No Longer coming to you Live from Disney World! Take 3 DDW'S TAMBU LOUNGE 8/6

[JintyB]

Did I really just use the word 'great' three times in one post? I sound like Tony the tiger!

 

[wilma-bride]

Did I really just use the word 'great' three times in one post? I sound like Tony the tiger!

Haha, here's betting that only the Brits on this thread get that

 

[smile4stamps]

Hunter and Paula Bar Crawl and Via Napoli lunch contributions!

Hunter and I (as was the trend this week!) woke up late and headed to Les Halles to meet up with everyone!

We arrived as Vicki, Barb, and Brenda were making there way out. We wanted to get something to eat though so we headed to take a look at what we could get.

Along with all the sweets served at the Bakery they also have a nice selection of savory items which is what we were after this morning.

Hunter had the Poulet au Pistou (chicken breast with cheese, tomato, red onion and pesto)

While I went with the Jambon Beurre (ham and cheese on a baguette)

Both sandwiches were good but Hunters was the winner! The Pesto added a great flavor!

After having some food in our tummies we headed out to join up for the rest for the bar crawl!!

Unfortunately what was to be our first stop wasn’t open yet so we headed to Italy and Tutto Gusto!

I went with the Sangria as I couldn’t decide on anything else to order!

Hunter went with a glass of wine and a shot of Sambucca (a licorice flavored liquor)

Then as a treat for the table we ordered two of the Grand platters

I couldn’t tell you everything that was on here but I know there was roasted eggplant, olives, artichokes, prosciotto, and salami.

This was fabulous but too much food for just a couple of us that decided to dig in!

Another view…

From this angle I spot some cheese and cappalini onions and still not sure on the rest!!



After visiting at Tutto Gusto we decided it was time to move to the next stop on out bar crawl… Back to France (yes.. It was NOT me who decided on this order as backtracking I try to avoid!! )

Here I ordered the Grand Marnier Slush with the shot of Grand Marnier! 2 drinks for the price of one! Since they charge less for the shot this way it allowed me to have the slushie and Hunter the shot!

A sideways look at the menu.

After enjoying our slushies it was BACK to Italy we went!

Lunch today was at one of my favorites! Via Napoli!!

Since I let Hunter pick the pizza in October this time it was my turn!!

Carciofi Pizza… artichoke, fontina, mozzarella, truffle oil

Absolutely delicious! I swear this is the best pizza I have ever had!!

We enjoyed this with some Sangria which I did not get a picture of as I knew some of the other ladies had!

Then it was time for dessert… I’ve only had one dessert here… I wasn’t about to change that now!

Zeppole!!

I (despite being SO VERY FULL) inhaled them all!

It was again a very satisfying Via Napoli lunch!!

From here it was on to our next and I belive final bar crawl spot… Yes.. We cannot pass by Germany without stoping for some shots!

(blurry! Sorry!)

One shot of Jaegermeister (for Hunter)

2 shots of Apfel (one each for Barb and I)

A collection of 4 shots! The fourth was the Barenjager for Hunter as well.

With the conclusion of those shots our bar crawl and lunch had come to an end!

I had made FP+ times for RnRC so I wanted to head over to DHS so as not to lose those!

It was a very fun afternoon but not really a bar crawl!! Maybe next time we will do better!

 

[wilma-bride]

I love Apfelkorn It is great for after a big meal, to aid digestion. It has to be super icy cold though so I hope it was.

Out of interest, what are the zeppole actually like? Are they bread-like (like a doughnut) or are they gooey inside?

 

[smile4stamps]

I love Apfelkorn It is great for after a big meal, to aid digestion. It has to be super icy cold though so I hope it was.

Out of interest, what are the zeppole actually like? Are they bread-like (like a doughnut) or are they gooey inside?

The liquor at that booth is definitely cold!! It came our one time with ice on the bottom of the bottle!

The zeppole are like a doughnut but are more moist on the inside! Delicious if you ask me!

 

[jabead]

Hi Paula! Welcome back!

And now that Paula is back with us, we will move on to our evening adventures. Following our Epcot Bar Crawl, I retrieved my camera from my room and went out to the boardwalk to wait for Brenda and Em, as we were going to walk together to DHS. While standing there waiting and enjoying the view, Rob (DisneyKid4Life) came walking along on his way to Hollywood Studios. So it ended up being the four of us, and then the five of us once we got to the park and met up again with Paula. We began our great evening together by checking in for a brief stay at the Hollywood Tower Hotel.




{This photo taken by DonaldDoleWhip for the live thread is one of my favorites so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use it again. }

Anyway, I have "stayed" at this hotel many, many times before but this time was just a tad bit different and yet, very much the same.


The five of us were seated in the back row of the elevator and I was at the end of our group, next to a nice lady and her adult daughter. As we prepared for take-off they asked me what the ride was like, as they had never been before and were a little scared. I tried to calm their nerves and told them there was no need to worry...it was not bad at all. This reminded me of the first time that I rode TOT, which was years ago when my son had reached the minimum height requirement and I no longer had an excuse to sit out. On our first ride, my son and I both started out nervous...much like the ladies who were sitting next to me. By the time the ride photo was taken though, my young son had his hands up in the air and a big goofy grin on his face while his mother kept both of her hands tightly gripped around the handles on each side of her seat.

So fast forward about 12 years and here I was, an experienced rider sitting next to a couple of TOT newbies. The ride begins and then it happens...the first big drop. The lady's initial response was to grab onto my arm, but she soon let go and seemed to relax and enjoy the rest of the ride. As for me, being grabbed by a stranger took me a little by surprise but really didn't bother me in the least.

Nope, I maintained my usual cool, calm and collected demeanor throughout the ride...



...and had my hands firmly gripped around the handles on each side of my seat. Ahhh yes, I guess some things never change.

So twelve years later my son (now 18) is begging me to lend him the money to go skydiving with his friends while they are in Florida for Spring Break later this month. Meanwhile, his mother can't even manage a hands-free ride on Tower of Tower. So I guess that apple has fallen quite far from this tree...and perhaps did a little damage to his brain when he hit the ground. SKYDIVING?!?!


Anyway, after being "Terror-ized" , we met up with Vicki and Hunter and made our way over to the other side of the park to see the awesome holiday light show known as...





Though I had known what to expect, as I had seen the Osborne Lights two or three times previously, they again managed to take my breath away.


A couple of pics of my favorite light displays...











And a couple of photos of some of my favorite DISers...









Millions of beautiful lights dancing to the beat of "Feliz Navidad" and other great holiday songs ... if that doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit, then I say, "Bah humbug, Scrooge!"



Now for Vicki, Brenda, and Paula's take on our visit to the Osborne Lights. Then next will be some reviews that will actually include some food, I promise. ​

 

[wilma-bride]

Haha, I had to laugh about your son's desire to go skydiving. Gary keeps trying to persuade me to do a tandem with him, after he did his first bungee jump last year. Not a hope! I love Tower of Terror though

I would love to see the Osborne lights one day. I can only imagine that photos don't do them justice.

 

[JintyB]

Great ToT photo - I too am a fan of the handles!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

This was my 3rd time seeing the Osbourne Lights and I was still in awe. Pictures, even videos just do not do the Lights justice. My little camera does not take the best night pictures but here are a couple of my favorites.

I was with Rob for quite a while and we both agreed that this Mickey head may be new ...





This one gives an idea of the huge crowd ...



And the soldiers are my favorite ...

 

[rachel09985]

This was my 3rd time seeing the Osbourne Lights and I was still in awe. Pictures, even videos just do not do the Lights justice. My little camera does not take the best night pictures but here are a couple of my favorites.

I was with Rob for quite a while and we both agreed that this Mickey head may be new ...

It has been there since 2010 I know that for sure It is a good one though!! Photos definitely do not do it justice, agree!

 

[emmysmommy]

Considering this was the first Christmas season trip to WDW for Em and me, it was also the first Osborne Lights experience for us. I'd seen photos of the lights and I thought it was definitely something worth seeing but until we were actually standing there with hundreds of people and watching it for ourselves.... I had no idea how truly spectacular it would be!

Barricades were erected to funnel people to the head of the Street of America and then we were free to proceed down the street at our leisure. The first scene that greeted us was a nativity scene.

And then we saw this....

Look at the crowds

Paula and Hunter

Em, Paula, Hunter, Barb, Brenda

Adding Vicki into the group photo

The lights dancing to the music was so cool. We loved this experience. We hung out on the street for quite a while. We enjoyed the lights so much that we made time in our schedule for another visit to the Streets of America for more lights!

​

 

[auntfrannie]

Such wonderfully entertaining reviews from everyone! It will be a sad day when the last meal is reviewed and this thread closes. Thanks so much for sharing your vacation meals with us!

 

[jabead]

Haha, I had to laugh about your son's desire to go skydiving. Gary keeps trying to persuade me to do a tandem with him, after he did his first bungee jump last year. Not a hope! I love Tower of Terror though

I totally blame my husband for our son's craziness, Joh. A few years ago he told me that he needed to buy another piece of "farm equipment" that would help him to survey his corn and bean fields. So I'm thinking an ATV???

This is what he came home with...





This is a power parachute, which doesn't look too dangerous sitting there on the ground, but...







My daughter Emily's comment when he first posted these photos on his Facebook, "Only my dad would be crazy enough to fly a go-cart attached to a giant fan, lol."


So I think maybe our husbands might get along well, right?? I'm going to try to convince him to join me for a few days during my October trip so perhaps they will get to meet. Otherwise, if you are ever in Central Illinois, Gary is welcome to strap himself to our "go-cart attached to a giant fan."

 

[jabead]

Great ToT photo - I too am a fan of the handles!

Thanks Jeanette, it makes me feel better to know that there are others out there like me.

Such wonderfully entertaining reviews from everyone! It will be a sad day when the last meal is reviewed and this thread closes. Thanks so much for sharing your vacation meals with us!

Thanks Fran! I too will be sad when we reach the end. But I'm not going to think about that now, 'cause we have many more meals yet to review.

 

[smile4stamps]

Hunter and I left the bar crawl to head to DHS to ride one of our favorite rides!!

We then met up with others to ride Tower of Terror. Well I did! Hunter elected to sit this ride out!

After that we all headed to check out the Osborne Lights. This was Hunters first Holiday trip and I had not been since I was 19 or 20. I do not think they had the lights then but I could be mistaken.

Anyways we walked with the herds to the entrance…

From now on I will just post a bunch of photos!

The Osborne lights were spectacular!! The only reason we left was to run to another FP+ ride! Toy Story Mania!! There were 3 of us that had FP+ for this ride at this time but since they would leave the 4th spot open they allowed us to drag Emily in with us!

Hunter won!

And got best in Vehicle!

And then it was time to go check in for our dinner! We will return with food posts soon!!

 

[smile4stamps]

From Toy Story we headed to our dinner location… We had planned a late dinner at

Not everyone was there yet so we took a little break in the “living room”

It wasn’t too long before everyone was there and we were called to the table.

The menu..

I believe that Em had declared she knew what she wanted and was done with the menu!

Oh wait… nope.. she was “setting the table!”

She did a spectacular job right?

Our server talking with us…

Hunter and I both went for the same thing…

The Chicken Dinner!!

The difference?! I went for Dark Meat and Hunter is a breast man!

Hunter also ordered a dessert but I did not get a picture…

Gotta have some art work on the fridge!

I made the mistake of ordering a Cherry Diet Coke for this meal (I rarely drink soda). Unfortunately the sugar in this was just too much for me and it caused me to have a bit of an upset tummy. Once it worked its way out of my system I was okay again but dinner was a bit uncomfortable. Can’t go wrong with the Fried Chicken though and due to that this meal has made it into the line-up for our next trip!

 

[jabead]

Barb's review from our dinner at...





Based on my last visit to Prime Time Café (March 2013), I knew exactly what I was going to order here. During that March visit I tried two things for the first time.

One of these was the...



Peanut Butter and Jelly Milk Shake - $5.59


I only ordered one of these for three of us to share in March because I didn't think we would like it that much. Boy was I wrong...we all loved it! It was a huge hit! So I of course had to have this again, and this time I didn't have to share.



Here's the recipe for this, in case you are interested.

50’s Prime Time Café Peanut Butter and Jelly Milkshake Ingredients:

* 4 ounce Peanut Butter
* 4 Ounce Grape Jelly
* 72 Ounces Vanilla Ice Cream
* 8 Ounces Milk
* 8 Ounces Pure Vanilla Extract

Place flavoring in blender. Add milk. Add ice cream. Blend until smooth and thick. Makes 4 Portions.


This looks like it would be very easy to make and trust me, it really is delicious!



In March, the three of us also shared the Sampler Platter. I had previously had both the meatloaf and pot roast and again thought they were both pretty good. But I discovered that the real winner on this platter is actually the...




Aunt Liz's Golden Fried Chicken served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, chicken gravy and collard greens with bacon $17.99

I again loved the chicken and the mashed potatoes & gravy were really good too. I even enjoyed the collard greens, which was probably because they tasted like bacon.



No room for dessert, although the milk shake more than satisfied my sweet tooth.



But speaking of desserts, you gotta love how the dessert menu is presented here...




Our server, Cousin David, teased Hunter about being the only man with six woman. I think we told him that we were all Hunter's sister wives.


50's Prime Time Cafe = Good service (even though we had to set our own table ), Good food, Good times!!
Can't wait to return in May! ​

 

[emmysmommy]

Brenda's 50's PT Café - Dinner review​

We were over at DHS ohhing and ahhhing over the Osborne Lights so dinner was nearby at 50’s PT Café. As Paula noted, some of the group used FP+ for TSMM. I must have gone on over to 50's PT Café to wait for the rest of the group.

Let me just say now that this was one of the funniest meals that we all shared. There was a whole lot of laughter and shenanigans going on and it wasn’t necessarily due to our server. Our server was great but I think he got a kick out of our group more than we did from him.

From the beginning, when we were told to set the table the fun began. I believe Hunter was egging Em on to be a slacker for this chore. I have a short video here that will either prove or disprove that theory.

Then there was the little issue of explaining to little kids that the grilled fish of the day was flounder – who was coincidently featured on the kid’s menu. Honestly, I’m not making this up. Imagine the confusion if you told your child, “be sure to eat all of your Flounder!” and there’s his cute little face sitting there on the menu.

The last couple of trips to 50’s PT Em and I had ordered kid’s chicken meals which were perfectly portioned. However, I was determined to see if there was also a kid’s pot roast meal available – which THERE WAS! And I was happy since it was delicious! It doesn’t look that appetizing from the photo but I can assure you it was good. Perhaps not as good as Liberty Tree Tavern since that version has big chunks of veggies, but it was worthy of ordering again in the future.

Kid’s portion Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy $6.84​

Em was in a chicken mood and not a kid size portion this time so she went with the fried chicken that was served with mashed potatoes and gravy and collard greens. I don’t think Em was a greens fan but she loved the chicken.

Aunt Liz’s Golden Fried Chicken served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, and collard greens with bacon $17.99​

Another view of more of the chicken:

We were presented with dessert menus and the view finders with the dessert photos. Em chose the hot fudge sundae as the perfect end to her meal. I was content to eat the cherry and a few bites of whip cream.

Now that's the way to view the menu!

One other item that I sampled was Barb’s PB&J shake. I have been curious as to what a PB&J shake tasted like all these years and I finally had my curiosity satisfied. Yum!

50’s PT Lobby and Tune In Lounge area

The park was closed by the time we left 50’s PT Café. However, we were not done having fun for the evening so we hopped on a bus to MK which had EMH until 1am.

Nearly empty Hollywood Blvd.

Although not entirely focused, I love this photo. Look at Paula and Hunter being all lovey dovey!

And Paula posed with my favorite guy at DHS!

​

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

50s is one of my favorites but DH & DS not so much so I was very happy the group was going here.

First up, my usual iced tea ...



For dinner, I asked for the Pot Roast with the collard greens instead of the mashed potatoes. I had hoped for a plate of meat, collards, green beans & celery & carrots.



As you can see, I got meat, potatoes and collards. I think I took Em's collards as well so she didn't get in trouble! Although not what I wanted, I truly loved my dinner and was glad they messed up my request.

For dessert, Hunter agreed to have a few bites of the Boston Cream Parfait with me ...



I love Boston Cream anything so this was a perfect end to the meal for me.

We had a great time at this meal ... yes, telling the waiter we were sister wives and shooting straw papers. Thankfully we were in a little room all by ourselves so we didn't disrupt others!

 

[JennyWren]

I have never been to 50's, however that fried chicken is looking really good this morning.

It has been 8 months since my last trip and I am starting to go into major withdrawal....I'm not sure if this thread is helping or hindering. The BAD news is that I don't think I will be able to make it to WDW anytime soon...DH thinks I need to broaden my horizons and plan a vacation to someplace else... The GOOD news is that I have convinced him that someplace else will be.......DISNEYLAND!!!!!

I am super excited, since I have never been before. It looks like we will be going from Nov. 12-16. I may have tons of questions...would it be possible for me to ask them in this thread since many of you wonderful ladies have Disneyland dining experience?

I will miss this thread soooo much when it comes to an end. Thank you so much Barb for keeping this thread up as long as you have, I can't imagine how hard it has been. Bless you.