Laura's Disney Lines

Getting back to Sunday's events, which I didn't have time to finish writing about while we were in Florida...

The end of Daylight Saving time meant an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning - yay!!! We finally left the room to walk to Epcot at about 9:15, and as we walked out to the boardwalk, who should we see strolling by but the Koma family! They were also going to Epcot, so we all walked together, and heard about their fabulous dinner at Victoria and Albert's the night before.

They went to Test Track while we went to the Festival Center and checked in for our Sweet Sundays session. Deb attended Sweet Sundays about a month ago, and posted her review HERE. She found it a little difficult to face three desserts so early in the day - but I don't have that problem. :-) Sweet Sundays is one of my favorite Food and Wine Events - this is the third year that we've done it. (And I was very happy when they also brought the event to Disney's California Food and Wine Festival earlier this year!)

This event is held in the Chef's Showplace, the same place the Culinary demonstrations take place. In previous years it has been at the former Odyssey restaurant, which I think was a little nicer, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well the event worked here. I was concerned there might be a lot of noise from other things going on in the Festival Center but that was not an issue. At the Odyssey they had used round tables, which actually wasted quite a bit of space - the 18 rectangular tables, each seating six, were a much more efficient use of space.

Pam Smith, the official host of the various Food and Wine events, welcomed us and we toasted with a glass of Martini and Rossi Prosecco. We had water and juice at our place settings, and our servers brought us coffee or tea. Table by table they sent us out to the two breakfast buffet stations that were set up just outside - both stations were identical.

It was called a "light breakfast buffet", but it was quite a bit of food. There was a very nice fruit plate, and then several kinds of breakfast pastries - danishes, chocolate chip muffins and banana nut bread. The best thing, though was the baked sweet potato doughnuts, though they were really more like mini-muffins. Moist and really good.

There were also breakfast potatoes with leeks.

There were two fritattas: four cheese and sun-dried tomato and spinach, and also chicken and apple sausages.

Also French Toast sticks:

They gave us about 30 minutes to eat and then introduced our guest pastry chef: Geraldine Randalsome from Geraldine's Creative Cutters in Ontario, Canada. She was an interesting speaker - rather a wry sense of humor, and apparently she's infamous with her employees for doing things more by intuition than by following a recipe. Which is actually very interesting for a pastry chef - baking is much more chemistry than anything else, and modifying ingredients even slightly can sometimes lead to a baking disaster.

The first thing she made was the Creme Brulee Macaroon. Disney, as they usually do, they had provided the recipes to us so that we could follow along and make notes. First she made the macaroon cookie base. When you think "macaroon" you think "coconut", right??? Wrong...this was made with ground hazelnuts - not a flake of coconut to be found! She and Pam Smith demonstrated how to pipe the batter into circles on a silicon baking sheet. She said that refrigerating the cookies for about 30 minutes before baking produces a lighter cookie.

I should mention - we were seated toward the back of the room, but they had several large flat panel screens on both sides of the room so we could get a closer look at what was going on.

The creme brulee was a typical creme brulee, except that she uses vanilla paste instead of vanilla extract, which gives a much more intense vanilla flavor. The creme brulee was also unmolded on top of the cookie instead of being served in a ramekin - that's quite different. But she assured us that if you use plenty of butter to coat whatever you bake the brulee in that it will come out fine.

The plates were garnished with a chocolate hazelnut syrup, which was yummy. This was Lee's favorite of the three desserts. I liked the macaroon cookie part the best, and those are something I will probably make myself in the future.

The Mango Ginger Cheesecake was next. I have to admit I looked at the title of this one and thought: "Eh", but it ended up being my favorite. It's an unbaked cheesecake made with cream cheese, cream, and mango puree, and thickened with gelatin. Then you split that in half and add melted white chocolate to one half and melted dark chocolate to the other.

The "wow" factor of this dessert is that it was cone shaped, with three layers: the white chocolate mango mousse, the chocolate mango mousse, and a layer of ginger cookie crumbs on the bottom. She did this using a plastic mold, but showed us how it could be done by making cones out of parchment paper.

Oh, they served us a glass of Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante with this one.

By this time she was running very short on time (only 15 minutes left), so the actual demonstration of the third dessert, Cranberry Pecan Tart, was pretty short. This is her improvement on pecan pie, which she doesn't really care for because it's too sweet and gooey. This is still plenty sweet, but adding fresh cranberries does cut the sweetness.

I did not think she was quite as good a teacher as some of the other chefs I've seen at this event - she tended to jump around a lot and was not very methodical, so I found it somewhat hard to follow what she was doing. But I learned a couple of things, and I'm sure I'll be making the macaroons and maybe the cheesecake in the future.

We got out of there a little after noon - the staff quickly got to work as soon as people left the tables because they had to get them ready for the first Culinary/Wine Demonstration of the day, which was at 1:00! And we had tickets for that, also. We needed to get outside and walk around a little bit, though. Lots more people in the park, but still not too bad. It had warmed up a lot, though.

Back at the Festival Center we were seated for the cooking demo by Walter Staib. He's a German chef, but he oversees the City Tavern in Philadelphia, which is owned by the U.S. Government because of its historical significance - apparently Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the like used to hang out there while they were fomenting rebellion. :-) His specialty is using recipes and cooking techniques from the 18th century - though of course the cooking techniques have to be somewhat modernized! He actually has a new PBS series titled A Taste of History which is just starting its run. In it he goes to historic kitchens and cooks with authentic techniques over open hearth fires. He actually prepared a meal in the kitchen at Monticello - the first time that kitchen has been used in about 40 years.

For this demo he made salmon cakes with remoulade - which he had made (and we had sampled) at the Party for the Senses the night before. It was one of our favorites. In the 18th century this was a very economical dish, since it was made with scraps of salmon and stale bread. It was served on a bed of herbed barley - they didn't have ready access to rice in the 18th century, so barley was the starchy grain of choice.

These demos also have a wine pairing with them, though the wine serving is very small - maybe an ounce? With the salmon we had the Louis Jadot Rose. It was really good, but a larger serving would have been even better!

We actually had a couple of hours back in our room before going back to the Festival Center for the next demo. This one started with The Mystery of the Missing Chef. Apparently they were looking for him backstage so that they could get the demo started, and then they discovered that he was sitting out in the audience visiting with guests and didn't realize that they were looking for him! After they found him he came and sat at our table, which was in the front of the room. His name is Christopher Prosperi, and he's the chef at Metro Bis in Simsbury, CT. Really a delightful presenter - kind of silly and irreverent and really a lot of fun.

He was telling us about his addiction to crock pots (he has 9!), and how he was annoyed at how the cord kept getting in the way - so he cut a hole in the table for the cord!!! The men in the audience (Lee included) thought that was a fine idea, while the women agreed with his wife that he had ruined the table.

He also demonstrated the same dish he had made for the Party for the Senses - a shrimp and gazpacho shooter. There's a lot of chopping involved, but he told us that if you don't have sous chefs like he does, then the chopper that you see on infomercials actually works! He used one of his new favorite ingredients in this - tomato vodka. He passed around a small bowl of it so we could smell it - it really does smell like fresh tomatoes!

The small wine sample for this demo was the Biltmore Century White. It was really good and cut the spiciness of the gazpacho.. The bottle is etched and quite lovely in and of itself - I took this picture of the bottle of red wine that they had in the wine shop, which shows the detail a little better.

The next demo was ratatouille - he grilled the vegetables before chopping them. On our table we had noticed a small container of something black that smelled kind of like ash from a fire. This was actually smoked sea salt, and he told us to add just a little bit to the ratatouille. It was really good!

So after Sweet Sundays, the salmon cake, and then the gazpacho and ratatouille you'd think we wouldn't really need to do much Eating Around the World that night, would you? But we did - though we took almost two full laps around World Showcase in the process. But I talked about all of that in Day 4.

I'd planned this to be a blog about Sweet Sundays, and the Culinary and Wine demonstrations we attended today but it's late and I'm too tired to finish writing about all of that, so for now I'm just going to do Eating Around the World - Round 4 instead. That's what we did tonight with Catherine after we met her along with several other RADP friends (Chad, Kerry, Kim, and Rob) when we were leaving the Festival Center after the last demo we attended.

It had been another very warm day, but it had cooled off nicely by 6:00 and was pretty comfortable. And the park wasn't very busy at all - most of the food booths had either no lines or very short lines, except for Germany - not sure why Germany's line was so long!

Anyway...since we were coming from Future World we started at Argentina, where Lee got the Beef Empanada. He enjoyed the empanada, but he said their beef skewer, which he sampled the other day, was "great".

At the Cape Town booth Lee tried the Seared Beef Tenderloin with sweet potato puree and mango barbecue sauce. He said that was really good - very reminiscent of something you'd get at Boma. I tried the sweet potato and the sauce, and they were both very tasty.

At Australia we tried the Seared Barramundi (that's a fish) with blistered cherry tomatoes, arugula and lemon oil. A little bland...the fish didn't have much flavor. Though it was nice to have something that wasn't beef, pork, or chicken!

We also had the lamb chop with red wine sauce and Murray River sea salt. That was pretty good, though it's rather a small serving for $5.50.

From the Hops and Barley booth both Catherine and Lee had beers - they were pretty happy about that. :-)

I tried the Cosmo Slush from France - there was a line there, but it moved quickly. I enjoyed that - it's VERY red, though!

Both Lee and Catherine had something from Canada, but it was things we'd tried before so I didn't take any pictures. I had the chicken souvlaki from Greece - this was served on pita bread with tzatziki sauce. Pretty good, though the chicken was a bit dry.

At Chile, we had the corn and cheese arepa - basically a corn meal cake with cheese. It was ok, but it needed some salsa or something. Lee used to make these at home - and his were better.

While I was picking up the arepa, I saw the rock shrimp ceviche and decided I had to try that - it had popcorn on top! I asked about that, and was told that the popcorn somehow brought out the flavor. It was not bad, and had a little bit of a kick to it. Still, not something I would probably get again.

We turned around and headed back around the way we had come, stopping at Canada to catch the last two songs of Off Kilter's set - we hadn't seen them at all on this trip. At Morocco I had a glass of sangria and a piece of baklava. The sangria was very good, and the baklava was also pretty good - not so syrupy and sticky as many are. I think it was made with pistachios.

Our final stop for the evening was Louisiana where both Catherine and Lee got beers, and they split the praline bread pudding.

We finished our evening by meeting up with Rob and DebK, and watching Illuminations - we've seen it all four nights of this trip! That's a first.

We'll have time for one last abbreviated round of Eating Around the World tomorrow before we leave for the airport.

We got started a little bit earlier today - we were out of the room by about 9:15. We had a private bus to Animal Kingdom! We had to run to catch it, but there was no one else on it, and we didn't pick anyone else up at Swan or Dolphin, either! The bus driver took us straight to AK instead of stopping at Blizzard Beach like they usually do.

It was another sunny day, but not as warm as it had been at the same time yesterday morning - though that didn't last. Animal Kingdom was relatively uncrowded when we arrived at 9:35 - there weren't even very many people back in Harambe when we went to get Safari Fastpasses.

Not too many options for breakfast at AK, so we went to Pizzafari. I had just yogurt and and a fruit cup, but Lee tried the breakfast pizza, which was topped with scrambled eggs, cheese, red and green peppers, and a white sauce. He said it was pretty good.

We had some time before our Fastpass so we wandered around some of the animal exhibits. But there were no otters, no lemurs or cotton-top tamarins - we did see some kangaroos bouncing around, though.

When we went into the Fastpass line Lee was actually selected to carry the "time pass". There were a LOT more people back in Harambe than there had been 40 minutes earlier - the crowds were really picking up at Animal Kingdom.

We had a pretty good safari - there were lots of elephants, and we even saw two of the cheetahs.

The best part, though, was the male lion - he was awake and vocalizing - these little short roars that we think are called "chuffing". Our driver said it's a territorial thing where he's announcing his presence - and she said it had no doubt driven the neighboring warthogs deep into their burrows!

There were lots of people on the Pangani Forest Trail - more than I've seen there in a long time. This meerkat was really taking its sentinel duties seriously - up on the highest point in the enclosure, and looking all around for threats.

One of the male silverback gorillas on the bachelor side was carrying around a palm frond, then settled down with it - and the big silverback male on the other side was doing the same kind of thing.

We took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch, which we haven't done in a long time. We saw a big manure truck, and also one of the white rhinos in a backstage enclosure.

Inside, one of the bird keepers had a Harris hawk named Storm. They think she is about 18 years old, and she's been blind for years - they think she was about 4 when she was rescued, suffering from a gunshot wound. :-( But she does just great even without her sight, and apparently is very calm and easy to handle, and does very well out in public. Beautiful bird.

For Halloween, Planet Watch was doing a Special, Not Spooky promotion where they were extolling the virtues of spiders, bats, snakes, and other creepy crawlies.

They've already put Prince Naveen to work - and his movie isn't even out yet!!! :-)

They had decorated one of their lab areas for Halloween with lots of stuffed animals who were wearing Halloween hats and costumes - it was really cute.

They were also holding a pumpkin-carving contest where guests were invited to vote for their favorite pumpkins done by various teams at Animal Kingdom.

My favorite was this owl, done by the Bird Team, but another one that I thought was really clever was the face of a goat with part of an Animal Kingdom map hanging out of its mouth - the Mammal Team did that one. (That one is second from the right in the photo above.)

They also had small pumpkins that kids could decorate with colored pens.

And they had this critter out for guests to greet - he is an agouti, and comes from South America. He was perfectly happy to let people pet him as long as he had his celery sticks (which had peanut butter in them) to chew on!

We enjoyed our time there - not something I'd want to do every time, but it was interesting, especially since they had special things going on for Halloween. Though we noticed that their goats didn't get to wear Halloween bandanas like the goats as Disneyland do! As we pulled back into the train station at Harambe this sign made me laugh.

We went over to the Maharajah Jungle Trek in Asia. The Cast Member at the tapir exhibit cracked us up - he was doing his best Dr. Frankenstein imitation and talking about his greatest creation - the Frankentapir. :-) (Which, when you think about it, really does look like an animal designed by a committee.) The tigers were of course sleeping - the day had warmed up considerably. The white-cheeked gibbons (the ones that live in the "ruined temple" near Kali Rapids) were putting on a show, though - there are four of them - mom, dad, and their two daughters. The daughters were doing aerial acrobatics in the trees, and it was a lot of fun to watch. From the cast member we learned that the babies are blond when they are born, then they all turn black when they are about 7 months old, and then the females turn blond again a year or so later. The younger daughter is black now, while the older daughter is blond again.

We watched the Flights of Wonder show and then took the bus back to the Epcot Resort area - we got off at the Beach Club since we were going to Epcot.

And then, guess what - it was time for Eating Around the World - Round 3! :-) We started at Morocco, where I had the Falafel Pita Pocket and Lee had the Kefta (Ground seasoned beef in a pita pocket). As far as serving size went, these were one of the better values of the Festival, but they were both a little dry.

It was really a warm afternoon, which I guess kept the crowds down, because we never had too much of a wait at the food booths. At Louisiana I had the Crawfish Etouffe, which was quite tasty - though I would have enjoyed it more on a cooler day. And Lee had the Chicken and Andouille Gumbo, ditto. Actually the two also looked similar - can you tell which is which in the photos below? :-)

(The etoufee is the top photo, the gumbo is the bottom photo.)

We also had the Praline Bread Pudding which was quite good - though not as good as my friend Jan's! Lee also had an Abita Amber, which I had several sips of as well, and it was drinkable (coming from me that is high praise for a beer).

Let's see...we watched the World Showcase Players in Italy perform an abbreviated version of Romeo and Edna because their "stage area" was in full sun. I don't blame them at all for cutting it short!

From the New Delhi booth I ordered what is called the Rice and Lentil Crepe with Potato and Onion Filling on the menu, but is called Rava Masala Dosa on the receipt. The crepe part is made to order so I had to wait a few minutes. Lee didn't really care for some spice that was in this, though I thought it was ok - not as good as the samosas and curried butternut squash that they have had in the past, though.

Lee went to the China booth and came back with the Rice Pancake with Beef and two pork pot stickers. He said the rice pancake was good, but unusual - thicker with a heavier more solid texture than he expected. He covered it red pepper sauce, which impressed the cast member. :-)

The pot stickers were, well, pot stickers. They were fine, but nothing exceptional.

At that point we both wanted something cold and slushy - alcoholic was a bonus. :-) Lee got the frozen pina colada from the bar next to San Angel Cantina (we hadn't realized that they sold pina coladas in addition to margaritas!), and I had the frozen Dragon Berry Colada from Puerto Rico. Mine was a lot smaller than his, but it had more rum, too - he was wondering whether his had any alcohol at all! I enjoyed mine - it was mostly strawberry-flavored, and really it was just about the right size.

We walked back to our room after that to take a break from the heat - and a nap. Tonight we went to the Party for the Senses at Epcot, but I'll have a whole separate report on that.

Other thoughts on today...it was Halloween, and there were a lot of people, both kids and adults, wandering around both Epcot and Animal Kingdom in costume - we were surprised to see that, since I didn't think adults were allowed in costume except at the Halloween parties at the Magic Kingdom. But maybe they bend the rules a little on Halloween itself.

We were also surprised at the big Halloween event going on at the Boardwalk - they had a stage set up on the back lawn with various craft stations set up, and there were also trick-or-treat stations set up along the Boardwalk. Mickey Mouse was there posing with kids and families - there was a huge line to see him. Like I said, we were surprised - we did not receive any literature on this at check-in, nor did I see anything posted in the lobby over the past couple of days. It was really nice for the resort to do this for the kids and families, though, since it was free!

It was another good day - though I wish it would cool off, but according to weather.com we're stuck with this for the remainder of our visit. Oh well...we'll be spending a lot of time inside at the Festival Center tomorrow since we are doing Sweet Sundays and two wine and cooking demonstrations.

"So, what did you think?" - I’ve been asked that question several times since returning from my first trip to Disneyland. Short answer, I loved it! Going to the original Disney park has been a dream of mine since the days of watching Walt speak of it on Sunday nights. Having been to Walt Disney World multiple times, I wondered if Disneyland would be as exciting as I had anticipated for all these years. Well, once I walked under the train track and left today behind, I was hooked!

Main Street: It felt familiar – different shops and restaurants in different places - but the same general feeling of Main Street WDW, a return to another place and time. I had been warned that Sleeping Beauty castle is smaller than Cinderella Castle in Florida. So that didn’t surprise me when I turned the corner and saw it for the first time. Honestly, I expected to be disappointed. What I saw, however, was a simpler, yet charming castle, that I would stop to gaze at time after time. Walking through it for the first time with the realization that this is where Walt walked, that’s as good as it gets for this Disney parks geek!

The early morning castle:

The cloudy afternoon castle:

Lay of the Land: Exploring the park was a bit surreal – things were similar enough to feel comfortable but different enough to be an adventure. Being in a new park meant relying on a map! Where are the Pirates? How do I get to Fantasyland? And where the heck are the bathrooms? Then there were Critter Country and New Orleans Square – new lands to explore. I’m sure I took the long way around a few times but by the end of the trip, I had my bearings. It helps that Disneyland is a bit smaller than the Magic Kingdom and the attractions are a bit closer to one another.

Halloween: Such a great time to visit the parks. Last year, we were at WDW in October and thoroughly enjoyed the decorations and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Likewise, Disneyland was all decked out for the holiday. Hands down, the highlight of the Halloween spirit at DL are the attraction overlays – Haunted Mansion Holiday and Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. Both are extremely well done! That being said, I absolutely adored Haunted Mansion Holiday – an overwhelming “WOW” and straight back to the entrance for another ride. (And I would return twice more.) Ghost Galaxy was the opposite but that’s not the fault of the ghost. I confess to not being a Space Mountain fan in the first place, and haven’t been on the WDW version in a couple of years. But I’d heard that Disneyland’s version is smoother and has a better sound system, and besides, I wanted to see the ghost. I did it, I survived it, won’t do it again. I liked the ghost effect but the ride itself just isn’t for me. If you’re a Space Mountain enthusiast, go for it! Halloween Screams – the fireworks show for the season – was also very well done. Lots of villains and hosted by Jack Skellington. I liked it as well as Hallowishes from last year at WDW.

Another highlight for me was the Big Thunder Ranch area, filled with carved pumpkins and Halloween decorations. The ranch also features a petting area with goats and sheep, which was a nice treat.

Disney’s California Adventure was also decorated for Halloween. I didn’t get a chance to attend Mickey’s Trick or Treat party but saw a lot of families heading into that park for the party. AllEars team member Lisa Berton attended the party and has a review HERE. MNSSHP at WDW is my favorite party so I would have liked to compare the two. Hmmm…maybe another trip?

Fantasmic! This isn’t one of my must-do attractions in Florida. Not that I dislike it, but I’d rather be sure to see Illuminations or Wishes. In Disneyland, there is no stadium for the show so folks start staking out spots well in advance. Luckily, we had gone the route of reserved dessert party seating, so other than standing in line to check in, we didn’t have to spend a long time waiting for the show. I’m not sure I would have fought the crowds to see it – the area tends to be very congested even when folks are “on the move” and the crowds were very heavy on the nights we were in the park. Fortunately, the powers that be added a third show on those nights so that more visitors could enjoy it. The show is much the same as its Florida counterpart except for larger ships (LOVED the pirate ship!) and a new and improved dragon (even though it didn’t breathe fire the night we were there). As with Florida, I liked it well enough but am not sure I’d camp out to see it.

Other Highlights:

The Indiana Jones Adventure - a great fit for Adventureland. I’d love to see
this one in Florida.

Pirates of the Caribbean - now one of my favorites in two different parks.

"it's a small world" – the façade is beautiful, and there is a cute outside show every quarter of the hour.

Splash Mountain – very similar to the Magic Kingdom’s version and yes, I did get wet.

Toontown – exploring this land with the AllEars “Toons” was a blast!

AllEars Meet – thanks to all who came by to say hello – it was great to meet you and hear of your passion for the parks. And Lisa, it was fun to meet your posse!

Club 33 – never in my wildest dreams would I have expected my first trip to include this restaurant. Many thanks to those who made it possible.

Grand Californian Resort - a very pleasant surprise was the proximity to the parks. Take one exit and you’re in Disney’s California Adventure; take another exit and you’re in Downtown Disney and within walking distance of Disneyland. No buses, no cars!

Disney’s California Adventure - Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend as much time in this park as I’d have liked. Soarin’ over California and the Tower of Terror were highlights – those are two of my favorite attractions anyway. It was nice to experience some unique attractions as well. Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue was too cute - great family fun. And the Aladdin Musical Spectacular was one of the best park shows I’ve ever seen. (and had comfy indoor seating!) This park has real potential, especially with the new attractions (Carsland, the Little Mermaid, World of Color). I’m looking forward to returning.

Other than Space Mountain, there were really no lowlights for me. It would have been nice to have lighter crowds or better weather. The first weekend was overcast and cool, the second weekend was sunny but hot. Neither the weather nor the crowds stopped the fun though.

So what did I think? For a while, I left today behind and entered a world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy. That, my friends, is the magic of Disney parks. My other expectations – clean park, friendly and helpful cast members, and a variety of attractions – were exceeded many times over.

Thanks Walt, I enjoyed your park.

Since we're still on west coast time, morning didn't come very early for us - it was 9:00 when we got up - though that's still 6:00 at home! Whew...already warm today, though. Is it really supposed to still be in the high 80s in late October???

We walked to Epcot, where we had a much more leisurely opportunity of enjoying the signs and decorations for this year's Food and Wine Festival than we did in our 1 hour whirlwind tour last night. This year's theme is Celebrating Culinary Adventures, though it still keeps the international cities theme that it had last year.

At the Land pavilion we had breakfast at the Sunshine Seasons food court. It actually wasn't nearly as busy in there as it usually is - not the huge crowds of people going to Soarin' this morning. I had the breakfast "panini" - though it was really more like a slice of foccacia pizza. There was a crust on the bottom, then slices of roast pork, then bacon, scrambled eggs, cheese, and foccacia on top. It was pretty good.

Lee had the standard American Breakfast.

We took the Living with the Land boat ride afterwards. They had some different crops growing this time, including dragonfruit and something called "Monstera", which seems very appropriate for this time of year. :-) Also Cinderella pumpkins and huge sweet potatoes.

Epcot's entrance is always decorated for the Food and Wine Festival, but since we stay at the Boardwalk we don't go to the main entrance unless we make a special trip there. I think it's very colorful.

Innoventions West was our next stop - there were several things in here that were new since our last visit. We started at Where's the Fire, which is not new, but we hadn't played before. It's played in teams, and the teams go to different rooms of the most dangerous fire-trap house in the world and try to identify fire hazards and deal with them before they actually start a fire. It was kind of fun - some of them were not so easy to find!

Next we played The Great Piggy Bank Adventure. This was very cute - you actually get a plastic piggy bank, and then go to different stations and play games to add money to your piggy bank. It teaches you about saving, inflation, and diversifying (not surprisingly, it's sponsored by T. Rowe Price. :-) ). Our goal was Retirement...we didn't quite make it, but we came close. We really had a lot of fun with this!

Then there was another new game, sponsored by IBM, where we were actually the stars of our own video game! It started out by recording us as we ran in place, jumped, and danced a victory dance. Then we moved to a different console and actually played the game that had us as the characters that were navigating through a virtual world. I say "we", but it was actually Lee that played the game for us. That was a lot of fun, too.

Over at Innoventions East is where the new Sum of All Thrills station is, where you can build your own roller coaster and then actually experience it in a motion simulator. The line was too long for us to do that, but we sat in the simulatore seats.

Over at the Festival Center (the old Wonders of Life Pavilion) we wandered around a little bit. I know people have complained that this area is not central enough (too far from World Showcase) to be the headquarters of the Festival, but it's really a nice area - so light and airy and roomy inside. They had more of the Festival banners in here, too.

There are also a decent-sized wine shop and a gift shop. I really got a kick out of one of the Festival souvenirs available this year - the Swedish Chef from the Muppets!

Which of these things is not like the others?

In the theater they were showing the Seasons of the Vine movie that used to be at Disney's California Adventure. It was nice to see that again.

What we'd really gone there for, though, was the Wine Seminar presented by Castello Banfi. This year, for the first time, these seminars are not free, though we were able to reserve them in advance (that opportunity was given to DVC members, Tables in Wonderland members, and Annual Passholders). I think it was actually a good thing because it meant we didn't have to get there 45-60 minutes early to get a spot - we only needed to be there 10-15 minutes before it started.

Castello Banfi makes one of our favorite wines - the lightly sweet, lightly sparkling Rosa Regale. In addition to the Rosa Regale we also sampled their San Angelo Pinot Grigio and the Belnero Sangeiovese. Sharron McCarthy, the VP of Wine Education, was a very good and enthusiastic speaker, and we really enjoyed the presentation.

And after that it was time for Eating Around the World - Round 2.

We started at Argentina where Lee had Grilled Beef Skewer with Chimichurri Sauce and Boniato Puree. He said the beef was excellent. The boniato was good - it tasted similar to potato.

Mexico has always had some of our Festival favorites, though this year most of the selections were new. We shared the Taco de Cochinita Pibil - a corn tortilla filled with shredded pork and purple onions. This was good but quite spicy.

Lee had the Quesadilla con Chorizo - I think this was on the menu last year, or at least something very similar. He enjoyed it.

I had the Tostada de Pollo - this was a crisp tortilla covered with black beans and shredded chicken with some chopped tomatoes and sour cream on top. It was good, but not as good as the Chilaquiles that they have served at previous Festivals.

We also had the Mexican Sunrise drink - this was a foofy frozen non-alcoholic drink. Not sure what was in it - mango and guava, maybe? - but it was refreshing and not too sweet.

Next was Spain where I ordered the Red Snapper Escabeche. That was quite good - the fish was crisp and tasty and the tomato-pepper relish served with it was also good.

The Koma family found us there - they just arrived this morning for their Food and Wine weekend. We visited for a while and then they went off to eat around the world while we headed back to the Festival Center - we knew we'd be meeting them later for dinner!

We attended another wine seminar,< Boisset Family Estates. Yummy.

Oh, and the wines were good, too. ;-) Jean-Charles Boisset was very easy on the eyes, though. In addition to telling us about the wines, he told us about some of the things they are doing to be more environmentally responsible, such as packaging their wines in lightweight, recyclable containers such as plastic and boxes. The pinot noir we tried comes in a box, and the Louis Bernard Bonus Passus is in the plastic bottle. Their Bouchard Chardonnay is packaged in a bottle, and it was really good.

Time to finish Eating Around the World - Round 2! We started at The Mouse Catch with three kinds of cheese - Dorothea, a Dutch cheese, Plave, from Italy, and Mahon, from Spain. I couldn't tell you which one was which, but they had a nice flavor. We also shared a glass of Prosecco.

At Thailand I ordered the Green Papaya Salad with Shrimp. I think this is my favorite so far. The salad was shredded papaya and carrots in a very light gingery dressing. The shrimp was really good - it was grilled and topped with an excellent sauce - I have no idea what was in it, but it was very tasty.

When we walked by Germany we noticed that the little railway town has been decorated for the Food and Wine Festival - the logo is on the wine barrels that the train is pulling.

But oh, no - these poor unsuspecting people are about to be attacked by a giant lizard!!!

At the Hops & Barley Market Lee got the Boston-style Crab Cake with Cabbage Slaw and Remoulade and a cup of the Honey Porter. The crab cake is something he's enjoyed for the last several years. It has too much crab in it for me, though. :-)

The last thing we tried was the Warm Pretzel Bread Stick with Cheese Dip from the Brewer's Collection. The pretzel stick was really good - warm and slightly chewy just like it should be. The cheese sauce didn't do much for me, though.

Back at the Boardwalk the staff had held a pumpkin decorating contest. The pumpkins had been set up in the lobby and guests were allowed to vote - they had just announced the results when we got back. The winner was a pumpkin painted by Adam from Housekeeping - he painted Disney characters costumed as other Disney characters - like Alice as the Mad Hatter, Kronk as Dopey, and Minnie as the Fairy Godmother.

It was clever - in this one you can see Stitch as Darkwing Duck, Peter Pan as Mr. Incredible, Mr. Toad as Maleficent, and Pinocchio as Woody.

We went back to our room for a while before walking down to Kouzzina, where we met the Komas for dinner. It was a big night at Kouzzina - Cat Cora was there with a big family group. She walked through the restaurant greeting guests a couple of times, including stopping by our table to talk to us briefly.

We really had a wonderful dinner - the food was good and we always enjoy spending time with the Koma family. About our only complaint is that the restaurant is very loud - but that's always been a problem with that location, back when it was Spoodles.

Deb and I are planning to do a more in-depth review, so I'm not going to go into any detail here. But I'll share a pictures of out dessert - these are Greek doughnuts called Loukoumades. They were very good - but as Lee said, it's hard to go wrong with fried dough in any culture. :-)

It was a really nice day!

Tags:

• Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Lee and I are back at Walt Disney World. It's a short trip for us - arrive Thursday night and leave Monday afternoon - so we'll be concentrating on the Food and Wine Festival. We are staying at Boardwalk Villas, so that makes it easier since we can walk to Epcot! In fact we didn't even rent a car this time - we are using Disney's Magical Express instead.

We'd planned to spend several hours at Epcot this evening enjoying Round 1 of "Eating Around the World", but a two-and-a-half hour delay in our connecting flight kinda ruined that plan when we didn't even arrive at the Orlando airport until almost 7:00. But we have to give Disney's Magical Express credit - we were on a bus just a few minutes after checking in with them, and the bus was on the road within 10 minutes after that. We were the first stop, and arrived at the Boardwalk about 8:05. By 8:15 we were in our room, where we dropped our bags and headed off to Epcot. I had to renew my annual pass, but there was no line, and that only took a few minutes, so we were actually in the park by 8:25!

It was a warm night, and we hadn't changed out of the long pants we'd worn on the plane so we were a little warm...but we were hungry!

Our first stop was the Ireland booth, where Lee had the Fisherman's Pie that had come so highly recommended. And it did not disappoint - he really enjoyed it - especially with a Guiness to go with it!

I had the Cheese Plate, which included three kinds of cheese: Aged Irish Cheddar, Dubliner and Ivernia, some brown bread and apple chutney. The cheeses were very good - one especially had a really nice bite to it - I assume that was the Aged Irish Cheddar.

Next it was off to New Zealand where we each got the Lamb Slider with Tomato Relish. This was different than it had been in past years - it was a ground lamb patty (more like a large meatball) instead of slices of lamb. It was good, but I prefer the slices of lamb.

We still had a little time before the food booths closed, so our last stop was Canada. Where we ordered one of everything. :-) First was the Cheddar Cheese Soup - Lee really likes this but it's a little too rich for me.

We also had the Maple Glazed Salmon with Lentils. The lentils were cold, which I found surprising, but I liked them.

The Spicy Chicken Sausage and Polenta was another selection from Canada. I thought the sausage was a little too spicy, but I enjoyed the polenta.

The Maple Candy was two pieces of maple-leaf-shaped maple sugar candy. I've always like this, but it's very sweet. This didn't have a particularly strong maple flavor, though.

I also had glass of the Riesling, which was fine, but not my favorite.

Illuminations was just starting as we finished eating. We watched it from Canada, since that's where we were, and we remembered why we don't usually watch it from there, because the smoke mostly blows that direction.

By 9:20 we were walking out of Epcot. So in an hour we'd renewed an annual pass, eaten at three food booths and watched Illuminations - not bad, huh?

We still wanted something else to eat so we stopped at Seashore Sweets and got a couple of chocolate milkshakes.

I think this had to be our shortest park day ever, but we still managed to do quite a bit in a short time!

We've had a number of Disneyland dining experiences over the last six weeks that I have been meaning to write about...since there's so many of them, this won't be quite as detailed as I would usually do. (What's that I hear? Wild cheering???)

Back to the weekend of D23...

One night Lee and I walked over to the Anaheim GardenWalk - we'd never actually been there before. It's really not far from Disneyland at all - maybe a 10-15 minute walk. There are a lot of restaurants there, including Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., The Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, McCormick & Schmick's Grille, Roy's and P.F. Chang's. We opted for California Pizza Kitchen, mainly because we could get in immediately. The food was good - the big surprise was that they gave us a 20% discount for being Disneyland Annual Pass Holders! That's a bigger discount than you get at any of the Disney restaurants! Our server told us that most of the restaurants at the GardenWalk offer a Pass Holder discount.

We walked around the rest of the area afterwards - there are a lot of interesting places there, including a place called FiRE + iCE. According to the web site, it "is a smokin’ hot dining experience featuring an incredible variety of fresh meats, seafood, vegetables, pasta and sauces cooked on an open grill in a refreshingly fun and colorful atmosphere. Featuring an outdoor patio with a fire pit, it is the perfect destination for those seeking a creative and entertaining dining experience!"

There's also Mrs. Field's, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Cinnabon, Submarina, Johnny Rocket's and Tacone, among others. La Salsa and Auntie Anne's are coming soon. (Love Auntie Anne's pretzels - but I've only ever seen them in airports!)

On another D23 evening we had dinner with Deb and Deb at Catal in Downtown Disney. I'd never been there before, but we will definitely be returning! We had a wonderful dinner - great food, a terrific server, and, as an added bonus, we could see the Disneyland fireworks from our table!

The menu is HERE. Some of the things we sampled were the Compressed Salad, Bucatini Pasta, Colorado Lamb mix grill, New York Steak, and rotisserie chicken. I think I'm the only one who ordered dessert but it was awesome - the Chocolate Flourless Fudge Torte. One of the better chocolate desserts I've had anywhere in a while.

On the first day of Halloween Time, Lee and I had lunch at The French Market, since they were one of the locations that was serving special menu items for Halloween. I love the decor in there at Halloween - they really decorate the place. (I wish they would sell the zombie gingerbread men in the park!) They were supposed to have Zero's Ghostly Goulash, but that was not on the menu, though they had a couple of Halloween-themed desserts.

I should know better by now than to eat there...I really do NOT care for the food. This time I tried the Dixieland Cajun Chicken Salad, and didn't like it at all - the chicken and avocado was soaked in some kind of a citrusy-lime marinade that was overpowering. And once again the so-called "Cheddar Cornbread" was really orange cornbread. Lee had the Chicken & Seafood Jambalaya, which he said was ok - he doesn't like the cornbread, either.

Dessert was good, though - it was four red velvet madeleines served in a plastic coffin. Really very tasty!

The menu is HERE.

That night we ate at the Wine Country Trattoria at DCA. That remains my favorite in-the-park restaurant - I've enjoyed everything that I've had there. This time I ordered something different, the Pizzetta Salad, and I think I have a new favorite dish. It's romaine hearts, roma tomatoes, smoked bacon, crumbled blue cheese and Kalamata olives with a creamy Italian dressing served on a warm pizzeta crust. SO good, and very filling. I ordered the dressing on the side and ended up dipping the pizzeta crust in it. Yum. Lee ordered his favorite, the Lasagna Rustica. I think my only complaint about this restaurant is that they don't serve warm bread.

For dessert we had the Trattoria Chocolate Creme - Freshly baked silky double chocolate creme with a vanilla wafer cookie. Sort of a cross between mousse and pie. It was pretty good, and definitely big enough for us to share! We also treated ourselves to glasses of the Magicale sparkling wine - we love that.

The menu is HERE.

The next morning after we'd enjoyed Magic Morning we had breakfast at Tomorrowland Terrace. This has got to be the best bargain at Disneyland - for $6.99 you get a nice breakfast which *includes* a beverage (coffee, tea, hot chocolate) - normally the beverage by itself is $2.69! I ordered a vegetarian version of the Breakfast Burrito, which was filled with scrambled eggs, potatoes, and cheese (they left out the sausage for me). It was not haute cuisine but it was good and filling - it would have been nice if they'd had something other than little packets of taco sauce to put on it, though.

Lee got the Sunrise Breakfast - your standard breakfast platter of scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, potatoes and a mini-muffin. Again, it was just fine. The other $6.99 breakfast specials are French Toast Sticks and a Fruit Plate. (The rest of the day the Fruit Plate costs $6.99 and *doesn't* include a beverage!) Like I said, I think breakfast there is a really good deal!

The menu is HERE.

On the Sunday morning of Columbus Day weekend Lee and I decided to try breakfast at Catal I showed Lee the menu on AllEars to see if he was interested and he said something like: "Wow...I'm not even all the way through the menu and I see three things I'd like to try!" And we had a very nice breakfast, and had the place almost all to ourselves - there were very few parties in the restaurant. We opted to eat outside since it was a very pleasant morning. They offer an express continental breakfast buffet for $7.95 or a full breakfast buffet for $14.95, but we both ordered off the menu. I had the Chilaquiles - Tortilla chips tossed in ranchero sauce with potatoes, cheese, cilantro, fried egg and sour cream. It was quite good, and really a lot of food - I couldn't finish it, and Lee helped too. It had a little bit of a kick, but not bad. I ordered the egg scrambled rather than fried.

Lee was torn between the Malt Waffles and the Wild Mushroom Omelet but eventually decided on the omelet. It came with caramelized onions, thyme and a drizzle of creme fraiche. He said there really wasn't much in the way of caramelized onions, but the mushrooms were very good.

It's Halloween Time...and that means pumpkin muffins! We picked up one of those on our way out of Disneyland on Saturday night. Yummy.

So that catches me up with Disneyland food...just in time to head off to Epcot's Food and Wine Festival, where you know you can expect lots more food reports and photos!

This has nothing to do with dining...but Disney Parks has started their own set of blogs, and there's a blog entry which talks about filling the lagoon at DCA. It has a cute video of Mickey and Goofy.
Mickey Helps Fill Paradise Bay Lagoon for “World of Color”

Lee and I spent October 10-12 at the Disneyland Resort. Some of this I have written about in previous blog entries (like the AllEars Meet), but here's a few more highlights.

I also wrote about our stay at the new Villas at the Grand Californian, which was very nice. Love that one-bedroom villa!!! Lee has decreed that we shall always stay in one-bedroom villas. :-) (Which we usually do anyways.)

Back to the rest of the weekend, though. Saturday was very crowded in the parks, even DCA had a lot more people than it usually does. They were even making AP holders get handstamps all weekend for park re-entry - and I've never seen that before! We were so glad we were staying on-site and not having to deal with parking and the parking tram and all of that.

Saturday evening we wanted to see the new fireworks show, Halloween Screams, again. We met fellow AllEars® teammate Lisa Berton at The Plaza Inn for dinner. Holy cow...it was soooooo crowded!!! Line out the door and no tables to be had (though we finally found one). It was my fault...I wanted their fried chicken for dinner. And it was good!

Anyway...after dinner we found a friendly CM outside who was starting to direct traffic into Tomorrowland, and we asked her about a good viewing spot for Halloween Screams, so she told us where she likes to watch it from. And Lee videotaped the whole show - it's a little better than the one he originally shot since he had a wide angle lens this time and he modified the exposure settings so the castle is a lot brighter. The show is over 10 minutes long, so there are two parts to the video.

As you can see, even though it was a great spot for seeing the fireworks and the projections on the castle, it was not such a good shot for seeing the "crystal ball", which was partially blocked by one of the castle's spires. Oh well.

Sunday morning Lee and I went into Disneyland for Magic Morning - which we were eligible for because we were staying at a Disneyland resort (and it's the ONLY way for AP holders to get it!) There seemed to be fewer people in the park than on previous occasions when we've done it on a Saturday morning. We did 5 attractions in an hour - Ghost Galaxy, Buzz Lightyear, Star Tours, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. And after the park opened we went to Haunted Mansion Holiday and Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Ride (more commonly known as "Indy"). Seven attractions in an hour and a half! That's more than we often do in an entire day. :-)

Fast forward to later in the day after breakfast, the AllEars meet, and lunch at Rancho del Zocalo. As we were walking out of the park with Deb and Cathy at about 2:00 we saw the Hook and Ladder Company performing in front of the fire station. This is one of the things I love best about Disneyland...all of the little things like this that you find happening around the park. They were joined by several characters - Cruella DeVil tried to steal the stuffed Dalmatian puppy toy they had sitting on the piano, and she was run off by Chip and Dale, who did a cute shadow dance.

And then Goofy came out and danced to "Come on, Get Happy" - who knew that someone with feet that big could dance so well? It was a lot of fun to watch.

That evening we came back to the park with Deb and Cathy and did the Fantasmic! dessert package. Cathy hadn't seen the Disneyland version of Fantasmic! before, and I don't think Deb had, either, and they both loved it. Cathy is a woman after my own heart and loved the pirate ship.

This time the dragon mostly behaved - she moved around a bit more than the first time we saw her, though she didn't breathe fire. I love the way she leans down to look at Mickey like he's some insignificant little thing that's bothering her.

From there we had an excellent view of the Halloween Screams fireworks, but we couldn't see the crystal ball at all, and could only get a glimpse of Zero. Since the fireworks are really designed to be viewed from Main Street, it's not so obvious how many different places they are shot off from - they just appear to be at different depths. But when viewed from the side they appear side-by-side rather than front-to-back.

The next morning we were able to participate in the morning Power Walk around DCA. This is something they offer several mornings a week to guests at the Grand Californian, but we'd never been able to do it before because we were doing Magic Morning instead. But since this was Monday, there wasn't a Magic Morning. We had signed up a couple of days earlier - there's no charge, you just have to be a hotel guest. At the time they said we would do 2 miles in 30 minutes - which I don't consider a power walk pace. :-)

There were only Lee and I and one other female guest, plus the instructor. Because we were going into the park before it was open we all had to sign waivers. Once the security person let us in the DCA gate we did a little stretching, and then started walking. And since we were a small group who could all walk fast, we really did do a power walk, so I was happy. There was maintenance going on in the park so we had to avoid a few obstacles. We walked all the way around Paradise Pier, around "a bug's land", then all the way around the Hollywood Studios area, went past Soarin', and ended up at the rapids again. Normally they stop there, but we still had time because we'd been walking so fast, so we went once more around past Grizzly Rapids, the Golden Vine Winery, and Soarin'. We still only did 1.8 miles, though - I had my GPS watch on. After we stretched for a while longer we walked out of the park. It was really a nice way to start the morning! In addition to the Power Walks, they also offer Pilates classes several days a week. Our instructor said they hope to expand the program and offer some additional stretching and aerobic programs next year.

It was Columbus Day and Disneyland was busy, though not quite as horrible as I'd expected. Deb, Lisa and I took Cathy to Toontown and showed her some of the fun stuff there is to do there.

We met Lee and we all had a really nice lunch, and then Lee and I said goodbye and headed back home.

It was a really fun weekend. It's always really nice to be staying there and be able to head back to the room in the afternoon, and even better to go back to the room late at night instead of driving home!

I love Halloween almost as much as I love Disneyland Resort. When the two merge it makes me jump up and down with glee. The icing on the devil's food cake is Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party at Disney's California Adventure. For a period of four hours on select nights, the park transforms into a whirlwind of candy, characters, candy, Halloween-themed music, candy, spooky projections, and more candy.

Friday, October 16th was the night I ran around the park. The festivities were scheduled for 7:30pm-11:30pm and by 7 o'clock a massive crowd was waiting outside the gates ready to embark on a sugar high. Prior to renting a locker and turning myself into fashion icon Punky Brewster, I grabbed a pumpkin muffin and a bottle of water from Blue Ribbon Bakery. It's not the most nutritious dinner but it gave me enough energy to make it through most of the night.

I had purchased my ticket online and printed it out at home before flying to California. When I got to the turnstile, the Cast Member scanned my paper ticket and kept it. Special park maps listing what dining options were available as well as running attractions, character locations, candy spots, and "Mickey's Trick-or-Treat on the Street" Cavalcade times and route were readily available. Inside the park, Cast Members handed out plastic treat bags. They're big enough to hold all of the candy collected from every treat station. One side of the bag advertises the movie "Up" coming out on DVD and Blu-Ray while the other is "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Most folks head towards Hollywood Pictures Backlot first because it's the closest land to the entrance. I went to Pirate Wharf which took over Pacific Wharf. Here you'll find pirate treasure and skeletal remains of those who tried to carry it off. There's a DJ spinning pop songs and pirate Cast Members dancing. Coloring is available at craft tables and characters like Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain Hook, and Jack Sparrow pose for photos. Three counter service eateries are open at Pirate Wharf: Pacific Wharf Cafe offers soups and salads, Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill serves tacos and burritos, and Lucky Fortune Cookery has rice bowls.

In front of them will be Jessie and Woody dancing in the street, and bustin' a move behind the float are Gepetto, Alice, and Mad Hatter. Kids who dance and wiggle about in the street are given special event pins. Other characters in the cavalcade include White Rabbit, little green men, and Pinocchio. Dancing witches and warlocks take to the streets, walking alongside floats while giant Mickey pumpkins filled with huge candy corn roll along. Having the Cavalcade twice during the night means the crowds are very manageable. I found it very easy to switch spots with moms and dads who were also taking photos. The 8:30 pm performance brought out lots of little kids, 10 and younger, while the older kids and child-free adults attended the 10:30 pm showing.

My next stop was Paradise Pier. At the top of the pier I found the humanized Ariel and Belle each with their own backdrop. The line to see them was very long so I took photos from outside the roped off area and continued walking down the ramp. Across from the entrance to California Screamin' were little green men and Jessie. Three out of four Boardwalk Games were open and free to play. Every player walked away with two pieces of candy while the winner received a handful. The newly themed games are very cute. The former Sun Wheel ferris wheel has been redecorated with Mickey's face in the center and his buddies painted on the swinging and stationary cars. I went for a ride in a non-moving car and was joined by two dads and their little girls.

If you continue through the area as I did, heading towards Mulholland Madness, you'll come across three treat stations in a row. Go get your candy. I only stopped at one of them. Now, there was a Mickey's Hide and Go Treat Trail in Golden State over by Grizzly River Run but I never made it over there so I can't tell you what I missed. Rumor had it there was a Ghirardelli stand next to Soarin' Over California. Ghirardelli dark chocolate and milk chocolate with caramel squares were also being handed out on the other side of Golden State across from the wharf. That I'm sure of because I went there twice.

Candy Corn Acres was hosting a dance party complete with Goofy and Donald Duck dressed as farmers. Lots of colored lights and strobes filled the area as kids shook their tail feathers. I never knew Donald was such a fan of rock 'n roll until that night. He even played air guitar. Cast Members were dressed in pink and orange bubble dresses. The outfits made me think of Willy Wonka and other tripped out images that frighten me.

Baker's Field Bakery in Sunshine Plaza was open and selling their yummy baked goods. Both Greetings from California and Engine Ears Toys were open and selling their regular merchandise with Greetings also carrying event merchandise like sweatshirts, T-shirts, and cloth tote bags that could double as trick-or-trick bags.

My last area to conquer was Hollywood Pictures Backlot, the place where most folks began their partying. What a great place to load up on characters and candy. In front of Disney Animation stood a scaled down version of The Seven Dwarfs' house and out front you could find the Evil Queen or Snow White and Dopey. Over by the Hyperion Theater in the queue area, Mickey and Minnie hung out in front of a haunted house backdrop. In front of the Hyperion Theater were Handy Manny, JoJo & Goliath (JoJo's Circus), and Annie & June (Little Einsteins). Meanwhile at Hollywood "Bat-lot" Bash, the music was pumping and The Incredibles and Frozone were dancing the night away. Inside the Animation Building was the other Mickey's Hide and Go Treat Trail. Going through the various rooms with all the lights on was cool because you could actually see everything and just how detailed the rooms are. Dining options in Hollywood Pictures Backlot were Award Wieners and Fairfax Fruit Market.

There are 13 treat stations in addition to the trails. I only got to about half of them so there may be a few types of candy that I never got but here's the complete list of everything I collected: Twix, M&Ms, Skittles, Now & Laters, Sixlets, Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Pops, Lemonheads, Jaw Busters, Ghirardelli squares, Craisins, carrots, apple slices, Nerds, Laffy Taffy, A&W root beer hard candy, Sassy Taffy, and Sassy Sours.

Costumes are welcome and encouraged for everyone. Most kids dress up and less than half of the adults don an outfit. I saw pirates, Davy Jones (not the Monkee), super heroes, Disney characters, Shrek, witches, and video game characters particularly from Mario. The coolest of all costumes was a group of adults that dressed up as the portraits in the Stretching Room in Haunted Mansion.

It's a fun night and if you've been thinking about going, go! Put on a costume, get in the Halloween mood and have a good time. If you want to trade your Twix mini-bars for my Sassy Sours let me know.

You can see more of Lisa Berton's photos of the Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party in our 2009 photo galleries:

General Party Photos

Parade and Character Photos

General information on the party, including ticket info and a schedule of events, is available HERE.

Read more of Lisa's blogs:

I said I would talk more about the new Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, so here goes. First a bit of general background, and then some spoilers - I will put in a warning before the spoilers!

Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy was initially done for Hong Kong Disneyland two years ago, and fortunately for us they decided to bring it to California this year! I found that quite a surprise - since it's not like Space Mountain is an overlooked attraction that people are no longer interested in riding. :-)

The signs outside the attraction warn that it may be too intense for some children (and even some adults!). I'd recommend heeding those warnings - there are some aspects that could be quite scary, but I'll go into more specifics later. For the most part I don't think the visuals are any worse than what you see on the signs, but seeing them pop up unexpectedly can still be surprising. The music is also pretty eerie.

One thing that we thought was very cool is the way the outside of Space Mountain "comes alive" at night, with sound and lighting effects. It's definitely worth spending some time standing around Tomorrowland (we found the view pretty good from the area just behind the water ball) just watching and listening. If there's a band playing at the Tomorrowland Terrace it's a little harder to hear the sound effects, though - and for some of the effects you really need the audio cues to get the full impact.

The new attraction has been VERY popular - on weekends Fastpasses for the entire day are long gone by noon and the standby line is over an hour.

Here's a video from disneylandnews that shows a little bit of the outside and the inside - not too many spoilers in this.

SPOILERS AHEAD

READY?

ARE YOU SURE?

Ok. On the first night while we were watching the show on Space Mountain's exterior there was a man behind us who was also watching and taking pictures. We started chatting and discovered that he was one of the Imagineers who had worked on the Ghost Galaxy overlay! So we asked him about something that had puzzled us, which was why there really wasn't any "story" in the attraction to explain what was going on. He told us there's a script for the background chatter that would offer some more information to those who listen to it, but it hasn't gotten into the attraction - maybe next year.

But here's the idea (to the best of our recollection): Space Station 77 has been pushing deeper and deeper into space, and has gotten into a new area which, unbeknownst to them, is inhabited by a "space ghost", who doesn't take kindly to these "space invaders." Strange things start happening, like mysterious energy fluctuations. If you watch the big screen in the launch bay you can see that that it reports a power surge or a loss of signal from time to time and goes to a blue screen - and we all know that seeing a blue screen is never a Good Thing. :-)

Apparently unmanned probes have also gone missing. So they are seeking volunteers to go on a manned mission to explore this area of space and find out what's out there, and that's where all those of us in line come in. At this point we are woefully uninformed volunteers! :-)

He also told us that the images came from the Hubble Space Telescope, though they have been edited, and elements of them combined to form the ghost - his face might be a nebula, while his eye is a completely different galaxy.

There are a couple of effects they were able to do here that they did not do in Hong Kong, like having the ghost appear just before the drop, and adding a couple of sections where the ghost appears to move alongside and chase your rocket.

There were 5 different exterior sequences when the attraction first opened, but he told us there were plans for several more - and sure enough, there were three more this past weekend. They go off about every three minutes.

Here's a new video that Lee put together of the exterior show, which includes a couple of the new effects as well as better quality footage of some of the ones we saw before. My favorite starts at 3:44 and ends about 20 seconds later as Space Mountain appears to collapse!

Our experience was that the best place to ride was in rows 4-6 rather than row 1 - the timing on some of the effects didn't work as well for row 1 - we were past most of them before we could really see them. And you also want to sit on the left side of the rocket - you don't really see some of the images very well from the right side.

We think it's a great ride - I wouldn't want it to be this way all the time, but it's a very different and interesting variation.