How the Other Half Lives ~ Updated 10/22: I Forgot Something!

[Dugette]

Continued from last post…

The lights were really incredible. We loved all the little details. It’s really amazing what they can do. There were very long lines for the Photopass photographers there, so we made plans to do that on another night.

At this point, we were famished, so we were off to find a before-dinner snack.

Up next: Snacktime, another round of TSM, and eating in a pyramid!

 

[TheThomsLuvDisney]

Way to go Dugette, that was an amazing day of updates! How many days do you have left to report?

Those desserts at Starring Rolls looked absolutely amazing! Now I want something sweet, I better go to bed!!

 

[Dugette]

To comfort our rumbling tummies, we decided to take a snack break at the Writer’s Stop. Dug got a carrot cake cookie:

I got a peanut butter cookie and we shared a hot cocoa:

We were lucky enough to snag one of the few tables to enjoy our goodies at. Dug’s carrot cake cookie was as good as he remembered from a previous trip. My peanut butter cookie was okay, but nothing that special. And boy did we consume a lot of hot chocolate on this trip!

After our relaxing little break, it was time to use our final set of TSM Fast Passes. Yes, we got to ride it three times that day!

We didn’t do quite as well this time:

Dug won, so I didn’t quite sweep the day! Oh, well, still fun!

By this time, we needed to catch a boat over to Epcot for our late dinner ADR. A parting shot of the DHS tree:

It took a long time for a boat to show up. We thought we had left enough time, but it was starting to get a little short. Finally a boat arrived and we eventually got over to Epcot. Of course, we needed to stop for a bathroom break on the way to our ADR. So, that few minutes made us about 6 minutes late to the San Angel Inn.

When we checked in at the podium, they criticized us for arriving late. They said they were about to cancel our ADR. Seriously, over 6 minutes? I know it was towards closing, but really?

Well, they let us in anyway and even gave us the waterside table we requested. They did rush us through the meal, though. But, at that point, after such a long and tiring day, we were pretty okay with that.

They brought out some chips to start:

Good, but not quite as good as the chips at their neighboring restaurant , La Hacienda.

We enjoyed the peacefulness (the restaurant was quite empty):

That ambiance was the reason we came here. We had heard pretty bad reviews of the food, but we (Dug especially) really wanted to soak up that atmosphere. It was pretty nice.

We chose to share a Wild Passion Fruit Margarita (El Mayor Blanco Tequila, passion fruit, fresh lemon juice, and passion fruit foam on top, served with a pasilla-cinnamon salt rim):

It was pretty tasty. Very sweet.

For our meal, we decided to split the Traditional Mexican Dinner. Description from allears.net:

Sopa Azteca - traditional tortilla soup with avocado, cheese and pasilla pepper
Grilled Skirt - Grilled skirt served with corn kernels, nopales, spring onions, and black beans
Flan - Vanilla custard in syrup, topped with roasted almonds
Includes soft drink or iced tea.

We really enjoyed the soup:

This corn was very yummy:

The steak with cactus was quite good too (I had never tried cactus before!):

We finished with the flan:

We thought this was okay and the bites with strawberry were better.

Not the best picture, but you can see the inside of the pyramid was nicely decorated for the holidays:

We headed out:

After such a long day, we pretty much limped our way back towards the monorail. The scenery was great, though. There were projections on Spaceship Earth that made it look like a giant snow globe (and it said goodnight in various languages). The fountain was putting on an impressive show. Very pretty and peaceful.

On the way out, we paused for a Photopass pic:

Awwww…

Soon, we were back to our lovely Polynesian room and sound asleep!

Up next: You won’t believe it, but we have a LAZY MORNING! Then see some Epcot holiday storytellers.

 

[Dugette]

Way to go Dugette, that was an amazing day of updates! How many days do you have left to report?

Thanks! Though, I must admit, I wrote a few of them a couple days ago, but had to wait for the trailer to be done to post them! 3 days left to report on!

Those desserts at Starring Rolls looked absolutely amazing! Now I want something sweet, I better go to bed!!

Mmmmmm, Starring Rolls! I may have to swing by there for a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake on this upcoming trip...

 

[jc040404]

Are you doing any Disney days w/o annual passes? Or waiting for a party night?

We aren't doing anything right now! And we're skipping Disney for other things at Halloween. Everyone misses it, but my silly husband was right. There just might be fun stuff to do outside of the parks! Who knew, right?

LOVE the Osbourne Lights pics! When I asked the boys the one thing about Disney at Christmas they couldn't miss, this was it! We'll be doing a trip in December and you have me so excited for it!

A carrot cake cookie sounds too yummy. I must've missed seeing that before.

Sounds like a great, full day!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Okay, I just about died laughing after reading that he ate the entire middle of the cupcake, and declared "and I didn't like it!" Kids, I tell you!

I tried the carrot cake cookie for the first time in July. It is sooooo good, I got jealous just looking at the picture of it.

Criticizing you for being six minute late? I actually heard that Disney will hold your reservation for up to 30 minutes, due to possible issues with arriving, like waiting in line for rides, etc. I would have called them out on it.

 

[Dugette]

We aren't doing anything right now! And we're skipping Disney for other things at Halloween. Everyone misses it, but my silly husband was right. There just might be fun stuff to do outside of the parks! Who knew, right?

You have incredible self-restraint to be so close to WDW and stay away! I'm glad you are finding other fun experiences, though. Well-rounded kids are good!

LOVE the Osbourne Lights pics! When I asked the boys the one thing about Disney at Christmas they couldn't miss, this was it! We'll be doing a trip in December and you have me so excited for it!

for a December trip! How long will you go for?

A carrot cake cookie sounds too yummy. I must've missed seeing that before.

Sounds like a great, full day!

Carrot cake cookies are one of those coveted "cult foods"...pretty good!

Okay, I just about died laughing after reading that he ate the entire middle of the cupcake, and declared "and I didn't like it!" Kids, I tell you!

I am glad I wasn't the only one who found that hilarious! I don't have as many "cute kid-isms" in this TR as you do in yours, but that was a pretty good one!

I tried the carrot cake cookie for the first time in July. It is sooooo good, I got jealous just looking at the picture of it.

It is pretty tasty. And I'm not even a big carrot cake or frosting fan.

Criticizing you for being six minute late? I actually heard that Disney will hold your reservation for up to 30 minutes, due to possible issues with arriving, like waiting in line for rides, etc. I would have called them out on it.

It was really strange. I have to say, we've been later to other ADRs and it's never been a problem. I don't know what was up with them. Maybe just a long day.

 

[katt789]

I'm working my way through your trip report, and so far it's looking awesome & full of pixie dust! The original delay with the plane sounds freaky. I would LOVE to go in winter, but have that huuuuge fear of being grounded due to snow (thanks to being in Canada, who knows what would happen)

I can't wait to read more & catch up!

 

[KatGarcia]

I have been faithfully reading, but too lazy/tired to post...lol...but the pictures of Osbourne made me so excited to see it again- such great photos! I am really enjoying this tr!

 

[Dugette]

I'm working my way through your trip report, and so far it's looking awesome & full of pixie dust! The original delay with the plane sounds freaky. I would LOVE to go in winter, but have that huuuuge fear of being grounded due to snow (thanks to being in Canada, who knows what would happen)

I can't wait to read more & catch up!

Glad to have you joining in! This trip was definitely full of pixie dust! I can't believe the delay we had with the flight, but it all worked out well! Well, at least Canada probably has better resources to handle to snow than some places. Here, it has to get quite bad to close the airport like it did that night!

I have been faithfully reading, but too lazy/tired to post...lol...but the pictures of Osbourne made me so excited to see it again- such great photos! I am really enjoying this tr!

Thanks for posting...I like knowing that I haven't scared people away! I'm glad you're enjoying the Osborne photos. There will be more coming up on this next day too. I'm so glad you're enjoying!

 

[Dugette]

Another new day! Here's the trailer:



Get ready for a slew of updates! I have the whole day already typed up, so here we go.........

 

[jc040404]

Yummy! I'm super ready for some candy updates!!

 

[Dugette]

After all the activity on our trip so far, it was time for a lazy morning. Nowhere to rush off to today. Instead, we leisurely got up and headed to breakfast in the Club Lounge. How nice is this:

Great way to start the day. After breakfast, we spent some time relaxing in the room. Dug charged up some phone batteries and downloaded pictures from our camera to the iPad (since the camera was running low on memory). We sat out on our balcony for a little bit and Dug read Kingdom Keepers while I checked in on the Disboards (with his phone).

Around 10am, we decided to head out of the Poly. We walked along the beach to the TTC, so we could take the monorail to Epcot:

On the ride into Epcot, the crowds looked pretty big. 40 minutes for standby at Test Track and it appeared to be 30 minutes for single riders.

Once we made it in, my first stop was to grab Fast Passes for Soarin’. Dug met me outside of the Land pavilion. Just about then, his boss called with a problem at work. So, for the next hour and a half, Dug dealt with a string of calls and emails when there really wasn’t much he could do remotely to solve the problem. Lots of distraction.

While this was going on, we decided to swing by Club Cool. After grabbing some refreshments, we sat on the ledge outside and Dug made calls while I watched the fountain put on a show.

Because we knew that Dug would be on and off of his phone, we decided to skip any Future World rides this morning. Also, due to our late arrival, we cancelled our lunch ADR for Biergarten and, since we planned to grab dinner in the lounge around 5pm, cancelled our 4:40pm ADR for Brown Derby.

Around 11am, we headed over to Canada to catch our first Epcot holiday storyteller of the day. As we arrived in Canada, who did we see….? Of course, it was Donald’s family AGAIN!!! How many times can you run into someone from home at WDW?! We briefly said hi. They were on their way to Future World to grab some Soarin’ Fast Passes. They headed off. And that was the last we saw of them (on the trip)!

Just then, Papa Noel arrived, who looked like a lumberjack when he arrived, but put on Santa gear during his story:

The storyteller was enjoyable. Around this time, Dug realized that all of his camera batteries were nearly dead (apparently he should have added them to his electronics charging roster that morning!) When we had changed our dining plans for this day, we had thought we would see a few storytellers, then go check out the decorations at the Epcot resorts, and have lunch over at Beaches & Cream. However, seeing all the cool decorations with a limited ability to take pictures seemed silly, so we decided to just see more storytellers.

We made it to France just as Pere Noel was finishing his story:

This meant we had about a half an hour to kill before the next story session. So, I went into the France pavilion to buy a souvenir mug for Dug’s France-loving parents, while Dug held down some seats for us. While I was in the gift shop, a family trying on berets asked me to take their picture. Cute. I got the mug (which they love!) and rejoined Dug.

We noticed that Marie the Cat was out and looked quite lonely. So, we decided to go grab a picture with her:

Someone took our seats while we were away, but luckily, a bench had opened up. We noticed Sleeping Beauty was nearby and looking lonely too. We decided to pass on visiting her, though. Chatting with face characters (as an adult) just seems odd to me. I guess I prefer fur!

We kept on waiting and eventually Pere Noel arrived:

Dug was on the phone with his boss at the time and told her he’d have to let her go. But then he emailed her and was distracted during the first part of the story.

After that, we headed over to American Adventure to see the Kwanzaa storyteller. But, first, we needed a bathroom break. We noticed as we headed to the American Pavilion bathrooms that you can actually see backstage through the scrim on the lattice fence. Not much to see, though, just some trailers and stuff.

We missed the very beginning of the Kwanzaa story. Again, Dug was mentally distracted by work during the story. The storyteller:

We then headed over to Germany. We had some time to kill. First, we looked for the spot where Dug’s grandparents had their photo taken when they were in Epcot probably 20 years ago or so. This photo:

We found the spot and then did the trick of offering to take the photo for another family that was trying to get a shot nearby, so they would be obligated to take a picture of us. We took a few shots:

This wasn’t the exact same spot, but it was where that other family was taking their photos.

We were getting a bit famished by this point, but luckily Karamell Kuche came to the rescue!

I got a caramel brownie and Dug got a German Chocolate caramel:

Dug made the better choice this time, as my brownie was not very good at all. Very dry, even though it looked like they’d just made them fresh. Not my favorite and I love caramel brownies. Dug’s was tasty, though!

Up next: More storytellers and attempts at photo re-creation!

 

[Dugette]

Yummy! I'm super ready for some candy updates!!

Coming right up!

 

[Dugette]

Forgot to mention the weather this day: High-75 degrees and Low-50 degrees. No rain. Light breeze. Very nice!

By this time, Dug’s work problem had been resolved, so he was finally able to focus his full attention on the storyteller. Next up was Germany. It was pretty enjoyable:

I liked the live toy soldier! As she finished up, we spotted a Photopass person over by the spot where we’d taken the picture. We decided to do another shoot. I don’t know what was wrong with us; we’re looking away and don’t look very happy. Oh, well, here are the Photopass photos:

So bad that Stitch wanted to be in it!

And a couple he took with our camera:

After that exciting laughing photo session, we headed to Japan for the storyteller there. Since Dug walks at a more leisurely pace than I do, I made a quick run over to China first. I needed something to wash down the dry brownie and I’d been wanting to try a Peach Snap. Yummy drink:

The cold drink was especially refreshing since it was FINALLY warm outside!

When we arrived in Japan, the drummers were performing. We grabbed a seat to enjoy the performance and the Peach Snap.

When the storyteller arrived (the Daruma vendor), we moved closer and stood to listen. He had a good sense of humor:

Up next: Candy Art!

 

[Dugette]

Up next, we finally had the opportunity to see something I’d heard great things about—Japan’s candy art lady! There was already quite a crowd gathered around waiting for her. We found a rail to sit on, but it was pretty uncomfortable and hard to see, so we moved off to the side to watch once it started. Her demos were super impressive, making all kinds of animals, on request, out of candy. Her vocabulary seemed a bit limited, though, as she kept saying the same things over and over (we think she said): “shiny candy”, “I show you how to make [animal name]”, “candy caramel”, “lollipop candy”, etc. Here’s a whole bunch of pictures:

The lady in the background sure is loving this :

After the 5th animal, Dug had to find a place to sit and take a break. He had a few minutes to relax before taking some final pictures:

Once the candy lady finished up with her amazing work, we dashed off to the boat launch in Morocco. After our boat ride, we took some pictures in Future World:

The Divine Singers were performing:

We listened to them for a little bit, then headed into Club Cool. I decided to re-try every drink and confirmed that, yes indeed, the Beverly was still awful. Next, I ran over to grab us Fast Passes for Test Track while Dug wandered around the MouseGear store. When I met back up with him, we found a snowglobe to get for Dug’s sister, who has a Disney snowglobe collection (the “Mine” birds from Nemo).

Both of us were nearly starving at that point, so we walked in a zombielike trance back to the Monorail.

Up next: Back to the lounge for food and a torch-lighting ceremony!

 

[Dugette]

We got off the monorail at the TTC and split up to acquire food. I went straight to Captain Cook’s to obtain a Hawaiian flatbread and a Dole Whip. Dug went straight to the club lounge to get snacks before they put them away at 4pm (when they start setting up for the dinner stuff). He got there just in time and managed to make several trips to get everything to the couch where we could sit. He got: 4 glasses of Lilikoi juice, two plates of popcorn, a plate of goldfish and a plate of gummy bears and cookies.

I arrived in the lounge with our Captain Cook’s goodies. Here’s the flatbread:

Here’s some of the snacks:

Oh, and we made “homemade” Dole Whip Floats with the Lilikoi juice (not our idea, Dug saw it suggested somewhere):

Yummy! We wolfed everything down. We were eating gummy bears like they were going out of style. It was funny how famished we were from wandering Epcot without lunch. I had been nearly trembling with hunger.

After we finished enjoying our feast, we headed back to the room for a nap. We re-charged our batteries—both the camera’s batteries and our own!

We woke up at about 5:25pm and made our way back to the lounge for the “dinner snacks”. Crab Rangoon, bacon-wrapped ginger chicken, kim chee and cheese. A couple pics:

The kim chee was pretty spicy. The food was good. Dug had a Hawaiian fruity drink too.

After finishing up, we headed over to the main building in hopes of finally seeing the torch-lighting ceremony. We arrived just in time, at 6pm. They walked us all out in front of the building, there was drumming, and this amazing guy performed:

Quite impressive! Glad we got to see it.

Up next: Bus etiquette, something new at DHS, more lights, and Fantasmic!

 

[Dugette]

After the torch-lighting ceremony, we made a dash for the buses so that we could get back to DHS to get some Photopass pictures with the Osborne Lights. As we were filing into the bus, Dug got behind me a bit. I kept my spot, though, so I would get on sooner to get us seats, if there were any. But, the couple between us apparently saw that we were together, so they cut in front of me right before I boarded the bus. Then the guy made some sort of sarcastic comment about how Dug may not be able to get on the bus because it was so full. Just rude. We both made it on the bus (standing) just fine, thanks. The first stop was the Grand Floridian. Two seats near us were vacated, but the same guy jumped past us to grab them before we could. Never mind that Dug has back problems and could have really used a seat. Oh, well.

On the ride to DHS, Dug found it fascinating to watch how a little kid used an iPad. His description: The kid would skim back and forth on cartoons in a very hyperactive manner, switching scenes and even cartoons constantly.

Finally, we arrived at DHS around 6:30pm. Naturally, the cutting guy and his girl jumped up in front of us to get off first. Bad bus etiquette. I know that these rules don’t necessarily apply to WDW, but I commute on a bus every day. It’s common sense that (when everyone is getting off at the same stop) all the standing people are allowed to exit first, then the sitting people. Because the standing people are in the way of the sitting people otherwise, right? Yeah, this guy didn’t care…pushed right on past!

After that fun encounter, we headed into the Studios. Our plan was to go back to the Osborne Lights, then maybe see the Muppets, then attend Fantasmic. But, en route, we saw that the “seasonal” attraction Sounds Dangerous was actually open. On the WDW Today podcast, we have heard many times how awful this attraction was, but curiosity won out…we had to see it for ourselves! So, we headed in and caught a show. It was old and uncomfortable and the headphones didn’t work great, but it was a decent diversion, I guess. Now we can say that we’ve done it! Unfortunately, the time it took blew our chance to see the Muppets.

Next, we were off to see the lights. Traffic was being much more tightly managed than the day before. They were directing people around to certain in/out points, keeping the crowds moving in the same direction. We made our way to the Photopass photographer stationed by the big tree:

And with our camera:

We waited in a pretty long line for both Photopass locations. At the next one, there was a woman in an ECV that kept getting in people’s photos (right behind them). Luckily, she moved before our turn:

Our camera:

And a bunch of other lights pictures while we were there:

After enjoying the lights, we made our way down to the Fantasmic line-up. There was a huge crowd spilling down Sunset Boulevard. Luckily, the cast members did a decent job of stopping people from cutting along the sidewalk. Then we made the long, slow shuffle to Fantasmic. We ended up towards the left side about halfway up, row T.

We had a short wait, then enjoyed the show:

We got up at the finale to head towards the exit and escape the crowd crush. Dug’s grandpa called just as we were exiting, so he talked to him as we made our way back to Sunset Boulevard. We got out of the park as fast as we could and made our way to the Poly bus. Long line. Again, just made it on, standing again. (A nice party of 6 that included a stroller let us go ahead of them, since there was limited room left.)

We stopped at the Contemporary and there was a non-Disney bus sitting there, blocking our bus from the drop-off point. After waiting around for too long, our driver finally honked and the bus got out of the way. After the drop-off, we were able to sit. Once back at the Poly, we made our way back to the club lounge. Well, I actually ran to the room quick to obtain our Goofy’s Candy Company creations.

In the lounge, we got a seat second table from the window. We were here not only to enjoy the dessert offerings, but to enjoy Holiday Wishes!

Up next: A magical view of the fireworks!

 

[Dugette]

We got some desserts from the buffet and Dug mixed us some drinks:

There were only about a dozen or so people in the lounge when the lights went down and the soundtrack for Holiday Wishes came on. The show was wonderful. And what a peaceful, relaxing way to watch it! The pictures don’t do it justice at all, but here they are:

We really enjoyed this time! And the desserts were enough for us that we didn’t even touch the Goofy’s Candy (put it back in the room for later). Dug had a cordial of Grand Marnier before leaving:

He said it was powerful stuff, which made for a silly walk back to the TTC for the monorail to Epcot.

Once we arrived in Epcot, we took a journey on Spaceship Earth. Then redeemed our Test Track Fast Passes. There was no line at all to use our Fast Passes, but once we finished in the pre-show room, there was a very slow line to load. So, we did end up waiting awhile. I believe Dug said that the single rider sitting next to him was a first-timer and quite scared and grabbed his leg during the ride:

I love Test Track at night! (Well, I love it during the day too…)

Next, we hopped in some clamshells to visit The Seas with Nemo. Turtle Talk was not open this night. In the gift shop, we found the soundtrack to the Finding Nemo Musical that Dug had been searching for. We got that, then made our way over to the Land pavilion. We took a private cruise (just us!) on Living with the Land. Fun!

Finally, we closed out the evening with Soarin’. We used Fast Passes, but they were totally unnecessary that close to closing time. No line at all.

After a pleasant flight, we did the Epcot Walk of Pain. It always feels like we’ve been beat up after spending a lot of time in Epcot. And Dug’s feet were killing him. We made it back to the monorail, enjoying the lights in the sidewalk along the way:

At the TTC, we considered riding the monorail around to the Poly, but decided against it. We walked the pretty little torch-lit path from the TTC to the Poly instead. When we got back to the room, we pulled out the Goofy’s Candy and enjoyed it (while making a coconut-y mess on the bed). Dug got marshmallows, dipped in white chocolate, topped with coconut, and drizzled with dark chocolate:

Kinda like a fancy Mounds Bar! Very good. I got a fudge cookie with peanut butter filling, dipped in dark chocolate, topped with dark and white chocolate chips, and drizzled with dark chocolate:

Very filling...I don't think we finished it. And look what else we found:

I guess we picked up some Zebra Domes on one of our visits to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Yummy!

Exhausted, we fell into a wonderful I’m-at-Disney sleep!

Up next: Another trailer video!

 

[AprilRenee]

There are so many things to comment on that I can't remember any of them!! Wow!! What a busy and full day! You guys did SO much!

Love that you spend a whole morning listening to the storytellers. I would love to do that some day. It'll probably be a while before that happens though. We're going down in Jan (too late for Storytellers) and then after that there will be a baby/toddler/little kid with us for the next several years! goodvibes) I doubt a toddler is gonna let me listen to a whole morning's worth of storytellers. Ah well! One day!

You guys do such a good job of really taking advantage of the club level lounge offerings! It seems like you managed to eat most of your meals there this day!

I'm sure that there were more things I thought of while reading about your day but I don't remember them anymore! But it was a fun update to read!