So I used my food processor for the first time (we got it from my co-workers at our wedding).
It's fanfreakintastic.
Cutting veggies and meat that would've taken me probably 20 minutes or so, I got done in 5.
It went, pepper, pepper, pepper, half an onion, two piece of pork and bam, a nice mixture for pitas.
wheeeee!
Thanks Co-workers!
So we sent out some thank you cards yesterday (parents, big wedding helpers, etc) and a big chunk today (pretty much almost everyone except those in the metro (figured it'd be bad to have thanks sent to some in an area but not others)). We're also out of stamps...so that kinda stopped 'em.
But after watching one printer eat 15 or 20 envelopes and the other one have to be loaded one at a time (for addresses), I'll be glad when it's done.
Also the hand writing sucks...I hope people can read mine...and between the two of us we can't spell, so watch out for those, it should prove interesting.
Funtastic.
Spent 3.8 times original Wedding Budget
Spent 1.9 times updated wedding budget.
1.02% of total cost spent on Makeup
1.44% of total cost spent on M&Ms
3.61% of total cost spent at the Irish Shoppe
3.62% of total cost spent on wedding venue
4.48% of total cost spent on reception venue
6.32% of total cost spent on Photographer's time (excluding final per roll charge)
12.95% of total cost spent on rings
16.39% of total cost spent on Honeymoon
17.04% of total cost spent at Joseph's Jewerler
32.00% of total cost spent on Food at Reception
42.93% of total cost spent on Reception and Reception related things (including food)
(some percentages overlap others)
Mornings, right when the park is open is the time with the least lines. We theorized that this was due to the fact that kids can be hard to wake up in the morning.
Service at Disney World, ranged from excellent, all the way down to fairly poor. We had excellent service and the Bistro de Paris and there was a girl who when we got change for the penny pressing machines, picked out all the shiney ones to give 'em to us. But then there was also the incident where I was basically chastised for not talking loud enough. Overall though, the service was better then average.
Even though they say to hit the shops on the way out, that can end up costing a lot of money...but it does avoid the rushes for the bus.
Be prepared to walk. A lot.
Wet shoes suck to walk in (Kali River Rapids was the only time we got soaked).
Everything is overpriced. 20 oz of Water was $2.50. And since Disney apprently has a contract with coke, the only water that was availble was Dasani (which has salt in it).
Make reservations for eating at sit down places on the weekend (Friday through Sunday, this is during off peak times).
Some of the sit down meals aren't so good. Most of them were places that were good, but not great. Bistro de Paris was an exception, the food was excellent. The Sci-Fi Dine in theater was...well..way overpriced, and not that good (bread was dry mixture of foods were...well...very plain).
Planet Hollywood sucks! The food is bad, the service is ok, and the prices are way to high.
If you take pictures, make sure you have a place to off load your digital pictures to. Although we took more then the average, I suspect, we still had to empty our camera every day and sometimes twice in a day.
Lines for taking pictures with the Disney charecters build quickly, so if you see a short line and want a picture, take it.
There are lots of kids....lots of them...everywhere.
On Monday, October 2nd, we got up pretty early to head home. It was nice to think about heading in that direction. We ate breakfast (service was lousy) at the Maya Grill, and we didn't get served our drinks until...well...we had almost finished eating. Oh well...we were there right when it opened, so maybe something just got lost there.
We had insta-checkout so we already had our bill and only needed to call if we actually wanted to challenge anything on the bill (we didn't). They even had checkin at the departure area, so we didn't have to check our bags at the airport, but only at the resort. Which was nice, cause there was a long line for the ticket counter when we got there.
They had free Wi-Fi in Orlando's Airport, which was nice, so I hopped on and checked a few things (nothing too important over the unsecured wi-fi). It was nice to feel connected to the world again.
The Flight from Orlando to Atlanta was pretty smooth (and short), and the flight from Atlanta to Des Moines was very uneventful...except again, being in the last row, right next to the toilet....where the noise and the traffic were fairly annoying.
When we got to Des Moines, we were picked up by My boss in Shannon's car and we dropped him off, dropped off our luggage and got the kitties.
Apparently they had not been on their best behavior while we were gone, and George was having trouble keeping food down (nerves maybe?) and gracie went on a hunger strike. They both lost weight there.
We got them home, and they were very quick to get comfortable around the house (Even with all the wedding presents and luggage all over the place.
It feels good to be home.
We took 10 Photos, today, for a grand total of: 2131 Photos.
We were both getting tired of Disney. But luckily we had bought tickets earlier in the week to the House of Blues (Orlando) Gospel Brunch. Food, gospel music, good venue? How could it be bad? It wasn't, it was amazing. I was moved. I'm not really all that into the whole God thing, as most people know, but I was touched and I would have to say that if church was like this, I'd go once maybe twice a month. The food was good too...The cornbread muffins, which were laced with some peppers, were quite tasty. It was a mixture of Sunday Brunch type food, and southern comfort food (creole, bbq, etc). They had us get up, dance, clap our hands and do what the spirit moved us to do. It was something else.
Before and after, we went to the Disney arcade, called Disney Quest. They had classics there, and newer modern games, including some VR games...which...we tried...or at least tried to try. I don't know if it was the head gear or the vision or what, but most of the VR games made me feel like someone was stabbing me in the back of the head, so we avoided them. After we got tired of playing video games (and it got crowded, we called it an early day and went home to pack. We spent most of the rest of the day being lazy.
We did discover, however, that in all that we bought, we didn't have enough space in our luggage and carry ons to actually pack all of the things that we had. Even trimming the fat where we could, we still didn't have near enough room, so I wandered over to the gift shop and bought another suitcase...a nice disney one too *sigh* Oh well, we were able to bring back all the things, which is good.
We went to our final Dinner at the Maya Grill, and we were so full from brunch (even eating as late as we were), we didn't even make it through the main course before we had to throw in the towel.
We went back to the room and finished packing.
We took a paltry 18 photos on the 7th day.
On Saturday September 30th, we took it easy, and woke up relatively late, compared to the rest of the week. We decided to cover the things that we had missed (cause of lines or time) and go back to the parks to do this.
First up, was the Animal Kingdom. We wandered around the Tree of Life, which had many shapes of animals blended into it, which was pretty cool looking. We went into the Bug's life 3D show, which was actually pretty neat. They also had smell, touch and water effects.
We headed to the Asia area to see if we could ride expedition everest again, but the line was just way to long, and we weren't planning to stay in the park, so we didn't get a fast pass.
We then headed to Dinoland...or whatever it was called, and we saw Pooh and Eyeore. We both love Pooh, so we had to stop to get our pictures taken with them. We got Eyeore first, and while we were doing that Pooh apparently was a bit of a randy bear and kept hitting on the group of young ladies and trying to sneak off with them. It was quite funny. After the disney photographer lured him back with the promise of honey, we were able to get our picture taken.
In Dinoland they had a silly ride or two about going back in the past and seeing dinosaurs, one indoors, one more like a carnival ride.
We headed to the Mickey and Minnie camp, which is apparently a great place to get your picture taken with disney characters. We got pictures with Goofy and Donald and then headed out of the park.
We then headed to Epcot to have some lunch. Epcot, due to the food and wine fest, I suppose, was quite busy. So we walked through a few places without stopping and one that we did, it took so long for them to even talk to us (which they actually never did, by the time we left), that we took off. We ended up in a sort of hidden restaurant called Marrakesh in the Morocco area of Epcot.
The building was done in a middle eastern style with many columns and arches and designs in the walls. It actually had the coolest bathroom door I have ever seen (I even took a picture). But we were favored a good meal (there is, as it has been proven to me, good food at Disney world, but there is also really crappy food too).
So we started off with a puff pastry with a chicken meat mixture on the inside. It was an interesting combination of powdered sugar, chicken and spices and pastry. Certainly worth having again. I seriously thought about getting the cookbook they had there. It crumbled in your mouth. I had lamb as my main course and Shannon had a chicken dish. Mine was fairly evenly spiced, but fairly lightly, but the lamb remained very good. Shannon's chicken was a bit thicker in the spice with a delightful mixture. But the highlight of the meal for me had to be the iced green tea with mint. It was fantastic. If it was sweetened, it was just barely. So the combination of bitter and mint was just wonderful. I'm gonna have to make that.
While we were eating, two people came out to play music, which was lively. In their second or third song, a belly dancer came out to entertain the crowd. It was actually pretty good.
After a bit more wandering, we headed out of Epcot, and headed over to the Magic Kingdom. Shannon wanted to see the lighted parade, and we figured, since our local restaurant had a 45 minute wait, we thought we might have better luck at the Magic Kingdom. We went to the three sit down restaurants in the magic kingdom, and well, all of them said they had no space, they were only serving by reservations. This kinda pissed me off, considering the second restaurant that we came to was half empty. Yes yes, I know they say to make reservations, but I personally think you should always reserve a small portion for walk up clients, even if they have to wait for quite a while...but that's just me.
So we went to one of the quick service places, which smelled awful (it was a fried fish and chicken place), so we headed a bit further down the road to go to a burger and fries type of place. This is a prime example of their overpriced nasty food. If we would've paid for the meal it would've been probably some where between 30 or 40 dollars (we used our food plan). It was worse then food that I could get at a Wendy's or Burger King or the like. Apparently you can screw up burgers and fries.
After "dinner" we headed down to camp out for the parade. We hadn't done this yet, and previous nights had kinda gotten screwed on picture taking because of where we are. So we checked the parade route and sat and watched people for around an hour or so. We were joined on both sides by other people, and when it looked like people would take our places at the parade barrier, we got up and guarded our spots.
We had a couple of families on the left of us that seem pretty good natured (which is how most people are at the parks). They took a picture of us, and we took a picture of them, it was nice. There were actually lots of people willing to do that (and not actually run off with your camera).
Written at home (10/02/2006 at 9:26 PM or so).
So the lighted parade was actually pretty cool, I got some good pictures. And they way they setup for it is actually pretty neat too. They have places to setup poles to hold ropes, and devices to extend rope, so it takes 3-4 people to rope off a side of a street. They can do it pretty quickly too.
After the parade, we headed back to the hotel to call it a night (even though it was relatively early.
We took 259 photos on the 6th day.
Friday, September 29th was more my day. We went to Epcot. We even dressed up a little (khaki shorts and a shirt I wear for work, and Shannon looking as pretty as ever). We had some time before the event that we paid for (The Cook, the Book and the Bottle (first one they've done for the festival and ever)). So we rode a few rides.
Mission Space, which is a simulator ride, was much better then the star wars ride, and was actually kind of fun. They have an ride called Inside Track, sponsored by GM. This ride was lame. LAME LAME LAME. Even though it goes the fastest of all the Disney rides, it doesn't do it in a fashion that makes it actually seem like more then it is. It goes 50 or 60 something miles an hour, but who cares, when it's just like riding in a car with the top down. I can do that, and I don't have to fly to florida to do so.
We were pretty close to our time when the TCTBTB started, so we headed over where it was to wait for it. Eventually they let us in, giving us a gift pack (each), which included the program, the recipies used for the day and a bottle of Etude Carneos Pinot Gris 2005 (the wine guy from there said it's from a very limited stock, where they only have 1500 cases worldwide for distribution).
Our Chef for the day was Francois Payard of the Payard Patisserie & Bistro in New York. Our wines for the food were from Etude Winery. So he was talking about his new book, which was coming out in two weeks (which means that these are of the very first first printing of it). The man had a thick French accent, but he said he'd speak slow so he'd be understandable.
The whole idea was to make food for parties. So you can always have a glass of wine in one hand and eat and get a wonderful taste experience with another hand just pop it right in your mouth. No utensils necessary. Certainly a good idea.
So first up, we had Crispy Polenta with Pistou Sauce and Parmesan Shavings and this was paired with the Etude Carneos Pinot Gris. So we watched the chef prepare the items and plate them as well. And how easy it looked to do such a thing. I suspect though, when I get around to actually trying this, it'll be a bit harder then it looked (considering he does this for a living). But the presentation was a little cylinder of the polenta toped with the pistou (thicker then normal pistou (pesto)), with a small triangle of parmesan on the top. Very pretty and very good. Which was one of the points that Payard made, was that it was extra disappointing to eat something that looks so good, and yet doesn't taste good. The taste was fantastic. A bit warm and soft, the combination of the polenta, basil and parmesan was the taste that really stood out.
Second up was the Lime Marinated Salmon on a Potato Crisp pared with Etude Carenos Rose of Pinot Noir. This, for me, was the winner of the evening. He talked about ways to crispen up the crisps (sometimes using the oven, if they don't come out right). And how you'll need to make a a few extra of the chips, because of the way they tend to fry and bake, they don't always come out in a fashion that will make for good presentation. He talked about using white pepper, since the french don't want little black flecks of pepper in their white sauces or whatever, so you cook with the white, and garnish with the black later. So the salmon he used, was raw....well it had been frozen, which kills bacteria too, but he froze it and let it thaw a bit, so that he could get thinner slices of salmon to make into rolls, and then topped with a piece of lime (between the segment markings) and dusted with a microplane zested lemon and chives and Fleur de Sel. So you can just pick up the crisp and pop it in your mouth. And let me tell you, the lime just bursts out along with the salt and chives and salmon...it was fantastic I think the only thing I've ever put in my mouth that has tasted better is the French Onion Soup at the French Cafe in Omaha.
Third was the Eggplant, Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart pared with Etude Carneros Pinot Noir. This was probably the prettiest of the 3, and was very good too. So it's basically puff pastry (which he says you can buy anywhere), Eggplant mixed with some olive oil, sherry vinegar and lavender honey, a tomato compote, and goat cheese mixed with parsley and basil. He also added a little sprig of a herb on the top of the tower of goodness, to add a bit of dressing to the top.
Afterwards, we got our books signed and our pictures taken with Payard. and left. I don't think I could've been happier. It was like watching a cooking show, but you are right there, so you get to look at what you want, taste it, and smell it. My mouth is watering just thinking of it.
We went back to the hotel to changed, took a little nap (I had all of my wine and most of Shannon's too, so I was feeling pretty good) and headed back to Epcot. While we were the hotel, we made reservations at Bistro de Paris at Epcot.
Then we went on Spaceship earth, which broke down while we were on it. It took a while of them saying, please remain seated the cars will begin to move at anytime, before they actually did. It was pretty much a version of history from caveman times to present. Mmmm...educational.
Then we went to their aquarium (Fishes!) and looked at the various animals. Got some good shots of the manatees. We then trekked off to take the world showcase tour. There were a lot of extra people in for the Food and Wine fest, and extra booths for wines and beers and etc. So it was a bit crowded. We walked through a few countries and hung out in France for our early dinner reservations (which was good, cause even though we had some lunch, it wasn't much and during a party he says he makes about 10 of the finger foods per person there, and we had, maybe 5 and a really light breakfast). It was also the only time they had available for the evening. We went with the tour of French Foods, I had mine with the wine parings, and shannon had it without the wine. We started off with a little tart and bread with butter...real butter. It's crazy how much I missed the taste of butter. At the restaurants we've been to, they don't even have butter as an option, the disney places have this 70% vegetable oil mixture that's just no good. The bread was great and makes me want to buy a big loaf from La Mie when we get home. I miss their bread. The tart was very good. It reminded me of the Payard food that we had earlier.
First course:
Sam: Medley of snails and frog legs with garlic butter on a juice of Italian parsley, vegetable "tartare" and a watercress salad.
Shannon: Heirloom tomato and pesto soup with "Royan" Comte cheese ravioli, vine tomato confite and goat cheese mousse with crusty bread.
It does make me sad, cause the third choice for the first course was Foie Gras, which is something that I've wanted to try. My first course was pared with Rose, Cuvee du Golf de St. Tropez 2004. So this is the first time I have had snails. I gotta say they were pretty good. I liked the taste. Our wonderful server showed me how to use the snail shell holder and the snail fork. Shannon was a bit off put by the texture of the snail, which I will agree is odd and not something that I'm used to, but over all it was still quite enjoyable. My frog legs were really good. My only other experience with the frog legs had been at Sage in Windsor Heights, and they were a bit...well...gamey, I guess the word would be. These were much smaller but they were fantastic. I tried Shannon's tomato and pesto soup and that was amazing. I mean just fantastic. A wonderful balance of tomato and salt. The crispy bread and goat cheese was fantastic too.
Second course:
Sam: Seared Scallops with "fleur de sel" on spinach potato gnocchi and dry goat cheese Shavings and tomato Coulis with Espelette Pepper
Shannon: European Dover sole "meuniere" on fresh egg pasta, pan seared golden chantreelle and fava beans, bay leaves creamy sauce.
My course was paired with a Muscadet (not on the menu). My scallops were fantastic and the tomato coulis was great too, the wonderful heirloom tomato taste that just stood out. Shannon's sole was quite good as well, it was very good mixed with the pasta. And here's what I found that our server was quite amazing. Shannon didn't so much like the chantreelle mushrooms, and by did like, I mean she made quite the disgusted face when she put it in here mouth. This is where our server (who is from France) showed his skills. He was there in under a minute and was asking if there was a problem. And when we explained about the mushrooms, he also warned us that if we ever went to France they use chantreelle mushrooms as a basis for many sauces, so that we may want to be careful. The fava beans were very good along with the cream sauce. For me, I was ok with the chantreelle mushrooms, but wasn't a huge fan of the texture of them.
Trou Normand:
Wild berries sorbet and French Melon Granite, Chartreuse liquor
This was sort of a palette cleansing course. It was quite cool and delicious, replacing the tomato taste with a light fruit and cold mixture. It was delightful. We both really enjoyed it.
Written on the plane between Orlando and Atlanta (10/02/2006 at 10:30 AM or so).
Third Course:
Both: Roasted rack of lamb with parsley crust, risotto with sun dried tomato and eggplant caviar, juice with lemon thyme
My dinner was matched with Laforet, Joseph Drouhin 2004. I thought seriously about having the other choice for the main course, but I love lamb so much, that it was hard for me to turn down the opportunity to have it. the lamb was delicious...if I wouldn't have felt self conscious about chewing the rest of the meat off the bones, I probably would have. It had a nice little crust to it that was hiding the succulent meat below the surface. The risotto was really good too, thought I've had better, but it certainly went well with the food that we were having. Creamy and delicious. The eggplant cavier was very good (being that I've never been a huge fan of eggplant, this came as a bit of a surprise to me. In the background on all of it was the thyme which was there but not over powering.
Fourth Course:
French assortment of cows and goats cheese served with mix salad, toasted bread, pine nuts and chives.
Neither of us were very certain as to what the cheeses actually were, but Shannon liked two out of three and I was only uncertain about one of them. We were pretty sure that one of them was a brie, which I believe is the best brie that I've ever had. The other cheese was fragrant and had a nice flavor to it, and the third was very fragrant and very strong of character. Shannon didn't like it, the taste was a bit to much for her.. For me, it was challenging. It did go well with what was left of wine from the third course. A strong cheese with a strong wine.
Desserts:
Both (small servings): Creme Brulee, Rice Pudding, Fresh Fruits soup with mint syrup, green tea and rosemary sorbet, warm chocolate cake with 70% dark chocolate.
We all got small portions of each of the desserts. We thought we'd have to pick (which would've been tough, but we didn't, which was pretty nice. They paired the desserts with a Marquis de Perlade, Blanc de Blanc, which was a champagne that was sweet and went well. It was almost to Shannon's liking (Most of the other wines didn't even come close to the narrow range that she is a fan of). We'll just go in order of the list. The Creme Brulee was really good. Certainly one of the better ones that I have...it reminded me of the first time I had it and how fantastic it was. The rice pudding was sweet but not too sweet, with a delightful texture. The fresh fruits soup with mint syrup was a bit too tart for Shannon, but I found the frust fruits to be delightful and coloful on the tongue . The green tea and rosemary sorbet was very nice. I've had green tea ice cream before, with a much stronger green tea taste, but this was very light and mostly the rosemary. For the highlight of the desserts, for both of I think, was the warm chocolate cake. It had a melted chocolate core that oozed out when you put your fork into the cake. It was heaven. and a nice crown to the meal...which was wonderful.
I just wanted to mention the view, we were on the second floor and had a direct view out the window. I was able to see the crowd across the way, which was fun.
Written waiting for the plane at Atlanta (10/02/2006 at 12:35 PM or so).
Our server, who was very attentive the entire night, showed me how to use the snail fork and holder, explained what the things were and what the dressing was and added a bit of insight, but the big thing for me was when he rushed over when Shannon made the face and made sure that everything was still good. He got the biggest, money wise, tip I've ever left. It was about 45% of the total bill, which wasn't on the cheap side.
Written on the plane to Des Moines (10/02/2006 at 2:46 PM or so).
Afterwards we explored Epcot a bit more, went on Soarin, their new ride, which was basically in front of a big screen with fans and what not, but it did feel like flying. Their fireworks show at epcot was pretty cool and pretty easy to find a good place to see them, since the world part of epcot is around a big lake and the fireworks go off in the middle. We spent a large amount of time exploring the various worlds of Disney interpretations of epcot. And because they had extra "Magic Hours" we were able to get a wristband that allowed us to stay in the park after most people had to go. Although it lessened the crowds, apparently a lot of people stay at the disney resorts. We ended up buying us a good luck kitty in the Japanese area of Epcot.
We look at a lot of things in the Norway part, but nothing really struck our fancy, but I did get a mushed penny for my dad. Speaking of mushed coins, we probably spent 5 or 15 dollars squished up pennies, because they are all over the park. I started doing this a few years ago, when I went to california, it just seemed like an easy and cheap way to get a little souvenir of a trip. We got many from the park, and Disney actually sells little holders for the squished coins. Though since everything is overpriced there, I suspect that we can get one for cheaper elsewhere. Some people would go to the machines and get all 3 choices out of there, but we usually only got the ones we liked.
By the time we left the park, I was in a fairly lousy mood, my feet were killing me and I just wanted to get off them.
Just as a note, we spent around 600$ or so on food and wine on this day (excluding admission to the park).
We took 425 pictures on our fifth day.
Written In hotel room (9/30/2006 at 4:30 PM or so)
(Took a short nap)
On Thursday September 28th, we headed to the Animal Kingdom. Because we had to be there extra early, they wanted us to be there by 8:15, we woke up extra early and scheduled the night before to have a cab come and get us. After eating breakfast, we headed out.
We checked with the information booth to make sure as to where we should be, and then went over there to wait. We were shortly joined by a guest relations person and our tour guide for our Behind the Scene's tour of the Animal Kingdom. They didn't allow us to take pictures, because they said they didn't want to "destroy the magic for other guests". I can understand that, to some extent I suppose, so I kept to their wishes.
We drove around the park, and our tour guide, who was a retired teacher from Michigan, told us interesting things about the Animal Kingdom. The other three Disney world parks (Epcot, Magic Kingdom, MGM) fit easily inside the animal kingdom. I want to say that it's 500 acres, but I'm not sure...but that's the number that comes up in my head. We got to see the Elephant and rhino barn. We got to even pet the male white rhino (very dry skin, one of our other tour members said it felt like her exema). They told us how they only use positive reenforcement to train the animals. So if they lift their legs then they get treats, if they don't, then no treats. If they allow them to draw blood samples, etc. If the animal doesn't want to cooperate, that's their prerogative. They just don't get the treats.
In the elephant barn, we got an birds eye view to the newest elephant at the park (born around last Christmas) and her mom. We got to see them both dance a little (they were excited to get out for the day to roam).
They also talked about the breeding program, where a board of scientists decides which animals it's good to breed. Unlike before where it was all random and you would have a lot of family inbreeding (which isn't a good thing).
We also got a close encounter with a lesser tamir (sp?), a relative to the hedgehog. And got to see it eat a treat (meal worm).
We saw the diet center for the animals, where they prepare the meals a day in advance. Each diet is setup for each particular animal. They only actually have a few live things in the building (insects), but for the most part, everything else is "pre-killed" at the source. So they had bags of frozen mice and rats and various stages of growth (from baby on). They also grow many things on the grounds to help supplement the diets of the animals and use some vitamin supplements where necessary. Apparently, freezing fish, for example, takes a lot of the nutrients out of them, so they have to enrich them.
Written In hotel room (10/01/2006 at 6:40 AM or so)
We also went to a special area of the vet clinic, where Shannon noticed a lot of differences between her Jordan Creek and their clinic. The anesthesia machine was much larger then Jordan Creek's. I suspect it's a bit harder to put a gorilla to sleep then it is to put a kitty to sleep. It was interesting to me, and kept Shannon enthralled.
We actually got to see the tail end of a tumor removal of a skunk. I actually saw them take out the tumor and fatty surrounding tissue.
We then we back into the public part of the park. We went to a special area and boarded a Safari truck without having to wait in line. They have their park setup in a very interesting fashion. For animals that could be problematic (big cats) they have islands for them setup in such a fashion that looks like they could leave, but because of the distance of the sort of moat and the depth of it, the animals couldn't get out. For other animals, they have 'em set up in areas using the cow keepers in the ground and fences (hidden by bushes and fake rock formations) to keep them in their part of the park, but as far as a line of fences between the truck and the animals, there isn't one. It does allow for nice pictures, except that the truck is bouncing all around (like a safari would). We had a giraffe really close to the tour. Instead of having the pre-canned tour information, our guide went off of the script and pointed out things that people wouldn't really notice (the rocks as barriers, where the animal barns are and etc.
After that we filled out a survey about the tour and headed off.
We went over to the Asia area of the park to ride the Expedition Everest ride. They had a lot of Himalayan things and religious icons on the way up. The wait time was short, so we went. This was probably my favorite ride of all the parks. The Yeti they have near the end of the ride was actually very well done and a bit frightening (even though you know it's coming). It takes you forward and back and is a bit quicker then most of the Disney rides.
We then headed back and did the safari ride again (we wanted to be on the right side of the car, because we weren't able to get some of the pictures we wanted. This time it was the more standard Disney story line (on the look out for poachers, helping catch them). I got some great pictures of a gazelle, an ostrich and a zebra. The ostrich was actually blocking the road at one point.
They also have walking paths, where you can walk through their setup to see things. We took a few of these, took a train to the back of the park to Rafiki's Planet watch, which is basically a conservation station where they teach you about creating animal and insect habitats in your backyard. They also had a view into the vet clinic (we were on the back side of the view before). They had a Vet Tech talking about the imaging that they use for the animals. I found it dreadfully boring, but Shannon was fascinated, so I headed down the way, and found a seat and started dosing in and out of sleep.
Shannon got a little frustrated, because people came up and started talking over the Vet Tech, so she came and woke me up and we headed back to the main area of the park. We did do the splash ride, which, for the most part, was pretty lame. One big splash and fall and that was about it. We did get very wet though, which made walking in wet shoes, kind of obnoxious.
We hung out for the Parade, which had a large influence from the lion king Broadway show. The Animal Kingdom closes a bit early (I think because the animals stop being playful, so we headed over to the MGM park again to hit a few things that we missed.
We did the back lot tour, saw the actual plane that Walt Disney used to fly in, the saucer from the Navigator. We redid the Tower of Terror and Aerosmith rides. Then headed to disney downtown.
We had coupons for Planet Hollywood (free gift an one free meal) but on further exception they wanted you to come early or limited what you could buy.
So what can I say about the restaurant? I'll admit that the items they had in there from many movies (Terminator to Toy Story to Pretty Woman) was interesting and I'd be willing to pay to go to a museum with these things in them (though not to much). The food...was...well, I'd expect a whole lot better for what they are charging for it. We had these chicken fingers that were covered in Captain Crunch instead of something like corn flakes. These were actually the highlight of the meal. And they weren't really done right, they ranged from being crispy to soggy on the same piece of chicken. The coverage of Captain Crunch on the chicken was incomplete, so in some places you could see right through it. The sauce they served with it, was actually quite good. Our server was very attentive as well and it wasn't his fault that he was serving crappy food. The main course...Shannon had a chicken alfredo pasta, which was...well very plane. The chicken ranged from being a bit on the over cooked side to a bit more on the over cooked side. I had a fried lasagna. It was recommended, however, it was very bland. The garlic cream sauce, didn't taste like garlic or cream. The marinara sauce they used was blander then sauces that come out of bottles that I've had. The combination of the two was not pleasant either. I couldn't finish it.
Afterwards we went to the Ghirardelli Ice cream shop. These were actually pretty good. Certainly a way to cleanse my pallet from the awfulness that was planet hollywood. We also ended up buying somewhere between 3 and 4 pounds of chocolate.
We then headed back to the hotel room and called it a night.
We took 379 Photos on our fourth day.
Written In hotel room (9/27/2006 at 11:02 PM or so) (waiting for battery to charge on camera).
Again with the waking up bright and early (like I sleep long anyways) on Wednesday September 27th.
Wanting to use up our quick service meals on our dining plan, we went and ate breakfast at the pepper market. The quality of the food was meh, but they did have choices, which was nice. The one thing that I really didn't like was that when we were checking out. I handed the cashier the tickets, and my card and mentioned that I wanted to use the dining plan.
Apparently she didn't hear me. She charged the food to my room...which eventually will be fine, but being that we are trying to use up the dining plan items, it's not so good now.
I noticed as we were walking away, and I quickly turn around and tell her that that is what I intended. She told me that if I want to use the dining plan, then I need to tell them that I want to use the dining plan. One would think that since it says RIGHT ON THE CARD, that we are using disney dining, that maybe they should ASK to see if I want to use it and go off that answer. In fact, many of the other places that we've been to, ASKED right off the bat, "Will you be using Disney Dining tonight?" But to avoid conflict I said that I thought I had said that, when in all reality I knew that I did. So when the manager came over, and reinforced in a snarky sort of way, that I needed to tell them to use disney dining, I just accepted the snarky little lecture, because I was getting what I wanted. (credit back for the meal and a disney dining plan quick service meal taken off).
We headed back to our rooms, slathered ourselves in the wonderful sunscreen that Shannon had picked out (which isn't very greasy and neither of us got a burn from being out in the sun all day the previous day). And went out to wait for the bus stop. I was still a bit miffed over the disney dining thing, but was calming down rather quickly.
We had originally planned to go to the Animal Kingdom, since they had extended "Magic" hours for resort guests (which makes me curious as to how they keep/get the other guests out), but since we scheduled the behind the scenes tour for Shannon and they didn't have any open slots for Wednesday, but did for Thursday, we rearranged what we were doing.
So the Magic Kingdom it was.
In short order we were off on the short trip to the Magic Kingdom. When people talk about disney world, this is usually what they mean. It has tomorrow land, main street, etc. It has Cinderella's (or sleeping beauty's...one of the princesses) big castle at the center of the park, surrounded by the various other parks.
We headed to Tomorrow land first. On the way there was walking to the music in a fairly silly fashion, and was told by one of the "cast members" that I was officially a kid today. We then stopped by some roses and I took a picture of this beautiful light pink rose (almost white). The lady that had commented on my walk, came up and told us that since we had found youth and beauty in the park we were up for a prize. She gave us four tickets that were basically like super-fast pass tickets. Good for any ride that used fast pass, so we could hop in the fast pass lane, whenever. This was actually kind of cool...except the lines were short enough, except for one where they didn't have fast pass, that we didn't feel the need to ever use them, but it was cool anyways.
(Battery is done charging I can charge the other battery and go to sleep...yay! 11:35 PM).
Written In hotel room (9/28/2006 at 7:02 PM or so)
My feet hurt. That is all.
Written In hotel room (9/29/2006 at 10:56 PM or so)
My feet have been stabbed...I mean they hurt hurt. That is all.
Written In hotel room (9/30/2006 at 2:55 PM or so)
We headed over to Space Mountain first (being that we've been finding that it's best to hit the rides early in the day so that you don't have to wait in the lines. One of the things that I think that Disney has taken into account is that it is hot in Florida, so a lot of their rides the waiting area and/or the ride itself is air conditioned. It is kind of funny to walk through the maze of lines when there are really no other people waiting in line. Space Mountain was fun...I enjoyed it..thought with my tallness the carriage was a bit small, so I was a bit crunched in. It twists and turns and it's in the dark so you can't really see what's gonna happen next (they do this a lot).
Afterwards we did a few silly things (tram around Tomorrow Land, carousel of progress). We also got our picture taken with Stitch and then went on his ride. Obviously some of the things are targeted at a younger audience, but for the most part it is still enjoyable. We headed to another park, and hit the Pooh ride (used to be Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, according to Shannon), IT's a small world after all...which then was stuck in my head the entire day (doh!).
We checked out the Heritage area (hall of presidents), hit the haunted mansion (definitely dated) and then headed back to the Adventure land area, and went on Pirates of the Caribbean (the ride broke on us). Then the Tiki room, which Shannon says has been drastically updated, since they don't much do the Tiki song anymore. We hit Splash Mountain and hit the Train ride (in the mountain, which I'm having trouble coming up with the name). Watched a parade and the fireworks too. We thought we were in a pretty good place for the fireworks, but due to a tree, our place was pretty lousy. We moved on to a bridge and had a better view. Magic Kingdom seemed to really be geared, for the most part, toward a younger audience then we are. It was fun, and it was, I hate to say, a little bit thrilling to get my picture taken with mickey mouse.
We wandered around a few shops on our way out and eventually made it back to the hotel. We also went swimming. We headed all the way over to the big pool, but the water slide was off, so it was kind of pointless. We swam around for a bit and went back to the room.
We took 533 Photos on the third day (I even had to turn the resolution down so we didn't run out of photo space, which we did on the bus trip on the way home).