The AP adventure - THREAD 7 COMPLETE!
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Annabel · 03-21-2005, 10:49 AM

A great couple of updates! I love eating at Beaches and Cream - the food is wonderful and the atmosphere is brilliant! I keep reading in people's trip reports about Test Track breaking down, it sure seems to be breaking down a lot! Looking forward to more.

Annabel

**DrDolphin** · 03-21-2005, 11:00 AM

I am not a video game fan, neither is Scott -- so I would be really bad at them!! Great update Cheryl!

DreaminDizney1002 · 03-21-2005, 12:06 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Mark was in there for about half an hour, before I finally managed to drag him away. Hey, it was Christmas Day and we had better things to do than play in there all day…

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds alot like my DH! Somehow we always end up in this section of Innoventions for the better part of an hour!

Great update!

Jillybean · 03-21-2005, 12:36 PM

What a great way to spend Christmas morning!

Jill

lauren-roxy · 03-21-2005, 01:05 PM

How cool that Santa visited you guys Cheryl! I did not know that he did that! Great update and fascinating stuff about Spaceship Earth!

**2princessmom** · 03-21-2005, 01:11 PM

What an awesome Christmas day! Your Christmas Eve dinner looked marvelous! I will have to remember that for later.
Can't wait for more!

I have a question: Do they film the Christmas Day parade at MK on Christmas Day or does that happen at a different time? Is that why you didn't go into MK?

BabieeMelly · 03-21-2005, 02:06 PM

Sounds like a great Christmas morning, I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the day went!

Hey Dianna! The Christmas Day Parade is not filmed on XMas day, it's filmed in the very begining of December

**chezp** · 03-21-2005, 02:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I have a question: Do they film the Christmas Day parade at MK on Christmas Day or does that happen at a different time? Is that why you didn't go into MK?

[/ QUOTE ]

As has already been mentioned, the Christmas Day parade is filmed early in December. The reason we don't go into Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day is simple - it gets horribly crowded. Of all the parks, we find that the Magic Kingdom is the worst at handling the crowds, while Epcot is the best - and it's our favourite park, so we always spend Christmas Day there.

Cinderbrella · 03-21-2005, 07:45 PM

Wow! What a great update-I'm just getting caught up. Your dinner at Beaches & Cream looked delicious. We have yet to go there!! Your pictures are awesome. EPCOT looked very eerie in the fog!! Sorry that the rides are breaking down, especially TT. Your picture of the poor family that got stuck is pretty funny!

I love that Santa Clause visited your room with goodie sacks. Looking forward to more!!

disneyfan4994 · 03-21-2005, 09:39 PM

Great update. Sounds like a perfect place to spend Christmas day to me.

**chezp** · 03-22-2005, 02:03 AM

Saturday 25 December – part two: not enough Turtle talking and sampling the Mediterranean market…

Mark wanted to go back and see Turtle Talk with Crush again, so we set off for the Living Seas, but again, it took us forever to get in there. From start to getting into Seabase Alpha, it took us 15 minutes, which is crazy for those of us who’ve been there before. We don’t need to go through the same thing again and again Disney – sort it out please!

When we got in there, we got in line for the Turtle Talk, only to be told that the next show was 25 minutes away. So much for continuous shows, as the first one was at 10.00 and the Cast Member was now telling me there wouldn’t be another one until around 10.45. I’m sorry, but there is no way that each show with Crush lasts for 45 minutes – be nice if it did!

So instead we went to see the manatees, my favourites, but the soundtrack that they had running there was very irritating and after I’d heard it three times, I could take no more, so we wandered off.

My favourites – the manatees

It’s still very sad to go to the underwater viewing area in here and see where the ride used to go.

Although they’ve done a lot to improve this pavilion in the last few months, somehow I can’t see them bringing the ride back. I hope I’m wrong, as I still think it would a great addition to this area and I’d certainly welcome it back.

Once we’d finished there, it was still about 15 minutes until the next Turtle Talk with Crush, so we gave up and headed out, especially as there were a lot of people already waiting for the show.

Our next stop was Journey Into Imagination. At first, we thought this too was having technical difficulties, but no, there was just no-one on it, although by the time we got to the ride, we did find three other people in there. This isn’t a bad ride, but if the lack of people carries on, I don’t see this staying for much longer in its current. It’s just never busy and it isn’t attracting the crowds.

We made our way back towards International Gateway, stopping in the UK to get an Epcot Christmas 2004 pin. There, we heard that apparently some parts of the UK had had snow, so no matter how cold the weather got here today, it’s way better than at home. Now do bear in mind that this comment was written at the time, as I write my trip report as I go – remember this comment, as it will come back to haunt me later in the day…

We got to International Gateway and found a boat waiting for us, which was just as well, as there was no way I wanted to walk over to the Dolphin for lunch. Our Priority Seating was for 11.30 and we made perfect time over there. It helped that not many people got on at either the Boardwalk or the Yacht and Beach Club stops.

I asked the Cast Members on boards how busy it had been so far this holiday season and they figured that, so far, it had been surprisingly quiet, but apparently the room bookings for both Disney property and off property for New Year’s Eve was due to exceed the crowd levels that they had on the Millennium.

Now I’ve heard stored about how bad the Millennium was, with Epcot being closed by early morning and staying that way for the rest of the day, so I was glad that we’d chosen to come home before New Year’s Eve. It probably wouldn’t be a pleasant experience for those who would be there, with everything no doubt gridlocked from an early hour.

Now I didn’t know what to expect at the Fresh Mediterranean Market. I booked it for Christmas Day, because it wasn’t in any of the parks and, to be honest, there isn’t much lunch choices at the Disney resorts. I thought that it was close to the Beach Club Villas as well, so that if we decided to get up late, then we could head straight over here. It didn’t hurt that the menu looked like it had some good stuff on it as well.

Well, I can tell you that I found a real goldmine here. We were seated instantly and were told that we’d have brunch, starting with breakfast items and gradually they’d be moving to lunch items, which sounded good to me. The food was excellent, with exotic fruit, cereals, bagels, pastries and superb spreads, one of which was a red pepper one. It all tasted very authentic and I also got myself an omelette, full of vegetables.

Just as I finished that, the lunch food started to appear, along with lots of desserts:

Mark enjoying his brunch

The dessert selection

OK, so some of the dishes were a little hot for me (the peppers were very misleading, full of chilli!

), but overall it was great. I noticed that the cheese was in with the meat and asked if I could have some cheese on its own and a cheese slicer was brought out to cut it up for me. How about that for service?

I was a bit worried thought when the Cast Member told me that she’d no idea what gorgonzola or brie tasted like and wanted me to tell her. I thought all the chefs would know all about all the dishes they were serving, but apparently not. The only downside was that the brie that I got was decidedly past its best. Maybe if the woman knew what it should’ve looked like, she’d have taken it off display.

All in all though, it was an excellent meal and a good choice for Christmas Day, as it wasn’t too busy.

Fresh:

Breakfast 8½ 8
Lunch 8½ 8½
Service 8½ 8½
Atmosphere 8 8½
Value for money 9 9½

Average score – 8.55

The bill, including tip, came to $41.10.

Next: where did this rain come from and when’s it going to stop?