount!


What a trip you have planned!!! That sounds so great. Can't wait to read about that trip. DW and I are going on our first DCL this coming October and are looking at the Alaska cruise next year.

I'm glad you enjoyed Jiko's. It is one of our favorite restaurants. The atmosphere at night along with the great food makes it a special place.

This has been a great TR!! Can't wait for more.

I have to admit that I was very critical of the changes the made to the safari for the Wild Africa Trek as I think they are quite obvious from the ride. BUT the Trek itself is really wonderful!! I agree!

I hope you are going to love your cruise as much as I did! And I would love to go to Alaska in the near future, too. Most likely not next year though.... To many other big trip plans!

Jiko is a true gem at WDW. I think it went through a bit of a rough phase with changing chefs, but the current one seems to settle in well!

 

[Flossbolna]

I guess we spent some more time at the pool since it was nearly the last chance for this. And then we headed to the MK for an evening there. With a little detour at first though! We drove to the WL to park there and take the boat to the CR because I had not been on a boat yet!

And this is where I got the lovely self portray of Michael and I that you saw at the beginning of the TR – it is along the walkway to the lodge from the parking:

The WL was as pretty as always and I had to take some pictures. I really hope to stay there soon, it is pretty high in my list of DVC properties to try out!

Then we waited for the boat that goes between WL, Fort Wilderness and the Contemporary.

The boat came, we boarded it and were pleased that it started to go towards the Contemporary. The boat captain was chatting with some people who were up front with him, they appeared a bit tipsy, but maybe they were just generally a bit crazy. When we were rather close to the Contemporary the boat captain turned the boat around and went all the way back to Fort Wilderness. When he was trying to dock there, he managed to have the boat hit the bottom of the lake and we were stranded. It took him quite some effort to get the boat unstuck. And while he was doing that, the boat was rocking quite a bit. By that point I had lost most of my confidence in that captain and was seriously thinking we might end up in the lake... And I have no desire to be in a lake with alligators and snakes!! Well, he managed to free the boat and after docking at Fort Wilderness we were on our way to the Contemporary and finally were let off there. I think the whole trip took nearly 40 minutes in the end.

Our reason for going to the CR was that we wanted to visit the Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower. This was originally only open to DVC members staying at BLT, but they have now opened it up to all DVC members staying at WDW currently. We just wanted to check it out and have a drink, not for the fireworks.

It is a very nice place, but I found most of the furniture surprisingly uncomfortable to sit on...

But we did get some nice drinks:

Looking at that picture now of that drink, I now remember why I ordered it! I let Katharina fill you in on the reason why!

I also spent quite some time checking out the view from up there which was quite spectacular. You could even see Expedition Everest from there!

After our drink we decided to pick up dinner before heading to the MK for EMH. So we ended up at the Contempo Cafe which is the CR's counter service restaurant. We both had a salad. Michael's was something with beef:

Mine was a Caesar Salad. It was supposed to come with some special type of croutons, so when we sat down and I took a picture of this:

I thought that something was missing. No croutons there! So I headed back to where I got my food and enquirer about them. And it ended up being quite an ordeal as the special croutons were out and they did not have any normal ones either, so the guy had to go to another restaurant to get some for me and they told me to sit down and they would bring them when they got them. While that was nice, I still ended up sitting hungry in front of my salad as The croutons would not be any good on their own, they were supposed to be eaten together with the salad.

Somehow it seemed as if WDW wanted to make it easier for me to leave by first having that freakish boat incident and now the massive crouton delay.

Once we were done with dinner we headed over to the MK by foot. Sorry, no pictures from there and no notes make it difficult to find out what we did! I think this might have been the evening that we did Storytime with Belle, which is a character meet with Belle that is a whole production. When we did it, it was very late and it was not crowded, we only had a 5 minute wait or so. At some point they give out roles for different people to play, first to the kids but once all kids were cast, they asked if anyone else wanted to sign up and I volunteered. I got to play the cutlery (if I remember correctly) and ended up with my personal greeting with Belle!


Next: A Farewell Lunch

 

[glennbo123]

I'm glad that you didn't end up in the lake. That sounded like terrible boat trip.

I can't believe that they had to have someone run to another restaurant to get you croutons! What a fiasco!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Not the end of the world – but the end of the trip.

That kind of is the end of the world.

On the way there there were far too many photo opportunities. It is just such a beautiful park!

and the bachelors were having a small argument it seemed.

Gorilla fight! We want a gorilla fight!

I took one last picture of the sign for Camp Minnie Mickey – which is now part of Yesterland as it is in the process of being transformed into Pandora (still not sure what blue aliens have to do with Animal Kingdom…)

The movie was very preachy on saving the environment...I think that's the tie-in.

The WL was as pretty as always and I had to take some pictures. I really hope to stay there soon, it is pretty high in my list of DVC properties to try out!

Can't resist taking pictures here...such a cool resort!

When he was trying to dock there, he managed to have the boat hit the bottom of the lake and we were stranded. It took him quite some effort to get the boat unstuck. And while he was doing that, the boat was rocking quite a bit.

Sounds like he had visited the Top of the World Lounge ahead of you guys.

Looking at that picture now of that drink, I now remember why I ordered it! I let Katharina fill you in on the reason why!

Because...it tasted good?

I also spent quite some time checking out the view from up there which was quite spectacular. You could even see Expedition Everest from there!

Wow! That is a great view.

I thought that something was missing. No croutons there! So I headed back to where I got my food and enquirer about them. And it ended up being quite an ordeal as the special croutons were out and they did not have any normal ones either, so the guy had to go to another restaurant to get some for me and they told me to sit down and they would bring them when they got them.

Seriously? Very nice of them to go that extra mile, but is it worth it for croutons?

Somehow it seemed as if WDW wanted to make it easier for me to leave by first having that freakish boat incident and now the massive crouton delay.

Very odd day. Maybe you should have bought a lottery ticket.

 

[Steppesister]

What a night! Sheesh.

Glad you finally got a last little bit of park time in! Despite all the eh- hem... setbacks.

All of your pictures make me miss my Happy Place. So much.

 

[scrpbookr]

Your upcoming trips sound fantastic! They will be wonderful to look forward to!

 

[Flossbolna]

I'm glad that you didn't end up in the lake. That sounded like terrible boat trip.

I can't believe that they had to have someone run to another restaurant to get you croutons! What a fiasco!

I really could not believe how incompetent the boat captain turned out to be... I have always heard that those are very highly regarded jobs and thought that you would have to qualify for the job. I was truly happy to be on land again!!

The whole crouton thing was really bizarre. The chef was less than pleased that he had to go and hunt croutons for me, but somehow nobody came up with a more creative solution. Afterwards of course I had all kind of ideas. I would have even been happy to just have a slice of toast or so... Hey, they could have given me a free cupcake even. But then I think I kind of had maxed out on free Disney food on that trip!

 

[Flossbolna]

That kind of is the end of the world.

I can't complain too much - two weeks from today I am going on a two week cruise!

Gorilla fight! We want a gorilla fight!

It was quite impressive! I never had seen the gorillas so active!

The movie was very preachy on saving the environment...I think that's the tie-in.

Yes, I guess. I am not a fan of that addition, but I do hope that what they do will turn out very nice!

Can't resist taking pictures here...such a cool resort!

It is soooo pretty! I was actually planning on taking more lobby pictures to compare, because I think they updated the furniture there in a little bit lighter colour scheme.

Sounds like he had visited the Top of the World Lounge ahead of you guys.

Yes, that is the impression we had as well...

Because...it tasted good?

No, you will never guess (even though you might be the one person who could figure it out...)! I hope Katharina will find the time once she is back from her Easter vacation to the Czech Republic to post the solution to the riddle.

Wow! That is a great view.

Helped by the very nice zoom my little camera has!

Seriously? Very nice of them to go that extra mile, but is it worth it for croutons?

To a certain extent, I really wanted those croutons. I am strange, but a salad always needs some bread to go with it in my opinion if it is a main meal.

Very odd day. Maybe you should have bought a lottery ticket.

Not sure we had that kind of luck that day...

 

[Flossbolna]

What a night! Sheesh.

Glad you finally got a last little bit of park time in! Despite all the eh- hem... setbacks.

All of your pictures make me miss my Happy Place. So much.

In the end it was quite a nice evening!

Sorry that you miss your Happy Place! I hope life can provide lots of other happy moments in the meantime until you can return to a Disney park!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Your upcoming trips sound fantastic! They will be wonderful to look forward to!

Yes, I feel very lucky to have those trips planned. The Panama Canal is getting very close now!

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 20

This day started out badly: with packing! That was not enjoyable at all! We finally managed to get everything out of our villa and into the car, including a number of leftovers like fruit and soda which luckily Michael could take with him. And the we headed to Downtown Disney for a last meal. I think I had originally wanted to eat at Wolfgang Puck, but when we came across Portobello we looked at the menu and thought the prices were quite reasonable for Disney. Michael had eaten there in the past and liked it and somehow Italian food seemed to be just the right thing for the day!

Here is a picture of their menu:

The restaurant was quite empty and very peaceful. We got a table directly at the window looking out over the lake. And were served some bread and roasted garlic in olive oil:

I love roasted garlic! (we better don’t mention that I was going to board a nine hours flight across the Atlantic later that day…)

I had spaghetti with meatballs as this is something that is not known in Germany. I have had it before and really like it, so once I saw it on the menu, I knew what I wanted!

And it was very good! The meat balls were very flavourful. And the tomato sauce was well balanced, not too sour, which sometimes can be the case with tomato sauces.

Michael had a pizza which he enjoyed a lot as well.

In case you wonder where Portobello is, it is right next to Fulton’s:

From there we wandered through the West Side of downtown Disney a bit. This is an area which I have not visited in years, so it was quite interesting.

And then the saddest part of the trip came. Michael drove me to the airport, we said goodbye and I boarded a plane. Not to Europe just yet though. First to Atlanta, with this plane:

There I had to track all through the airport on some fancy underground train to the international terminal. This was actually a very nice terminal! From there it was back to Paris on another Air France flight. This time I did not have the advantage of being on the upper deck with more leg room. It was a 767. But I ended up with a window seat in one of the last rows and that meant that there was only one person next to me, not two. And because of the curve of the plane, my seat was at a slight angle to the one in front of me, so I did gain a couple of inches there. I did sleep somewhat and the next morning I had to change planes in Paris again before I arrived back home…

Stay tuned for some winter pictures!

 

[englishrose47]

Portobella Restaurant food looked delish!!! Never been there but may have to try it !!!

 

[jedijill]

Your dinner looks fantastic but boo for going home!

Jill in CO

 

[Flossbolna]

Portobella Restaurant food looked delish!!! Never been there but may have to try it !!!

It was really very nice! I never heard from anyone eating there, but it was very good! It also has a really nice dining room and nice outdoor seating.

Your dinner looks fantastic but boo for going home!

Jill in CO

Yes, the meal was delicious! And luckily now it is a week from tomorrow until I depart on my next adventure!

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi everyone! So, the main part of the trip report ist done. I will put together one last post with final thoughts and a few photos of souvenirs. In the meantime I am going to entertain you with what happened while I was writing this trip report, especially in December and January.

A week from tomorrow I will leave for Florida. I am already in packing mode. Yesterday I bought supplies at the drug store and started the laundry for vacation clothes. I feel pretty organised as I already have a packing list and will have all of next weekend off from work in order to get everything ready to leave my place on Monday morning.

This last week will mainly focus on getting lots of stuff done at work before I leave there for four weeks!

For the trip itself every thing is pretty much organised. The nice thing at Disneyland is that you don't need lots of ADRs. We did make one for Napa Rose however. Blue Bayou would be another one, but we are not planning on eating there as the menu does not appeal to me that much and I think it is rather pricey for what it is. Also, from my research it looks like DL has plenty of interesting counter service places and there are a few restaurants at Downtown Disney there that have me intrigued. I think I really want to eat at the Uva Bar one day...

The cruise in itself, once it is booked, really needs not a lot of organisation. We settled mainly on DCL excursions as most places offered something that appealed to us and it is just convenient not to have to bother to organise something on your own. In Key West we will just walk around a little bit and browse. And I think I need to get some Key Lime Pie! I did sign up for our cruise meet thread here on the DIS, but it seems rather quiet, I guess most of the conversation is taking place on Facebook where I am not. But they have quite some events organised and we are going to take part in a Martini tasting and an Open Bar Event. The later one is one hour at one of the bars for the group of DISers to meet and chat, the lady organising it mentioned that about 100 people signed up for this!

The stay in Fort Lauderdale needs not a lot of planning either. We are staying at a beach hotel (if I am that close to a beach on my vacation, I really want to be able to walk out to it!) and we got a great deal for that. Time there will be also spent on some shopping (need to check out that Disney outlet again) and some sightseeing. But generally we aren't planning on rushing around, but want to have time to enjoy the beach and the hotel pool.

So, but now the promised winter pictures:

Michael came to visit me over Christmas and stayed on for some time in January. This did include some short trips here in Europe and since I know that many of my readers enjoy seeing pictures from around here, I will do a short add on with winter pictures. More a photo album than a TR. I hope you are going to enjoy it!

We started with celebrating Christmas and New Year here in Nuremberg in my new apartment. I really liked my Christmas tree:

And this is the cookie platter, I think I managed a respectable variety!

Between Christmas and New Year we took a day trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This is considered one of the most quintessential towns in Germany. Some of its buildings were used as inspiration for the Germany pavilion at Epcot. It is really rather pretty!

Most houses were decorated for Christmas with those tiny trees on the facades.

Miniatures in a shop window:

And the town hall on the main market square:

We had lunch at a traditional German restaurant. I had lentils with sausages and pork belly and spätzle:

Michael had the Sauerbraten which is a roast beef that is marinated in vinegar before being roasted:

The side salad looks huge, but it is more the perspective, it was not larger than the meat!

And finally trying to get a nice evening picture:

Next: Paris