Now about that mouse...
Yes, I'm also officially back on LJ. Blogger is a lot nicer to look at but harder to hold a conversation...and really, that's what I'm here for.
So, on with the show!
I really wish WDW would announce the time slots for free dining plan packages earlier in the year. We didn't see any offered at the 180 day mark so we just bought our park tickets and started making our dining reservations. Since the free dining plan can only come with the package and we already had our tickets, doing advanced planning cost us. Still, crunching all the numbers, it came up to be slightly cheaper to stay on sight once all the costs were totaled, so we decided to do something different and stay at a Disney resort. That was until we looked at cab fare. I was looking forward to finally meeting Kitzzy and Jason, seeing Jen again and getting a group run on. They had a GORGEOUS spot to run. Cab fare 20 miles away and back came to about $130 less the tip. That's actually more than a week's rental on a compact car. Once we had a car, one of the big advantages of staying on site, Disney Transportation becomes redundant. So, with well placed calls, we still manged to get a nice room at our usual hotel, The Orlando Vista. Sadly, I can no longer recommend them without some warnings. Previously, it was a decent, clean comfortable room with few amenities but offered at a bargain price. It changed ownership shortly before our last visit and hasn't really been well maintained since. It's now kinda shabby and threadbare. The rooms are still clean and the bed is comfy but sadly worn is the look.
Our first day was fairly easy. I obsess over planning a vacation so I don't have to worry about logistics when I get there. The only real incident was getting a bit lost on the way out of the airport. Usually we are rocking a paper map and Google Maps printed directions. This time we decided to rely on my phone's gps navigation. The problem is that the thing can't see the satellites while in a parking garage, so it had a hard time figuring out where we were and then it crashed, leaving us lost in a residential area. We rebooted the phone and quickly got back on course. We got our hotel room taken care of, got a snack since we missed lunch and spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting comfy. That night we had dinner reservations at 'Ohana (aka: You should not eat so much). The food was great, the service was pretty tight and the entertainment enchanting. BUT... The early part of the meal had a lot of very young children. Overtired, cranky young children who had spent all day in the park, the preceding few hours trick-or-treating and now were being asked to behave in a crowded restaurant. Happily they all left not long after we got seated.
Before we left I picked up Nikon's entirely too good for this price point AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8 lens. I'm glad I did because some of the shots I got are simply stunning. I put the best of them on Picasa. Doreen took some with her Nikon S570 and some are from my Nikon S8100 but most of them came from the D5000 with the 35mm lens.
Day one was Epcot. If you come during the Food & Wine Festival (and I really recommend that you do) don't make plans for lunch on Epcot days. We spent most of that late morning and early afternoon (an a part of another day as well) nibbling our way around World Showcase and still only managed to cover about half of the offerings. We rode, we ate, we generally had a great time. That evening we had dinner at The Garden Grill. This place is usually beastly difficult to get a reservation for. It has a lot going for it: Good food featuring absurdly fresh veggies, a unique venue, character interaction and the icing on the cake is that there aren't that many tables due to the rotating nature of the thing. So we got our reservation. Our waiter was great fun, the food was all wonderful (Doreen disagreed on the steak) and the characters were very happy to spend time with us, even though we brought no kids. The real magic happened when our waiter notice Doreen's "River Tam & The Fireflies" t-shirt. Apparently Pluto is a HUGE Firefly fan. Much clowning around ensued and culminated in Doreen and I singing "The Ballad of Jayne" to a bemused restaurant as Pluto played the backup air guitar. We ended the day watching "Illumiations - Reflections of Earth" a fireworks show that brings a level of drama to a fireworks show that just can't be matched.
Day two started at the Magic Kingdom and ended at Animal Kingdom. We rode, we saw and we had a great time. Lunch was a bit of a downer. I had no idea that The Rainforest Cafe wasn't a Disney restaurant and IMO it shows. The theming is a bit overdone. Much is done to create the illusion of being in a rainforest eating your meal...having the animals reacting to the thunderstorm is headache inducing. The food was overpriced and only okay. Honestly on creating a theme Animal Kingdom is superb. I regret that we didn't spend more time getting pictures of the Asia sections (we spent most of our time there last time) but they spent a lot of energy transporting you to another place and it shows. We then went to enjoy a run with Kitzzy and Jen. Lake Eola is a gorgeous spot to have a run, Jason joined us for dinner and the company was great. My only regrets were not getting a picture or three and it was mid week so long evening lingering would be a problem for people who have to go to work the next day.
Day three was a bit ill-considered. We decided to spend the entire day in Disney Hollywood so that we could enjoy "Fantasmic!" at the end of the evening. The problem is, if you arrive when the park opens (rope drop) and have even the most modest plan of attack, you will be finished seeing all the park has to offer before the day ends. We had lunch at the 50's Prime Time Diner. Food is delicious and the atmosphere is fun...don't get an appetizer. The portions of everything range from "too big" to "are you fricking serious!?!" and there is no way you can enjoy the entire thing. Dinner was at Mama Melrose and we have mixed feelings. The food was great, the atmosphere was good but the service was horrible. They seemed to be disorganized and understaffed. Considering the options of sit down food in Hollywood, I might give it another try...but not before I cross the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater off the list.
Our last day found us back at Magic Kingdom. It seems we forgot to ride Peter Pan AND Philharmagic. We did a few more things around the Kingdom and then went back over to Epcot. We got there just in time for our lunch reservation at the Biergarten. Normally to me, buffetts are where food goes to die. Here the size of the restaurant plus the small quantity they brought out at any one time ensured a rapid turn over and very fresh, hot, delicious food. Seating is at long benches and unless you have a bunch of people, it includes strangers. Since there is also lots of beer, they are new friends. Speaking of beer... Walking around the World Showcase had left it in my head that the Food & Wine sizes were normal and that "small" meant 6oz. and "large" was 12oz. So, I ordered the large beer. Large apparently translates into German as "I would like my own keg please." After drinking my keg and eating way too much wonderful food, we had no choice but to stagger around Epcot for the remainder of the day. Unsurprisingly, dinner wasn't something we were very interested in until quite late. At that time we were already back at the hotel and starting to pack. So we wandered next door to the IHOP and had a small breakfast.
At the crack of dawn the next day we returned the car, climbed back on the big metal bird and returned home. It was a great trip. As usual, not what I'd strictly call relaxing but when you are given leave to be a child again, it refreshes the spirit even when it does tire the heck out of your body.
So, on with the show!
I really wish WDW would announce the time slots for free dining plan packages earlier in the year. We didn't see any offered at the 180 day mark so we just bought our park tickets and started making our dining reservations. Since the free dining plan can only come with the package and we already had our tickets, doing advanced planning cost us. Still, crunching all the numbers, it came up to be slightly cheaper to stay on sight once all the costs were totaled, so we decided to do something different and stay at a Disney resort. That was until we looked at cab fare. I was looking forward to finally meeting Kitzzy and Jason, seeing Jen again and getting a group run on. They had a GORGEOUS spot to run. Cab fare 20 miles away and back came to about $130 less the tip. That's actually more than a week's rental on a compact car. Once we had a car, one of the big advantages of staying on site, Disney Transportation becomes redundant. So, with well placed calls, we still manged to get a nice room at our usual hotel, The Orlando Vista. Sadly, I can no longer recommend them without some warnings. Previously, it was a decent, clean comfortable room with few amenities but offered at a bargain price. It changed ownership shortly before our last visit and hasn't really been well maintained since. It's now kinda shabby and threadbare. The rooms are still clean and the bed is comfy but sadly worn is the look.
Our first day was fairly easy. I obsess over planning a vacation so I don't have to worry about logistics when I get there. The only real incident was getting a bit lost on the way out of the airport. Usually we are rocking a paper map and Google Maps printed directions. This time we decided to rely on my phone's gps navigation. The problem is that the thing can't see the satellites while in a parking garage, so it had a hard time figuring out where we were and then it crashed, leaving us lost in a residential area. We rebooted the phone and quickly got back on course. We got our hotel room taken care of, got a snack since we missed lunch and spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting comfy. That night we had dinner reservations at 'Ohana (aka: You should not eat so much). The food was great, the service was pretty tight and the entertainment enchanting. BUT... The early part of the meal had a lot of very young children. Overtired, cranky young children who had spent all day in the park, the preceding few hours trick-or-treating and now were being asked to behave in a crowded restaurant. Happily they all left not long after we got seated.
Before we left I picked up Nikon's entirely too good for this price point AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8 lens. I'm glad I did because some of the shots I got are simply stunning. I put the best of them on Picasa. Doreen took some with her Nikon S570 and some are from my Nikon S8100 but most of them came from the D5000 with the 35mm lens.
Day one was Epcot. If you come during the Food & Wine Festival (and I really recommend that you do) don't make plans for lunch on Epcot days. We spent most of that late morning and early afternoon (an a part of another day as well) nibbling our way around World Showcase and still only managed to cover about half of the offerings. We rode, we ate, we generally had a great time. That evening we had dinner at The Garden Grill. This place is usually beastly difficult to get a reservation for. It has a lot going for it: Good food featuring absurdly fresh veggies, a unique venue, character interaction and the icing on the cake is that there aren't that many tables due to the rotating nature of the thing. So we got our reservation. Our waiter was great fun, the food was all wonderful (Doreen disagreed on the steak) and the characters were very happy to spend time with us, even though we brought no kids. The real magic happened when our waiter notice Doreen's "River Tam & The Fireflies" t-shirt. Apparently Pluto is a HUGE Firefly fan. Much clowning around ensued and culminated in Doreen and I singing "The Ballad of Jayne" to a bemused restaurant as Pluto played the backup air guitar. We ended the day watching "Illumiations - Reflections of Earth" a fireworks show that brings a level of drama to a fireworks show that just can't be matched.
Day two started at the Magic Kingdom and ended at Animal Kingdom. We rode, we saw and we had a great time. Lunch was a bit of a downer. I had no idea that The Rainforest Cafe wasn't a Disney restaurant and IMO it shows. The theming is a bit overdone. Much is done to create the illusion of being in a rainforest eating your meal...having the animals reacting to the thunderstorm is headache inducing. The food was overpriced and only okay. Honestly on creating a theme Animal Kingdom is superb. I regret that we didn't spend more time getting pictures of the Asia sections (we spent most of our time there last time) but they spent a lot of energy transporting you to another place and it shows. We then went to enjoy a run with Kitzzy and Jen. Lake Eola is a gorgeous spot to have a run, Jason joined us for dinner and the company was great. My only regrets were not getting a picture or three and it was mid week so long evening lingering would be a problem for people who have to go to work the next day.
Day three was a bit ill-considered. We decided to spend the entire day in Disney Hollywood so that we could enjoy "Fantasmic!" at the end of the evening. The problem is, if you arrive when the park opens (rope drop) and have even the most modest plan of attack, you will be finished seeing all the park has to offer before the day ends. We had lunch at the 50's Prime Time Diner. Food is delicious and the atmosphere is fun...don't get an appetizer. The portions of everything range from "too big" to "are you fricking serious!?!" and there is no way you can enjoy the entire thing. Dinner was at Mama Melrose and we have mixed feelings. The food was great, the atmosphere was good but the service was horrible. They seemed to be disorganized and understaffed. Considering the options of sit down food in Hollywood, I might give it another try...but not before I cross the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater off the list.
Our last day found us back at Magic Kingdom. It seems we forgot to ride Peter Pan AND Philharmagic. We did a few more things around the Kingdom and then went back over to Epcot. We got there just in time for our lunch reservation at the Biergarten. Normally to me, buffetts are where food goes to die. Here the size of the restaurant plus the small quantity they brought out at any one time ensured a rapid turn over and very fresh, hot, delicious food. Seating is at long benches and unless you have a bunch of people, it includes strangers. Since there is also lots of beer, they are new friends. Speaking of beer... Walking around the World Showcase had left it in my head that the Food & Wine sizes were normal and that "small" meant 6oz. and "large" was 12oz. So, I ordered the large beer. Large apparently translates into German as "I would like my own keg please." After drinking my keg and eating way too much wonderful food, we had no choice but to stagger around Epcot for the remainder of the day. Unsurprisingly, dinner wasn't something we were very interested in until quite late. At that time we were already back at the hotel and starting to pack. So we wandered next door to the IHOP and had a small breakfast.
At the crack of dawn the next day we returned the car, climbed back on the big metal bird and returned home. It was a great trip. As usual, not what I'd strictly call relaxing but when you are given leave to be a child again, it refreshes the spirit even when it does tire the heck out of your body.