Our Fantastic November Adults-Only Trip w/Pics & Food Reports *7/2/11 BB & CBR**

[SaberJ]

Sounds like you had a great day at Epcot! Love the information about the F&W festival - thought we would be able to see it this year but we had to change our dates and miss out

Am looking forward to Captain EO and the cars at the end of Test Track - think we will be spending a lot of time there

That's terrible that you have to miss the F&W festival. It's definitely worth the extra crowds, IMO. But then again, It's not a "must do" event for us, either. It might be, if the portions were a little larger. OR perhaps if we had done something other than sample the food. I would've loved seeing some of the shows, for instance.

 

[TanzUnited99]

That's terrible that you have to miss the F&W festival. It's definitely worth the extra crowds, IMO. But then again, It's not a "must do" event for us, either. It might be, if the portions were a little larger. OR perhaps if we had done something other than sample the food. I would've loved seeing some of the shows, for instance.

I know, I was looking forward to it. However, on the positive side there are still plenty of snacks available and I should be grateful of the weight gain that I will be saving on! Letting me loose on F&W day would have meant sampling a little of everything and feeling sickly full at the end of the day!

 

[SaberJ]

I know, I was looking forward to it. However, on the positive side there are still plenty of snacks available and I should be grateful of the weight gain that I will be saving on! Letting me loose on F&W day would have meant sampling a little of everything and feeling sickly full at the end of the day!

Yeah, there are definitely still plenty of things to eat, even without the F&W festival.

We are going cruising again this year, but next year we are definitely hitting Disney again. I'm hoping that two year gap will cycle some of the offerings so that we get whole new options available. But I'd love to try a few of the favorites from this past trip again.

Coincidentally, the ship that we are going on this year, Oasis of the Seas, has pretzel dogs for free. So I'm hoping that it's similar to the pretzel sausage Russell had in Germany. I imagine it will be close, since the sausage didn't have much of a sausage flavor anyway.

I am really hungry now. Thanks a lot.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Yeah, there are definitely still plenty of things to eat, even without the F&W festival.

We are going cruising again this year, but next year we are definitely hitting Disney again. I'm hoping that two year gap will cycle some of the offerings so that we get whole new options available. But I'd love to try a few of the favorites from this past trip again.

Coincidentally, the ship that we are going on this year, Oasis of the Seas, has pretzel dogs for free. So I'm hoping that it's similar to the pretzel sausage Russell had in Germany. I imagine it will be close, since the sausage didn't have much of a sausage flavor anyway.

I am really hungry now. Thanks a lot.

Enjoy the cruise and the sausages!

I always make sure I come on these boards once I have eaten - I learnt my lesson after looking at snack pictures when I was hungry once!

 

[billdog1977]

Hey Randy,

I'm a big fan of geekshow and everything and I'm enjoying your Trip report. I'm actually heading down to the World in abot 3 weeks, anyway. I see that you went to school for travel. I actually went to school for the same thing and I work for AAA Travel and was wondering if you looked into working for AAA in KY. Not sure if there is one near you, but I work for them in Charleston, SC and I can say its the best job I've ever had. Keep up the good job with the report!!

 

[SaberJ]

Hey Randy,

I'm a big fan of geekshow and everything and I'm enjoying your Trip report. I'm actually heading down to the World in abot 3 weeks, anyway. I see that you went to school for travel. I actually went to school for the same thing and I work for AAA Travel and was wondering if you looked into working for AAA in KY. Not sure if there is one near you, but I work for them in Charleston, SC and I can say its the best job I've ever had. Keep up the good job with the report!!

I've considered applying with them before, but for whatever reason, I had dismissed it. Do they hire often?

 

[billdog1977]

Not sure since KY is a different club, then AAA Carolinas. I would look on there website or a site like Monster or CareerBuilder.

 

[elbodans]

i am loving this trip report! i read ALL of it today, in a few spare moments here and there (ok, MANY spare moments here and there!) i NEED to do the Food and Wine Fest--it simply has to happen this year...and after your photos, i'm even MORE convinced!

i have to say, i'm really enjoying how much fun you all seem to be having. i'm learning a lot, too--like how to slow down and ENJOY a trip. on my last visit, i was annoyed that there was a parade occuring just as i entered MK. i should have done what you did--stopped and ENJOYED it. duh. so much to learn--but i'll use that lesson on my next trip, one month from today. so thanks!

i also super love that all of the food pics feature stitch. what made you think of that? it's a fantastic idea--i may steal it (mainly because it will give me a reason to buy that stuffed eyeore i oddly desired on my last trip, but couldn't think of a good reason to have!)

I'd also like to comment on something that Randy forgot about (shame on you, brother!), the Plum Wine. None of us are really wine drinkers (with the exception of maybe Tabitha). I like my beer and fruity tropical drinks, and Randy and Tabitha like just fruity tropical drinks. However, the idea of Plum Wine intrigued me, and I love trying new things, so we got some. It was delicious. All three of us agreed that if more wine tasted like that, we would all we wine drinkers.

I'd also like to point out that the pub near where we got the lava cake and they were doing that random comedy show on the street is where Dan Conner stopped off for a yard of beer in the Disney World Roseanne special. I had wanted to go there to sort of recreate the scene or something, but all of the outside tables were gone, so I lost interest. :<

i quote the above for two reasons--one, no, you clearly are not wine drinkers if you enjoyed the plum wine! i love wine, and plum wine is gross to me! it's WAY too sweet! though that bubbly pink stuff in italy is sweet too--but pretty darn good!

two--i love your roseanne reference! i know the exact episode! i love the part right before the yard of beer part, where dan is running OUT of MK!

Planning for Nov 5-12, 2011 so I was happy to stumble across your trip report - especially the info on the tastings available in Epcot. Have always heard Nov was a "slower" time at Disney, so if you have any more opinons/info on crowd levels as you post the rest of TR that would be really helpful too. THANK YOU!

we were there at the same time this past november--i think the last day of this trip was november 19th? we arrived late on the 16th, and did MK on the 17th and epcot the evening of the 19th (it was for a convention, so that's all we were able to do) and the parks were EMPTY--at least compared to what i was picturing. i actually took photos of the empty queue areas! i'm definitely returning next year at that same time!

 

[SaberJ]

Thanks for the comments, elbodans!

Russell is going to be elated that someone finally gave his Roseanne reference some attention.

And I'm definitely glad to have someone else around that is enjoying the report. It's hard to attract people around here without adorable kids in your pictures. Unfortunately, I don't think people would like me randomly taking pictures of their kids and posting them.

Anyway, when it comes to rushing vs enjoying yourself, we like to do a combination of the two. We had a plan, and we followed it. We rushed from attraction to attraction. But the fun of Disney (IMO), and the thing that sets the park aside from all the other theme parks is just how far Disney goes out of their way to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves. So you can't forget that the parades, impromptu street performances, themed queue areas, etc are also part of the experience. As long as you can enjoy it, I would suggest doing so. Soak it all in, and enjoy the experience. But at the same time, Disney is so big that if I didn't move with a sense of urgency, there is no way we would see everything we wanted to.

Food and Wine Festival is something I would recommend to anyone that has the opportunity to include it in their plans. Next time, we are going to try and do more than just eat the food, though admittedly, that's probably still going to be my favorite part. I really wanted to check out Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, who was performing the week we were there, but we missed out on it, because we had to head toward dinner.

 

[elbodans]

Thanks for the comments, elbodans!

Russell is going to be elated that someone finally gave his Roseanne reference some attention.

i'm glad i could make his day! i love roseanne--and i love WDW--so i must have seen that episode a dozen times. that's where darlene gets pregantn. ok--i'll stop now. my knowledge of roseanne trivia is BEYOND nerdy!

And I'm definitely glad to have someone else around that is enjoying the report. It's hard to attract people around here without adorable kids in your pictures. Unfortunately, I don't think people would like me randomly taking pictures of their kids and posting them.

OHHHH! that's why no one is commenting on my TR! it was a solo trip--so no kids! just me! i don't HAVE kids, actually--but i agree with your stance that disney makes me wish that i did. i saw a man interacting with his son at epcot and could picture my own husband with our own fictional child. anyway--i was starting to think no one liked me or something! i guess it really is nothing personal. whew! but know that at least all of your posting has brightened MY day--so that's something! and my day needed brightening--so THANKS!

Anyway, when it comes to rushing vs enjoying yourself, we like to do a combination of the two. We had a plan, and we followed it. We rushed from attraction to attraction. But the fun of Disney (IMO), and the thing that sets the park aside from all the other theme parks is just how far Disney goes out of their way to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves. So you can't forget that the parades, impromptu street performances, themed queue areas, etc are also part of the experience. As long as you can enjoy it, I would suggest doing so. Soak it all in, and enjoy the experience. But at the same time, Disney is so big that if I didn't move with a sense of urgency, there is no way we would see everything we wanted to.

i agree that a balance is good, and i will take your thoughts quite to heart on my next trip. i particularly loved how you said something about trying to make this trip as special as possible for your wife. i'm taking my mom, and am trying to do exactly the same thing for her (the why of that is a LONG story--let's just say i'm trying to repay her for the trip i ruined back in 1990!) and i think that NOT rushing around will be part of that specialness. you are right--there's way more to WDW than the rides. i will keep that in mind. so thanks yet again!!!

Food and Wine Festival is something I would recommend to anyone that has the opportunity to include it in their plans. Next time, we are going to try and do more than just eat the food, though admittedly, that's probably still going to be my favorite part. I really wanted to check out Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, who was performing the week we were there, but we missed out on it, because we had to head toward dinner.

there's definitely more than food...there's WINE! wine and food (and travel) are two of my most favorite things in the world--so for me, it is not to be missed. plus, i really need a sausage sandwich in a pretzel roll--and where else can you get such a thing? as a side note, i'm glad you enjoyed your crepe. i lived on them (and gazpacho) in paris last summer. imagine a world where you can buy those on the street corner...mmmm...i'd be a VERY fat french person!

 

[billdog1977]

I liked the part in the Roseanne special when Mark was getting jealous of Goofy because he thought he was hitting on Becky.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Don't have a clue what you guys are talking about but am guessing it is a good programme lol!

 

[SaberJ]

Don't have a clue what you guys are talking about but am guessing it is a good programme lol!

It's a TV series that ran in the US from the late 80's through a good chunk of the 90s. One of the many sitcoms of that era that had a Disney centric episode. Full House, Family Matters, Boy Meets World, Step by Step....pretty much any of ABC's sitcoms in the 90s are all other examples of shows that did Disney episodes.

Roseanne was a show about a trashy working class American family. The titular character was played by Roseanne Barr, who shared her first name on the show, and thus the name of the show. In the next to last season is when they went to Disney World.

 

[SaberJ]

Day 3: Teppan Edo

As we near the end of Day 3, we made a trip to Japan in the World Showcase for our Teppan Edo reservations. I must admit, I was a bit bummed about the time that we had to take the reservations for. We could either eat in the afternoon, or during the fireworks show. Ultimately we ended up choosing to eat during the fireworks, which meant we missed out on yet another awesome show. First the Main Street Electrical Parade, and now Illuminations.

But given how absolutely famished we had become by this point (the snacks in Norway did little to help with that), we didn't give much thought to missing out on the fireworks. Instead, we headed directly for the Teppan Edo building which we had searched for while in World Showcase Earlier.

When we entered the building, and told them that we were there for our 8:20 reservations, they wanted to know what kind of dinner we were there for. It took me a few seconds to figure that they were asking if our reservation was for Teppan Edo or the other Japanese restaurant in the building that had only table service. After I let them know that it was for the Hibachi style Teppan Edo, we were given a buzzer and had to sit and wait for our turn.

At this point, all of the cell phones came out to entertain us until our time to be seated. It had been another long day full of walking, so it was nice that we had the opportunity to sit while waiting at least. We probably waited there for a good 20+ minutes until we were buzzed along with another group.

I'm actually not a big fan of dining with random strangers. I've done it on cruises before as well, and it's just never something I enjoy much. This case wasn't much better. The other group stayed to their self, and we talked with each other. Not a big deal, but my anti-social attitude was being tested a bit.

There were 5 people besides us. We couldn't tell if there was a group of 2 and a group of 3, or if it was just a group of 5. Either way, we were sitting on one far side of the grill. I placed myself in the middle of Russell and Tabitha to make sure I had familiar people on each side.

One of the great things about Teppan Edo compared to all the other restaurants is that the experience is almost as entertaining as the food is good. The waitress was really friendly, and started things off on the right foot. The picture above shows her giving out a child-friendly set of chopsticks to the kid in the other group. Too bad that they ended up forgetting to fix his food, as that gave him a long wait before he got to use them.

It was interesting that the waitress took care of the drinks, and the orders, and prepping the grill before the chef ever came out. Annoyingly though, the grill beside us got their chef before we did. This was a bit of a problem, because I was looking forward to Tabitha enjoying the experience without having any of it spoiled for her. But the moment the chef started "performing" next door, her eyes couldn't be drawn back to our grill. I had to scold her repeatedly for peaking and getting spoilers.

Eventually our own Chef arrived at the grill, and her introduction itself was made into a bit of a show. It was cool that when the chef comes out, she gets a special set of lights turned on above the grill. Until then though, they are left off.

The first thing we got was a presentation of all the sauces. There are three flavors of sauces. One was a ginger sauce, one apparently had some relation to the mustard family, but must have been something far out on the family tree. The third kind was described as "Yummy Sauce". When asked again what kind it was, we were told, "Yummy Yummy!" While I actually ended up liking all three sauces (Which is why I said the mustard sauce was apparently nothing like other mustards, because I hate mustard), she was right. The best way to describe the white sauce is "Yummy". Though I think "Ranch" would probably come close as well.

This is where the fun began. The only problem I have with the place is that it's the same show every time. So if you look it up on Youtube, it will be almost exactly the same as when you go for yourself. There is very little that is different from chef to chef.

While putting on a bit of a show in cooking our food, our Chef made sure to come around and verify all of the orders. Which I appreciated, because I was able to again emphasize, "No veggies, please". I was a bit worried at seeing a grill full of the evil things. But she confirmed it, and that set my mind at ease a bit. Luckily, I'm not the type of person that has issues with my food being cooked in the same area as things I don't like. Someone I know has a mushroom allergy, so I'm sure that she would actually have to make that known up front.

The cool part of the show is the onion volcano, which is shown above. Also shown above are my segregated udon noodles. I urged Tabitha to request hers without the veggies as well, since she doesn't like them either, but she was sure she could eat around them. Unfortunately, since my noodles were prepared separately, I got less than everyone else. Noodle wise, I probably got the same amount, but volume wise, it was about half as much. My veggies should have been replaced with more noodles.

Above is just after the big reveal of the onion volcano, which has now been converted into a hidden-Micky oninion volcano. Below is the convergence of all the veggies, getting ready to be mixed in with the noodles.

Above, the meats all come out. The Chicken comes out first, to get cooked a bit. Then the shrimp. And finally, the steak is being added. And below, everything gets a special coating of....well, I have no idea what it is. Some sort of seasoning. That's followed up by old-fashioned Salt and Pepper.

At this point, we all get our noodles while the rest of the food cooks. I wanted to take a picture of all of my food together, but I was way too hungry to wait for my still very rare steak to finish cooking. So I "tried" the Udon Noodles. Tried quickly changed to "scoffed down". They were extremely good. Especially when I used Soy Sauce and/or the three other sauces. In the meantime, I had to clarify to the Chef that "No Veggies" also applied to "Fungi". Tabitha, fresh off of her realization that separating her noodles from the omni-present veggies was nearly impossible, urged me to make the same request for her. "I told you so" is a favorite phrase of mine. Someone got an extra dose of Fungus due to us skipping out. So good for them, I suppose.

Russell managed to save his noodles to take a shot along with his Shrimp and Steak. However, my steak is separate from my now devoured noodles. All three of us found the taste and texture of the food to be absolutely perfect. Seasoned perfectly, went great with the sauces, and it was just a fantastic experience all around. But obviously, what would dinner be without our free dessert?

Tabitha remembered her birthday button this time, so she got a special birthday hat. for dessert, she went the safe route with the ice cream. Here she is, blowing out her candle. She seemed to enjoy the ice cream, but again, we had to mock her for going way too safe.

Me and Russell both went with the chocolate covered ginger cake...thing. It was amazing. I was worried about the ginger flavor, but it wasn't overwhelming at all. A nice moist cake, with a fudge-like top. Tabitha gave it a try, and enjoyed that as well.


Following dinner, we headed out of the restaurant, and back across the now mostly empty park. But we made sure to grab a few nighttime pictures of Epcot along the way.

 

[palaemon]

We did this dinner about 5 years ago, and although we enjoyed it, it's the same experience that you get with a local restaurant.

We go to a Japanese steak house every year, so we love the food (Steak & Scallops) but won't do it again at EPCOT.

 

[SaberJ]

We did this dinner about 5 years ago, and although we enjoyed it, it's the same experience that you get with a local restaurant.

We go to a Japanese steak house every year, so we love the food (Steak & Scallops) but won't do it again at EPCOT.

Yeah, I go back and forth on my favorite dinner of the trip. It's between this and our last dinner. I tend to lean toward this one, but it's mostly because the whole thing was new to me. The experience was definitely part of the charm. If I only look at the food, then the other one is probably ranked higher for me.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Thanks for the clarification about Roseanne Randy! I went on you tube and looked it up - watched the bit where they entered Disney and ran to get into Fantasy land as well as when one of the characters told Pooh to shoo, lol!

Back to your TR and am loving your review of Teppan Edo! We thought about eating here but two things put us off - one was that as we had special requests our food would be prepared in the kitchen so we would not get to see our meal being prepared and the second thing that you mentioned was the sitting with other groups - am not sure how comfortable we would feel with that.

It's a shame that the other chef came out first and spoiled it a bit for Tabitha and that you didn't get extra noodles to replace the veggies. However yeah on them noticing the birthday on the ADR and the hat looks great on Stitch!

 

[SaberJ]

Day Four: Hollywood Studios Part 1

First, let me start off by saying that this park will always be MGM Studios to me. Unless it gets a better name down the line. Maybe something like Pixar Studios would help.

The last time we made our trip to the World, Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror was still a hip new thing. And that's the point when I started to actually enjoy this park. To me, this is a good blend between a park that offers thrills, and gives you a glimpse of the magic of Hollywood. There is still a little more work to be done, IMO. A little more Hollywood magic (Start by actually adding something interesting to the backlot tour, please), and a couple more thrills would be a great place to start off. But I digress. Let's talk about what we did while visiting this park. This report will lead us through lunch time.

According to the time on my pictures, we got to the park right at 10:33. Actually, the time says 11:33, but judging by the time we got to our lunch destination vs what time our reservation was for, I'm pretty sure that was off by an hour.

Before going on this trip, I read an interesting debate on whether Hollywood Studios was better with or without Sorcerer Mickey's hat. I had never really given it much thought, to be honest. But I paid a fair amount of attention to it this time, and I came away agreeing that it's presence throws off the theme and motif of the entrance area of the park. Each park has their own style, and DHS' is obviously retro-Hollywood. So the wizard hat throws that all down the tubes, IMO.

To start the day off, we decided to take one of the side paths, and realized that the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular show would be starting soon. I enjoy that show, so I figured we might as well start off with it. We had a pretty long wait. It looks like we got in line at about 10:45, for an 11:15 start time. So we had about 30 minutes of sitting to do. Luckily, that got us some pretty good seats, and we were able to relax a bit for the day ahead of us.

The kid sitting directly in front of us was pre-chosen somehow to open the show. Russell is always the type that wants to make a full of himself in every public outing. So he was a little sad that he wouldn't get a chance like that. But sure enough, a couple minutes later, they asked for adult volunteers, and he got picked almost immediately to go on to stage.

Unfortunately, this made my job a lot more difficult. Instead of sitting back and enjoying the show, I now had to keep track of Russell and try to take as many pictures as possible. What a jerk. Anyway, after he did a couple skits to with other volunteers, they were all ushered backstage in order to get into their costumes. We wouldn't see them again for another few minutes, and instead got to watch the first half of the stunt show. Apparently all of the volunteers missed out on watching this part of the show.

The fog in the scenes gave my camera fits, but I still managed to get a couple nice pictures out of the whole scene. If you've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know the basic gist of the entire scene. Following the scene, we got some explanations of the way stunts are performed, along with some nice bit gags to keep people entertained.

Following that scene, the volunteers all came back out dressed in their new costumes. Russell was unfortunate enough to get a costume that pretty much covered his entire face. He kind of reminds me of some of the characters from Assassin's Creed, except he isn't an Assassin. All of the volunteers got some instructions on what they were supposed to do. A lot of humorous stuff occurred that I won't spoil for everyone, but ultimately, they ended up standing in on some of the less dangerous action stunts for the second half of the show.

After these less dangerous stunts, some of the more dangerous stuff started, and the volunteers had to return their costumes, and came back out.

On the way out of the auditorium, I just happened to glance down, and there in front of us was an adorable set of kids dressed as Luke and Leia from Star Wars. We had seen a lot of cute kids dressed up as Disney Princesses in Magic Kingdom, but for a Star Wars fan, this easily took the cake. And the fact that they were actually brother and sister made it even better. We really wanted a picture, but decided that it would seem creepy to ask for one.

Following the show, we were definitely ready to ride some rides. At this point, it was about 12:10, so the show ended up being about an hour long. So we were approaching 2 hours of being at the park and still hadn't rode anything. Our lunch reservation was for 2:10, so we still had enough time to get in a big ride or two. So our goal was to immediately hit up Tower of Terror and/or Aerosmith's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.

As we made our way over to that section of the park, we had started to feel quite hungry. We hadn't had any breakfast (other than a couple nibbles off the reliable Rice Krispy Treat), so we decided to grab some snacks on the way over.

Before we went on the trip, we went on a video watching spree. One of the videos we watched was Marc Summer's Unwrapped special on Disney World Food. After watching that, Russell had made it his goal to try the Turkey Leg. Apparently the description of the salty water being infused into the turkey in a way that made it both moist and flavorful excited him in ways that food shouldn't. Russell hadn't managed to fit in a Turkey Leg in Magic Kingdom, so when we passed that option in DHS, he had to get one. Me and Tabitha went for a bowl of ice cream instead. We came away happy, and he came away disappointed.

To be continued due to the number of pictures...

 

[SaberJ]

Day Four: Hollywood Studios Part 2

The food options we went with were a short distance away from both ToT and Aerosmith. At this point, the line for Aerosmith was already pretty long, whereas the line for Tower of Terror fluctuating heavily, but was generally listed as being pretty short. So we decided to go ahead and hit Tower of Terror. In doing so, we got one of the many line control badges of the trip, which measures the time it takes you to get through line. I'm still not sure exactly how they measure the time you wait, because they really didn't seem to do anything when we turned it in. But still, we felt we did our duty to the park.

Honestly, I can't say which ride we got the above picture on, as we rode ToT at least 3 times on that day alone, and at least twice in a row here. But it's a picture full of such epic win, so I had to make sure it got posted. See how many cool things you can find in that picture. The little girl behind us was very sweet, and more than a little scared. But you can barely tell from the picture alone.

After a couple quick rides on ToT due to the line being so short, it started to get longer. So we decided we would head on over to the area where we had our lunch reservations. On the way over, we figured we had more than enough time to check out The Great Movie Ride before time to check in. But we didn't realize it would take almost 30 minutes. So ultimately we only had a few minutes to spare when we got off.

My wife works at a theater, so this probably ended up being the animatronic ride that she enjoyed the most. The cool thing about this ride, IMO, is that Disney isn't satisfied with it being JUST animatronic. They also choose to have live action elements with the show. Any other park wouldn't have wanted that sort of overhead running up costs. But at Disney, they go all out. And I continue to love them for it.

Being so dark, a lot of pictures just didn't turn out. We had a lot of fun on this ride, given that it's really just a "history of big movies" ride. But after it was over we had to rush on over to lunch to get there in time...

Stay tuned for my review of the Sci-Fi Dine-In.

 

[Jack Talon]

That stupid flap on the top of my hood would not stay out of my face. :< I think they were just trying to keep the other volunteers from getting jealous of my sexiness.