Very
Merry & Not So Scary
Food & Wine Trip
(day 13)
19 October, 2007 a very light day.. what normally would be 'catch-up' day is "meeko gets her contact follow-up exam" and then to Downtown Disney for our World of Disney window shopping excursion. So it was a late start day again. We've taken so many photos, that compared to the rest of the trip these ones are fairly light.
Since it seems we've been mentioning the Celebration Eye Care place so much, this time we made sure to take pix on our way in.. There's a cool pumpkin patch too that sells pumpkins (proceeds to charity)... Got better shots of those today as well. =)
After we made sure Meeko's eyes were alright (prescibed different prescriptions, so that's going to be fun! Meeko has an astimatism in her left eye which explains why I've been having sliding and warping and whatnot with the old lenses.. no one ever prescibed me contacts that fit so nice.. IWe'll still have to special order the little buggers though!)
OFF TO LUNCH! SeanYoda decides we need to eat at Earl of Sandwich. This place is crazy busy at all times, but we went at Lunchtime so that was fun.. We did manage to find a table for 2 though. =)
earl of sandwich! everyone say YUMMY!
After lunch we walked around the holiday shops (the Christmas shop has rooms and rooms of Christmas ornaments as well a LOT of Halloween merch as well, including a bunch of neat NBC stuff (Nightmare before Christmas!) .
We didn't want to have to pay to ship anything home so we bought very little and instead took pictures of a lot of neat & shiny things. Assuming Disneyland has similar merch (we can always hope) we can check World of Disney in Anaheim, and if not, there's always "DeliverEars" (which is the place you call to order the stuff you saw but didn't buy and hope the warehouse can ship it to you (at your expense of course).
My favorites of the Halloween merch was the mickey lights and the Hitchhiking Ghosts.. they were crazy expensive and but really neat. =) Here's the pix of the various neat merchandise we saw (including those hitchhiking ghosts).
Back at the Pop Century Resort we contemplated having dinner at the foodcourt. It was crazy busy, so we just got our mugs refilled and decided we'd have dinner at Epcot somewhere. We were surprised as we saw the CMs doing the 'hustle' (70s disco line dancing) with the guests. We've heard they do this but this was the first time we've actually witnessed it. Click on the image above (the actual photo is much larger) and see how busy it was with all the guests and CMs doing an afternoon dance. It seems like for a while it might be a good stress releiver at work. Who knows though! =P
We had some items we needed to pick up (including Milady's pickle for her tree) and a couple other things we wanted to take a look at, as well maybe ride Nemo again. Epcot was having extra magic hours, which meant that some of the World Showcase restaurants would be open later than usual, as well some of the attractions (including Nemo). We dicided to try a game we like to call. ."adr roulette" (it's not a real game mind you, it's just.. ) Better yet, let us explain what we did:
ADR Roulette:
This is something similar to 'bus roulette' where you go with what comes up. Instead of taking the first bus to whatever park that shows up, we HAD to get to EPCOT so there' s not a lot of flexibility on that one. As for dining, we'd heard about how much the Disney Dining Plan had mucked up the system. Basically all these people with Disney Dining plan are encouraged to go places and make adr's for the entire trip and so since the flexibility in WHERE they go is already part of the system, the restaurants are up to their necks in reservations. If you want Le Cellier on a particular day, it's a good idea to book your dining as soon as you know you are going to the park, that is, months in advance. If you are willing to have some fun, you can try ADR roulette.. (that is for those of us who don't have Disney dining plan and aren't too picky).
We went up to our hotel concierge desk, waited in line and very politely asked the CM there if he'd like to undulge us in a game of ADR roulette. We said we want to eat dinner at a sitdown restaurant in World Showcase that night. Dinner for 2, (adults only) .. so he looked in the system, and came up with "Nine Dragons" for 8pm (I think) and something else at like 9pm or so. The Bier Garden was totally booked so it didn't come up at all. We've never eaten at Nine Dragons, so we chose that. What a cool and fun CM willing to check for us like that! =)
We went immediately to EPCOT on the next bus and walked on over to World Showcase and spend some time just enjoying ourselves. We did have a mission (to get the pickle) so we took care of that first! According to our images we were naughty.. and got one of these before dinner:
(day 13)
19 October, 2007 a very light day.. what normally would be 'catch-up' day is "meeko gets her contact follow-up exam" and then to Downtown Disney for our World of Disney window shopping excursion. So it was a late start day again. We've taken so many photos, that compared to the rest of the trip these ones are fairly light.
Since it seems we've been mentioning the Celebration Eye Care place so much, this time we made sure to take pix on our way in.. There's a cool pumpkin patch too that sells pumpkins (proceeds to charity)... Got better shots of those today as well. =)
 |
 |
 |
After we made sure Meeko's eyes were alright (prescibed different prescriptions, so that's going to be fun! Meeko has an astimatism in her left eye which explains why I've been having sliding and warping and whatnot with the old lenses.. no one ever prescibed me contacts that fit so nice.. IWe'll still have to special order the little buggers though!)
OFF TO LUNCH! SeanYoda decides we need to eat at Earl of Sandwich. This place is crazy busy at all times, but we went at Lunchtime so that was fun.. We did manage to find a table for 2 though. =)
earl of sandwich! everyone say YUMMY!
After lunch we walked around the holiday shops (the Christmas shop has rooms and rooms of Christmas ornaments as well a LOT of Halloween merch as well, including a bunch of neat NBC stuff (Nightmare before Christmas!) .
We didn't want to have to pay to ship anything home so we bought very little and instead took pictures of a lot of neat & shiny things. Assuming Disneyland has similar merch (we can always hope) we can check World of Disney in Anaheim, and if not, there's always "DeliverEars" (which is the place you call to order the stuff you saw but didn't buy and hope the warehouse can ship it to you (at your expense of course).
My favorites of the Halloween merch was the mickey lights and the Hitchhiking Ghosts.. they were crazy expensive and but really neat. =) Here's the pix of the various neat merchandise we saw (including those hitchhiking ghosts).
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
cast members hold up signs and
get in line w/ guests for the hustle!
Back at the Pop Century Resort we contemplated having dinner at the foodcourt. It was crazy busy, so we just got our mugs refilled and decided we'd have dinner at Epcot somewhere. We were surprised as we saw the CMs doing the 'hustle' (70s disco line dancing) with the guests. We've heard they do this but this was the first time we've actually witnessed it. Click on the image above (the actual photo is much larger) and see how busy it was with all the guests and CMs doing an afternoon dance. It seems like for a while it might be a good stress releiver at work. Who knows though! =P
We had some items we needed to pick up (including Milady's pickle for her tree) and a couple other things we wanted to take a look at, as well maybe ride Nemo again. Epcot was having extra magic hours, which meant that some of the World Showcase restaurants would be open later than usual, as well some of the attractions (including Nemo). We dicided to try a game we like to call. ."adr roulette" (it's not a real game mind you, it's just.. ) Better yet, let us explain what we did:
ADR Roulette:
This is something similar to 'bus roulette' where you go with what comes up. Instead of taking the first bus to whatever park that shows up, we HAD to get to EPCOT so there' s not a lot of flexibility on that one. As for dining, we'd heard about how much the Disney Dining Plan had mucked up the system. Basically all these people with Disney Dining plan are encouraged to go places and make adr's for the entire trip and so since the flexibility in WHERE they go is already part of the system, the restaurants are up to their necks in reservations. If you want Le Cellier on a particular day, it's a good idea to book your dining as soon as you know you are going to the park, that is, months in advance. If you are willing to have some fun, you can try ADR roulette.. (that is for those of us who don't have Disney dining plan and aren't too picky).
We went up to our hotel concierge desk, waited in line and very politely asked the CM there if he'd like to undulge us in a game of ADR roulette. We said we want to eat dinner at a sitdown restaurant in World Showcase that night. Dinner for 2, (adults only) .. so he looked in the system, and came up with "Nine Dragons" for 8pm (I think) and something else at like 9pm or so. The Bier Garden was totally booked so it didn't come up at all. We've never eaten at Nine Dragons, so we chose that. What a cool and fun CM willing to check for us like that! =)
We went immediately to EPCOT on the next bus and walked on over to World Showcase and spend some time just enjoying ourselves. We did have a mission (to get the pickle) so we took care of that first! According to our images we were naughty.. and got one of these before dinner:
random yummy dessert!
I'm not sure what the above is
actually.. I know the coconut & rice pudding from India was
THE best dessert from the food & wine fest booths, (in Meeko's
opinion) as it was mild on the tummy and sweet but not too sweet.
Sure it doesn't have chocolate in it, but hey.. not everything can. Why
would you want to do that anyway? (did
I just say that???.. pamela)
Anyway, it was time to check in at China so we did that and waited a bit and then were eventually seated . The place is crazy busy with folks waiting for a table. It seems like it's been like this at many places, and I don't know if it's all because of the Dining Plan system or not. Nine Dragons was definitely busy though. One thing I think we would have done different if we were to eat there again, is to make our ADR for later, as we heard it's a bit more quiet once the fireworks are over. The noise in the dining room was loud but then when Illuminations occured a bunch of kids crowded over to the window near our table and were climbing on the chairs at the (now empty) table by us and were "oohing" and "ahhing" as well as yelling at their family (who were seated several tables over) on the other side of the dining room. Even when one of the family members had dessert brought out and were sung happy birthday the little kids wouldn't leave the window to go back to their seat. Yeah, so either we needed later ressies or maybe this family did.
Still it's cute to see kids all full of wonder and excited when they see fireworks. I just sort of wish we'd had a quieter meal. Nine Dragons isn't very romantic place to eat at 8pm.
OTH: The meal was pretty good.. Here's what Meeko wrote in her LJ about "Nine Dragons":
Dinner was served to order, rather than the "family style" that many folks may (or may not be) used to. Having it this way was doable, but did make it interesting trying to share dishes. As for the desserts, you can see they are standard slices of cake. Maybe our server was thinking we were expecting some sort of Disneyland sized "claim jumper" cake (that's like HUGE and feeds at least 3+ people a slice) but as it was these slices above were more than adequate and we ended up cutting the slices in half and sharing them so we could try each others cake. The ginger was nice and mild. If for some reason we had just this slice for deessert (and not the chocolate as well) it would have been fine. A nice palette cleanser to end the meal! =)
Could I see us eating here again, depending on the situation, sure... just not at the most crowded hour of the evening (or so it seemed). =) Also Illuminations viewing isn't the best from here. If you want to watch Illuminations schedule your dinner before or after, not during. Then again, if you want a romantic meal (not saying we did but a less packed one, after prime dining (or before) would be preferable. With Disney Dining plan though I don't know how that plays into the ADRs that much. It was Friday afterall, and it could be that is common for Friday nights. Then again..
So we did enjoy some of Xtra Magic Hours. We walked through World showcase, imbibed in some "gluh" wine (which was a bit more potent than I recall havin it before!) but wow that was good. They don't do the sample glasses anymore though (remember the "sohnne wine" glasses? Maybe not.. ok, France and China were closed when we got out from dinner, so we headed over to Future World. We went ot the Living Seas and rode Nemo, as well checked out Mr Rays Quiz and the dolphin tank. Here's some of the photos we took around World Showcase, as well around the Living Seas:
The next day for us is checkout so we needed to head back early and finish packing up. Breakfast at Boma was for 8am with Bruce & Marta, and Carol. Those pictures are up so just follow the link!
radp 12
HOME
photos uploaded: 23 October 2007 psr
page created: 31 October 2007 psr
Anyway, it was time to check in at China so we did that and waited a bit and then were eventually seated . The place is crazy busy with folks waiting for a table. It seems like it's been like this at many places, and I don't know if it's all because of the Dining Plan system or not. Nine Dragons was definitely busy though. One thing I think we would have done different if we were to eat there again, is to make our ADR for later, as we heard it's a bit more quiet once the fireworks are over. The noise in the dining room was loud but then when Illuminations occured a bunch of kids crowded over to the window near our table and were climbing on the chairs at the (now empty) table by us and were "oohing" and "ahhing" as well as yelling at their family (who were seated several tables over) on the other side of the dining room. Even when one of the family members had dessert brought out and were sung happy birthday the little kids wouldn't leave the window to go back to their seat. Yeah, so either we needed later ressies or maybe this family did.
Still it's cute to see kids all full of wonder and excited when they see fireworks. I just sort of wish we'd had a quieter meal. Nine Dragons isn't very romantic place to eat at 8pm.
OTH: The meal was pretty good.. Here's what Meeko wrote in her LJ about "Nine Dragons":
NINE DRAGONS:
We've not eaten here before, but also the menu is limited but good. We were seated after a wait. Then we got seated next to a group of high school girls (giggling and shrieking and being girls) Ok, maybe they weren't in high school but the only thing I've heard shriek OMG OMG more than they did, was maybe CRUSH from Turtle Talk. sigh. Then they went away. Then the fireworks had the kids in the room hysterical and all crowding around the table next to us (where the girls used to be). Now I was wishing they had seated a new party there. Oh well...
We ordered the Four Happiness appetizer, which was yummy. Next we had the Dan Dan Noodles, which were very good. Sean ordered the Savory Beef which was the best, and the Pork Loin in XO Sauce, which was very good, but not as good as the Savory Beef. For dessert we had a slice of chocolate and a slice of ginger cake. The server had said the slices were small, however they were standard tea cake size (like you get at "La Madeleine" the "ann's cake" for example). We sliced them in half and shared our respective pieces.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Dinner was served to order, rather than the "family style" that many folks may (or may not be) used to. Having it this way was doable, but did make it interesting trying to share dishes. As for the desserts, you can see they are standard slices of cake. Maybe our server was thinking we were expecting some sort of Disneyland sized "claim jumper" cake (that's like HUGE and feeds at least 3+ people a slice) but as it was these slices above were more than adequate and we ended up cutting the slices in half and sharing them so we could try each others cake. The ginger was nice and mild. If for some reason we had just this slice for deessert (and not the chocolate as well) it would have been fine. A nice palette cleanser to end the meal! =)
Could I see us eating here again, depending on the situation, sure... just not at the most crowded hour of the evening (or so it seemed). =) Also Illuminations viewing isn't the best from here. If you want to watch Illuminations schedule your dinner before or after, not during. Then again, if you want a romantic meal (not saying we did but a less packed one, after prime dining (or before) would be preferable. With Disney Dining plan though I don't know how that plays into the ADRs that much. It was Friday afterall, and it could be that is common for Friday nights. Then again..
So we did enjoy some of Xtra Magic Hours. We walked through World showcase, imbibed in some "gluh" wine (which was a bit more potent than I recall havin it before!) but wow that was good. They don't do the sample glasses anymore though (remember the "sohnne wine" glasses? Maybe not.. ok, France and China were closed when we got out from dinner, so we headed over to Future World. We went ot the Living Seas and rode Nemo, as well checked out Mr Rays Quiz and the dolphin tank. Here's some of the photos we took around World Showcase, as well around the Living Seas:
 |
 |
on to the living seas! |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The next day for us is checkout so we needed to head back early and finish packing up. Breakfast at Boma was for 8am with Bruce & Marta, and Carol. Those pictures are up so just follow the link!
radp 12
HOME
photos uploaded: 23 October 2007 psr
page created: 31 October 2007 psr