Dreaming of a Disney spring break - part three COMPLETED - Page 23 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
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To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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I wonder why BLT studios are small - after all this is the newest DVC you think and was built from scratch you think they would make them bigger and better. Or perhaps by making them smaller than can get more of them in there and make more money....
Sadly I think you're right with the second sentence....
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Phew... had to get through quite a few pages to catch up! First, I was truly intrigued by your report on the tour. Sounds like it was a special treat -- and I wish they hadn't done away with it already! Nevertheless, thanks for sharing some of the juicy tidbits... I really enjoyed them! As always, your food reviews (and photos) have made me feel hungry! (I think I'll take an early lunch break today, though there's nothing quite as exciting in my fridge.) Sorry you didn't find too many animal friends upon arrival at AKV... hope that changes soon!
It's a real shame about the tour. I hope you found something appealing in your fridge...
Rose and Crown sounded excellent! I haven't been since, I think, 1987. As a kid, I didn't care much for it. But as a grown-up, I think I'd better give it another shot! Glad you got your shopping taken care of, and also glad the room at AKL is much more to your liking! Thanks for that info because I've been trying to pick a studio for my 2013 Goofy marathon trip. I want a couch to relax on after running races and I think AKL will fit the bill perfectly.
I think I could spend my entire vacation in World Showcase and be very happy. I tend to plan my vacations around food! I guess it makes sense that Disney (most tourist places in general) would "Americanize" the food, but still, at least it gives a sense of what the different foods are like in their home countries. I have a huge long list of restaurants I want to try at WDW, but I have an even longer list of countries I want to visit to try their food!
Nice pics of your room. I wonder how the studios are in relation to a regular room, size-wise...I think I may have to check that out myself someday!
I love how "adventurous" you and Mark are driving around places you've never been! I guess a lot of that comes with all your experience in travel, but I still love to see it!
I think we must've been separated at birth - I could stay in World Showcase for our whole vacation and be happy and of course it's all about the food on any vacation!
I never think of it as being adventurous, but I guess now you've said it, maybe we are?
Mind you, having said that, our laws are very diffent both sides of the pond. Sudafed (I'm pretty sure I'm remembering the right medicine) is available over the counter here and friends in the States have told me that it's only available on prescription and even then it's tough to get from the doctors - I think because you can do something to do it to create something illegal, if I'm remembering right?
You can purchase sudafed kind of over the counter - you don't need a prescription but you can only get it from the pharmacy and you have to give your ID and they record that information and you fill out a form. It is a real PIA but when it is the only thing that helps my sinus allergies I do it. So you are limited to pharmacy hours unless you find one that is 24 hours. Sudafed it used in making Crystal Meth, a horribly addictive and sometimes deadly drug that should be wiped off the face of the earth. That is why you can no longer find it in many cold medicines and what few items are available are only through the pharmacy.
I did a little research on the whole Secret not being sold in Europe and apparently it has to do with some of the ingredients in the deoderant that have been banned in Europe, that is why many of our products are not available over there. Apparently the EU has banned over 1100 chemicals used in products where as the US FDA has only banned 10 chemicals so far. So yes you need to stock up when you come over here if that is the product that works best for you. LOL I just hope they don't ban sudafed completely or I will be suffering dearly during allergy season.
I love Millenium Mall. DBF, who grew up in Orlando never shuts up about it!
I was looking at your pics of AKV and my coworker (and Disney buddy) stopped and went "OH!" I replied, "we are staying THERE on our next trip" I haven't been there since it opened!!
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I just finished reading a wonderful adventure. The pictures were all very enjoyable. All the food explanations were so good, I can tell whether or not I would enjoy it. I can almost feel exactly how hot it was too!!!! I am all caught up now and looking forward to reading more!!!!!
I always find it interesting to hear what kind of American products you stock up on to take home. But my next thought was, "How much room do they leave in the their luggage for all those extras?" I don't know about you, but my suitcase is always pushing that 50 lb limit before we even get to WDW.
You can purchase sudafed kind of over the counter - you don't need a prescription but you can only get it from the pharmacy and you have to give your ID and they record that information and you fill out a form. It is a real PIA but when it is the only thing that helps my sinus allergies I do it. So you are limited to pharmacy hours unless you find one that is 24 hours. Sudafed it used in making Crystal Meth, a horribly addictive and sometimes deadly drug that should be wiped off the face of the earth. That is why you can no longer find it in many cold medicines and what few items are available are only through the pharmacy.
I did a little research on the whole Secret not being sold in Europe and apparently it has to do with some of the ingredients in the deoderant that have been banned in Europe, that is why many of our products are not available over there. Apparently the EU has banned over 1100 chemicals used in products where as the US FDA has only banned 10 chemicals so far. So yes you need to stock up when you come over here if that is the product that works best for you. LOL I just hope they don't ban sudafed completely or I will be suffering dearly during allergy season.
Wow! That's really interesting what you found, as DH informed me last night that he'd done some research and what he'd found out was the company who produce it couldn't break into the European market, so pulled out, but then again, I guess they would say that, wouldn't they?
I love Millenium Mall. DBF, who grew up in Orlando never shuts up about it!
I was looking at your pics of AKV and my coworker (and Disney buddy) stopped and went "OH!" I replied, "we are staying THERE on our next trip" I haven't been there since it opened!!
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I just finished reading a wonderful adventure. The pictures were all very enjoyable. All the food explanations were so good, I can tell whether or not I would enjoy it. I can almost feel exactly how hot it was too!!!! I am all caught up now and looking forward to reading more!!!!!
I always find it interesting to hear what kind of American products you stock up on to take home. But my next thought was, "How much room do they leave in the their luggage for all those extras?" I don't know about you, but my suitcase is always pushing that 50 lb limit before we even get to WDW.
We've learnt over the years to bring as many cases as we need to leave some space in them. It's either that or buying another case. I think probably one of our three cases when we arrived was about half full this time, so we just filled that one up with stuff we'd bought.
Tuesday 19 April – part five: a fun Italian dinner
We walked into Tutto Italia, gave our details and our were seated literally two minutes later.
I couldn’t believe it, although things did slow down considerably from that point on. We had Vincenza as our server and he was good, but run off his feet. The place was packed and all the servers seemed to be running around, trying to do things, so drinks refills were pretty slow. He was nice enough and at least I ordered in Italian. He told me that my pronunciation was very good, which was nice to hear.
For appetiser, I went for the “bufala” mozzarella with vine ripened tomatoes and finally found the good stuff. This is obviously where it had been so good before.
Mark got the calamari fritti with spicy marinara sauce and he got a huge pile turn up. It was excellent value for money and we were all very impressed.
For entree, I had the risotto di gamberi (creamy Arborio rice, shrimp, herbs, butter and Parmesan cheese) and that was good, but a bit rich for my tastes and little oily as well.
Mark had the brasato di manzo al vino rosso (red wine braised short ribs, mashed potatoes and vegetables), but they turned up boneless, which was a surprise. He told me that it was some of the best meat he’d had this vacation.
For dessert, the coppetta sottabosco, made up of berries, zabaglione cream gelato and chocolate sauce, which was amazing and so good.
Mark asked for a fruit salad, as there was nothing on the adult menu without cream and got a load of strawberries. Sadly, it doesn’t appear we got a photo of it, but I’m sure you can imagine what it looked like...
We probably finished eating at about 9.40pm, so that meal took a couple of hours from being seated. Of course, we missed IllumiNations, which was a shame, but we didn’t mind too much, as we were enjoying the company and were all chatting away like we’d known each other forever. We laughed so much that evening, it wasn’t true!
Tutto Italia:
Appetiser 9½ 9
Entree 8 9½
Dessert 10 9½
Service 8 7½
Atmosphere 9 9
Value for money 8 8½
Average score: 8.79
We finally headed out into Epcot’s evening Extra Magic Hours. The crowds now were much more manageable and at least it was cooling off a bit. As we walked back, we kept seeing lightning, so we speeded up our pace, but it never came to anything. I got some neat night-time shots on the way back.
Once we were back at Animal Kingdom Lodge, I went into the Zawadi Marketplace to use up the last of our snack credits. We had three left, so I got some Sprite and a box of cookies. Then we had to say goodbye to Gemma and David. We really had had a lovely night with them.
Better was waiting for us at our room, with some amazing night-time activity from the giraffes that we were able to capture on the night time mode on my camera:
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the 90s. The best thing today was dinner at Tutto Italia with Gemma and David. The worst thing today was leaving the car door open and the crowds at Animal Kingdom.
[b]The funniest thing today was our evening meal with Gemma and David. Today we tried going back to the Rose and Crown And the result was it was much better this time. The most magical moment today was watching the Finding Nemo, the Musical.
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I hope you found something appealing in your fridge... 
I guess it makes sense that Disney (most tourist places in general) would "Americanize" the food, but still, at least it gives a sense of what the different foods are like in their home countries. I have a huge long list of restaurants I want to try at WDW, but I have an even longer list of countries I want to visit to try their food!
,
That's really interesting what you found, as DH informed me last night that he'd done some research and what he'd found out was the company who produce it couldn't break into the European market, so pulled out, but then again, I guess they would say that, wouldn't they? 
This is obviously where it had been so good before. 
but I’m sure you can imagine what it looked like... 
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