Is there Gluten in Whiskey? Sept trip: 9 days, 3 boys, 1 urgent care visit NEWx2 11/7

[TanzUnited99]

Love the babycakes review! We never made it there but your pictures are making me drool!

Oh no on the shoes not working out and you getting blisters.

 

[kokotg]

Great info about Babycakes! I hate the gluten is the glue holding everything together in baked good because it makes everything so messy and crumbly! How long did the cinnamon rolls keep? I would love to bring one back with me for BFF.

How did they keep? Hmm...we didn't wait long enough to find out . Really, the cinnamon rolls did stick around a little while...we bought them Friday night and they were still fine when we finished them up Sunday morning. I wouldn't try to make them last much longer than that, though...although maybe if you could keep them refrigerated...

Two years ago, I freaked out about what kind of shoes to wear to Disney - especially since I was going to be wearing shorts! I HATE sneakers (and crocs). My closet is more of a heels, boots, and skate shoe haven. I figured it was too hot to wear combat boots and my chuck taylors are horrible for standing. So, after a lot of researching and talking around and even trying New Balance X-trainers and some Dansko MJs (both too bulky), I ended up with: http://www.skechers.com/style/21159/bikers-hot-ticket/wht#Color=GYPK
Everyone said (and still says) I was insane, especially since I wasn't wearing socks. But, I was the one whose feet didn't hurt every night and only had to use 1 band aid. And, they happen to be what I've been wearing the past two months as I train for the Race for the Cure 5k. (just now getting a new pair due to the insoles having no bounceback).
Ok, so point to my rambling? These skechers are super cute and lightweight and you may want to check them out in the future. Then again, nobody knows your feet but you.

thanks for the tip! Those are cute...and I'm impressed that they didn't give you blisters even with no socks!

Love the babycakes review! We never made it there but your pictures are making me drool!

Something to look forward to next time!

 

[kokotg]

Chapter 9: Saturday 9/17 Part 1: Animal Kingdom

Ari woke up early Saturday morning feeling sick to his stomach. He was very eager to blame it on Wolfgang Puck's, but we'd all eaten exactly the same thing the night before, and the rest of us felt fine. He did eat an awful lot of that extra mashed potatoes we ordered, though. At any rate, he seemed okay by the time we were ready to go, so we assumed it was a random, passing thing and headed out.

At some point the day before I had realized that Monday, our second planned Animal Kingdom day, was an extra magic hour day. So while I'd originally thought we'd get there for rope drop on Saturday and then make Monday a late morning, we decided it made more sense to do it the other way around.

In this case, our “late morning” meant we got there within 5 or 10 minutes after the 9 o' clock opening.

The kids were more excited (by a mile) about Everest than anything else, so we headed there right away.

I think Asia in Animal Kingdom has my favorite theming of any part of any of the parks. I love walking around and looking at everything there.

But there was no time for lingering at the moment, as we needed to get to Dinoland.

Gus was just a hair past 47 inches barefoot at home the last time I measured him (a couple of weeks before the trip), so he was very anxious to find out if time and new Crocs would help him squeak past the 48 inch mark. Rock n' Roller Coaster was the real prize he was thinking of, but he was eager to try Primeval Whirl, too, and that would be the first 48” ride we'd encounter.

Primeval Whirl had been scheduled to reopen after rehab a couple of days earlier, but I'd read on the boards that said opening had been delayed, so we weren't sure if it would be open or not. But...it was! And we were the only people who wanted to ride it, it seemed. No one else was even in the area.

The CM doing the measuring decided to draw out the excitement by spending a very long time considering whether or not Gus was tall enough, and then calling over two other CMs for second and third opinions. It was pretty clear, though, that there was no air between Gus' head and the 48” mark, and he was in! He was SO excited. Thank goodness he's a tall kid; I don't know how he'd handle it if he had to wait ANOTHER year to be tall enough to do all the rides his brothers can do.

The CM at the boarding area measured Gus one more time, and he was still tall enough, so we were off! The more I ride Primeval Whirl, the less I care for it, but all of my kids love it. Including Gus, it turns out. He declared it his second favorite ride (after Everest) and immediately started plotting to ride it again.

But not yet! First, Dinosaur!

We walked right into the pre-show room. You know, Dinosaur was a lot scarier back before I knew exactly where everything was. I still kind of like it, though. Dave and I always like to watch the video they show afterwards, with the Iguanodon wandering the hallways.

Okay, so I've never, ever done this before (remember, I feel incredibly sheepish just taking pictures of my food), but there was no CM in the vicinity, and I liked this picture, so I took a picture of the screen:

Towards the end of our trip, I started noticing that they were putting words across the preview screen for most of the on-ride photos (like, “hey—you can give us a lot of money and take this picture home with you!” --that sort of thing). I swear that wasn't there at the beginning of our trip. I think it was all my fault for taking that picture after Dinosaur.

Dave has, or had, an ugly blue hat that he really, really loves. At the beginning of this trip, he commented that the hat was getting sort of stinky. And then at Animal Kingdom, he realized the stinky hat was missing! I swear I had nothing to do with the disappearance of the stinky, ugly hat. I even packed the hat for him before the trip. He thinks he must have somehow managed to lose it between our hotel room and the car that morning, based on his careful reconstruction of events. I suggested we look for a hat for him at Animal Kingdom, maybe one that was less stinky and ugly than his old one, even.

And here, in the Disosaur gift shop, we found Dave's new hat. Here it is:

The nice thing about the hat is that it came with six pins. The hat cost $36.95, I think, so it was pretty much like you were buying the pins and getting the hat for free. And the kids could use the pins for pin trading! Best deal at Disney World! Gus also wanted an autograph book, so he bought that with his money and we chipped in to buy him the fat, character-friendly pen to go with it. At that point we were within a couple of dollars of hitting $50 and getting a discount with our Disney Visa, so we just had to throw in a book for storing pressed pennies to get the total over the top.

But the joy of finding a good deal on a hat was short lived. For some strange reason, after riding Everest, Primeval Whirl, and Dinosaur in quick succession, Ari's stomachache had returned. Go figure.
Now, I've promised a couple of germaphobic friends that I will leave out all the gory details of Ari's stomach trouble, but the truth is there's not a whole lot to conceal. For the most part, he just felt bad if he was out in the sun, walking around and riding stuff, and felt more or less okay when he stayed in the hotel. It's the sort of thing I wouldn't have thought much of at all if we'd been home and he'd been able to rest for a day or two without missing half his vacation. He never ran a fever at all, so it's entirely possible it WAS just something he ate not sitting well with him.

But whatever it was, he was definitely not feeling up for more rides or for several more hours walking around in the weather. Gus still wanted to ride Primeval Whirl again, and we were in a nice, shady spot right outside of Dinosaur still, so we decided that Dave would take Milo and Gus over there while I waited with a resting Ari. It turned out Primeval Whirl was shut down (lucky we went there early!) so they rode Triceratop Spin instead. Ari did this:

When Dave and the kids got back, it was only 10:30, but we thought maybe an air conditioned break would be good for Ari, so we went over to Restaurantosaurus. And here we encountered perhaps the most helpful CM EVER! She was so very nice. But I'll get to her later, for it's time for yet another dining review, and she belongs there.

 

[kokotg]

Chapter 10: Restaurantosaurus

We'd never been in Restaurantosaurus before. In fact, before this trip, the only restaurants we'd eaten at in Animal Kingdom were Pizzafari and Tusker House one time, back when it was still a counter service. Dave's lunch request for Animal Kingdom was “not Pizzafari.” My Disney gluten-free app told me that Restaurantosaurus was a good choice, so we picked it for our first AK day.

We got there right around 10:30, and the CMs were all bustling around getting ready to open. Someone came over to meet us and told us that they should be ready for us at 10:45, which, she said, was about 15 minutes earlier than they were scheduled to open. We were really just looking for a place to sit down out of the heat at this point, so we assured her we were in no rush.

After sitting for a few minutes, Ari was still feeling terrible and wanted to go back to the hotel. He most definitely did not want lunch. So Dave left with him, and it was just me, Milo, and Gus left for lunch. A CM came out again, bearing menus for us to look at. I told her that we needed to order gluten-free food, and she immediately went off to find the manager.

The manager came out right away with her big book of allergy information. Having already consulted my app and talked to the kids, I knew exactly what we wanted. They have gluten-free hamburger and hot dog buns at Restaurantosaurus, but Gus wanted a hot dog with no bun. Milo and I both wanted chicken fingers. So at this point we're hanging out in the seating area of the restaurant with the manager, and the registers still aren't open, so I wasn't sure what was going to happen with the ordering process. Was the manager going to go away and then someone would need to go find her AGAIN when the restaurant opened so we could order?

But no. Because she was the most helpful quick service manager ever! She told us that she would go ahead and start our food now, before the restaurant opened, so that we wouldn't have to wait so long, and then she walked us over to the registers, found someone who was all set up already, and walked her through putting our order in. Then she got drink cups for the kids and a bottle of water for me and told us we could sit down and she would bring our food out for us when it was ready.

And she did! Just a few minutes later!

The kids meals at Restaurantosaurus come in little plastic buckets. Which is cute, but, honestly, I kind of wish they'd ask before they just give them to you. We had a backpack with us and didn't mind carrying them around with us (though I'm not sure they'll ever get used by my kids; they'll probably wind up at Goodwill)...but I'm sure a TON of these get thrown out by people who don't want to haul them all over AK.

Anyway, here are the meals:

Gus' meal doesn't look very appetizing, I realize. Picture it with a delicious gluten-free hot dog bun. I'm not sure there actually is any such thing, but, then, regular hot dog buns are usually nothing to write home about, either.

This time we got the Enjoy Life cookies instead of the French Meadow brownies (I'm nearly certain they offered us a choice of either). We got these a few more times just to have a break from the brownies, but, really, the brownies are much better. Enjoy Life has the advantage of being free from all major allergens, whereas French Meadow just bills itself as gluten free. The Enjoy Life cookies aren't terrible, but they have a strong fruit juicy flavor to them that I don't like. They're also TINY compared to the French Meadow brownies.

Up Next: More Animal Kingdom

 

[shan23877]

Joining in! The title hooked me

 

[shan23877]

Chapter 3: Friday 9/16 Part 2: Magic Kingdom

One of the big reasons I wanted to add this Friday onto our trip is that, in my original schedule, we wouldn't make it to the Magic Kingdom until Wednesday—the fifth day of our trip. This seemed way too late. Starting off the trip with the Magic Kingdom was a much better plan.

We drove over to the Magic Kingdom and took the monorail from the TTC:

I spent a lot of time on this trip forcing all three boys to pose together, and they were very good sports about it. Often, they even smiled for me:

First view of the castle!

This is what Main Street looked like at, according to that clock in the picture, 1:15.

Every single year I read threads saying that this September is way more crowded than last year AND threads about how totally empty the parks are this September...I'll say that our experience was that things seemed a little less crowded this year than the past few years. That may be luck—or because I obsessed a bit more about picking the right park for each day—but that was how it seemed to us. Pretty much everything was a walk-on the first couple hours the parks were open, and we did fine using fastpasses aside from that. I don't remember waiting for anything longer than 10 or 15 minutes, though I may be forgetting something. And when we did wait even that long it was always something that we could have avoided if we'd put much effort into it. The parks also just felt less crowded this year—more room on the walkways and that sort of thing.

We'd spent a lot of time in the days leading up to the trip discussing which ride we should do first. There had been some votes for Space Mountain and some for Small World (which was closed last year). We ended up doing Space Mountain first, with plans to follow it up immediately with Small World.

The sign at Space Mountain claimed the wait would be 10 minutes, but we actually walked right on. When we got off, I commented, “the older I get, the bumpier Space Mountain gets.” But then later in the trip when we went on it, I loved it. The first couple of times—when there was all the bumpy—we went to the left side. The last few times, we went to the right. I actually googled when we were in line at one point, and it seems like the consensus is that the left side is smoother, but I swear it was the opposite for us. I would have sworn the track layout was completely different, in fact, but google insists that I'm wrong about that. And google never lies.

and neither does Wikipedia.

There actually WAS a wait for “it's a small world” (it kind of cracks me up that the name of the ride includes quotation marks. Haven't they ever read the blog of unnecessary quotation marks?) The sign said 10 minutes, and I think that was pretty accurate.

I think Ari was excited

Two rides under our belts and now it was getting to be pretty late...past time for lunch!

So I think, after much internal debate, that I'm going to separate out my dining reviews. I'll put them in here, but as separate entries, so that I can also post them on the dining review board. I spent many, many hours pouring over gluten-free dining reviews before my trip, so I want to make sure my own gluten-free reviews are easy to find for anyone else who's looking for them. So:

Up next: Columbia Harbor House and some rambling about gluten

Really enjoying the report so far!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Great AK day! I saw that with the photos having writing on them as well - guess Disney wants to try and stop people from taking red neck photos.

Wow at the service you all got at Restaurantosaurus! That is amazing!

 

[kokotg]

Really enjoying the report so far!

Thank you! and

Great AK day! I saw that with the photos having writing on them as well - guess Disney wants to try and stop people from taking red neck photos.

Wow at the service you all got at Restaurantosaurus! That is amazing!

right? I guess it was inevitable that Disney would eventually figure out a way to get people to stop without having to actually ASK them to stop

 

[kokotg]

Chapter 10: Saturday, 9/16, Part 3: more Animal Kingdom

There was a lot of calling back and forth for me and Dave during the rest of the day, but I will sum up all the stuff they were doing back at Pop for the first part of the day here. They went back to the room, and Ari felt much better once he was lying down and resting. Dave went out to the food court and picked up some food, and Ari ate a little of it.

Milo, Gus, and I finished lunch and decided to head back over toward Everest to see what the line was like there. I think I'm going to have trouble remembering exactly what order we did things in next, despite all my pictures and notes, because my memory of the rest of the day is that we spent hours walking back and forth between Asia and Africa over and over again.

The Everest line was 20 minutes, so we decided to keep walking and check out the safari. I think maybe we had fastpasses for the safari that Dave had run to get after Everest. Either that or the line was short, because I know we didn't wait long.

We had a pretty good safari driver. And we saw animals:

Then we went on the Pangani Trail and saw MORE animals:

And listened to, umm...monkey ultrasounds or something? I don't remember. I was mostly interested in the naked mole rats.

Now the kids wanted to go on Everest again, so we began our trek back to Africa. We saw Devine on the way:

I don't know why we hadn't done this on the way to the safari, but we decided to pick up fast passes for it and come back in a bit.

While we waited for our fastpass time, we drank the first of three rounds of ice water (all that walking between Africa and Asia will make you thirsty). And we watched Flights of Wonder:

Gus had been very against the Flights of Wonder plan, but in the end he loved it. “That was AWESOME!” he declared.

We sat about three rows from the front, over to the side, in Flights of Wonder. There was a family sitting a bit down the bench from us and then a couple of backpacks on the bench next to them. So I thought that family was saving seats for someone, but it eventually became apparent that no one was going to show up. I finally realized that what was going on was that the people in the row behind us had put their stuff on the row in front of them so that no one would sit in front of them and block their view. They didn't even have little kids who'd have an especially hard time seeing or anything; this was two grown-ups. And the show was fairly full. This annoyed me more than it probably should have. What if everyone did that!? Do they think they're the most important people in the world?! I thought about saying, when they picked up their bags at the end, “I'm sorry your friends never showed up,” but of course I didn't really do it. I also thought about taking their picture and posting it here with the caption, “The Most Important People In the World,” but I was afraid they would catch me doing it and it would be awkward. So I'm just passive aggressively complaining about them here instead.

I think it was while we were in Flights of Wonder that Dave called to say that Ari was feeling better and they were coming back to meet us. We rode Everest again and got a call from Dave saying that they were here....and that Ari was feeling sick again and wanted to go right back to the hotel. Poor Ari. We decided they'd go into the Rainforest Cafe gift shop to wait for us and we'd meet them there and all go back to Pop together.

Mousekeeping was not especially creative with our stuffed animals this year. They were always sitting in a precarious pile on top of the pillow.

So that is what we did. We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening hanging out at Pop. Dave and I took naps, and the kids played with their ipods and watched Kick Buttowski. We were supposed to eat dinner at Tusker House that night, but Ari wasn't up for it, so we called and canceled. Dave took the younger kids to the food court for dinner and brought stuff back for me and Ari (Ari ate a whole chicken finger dinner no problem, despite his stomach problems). I won't do a full scale review; they have a pretty good, if pretty basic, selection of gluten-free options at Pop. They could do rice pasta, the chicken fingers, fries, a burger or a hot dog with a gluten-free bun....probably a few other things I don't remember. Dave says they were very helpful there. I had a cheeseburger and fries, and it was....okay. I'm not a big fan of fast food hamburgers, and I ended up wishing I'd gotten it without the cheese-like substance on top.

Oh, and this is the time we completely screwed up with the gluten thing! Well, Dave did. He came back with some chocolate chip cookies. Milo and Gus had already had one each, and I opened up another package and took a bite. It was really yummy, so I looked at the package to see what the brand was. And saw “wheat” listed clear as day in the allergen information under the ingredients list. Oops. These were cookies that were safe for people with nut allergies, I believe, so they were displayed at Pop right next to the French Meadow stuff, and Dave had grabbed them without examining them closely. Gus got a little bit of a headache that evening, but other than that we didn't notice any particular ill effects, so that was good.

This is what Dave did in the evenings while I worked on my trip report notes: he's making a spreadsheet to record all the money we spent on stuff. We are two different kinds of geeky.

New things for Saturday:

1. sick kid at Disney World: we've been very lucky, but I can't remember anything like that happening before this year.
2. Eating at Restaurantosaurus
3. Gus rides Primeval Whirl!

Up Next: Will Ari ever feel better? And Epcot

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

I'm here and all caught up!
I agree that your lack of king bed has to be attributed to checking in on Friday! We did that whole Friday check-in last year and got absolutely nothing that we'd requested. That's the whole reason we stayed at Comfort Inn on Friday night and went to Pop on Saturday. (I swear, they GAVE us the king room, and we didn't even ask for it!) Your crowd for check-in looked just like ours, pretty much.
I agree with your crowds analysis--no waits early, barely any waits late, and FP made things a whole lot easier. There was really only one bad crowd moment, and that's coming up soon in my TR. Honestly, though, it was poor planning on our part and could have been avoided. I love September at WDW (as does our entire county!).
We kept meaning to go to Babycakes for some good dairy-free dessert options for Brynn, but we just never made it. Next trip I'm going there for sure! And wine with your cinnamon rolls? Best pairing ever!

 

[kokotg]

I'm here and all caught up!
I agree that your lack of king bed has to be attributed to checking in on Friday! We did that whole Friday check-in last year and got absolutely nothing that we'd requested. That's the whole reason we stayed at Comfort Inn on Friday night and went to Pop on Saturday. (I swear, they GAVE us the king room, and we didn't even ask for it!) Your crowd for check-in looked just like ours, pretty much.
I agree with your crowds analysis--no waits early, barely any waits late, and FP made things a whole lot easier. There was really only one bad crowd moment, and that's coming up soon in my TR. Honestly, though, it was poor planning on our part and could have been avoided. I love September at WDW (as does our entire county!).
We kept meaning to go to Babycakes for some good dairy-free dessert options for Brynn, but we just never made it. Next trip I'm going there for sure! And wine with your cinnamon rolls? Best pairing ever!

Wine and cinnamon rolls is definitely the thing to do after a long day at the parks!

And I can't complain too much about not getting our requests, since we got them our other two Pop years...got to have an off year every now and then I guess!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Lol you guys sure did a lot walking to and from places in AK!

Love the animal pics and can't believe 2 adults would do that at the Flights of Wonder show Oh no on Ari not feeling well - hope he felt better later.

Mousekeeping were not that creative in our room either.

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

Our mousekeepers weren't too creative, either. I swear that every single day they put a pair of mouse ears in the middle of our bed and stuck a towel animal somewhere in the vicinity. At least that's better than last year when we got one towel animal upon entering, and then they never fully made our beds the rest of the week even when we called to complain (they pulled the bedspreads off and laid them in the floor, but made up the sheet and blanket ).

The chefs at Pop were really helpful to us. They always asked me what Brynn wanted to eat, and then they found a way to make it even if it wasn't a menu item. Sorry you ate those cookies, though--I wish things were always clearly marked, but it just isn't so. On the plus side, you got cookies!

 

[kokotg]

Lol you guys sure did a lot walking to and from places in AK!

Love the animal pics and can't believe 2 adults would do that at the Flights of Wonder show Oh no on Ari not feeling well - hope he felt better later.

Mousekeeping were not that creative in our room either.

We do have a couple of somewhat interesting encounters with mousekeeping coming up! But one year our mousekeeper always left the kids' stuffed animals doing something hilarious, like gathered around a book opened on the bed. Or one day she left the TV on and had them all watching it. We're hoping for another mousekeeper like that someday!

Our mousekeepers weren't too creative, either. I swear that every single day they put a pair of mouse ears in the middle of our bed and stuck a towel animal somewhere in the vicinity. At least that's better than last year when we got one towel animal upon entering, and then they never fully made our beds the rest of the week even when we called to complain (they pulled the bedspreads off and laid them in the floor, but made up the sheet and blanket ).

The chefs at Pop were really helpful to us. They always asked me what Brynn wanted to eat, and then they found a way to make it even if it wasn't a menu item. Sorry you ate those cookies, though--I wish things were always clearly marked, but it just isn't so. On the plus side, you got cookies!

Ugh, I can't believe that about your bedspreads! How strange!

 

[kokotg]

Chapter 11: Sunday, 9/17 Part 1: Epcot

I was really hoping that Ari was having a 24 hour kind of tummy bug, and he'd wake up Sunday completely fine...but no such luck. He still felt sick and didn't want to attempt Epcot. There was some brief discussion about which of us would stay at Pop with him. “You care more about going than I do,” Dave said. I could not argue with that. And, he pointed out, a chance for a nap in a quiet hotel room was really pretty vacation-like for him, too.

I don't drive at Disney. It scares me. So Milo, Gus, and I set off for the bus. We didn't exactly mean to, but we took the scenic route. We'd find out later in the trip that the bus stop really wasn't nearly as far away from our room as we thought it was, if we didn't mind views of parking lots instead of this stuff:

Oh foosball guys....how I've missed you!

It was remarkably cool and pleasant when we left, and I felt bad for Ari and Dave that they weren't getting to enjoy some very rare comfortable September weather. The early part of the trip wasn't bad, weather-wise. By the end of the week, we were broiling. This is our fifth September in Orlando, though (and the year we went to Disneyland in September there was a record-breaking heatwave, and it was 102 one day), so we're always prepared for the worst.

There was a bus right there waiting for us when we got to the bus stop. We took buses more this year than last year, and usually had good luck with them. I don't remember what time we got to Epcot, but it must have been early, as it was pretty empty for the first little while:

Hello, one other family who's joined us at Epcot this morning!

We went right over to Test Track and walked right into and through the preshow room without even watching the movie.

We grabbed fastpasses for later and then went over to Mission Space. Dave and I rode the orange side with the kids twice last year, and I had no intention of doing it again this year, lest I wind up stuck in a hotel like Ari for the rest of the trip. Green all the way!

Then Spaceship Earth:

Then we went over to Soarin' to pick up fastpasses. I was hoping we could grab lunch at Sunshine Seasons while we waited for our fastpass return time, but they were still only serving breakfast. So we decided to pass the time with the other Land exhibits.

First up Living With the Land. I really love Living With Land. It's kind of boring, but I find it comforting somehow. Also, I like how lots of trip reports make it seem like all anyone does is ride Living With the Land and Kilimanjaro Safari because the light is good and it's easy to get pictures that turn out on them:

We'd NEVER seen that Circle of Life movie before. But, hey, it was right there, so we decided to check it out. We may NEVER see that Circle of Life movie again. Really, it was fine, I guess. I did feel a little sheepish watching this environmental tale about how I needed to get back to the land and use fewer resources when I was sitting in the middle of Disney World, though. I mean, it takes a lot of resources to run Disney World, I'm thinking. All the oil that goes into those plastic buckets they put the kid meals in at Restaurantosaurus, for example. And the air conditioning to cool down the Land pavilion where we were watching the movie. I felt like maybe I should just go across the park to the Universe of Energy where I could hear about how great fossil fuels are instead.

While all this was going on, I was making regular calls to Dave to see how things were going with Ari. I think it was while we were waiting on Circle of Life that he told me they'd decided to take a trip to a nearby urgent care place. A stomach ache isn't something we'd normally rush to the doctor for, but we're not normally at Disney World.

But now it was lunch time! And Sunshine Seasons was right there! So we went there, and I will talk about that in my dining review. Up next!

 

[nadira36]

Chapter 11: Sunday, 9/17 Part 1: Epcot

I don't drive at Disney.


First up Living With the Land. I really love Living With Land. It's kind of boring, but I find it comforting somehow.

I don't drive at Disney either - but we fly into MCO (there's no way I'll drive from central Alberta to Florida with 3 small children that don't enjoy the car!) Maybe it's because I grew up in FL, or maybe it's the number of times I've been, but driving at Disney just seems so relaxing to me - compared to anywhere else I've driven. But I'm perfectly happy to let Disney do the driving while we're there. I like to snooze on the bus ride - or at least not pay attention.

There is something about the land that's calming. I've always loved that ride. And so far the girls love it too.

You certainly have me hanging on my seat about Ari!

 

[kokotg]

I don't drive at Disney either - but we fly into MCO (there's no way I'll drive from central Alberta to Florida with 3 small children that don't enjoy the car!) Maybe it's because I grew up in FL, or maybe it's the number of times I've been, but driving at Disney just seems so relaxing to me - compared to anywhere else I've driven. But I'm perfectly happy to let Disney do the driving while we're there. I like to snooze on the bus ride - or at least not pay attention.

There is something about the land that's calming. I've always loved that ride. And so far the girls love it too.

You certainly have me hanging on my seat about Ari!

Mostly I just hate driving anywhere I'm not familiar with; I get really stressed out about taking wrong turns and that sort of thing, and I don't want to be stressed out on vacation! I never have any clue where we are when DH is driving; after all these trips, my sense of WDW geography is still absolutely terrible. It turned out to be very lucky I didn't drive that day, though, or DH would have had to take a cab to urgent care.

 

[kokotg]

Chapter 12: Sunday, 9/17 part 2: Sunshine Seasons

We've eaten at Sunshine Seasons several times before, but I think every other time I've taken the kids over to find seats while Dave ordered. I find all the different stations a little bit intimidating. But I faced my fears and waded in!

This is another place where I knew there were things we could eat on the regular menu, so I didn't ask for a manager. Somehow I never realized you could get a pork chop at Sunshine Seasons! I don't know if it's fairly new, or if I just always overlooked it before. But, at any rate, I was excited to try something different from the rotisserie chicken. The kids both got chicken drumsticks and mashed potatoes. Gus picked carrot sticks as his other side, and Milo picked apple sauce. I didn't realize until a later visit that the gluten-free desserts are sitting in one of the displays; I assumed a manager would need to bring them out, so I just didn't get any (the kids meals aren't supposed to come with dessert anyway, but I think you can sub dessert for one of the sides). The CM at the register really didn't want to let me leave without getting everything I was entitled to, though, so I finally grabbed a bag of chips for the kids to snack on later to make him happy. One thing about Sunshine Seasons that made the kids a little sad was that Power Ade was a drink option for the grown-up meals, but not the kid meals.

Disclaimer: my gluten-free app actually doesn't list the mashed potatoes as gluten-free at Sunshine Seasons. But I had read elsewhere that they are, so I went ahead and got them. IME, mashed potatoes are nearly always gluten free, though I'm sure there are places that manage to get gluten into them somehow.

We all really enjoyed this meal. The pork chop was a nice change from chicken...it was a little dry (it's supposed to come with barbecue sauce, but I didn't get that) and kind of awkward to cut with a plastic knife, but I still really liked it. It was also huge!

Next up: More Epcot! And the (not so) exciting conclusion to Ari's urgent care saga

 

[Anya22]

I am so glad I stumbled on your trip report. I am enjoying it thoroughly, especially all the detail about the GF dining. I can't wait to try babycakes and I will definitely get a cinnamon roll based on your review! It will be so nice to order something allergy-free at a bakery! Can't wait to read the rest of your report.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Oh no on Ari still not feeling better and from the ending of your latest post it looks like things are about to take a turn for the worse - I sure hope that is not the case.

I love your pics of Pop and seeing things that we never got to see during this trip.

I love Epcot and wish I was still wondering around WS! Living with the land sure is a nice comforting ride. We skipped Circle of life so it was nice to read a review of this attraction.

Sunshine Seasons...mmmmm ! My favourite CS meal hands down! That's a shame about the Power Ade not being a drink option for kids.