If your heart is in your DREAM a Aug/Sept 2011, NEW - links to dining/trip report

[Stefy]

Bummer about Tom being sick, hope he feels better soon

Its awesome that the PP for the other parks was added on to your WAT CD

Sounds like you are making quite the gifts for your Cruise, can't wait to see what they are

 

[lovealldisney]

Yip, we live in Austria, in the neighbouring county's capital city - Linz! That's about 90 minutes from Salzburg!
If you ever come back to Austria, just let me know - I would love to meet up with you and DH and there are LOTS of wonderful places here in Upper Austria too! I am sure you would love it!

Shoot! If I would have known that I would made plans to have a DIS meet! We do plan on coming back! It will be a few years we've already started saving. Since I am a uber planner I have already started planning and getting ideas of where he would like to go. Upper Austria may have to be in the plans. Not sure if he wants to go back we got a speeding ticket while in Austria. (yes we did pay it) I may have to pick your brain about upper Austria......

So sorry about your DH being sick. Hope he's alright now.

 

[dizneeat]

Sorry to hear that Tom was sick after your trip.
Sounds like you had your hands filled with all of the pictures, can't wait to see some when they are posted.
As far as the fish extender gifts I'll be curious to see other poster's ideas, I have never cruised so I am at a loss.
Have a great week!

I think he got a bit sunstroke when we enjoyed the pool at CSR so much and he did not feel well the day we went home.
Then the shock of the weather here - just above freezing point. and on Tuesday he had to report in sick, but he is okay again and back on the job!

If you are interested in FE gifts, there is a whole thread about home made ones here - I can PM you the link, or post it here if you want me to!

Karin, I'm so sorry Tom was ill after the trip.

for the CD news and the free shipping.

Thank you for your concern! He's all well again!

I was so happy about the free CD and shipping ....... now I can keep the pre-paid code for the other one for our summer trip!

Wow You have been busy. I hope Tom is feeling better now. So will the other prepurchased CD be used for your summer trip then?

Tom is all better now, thank you!
I'm going to save the prepurchased CD for our summer trip - last year we came up with about 3000 photos (once they were all edited! ) ...... going to try the same for this summer!

Sorry that Tom fell ill right after the trip. At least it wasn't on the trip... that is really sad.

Yay on the pp!! almost one-thousand pics?!!!?? WOW!! I think you got your monies worth from the trek in AK. I paid for my in September and had a measly 50 or so photos on it.

Homemade gifts are the best! How thoughtful you are. I bet everyone really appreciates them.

He felt weak the last day, but he was a trooper and pulled through!

As for the CD - I put most of the borders on - you never know which one you can use sometime in the future and it adds up quickly. Plus we make it a habit to have some photos taken every day. Some turn out better than others so that helps. Be sure to pre-purchase yours before you go in December - it's only 99$ and get as many pics as you can! If some of your family want to go off on their own they can use another PP and you can combine them in the end - but I guess you knew that already!

We love homemade gifts! Lots of thinking and working on them, but they are very personal and come from the heart!

 

[dizneeat]

Bummer about Tom being sick, hope he feels better soon

Its awesome that the PP for the other parks was added on to your WAT CD

Sounds like you are making quite the gifts for your Cruise, can't wait to see what they are

At least he only fell ill on the last day of our trip! And he is a-okay again and working hard to earn some dollars for Mickey!

The tour is really value for money when you figure in everything you get, including the CD! So worth doing - we actually hope to be able to do it again - not sure if we should do it in the summer, it might be too hot, but definitely when we go in February next time!

We have three cruises this summer and I signed us up for each and every FE exchange of them. Last year we didn't have many cabins, only 6 on the 3 day, this seems to be VERY different this year - lots of cabins, so I better start knitting now!
I need to take photos of all of them and post them, once we have handed them out!

Shoot! If I would have known that I would made plans to have a DIS meet! We do plan on coming back! It will be a few years we've already started saving. Since I am a uber planner I have already started planning and getting ideas of where he would like to go. Upper Austria may have to be in the plans. Not sure if he wants to go back we got a speeding ticket while in Austria. (yes we did pay it) I may have to pick your brain about upper Austria......

So sorry about your DH being sick. Hope he's alright now.

Thanks for asking, Tom is feeling well again and back to work!

You sound a lot like myself - I plan a lot too - unfortunately I change a lot too!
Let me know when you go back to Austria, there are LOTS of fun places to visit around here and all over Austria! I am sure I can point you in the right direction.
Sorry for the speeding ticket - they are quite strict about it here and it is such a change when you come in from Germany where there are mostly no speed limits on highways!

 

[dizneeat]

Got an email from Disney photopass today!

They have already mailed out our CD - I cannot believe HOW FAST they work!
Can't wait for it to arrive! ​

 

[jenseib]

 

[Stefy]

Yay for the CD being on its way to you Can't wait to see all the pics

 

[Swalphin]

Now I know what fish extenders are! I went over to the cruise forums and checked it out.That is a fun way to get to know some of your fellow cruisers.
I never crusied, I am now thinking I might give it a try. With your report from last summer and the one to come I will get lots of insight.

 

[cbg1027]

Can't wait to see the photos from the CD!

 

[englishrose47]

Can't wait to see those PP Pix !!!!

 

[dizneeat]

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

 

[YukiPhnx]

Happy St.Paddy's Day! (again)

Wow, only 4.5 more months!!

 

[dizneeat]

Thank you for sharing our excitement!

Yay for the CD being on its way to you Can't wait to see all the pics

We are really looking forward to it! Lots more to post, especially pics from the trek!

Now I know what fish extenders are! I went over to the cruise forums and checked it out.That is a fun way to get to know some of your fellow cruisers.
I never crusied, I am now thinking I might give it a try. With your report from last summer and the one to come I will get lots of insight.

Fish extenders are the most fun!
When we planned our first cruise we just wanted to travel with our friends Mary Ellen and Joe. But then another group decided to go on a cruise the same summer, so we thought "why not?". We signed up to join them and they were doing FEs. Once we had read a little about it we were really looking forward to it and actually it was SO much fun! We got to places on the ship which we would never have gotten to, without "getting lost" delivering gifts!
And the 2009 cruise was supposed our once in a lifetime cruise as I was really worried about "being stuck" on the ship. Little did we know that we would fall in love with it and this summer we are doing cruises no 4, 5 and 6!
Sure you would love cruising too!

 

[dizneeat]

Can't wait to see the photos from the CD!

Neither can we!

Can't wait to see those PP Pix !!!!

Hopefully soon, Rosie! It should arrive here anytime soon!

Happy St.Paddy's Day! (again)

Wow, only 4.5 more months!!

Thank you, Yuki!
We are slowly but surely creaping closer to our next vacation! Only 21 more weeks as of today. Might sound like a lot, but we have been counting down from 51 weeks!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Looking forward to seeing your PP pictures.

 

[dizneeat]

Looking forward to seeing your PP pictures.

We are still waiting, but hopeful they will arrive any day now!

 

[dizneeat]

Update - on the trip and on real life!

Trip update!

All our ADRs are done and I am in the progress of making changes! Well, not big ones, but adding some breakfasts here and there and tweaking them a bit, to better fit our needs.

Then we have been talking about our cruise a lot. I have been tossing around the idea of visiting Remy and Palo during our cruise .......

BUT .......

I am not too much impressed with Remy's menu and the upcharge is 75 $ per person, so we decided to drop Remy. Next up we discussed HOW MANY visits to Palo we could/should fit in ....... and again - we have been through a lot of their food in previous visits on the WONDERful Disney WONDER, the menu has just changed a bit, so we will make two dinner stops and two brunch stops IF I can get the reservations!
AND ........ instead of going to Remy we will book one of the Wine Tasting Dinners at the Flying Fish Cafe towards the later part of our trip!

We haven't decided on a rental yet, since we don't know if Tom will need to buy a new car and if so we won't have all that money to spend on the rental, but we'll see!

I have also finished my first 3 fish extender gifts (no 4 is nearly ready and no 5 is just started). They are all hand knitted and turned out great - sorry, I can't post photos just yet, but I will, as soon as our cruise has rolled around! Oh, and BTW I will need at least 25 of those! And it is just one gift of 11 we will have to give out!

And here is the real life update!
Last weekend was our catsitter Raimund's birthday. It was a milestone birthday and we wanted to treat him and his wife to something special, so we took them out to lunch (the main meal here) and present him with his birthday present. A three night stay (including breakfast) at a country inn, high up on one of the Mühlviertel's "mountains" the Sternstein.

We put together a lot of different hiking routes for them to explore and made them a little brochure of the little village nearby, Bad Leonfelden.

 

[dizneeat]

Once we had handed over his present it was time for lunch! The restaurant in that inn is very nice and very good!
So here is a peek at the birthday lunch!

The boys started their meal with Cream of Wild Garlic soup. I had a taste and it was really nice, with a very mild garlic scent! Could have been a tad thicker, but it was good!

Raimund chose the Fresh Brook Trout, fried with herbs and served with parsley potatoes and mixed leaves salad.

Christa had the Grilled Pork Tenderloin, served on Ratatuille, with a side of Potato Gratin and a mixed leaves salad.
They both enjoyed their dishes very much!

Tom had the Filet with fried king oyster mushrooms, finger shaped potato dumplings and a mixed leaves salad. His filet was melt in your mouth tender and cooked to a perfect medium, even without being asked what his preference was.

The "Schupfnudeln" (potato dumplings) were home made and truely devine!

Now, here is my choice! I had the Sauted Beef Tips in a coarse mustard sauce with home made pasta and a mixed leaves salad.
Now, the pasta was wonderful, perfectly cooked and tossed in brown butter. The beef tips were definitely cooked to order, as they were still medium and absolutely tender. I wasn't sure of the sauce before I ordered it, but it was so good. Very creamy but yet still light and a very balanced light mustard taste!

Well, and here are some photos of our salads - they were all the same, but each one looked a bit different!

Needless to say, we needed dessert as well.

Again the boys had decided on ordering the same thing. The "Powidltascherl" (potato dumpling filled with plum jam) coated in hazelnut "crumbs". Well, the translation does NOT do it justice! The dough is very thin and there is a generous dollop of jam, they are then cooked in lightly boiling water and coated in sweetened crumbs. Typical Austrian (Bohemian) speciality! Yummo!!!

Christa had the "Mohnnudeln" (Poppy seed coated finger shaped potato dumplings) and vanilla parfait. Again, the translation does not do it justice and again it is another Austrian (Bohemian) speciality. She gave it

And then there was still me .........
If you know me, you also know that it is very hard for me to pass up something chocolatey! So here is what I had ........

Trilogy of chocolate, chocolate mousse, chocolate parfait and chocolate "souffle".

White chocolate mousse, very silky and creamy - unfortunately I am not a huge fan of white chocolate.

Chocolate "souffle". Well, not really a souffle, more like a little chocolate cake with a molten center. A bit dense, but with a molten center and a very chocolatey taste.

Chocolate parfait - now that was the VERY best of the three! Very rich, dark chocolate taste, silky when melting in your mouth and worked perfecty well with the raspberries and chopped pistachio nuts!

Okay and here you have it ....... our weekend birthday lunch!

 

[Stefy]

OMG that looks amazing!!! Must come and visit you guys so you can take us to all these fabulous restaurants

Me and DF are there with you on Remy we are in two minds ourselves whether to go for it or not. We love to try new food, but it seems a bit too much out of our comfort zone. The only thing drawing us back is the fact that Remy is supposed to be the creme de la creme and that its a restaurant not to be missed.

Congrats on the new plans though, Palo we know you love. What about the other two Royal Palace and Enchanted Garden?

 

[dizneeat]

OMG that looks amazing!!! Must come and visit you guys so you can take us to all these fabulous restaurants

Me and DF are there with you on Remy we are in two minds ourselves whether to go for it or not. We love to try new food, but it seems a bit too much out of our comfort zone. The only thing drawing us back is the fact that Remy is supposed to be the creme de la creme and that its a restaurant not to be missed.

Congrats on the new plans though, Palo we know you love. What about the other two Royal Palace and Enchanted Garden?

You are welcome to come here any day! I would definitely LOVE to show you round - Austria IS beautiful! ........ and the food is great!

I just don't see us spending 150 $ (and a tip on top of that) for food that really doesn't draw me in, so we'll stick with Palo and do the Flying Fish experience instead!
Animators Palette, Royal Palace and Enchanted Garden are on the regular rotation anyway and they all have lots of food that really interests me. One of them features two Austrian desserts - Sacher Torte and Esterhazy "cake" or whatever they call it - can't wait to try those!
We are also planning on having dinner at Cabanas one day - trusting Disney's online menu - they will have a 4 course meal for those who won't do the rotation!