DW's Birthday and Pre-Christmas Trip

[destiny7]

Wendy what a wonderful birthday. Everything looks like it went well and was great. Again

[Disney4metoo]

Great trip report. I enjoyed looking at all the wonderful pictures. I can't wait to try Jiko's.Thanks!

[OttawaWendy]

Hi all,

We're back now. We had some problems uploading photos onto my wife's computer, so my in-trip report got kibashed. Now I'm trying to learn how to do it on my own computer now that we are back home. I'm watching a whole lot of football today so I'll see what I can get done.

While I was sick on the Sunday, here's some photos my wife took of animals from our balcony.

[OttawaWendy]

After sleeping a good part of the afternoon I felt better. We began our evening with a trip to the Jambo firepit, which I always enjoy:



We then went to the night viewing of animals (with night vision goggles - cool!) on the Uzima savannah. I discovered a second hot tub which probably helps the crowding issue I mentioned in a past post.

We took a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then a launch to the Grand Floridian. My camera isn't really good enough to do a lot of night photography but here's a picture of Narcoosees from the water:



I really like the casual atmosphere of Narcoosees. The huge window shutters that are raised to the ceiling remind me of my grandmothers huge 1930s cottage:



Here's a photo of inside, looking up, so you get an idea of the wood finishing and the huge ceiling. This is deliberately overexposed so you get a bit of an idea:



During the dinner we saw both the electric water pageant and Wishes. Here are two photos of the EWP (and we didn't even have a window table):

[Chriskre]

Wendy,

Glad you are feeling better but sorry that you picked up a bug on your special trip.

At least a bad day at Disney is better than shoveling snow at home.

[OttawaWendy]

The Narcoosees menu has changed somewhat from the one printed on allearsnet.com. I suspect that happens not infrequently with the signatures. We both began with salads, a caesar on my part (quite garlicky) and one with a lot of apple and onion for my wife.







My wife spoke to the chef about her chicken allergy. She can eat fish, and mollusks (so clams, calamari, etc.) but not meat or crustaceans (crab, lobster, shrimp). She got a fish that was normally fried, but in the same oil as the crab cakes, so they roasted it. It was served in an Asian sauce and was pronounced excellent. I can't remember the kind of fish, but I'll ask DW and if she remembers, I'll edit this post. (Edited to add - she says it was yellow tail snapper, I think).



I had a filet (I don't like fish or seafood, but I love the atmosphere at Narcoosees and the steak is well done) but without the usual bernaise type sauce:



For dessert I had a warm apple cake, served with stewed fruit. I liked the cake and the cream on top was great, but I was surprised the stewed fruit was cold. I expected it to be warm.



My wife got the almond cheesecake, which is a traditional favourite here.





After dinner we wandered through the Grand Floridian, and then took a taxi back to Animal Kingdom Lodge in order to get to bed before our four parks in one day adventure. Here's a photo of the huge gingerbread house in the lobby of the Grand Floridian:

[OttawaWendy]

We were moving resorts today, to Saratoga Springs. So we awoke very early, packed, and brought our bags to bell services to be transferred. The night before we tried to check in to SSR online, but for some reason they only had 1 night of our 3 night stay, and so we didn't check in. That made DW nervous, but there wasn't much that could be done.

For breakfast, we ate some snacks we had purchased at Mara (butternut squash soup and cheesecake). Don't laugh, good cheesecake is a lot of eggs and cheese, so it isn't a bad breakfast.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom park at about 7:30 for an 8:00 Early Magic Hour entry. They let us in about 7:50 or so, with no "good morning" show, presumably to address crowding.

Our first stop was Kilimanjaro Safari. Again, my camera couldn't capture many of the animals we saw because of the moving safari truck. But here are three pictures that turned out not too badly.

The first is an ankole cattle, whose tremendous horns are hollow:





The second is an elephant:





The third is a cheetah. I've done the Safari maybe a dozen times and I've never seen them as active as today, but it was hard to get a good picture.





After the Safari we went to It's Tough to Be a Bug, which I always enjoy. I am in a wheelchair on our park days because of my skin disease, and that means we get routed to the back of the auditorium. I don't mind in this attraction because I'm happy to keep those black widow spiders at some distance!

We then went to Dinoland U.S.A. and rode Dinosaur. After more than a dozen rides, I now know where the carnosaurus is and am not frightened anymore, but DW says she still gets scared. We then played games at Chester and Hester's. I know that many of you hate this area, but I think it is pretty fun. I've read the Imagineer's Guide to Animal Kingdom and there is a coherent storyline behind this section of the park. Here's a picture of the cute brontosaurus who guards the entrance that leads out towards Theater in the Wild:




We then went to the first showing of Festival of the Lion King (10:00, I think) which was excellent, as always. I think we had backups in some of the key roles, but it is always good. In fact, I kind of like having some of the backups, because for things like the trapeze bird, the tumble monkeys and the flamethrower, they incorporate slightly different elements and it feels as though you are not always seeing the exact same show. We came out and ate some mixed fruit (also pre-purchased at Mara).

[OttawaWendy]

So we spent a little more time in Animal Kingdom, but basically we had done what we came to do. It was far too cold for Kali River Rapids (we are both large women, so our side of the raft always goes down the waterfall first and we get absolutely drenched every time on this ride), my wife doesn't like Everest, and we didn't really have time for some of the more detailed animal attractions. We love this park, and I would say it is my favourite, but some things have to be sacrificed in order to get through 4 parks in 1 day!

So we went on to the Contemporary, which is where we were going to lunch at the Wave. Our ADR was for noon, but we guessed it wouldn't be a problem to arrive early, and would probably help the rest of our day. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we realized that the Wave closes from 11:00 to noon. So we went on a bit of a tour of the new Bay Lake Tower (outside, and peering in the windows of the lobby like your poor cousins!) and came back to the Wave for about 11:50.

We began with milkshakes (this was our only planned meal of the day, so we felt not very guilty about loading up) but they frankly weren't particularly good. The quality of the ice cream makes all the difference.

For an appetizer, I had the five spice chicken lettuce wraps, cooked without onion. They were really delicious and I would definitely get these again, although they were messy to eat:




My wife had the citrus and avocado salad, which was nice but nothing special:





For a main course, I had the chef's italian salad, which came with three pieces each of provolone, salami, prosciutto and capicolla. It was good but not great.




My wife had today's sustainable fish, and again, I can't remember what it was, but if she remembers, I'll edit. Edit: She says it was Arctic Char, the same as the fish at Sanaa, but the Sanaa version was much better. Also good but not great:




The desserts at the Wave are served, as most of you know, in sets of three small tastes. When the restaurant first opened, they suggested sets, but you could mix and match. You can't do that anymore, which I think is unfortunate. My wife had the Creamy Indulgence (Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis, Coconut Panna Cotta with Passion Fruit Drizzle, or Chocolate-Passion Fruit Mousse with Pecan-Olive Brittle) and we really only liked the cheesecake:



I had the Decadent Flavours (Blueberry Compote with Yogurt Gelato, Lemon Cornbread with Vanilla Panna Cotta, or Chocolate Mousse with Salted Caramel Sauce) and I was too full to eat most of it. The Mousse was good, the Lemon thing was very lemony and the blueberries themselves were delicious. I think we were so full at this point, and had eaten so many good desserts, that a bowl of blueberries would have been preferable!




The service was only acceptable. Some of the food was excellent, but some was merely OK. I would try this again if it worked with a stay (if we were staying at Bay Lake Towers, or wanted a break from a Magic Kingdom day) but it isn't a destination restaurant.

[OttawaWendy]

Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures the rest of the day. I was wickedly cold in the wheelchair, and we were just always on the move. I also feel that there are so many excellent photos (taken with much better cameras) on the web of the parks so you can get those anywhere.

So, you'll just have to make do with the prose.

We went to the Magic Kingdom, and went straightaway to Liberty Square. We were hoping to do the Hall of Presidents, Tiana's Riverboat Cruise and the Haunted Mansion. We got into Hall of Presidents at about 1:30. I hadn't seen it since the makeover and the addition of President Obama. As a Canadian, this isn't my favourite attraction, but it was OK, and I liked the new narration. It was the first time I've ever been to this show and seen people turned away, which was a harbinger of things to come.

We were the first out of the theater (again, being in a wheelchair means being in the back row), and moved over to the river quickly to be in position to watch Tiana's show. It was good, but we couldn't see very much because of course she moves on. It would be great to see when there weren't such throngs of people and you could follow the boat.

From there, we went to Haunted Mansion, but the line-up was out to the docking area of the Liberty Belle, with a posted wait time of 90 minutes, so we moved on.

We went to Tomorrowland (through Fantasyland which had ridiculous waits for everything), because our next choice was Space Mountain to see the new refurbishments. Everything there, including the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, had long lines and the walking areas were absolutely crammed. We decided to do one attraction with the long lines (Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin) and see if things lightened during the afternoon parade. Buzz was excellent (my wife got over 800,000 points) but when we came out, everything was still crazy. We spoke with some folks from the local area who said the crowds were Christmas Day level. I doubt they were quite that high, but it was nuts. The day before the park had closed to new guests.

So we decided to leave, hoping that Epcot would be better. If nothing else, Epcot is more than twice the size of the Magic Kingdom and seems to absorb huge crowds better.

[OttawaWendy]

Epcot was indeed much better. It was busy, but not crazy unable to move, busy.

We arrived sometime between 3:30 and 4:00, I believe. We started by going to the Kim Possible location in Innoventions, and got a return time of 5:00 at the International Gateway. We then played the Great Piggy Bank Adventure in Innoventions, which is one we hadn't done before. For those of you who skip over Innoventions on your way to the bigger attractions, I advise rethinking. Lots of the Innoventions activities are quite interactive and fun, and they teach something too.

Soarin' had a wait of 120 minutes, so we moved on to the World Showcase. On our way we got some sugar-cinnamon pecans with a snack credit which were delicious. That waits were fine with me as the live shows which are only available during Christmas were my priority. We started with A Christmas Carol by the World Showcase Players in the United Kingdom pavillion. This troupe is very funny and were part of my must-see list once I knew they had a special Christmas show.

We moved on to our Kim Possible adventure in the France pavillion. We've done KP in China, Japan, the UK and France now. This might have been my least favourite, but they are all fun. Again, I love the interactivity.

We then consulted our times guide and decided we might make the 6:00 Italy holiday storyteller, or the 6:05 Germany one. We got held up by the choir from the first Candlelight Processional retreating into the American Adventure pavillion. We made it to the Germany storyteller (Helga) just as she was beginning, and watched her and the nutcracker.

We decided that some snacks were in order, and started with a pretzel from Germany, with the plan to move on to Norway for a school bread and a sweet almond pretzel. (Snacks for dinner!). We watched the Norway storyteller and I enjoyed that show. The school bread has shrunk to 50% of its former size, and I'm not exaggerating. That wasn't so great. We took the pretzel to go.

We had seen lots of what we wanted to see in Epcot, including the World Showcase at night, which I always find beautiful. So on we moved.