Two Sisters finally get to go to WDW together! - TR has started!

[manntra]

Woo hoo for 1 month! Soon enough you will be at my favorite hotel!

Too funny about the German pickle....I do remember reading somewhere now that it is not a German tradition! Someone needs to tell that to the shop in Epcot that has a tree full of them!

Tracy

 

[manntra]

I didn't want to post again on Christine's thread for fear of taking up too much space....I meant that chocolate itself must bring out the raspberry flavor in the lambic! My friend who owns a liquor store is always talking about pairing this and that...and apparently a good pairing is chocolate with wine that has a hint of raspberry/cherry. But chocolate lambic! Ugh! I would probably eat anything chocolate but that's going too far! I looked last night and I have a few bottles of Stella Artois too and lo and behold that is from Belgium also . I promise to pay better attention from now on
Have you started putting aside items for your trip yet. A bit too early to pack but I always have a "staging area" for items I know I will need.

Tracy

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

I love that your father found you and Katharina a bit of Disney magic...

your tree is delightful...all trees used to be lit by candle...and I guess since Prince Albert brought the Christmas tree to England when he married Victoria...that that tradition came from Germany as well...

Congrats on the one month countdown...

So what is the traditional Christmas dinner in Germany?

 

[Flossbolna]

I didn't want to post again on Christine's thread for fear of taking up too much space....I meant that chocolate itself must bring out the raspberry flavor in the lambic! My friend who owns a liquor store is always talking about pairing this and that...and apparently a good pairing is chocolate with wine that has a hint of raspberry/cherry. But chocolate lambic! Ugh! I would probably eat anything chocolate but that's going too far! I looked last night and I have a few bottles of Stella Artois too and lo and behold that is from Belgium also . I promise to pay better attention from now on
Have you started putting aside items for your trip yet. A bit too early to pack but I always have a "staging area" for items I know I will need.

Tracy

I didn't know that you are a beer fan! The Belgians have strange beers and I think if you would search for it, you would find a chocolate beer. Wouldn't be my taste!!

I actually set up a shopping bag in my living room some time in December to collect bits and pieces and I have a written packing list on which I have been working a bit. We will post about a few things like bags and cloths very soon as well!!

Your Christmas tree looks beautiful. I bet it's gorgeous with the candles lit.

One Month!!

I love the real candles on the tree, but you have to be really careful about where to place them, make sure that they are straight and then watch this tree. We also always have a fire extinguisher close by!

Unfortunately the pics with the candles lit turned out too dark.

Woo hoo for 1 month! Soon enough you will be at my favorite hotel!

Too funny about the German pickle....I do remember reading somewhere now that it is not a German tradition! Someone needs to tell that to the shop in Epcot that has a tree full of them!

Tracy

I did not know that AKL is your favourite hotel! Someone just asked on the AKL chatty FAQ thread (also known as the Jambo thread) what our most favourite thing about the lodge was - and I could not find one thing: For me it is just being there and knowing that I am so lucky to actually being able to stay at this beautiful hotel! I am really looking forward to it!

I think the best way to describe the pickle is to say that it is an American tradition to believe that it is a German tradition!

So what is the traditional Christmas dinner in Germany?

Very difficult to say!! Since we celebrate on the evening of the 24th most family have a rather simple meal. Often you would eat an early dinner, then go to church at 6 pm and afterwards return home for tree and presents. Or if the service is earlier, eat after church in the kitchen before dressing up and then entering the living room with the tree. Lots of people eat sausages with potato salad (depending on region it would either be wieners or brats (if those are the correct terms by dictionary gave me)). Also very popular is ham baked in bread dough (was traditional in my family for a long time) or carp (a freshwater fish). I think the carp is popular in catholic regions since the 24th is considered a day of fast. In modern times people tend to also have meat or cheese fondues or raclette.

Also very traditional is roast goose or duck, but those would often be served for lunch on the 25th. Beef rouladen are also popular for a festive meal.

 

[nodnol]

Hello there,
I wanted to show you two more Christmas presents I got, especially for our trip:

A small backpack, just enough space for a small book, a sweater and some small things. I wished for exactly this one and got it! It has lots of gadgets and it even has a removable fixture for a cycling helmet, which I will use again in the summer!

Flossbolna gave me this book! She thinks it will be good for the trip on the plane, I hope I'll find some hidden mickeys she doesn't know yet, so I'll hide the book!!!

I hope you all had nice holidays, I enjoyed christmas with flossbolna, Remy and my parents. Tomorrow we're off to my in-laws, we'll celebrate New Year's Eve with them. We will have the above mentions fondue there!

They are a very traditional family, so they always have potato salad with frankfurters on the evening of the 24th and goose on the 25th. The bake the goose not in a simple kitchen stove, but in a small house in their garden with a huge stone oven inside it's called a Backhaus in German, couldn't find a direct translation. My father-in-law usually has to get up at 5 am to get the oven started...

Here is a picture of the little baking house, my father-in-law took it on the 25th to boast with the snow they had - quite uncommon for that part of Germany

 

[If U Had Wings]

I'm so glad the two of you had a wonderful Christmas. Your tree is adorable. I love that it has real candles on it.

 

[Flossbolna]

Hello there,
I wanted to show you two more Christmas presents I got, especially for our trip:

A small backpack, just enough space for a small book, a sweater and some small things. I wished for exactly this one and got it! It has lots of gadgets and it even has a removable fixture for a cycling helmet, which I will use again in the summer!

I love your new bag and am very envious! I really need to do a bag update on my choice of bags...

Flossbolna gave me this book! She thinks it will be good for the trip on the plane, I hope I'll find some hidden mickeys she doesn't know yet, so I'll hide the book!!!

You don't think that I would be any good on finding Hidden Mickeys! You got that book so that I finally get someone who will point them out to me!!

To our esteemed readers: Katharina is extremely good at spotting things while I am not. When we were small she would always get in trouble with my mother because she was running through museums and claiming that she was finished and bored when the rest of the family had seen about half of the museum. After a few incidents my mother started to realize that she actually had seen everything and wasn't just trying to rush us!

Here is a picture of the little baking house, my father-in-law took it on the 25th to boast with the snow they had - quite uncommon for that part of Germany

Wow, I did not know that they had snow on Christmas in Bispingen!

I'm so glad the two of you had a wonderful Christmas. Your tree is adorable. I love that it has real candles on it.

Thanks for the nice comment on our tree, it is not very decorated, but my parents got a really nice tree this year!

 

[mickeysmyboy]

I love your beautiful tree!! Mickey and Pluto are too cute your Dad should be proud!!

I love the idea of a baking house in the garden!! Too cool!!!!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I love the backpack! It makes me re-think my park bag choice. I'm worried I will have to carry my layers if it becomes too warm....

 

[PNO4TE]

It looks like you had a wonderful Christmas!

Now you are under a month for your fabulous WDW trip with your sister.

 

[If U Had Wings]

To our esteemed readers: Katharina is extremely good at spotting things while I am not. When we were small she would always get in trouble with my mother because she was running through museums and claiming that she was finished and bored when the rest of the family had seen about half of the museum. After a few incidents my mother started to realize that she actually had seen everything and wasn't just trying to rush us!

I had to laugh at this. My older niece, who is 8 now is just like this. Whenever we take her to a musueum or zoo she zips through it really fast and then says she's set to go. We always joke that she has a mental checklist and goes through checking off what she needs to see and she's done. My younger niece is the complete opposite. She stops to really observe things.

 

[nodnol]

I guess I was always a quick decision maker, for example about whether some information seems useful or not. And as my memory has about a quarter of the capacity of flossbolna's or our dad's I never really bothered to try and store too many information in my brain - wouldn't find them anyway

Flossbolna on the other hand remembers nearly everything (or dad remembers EVERYTHING ) and she is not a quick decision maker at all. When we were kids, our parents took us quite often to the only icecream parlour in our town. The menu never changed, we all knew even before we got there, what we would order - except Flossbolna

 

[manntra]

I love the baking shed in the garden! It looks like a trek through the snow to get to it! I am sure it smells wonderful too!
Love your backpack Nodnol! I love the detailing on the front and it looks like the perfect size!
The book will come in handy! There is a lot of hidden Mickey's out there!! It is a fun guide.

Tracy

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

I love Nodnol's new backpack-I think those smaller backpacks are really wonderful to take with you when you travel...enough room for your things...and yet really easy to carry and cute too...

I can be a slow decision maker also...I have to look at something from everyside and angle...before I can decide...sometimes I think it would be nice to be able to decide quickly...

I think it's good when you have someone close to you who thinks differently-then you get the benefits of both ways of deciding...

 

[Flossbolna]

Happy New Year!!

I hope all of you arrived in 2010 without any problems! I hope all of you will have a wonderful year ahead of you!

 

[If U Had Wings]

Happy New Year!! You must be getting so excited about your trip!

 

[Flossbolna]

As promised we are continuing with Katharina's and mine next visit to a Disney park. I was ready to travel to DLP, then Eurodisney, but we will just continue to call it by its current name, just when we came back from USA in 1992. I got travel brochures and started to calculate costs etc. Every fall and spring I would get the brochure for the next season to keep up to date! Those were the times before the internet...

For Christmas 1992 Katharina gave me this wonderful present: every guidebook on DLP published in Germany as well a “gift certificate” stating that she offers to accompany me on a trip to DLP – if I paid for her. The guide books included the very first edition of the “Unofficial Guide to EuroDisney” in German:

Well, it wasn't until summer of 1995 that we finally made it there. We really wanted to take our father along, we thought he would love a Disney park. but he never was interested. So it was just the two of us.

We took the night train from Munich to safe money for the hotel. We got a berth on the night train which is more comfortable than a seat and we were young so we got at least some sleep. The berth is actually quite affordable!

This also made sense since DLP works the way that they nearly only sell packages which include admission for the length of stay. So by arriving at Paris Est station at 7 am and consequently at DLP about 2 hours or so later and then leaving on the night train again, we got nearly three days of park time from two nights at the hotel.

Our hotel was the Sequoia Lodge (SL) which is themed after the American National Lodges. But don't expect Wildernes Lodge there! It is quite different in style and layout:

This picture is from 1997, but things did not change too in those two years. The room was also very rustic, sorry no picture of a SL room!

We were off to explore the park (at that time there was only one park). The great thing about DLP is that you can actually walk from the hotels to the park! Three hotels are grouped around a rectangular lake, the two value hotels, are just behind the SL. And the flagship hotel is directly in front of the park entrance! When walking from the SL to the park you have to pass an area which is like Downtown Disney first. I think when we were there for the frist time it was called Festival Disney, now it is called Disney Village. We weren't fans of it then and still aren't...

Then you pass the RER (loca train) and TGV (high speed train) station and then you see this:

It's the Disneyland Hotel. It forms a barrier to the park. You actually enter on through the first floor of the building which houses the ticket offices and behind it are the turnstiles and then the Disneyland Railroad station. You still enter Town Square under the station, but the station looks different. However on Town Square you find the Fireguard Station:

Anyone recognizes it?

I never took a picture down Main Street, but I took quite a few of Town Square:

And there is one picture of a house on Main Street:

Main Street at DLP is very interesting. There actually three walkways down Main Street: The street and then two arcades, one on each side behind the Main Street shops. The arcades are great if the weather isn't so nice or if a parade is going on. They help a lot with congestion on Main Street and they are rather pretty!

As DL and the MK, DLP also has a hub in front of the castle from where you go off to the different lands. Here is Katharina sitting on a bench on the hub:

And this is what you have been waiting for all the time: Sleeping Beauty's Castle – by the way, we don't call her Sleeping Beauty, but Dornröschen which translates into little Rose with thorns.

Sorry, this is a picture from the side, I don't have a view from the hub, but I rather like the side view with the square trees! I promise more castle pics from later trips will come up!

But I can offer you the back view from Fantasyland:

Continued in next post!

 

[Flossbolna]

The layout of DLP is a bit different: it starts clockwise with Frontierland next to Main Street, then Adventureland, then Fantasyland and finally Discoveryland (replacing Tomorrowland). Frontierland became such an important land because Europeans really love the American Wild West. Frontierland is also home to the Haunted Mansion of DLP, here called Phantom Manor:

The only other picture I have of Frontierland is this lovely courtyard of the Mexican themed restaurant there:

Otherwise, it is important to note that Frontierland is home to the best Big Thunder Mountain Disney ever built. The coaster goes to an island in the Rivers of America (no TSI here, but something similar in Adventureland) and is reather fast, has a tiny water effect (can be turned off in cold weather) and on ride photos. Think Expedition Everest, but a bit tamer.

Off to Adventureland:

Parts of it are Arabian themed, inspired by Aladdin and this entrance is incredibly beautiful! With tiny blue lights at night.

There is also an African eatery:

And then there is this:

This rock is on the island where you can go and explore. you can use bridges to go there and it is quite beautiful and pretty fun, even for adults. I think kids really love it.

Adventureland also has Pirates of the Caribbean which is really very good here.

Let's take the train to Fantasyland:

Fantasyland is actually home of another castle! There is Alice's Curious Labyrinth and inside is the Queen of Hearts' castle:

We were really happy to find one of our favourite rides at DL here: the Storybook Boats. They are really lovely:

Fantasyland is really very pretty as you can see here:

And a few more random shots, the first one is Katharina at the Wishing Well:

So there is only one land left: Dicoveryland! 1995 was the year they opened DLP's Space Mountain. We were really lucks that we could get early entry into the park one morning. At DLP most people get packages for the hotels which include ticket, hotel room and continental breakfast. For the breakfast you get reservations for specific times so that the hotels can handle the number of people. For one day we were able to get reservations for breakfast inside the park in Discoveryland which opened for thos breakfast people one hour early so you could ride Space Mountain without a line. And it was without a line!! After our first trip the CM just asked us if we wanted to go again and off we were for a second trip in the same rocket!! I think we got in four or five trips until I vetoed another trip since I was getting queasy. Of course we got on Space Mountain first so we still had not had any breakfast!

DLPs Space Mountain then was themed to Jules Verne book about a trip from the Earth to the Moon and decorated in 1900's style. I thought it was extremely well done, very festive, you were supposed to witness the festival of the very first launch of a moon rocket. The coaster itself has two inversions and is launched similar to Rock n' Roller Coaster, but it accelerates uphill.

So here are the pictures:

And this is the indoor stage which is combined with a counter service restaurant:

Katharina and I had a wonderful trip in 1995 and I hope you enjoyed the trip to the past as well. 1997 DLP is just around the corner, but first there will be a few real PTR updates!

 

[Flossbolna]

I love your beautiful tree!! Mickey and Pluto are too cute your Dad should be proud!!

I love the idea of a baking house in the garden!! Too cool!!!!

My father really loved his idea. The funny thing he told us was that underneath the price tag with Euros there was an old price tag with German Mark as the currency. We switched over to Euros 8 years ago, so it seems Santa Mickey does not sell to well in Germany!

I love the backpack! It makes me re-think my park bag choice. I'm worried I will have to carry my layers if it becomes too warm....

Isn't the bagpack cute? Bags are really difficult I can't make up my mind either!

It looks like you had a wonderful Christmas!

Now you are under a month for your fabulous WDW trip with your sister.

Time is flying by soo fast! It just was a month and now it is nearly only three weeks!! But we are very much looking forward to the trip!

I had to laugh at this. My older niece, who is 8 now is just like this. Whenever we take her to a musueum or zoo she zips through it really fast and then says she's set to go. We always joke that she has a mental checklist and goes through checking off what she needs to see and she's done. My younger niece is the complete opposite. She stops to really observe things.

I think it is actually really great that Katharina and I are so different. I think we both can gain from the other's talents: I get someone to find the Hidden Mickeys on the trip and Katharina has me to tell her things about our past trips that she has forgotten about!

I guess I was always a quick decision maker, for example about whether some information seems useful or not. And as my memory has about a quarter of the capacity of flossbolna's or our dad's I never really bothered to try and store too many information in my brain - wouldn't find them anyway

Flossbolna on the other hand remembers nearly everything (or dad remembers EVERYTHING ) and she is not a quick decision maker at all. When we were kids, our parents took us quite often to the only icecream parlour in our town. The menu never changed, we all knew even before we got there, what we would order - except Flossbolna

Well, decisions really aren't something I love. Which considering my choice of profession is a bit strange. If I am not working here in Berlin, I am normally a judge: so decisions are what I need to take on a daily basis. (And don't be too surprised, we have a different system here: you can become a judge just after law school and then stay a judge for your professional career, it's much more of an administrative than political job here)

I love the baking shed in the garden! It looks like a trek through the snow to get to it! I am sure it smells wonderful too!
Love your backpack Nodnol! I love the detailing on the front and it looks like the perfect size!
The book will come in handy! There is a lot of hidden Mickey's out there!! It is a fun guide.

Tracy

The baking shed is really something very special! I am sure lovely things are produced there!

I love Nodnol's new backpack-I think those smaller backpacks are really wonderful to take with you when you travel...enough room for your things...and yet really easy to carry and cute too...

I can be a slow decision maker also...I have to look at something from everyside and angle...before I can decide...sometimes I think it would be nice to be able to decide quickly...

I think it's good when you have someone close to you who thinks differently-then you get the benefits of both ways of deciding...

I am really envious of this backpack! It's a great size.

I have actually become much better with my decisions due to my job. I have especially learned to decide when it is appropriate to take my time to weigh everything and then find the right moment when I have enough information. I think I have improved with personal decisions as well: it really does not matter which ice cream I eat today, so I just pick something. But it does matter which kind of financial investment I get involved with, therefore I am taking much more time for this.

And I just realized that I wrote something very similar as you about the advantages of Katharina and me being different!

Happy New Year!! You must be getting so excited about your trip!

The trip is coming closer so fast, it is even a bit scary!! But I am getting really excited about it now!

 

[manntra]

Thank you for such a wonderful trip to DLP.
It has been fun going back in time with you on your other holidays!
I have often heard that some of the rides are much more "exciting!" for thrill seekers. (thats's me)
The Haunted Mansion aka Phantom Manor does look creepy
Dornroschen hee hee...I like the translation

Tracy