Hungry Are The Damned! 10/15/07-10/25/07 - COMPLETED W/LOTS OF PICS!!!

[zweihund]

Yes, it is official.
I have to do the Segway tour some day.

 

[Tink rules]

Ibis to the left of me...

Ducks to the right...

Here I am...

Stuck in the middle with you!!!

Hurry up!!! I need to hear about Narcoosees before I leave!!! & when is that??? Oh man... I need to go pack...

 

[nts4wdw]

Great update! I like to try new stuff, too, but I'd have to draw the line at tentacles....

 

[honeybee30]

A most excellent update, Brenda!

Segways look like fun. I am contemplating that tour for our next trip. I mentioned the possibility to Heather, to which she replied, "But we always laugh at the segway people..." I, however, am willing to embrace my inner dork and don a helmet for the chance to ride one of those space-age segway-thingies around an empty WS!

 

[PNO4TE]

Ibis to the left of me...

Ducks to the right...

Here I am...

Stuck in the middle with you!!!

 

[PNO4TE]

Great update, Brenda... thanks! Looking forward to Narcoossee's! (And your dinner review of tonight's meal.)

 

[KristinAnne]

Boy, your updates make me want to go to the Food and Wine Festival!

 

[DisneyMom5]

Some of that looked tasty.
I will only eat tentacles in calamari, and that has to be well fried and topped with marinara.
Otherwise...Ugh.

Admit it, when you saw that BirdWar III was about to start, you were hearing the music to West Side Story in your head, weren't you.

"Bird, bird, crazy bird...stay cool, bird."

"Maria...I just met a duck named Maria."



Yes, I amuse myself.

Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Tinkerspell]

The good news is that tomorrow we're going out for dinner at a really nice restaurant here in Stinktown (there are a few) and as long as I don't get tossed out for annoying other patrons I'll be taking lots of pictures and posting a review on the blog! The better news is that we leave for Vegas in 9 days!!!

Hey... HEY!!! What's this about going for food and I'm not invited?! Well pbbbbltttt! I'll keep all my yummy bread in the oven to myself then! Enjoy yourself and I'll be looking for the review on the blog.

 

[DisneyJo]

I really want to do a segway tour, darn those kids having to come to WDW with us

Those bird photos are hilarious

 

[Sheldon J. Plankton]

Tuesday, October 23rd - A Segway or Perhaps a Segueway to Good Eats...



Welcome to the land of brain fart ... somehow we forgot to take a picture of the food. We ordered the salad, which was good except for those big nasty olives, and the spakakopita which was also good. We washed them down with some Boutari Moschofilero, which was a light, white wine with just a hint of sweetness.

you mean this picture?

someone needs to lay off the sauce...

 

[BriarRosie]

Tuesday, October 23rd - A Segway or Perhaps a Segueway to Good Eats...

We started the morning early with a Segway Tour around the World Showcase. This was something that Jay and I had been wanting to try for some time ... Epcot offers the 2-hour experience daily in four time slots - we opted for the 8:30 AM tour because once it was over we'd only have a 30-minute wait for the World Showcase to open and soothe the grumblies in our tumblies.

I wanted the last tour so I could take part of the Segways on Parade like I did the previous time, when it was time to return to Innoventions.

The price has increased since we took the tour (of course ... ) but there are DVC, AAA, AP, and Disney Visa discounts available. The first hour of the tour is actually spent at Innoventions learning how to operate the Segway without killing yourself or any innocent by-standers. I have to tell you ... there were a few moments there when I was ready to "opt-out" and ask for a refund because me and that Segway were not on the same wavelength at all. I am not a graceful person, as you may have gathered by the tag indicating that I trip on painted lines in parking lots. It's no joke ... I actually tripped on a painted yellow line in a bank parking lot some years ago on my way in to work. Segways are very sensitive to the slightest movement and require balance ... something else that I don't have a plentiful supply of in either a physical or philosophical sense. But I didn't want Jay to be disappointed in me and I didn't want to be a quitter so I toughed it out and with a little extra help from the CM leading the tour (a super nice guy who's been using Segways for years) I managed to get the hang of using one of those infernal contraptions.

I must admit that having previous experience on a Segway helped me out tremendously. If I had to get on it for the first time in October, I probably would have felt the same way. We had a lot more room to move in the previous training location.

The second half of the tour is the really fun part when you get to Segway out of Future World into the World Showcase. The Segway parade is a hoot because all the guests stop and gawk and point. It sure made us feel special all for the bargain price of $70 per person! We were able to tour each country in the World Showcase and in some areas, like China and Italy and Japan, we zipped in and out of pathways and arches and zoomed down ramps. Keep in mind, that zip and zoom are rather subjective terms because they set a speed cap on the machines so that we couldn't go too fast. But for a scaredy cat like me it felt zooooomtacular and zip-zap-grabulous!!!
Along the way we got some interesting commentary about the different World Showcase venues, none of which I remember at this point, and then we stopped in Italy for pictures and random playtime.

I loved the "obstacle course" part of the journey, but I felt the tour part could have been better with a tour guide who projected a bit louder and had an accent that was not so heavy.

Notice how the helmet only brings out the dorkiness in some people?

Hmm, let's test that Dorkiness Theory:

Yep. I'm still a dork, too.

Another thing that I really like about Disney's backstage tours is that at the conclusion each participant usually receives a cool pin as a momento. And so it was with the Segway Tour:

It's got a moving dude on a Segway!!

I know I have two of those now, but I have no idea where my first one is. But you know what this means, don't you? We have to move on to the Off-Road Segway tour at Ft. Wilderness in October!

Once we were finished and I had re-acquainted myself with my land legs, it was time to eat!! So join us now for some snacking around the World Showcase ... again.

Second Lunch: Peru

The tastiness of your food makes up for this awkward location...

Food offerings: Cause de Cangrejo; Arroz con Pato, Lucuma Cream with an Alfajores Cookie.

Let the feast begin!

OK ... here's what I remember ... the crab ball on the cornbread ala' postage stamp sponge was really good, although I could have done without the liquid runoff. The meaty rice jumble was not to my taste - it had a really strong flavor that I didn't care for at all. And the lucuma cream was a joy! The CM at the cash register warned us about it - she said that the stuff was so good that she could no longer be trusted to work inside the food booth because she would eat all of it! We were skeptical until we tried it ourselves ... it was thick and cool and creamy with a light caramel flavor. Jay and I played dueling spoons to determine which of us would get the joy of finishing off the last few bites.

Ugh. I remember the crab on the potato postage stamp. That was what made me run away from the food booths that first day, where I ended up with the best lobstah bisque, evah...in the food demo. I thought the crab dish had way too much of a vinegary taste. The duck on rice however, I loved. I also stayed away from a similar "causa" dish at PFTS because of the awful experience I had at the kiosk. Go figure.

This is just wrong ...

A friendly warning, by the way, don't ever play the Llama song. Trust me.

Oh that is priceless! Love it!

Fourth Lunch: New Zealand

Where is everyone?

Food offerings: Marinated Seafood Salad; Lamb Slider; Kiwi and Custard Roll.

Beverage offerings: Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc; Villa Maria Cabernet-Sauvignon-Merlot blend; Villa Maria Chardonnay; Villa Maria Pinot Noir.

We chose the lamb slider and the seafood salad...

This looks interesting...

The lamb slider was very good ... tender meat with good flavor and while I didn't care for the gravy (I don't really like gravy) it did help moisten the bread which was a tad dry. I think the slider would be better with mustard.

The seafood salad was all Jay's ... too many weird, cold, squishy things. Wanna see it up close and really yucky?

I'll take the squid platter with extra tentacles, please.

I loved the lamb slider, gravy and all. But I didn't try the salad. Octopus doesn't bother me, so I would have tried it.

Since we had dinner reservations at Narcoosee's later in the evening, which we actually kept this time, we decided to stop the snacking before we ended up too stuffed. There is one last set of pictures I want to share only because I didn't realize how they turned out until I was back in the room looking through them and laughing myself into hysterics.

Oh yay! No teasing us with reviews that never happened!

During F&W a lot of birds congregate in the grassy areas near the Canadian and UK pavillions. It was no different on this day ... there were tons of ducks and Ibis (is the plural of Ibis ... Ibi...Ibii...Ibises???) but they had clearly marked out their respective territories.

Ibis to the left, please...

Ducks to the right...

Although you only see one duck here, there were several waddling behind him. It really started to look like both groups of birds were massing for some kind of battle.

I'm picturing a little "West Side Story" rumble going on here.

And then we took this picture of an Ibis having a Braveheart moment:

"I'm not finished! Before you leave, your commanding Ibis must cross this field, stick his head between his legs, and kiss his own asteric!"

Mission Accomplished!

Oh that Braveheart moment was just too wrong! ROFL! I can't wait for the next installment of As the Stomach Churns.

 

[DisneyLaura]

Brenda - great as usual. That seafood salad was a no go for me too.

Great update! I like to try new stuff, too, but I'd have to draw the line at tentacles....

I'm with you too, no tentacles.

Admit it, when you saw that BirdWar III was about to start, you were hearing the music to West Side Story in your head, weren't you.

"Bird, bird, crazy bird...stay cool, bird."

"Maria...I just met a duck named Maria."



Yes, I amuse myself.

 

[Tink rules]

you mean this picture?

someone needs to lay off the sauce...

Planky!!! You have a camera... (almost wrote Coma!!!) (well, I did but I caught myself... )

Bring it on your trip!!!

& cash!!!

Lots of cash...

 

[Tink rules]

All this bird talk...

Makes you listen to Freebird a little differently now???

 

[TigerKat]

Awesome update Brenda!! Segway looks good on y'all!!

Ibis to the left of me...

Ducks to the right...

Here I am...

Stuck in the middle with you!!!

Hurry up!!! I need to hear about Narcoosees before I leave!!! & when is that??? Oh man... I need to go pack...

Exactly what I was thinking or maybe I should say singing!

I, however, am willing to embrace my inner dork and don a helmet for the chance to ride one of those space-age segway-thingies around an empty WS!

Please, please embrace it girlfriend!!!!!

 

[WDW Fan]

First let me just say that Jay is extremely photogenic! He looks great even in his dorky helmet! I wish I could get my DH to agree to the Segway Tour but he tells me that it's just not going to happen. Some of the food looked pretty good but anything with tentacles would be a real turnoff for me! It seems like you had a gorgeous day to walk around the WS! Can't wait to hear about Narcoossee's!

 

[CampbellScot]

okay it's been a MILLION BILLION years since I've said howdy, but I am SO reading along!!!

Just wanted to say howdy do Bendy!!!

 

[whogirl'smom]

The Segway looks like fun, but I am balance-challenged also! I read this last night and thought I responded, but evidently I am also memory-challenged! You all tried some adventurous things on this day. I just can't do tentacles--I was watching "No Reservations" the other night and Tony was talking about feeling the tentacles stick to the inside of his mouth while he was eating live, wiggling squid! EWW! Fry that sucker up and cover it with ketchup! The Greek stuff looked good, though.

Mmm, Narcoossee's next! I had some really good fried oysters there with some kind of sweet soy sauce dip--who would have thought I'd give up my ketchup?

 

[Mister Disney]

Notice how the helmet only brings out the dorkiness in some people?

Hmm, let's test that Dorkiness Theory:

Yep. I'm still a dork, too.

We prefer to consider it the "Dashing and Debonair" look....

gotta love my white chicken legs!