The View from Scopa Towers

Help, I’m beginning to panic. I woke up at 4:30 Tuesday morning. Hmmm, too early to run. I’ll just close my eyes and then wake up at 5:30 and then go out and run.

Big mistake.

It’s been almost five days since my last run and I need to run Wednesday morning…but we have an 8:10 ADR at Donald’s Breakfastsaurus…..yes I’m panicking but anyway….

…we headed to EPCOT this morning and here’s an up to date picture on the state of Spaceship Earth…at least regarding Mickey’s Arm and wand…

…yep…practically gone.

A Soarin'

We headed over to Soarin’ and as always, I head over to the leftmost FastPass distribution box and that box is never crowded.

I noticed the huge pictures in the queue area had changed quite a lot. See for yourself.

After we got the FastPasses We got into line and hen we got to the loading area we ASKED to sit in the top row…we were guided to the next area and we were top center row…cool

After our first ride we needed to burn 30 minutes so we did “Living with the Land” and that attraction no longer has a Cast member riding with you.

Get a load of this…

We returned to Soarin'; and Carol AGAIN asked for the top row. This time not only did we get top row center but I was sitting in seat #6. That is the best seat in the house folks.

So there’s your second tip of the day…if it looks like you can get into the top row then ask.

We then did the Nemo attraction at the Living Seas. We got a kick out of this t-shirt

A Sailing

After Nemo I called my buddy Matthew from Reedy Creek emergency Services. Carol and I had plans to spend some time with Matthew and his fiancée Kristen today.

We planned to meet at DTD and take a pontoon ride to Old Key West.

As Carol and I left EPCOT we cut through Innoventions.

Now here’s a Segway I’d like to try.

We met Matthew and Kristen at the Marina at DTD and we took off for Old Key West. On a pontoon boat like this one which was docked at the Old key West Marina.

Along the way we past Saratoga Springs and Port Orleans

It was a nice comfortable quiet boat ride. It was refreshing too because the high for the day in Orlando set a new record…98 degrees.

We helped, or I should say Matt and Kristen (they both work for Reedy Creek Emergency services) helped a woman whose small boat kind of conked out on her.

Kristen edged the pontoon boat close to the woman’s boat and Matt got her boat working again.

We returned and had lunch at the Rainforest Café before heading our separate ways.

We made arrangements to get together again next week

Carol and I checked the stores.

Here’s a homework assignment. Where in DTD can you find a bee’s nest with bees?

We then headed back to EPCOT and took in American Adventure. I was very curious about the new “Golden Dream” and I was not disappointed. As much as I would like to say they just tweaked it I’d have to say it was more than a tweak and it will move you even more than its predecessor.

Also, look for a slight change to the ending of the AA attraction after ‘Golden Dream”

AA is my favorite WDW attraction.

I’m always the last one to leave the theater.

A Soaking

As we made our way around World Showcase everyone jumped as without notice a huge crack of thunder came out of nowhere. We were surprised because half the sky was sunny…we didn’t notice what was behind us.

Then the rains came ans we got soaked.

Here’s proof that half the sky was rainy and the other half sunny.

We watched Illuminations and it looks as though the video globe has been given some enhancements.

I took some pictures but they don’t do the globe justice so here’s a token torch picture.

We checked out Mouse Gear before leaving the park.

Hmmmm, I kept seeing the following logo on a lot of merchandise…

…could this be the new EPCOT logo?

We’ll see.

That was it for Tuesday.

Looks like no running for me at Pop Century on this trip. Missed it again this morning and tomorrow we move to Port Orleans French Quarter.

Today we got a late start (wrote my blog until 1 A.M.) and went to EPCOT.

We decided to visit Figment first and then we stroled into World Showcase and rode the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico.

When you next experience this attraction look for the Donald Duck pinata.

From there we walked around World Showcase and walked right onto The Maelstrom.

We saw drawbridge up to allow the Illuminations barges into the lagoon.

And from another angle...

And of course one of the aforementioned barges.

We made our way to Canada and had lunch at Le Cellier.

We overheard one of the castmembers say that the restaurant was fully booked up to January.

BTW, new Canada film in late September.

After lunch we took in Off Kilter....sans lead singer Jamie Holton who is on vacation.

Hey look...it's Lou Mongello of WDWRadio on the fiddle.

From there we enjoyed Brisith Invasion at the United Kingdom pavilion.

Looks like Food & Wine is already being celebrated at Japan.

We just had to see American Adventure one more time...I almost made it through "Golden Dream" without shedding a tear.

Homework assignment. Where can you find this in World Showcase?

We had dinner at Alfredo's. It would be our last dinner there as the restaurant will be closing at the end of the month.

After dinner we took in Ellen's Universe of Energy and decided to call it an early night for a change.

We got back to Pop Century and I finally visited my favorite spot at the resort, Generation Gap Bridge.

More tomorrow.

Put your hands together because I actually got out of bed on this morning at around 5:30, put on my running gear and went out at 5:45 to run around the resort.

It had been at least a week since my last workout and I had no idea what to expect. My whole body was screaming at me until I hit Alligator Bayou over at Port Orleans Riverside.

I ended up running a bit over 40 minutes and felt great at the end of the run. However I am definitely behind schedule for the Tower of Terror 13K and when I return home I will be working hard to train for that race.

I had finished my run, showered, and got dressed in time for us to shoot over to EPCOT for Extra Magic Hour Morning

Here’s the latest on the deconstruction of Mickey’s arm/wand from Spaceship Earth.

There were two lines to get into EPCOT. We got into the line on the right side…it went almost to the bus depot….want to see?

The lines moved fairly fast.

Once we got in we went over to Soarin’ and grabbed a FastPass and then went in line. For the third time in a row Carol got us top row center. I may have to start renting her out to folks who want that top row center experience.

After Soarin’ we had a light breakfast and then rode “Living with the Land” to kill some time before using our Soarin’ FPs.

This time our luck ran out and we ended up center but second row instead of top row.

By the way, the next time you experience Soarin’ I suggest you watch the screen very carefully. If you count only 8 hot air balloons then you are not watching close enough.

If you do not see six fighter jets then you are not watching closely enough.

We walked over to see Nemo and Crush. Does anyone else out there just love that Starfish?

From there we went over to visit Figment. We took in “Honey I Shrunk the Audience" since it was the Imagination Institute’s annual....

We then walked back to the Land for lunch at the Garden Grill. We were early so we watch “Circle of Life” first.

Then we had lunch with farmer Mickey…

After lunch we visited Innoventions. We checked out the Rockin’ Robots…

…we played that IBM game and that pizza game (think goodness it was virtual pizza) and a few other things before checking out Mouse Gear. You never know when a neat new WDW shirt will show up.

Now since this was a surprise birthday trip for Carol I tried to get ADRs for all of her favorite restaurants. In order to do so I had to sometimes book meals a bit close together….like a late lunch and early dinner.

This was one of those days. We tried to eat light for lunch because we were going to the Kona Café for dinner.

We got into the car to drive over and when I started the car up look what I saw on my rear view mirror…

That explains the two glasses of ice tea and two glasses of water I had at lunch.

We drove over to the Polynesian Resort. My three favorite resorts are Pop Century, Port Orleans, and the Polynesian Resort.

Here’s a cute picture.

Look again, the tiki on the left is outside and the tiki on the right is inside.

Did I mention why the Polynesian Resort is one of my favorite resorts? A picture is worth a thousand words.

Let me take this opportunity to put in a good word for the Kona Café. It is one of the better restaurants in all of WDW and especially when it comes to teriyaki ANYTHING.

It is one of the few sit-down restaurants in WDW I love so much I will actually dine there alone when I do solo research trips. The bread is very decadent.

So Carol and I are eating and we are thinking about where to go and what to do next. The heat of the day (remember what the mirror said) had really taken some energy out of us so we decided to return to POFQ and do some laundry and check up on email and try to recoup some of that energy that the sun was draining from us.

Besides tomorrow was Carol’s birthday. You always want to be well refreshed when waking up in WDW on your birthday.

Greetings from Walt Disney World!!!!!

Thursday was a long day. It started for me at 2:30 A.M.

I landed in Orlando around 9:30 A.M.

My first stop was EPCOT where the 2007 Food & Wine Festival is starting to wind down.

You know what comes after Food & Wine don’t you? Why the festive Christmas holidays of course and lookie here…the Christmas decor is going up already.

Ahhhhh Christmas in October...ya gotta love it.

I found this Hidden Mickey in the bushes near the Japan pavilion. Honest, I did not do this but my guess is that someone took the time to clear the shrubs and arrange the rocks.

Had lunch at Biergarten with Brian Bennett and was close to the stage and the band. You know what that means don't you? It means no more talking at the table 'cause we can't hear each other.

In mid-afternoon we were joined by Len Testa of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. Len wanted so much to try the food in…

...but we just had lunch some 90 minutes before. So we ordered ALL the appetizers and one pasta dish. Honest folks, this was research. We do it all for you. We were all in agreement that the food was relatively good but overpriced. I will say that the service was nothing less than excellent.

We were soon joined by Beci Mahnken of MEI Travel, and Mike Newell, and Matt Hochberg from the WDWTODAY Podcast and we all went over to check out a new film at an attraction known as….

Here’s Matt and Len, obviously up to no good.

The new "Oh Canada!" film was received with mixed emotions. The new version has added some humor to it but I was longing for some of the scenes from the original movie. I expect that for every two guests who watch this movie one will like it and the other will prefer the original.

We then took a stroll around World Showcase in search of dessert. Len treated us to caramel and ginger ice cream at China. Very tasty.

No...not research...call it "carbo loading" for Saturday evening's race.

BTW, the freaking out has begun because depending upon who you listen to the chance of rain for Saturday evening falls anywhere between 50% and 70%. Lovely.

We then took in The American Adventure before heading to Canada where we ran into our good friend Masayo Kano who made the long trip from Japan..

You're saying, "Mike, what's that shirt you're wearing? That's not a Disney shirt is it?"

No it's not. I live in new England and the Boston Red Sox are in the World Series...do the math.

We finished the night watching Illuminations. If you have not seen Illuminations since early 2007 you are in for a pleasant surprise. The video globe is brighter and more distinct. Also, you may find the fireworks to have more color.

It was quite a long day but nothing beats enjoying a day and evening in Walt Disney World with friends.

Friday is the day for packet pickup and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I hope it's a BOO-TIFUL night tonight.

Stay tuned as there is more to come!

Alright! You’ve been given some time to think it over. Just how would you be able to navigate through the four Walt Disney World theme parks under the parameters set by yours truly?

It takes some thought; some planning; and probably a little luck.

I’ve put some thought into this and I’m ready to share my thoughts with you.

Here is what I came up with:

• First, if possible, I would try and pull this stunt off on a day that offers both an Extra Magic Hour Evening Hour Morning in one park and an Extra Magic Hour Evening in another park. If both occur on the same day then potentially I am looking at an extra four hours of touring time to complete my park touring requirements. Every minute counts so the strategy here is to look for a way to get more time.
• If there are no days with this combination of both an EMH Morning and EMH Evening then I would look for a day in which either EPCOT or Magic Kingdom has an Extra Magic Hour Evening and focus on that day. The preference here would be the Magic Kingdom because Spectromagic and Wishes would play a big part of my plan but either park will work.
• My thoughts are that it would be wise to use a combination of both a rental car and Disney Transportation to go from one park to another…you’ll understand how when you read my plan later on.
• The more in your travel party the slower you move so my plan says try this with no more than three other friends. If I go beyond four in my travel party then there is a greater chance that there may be times when the party will need to wait to get on certain attractions…not to mention getting around in a car. So to maximize my potential for success, I’m doing this solo or with just one other person.
• I plan to stretch out my eating plans. I’m thinking that I will eat at my resort before going to my first park. This breakfast has to hold me for a long time. I want a lot behind me before I stop to eat lunch. Preferably I want to eat lunch towards the end of my time in park number two but realize that due to attraction queues lunch may happen in park number three and dinner in park number four.

My Attraction Strategy

Before I go into my detailed plan let me discuss my thoughts on how to attack the attraction touring portion of this plan:

• For the attractions I will focus on will be those which I feel move guests in and out of the attraction as quickly as possible. So, I will be looking to ride any attraction that is a constant loading attraction, that is, one with continuous moving ride vehicles thatnever stop.
• The proximity of certain attractions to each other will also play a key role in making the most of my time in the parks. Travel time between parks is important but so is travel time between attractions.
• Now here’s an interesting thought. FastPass may be more of an enemy in this challenge than an ally. Sure early in the morning it may help but come afternoon the FP distribution times usually run from four to as many as six hours out. So it may be better to wait 40 minutes in stand-by as opposed to waiting four hours to make use of a FastPass.
• Diversions. I will make good use of diversions. By diversions I mean parades or fireworks, or anything that draws crowds away from attractions. You’d be surprised as to how much you can do in a theme park during a diversion.

The Plan

I'm not sure if there is any type of barometer that can be used to determine what is the best way to do this little challenge. We all have our favorite parks and favorite attractions so we all have different takes on what would work well for an approach to accomplish this feat.

For me, my thought is to try not to necessarily do this as fast as I can and do so in some commando mode but to try and do it without running from park to park and attraction to attraction.

So after much thought, here is what I came up with for doing four parks in one day:

• The day I've chosen to do this challenge is Thursday, July 3, 2008 because on that day Disney's Animal Kingdom, my first park of the day, will be offerring Extra Magic Morning Hours and that evening The Magic Kingdom will be hosting Extra Magic Evening Hours. So this means that the turnstiles at Disney's Animal Kingdom will be open for me at 8:00 A.M. and later that night Magic Kingdom will be open to me until 1:00 A.M. Sure it may be hot and may be crowded but this 17 hour window offers me the best chance to do this challenge.
• I will get up as early as possible so I can be at the Animal Kingdom turnstiles around 7:30 or so. This means either eating an early and quick meal at one of my resort's eateries or having something in my room. My preference is to have a little breakfast snack in the room...either way I'm pulling into the DAK parking lot no later than 7:00 A.M.

Park #1 - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Here's how I will attack my first park of the day:

1. It's 7:30 and I am already at the turnstiles. When I get into the park I walk over to Expedition Everest and grab a FastPass. I then go to Kali River Rapids. Why? Well everyone else is doing the Safari or Everest so I can get my first attraction (KRR) out of the way real fast. My guess is that I can be out of Kali River Rapids by 8:30. One attraction down.
2. Time to use my Expedition Everest FastPass. Most likely my FastPass distribution time is probably for sometime between 9:00 and 10:00. No problem. If I go on Everest somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30 I will be off the attraction no later than 9:45. Two attractions down.
3. At this point my guess is that my best choice would be Dinosaur. It is one of those attractions which some people do not like because it's loud, rough, and downright scary. That translates into a short queue. It's also not that long of a walk from Everest to Dinosaur.If I can get into Dinosaur somewhere in the vicinity of 10:00 to 10:15 then I could very well find myself leaving Disney's Animal Kingdom around 11:00, if not sooner. One park down.
4. Since I got to the park early I may not need to wait for the traim to take me to the parking lot and my rental car. I may be parked close enough to the park entrance to walk to the car...another reason why I arrived to the park so early.

My next park in this challenge is Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Park #2 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

I chose as my second park of the day because this park is really suited only for being park number two. It cannot serve as my first park because the attractions aren't open until mid morning. It cannot be my third park because that would mean I would be in the smallest of the four theme parks in mid to late afternoon, and of course it cannot replace Magic Kingdom on this day because Magic Kingdom offers Extra Magic Hours in the evening and two diversions which will lower the queues for my targeted attractions.

Here we go:

1. Let's assume that worse case scenario, I am going through the Studios turnstiles at 11 A.M. My first stop is the SuperGreeter Board at the the corner of Hollywood Bvd. and Sunset Blvd. to check out the waiting times. The first bit of information is to determine which of the two attractions, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror or Rock 'N' Roller Coaster, have less than an hour wait. The second important piece of information is to find out what the FastPass distribution times are for both of them.
2. I will grab a FastPass for the attraction with the longest queue and get in line for the other attraction. My guess is that the Fast Pass Distribution time will be somwhere between two and three hours out. So that tells me that in that time I should focus on doing two other attractions and try to eat lunch. The one flaw in this plan is that I really cannot risk eating lunch too soon before doing either the Tower or RnRC.
3. Let's assume RnRC has the longer line. I will then grab a FastPass for that attraction and get in line for the Tower. Now I'm guessing that if it's around 11:30 or so that my FastPass will have a distribution time of somewhere between 1:30 and 2:30. Let's say it's a 45 minute wait for the Tower. I emerge from that attraction somewhere around 12:30-12:45. I should be able to squeeze in attraction #2 before my RnRC FastPass time arrives.
4. I check the board again...what has shorter lines...Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, or The Great Movie Ride? My guess is that it's Star Tours...Toy Story Mania is new and will be crowded...TGMR is always packed in the afternoon during the summer...and compared to TGMR and TSM, Star Tours will almost always have the shorter queue line.
5. The assumption is that I arrive at Star Tours around 1:00 and get on the attraction no less than 45 minutes later. I thus emerge from the attraction around 2:00 and head over to use my RnRC FP. To be fair I must assume that it will still be at least a 15-20 minute wait even with my FP. I thus assume I'm walking out of the attraction sometime around 3 P.M.
6. I need to eat lunch so I stop off at Cantina Eddie's for some pizza and a drink to fulfill the lunch requirement before heading out the turnstiles sometime around 3:45 or so.

Park #2 is complete. I drive to EPCOT.

Park #3 - EPCOT

With luck I'm walking through the EPCOT turnstiles no later than 4:30.

I'm glad I stopped for a quick linch at the Studios. It's all attractions for this park.

For EPCOT there are some options I have to consider. To save time I will do eithe the tandem of Test Track and the Gran Fiesta Tour or Oh Canada and Soarin' as ther first two and the last two are relatively close in distance. The other attraction I will focus on is Spaceship Earth because it is a constnat loading attraction.

1. Once again, first stop is the Supergreeter Board to get information on wait times.. Now here is where it gets tricky. It's late afternoon and probably not a good idea to look at FastPasses as they may have distribution times that go into early evening. I will still check but remember it's summer time with lots of crowds. The question that I know I must answer is whether I do Soarin' or Test Track. That decision will determine my World Showcase attraction.
2. I will assume Test Track will have the shorter wait...plus there's always the possibility of getting on quickly via the single passenger line. before getting in line I check the FP distribution times. If it's less than two hours I may go for it, head to Mexico, and possibly try to squeeze in Spaceship Earth too, although I prefer not to backtrack.
3. Let's assume I get into the Test Track standby queue and am out of there by 6 P.M.
4. I head over to Mexico and party with the three Caballeros and step off that attraction by 6:45.
5. With luck I'm entering my Spaceship Earth ride vehicle sometime around 7 P.M.,
6. I should be walking out of the EPCOT turnstiles around 7:30.
7. I need to save time so I head to the monorail and go to the Ticket and Transportation Center and switch to the Magic Kingdom Express Monorail.

Next and final stop is The Magic Kingdom.

Park #4 - The Magic Kingdom

If I can get to the Magic Kingdom before 8 P.M. I'll be estatic but realistically I will probably go through the turnstiles around 8:30.

1. The first thing I do is get my wristband for Extra Magic hours.
2. Time to eat. Where. Columbia Harbor House because it's centrally located in the park.
3. My guess is that everyone is lining up for Spectromagic, one of the diversions I had mentioned earlier. So after I emerge from a quick supper I head over to Haunted Mansion. Hopefully I'm out of the Haunted Mansion no later than 10 P.M.
4. Wishes may be just about to start so while everyone heads to the front of the park to watch Wishes I make my way over to Splash Mountain.
5. I should be able to gauge which of the two, Splash Mountain, or Big Thunder Mountain has the shorter queue. Whoever does have the shorter line will have me as a guest that night.
6. My guess is that it's now about 10:30 to 10:45 and I have one more attraction to do...and it's Prirates of the Caribbean.

And I'm done.

Reader's Comments

The response to this challenge has been overwhleming and I thank everyone for sending me their comments and their experiences. I am trying to read and respond to all the email I have received. Please be patient as I will get to your email. I plan to post a "Mike's Mailbag" edition with my favorite emails.

It was a spur of the moment idea…an idea that probably has been in the back of a lot of WDW guest minds but unfortunately never surfaced to the point where they can try it.

What am I talking about?

Well on my recent trip to Walt Disney World while walking around World Showcase with Annette Owens of MEI and Mouse Fan Travel we found ourselves discussing interesting things to do in Walt Disney World that the usual guest would probably either never think of nor have the time to do.

We had just finished the third leg or our four Parks in One Day Adventure and before heading off to dinner we were obviously thinking of this challenge and what other interesting challenges we could come up with that would make for an interesting day at one of the parks.

Of course what is World Showcase known for but its diversified cuisines and the offerings of food from around the world?

So we began to wonder out loud what it would be like to try and get a little taste of what World Showcase pavilions have to offer…all 11 of them.

Now unless you are either Takeru Kobayashi (world famous Japanese competitive eater) or a 350 lb. National Football League interior lineman you probably don’t have the intestinal fortitude to sit down in every pavilion and eat a meal in one day.

So the problem was to throw in enough wrinkles so that the average person could in fact stand a chance at doing this.

That night over dinner I threw out some ideas to some friends and after some discussion we came up with the following challenge that we were going to attempt the very next day.
We called it….”Sip and Snack Around the World.”

Rules of the Game

Here they are:

• The goal is to consume either food or drink from every pavilion in World Showcase.
  
• Since this was a bit of a competition we said that it was every man (and woman) for him/herself. That meant no sharing.
  
• Each participant was responsible for purchasing his or her own “stuff.”
  
• Whatever is consumed had to be unique to that pavilion and not available anywhere else.
  
• Whatever the choice, be it food or drink, at least 75% had to be consumed for that pavilion’s offering to count.
  

There were four of us who took up this challenge, the aforementioned Annette Owens, Len Testa Co-Author of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and one of the co-hosts of the WDWTODAY podcast, his fellow WDWTODAY co-host Mike Newell, also of MouseWorldRadio, and yours truly.

We decided to do it the next day.

Now keep in mind that this is an unusual way to spend your day at Walt Disney World. On a normal vacation day in Orlando you would not find yourself spending an entire day doing this…well after reading this you might.

Good Morning

When I got up the next morning I made sure I had nothing for breakfast…well maybe some juice…but no food.

We all arrived at EPCOT just about opening time and knew that World Showcase would not open until 11 so we strolled around and checked out Future World before our “Feast.”

We visited The EPCOT Legacy Museum...

and Mission Space and Test Track...

...and Club Cool before heading over to World Showcase.

I was a little hungry but held off eating anything but a small granola bar.

I cannot say the same for Len. About 10:30 or so Len decided he needed something so he decided to grab a cherry Danish and coffee at the pastry cart in Canada.

Hmmmm….would this impair his gastronomical ability for the day?

We decided to help Len out so we walked from Canada to Mexico where our challenge would begin. This would give him some time to walk off the Danish and prepare for the challenge.

Just before we got started Len dropped a bomb…”Uh guys I have to be somewhere by mid afternoon so we need to do this by 2:30.”

“What?!?!?!

Hoo boy!

I had expected that we would be looking at an eight to nine hour ordeal. Not now.

Len’s schedule meant we had to covering 11 pavilions in 3 ½ hours…do the math…that means we had to consume something every…drum roll please…20 minutes. Yikes.

Now I was REALLY glad I had not eaten breakfast.

Mexico: La Cantina de San Angel

First stop was Mexico. Now think of the strategy one could go with on such a challenge. You could go one of several ways. We all had our own ideas as to how best to approach this challenge.

My plan was sort of a two plans in one kind of an approach. My primary objective was to think small. I was going to look for the smallest item in every pavilion.

I was also thinking that I would also need to space out any liquids I would have. I knew that during the challenge I would need to wash down any food I consumed so I needed to constantly monitor myself for dry throat.

Well for Mexico at La Cantina de San Angel three of us decided to start off light. Len, Annette, and yours truly opted for the child’s meal…a few nachos and a small beef burrito…and a small bottle of water.

Then there was Mike Newell. Mike has also not eaten breakfast so he assumed that having a regular sized meal to start off the challenge would be fine.

Well, take a look at the following picture and you will see how much of a difference the child’s meal was from a regular meal. It would be a choice Mike would regret.

Remember, we all had to eat 75% of whatever we chose at each pavilion so size was a consideration.

Norway: Kringla Bakeri og Cafe

I can tell you that one of the reasons I was excited about this challenge was that I knew that it would be a fun day. After all, I was in Walt Disney World with some friends and I knew…I just knew that we would laugh during this whole ordeal.

Well, you can imagine how much we laughed when Mike Newell, after eating his Mexican dish, turned around and decided to get the chocolate mousse. Now ordinarily, I’m sure many of you would leap at the opportunity of enjoying a chocolate mousse. However, would you really want one after eating a huge plate of nachos? I guess we all knew, especially Mike that his choice was let’s say questionable when he took his first swallow.

The rest of us were on this small food kick and opted for the smallest thing we could get…like the Lefse or the cloudberry horn.

We were two pavilions in and already we knew we were in for quite a day.

We skipped past China because our target, the Tea Wagon, was not open for business just yet.

Germany: Sussigkeiten (Sweets and Treats)

In Germany we thought that Sommerfest would have some good options. Right off the bat we all agreed that a German beer is definitely the wrong shoice so we looked at other options.

We were thinking Strudel. Sure, a little treat and some sugar to give us energy.

Well the problem was that the apple strudel offered at Sommerfest was more like dessert for three and none of us was brave enough to attack it. In fact all the desserts offered…including the Black Forest Cake and Cheesecake, although delicious, was looking just a bit too much to have on this day.

What about the pretzel? Well, that too looked huge, and in Len’s words by then his stomach had convinced him that the pretzel was about the size of a piece of fence.

So we went into the store called Sussigkeiten. It did not get any easier.

Think of it this way. If any of us bought a small package of cookies we’d have to eat 75% of the package. That WASN’T going to happen.

This pavilion was about to be the first pavilion in which we were looking at candy bars. Most of us looked around for a candy bar that appealed to us and that meant not just ingredients but size.

I was adventurous and tried this one candy bar that looked innocent.

Of course when we all got different items we would ask one another how they tasted.

So when Annette said, “Hey Mike, how is it?” I went into my Rod Serling impression and said calmly, “Imagine if you will…chocolate covered Play-Doh!”

Well you can imagine that we knew right then and there that we were risking getting sick from either eating too much food that day or laughing with each other. It was great.

Next Time: Part II: Tea, Nuggets, and Dried Fish, Oh My!

When we last left I was retelling the Sip and Snack Around the world challenge that was taken on by Annette Owens, Len Testa, Mike Newell, and myself.

We had just finished Germany and were now on our way to China.

China: Joy of Tea Stand

Ah the Joy of Tea Stand was finally opened. At this point everyone was thinking about something to drink. This stand offered some interesting choices and the day before Annette had convinced me to try the Peach Oolong Tea Schnapps Slush. It was good the day before, but then again I wasn’t eating my way around World Showcase.

Everyone had tea except me. I opted for the green tea ice cream simply because it was one fourth the size of any drink offered at the cart.

Poor Len, he DID NOT like his tea and ended up nursing it for a considerable long time…you’ll see.

Italy: Arcata D’Ariga

Remember, we had a deadline of 2:30 so we had to keep moving. We were just about a third through the pavilions and we needed to maintain a pace of eating every 15 to 20 minutes.

Now obviously Tutto Italia was out…unless of course a stomach pump came with the Pasta e Fagioli (pronounced “Pasta Fa-ZOO”). Len and I had the same idea. We walked into Arcata D’Ariga, the store that has wine and candy and pastries.

Len, Annette, and Mike opted for biscotti which is an Italian cookie, often made with almonds. I wasn’t too sure about that so I went to the area in the middle of the store where they had candy. I was able to find a small package that had one kind of jelly bean candy…and it was only thirty cents. SOLD!

Oh yeah…with the help of the biscotti Len was able to get a bit more of his tea down…as they say, he would have given all the tea in China to not have to drink that stuff.

At this point we started to seriously wonder about the insane task we had charted ourselves to do.

However, once again…we were in EPCOT…with friends…and having a good time…and that pretty much cancelled out any second thoughts of quitting…heck, we were having too much fun and laughing too much to stop now.

We could almost feel the spirit of Walt Disney putting his arm around our shoulders and saying, “Hey gang, I love this idea.”

American Adventure: Liberty Inn

This could have been a challenge. Remember we were limited to only those items unique to that pavilion and the Liberty Inn did not have many choices.

Two of us, Len and Annette opted for the Kids chicken nuggets meal. However they had to take two sides with the meal AND a small bottle of water.

Len opted for grapes and carrot sticks and Annette went with carrots sticks and the fruit punch gelatin. Yes when they each sat down they both had a “What was I thinking?” look on their faces.

Mike and I scanned the menu and decided to have a Sam Adams beer. As much as I thought this was the right choice it did take an effort on my part to finish it.

At one point Len had excused himself to visit the rest room. Upon his return he announced to everyone that he was a failure. He was trying to convince his stomach to, let’s say, “return” what he had eaten to that point so he would have an empty stomach to finish this challenge.

Alas…he just couldn’t get his stomach to comply…oh yeah…he still had the tea.

I challenged Len to guzzle the tea and I would guzzle my bear. He held his nose and tried to guzzle his drink…we let him stop once he got to the virtual 75% mark.

Annette could not eat the gelatin…so she took it with her…to finish off somewhere along the way.

We all started laughing…at ourselves…it was great.

Japan: Mitsukoshi Department Store

From here on out we were all on the same page. Our objective from this point on was to find the smallest item in each pavilion and also one that would go down easy. We checked the menu for the Yakitori House. Most of us had the same idea…Miso soup.

However, the thought of consuming green onions and seaweed at this point convinced us otherwise. Everything else looked to either have large portions, including the Kirin Beer, Hot Sake, and Plum Wine.

Oh if only Masayo was here to help us.

The Mitsukoshi Department Store sort of wraps around the pavilion and in the back is an area with food and most importantly, small packages of food.

Of course someone found a package of dried fish….no thanks…although Annette still had her Jell-O so at least she could dunk the fish….sorry…that the mind plays tricks on you and I had this image.

Actually Annette made a great choice. She purchased what looked to be a package of three chocolate lollipops. Each “pop” was the size of a dime…good choice.

Mike Newell chose this small package of grape cotton candy with pop rocks, and Len grabbed something best described as Japanese Gummi Bears.

I had a small candy bar in my hand and was in line to pay when I spotted a much better choice. It was a small energy drink. The bottle could not have held more than 6 oz. It tasted like flat Diet Sprite. It went down smooth and no after taste. This was my best choice of the day as it really had no impact on me.

Morocco: Tangierine Café

We sauntered in to the Tangierine Café and checked out the menu. I had eaten here in December and I recalled that the portions were somewhat HUGE and I cautioned everyone to “choose wisely.”

We all agreed that it was too risky to order even something like a kid’s meal. We had three countries left after this one and we were running out of time on the clock and space in our tummies.

Then almost at the same time we all said “Baklava” and we went to the pastry counter.

At this point Annette looked at the cast member behind the counter and quipped, “I never thought I’d hear myself say this but please give me the smallest piece you have.”

She was speaking for all of us.

I’m not sure how to explain how we all enjoyed the Baklava. Mike Newell felt there was too much filling in his and I felt mine did not have enough and was dry.

Annette seemed to have a challenge getting hers down…and at this point she could have
washed it down with her melting Jell-O.

Len, still reeling from his cursed tea after taste, welcomed anything that would mask that lingering flavor in his palate.

Tick-Tock, time was marching…I looked at my watch…we had just about an hour left to do France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

France: Boulangerie Patisserie

Imagine you are standing in front of a French pastry and there are many, many, too many wonderful combinations of sugar, flour, and fillings waiting for you…and you are stuffed.

What to do.

When we started this little adventure I had thought all along that I would look forward to France and enjoy a nice Napoleon.

No…not this little guy…

…this guy.....

...believe me...he looked much bigger in the display.

However, as we made our way around World Showcase the issue of size and portion very much influenced our choices and the Napoleons were sort of outside my portion range at this point.

I opted for a lemon tart…less pastry and more gel and I washed that down with light lemonade.

Mike Newell could not resist the cream puff. When he picked it up the weight kind of made him nervous. It was made with heavy cream. We let Mike knock off about 75% of that baby and call it a done deal.

Call it “portion pity.”

The best choice in France was made by Annette and Len who both opted for a Croissant. Also, Annette was able to consume 75% of her Jell-O while at the same time getting down the Croissant.

But I have to tell you…by now we’re all thinking we’re not going to eat for at least a decade or two…but before then what lies ahead was the United Kingdom and Canada.

United Kingdom: The Tea Caddy

Ahh… the Tea Caddy.

Annette and I wandered in to check out the offerring in there. It was, what we felt, our only option.

We all steered clear of the fish and Chips counter service area.

Len and Mike made a “pit stop” and returned to find Annette and myself munching on something I remember being called a “Flakey” or something like that. It was recommended to us by the CMs in the shop because it was “flaky and light”

Well...sort of…it was flaky alright but when you put layers of flakes together and fused them together with chocolate…the word “light” does not come to mind.

Len opted to try one too…but Mike Newell’s dry throat drew him to the Rose and Crown and Bass Ale…which did not go down as smoothly as he had hoped.

Okay, here we were, we had about 25 minutes before our deadline and we had just Canada left in our sights.

We were all praying the same thing…”Please let there be small bear claws” as we all assumed those pastries would probably be our choice.

Canada: Northwest Mercantile

There was good news and bad news waiting for us in Canada.

The good news was that there were no bear claws to be found.

The bad news was that there were no bear claws to be found.

On the one hand we were relieved. It was going to be a challenge to get those babies down…but then again…NOW WHAT?

We went into the Northwest Mercantile and checked it out.

Lots of stuff but hoo boy…not easy to make a choice. There were packages of Maple candy and cookies and biscuits and stuff like that.

We looked for a LONG time before finally succumbing to yet another candy bar.

Len, of course, always thinking, came up to me and said, “I need a ruling”

“What?” I said.

“Is this legal?” and he held up…

wait for it….

wait for it…

a small bottle of maple syrup.

“You’re kidding!” I said.

“Hey it’s small…should go down easy…and I’m done”

I chuckled and said, “Go for it.” Thinking that I was about to witness a sugar high that would be unequaled in history.

So while Mike, Annette, and I forced down the last of our World Showcase buffet, Len guzzled, yes guzzled, his bottle of maple syrup.

Well, we all looked at each other and said, “Okay, that was crazy!”

We looked at our watches…2:20 P.M.

We had come within 10 minutes of our target time.

On average, each of us had spent about $35 as we weaved our way around World Showcase.

As we were walking out of World Showcase we were joking and remarked. “Well, that’s been done.”

A curious smile came over my face and Mike Newell looked over at me and he said, “Oh no! He’s thinking again.”

He was right!

When the next opportunity arises I’ve got some new wrinkles to throw into this little challenge…and it’s going to be different, challenging, and most of all…fun.

So next time everyone may be a bit more prepared.

Well I'm back in Orlando for 10 days of willfull suspension of disbelief and along the way we all know that I'll be sharing some observations with all of you and hopefully also provide some insight and some tips to help you on your next visit to Walt Disney World.

And of course it would not be any fun unless from time to time I place a photo in this blog and ask you to guess as to from where I snapped this photo.

Here's one...and a hint...it's from an attraction.

Any guesses?

Now on to other things.

One observation that I need to share with you is best shown in the following picture. I had just enjoyed a performance of the Festival of the Lion King and when Carol and I exited the theater she pointed out this group of strollers.

Notice anything?

It sure seems that there is a larger percentage of personal strollers in the theme parks than in the past..at least on this particular morning.

Here's something new for all of you who are planning to visit Walt Disney World in the next few months and are on one of the Disney Dining Plans.

Le Cellier in Epcot is currently running a "pilot" as it was described to me, which offers guests a special menu.

This menu has a yellow box at the top and in this yellow box are appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

Here's the deal. If for instance you are on the basic Disney Dining Plan you know that appetizers are outside the plan.

However, if you choose your appetizer, entree, and dessert from those offerrings in this yellow box then Le Cellier will honor all three, yes that includes the appetizer, on the Dining Plan.

Is there a catch? Well, I will tell you that the entrees offerred in the yellow box are certainly not their signature entrees so that's something to consider.

For the record, I did order an appetizer and paid for it and then ordered a signature entree and dessert.

The entrees and desserts in that yellow box just did not appeal to me.

Anyway, if you are lucky enough to have an Advanced Dining Reservation at Le Cellier be aware of the yellow box pilot.

Here's another observation and that is if you are using Disney transportation while in Orlando be sure to always, always, always double-check the bus routes whenever possible.

Some of them are very specific.

For instance, as of the date of this blog entry if you are staying in Pop Century and want to go to Blizzard Beach you would take the bus that goes to Disney's Animal Kingdom from Pop Century. From DAK that bus will continue to BB.

However to get from Pop Century to Typhoon Lagoon you would take a bus that goes to Downtown Disney which will then continue to TL.

Those two routes may change without notice so just be sure you ask before assuming that a particular bus will be going to a particular destination.

That's it for now....

....except for one more photo for you to ry and figure out just where it came from.

Are you ready?

Here it is...and a hint....this cannot be found in a theme park.

Any ideas?

Watch for more from me as I make more Orlando Observations in the days to come.