Yes, It IS About the Food OR Two Foodies Do WDW From Table To Table--TR About This Page:

[Her Dotness]

Thanks, Mary. Giving those who read our TR a little taste of our experiences and perhaps some pleasure is our aim. Good to know you think we're succeeding.

So sorry to hear that pneumonia decided to "help" you celebrate your birthday. That's a nasty illness. Do hope this finds you feeling vastly better if not fully recovered.

Relax, take care and get ready for the full table-to-table tour which begins shortly after December 1. No promises as I've got to unpack ELEVEN bags (honestly, we drive to Disney like Elizabeth Taylor traveled!), stash all the great stuff we bought
and generally work back into everyday magic.

Then, I must get cracking on preparing Christmas cards for the PassPorter card exchange. Never have done that before, but got the Disney Christmas spirit this year and thought it sounded like fun.

And deck the halls...my absolute favorite years-end activity other than eating lots of turkey.

So, faithful followers, the details with photos will gradually appear. But first, have a very Happy Thanksgiving, full of the gratitude that the day inspires along with lovely memories.

[manticorjenn]

Happy Thanksgiving!! Safe travels home!!

Can't wait to read your full report.

[chezp]

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Cam22]

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Her Dotness]

We had a great visit with DH Drew's parents and other relatives, blissfully lacking much family drama. Perhaps largely because we could stay only for the holiday plus a few hours alone with Drew's parents. Just enough time to enjoy seeing each other again before buttons start being pushed if you know what I mean.

His brother's in-laws were there for dinner, too, which was enjoyable as we'd not seen them in several years. His brother's FIL is a wonderful conversationalist and such pleasant company. We see him so infrequently that the few times we do are a delight. Such a nice man!

We're in Columbus, OH, the halfway home point. It will be so good to be home, sleeping in our comfy sleigh bed again. Isn't that the way of vacations? It's such fun to be on the way at first, but then you eventually find yourself longing for your own bed and other comforts of home.

Coming Soon--Detailed Reviews and Yummy Food Photos.

You won't believe Yachtsman's Crab-Stuffed Donut appetizer any more than I did, but it was beyond delicious.

[Her Dotness]

So, that terrific Haunted Mansion handbag I got? When I decided I'd switch to it for Thanksgiving Day, I discovered that what appeared to be just a black plastic gizmo holding the handles together is instead a security device with a thin steel cable.

Yeah, scissors did nothing but remove the plastic cover to reveal the cable. Luckily, I have some sturdy metal cutters in our household toolbox, being the jill-of-all-trades that I am. I'm gonna enclose the plastic blob securely with something in case it's an ink disperser despite no warning on its surface. Just what I need, cutting that cable to find my bag ruined by light-colored ink all over it!

I don't know why it didn't occur to me that the thing was a security device, but when the CM cashier didn't remove it, you figure it's similar to a cable-tie and merely tough plastic requiring a hefty scissor chop. I use a Magic Kingdom decorated tote with built-in folding umbrella pocket while touring and had other small handbags for our dressier dinner outings so thought I'd wait to use it after returning home.

Grrrrrrr! There's some suspense for us all as I will be more than miffed if I have to demand an exchange due to ruining the bag trying to get this &@$#%€?£ thing off!!

[lauriep]

I've heard of people getting home from WDW with security devices still on. What a pain! Glad you had such a nice visit with family. You're right that short visits are the key. My grandfather always used to say, "Thanks for coming, and thanks for going!"

Safe travels the rest of the way home!

[Cam22]

getting the security device off!

[SuperDave]

Catching up on this. Seems like you had a great trip with so many great dining experiences! That was quite odd with the jacuzzi situation in your room. Looking forward to the full TR!

[chezp]

That's a real pain about the security device. Hope you can get it off Ok.

[Her Dotness]

YES!Thanks to my sturdy pair of metal cutters, two slight snips later, the security gadget is OFF my gorgeous HM bag. (Yes, yes, picture eventually ) No inky horror involved, so I am doing my Happy Disney dance.

Now, if only Memento Mori will soon get more of the spooky picture frame we saw on a display spirit photo. But, < sigh > Disney Merchandising said to check with them periodically as they had no indication when more may become available.

We're keeping all FOUR of those photos we had taken. They will look weird and wonderful--like us! --lined up along the fairly long entry hall into our apartment.

We had thought we'd give Drew's parents one of each of us but soon realized they would VERY much prefer a conventional one of us and so chose to give them one of our Akershus photos with Belle. My IL's are as conventional as we are warped and twisted. My MIL was thrilled with the Belle photo so we clearly were wise in deciding we're probably the only ones who appreciate how wonderfully bizarre the spirit photos are.

Well, lots more unpacking to do, so me wearing my flashing Santa Mickey head Happy Holidays necklace (yes, I honestly am!) had better get back to it.

TBC...

[manticorjenn]

Glad you made it home safe and sound. Glad that the snips worked with no ink issues.

Good luck with the unpacking, it is always the chore I hate because it means the trip is truly over.

[Huntermom]

Glad you made it home, safe and sound. Can't wait to read your report!

[Her Dotness]

Not yet by me, I hasten to explain, because I've the rest of the unpacking to finish--really very little after an hour or two yesterday afternoon once I got the car unloaded, along with a couple hours this morning yanking things out of our near dozen bags, starting laundry, etc.

Speaking of laundry, if you have a washer and dryer due for replacement, GET HE [high efficiency] ONES AND NONE OTHER. My kid sister told me theirs gets clothes much cleaner, she found, than their old top-loader conventional did.

So, when my nearly 23-year-old washer developed an expensive issue, Drew shopped his employee buying service and found a top-of-the-line HE washer and dryer for a bit over half what we'd have paid retail.

I was terribly dismayed when I saw that the hotel washer-dryer hadn't removed greasy stains from two of my favorite t-shirts--one my Disney historic dates Mickey shirt that lists Mickey's and my shared birthday. Based on past experience, I thought maaaaybe a bunch of stain stick and color-safe bleach/stain remover along with the HE washer's magic might salvage my shirts.

Typically, as you may know, stains still visible after machine drying won't ever come out. But, our HE set got them all! I SO love those machines!

Anyway, washer-dryer digression aside, Drew has all our iPhone food pics loaded onto his desktop and has begun captioning them. We'll do our MM photo download and tinkering, adding borders and the like next. He'll burn a CD of all our MM pics and then continue filing our food photos in folders and captioning each as he goes.

After he goes back to work on Tuesday, I'll get cracking on the reviews.

So, there's the gameplan which we hope to complete before Christmas but may be delayed by my taking time to write and send our usual few holiday cards as well as the two dozen for the PassPorter card exchange.

I LOVE writing and sending Christmas cards, so if any of our faithful TR readers would like one, just PM me names and addies, and I'll include you in the BIG mailout. Even if you're international, no prob. Geez, if we can afford the "necessity" of going to WDW for a week, I think we can manage overseas postage, too, especially to send holiday wishes to fellow PPers.

I'm eager to get all the unpacking done and get back into the at-home routine so that I can put up bunches of Christmas decs this year. Nothing like a Disney trip to put me in a Merry-and-Happy mood. Besides, must start the Santa countdown slate tomorrow already.

HOORAY for the holidays!

[Her Dotness]

First up will be our account of one of the best dinners I've ever had, cozied up on the benchseat in the refurbished Garden View Tea Room with a plump pillow at my back, thoroughly enjoying the flute of Veuve Clicquot champagne that was my prelude to the Princess Kate Tea. Well, actually, the pillow came with about the second course after the couple taking tea next to us left.

Yes, I could have requested a pillow from our ever so helpful server but had more fun feeling sneaky and "liberating" the next table one. Okay, that's peculiar, I agree, but Disney brings out the mischief in me, I admit. Well, "more of it" is undoubtedly closer to the truth, but you get the picture.

Next time we do Afternoon Tea, I intend to pack a hatbox with one or so of my fancy-dress hats so that I can dress up for the experience. Because we were going directly from the GF to MVMCP, we were wearing comfy touring grubbies. I think doing the tea wearing some of my whimsical fancies would be a Very Jolly Holiday.

Oh, my! Even after having just finished my nourishing pumpkin-shaped krispie treat lunch , I'm drooling as I recall that delicious potted shrimp first course....

TBC...