Jazz Hands & Pixiedust..go together like PB&J! Oct 2013 TR, 8/30/14 Update SOON

[DMGeurts]

I know I am a bit early - but I wanted to stop by to wish you and your family...

D~

 

[Chicago Mo]

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Where are you, friend??? You have gone MIA on us! Do we need to start a game to entertain ourselves???

Where's Pixie???

 

[sweetpeaandevie]

soooooooo, I have slowly been catching up on my threads since I "fell off" the boards for awhile. I come here today and find out that this is probably the ONLY one I could've kept up with

Well, now I wait for room photos with everyone else!!!

 

[Pixiedust530]

Where are you, friend??? You have gone MIA on us! Do we need to start a game to entertain ourselves???

Where's Pixie???

soooooooo, I have slowly been catching up on my threads since I "fell off" the boards for awhile. I come here today and find out that this is probably the ONLY one I could've kept up with

Well, now I wait for room photos with everyone else!!!

I am SO SO SO SO sorry everyone! I did go MIA...and like you Sweetpea I just fell off the face of the Earth for a while. I wish I could say it was because of some life altering, Earth shattering event, but the reality is that I just got swept up in everyday life. First it was the Holidays, then it was all these STUPID STUPID Snow Days! I am so over winter people! Seriously! I will say that I have missed all of my DIS friends dearly. Thanks for dropping by even in my absence.

Anyway, if any of you are still reading along I do plan to finish up this TR! I know I left off on Day 1, which is pretty lame. Hope to catch up very very soon. Please drop me a line, say hello, or just do a quick drive-by. I am still alive.

BTW...I leave for WDW for my Girls Trip in 8 days! YEP...it's just around the corner.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

SHE LIVES...SHE LIVES!!!!!

Welcome back!!! OMGoodness...you had better finish this TR so that you can do a girl's trip TR too!!!

 

[sweetpeaandevie]

We're still here!! And we will be back whenever you get the chance to update, I have learned that about all these great people on the dis.....some are on every day, some every once in awhile.....but they are always around when you need them!!!!!

 

[Chicago Mo]

​

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh i have been following you on facebook... you cannot escape!

just ask Lois.. I am an amazing stalker!!!

Little does she know i am stalking her in Disney..
I WISH!!!! instead of this maddening weather!

 

[Pixiedust530]

OK...so when I left off (over 2 moths ago) we had just left Magic Kingdom and walked back to Bay Lake Tower to get settled in our room. I was really anxious to see our room and check out our view!

We walked in the room and this was waiting for us on the bed.


I was so excited to just be in our room and in Disney that I TOTALLY forgot to take more room pictures until the last day. I did take pictures of our view from the balcony though. I won't make you suffer til the end of my TR to see the room pics, however...please forgive the mess you see in the room!

The bathroom (shower to the left, sink to the right)




The "kitchenette alcove" (Sink, mini-fridge, microwave on right, small counter to the left)




The actual room (TV, dresser, small table to the right. Bed and loveseat to the left)




Some of the room artwork (very modern and just my style)






And lastly, but DEFINITELY not least, the view from our balcony!
Straight ahead - Bay Lake View (and some tennis courts)


To the Far Right - Bay Lake View


To the Far Left - A view of Magic Kingdom


Zoomed in:




I was so super pleased with our room and our view! Even though I couldn't see MK or the castle from the bed and I didn't spend a terribale amount of time on the balcony during our trip, it was just the PERFECT amount of magic to start our trip off. This is where the Pixiedust began!

Once we were settle in the room I had Bell Services bring up our carry-on luggage and shortly after that they also arrived with our checked luggage from the airport. Wayne and I freshened up (it was pretty hot while we were at MK and we were both a little sweaty - EWWWW), and got ready for our evening plans. On the agenda for the evening was dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge.

We headed down to the boat dock at the Contemporary and a boat was waiting and ready to depart for Wilderness Lodge. Yey for transportation Pixiedust! We hopped on and we were on our way!











We were pretty early (about 45 minutes) for our ADR, but I went ahead and checked in anyway. We were seated about 15 minutes later. They took us back to a nice little 2 person table in the back right in front of a fireplace. It wasn't lit (way too warm for that), but it was kind of romantic and we enjoyed it very much. Here's a shot of the fireplace grate.



Before long our dinner arrived and OMG was it A LOT of food! But...it was all VERY YUMMY FOOD! We had salad first (which I forgot to take a picture of) and it was really good. After the salad, our first All-You-Can-Eat Family Style Platter came out.


This first platter had (from left to right): Garlic Smashed Potatoes, Corn on the Cob, Skillet Grilled Veggies, Roasted Chicken, Kansas City Style Smoked Pork Ribs, Barbecue Pulled Pork, and Cowboy-Style Baked Beans. The pulled pork and the ribs were my favorite meats. We ordered more of those. the skillet veggies were to die for...OMG SO GOOD! The mashed potatoes were pretty good as well. I didn't really care for the baked beans. The corn on the cob was okay, but I'm not a huge corn on the cob fan so I might not be the best person to review that item. We were also served corn bread with the meal. It was some the the best corn bread I have ever had. In addition to ordering more pulled pork and ribs, we also tried the Citrus-crusted fish.



I don't remember what type of fish it was (maybe Tilapia) but it was VERY VERY delicious. I'm just sorry I was already so full when it arrived. I have no idea if we had dessert. If it was included then we probably tried it, but if not I KNOW we did not order any. We were so stuffed it was uncomfortable! However, I would definitely go back here for a meal and would highly recommend it to others!


Continued in next post due to image limitations....

 

[Pixiedust530]

...continued from previous post!


After dinner, we hopped back on the boat and returned to Bay Lake Tower.



We had planned to go for a night swim, relax in the hot tub or maybe even try to go up to the Top of the World Lounge, but we were SOOOOO stuffed and pretty exhausted so instead we decided to wrap up our first night in Disney. And what better way to wrap up a magical first day....with Hallowishes Fireworks from the balcony of your room of course!











Our first day in Disney was truly magical and we were both so excited for what the next several days had in store!

Up next: A day at EPCOT

 

[sweetpeaandevie]

Yeah!!! Back with an update!!!!

The view from your room is great! Even if it's to the side, who doesn't like a view of the castle from the balcony!!!!!!

What, no ketchup

 

[Chicago Mo]

OH my... the view is simply BEAUTIFUL!!! I would KILL for that!!!!

can you tell me again what room you had?

 

[Pixiedust530]

Yeah!!! Back with an update!!!!

The view from your room is great! Even if it's to the side, who doesn't like a view of the castle from the balcony!!!!!!

What, no ketchup

We loved our view...but to be perfectly honest, we spent so little time in our room that we really only took advantage of it the first night.

OH my... the view is simply BEAUTIFUL!!! I would KILL for that!!!!

can you tell me again what room you had?

I can't remember the specific room number...I thought I took a picture but I guess not . I requested North side, even numbered room. The even number rooms are all on the "outside" of the horseshoe (shape of the hotel). The odd number rooms are all on the "inside". We were on the 11th floor and our room number ended in 08. You would think that would mean our room number was 1108, but that would make way too much sense. It's something silly like 8208...I can't remember exactly.

 

[Pixiedust530]

Time for another update. Sorry for my disappearance again. I was back at the World from Feb. 13-17, had a 7th birthday party to throw for Caden on the 22nd, and then I spent the last couple weeks doing laundry, cleaning, catching up, etc. Damn...life sure flies by.

OK, so it only took me 2 months to update through Day 1 of our trip. Let's see if I can get it together and get things moving a little faster around here.

The next morning we were up pretty early. So early that I was able to get this picture of the sunrise over Bay Lake.



We ate breakfast in the room, bagels and cream cheese I think, and then walked across the SkyBridge to the Contemporary to catch the monorail. As soon as we walked up to the loading area a monorail pulled in. More transportation pixiedust. It was like they were operating on OUR schedule. It was a super short ride to the TTC and we disembarked to catch our monorail to EPCOT. Within a couple minutes this beauty pulled in.





Riding into EPCOT on the monorail was a first for me. Or at least a first since I was a kid. It really is a neat way to see the park, especially when it isn't open yet. I managed to snap a few pics while riding in.






That last one was taken from the monorail station before walking down the ramp to the front gates.

When we arrived at EP it was still early (maybe 8:30 with a 9:00 park opening). As you can see, there were very few people there yet.



We grabbed a spot at an empty Mickey Magic band scanner and we were FIRST in line. Pretty neat feeling to be one of the first 20 or so people to enter the park.














See all those people in front of us? Yeah...that's how many people entered ahead of us!







As you can see...we headed straight to Soarin' and there was pretty much only 2 or 4 people in front of us. It was really cool to be so close to the "front". Soarin' was amazing as usual. Afterwards, it was time to head over to my other EPCOT favorite - Test Track!

We designed our car and headed in for testing:









Update continued in next post due to image restrictions…

 

[Pixiedust530]

...continued from previous post.


Next, we headed back over to The Land to check out something new for us...Living with the Land. On our way, we decided to pop in and visit some characters.















I wish there was a picture to show it, but I had such a fun interaction with Minnie Mouse. My nails were painted with red tips with white polka dots and Minnie just loved them. She was signaling to her handler to look at my nails and then pointing to her dress. It was super fun. Once we wrapped up with the characters we headed on over to ride Living with the Land.





LWTL is nice and relaxing, but probably not something I will do every time I visit. After that we were ready to head to the World Showcase to enjoy some Food and Wine treats. Unfortunately, the skies were getting more and more cloudy and it was breezy too. Was rain moving in, or would it hold out on us? Keep reading to find out.



We decided to begin our Food & Wine Adventure on the right and make our way counter-clockwise around the World Showcase. The first booth we stopped at was Greece. We tried 2 things here:


Chicken Gyro with Tzatziki Sauce - $3.50
I thought this was pretty good. As you can see, the ratio of "filling" to "bread" was small, so it was a little dry. More filling and/or ore Tzatziki sauc ewould have made this better.

We also tried the Griddled Greek Cheese with Pistachios and Honey - $3.50. It was sooooooo good that I forgot to take a picture until after it had already been devoured. Seriously...I loved this! Wayne liked it too, but he said it had too much honey.

Next up was Canada.


“Le Cellier” Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon with Truffle Butter Sauce - $7.00
I have never dined at Le Cellier so I had to see what all the fuss was about. The filet was pretty tasty, but I'm not sure it was worth the $7.00 price tag Wayne didn't care for the truffle butter sauce...he prefers his red meat plain! I'm still not sure if we would try Le Cellier.

After Canada, we wandered on over to the Ireland booth.


Kerrygold Cheese Selection: Reserve Cheddar, Dubliner with Irish Stout, Skellig - $3.75
The cheese selection was simply delicious!!! All 3 cheeses were wonderful. I could have gotten 3 more orders of the cheese but we still had lots more to taste. Wayne enjoyed all 3 cheeses as well, although I didn't share very much! We both felt like with this one you got a lot for the price.


Warm Chocolate Pudding with Bailey’s® Custard - $3.50
Mmmmmmmmm. How can you go wrong with chocolate and Bailey's? This was very good, but WAY TOO SMALL! Almost impossible to share...but we did!

I'm pretty sure that Wayne also got a Guinness here, but I must have forgotten to take a picture. Upon leaving Ireland, it was on to Belgium.


Belgian Waffle with Warm Chocolate Ganache and Whipped Cream – $3.25
After the chocolate in Ireland I was feeling like more sweet stuff was in order. The waffle was very very good. I could have had another it was so good. YUM

We quickly left Belgium...the skies were NOT looking very promising...and we weren't even halfway around the World Showcase! We left Belgium and headed straight to Morocco for a repeat of one of my F&WF favorites from 2011.


Baklava - $2.95
There really just aren't words to describe the Baklava. I loved it in 2011 and it was just as good this time around. Wayne said he didn't want any more sweets so I got to finish it all myself!

After I devoured my Baklava we made a quick dash over to Japan for some sushi.


Spicy Hand Roll - $4.95
The roll was good, but I let Wayne have most of it. I think after all the sweets I had it just wasn't what I wanted at that point.

As we were finishing the sushi roll it began to sprinkle. One quick look at the radar on my weather app told me we didn't have much time before we would be drenched. We ducked under the awning outside the store in Japan and grabbed a place to sit. No sooner than we settled in, the skies opened up. Now, on a normal day at disney we would throw on our ponchos and just keep going. However, without shelter enjoying the Food and Wine Booths wasn't really an option in the rain unless we wanted soggy food. Instead we took the time to relax.



After about 20 minutes, we decided to give up our seats and head into the Japan store. I had talked about wanting to do the Pick-A-Pearl, so I guess it worked out well that we got "stuck" in Japan.











The pick-a-pearl was pretty neat. I ended up with a 7 3/4mm pearl. I decided not to buy a setting there in Japan, and instead brought it home. I still haven't gotten a setting for it yet. Once we finished with the pearl picking, the rain had slowed to a light sprinkle and we decided to head on out to enjoy some more F&WF samplings.


I have already filled up 2 posts. I will stop here for now, and continue on with our F&WF samplings and the rest of our day later. Not to mention I am getting super hungry as I post all these pictures.

 

[Chicago Mo]

FANTASTIC PICTURES!!!!!
I would love to get the epcot WITH NO PEOPLE!!! how awesome! and walk in Soarin! Then test track?

You have this down pat with the rain that's fantastic!! where is the picture of the pearl???

You guys are adorable with Mickey too.. No pictures with Minnie?

 

[sweetpeaandevie]

YUM!!!! I am so excited about F&W!!!! You're making me hungry!

Well, I guess you are forgiven for making us wait......are we getting another TR for the feb trip? was that the one with the girls?

Happy belated birthday Caden!!!!!

 

[RGirl]

Glad to see you back!

Your view from BLT was fantastic - how awesome to be able to see the fireworks so well.

Loving the F&W goodies!

 

[jewels1916]

Hi! Just found your report and decided to start following along! Loving all the trip reports to help pass the time until my next trip!

Courtney

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Oooops! I missed a ton of posts, because I gave up and bailed on the subscription to your TR too soon. SO SORRY!!! I am so glad you are back on the Disboards now!

What an amazing view from your room!!!! And watching Wishes from your balcony on your first night?

That food at Whispering Canyon does look so yummy!!! We love the cornbread recipe from there. We make it at home pretty often. Here's a link to the recipe if you want to have a little bit of magic in your own kitchen:

http://allears.net/din/recipes/rec_crbrdwc.htm

We LOVED the F&W Festival!!! We ate so much delicious food there! We started on the Mexico side, so our selections were different since we were STUFFED by the time we made it to the other side...but we DID save room for Canada!