December 2011 Trip, Part 3
D23's 2011 Magic and Merriment
Please see Part 1 for cast and plot summary...
Day 2, Tuesday, Dec 6. The room gets Christmasized.
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I get to DTD about 9:20, and park at the far end of Lot 1. I walk to guest relations, which opens at 9am, and renew my AP. I've debated on whether I should renew right now or not. Now wins, since my AP expires on 12/8 two days from now. I'll be here 4 days past that.
I go over to Days of Christmas, and they still don't have any year dated mugs or Christmas lights. sigh. But they do have a small Christmas tree I can decorate the room with. They also have the Holiday Wishes CD. It was originally released in 2005, but I haven't been able to find a copy. Until now. Now I can overlay the MVMCP fireworks... I find it odd that the Fireworks show during Mickey's Very Merry *CHRISTMAS* Party, is named a more politically correct Holiday Wishes. They now have an AP discount at Days of Christmas. Nice.
There's a sign over by Art of Disney, saying Larry Dotson will be there. But not today. Too bad, I would have liked to have met him. A walk over to Goofy's candy company, where I pick up some rice krispy treats for PiC, and then realize I haven't eaten, and everything in the damn store looks good. I escape with only a couple of stocking stuffer purchases.
Next up is the spice store, where I pick up an ounce of Cinnamon (a nice dark Vietnamese Cassia) for baking this Christmas, and a bag of catnip for Figaro and Louie.
I take everything back to the car for round 2...
I then go into World of Disney, and find absolutely nothing I want or need. They still don't have the set of coffee cups I bought back in 2000. Even though I've seen some designs come and go, they're not the ones I want. They probably have too much lead in it or something, and I'm slowly destroying my brain every day, a little at a time. It would explain a lot, anyway.
PiC wants me to pick up a few bath bombs at Basin. Not for her, but as a Christmas present for her BiL and her niece. The small ones (which she wants) is 3 for $10, or you can buy a tube for $19.95, as many as you can fit in it, so long as the lid still fits on it. I can fit 6. I take it to the register, and the cashier (Basin is not a Disney company, so she's a plain cashier) sez I can fit in another if I try really hard. So I get a 7th, and with much mashing and gnashing, make the lid go on. Whattadeal. Better yet were the suggestions from the two guests standing in line next to me. So it was a better deal especially with the extra 10% discount from my AP.
And as usual, I hit Ghirardelli's and buy some chocolate. The employee by the door is handing out Peppermint Bark squares. Mmmmm... I pick up some Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Caramel (the best) and a new Sea Salt Soiree, which is a dark chocolate with sea salt and almonds.
Still hungry, the Wetzel Pretzel stand is open, and I get a couple of Wetzel dogs for lunch.
I am back 30 minutes too early, the maid hasn't come in yet. She is just down the corridor, so when she arrives, I bug out of the room, and go find a nice chair by the water where I can watch the water wheel in the distance, eat a Wetzel dog and read my current book. I give her a half-hour, then go back and find her gone. Perfect.
With the maid gone, I start to decorate the room. Out comes the Mickey Lights I decorated my room in Kidani with a couple of years ago. One string doesn't work, and even though Disney supplied an small bag with an extra fuse and several spare bulbs, it's still a pain in the butt to find which bulb is burned out. Eventually I do, string the lights around the TV cabinet and unpack the tree I just bought. Ah, how Christmas it feels. Who cares if it's 80 degrees outside.
I have a new blu-ray player. A special from Disney Movie Rewards, which is $60 if you have three of five blu-ray combo packs. I have four of the five, so I buy it as a backup to my PS/3. It's really $75 when you add in tax, shipping and handling. I hooked it up to my TV via HDMI, and it comes up and plays everything I test. Whattadeal. It's much smaller than my PS/3, so I brought it. I plug it into the room HDTV, and it works. I bought Jurassic Park on Blu just before I came down, so I put JP3 on and watch it waiting for the BYPT crew.
At 9:36pm, the BYPT arrives at POR. I go out to meet them, and as I'm about to get into the car, I can see Illuminations off in the distance above the trees. I'm forced to stay and watch the Christmas tag and the finale. By the time it ends, Jenny has already checked in.
I deliver people and luggage to their room, and meet them in the food court for dinner, which by 10pm is empty. We end the night. I go on another Meat Meet tomorrow!
Day 3, Wednesday, Dec 7. Another BYPT Meat Meet,
Epcot, and a we have a Foodgasm.
I'm up by 6:30. We have to leave by 7:30. I drive to the BYPT, and we're off to Magic Kingdom! Well, to the Hess station by the car care station, past the gates of the TTC. Jenny fills up the BYPT with diesel, and we make our way to I-4. Just as we get to a point where all traffic toward Orlando literally stops with rush hour traffic, we get off. The BYPT makes a left at a light and I have to stay another cycle. I follow Karen's instructions, and I make it to the destination, and there's no BYPT. I circle the block. Nope. I call Jenny. The meat meet is another block over. Great. I should have reprogrammed Karen in August, but I was following the BYPT and turned Karen off early.I arrive, and they're already unloading the truck. Jenny's already made sure taking pictures is okay. Everyone shows up and the meat meet is over in 15-20 minutes. Unlike last time, this was quick. A trip down Orange Blossom Trail Road and we return the Penske Truck.
I make the correct set of turns this time (it is very easy to take the long way back), and we are back to the resort in 2/3rds the time it took last time. sigh.
The Peaceful Pastures - Orlando BYPT Meat Meet
We're going to head out to Epcot. The first stop is to renew Jenny's AP. I go through bag check, and Jenny bypasses the ticket booths, and claims she can only renew at Guest Relations. So we get to Guest Relations, and they redirect us back to a ticket booth. sigh. (To be fair, I renewed at Guest Relations in DtD...)
We enter the park, and the great RFID entrance experiment is over. You can see the terminals, but we enter the old fashioned way, through the turnstiles. The first stop is Sunshine seasons. I'm hungry. It's 10:55, and Cathy and I have to wait 5 minutes before we can get our desired choices, which is lunch and not breakfast.
Walk around world showcase, where Jenny & Cathy have to have a hard apple cider in the United Kingdom. I pass. It's not even noon. :-)
Stop in France, Jenny gets a chocolate chocolate eclair. Didn't we just eat?
Stop in Japan. Cathy wants a toy for her son, which is only available in Japan. The cost of the toy is reasonable, but the cost of the shipping is not. No joy. I told her I'd check Mitsuwa the next time I'm there, but I don't remember toys at any of the internal stores. (Follow-up, I've been back to Mitsuwa, and indeed, they have no toys.)
We just miss a VoL. We wonder if they're doing Christmas sets. We take a few minutes in Germany to look at the Christmas detail on the train set.
We stop in Italy and watch a... wait, let me check my times guide... a mime. Mimes have props? If there is any justice in the world, the mime will swallow that whistle. He does juggle soccer sized balls well, though.
Insert Video Link - Sergio
Sergio was listed as a mime, clown and juggler...(Video not yet published on YouTube.)
Stop in Norway to ride maelstrom. Look for the hospitality suite. Don't see it. Jenny still doesn't know, so I can't ask. She is still clueless to Magic And Merriment. She suspects something, there's two blank days on the to-do calendar.
Jenny lags behind in the queue, I lean over to Cathy and tell her why I had them cancel their CP plans tonight, and there's a hospitality suite here for our use the day after tomorrow, but don't know where it is. Also that we get to see the Castle suite on Saturday, ending with a dinner after hours in Animal Kingdom. She tells me Jenny knows there's a two day hole in the calendar, and her only thought is I'm going to take her to Pottersville, up North. Bwahahahaaha...
We don't stay for the Movie, but Jenny does have to look at the 300+ dollar sweaters.
I mention the rumored (now confirmed) Test Track makeover next summer, and we decide to get Test Track fastpasses. A CM there notes my "Everything is better with bacon" t-shirt. Bacon, is a popular subject.
Surprisingly enough, Jenny wants to go on Mission:Spayed. Cathy has never been on it. I was expecting a really tame version of the orange side attraction, but it was still a very cool simulation, without the intensity of the big G forces. It is no worse than say, Star Tours, except here, you don't go over the cliff. :-)
Cathy finds a Star Wars book for her son in the Gift Shop, and we have time to kill before our TT FP's. Cathy is willing to do the Mission:Spew side, but Jenny doesn't bite. Jenny is smarter than I am, but I won't find that out until tomorrow.
So, we take a stroll to Club Cool, which seems to be a must once per trip. Jenny likes the Beverly. Well, we're talking about Jenny after all.
We also take a stroll through Mousegear, looking for Christmas presents. The things I had in mind from previous trips are gone. Oh well. They have the Mickey Tree I bought for the room, but they only have the tubes with no display model. I'll bet someone bought it, because there's a price tag on the tree base itself, even though it comes in a sealed mailing tube.
We make our way to Test Track, and rest our legs for 4 minutes until our fastpass return. The RFID entrance test might be over, but they're testing another RFID technology here. Guests are given white cards on a neck cord, and at various points pass the card over a reader, which flashes green. (I asked one family what it was, and they didn't know, they were just asked to do it on the way in.) The one I asked about was at the end of the pre-show queue.
We are in the queue after the pre-show, and see the new car body with the Chevy Bow Tie on the front of it. Maybe the makeover rumors are true. There is another set of RFID readers at the load gates. There are two CM data collectors at the exit side of attraction, taking data of some sort on handhelds. Another CM has a armful of RFID cards, collected from the guests as they exit. Disney is busy doing some sort of data collection and/or testing. Pre/Post makeover stats?
We leave Epcot, we have dinner plans tonight. It takes a while before a bus comes. Probably 30 minutes. Get back to the room and wash the parks off before a trip to Citricos. While updating clothing to a shirt with a collar (which, as I have mentioned, is dressing up at Disney World for me), Cathy requests car service to the Floridian, negating the discussion of how to get there. It's raining, and bus service has been miserable.
We get to the Floridian, Cathy and Jenny will go with me to visitor parking, and we'll walk back. So we get past the guard, and it turns out we circle and leave property again, and go across the street to visitor parking. It's about 1/4 mile from the entrance. (At first, we're not sure which is the main entrance. My guess is the one with all the people.)
We're a little early, so I take pics of lobby and the gingerbread house. We will buy some gingerbread on the way out.
The Grand Floridian and their Christmas Gingerbread House
We check in at Citricos, and Cathy and Jenny must go investigate the V&A menu. sigh.
We are seated in the circular room past the chef's table. It's an amazing dinner.
I quote Anthony Bordain when he was doing food porn. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be with you in a minute, I gotta take a pic of this it's so good. We're going to spend some quality time later in my hotel room..."
I have the Blue Crab as an appetizer, with the Pork Two Ways for the main, and follow up with the Chocolate Banana Torte. Jenny had a heirloom tomato salad with prosciutto and fresh mozzarella, and the duck breast. Neither of these are on the menu anymore. She had the Torte for dessert as well. Cathy had the heirloom Apple salad, with the Pork for the main, and the Gelato for desert.
The crab is delicious. Jenny claims the prosciutto and mozzarella was some of the best.
Cathy and I both try our pork belly at the same time. I look at her and comment, "Foodgasm." She agrees. Jenny declared the duck was the best she's ever had. Cathy asked if it would be okay if she licked the plate. We sez yes. The pork belly was so tender, you could cut it with your fork, and the tenderloin was perfectly done. (It's so easy to kill a tenderloin by over-cooking it.)
We leave Citrico's more than satisfied, get some gingerbread, and head out the door. It's cold and raining, so the ladies think I should be a gentleman and go get the car while they wait at the entrance. Unqualified, I still get the car.
It's already 7:30, and we're going to open DHS tomorrow. The rain convinces us to call it a night.
When I get back to the room, I download the pictures and spend some quality time with my dinner's food porn...
End December 2011 Trip Report - Part 3.
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