We took the kids to WDW! - All done, Now Bonus features! Festival of Holidays 2/23

[rentayenta]

Sounds nice. I'm battling another upper respiratory bug. Making comfort food for dinner, Chicken and Dumplings. Steaks on the grill sound lovely for when I feel better.

Hope you are feeling better.

Oh and I am ready for an update. I am all caught up on my clinical reviews at work.....

 

[franandaj]

Hope you are feeling better.

Oh and I am ready for an update. I am all caught up on my clinical reviews at work.....

Today is the first day I felt like having coffee again. Check out the sharing thread.

 

[rentayenta]

Will do. Glad you are on the mend.

 

[Malia78]

Whew...still in time for round two.
1. Epcot Character Spot, Living with Land, Spaceship Earth
2. Cronut
3. Karamell Kuche--the marshmallow/caramel swirls, caramel drizzled cookies, caramel corn
4. Morimoto's
5. Figment, Mission Space, Rio de Tempo in Mexico
6. 9:15 pm

 

[franandaj]

What?!?!?!?

At least I found it later!

According to Google, if you left from Tijuana... it'd be quicker than leaving from Winnipeg.
(22.5hrs vs 24hrs)

Wow! Canada is one BIG country!

Nope!
I plan to just sit in my room and stare at the walls while giggling uncontrollably.

Can you say "World's dullest TR?"

Yeah, right.

Boy I am late to the party! Better late than never! I will comment on the next update, but just going to throw some guesses in for now as I have a meeting at work pretty quick.

Don't worry you made the second round of questions, you're good!

Questions for next round:

1. What is our 1st FastPass? (10 points) Name all three correctly and you’ll get triple the points!
Character meet up, Living with the land, Spaceship Earth

2. We make a “snack stop” before dinner what do we have? Hint: It’s a tradition! (10 points)

Carrot Cake Cookie from SR

3. We make another stop for “stock up snacks”. Where is it? Bonus points if you can name what we buy. (10 points)

Karamelle Kuche- carmel corn, marshmellow swirl thing, dark chocolate sea salt caramel

4. Where do we have dinner? Hint: Fran and I ate there on our last trip. Originally we were going to Fulton’s for dinner, but we got a call about a month out from the trip that it would be closed so we had to come up with another plan. (10 points)

I think you ate at Morimoto Asia

5. In addition to our three FPs for the day, we experience three other attractions. (10 points each, 10 Bonus points if you get them in order)

Journey into Imagination, Mission Space, Nemo

6. What time do I get back to the room? (15 points for correct time or 10 mins before/after. 10 points for 10-20 mins before/after. 5 points within an hour)

9:55pm

Recorded.

 

[franandaj]

Will do. Glad you are on the mend.

Thank you.

Whew...still in time for round two.

I was holding out for you to come back from your cruise. I mean I can't pump you for information if I don't let you get in on the Contest!

1. Epcot Character Spot, Living with Land, Spaceship Earth
2. Cronut
3. Karamell Kuche--the marshmallow/caramel swirls, caramel drizzled cookies, caramel corn
4. Morimoto's
5. Figment, Mission Space, Rio de Tempo in Mexico
6. 9:15 pm

Recorded.

 

[Malia78]

Just re-read the last couple pages. Can I still squeeze in the bonus question--the old TIW card was under the computer.

I was holding out for you to come back from your cruise. I mean I can't pump you for information if I don't let you get in on the Contest!

I'm ready with answers too

 

[franandaj]

Just re-read the last couple pages. Can I still squeeze in the bonus question--the old TIW card was under the computer.

All answers are still admissible until the next update is posted.

I'm ready with answers too

Cool. I know my questions but need the time to write them all down. I will send you a PM.

 

[Steppesister]

HI Alison.

 

[franandaj]

HI Alison.

Hi back atcha! I've been at band all night and had Mani/Pedi before that so I been busy. But now it's time for the next update!

 

[franandaj]

Before we get on with the next update, I have a little bit of an aside here. By this point in the trip (and it had only been about 3 ½ hours in with Jim and Alberto) I had come to a realization. Those of you who travel with children or families or even other large groups are most likely used to this concept. I was not. If you know me, you know I like to have a plan. Fran is very easy going for the most part, and she is usually OK with going along with my plan. If she has her own idea, she will certainly let me know, we discuss it, and form a new plan.

Alberto seems to be a lot like that as well. He liked to know where we were going and start on our way, he might stop to take a selfie or two, but he never really slowed us down. As soon as we got to Epcot, it started to become clear to me that I was going to have to scale back my expectations of “how far around the world we would get” or “if I was going to cross off all the things that I wanted to do.”

Jim is a free spirit. He is really not bound by time. For him it is merely a guideline. Now I see why he is constantly strolling into band rehearsal half an hour or so late. Or when he says “he’s coming right over”, that can be half an hour to an hour, or it could be 10 minutes. To say that he is easily sidetracked would be an understatement. When we first entered the park, he stopped to take pictures of even the most mundane of topiaries, a lot of them. Unfortunately, that camera had a blue tinge to all the pictures as he had it on some setting that wasn’t congruent with the lighting, so very few of those pictures were actually salvageable, even using advanced mode in photoshop. He stopped using that camera after the first day. But what I’m getting at is the reason that Fran was ready to bite off someone’s head in the previous update was because Jim kept stopping. Every topiary or other shiny object, and it took us twice as long as we expected to go from the entrance of Future World, to the International Gateway where the food booths started.

After this I realized that I should not project my own interpretations on “what Jim and Alberto should see” and hurry them through the parks, but let them move at their own pace for the most part. If they wanted to stop and look at something, I would point out that we had this or that with a time factor and if you want to see/do this or that you need to hustle. If you don’t, well then don’t and we’ll skip it.

I talked to Jim about this the other day, and the funny thing is, that he knew exactly what I was talking about. You see he often takes neophytes to Disneyland. He has a complete agenda of what they need to see at the park, when they stop in amazement, he finds himself annoyed that they aren’t going to get to everything they need to see! He confessed that there were points on our trip when he realized that he was experiencing the wonder and amazement of his guests at Disneyland. He told me that he needs to cut his guests a little more slack on their first visit!

On our way to our FP we took some pictures of various topiaries. And F&G features













We had some time until our FP+ opened up, so I decided we needed to visit Club Cool. Alberto seemed to take everything much harder than Jim!





Our first FP+ was Spaceship Earth, we boarded our time capsule, and Jim and I rode together. I know I just showed you pictures from this ride on the last TR, so I made sure that none of them were identical to that TR.





















What’s funny is that mine and Jim’s future looks very similar to mine and Fran’s from December (and I let him answer all the questions).









Once we got off the ride, both Jim and Alberto sent E-postcards home.









I figured that the Figment ride would be a walk on, and more than the ride, I thought they would enjoy the after fun. Fran was watching a HS band perform, so she stayed to listen. I took some pictures of the Fantasia inspired topiaries while we made our way to the Imagination Pavilion.









I was right. Not only did they both conduct at several of the different music making sessions, they each built a Figment. Fran finally came into the workshop through the gift store wondering what was taking us so long.









After that was done, we headed on to our next FP.


[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]


We didn't need one as it was a walk on, but we all made our Mickey heads light up anyways. It was the Pixar short film festival. Even though they were all movies that we had all seen before, it was fun to see them in 4D (the theater did fun things that fit with the films).

Then we stopped for a couple PP shots.





Now I was a little dubious about calling this one a “snack” which is why I put it in quotes, but many of you might know that we love to pick up a Margarita at the stand outside of Mexico on our first day in Epcot. On another TR, it was put as a question for a snack, and everyone seemed to guess Margarita. But since no one on this TR guessed Margarita, I guess it’s a beverage and not a snack. Noted for future reference. Since no one got the answer, we could strike it from the contest and no one would be any the worse.





Drinkin’ and Drivin’ in Epcot!

Then we went over to Germany to pick up our ration of caramel. We got our caramel stash and by now it was time for our dinner ADR so we headed back to Mexico, and the San Angel Inn. The only reason we were originally going to leave Epcot for dinner, was because the rumor of Fulton’s closing had started. We wanted one last chance to dine there and this was the only night we could fit it in. After we were notified of the closing, why leave this park if we didn’t need to?

Selfie time again!





Don’t worry after today I won’t post more of the selfies, but I promise you, Alberto took probably to 50-100 selfies every day. He must have one heck of a large memory card for his phone! Or maybe those were the only pictures he took!

We were seated almost immediately. Alberto had fun talking to all the servers in Spanish.



Fran and I both ordered the San Angel Inn Margarita like we had back in December.





We got an appetizer of Queso fundidio. This was so good!





We got the Mahi Mahi to split. It was really tasty however I had wolfed down so much of the Queso, I was glad to have Fran eat most of it. Although I did finish off the corn, it was so good!





and they ordered the combination platter with short rib, shrimp, and Chile relleno. they both really liked the mole. I found it a real compliment to the restaurant that Alberto liked the food so much as he is from Costa Rica.





After dinner, Fran went back to the room while we took a spin on it’s a Small Mexico.










































[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]












After finding Donald, we went on to China, we watched the end of the acrobat show. We were drawn in by this strange looking guy.





Without dropping one of those thingys, she turned over onto her stomach



The guy with the masks came out and did a dance, but we were not impressed. Then there were some more acrobats, but we didn’t take any pictures. After a few photos of the topiaries outside we went inside for the circle vision.









By the time we finished the circle vision movies it was time to go to our reserved seating for Illuminations. But a quick stop for the Topiaries in Norway.



It was kind of a mess, there was no CM monitoring the line and it turned into a mob rather than a queue. Once they started to scan the bands a line began to form and luckily there was an area for scooters and wheelchairs, because we ended up being very far back in the line and most of the good spots at the water's edge were already taken. We waited about 20 minutes for the show.























After the show we headed out to the bus. The first one was full, so we waited for the next one and made it home around 10PM.


[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]


Fran had called down for our bags, when she got back to the room, but didn't request the groceries or the owner's locker. Jim had neglected to put the DME tags on his luggage so instead of the bags being magically sent to the room, they had retrieved them from baggage claim at MCO and stowed them under the DME bus. All his bags were checked with Bell Services. So he called down to get all of our stuff. It took over half an hour for them to bring everything up as they evidently got slammed with requests as soon as they hung up the phone with him. I took pictures of the room while we waited for the bags and groceries.

I wasn’t sure how fast Jim and Alberto would trash their room so I took pictures of their room first.













Out into the Living room area.











There’s the two Big Pink donuts that were left. One was Jim’s, one was Fran and mine.



Fran was out like a light.











My glorious tub!









We put away the groceries and I did a little bit of unpacking before taking my tub and going to bed. Here’s our kitchen all stocked.





Contest!


So I’m going to say this much, so many of you guessed that we would do all of the headliners and best rides today but once I got to making our FPs, I realized that this was the only night we had to see Illuminations as the other days we were in Epcot we had other plans, so that was our 1st tier choice for FP+. I didn’t want to chance it for Jim and Alberto that we would get good seats and I didn’t want to sit for hours. So we couldn't have done the other FP choices like TT or Character spot. Epcot is a tricky one as it it tiered. We come back here for a couple days so keep that in mind!


Answers for Last Round

1. What is our 1st FastPass? (10 points) Name all three correctly and you’ll get triple the points!

Answer: Spaceship Earth, Pixar Short Film Festival, Illuminations Reserved Seating


2. We make a “snack stop” before dinner what do we have? Hint: It’s a tradition! (10 points)

Answer: Margarita from the stand outside.


3. We make another stop for “stock up snacks”. Where is it? Bonus points if you can name what we buy. (10 points)

Answer: Karamel Kuche


4. Where do we have dinner? Hint: Fran and I ate there on our last trip. Originally we were going to Fulton’s for dinner, but we got a call about a month out from the trip that it would be closed so we had to come up with another plan. (10 points)

Answer: San Angel Inn.


5. In addition to our three FPs for the day, we experience three other attractions. (10 points each, 10 Bonus points if you get them in order)

Answer: Imagination with Figment, It's a Small Mexico, Circle Vision in China.


6. What time do I get back to the room? (15 points for correct time or 10 mins before/after. 10 points for 10-20 mins before/after. 5 points within an hour)

Answer: 10:00PM


So there were a few answers/situations I didn’t count on here, so I’ll explain my scoring in case anyone is curious.

Question #1 asked, “What is our First Fast Pass?” So the 10 points was if you gave the correct answer first. If you named the first fast pass in your guesses for the 2nd and 3rd FPs, you still get 5 points.


Responses

dhorner233, Soarin, Cronut, Karamel Kuche, Wolfgang Puck, Nemo; Imagination; Movie in China, 9PM, 35 points
rndmr, Mission Space; others Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, France for Slushies, Karamel Kuche, San Angel Inn, Test Track; The Living Seas; Imagination, 9:30PM, 40 points
dgbg100106, Character spot, Spaceship Earth; Journey Into Imagination With Figment; Carmel at Karamell-Küche, Screen Door General Store, Chips and Diet coke, Hoop Dee Doo Revue, IllumiNations; Nemo and Friends; Living with the Land, 9:30 pm, 10 points
EJ4Disney, Soarin - Space ship Earth – Illuminations, Dole whip at the Floridian, At the Contemporary – Fudge, The Wave, Test Track - Mission Space - Character Spot, 10:30PM, 20 points
Captain_Oblivious, Test Track; Spaceship Earth; Livin' With The Land, cronut, Karamel Kuche, Morimoto's, The Nemo ride; Mission: Space; Journey Into Imagination (why??), 8:30PM
Steppesister, SE; Living with the Land; Character Spot, Cronut, Sunshine Seasons; cookies and chips, Morimoto, Figment, The movie in France, Circle of Life, 9:15, 35 points.
IowaTater, Spaceship Earth; Test Track; Figment, Cronut, Karmel Kuche, Artist Point, Character Spot; Seas with Nemo; Illuminations, 9:30 pm, 25 points
Paula Sedley-Burke, Soarin; test track; illuminations, Cronut, Caramel at Germany, Boathouse, Space ship; A character meet and greet; Figment, 11:00 pm, 35 points
Irene_dsc, Living with the Land; Spaceship Earth; Character Spot, Norway for schoolbread, Karamel Kuche, Via Napoli, Nemo; Turtle Talk; IllumiNations, 10:30, 20 points
pkondz, TT; SE; Living With The Land, cronut, Karamelle Kuche, Raglan Road, Nemo; Turtle Talk; Mexican small world, 9:30pm, 30 points
juniorbugman, Mickey & Minnie Character Meet; Spaceship Earth; Mission Space, Cinamon roll, Karamelle Kuche, Morimota Asia, Figment; Canada; Mexico, 10:45pm
Leshaface, Test Track; Character Spot; Nemo, Karamell Kuche, Karamell Kuche, Raglan Road, Livin' with the Land; Mexican IASW; Journey into Imagination, 9:45pm, 40 points
dizneet, Test track; character meet and great; Spaceship earth, Funnel cake, Caramel popcorn from Karamel Kuche, Boathouse, Living with the land; Figment; Mexican Boatride, 4:50PM, 35 points
Pinkocto, SE; LWTL; TT, Ice cream in France, Karamel Kuche; Boathouse, Figment; Nemo; Pixar shorts, 8:45pm, 30 points
DnA2010, Character meet up; Living with the land; Spaceship Earth, Carrot Cake Cookie from SR, Karamelle Kuche, Morimoto Asia, Journey into Imagination; Mission Space; Nemo, 9:55pm, 40 points
Maila78, Epcot Character Spot; Living with Land; Spaceship Earth, Cronut, Karamell Kuche, Morimoto's, Figment; Mission Space; Rio de Tempo in Mexico, 9:15 pm, 40 points


Bonus Points from Karamel Store (5 each correct answer)

Caramel Pinwheels, plain caramel, Milk Chocolate covered caramel with sea salt, Milk Chocolate covered caramel, Caramel Smores. Jim got caramel corn, but he ate it before I could get a picture.

rndmr (caramel corn for Jim (sorry he ate it the next day before I could get a picture), caramel pinwheels for me) 10
At first I was going to say, ‘Sorry Captain_Oblivious, this was not specific enough, “And you got, uh... caramel?” ‘ But last week I found my pictures of what caramel was left on our last day, and there was a piece of plain caramel in the lot, so you do get bonus points! 5
I guess the same logic now applies to irene_dsc for “and um, something caramelly” 5
pkondz, 5, Caramel corn for Jim
juniorbugman, 5 Caramel Corn for Jim
Leshaface, 5 Marshmallow Pinwheels, 5 Caramel Corn
Dizneet, 5 Caramel popcorn
Pinkocto, marshmallow circle, regular caramels, 10
DnA2010, - carmel corn, marshmellow swirl thing, dark chocolate sea salt caramel, 12.5 (we got milk chocolate sea salt caramel not dark, so half points.)
Malia78 - --the marshmallow/caramel swirls, caramel corn, 10



Bonus points for found TIW card (5)
rndmr, dgbg100106, Captain_Oblivious, rentayenta, Steppesister, Irene_dsc, pkondz, juniorbugman, Malia78


Points this Round

Malia78 – 55 points
DnA2010 – 52.5 points
rndmr – 50 points
Leshaface – 50 points
juniorbugman - 50 points
Steppesister – 40 points
pkondz – 40 points
dizneet – 40 points
Pinkocto - 40 points
dhorner233 – 35 points
Captain_Oblivious – 35 points
Pinkocto - 40 points
Paula Sedley-Burke – 35 points
IowaTater – 25 points
irene_dsc – 25 points
EJ4Disney – 20 points
dgbg100106 – 15 points


Overall Scoreboard:

Captain_Oblivious – 89 points
Malia78 – 86 points
juniorbugman - 78 points
Leshaface – 75 points
pkondz, 74
rndmr – 68 points
dhorner233 – 60 points
dizneet – 60 points
Paula Sedley-Burke- 58 points
DnA2010 – 52.5 points
Pinkocto – 50 points
dgbg100106 – 49 points
Steppesister – 46 points
afwdwfan – 41 points
IowaTater – 35 points
irene_dsc – 30 points
EJ4Disney – 20 points


Next Round

1. What time do I wake up in the morning? (10 points)

2. Breakfast tomorrow is at Whispering Canyon Café. What do you think happened to make the meal memorable? (10 points) Creativity points may be awarded if your story is good enough!

3. What leaves the restaurant with us? (10 points)

4. Dinner takes place at Ft. Wilderness. How do we get there? (10 points)

5. Where are we seated in the dining room/theater?

6. In keeping with today’s themes, what leaves this restaurant with us?

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Enjoyed the EPCOT update. Now I am wondering if your friends are really my parents in disguise? Vacation with my Mum and you are forever with your hand off the scooter acceralor trying to bring it to a grinding halt as you realise she has stopped. Distracted by a leaf blowing in the wind...Jo says this is going to be a long day day lol.

Looks like you had a nice day and love those topiaries. So skilled. Dinner looks great I adore Mahi Mahi.

I love it in DL where the Mexican restaurant is inside and you can see it from the pirates ride.

I will bravely kick off..

1. 4:45 am
2. You asked for Ketchup, Jim tried to get them to repeat the reaction wheh this occurs for his camera but could not get the camera to work. Asked them to repeat a third time everybody had lost interest...
3. The ketchup
4. Boat
5. Dining Room
6. Ketchup

 

[dolphingirl47]

Just marking my spot. Thanks for the bat signal. I am hoping to come back and get all caught up after my shift today.

Corinna

 

[dgbg100106]

Love the update, and I can understand both sides of the "guide" story. Hope things got better and settled into a routine.

 

[DnA2010]

I am feeling seriously amazingly awesome for scoring 1st!! place in that round! I will prob fail miserably in future rounds, however I shall enjoy this small victory indeed! Especially as my own knowledge of Epcot is a bit weak as I've only been there once, but thanks to everyone's fab TRs!

 

[rndmr2]

Fun way to finish Epcot day!

I had no idea they had a Paschal Magic Shot! So cute!

So glad the guys seem to be having fun, I don't mind the selfies.

They really need to return that Imagination play area back to its former glory! I used to love that weird pin table, do they still have that?

Yay! I got some of the questions right!! I don't usually do too well at these.

Hey, a Margarita can be a snack, especially a frozen one, it's like a dessert! (so can a Slushie...)

1. What time do I wake up in the morning? (10 points)------5am

2. Breakfast tomorrow is at Whispering Canyon Café. What do you think happened to make the meal memorable? (10 points) Creativity points may be awarded if your story is good enough!-------Jim and/or Alberto got up and rode the horses on sticks around the restaurant with the little kids

3. What leaves the restaurant with us? (10 points)------------Leftover cinnamon buns

4. Dinner takes place at Ft. Wilderness. How do we get there? (10 points)-----------boat

5. Where are we seated in the dining room/theater?-----------Front and center

6. In keeping with today’s themes, what leaves this restaurant with us?--------------leftover strawberry shortcake

 

[franandaj]

Enjoyed the EPCOT update. Now I am wondering if your friends are really my parents in disguise? Vacation with my Mum and you are forever with your hand off the scooter acceralor trying to bring it to a grinding halt as you realise she has stopped. Distracted by a leaf blowing in the wind...Jo says this is going to be a long day day lol.

That's funny!

Looks like you had a nice day and love those topiaries. So skilled. Dinner looks great I adore Mahi Mahi.

The topiaries are really cool!

I love it in DL where the Mexican restaurant is inside and you can see it from the pirates ride.

Yes it is very nice.

1. 4:45 am
2. You asked for Ketchup, Jim tried to get them to repeat the reaction wheh this occurs for his camera but could not get the camera to work. Asked them to repeat a third time everybody had lost interest...
3. The ketchup
4. Boat
5. Dining Room
6. Ketchup

Recorded.

Just marking my spot. Thanks for the bat signal. I am hoping to come back and get all caught up after my shift today.

Corinna

Glad you made it safely home. Catch up at your leisure, this TR is moving very slowly.

Love the update, and I can understand both sides of the "guide" story. Hope things got better and settled into a routine.

I'm not sure we can have a routine with these two, but we have fun!

I am feeling seriously amazingly awesome for scoring 1st!! place in that round! I will prob fail miserably in future rounds, however I shall enjoy this small victory indeed! Especially as my own knowledge of Epcot is a bit week as I've only been there once, but thanks to everyone's fab TRs!

Congratulations! We have a couple more EPCOT days, so put that TR knowledge to work!

Fun way to finish Epcot day!

Thanks! It was!

I had no idea they had a Paschal Magic Shot! So cute!

So glad the guys seem to be having fun, I don't mind the selfies.

We had no idea what they were going to put in there, they told Jim that he could look "smug" or "proud of himself" and the rest of us should look surprised.

They really need to return that Imagination play area back to its former glory! I used to love that weird pin table, do they still have that?

I didn't see that. All I really saw were the two games they played.

Yay! I got some of the questions right!! I don't usually do too well at these.

Hey, a Margarita can be a snack, especially a frozen one, it's like a dessert! (so can a Slushie...)

You were the only one who guessed the restaurant right, and I think you did guess an alcoholic beverage, you just missed the country.

1. What time do I wake up in the morning? (10 points)------5am

2. Breakfast tomorrow is at Whispering Canyon Café. What do you think happened to make the meal memorable? (10 points) Creativity points may be awarded if your story is good enough!-------Jim and/or Alberto got up and rode the horses on sticks around the restaurant with the little kids

3. What leaves the restaurant with us? (10 points)------------Leftover cinnamon buns

4. Dinner takes place at Ft. Wilderness. How do we get there? (10 points)-----------boat

5. Where are we seated in the dining room/theater?-----------Front and center

6. In keeping with today’s themes, what leaves this restaurant with us?--------------leftover strawberry shortcake

Recorded.