TCD's 2011 Food and Wine Festival Scouting Report

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The TCD gang was supposed to be camping last weekend.

You know, when the weather was gorgeous?

But, the stupid administrators at the TCD twins' school scheduled their homecoming dance for October 1st.

You know, the 40th anniversary of Disney World and the first Saturday of the 2011 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival?

What is a Fiend to do?

Well, we just figured we would pop over on Saturday, the 8th of October.

We love to visit the Food and Wine Festival on Saturdays.

Yes, it is always crowded.

Some times too crowded.

But, you cannot beat the atmosphere and the people watching.

So, we made our plans early in the week.

We were having beautiful weather in Florida then.

We couldn't wait.

Then the weather reports for the weekend started coming in.

If you live in Florida, you know that the weather forecasters we have love to exaggerate.

Everything is over the top.

So, when we heard how awful the weather was going to be on Saturday, we took the reports with a grain of salt.

After all, Florida is the sunshine state.

It's rare that we have a truly rainy day.

So, even though every source was reporting that the weather would be horrible on Saturday, we disregarded them all and made our plans.

Since our main objective was to visit the Food and Wine Festival, we decided to leave later than we usually do for a day trip.

No rope drop for us today.

And, since we really just wanted to visit in the early evening, we planned to visit Sea World first.

When we visited Sea World earlier this year, we got Florida Residents Fun Cards which entitle us to unlimited return visits for the rest of the year.

On weekends in October, Sea World puts on an event they call their Halloween Spooktacular. It is included with regular park admission. We have been once before, and had a good time. So, we thought we would do that before hitting Epcot.

The sky was actually blue, and just a bit cloudy when we left home on the Florida gulf coast on Saturday morning around 9:30 am. I guess those weather forecasters were exaggerating again. We expected that we would have some rain, but nowhere near as bad as we had been told.

It started getting cloudier as we headed East.

But it still didn't look too bad.

After I passed the first Disney World exit, it was raining steadily. And the sky was completely dark.

And, to make matters worse, traffic on I-4 came to a stop.

I craned my neck to see what the cause of the back-up was, but I couldn't see anything but a lot of backed up cars, for as far as I could see. I didn't see flashing lights ahead. This was clearly a big back up. Traffic to our right was moving, because those folks were exiting at one of the Disney exits.

I hate sitting in traffic.

So, I maneuvered over to the right and exited.

It was raining pretty good then.

We talked about our options.

We all agreed Sea World was out.

Then we discussed whether we should just turn around and head back home.

It looked like maybe for once the weather forecasters weren't exaggerating.

It was about 11:30.

I suggested since we were here we head to a hotel and maybe eat an early lunch and decide what to do.

Early lunch was not part of the plan.

The plan was to have a snack or two and do our real eating at the Food and Wine Festival.

But, we were going to need to make some adjustments.

We all agreed that we would head to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

It's probably our favorite WDW resort.

We were lucky to go the month in opened in September, 2001. The girls were old enough to remember that trip, and the resort has held a special place in our memories ever since.

We visit it often.

We stay there occasionally.

Today we would just be visiting.

That's OK.

The guard at the AKL shack didn't have any rain gear, and he couldn't care less what I was doing there, he just waived me on through. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the Disney Security Officers?

I dropped the girls off right at the front door, and went to park the car. I said I would meet them in the lobby. There's a big overhang there at the front door of the lobby, so the girls stayed perfectly dry.

It took me a few minutes to find a parking space and get back to the hotel.

It was pretty busy in the lobby. There were a lot of unhappy looking guests. I felt sorry for the folks who had paid big money for their Disney vacations, and were now faced with a very rainy day. I looked all around, and couldn't find the girls anywhere. Hmm. Maybe they went in the gift shop. So I checked there. No girls. Maybe they went down to the restaurant to wait for me? So, I went down there. No girls there either. This was odd. Maybe I had missed them in the lobby? In any event, I decided that I would just go back up to the lobby and wait for them to show up. That was the plan. So back to the lobby I went. I walked around the lobby again. Still no girls. Then I heard what sounded like a crow cawing from up above. I looked up, and saw this:

There they were!

They were up on the bridge that crosses the lobby.

The stinkers had been there the whole time!

They thought it was funny watching the old man looking for them.

I should have looked up!

I guess it was funny.

Rotten kids.

We went down to the quick serve restaurant to discuss our options. We all just got a drink. We were going to discuss eating.

We discussed a lot of options. Like maybe going to see a movie at Downtown Disney and hoping that the weather would clear by later in the afternoon. Or, just heading to Epcot now and hitting some of the Food stands and then make an early day of it.

But, that's not how we roll.

We were at Disney, darn it!

And we were going to have fun.

To heck with the rain!

We have visited the parks in the rain before.

In fact, it seems like we have visited the parks in the rain a lot.

So, we made new plans.

We would go to Hollywood Studios first.

There are a lot of indoor attractions there.

And, then we would go to Epcot by boat and begin our Food and Wine adventures.

That sounded like a plan.

There was the matter of transportation.

We decided to leave our car here and take the bus.

You aren't supposed to do that.

But you can if you want to.

Keep that under your hat.

If this ever happens to you and you are afraid of the rain, you could hang out for hours at AKL just looking at all of the things they have on display. Like this fantastic tribal costume from Nigeria:

According to the placards posted around this costume, it weighs over 200 pounds, and is worn by one man for a tribal ceremony. Another placard tells us that this is the only one of its kind to have ever left Nigeria. Let me know if you have any interest in acquiring one of these, as I have been communicating by email with the widow of the secretary of defense in Nigeria, and she could probably send one of these over once I help her claim a few million dollars that her deceased husband put away for her. But that's another story for another day.

For now, we are off to Hollywood Studios.

Surely it won't rain all day.

As we entered the park, we noticed that the flags were at half mast:

Also, the Cars topiaries which had been on display in Epcot for the Flower and Garden festival have been moved over here:

I asked the Security officer at the bag check about the flags. She said they were at half-mast to honor Steve Jobs, as he was part of the Disney family via his connection with PIXAR Studios. I also asked her about the topiaries- I was wondering when they had been moved. She said they had been there for years. Classic.

Our fist stop was Star Tours.

That's weird.

We never used to go to Star Tours.

Since its rehab earlier this year, however, it has become a must do.

So, that's where we went first.

The rain was not letting up. But, we hoped to wait on line inside the attraction. We were pleased to see that the wait was posted as only 20 minutes. So we entered the queue. We have never had to wait outside of the attraction before, even for longer wait times. But, I guess since in was raining, the castmembers arranged it so the guests would have to wait outside. Nice.

As we waited, I looked around at all of the ponchos and umbrellas:

Some people were unhappy about this:

But, most people were making the best of it. Like this guy with his slightly too small poncho:

I found out something I didn't know on this trip.

One of the TCD twins is anti-poncho.

I didn't know that.

She brought an umbrella:

I didn't notice that couple in the background when I took this photo. But, it looks like they were having fun:

I don't know why the line went all the way outside, because once we got inside, it moved very quickly. I think it took maybe 10 minutes from when we got on line to when we were being lined up for our seats in the capsule. And, the odd thing is that our line moved faster than the Fastpass line. Someone was screwing up here today. But, that worked to our benefit.

If you are one of the few people on here that read TCD trip reports, you may remember that one of the TCD twins was the rebel spy the last time we visited Star Tours. On that visit, she was seated in the back row, and we guessed that someone on the back row was who would be picked to be the rebel spy. On this trip, we were placed in the third row. So, when we sat down, we turned and looked at the back row and tried to guess who would be the rebel spy. There were several interesting people back there, so we were sure it would be someone from the back row. Then our trip began. As soon as Darth Vader stopped us, a photo of the rebel spy flashed up on the screen. It was the same TCD twin! We couldn't believe it! She must really be the rebel spy!

So, that was fun.

After our visit to the hotel, bus ride here, and ride on Star Tours, it was now about 1:30. We decided that it was time for a snack and then we would hit the 2:00 Indiana Jones show. One of the girls suggested the Writer's Stop. They know I love the carrot cake cookie, and they love the big chocolate chip cookies. The other twin wasn't paying attention, and as we walked along, she suggested the Writer's Stop too. So the choice was unanimous!

Here are what the Mickey Head cookies look like there:

And, here's the carrot cake cookie:

If you like carrot cake, you have to try one of these! It is probably one of my favorite things to eat in all of WDW. And, I first heard about it from a Fiend (I think it was Fort Wilderness Guy).

Here's the chocolate chip cookie:

Those last two photos were taken as we waited for the Indiana Jones show to start. It turns out that heading here was a good choice. We got there about 20 minutes before the 2:00 show. The seats are covered, so we were out of the rain. And, since we were early, we got good seats.

I also got to see this real kid of genius with a Lego bag poncho:

I took this photo during the show so you could see all of the rain coming down on the set after the opening sequence set was rolled away. But, you can't really see the rain:

It turns out that they modify the show when it rains. And not in a good way. They kind of stretch out this part:

And they make the extras they pull from the audience do more.

Oddly enough, one of the men they pulled from the audience was the same guy from Bulgaria that they pulled from the audience the last time we saw this show:

What are the odds of that happening?

From Indiana Jones, we decided to splish-splash over to Tower of Terror and Rock-N-Roller Coaster. Why not? Both of them are inside.

We did TOT first.

We had to wait outside a bit, but not for too long.

Again, the queue moved quickly inside, and we were on our elevator in no time.

Everything went normally up until the time when we rolled into our elevator shaft.

You know, right before you go up or down, or whatever is going to happen?

And we just sat.

It was dark.

Strobe lights were going on and off. And loud music was playing. But we just sat there. For several minutes. We could hear a castmember announcing something over the intercom, but it was too loud in there from the "lightning" flashes and sountrack to make out what she was saying.

It was very unnerving, because we didn't know if we would suddenly begin moving or what was going to happen. And it was dark.

Finally, the lights came on.

I took this group shot so Mrs. TCD and my oldest daughter would have something to remember us by in case the elevator suddenly dropped and we were all the next victims of the Hollywood Hotel:

Then, our elevator began to slowly descend.

The lights were still on.

As we went down the shaft, we could see things on the wall.

Check this out:

It looks like a plastic outline of a girl. I think this must be what they use to create the scene of the family disappearing when the elevator doors first open on your ascent.

We were on the front row of our elevator, and with the lights on, I noticed that there was a box with lights on the front of the car. I took this photo of it:

I think those lights correspond with the seats on the elevator. Maybe that is an indicator to show if someone's seatbelt is unbuckled?

We went by this thing up there on the side of the shaft. I think it's a camera disguised as an old piece of equipment:

We then reached the ground level, and rolled back. I saw a poncho on the ground:

Maybe our elevator stopped because someone fell out of the one in front of us, and this was all that was left of the poor victim?

You may have noticed that there are props in the room that you pull into right before you exit. It is usually too dark to see these very well, but we could see them very clearly with all of the lights on. Make sure you notice the creepy ventriloquist dummy smoking a cigar in the second photo:

You may have concluded that I enjoyed this ride on TOT more than a normal ride.

I did.

But we got a free bonus when we exited.

Free fastpasses which were good for a whole week:

All of this fun ended up taking us a bit longer than a normal ride.

But, it was fun, so we didn't care.

From here, we headed over to Rock-N-Roller Coaster.

I'll pick it up from there in the next post.

This one is certainly long enough.

TCD

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

OMG I'm in on the ground floor of a TCD TR (pun totally intended) :jumpforjoy

Loving it already and excited at the prospect of another F&W TR. As if I wasn't excited for our trip already, you all are making me jump out of my skin!!

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

In honor of the dummy smoking the cigar (doesn't he look like Richard Nixon. btw) :clint:

[gramme 2]

Great TR TCD! Can't wait for the rest of it!

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

I love Mondays! There is always a good chance that a Monday morning will bring a TCD report!

Maybe the Star Tours Ride knew you bought your daughter the shirt and wanted you to get your money's worth!

Loving it! Can't wait for more!!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

OMG I'm in on the ground floor of a TCD TR (pun totally intended) :jumpforjoy

Loving it already and excited at the prospect of another F&W TR. As if I wasn't excited for our trip already, you all are making me jump out of my skin!!

I'll be getting to the Food and Wine stuff in my next post.

Let me know if you have any specific questions about anything, and I will try to give you an answer.

In honor of the dummy smoking the cigar (doesn't he look like Richard Nixon. btw) :clint:

Yes, he does look like old Tricky Dick! That makes him even creepier!

Great TR TCD! Can't wait for the rest of it!

Well, buckle your seatbelt, then. I'm going to try to crank this one out fast!

I love Mondays! There is always a good chance that a Monday morning will bring a TCD report!

Maybe the Star Tours Ride knew you bought your daughter the shirt and wanted you to get your money's worth!

Loving it! Can't wait for more!!

More is on the way.

But, don't get your hopes up for every Monday!

It still baffles us that the same twin got picked to be the rebel spy again. Out of all the people in the car. I don't know why.

TCD

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

You need to watch that rebel spy twin - who knows what mischief she's doing behind your back! :rofl2:

[charitycase20....Charity 10]

Oh I'm so excited!! I usually end up reading a TCD trip report after the fact! I love to live vicariously though your reports TCD!!! :jumpforjoy

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

It was still raining steadily when we exited TOT.

Was it really going to rain all day.

It had lightened just a bit, to just a drizzle, when we were walking in to Indiana Jones.

But, it had picked up to a steady rain again by now.

We were all still relatively dry. We did a good job walking directly from one place to the next, and it was not very windy, so we didn't have to deal with the rain blowing sideways, as it sometimes does in Florida.

The posted wait time for Rock-N-Roller Coaster was 20 minutes, and the line was all under cover, so we joined the line.

Something was wrong here too. The Fast Pass line was not moving:

A manager type came out and looked around.

And then the Fastpass line moved. But the stand-by line did not. At all. More and more folks arrived for the Fastpass line, and they moved along. Slower than normal, but they moved.

The rain continued to fall:

That photo above was taken 20 minutes after we entered the line. As you can see, we were still outside.

We waited some more.

I got this photo of TOT:

We finally entered the pre-show room about 50 minutes after we first got on line. I don't know what was wrong, as it usually wouldn't take that long from where the line was outside. The line was moving, but very slowly. I don't know how things work here exactly. I guess they have more coasters on the track when it is busier, and they were just operating at a slower pace today. On a regular day, I would be bothered by this, but I didn't want to be out in the rain, so I didn't mind.

When we exited the pre-show room, we had to wait right outside the door. Most of the time, the castmembers wave you on from here, but we got to watch a couple of coasters launch. I have always enjoyed the themeing in this attraction:

In all, it took us an hour to enjoy this attraction. Again, on a normal day, I would have not been happy about that, but today I didn't care.

It was finally time for us to head to Epcot.

We headed out to catch the boat. There was a pretty good line waiting. That can be good and bad. The good is that means we didn't just miss the boat. The bad is that if there are too many people in line, we won't make the next boat.

A boat was pulling up just as we joined the line.

We were having great luck with our transportation so far today.

As we approached the boat, a castmember was counting people, and asking how many were in each party. That always means that the line is about to be stopped. But we made it.

It was standing room only on the boat. But, we didn't care. We had a roof over our heads for the next 25 minutes.

A bunch of people got off at the Swan/Dolphin stop, so we were able to get seats then. Here's a shot of us approaching the Yacht and Beach Club:

And here's a shot showing how dreary and deserted it was on the Boardwalk:

Most of the folks who had boarded at Hollywood Studios disembarked at one of the resort stops, so our boat was less than half full when we arrived at the International Gateway.

The girls wanted to take a pit-stop here to get ready for our Epcot visit, so I snapped a few shots of the entry area while I waited for them:

Then we headed on in.

It was clearly a lot less busy than a typical Saturday Food and Wine afternoon.

But, we had some good people watching right away.

As we were heading in, there was a group of young guys heading out.

The had obviously hit the Food and Wine Festival hard, and they were on there way to their next event.

They were trying to get someone to take a group shot with their camera.

They asked me if my "wife" would take the shot (referring to one of the twins).

I said that's not my wife, and she's only 16.

They thought that was funny.

So, my DD took their photo.

Then they asked if we wanted a photo with them.

My DD's declined.

What if that ended up on Facebook?

But I was game.

Here's my new friends:

A couple of comments about that photo:

1. They asked me to bend down. I had my backpack on under my poncho. So, I look like a hunchback. I don't have a hunchback. Not that there's anything wrong with hunchbacks.

2. Notice the guy on the far right. Do you see all the things around his waist? Those are the souvenir beer mugs they sell this year. With beer, they are $11.25. Do you see how many he has? Whoa!

3. At the request of my new friends, I am doing a fist pump there in the photo. I think these are what we call Guidos. Again, not that there's anything wrong with that.

So, we were having fun already.

When we entered the park, we got a Food and Wine Festival Map.

Ordinarily, we would have started in the front of the park and worked our way around. But, we were back here by France, so we decided to make a right, and head around toward Mexico.

As we began our walk, the rain and wind picked up. Now, the rain was blowing.

Boo!

We bypassed some of the first booths we came to, as a quick look at the map told us that we wanted to start our eating in Japan.

We ducked briefly into a gift shop in Morocco so my DD's could put their phones and cameras into ziplock bags, as it looked like the ponchos and umbrella might not be enough now that the rain decided to pick up. Here are some shots of Morocco in the rain. I could take some photos since we were in the gift shop at the time:

If you are keeping track, this means that we skipped France, Belgium, Portugal and New Zealand.

If you have been to the F&W Festival before, you know how things work- there is a cashier outside each booth. You order there, and get a receipt. You then go to the counter and present your receipt and pick up your order. Simple.

At Japan, however, the cashier had abandoned his post. People were just walking up to the counter and ordering, paying, and getting their food. So, that's what we did. They were also operating with cash only. I had not yet purchased a gift card, so we had cash, and completed our transaction. We got an order of the Spicy Tuna Roll and the California Roll. And it was raining. Now what? We headed over to the Japan pavilion, and stood under cover with a bunch of other folks. The sushi was good. Each order contained three pieces. The spicy tuna really wasn't very spicy. But we did get a little wasabi, so that helped.

Here's a photo of the Kirin Ichiban beer tap in the Japan booth:

And, here's a photo of our tuna roll (sorry it's blurry- the light was bad under the overhang):

I took this photo, because I thought you would see all of the rain falling just outside the covered area where we were, but you really can't see the rain:

As those of you who have been to the Food and Wine Festival know, they have free concerts from washed up has been musicians on the weekend nights. Tonight we had one guy- Roger something or other-from the band Supertramp. Whoop-Dee-Doo! Ironically, Roger just happened to be playing the only Supertramp song I know just as I was walking by. You might know it too- The Logical Song. I believe it came out in 1979. Which I believe because that is the year I graduated High School, and when I heard old Roger playing that song, it brought me right back to then. Old Roger wasn't half bad. He then played a song called Dreamer, which I remembered once I heard it, and then another song that I rembered as well. Who would have thought- I liked old Roger! Here he is:

You can see folks don't like Roger well enough to be willing to stand in the rain to listen to him.

The TCD twins had no idea who the old guy was or why we were stopping to listen to him:

So we moved on.

We were going to stop at Singapore, because they had an item called Shrimp Cake. I like Shrimp. I like Cake. So, therefore, Shrimp Cake would be good, right? I don't know about that. But, the Singapore booth was closed. Locked up. Nobody was home. I took this as a bad sign.

Next we came to a booth called the Hops and Barley booth. That sounded promising. They had lobster items. I ordered a lobster roll. I understand these are a big deal in the northeast. I have had exactly one lobster roll in my life before this one. Before I had my first, I was picturing something like an egg roll. But, it is really more like lobster salad on a bun (or roll if you will). The first one I had wasn't that good. This one was actually pretty good. I tried to take a photo, but this is what I got:

The photo taking of the food wasn't working. There was too much commotion going on, and it was hard to find a place out of the rain to set the food down to take a photo. So, that is the last blurry food photo you will see. The rest of the food photos will be more action shots.

When I stopped at the Hops and Barley booth, I asked the castmember if a lot of the booths were shut down or would be cash only. He said no, that all of the booths other than Singapore were operating, and only Japan was operating on a cash only basis, because some of their electronics had failed. I went ahead and bought three of those little wrist gift cards, and loaded them all with cash. That way, we could all go to the booths we wanted to, and not fiddle with cash.

Next up, we stopped at Italy. Things were working right in Italy. The castmembers were friendly, and made a production out of serving our order. We were their only customers at that moment:

The castmember shown in the last photo above, announced our order in exaggerated Italian, and then served it with a flourish. You can see that we had the undivided attention of everyone in the booth. We got an order of the ravioli and an order of the cappellini here. It was raining still, so we ducked into the covered area outside of the restrooms between Italy and Germany to enjoy our food. We had a hilarious conversation with a castmember here. He apparently was on duty at these restrooms for 11 hours today. He doesn't like the F & W Festival so much, because I guess some gross things happen in the bathrooms then. I asked him to spare us the details, as we were eating. He went on to tell us a few tales of things he had seen at the F & W Festival, and he speculated at great length about whether or not the fireworks would go tonight. This guy obviously was a couple of fries short of a happy meal, but he was a great diversion from the rain. Oh, I almost forgot, the ravioli was excellent- maybe one of the best things we had all night, and the cappellini was good too. From here, we said arrivederci to our new friend Tony, and headed back out in the rain.

We skipped Poland, because I was anxious to get to Germany.

They serve my all time favorite item there.

I will pick up the story from there in the next post.

TCD

[Lou... 3,118]

Geez Andrew, you're at WDW more than I am.

I think you should just buy a place nearby and be done with it.

[TheLug 10]

Bueller!!!

[gramme 2]

Leave us hanging at your favorite from Germany! Thats not nice! LOL

[stefa70 205]

Oh my! Two posts already and I'm just catching up. The weather has got me a little sluggish. I too, am tired of all this rain. I love when it rains, but not for three days in a row. Let's see if I can remember all the things I want to comment on:

Why is TCD the greatest Dad ever?

1. When you make plans with your girls, who cares what those darn weather people say, you throw caution to the wind.

2. Despite being caught in a traffic jam, you make a quick decision to change up the plans, instead of having road rage, or deciding to just go back home.

3. You appreciate the Disney Security and realize that they risk life and limb to protect guests.

4. You let the twins laugh at you, instead of just with you. Including while you wandered cluelessly through the lodge or listened to some old 70's guys music.

5. You don't embarrass the twins by telling a cast member they don't know their ass from their elbow, even when you know the Cars topiaries have been at Epcot.

6. You buy big, yummy, fattening cookies. (Twin #1 eyes say it all)

7. You are a quick thinker, even when your life is flashing before your eyes. But I have to wonder if your camera would survive the fall for Mrs TCD to see the "final" photo?

8. You make the most of your time while the girls took a pit stop instead of rushing them and complaining like a lot of men.

9. You loaded up the wrist gift cards with cash for quick snacking access.

10. You took a fist pumping picture with guidos!! I love guidos, and will probably spend the majority of my F&W experience sniffing looking around Italy.

I hope your girls know how lucky they are to have such a hands on Dad. I wasn't always so lucky. So that's all for now, my "top ten" list. Letterman will probably be calling soon, but don't worry I won't forget the little people who got me there.

[Lou... 3,118]

3. You appreciate the Disney Security and realize that they risk life and limb to protect guests.

I love your sense of humor Stef, you were making a joke, weren't you?

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

well said Stef!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

You need to watch that rebel spy twin - who knows what mischief she's doing behind your back! :rofl2:

Good point. Or maybe they are picking her because she is with me, and I look stupid enough to pay $25 for an "I am the Rebel Spy" t-shirt?

Oh I'm so excited!! I usually end up reading a TCD trip report after the fact! I love to live vicariously though your reports TCD!!! :jumpforjoy

Don't get too excited, this one is going to be over in just one more post.

Geez Andrew, you're at WDW more than I am.

I think you should just buy a place nearby and be done with it.

That's not a bad idea.

But, then I would probably always be driving over here to go to the beach.

I'll just stay where I am.

Bueller!!!

Lug- You really need to cut back on the drinking.

I'm worried about you.

Leave us hanging at your favorite from Germany! Thats not nice! LOL

Sorry.

But, that's what I do.

So that's all for now, my "top ten" list. Letterman will probably be calling soon, but don't worry I won't forget the little people who got me there.

Great job on the list, Stef.

For what it's worth, the Italy food booth is loaded with real Italians, not the Jersey Shore version. Not that there's anything wrong with the Jersey Shore version.

I love your sense of humor Stef, you were making a joke, weren't you?

Joke?

About the WDW Security Force?

That is no laughing matter.

TCD

[Lou... 3,118]

About the WDW Security Force?

That is no laughing matter.

You're right, it's more of a snickering matter.

[gramme 2]

LOL

[caveat lector 181]

...

I hate sitting in traffic.

TCD

Truer words have never been spoken.

Sorry for the mini hijack, but I have seen some TCDRMoG candidates sitting in traffic. It certainly adds an additional smile/degree of difficult when the "genius" candidate is piloting a 5er, TT, or Motorhome. I like to sit back and enjoy the show (especially around Altanta on 75) as these future MENSA joinees darts back and forth across multiple lanes of traffic in order to arrive 2.7 seconds earlier than me.

[devores 382]

I remember that day fondly. We were going to visit EPCOT for the F&W as well, but the rain changed our minds. We ended up going today. Right now we are enjoying a glass of the Canadian Ice Wine and relaxing after gorging ourselves.

If you liked the lobster roll, they also serve it at the restaraunt by the Haunted Mansion in MK. It is the same thing, probably even made exactly the same way. So you can go there outside of F&W if you get a craving for one.

We felt this years F&W was better than last years. Though allot of the booths offered the same foods, there was some new stuff as well. Not all good, but nothing horrible.

Next time you head to WDW, honk when you pass exit 44. That is where I live. No no, not in a box under the overpass. The RV park you see acrossed the lake.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

We skipped Poland, because I was anxious to get to Germany.

They serve my all time favorite item there.

I will pick up the story from there in the next post.

Oh dear God....please no.

[Starbuc71 162]

Andrew, you gotta love some of the answers given by cast members like the cars topiaries being there forever. When we were at the fort last week I asked one of the boat captians while passing river country what thier plans were in the future for that area. He was a middle aged gentleman who responded, "nothing, they still use that area for life guard training" I wanted to say,"do I have stupid written across my forehead?" I bet some cast members joke about about what stupid crap they can make up for us tourist that we may believe. great report so far as usuall. I never knew you could take a boat to DHS and epcot

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Truer words have never been spoken.

Sorry for the mini hijack, but I have seen some TCDRMoG candidates sitting in traffic. It certainly adds an additional smile/degree of difficult when the "genius" candidate is piloting a 5er, TT, or Motorhome. I like to sit back and enjoy the show (especially around Altanta on 75) as these future MENSA joinees darts back and forth across multiple lanes of traffic in order to arrive 2.7 seconds earlier than me.

Yep. I see that all the time too. And, that what was happening that morning on I-4. There was no way to see what was causing the back-up from where we were, but people were changing lanes as one lane inched forward, and then tried to jump back in the lane they had just come from when that lane began to move. I don't know how things are handled in other states, but in Florida, the cops love to just close down a road and make everyone sit while they complete their investigation. No effort is made to allow traffic to flow- they just shut it down. Undoubtedly this makes it easier for them, but it sure is frustrating to be caught in a situation like that. A lot of our roads now have these ridiculous message boards that they can use to help us by telling us that there is an accident ahead. The problem with these is that in most cases, there is no alternate route around the wreck.

I remember that day fondly. We were going to visit EPCOT for the F&W as well, but the rain changed our minds. We ended up going today. Right now we are enjoying a glass of the Canadian Ice Wine and relaxing after gorging ourselves.

If you liked the lobster roll, they also serve it at the restaurant by the Haunted Mansion in MK. It is the same thing, probably even made exactly the same way. So you can go there outside of F&W if you get a craving for one.

We felt this years F&W was better than last years. Though allot of the booths offered the same foods, there was some new stuff as well. Not all good, but nothing horrible.

Next time you head to WDW, honk when you pass exit 44. That is where I live. No no, not in a box under the overpass. The RV park you see acrossed the lake.

Well, it turns out that braving the rain was worth it. I'll tell you why in my next post.

I think you are talking about the Columbia Harvest House. I think that lobster roll was just added to the menu there this year. I like that restaurant. I will most definitely check this out, because I did like the lobster roll.

Oh dear God....please no.

Yes.

The photo will be coming right up.

But, in deference to your intolerance, I made sure not to be photographed eating the sausage.

Andrew, you gotta love some of the answers given by cast members like the cars topiaries being there forever. When we were at the fort last week I asked one of the boat captians while passing river country what thier plans were in the future for that area. He was a middle aged gentleman who responded, "nothing, they still use that area for life guard training" I wanted to say,"do I have stupid written across my forehead?" I bet some cast members joke about about what stupid crap they can make up for us tourist that we may believe. great report so far as usuall. I never knew you could take a boat to DHS and epcot

I enjoy speaking to castmembers. I think some of them intentionally spread rumors, but I think most of them just repeat the folklore and myths that they have heard. It is truly entertaining sometimes. It is incredible how uninformed some of them are, especially when you consider that they often know very little about the place where they work every day. Every once in a while, I run into one who knows what he or she is talking about- that is a good thing too.

You didn't know about the boat? How could you not know about the boat? These are huge boats that travel between Hollywood Studios and Epcot. In between, the boat makes stops at the Swan and Dolphin, Yacht and Beach Club and Boardwalk. The stops make it about a 25 minute trip, but it's a nice way to get from one park to the other.

TCD

[gramme 2]

One of our favorite things to do! The boat ride is so relaxing in what is usually a very hectic day.

[SCTigerCock 171]

You didn't know about the boat? How could you not know about the boat? These are huge boats that travel between Hollywood Studios and Epcot. In between, the boat makes stops at the Swan and Dolphin, Yacht and Beach Club and Boardwalk. The stops make it about a 25 minute trip, but it's a nice way to get from one park to the other.

TCD

Is it a slow boat? Oops wrong thread. :rofl2:

Enjoying the TR. As always.... :jumpforjoy