JoshAndEvsMom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 11, 2011
- Messages
- 743
Eeek! Its just a few days before Christmas and I'm really feeling the crunch. I've really had one of "those" days today... I had just caught my potty-training (yes still... another story for another time) DD before she did a #2 in her pants and hauled her to the toilet. Feeling pretty good about the "catch", my DS promptly walks in and upchucks all over the floor. I had to take DD, mid-poo, to another bathroom while DH cleaned up the mess. Meanwhile, we hear the garage door go "CRASH" and find that half of it is off the tracks. Called a repairman who will be here between 9:00 and 11:00 PM. Yes, 9 and 11 PM. To top it off, our cable company dropped Disney Jr from our package and to get it back we will need to upgrade to the premium package. How convenient for them. 
So anyway, I think I am going to take a couple deep breaths, drink a glass of wine and relive some vacation memories. Care to join me? Awesome. Lets go.
So I totally forgot to tell you about one of the funniest things that happened on our whole trip! It happened while we were in The Seas from my last post. See, after a couple go-s through "the flower ride" we decided to go see Turtle Talk with Crush. I just love this show! I had been to it last year with my mom but Eric was doing one of the workshops with the band kids so he missed it. We went in and Josh & Evie went and sat right up front, like the very first "row" of the sharkbate section on the floor. Josh was really excited because he had a question he had been dying to ask Crush. Eric and I sat a couple rows back on the benches. So Crush comes out and is totally hilarious. Eric loves it and Josh gets to ask his question: "How do sea turtles get away from shark since they can't pull their heads into their shells?" (Crush's answer: "As fast as we can dude!") I was really impressed that Ev was doing so well on her own. She was listening and didn't really notice that we weren't beside her. When the show was about half way over she started inching toward the screen. As she got closer and closer, I tried to quietly and discretely get her attention so she would move back. No one else seemed to notice until she was right up on the screen. By then it was too late. She stood up, turned around and announced "MOMMY! I tooted!" Oh my gosh! DH & I were soooooo embarrassed! We couldn't stop giggling and both of us had gone beet red. Oh boy. By then, she had caught my eye and ran over to me. We were pretty eager to get out of there once it was over!
On the way out we heard a guy ask the CM "So, where's the guy controlling this thing?" to which the CM replied "What guy? You are talking to Crush... you saw him right in front of you..." 
The guy just kind of paused, then shook his head and walked out with the rest of us. I just love Disney!
After Crush we explored The Seas and did another tour through Nemo and that's where I left you from my last post... I was headed back to CBR with Ev and Eric and Josh were itching to blow some cash in Mouse Gears.
Ev and I walked back to the bus stop and THIS time I brought the stroller! It was good because she fell asleep. The bus wasn't crowded at all and the bus driver was more than happy to help me fold up my stroller while I was holding my sleeping baby. We made it back to our room fairly quickly and I contemplated walking to Old Port Royal to get us some drinks since Ev was asleep in her stroller but then thought better to get her into some air conditioning and have a proper nap. My guess is that it was about 3:00 by this time. Josh and Eric showed up about 20 minutes later with purchases in hand. Josh got his coveted Sorcerer Mickey plush along with a pair of R2D2 Mouse Ears. Eric picked out a Princess cone hat with Minnie ears for Evie. They aren't the traditional ear hat type, more of a plush themselves... I'll have a picture in the next post... but just as cute.
Josh reminded us that we had promised him some pool time. Ev was just waking up and a swim sounded refreshing so I said "sure" but we would go to the "quiet" ( ) pool behind our building instead of the big pool by OPR. We all got on our suits except Eric who opted to take a nap in the room. The pool was nice but it definitely not refreshing! I felt like I was swimming in bathwater! The kids had fun though and that's what mattered. Josh found a buddy and we played for a good hour in the water. It was a nice, relaxing change of pace. Once we were finished in the pool, we made our way back to get showered and changed. Eric had gotten some drinks for us, which was nice, and we relaxed and watched some Stacy while the kids (finally!!) snoozed. Our ADR for Biergarten was at 6:30 so we planned to leave the room at 5:00.
5:00 rolled around and Josh was OUT. We could not wake him up! When we finally got him out of bed it was 5:30, luckily the bus gods were still smiling upon us. We trotted to the bus stop right as an Epcot bus was pulling in.
However, Biergarten is on the COMPLETE OPPOSITE side of the park so once we got off the bus, we continued to trot until we checked in at the restaurant! 
We got there right at 6:30 and were given a pager while we waited for our table. We sat outside near the fountain and I took a few photos in the mean time.
I really love the detail in the architecture. I spent a little time in Northeastern France, right on the border of Germany, in college and it really felt and looked authentic. So beautiful!
These are from the Agent P game. It must have gone off about a dozen times while we waited.
A really nice gentleman offered to take our picture by the fountain. This ended up being one of my favorite shots of the whole trip!
We only waited 10 or 15 minutes before our name was called. We were brought in and escorted to our seats with another family of 4 who were from Montreal. They were mostly French-speaking but knew a little English. Between their English, my (very poor) French and hand gestures, we actually had a lovely evening with them! Before long, a waitress came over to take our drink order and explain the buffet. One of the chefs also came to our table as the little boy with the Canadian family was allergic to fish so he told them all the dishes they should avoid. I had heard that Disney did that but it still impresses me that they are so thoughtful. My niece is allergic to shellfish so I know how buffets, especially, can give parents anxiety. Cross-contamination is a major factor but I noticed CM's staying really on top of that too and changing out spoons pretty frequently. Anyway, back to the restaurant.
If you have not been to Biergarten, the restaurant is set up in three tiers, a semi-circle around a stage and dance floor at the bottom. Every 10 minutes or so, a Bavarian band comes out and performs traditional polka-type music. It is very entertaining and makes a wonderful diversion for children who become uninterested in food 5 minutes after the meal begins.
We were seated in the uppermost tier, stage right. The restaurant is pretty dark because it is made to look like you are in an outdoor amphitheater right around twilight. It is a beautiful effect and DS kept asking "We're still inside, right?" just to make sure.
The food, of course is pretty traditional Bavarian. Sausages, schnitzel, potato salad, etc. It is served buffet style with two sides that meet in the middle where there is a carving station. One side has the salads and entrees and the other side has deserts. I managed to snap a couple photos before our table mates came back.
My plate
Josh's plate
They had some great choices and we all found things that we liked. I really liked the bologna-type sausages that were cut into wedges and the chicken schnitzel. The cucumber salad was really fresh and the pretzel rolls were to die for! Mmmmmmm.... I could go for an entire basket right about now...
Tasty!
Dessert was really nothing to write home about. In fact, I think the kids just ended up having more berries for dessert! I don't remember what I had... maybe more pretzel bread.
At some point during the meal the entertainment came out and announced the birthdays that were there and sang a little song. Then they announced our anniversary! We were the only ones celebrating an anniversary so they had us stand up and they sang another song just for us. It was pretty cute!
After that, we were pretty much done with our meal. We, of course did the whole bathroom 3 ring circus but THIS time, I discovered that I had forgotten to restock the diaper bag!
By the time I discovered I had no diapers, I had already taken off the one DD had on and I couldn't very well put a yucky, wet diaper back on her. I was just starting to panic when I remembered: THE BABY CARE CENTER! I took Ev back to the table and informed DH that we really needed to leave now since Ev was currently going commando. We said goodbye to our table mates and left Germany. I had really, really wanted to get something from Karamelle Kuche since dessert had been so blah but I was stuffed, Ev was diaperless and the boys were anxious to go ride Sorin' again using their Rider Swap tickets from earlier. I thought that I would have plenty of time to come back later in the trip but it never happened. 
Word to the wise: Get it NOW and save it for LATER! Ah well, something to plan for for the next trip!
So with bellies full of sausage and schnitzel, we made our way back toward The Land. The Baby Care Center is located right next to the First Aid center which is right on the way back to Future World so I popped in there and the boys kept going to get in line for Sorin'.
Thank goodness for the Baby Care Center! It was so nice and clean and quiet! They have a whole bunch of baby items for sale that are really reasonably priced. I bought a diaper package for $4.00 which included 2 diapers, 2 "giant wipes", 2 packets of bum ointment and 2 plastic baggies to put the dirties in. They had other things too, like packages of wipes, baby food, formula, bottles, pacifiers, bibs and even some onsies. The CMs were super nice and it was very quiet. They have a room with about 4 very large changing tables, a separate room with some rocking chairs, another room with highchairs for feeding and ANOTHER room with toys and a movie playing. On our way out Ev got distracted by the toy room and wanted to stop so I had a nice little chat with the two CM's who were there. After about 10 minutes I told Ev it was time to go and she didn't want to leave! I had to laugh, we were in DISNEY WORLD and she just wanted to play with the plastic toys! I eventually convinced her to come with me and we went in search of our men.
So anyway, I think I am going to take a couple deep breaths, drink a glass of wine and relive some vacation memories. Care to join me? Awesome. Lets go. So I totally forgot to tell you about one of the funniest things that happened on our whole trip! It happened while we were in The Seas from my last post. See, after a couple go-s through "the flower ride" we decided to go see Turtle Talk with Crush. I just love this show! I had been to it last year with my mom but Eric was doing one of the workshops with the band kids so he missed it. We went in and Josh & Evie went and sat right up front, like the very first "row" of the sharkbate section on the floor. Josh was really excited because he had a question he had been dying to ask Crush. Eric and I sat a couple rows back on the benches. So Crush comes out and is totally hilarious. Eric loves it and Josh gets to ask his question: "How do sea turtles get away from shark since they can't pull their heads into their shells?" (Crush's answer: "As fast as we can dude!") I was really impressed that Ev was doing so well on her own. She was listening and didn't really notice that we weren't beside her. When the show was about half way over she started inching toward the screen. As she got closer and closer, I tried to quietly and discretely get her attention so she would move back. No one else seemed to notice until she was right up on the screen. By then it was too late. She stood up, turned around and announced "MOMMY! I tooted!" Oh my gosh! DH & I were soooooo embarrassed! We couldn't stop giggling and both of us had gone beet red. Oh boy. By then, she had caught my eye and ran over to me. We were pretty eager to get out of there once it was over!
On the way out we heard a guy ask the CM "So, where's the guy controlling this thing?" to which the CM replied "What guy? You are talking to Crush... you saw him right in front of you..." The guy just kind of paused, then shook his head and walked out with the rest of us. I just love Disney!
After Crush we explored The Seas and did another tour through Nemo and that's where I left you from my last post... I was headed back to CBR with Ev and Eric and Josh were itching to blow some cash in Mouse Gears.
Ev and I walked back to the bus stop and THIS time I brought the stroller! It was good because she fell asleep. The bus wasn't crowded at all and the bus driver was more than happy to help me fold up my stroller while I was holding my sleeping baby. We made it back to our room fairly quickly and I contemplated walking to Old Port Royal to get us some drinks since Ev was asleep in her stroller but then thought better to get her into some air conditioning and have a proper nap. My guess is that it was about 3:00 by this time. Josh and Eric showed up about 20 minutes later with purchases in hand. Josh got his coveted Sorcerer Mickey plush along with a pair of R2D2 Mouse Ears. Eric picked out a Princess cone hat with Minnie ears for Evie. They aren't the traditional ear hat type, more of a plush themselves... I'll have a picture in the next post... but just as cute.
Josh reminded us that we had promised him some pool time. Ev was just waking up and a swim sounded refreshing so I said "sure" but we would go to the "quiet" (
) pool behind our building instead of the big pool by OPR. We all got on our suits except Eric who opted to take a nap in the room. The pool was nice but it definitely not refreshing! I felt like I was swimming in bathwater! The kids had fun though and that's what mattered. Josh found a buddy and we played for a good hour in the water. It was a nice, relaxing change of pace. Once we were finished in the pool, we made our way back to get showered and changed. Eric had gotten some drinks for us, which was nice, and we relaxed and watched some Stacy while the kids (finally!!) snoozed. Our ADR for Biergarten was at 6:30 so we planned to leave the room at 5:00. 5:00 rolled around and Josh was OUT. We could not wake him up! When we finally got him out of bed it was 5:30, luckily the bus gods were still smiling upon us. We trotted to the bus stop right as an Epcot bus was pulling in.
However, Biergarten is on the COMPLETE OPPOSITE side of the park so once we got off the bus, we continued to trot until we checked in at the restaurant!
We got there right at 6:30 and were given a pager while we waited for our table. We sat outside near the fountain and I took a few photos in the mean time.
I really love the detail in the architecture. I spent a little time in Northeastern France, right on the border of Germany, in college and it really felt and looked authentic. So beautiful!
These are from the Agent P game. It must have gone off about a dozen times while we waited.
A really nice gentleman offered to take our picture by the fountain. This ended up being one of my favorite shots of the whole trip!
We only waited 10 or 15 minutes before our name was called. We were brought in and escorted to our seats with another family of 4 who were from Montreal. They were mostly French-speaking but knew a little English. Between their English, my (very poor) French and hand gestures, we actually had a lovely evening with them! Before long, a waitress came over to take our drink order and explain the buffet. One of the chefs also came to our table as the little boy with the Canadian family was allergic to fish so he told them all the dishes they should avoid. I had heard that Disney did that but it still impresses me that they are so thoughtful. My niece is allergic to shellfish so I know how buffets, especially, can give parents anxiety. Cross-contamination is a major factor but I noticed CM's staying really on top of that too and changing out spoons pretty frequently. Anyway, back to the restaurant.
If you have not been to Biergarten, the restaurant is set up in three tiers, a semi-circle around a stage and dance floor at the bottom. Every 10 minutes or so, a Bavarian band comes out and performs traditional polka-type music. It is very entertaining and makes a wonderful diversion for children who become uninterested in food 5 minutes after the meal begins.
We were seated in the uppermost tier, stage right. The restaurant is pretty dark because it is made to look like you are in an outdoor amphitheater right around twilight. It is a beautiful effect and DS kept asking "We're still inside, right?" just to make sure.
The food, of course is pretty traditional Bavarian. Sausages, schnitzel, potato salad, etc. It is served buffet style with two sides that meet in the middle where there is a carving station. One side has the salads and entrees and the other side has deserts. I managed to snap a couple photos before our table mates came back.
My plate
Josh's plate
They had some great choices and we all found things that we liked. I really liked the bologna-type sausages that were cut into wedges and the chicken schnitzel. The cucumber salad was really fresh and the pretzel rolls were to die for! Mmmmmmm.... I could go for an entire basket right about now...
Tasty!
Dessert was really nothing to write home about. In fact, I think the kids just ended up having more berries for dessert! I don't remember what I had... maybe more pretzel bread.
At some point during the meal the entertainment came out and announced the birthdays that were there and sang a little song. Then they announced our anniversary! We were the only ones celebrating an anniversary so they had us stand up and they sang another song just for us. It was pretty cute!
After that, we were pretty much done with our meal. We, of course did the whole bathroom 3 ring circus but THIS time, I discovered that I had forgotten to restock the diaper bag!
By the time I discovered I had no diapers, I had already taken off the one DD had on and I couldn't very well put a yucky, wet diaper back on her. I was just starting to panic when I remembered: THE BABY CARE CENTER! I took Ev back to the table and informed DH that we really needed to leave now since Ev was currently going commando. We said goodbye to our table mates and left Germany. I had really, really wanted to get something from Karamelle Kuche since dessert had been so blah but I was stuffed, Ev was diaperless and the boys were anxious to go ride Sorin' again using their Rider Swap tickets from earlier. I thought that I would have plenty of time to come back later in the trip but it never happened. Word to the wise: Get it NOW and save it for LATER! Ah well, something to plan for for the next trip! So with bellies full of sausage and schnitzel, we made our way back toward The Land. The Baby Care Center is located right next to the First Aid center which is right on the way back to Future World so I popped in there and the boys kept going to get in line for Sorin'.
Thank goodness for the Baby Care Center! It was so nice and clean and quiet! They have a whole bunch of baby items for sale that are really reasonably priced. I bought a diaper package for $4.00 which included 2 diapers, 2 "giant wipes", 2 packets of bum ointment and 2 plastic baggies to put the dirties in. They had other things too, like packages of wipes, baby food, formula, bottles, pacifiers, bibs and even some onsies. The CMs were super nice and it was very quiet. They have a room with about 4 very large changing tables, a separate room with some rocking chairs, another room with highchairs for feeding and ANOTHER room with toys and a movie playing. On our way out Ev got distracted by the toy room and wanted to stop so I had a nice little chat with the two CM's who were there. After about 10 minutes I told Ev it was time to go and she didn't want to leave! I had to laugh, we were in DISNEY WORLD and she just wanted to play with the plastic toys! I eventually convinced her to come with me and we went in search of our men.
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I really love this ride. Why is it so unpopular? I think everything about it is interesting! Okay, maybe some of the large "screen" scenes are cheesy but overall, I think its a great ride! Of course my favorite parts are in the real, working greenhouses. So Ev & I came to the end and it was obvious that the boys were SITLL waiting for (or riding) Sorin' and the CM asked us if we wanted to go again. We said sure and stayed on for a second ride. We ended up staying on for FOUR rides! 
So cute! 
We were glad to be on our way OUT. 
I told him it was over! The park was closing! He INSISTED that the fireworks were at 10:00 pm. I told him that we had heard them from inside the ride. No, he said we must have heard something else. He would bet me 5 million dollars that Illuminations was at 10 pm. Okay buddy. Here's the thing... I spent NUMEROUS HOURS pouring over park schedules, programing parades, shows and events into my phone, MEMORIZING opening and closing times... I GOT this! I took the bet. 
All they had was the typical Disney pastry selection of danishes, muffins and a sad looking cinnamon roll. I was so disappointed! I figured that they no longer carried the cupcakes and ordered a blueberry muffin, a cheese danish, an orange juice and an apple juice for me, Josh & Ev to split. Then, I stopped at the fruit stand and got a diet Coke and a banana for Eric. We ate our snack then hopped in line for the Safari.
but I guess we got our money's worth. We did end up wearing them a few more times. 
Doug & Russell waved goodbye to everyone and the photographer told us that if the lightning ceased they would be back but until then, no one could remain in the shelter as it wasn't safe. 
This is a great show and the puppetry is amazing. If you have seen the Broadway version of The Lion King, it is kind of like that. The puppets are half costume, half puppet. You can see the actor's faces and the audience is drawn into the character both through the actor and the puppet. It is amazing. I just LOVE it. Did I mention that I LOVE it??!! 
PHEW! And THANK YOU whoever you are! We walked over to the bus stop for Wilderness Lodge and were glad to be on our way somewhere warm and dry.
