Note: Min's trip report is in Coral and Bill's comments are in Blue. In the Gallery links, pictures without a border link to the specific picture and those with a border link to a gallery of related pictures.

Prelude

I didn't know how much time we were going to be able to spend at Walt Disney World for my birthday this year. Bill had promised me when we got our Play-4 passes in August that we would at the very least do a day trip for my birthday and maybe Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. As my birthday drew closer, our finances allowed us to plan for a whole weekend including the Halloween party for my birthday.

Well Min was getting a lot of substitute teaching assignments and I was working quite a bit of overtime, so we had a little spare cash... besides Min deserved a nice birthday present and WDW was her favorite place...  :)

We booked a room at Pop Century for Friday and Saturday night as well as ordering our tickets for the Halloween party. We planned to drive down on Friday, check-in and rest up for the party that night. Then hit the parks on Saturday and Sunday, finishing up our Play-4 passes. That was until about a week before our trip when my parents gave us an early Christmas gift, an upgrade of our Play-4 passes to Florida Resident Seasonal Passes.

A great gift... now we can sneak back down during December for Mousefest 2004 and see the holiday decorations...  :)

Since we will have Seasonal Passes, we will not have any ticket restrictions on our visit, so we changed things around a little bit. We booked an extra night at Pop Century and are going down on Thursday night. We plan to have breakfast at either Boma or Donald's Breakfastosaurus on Friday, my birthday, then go to Animal Kingdom. After our midday break, we will head over to the Magic Kingdom for dinner at Crystal Palace and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Saturday, we are going to sleep in before heading over to Epcot, where we plan on eating our way around the World Showcase at the Food and Wine Festival and ending our night with Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. Sunday, we are heading back to Epcot for a little more time at the Food and Wine Festival and lunch at the Garden Grill.

We also plan on meeting some new friends and saying hi to few old ones on this trip. When we found out that Kathy M, GrumpyOne from RADP, and her family would be down during our trip, we emailed them and setup a little meet at the Outpost in Epcot on Saturday. Since we will be spending a lot of time at Epcot this trip, we hope to run into our RADP buddy, Kickman, and catch up with our friend Allison, the sous-chef at Garden Grill.

Trip Report

October 21, 2004 - Thursday

We had planned on starting our trip earlier in the day but Bill could not get off work until about 5:00 PM, an hour after his usual end time. I spent the afternoon running errands and finishing last minute trip preparations. As soon as Bill got home, we put our stuff in the car and were off to McDonalds to pick something up to eat on the road.

Fortunately for us, the line was too long at McDonalds so we stopped and had subs at Larry's Giant Subs...  :)

After our unplanned dinner stop, we got on I-95 and headed south. The dinner stop did have some extra benefits, most of the rush hour traffic had cleared by the time we got on the road. We decided to have breakfast at Boma in the morning, so I called and booked priority seating. The trip was uneventful until the Service Engine Soon light came on near Daytona. It stayed on the rest of the trip, but the car never gave us any trouble.

Min sort of panicked, I had her read what the Owner's Manual said about the warning light and decided that it wasn't a major issue. We could have my brother Ron, the mechanic, check it out when we got back to Jacksonville. I did not include it in my trip notes and had actually forgotten about it happening until I read Min's trip notes...  :)

We hit I-4 just after sunset, so we did not have to stare into the blinding glare on our way into Orlando. There were no real traffic issues and we got to Orlando about 8:30 PM. Once we reached Disney property, we headed over to Pop Century. Check-in went pretty well. We had two separate reservations, one for tonight and then another for Friday and Saturday night. When we told Hamid, the cast member checking us in, he was able to tie to two reservations together so we could stay in the same room for all 3 nights. All we had to do was stop by the desk in the morning to get new room keycards. We were assigned room 2436, in the 50s buildings.

While waiting in line, I remembered the song that the lady from Canada and I had been singing in the check-in line on our last trip... it was Charlie Brown by The Coasters... I got to sing it solo this time...  :)

We drove around to our building, grabbed the stuff from the car and went up to our room. After unpacking a few things, we headed for the food court to get something to drink. As we were walking to the main building, we heard the fireworks from Epcot.

It was the first blasts that go off when the star shell flies across the lagoon... from that point until we reached the main building, I was humming the music in time with the blasts... can you tell that I love that show...  :) 

We took some time to look around the gift shop before heading over to the food court. They did not have any Halloween Poohs plushes. I was a little upset, maybe they would have them in the parks. I saw the Lilo and Stitch Happy Birthday pin and looked at Bill.

Yeah, one of those "can I have it, can I have it" looks... it was at this point I had to confess my forgetfulness to my darling wife... the Lilo and Stitch birthday pin came out after her birthday last year and we saw it in December while on a trip with my mother... I told Min maybe she would get it on her next birthday... then I thought it might not be available on Min's next birthday, so I secretly had my mom buy it... I took it home and hid it in my desk with the intention of giving it to Min on her birthday... unfortunately in the rush to get to WDW after work, I had neglected to get it from its hiding place... oh well... the best laid plans of mice and men...  :)

We picked up some drinks at the food court and then walked back and forth several times through the food stations trying to decide if we wanted a late night snack. I ended up getting a chocolate covered rice crispy treat. Then we headed back to the room. When we got back to the room, Bill walked to the end of the building to take a look around.

Well, we were in the last room before you round the corner to the bowling pin staircase... oh, and we had a pretty good view of Spaceship Earth at Epcot... I managed to get a couple of blurry pictures of it, too... there is a link to them in the Gallery bar on the left side of the page... yes dear reader, you sometimes have to take the bad with the good...  :) 

We watched some TV and I ate some of my rice crispy treat. I offered some to Bill but he declined, he kept picking on me saying that he was mad that I hadn't ordered pizza.

Then I took a look a the prices on the advertising placard for pizza delivery... oops, never mind... we need to have some money for our trek around the World Showcase and the Food and Wine Festival booths...  :)

October 22, 2004 - Friday

Today is Min's thirty-first birthday... hip, hip, hurray... and all that jazz...   :)

We walked over to the main building and re-checked in to get our new room keycards. The cast member checking us in, I forget her name, was from Morocco just like Hamid who had checked us in last night.

Two very nice Moroccans, but no E.J. Farr...  well maybe we would run into him later on during our stay...

We walked out to the bus stop just as the Animal Kingdom bus was pulling away. It was only a half-hour before our PS time, so we went and got the car to drive over for breakfast.

On the drive over as we passed Animal Kingdom, Min and I agreed with my previous sentiments that the new mountain was definitely going to become the most visible feature from the outside of the park... you have to look for the Tree of Life... the mountain, even under construction, just jumps out at you...

There was no crowd at Boma and we were seated in less than five minutes. After we were seated, the hostess gave me a birthday card that was signed by the staff. Then we got some food which was good as usual. After one of our trips to the buffet, we got back to our table to find a frozen smoothie. Dilly, our server, said it was in honor of my birthday. It was very good.

Good food with a twist, that is Boma and that is why we like it... the birthday card and the strawberry banana smoothie were neat birthday treats and Dilly provided excellent service... we will be going back...  :)

After breakfast, we took the bus to Animal Kingdom.

Well, sort of... since we were going to be in the park most of the day, I offered to take Min's birthday card back to the car so it would not get ruined... I got almost all the way to the car only to remember that Min had the keys... I walked down to the bus stop and got the keys from Min and headed back to the car... with what I hoped would be a short detour by the gift shop to pick up a little something for Min's birthday... she likes Minnie Mouse in addition to Pooh, so I decided to get her the Halloween Minnie Mouse... but fate was conspiring against me... one of the checkout stations was very busy, so I went to the second one... then with dread I watched as the lady in front of me gave the cast member a receipt for a delivery from one of the parks... oh, well... there went the short wait... just as another cast member stepped up to help, there was a loud crashing noise... a small child had proceeded to play dominoes with some of the carved wooden animals on display at the front of the gift shop... the second cast member went to investigate... just about that time the first cast member returned, she told the lady in front of me that she had not found the delivered item and was looking for the supervisor to help her with the search... the second cast member returned and just as she took her place at the cash register, another lady stepped in front of me and then a second lady... uuuuhhhhhh... this was getting frustrating... Min would certainly suspect something was going on with me being gone so long... the second cast member helped her first customer and just as she was finishing, the second customer went over to see something her daughter was looking at... at last, I could buy the Minnie Mouse... after my purchase, I headed for the car... dropped off the Minnie and the birthday card and headed for the bus stop... When I got to the bus stop, Min was suspicious... I had been gone for a long time... she even mentioned that I might have made a stop at the gift shop... I assured her that the extended time away from her was due to me being out of shape and a need to make a pit stop after breakfast... I think she is starting to learn my habits when it comes to surprising her...  :)

Once at the park, we made our way to the Guest Relations desk and upgraded our passes with the money from my parents' early Christmas present. I also got a "Today Is My Birthday" button. I had trouble getting in the gate on my new pass, and the cast member keyed me in. We asked about fastpasses and she said everything would be fine so we headed into the park. Bill got some pics of the Tree of Life, then we turned towards Africa to ride the safari.

We stopped by the Asian otter enclosure and our questions from our last trip were answered... the otter does have a new companion... we saw both of them lounging around together in their enclosure... even got some pictures...  :)

On our way to Africa, Bill stopped and took some pictures of the Expedition Everest Construction from the bridge between Discovery Island and Africa. When we saw a standby time of thirty minutes for the Safari, we decided to get fastpasses then walk the Pangani Trail before doing the safari.

As I was about to get fastpasses, a lady stepped up to me and asked how many were in my party... I said two and she handed me two fastpasses that were already good... she explained that a man had given them to her but she had four in her party... I thanked her and then decided to still get fastpasses, to pass the magic on after Min and I finished the safari... unfortunately, that was not to be...

Bill came back from getting fastpasses and told me that a lady had given him fastpasses that were already good and handed me the ones he had gotten to hold until we finished the safari. Well I looked at the fastpasses and one of them said invalid ticket. We went and ran my pass through the fastpass machine again with the same result. Bill got a little upset.

More frustrated that upset... Min's admission pass has given us problems several times on past trips... the cast member appears to fix the problem and when we ask about fastpasses we are told that everything is fine... then we find out later we cannot get fastpasses...

With our "gift" fastpasses, we walked right up to the boarding area and were soon heading out on safari. The highlight of the safari was seeing both of the baby elephants, Kianga, the girl born earlier this year and Tufani, the boy born last year. Bill got pictures of both of them.

In the same shot, no less...

After the safari, we checked the back area of the gorilla compound and saw one sitting by the stream. Then we walked the Pangani Forest Expedition Trail. Bill took a few pictures but no other gorillas were out and about so we didn't spend much time there. We got something to drink and then headed for Flights of Wonder. On the way to the show, we saw DeVine moving through the crowd and then stopping and wrapping herself around a pole. Bill, of course, took some pictures of her. They had an owl out in front of the Flights of Wonder show and a cast member answering questions about it prior to the beginning of the show. The show was neat, I didn't get buzzed by one of the birds this time.  Bill got some pictures of the show and some of the birds. After Flight of Wonder, we headed for the Expedition Everest construction to get some more pictures.

Let see... got some pictures from the bridge between Discovery Island and Asia... got some pictures walking down the path between Asia and DinoLand USA... headed over towards the Flame Tree Barbeque seating area and saw that Pooh and Friends were holding meets and greets at the boat docks... Min's birthday... definitely need some shots with the Pooh...

We were headed for the Flame Tree Barbeque area when Bill pointed out that Pooh and Friends were out for pictures, so we walked down to have my picture taken with Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger at the boat landing. The line was a little long, so Bill ran and finished up his Expedition Everest construction pictures while I waited for Pooh and friends.

Yep... got some pictures from the Flame Tree Barbeque seating area... that does it for this trip...  :)

After our pictures with Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger, we headed for the front of the park. It was time for a break and some rest before the party tonight. On the way out, we stopped at Island Mercantile and picked up the latest passholder pin. It was the Animal Kingdom pin with Young Simba, Pumba and Timon on it. On the way out of the park Bill took some more pictures, iguanas, birds and flowers. Then we caught the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge and headed for the car. At the car I discovered what Bill had been up to this morning. Sitting in my seat was a Disney bag and when I opened it I found a Minnie Mouse dressed as a witch for Halloween. I looked at Bill and said, "you." He just smiled and said, "Happy Birthday!"

The surprise had been pulled off... even with all of the complications... Min had believed my needing a pit stop story...  :)

We drove back to Pop Century to get some rest before dinner and the Halloween party. I fell right asleep.

Yep, she did... I watched a little TV and took about a thirty minute nap...

When we got up and we changed into our orange shirts.

We looked like two pumpkins...  :)

We grabbed the camera, an extra memory chip and batteries then were off to catch the bus to the Magic Kingdom. At the bus stop, we only had to wait about ten minutes for the Magic Kingdom bus. We were at the Magic Kingdom by 3:45. The cast member at the gate said they were not admitting folks on the Halloween party passes until 4:00, so we used our wonderful Seasonal Passes to get in for dinner. We made a quick stop at Guest Relations to find out where to get our wristbands for the party and also pick me up a birthday button. We walked through the Emporium on our way to the Crystal Palace. No Halloween Poohs to be found anywhere. Bill remembered that last year we had found the Halloween Poohs at the shop next to the Haunted Mansion, so we decided to check it out after dinner. We got to the restaurant and Bill checked us in. I sat and talked with a little girl, who was also a birthday girl. She showed me a present her mom and dad had gotten her and said she was going to have dinner with Winnie the Pooh. I smiled and told her, so was I. Bill found where I was sitting and joined our little chat. We were called for our table about fifteen minutes later.

I had told then at check-in that it was Min's birthday and the table was decorated with streamers and Mickey Mouse confetti...  :)

Tigger came around just after we were seated, so Bill got a picture of me with him before we got our food. We got to see Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet while we were eating and of course Bill got more pictures.

Min almost missed Piglet... he came by when she was getting some food from the buffet... I asked him to sit so I get could get a picture to show Min what she had missed and everyone around started laughing... Piglet took a seat and I took a picture... then Min returned just in time to get a picture with Piglet...  :)

The Hip-Hip-Hooray parade came around, it was so cute with a bunch of the kids in Halloween costumes.

Min didn't join the parade this year like she did last year on her birthday...  :)

The food was very good and the characters were great. At the end of the meal, the waiter brought me a cupcake with a birthday candle on top of it. With our meal winding down, I told Bill that I was chickening out and wasn't going to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

All before the trip, Min had been talking about how she was going to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad this time... oh well...

After dinner, we headed for the hub to get our wristbands for the party. We talked about Big Thunder Mountain Railroad the whole time. Once we got our wristbands, we headed for Liberty Square to see if we could find the Halloween Poohs and we were still talking about Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We checked out the shop where we had found the Halloween Poohs last year and there were no Halloween Poohs. It was a real letdown, no new Poohs for my collection. We headed back out into Liberty Square and started talking about Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again.

Yep... I had reached my limit... I "threatened" to drag Min, kicking and screaming if I had to over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and make her ride it...  :)

I was still trying to talk my way out of riding, when I realized I needed to do this on my birthday so we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. There was NO wait, we walked right to the ramp down to the loading platform.

Which was a good thing... no time to chicken out...  :)

Our train pulled up. We got into our seat, pulled down the lap bar and we were off. I loved it. We will be going on this again. I am going to do Splash Mountain on our next trip. I can do it.

Yea, Min... you did it... we even went over to the Kodak picture spot and took a couple of pictures to memorialize Min's conquest... go Min, go Min, it's your birthday, it's your birthday...  :)

I told Bill that I was going to do Splash Mountain on our next trip. What did he try to do, talk me into then and there. But the closest we got to Splash Mountain was when we took a pit stop at the restrooms right next to it.

Oh well... we will do it next time...  :)

It was getting near 6:00 and the park was clearing out rather quickly. We decided to check out the Briar Patch and see if they had a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad pin. Unfortunately, they didn't. The cast member said they had one about a year ago. Darn no pin, at least they offered Bill a job.

Well, sort of... the manager was trying to lock up and I made a comment about how it would be great to be locked in at Disney... he said they if I got locked in he would have to put me to work... I told him it was a deal, if they gave me a paycheck and a place to sleep...  :)

It was now after 6:00 and we headed for the front of the park. We were hoping to avoid being herded into Tomorrowland and took our time on our way to the Exposition Hall. We stopped in one of the shops in Adventureland.

We played chat with the college program cast member... her name was Julie and she was a student at Michigan State University... we managed to kill about fifteen minutes chatting about why she was putting merchandise out for sale when the park was in the process of closing... then we talked about her school as well as her dislike for the University of Michigan...  :)

Then, we continued our walk towards the front of the park. At the bridge to Adventureland, we met a young cast member by the name of Rachel.

That's wasn't what her name tag said...  :)

We struck up a conversation with her. She was from Ohio and got a job at WDW as part of the college program.

Oh goodie... another round of chat with the college program cast member... an interesting chat, too... she was a student at Columbus State Community College... she was a gamer and knew the gaming trade organization in Columbus where one of my best friends had just got a job... it's a small... oh, never mind...  :)

After talking with Rachel, we again headed for the front of the park but soon took a detour for a quick relief break. After our break, we sat on a bench next to the First Aid station to kill some more time and avoid being herded with the rest of the party-goers into Tomorrowland.

Yep, by this time the herding had begun in earnest...  :)

A little before 7:00, we headed for the Exposition Hall to see what pins from previous nights' parties were still available. While standing in line, we struck up a conversation with a couple from New Jersey.

Remembering the last time we had stood in line for pins and talked with a couple from New Jersey, I asked them if they frequented any Disney websites or news groups... turns out they were lurkers on a couple, so they were not someone we should know...  :)

I went and got us some Trick or Treat bags, while Bill stayed in line talking with the couple. After I got back, I asked Bill if he wanted me to go and get in the line for the tonight party's pin at the Emporium and he said sure. He gave me some money and I went and got the party pin. It turned out to be one with Pooh and Tigger on it.

We didn't know what the pin was before Min went to get it... Min and Pooh... it has to be fate...  :)

After getting two of the pins, I went back over to the Exposition Hall and found Bill waiting inside. It turns out he had waited for nothing, they did not have the pin that we wanted. We also checked for other Halloween themed pins but could not find any we liked.

We wanted the pin with Minnie's dressed as Cinderella standing in front of Cinderella's coach... oh well... time to find Pooh and Friends...  :)

Since we did not see Pooh and Friends at the front of the park, we headed toward the back of the park. He wasn't at the hub or castle, but Bill got some neat pictures of the castle in twilight. We decided to check out Fantasyland. We rode The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

A quick fix solution to alleviate some of the stress associated with the Great Search for Pooh and Friends...  :)

Next, we went on Snow White's Scary Adventures. We found no Pooh or any other characters behind the castle like last year. But we did find Suzy, Perla and Fairy Godmother with Cinderella's coach over by pavilion between Pinocchio Village Haus and Dumbo. After the pictures, we rode Dumbo. The cast member running the ride was also celebrating her birthday.

Another October 22nd birthday club member...  :)

After Dumbo, we went in search of Winnie the Pooh in Mickey's Toontown Fair. We made a quick stop along the way for drinks. While looking for Pooh, we trick-or-treated our way through Toontown. We did not find Pooh in Toontown, but we were told that Pooh and Friends were at the front of the park.

All that walking for nothing... he was back where we had started...  :)

We were about to turn around and head for the front of the park when we were told about the Alice and Mad Hatter's Treat Party. The "secret" path from Toontown to Tomorrowland had been turned into the "party" area. We got lots of candy, it was being handed out by the playing cards, as well as photo ops with Alice, White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts and our faves, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. After our walk through the "party," we trick-or-treated Buzz Lightyear's Candy Fair in front of the Carousel of Progress. Bill got a picture of one of the little green aliens from Toy Story. Then we took a break and a tour at the same time with a couple of laps around Tomorrowland on the TTA. Next, it was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.

I got the high score...  :)

After Buzz, we checked out the Timekeeper building. They were using it as a party photo and trick-or-treat location. The line for party photos was too long so we decided to come back later and headed for Town Square to find out where Pooh was hiding out. We got to Town Square and there was no Pooh, we asked a cast member where he was and she said that he would be out shortly. So, we had a seat to wait. Then we looked up and there was Pooh and Friends standing on the porch of one of the Exposition Hall wings.

The exact same place we had been standing in line earlier... all that walking had been for nothing...  :)

So we got in line and just as we were getting to the front of the line, they had to leave. The cast member with them said they would be back at 9:30. So we took a seat on the porch. We looked across Town Square and there was Daisy and Uncle Scrooge, so we went and got some pictures with them. A check of the watch showed that Fireworks time was approaching, so we headed for the hub to find a spot to watch them.

We really didn't need to look too hard... the park was like a ghost town... and there weren't a lot of people, either...  :)

After the fireworks, we got some drinks and then went back to Town Square to get my picture with Pooh and friends for my birthday. After the picture, we found the perfect spot for watching the parade.

It was a good spot... right on the curb and it had a lamp post that Min used as a "chair" back... the only negative was when the headless horseman rode by there were no sparks flying from the horse's hooves... we were sitting in Town Square and he had just started his run so was not galloping very fast when he passed us... if he had been he probably would have ended up in our laps...  :)

After the parade, I was very tired so we headed for the buses instead of the back of the park.

Min usually goes to bed early and it was past her bed time...  :)

It was a short wait for the bus and we got a seat. 

Min did anyway... I stood so that a grandmother and her granddaughter could have a seat...

Back at the hotel, we made a stop at the food court for some drinks before heading back to our room. We were in bed by midnight.

Min was out like a light... I think she was asleep before her head hit the pillow... I watched a little TV before falling asleep...

October 23, 2004 - Saturday

We slept in, I needed it.

Well, Min slept in... I woke up and watched some TV...

After getting ready, we headed for Epcot around 10:00 AM. There were very long lines at both the ticket booths and the security check-in stations. The longest lines we had ever seen at Epcot. We got in line, then switched lines when a large group of folks stepped out of line to wait for the rest of their party. My pass did not work again and the cast member at the gate cleared me through. We asked if I could get fastpasses and she said yes. I told Bill we were going to Guest Relations, if I could not get a fastpass this time.

I said okay... but I didn't think we were going to need any fastpasses today... too many other things to do and too much food to sample...  :)

Bill got some photos of Spaceship Earth and the topiaries welcoming guests to the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. We picked up the passholder Food and Wine Festival pin, it had Pumba and Timon on it. We then headed over to Garden Grill to see Allison before the lunch rush and to tell her we had a PS for lunch tomorrow. We waited a while for her, but lunch had already started so we did not get a chance to talk with her. We had Michael give her a message that we would see her tomorrow at lunch. Then we headed for the World Showcase.

Errand done... now it was time to eat our way around the world...   :)

The water feature and fountains on The Land side of Future World were drained. Judging by the digging going on, it looked like they were doing some rehab work. As we headed for the World Showcase, we walked through the Honey Maze and checked out the Nuts for Peanuts exhibit. Then we stopped and looked at Festival Store merchandise. We bought two Food and Wine Festival pins. One with Chip and Dale crushing grapes for wine and the other with Goofy as the chef from the Food and Wine Festival logo for this year. Our first food stop was the Fresh from Florida booth, but the line was too long so we traveled onward. We headed clockwise around the World Showcase lagoon. Peru was our first stop of the day where we actually got to sample some food. We had the Papas Rellenas (stuffed potato) and Anticuchos (chicken skewer) both were pretty good.

Agreed... I wanted to try the Lamb Chop with Mango Chutney at the New Zealand booth across from Peru... but the line was too long... we decided we would try again later that afternoon...

Next, we headed over to Mexico. The food booth was not in the same location as last year or where it was shown on the map. We skipped going into the pavilion and continued on our food trek. We found the Mexico booth right next to the Ireland booth. We got a Quesadilla con Pollo y Chorizo (chicken and chorizo quesadilla), Taco de Pollo al Carbon (grilled chicken taco) and Watermelon Water. We had a seat next to the Viking ship and ate our food. It was okay but not great.

Agreed on the food... but I really enjoyed the Watermelon Water... I strongly considered getting some Potato and Leek Soup as well as the Guinness Stew from Ireland... but it was just too hot to be eating soup and stew...

We bypassed the Scandinavia booth and went for a ride on the Maelstrom before bypassing the China booth.

We can get the Scandinavia food at Akershus and Chinese food pretty much anywhere...

Since it was getting hot, Bill picked us up something to drink then we continued on to the Southeast Asia booth. We had the Shrimp Lettuce Wrap and Chicken Sanbel (spicy pulled chicken). While eating, we talked with a family that had started their food trek on the opposite side of the lagoon. We discussed the different foods ahead of and behind us then said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I wasn't really impressed with either of the things we had gotten from the Southeast Asia booth.

Both were a little bland for my taste... I am used to Thai food being really spicy... maybe they had to tone it down a bit to appeal to the masses...

We skipped the South Africa booth, we had already had the selections at Boma. Next was Australia for a pig out session, we had the Shrimp on the Barbie with Bush damper bread, the Australian Lamb with Caramelized Onions and Shiraz Glaze and the Australian Beef with Pepperberry BBQ sauce. We sat on a bench overlooking the lagoon and talked with a college recruiter from Notre Dame while we ate. The shrimp and the beef were good but the lamb was divine.

Agreed... Min tried to get me to go back for another lamb chop... I told her we could have another one tomorrow... She accepted that... but not before making me promise that we were going to add lamb to our diet when we returned home...  :)

We ended up skipping the next booths for various reasons. The Oktoberfest booth because we could get the food at Biergarten. The Italy booth because it was pretty much standard Italian food. The Champagne and Sparkling Wine booth as well as the Specialty Beer Garden booth because we generally don't drink alcohol. The Piedmont because it was too early for desserts. The United States booth because the line was too long. We tried to give the line a chance to go down at the United States booth by walking through the New England Fair exhibit. There were some neat things on display and I loved the Cabot Cheese samples especially the extra sharp cheddar.

They had a cow milking exhibit with a simulated cow... it was fun watching folks try and milk the cow... oh, the Cabot Chipotle Pepper Cheese was good, too...  :)

Unfortunately, the line at the United States booth had not gotten any shorter while we saw the fair, so we headed on for Japan. We had the Maki-Age Mixed Tempura (vegetables with shrimp tempura) and the Tokyo Roll, both were okay.

Neither were that great in my opinion...

Next was India, where we had the Chicken Tikka. This was pretty good.

Certainly was... now maybe I can get Min to try an Indian restaurant when we get back home...  :)

At the Morocco and Mediterranean booth, we got the Hummus with Pita. We had a seat and watched MoRockin while eating our Hummus.

The Hummus was probably the best deal at all of the booths... a large scoop of Hummus and the Pita was only a dollar... I liked MoRockin, interesting music...  :)

I kept our bench while Bill went over to the Valencia Spain booth. We had the Serrano Ham and Manchego Cheese, Paella Valenciana and Marcona Almonds. Everything was very good.

Agreed... A Spain pavilion is needed in the World Showcase... that way I can get my Disney and Paella fix taken care of at the same time...  :)

Next was France, we had the Escargot Provencal (snails) and the Crepe au Fromage et Jambon (ham and cheese crepe). Yes, Mom and Dad, I ate snails and lived to tell about it. I liked them, too and the crepe was delicious.

The snails were good and so was the crepe...  :)

We skipped The Great Beers of the World booth, so our next stop was the Poland booth for Kielbasa and Pirogies.

Not really... we looked around England to see if Winnie the Pooh was around before heading on to the next food booths...  :)

On our way from Morocco to Canada, we had tried to find Kickman but were not successful. We even had one of the cast members that works with him page him but he was unavailable.

Oh well, maybe some other time...

We were starting to get full and I really wanted a gyro, so we skipped the Canada and Eastern Europe booths. 

That and it was still too hot for soup, even though the Cheddar Cheese soup is wonderful and Min doesn't really like Salmon...  :)

At the Greece booth, we got the Lamb Gyros and the Honey Baklava, both were very good. Then we made our last stop back at the Fresh from Florida booth, where our food trek had started. We had the Spicy Florida Shrimp with Jicama Slaw and the Florida Shrimp Salad Roll. I love shrimp and these was no exception, both dishes were very good. 

Our eat around the world trek was done...  we had missed a few things we wanted to try but over all everything was pretty good...  :)

After trying all the food, we decided to see if we could catch up with Allison at the Garden Grill. It was before the restaurant opened for dinner, so she had time to visit with us. We spent about forty-five minutes talking to her. We then made our way to the Outpost to meet up with Kathy, Tim and Tyler. We got there a little before our planned meeting time, so Bill got an ice cream and I got an icee then we found a table to wait for them. Shortly there after, Kathy, Tim and Tyler arrived, introductions were made and we sat down to talk. We spent a little over an hour talking with them about Disney and other things. While we were talking we saw Kenny Cottrell, Len Testa, and Mike and Brian from Mouse Planet as well as a couple of other guys from the Unofficial Guide to Disney. They had been to some of the soft opening shows of the new Stitch attraction in the Magic Kingdom. We talked a little about the new attraction and then they were on their way. We talked a little more before saying goodbye to Kathy and family. We talked about possibly meeting up with them again next time they are down.

Tyler, we remember our promise... next time we get together with you and your parents, we will do some attractions instead of just sitting and talking...  :)

I was hungry but not for little samples of things, I wanted a real meal. So we headed for Germany and the Biergarten. We could have a meal and kill some time before Illuminations. Unfortunately, it was a thirty minute wait so we decided to skip Biergarten. It was about this time that all of the walking around today hit me. I didn't want to stay at the park anymore, I wanted to go back to the room. Bill was very understanding about missing Illuminations and even said we could get some food back at the food court.

I love Illuminations, but it was Min's birthday weekend... if she wanted to go, then we go...

As we were heading to the front of the park, we ran into Kickman. We stopped and chatted for a while then continued on our way. As we were passing Mouse Gears, I remembered the Electric Umbrella so we stopped and had burgers and fries. Then it was back to the bus and back to Pop Century. We made a dash from the bus stop back to the room and we got there early enough that Bill was able to watch Illuminations from our building. I got some ice for my leftover lemonade and went to bed.

I watched some TV after Illuminations and then went to bed...

October 24, 2004 - Sunday

We slept in, again. After getting up and getting ready, we got everything packed and loaded in the car. Then it was back to Epcot. We had a PS at Garden Grill for 12:40 and since it was still early, we decided to try a few more things from the Food and Wine Festival. Our first stop was New Zealand where we had the Lamb Chop with Mango Chutney. Wow, I never knew lamb was this great. First the one at the Australia booth and now this one.

The grilled lamb chop was excellent and the mango chutney was an interesting accompaniment...

Next we stopped at Scandinavia and had the Strawberry Rice Cream. Then we continued on toward the back of the World Showcase. I wanted to try the crab cake at the United States booth.

On the way to the United States booth, we had to pass the Australia booth... can you guess what happened...  :)

As we neared the Australia booth, I smelled the steak, shrimp and lamb they were grilling and that did it. I had to have another of those divine lamb chops.

Had another chat with the college program cast member while waiting for the lamb chop... the cast member's badge said she was from Columbus State Community College... the same place as Rachel from the other night... so I mentioned she was the second person I had met from Columbus State on this trip... we chatted for a little bit before I got the lamb chop and headed to sate Min's sudden overwhelming need for lamb chops...  :)

I enjoyed the lamb chop and made Bill promise again that we were going to start eating lamb at home. Next it was off to the United States booth, well with a short detour. We went through the New England Fair exhibits again and got some more of those wonderful Cabot cheese samples. Then we got the Cheddar Crab Cake from the United States food booth, it was awesome.

Agreed... very good stuff...

We headed back towards the front. Along the way we stopped for some more Hummus and then stopped and walked through the Valencia Spain exhibit. Bill chatted with one of the visiting cast members from Valencia and they joked about the placing of the Valencia exhibit between Morocco and France.

Very appropriate placing... a Spain pavilion would fit rather nicely between the two in the World Showcase... if I do say so myself...  :)

On our way to The Land pavilion, we stopped and rode Journey Into Imagination with Figment. Afterwards, we made our way over to The Garden Grill in The Land pavilion and checked in for our lunch PS. Bill requested Meagan, the server from our last visit and was told there might be a wait. He said that would be fine. Well thirty minutes later, I was wondering if it had been a good idea to wait. Forty-five minutes later, Allison came out looking for us. She knew we had checked in and was wondering where we were. We talked with Allison for a while and then were called for our table.

Allison caught my attention behind Min's back and said she would see us when Min's birthday cake was brought out...  :)

We had a great lunch. The characters were clowning around and putting on a good show. There was a family from Ireland next to us and we chatted with them through out the meal. When we were finished, the staff came out and sang the Garden Grill birthday song and I got a cake. We shared some with the family from Ireland. We talked to Allison and gave our feedback about the menu changes then said our goodbyes. I wanted to go to Downtown Disney before we headed home, so that is what we did. We stopped by Pooh's Corner, Pin Traders, Once Upon a Toy and the World of Disney store before heading home. Overall, I had a lot of fun. It was a very good birthday trip. 

And that is what it is all about...  :)