Quick, Crazy, Christmas Trip

[gbpackfan9]

Here are the pics from Jellyrolls. We had Karen's permission to post her pic.. This picture was taken by Webmaster Kathy....

This is a pic of Scotty and Ray......

 

[LYNSUE]

DH is still helping me post photos. I think I've finally got it!! Here are some more pictures to catch up to what I have posted so far. After this I will try to include the appropriate pictures in the appropriate post.

Thanks for your patience while I figured this out.

These are pictures of the Yuletide Fantasy Tour.

Magic Kingdom Tree and also Main Street

We have only one photo of our lunch at Rose & Crown. It is of the Samosas.

 

[LYNSUE]

Diamond in the Ruff... Yes the gingerbread candy was good. I always thought it was just to make cookies. I did not know you could cover it in chocolate and make candy.


T-Linden16....Thanks for helping me with the names of the other two piano players. We did enjoy both sets of players. It was so great to meet you.

OhMari....We always put our GPS in the carry on. No problem going through security with it. Besides our Garmin is too precious to pack in our checked luggage. Also it is handy to have it on top the carry on when we get to our rental car.

I agree on the potato leek soup at Rose & Crown, it is better then the soup at LeCelliar.

Oh, and about the snow. I can't stand it, and its only December. I'm just trying to keep my head above the snowbanks.

 

[gbpackfan9]

The Yuletide fantasy tour sounds neat. You did all that in three hours??? Sounds like alot to see.

The Yuletide Fantasy tour lasted about 3-1/2 hours. It was very informative and we got to see and learn a lot of things that you can't see just by going to the park.

 

[LYNSUE]

I am finally back to the trip report after all the hulabaluh with picture posting. I apologize for the confusion of posting the photos after the fact. I will do much better from here one.

I am so happy to have DH joining in on the trip report. It is always nice to have another perspective on what happened. Looking forward to any and all of your comments. Thanks Dear!!

Of the photos posted so far..... I cannot tell you just how much I love the castle picture with the full moon. Absolutely my favorite picture this trip. Another note...the photo of the MK Main Street shows just how crowded the park was that day. The street was packed.

Anyway, when I last left you.... we were just finishing our lunch at Rose & Crown. We walked back over to Future World and checked the wait board for ride times. All waits were long and fast passes were gone for Soarin.
We decided to just head back to the room for a rest. On the way out of the park we were stopped by a CM taking a survey. He asked if we had dined in World Showcase. We assumed he would just ask a few questions and that would be it. But instead they took us to an area that had a bank of computers set up and we completed the survey there. There were a lot of questions. I felt it took a very long time to complete. All questions were about the dining experience we just had at R&C.

We returned to SSR via bus. We arrived about 3:30. I realized upon returning that we had been in three parks today and did not do one ride. I don't think we have ever had a "no ride" park day ever!!!

We rested until about 5:00. Then we caught a bus to DHS to see the Osborne Lights. This park was also very crowded. Especially the light area. It was shoulder to shoulder people, but the lights were well worth it.

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp242/gbpackfan9/DSCN0243.jpg[/IMG]

The next photo is of the famous Halloween black cat that is hidden every year in the Christmas light display. We were lucky that our tour guide earlier in the day pointed out where the cat was. It was definately off the path this year and we would never have found it on our own.

Speaking of black cats, here is a picture of our cat. His name is Black Kitty. We pay him each halloween season to sit on the porch by the pumpkins. He is very good at his seasonal job.

And just two more photos of the lights. The second photo with the large blue tree in the center was amazing during the music session. It would change colors with smaller tree shapes appearing inside the larger tree shape. The colors were fantastic.

 

[LYNSUE]

After we were done viewing the lights at DHS, we checked the wait times on the board by sunset blvd. The same as earlier in the day at Epcot... All waits were long. 90 min wait for TSM, 40min for TOT. Just not worth the time waiting. We knew we would be returning to DHS early the next morning for early entry. We wanted to be sure to get on TSM then. No way were we going to wait 90 minutes tonight. Instead we just did some shopping. I was looking for a holiday mickey ear hat for one of my co-workers. I owed him for some help at work, and that was his request?? We did not find any holiday ears that I liked.

We left DHS at 6:30. We were headed to DTD for our 8:00 ADR at Wolfgang Puck Cafe. I thought 1.5 hours would be pleanty of time to get there. NOT SO.... We waited in line for the boat. The line was huge. We did not make the first boat, we had to wait for a second one. Finally got on the slow boat and got off at the first stop, the Dolphin. When we got to the Dolphin bus stop, the DTD bus pulled right up. Great timing there. Then things went bad. We stopped at YC next and a few people got on, then we stopped at BW where the driver had to load 2 scooters and a wheelchair. The driver said he could only take 2, but the wheel chair person agreed to transfer to a seat so he could take all three. This however meant that he had to unlatch the wheel chair he originally loaded and replace it with one of the scooters. The pickup took about 20 minutes total.
We finally got to DTD at 7:55. We had only five minutes to get from the Marketplace bus stop to WPC. We were a few minutes late.

We were seated right away at the Cafe. The restaurant was fairly busy. DTD in general was shoulder to shoulder people. It was crazy.

The service here was good. The food was ok. We ate here several years ago and the food was just ok then as well. I do have pictures of our dinner. We went with entrees only here. We were not very hungry after our later lunch at R&C.

I had the ribs with oriental cole slaw.

DH had the ravioli with meat balls

The total bill for this dinner (remember entrees only with water to drink) was $46.71. No dining discount available here. I thought the price was a little high for the quality. I guess I am just spoiled by that 20% discount.

After dinner we did some shopping at DTD. I went to Goofy Candy Company and had two mickey rice krispies made. They are a gift for two of my co-workers. Then we went to the Christmas Store and bought a few Christmas plates and found the holiday ears for my other co-worker. All of the stores were extremely crowded and difficult to shop in. The check out lines were very long. I was very glad to leave there. We took the boat from DTD back to SSR. It was extremely cold with the wind on that boat. I had a jacket with a hood and also gloves. There was a lady on the boat that had a short sleeve shirt and no jacket. She was absolutely freezing.

We arrived back at SSR about 10:30pm. We watched some TV and then to bed by 11:30. Another long day...... We are planning on getting up early for EE at DHS. Looking forward to trying TSM again.

 

[MEK]

We left DHS at 6:30. We were headed to DTD for our 8:00 ADR at Wolfgang Puck Cafe. I thought 1.5 hours would be pleanty of time to get there. NOT SO.... We waited in line for the boat. The line was huge. We did not make the first boat, we had to wait for a second one. Finally got on the slow boat and got off at the first stop, the Dolphin. When we got to the Dolphin bus stop, the DTD bus pulled right up. Great timing there. Then things went bad. We stopped at YC next and a few people got on, then we stopped at BW where the driver had to load 2 scooters and a wheelchair. The driver said he could only take 2, but the wheel chair person agreed to transfer to a seat so he could take all three. This however meant that he had to unlatch the wheel chair he originally loaded and replace it with one of the scooters. The pickup took about 20 minutes total.
We finally got to DTD at 7:55. We had only five minutes to get from the Marketplace bus stop to WPC. We were a few minutes late.

That sounds painfully long! I remember one transfer I had like that from Wilderness Lodge to POP. Took 1 1/2 hours to get back to the room. Never again!

 

[OhMari]

Anyway, when I last left you.... we were just finishing our lunch at Rose & Crown. We walked back over to Future World and checked the wait board for ride times. All waits were long and fast passes were gone for Soarin.
We decided to just head back to the room for a rest. On the way out of the park we were stopped by a CM taking a survey. He asked if we had dined in World Showcase. We assumed he would just ask a few questions and that would be it. But instead they took us to an area that had a bank of computers set up and we completed the survey there. There were a lot of questions. I felt it took a very long time to complete. All questions were about the dining experience we just had at R&C.

We got this survey in April of 07, just after we finished eating at Germanfest.
When I sat down at the laptop, I heard a CM congradulate the other CM for getting his quota of guests to do the survey.
I thought we should have least gotten something for taking the survey.
This time, I received a postcard in the mail, asking me to do a survey.
I haven't done it yet, and it is over a month since we returned home.

 

[LYNSUE]

We were up at 6:00am. We wanted to get to DHS for early entry at 8:00. We had our usual cereal breakfast in the room and then drove to DHS. It has been a very long time since we drove to any of the parks at Disney. It was kind of a new experience for us. Because we were very early, we were very close to the park entrance. (no tram ride necessary here). But, I took a photo of our parking area just in case we forgot later on.

We were at the turn style by 7:30. We were two of a very few people milling around. We stood at the gate and just waited and also watched the CM's getting prepared for the open. There was a gentleman right behind us in line that noticed my lime green mickey head attached to my bag. We struck up a conversation about the Dis. I am so sorry I don't remember your board name. But if you are reading this... thanks for the conversation.

Our plan was for DH to run (walk fast) ahead of me to get in the FP line for TSM. I will eventually catch up. He gets the FP and then we jump in line to ride. This plan worked just right as always. I was there by the time he had FP's in hand. However, they were not letting anyone enter the building. There was an announcement that the ride was broke down. It could be 20 min or it could be two hours was the comments of the CMs. Well we decided to wait it out. They eventually set up a que out side the building for the people waiting. Prior to the que set up, the people waiting and the people getting FP's were all mingled together in a very big mess. As we waited in line, some people started to give up and leave. After about 20 minutes they let the line move inside the building. We took this as a positive sign. Then another 10 minutes and the ride actually started loading. Woo Hoo. We only wasted half of the early entry hour waiting.

When we did this ride in October, DH beat me every time. Not by a whole lot but still beat me. Well I did some reading about stratagies and how to get higher point targets to appear and guess what... it paid off. We were able to ride TSM three times this trip and I won two of the three.

Here is a picture of the scores for the first ride.

Yup, that's my 130,800 score. Notice we were tied on accuracy?? It was great fun.

Our FP return time was for 9:10, so we had a little time for something else.

Next we did TOT with a 20 minute wait then back to TSM. This time DH won, so I was not so anxious to get a picture of it. LOL After this ride we got another FP with a return time of 1:35.

So after a "no ride" day on Friday, we had a three ride morning at DHS and then we were off to Yacht Club for our mega mousefest meet at the convention center. We left the car in the parking lot and walked to YC. A boat left DHS about the same time we started walking and we actually got to the YC before the boat did.

This was an amazing event. Early entry was at 10:00 with the actual meet starting at 11:00. It was scheduled to last until 1:00. We visted so many tables for venders that have Disney sites out on the Web. But by far, the busiest one was the DIS. We collected all kinds of trinkets at the tables. There were light refreshments and the food was a variety of pretzels. They had sweet ones and savory ones with a number of different sauces for dipping. There were also brownies and cookies. There was a raffle going on with nice gift baskets donated by the many sponsers around the room. We spend about two hours here. We also met many disboard members while we were here. We saw Karen again and also Webmaster Kathy. I also had the privilege of meeting Kevin Klose. He does restaurant reviews for the Pod Cast show. I love his honest reviews very much and I told him so when I met him. Thank you Kevin for all of the valuable info you provide for us. It was great meeting you.

I enjoyed this meet very much. I don't know if we will get back to WDW in December anytime soon. But, I would sure try to make this event again in the future if possible.

After the meet, we walked over to the Dolphin to have lunch at the Cabana Bar and Grill. It is a little restaurant set outside by the pool. The menu on Allears looked very interesting and it turned out to be quite good. I think this place is very much over looked. It was so peaceful and quiet there compared to the crowded park restaurants and the service was good.

I will start my next post with a description of what we had to eat. I apologize that there are no photos of the food. This would have been a perfect setting (outside) for taking pictures. And since it was not crowded, we would not be disturbing any one with flash pictures. We simply forgot, which is a shame because the presentation of the food was fabulous!! I will do my best to describe it in detail.

 

[MEK]

I just looked at your pics for the first time (can't see them at work). They are very good!

I especially love your black kitty. check out page 1 on my TR and you will see a very similar appearing black kitty named Max! I love having black cats. They freak people out who don't like cats, even more than the garden variety tabby or calico cats do!

 

[LYNSUE]

OK, about our lunch at Cabana Bar & Grill.... the poolside restaurant at the Dolphin. I started with an order of Jerk spiced chicken wings from the appetizer menu. They came with cilantro dipping sauce and celery sticks. Well I just love cilantro (it is my favorite herb) so this choice was a no brainer for me. The wings were excellent. I liked them even better than Ohanas or Konas. I am sure the cilantro dipping sauce had a lot to do with that. There was a very generous portion and I managed to finish them all. I did share one or two wings with DH.

DH started with the Satay also from the appe menu. There were sliced ribbons of meat, chicken beef and pork with red curry peanut dipping sauce. DH liked this very much. He is a big fan of curry, so he was pleased. Again the presentation was quite nice. (I wish I had a picture )

For our entree, DH and I shared the Three Noodle Salads. One was pad thai crispy shrimp with ginger dressing, two was soba noodles and mango with peanut butter dressing and three was lo mein with skirt steak and cilantro pesto. All three were great, but I of course thought #3 was the best because of the cilantro pesto. But the shrimp with ginger dressing was a very close second. Yummy, Yummy stuff.

So if you ever find yourself off the beaten path at lunch time and are looking for a quiet place to dine with no waiting, check this place out. You might like it. We sure did.

We did eat light at the Cabana Bar because we were saving our appetite for our dinner at Boma's tonight.

So after lunch we caught a boat back to DHS. We used our FP for TSM. I won again for the second time that day. Again it was just great fun. We certainly do love this ride. After TSM we did the GMR with no wait. Then we did TOT with a 30 min wait.

I could tell at this point that I was getting tired. All of the people around us in the TOT line were annoying me. I was so annoyed and these people were not really doing anything bad or wrong. I guess those late nights/early mornings were starting to catch up with me. DH suggested we head back to SSR after TOT. I had to agree with him.

We found our car in the parking lot with no problem. I swear DH has a built in GPS in his head. We drove back to SSR and rested until about 5:15pm.

Then we got back in the car to drive to our 6:10 ADR at Boma's. We did self parking, so the lots are a ways from the resort. Also the lot was quite full. We found an area off to the side that was not so full and we parked there. As we were leaving the vehicle we were approached by a CM and were told we just parked in the valet section. No wonder there was so much room?? Anyway, we moved the car back to the proper section and hiked to the AKR. Best part of this parking story.... We get free valet parking at the resorts with our DVC membership. I did not remember that until with were inside the building

As usual, the waiting area for Bomas was packed. Large groups waiting every where. I have to say though, the ladies working the seating desk do a wonderful job of keeping that crowd organized. They are very friendly and good at what they do. Our wait was about a half hour. (not so bad)

The food at Boma's was as good as we remembered. Yes, they did get rid of the prime rib and replaced with a sliced sirloin of beef. I actually liked the sirloin better because there was much less fat and waste to it. There were several sauces for the meat. I liked the mustard one best. The potatoes with Affritude were wonderful also. I only tried one soup, it was a lentil and sausage soup. It was very good. I tried a bite of DH seafood curry soup, but I did not like the sweetness of it.

I had heard tales of extremely long lines/waits for the meat station. Lines would build up every once in a while but then they would move very quickly. All in all we enjoyed our dinner at Bomas. We will be returning again and soon. I don't know why we waited so long to return this time.

After dinner we drove to MK just to see wishes at 9:00. It was wonderful as usual. We left with the masses and drove back to SSR. We arrived about 10:00.

Another long and successful day at WDW.

Tomorrow is Sunday....all football all the time. We will have to get up early once again for our drive up to Jacksonville. It is about 2.5 hours away.

But before the drive, there was a wonderful breakfast at GF cafe. Remember that lobster eggs benedict?????

 

[Diamondintheruff]

I hear your frustration with the transport system. I figure it's a like a lottery. Ocasionally you win big but most of the time you lose.

 

[LYNSUE]

Breakfast at Grand Floridian Cafe

Up early again today at 6:00am. Our goal was to get to the GF cafe by 7:00 when they opened. At this resort, we again did self parking so it was a bit of a walk to the building. We must be slow learners or have bad memories, because we could have had free valet with our DVC membership. But we forgot again.

We arrived at the resort at 7:05am. Now they say the restaurant opens at 7:00am, but the full wait staff does not all arrive then. So until the wait staff showed up, we were given a beeper and asked to wait.

DH decided to use this wait time to run all the way back to the car and put his shorts on. Because of the cool weather we were both wearing long pants. However, he felt he would be more comfortable throughout the day with shorts. So I waited at the cafe by myself for his return.

I was a little bored waiting, so I took a picture of the display window right outside the restaurant. It was very pretty.

So DH returns and we waited about 5 more minutes and our buzzer went off. We were seated at a table in the first section of the restaurant directly to the left. There is bench/booth seating on one side of the table and regular chairs on the other. There were a lot of empty tables but we were sat very near another couple.

Well I did not need to see the menu, but DH did. Next is the fabulous dish I was waiting for. Lobster eggs benedict!!! You know how sometimes you building something up in your mind and then when the actual event happens, it is not as good as you anticipated?? Well, this was NOT one of those. It was everything I hoped it would be. Fabulous dish with great presentation.

I totally enjoyed it and would order it again. I ate every last bite.

DH decided on the french toast with a side of turkey sausage. He said it was good. I'm not a fan of french toast, so I will take his word for it.

Our waitress was ok during the meal. She check with us periodically. When she saw the camera flash, she came over and offered to take a photo of us together. We felt a little funny explaining it was just the plates we were interested in taking. I know you guys would much rather see the food pictures then our faces So now it was time to pay....and yes we got the dining discount.... but our waitress was no where to be found. We waited a long time for the check. And although we had mentioned prior to the meal we had the dining card, she forgot, and had to have the bill redone. Also the dining card requires a managers approval. So needless to say, we waited a long time for the waitress to return with our change and dining card. Other than that everything was just great at the GF cafe both visits this trip.

On our way out of the GF, we took a picture of the nicely decorated stair case. If you take out that hand rail in the center of the stair case, it reminds me of the scene in "Gone with the Wind" when Rhett carries Scarlett up the stairs. (a girl can dream, can't she!)

So we are finally off to Jacksonville for the Packer game. 2.5 hour drive all HWY driving. It went by fast. I didn't mind the drive at all. Gotta love that Garmin GPS. Since we arrived about two hours before game time, it was real easy to find a place to park very near the stadium. It only cost $20.00 for parking....not too bad considering how close we were. Since we had enough time, we walked slowly toward the staduim, made some phone call back home and just enjoyed the atmosphere.

Once inside the stadium, we thought we should have some lunch. We did not want to be bothered with small details like eating when there is football to be watched. The only choices were typical stadium food. Since I could not find anything better, I ordered a burger and fries. The fries were limp and under done. The burger was over done and dry. The huge bun was very dry. Condiments did not help. DH went to a nearby stand and ordered a burrito. Lots of rice and beans inside and not much else. That burrito was very dry also. The only place we could find to place our food while we ate was the top of a garbage can. So it was real convenient when I decided to toss the bun and fries out. They were not worth eating. I did manage to eat some of the burger with some condiments. Good thing I put that breakfast bar in my purse. DH managed to eat most of the burrito

Anyway, it was a typical packer game this season. Keep it close through most of the game and then lose it at the end. The Jacksonville fans were not very nice about it either!!!!

We made the slow crowded walk out of the stadium and back to the car. The drive back to WDW went well also. We were stopping at DTD for dinner at Fultons. I am ashamed to admit it, but I had lobster and crab in the same day. I am very spoiled!!!

 

[LYNSUE]

When reviewing my previous post, it looks more like a dining review than a trip report. I apologize for that. But the only thing we did on Sunday that was Disney related was eat. So I guess that would explain why the report for Sunday turned out that way. We really did do other things on Sunday besides eat.

So to continue my dining review ..... (I mean trip report) , we will talk about dinner at Fultons.

We try to make this restaurant on every trip. I know this place gets some not so good review here sometimes, but DH and I really like it. And Yes, I agree, the place is a little pricey. Our "tables in wonderland" card was not accepted here, but Fulton's was allowing a 20% discount on dinner during December for DVC members. So that helped with the total.

Our ADR was for 8:00, but we arrived about 7:15. Fultons had no problem seating us right away. DTD was much less crowded tonight than when we visited on Friday night. Much nicer experience!!

As always, I had the fabulous crab claws. And then to make it even sweeter....Fultons pairs the crab claws up with little red potatoes. Two of my favorite things to eat. I swear I am in heaven. I will let the photo speak for itself. Now savor it.....it is not good if you take it all in too fast

DH had the grilled Key West Mahi Mahi with a side of garlic mashed potatoes. (But who cares....I had crab claws.) I will show you a picture anyway.

Another fabulous dinner at Fultons. We left there stuffed, but happy.

On our drive back to SSR we stopped to fill up with gas and also get some milk for breakfast. DH was having trouble getting the pump to work. We did not realize that the station was pre-pay. I went in to complain and the counter person said she would reset the pump only if I stayed right at the counter while DH pumped gas. So I stayed.... that way there was no chance of a drive off. Besides, I had to pay for the milk!!

We were back to the room by about 8:30. We watched the rest of the Sunday night football game.

I promise my report for Monday 12-15-08 will contain more Disney stuff besides just eating. LOL

 

[MEK]

I have always wanted to eat at the GF cafe and your trip report makes me want to try it on my next visit. I, for one, love all your food pics. I only took 2 food pics my entire trip. I just couldn't bring myself to do it, but now I wish I had.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

I haven't really been brave enough to take food pictures. It's silly really and I've made myself promise to take them on my next trip.

 

[gbpackfan9]

I thought I'd take a few minutes and give anyone reading this my perspective on the trip so far. This is the first TR that I've added my views to my DW's report. She is very conscientious about keeping great notes on our trips. Here she is jotting down some notes..

I was going to help with our October trip report and took lots of notes myself. But as DW explained earlier, with the health problems she encountered on that trip, she didn't want to be "whining". This trip I didn't take any notes, so I'm going to wing it....

Since we've gotten our digital camera, we've been taking pictures of out of way and obscure things in the park. Here is are some pictures of Cinderalla's wishing well just off a walkway to the castle.

Notice the detail at the base of the well.....

We didn't run into this until our 5th or 6th trip to MK. She read about it, and finally we decided to find it.

Speaking of obscure photos, here are a couple of photos from our October trip. Do you know where these were taken?????

As the title of this TR states, this trip was a very fast paced one. Between the tour we took, the Mousefest activities and the Packers/Jaguars game, we didn't have a lot of time for park hopping. We never did get to Animal Kingdom this trip. One of our favorite parts of our trips are all the wonderful restaurants at WDW. This trip we visited some new spots as well as some old favorites. I hope you've enjoyed the pics as much as we enjoyed tasting the wonderful dishes..... DW stated that Fulton's is one of our favorites. Actually it is one of "her" favorites.... I enjoy going there because she's told me that crab meat is an aphrodisiac ....Don't know if it's true, or that she knows that will make me want to return often.... Seriously, the food and atmosphere are great and we like to have at least one pricey meal while on vacation.

Well, it's now Sunday evening... after a long drive to and from Jacksonville, a close, but yet another agonizing loss by my beloved Packers, and a wonderful meal at Fulton's, we are back in our room. Plans were to pack up so we could get another early start on our get-away day tomorrow. It didn't happen..... We actually slept in Monday morning. Not too late, but we didn't get up 6AM for a change......Stay tuned...our final day is coming soon........

 

[gbpackfan9]

I haven't really been brave enough to take food pictures. It's silly really and I've made myself promise to take them on my next trip.

We've always thought it was strange taking pictures of food also. But we know that others enjoy looking at them too, so last trip we started taking the pics (when we remembered) After the first couple of flashes in a dark restaurant, it got a lot easier......

 

[LYNSUE]

Departure Day. But first....mostly a full day at Epcot.

The original plan for today was to make EE rope drop at Epcot. Since there had been too many early mornings already this trip, we decided to just sleep until we felt like getting up.

We were up about 7:30 and had breakfast in the room. Took our time packing, loaded the car, checked out of SSR and then drove over to Epcot. We arrived about 10:00am. As mentioned earlier with DS, it has been many years since we had driven to a park. Even at 10:00 we were still parked close enough to the entrance that we did not need the tram. I was hoping this was a good sign that the park would not be so crowded today.

Our tradition has been to start the trip at MK (which we did) and end the trip at MK (which we did not). This trip was just too short and hectic to worry about that. We will try to correct this when we return in April 2009.

Our first stop in Epcot was at Soarin to get FP's. We had a 12:00 return time. We did other rides in FW including the wild side of MS. DH wanted to??? He felt a little fuzzy headed for a while after. Next time we will stick with with the mild side. Then we headed back to Soarin to use the FP.

After Soarin, we stopped for another FP with a return time of 5:15. We knew we would be leaving Epcot before then, but we wanted to have it to give away. A little Christmas cheer before our departure. Then we headed over to the world showcase. I wanted to go to the Japan pavallion to purchase another pearl. My first pearl purchase was in May of 2007. I had a necklace made for our anniversary. I was very lucky and picked a rare silver pearl. When we were at WDW in October, I found a very nice necklace setting that required two pearls. So I picked two (both were white) and I had a necklace made for my oldest son's girlfriend as a birthday gift. She liked it very much. Well I liked it very much too, so I had a duplicate made this trip and I received it as a Christmas gift from DH. I told you I was spoiled.

After the pearl excursion, we headed back to Germany for our lunch reservation at Biergarten. Remember way back on Friday when we tried to get into Biergarten without an ADR and there were huge lines/crowds.... well it was nothing like that today. It was a very nice relaxed atmosphere. Biergarten is becoming a tradition as our last meal before leaving the world. DH and I both like German food and the Biergarten is a nice entertaining restaurant. I did not take any pictures of the food at the buffet or on our plates. Buffet plates are just not that attractive IMO. However we did get two photos of the entertainers. This guy is playing a wooden xylophone type instrument.

And here's one of the whole group. See the Christmas tree in front of the stage?...they had a tree lighting ceremony involving the children in the restaurant. It was very cute.

Of course we had table mates at Biergarten. A group of two and another group of four. All of them (including us) kept to ourselves, so there was little or no interaction That is rather rare for this place.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Always fun to have more than one view on a trip report.

No interaction at the table at Biergarten? Never been but thinking about it.