CKCK 3.0-June 5-10 Trip Report-"Best of Both Worlds"

[H in SC 85]

This is one Great Trip Report!!!

More please. :)

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Black and Tan

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

AGU!

I am glad to hear that you visited the TCD barn. I hope that you brought the kids back there later for a pony ride.

I wanted to comment briefly on what you were told by the cowgirl:

A few days later on our 3^rd trip to the stables (we became a little obsessed) I talked to one of the cowgirls about it. She said they put it in there about 3 years ago. She also said it was a big ordeal getting it in there and that they broke the wall while doing it and had to repair it afterward.

So it technically IS possible for them to get it out, but they have no plans of doing so.

This sounds like classic castmember misinformation.

It was professionally installed here two years ago.

The Calliope display was built in place of two horse stalls. The calliope was placed in there and then the front windows/door were added.

According to the pretty credible rumors which have been floating around, the calliope and the whole horse operation, for that matter, will be moved to the Outpost area of the Fort.

Here are some photos from April 2010 which show the construction of the calliope display:

If you care, there is some more information about the calliope in this article:D23 Tri-Circle-D Article

TCD

[CKCK 45]

I wanted to comment briefly on what you were told by the cowgirl:

This sounds like classic castmember misinformation.

It was professionally installed here two years ago.

The Calliope display was built in place of two horse stalls. The calliope was placed in there and then the front windows/door were added.

According to the pretty credible rumors which have been floating around, the calliope and the whole horse operation, for that matter, will be moved to the Outpost area of the Fort.

If you care, there is some more information about the calliope in this article:D23 Tri-Circle-D Article

TCD

Thanks for the information and pics! I enjoyed the article as well...yes I care! I love reading about the history of Disney.

Though part of her story might still hold true...the fact that while positioning it there they broke a wall. I'm sure it was an ordeal trying to back it in around that center post. I would have liked to watch that!

I hope that when the whole operation moves they still display the calliope...but leave the opportunity for them to get it out easily so that maybe it could make an appearance every so often. Of course, that would make too much sense...

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Thanks for the information and pics! I enjoyed the article as well...yes I care! I love reading about the history of Disney.

Though part of her story might still hold true...the fact that while positioning it there they broke a wall. I'm sure it was an ordeal trying to back it in around that center post. I would have liked to watch that!

I hope that when the whole operation moves they still display the calliope...but leave the opportunity for them to get it out easily so that maybe it could make an appearance every so often. Of course, that would make too much sense...

If they had professional plans and construction and still ended up breaking a wall, then I would have liked to see that too.

I meant to comment that the article has misinformation too. First, it was written in January, 2010, and referred to the calliope as if it was already installed. At that time, it was still in the works.

The other thing is that it suggests that the calliope would be played from time to time. As far as I know, it never has been since it was installed. All we can hear is that poor recording.

The plans filed for the new horse barn show a room for the calliope to be displayed. Hopefully, they will do a better job the second time around. And, I agree with you, they ought to pull that thing out once in a while for a parade.

TCD

[CKCK 45]

Grand Marnier Slushie??!! (That would be my choice)

Nope, but it was an option!

Hmmmmm, a beer at the German pavilion?

Nope.

We wondered why the 1900 loop was empty too. There were the two you saw that first week and then the last day of looping we saw a total of 5.

Dang squirrels. We had one and it came right up to my foot and touched it. shrug Not sure what it thought it was going find.

At least it didn't try to eat you or poop on you.

Enjoying yor report.

Thanks!

Guiness

Nope.

This is one Great Trip Report!!!

More please. :)

Thanks! Coming up!

Black and Tan

Nope.

[CKCK 45]

Blood Orange Margarita from La Cava del Tequila. If you remember from another TR, we had previously tried the Jalepeno Margarita from here.

I like the jalepeno better, but DW liked the blood orange. It was too sweet from me. I started making the jalepeno one at home and my wife prefers mine (score one for team CKCK).

This is my “I don’t care how sweet it is I’m still drinking it in the rain” picture.

Oh, did I mention it was raining?

We left the Fort around 4:00 or so to head to Epcot for World Showcase time before our dinner at 7:45. As we were sitting at the bus stop waiting on the Epcot bus the rain came. We could actually watch (and hear) it coming from over the trees.

Then it poured.

And blew in the covered bus stop from every direction.

Ponchos came out.

Boooo.

So our nice 10^th Anniversary dinner at the Bistro was going to be wearing wet clothes and ponchos.

AWESOME.

Whatever. We decided that it didn’t matter and we were just going to have fun!

We wandered around the showcase taking our time looking at different things.

Then landed in the Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar in Italy.

Woo hoo!

At this point I was still in a little bit of a bad mood, wet, and hungry.

Then we got this:

And I felt better:

Don’t ask me what cheeses we had, because we didn’t even know at the time. Our Italian waitress, Donia, explained them about 3 times, and about 3 times we didn’t understand her. Oh well, it was all pretty good. Especially one. It was this one:

Let’s talk wine.

We are not wine experts. But we like drinking it. I don’t know what we ordered except that one was light bodied and one was medium bodied.

The medium bodied was really good. I drank that one.

And the light?

Tasted like new shoes.

It was new shoe wine.

No joke. It smelled and tasted like new tennis shoes. Like how the box smells when you open it.

New shoe wine.

The great thing about the Wine Cellar is that you can actually order food from next door in Tutto Italia but not have to have reservations or wait for a table.

Bonus. We will remember that for next time.

Then I made the mistake of asking Donia how she got the job here at Epcot.

Apparently she had been waiting all week for someone to ask her that, because she had all kinds of things to say.

It was interesting though. Apparently the national employees have one year work visas to work for WDW, and they apply in their home country at “job fairs.” They might be assigned to any Disney property across the world. She was actually hoping for Paris, but got Epcot. Believe it or not she said she didn’t even know what Epcot was before she got the job. Her year was almost up, and then she was set to travel for two weeks in the states before her visa ran out and she went home to Italy. She said if she wanted she could apply again, but that she wasn’t going to.

Now I’m sure the fun police (aka Lou) will come and naysay all over that story and correct me, but that’s at least what she told us!

We left here with the intention of…nothing. We were simply enjoying wandering.

We wandered into Morocco and heard their band playing. It was really cool. Then they had a belly dancer come out.

That was good too.

This dude was playing in it:

What the Fort?

It took me a few minutes to figure out that he was actually the drummer and that instrument was an electronic drum set. After they finished playing I found out that it’s called a Zendrum and every pad is programmable so he can set it however he wants.

It sounded great and I want one.

Then we went through France. And you can’t go through France without getting a slushy.

I just made that rule up, but I like it.

I have to admit, slushies are not as good when it’s raining and not hot.

But they’re still good.

Here we are in our only photopass picture of the trip with our Grand Marnier Slushies:

Look at all my grey hair. That sucks.

We wandered into England and stopped to hear the British Revolution band and to watch their hair blow in their wind machines:

We still had some time before 7:45, so we headed over to the Merida area to see what there was.

I want to know how often they touch up this sand castle thingy. I saw the same one in TCD’s TR a week earlier, and it still looks great. They must have to work on it every night…especially with all of the rain.

But that would be a lot of work.

About now it was time for the Bistro.

If you’ve never been to the Bistro you probably don’t know where it is. It’s that yellow part of the building on the left of that picture. You go in, check in with the hostess, wait on one of 4 chairs, then someone comes down the big spiral staircase and takes you upstairs to the dining room.

You’re going to have to wait for the dinner until the next update!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

AGU!

Believe it or not, I am seeing things that I have never done in your trip report.

Like that new tequilla bar in the Mexico pavilion. I haven't tried that yet.

And I also haven't been to the new wine bar in Italy.

Also, I've never been to the bistro. I will be interested to read about it.

That is interesting information you got from the Italy castmember. The lady applied for a job in Italy, and ends up in Epcot. And she had never heard of it before? Wow. What an interesting opinion of America she must have.

Sorry about the gray hair. If you think that's bad, I don't want to tell you what happens when your kids hit their teens.

TCD

[stefa70 205]

Still loving this report!

(For the record) I love any and all margaritas, but blood orange sounds freaky, even for me.

I am so interested in new shoe wine. I am a complete shoe whore...love the look of them, the feel of them and especially the smell of them. I could wear rags, but if I have on a new pair of shoes, I'd feel like a million bucks. So while I'm not a wine drinker, I would buy a bottle of that just to sniff periodically.

Yes, gray hair sucks!! (but there's this great stuff in a bottle that will get rid of it...or so I've heard)

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Great update. The only thing I have done in your latest update is get wet (without a poncho) and drink the orange slushy.....so thanks for the ideas!

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Great update! If you have to be at Disney in the rain, Epcot has to be the best place to be!

[SCTigerCock 171]

So what is your recipe for the jalapeno margarita? :banghead:

Share please! :wave1:

NOW! :clint:

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I still can't believe they didn't just store that caliope in a warehouse or something until the new barn is built and the entire operation moves. Why spend money building that display only to knock the whole thing down in a couple years? But I guess in the greater scheme of things, the cost to convert two horse stalls to a caliope display is peanuts for Disney. Or maybe the folks making the decision to display the caliope were not in contact with the folks planning the DVC. If that's the case, I bet the caliope folks are pretty pissed, because anyone making a decision to display a historic caliope at the TCD Barn probably has an appreciation for the history of the Disney horse operations and the caliope itself, as opposed to the people that make decisions based upon spreadsheets. (I am in no way denigrating people that make decisions based upon spreadsheets, as that is what I do every day myself.)

[Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5]

Great trip report!

Sounds like fun despite the rain!

Looking forward to the next update.

Heidi

[Family of Bears 98]

What the Fort?

It took me a few minutes to figure out that he was actually the drummer and that instrument was an electronic drum set. After they finished playing I found out that it’s called a Zendrum and every pad is programmable so he can set it however he wants.

It sounded great and I want one.

This is the same guy from Raglan Road!!! Yay! He plays every night there. If you enjoyed him at Epcot, wait till you see the show over there.

**sidenote: it seems I talk about Raglan a lot. No, I am not getting paid to promote them. Apparently I just really like it there**

Great TR, enjoying it!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I am a complete shoe whore

Will this be your new tag?

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Dave, from what I remember somebody saying, is the horse barn operations had some money to spend before their fiscal year ran out. Somebody remembered the calliope rotting away in a warehouse somewhere, so they said, Hey!! We have enough money to display the calliope here in the stables. So, they spent all their budget so it wouldn't be cut for the next year, and they saved the calliope from possible destruction!! Now the calliope WILL be in the new building. If they had waited, it might not have been in the new building and might have been disposed of in that warehouse somewhere. The joys of a fractured, stovepiped operation.

[stefa70 205]

Will this be your new tag?

I don't think Fairies read trip reports, or at least I hope not. :wetpants:

[CKCK 45]

So what is your recipe for the jalapeno margarita? :banghead:

Share please! :wave1:

NOW! :clint:

I'm not a measurer, so you'll just have to experiment to get it right.

Slice a jalepeno into long slices and take out all of the seeds.

Slice a cucumber into discs, and quarter each disc.

Cut a lime into quarters.

Muddle as many slices of jalepeno as you like (I usually do six or so) and about two discs worth of cucumber, agave nectar, and the lime in a glass.

Pour that into a shaker, fill with ice, add tequila, triple sec, and top off with sour mix.

Shake.

Strain, garnish with jalepeno slices and DRINK.

[CKCK 45]

I am so interested in new shoe wine. I am a complete shoe whore...love the look of them, the feel of them and especially the smell of them. I could wear rags, but if I have on a new pair of shoes, I'd feel like a million bucks. So while I'm not a wine drinker, I would buy a bottle of that just to sniff periodically.

If you're going to be a whore, I think being a shoe whore is a good kind to be.

Great update. The only thing I have done in your latest update is get wet (without a poncho) and drink the orange slushy.....so thanks for the ideas!

Glad you're getting ideas! Hopefully I'll give you more as we go forth!

Great update! If you have to be at Disney in the rain, Epcot has to be the best place to be!

Totally agree!

I still can't believe they didn't just store that caliope in a warehouse or something until the new barn is built and the entire operation moves. Why spend money building that display only to knock the whole thing down in a couple years? But I guess in the greater scheme of things, the cost to convert two horse stalls to a caliope display is peanuts for Disney. Or maybe the folks making the decision to display the caliope were not in contact with the folks planning the DVC. If that's the case, I bet the caliope folks are pretty pissed, because anyone making a decision to display a historic caliope at the TCD Barn probably has an appreciation for the history of the Disney horse operations and the caliope itself, as opposed to the people that make decisions based upon spreadsheets. (I am in no way denigrating people that make decisions based upon spreadsheets, as that is what I do every day myself.)

Dave, from what I remember somebody saying, is the horse barn operations had some money to spend before their fiscal year ran out. Somebody remembered the calliope rotting away in a warehouse somewhere, so they said, Hey!! We have enough money to display the calliope here in the stables. So, they spent all their budget so it wouldn't be cut for the next year, and they saved the calliope from possible destruction!! Now the calliope WILL be in the new building. If they had waited, it might not have been in the new building and might have been disposed of in that warehouse somewhere. The joys of a fractured, stovepiped operation.

Interesting. I'm glad they saved it. That would have been crazy sad if they had let it go! I just hope that they come up with plans to USE it once they move!

Great trip report!

Sounds like fun despite the rain!

Looking forward to the next update.

Heidi

Thanks! The rain really didn't mess things up too badly. In fact, at the end of this TR we'll see why we actually are glad it rained...

This is the same guy from Raglan Road!!! Yay! He plays every night there. If you enjoyed him at Epcot, wait till you see the show over there.

**sidenote: it seems I talk about Raglan a lot. No, I am not getting paid to promote them. Apparently I just really like it there**

Great TR, enjoying it!

Crazy! Does he play the same Zendrum there or a real set?

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Sorry about the rain, but bully for you for not letting it hold you back.

Great reading so far. I think I will keep away from the new shoe wine. I am not a shoe whore, not one bit. ROFL

Looking forward to more!

[CKCK 45]

Okay, time for our expensive dinner.

Have I mentioned that we spent WAAAY too much money on food and drinks this trip?

It was worth it.

Plus we used 135 Disney Visa rewards points on a lot of those drinks and snacks in the park, so I didn’t feel too bad about it!

After you check in with the hostess at the Bistro you have to sit and wait.

It’s amazing how many people come in and either:

A. Ask if they have any tables available (pbbt)

B. Ask if there are any restrooms

C. Think that they are in Chefs de France (though to get there you can just walk down a few steps and you’re in their dining room).

D. Have no idea where they are and are lost.

It’s a very small area in here…just four chairs and a big staircase:

Okay, so I’m not one to judge people, but I AM one to make observations…right or wrong. Just observations.

So this overly dressed (though a certain part of her needed more dress) woman walks up with her teenage daughter (couldn’t have been more than 13 or 14) in what seemed to be a prom dress or something. Either way my daughter will never be wearing that.

Regardless, she said they were late for their reservations and basically expected to be seated anyway. 45 minutes late.

Pbbt.

If I had been the hostess I would have told her tough cookies, but since this is Disney I guess they took pity on her because she eventually got in.

Here she is:

There were many thoughts that went through my head during all of this. Maybe she was just taking her DD out and exposing her to fine dining. However...I’ll keep the rest of my thoughts to myself this time, and you can have your own.

We finally made it upstairs to the dining room and got our table.

AT THE WINDOW.

Bam!

That’s how we roll.

It’s a nice place. While their dress code is relaxed since it’s in a theme park, we still felt underdressed. All of the servers were in tuxedos and super fancy.

I took pictures of everything, so here we go:

Table setting with chef’s jacket folded napkin:

My view:

DW’s view:

Dining room:

We both ordered a glass of wine, Bordeaux, Clarandelle, 2005. I didn’t take pictures, but you might see it in some of the food pics. It was pretty good.

Amuse Bouche:

What’s an amuse bouche you ask?

According to Wikipedia:

An amuse-bouche [amyzbuʃ] or amuse-gueule [amyzɡœl] is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre. Amuse-bouches are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons, but, when served, are done so according to the chef's selection alone. These, often accompanied by a complementing wine, are served as a little tingler for the taste buds both to prepare the guest for the meal and to offer a glimpse into the chef's approach to cooking.

So there you go.

It was some sort of a red pepper/cucumber soup (kind of like a gazpacho). Surprisingly good.

I did feel kind of silly eating it because the spoon was literally a baby sized spoon.

My appetizer, Serrano Ham, celery root remoulade and artichoke hearts:

Good, but I wouldn’t get it again.

My wife’s appetizer, Butternut Squash Soup with shrimp and chestnuts:

Freakin’ awesome. Wish I had gotten that. (btw, my wife attempted to make that the other night at home and she rocked it out).

My entrée, Grilled Beef Tenderloin, with mushroom "crust', Bordelaise sauce, mashed potato:

Freakin’ awesome. The beef was cooked medium and super tender. Nearly melted in my mouth. The mushroom crust wasn’t bad, but I ended up taking it off about half way through.

Wife’s entrée, Seared Sea Scallops, radicchio risotto:

Cooked perfectly, but not my bag. She really liked it, as she loves scallops, and she loves risotto.

It was at this point that it started blowing up outside.

It would have been a great show except that loudmouth woman with husband and daughter would not shut up behind us.

They had moved to a window table behind me from across the restaurant when Illuminations started. This woman was the most obnoxious woman ever. She would not shut up talking (loudly) about how great of a night this was, how it was the best dessert ever, the best fireworks show ever, how she couldn’t think of a better moment. Her husband didn’t even try to talk. You could tell he had learned long ago not to even bother.

The entire time I was muttering under my breath that I would have agreed with everything she said, IF SHE WOULD SHUT UP!

The kicker was when she said, and I quote, “Isn’t this great being up here away from all of the noise and talking outside?”

I don’t know how I did it, but I kept my mouth shut. I must be growing up or something.

We both got the same desserts, Warm Chocolate and Almond Cake - feuilletine, vanilla ice cream, praline sauce:

It was really good, super rich, and by this time I was super full so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I probably would have normally.

View from outside:

Our table was the top left window.

Somehow we stumbled to the bus stop and made it on, though I’m not really sure how. After all of the food and drinks we were done. DW actually fell asleep on the bus going back to the Fort.

And that was that.

It was not cheap, but a great 10^th anniversary dinner and I’m really glad we went.

Okay, tomorrow we’ll see the arrival of two little redheads! Woo hoo! DW and I also make one more quick trip to the MK before they arrive (cue waffle sandwich), I go on a FW Railroad expedition, and the great flood of 2012 comes!

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Looks like a great dinner. Would your wife share the recipe for the soup?

How did you get those people's heads to look too big for their body? They remind me of the Red Queen, in duo. ROFL

Sorry about the person ruining the moment. I think I would have fumed but kept quiet too.

Really looking forward to being introduced to your children.

[CKCK 45]

Here’s a quick Thursday morning update.

I have to warn you, I’m going to start including some of my mom’s pics.

So when you see pics that aren’t very good, you know who took them…

My wife and I had decided we were going to hit MK ropedrop Thursday morning to do some recon. Since DD 4 is now over 40”, she’s big enough to ride BTMR…and she has been wanting to. We wanted to ride it first since the refurb so we could decide whether or not we thought she could make it. We also wanted to ride Space Mtn just because.

However…on the way to the marina the rain for the day arrived.

Hard.

Ponchos came on during the golf cart ride.

My shorts were soaked by the time we parked.

I was not happy.

However, look at the guy behind me:

I had to have been happier than he was at that point.

However, you know what made me feel better?

Knowing that this was happening in my parents car back in Georgia:

Redheads on the move.

It was EMH at the MK, so we were headed over the to arrive by 8:00. On the way there I looked off to the right as we passed Discovery Island and saw this:

That’s one of the ferries heading out to start bringing people over from the TTC. I knew they parked the boats over there and worked on them, but didn’t realize they took the ferries there as well. It was weird seeing it over here in Bay Lake.

We arrived just after ropedrop and headed straight over to the entrance to Adventureland so we could run back and jump on BTMR and saw this:

No one told me that they only open half of the park on morning EMH.

Doh.

So now the rest of the crowd had already made it over to Space Mtn. We finally go there and I got some FP’s.

What the Fort?

It was 8:15am and the FP’s were already for 9:30. That’s not cool.

We jumped on Buzz (one of our favorites) and my wife yet again schooled me (this time…).

Somehow she always hits a few HUGE pointers. She probably hit a total of 4 target the entire ride, it’s just somehow she hits a couple 100,000 pointers and dominates.

Ridiculous.

After this we decided to walk on Space Mtn. The wait was only 20 minutes.

We decided we didn’t feel like hanging around for our Space Mtn FP’s, so I found a newlywed couple and gave them away. It was about 9:00 so we headed back over to the entrance to Liberty Square to get ready to go to BTMR.

Suck.

We were definitely failing this morning.

Luckily the rain had subsided to just a sprinkle, so the outside rides were running.

We finally got on BTMR. I don’t know about you, but I feel like they slowed it down since the refurb. Maybe it’s just me, but it definitely seemed more tame.

I had never ridden Splash Mtn. My wife hadn’t ridden it since she was a kid.

We had ponchos on already, so it was time.

I didn’t realize it was such a flipping long ride. Good grief it took forever, and it kept stopping.

Here’s the pic. It isn’t a good one (taken from phone):

It’s hard to tell, but yet again, I’m the one in the back right having fun.

No one else knew how to have fun.

Now here’s where this TR really picks up some steam.

It was almost 11:00 so we headed over to Sleepy Hollow.

Do you know what that means?

Bam!

Sweet/Spicy chicken waffle sandwich.

Our first ever. We shared it.

Awwwwwwww…

It was freakin’ awesome.

Couldn’t have lasted more than 3 minutes.

The great thing about it?

It was our first, and wasn’t our last of the trip.

That’s how we roll.

When we got back to the Fort I needed to go on my first ever FW Railroad expedition.

I dig trains, and have read about the FWRR, yet I never had a chance to go around the Fort and explore the old rail beds.

So I downloaded an old map of the Fort with the RR on it and set out in the drizzle.

It really made me sad. How much fun would the kids have (and adults) if it was still there?

I don’t need to explain most of these, but basically I started at the 1500 loop and tried to find all of the traces left of the RR. I’m sure I missed some, but I still had a good time. I find it interesting that many of the sidewalks around the Fort actually are on the old rail bed.

I know that the RR has been extensively explored by many people on here and many others, but it was my first! Someday I’ll go out again and go deeper in the woods.

Old bridge footings behind the dog park:

Crazy that they just paved over the old RR ties and now the road is collapsing around them.

Since I was on an expedition, I figured it was time I got one of these:

Bam!

I really enjoyed my expedition and can’t wait to go in deeper once the leaves fall off the trees!

At this point my parents were close with the girls, so we made final preparations for them!

That’s it for tonight. Next update we’ll take the girls to the stables, my mom will get yelled at, and THE GREAT FLOOD!!!

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

cool!!!!