Some people ARE worth melting for ….. 40 Disney days – the trip of a lifetime updated October 10

I printed out the menus for the F & W booths so I know which ones are safe for mom and I :laughing: I have quite the list of things we'll want to try. Especially having several of the nitro chocolate truffles popcorn:: popcorn::
 
Yum! Your food pictures look delish! I love treating myself at vacation meals.

How cool is the high roller!? And I think it's really neat that you do geocaching on vacation. I have friends who are very into it.
 
I loved that high roller when we were in Vegas. The views there are like nothing else.
 
We both love Bubba Gump and we had discovered one just a little way up the road.

I've only eaten at one of those, in Universal Orlando, it was pretty good. We have one in Long Beach but we've never eaten there. Your meals look very nice.

I had purchased our tickets online while still at home and now we were very happy we had as the line for tickets was out the door and up the street.

I'll have to remember that. I'd like to rode this when we finally get back there again. How many people do they put in one bubble?

The Paris only lets you log in 1 device at a time,

That's kind of bizarre....

I keep putting off buying tickets for the Queen Mary but I guess I should in case something like that happens.

I seriously doubt you'll have that problem at the Queen Mary.
 


Wow the High Roller looks kind of scary for this chicken!!!!
But the view is so amazing!

I hear you on photobucket. On the site it does say if you renew you are grandfathered in till Dec. 2018, but every email I hear others getting say it ends when you small paid subscription ends. I haven't gotten on of those yet but mine ends at the end of April. Luckily about 4 years ago I switched to hosting on Flickr, but I kept up the smallest one so that I could keep all old photo active. Sadly when my subscription ends that will be the end of those because I will not pay that much to just keep things active.
People are totally bashing photobucket on facebook and twitter. I bet if they go forward with this decision they will be out of business in 2 years. They may have some renew for the first year to get things settled but after that they will move on. There are to many free or cheaper options.
I also heard people are having issues downloading their pics off of it too. I think everyone is doing it so it's crashing the site.
I know some people use it for business, but I think the majority of its users post things to forums like this. None of those people are going to pay $400 to keep that option. They complained with it was like $40 a year for a small subscription.
I really hope they change their mind, or keep old things still in tact.
I can't imagine anyone uses it just to "store" pictures. The whole purpose I ever signed up with them many years ago was to host. They have just gone completely crazy.
 
Summer 2017 planning

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Day 10

Today is day at sea. Which means it is ........ day full of food. And we will start our food extravaganza at Palo for brunch.

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and once we are finally done sampling the delicious food and even more food we will head back to our room for a very short time before heading to Stem to Stern Wine tasting

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After that we will have to have rest on our balcony before heading to Martini tasting.

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After that we will have to get our things together and pack up as we need to get off the ship the following day. I guess a nap is in order sometime that afternoon as well. And after last minute purchases we will have to get ready for dinner.

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Day 11

Time to get off the ship and have some more WDW fun.

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We will most likely have breakfast at Cabanas before getting off the ship

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and heading over to the garage to pick up our car. Once everything is safely stowed we will get on our way back to Walt Disney World.

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where we will check in at the Yacht Club for the first 4 nights.

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Check in out of the way we will head over to Epcot to explore the Food and Wine festival

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at 12pm we will head to the Festival Center for a food demonstration. Tuna is on the menu today.

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And after that we will meet our friends Pam and JJ again, as well as Mick and Teresa, who are at WDW before going on a Fantasy cruise the next day.

We have FP for
The Sea with Nemo and friends
Soarin and
Spaceship Earth

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We will explore World Showcase together

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before we will all have to go back to our resort to get changed for dinner at Kona Cafe.

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After that it will be a sad goodbye to Pamela and Jeanette, who will have to drive back to their home to get ready for their flight to Vancouver to board the Disney Wonder for Alaska the next day.

But Teresa and Mick will come to the Magic Kingdom with us for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

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To be continued .........
I haven't been on the DISboards for a while. Just getting caught up. Thanks Karin for including us in your plans! We can't wait to eat at F&W and try a new restaurant as well as the MNSSHP! We got rained out last year st MNSSHP.
 


I am very sorry I have not been here in a long time. A lot of things happened and I just did not feel like posting. But let me begin at the beginning ..........

Shortly after I had posted the last update there was a wave of big tests that needed to be prepared and then marked. Now, I have three English groups and it was a lot of work, filling my weekends. Then there was preparation for the next days and so on ......... I was so tired and that we had a heatwave which prevented me from sleeping well did not help either.

Then 4 weeks ago we lost our furbaby. She was 16 years old and had lived with us for the last 15 1/2 years. She didn't look sick, but was just sleeping all the time. When she was eating less we took her to the vet, who told us that she needed emergency surgery. I don't want to go into too much detail, but it was heartbreaking having to leave that furball in a cage at the vet's. Surgery went well and we were able to take her home the next day. We were on cloud 9 when she just walked out of her basket and ate and drank and went to her favourite spot for a nap.
During the following night Tom woke me up because Pixie was acting strange. She was not moving much and seemed to sigh a lot. Around 5am while we were checking on her she took her last breath. Needless to say that it broke both our hearts to let her go, but at least she is no longer in any pain.
I was distracted while being at work, but poor Tom who is already retired and at home has missed and still misses her greatly and so do I.
We did discuss getting another cat and have agreed to do so, but will wait until we return from our vacation as to not have the cat getting used to us and then being taken to the "cat hotel". On the last but one day of school last week one of my girls offered my a kitten and we are now looking forward to picking up our new housemate when it is 3 months old. (Talked to the vet and she told us that this would be a good age to remove the kitten from its mother.

I took to vacation planning to distract me from missing my kittycat and we have now finally decided on what we are going to do. I'll post our plans lateron.

Karin and Tom I am so sorry to hear about your loss of Pixie. She looked like a sister to our cat Claire who is 14 years old now. Our pets are like our children to us and when we lose one it is very sad and we never forget them. I am glad you will be getting a kitten they are so much fun, especially when you have two to play together. :)
 
Dinner looked so yummy!!! They should have waited a little longer to bring out the entrees though...

We just love Bubba Gump. And it had been a long time since we last had had some. I was not happy with the mains being delivered too soon, but we just made do. ;)

The High Roller looks so cool, wow! What a gorgeous view! Well done having bought tickets ahead of time and not having to wait in that long line. I keep putting off buying tickets for the Queen Mary but I guess I should in case something like that happens.

We loved the London Eye when we first went on it and if there is a chance to get on one of those things we will try to do so. The views from the High Roller were amazing - the photos do NOT do it justice. And I have NEVER been so happy to have purchased tickets online than that day. That line was LOOOOOOOOONG.

I printed out the menus for the F & W booths so I know which ones are safe for mom and I :laughing: I have quite the list of things we'll want to try. Especially having several of the nitro chocolate truffles popcorn:: popcorn::

I have studied the menus as well. There are definitely LOADS of good options. So looking forward to enjoying it with you and Mick and Teri. And chocolate truffle sounds really good.

Yum! Your food pictures look delish! I love treating myself at vacation meals.

Vacation is the best time to treat yourself. And Bubba Gump is always a treat and so much fun to dine there.

How cool is the high roller!? And I think it's really neat that you do geocaching on vacation. I have friends who are very into it.

The High Roller was really awesome. The views, especially at night were just stunning.
Tom took up geocaching when he retired. I was happy he had something that kept him occupied and he is so happy to search for a few things while on vacation.


I loved that high roller when we were in Vegas. The views there are like nothing else.

It is awesome isn't it. We so enjoyed our ride on it - and they didn't fill up the capsules too much. In London they did, when the London Eye was newly installed and you had to stay in one spot if you wanted to have a good view. But being able to roam around was perfect.
 
New here! Didn't make it to WDW this year (3 week trip last year.) Looking for someone else's family to join vicariously, and read your whole report in 2 days! I do hope you are going to finish this 40 day marathon, even with the photobucket debacle.

One of the things I love about your reports is how you begin the next installment with the last sentence of the previous one. That keeps one connected and it is terrific.

I also like how the auto-correct changes "later on" to lateron each and every time. I actually looked up the word to see what it meant. :love1:

I missed a more extensive bio on you. Your english is idiomatically like a native. Are you Austrian? Transplanted in Austria? When I was in college, my college had a Salzburg Semester every year. They owned the Hotel Gableroi there. We spent 3 months in Salzburg, and 3 months traveling. I got to attend Easter Sunday services at the Salzburg cathredal, and used the train pass to travel all around your country on weekends. But I didn't pick up the language.

I was grew up in Southern California, and remember when the original Pirates opened, along with all those other first E-ticket rides. Eagerly awaiting your exquisite detail of what it is like now.

Finally, I know you have been to the parks so often you catch the favorite rides. Since I haven't read your other trip reports, have you explored all the trails in Animal Kingdom, and seen the shows?

again, thanks! you brightened up my week!

Erin Cox-Holmes
 
I've only eaten at one of those, in Universal Orlando, it was pretty good. We have one in Long Beach but we've never eaten there. Your meals look very nice.

We have been to the one at UO too, we first went to the one on Pier 39 in SF. That was WAY back when and it was so much fun. Did you know that there is one right close to DL?

I'll have to remember that. I'd like to rode this when we finally get back there again. How many people do they put in one bubble?

I don't know if it is different if you go during an "off" time of the year, but especially at night I was SO happy we bought our tickets ahead of time. As for how many people ..... there were not many. If I had to guess I would say 10 - 15. You had loads of space to move around.

Wow the High Roller looks kind of scary for this chicken!!!!
But the view is so amazing!

It is really not bad, Jen. The capsules are closed and you can sit down - the view is just incredible.

I hear you on photobucket. On the site it does say if you renew you are grandfathered in till Dec. 2018, but every email I hear others getting say it ends when you small paid subscription ends.

I will definitely NOT renew with them. Not even if they offered the "cheap" 25$ account. I signed up with smugmug and I am very happy with my decision. :thumbsup2

I haven't been on the DISboards for a while. Just getting caught up. Thanks Karin for including us in your plans! We can't wait to eat at F&W and try a new restaurant as well as the MNSSHP! We got rained out last year st MNSSHP.

We both cannot wait to see you again and spend the afternoon and party with you two. You are going to like Pam and JJ, they are such nice and fun people. :goodvibes

Karin and Tom I am so sorry to hear about your loss of Pixie. She looked like a sister to our cat Claire who is 14 years old now. Our pets are like our children to us and when we lose one it is very sad and we never forget them. I am glad you will be getting a kitten they are so much fun, especially when you have two to play together. :)

It might have been different if we had known she was sick and we had had time to get to grips with it. But one day she was all fun and playing around and two days later she was gone. She left such a void in our lives. But then, even though we will never forget her (or her "brother" Garfield) we are really looking forward to some new kitties in our lives.
 
New here! Didn't make it to WDW this year (3 week trip last year.) Looking for someone else's family to join vicariously, and read your whole report in 2 days! I do hope you are going to finish this 40 day marathon, even with the photobucket debacle.

Hi Erin, great to have you here!
You are brave, having read all our "adventures" in just two days ......... I promise there is more to come. I really hope to get as much done as possible before we leave for our next adventure later this month. :beach: And after having changed about 10 days worth of photos from photobucket to smugmug I promise I will finish changing out the photos AND this report. :thumbsup2


I missed a more extensive bio on you. Your english is idiomatically like a native. Are you Austrian? Transplanted in Austria?

Well, there's not much to tell about me. I lead a "boring" life - I teach from September to July and Tom and I love to travel. And YES, Tom and I are Austrian. Always have been, born here in Upper Austria and loving it here. Vacation is something else .......... we LOVE Mickey and everything that goes with it. ;)

I was grew up in Southern California, and remember when the original Pirates opened, along with all those other first E-ticket rides. Eagerly awaiting your exquisite detail of what it is like now.

Ah, DL is coming up next. We only had two nights at the Paris, Las Vegas. We had the time of our lives in DL, so many great experiences.

Finally, I know you have been to the parks so often you catch the favorite rides. Since I haven't read your other trip reports, have you explored all the trails in Animal Kingdom, and seen the shows?

Yes, we have done all the trails, some of them several times and seen the shows. We missed them all last summer, but we had not been to WDW for two years (well a short 3 days before and after a cruise in 2015), so we had to "catch up" on all of our favourite rides. ;)
 
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Day 18, August 20

Disneyland, here we come! - Part 1




We were up early as we wanted to get an early start on our drive to Anaheim.
While Tom was in the shower I got back to the email I had just looked over the night before and in between a lot of uninteresting mail there was an email from Alison. We were to meet up with her during our visit to Disneyland and we were curious on what she wanted to tell us.
I opened the email and she was warning us about a wildfire that was burning along the road we were going to take. We checked road services and emails to Alison were going back and forth but in the end she assured us that we should be fine.
With that at the back of our mind we headed down to La Creperie for breakfast. Similar to the day before there was quite the line and once we were ready to order Tom picked up cutlery and napkins and went to find a table. I ordered and waited for our crepes to be made. It took about 5 minutes for them to be done, but then I walked back, looked for Tom and found him at a table towards the back of the place. And after taking photos of our food we started to dig in. Tom had decided on the

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Spinach and Artichoke Crepe, filled with spinach, artichoke, Mascarpone, Grana Padano, tomatoes, basil and olive oil. It was not his typical choice, but boy was it tasty. I had ordered the

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Tomato Mozzarella Crepe, filled with marinated vine ripened tomatoes, fresh Mozzarella cheese, basil, extra virgin olive oil and a balsamic vinegar reduction, which was equally delicious. We sat there discussing a possible other route to get to Disneyland while we enjoyed our breakfast.
Once we were done we headed back to the room, got the first load of our stuff and dragged it over to the parking garage, which was quite a way away. Luggage loaded into the boot of the car we marched back to our room, had another restroom stop, checked for forgotten items and then grabbed our carry-ons to walk down to the front desk to check out. We got in the check-out line just to realize that there was just one person doing check-outs, so it was going to take a while and it did. Once we had finally handed over our key cards and gotten our receipt we rolled whatever luggage we had left towards the parking garage, stowed it in the car and in we got and off we went.
There was quite a bit of traffic travelling through Las Vegas and since we were not driving too fast we had time to take in the casinos on our way out of the city.

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Soon we had left the city limits and were driving through the deserted area.

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About 90 minutes into the drive we decided to stop and stretch our legs and since we were already there, we picked up some

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M&Ms and some water. Didn’t take long and we were on the move again.


To be continued ....
 
This has been such a fun trip report! It was so nice of Alison to warn you of the possibility of wild fires as it can get scary driving through that area during that time of year. Did you enjoy your stay in Vegas overall? I love reading about all of the interesting food you choose :) I need to expand my dining horizons - one cannot survive on :cake: alone!
 
It was so nice of Alison to warn you of the possibility of wild fires as it can get scary driving through that area during that time of year.

It really frightened me at first - I was caught in a wildfire driving from Solvang to Santa Barbara through the mountains in 1996 and the fire came VERY close. We were stopped on the road and could see the fire creep up the hill. Totally scary.
But with emails going back and forth with Alison, we soon found a probable way around it and in the end got the "good to go" by her, when she double checked for us. She was a life and nerve-saver.


Did you enjoy your stay in Vegas overall?

We loved it. We have been before and always enjoyed our stay - my only complaint is something that comes with my vacation time. We HAVE to travel at the height of the summer and it is SO hot. But the city itself is just awesome and if you have more time there are so many more things to see and do.

I need to expand my dining horizons - one cannot survive on :cake: alone!

Guess I could. :cake::love:
 
Those crepes look and sound divine! popcorn:: popcorn::

Thank goodness Alison was able to help with the wildfire stuff. I've never seen one but have smelled them several times since being down here. Its super scary!

Great pictures of LV, I'll have to get there one day.

Peanut butter M & Ms are my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!!!!
 
Hi Karin......I'm a long time lurker and have always enjoyed your reports over the years. :) I thought I'd finally come out of lurkerdom after getting caught up on your latest TR and reading about your plans for this summer. We have several plans in common including EMH at MK on the 23rd, MNSSHP on the 25th and AK on the 27th as I am also dining at Tiffins for the ROL package although I am doing quite an early dinner at 4:30 pm. So, if you see a blonde haired, bubbly Canadian coming over to say hello, that will be me!

Can you believe how quickly our trip dates are approaching? I am so excited! This is my second solo trip and I am staying at AKL for the first time, which I am really looking forward to!
 
Those crepes look and sound divine! popcorn:: popcorn::

They were really yummy. I wish we could have stayed longer - just to try more of them. :rotfl2:

Thank goodness Alison was able to help with the wildfire stuff. I've never seen one but have smelled them several times since being down here. Its super scary!

I was so glad she warned us, even though in the end the fire had died down thankfully. It would have been such a shock if we had gone and then would have been redirected. :scared1: As I mentioned earlier I was caught in one on the road to Santa Barbara and it is nothing I want to repeat.

Great pictures of LV, I'll have to get there one day.

You really need to visit LV. Such a fun city. And living in Florida now, you will be more used to the heat than we were. :rotfl2:

Peanut butter M & Ms are my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!!!!

We don't have these ones here, so we were happy to try them and I have to say, none were left over. ;)

Hi Karin......I'm a long time lurker and have always enjoyed your reports over the years.

Love that you came out of lurkdom. So happy to know all my readers. :thumbsup2

We have several plans in common including EMH at MK on the 23rd, MNSSHP on the 25th and AK on the 27th as I am also dining at Tiffins for the ROL package although I am doing quite an early dinner at 4:30 pm. So, if you see a blonde haired, bubbly Canadian coming over to say hello, that will be me!

There is a HUGE chance of bumping into each other at Tiffins, as our reservation is for 5pm. So if you see us (party of 4) PLEASE, say hello. As you may have read here, we LOVE meeting other DISboarders.

Can you believe how quickly our trip dates are approaching? I am so excited! This is my second solo trip and I am staying at AKL for the first time, which I am really looking forward to!

It is coming up MUCH faster than I want it to. So much still needs to be done around the house and time is just flying by.
AKL is just so nice. We stayed there last year and loved it so much. Nothing else like waking up in the morning and peeking out on the balcony and having all the animals there.
 
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Day 18, August 20

Disneyland, here we come! - Part 2

Didn’t take long and we were on the move again.
It was quite a long drive

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and another two hours later we had reached the area of where the fire had raged and you could clearly see the burnt area next to the street.

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Shortly after 3pm we drove along Harbor Boulevard

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and turned into the parking lot of the Best Western Anaheim Inn. Check in was a breeze and we were so lucky as there was a parking space right next the elevator and our room was right next to it on the second floor.

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We hauled our luggage up, had a short biological break and then headed out to do some shopping. We had seen a supermarket on the way in and off we went there. And even though it was quite a big supermarket we did not find everything we had wanted to buy, but we did not care too much as there was always time to pick up more stuff during the 5 nights we had at Disneyland. Soon we were back at the hotel and put everything away

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before heading across the street, picked up our will-call tickets and into the park we went.

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At that time of day bag check was a breeze and soon our tickets were scanned and we walked under the railway station.

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And even though we had been to Disneyland before it really hit us how small that castle really was compared to the ones at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris. We still had a little time to look around and familiarize ourselves with the park before our dinner reservation. And we stopped right
away for the flag retreat which had just started

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before we headed into the Emporium. There were so many interesting and fun things to discover in the shops that were connected to the Diamond Anniversary and we put quite a few things on our list to pick up later on.


To be continued ....
 
You're getting me excited to go to DL again :hyper:

No PB M & Ms would save me many calories :laughing:

You're going to be here, wait for it........






NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!


party: party: party: party: party: party: party:
 

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