NMAmy
Can speak food in German
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2000
- Messages
- 15,229
March 19 Continued
We settled our stuff into our spiffy new room and looked longingly at the beds. SOOO tired--MUST nap... But we knew that if we gave in to the temptation, wed sleep right through dinner. Since we had skipped lunch in our eagerness to arrive on Disney property (Food?? Who needs food??) I was starving. And we had some rockin dinner reservations at Sanaa. Our reservation was for 5:00 but it was 3:00 now and you know how long it takes to get to another resort on Disney transportation. Seriously. You all know how long it takes, right? An hour or more! At the very least, on a good day, with all the stars aligning just so, it takes at least an hour to get from resort to resort unless you're close enough to walk. Especially if youre running late. Apparently, though, if youre insanely early, that means the buses are fueled with pixie dust and you will arrive at your destination WAY before your reservation.
We walked over to the Pop bus stop
And within a couple of minutes, a pixie dust fueled bus magically appeared. We had the best bus driver EVER. A family got on the bus after us with a little boy and a little girl. He sauntered back and handed the boy a pirate bandana and the girl a little pin. He then walked back to the front of the bus and came back with a roll of stickers. Honestly, I wished Id gotten his name because this is a bus driver you want to be immortalized in a trip report. He had like a little store up at the front of the bus with all sorts of items for the good girls and boys. He was the Santa of Pop bus drivers, if you will. Perhaps he used flying reindeer instead of pixie dust to get the bus from one location to another.
The kids got their loot and then he strolled past me and noticed me eying the stickers. He kind of raised an eyebrow and tilted the stickers toward me inquiringly. To which I replied, Oh, ABSOLUTELY! He gave me a Mickey sticker and made me a very happy camper. I have simple tastes.
We were then off to the Animal Kingdom and had barely departed our Pop bus when the AKL bus arrived. Are you kidding me??? This NEVER happens. We arrived at Kidani at 3:30. Seriously. Half hour, start to finish of bus rides including a transfer and a bus driver handing out prizes.
We went into the lobby and found our way downstairs to Sanaa. No, I dont know how to pronounce it even though three people pronounced it for me and one nice lady told me the meaning of it which Ive now forgotten and apparently I didnt feel it was worthy of writing in my trip notes. My guess now would be Best Food EVER.
The lady at the check-in desk was very kind and told me that dinner service didnt start until 5:00 (our reservation time) but we could have appetizers in the bar. Alex loves Indian food and this reservation was for him and he wanted dinner, darn it. So, we waited. We sat in the lobby for awhile but I was so hungry, this was the only picture I took. Its a very small lobby but had a lot of people running around so we people watched for awhile.
When I was falling asleep on the comfy couch, we headed on down to the animal observation area to watch the animals eat THEIR dinner. They were so show offy about it.
The giraffes were the worst. I could hear them taunting me, "Mmm, Thomas, did you try this hay? It's FABULOUS!"
Caitlin called when we were outside and theyd made it to the airport and had checked in for their flight and gone through security. For once, the kid had no issues with air travel which was nice. Id talked her and Brittany into flying out on Friday night because they wouldnt have arrived until evening on Saturdaywasting an entire day. This had messed with Caitlins math class because Id forgotten that Lubbock, Texas (the airport they flew out on) is on Central time instead of Mountain time like New Mexico. Im a bad, bad mommy. Luckily, her teacher had another class earlier in the day that Cait attended instead.
I was so excited when we were finally paged to go in for dinner. I was ready to wrestle one of the giraffes for some hay at this point. The dinner seating is begun with a song and LOTS of drumming. Really loud drumming. Of course, thats when Caitlin called to tell me they were on the plane. I had to wander way down a hall almost out to the animal feeding area in order to hear her.
Our server was Simon. Yes, I remember his name. Why, you ask? Because I wrote it down in my notes. My notes also say that Simon and Alex bonded because they are both British expats and Simon was from Birmingham but had lost most of his accent. We talked a lot about Birmingham. Instead of ordering our meal, you know.
Simon interrupted Alex to ask if he could explain the menu and I jumped into the opening. PLEASE! We started with the bread service which was so fantastic that I practically wolfed it down. Three kinds of bread including naan. We got the chile, the hummus, and the mango chutney to go along with it. We had fun mixing the different combinations of toppings. My favorite was chile and hummus, just in case you were wondering.
I dont take pictures of food so youll just have to take my word for it that it looked as great as it tasted. For entrees, Alex got the combo with the short ribs and the chicken in red curry. He took a bite of the ribs and looked like hed died and gone to heaven. He made me try the ribs and I told him I really liked the flavor. Too noncommittal for him, apparently. Im not a beef fan. He told me, If that does not convert you to a beef lover right this second, then nothing ever will. He shook his head in disappointment at me.
I had the chicken in red curry and the prawns in green curry. I loved the chicken and was kind of ho hum about the prawns. They just werent as flavorful. I washed it all down with a couple of Tusker beers. I have a friend whose dd told me I had to try Tusker beer when I was at WDW. Shed had it in Kenya and it was her favorite beer ever. Of course, since she was only 19 at the time, it was the first beer shed ever purchased which I was concerned might have something to do with her assessment. It was very tasty, though. Apparently, tasty enough for me to have two.
Well be doing this meal every trip from now on. After we were done, Alex told me, It was so much more than Id expected. The food at WDW is pretty good most of the time but this was just exceptional. High praise, indeed.
Our bus mojo continuedas we arrived at the bus stop, the Epcot bus pulled up. Since we were in no rush (again), we hopped on that one to transfer there.
As we arrived at Epcot, I realized something strange. I had never, ever arrived at Epcot by bus. I had no idea they had a big sign over the road like that! We always go by monorail or through the International Gateway. So, I started out my first day by seeing something totally new!
Of course, our Pop bus arrived before wed barely gotten to the bus stop. I have to say that the day we didnt really have to be anywhere was, of course, the day we had the best luck with transportation! I love the Pop bus music. On the way back, I heard Chubby Checker singing The Twist and the Go-Gos singing Weve Got the Beat. SO much more fun than the boring Tower of Terror music and seagulls they play on the Boardwalk buses.
We were so tired by this point. We headed back to the room and read and watched tv until I heard that the girls had made their last flight. Here's a snippet of our conversation:
Me: Did you guys get something to eat in the airport? Because everything closes at midnight and there's nowhere to get you any food.
Caitlin: Mom, we've eaten like five times. We'll be fine.
Then I took a nap until they called me at 11:15 to ask about how to get to ME. I waited for them to call when theyd arrived but both of their phones were deadLuckily I called just as theyd found an outlet so I met them in the lobby. And guess what? They were starving.
We scored connecting rooms which I hadn't requested but it was handy. I went back to my room and got all my dollars and change and we found them a vending machine and loaded them up with snacks and then, finally, I was able to sleep.
We settled our stuff into our spiffy new room and looked longingly at the beds. SOOO tired--MUST nap... But we knew that if we gave in to the temptation, wed sleep right through dinner. Since we had skipped lunch in our eagerness to arrive on Disney property (Food?? Who needs food??) I was starving. And we had some rockin dinner reservations at Sanaa. Our reservation was for 5:00 but it was 3:00 now and you know how long it takes to get to another resort on Disney transportation. Seriously. You all know how long it takes, right? An hour or more! At the very least, on a good day, with all the stars aligning just so, it takes at least an hour to get from resort to resort unless you're close enough to walk. Especially if youre running late. Apparently, though, if youre insanely early, that means the buses are fueled with pixie dust and you will arrive at your destination WAY before your reservation.
We walked over to the Pop bus stop
And within a couple of minutes, a pixie dust fueled bus magically appeared. We had the best bus driver EVER. A family got on the bus after us with a little boy and a little girl. He sauntered back and handed the boy a pirate bandana and the girl a little pin. He then walked back to the front of the bus and came back with a roll of stickers. Honestly, I wished Id gotten his name because this is a bus driver you want to be immortalized in a trip report. He had like a little store up at the front of the bus with all sorts of items for the good girls and boys. He was the Santa of Pop bus drivers, if you will. Perhaps he used flying reindeer instead of pixie dust to get the bus from one location to another.
The kids got their loot and then he strolled past me and noticed me eying the stickers. He kind of raised an eyebrow and tilted the stickers toward me inquiringly. To which I replied, Oh, ABSOLUTELY! He gave me a Mickey sticker and made me a very happy camper. I have simple tastes.
We were then off to the Animal Kingdom and had barely departed our Pop bus when the AKL bus arrived. Are you kidding me??? This NEVER happens. We arrived at Kidani at 3:30. Seriously. Half hour, start to finish of bus rides including a transfer and a bus driver handing out prizes.
We went into the lobby and found our way downstairs to Sanaa. No, I dont know how to pronounce it even though three people pronounced it for me and one nice lady told me the meaning of it which Ive now forgotten and apparently I didnt feel it was worthy of writing in my trip notes. My guess now would be Best Food EVER.
The lady at the check-in desk was very kind and told me that dinner service didnt start until 5:00 (our reservation time) but we could have appetizers in the bar. Alex loves Indian food and this reservation was for him and he wanted dinner, darn it. So, we waited. We sat in the lobby for awhile but I was so hungry, this was the only picture I took. Its a very small lobby but had a lot of people running around so we people watched for awhile.
When I was falling asleep on the comfy couch, we headed on down to the animal observation area to watch the animals eat THEIR dinner. They were so show offy about it.
The giraffes were the worst. I could hear them taunting me, "Mmm, Thomas, did you try this hay? It's FABULOUS!"
Caitlin called when we were outside and theyd made it to the airport and had checked in for their flight and gone through security. For once, the kid had no issues with air travel which was nice. Id talked her and Brittany into flying out on Friday night because they wouldnt have arrived until evening on Saturdaywasting an entire day. This had messed with Caitlins math class because Id forgotten that Lubbock, Texas (the airport they flew out on) is on Central time instead of Mountain time like New Mexico. Im a bad, bad mommy. Luckily, her teacher had another class earlier in the day that Cait attended instead.
I was so excited when we were finally paged to go in for dinner. I was ready to wrestle one of the giraffes for some hay at this point. The dinner seating is begun with a song and LOTS of drumming. Really loud drumming. Of course, thats when Caitlin called to tell me they were on the plane. I had to wander way down a hall almost out to the animal feeding area in order to hear her.
Our server was Simon. Yes, I remember his name. Why, you ask? Because I wrote it down in my notes. My notes also say that Simon and Alex bonded because they are both British expats and Simon was from Birmingham but had lost most of his accent. We talked a lot about Birmingham. Instead of ordering our meal, you know.
Simon interrupted Alex to ask if he could explain the menu and I jumped into the opening. PLEASE! We started with the bread service which was so fantastic that I practically wolfed it down. Three kinds of bread including naan. We got the chile, the hummus, and the mango chutney to go along with it. We had fun mixing the different combinations of toppings. My favorite was chile and hummus, just in case you were wondering.
I dont take pictures of food so youll just have to take my word for it that it looked as great as it tasted. For entrees, Alex got the combo with the short ribs and the chicken in red curry. He took a bite of the ribs and looked like hed died and gone to heaven. He made me try the ribs and I told him I really liked the flavor. Too noncommittal for him, apparently. Im not a beef fan. He told me, If that does not convert you to a beef lover right this second, then nothing ever will. He shook his head in disappointment at me.
I had the chicken in red curry and the prawns in green curry. I loved the chicken and was kind of ho hum about the prawns. They just werent as flavorful. I washed it all down with a couple of Tusker beers. I have a friend whose dd told me I had to try Tusker beer when I was at WDW. Shed had it in Kenya and it was her favorite beer ever. Of course, since she was only 19 at the time, it was the first beer shed ever purchased which I was concerned might have something to do with her assessment. It was very tasty, though. Apparently, tasty enough for me to have two.
Well be doing this meal every trip from now on. After we were done, Alex told me, It was so much more than Id expected. The food at WDW is pretty good most of the time but this was just exceptional. High praise, indeed.
Our bus mojo continuedas we arrived at the bus stop, the Epcot bus pulled up. Since we were in no rush (again), we hopped on that one to transfer there.
As we arrived at Epcot, I realized something strange. I had never, ever arrived at Epcot by bus. I had no idea they had a big sign over the road like that! We always go by monorail or through the International Gateway. So, I started out my first day by seeing something totally new!
Of course, our Pop bus arrived before wed barely gotten to the bus stop. I have to say that the day we didnt really have to be anywhere was, of course, the day we had the best luck with transportation! I love the Pop bus music. On the way back, I heard Chubby Checker singing The Twist and the Go-Gos singing Weve Got the Beat. SO much more fun than the boring Tower of Terror music and seagulls they play on the Boardwalk buses.
We were so tired by this point. We headed back to the room and read and watched tv until I heard that the girls had made their last flight. Here's a snippet of our conversation:
Me: Did you guys get something to eat in the airport? Because everything closes at midnight and there's nowhere to get you any food.
Caitlin: Mom, we've eaten like five times. We'll be fine.
Then I took a nap until they called me at 11:15 to ask about how to get to ME. I waited for them to call when theyd arrived but both of their phones were deadLuckily I called just as theyd found an outlet so I met them in the lobby. And guess what? They were starving.
We scored connecting rooms which I hadn't requested but it was handy. I went back to my room and got all my dollars and change and we found them a vending machine and loaded them up with snacks and then, finally, I was able to sleep.
And they eat a lot.
It's not really as cool as Auntie's and Alex's stories, you know?
I'm so glad you're reading along! Thank you for the very kind compliments.
Maybe they'll notice, get worried and send us an offer.)
) were so beautiful but the mornings were so cool. It was irritating to try to figure out what to wear. We all usually wound up in shorts and a jacket. 
