The Lazy Go Club Level - Day 5

Welcome to my trip report - did you just get here?  You missed out on some good stuff!  Follow the links below to get caught up!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

We had a lunch reservation at Yak and Yeti today, and since we view Animal Kingdom as a half-day park, we took advantage of sleeping in before heading out to the park around 10ish. 

As I always do, I grabbed a few photos on our way to Expedition Everest.  

Why are you looking at me?

I’d ridden EE on our trip in 2010 and it was a huge failure. See, I made the mistake of riding it WITH A MIGRAINE…. Yes, I was that stupid.  I was doing okay, but when we started going backwards, that was it for me. We pulled into the station, and I practically stepped on my daughter trying to get out of the car. I huddled in a corner for a moment, before hauling ass through the gift shop and outside, so that I could huddle in a corner out there, next to a trash can, because I was about one breath away from hurling. You know that feeling, how if you take a deep breath, you are going to puke? Yeah, that feeling. Hubby took one of our sweat rags to the water fountain and got it nice and wet and cold and brought it back to me. I put it on my neck until the hell had passed. Then I went to the bathroom and willed the nausea to go away. I won, but just barely.

So, I had some unfinished business with Everest. I wanted to ride it again (with Dramamine and without a migraine) to see if it was the ride that sucked, or if it was because of the headache. DD came with me, too, but hubby stayed on the ground (he’s a newly-converted roller coaster guy).

We are in the next to last car, first row - see the wussy holding on? That's the Kiddo!

I don’t remember a lot of the ride, but I remember that it was fun as hell, the backwards part affected me just a bit, but not overly, and that drop is awesome! I was so happy to learn that Everest was a ‘safe’ ride!  The only problem? DD didn’t like it as much as she did the first time, and because we don’t come to Animal Kingdom a lot, I don’t get to ride it a lot….

Hubby pulled me over to the family viewing area and pointed out something that I didn’t notice while on the ride – after you come out of the big drop, you pull a u-turn basically and climb right back up the mountain!  It’s hard to explain, and you don’t feel it, but when he showed me, my eyes bugged out of my head and I said “whoa! So cool!” I wanted to ride again, but the line was getting pretty long by then, and I didn’t want to take the chance of getting nauseated – there was tasty food in my future!

We headed over to Finding Nemo, another “Hey, we’ve never done that before” attraction. We timed it pretty well, and walked right in, into the bubble zone (“Fucking Bubbles!”) I thought the show was amazing – it is done with puppeteers and large (gigantic!) puppets, and the puppeteers also sing for the characters. The sharks were awesome, and the team that brought Crush to life was amazing. Hubby was not as impressed – he doesn’t like Nemo so much, because Crush is ‘annoying.’ I’d definitely see it again – especially when it’s raining or hot outside.

Going to school

Bruce and the sharks

The Fish Tank at P Sherman's office - and Seagull!

Crush and the gang

After Nemo, we had a little more time to kill, so Hubby and the kiddo took a few turns around Primeval Hurl…uh, Whirl.  I can’t do this ride. It spins.  If it was JUST a crazy-mouse coaster, I would love it, but as you descend, the ride car starts to spin (like a teacup), and by the time you get near the end, you are spinning and spinning and spinning and …. Ugh. No thank you.

It's all downhill from there... In more ways than one!

Our reservation was for noon(ish), so we headed over to Asia for lunch at Yak & Yeti. This was a new restaurant for us, again because we are a picky bunch of eaters. But, we’ve gone to Disney enough to know that they are very helpful for us, and that, if there are fries on the menu (even if only on the Kid’s menu), you can substitute anything for fries!

It was pretty busy at the check-in desk, but I managed to score the only available chair in the place, and we patiently waited for our name to be called. When it was, we were taken to a nice four-top table on the 1^st floor. Drinks were brought quickly, and then the waiter had to deal with the pickiness of it all.

The Hubby got Sweet & Sour Chicken without peppers, sub fries for the rice. The chicken was cooked nicely, and there was a nice amount of it (sometimes ‘chinese food’ is heavy on veg, and when you take out the veggies, you get 2 pieces of chicken, so this was a nice surprise).

Sweet & Sour Chicken

The Kiddo got the Tempura Shrimp, sub fries for the rice AND the veggies. She said that her shrimp were really yummy, and she got a buttload of fries!

Tempura Shrimp

I got the Shaxioxing (yeah, that’s spelled way wrong) Steak & Shrimp, sub fries for the veggies. My steak was cooked really well. The marinade or sauce they use made it salty, but in a good way, if that makes any sense. It wasn’t bland, that’s for sure!  I thought that the shrimp’s breading was greasy, but they were cooked well (as in, they weren’t over or undercooked). The rice was nice with the steak, and the fries were super-yummy. Crisp, but not break your teeth crunchy (which can happen with shoestrings). The waiter said that they put both salt AND sugar on their fries, to give it a little zing. 

The steak is standing on it's side, wrapped around a tower of rice!

All three of us were very happy with our meals, and agreed that it’s a restaurant we would return to. Yak and Yeti do NOT take Tables in Wonderland, and I found out later (like months later) that they DO give Annual Pass discounts. So, this frugal gal paid full price for a TS meal. Oh well…

I think that we ended up hitting the Lodge after lunch, since the family doesn't like wandering around AK while I just take photos.  We relaxed in our room, while Hubby tweeted, the Kiddo played on her computer and I dumped my photos.

Where did we go after that?  The LOUNGE, of course!

Cookies, Lemonade, Gummie Bears, Milk, Dip (in a bowl under the chips)

Gummie bears, cookies, chips and dip, lemonade and chocolate milk – BEST afternoon snacks ever!

Later in the evening, we headed out to Downtown Disney. The kiddo LOVES Lego, so we try to stop by the Lego Store as much as possible (when we can afford it). That cup between the gummie bears and the cookies is for filling with as many individual pieces of Lego from their Lego wall as possible. The lid has to close, and it cost $17.99 + tax.  If you bring back your cup from last time, you get a 10% discount. If you have an Annual Pass, you get ANOTHER 10% discount! So she gets buttloads of little Lego pieces for the cat to chew on and for us to step on for the low low price of $15.

Besides World of Disney and the Lego Store, we had one more stop to make – Ghirardelli.  We were still kind of full from lunch, so we decided to do a Disney Dinner of ice cream!

Hubby got a hot fudge sundae with chocolate ice cream in a chocolate-dipped waffle bowl.

Kiddo got a (double?) scoop of cookie dough in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone.

I got a hot caramel sundae with vanilla (I think – may have been cookie dough) with whipped cream in a chocolate-dipped waffle bowl. 

We didn't get any drinks, but wished we did – they only offer tiny cups for water, that you get at the condiment stand (seriously, I've seen bigger cups at the dentist when he tells you to spit!)

That was pretty much the end of the night for us – people were starting to funnel into DTD, and The Drunks were getting loud, so we headed to the bus stop, waited in a HUGE line for our bus and eventually made our way back to the Lodge.

Stop at the Lounge? Hell yeah!

The Lazy Go Club Level - Day 4

Did you miss the first three days of our fabulous adventure?  Click the links to experience the awesome!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Today was the second of three reasons that we booked our vacation later this year – Food and Wine Festival!

Every year, since discovering my love for Disney, I've seen yummy photos from the F&W Festival and I promised myself that one year, we would do it. I knew that I would only want to do one day, and do as much during the daylight hours as possible, due to the fact that, the later you stay in Epcot (especially during F&W), the more intoxicated people you encounter. No, I’m not talking about the couple that split a bottle of wine with their dinner. I’m talking about the group who make it their sole purpose to “drink around the world” – with 28 booths, PLUS the normal countries of Epcot, one could get a serious drunk on by the time the sun goes down. THESE are the people I want to avoid. Why, you ask?  Well, I can deal with them, but Hubby really has a Hate-On for ANYONE who drinks, but there is a special hate for drunks. So the plan was to enjoy F&W with as little hate as possible…

First up, though, we decided to pop over to DHS for a quality breakfast – a Butterfinger Cupcake!

Behold the beauty of this cupcake that is almost as tall as my water bottle!  It is a chocolate cupcake, filled with chocolate ganache (frosting), topped with white Buttercream icing, dipped in chocolate, then covered in crushed Butterfinger pieces. All this for the low low price of $3.99. Yeah - $4 for this beauty!

That is a 16oz water bottle and a 22oz soda cup - the cupcake is THAT BIG!

This is another one of those desserts that everyone on the Intarwebz raves about.  My opinion?

Meh.(I can hear the DIS gasping in horror right now!)

Maybe if it wasn't kept in a cold case, it would have been better. The cake was cold (I like my cake room temperature), as was the topping, so attempting to cut this into thirds was an exercise in futility.  The cake itself was tasty, the chocolate filling was nice, but the Buttercream was lardy and too sweet for me.  If I could have just the cake/filling/Butterfinger, it might have been doable for me. However, the red velvet cheesecake cupcake looked even yummier than this, so I may be back for one of those one day!

After we devoured our cake (what, if it was flat, you’d call it a pancake and be fine with cake for breakfast!), we headed over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid to let our sugar settle.

Ursula is my hero!

This is another show that we've said that we would do One Day, so on this trip, we tried to do a lot of our “One Day” items.   We scored a pretty nice seat in the first row so I could stretch out my legs, but it ended up actually being TOO close to the stage – parts of the show were hard to see. Ursula looked fabulous, though! All in all, it was a cute 17-minute show, and we’d do it again (especially on a hot or rainy day!). 

What's up with this dinglehopper?

As we walked out, we of course passed a gift shop, and look what I found??!  A stuffed Ursula!  I HAD to buy it!

It's scary looking, but I love it!

We walked back towards Pixar Plaza or whatever it’s called. We passed the old Prince Caspian walk-through, that was being refurbed as a Pirates of the Caribbean walk through. They were in the process of paining the outside, and it’s neat to see them up there doing the mural.

It's hard to see, but there are sketches on the non-painted areas

The wait for Toy Story was pretty short (in relation to how bad it usually is, anyway).  The Kiddo rode solo and I rode with the Hubby. I, again, scored enough points to get a beaver. Yeah, a beaver. It’s become a joke – every single time I do TSMM, I get a beaver.

After we finished with DHS (no one was up to riding either Rockin’ Rollercoaster or Tower of Terror), we hopped on the Friendship boat to Epcot. It’s food time!

Our first stop was the Food & Wine Festival Center (the old Wonders of Life pavilion). I wanted to pick up a wristlet gift card, to make the glutton of food-purchasing that much easier.

After putting $100 onto the card, we went in search of the “History of Chocolate” display, put on by Ghirardelli. They were giving out free samples of their caramel squares, and there were cool displays about how chocolate is made and how chefs can use it for sculpting. In the back, however, is a little secret door, and you can only go through the door if you have any sort of Chase credit card. We happen to have a Chase credit card, so we were able to score some chill time in the Chase Lounge!  

Why are there no chaise lounges in the Chase Lounge?

Inside, we found comfy couches and chairs (but no chaise lounges), a soda machine, a coffee machine, TVs, a private restroom and a place to charge electronics!  Hubby immediately plugged his iPod in (he uses his a lot – taking photos and tweeting takes a lot of juice), and the Kiddo and I grabbed some soda and sat for a bit. It was great, but really busy.  She and I shared an ottoman for a while…  

Sit down, brat. You aren't as cool as you think you are...

Eventually, Hubby’s iPod was charged enough that he felt he could unplug and continue his day. 

First up?  Hawaii. I got a pulled pork slider, with the chutney on the side.  I brought it to the little table we found and took a bite. Very tasty!  Soft bun, tender meat, the sauce was good on it. Hubby and the Kiddo each took a bite, and said they liked it too. I got a “yeah, that’s good” from the Hubby (to him, food is something to be eaten for sustenance, not something to rave over).

Next up, Greece. I wanted to try the Griddled cheese with honey, because I love cheese and I love honey. However, to me they didn't really taste like they went together in my book. Neither Hubby or the Kiddo liked this. I don’t think I finished it, either.

Across the way, fragrant Canada was next. I picked up the Filet and the Sausage w/Corn Polenta. I got the filet because I thought that Hubby wanted it, but turns out he didn't (“I know what it tastes like, and I can get a bigger piece when we go to dinner”, but he ate it anyway).  The sausage was for me.  It was juicy and spicy, and very tasty. The polenta, I could’ve lived without. If it was just polenta, I think I would have liked it, but it had whole kernels of corn in it (with other things), that ruined it for me. I ate all the sausage though!

Tasty - but phallic!

Ireland, of course, had lots of beer and cheese. They also had a Chocolate Lava Cake with Guinness Dark Chocolate ganache.  Surely you can’t ruin cake right? Yeah, they did. I know, I know, they always say that alcohol cooks out, when you use it in something. Well, to be fair – I didn’t taste any alcohol, just a bitter ickiness of the Guinness itself. I think both the Kiddo and the Hubby spit theirs out. I swallowed mine, but chucked the rest. Very disappointing.

At this point, I noticed that both of them were getting tired of food (again, they don't have a Fat Girl gene like I do), so we decided to play the Perry game. We picked up a transponder thingy and began in UK. Basically, your ‘cell phone’ would give you a clue, and you had to follow to where the clue sent you, then either find something or do something before you got another clue. It was very fun, and we got to go around all of the UK pavilion.

We finished our mission, and chucked our phone into a specially marked bin and made our way to Morocco. I’d done some sleuthing before this trip to see what other kinds of slushies Disney had to offer. We've had a frozen lemonade at the stand near Rockin’ Rollercoaster, and of course, Goofy Glaciers, but I was hoping for more. Lo and behold, I found a photo of a watermelon slushie at DHS at Peavy’s but, oh man – they had watermelon in Morocco too!  

We walked toward Morocco, but saw nowhere that looked like they sold drinks. We went to the hostess at Restaurant Marrakesh, and she pointed – I’m not kidding – 10 feet away to a drink place. Duh-doi. We walk by this place ALL THE TIME because we always thought they just served alcoholic drinks.

Because the idea of sharing is too novel for my family (“I want my own!” is a common sentence with them), we each got a watermelon slushie and sat down across from the lagoon. They were pretty good, but I don’t think that the yumminess of them was directly proportional to the effort it took to get them. If I was thirsty and near Morocco, I might get one. But I don’t yearn for one, or wish I could drive back to Disney tonight just to get one.

By this time, the rain (a common occurrence during this vacation) was coming again, so we poncho’ed up and continued around World Showcase. We stopped in America for what I was hoping would be THE BEST food I’ve had.

Clam Chowder.

Clam Chowdah (say it right, Frenchie!)

This booth also sold lobster rolls and Sam Adams beer, so it’s practically pointless to even mention this, but it was the longest line I stood in the whole day!  Hubby and the Kiddo went to find the restroom while I got in line, and I think I moved 2 people by the time they got back!  I’m not kidding, I waited like 10 minutes in pouring rain for a tiny cup of clam chowder.

I ran over to the covered area by the American Adventure and took a tentative taste.I like my chowdah salty and peppery and creamy and bursting with flavor. I was leery that this would be none of those things.

I was so wrong.

Focus? Ain't nobody got time fo dat! 

The ‘broth’ (what is that part called? Is it “chowder broth,” is it “broth?” I don’t know!) was heavenly. It was creamy, unctuous and silky on the tongue. It was perfectly salty (and I like my stuff salty). No pepper was needed. And flavor?!?  OMG, it was so good. The potatoes were perfectly cooked – Not too firm, but not mushy. The clams were gorgeous (and I normally don’t eat the clams in clam chowder because they are rubbery) and, well, perfectly cooked.  I downed this little bowl in about 5 spoonfuls. I let The Kiddo try it, but I knew that if she went in for another bite, I would have slapped her away like a Chihuahua guarding their food bowl.

Seriously, it was just that DAMN good.

Do they serve this anywhere on property? If so, I must find it!

We waited out the rain, and the tired family followed me to Italy, where I purchased some ravioli. (At this point, Hubby is updating his Twitter or Facebook or Photo Stream or something, and the kiddo is being hauled along for the ride!) The container of ravioli was surprisingly big.  I was glad to see that it didn’t contain anything funky (you know, like veggies that I might actually feel in my mouth). Just pasta filled with cheese, and topped with cheese. Hubby tried a bite and I got a “mm” out of him. Kiddo tried a bite and liked it. There was enough for sharing, so she and I finished it off. I liked it a lot, and would probably grab one next year if we do F&W Festival.

It’s still raining at this point, and we’d scored a nice seat under shelter in Italy, so I left the family there while I went to Poland for some pierogis and kielbasa.

I still don’t know what a Pierogi is, but the internet tells me that it is a Polish dumpling, usually filled with potatoes. Okay. Hubby swears that I’ve made them for him before, but never until this night have I put a pierogi in my mouth. It was okay. As bland as it sounds. The kielbasa, however, was very tasty! Greasy, but seared nicely; I could eat a bunch of this (although my stomach might have something to say about that…)  I gave Hubby the rest of the pierogi, and the Kiddo got the last of the kielbasa, which she liked as well.

We braved the rain (which was now just a trickle) to head to the Cheese booth for some fondue with Sourdough bread for dipping. This sounded like it would be a homerun – melted cheese and bread. You know what I forgot though? Fondue (true fondue) is made with wine. Again, people, with the alcohol….  The Kiddo physically spit this out, although Hubby and I swallowed ours. This was definitely NOT a win for us.

Our last meal was meatballs from Sweden.  Meatballs with lingenberry sauce or something. We each tasted a meatball and went “tastes like meatballs”. There wasn't anything special about them, I guess. They were tasty and if I saw them on a buffet I would probably eat them, but I don’t think I’d pay another $4 for a quartet of them. 

Hubby and the Kiddo took a spin on Maelstrom while I finished my meatballs (they were tasty enough to finish) and enjoyed the evening.  I was exhausted, and soon it was time to go home.

As we walked back to our room, I was struck again at the LONGness of the hallway.

Where's my Big Wheel?

Redrum, anyone?

The Lazy Go Club Level - Day 3

Did you miss the first two parts of our awesome trip report? Follow the links below!

Part 1

Part 2

Today was one of the MAIN reasons we booked a later vacation this year. My favorite park, Epcot, was celebrating its 30^th Anniversary today, and I planned on being there!

 

We showed up bright and early, and the lines, while long, weren't One More Disney Day long.  Everyone got a cool button at the front, as well as a really cool commemorative guide map.  (They learned from OMDD – they had PLENTY of buttons!)

Dreamfinder Man with Figment in lower right corner of photo

There was one guy who was dressed as Dreamfinder, complete with a stuffed Figment on his shoulder. Lots of people were staring and pointing, even taking pictures with him, so eventually a cast member came over and told him that, while they thought the costume was awesome, he couldn't pass himself off as THE Dreamfinder to other guests (just like I couldn't dress up like Belle and say I was THE Belle).  He was a cool guy. (I thought I took a photo of him, but I guess not!)

Our plan for the day was simple – stay from open to close. There was some music and celebratory streamers and confetti, and then the gates were open and the crowd filed in.

 

We headed over to Livin’ with the Land, where the line was pretty long, but once on the ride, I was able to get some really pretty photos.  

After that, we went on Soarin’, which was quite a wait. 

We headed over to Figment to Journey into our Imagination, which is a pale, sad comparison to the awesome ride it used to be.

I want Dreamfinder back!

Yes, Figment - this ride stinks...

After Figment, we went over to The Living Seas. I had realized that both times we rode Nemo before, the lights in the tanks were off, so we never got to experience the WHOLE THING.  I wanted to ride it again, to see if it was any better. So we rode it again, while the tank lights were on. Woo. I think we can check that off of the "to do again" list. 

Even better though, was Scuba Steve, in the lock-out chamber.  That was cool to watch. Do they usually do that, or was that special for the 30^th?

It feels like we've been here all day already, but it's only lunch time!  We started walking towards World Showcase for lunch, and good timing too - the skies are looking pretty ominous over there by Journey Into Imagination!

Welcome to Florida - did you pack a poncho?

For lunch, I was able to score an ADR for Chefs de France. This is a restaurant that I've always wanted to visit, but was hesitant to try because of my other picky eaters. I’m so glad that we got a chance to eat here! Check-in was easy, we only waited a few minutes before we were seated in the glass atrium-type area by the fountain. Great spot for people watching, AND we got a banquette (booth), so tushy-cushy for me! We looked over the menu and all decided on the croque monsieur, but I still wanted to try the macaroni gratin.  I wonder if they do like a side dish or something?

Our server was David (I think), and his accent was VERY thick, and his grasp of the English language very loose. He quickly brought bread and drinks. I attempted to order for the table (thinking that it would make things easier), and told him that all three of us wanted the croque AND one small dish of the gratin, if it was possible.  He smiled and nodded and whisked away. We continued our discussion about our day, and soon our lunch, as it was, was brought to our table. We ended up with ONE croque and ONE small bowl (small is relative) of macaroni gratin.  Um, what?  I very nicely pointed out that all of us wanted a croque and he quickly returned with two more for me and The Child. 

Now, the bowl that we got TO SHARE is meal-size in itself, but the group at the table behind us ordered a full-size, and I swear that you could have fed a family of 4 with all that food! It was HUGE!  It was also so tasty!  Creamy, but not overbearingly cheesy (i.e. not Stouffer’s!)  Nicely browned on top, too.  I could have eaten that whole thing, but I also had a croque to deal with!  A Croque is a ham and béchamel sandwich, with Parmesan cheese on the outside, which is then toasted until crusty on the outside and gooey on the inside.  We asked for fries instead of the green salad, and all three of us fell in love with French grilled cheese!

Get me a fork! It's hard to gauge the size of the bowl, but this was a HUGE amount!

Croque Monsieur with Fries

I don’t think any of us could finish our meals, either, but I had to save a little bit of room for the special dessert – profiteroles! Everyone on the internet (Dis, etc) raves about these things, so I couldn't wait to try them. My honest opinion? They weren’t fabulous. I know I’m picky and all, but I guess I forgot what pate a choux pastry tasted like. If you are familiar with real éclairs, profiteroles are the same – dry and tasteless.  These profiteroles, however, came filled with ice cream, drenched in chocolate sauce and garnished with curls of white chocolate. We all tasted the raved-about dessert and all of us decided “Meh.”  I don’t think we’ll order dessert again while at Chefs, but we will definitely be back for the sandwiches!

Oh, and the cutest part of dining at Chef de France?  Getting to meet the Chef, of course!  At some point between our entrée and dessert, the Maitre D rolled out a cart that had a large silver cloche on it.  Neither The Child or The Hubby had any idea what was under there, so it was a cute surprise for them.

With our Tables in Wonderland card, I think our meal came to around $50 or $60 bucks. Not bad for a table service meal!

Fat and happy, we moseyed over the American Gardens Theater for a “Special Anniversary Moment” show.  We got pretty good seats, and wait… Who is that up there? Why, that is Tom and Sarah Bricker! If you follow Disney blogs, you know who they are. If you don’t, well then what the hell is your problem? Go check out his blog here! He’s a great photographer (albeit a little infatuated with a fisheye lens for my taste). 

Sarah is in the Figment hat; Tom in the Rainbow visor

The mariachi band came out and did a set, which was wonderful – some of these performers have been here for decades, and they are very good!

A few of the Epcot and Walt Disney World bigwigs came out (I can’t remember their names now), and then representatives of each country came out as well, holding little signs for where they were from. 

Voices of Liberty came out and sang a song. I gotta say, while I appreciate their talent, they are a little too…. How do I put this?  Perfunct? Clipped? Each word is very precise and snipped.  Slightly ‘bad-opera’ like. They were good, but not my favorite style of enunciation.

Once the show was over, confetti dropped from everywhere, and almost right after, it started to rain! Thank goodness we had our ponchos!

We quickly poncho’ed up, and made our way over to the World ShowPlace Theater for the second special thing “Epcot: How It Changed the World  – a talk with Marty Sklar"!  This is going to be so awesome!!! We've never been in this building (it’s for private parties, or special events during Food & Wine Festival and such), and I've never been so close to someone so important!! I can’t wait!!!

The space was HUGE! There were really awesome chandeliers, and lights were projecting cool images onto the walls.  In the back, there were tables with little water coolers on them so that we could all have water. Snacks would have been nice, but you get what you pay for, right?

Can I have one of these for my desk at work?

We found a place to sit, and then I popped into the ladies’ room – wow it’s huge! 

With that out of the way, I walked around a bit, taking photos of the space (because how often do normal people get to be in there!) Lo and behold, who do I see but Brickers!  I know he’s a normal guy and all, but to go up to him and start talking about photography would be like a 6^th grader talking to Michael Jordan about basketball (yeah, even my references are old school, deal with it.)  So what does any normal stalker do?  Take photos of them!

Not long after I finished my papparazzing, the talk began. Marty came out and told us the history of Epcot, how it was for him, being able to work with Walt before Walt passed on, and some funny tidbits about Epcot itself. There were monitors on either side of him, showing photos while he spoke, and I tried to get some cool photos, but about halfway through, Hubby elbowed me and reminded me that they mentioned no photos. Oops. Here are a few I was able to get.

The Man of the Hour - Marty Sklar

What is (was) United Technologies?

After the talk, I think it must have been nearing 6pm, so I think we just started making our way towards Italy and DINNER! We had 7pm ADRs for another new restaurant – Via Napoli.  Hubby is not much of a pizza guy, but he agreed to this one because there were other things on the menu. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some food.

We checked in at the podium and had a seat in the foyer. I don’t want to say it was loud, because it wasn’t, in the traditional sense, but it was loud in the fact that the volume was high, and there were lots of CMs talking, and lots of guests talking, and I guess the word I’m looking for is chaotic.  The noise combined with the hostesses’ thick accents made it hard to hear whose name they were calling for a table. Soon though, we heard our name (pronounced badly) and it was time for our meal.

We were seated in the atrium area, the ‘sunroom’ type area in the rear.  It was also loud in there, but that was due to a table full of twenty-something BFFs drinking too much Proseco.

Our server was very sweet, if a bit harried, and got us drinks and bread quickly. It was a nice rustic, doughy bread, but I didn’t want to fill up too much, because I knew what else was on the menu!

Lemons for my water and my Diet Coke

Bread and Oil for dipping

The Child didn't like the bread as much as I did

Hubby decided on Chicken Parmesan.  The Child and I split a pizza – ½ Quattro Fromaggi and ½ Pepperoni. We were told that since the orders were cooked in different kitchens, the meals may come out at different times. No problem, we said!

The pizza came first, after about a minute and a half. Okay, so it was longer than that, but not by much.

OMG.

Take a moment.

Look at this pizza.

Quattro Fromaggi on the left; Pepperoni perfect on the right

It is so pretty.

The Quattro Fromaggi is just what it says – 4 cheese pizza. But this ain’t no Totinos Party Pizza (not that there’s anything wrong with those!)  Mozzarella. Fontina. Parmesan. Provolone. Gooey white cheese. Melted perfectly. So tasty!

Oh, but the Pepperoni….. I know what you’re saying – Lazy, it’s just a pizza, what’s so special about it?  THE PEPPERONI!  Authentic pepperoni, mozzarella, simple sauce. The pepperoni gives a bite and a spiciness to the slice, and a greasiness that permeates the sauce and cheese to make just the most perfect slice of pizza I've ever had (though, to be fair, I've never had pizza other than the likes of Papa John’s or local joints).

Hubby’s meal came out just minutes later, and his eyes about bugged out of his head – his chicken breast was the size of the entire plate!  In contrast, the little pile of roasted potatoes looked kind of sad, huddled on the edge of the plate.

The chicken is longer than the rolled up parcel of utensils at the top!

He took his first bite and did the Eye Roll – it was so good. Tender, juicy, perfectly seasoned. Both the Child and I sampled as well (as we always do at Disney) and agreed that it was wonderful. Not as wonderful as our pizza, but pretty damn good. Hubby tried the pizza and agreed that it was wonderful. Not as good as his chicken, but pretty damn good.

Between the two of us, The Kiddo and I demolished the pepperoni side, but could only each have one slice of the cheese – the cheese was very rich and filling. We decided that next time, we would do all pepperoni.

 

Besides the awesome pizza, another thing I was looking forward to were the Zeppole Di Catarina – ricotta cheese fritters! They are like little doughnut holes or sweet hush puppies (though, doesn't a sweet hush puppy sound really gross?)  They are served with chocolate sauce and whipped cream, though they didn't need either of those. I could've gone for more powdered sugar, but whatev.  They come in a stand and you get over a half-dozen, warm and crunchy right out of the fryer.  

I took a bite and I was in fried dough heaven!  Lighter than a cake doughnut, lighter than the aforementioned hush puppy, but heavier than a yeast doughnut. Just wonderful. I could probably eat the whole thing myself, but I let Hubby and the Kiddo each have one. They were not nearly as in love with them as I was. Good! More for me!

Fresh whipped cream, chocolate sauce and Zeppole

The child was having a hard time deciding but ended up getting the kid’s Coppetta de Gelato (Italian Sundae).

Coppetta de Gelato

Hubby chose the simple Chocolate Gelato.

Chocolate Gelato with Nut Brittle

The sundae had blueberries and other things in it, so she was kind of bummed about that, but the gelato was very good. Same with hubby – he enjoyed his dessert, even more so after taking the chocolate from MY dessert and pouring it onto his!

All in all, this was one of the best meals of our trip, and after our Tables in Wonderland discount it was only $90 or so.  We will definitely be coming back here!

We waddled our way out of Italy and attempted to find a spot for Illuminations.  Being the 30^th Anniversary of Epcot, we assumed that there would be some sort of special ‘tag’ at the end. However, even though we love Epcot, we actually have not seen all of Illuminations more than once or twice, so we didn't know when the end was.

I got a pretty crappy spot – in the photos you can see that there is a banner on the left and trees above that are in all my shots.  It was a great shot for viewing (we were right at the railing around the lagoon) though, and we protected our spot until it was time for the show.

The regular part of Illumination was just that – the regular part.

But the end… OH, the end!

It sounded and FELT like Disney shot off every single firework they had in stock that night. I could feel it in my bones. I felt the ground shake under my feet. I think at one point fireworks came out of the lake right in front of us. It was AMAZING!!!!  I had tears in my eyes by the end of it, it was mind-blowingly fabulous, and what better way to finish off an amazing day at my favorite park than some balls-to-the-wall pyrotechnics!  You know how everyone claps at the end of a good fireworks display? There was so much more than clapping this time! There were hoots and hollers galore, and it went on for quite a while.

Eventually, people started heading for the exits, but we just took the time to pack up my camera gear and then wait out the crowds (anyone who leaves right after fireworks are asking for huge crowds and long bus lines).  We meandered around World Showcase, returning to FutureWorld the long way (via America, rather than Germany), and soon it began to empty out enough that we could hear what music they were playing – Vintage park music!  They played “Makin’ Memories,” “One Little Spark” and “Livin’ with the Land” – I’m sure they played more, but those are the ones I remember….

It was great that Disney did that, for their true fans like us. Someone who goes to Disney once or twice in their lifetime wouldn’t understand how special that was, but those of us who go multiple times a year, every year since we were kids, totally get it.  It was a nice end to a wonderful night.

Finally though, we grabbed a bus back to the Lodge and conked out – it had been a LONG day!