Trick or Tweet! The Lurkyloos Do F&W, etc: 11/8 Last Day at WDW!

[lurkyloo]

Then it was back on the train to the rest of the park. Actually, we did score a couple shots of backstage for you along the way!

OoooOOOOoooh… backstage!!!

We only had about half an hour left before closing, so we went off in search of more animals, with a quick stop to shoot a spot where weddings have been known to occur at Animal Kingdom…

Not involved with Animal Kingdom weddings…

Where are all the bats?

There's a bat!

Hmmm… this might be a tie with GorillaVille as my favorite spot in Animal Kingdom…

"NUTS to GorillaVille!"

"Where the H did my kid go…?"

BAMBI!!!!

Nice hat.

 

[lurkyloo]

They call this "The Poop Zone"…

Disney should sell these in the gift shops too

"Down the hatch!"

Geez, are they EVER gonna finish building this place?

While we were wandering, I decided to ask about the Picnic in the Park program they launched to great fanfare a couple of years ago but which seems to have disappeared without a trace recently. Turns out there's one trace, a cold case full of sandwiches at the Beastly Bazaar gift shop.

I really loved the idea of this program—it's a shame we never got to try it before they deep-sixed all the hot food.

When you're among the last to leave the park, Disney really rolls out the red carpet… a carpet that points you directly toward the exit, that is!

Back to the Beach Club, where we had a little break and got spiffed up for our dinner date with the Roots at Artist Point.

 

[lurkyloo]

So, readers who are at WDW right now, are they selling all the same Halloween merchandise this year?

Geez, we must've been super-early for dinner—this is a whole lotta lobby pix!

We were really eager to get to spend some quality, non-photography time with Nathensey to hear all about their *real* safari to *real* Africa that summer to shoot their friends' wedding. We also wanted to introduce them to one of our favorite restaurants at WDW—Artist Point.



ROOTS!!!

Loved the black sea salt on the butter!

I'm looking all over the menu from that night and can't find these anywhere, so they must've been a special… wish I knew what they were!

Smoky Portobello Soup with Roasted Shoot-takes and Chive Oil (the DIS won't let me use their real name!)

"The Chef's Garden" Heirloom Tomato Salad with Sweet Onions, Eighty-year Balsamic [Vinegar], Buffalo Mozzarella Foam, and Organic Virgin Olive Oil

Char-grilled Buffalo Striploin Steak with Three-Cheese Mac, Cider-Glazed Brussels Sprouts, and Syrah Gastrique

The buffalo was a bit too charred for my taste but otherwise quite good. The macaroni and cheese was dry—what's up with THAT?

We had a great time, even though the food wasn't quite up to the usual Artist Point standard (maybe cuz it was Monday night and the head chef wasn't in the kitchen?). Also, we had a good chuckle over the way the server, when asked for elaboration on certain dishes, would read us the menu descriptions verbatim as if that answered our questions.

After dinner we all went back to the Beach Club for dessert at Beaches and Cream. Jensey and I must've taken a powder along the way…

We'll use a representational shot for this part

Geez, guys, we weren't gone THAT long!!!

At Beaches & Cream we filled our tummies with all kinds of deliciousness and talked each other's ears off until none of us could keep our eyes open anymore—the best way to end a Disney day!

Up Next: Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in Full Costume as Constance & Harrison Hightower!

 

[burly]

Carrie, i just loved this update. And the Africa wedding shots from the Roots were just awesome.

Cracked up at the pic of the boys after the powder room, goofballs.


Man that's a lot of wood at the WL, right?

KIM

 

[Aburns8]

Wow! What a day. I love taking pictures in Animal Kingdom. When you can find the animals it is great! The Backstage Tour sounds fun. We have always been meaning to go on an Animal Kingdom tour and just haven't had time. I can't wait to hear about MNSSHP.

 

[lurkyloo]

Carrie, i just loved this update. And the Africa wedding shots from the Roots were just awesome.

Cracked up at the pic of the boys after the powder room, goofballs.


Man that's a lot of wood at the WL, right?

KIM

It's a woodchuck's dream!

Wow! What a day. I love taking pictures in Animal Kingdom. When you can find the animals it is great! The Backstage Tour sounds fun. We have always been meaning to go on an Animal Kingdom tour and just haven't had time. I can't wait to hear about MNSSHP.

I highly recommend the tour. I think even people who are not that interested in AK would find that the tour is the very best kind of AK experience.

 

[Disneygrl36]

Now that is what I call an update!
Animal Kingdom is just so darn photogenic. I can't believe you actually saw a baboon (or it's backside) on the safari. I don't think we've ever seen one. What a cool tour!
Loved the pictures of that pretty blue/black bird on the ornate bird house.
Classic pictures of Patrick & Nate passed out waiting on you guys. Men!

We leave for our cruise in 11 days. I can't wait. I'll probably do a trip report when we get back. I went for a 6.5 mile walk/run on Sunday as part of my training for the 1/2 marathon in Jan & ended up at the ortho yesterday & have a stress fracture. So I'll be in a boot/wheelchair & on crutches. Should be quite the adventure.....I'm thinking of naming the trippie Making like Long John Silver & sailing the Dream on one good leg.

 

[lurkyloo]

We leave for our cruise in 11 days. I can't wait. I'll probably do a trip report when we get back. I went for a 6.5 mile walk/run on Sunday as part of my training for the 1/2 marathon in Jan & ended up at the ortho yesterday & have a stress fracture. So I'll be in a boot/wheelchair & on crutches. Should be quite the adventure.....I'm thinking of naming the trippie Making like Long John Silver & sailing the Dream on one good leg.

I'm sorry to laugh at your misfortune, but the Long John Silver analogy is priceless! I hope you have a wonderful time despite your peg leg...

Have so much fun!

 

[beatlesblonde]

The backstage safari looks very cool, I love doing tours at Disney, I'll have to add that one on our list of "to do".

At Beaches & Cream we filled our tummies with all kinds of deliciousness and talked each other's ears off until none of us could keep our eyes open anymore—the best way to end a Disney day!

Okay can you please identify the tasty treats in this picture? Chauncey and I are hoping to hit Beaches and Cream on our next trip and I must know what these are!

 

[mousescrapper]

love all the pixs from your AK day some great animal shots there especially the mercats...so cute

sounded like a great night w/ friends too despite not the best dinner...what fun

oh and i just LOL the "powder room" break pix and the boys passed out waiting

 

[lurkyloo]

Okay can you please identify the tasty treats in this picture? Chauncey and I are hoping to hit Beaches and Cream on our next trip and I must know what these are!

Lesseeee.... my memory's a little hazy, but I think we're looking at a black-and-white sundae (you know, with marshmallow on chocolate ice cream and fudge on vanilla), an Oreo sundae and a frosty chocolate milkshake!

love all the pixs from your AK day some great animal shots there especially the mercats...so cute

sounded like a great night w/ friends too despite not the best dinner...what fun

oh and i just LOL the "powder room" break pix and the boys passed out waiting

It's so funny! I didn't even see Nate's legs in the first shot til I was about to post it, and then it became that much more HIGH-larious...

 

[lurkyloo]

Today we did what they do NOT say you should do before attending one of the Magic Kingdom's ticketed parties: We got up and went to a park for rope drop. But we felt we probably should go see Hollywood Studios at least once on our trip, even if it was only grudgingly. We started with a boat ride—always the best part of any trip to DHS!

Ahoy there!

When we got to Hollywood Studios, we did the usual drill and skipped Toy Story Mania (since we have our own at Disneyland) and went straight to Rock n Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror. (OK, technically we have a TOT too, but ours isn't as good!)

This could have some tangled vines or something in and still look abandoned while also looking, you know, good…

Little did we know (well, OK, maybe I had an idea) the next time we were here we'd be at our anniversary party shooting pix with the Roots in these very locations!

 

[lurkyloo]

Disney should build a Tower of Terror-themed hotel—wouldn't that be amazing? Wait… maybe that's a bad idea because no one would want to ride the elevators!

With those two rides under our belts we wandered around trying to think of something to fill the time until our lunch reservation at the Brown Derby. Disney thought maybe it would be a good idea if we went shopping…

Um, these look NOTHING like brownies!

Oh no you don't, Starring Rolls cupcakes—you won't fool me with your good looks again!

Well, let's see… we've ridden the two good rides, looked at all the interesting shops and food, and it's only 9:45… I guess we could give 22 minutes of our lives to the Great Movie Ride…

The best thing about the Great Movie Ride is this carousel horse from Mary Poppins!

Well you're never going to believe this, but we got the very same lackluster tour guide we got when we rode TGM a year before! You'd think the intervening months would have given him ample time to hone his technique, but they may actually have made him a little bit worse...

"Whaddya mean there's a rampaging elephant headed straight for us…?"

"Here's looking at you, kid…"

"…and you're looking kinda blurry!"

Actually, I was glad we went on the ride cuz Patrick got a bunch of great, empty shots of Munchkinland that I could use to show where you can have a party inside the Great Movie Ride!

Always gotta make a pilgrimage here!

 

[lurkyloo]

That's right, a *re-creation*—at some point, they DID have copy editors at Walt Disney Imagineering! …Although I might've excised the somewhat redundant "originally built"…

Wait, what month was this? October? They must put each Osbourne light up by hand—with tweezers—if it takes 'em that long!

What's this? A line for Muppet*Vision 3-D?

Muppet*Vision 3-D was popular at that time cuz it had just received a new digital print. Unfortunately, new digital print + old smeared glasses = same crummy experience as before.

Oh my GAWD, Animal and Beaker have MELTED!!!!

Bad show!

OK, WDI, explain THAT apostrophe to me!

Finally it was time to go lurk in the lobby of Brown Derby for 20 minutes hoping to get seated early cuz we had nothing else to do.

 

[lurkyloo]

I think this was the Blue Lump Crab Cake with Potato Crust, Green Cabbage Slaw, Cognac-Mustard Sauce, and Rémoulade

The description for this on AllEars seems a bit off from what we had, but here goes: Sterling Silver Pork Chop topped with smoked gouda and apricot preserve served over Napa cabbage, bacon and potato hash with apple cider jus

We had the place to ourselves, got a great server, and really enjoyed our meal. For kicks, I'd ordered a "podium cake" when we checked in just to see if the cakes at Hollywood Studios were closer to those at the MK or the EasyBake Oven variety served at many places in Epcot—all part of my obsession with cake at Walt Disney World. (For the uninitiated, a podium cake is one of the generic, supermarket-style cakes you can order on the spot at any Disney restaurant just by asking at the podium when you get there.) At some point, someone asked us if we wanted anything written on the cake and I'd replied, "Oh, I dunno… how about 'Bon Voyage'?" because it was our last full day at Disney.

Well, bless their hearts, the staff at the Brown Derby took this to mean we were celebrating some grand occasion. When the cake finally appeared at the end of the meal, it was all done up fancy-like with flowers and a candle, and it was accompanied by two free glasses of Champagne! On top of that, our server took our picture and put it in a little commemorative card for us to take home. We felt like huge impostors and totally unworthy of all that attention!

And, for those of you keeping score at home, the cake turned out to be identical to the kind they serve at the Magic Kingdom.


What a waste of perfectly good free booze! I think we found some diners near us to take it or discreetly poured it into a potted palm or something….

The day was still young (wait—can a day be young, or just a night?) but we had to start heading back to our room to get ready for Mickey's Not-So-Scary-Except-For-the-Sticker-Shock Halloween Party. This was another great excuse to ride a boat!

Looks like Mickey's sporting half a 'stache, there...

And now, my "Ode to a Friendship Boat"...

Oh, Friendship Boat, I love you so
You take me everywhere I want to go

With a chipper skipper and a horn that toots

Romantic like a carriage, minus the horse doots!

Covering your nose, eh, Quackers? Everyone's a critic...

On the way back, we stopped off at the Swolphin to shoot some of their wedding venues. These are an economical alternative for people who have large guest lists but can't afford a Disney's Fairy Tale Wedding or want more flexibility. The Swan even has a beach you can get married on.

This venue is called Crescent Terrace—I was surprised how close it is to the walkway and the waterway, but maybe the trees shield you from prying eyes…

We also stopped in at Garden Grove, which I'd never seen in person before and is every bit as cool as it looks in photos.

 

[lurkyloo]

The West Terrace is a good venue for smaller parties. It's right below the guest rooms just like the Wedding Gazebo at the Yacht Club, but somehow I don't think you get as many people hanging out on their balconies to watch your ceremony.

So I guess we were documenting our every step back to the room in photos here? I dunno…

When we got back to our room at the Beach Club we discovered out first towel…uh… thing!

I dunno what this is… do you know what this is? Is it a bunny with a long tail?

Also in our room was the Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings purse I'd ordered from the Disney Florist and had delivered at the last minute when I realized I had no place in my Haunted Mansion Bride costume to carry my ID, room key, etc. It worked great and even went with my costume!

And with that, I leave you until next time, when I'll have glorious Root photos of our very first Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and our costumes and fireworks and everything! (Sorry I couldn't get it all posted today—it had to be either a partial post or nothing til next week!)

 

[lurkyloo]

Hmmm... maybe I shouldn't have put the word "boring" in my thread title after all...

 

[NeverlandClub23]

It wasn't boring at all! I loved the Ode to the Friendship Boat.

Garden Grove looks so cool! I've never taken the time to go in and see it. And now I don't have to!

I remember reading someone's wedding TR back in the day about the reception (vow renewal?) they had inside the Great Movie Ride. What a unique venue!

Too funny about the hoopla over the Bon Voyage cake! Maybe they thought this was your last night together . It looks delicious!

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

I'm so excited
and I just can't hide it
I'm about to lose control
because I get to see costume pictures finally

as per the towel animal... I do believe it is a dog

 

[Aburns8]

It wasn't boring. I got to see pictures of cupcakes!

But I am looking forward to the next installment!