Disney Trip (10/4-10/14)

Hello again everyone! I realize it's been a while since I've blogged but my recent trip gave me some new things to blog about. Instead of the format I used of going day by day in my last trip report, I'm just going to divide my trip into certain topics.

View from my room at Bay Lake Tower

Contemporary at night from Bay Lake Tower's entrance

The Grand Canyon Concourse in the Contemporary

We stayed at Bay Lake Tower at The Contemporary Resort and The Boardwalk Inn. Our home DVC resort is The Contemporary so I knew what to expect there, but it was the first time I stayed at The Boardwalk. I was in a 1 bedroom Villa with my family at both resorts. Going from Bay Lake Tower to The Boardwalk made things pretty apparent that The Boardwalk rooms are kind of dated. I'm guessing they haven't been majorly renovated since their opening in 1996. The villa was noticeably smaller than Bay Lake. Both were one bed room Villas but Bay Lake's was far more spacious and modern. Another sign of being dated was the lack of chargers at the BWI. I had to unplug the alarm clock to have a free outlet for my phone. BLT also had 2 full bathrooms while at BWI there was only one bathroom. It had another area right outside of it with a whirl pool and extra sink, but this area had no door between the main bedroom, so you were out in the open.

Kitchen in The Boardwalk Inn

Living Room

Bedroom

Bedroom

Sink/ whirl pool area with bathroom through the door to the left

The Food and Wine Festival

1996 Epcot map- first year of the food and wine

On to the trip itself. It was my first year visiting during the festival and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was the 20th anniversary of the food and wine festival this year! I was able to get a free pass-holder commemorative wine glass. You just had to get a book stamped twice and collect it on the third day. Be aware that they don't ship the glass to your resort (at least they didn't for me) so you're going to be carrying it around all day. It was in a box that kept it safe though. The main event of course is the food! Food highlights included the cheese fondue and cheese trio at the Cheese Studio, and liquid nitro chocolate almond truffle at the Chew Lab were a true highlight, especially the latter. It's unlike anything I've ever had, like a truffle meets moose.

Fondue

The Chew Lab Dessert

Beijing roasted duck in China, and buttered chicken with naan in Africa were familiar enough to me but still great. The sausage and cheddar cheese soup in Canada is what is served at Le Cellier and did not disappoint. The Kahlua pork slider in Hawai'i, and Beef empanada at Patagonia were pleasant surprises. The slider had Asian infused flavors while the empanada was tastier than I could've imagined. The Belgian waffle in Belgium, and warm chocolate pudding in Ireland were great desserts. I tried a few more foods but these were my favorites.

The Odyssey Center

Inside Odyssey

Festival Center

Also open were the Odyssey Center (formerly Odyssey Restaurant) which had some beer flights and snacks, and The Festival Center (formerly Wonders of Life pavilion). Inside they have a wine shop, a making of the festival video, a ghirardelli chocolates area, and a booth. The main draw though is the tasting seminars. I was able to book one the day before I went to it. The chef was from Boma at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. He cooked a short rib dish served on mealie pap, sort of like corn meal. Although it was smaller than it appears in the photo it was very good. About the size of  the other food options at the festival, and it came with red wine.

Short rib dish

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

This was also the first time I visited during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It was a nice event with very low wait time for rides and a special parade, shows, fireworks, and of course trick or treating at different spots. Cast members gave out candy which included classics like Snickers, Kit Kats, Butter Fingers, Baby Ruth's, Airheads, etc. Craisins had a stand in Tomorrowland giving away chocolate covered Craisins, while Werther's Caramel was in front of The Little Mermaid ride. The lines weren't too long, and the CMs gave you about 5 or so pieces at each stop. In case you're wondering, no I did not dress up. That's just not my thing.

Parade

I had dinner at The Columbia Harbour House (I usually only go for lunch) and was able to get the chicken pot pie there. It was outstanding. I liked the use of panko bread crumbs instead of a top crust. They also had specialty snacks for the event. I had a candy corn ice cream cone. It was just vanilla soft serve with orange dye on half of it. It also had candy corn at the bottom. Unfortunately the bottom of my cone got too soggy and it started dripping out.

The new hub design allowed me to watch HalloWishes from Main Street for the first time in a while. It included The Haunted Mansion Ghost Host Narration, projected Halloween images on the castle, and a 180 of fireworks at the end (meaning the surrounded the whole area behind the castle). With the low wait times I was also able to go through the new queue area for Peter Pan. It looks a little different in person than from the videos I've seen online, but it's really well done with great new effects.

HalloWishes from Bay Lake Tower

Disney's Animal Kingdom

 
With so much work going on at The Animal Kingdom, here's a little photo update of the progress as well as some pictures of the new Harambe Market.

Avatar Construction area

Soon to be floating mountains

The new shop Zuri's Sweet Treats connects to the store already there

Harambe Market

Disney's Hollywood Studios 

The view now that the hat's gone

Of course DHS is getting a major expansion including a new Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land. The Great Movie Ride has been updated now that Turner Classic Movies is sponsoring it. The pre-show and end montage are new and the narration has been updated. I had a meal at my favorite restaurant here; The Hollywood Brown Derby. I had the classic Cobb salad as an appetizer and it was great as always. For dinner I always ordered the duck, but it's no longer on the menu so I had the new beef wellington. It was really good and worth coming back for. 

This was my first trip visiting The Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios new Starbucks locations as well. The Animal Kingdom's is African themed and really nice. They have the paper straws there like all other locations in The Animal Kingdom. Hollywood Studios has a new seating area next to the Starbucks. I was able to watch the citizen's of Hollywood performing across the way from there.

Disney Springs

I went to Disney Springs one night and ate at Fulton's Crab House for the first time. I ordered the jambalaya and it was very good. I'm not the biggest seafood eater but wanted to try something interesting.  I got a look at the new Morimoto Asia and it looks amazing. I hope to go there when I come back in January. They aren't taking reservations yet though. For dessert I went over to Ghirardelli's where I got cookie's and cream ice cream with Ghirardelli hot fudge on it.

Trader Sam's Grog Grotto

This was also my first visit at Trader Sam's. I sat at the outdoor area where I tried the spikey pineapple alcohol drink exclusive to the outside bar. It tasted just like a dole whip. For food I had the Kahlua pork tacos, the pan fried dumplings, and corn battered Portuguese sausage. It was all really good but pretty small, so don't expect to have a full dinner there, more of a late night snack.

So that's everything! Please share comments or questions below and follow me on twitter. By the way, I had said earlier that I would do a blog about the Milan Expo and never got around to it. There doesn't seem to be much interest, but tell me below if you want me to write it. If there's enough interest, I will!

WDW Trip Report Part Two

Day 4

Sunday, January 4th was our last day without park tickets. We got up a little late this day and headed over to Beaches & Cream for lunch. Beaches & Cream is an old fashioned ice cream parlor at The Beach Club Resort. I got the burger, and it was very good. I think The Plaza Restaurant at the Magic Kingdom, which is similar to Beaches & Cream, has a better burger though. Another member of my party got the grilled cheese and tomato bisque. I got this last time and I loved it. I wish I had gotten it again because it is so good. I did get to have a little of it, though.  I got the No way Jose for dessert. It has hot fudge, peanut butter sauce, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, whipped cream, a cherry, and I got it with vanilla ice cream. It's one of the best sundaes anywhere!

The 'No Way Jose'

We also did some more swimming like on Saturday. At night we headed over to Downtown Disney to go to the AMC dine in theater. We went here last year where the bus dropped us off right in front of the movie theater. Because of the construction going on for the new Disney Springs area, the buses only dropped off at the Market Place, and the theater is on The West Side. So we had a long walk  to get there. They do have a boat that goes from the Market Place to West Side, but we decided to walk. I took some pics of the construction of Disney Springs on our way down.

The hangar

The hot air balloon

Cool construction wall art

We got to the movie theater around 7:25. The next movie was playing at 7:30, and there wasn't another one until 8. We decided to just see the movie at 7:30. The dine-in theater has four big comfy chairs set up in front of a table. We have a waiter that you can call by pressing a button, like on an airplane. They have real food options at the dine-in like burgers, chicken wings, salads, etc. But we stuck with more typical theater food. We had a large tub of popcorn, chocolate covered raisins, and soda. The soda comes in a glass and the popcorn came with a refill.

New overhangs

After the movie we ended up taking the boat back from West Side to The Market Place. I had never taken the boat before, so it was cool to experience something new. We could see Saratoga Springs Resort across the water.

Saratoga Springs Resort

We then got the bus and went back to our resort. It may seem like an uneventful day, but it was nice to relax and not have to rush anywhere. I was glad to get back into the parks the next day, though.

Day 5

We headed into EPCOT from International Gateway and headed right to France. Today was our first day on the dining plan, so we got lunch using our points. I got a ham and cheese croissant with a lemon meringue tart for dessert.

France was still decorated for Christmas

After lunch I wanted to see Impressions De France- the only opening day attraction still in the park. I don't believe I've ever seen the movie before, I definitely didn't remember it. I think it holds up fine for being made in the early 80's. You can tell by hair styles and clothes that it was filmed a while ago, but other than that it looked good. The sound and picture quality was fine.

Exhibit in the waiting area

The movie screen behind curtains

After the movie, we headed to Fountain View for Starbucks coffee. While we were there I got this pic of the fountain with a rainbow reflected in the water.

 We headed out of EPCOT to catch the monorail for our first visit to the Magic Kingdom this trip. After transferring from the EPCOT monorail to the express Magic Kingdom monorail, we were on our way to MK.

Leaving EPCOT

Passing the Grand Canyon Concourse from the monorail

Bay Lake Tower, our home DVC resort

Finally here!

Christmas tree

The new wreath overhang decoration. I think I prefer this over the Garland that used to be here as it would block the castle.

Heading to The Haunted Mansion

R.I.P. Mr Toad!

Off to the people mover...with a line? Oh well it moved very quickly as this ride has an omni mover type of loading

Progress City!

After the peoplemover we headed to the front of the park, because we had reservations at The California Grill in The Contemporary Resort.

New theming being added to the back of Main Street buildings for the new bypass

 As we walked out, I took some pictures of the Christmas decor on Main Street U.S.A.

 

Back to the monorail- the resort monorail this time

 We only had one stop to get to the Contemporary Resort from the Magic Kingdom.

Approaching The Contemporary

We got off the monorail and road the escalator down to The Grand Canyon Concourse, where I took a few pics.

Monorail Green going by

After that we took the escalator down to the California Grill check in desk. From there we got the elevator to the 15th floor...the top of The Contemporary. After we were seated I went out to the observation deck. The sun was beginning to set and I got a lot of photos.

Christmas tree inside the restaurant

The observation deck

The Grand Floridian at dusk

The Wilderness Lodge with Spaceship Earth in the distance!

Monorail leaving The Transportation & Ticket Center

The Polynesian on the left and Grand Floridian on the right

I usually get the same items at The California Grill...when I find an item I like at a restaurant, I stick with it.  I got the cheese plate to start and The Pork two ways for dinner. It has grilled pork tenderloin with goat cheese polenta, as well as pork belly over an applesauce. For dessert I got warm homemade fritters which has cinnamon sugar, bananas inside and comes with three dipping sauces.

The tree from the top of The Contemporary 

We took the monorail back to The Magic Kingdom after dinner. 

And enjoyed the rest of our first day at The Magic Kingdom!

Train station decorated for Christmas

Castle reflected in the moat

Seven Dwarves Mine Train

Wishes behind Be Our Guest

Dumbo

We went on Pirates, the ride looked fine when we were there

The dream lights extended to the hub trees

Tomorrowland looks beautiful at night

That's it for day five!

Day 6

Waterfall by the entrance

Christmas tree by our table

I had a croque monsieur for lunch aka ham and cheese sandwich

Strawberry Cream cheese cupcake for dessert

 If you haven't been to Be Our Guest for lunch, you usually wait for a kiosk to put your order in. Then you go find a table where eventually the wait staff brings over your meal. I liked my meal, the fries are the standard fries served at quick service restaurants. They have better ones at dinner time for Steak and Pom Frittes. I got my favorite cupcake served there, it has strawberry moose inside a vanilla cupcake with cream cheese icing. The wrapping is pretty hard to get off, so I just use my fork with the cupcake still in the wrapper.

After lunch I had an appointment at The Main Street Barber Shop. It's been a tradition the last couple of years to get my haircut there. The staff is very friendly, it truly feels like another era with quality Disney service. After my haircut we took the train over to Fantasyland.

From the train station

Big Thunder Mountain from the train

We ended up seeing Mickey's Phillarmagic and then decided to head back to the resort to go to EPCOT.

We left through the castle. The stage show in-front of the castle makes it rare to be able to go through the castle.

I got this picture of  the new trees on Main Street on my way out

The bus ride back took us by Disney's Polynesian Village Resort

We walked over to EPCOT after the bus dropped us back at our resort. I went on Imagination and then headed through Innoventions West where IBM's exhibits were supposed to have just closed.

IBM's THINK was still opened, so I got a few pics since it's supposed to be closed soon.

Since THINK was opened, I headed to Innoventions East to see if Test the Limits Lab was opened

Test the Limits behind walls

We had a fastpass for Spaceship Earth for around 7, and since it was 6 I thought we could ride Mission: SPACE. It's usually fast to do.

I'd never seen the line this far back before

Stuck in line

It ended up taking us around 40 minutes to ride! Apparently the green version (less intense) was having technical difficulties. Since green is only one bay while orange (more intense with spinning) has three bays, we had a long wait. We still made our Spaceship Earth fastpass though.

Fountain of Nations night shot

For dinner we went to The Land to eat at Sunshine Seasons, the counter service restaurant.

We had the dining plan so I got the porkchops with cheddar mashed potatoes and a side of butternut squash soup. I had never tried the pork chops before, they were delicious! These are my new favorite! The soup had pumpkin seeds and goat cheese added on top. It was very good...I've had it before.  For dessert I had the keylime meringue pie, always a favorite! After dinner we went on Soarin' with our fastpass.

After Soarin' we walked around World Showcase before Illuminations.

Beautiful rainbow lasers!

Stay tuned for more on my vacation. Please comment below and make sure to follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/Grndcnyncncrse.