What a disaster!!

[topdog]

Day #3 (Tuesday) Part 3

By now, we are hungry. There was no ADR for lunch today. Since we did reserve a few dining point for dine on a fly, we were pretty much can go wherever we like. So we decide to walk to the closest restaurant and see if they will accept walk in without to much waiting time. This is the one we end up with.

It's our first time to come to this place. I can hardly called it a crowd because we were able to be seated with in 10 minutes even without ADR. Once we sat down at our table, I was taking picture at every corner I can find. The CMs who served other tables were yelling "WATCH OUT FOR THE PAPARAZZI!!!" Every one at the restaurant were staring at me like I have a third arm growing out of my head or something.

I guess I better sit down and read the menu. The CM who served us was a super nice lady. Well...until she caught me taking pictures of the food. (More on that later.)

Again, another raspberry smoothie for me and an ice-tea for DW.

This time, I decided to lay low on the red meat, so I had a shrimp cocktail for appetizer.

and DW had a Blue Claw Crab Cake - lump crab cake served in succotash with chili sauce and crispy onions.

Main couse, I had the Grandma's Chicken Pot Pie - A creamy cheese mixture of chicken, mushrooms, carrots, celery, onions, peas and topped with a flaky pastry. Hmmm...delicious.

DW had a boring Caesar Salad with Chicken - Romaine lettuce tossed with caesar dressing, grated parmesan cheese and garlic croutons topped with sliced grilled chicken. This time, DW won't let me take picture of her food because it's only a Caesar Salad. Oh well!!!

For desert, I had the Grandma's Bread Pudding - Warm bread pudding with vanilla sauce. Ouch!!! This thing was HEAVY!!!

DW had the Angel Food Cake - served with fresh berries and whipped cream.

When our CM brought over our desert, I whipped out my camera and ready to set up the shot. The CM said to me in a very stern tone, "Just what do you think you are doing with the food?" I said, "I am taking a picture of my food." Then my DW has to chime in with a very displease tone, "He took pictures of all the food we eat at every meal."

I was thinking. "Oh great!" Two against one now. The CM continues, "Well, if you are going to take picture of the food, you need to do it the right way." She hopped over next to my DW and present the desert like in a commercial. I almost floored it when I saw her did that. I laughed so hard, I think the whole restaurant was wondering what's going on back there.

The food there was great. Not the best but great. The atmosphere was awesome. Will I go back there again?? Absolutely!!! Just the nostalgic decoration plus the CM fun attitude were enough to lure me back.

It's only about 3:30 when we walked out of the 50'sPTC. We need to walk our food off but we also had enough of DHS for the day. So we stop at One of a Kind Antiques and Curios for some browsing.

I am always fascinating by those old pictures. (I wonder why??) Now only if the pictures I have taken can be worth that much to sell. I can afford to live inside of Disney!!

Would you pay $60,000 for a suit that was used in Mary Poppins??

 

[topdog]

Day #3 (Tuesday) Part 4

By 4:00pm, we left DHS but we are not ready to go back to WL yet. We do have an ADR at Ohana' at 8:00pm tonight. So we decided to pick one of the resort we've never been at and go check it out. We picked POP Century. It was quite a far from DHS to POP. I guess I was spoiled from staying at WL for being so close to everything. We only stop by the POP Century lobby and check out their gift shop.

Then we went to check out the pool. It was quite a different theme compare to WL. Of course, I did my silly picture again.

We walked around at POP as much as we possibly could. We decided to go to MK instead. We hopped on the bus and MK here we go. Once we got to MK, the sun was about to set and I ran down main street to re-take another sunset castle picture.

Too bad the sky was too cloudy.

After that, we headed back through main street and went for a short train ride. When we rode the train on Monday, it got too dark too fast. This time, we got to see where we were passing.

We got off at the Toontown area and walked toward the back of the castle area because I want some pictures with different perspective of the castle.

I put on my fisheye lens and try from a different angle. Don't know if I have achieve or not but I did some how turn the Cinderella Castle into more of a haunted castle, especially the first one.

It wasn't easy shooting these pictures. I stood under the castle facing away from the castle and then bend over backward to get the angle. My DW told me people around me were looking at me like I was an alien. I guess it's not every day you see a 6 foot Asian taking picture in such odd position.

After that, I switch back to my normal wide angle lens and also put on a cross wire filter, just to switch things up a bit. The filter did create a nice sparkle look.

I kept switching with different set up to see how it work out for a good hour until the sky went completely dark.
Here is another spooky one.

Here is a wild looking one.

Here are some not so good ones.

Even DW was getting into the photography mood. She was determine to get a good shot on the castle water reflection. Even with only a P&S and no tripod, she did fairly well. These shots are her own creation only. Not bad for a beginner.

This is the very first time my DW and I were doing photography together. It was quite fun. Every time DW feels like she find the right angle, she would get all excited and yelled across the park to ask me come over. Of course I also have to coach DW some of the photography terminology along the way like what's ISO, what is noise and how it gets there or how to get a better perspective of the subject. Obviously, DW is not going to learn every thing about photography in 5 minutes. But at least now she somewhat understand what it takes to get a good shot. More importantly, she learned how I see the world frame by frame.

 

[Sandy321]

well you got me!! I had to read your trip report - and I think there is something about computer geeks - or photographer geeks - or nerds... (its a good thing!!) (my dh obsesses about some of the littlest techno things!! and I can just imagine how he would've felt if he had lost his bag - exactly the same way you reacted!!)

LOVE your DW photos of the castle - love the pictures you got at Prime Time - so much fun, I felt like I was in the next booth over!!

thanks for sharing...

3,000+ pictures??!!! good luck with that! (I have 1200 - most are disney!)

 

[topdog]

I can't wait to see it! I am sure it will be awesome!!!!!!

I'm sure it will be very nice. I cannot wait to see it!

WOW how ambitious!!

Sounds great.

Can't Wait!

I'm so happy you got the camera bag! Love the shots so far. Can't wait to see how you put your gear to use!.

That's a lot of pressure there. Hope I won't disappoint you.

 

[topdog]

well you got me!! I had to read your trip report - and I think there is something about computer geeks - or photographer geeks - or nerds... (its a good thing!!) (my dh obsesses about some of the littlest techno things!! and I can just imagine how he would've felt if he had lost his bag - exactly the same way you reacted!!)

LOVE your DW photos of the castle - love the pictures you got at Prime Time - so much fun, I felt like I was in the next booth over!!

thanks for sharing...

3,000+ pictures??!!! good luck with that! (I have 1200 - most are disney!)

Sandy, So glad you join us for the ride. Thank you for the compliment on DW's picture. When she hover behind me to watch me process the pictures, she kept asking, "Did I took that picture?" Even the one she knew I took it. LOL...

Prime Time cafe was great. I would go back there on a heart beat.

I average between 2,000 to 4,000 each trip. Soon, I will need a new camera. If I didn't missed my camera for 2 days, I probably would've taken well above 5,000 pictures.

 

[topdog]

Day #3 (Tuesday) Part 5

Then by 7:00pm, we are ready for dinner ADR at 'Ohana. Reservation was at 8:00pm. So we took the monorail and head to PR.

'Ohana was packed with people. DW check in as soon as we got there. Since we got there early, the CM told DW they will try to get us a window seat so we can have a view of "Wishes". Unfortunately, they couldn't seat us until 8:10pm. All we got was the last 30 seconds of "Wishes". Oh well! It was still impressive though.

If I remember correctly, this is our first time to dine at 'Ohana. I did not know it's a buffet dinner until we sat down. Side note, I am not a buffet fan specifically Chinese buffet. Maybe because I have worked as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant for 5 years might have something to do with it. However, since this is a Disney restaurant, I am willing to try it first before forming my opinion.

The nice CM came and took our drink order then explain how the buffet thing work. All their main course were prepared over the open oak fire grill in the middle of the dinning room.

They will keep bringing food to us until we say stop. So let the feast begin.

First appetizer, Pork fried dumplings. Dumplings are my speciality. I had eaten dumplings from Hong Kong all the way to U.S. These dumplings are okay. Not great but still very good. Much better than some of the dives I have tried it.

Second appetizer, Corriander chicken wings. WOW!!! These are great wings. It's not spicy but they are excellent. Not too sweet yet very tasty.

Then there's mixed greens salad with honey-lime dressing also. I remember eating it but forgot to take picture. Sorry, I was hungry.

Main course next. Marinated sirlon steak. The meat was very tender and quite tasty. 2 years ago, when I was at Aruba. We went to some kind of a Brazilian Steak House once that had a similar set up. Their meat wasn't quite as good as Ohana.

Another main course, the non-peeled shrimp. The sauce on these shrimp is the bomb. It was sweet, tangy and spicy all at the same time. I have to ask the CM to bring back more twice. I can't get enough of them.

Then there are BBQ pork loin & Mesquite grilled turkey as well. I think I did eat the pork loin but can't remember what it taste like. I was too busy focus on chowing down the steak and the shrimp. I am also not a turkey fan but DW did tried some and she did like it a lot. The CM tried very hard to convince me to have the turkey but I just can't do it. At least not with all these steak and shrimp in front of me.

In the mix with these food, the CM also brought in other side dish. Broccoli and green peas.

Pad Thai noodles.

Both were very good too. Although the noodles do remind me of lo mein from a Chinese take out.

After about half an hour of non stop eating, I finally have to stop. There's just no more room in our stomach. At least that's what I thought until the CM brought over the desert.

I don't know how but we manage to "squeeze" that in and it was gooood!!!

After dinner, we were worn. I realize how much we have done today. As soon as we left 'Ohana, we just want to go back to our room. We took the monorail back to MK and then the boat ride back to WL. The boat ride tonight was a little too cool for me. I was shaking through out the ride. We couldn't wait for the boat to dock.

Once we got back to our room, we took a hot shower and then went to bed immediately. After hardly any sleep for 3 nights in a row, I went out like a light by 10:30pm. Finally, I can get a good night sleep without worry about the camera bag any more.

 

[GeminiAngel]

I love your pictures of the castle. It was nice to see Cinderella's castle from an eerie perspective. You had me cracking up when you described that you were bending over backwards to take the shots.

O'Hana is our #1 restaurant! We just love it!

Again, a great update and wonderful pictures.

 

[msce2]

I absolutely love the pictures of Cinderella's Castle!!!!

Thank you for your reviews and pics of the restaurants as well. I have never seen the 50's Primetime Diner. I would go just for the ambiance.

Your DW did an awesome job with the castle and the reflection in the water!

Thank you!!!!

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

I'm absolutely riveted by your trip report. You sound like a lot of fun! Love your descriptions of yourself and others as you take pics from odd positions.
You're too funny!

 

[GoofyFairie]

Another great day topdog! I can't tell you how much I look forward to reading each post of your trip report! You make me feel like I am there and so excited to return! The pictures are wonderful-so full of color and such variety. Tell your DW she did an excellent job on the castle with the water-it is beautiful. There are so many shots I want to take with my p&s, but my kids don't want to cooperate; they just want to play as all children do. Can't wait to see what is next!

 

[saralexander97]

Ohana's looks awesome, I just made dinner reservations for our upcoming trip two days ago. Looking at your pics of the food made me hungry, cannot wait to eat those shrimp. As soon as I read your TR I called my DH to tell him about the food. Cant wait to hear more.

 

[piglet50]

love your report and the great pictures. thank you for sharing your trip.

 

[PrncessA]

You hooked me from the first post, LOL. Great pics of the castle, it is a spooky look. Great TR!

 

[iluvpluto27]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. Your photos are fantastic, some of the castle shots were simply stunning.

 

[topdog]

I love your pictures of the castle. It was nice to see Cinderella's castle from an eerie perspective. You had me cracking up when you described that you were bending over backwards to take the shots.

O'Hana is our #1 restaurant! We just love it!

Again, a great update and wonderful pictures.

Thanks. What I would do to get a good creative picture. LOL....

I love Ohana. It's a must for us now.

I absolutely love the pictures of Cinderella's Castle!!!!

Thank you for your reviews and pics of the restaurants as well. I have never seen the 50's Primetime Diner. I would go just for the ambiance.

Your DW did an awesome job with the castle and the reflection in the water!

Thank you!!!!

So glad you like the castle pictures. I was afraid some people might get offend it since it suppose to be a fairytale.

The whole package of the 50sPTC was just wonderful. I am sure you will enjoy it.

I will relay your compliment to my DW.

I'm absolutely riveted by your trip report. You sound like a lot of fun! Love your descriptions of yourself and others as you take pics from odd positions.
You're too funny!

Thanks for reading and welcome for the ride. Some time, I feel like a contortionist when I take pictures. LOL...

Another great day topdog! I can't tell you how much I look forward to reading each post of your trip report! You make me feel like I am there and so excited to return! The pictures are wonderful-so full of color and such variety. Tell your DW she did an excellent job on the castle with the water-it is beautiful. There are so many shots I want to take with my p&s, but my kids don't want to cooperate; they just want to play as all children do. Can't wait to see what is next!

I am so glad you enjoy my TR. Initially, I posted one big post for Day #3 Part 2. Then I find out the system does not allow me to post so many pictures all in one post. That's why I break them apart. You only see a fraction on what I had so far. There are a lot more pictures when I have my 2009 Disney trip website up and running.

I will relay your compliment to my DW. I am sure her head won't be able to fit through the door way. She was inspired by my first day water reflection picture. Even since, she was determine to try it on her own. So glad she was able to have a few. Hardest part was waiting for the water to settle. If wind was strong and ducks were swimming, then you might as well forget it.

 

[topdog]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. Your photos are fantastic, some of the castle shots were simply stunning.

Glad you like the castle pictures and welcome to the ride.

You hooked me from the first post, LOL. Great pics of the castle, it is a spooky look. Great TR!

Thank you for the compliment. Now my head might not fit through the door way. LOL...

Ohana's looks awesome, I just made dinner reservations for our upcoming trip two days ago. Looking at your pics of the food made me hungry, cannot wait to eat those shrimp. As soon as I read your TR I called my DH to tell him about the food. Cant wait to hear more.

I am sure you and your DH will enjoy Ohana just as much as we did.

 

[topdog]

I had a few PM asking me about when I will have my 2009 Disney trip publish.

I am not sure exactly what my plan is. But due to the amount of picture I have taken, it does take a great deal of time to process and orgranize before I can create the website. I will do my best to take care the pictures as quickly as I can while I am writing this TR.

In the mean time, I just post my 2005 Disney picture link in my signature. I never finish this site and it's a very simple site. Nothing fancy. It does has a lot of pictures in it. Please feel free to browse. I still might add a picture here and there.

You can either put comment of my 2005 picture in this TR or PM me anytime.

 

[Planning fanatic mom]

We love 50s PTC. We are going back again this summer. We also going to try O'hana for the first time. Can't wait especially after seeing your pictures. I love all of your pics.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[joleen76]

I'm so glad you were able to get your gear sent to you. Your pictures are wonderful!

 

[karen l]

Your report & pics are fantastic! I feel like I'm at WDW every time I read your posts. Your restaurant pics really make me hungry!