A Foodie Celebrates 40 TR (Sept. 28-Oct. 7, 2012) About This Page:

[shnewell]

On our way out of the park, we stopped at Mouse Gears to do some shopping. I’m not a big Vinylmation fan, but I noticed some NFL-themed ones. They were mostly for the Oakland Raiders, which seemed odd since we were in Florida, and the Miami Dolphins, which made more sense. After lots of digging, I found a New England Patriots one. David was off in another part of the store, so I quickly purchased it as a surprise for him. Then I realized that I had completely lost him. I walked all over the store before we finally found each other again. I gave him the Vinylmation, and he thought it was really great. We then purchased F&WF tshirts for both of us and a Mickey ringer tee for David.

Having exhausted the remainder of our Disney gift card balances, we headed to the AKL bus stop. We waited about 15 minutes for a bus. We got off at Jambo House. David loves Beach Club, but misses the soaring lobbies of WL and GF, where we had spent the most time on our trips before we purchased DVC. He really enjoyed the beauty of the lobby at AKL.

We got checked in on club level, and they gave me yet another birthday button. This CM had beautiful handwriting, so I started wearing this button instead of the other one with the weird “n” in my name. The concierge lounge is on the 6th floor, but we were on the 4th floor in room 4431.

We found our room and the first thing I did was throw back the curtains and go out on the balcony to see what I could see! There were giraffes and ostriches right outside of our room! It was breathtakingly cool.



We relaxed a bit in the room, and I got caught up on my trip notes. About 10 minutes later, I walked back out on the balcony to discover that a baby giraffe had made its way to our part of the savanna. I ran back into the room to grab my camera while squealing, “Oh look, it’s a baby one!!” David got a laugh out of that. Here are some more photos I took over the course of our stay:









I went down to Zawadi Marketplace shortly after 3:00 for pin trading with King Pin. He was a really tall guy dressed in native African dress. To trade with him, you step forward on to the red carpet in front of where he is standing. I didn’t see anything I was crazy about, so I chose to trade for a pin from his grab bag. I got a neat Mad Hatter Vinylmation pin. While I was in the shop, I remembered that I was low on contact lens solution, so I picked up some in the gift shop, then headed back to the room. We then went up to the concierge lounge, where we enjoyed some hot tea, scones and cookies.

Our original plan for this evening had been to have dinner at LTT and to bring our Halloween costumes to MK with us and change after dinner. But we were feeling nice and comfy at AKL and weren’t feeling like rushing to get ready to head out the door to MK anytime soon. I pulled up my Disney Mobile Magic app and found an open ADR at Sanaa at 5:10 p.m. We snapped that up and I cancelled the LTT reservation.

We got cleaned up and took the van from Jambo House to Kidani. We checked in about 15 minutes early for our ADR, and the restaurant wasn’t open yet. This was fine with me because it gave me a chance to get lots of good photos from the overlook while we waited. Soon our buzzer was calling us inside, where we were led to a window table. Yay! Our server Kim was from Alvin, TX, just a hop, skip and jump from where we live.


Sanaa Dining Room


View from our table

This was our second time to eat at Sanaa, and we were really looking forward to a return visit. The bread service had changed and you now got all 5 breads and choice of 5 sauces.



We learned that, unlike in Indian cuisine, vindaloo is not the spiciest kind of curry. In African cooking, durban style is the hottest. David loves spicy, so he ordered the Spicy Durban Chicken and Lamb Vinadaloo with Basmati Rice. I had the Beef Short Ribs and Spicy Durban Shrimp with Basmati Rice. It was all amazingly delicious.


Lamb Vindaloo, rice, and Durban Chicken


Short ribs, rice, and Durban Shrimp


Hidden Mickey on our table

I was so full, but they brought me a free slice of chocolate cake for my birthday, so how could I turn it down?! When they brought the dessert, some drummers came to our table and played drums and sang to me. It was a great and unique birthday celebration.





When we returned to our room, we found birthday chocolates, yet another birthday button and a note from the concierge staff on our bed. Disney birthdays are awesome!!!



We changed into our Tron costumes and headed for the MK bus. By now, it was really raining hard. I thought ahead and decided to put on my swimsuit underneath my costume so if I got wet in the rain, I’d have something that would soak up some of the water. We waited a long time for the bus and when it finally came, it was almost full with guests from Kidani Village. Thankfully, they sent another empty bus directly to Jambo House about 2 minutes later. We arrived at MK around 7:20 and it was a full-on gullywasher by now. I had not wanted to wear ponchos because they would cover our costumes, but there was really no choice. We had paid extra for MNSSHP, so we just put on our smiles and made the best of it.

There was a funny moment at the bag check. We had identity disks in our backpack, and the security guard who looked through our backpack was very confused at first when he pulled them out. He started to say, “What are these?” But just as soon as he started to ask, he looked at us more closely and realized we were wearing Tron costumes, so he let us through.

It’s hard for me to describe how hard it was raining. This was not just your typical Florida pop-up thunderstorm. There was water pooling in some areas and rushing down sloped walkways. We went first to Space Mountain, which was a walk-on and got a ride photo with our identity disks. I don’t know why David looks like he’s trying to de-rez me.



From there, we went to HM and had to wait only about 5 minutes. The CMs had on spooky make up, which I thought was pretty awesome. By the time we had finished visiting the 999 happy haunts, the rain had let up considerably. It was still sprinkling, but we no longer needed ponchos. However, it was still extremely wet, and we couldn’t find any characters out anywhere. Trick or treating had all been moved inside, and the lines were long. Moreover, none of the CMs seemed to know what the backup plan was in case of rain, so no one could give us any idea where to go for candy (we just had to stumble on it ourselves), and our map became totally useless.

We headed toward Fantasyland. PP was a 45 minute wait, so we headed for Pooh, which had only a 20 minute wait. Though we had ridden this since the refurb of the queue, we had never actually been through the new queue, so that was fun.

By now, it was almost 9:00 and Hallowishes was supposed to be at 9:30, so I decided to start looking for a good viewing spot. We had come back to the hub through Tomorrowland, and I figured the Tomorrowland Terrace would be full already, especially since it was covered, but we decided to walk over and check since it was so close. To my surprise it was almost totally empty! We stopped for a Photopass picture, then grabbed a front row table on the terrace. We used our ponchos to cover up the wet chair seats, and all was great.

Because it was raining so hard, I didn’t bring my good camera with me. We just depended on our iPhones for pictures, which means that the nighttime photos are not great.





The Villains dance party couldn’t go in the rain, but the villains eventually came out for meet & greets under the terrace. However, the line was already crazy long when we got to the terrace, so we decided not to wait on line. We waited patiently for the fireworks. And we waited. And we waited. Finally, they began around 10:15. This was probably my favorite fireworks show I’ve ever seen at Disney. It took my breath away!





Of course, by the time it was over, it was almost time for the second parade. We headed toward Liberty Square to look for a viewing spot and ended up standing on a ledge across from the Hall of Presidents. However, a CM soon shooed us away, since they didn’t want guests standing on a wet stone ledge. The parade was also delayed and I was frustrated, so we decided to just head back to AKL. But as we walked down Main Street toward the exit, I saw a front row viewing spot, just outside the confectionary, so we decided to stay. The parade was supposed to start at 10:30, but didn’t begin until 11:15. The biggest reason I wanted to see the parade was the Headless Horseman, but he didn’t ride that night.











We finally caught the bus back to AKL (geez, that’s a long drive!) and fell into bed.

Day 7 Recap:

The weather today was...hot and humid, with evening storms

The best thing today was...checking into AKL

The worst thing today was...MNSSHP in the rain

The funniest thing today was...”Oh look, it’s a baby one!”

Today we tried...pin trading with King Pin
and the result was...a Mad Hatter Vinylmation pin

The most magical moment today was...the birthday drummers at Sanaa

F&WF Booth Total: 24

Up Next: I want them to have a wonderful life and only one bad day

[dutchdisneyfamily]

Love your costumes! What a fun day!

[lauriep]

Your balcony photos are wonderful! I love the birthday celebration they do at Sanaa-- and everything else about that place. Too bad about the heavy rain and delays for the party that night, but the photos of you both in costume are wonderful!

[Cam22]

AKL is my most favorite resort and Sanaa is my favorite restaurant, so this update made me homesick and hungry. Love your Tron costumes! And the next update sounds very interesting.

[Colexis Mom]

Great costumes and dinner at Sanaa! Sorry about the rain at the party!

[disney_duke]

Bummer about the rain but I'm glad you guys still went to the party! Dinner sounded excellent, and your AKL room seems perfect!

[shazza]

Great photos from the balcony, and your Sanaa dinner looks wonderful. Too bad about the darned rain

[davishomeschool]

You guys look like you are having so much fun!! Victoria and Alberts dinner looked amazing. I hope DH and I can try it next time.

[Thomhazel]

Victoria and Alberts and Sanaa looked fabulous we are really looking forward to both now.

[Russi01]

wow really late to the party. Love all of the pictures and updates. Excited to read more.!

[KMB733]

Dinner at Sanaa looked delicious. Sounds like you had fun at MNSSHP despite the rain. Love the costumes!!

[chezp]

Wow - busy day, but it looks like a really fun one!

[lfredsbo]

Great view from the new room!!! Can't wait to stay there next summer with that view!

It was truly a bummer about the party - we were there also - but ended up exchanging our tickets - it was so wet and yucky. Good for you sticking it out - glad they were able to shoot off some fireworks and the parade for you!

[shnewell]

Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily

Love your costumes! What a fun day!

Thanks! We got quite a few compliments on the costumes at MNSSHP.

Originally Posted by lauriep

Your balcony photos are wonderful! I love the birthday celebration they do at Sanaa-- and everything else about that place. Too bad about the heavy rain and delays for the party that night, but the photos of you both in costume are wonderful!

I Sanaa. I only wish it were easier to get there from other resorts!

Originally Posted by Cam22

AKL is my most favorite resort and Sanaa is my favorite restaurant, so this update made me homesick and hungry. Love your Tron costumes! And the next update sounds very interesting.

I really loved AKL. I just wish it weren't so far away from everything else! I promise to try not to leave you hanging for too long on the next update.

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great costumes and dinner at Sanaa! Sorry about the rain at the party!

Yeah, the rain was a bit of a bummer, but we still had fun.

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Bummer about the rain but I'm glad you guys still went to the party! Dinner sounded excellent, and your AKL room seems perfect!

The room was really great. We missed the space of our villa at BC, of course, but the view made up for it!

Originally Posted by shazza

Great photos from the balcony, and your Sanaa dinner looks wonderful. Too bad about the darned rain

I could have spent hours just sitting on the balcony and taking photos!

Originally Posted by davishomeschool

You guys look like you are having so much fun!! Victoria and Alberts dinner looked amazing. I hope DH and I can try it next time.

I hope you get to try it -- it really was an experience that was worth every penny!

Originally Posted by Thomhazel

Victoria and Alberts and Sanaa looked fabulous we are really looking forward to both now.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!!

Originally Posted by Russi01

wow really late to the party. Love all of the pictures and updates. Excited to read more.!

Thanks for joining in! I'm not usually quite so delinquent in getting updates posted, so I promise to try and move it along a little faster from here on out!

Originally Posted by KMB733

Dinner at Sanaa looked delicious. Sounds like you had fun at MNSSHP despite the rain. Love the costumes!!

I wish we had Sanaa here at home -- we would eat there all the time!

Originally Posted by chezp

Wow - busy day, but it looks like a really fun one!

What's funny is that when I write up the report, it sounds like we've been so busy. But the pace of this trip felt really relaxed to us while we were experiencing it!

Originally Posted by lfredsbo

Great view from the new room!!! Can't wait to stay there next summer with that view!

It was truly a bummer about the party - we were there also - but ended up exchanging our tickets - it was so wet and yucky. Good for you sticking it out - glad they were able to shoot off some fireworks and the parade for you!

I'm glad you got to exchange your tickets. I'm going to make a mental note that if we ever do MNSSHP again, I'm not going to choose the last available party during our trip in case something like this happens again!

I'm behind on your PTR, but hope you have a fabulous birthday trip!!

[shnewell]

HUNGER WARNING: This post is filled with food photos; better eat something first!

We woke up at 7:30 and got ready for the day. I took some more photos from the balcony before we headed out to the Epcot bus stop around 8:50. An Epcot bus came around the corner just as we arrived! I use a hard plastic DVC-branded case that attaches to my belt loop to carry my room key, APs, DVC member card, TIW card, etc. On the way to the park, I opened it and realized that my ID was missing. I was pretty worried, since I’d need it to fly home in just 2 days, but I decided there was nothing that could be done right away and that I’d just have to put my worry aside until we could get back to the resort. I thought perhaps I had left it with the concierge staff because I had to present it when we checked in, and that was the last time I remembered seeing it.

We went straight to the Festival Center to check in for the Kitchen Memories chef demo we had purchased tickets for. When we reviewed the list of F&WF special events, this was the one that jumped out at David as something he really wanted to do. Thankfully, even though the reservation was in my name, they accepted David’s ID for proof that we were the ticketholders. We were assigned to the Dill table (all the tables were designated by herbs and spices).


Our tickets


Seating area and demo kitchen


Table centerpiece

Shortly after 10:00, they opened the seating area. We were seated with a CM from DHS, a couple from Pennsylvania who were celebrating the wife’s birthday, and a retiree from Orlando named John. He is another person I want to be when I grow up. He was telling me that during F&WF, he’ll often just pop into Epcot for lunch, then go home so he doesn’t have to deal with the park crowds. *sigh*

The chefs for this demo were Duskie Estes and John Stewart from Zazu Restaurant and pig farm in Sonoma, CA. The wine pairings were by Twomey/Silver Oak Cellars.

Chefs Estes and Stewart are married with two daughters who are close in age to our boys. It was really delightful to listen to them talk about their life at home, running a restaurant, and Chef Estes’s stint on America’s Next Iron Chef. She told us that when she met Chef Stewart, she was a vegetarian (she no longer is), and he was raising pigs. She loved him and wanted to be with him, so she told him that she would work with him on the pig farm but only if they used the most humane methods for pig farming. In her words, she wanted the pigs “to have really wonderful lives and only one bad day,” which is, of course, the day they’re slaughtered. The chefs believe in using every available bit of a slaughtered animal, so they make all kinds of different pig-based products, including pork candy!


Chefs John Stewart and Duskie Estes

So, they way the demo worked was that they would show us how to make each course, then our servers would bring us each a plate with that course, which had been pre-prepared.

Before I get to the food, let me explain how these dishes came about. Chef Estes had been invited to participate in a contest to try to cook her way on to the new season of Next Iron Chef. To help her prepare, her daughters made up an Iron Chef-style challenge for her and Chef Stewart to do at home. They could use the protein of their choice, but the dish had to include smoked paprika and tortilla chips. Oh, and Chef Estes had to wear roller skates for the entire thing! So, the two savory courses both included smoked paprika and some form of crispy tortilla, but they were quite different.

Our first course was Duck Crack Salad, paired with Twomey Sauvignon Blanc. This was Chef Estes’s interpretation of her daughters’ challenge. The fattiness of the duck paired so nicely with the acidity of the wine. Delicious! In case you’re wondering about the name, “duck crack” is duck cracklins made from fried duck skin/fat (like pork rinds, but made from duck instead!).



The second course was Rabbit Tostada with Smashed Avocado, paired with Twomey Pinot Noir. This was Chef Stewart’s dish. He showed us how to butcher a rabbit while Chef Estes made the guacamole, which was probably the best I’ve ever had! I think this was the first time I’ve ever eaten rabbit, and it was really quite good.


Video screen showing camera feed from directly above the cooking surface



Our dessert course was Mexican Chocolate Creme Brulee with Mexican Wedding Cookies, paired with Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. I know it sounds odd to have such a big, bold wine with dessert, but the pairing worked perfectly. The creme brulee was rich and delicious, and the cookies provided just the right balance to all the richness.





All of the flavors in the dishes were simple and clean. We really enjoyed the meal, though we had totally expected to be served pork since the chefs raise pigs!

After the demo, I got the chefs to autograph my menu. Chef Estes had mentioned that she was originally from Texas, so I asked her what part of the state. She is from the Dallas area, but when she found out we were from Houston she got very excited. One of her co-contestants on her first season of Next Iron Chef was Houston chef Bryan Caswell. She shared with me that he had introduced her to a specific breed of pig that she had not seen before; she told me to tell him hi the next time I’m at his restaurant.

We finished the demo at noon, so we headed to WS to try to knock out some more F&WF booths. First stop was South Africa, where we had the Spinach and Paneer Pocket and the Filet with Boniato Puree The pocket was ok, but David really enjoyed the filet.





Next we moved on to the Cheese booth, which features a self-service computerized ordering system. David sent me to look for a shady spot to sit while he ordered the Cheese Fondue and some wine. All of the nearby tables were full, so I sat on a railing and waited for folks to leave. As I looked around the area, I noticed Sorcerer Radio's Kristen Hoetzel and Aljon Go talking to some guests. I had seen on Facebook that they were at Disney, but they were never in the same park as we were until now.

By now, David had arrived with the food, and I pointed out my celebrity sighting. I asked if he would take a photo of me with them, so we walked over near their table and waited for them to finish their conversation. I guess we were a little too stalker-ish, because they soon said, “Oh, you must be waiting on our table. We can move so you can have it since we’re just talking.” I told them that all I really wanted was to get a photo with them. They were surprised that I recognized them! We took a couple of photos and chatted for a while. We were moving in the same direction around WS, so we toured with them for a while and had a great time talking with them. Aljon invited us to go out with them and Pete from the Disney Parks Podcast that evening. I got his cell number and told him I would text him later.


Cheese fondue


Kristen, Aljon & me


Self-Portrait of the 4 of us (thankfully Aljon has long arms!)

We stopped next at the Brewer’s Collection booth, where David had a pilsner and I had a grapefruit beer. We sipped those as we walked back toward the front of the park. We took the bus back to AKL to cool off -- it was really super hot today!

Back in our room, I noticed some ankole cattle right outside our window and snapped some photos :





I then began the search for my ID. Before I headed up to the concierge desk, I decided to look through my stuff one more time. It turns out, my ID had gotten stuck to our damp MNSSHP tickets, which I had taken out of my case because we wouldn’t need them that day. WHEW!

Up next: What a motley crew!