Life’s too short...to never sleep in a treehouse! 8/27 TR is up! Link in siggie

[englishrose47]

Now the Ferris wheel is

Soarin is my Fav at WDW!!!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Oh, what a bummer about TSM -- hope you were able to get it in later in the day.

Oh, I would have been right there with Eric whimpering with that car swinging out!

Soarin's queue at Epcot is totally different -- I have to say that judging by your pictures, the California queue is better. I like all the old photos.

Evan in the aviator glasses is very funny!

Have a great Fourth of July!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Cool Ferris Wheel!! Though it would probably freak me out too... sounds like something I would try at Disney, but not a state fair... I'd be afraid it would fall apart.

Sorry about TSM... hope you made it later in the day.

 

[eandesmom]

Now the Ferris wheel is

Soarin is my Fav at WDW!!!!

I was freaked out. And trying not to be so Eric wouldn't lose it!

Oh, what a bummer about TSM -- hope you were able to get it in later in the day.

You'll have to wait and see! We were a bit stunned. Deers in the headlights even.

Oh, I would have been right there with Eric whimpering with that car swinging out!

I was wimpering but trying to hide it so we could avoid a full scale Eric freak out.

Which isn't pretty

Soarin's queue at Epcot is totally different -- I have to say that judging by your pictures, the California queue is better. I like all the old photos.

The queue was SO cool! I remember the FL one as totally different but it was so late at night when we went I'm not sure if I was delirious or not. Fascinating trivia. Honestly we could have just stood around and read for a while, it's like it's own little museum. In WDW it seemed more about just soaring over CA. In CA it was ALL about aviation history so really resonated with my crew. The ride itself is set inside a big hangar.

Evan in the aviator glasses is very funny!
Have a great Fourth of July!

They had a great aviation themed shop right outside. Well, half aviation and half Cars. Truly surprised we didn't end up with anything. Evan finally got to go up flying with Jeff yesterday, they've been trying and trying and the weather has not cooperated.

Apparently they buzzed the house.

Cool Ferris Wheel!! Though it would probably freak me out too... sounds like something I would try at Disney, but not a state fair... I'd be afraid it would fall apart.

you are so right, I wouldn't go on that thing in a million years if it wasn't at Disney. Although to be fair, it looks fairly innocuous until you are up there!

Or I am a wimp. Which is entirely possible!

Sorry about TSM... hope you made it later in the day.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

 

[creativeamanda]

I think I like the Soarin' queue in CA better. To me, the one in Florida is the one queue really lacking and it's a shame.

 

[eandesmom]

I think I like the Soarin' queue in CA better. To me, the one in Florida is the one queue really lacking and it's a shame.

I don't remember as being anything super cool (in FL) that's for sure. Which is a shame as you are in that line for a LONG time if you don't have a FP!

 

[MEK]

Another great update. I would probably be freaked out by those cars on the ferris wheel, too.

I cant believe that TSM was down. That's a bummer.

I really like the queue for Soarin - way better than Florida. It's really cool.

I really am enjoying your tour through the park - very fun!

 

[eandesmom]

Another great update. I would probably be freaked out by those cars on the ferris wheel, too.

I cant believe that TSM was down. That's a bummer.

I really like the queue for Soarin - way better than Florida. It's really cool.

I really am enjoying your tour through the park - very fun!

It was a huge bummer, and you know the scary thing? I JUST realized that TSM goes down on 8/16, right in the middle of our trip for the rest of our trip! So I'm reworking our touring plan around that.

 

[Flossbolna]

Before my visit at DCA I had read about this wheel and I knew that I would panick on it! I already find normal ferris wheels difficult.

Grizzly River Runs was my absolutely favourite ride in DCA - well perhaps Soaring was even better, but it might have been a tie. I think it is sooo much better than Kali River!

 

[All7OfUs]

WOW! That ferris wheel sounds like it ROCKS!! (no pun intended!) How cool that it actually provides a thrill!!

I'm totally bummed for you about TSM, but have a feeling you'll get on it before you leave yet.

I think the goggles were cool- enough for a picture, at least.

 

[Angies1274]

Loving your DCA updates!! Aww...sorry that TSM was down. Hopefully you are able to ride later!! Glad you got to ride Soarin'!! One of my favorites at WDW!

Mickey's Fun Wheel! I know I would have been freaking out! I usually try to avoid the ferris wheel. I'm glad that you and Eric were able to enjoy it after a while. It looks like he did rebound nicely...cute pic!

 

[eandesmom]

Before my visit at DCA I had read about this wheel and I knew that I would panick on it! I already find normal ferris wheels difficult.

It was freaky, no doubt. Jeff didn't find it so and Evan hid it well but at first it was like

Grizzly River Runs was my absolutely favourite ride in DCA - well perhaps Soaring was even better, but it might have been a tie. I think it is sooo much better than Kali River!

It's SO pretty! I just love the theming around it, the one at Knott's reminded me a lot of it and we absolutely loved that one.

WOW! That ferris wheel sounds like it ROCKS!! (no pun intended!) How cool that it actually provides a thrill!!

The view was AMAZING, so glad we went up and got a sneak peek at Radiator Springs!

I'm totally bummed for you about TSM, but have a feeling you'll get on it before you leave yet.

We will see

I think the goggles were cool- enough for a picture, at least.

I always wonder, who buys those? I mean they weren't cheap!

Loving your DCA updates!! Aww...sorry that TSM was down. Hopefully you are able to ride later!! Glad you got to ride Soarin'!! One of my favorites at WDW!

You know the nice thing was, because we knew we'd be in FL in just a few months we didn't have pressure to go on certain things or go on favorites more than once and so it made for a very low key touring day which was just relaxed and fun and kind of go wherever on a whim. It was really nice! LOVE Soarin'!

Mickey's Fun Wheel! I know I would have been freaking out! I usually try to avoid the ferris wheel. I'm glad that you and Eric were able to enjoy it after a while. It looks like he did rebound nicely...cute pic!

He did rebound quite well, if you can stave off the meltdown and get him off the ledge then he can turn it around and be in the moment.

 

[eandesmom]

Visions of F&W danced in my head as we made our way towards what seemed to be the “main” part of the Food and Wine Festival.

We had stumbled, completely by accident, upon WDW F&W back in 2004, not realizing what a gift that was, until after the fact. What sticks in my mind about it was an amazing New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and the ability to get cool kid sized portions of all kinds of things from a vast array of cuisines. We literally ate dinner at the WS, from the F&W kiosks 5 out of 8 nights on that trip. It was brilliant!

Now, knowing SO much more about what F&W has to offer, we have been salivating at the chance to get back. It hasn’t panned out, despite MANY efforts but it’s just a matter of time. This trip was already booked when we realized our timing, we’d get to see F&W Cali Style!

I’d done my homework and well, frankly, it was a bit discouraging. It sounded pretty sporadic and lame.

As we’d done our TSM sprint I cast a hopefull eyes at the kiosks. They looked promising! Now that we were ready to actually explore I could only hope that they fulfilled.

I’ll be blunt.

They did not.

F&W in cali is a vastly different affair. It consists of wine tasting kiosks, beer tasting kiosks and some food “specials” spread amongst the various CS menus. The kiosks are tasting menu based. You buy a bracelet or passport and you can have 4 small tastings out of the 12 or so offerings. It is based by region, varietal or even country. It was not all California wines. There was also a beer kiosk.

Which could be fun. If you weren’t there with kids. Like what are they supposed to do? Stand there while you sip 4 different wines? Inside the kiosk with nothing to do?

Jeff was having none of that. In fact, he got downright cranky about it.

Upon a few queries we determined that heading to the F&W mainstage we could, in fact, just get a glass of wine without the tasting menu and toruring our children. So we headed there.
DCA, again for those who’ve not been there, is supposed to be all about celebrating California. The entire state. So areas are dedicated to specific parts of the state. The mainstage was back towards Buena Vista Boulevard, aka old style Hollywood.

We checked out the F&W menus as we walked at places like this

We enjoyed the streetmoshpere with these guys, immensely

Interestingly enough, the real sky almost matched the fake one!

Calling my name was this

The animation studio! Having never done it at WDW, I really wanted to check it out. Everybody was up for it and redirecting the group seemed to take the edge off of Jeff's F&W let down crabbiness.

The marquee was compelling

So we went to check it out, get the scoop if you will.

I thought of LL

We checked out this gyroscope flip book type thingy (there is a real name for it but I’m too lazy to look it up) and watched Goofy dance

So much cool animation related stuff!

We decided to head here

And of course, we had to see who we were most like as we read the story and interacted with the book in the Beasts Library.

Cogsworth had an opinion (not that I recall what it was)

The book needed a picture first

It had some good questions, wanting to know a little bit about us

Who is this?

I’m guessing this was Eric’s result.

Continued in next post

 

[All7OfUs]

Drat, another bedtime post.... back tom. to really read it!!

Good night!

 

[eandesmom]

Wandering out of the library, we found ourselves face to face with

Who had us make a choice

What did we pick?

This was a riot. You could act out a part, in this case it was from the Lion King and they’d super impose your voice over the character. Tough as Evan might want to be…he’s no Scar. Not much better when they sang. Think Karaoke Disney style.

Then we saw this. The Toy Story Zoetrope. I truly can’t explain it well

According to a Pixar press release, the zoetrope is a "kinetic installation... an early cinema device that created the optical illusion of static images in motion. The 7' (high) x 12' (diameter) zoetrope, which is cycled to synchronize with the artscape installation, features characters from both Toy Story films and uses a series of strobe lights to make the Toy Story characters Buzz, Woody, Wheezy, and others revolve around a central spindle, out of which hordes of toy soldiers parachute down."
And from a Disney press release: "Originally created for the '20 Years of Pixar Production Art Show' at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Zoetrope creates the illusion of movement by presenting a rapidly changing sequence of images - actual three-dimensional models - of characters from both Toy Story films: Woody, Buzz Lightyear, cowgirl Jessie, horse Bullseye and even the little green Aliens. The figures are mounted on a spinning disk and lit with a strobe which creates a sense of continuous motion, as if the characters have actually come to life before your eyes."
​

Yes, it’s a blurry picture. Maybe video would have worked, I don’t know. What I do know is this. We must have spent at least 10 minutes watching it, it was amazing!

Having “done” the main areas we realized our timing was a little bit off for the actual animation, or turtle talk and elected to forge on, and then come back.

A street shot.

Some Food and Wine temptations

Finally we arrived at the mainstage. Folks were lined up for the next seminar but we had our eyes on this place

Sadly, truthfully, we were underwhelmed. Both in the selection of food, beer and wine and the general effort and atmosphere. It was, honestly, one of the few times on this trip I compared and found things lacking. Different in their own ways many times, (even most of the time) but not necessarily lacking.

This was…

a bummer.

We did purchase a lovely glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Even the selections were disappointing, mostly mainstream and limited, nothing that grabbed us as new and fun to try. We checked out the F&W merchandise. We listened to the Bartender explain the art of pouring a Stella perfectly but overall it was…

Meh.

Had we been without kids, it probably still would have been….meh. We might have enjoyed the Italy kiosk but not enough to make it “wow”. We felt like we “had” to drink our wine in the little bar area before leaving. I don’t know if that’s true but it sure felt that way. It was a glass, I mean, really, what would we do with it anyway if we walked outside the area? Still, there were ropes, implying STAY HERE!

So sad.

We drank our glass, feeling rushed, and like the kids were bored out of their minds and we were chugging something that shouldn’t be chugged, we headed out.

So, where did we go?

A Honey of a must do

 

[eandesmom]

Drat, another bedtime post.... back tom. to really read it!!

Good night!

lol! See you in the morning!

 

[Flossbolna]

Oh, I want to see that Zoetrop!!!

I guess the animation academy is on your list for WDW now?

Sorry that the festival wasn't as you had hoped it would be...

 

[eandesmom]

Oh, I want to see that Zoetrop!!!

I guess the animation academy is on your list for WDW now?

Sorry that the festival wasn't as you had hoped it would be...

It was mesmerizing, literally! I didn't realize what the animation academy was when we were there last Feb, still a DIS newbie so it really wasn't on my radar. But yes, it is absolutely on the list! There are some YouTube videos out there of it but I didn't look hard enough to find a decent one.

I think the festival was only such a disappointment as I had F&W to compare it to and it just fell so far short it wasn't even funny. If you hadn't have been to F&W it probably would have seemed cool. Part of it too is that Jeff is pretty anti wine tasting in a true tasting room scenario. Which is exactly how this was set up. He didn't want to make the kids stand around while we tasted. Nor does he like that format, it feels pretentious to him.

Which is pretty silly since he's never actually BEEN to Napa, or even eastern WA to try it, it's pretty darn fun at times (and stuffy at others to be fair). But his stress and almost anger about it killed that idea before it even started. That part was a bit unexpected, his reaction, and I think colored the whole thing. If we'd have been there with a larger group, I'd have gone off with my sister, or my MIL or whoever to taste and everyone would have been perfectly happy!

I think for me (who does love a good tasting room, I used to sell wine for a living) it was kind of like looking at a candy store I wasn't allowed to go into! It made me equally crabby but for different reasons.

 

[Flossbolna]

I think the festival was only such a disappointment as I had F&W to compare it to and it just fell so far short it wasn't even funny. If you hadn't have been to F&W it probably would have seemed cool. Part of it too is that Jeff is pretty anti wine tasting in a true tasting room scenario. Which is exactly how this was set up. He didn't want to make the kids stand around while we tasted. Nor does he like that format, it feels pretentious to him.

Which is pretty silly since he's never actually BEEN to Napa, or even eastern WA to try it, it's pretty darn fun at times (and stuffy at others to be fair). But his stress and almost anger about it killed that idea before it even started. That part was a bit unexpected, his reaction, and I think colored the whole thing. If we'd have been there with a larger group, I'd have gone off with my sister, or my MIL or whoever to taste and everyone would have been perfectly happy!

I think for me (who does love a good tasting room, I used to sell wine for a living) it was kind of like looking at a candy store I wasn't allowed to go into! It made me equally crabby but for different reasons.

I wonder wether I might actually have enjoyed it more than you - were they showcasing California there? That would really get me interested. The WDW F&WF does not have that much appeal to me since a lot of the foods sold there are easily available here anyway. I saw it once in 2004 and thought it was fun, but even though I really like food, it wasn't the most spectacular thing for me. I guess a lot might depend on company and mood - just as it did for you with the DCA festival. However, it might look like sometime I will end up in WDW during the festival time there...

 

[eandesmom]

I wonder wether I might actually have enjoyed it more than you - were they showcasing California there? That would really get me interested. The WDW F&WF does not have that much appeal to me since a lot of the foods sold there are easily available here anyway. I saw it once in 2004 and thought it was fun, but even though I really like food, it wasn't the most spectacular thing for me. I guess a lot might depend on company and mood - just as it did for you with the DCA festival. However, it might look like sometime I will end up in WDW during the festival time there...

On the food side I'd say they were showcasing California, which to us is stuff we see everyday so not super exciting. On the wine and beer side it wasn't just California which kind of surprised me to be honest.

I am not sure it was the food itself we loved so much about WDW F&W, it was the ability to get little tastes of things and feed the kids some non kid menu items at a decent price! I can't say we ate anything that we couldn't find here but just loved the variety of options.

It also suited our moods, the layout just worked as it really was food and wine, together. At DCA the food and wine were separated and we just really weren't expecting that. The descriptions I'd read before the trip didn't indicate that at all.