I'M JUST SHOWBOATIN' AROUND THE WORLD! & getting pooped on. Jan 13 TR! NEW TR POSTED!

[GrandCalifornian]

That is awesome! I am so glad you will get to stay at the Grand Californian. It will be so neat to follow up your WL trip with a trip to the GCH. That's Disney done right! Enjoy them both, and we can't wait to hear about both trips, and maybe we'll see you there at one or the other.

 

[Pesky]

Yay! Can't wait to hear about your next DLR trip! We will be hard on your heels and also staying at VGC. I put in at David's to rent points at the 11 mos mark and although they warned me it was unlikely, dang if I didn't get the points I needed! I put in for room requests too and if you haven't looked at the GC superthread, take a look and you will get an idea and you can put in room requests too.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

YAY on the Grand Californian. This was my "passage to Disneyland" each day last year since my hotel was on that side. It's so cool that you can actually walk out of the hotel right into California Adventure as a hotel guest (not to mention Downtown Disney). And it is indeed stunning inside. This is really exciting Dani!!!!

 

[stimmons]

BEST. PHOTO. EVER!!!!

I love that Bruce smiles constantly too! It makes for great ride pictures, like he's take Glamour Shots. Lol!

 

[danimaroo]

OH.MY.GAWD. I just sat here laughing for 10 minutes straight with tears streaming down my face every time I looked at the photo.

I'm still laughing....my family thinks I'm nuts! I can't stop, I now have a picture of you, with your hand up, in SHEER TERROR, burned into my brain and I cannot stop laughing.

Dani, you guys are the best at ride photos. The BEST...but that one takes the cake!

BTW, I'm not scared even remotely on Dinosaur. I wonder if it's b/c I take my glasses off b/c I'm afraid they will fly off? Maybe you should try that NEXT TIME! Matt looking right at the camera is priceless! OMG, I'm dying here!

HAHAHA thanks Karen! Glad you got a kick out of it because I'm the same way with that ridiculous photo! Oh my Gosh.

I think I need to take off my glasses on Dinosaur!

Congratulations on being able to stay on-site. We are very spoiled, and only stay in Disney hotels now. It's important for us to stay in the magic as we only get to DLR once a year or so. You will LOVE the GCH and its proximity to all the fun.

Thank you very much! We are super super excited! That's awesome that you guys stay in Disney hotels only! I just don't really love the look of Paradise Pier Hotel or Disneyland Hotel. :/ So of course that leaves us with GC, which is crazy expensive, haha. But I can't wait to stay there!!

Yay for getting back to Disneyland! You'll be leaving 4 days before we get there. Staying at the Grand Californian is on my bucket list, but there's no way it's in my budget. I'm sure you'll love it!

Aww just missing you! I hear you on the budget thing, it's just SO expensive to stay there! But I can't wait and feel super lucky!

That's crazy! My husband is good friends with someone who is really into Pax stuff. I know he moderates some forum and does some stuff with the actual convention as well. So we should know ahead of time when the tickets for PAX East go on sale (and more importantly the hotel!)

How exciting to go back to Disneyland and stay on property!! My Mom and I stayed at the Fairfield. I didn't mind going off-site at all, but I think it's probably because I'm now a WDW local. So when I visit, it's usually for the day and I come home and back to the real world pretty quickly. I would love to stay at the Grand Californian, it looks so gorgeous! If you guys can, I would *highly* recommend checking out Napa Rose. It is so worth it! (Especially when you can indulge in the wine pairing and stumble upstairs!!) I'm jealous!!

Yeah it's really insane. I had set up a text message being sent to me as soon as the Official PAX twitter account announced that passes were on sale. Thank God I was sitting at my computer when I got the text!! Hopefully you can get your hotel room quickly!

Haha yeah, I think for us it was just such a different thing since we've only stayed on-property in Disney World. I think I'd adjust to it better if I were a local. We may have to look into checking out Napa Rose! I'm not sure if we're planning on doing any sit down meals, except for lunch at Blue Bayou. Either way, I can't wait.

This is just freaking amazing news!!!!!

It's just absolutely wonderful that you'll be staying ON PROPERTY, pretending the rest of California doesn't exist! That's how it should be. Totally.

I KNOW RIGHT?! I can't even believe it and I'm so excited! I can't wait to see what it's like and how it changes our experience.

Ack! I'm so behind on my DISing thanks to the horror that occurred around here last week. I'm all caught up now!

Poor Amy! What a horrible feeling being sick and especially after Bruce was just feeling better.

Your Dinosaur ride photo has to be the funniest one I've ever seen. Not just the reaction of the 3 of you but others that were also in it and your commentary, priceless!

Saw your tweet about Disneyland, so awesome! I hope you write another TR and I will hope the best that it does not rain as much as it did on your last trip!

Oh no worries at all! That was kind of why I didn't post much in the days after; my whole family is back in Boston, my uncle is a Boston Police offer, so yeah. my heart was in Boston (and still is).

I felt really bad for Amy, it was just such a bummer.

Hahaha thank you. It's by far my favorite ride photo ever.

I will most definitely be writing a TR about Disneyland again! I mean, I'm actually really excited to write about our experience staying on-property down there, you know? And yes, less rain would be really appreciated! Hahaha. Fingers crossed.

That is awesome! I am so glad you will get to stay at the Grand Californian. It will be so neat to follow up your WL trip with a trip to the GCH. That's Disney done right! Enjoy them both, and we can't wait to hear about both trips, and maybe we'll see you there at one or the other.

I knew you'd love this little update! I'm so excited, and yeah, I can't wait to stay there after being at WL! It's going to be so much fun!! Hopefully we'll run into each other, especially in Disney World since we'll be at WL at the same time!

Yay! Can't wait to hear about your next DLR trip! We will be hard on your heels and also staying at VGC. I put in at David's to rent points at the 11 mos mark and although they warned me it was unlikely, dang if I didn't get the points I needed! I put in for room requests too and if you haven't looked at the GC superthread, take a look and you will get an idea and you can put in room requests too.

AWESOME! That is fantastic news for you! I am going to have to look into room requests, though to be honest, I'm happy wherever they put us! We don't spend a ton of time in the room when we're in Disneyland, but I suppose facing California Adventure would be quite awesome. Thanks for the tip! I'm going to check out the thread!

YAY on the Grand Californian. This was my "passage to Disneyland" each day last year since my hotel was on that side. It's so cool that you can actually walk out of the hotel right into California Adventure as a hotel guest (not to mention Downtown Disney). And it is indeed stunning inside. This is really exciting Dani!!!!

That's awesome! I am so excited to stay there, I can't even begin to describe. I mean, I've never even stepped foot into the hotel, so that's pretty exciting stuff! I can't wait to check it out!

BEST. PHOTO. EVER!!!!

I love that Bruce smiles constantly too! It makes for great ride pictures, like he's take Glamour Shots. Lol!

HAHAHA thank you! Bruce is just such a fabulous man, with his smiling! He's just a photogenic guy, no matter what he is doing... except for his resting face, because that seems to always be angry.

 

[danimaroo]

Chapter Twenty-Six: Some of the prettiest desserts I've had!
Day 5: January 21st, 2013

After we got our infamous photo put onto our PP+ card, we headed out of Dinoland, back to Everest. Matt and I really wanted a pretzel, but the stand wasn't open yet, so we went on EE instead. We had some FPs to use!

Matt and I opted to sit together! Yay!

Cute husband!

Dork husband!

We were happy it wasn't raining, so that deserved a photo of us together! In fact, it was so sunny out that we were both kind of blinded. That girl behind sure was pumped on life.

I do not know what was going on with Matt in this photo, but it's funny, so I'm posting it. He looks like he's about to be sick on me.

We'd accomplished a lot this morning! FOUR rides on Expedition Everest, and a terrifying trip on Dinosaur... it left us really hungry! So off we went in a hunt for some Jalapeno Cheese-Stuffed Pretzels!

See? Matt was clearly a man on a mission for our pretzels, so he had no time for photos!

We finally arrived at the pretzel stand, and heard the angels sing.

These things are one of our favorite snacks to get in Animal Kingdom!

Seriously, if you haven't had one, you NEED to. UGH, I want one right now!

We ate our pretzels as we headed out of the park. We decided to hold off on Kilimanjaro Safari because we wanted Amy to be there with us when we went on it.

It was 11 when we got to the bus stop, and we took a bus back to Beach Club. Bruce wanted to go check on Amy and see how she was doing, so when we got back, Bruce did that while Matt and I made our way over to France in Epcot, because we had an ADR to get to!

As some of you remember, we're big fans of Les Chefs de France, so we checked in and were put on a list to be seated.

We sat over near the fountain and enjoyed the beauty that surrounded us!

Bruce arrived at around 11:55, without Amy, saying she was sleeping pretty soundly, so unfortunately she didn't make lunch.

Our names were called and we were seated at a fantastic table that faced the fountain! In fact, our hostess mentioned how it was her favorite table at Chefs!

We all took our time looking over the menu, and we all were really confused because the menu seemed WAY different than the last time we'd eaten here for lunch. Our hostess came back and told us she'd accidentally given us the Dinner menu, haha.

Soon enough our waiter came by and introduced himself. He was very nice and took our drink orders while we looked over the menu. We all settled on doing the Prix Fixe selection. This gives you a choice between two soups, a choice between three entrees, and a choice of desserts.

I believe we all went with the French Onion Soup. I'd gotten the Lobster Bisque last time (and it was GOOD), but I wanted to try the French Onion this time.

This did not disappoint! It was amazingly good.

As we were eating our soup, REMY CAME TO VISIT US!!

Seriously, this is the COOLEST thing ever. Ratatouille is Matt's favorite Pixar movie, so the fact that they actually have something Remy-related in the parks is awesome. I feel like that movie does not get the love it deserves!

So yeah, talking to Remy? Kind of the best. The waitress was not the same as last time (as you'll remember, ARMOND gave his best Blue Steele with Matt during our last trip), but she was pretty darn funny!

It was way too cute to catch up with our favorite little rat. I love seeing how happy Matt gets during this exchange. And Bruce thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Right after Remy left, our entrees were brought out! Matt ordered the Quiche Lorraine, while Bruce and I both ordered the Croque Monsieur.

Matt really enjoyed his Quiche, and the Croque Monsieur was REALLY good. The only issue I ended up having with it was the tomato that came with it... It was kind of frozen so that wasn't all too pleasant to bite into. Otherwise, it was delicious!

Not too long after, our desserts were brought out! And oh my GOD they were all GORGEOUS!

Bruce went with the Biscuit sable Breton, compote de rhubarbe a l'orange, fraise fraiches, sorbet rhubarbe et fraise - Brittany butter cookie, rhubarb compote with orange, fresh strawberries served with rhubarb and strawberry sorbet. (And yeah, I got these descriptions from allears, haha).

Matt went with the Profiteroles au chocolat - Puff choux with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

I went with a Strawberry shortcake with a Raspberry sorbet on the side.

Our desserts not only looked beautiful, but they tasted AMAZING. Seriously, we were all so happy with our choices. The sorbet and shortcake was the perfect dessert, and both Matt and Bruce were raving about their desserts, as well!

While we ate, Matt and I brought up to Bruce how he and Amy now both had extra table service credits with their dining plan. I suggested that maybe they could go to dinner the following night, since we didn't have any ADRs for dinner. I booked them dinner at the Biergarten right from my iPhone!

I love how you can do that through Disney's Dining site right from your phone; makes last-minute ADRs crazy easy to make.

Towards the end of our meal, our waiter asked us where we were from, and when we told him Seattle, he got VERY excited!

He told us how he'd been there before and he LOVED it. It was super cute because he had an adorable French accent and was so excited when we talked to him about it, haha.

We paid for our meal using our Dining Plan, then headed out to go explore more World Showcase!

Overall, our meal at Les Chefs de France was wonderful. Remy is always the highlight of the meal, but the food is also fantastic.

Next, the second part of my TR title is explained... We'll just leave it at that for now.

Continued in next post​

 

[katt789]

I have to say I haven't had one of those pretzels, and I'm hesitant with the jalapeno portion haha!

I have to say that I love Chefs, and Remy is absolutely adorable! I'm still baffled by the way they get him to work, haha...pure magic. All that food looks so good! Making me hungry!! I cannot wait for Disney food again!

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

First off, I am so jealous that you get to go to Disneyland!!! I've only been once, and I absolutely loved it, and I'm dying to go back, especially since Cars Land is now open.

Yay for more rides on EE!!!! I'd spend all day riding it if I could. Except I'd probably get sick. Just like Matt in the photo haha.

I would so love to be able to see Remy. Unfortunately, nothing at Les Chefs really appeals to me, so it seems a little silly to eat there just for Remy (though it's tempting). I'm curious to hear about Bruce and Amy's opinion of Biergarten. We went last trip, and were pretty disappointed. Not in the food, just the show. My family is in agreement that the show in Busch Gardens Williamsburg is better haha, because they have a German themed restaurant (though it serves American food).

 

[wdwgirl03]

So jealous about your trip to Disneyland and getting to stay at the Grand Californian. I haven't been to DL in 6 years and would love to go back.

Aww, Remy is so cute. All the food looks really good too!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

YUM YUM YUM!! I'm so close to just booking us at LC. I've put it off for all these years because I didn't think it would be too kid-friendly, but it always just looks so delicious...plus Remy himself should be enough kid entertainment, right?? There's just the issue of loving the QS and snack options all around Epcot. We don't seem to ever be too hungry because we can't keep from eating all day long! Plus, I think we're gonna walk over to Beaches and Cream one day, so that would take up a meal...hmmmm...decisions, decisions...

Biergarten sounds like a great place for the two of them to dine, assuming she felt better the next day!

I am really intrigued to see where that part of the title came from...and a little scared...

 

[Nermel9]

Yay EE! I love the pics of you guys on there, you look so happy! Well except for the one where Matt looks sick!

YUM Jalapeno pretzels!!! One of my favorite things at Animal Kingdom! I know they have them in other parks, but they are an AK snack to me!

I've been to Les Chefs twice now, and both times I wanted to love it, and didn't! It's a beautiful restaurant, and it's good, but it's just not great like I'm expecting it to be! But I agree, Remy is amazing, I love the fact that he comes to your table and squeaks at you, so cute!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I finally finally caught up yay!! It shouldn't have taken me this long but they've started to do this crazy thing where they expect me to do work at my office not catch up on the Disboards so I've been a lot more behind recently hahaha

Your trip video is so adorable and I love it! We wanted to do one from our last trip but I wasn't sure if it'd be weird without kids but yours is exactly what I would want ours to be!!!

I guess we just missed each other this January! We were there the 3-10! It totally was much more crowded January 13 than January 12.

Also, I can already tell we're gonna get along. Why? You have a GOONIES SHIRT on in your pictures! HEY YOU GUUYYYSSS! Ah love.

I can't wait until we're all there in September. A Dismeet is totally in order.

It's so awesome that you're going to DLR and staying at the Grand Californian too! Not gonna lie, I'm pretty jealous. I really wanna make a trip out to DLR but it is gonna be so much more expensive coming from the East Coast that I've decided when we do make it, I want it to be part of a long, huge California trip where we go for like three weeks and just hit up everything- DLR, Universal, Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Hollywood, Six Flags, the beach, the whole works. My logic is, if it's gonna be more expensive anyway, might as well make it an extra-expensive mega trip. That's totally justified right?

Anyway, your TR is amazing. There are so many other individual things from updates I wanted to comment on along the way but I didn't write them down and forgot.

 

[enchantedrosex]

Lovin how in the background of the "dorky Matt" pic, Pear White's making an appearance...

Pear White...hahah, see what I did there?


Ughhhh I need to get to Chefs de France!

 

[wiigirl]

Cute pics of Remy.

 

[stacy~**]

Great updates!! Dinosaur photo is absolute perfection! I was nearly in tears!

Les Chefs de France was on my ADR list last trip but somehow didn't end up happening. I am dying to interact with Remy and it will definately be a must do for our next trip.

LOVE your upcoming trips.... GCH will be amazing. So happy that you are returning to DL, since that TR is where I found you.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

You should have tried to sell a copy of the self portrait photo to that girl behind you. She'd never get that angle otherwise. You could have make some coin.

I'm not normally a "fancy dinner' type", but interacting with Remy just looks like such a cool experience. Plus I think I could seriously live on strawberry shortcake.

 

[Alice BlueBonnet]

Subbing!

I am love, love, loving this report so far

 

[roxy72]

Wow, you're staying a the Grand Californian?! That will be amazing! I live about 2.5 hours away from DL and stayed at the GC once- it was so fancy and neat. Are you guys flying in or driving? If you're driving, be aware that parking (Self-parking and valet) are both kinda pricey. Also, our hotel room was right above White Water Snacks so it was very easy (and too tempting) to pop down for some nachos, yum yum.

 

[beachphotog]

All caught up!!
How awesome that you get to stay t the Grand Californian!! So fantastic!!!

So sad that Amy doesn't feel good now. What a bummer! But it looks like you had a great morning! And great job on getting Bruce and Amy the biergarten ADR!

 

[marDgreen88]

Ugh, poor sick Amy. It sucks to miss out on a trip.

I totally agree, Ratatouille doesn't get enough love! It's such a brilliant movie! It's one of my favorites by Pixar as well! Remy is the cutest!

Your desserts do look amazing, so pretty! Sounds like a great meal. UM... considering you're in the World Showcase, I think I know where this is going, as far as the title explanation goes. Yikes!!