We actually found ourselves wandering back a mere month later to the same park that we had visited not so long ago, mostly on account of my wife’s sister wanting to get one last pass at Disney’s version of thrill rides before her annual pass expires. Truth be told, we ended up getting a pretty late start, so there’d be no double Toy Story runs this time around, but we did manage to make it on both the Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n Rollercoaster with plenty of time to spare, which was the main goal on this here adventure.

But first … sustenance!

Like Dinner at Grandma’s House…
Our late lunch/early dinner ended up being the result of me caving into my wife’s relentless demands because she’s been wanting to eat at the ’50s Prime Time Cafe for quite some time. Me, on the other hand, not so much, and mainly because I just had this feeling that yours truly would likely end up being the brunt of Ma’s illicit scoldings, as they were and of all the themed restaurants to be enjoyed around Walt Disney World, a nag-filled dinner just didn’t seem particularly appealing to me!

That said, I did end up having a good time, so I implore those like-minded to myself to give it a whirl anyways before you slap it down by default! Our waitress, Ma, was fun and I think offered just the right amount of shtick - at one point she brought me three glasses of water because she “didn’t want to bring me refills all night long” and then later gave me a little grief about looking up wait times for attractions on my phone at the table. Thankfully I was still able to snag pictures of our food for my upcoming review – now that might’ve been the last straw!

P.S. Our dessert was pretty cute and unexpectedly topped, too!

iPhone vs. Point & Shoot Camera Experiment
Now one thing that I’ve been meaning to try out, even though I was hoping that I’d get considerably better results, was that for a while now I’ve been curious as to whether it would be ok to stop bringing my traditional point & shoot camera and instead rely more on just using my iPhone to take pictures while we’re running around the parks – to cut down on the amount of things that I have to carry in my pockets.  My regular camera is a few years old – an 8 megapixel Canon PowerShot; my phone – a 5 megapixel iPhone 4.

And so I tried actually shooting most of my photos for the day with my iPhone. And the verdict? I won’t be doing that again anytime soon.

You see, I love having everything else built into the phone where I can post them to Twitter or my MoBlog here right away, but the problems I found were pretty significant:

• iPhone pictures are fine at lower resolutions (i.e. on a small screen), but start to look pretty bad the bigger you make them. Really ugly at full screen!
• iPhone’s digital-only zoom is terrible compared to having both digital and optical on my regular camera.
• iPhone doesn’t really have any cool macro settings, which I use almost exclusively for my close-up food pics.
• iPhone also doesn’t perform well in low or dark light where I might still get away with not using a flash with my normal camera.

It was definitely one of those things where if you only ever viewed your pictures on a mobile device, it’d probably be fine (well, resolution, not the other issues…), but when I like to bring ‘em home and blow them up to full-size on my 24″ desktop display, the artifacting starts to be pretty significant and it became clear that we’re not there quite yet. I’d actually be curious to do the same testing with an iPhone 4S, which is supposed to have a considerably better camera both in terms of the sensor and the lens that’s being used. In the meantime, I’ll still definitely be taking the occasional camera phone pic when I want to share something right away, long before we ever return home, but it also means that I’ll be switching off between my iPhone and my regular camera, and just for the record - I’m not a very good juggler!

Here are some samples from my last two trips if you’d like to try and see for yourself – top row are iPhone pics, bottom row – point & shoot pics…

A Need for Better Late Night Dessert Options
And as so many trips tend to do, our Hollywood adventure this time around ended with one final snack before leaving the World …  though is it just me or is the Studios making this harder and harder in the evening hours??? We decided to stop doing attractions and locate our treats around 8:30pm, so granted only 30 minutes before the park was scheduled to close, and yet once again I found it incredibly off-putting to find several different counter service eateries and snack carts around the park were already closing up shop for the night. Do they just assume that in the evening everyone filters over to Sunset Blvd. for Fantasmic and whatnot anyways, so there’s no sense in keeping stuff on the other side of the park open? Again, we typically spend more time at Epcot, and then the Magic Kingdom, and we just never see this kind of thing there – in fact, most people wait to do their Main Street USA shopping until the park starts closing!!!

Anyways, to say the least, I don’t necessarily approve, but nonetheless – dessert-type-stuffs! We actually ended up first at Sunset Sweets where I procured the awesomest new Rice Krispie treat I’ve ever seen!, but then ended up making a side journey over to Downtown Disney for ice cream when my wife wasn’t able to find what she wanted anywhere else in the park. I’m telling ya – last time we wanted to checkout Starring Rolls Bakery, but they were already closed, too, and ended up all the way back at the Writer’s Stop just to get a couple of baked goods to munch on during Fantasmic.

Don’t get me wrong, after that carrot cake cookie, the exercise was certainly warranted, but nonetheless…

You have a problem, Studios! Stop closing your stores before you close the actual park - the people demand their giganticly ridiculous Butterfinger cupcakes!!! 

Lately it seems like whenever we set foot inside a Disney park, my wife and I often times catch ourselves playing the “When was the last time we were here???” game and let me tell you, for the Studios it’s been … a while! Disappointingly we never quite made it over at Christmastime to see the Osborne Lights, and even looking further back into my trip report archives I’m not really seeing any semi-recent documentation of such a trip, so I guess you might say that this particular juncture was considerably overdue! 

The Day’s Take…
All in all, it was a good, solid afternoon, though – we arrived in the early afternoon and first made a bee-line for lunch … just a quick bit to eat at the first place we came across, which happened to be the ABC Commissary. After realizing that Star Tours had been updated since we’d been there last, we ended up making that our next stop. My commentary? It was cute, although the story seems to make a little less sense now, seeing how Darth Vader just showed up as we were getting ready to leave the hangar!  I mean, I get that the goal is to expose more people to the characters because that’s who they remember from the movies, and the effects are definitely a bit snazier than their original 1989 predecessors, but I just feel like they sacrificed a bit of story to put the characters more out in the forefront…

Anyways, following our intergalactic adventure, we popped on over to Toy Story Mania – a must-do for both of us, although I do wish that the queue times would start to back off and occasional resemble the other big-ticket attractions instead of consistently clocking in at 60+ minutes no matter what time of day it actually is!   After getting beaten like I usually do, we made our way over to Sunset Blvd. to hit both Coaster and Tower before catching the last showing of Indiana Jones and then proceeding back to Sunset again to watch Fantasmic. In hindsight, we did an awful lot of criss-crossing the park because we didn’t have a clear method to our madness, but then again, a little exercise was probably a good thing when you consider what we had for dessert!

Fantasmic
It’s also been a while since we’ve seen Fantasmic, so it was good to see after so long, and frankly it’s also nice to see that they’ve taken a hint from the ridiculous wait times that folks have to line up for World of Color out at Disney’s California Adventure and added some in-crowd warm-up entertainment to help pass the time. It wasn’t much – just a couple of cast members with mics walking through the audience, picking people and playing silly games, but it was a distraction from otherwise just sitting there waiting in the amphitheater, and it really did seem to work! 

I also ended up being pretty happy with a couple of the photos that I managed to grab from the actual show itself…

The After Party, Starring Gourmet Hot Dogs
Now before we could leave, there was one thing that I’d been itching to try ever since  I read about them last summer – the gourmet hot dogs at Fairfax Fare! I had actually hoped to eat here for lunch, but it was kind of out of the way and also distinctly not air conditioned, so nighttime was clearly the way to go. I ended up getting a taste of both the Mac & Cheese and BBQ Pork varieties, as my wife decided a few bites in that she didn’t want hers (blasphemy!). I’m going to have a separate Dining Around the World Quick Pick up about them later, but my overall review – I do like the concept and the flavors were pretty good, but at the same time they were a real mess because traditional hot dog buns simply aren’t made to contain that much food! I’d definitely grab one again, but also make sure that you grab a fork to go along with it… 

One Last Toy For the Road
And last but certainly not least … I mentioned that my wife is a bit of a fan of Toy Story Mania. Well, just before leaving I happened to glance down at my new Disney Mobile Magic iPhone app (LOVE THIS THING!!!) and saw that, as the park was getting ready to close, Toy Story Mania only had a 30-minute wait! 30 minutes or less is pretty much our preferred threshold for waiting in line vs. moving on to something else, so it was a pretty easy decision … and even better yet, we ended up getting directed to follow the handicapped lane halfway through the queue to get everybody through quicker, so we maybe waited in line for 15 of those 30 minutes, max!!!

Mind you, I still lost when we finally got to the actual ride, but as far as the wait was considered, I definitely considered myself a winner there! 

Well, that’s exactly what my wife and I ended up doing Saturday evening instead of going to the mall to get my iPhone fixed. Hey, the Apple store is open every day of the week, but the Magic Kingdom staying open until midnight … not so much! My new plan is to go do that tonight, so in retrospect I think we made the right choice!

Moderately Low Lines
After having surprisingly not been to this particular park in quite some time now, we were kind of happy to find that the wait times at most of our favorite rides were minimal at worst. The only thing we really had to “wait” for was Space Mountain and that was maybe 30 minutes; everything else was 10 minutes or less, with even a nice walk-on for Buzz to cap the evening off! I think the only thing we really missed out on was the Haunted Mansion because it had a good 30-45 minute wait, and then Big Thunder because it’s currently down for refurbishment. Our total came out to 6 attractions in about 3 hours, so not bad for a quick evening jaunt if you ask me!

I think if I had to pick just one, I probably actually really enjoyed It’s a Small World the most because I can’t even remember the last time that I rode that one and it was a pleasant reminder of how much fun it can be to shoot photos throughout all of the different colored scenes. Having been to Disneyland myself now, I’d love to see them makeover Florida’s version the same way they touched up the original out in California by inserting characters from the various animated movies into their appropriate scenes – my wife and I both thought that they added a nice touch as well as a fun, little challenge trying to find them all along the way…

Stranded In the Worst Possible Part of Buzz
The low part of the evening, though, had to have been when we found ourselves stuck on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and not because we were tired of the ride and just wanted to leave, mind you, but more so because we got stuck in a really lousy spot and didn’t have crap for targets to shoot at while we were waiting!!! We were right in that very first room, still going up the ramp, where maybe the best targets are worth 5,000 points at best, whereas my sister-in-law in the car ahead of us was perfectly positioned to hit that 100,000-point target on the ceiling heading into the next room … she didn’t even realize that it was one of the best in the whole game, and yet she had already maxed out one blaster and was working on the second one in her single-rider car by the time we finally got moving again!

I Have a Weakness, and the Main Street Bakery Be Thy Name
And lastly, as we paraded triumphantly back down Main Street, like a moth to the most beautiful of iridescent lights I found myself wandering helplessly into the clutches of the much-coveted Bakery. While my wife and her sister showed considerable restraint and each bought some boring fruit and/or vegetable trays, I on the other hand showed absolutely no restraint whatsoever and ended up getting one of these little beauties…

If there is any doubt tomorrow why I don’t make my weekly weigh-in, I need only to refresh my browser once again to this very post and soon it will all become clear!

For what it’s worth, though, it was absolutely delicious and frankly, if losing weight means never getting to splurge on giant cinnamon rolls the size of hubcaps, then maybe I don’t even want to be skinny after all!

(not actually true – mark my words, next trip I vow to “show restraint” by resisting both the Bakery and the Confectionery in the same trip!)

Mind you, the weather report still predicted it being a bit chilly, so sticking around one of the theme parks for fireworks didn’t exactly seem all that desirable, but we figured we could still get out of the house and catch a quick game of mini-golf while it was still daylight (and thus warm) out, then retreat to the comforts of a nearby movie theater to endure the rest of the evening with plush, leather seats, delicious food offerings, and the latest from the always wonderful Robert Downey, Jr.

It’s a rough life, I know…

Fore!
When we arrived at Fantasia Gardens, my wife’s personal mini-golf destination of choice, it soon became very clear that we were not the only ones who opted for a bit of miniature enjoyment that afternoon, to the point where I was seriously starting to doubt if I was going to be able to maintain my own sanity while sandwiched between  several groups of golfers who had no signs of parents in sight and seemed quite eager to take full advantage of that random lack of parental oversight! Fortunately (?!), we eventually caught a break when one of the absentee parents popped in to say that maybe they should hop across the course to do some other empty holes out of order because he had gotten tired of waiting himself, and so although normally I wouldn’t really be a supporter of such line-dodging shenanigans, frankly in this case I was just happy to have them out of my own hair! 

P.S.
Did I mention that I actually beat my wife at mini-golf for a change?!?!?!

It was honestly a really good match – we were just about neck and neck for most of it, or she would go down a stroke on one hole and then I’d make an error on the next and level us back out. If it wasn’t for hole #10, there’s a good chance I would’ve lost, but with her previous olympic caliber track record, I’ll take just about any win that I can get!

Comfy Seats, Yummy Eats, and an Idiosyncratic Detective Caper
Simply put, this was a meal that I had been looking forward to all week. I’m officially back in “diet mode” once again (read: “trying to avoid eating 5,000 calories of crap a day”), so my mind has been doing a lot of watering when I think back about first checking out the new AMC Dine-In Theaters at Downtown Disney last summer! My wife and I had decided days earlier that this was going to be our big splurge after a full week of being good, and I was destined to make it count – the same amazing Crab Rangoon Dip that we had enjoyed before, a no doubt ridiculously fattening Oreo Mudslide (might as well be milkshake, also like before), and for my entree I ended up trying their Smokehouse Beef and Cheddar Pizzini, which ended up being kinda messy, but still very good…

I guess the only real complaint I had about this particular visit was that the service seemed a little slower than last time, albeit the theater was considerably more busy, too. Our appetizer came out fairly quickly, though it was probably 30 minutes into the movie before our actual entrees showed up, and they never have been really good on water refills … especially once they’ve already delivered the check. Still a strong recommendation from my perspective, though – every time I leave here, I seem to have several new items from the menu that I’m already looking forward to trying next time … something that more Disney restaurants should be striving to achieve!

Oh yeah, and as for the movie itself??? We ended up seeing Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and both ended up really enjoying it. Granted, it won’t exactly be anywhere near my running for Best Movie of All-Time or anything, but it was a good, solid piece of entertainment, had a lot of really fun and lively moments, as we’ve come to expect from Robert Downey Jr in this role, and it had a rather amusing ending, too!

All in all, not too shabby for an afternoon/evening out on the town…

Unfortunately, the one thing that we failed to scope out was the weather report, so you could certainly say that the latter portion of our celebration was a wee bit damp, but nonetheless we did what we could to make the best of it…

A Disappointing Dinner
Our first stop was at Teppan Edo in Japan for a bite to eat – my wife and I actually ate here some 5 years ago when we were just dating, so we were kind of looking forward to our return! Surprisingly enough, though, the food quality just didn’t even come close to what we had remembered from that first visit back in 2006. Despite great service and an entertaining server, it ended up being a pretty bland meal that, frankly, for the extra cost of the Candlelight Dinner Package at $65/person, simply wasn’t worth the money…

A Quick Jaunt Around the Boardwalk
By the time we were done with our late lunch/early dinner, it had started to sprinkle outside, but as much as we tried to wait it out, it soon became clear that unless we were willing to suck it up and don those ever-fashionable Mickey Mouse ponchos, our chance to checkout any of the cool holiday decorations around Crescent Lake before the Candlelight show was rapidly dwindling!

Surprisingly enough, I actually think that my favorite display this year was the miniature winter village display over at the Yacht Club, although there’s certainly no denying that the gingerbread carousel and bakery looked particularly yummy as well! But I guess this time I spent a little extra time taking in the detail of the scene and honestly it’s kinda cool to see just how much they put into it, from lights on the town’s tree to the carolers in the square to even the snowman water tower on the outskirts of town … what can I say, sometimes it’s fun to stop and appreciate the smaller things in life…

A Wet and Soggy Candlelight Processional
Back in Epcot, admittedly we were a bit taken aback to find that the reserved seating line for our show had already snaked itself nearly back to the France Pavilion, though in reality I guess we should’ve just been glad that we arrived when we did because by the time the line actually started moving, it looked like it was even beginning to back up onto the bridge leading toward the International Gateway and the UK Pavilion from France!

Nonetheless, the show itself – narrated by Neil Patrick Harris – was great, even though it was raining pretty hard by the time we sat down and at some points even kicked into torrential downpour mode. So the rain was definitely a bit of a downer, but I think NPH surprised us all with an unexpected introductory, “What up?!” before cracking a few lighthearted jokes about the horrible weather to kind of loosen things up a bit. Frankly, it was just really cool to see him in person, even if we were maybe 100 feet away from the stage through  it all!

Anyways, this was the 3rd time that my wife and I saw the show and even though I’m not really a religious guy myself, I still can recognize a great performance and for the 45 minutes that the choir and orchestra are on stage, they really put on a stellar show that does a wonderful job of helping to share the Christmas spirit. Seeing it this year after missing out the last couple really makes me want to try harder to go back again next year, and not simply for another chance to see it without the rain… 

Funnel Cake Finale
After the waterlogged show, we decided that we were just too wet to stick around for fireworks, but before heading off to Downtown Disney for a Christmas stocking and some other random presents, I just had to stop by the funnel cake stand to pick up a little something that I had noticed earlier. For a limited time, the stand is offering a special Pumpkin Spice Funnel Cake in addition to the standard faire, and as those who also happen to read my goofy, little pumpkin blog will be sure to understand, some things are just too good to pass up!

Quick summary – it was pretty yummy, especially after sitting in the cold during the show … be sure to click on over to my official blog post for the full review!

What can I say – life has been kinda busy this year, between scads of writing, moving to a new house, getting a puppy, and all sorts of other stuff that has been combinations of fun and crazy and stressful all rolled into one, so in addition to celebrating our 4th anniversary last weekend, frankly this little mini-vacation was also just as much about getting to take a break and relax with one another as it was actually celebrating another year of surviving the sanctity of marriage…

A Damp & Dreary Kind of Start
To say that “it rained” during this particular excursion would be somewhat of an understatement.  In reality, I would estimate that it was not raining for maybe a good hour and a half the entire time we were there … which was probably most unfortunate when we first arrived at our resort (Animal Kingdom Lodge/Villas) because it quickly became clear that their valet/unloading area under the canopy out front becomes a gigantic mess of confusion when people are trying to avoid the torrential downpour around them!  I ended up getting kind of soaked due to some misdirection from the valet attendant, and then waited longer than I ever have before for online check-in pick-up due to more mishaps at the front desk (for other guests).  Needless to say, it wasn’t the smoothest arrival that I’ve ever enjoyed, but as they say, even a wet and mildly cranky day at Disney World is still better than a good day pretty much anywhere else… 

The Best Meal We’ve Ever Had
It all took a turn from the water-logged to the amazing, however, once we got cleaned up and made our way downstairs to Jiko for our anniversary dinner.  I had picked the place on rumor that it was one of the best places to eat around Walt Disney World, but now after dining there we’re both happy to confirm that this is not only the best restaurant on property but also probably the best meal we’ve ever eaten!

They sat us in the wine room, which is an intimate area off the main dining room with only a handful of tables in it – the perfect ambiance for a nice, romantic dinner for two.  We mentioned to our server that we were interested in wine, although we know absolutely nothing about it, and he did a great job of letting us try a couple of different wines from South Africa based on flavors that we like to help us choose a bottle to enjoy with our meal.  The appetizer, a tasting plate of five cheeses from around Europe, definitely had its hits and misses, but was fun and gave us something light to explore while they prepared the highlight of the meal – our main courses.  My wife had the chicken, I the fish, and both of them were just an incredible blend of distinct flavors that had you savoring new discoveries with every bite!  Her chicken, I swear, was probably the most moist chicken I’ve ever tasted in my life – never before have I had chicken actually melt in my mouth before like a good steak does, and the “toasted couscous” that came with my fish … I don’t really know what couscous even is, but it was delicious!

Dessert was an intriguing Coconut Bread Pudding with Coconut Sorbet, which my wife enjoyed alongside a chocolate martini-ish thing that I ended up having to help her finish, so from start to finish it’s safe to say that the entire meal ended up being exactly what one hopes for when they set out to plan a nice, romantic anniversary dinner such as this…

(don’t worry – even more details to come about this awesome restaurant when I write my dining review for Jiko next month!)

Making Do with What You’ve Got…
Often times vacations don’t exactly go as you’d prefer – in our case, we certainly could’ve done with a lot less water falling from the sky, and I’m not going to lie that there were several instances where I was kind of kicking myself for booking the fancy room at Animal Kingdom Villas when the only animals outside our room were the ones who weren’t quick enough to get the more sheltered areas around the savanna!  But at the same time, you never really know what the weather is going to do here in Central Florida and no doubt if we had instead picked one of the less attractive parking lot view rooms, the sun would’ve been shining beautifully outside and the animals would’ve been out in hordes doing back flips in front of the guest rooms in celebration of such a glorious day!

It’s all just a luck of the draw, and just like in a marriage, sometimes you’ve just got to take what you’re given and make the best of it.  During our short weekend getaway, I saw both kinds of families – those just moping around, cranky about being cooped up while it was raining outside, and others who were quick to don ponchos and head out to enjoy the parks that were likely all but vacant due to the weather!  And of course, it’s great when you’re lucky enough to be blessed with wonderful weather and friendly cast members and just nothing but sunshine throughout your entire Disney dream vacation, but even when things aren’t going your way and the grass seems a little drier on the other side of that little, black rain cloud, at least you’re still at Disney World…

To my beautiful partner in crime – Happy Anniversary #4, Sara!  Rain or shine, may our time together always be filled with adventure and romance, laughter and fun…

These are the tales of my 31st birthday…

A Lazy, Terrifying, Relaxing Saturday Afternoon
I mentioned earlier this year that I really wanted to experience one of Disney’s water parks for the first time, and I actually wasn’t joking when I said that!  With my birthday falling still well within the blistering heats of summer (tomorrow as of writing this report, actually!), we eventually settled on Typhoon Lagoon as our destination to spend the better part of this weekend celebration, and despite whatever playful ribbing I may give some of the crazy water slides that my wife coaxed me into going down, ultimately I still ended up having an absolute blast and in fact we were already contemplating future visits before we even left the park!

Hands down my favorite attraction was the lazy river – we probably floated the entire circle around the park at least two or three times, to the point where we decided that other forms of transportation frankly just seem silly by comparison!  My favorite slide was probably Keelhaul Falls, with the worst being the ridiculous 214-foot drop that was Humunga Kowabunga.  The wife also enjoyed Crush ‘n Gusher, of which we got to ride 2 of the 3 tracks and yet miraculously managed to stay on top of our tube the entire time, as you can bear witness to below…

Sweet View
When we finally toweled off for the day and made our way over to the resort where we would be staying (Port Orleans – Riverside), I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had been upgraded from the regular, old boring room that I had chosen up to a nice water view that had a really picturesque view of the Sassagoula River:

Dinner was a simple boat ride to Downtown Disney away … or at least it should’ve been, had we not the impaired boat captain who somehow managed to put us into the business end of a pine tree on one of the banks midway through our journey!  I distinctly remember looking to my wife and asking, “We just hit a tree, didn’t we???” to which she replied from her window seat after picking the pine needles out of her hair and face, “Yes … yes, we did…”

I’d like to say that the yummy food and awesome sights around the recently refurbished LEGO store made up for our little mid-river forest foray, but then again, I’m not the one who got hit in the face by a tree on our riverboat.

This ended up working out great because not only did we spend some time gawking around the Grand Floridian and Contemporary gift shops, but we also discovered a new hidden gem of an eatery in the Contempo Cafe at the Contemporary, which I’ll be writing a bit more about next month!

Castle Shows, Good and Meh…
To put a final nightcap on the weekend, we ended up making it over to the Magic Kingdom just in time for the start of their nighttime festivities – first, the new Magic, Memories, and You! that boasted actual guest pictures and videos projected onto Cinderella Castle itself, then followed by Wishes, which I haven’t seen in a while.

Unfortunately, my impressions of the new projection show were … pretty terrible.  We were standing near the bakery in the middle of Main Street USA and you could barely make out the pictures from where we were, so the whole thing at least from my perspective was just a random splattering of colorful transitions.  Maybe if you were a lot closer, like up in the hub area, you’d have a better view … but then again, that’s also not such a great angle for Wishes then because you end up being too close!

Also, frankly after watching it I’m also not exactly thrilled about the idea of using Cinderella Castle as a movie screen, either … kind of like how I cringed a bit seeing the promo for Cars 2 projected onto Spaceship Earth earlier this year.  Imagineering works so hard to make these magnificent icons the focal pieces for the center of each theme park, I guess I just don’t get why they wouldn’t bolster a little more reverence than treating them like a drive-in movie screen.

And mind you, not only am I completely ok with the various effects during Wishes, but I was always a strong proponent of the infamous wand that used to tower over Spaceship Earth, so let that help to “frame your judgement of my opinion accordingly” prior to your candid responses, if you please!

Happy Birthday – Achieved!
Still, at the end of the weekend, big old 31 was a lot of fun, it somehow managed to teeter me over the nervous edge of water park goers so that I’m actually looking forward to returning in the future … at least for another pass on the lazy river, anyways … and I even managed to score one of the luckiest and most awesome mystery pin grabs ever as a bit of a surprise birthday gift to myself – not too shabby at all!

First and foremost, some of my own favorites from this year’s selection of topiaries – it seemed like there was a fair number of new exhibits this year, including the very cool Toy Story 3 scene at the main entrance and the Lightning McQueen / Mater promo for Cars 2 at the gateway into World Showcase.  Pixie Hollow seemed a little more elaborate than in previous years as well, even though most of the actual pixie toparies were the same as years past.  I suppose they can’t wipe the slate entirely clean and design unique displays for the entire park every single year, though. 

Roaming the Park
Other than being there for Flower & Garden, we also did some generic theme parking around Future World – went on Soarin’ after lunch, convincing a nervous lady in line that it was not only tame, but also the coolest ride in the park and got an appreciative thank you afterwards, which was very cool; then stuck around The Land Pavilion and also did Living with the Land and The Circle of Life, which I haven’t done in quite a while.  Eventually we wandered over to the Imagination Pavilion, where I even got my wife to sit through Captain EO one last time after we did Figment and played around in the ImageWorks lab for a while.  I don’t care what anybody else says – We Are Here to Change the World is a catchy tune!

Enter Food
As it tends to do, finally hunger did manage to strike again and we headed to World Showcase because Sunshine Seasons had been a little lackluster for lunch, however I guess I hadn’t really realized how sparse the counter service options around World Showcase are … or at least the quality ones, anyways.  Maybe we’ve just gotten spoiled because we’ve been doing a lot more table service lately, but nothing really seemed appetizing so we ended up splurging and trying out the fairly new Via Napoli Pizzeria in the Italy Pavilion.  Now I’ll do a full dining review next month for Dining Around the World, but spoiler – we weren’t really very impressed. The service was quick and we made it out in time for IllumiNations, I’ll give them that, but the pizza itself was pretty uninspired and the four toppings were actually separated into four quadrants on the pizza so that each piece only had one topping, which may have been the gimmick for that particular pie but frankly, it was kind of weird…

IllumiNations, Brought to You By Cars 2…
Well, not exactly … as far as I know, Siemens isn’t going away anytime soon, but it was kind of odd to see this promotion for Cars 2 projected onto Spaceship Earth in the place where their logo normally goes.  Granted, I’m pretty sure it was just because this happened to be Pixar’s 25th Anniversary Weekend at Epcot – hopefully it’s not something running full-time until the movie premiere because otherwise I’m not quite sure what I think about that.  I don’t think that I’m too keen on Epcot’s icon being a billboard for whatever Disney is promoting at the time, even though somehow I’m still ok with the sponsor of the attraction itself getting the spotlight. 

And Ghirardelli’s Makes the Save!
Fortunately, we weren’t really in any big rush to get home, so after the park closed we made the decision that our food wrongs from earlier that day must be righted, and so off we went to Downtown Disney with cravings that only multiple scoops of ice cream piled with loads of decadently sweet toppings could stave off!  After indulging in a heavenly trifecta of peanut butter and caramel and strawberry sundaes, only then were we finally ready to call it a night!

A Romantic Dinner in Paris
Or at least downstairs from Bistro de Paris in its sister restaurant, Les Chefs de France, anyways!  We actually had reservations for a late lunch, but were too slow getting out of the house and ended up arriving just after they had closed in preparation for dinner, however luckily we were one of the first ones in for dinner and still had a great time.  Dinner was pretty good – a bit out of our usual comfort zones, but still tasty (check out my dining review for more details) … and of course, the highlight of the meal was getting introduced to Remy, the adorable, rodent star of Ratatouille!  And after watching me take pictures of our food all evening, at the end of the meal our waitress was kind enough to snap a photo of the two of us together as well…

Hunting for Hidden Mickeys
After dinner we spent a couple of hours just wandering around the France Pavilion and ended up finding a couple of Hidden Mickeys.  We’ve never really gotten into it before, although my wife had bought a book and everything for our trip out to Disneyland last fall, so she downloaded the app version of Steve Barrett’s WDW guide real quick and we killed a little time checking Mickeys off the list, even sitting through Impressions de France for a shot at finding the one hidden in the film!

Ellen, Dessert, Fireworks
Our Hidden Mickey search continued back over into Future World where we first attempted in vain scour one of our favorite attractions, Ellen’s Energy Adventure, however dessert seemed as good of a consolation prize as any when we failed, so it was back across the park to The Land to grab a quick treat at Sunshine Seasons before IllumiNations began.  Admittedly Sara’s was a little more valentiney than mine, but both were still well worth the trip!

As always, IllumiNations was great, although we were pushing the wire, walking up literally as the lights were dimming and the introduction was being told…

Overall, good food, great company, and a truly fun way to spend Valentine’s Day! Until next year…

What a Long, Awesome Trip It’s Been…
Frankly, it had already been one whopper of a vacation to remember – a quick glance at even our original itinerary will vouch for that.  It had been roughly three weeks prior that we had left Tampa heading north, stopping to visit the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium and the Coca-Cola polar bear before proceeding all the way up I-75 to my hometown of Gaylord, MI to visit family for a few days.  From there we continued into Canada, touring Sudbury, Toronto, and Niagara Falls before returning back into the US via New York State.  We drove north to Vermont, home of the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory, then back south to more family in New York and West Virginia, Hershey, Pennsylvania, and eventually even Washington, DC! Southward further brought us through the Carolinas, briefly back into Georgia, and finally back home to Florida with a quick pit stop for the night in Jacksonville.

Sure, we could’ve just bee-lined it straight home and called it a great trip, but why not stop by to say hello to Mickey as long as we’re passing through Orlando anyways, right?!

Beach Club is My New Favorite Resort
The last time we stayed here was just about two years ago when we came over for our honeymoon and I’ve got to say, if I were to buy into DVC right now, I’m pretty sure that I’d pick Beach Club as my home resort.  I love it – the grounds and hotel have a classy, but laid-back vibe, the food is great, it’s probably one of the best located resorts, and the pool … well, we’ll get to that in a minute!

Of course, it didn’t hurt that we ended up getting a free upgrade to Club Level – actually, just down the hall from the room we had on said honeymoon two years prior! And boy, do those snacks in the lounge taste better when you’re not paying $100/day for them or what?!  It was perfect – we weren’t really looking to run around and ride attractions or anything … just a lazy afternoon of lounging around the resort, dinner over at Kouzzina across the boardwalk, and then maybe we’d walk over to try and catch IllumiNations before calling it a night.  Very relaxing after having driven 5+ hours a day the last two days…

Float Your Cares Away
After getting settled in our room and grabbing a quick snack from the lounge, we probably spent a good couple of hours bobbing around out in Stormalong Bay, even venturing along the lazy river at one point … which is quite the accomplishment for me because I’m not really too fond of deep water!  Also at one point, I almost got hit in the head by a duck that was trying to land on the water, which Sara found absolutely hilarious, but me, I was just grateful that it hadn’t happened while I had been out on the river or I may have never made it back!

Greek Food … Meh
As I mentioned, dinner was at Kouzzina – Iron Chef Cat Cora’s new restaurant over at the Boardwalk Resort.  I … wasn’t too impressed, although admittedly I guess Greek food just really isn’t my thing.  The wife enjoyed it, though, and being a surprise for her that was good enough for me!

Afterwards, we had plenty of time to stroll about and eventually wander over to Epcot in time to catch fireworks – we normally stick to front and center at the main Showcase Plaza by Future World, so we’re not really used to watching from the various often-times obstructed views from around World Showcase, however this spot near a random bench between the UK and Canada ended up being quite the worthwhile alternative, indeed…

Back to the Beach…
Admittedly it was a little bittersweet as the final shells popped above our heads because it was becoming all the more clear that our amazing summer vacation truly was finally coming to an end, but what a way to go out! As the majority of guests walked the opposite direction towards the front gate, we headed back towards the International Gateway to return to our resort for the night.  It was a nice calm and relaxing walk, and at the end we had desserts and nightcaps waiting for us back on Club Level … not to mention an oldie, but a goodie – the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was playing on ABC Family!  So needless to say as we settled in for the night to eventually hear Mr. Wonka tell Charlie about the boy who suddenly got everything he ever wanted, it wasn’t hard to step out on our balcony to see that we weren’t exactly doing too bad ourselves, either…