Food, Wine, MNSSHP, Harry Potter-Oct 2010 {waiting to book dining & my crazy cat p.7}

[aprilisis]

Hi- my name is April & I am a Disney-holic. I’m 34 & taking a (so far) solo trip from October 4th through the 11th. My birthday is the 12th. I’ll be staying at Yacht Club & I know I will definitely be going to MNSSHP & the Food & Wine Festival . Epcot is my favorite park. I want to get to see the new Harry Potter area at Islands of Adventure & haven’t decided whether or not to visit Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. I know I want to spend some time in the pool during this trip. I also want to do something different- like horseback riding at FW or Dolphins in Depth at Epcot. In order to do that, however, I want to lose about 50 pounds. One thing you will notice is that I take WAY too many photos! I took this in the parking lot of Shaw’s (with my phone) on Saturday morning.

I’m sure I will have many mini-TR’s within this PTR. I am going to the MGM Grand at Foxwoods in CT in March with my BF, John & I am meeting my friend in NYC in April. I’m sure we will go somewhere in the summer- maybe even Vegas! (This is Vegas

In the meantime, I am losing my marbles waiting for the park hours for October to come out. I usually plan my days around the PM Extra Magic Hours.
I still haven’t booked air- I’m waiting for Southwest & right now they are only booking through August. Car rental prices are outrageous for that week right now, so I am holding off on those.
As far as dining goes, I will DEFINITELY be going to Artist Point & California Grill. Some possible visits will be:
Cape May Café
Donald’s Safari Breakfast
1900 Park Faire (for breakfast)
Brown Derby
Sci-Fi Dine In
Boma
Jiko
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Citricos
The Wave
Sanaa
Kouzzina
I know that’s a long list, but I will narrow it down when the October park hours come out. I feel awfully guilty leaving my dog, Isis, home for a week, but she will be in good hands with my mom. This is Isis in her best Disney gear:

I will post a recent photo of me if I ever let anyone take one. Thanks for stopping by!!

 

[mymainmouse]

Ha Ha! Poor Isis.

Signing on!

 

[aprilisis]

Ha Ha! Poor Isis.

Signing on!

I know...she growls at me when I do that stuff. I would feel more guilty for humiliating her if she didn't look so cute!!

 

[RockinDisney]

Have you ever done Halloween Horror Nights??? If not and you are into scary, you should do it!!!!!!I have down it twice and as someone who hates horror but lets her silly friends talk her into it...it is worth doing once! They have a different theme every year.

Isis is so cute, I love the grumpy hat

Can't wait to hear more and crossing my finger for the park hours

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm here! Now, I gotta go back and read the fine print.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Hey! April
subbing in...cute Isis picture!
that is a gorgeous picture of the sun and clouds...
Connie

 

[mymainmouse]

I know...she growls at me when I do that stuff. I would feel more guilty for humiliating her if she didn't look so cute!!

She definitely is cute! The look on her face with the Grumpy hat says it all.
My dog only tolerates that stuff for about a second.
Maybe that would be a new thread to start, "Pets in Disney costumes".

 

[aprilisis]

Have you ever done Halloween Horror Nights??? If not and you are into scary, you should do it!!!!!!I have down it twice and as someone who hates horror but lets her silly friends talk her into it...it is worth doing once! They have a different theme every year.

Isis is so cute, I love the grumpy hat

Can't wait to hear more and crossing my finger for the park hours

I have done HHN before- I liked it a lot, but will definitely get the "express" pass this time. I wonder what the theme will be this year. I have to admit that it scared the heck out of me, too!!!

I'm here! Now, I gotta go back and read the fine print.

Woohoo! Thanks for reading, Lisa!

Hey! April
subbing in...cute Isis picture!
that is a gorgeous picture of the sun and clouds...
Connie

Thanks!! That photo of the sun & clouds makes me think of all of the people I have lost in the past few years. I wish it looked less "blue" & more like it did in person, though.

She definitely is cute! The look on her face with the Grumpy hat says it all.
My dog only tolerates that stuff for about a second.
Maybe that would be a new thread to start, "Pets in Disney costumes".

Thanks!! Your idea for a thread is a GREAT idea! I love it!

 

[aprilisis]

Uhhh…Has ANYONE ever seen this before?????

Our apologies...

Alamo is completely sold out of vehicles at:

Orlando Intl Arpt from 010/4/2010 to 010/11/2010

That is a first for me!!! And it is a bad sign as far as crowd levels!!!
Well, so far the diet is going ok. I had oatmeal this morning & I had a salad with Boston lettuce, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions, sugar snap peas, strawberries & a little bit of feta & cracked black pepper for lunch.

I had lemon tea, 1 cup of white grapefruit juice, 1 bottle of water, and iced coffee with skim milk & 2 splenda, too. I’m not sure what we will do for dinner, but I’ll try to stick with it. I didn’t exercise last night. I used an incident at work as an excuse to not exercise when I should have used it as fuel to make me work harder. I tried to do something to make her life easier & she took it the wrong way. Don’t you hate drama?? Someone I work with blows everything WAY out of proportion because she thinks she is queen of the world. It is getting a little unbearable, so I am avoiding her like the plague today.
Anyhoo…back to the rental cars…at Orlando International AND Sanford airports, the rental cars are over $300 for the week for an economy! That is too pricey for me. I know I usually get a car for $200. So I guess my “plan” is to wait until the last minute & if I get a car, I get one. If I don’t, I don’t. I’m also very impatiently waiting for Southwest to come out with October airfare.
I’m also excited to be going to NYC in April. I’m meeting my friend, Sarah (who is from Scranton, PA) there on the 16th & coming home the 18th. I’m taking the Acela train from Providence. It will be a 2 hour & 55 minute ride. I’m hoping to meet up with my friend, Renata (she lives in NYC & works for Comedy Central), too. We plan to see the Tim Burton exhibit at MoMA & try out a few restaurants…and SHOP! I need a new purse, so I will be going to Canal Street. I have a few photos from my last trip:

And from 2002:

New York is a blast, but the last trip nearly killed me! I'm too old to stay out until 3am now. I had SUCH fun at the comedy club & all of the places we went. I had no idea how nice Brooklyn is! I’m also going to the MGM Grand at Foxwoods next week with John. I won’t be able to take a ton of photos, but I will take what I can & have a full report on craftsteak for you!

 

[RockinDisney]

Uhhh…Has ANYONE ever seen this before?????

Our apologies...

Alamo is completely sold out of vehicles at:

Orlando Intl Arpt from 010/4/2010 to 010/11/2010

That is a first for me!!! And it is a bad sign as far as crowd levels!!!

I have three pieces of advice
1. As I ran into the same problem the week between Christmas and New Year's- Hotwire a car...if you never have, it is easy and as long as you don't care what you get it is the cheapest way I found. Once you put your dates in even if you don't buy you can Track the dates and they will let you know when the price goes down. If you want any Hotwire tricks let me know

2. Buy an Express pass for both HHN and for anydays you are going to be at Universal because it makes life so much easier- You might want to look into the cost of an annual pass as depending on if you do a couple of days at US it gives you a discount on your HHN ticket AND your HHN express pass but not your normal express pass and it gives you a Discount on food

3. There is a cookbook called Hungry Girl 200 under 200 I started watching what I eat about 1 month ago and this might be the BEST thing I have ever invested in.I like it so much, I went out and bought the other Hungry girl cookbook- everythign is easy to make once you buy some of the basics!!! I can't say enough good things about it !!

Anyway that is my 3 cents even though you didn't ask


PS - Ignore your co worker and keep smiling

 

[njtinkmom]

I have three pieces of advice
1. As I ran into the same problem the week between Christmas and New Year's- Hotwire a car...if you never have, it is easy and as long as you don't care what you get it is the cheapest way I found. Once you put your dates in even if you don't buy you can Track the dates and they will let you know when the price goes down. If you want any Hotwire tricks let me know

2. Buy an Express pass for both HHN and for anydays you are going to be at Universal because it makes life so much easier- You might want to look into the cost of an annual pass as depending on if you do a couple of days at US it gives you a discount on your HHN ticket AND your HHN express pass but not your normal express pass and it gives you a Discount on food

3. There is a cookbook called Hungry Girl 200 under 200 I started watching what I eat about 1 month ago and this might be the BEST thing I have ever invested in.I like it so much, I went out and bought the other Hungry girl cookbook- everythign is easy to make once you buy some of the basics!!! I can't say enough good things about it !!

Anyway that is my 3 cents even though you didn't ask


PS - Ignore your co worker and keep smiling

Geez I thought you were going to give instructions on how to HOTWIRE A CAR!! I grew up in NYC and probably could figure it out - Anyway it just struck me as funny and pretty drastic!!

Great report with all the pictures, just finished reading your other one and following along!!

 

[aprilisis]

I have three pieces of advice
1. As I ran into the same problem the week between Christmas and New Year's- Hotwire a car...if you never have, it is easy and as long as you don't care what you get it is the cheapest way I found. Once you put your dates in even if you don't buy you can Track the dates and they will let you know when the price goes down. If you want any Hotwire tricks let me know

2. Buy an Express pass for both HHN and for anydays you are going to be at Universal because it makes life so much easier- You might want to look into the cost of an annual pass as depending on if you do a couple of days at US it gives you a discount on your HHN ticket AND your HHN express pass but not your normal express pass and it gives you a Discount on food

3. There is a cookbook called Hungry Girl 200 under 200 I started watching what I eat about 1 month ago and this might be the BEST thing I have ever invested in.I like it so much, I went out and bought the other Hungry girl cookbook- everythign is easy to make once you buy some of the basics!!! I can't say enough good things about it !!

Anyway that is my 3 cents even though you didn't ask


PS - Ignore your co worker and keep smiling

Thanks for all of the info! I was considering Hotwire- now I am definitely going to check there.
I usually only do one day at Universal/IOA, so I probably won't get an annual pass. I definitely will be getting the Express pass, though!
As for Hungry Girl- I subscribe to that blog! I looked up that book & I am going to get it. Thanks again! I love the blog, so I am sure I will love the book, too.
Oh...and I did completely stay away from the drama yesterday and she made a comment. I just don't like it how people are always talking about other people behind their backs around here. I am a big fan of being up-front!

Geez I thought you were going to give instructions on how to HOTWIRE A CAR!! I grew up in NYC and probably could figure it out - Anyway it just struck me as funny and pretty drastic!!

Great report with all the pictures, just finished reading your other one and following along!!

I didn't even think about that- "Hotwire" a car has a different meaning!!
Thanks for reading along!!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Your Isis looks a lot like my Dakoda...don't know what she is though...do you?

Cody growls at us too when we put clothes on her...or mess with her blanky!

Good luck on the weight loss...I need to jump on that bandwagon too!

 

[aprilisis]

I thought I would just throw in some “fun” photos today. They were all taken at Madame Tussead’s Wax Museum in Las Vegas.
Johnny Depp:

Matthew McConaughey:

Billy Idol:

Jon Bon Jovi:

JLo:

Julia Roberts:

Liberace:

Elizabeth Taylor:

Lucy:

Madonna:

Marilyn Monroe:

Oprah:

Princess Di:

Sean Connery:

Sinatra & Dean Martin:

Spiderman:

The Rock:

Tony Bennett:

Elvis (my favorite of the bunch):

I thought they looked pretty good over all- except a few didn’t really look like who they were supposed to. Johnny Depp doesn’t look enough like the real one. I was there in July 2008 & it was SO hot. In fact- I almost passed out at the Hoover Dam because it was 107 degrees. I might post more Vegas photos tomorrow if I can.
Last night I did so-so on dinner. I got a sandwich with cheese, tofurkey (not as bad as it sounds- it is NOTHING like tofu), onions, avocado, and cranberry mayo- which was most likely about 600 calories…BUT I was good in getting sugar snap peas instead of fries. Today so far I ate the other half of my sandwich & an apple. I have vegetable soup for dinner tonight- I will still be at work. Thursdays are my LONG days. Monday through Wednesday I work 7:30am until 4pm, Thursday is 7:30am-7:30pm, and Friday is 7:30am-11:30am. The only bad part is that I have an hour drive each way. So Thursday I get home at about 8:45pm & I am exhausted by the end of the night. Well, I have to get off of my behind & start exercising. I got my Ab Circle Pro in the mail & I want to try it- I just have to put it together first! That will be my Friday afternoon project. I hope everyone has a great day!

 

[aprilisis]

Your Isis looks a lot like my Dakoda...don't know what she is though...do you?

Cody growls at us too when we put clothes on her...or mess with her blanky!

Good luck on the weight loss...I need to jump on that bandwagon too!

I got a DNA test done for Isis & it said her primary breed is "unidentifiable" and her secondary was American Staffordshire Terrier. What breed is Dakoda? That's so funny that you say that about the blanky- Isis has a pig that no one can mess with:

She puts the foot in her mouth & kneads on it like a cat!

Thanks for the good luck on the weight loss- I REALLY need it! It is so hard to lose and so easy to gain. It stinks, too- up until my mid 20's I could eat like a bear preparing for hibernation & I didn't gain weight at all. It was all downhill from there.

 

[RockinDisney]

Geez I thought you were going to give instructions on how to HOTWIRE A CAR!! I grew up in NYC and probably could figure it out - Anyway it just struck me as funny and pretty drastic!!

Great report with all the pictures, just finished reading your other one and following along!!

-Well it would save ALOT of money but I am not sure the jail time is worth it

 

[RockinDisney]

The pics from the museum are AWESOME!!

And I love the Hungry girl BLOG!!!

Ever since I got the the two cookbooks they are pretty much all I have used. I had to do a little shopping around to find some of her "Standard ingrediants" but now that I have, everything is so easy...

If you get the 200 under 200 try the breakfast cookies, I make them the night before and then have 4 days worth of Breakfast...and since they are grab and go, it makes eating breakfast a lot easier!!!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

I got a DNA test done for Isis & it said her primary breed is "unidentifiable" and her secondary was American Staffordshire Terrier. What breed is Dakoda? That's so funny that you say that about the blanky- Isis has a pig that no one can mess with:

She puts the foot in her mouth & kneads on it like a cat!

Thanks for the good luck on the weight loss- I REALLY need it! It is so hard to lose and so easy to gain. It stinks, too- up until my mid 20's I could eat like a bear preparing for hibernation & I didn't gain weight at all. It was all downhill from there.

When we adopted Dakota 12 years ago we were told she was a shepard mix...she looks like a shepard but her colors are more like Isis and she is about half the size of a pure shepard (if that!). So, we don't know...

Wow...you had a DNA test and they could not tell you...WOW...

 

[aprilisis]

-Well it would save ALOT of money but I am not sure the jail time is worth it

The pics from the museum are AWESOME!!

And I love the Hungry girl BLOG!!!

Ever since I got the the two cookbooks they are pretty much all I have used. I had to do a little shopping around to find some of her "Standard ingrediants" but now that I have, everything is so easy...

If you get the 200 under 200 try the breakfast cookies, I make them the night before and then have 4 days worth of Breakfast...and since they are grab and go, it makes eating breakfast a lot easier!!!

Thanks! That was a fun museum. I might go to the NYC one next month.
I'm ordering the book today! Last night I had vegetable soup for dinner & I was hungry 2 hours later...so I just went to bed.

When we adopted Dakota 12 years ago we were told she was a shepard mix...she looks like a shepard but her colors are more like Isis and she is about half the size of a pure shepard (if that!). So, we don't know...

Wow...you had a DNA test and they could not tell you...WOW...

I'm convinced Isis is part Dingo. How much does Dakota weigh? Isis is about 70 pounds...though I think she has gained weight because John has become her personal cookie dispenser.

 

[aprilisis]

I took a Vegas photo break & added a photo poll today. Work will be tough today even though it is a short day. I have done 5 versions of the same project because people can't make up their mind on what they want. Plus my eyeballs hurt from staring at this PC 12 hours yesterday! Sorry for complaining. I really do love my job- it is just dealing with other people that hate working here or people that aren't helpful or are outright rude to the residents that make me crazy. Working for a Town is really a customer service job. I like to be as helpful, pleasant & informative as possible because that is what I would want from my Town. Most people here don't think that way, though. It makes me crazy!
Next week will be my 1 day break to the MGM at Foxwoods, so I'm looking forward to that. This weekend should be uneventful. I am hoping to exercise as much as I can. I am going to assemble my Ab Circle Pro today. I'm also going to check Hotwire.com for a rental car. Have a great day, everyone!