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Disney, Travel

January 4, 2017 – Race Expo!

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January 4, 2017 – Part One​

Our original plans included a breakfast ADR at 8:15am on this morning, however once we found out that the Race Expo wasn’t opening until noon (as opposed to the 10am we thought), we were able to move our reservation to 9:15am. I will always agree with more sleep! Our alarm went at 7:30, but we hit snooze and slept until a little after 8am. Once I was able to drag myself out of bed, we got ready and headed to the bus stop – which was right across the road from our room – so handy!

I can’t remember if I mentioned it already or not, but we were in building #35 – here’s what it looked like:

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Our room was on the first floor, on the left side of this picture (kind of underneath that staircase that you can see there).

Once we arrived at the bus stop, the internal shuttle came almost immediately! We could have hopped on any bus that came along, but this was just the first one :) We didn’t have a very long ride, the Turtle Pond Bus Stop was the last one before Hospitality House (the main building) – which is where we hopped off. Our breakfast reservation was at Olivia’s Cafe – you can read that review here :)

After we finished eating, we went back to our room and brushed our teeth and packed my purse. Then it was back to the main building so we could catch the shuttle bus to the Race Expo!

We ended up arriving at the ESPN Wide World of Sports around 11:30, and the race expo wasn’t scheduled to open until noon, but quite a few things were already open. We were able to grab our 5k tshirts and bibs with zero wait.

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Once we had our 5k stuff in hand, the line for the half and full marathon had begun moving so we jumped into that line so Luke could grab his half marathon shirt and bib. I love that the race shirts show the parks you run through on the sleeve (Luke’s 10k shirt from last year had Epcot, the half marathon shirts show Epcot and Magic Kingdom and the full marathon has all 4 parks).

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When the 2017 runDisney New Balance shoes were released online, Luke got excited since the Toy Story ones were the exact style of shoe he wears for running. He tried to sign up for the Virtual Queue the night before, but the website wasn’t working properly – by the time he got it to work it kept giving him times in the evening, which wasn’t going to work for us. We decided to stop by anyway, and one employee said she could help us since Luke did technically have a time. Luke knew he wanted the Toy Story ones, and they are awesome!

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The lady helping us asked me if I wanted to try a pair on, and I made a spur of the moment decision and asked for the Haunted Mansion ones ::yes::. I tried them on, and even though I don’t typically wear New Balance shoes (I love my Asics), they were so pretty they just had to come home with me…

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The shoes are pricey, but they are so comfortable! We both wore them on our Disneyland trip at the end of January, and had zero issues or pain. Luke told me that his Toy Story ones are even nicer than all his other sneakers despite being the exact model he always buys. He thinks they might have extra cushioning?

We also spent a small fortune on runDisney merchandise:

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We each bought one of these bright orange shirts. The actual tshirts you get for the 5k are just cotton, but I wanted a technical shirt from the race and this one was really cute :)

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I also bought the 2017 runDisney Christmas ornament, but I don’t have a picture of that…

I loved the runDisney Dooney & Bourke, but I couldn’t justify the price tag since I had just bought myself the Haunted Mansion Dooney a few month prior…

We then caught the bus back to OKW to drop off our purchases, and pack a park bag.

Next: Epcot Part One

Disney, Food Review

Beaches and Cream – Lunch – January 9, 2017

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After reading so many rave reviews about this place, I knew we had to try it! We managed to score a reservation within a few minutes of when we wanted to – not an easy feat, this is a teeny-tiny little place!

It’s located at the Beach Club resort, close to Stormalong Bay. It’s designed to look like an old fashioned soda shop, decorated in pastel colours and retro designs.

The menu is fairly basic – hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.

To start, we both ordered a Vanilla Coke <3 . I love vanilla coke so much, and wish it was available more places.

For my main meal, I went for the Grilled Cheese with Tomato Bisque – with six-cheese blend, $10.50

This might have been the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had. I’m a person of very simple taste, but seriously – this was amazing. The bread was great, the cheese blend was great and the ratio of cheese to bread was perfect! You might laugh, but there really is such a thing as too much cheese, and it completely ruins a sandwich for me. (I love cheese, but there’s a fine balance you need to find in creating a perfect grilled cheese).

The tomato bisque was also wonderful! Luke hates tomato soup, but he tried this and actually loved it. The flavours were fantastic, and my only complaint was that I wanted more!

Luke went for the Beaches Patty Melt – angus beef burger served with sauteed onions, swiss and garlic-peppercorn dressing on rye bread – $16

This is typically served with fries, but Luke decided to switch those out for onion rings. I did steal an onion ring (and pulled the onion out of course – I only eat the batter…), and it was pretty good! I didn’t try his sandwich due to all the onions on it, but Luke said it was good (but not necessarily great). I don’t think he loved it like I loved my grilled cheese, but he ate it all and didn’t really have any complaints.

Luke also decided he wanted a cherry Coke –

While we were waiting outside to be called in and seated, there was a group of 5 friends who were clearly having a good time, and had made up some song/chant about getting the kitchen sink. They were seated shortly after us at a booth beside our little table, and sure enough, they ordered the kitchen sink – scoops of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, cookies and cream and mint chocolate chip ice cream smothered in every topping we have (including a full can of whipped cream!). Also available: chocolate lovers or Neapolitan.  $29

The group noticed me trying to snap a picture of this monster, so they invited me over to get a better shot before they started digging in.

That was obviously way too much ice cream for Luke and I, so we decided instead to share a No Way Jose – a peanut butter and hot fudge delight featuring chocolate and vanilla ice cream, peanut butter and chocolate morsels, whipped cream and a cherry $9.

Not only is there hot fudge, but the peanut butter was also warm and melted. I’m not even a huge peanut butter person, but this was INCREDIBLE. Oh. My. God. Seriously. It’s also huge – 3 generous scoops of ice cream and no shortage of whipped cream – it was more than enough for the two of us to share.

Look at all that peanut butter!

And after we were finished:

This is a place I would not hesitate to return to. It’s a terrible use of credits if you are on the Disney Dining Plan though, as it costs a table service credit – but if paying out of pocket it is a great deal (as far as Disney deals go…)

The total for our meal was $48.17 (we had no discounts, so that is full price), plus tip. It was actually one of our cheapest meals on this trip.

 

 

Disney, Wedding

The Proposal – Fallon’s Version

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Luke and I had discussed marriage a few times over the years, and we both knew it would happen eventually. However, I wanted to leave it completely up to him on when we would get engaged.

I had mentioned to him more than once that I did not want him spending crazy amounts of money on a ring. I’m not a big jewelry person, and I already had the ring I wanted. When my grandparents celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary, my Poppy gave my Nanny a new set of rings. A few years after Poppy died, Nanny gave the set to my mom. My mom wore it for years. Then, in 2015 my Mom handed the set down to me once she received her own from my now-step-dad. So, I had a ring that meant a lot to me, and I wore it everyday for quite awhile (just not on the proper finger). Then, around Halloween 2016 while we were cleaning out some pumpkins I took my ring off so it wouldn’t get covered in pumpkin guts, and placed it into a little dish we had bought in the Dominican a few years back. Then, I just left it sitting on our kitchen island. I thought about it a few times, and how I should put it back on, but I never did.

I had a bit of a suspicion that it would happen in Disney, since it just felt like us, but I had no idea when or how or even which trip it would happen on (we had plans in place to go to both Florida and California in January 2017, and we knew we’d be going back to Florida in January 2018). Before leaving work for Christmas break in December 2016 one of my co-workers was joking with me, “maybe we’ll both come back with new rings on our fingers!” (we were both taking the first two weeks of January off for vacation – I was heading to Florida for our Disney trip and he was off to Hawaii for his wedding). I laughed, but it was something I had considered…

As our trip went on, I pushed the idea farther into the back of my mind – it wasn’t going to happen on this trip. Then, on the second last day of our trip, it happened. We were walking along the pathway between Africa and Asia at Animal Kingdom, when Luke suggested we “go down here! Let’s check it out!”. I was not being very co-operative, I was dealing with a major psoriasis flare up (which I wasn’t diagnosed with for another month), and I was cranky because of my sore skin. I think I said something along the lines of “ugh, why?! There’s nothing down there!”, but I agreed because I love him. A photopass photographer was actually walking down ahead of us, just about to start his shift, so Luke suggested we get some pictures taken. I was so done with pictures at that point – I hadn’t been able to brush my hair in a few days due to the painful skin on my scalp, I was wearing a scarf to hide the rash on my neck (which I ended up on antibiotics for less than a week later), and I was tired (we were already a week deep in our trip). But, again, I agreed – after all, Luke agreed to the hundreds of other Photopass pictures I’d already made him take…

So, we got some cute pictures of the back-side of the Tree of Life. Luke was acting kind of weird, then he reached into his pocket, pulled something out and asked me if we should get more pictures taken with “these” and held out a Just Engaged button.

According to everything we’ve read, these buttons have been discontinued, and Luke knew that ahead of time. So he went on eBay and actually bought a set of them months and months prior to our trip (of course I didn’t find this out until afterwards).

Once my brain comprehended what was happening, Luke dropped to one knee and pulled out his Winnipeg Jets lanyard which had my grandmother’s ring attached – he had managed to get it out of the house and all the way to Florida without me noticing!

Of course I said yes! The Photopass Photographer had quickly realized what was happening, and had us move over slightly due to the sun affecting his photos. So, we don’t have the Tree in the background, but there’s also no glaring sun.

He took at least 20 pictures for us before being the first to congratulate us. Of course, I started checking my MDE app like crazy, waiting for the pictures to show up – and of course they hadn’t shown up 2 hours later, so we actually had to go to the Photopass store by the front gate at Animal Kingdom – we NEEDED those pictures haha. Of course once we explained to the cast members working at the Photopass store, they were so excited and were able to find out pictures right away. They even let us pick one of our favourites and they printed it off for us as a 5×7 – so nice!

I’m so happy Luke proposed in front of a photographer who was able to capture the entire thing <3

 

Disney, Food Review

Trader Sam’s – Disneyland – January 26, 2017

After we booked our flights and knew we would be spending Luke’s birthday in California, I asked him what he wanted for birthday supper. I told him it would be my treat, whatever he wanted – Napa Rose, Steakhouse 55…. but he decided he really wanted to go to Trader Sam’s to celebrate being another year older. So, Trader Sam’s it was!

This Tiki Bar is located by the Disneyland Hotel – not quite inside the hotel, but close to the pool.

We arrived, and were able to find a table right away – we were pretty excited about that! We had been to the one at Walt Disney World a few weeks prior, so we know how busy these places can get.

First things first – some pictures of the drink menu!

I had the Uh-Oa in Florida, so I already had that souvenir glass. I knew I wanted something different this time, so my drink #1 was the Hippopotomai-Tai – light and dark rums, orange curacao, orgeat (Almond) syrup, organic agave nectar and fresh lime juice. Served in a souvenir Tiki glass, $21.

Before you see the picture I’ll tell you exactly what our server told us – even though the menu states that it is served in a souvenir glass, they actually serve it in a normal, plain, boring glass. I did get the Tiki mug to bring home though 🙂

I love that the one I brought home actually says Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim CA on the back – I guess I now need to get one from Florida so I have the set 😉

The drink itself was like all Trader Sam’s drinks – very strong! It was good though, and definitely one I would order again.

Luke’s first drink was Shipwreck on the Rocks – Bourbon with freshly muddled lemon and mint with organic agave nectar. Served in a souvenir tiki mug.$25

This pretty much tasted like straight bourbon. I hate the taste of alcohol, but for some reason have always liked bourbon, so I thought this was pretty good. Luke liked it once he got over how strong it was.

I loved the mug this was served in, and I was really excited to add it to our collection. When you pay for the mug, it shows up on your receipt, and you pick up a brand new mug on your way out of the bar. When they are handed to you, they are boxed up and taped shut. I didn’t open the boxes until we were back in Canada, and instead of getting this awesome barrel-looking glass, they accidentally gave us the Shrunken Zombie Head mug (that was in the picture with my Hippopotomaitai glass). The Zombie Head was going to be one of my first choices on our next trip, and it’s a really cool addition to our collection, but I’m a little sad we didn’t get the Shipwreck One. I’m sure I could have contacted Disney somehow, but I had no idea how to go about that.

When we placed our order for our first drinks, we also ordered food! The first thing to come out was the Pu-Pu Platter : sweet and spicy Asian wings, glazed Portuguese sausage bites, panko-crusted Chinese long beans, tropical slaw and sriracha aioli $17.

The wings were too spicy for me, but Luke really enjoyed them. The sausage bites were really tasty, the sauce on them was so good! I’m not a big coleslaw person, so I have no comments on that. The sriracha aioli wasn’t too spicy, and was so amazing with those beans. Oh, those beans. So, so, so delicious. Shortly after this trip, Luke actually tried making his own version of them using green beans, and they were also awesome. We both agreed we would order this platter to share again.

For my main entree, I ordered the Kalua-Style Pork Flatbread: Pulled pork, barbecue sauce, red onion, cilantro and mozzarella cheese $9.49

This was also really great! I ordered it without the red onions of course… The sauce had a nice flavour, the flatbread was good. I wouldn’t hesitate to order this again either!

Luke’s main entree was the Angus 1/3LB Hawaiian Cheeseburger: Ground Angus burger wit teriyaki sauce, fresh caramelized pineapple, havarti cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato on a multi-grain bun. Includes choice of one side: sweet potato fries, classic french fries, island fruit or tropical slaw $12.49

Luke chose the sweet potato fries as his side. He said this was a really great burger, and he ate it all. According to him, the flavours all worked really well together and he would gladly order this again sometime.

While we were eating, Luke ordered his second drink of the night – a Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum: reserve rum, cream of coconut and pineapple and orange juices dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg. $12 (no souvenir mug).

Of course we had to sing the name of this drink over and over… It was really tasty! Not as strong as our first two drinks, but it was not lacking in rum either! The cream of coconut was interesting, and the cinnamon/nutmeg really brought some new flavours into it. I would order this myself next time!

My drink #2 was Piranha Pool: Strawberry vodka blended with pineapple juice, cream of coconut, strawberry puree and blue curacao $11(again, no souvenir mug)

Mmm, a drink named after bloody water…. The name of this drink aside, it was tasty! I love slushie-type drinks, and I love flavoured vodka – this checked off two of those boxes! Again, the cream of coconut is interesting – I don’t think I love it, but I did finish this drink… I think I need more taste tests before I determine my feelings on it haha.

Luke decided to order one more drink – it was his birthday after all! He asked our waitress for a Murky Mojito but she told him that it was a terrible drink haha. She said most people that order that one end up sending it back, and she can’t figure out why it’s still on the menu. We took her word for it, and he instead went for the Mosquito Mojito: strawberry rum, organic agave nectar, falernum, mint and fresh lime juice topped with soda water $10.75.

I loved the slight Strawberry taste the vodka gave this! This was probably my favourite drink of the night, and Luke seemed to enjoy it as well.

By this point, we had spent about 2 hours at our table and had drank 5 drinks between us. This might not seem like a lot, but those drinks all packed a punch, and neither of us drink all that often. When we stood up, oh boy. We were having a good time!

Since I had just purchased an annual pass, this was my first time getting to use it 🙂 It saved us 15% off the food only, so $5.85. Our bill came to $121.63 after the discount – it was an expensive start to our vacation, but a very tasty one! Happy birthday Luke!

 

 

Disney, Wedding

The Proposal – Luke’s Version

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I don’t recall the exact moment I realized I was going to marry Fallon. But I’ve known for a long long time.

Since I can’t recall any specific instance – let’s post a photo of her here holding a Macho Nacho Helmet from Rexall Place.

See? Wouldn’t you marry the shit out of this woman?

All that said, I knew where we were going to get engaged since January of 2016. Walt Disney World. Shocker, right?

But how? There’s plenty of grand gesture opportunities. But none of them really seemed very us. While getting a rose and champagne with the ring at it at Be Our Guest does seem nifty, I can see how that would go.

Me: Nice night huh. How about that Grey Stuff? Delicious, right?

Fallon: Why are you so jittery and physically attractive tonight?

Me: You know. That’s how I do. You Know How I Do was a Taking Back Sunday song I think. Let’s get champagne!

Fallon: We never drink champagne. What’s going on.

Me: Explodes into a puddle of pure sweat on the floor

Fin

 

So on the Sunday of WDW Marathon Weekend, January of 2016, it all came together.

I’d just finished the 10k race 2 days prior. And we happened to head to Epcot on Marathon race day Sunday. I’ve been a runner on and off since 2012 and did a half marathon in 2013. But I’d never been THAT close to an actual finish line. The 10k had been far and away the best race I’ve ever run. Everything was so seamless and organized and exactly as you’d expect from that Disney brand of service. I shouldn’t have been surprised the full marathon seemed the same. The way the runners who were 42km deep by the time they hit Spaceship Earth were snaking through the open park. The way we as park goers moved through with minimal interruption was so cool. And the way when we were stopped we got to see how gruelling the run had been on the runners. How inspiring it was to see thousands upon thousands of people accomplishing a goal that they’d set out to achieve. How much I’d admired their ability to do all this while dressed like Chewbacca or Ursula the Sea Witch etc. It was all so amazing I was moved to tears. I can recall like 3 other times that happened to me as an adult. Once was a U2 show at Commonwealth Stadium when they went from one to With or Without You (this was an odd one since U2 are firmly in the like but not love column for me) in 2011, another was just a few weeks back when Frank Turner played The Way I Tend To Be and another time when I had a pretty good sandwich.

I knew 3 things that day. 1) I wanted to run this marathon. 2) I needed to run this marathon 3) I want and need to propose to Fallon HERE.

I think Fallon was feeling inspiration joy overdose with me that day. When I explained how I thought I could do it, but it’d take 2 years she was all in. Of course she was. She’s amazing. I should marry her. *ding* thing 3.

Truth be told I’d been certain I needed to propose to her for some time. But we’d just moved into our house that year and planning a wedding wasn’t practical. Ah, love. Such a practical thing, no?

It was such a great day. And we’d had such a great time in Florida, I knew this was the place to get engaged when the time was right.

So… where to start?

Buttons.  That’s where.

Fallon had got one of those Happy Birthday buttons on this trip and wore it like 4 or 5 days. She made me get one too because I have a January birthday as well (Yup, loaded with greatness this guy is) and it wasn’t my thing. But she revelled in that extra pixie dust that accompanies wearing such a bauble. So why not those Just Engaged buttons? Other than they’re more or less discontinued 😐

I found that out via Reddit. They’re not in circulation anymore hey? Well to hell with that. This is 2016. I have eBay and a major credit card. I’mma gonna get me some of these.

So I ordered Just Engaged buttons off the internet and had them shipped to my work. Where they were hid in my desk drawer between some sauce packets and butterfly clips. Now – on to stage 2 of Operation Propose to Fallon the Hottie.

What was phase 2?

I dunno.

I dunno was the plan from March 2016-November 2016 or so.

I wasn’t completely void of an idea. I figured it’s best to get it done in front of a PhotoPass photographer. I mean – there’s literally people with DSLRs all over the place ready to capture moments galore. But… where?

Not the castle. That’s for damned sure. That’s as cliched as the stupid husband trope of tv shows and commercials that’s funny af you guys.

If not the castle… where?

Splash Mountain?  But that’s for Hulkamania poses.

Spaceship Earth? But that’s for Hulkamania poses.

Get help from a face character? Anna would be game. But Elsa would be all “See sis! These 2 have known each other for YEARS! That’s how you get engaged!” and then I’d feel awkward cause I’m way more Team Anna. #finisheachotherssandwiches

Then it came to me. Why not Animal Kingdom? It’s her favourite park. Work up the courage with a Dole Whip + coconut rum or three then we’re all set.

I knew the spot.

The ring was easy. Or was it?

Fallon has this diamond ring she’d gotten from her grandmother. She’d said many times before that this is what she wanted to wear because it means so much to her. I’m pretty sure she’d often thought I wasn’t listening despite the not-so-subtle hints. But through all the phone-looking-at I had retained that knowledge.

Fortunately she’d taken it off around Halloween when we were gutting some pumpkins. Yes – they were Disney themed.

I was concerned she’d remember she took it off and put it back on before we headed back to the World. I’d had a Plan B where I took a photo – sent it to Lisa and had her obtain some fugazi costume jewellery version of it. Plus a Plan where I bought a ring from somewhere on property. As well as a Plan D where we used the Fuel Rod (these mammajammas are a frickin’ lifesaver and a half).

She didn’t put it back on from Halloween through New year’s Day though. On the morning we left for Florida this past January I hurried where the ring was hidden downstairs, attached it to a Winnipeg Jets lanyard (for easy transport and handy backpack access) and stowed it in my carry on. Along with the Just Engaged Buttons.  And the Just Married ones because the eBay guy sold those together.

The initial plan was to propose on our first Animal Kingdom day. AK was a zoo. I mean… it is a zoo too. But that day. Woof. The busiest park day of the entire trip. The PhotoPass photographers in front of the tree of life were swamped. That’s fine. That wasn’t the spot anyhow.

We’d planned for 2 days at AK. With FP+ on day 1 for Everest, Dinosaur, and Festival of the Lion King. Plus a 10:45 at Tusker House. Tusker House BTW – best character meal hands down. The point of this paragraph is there wasn’t a plan to head to the Kilimanjaro Safaris and the spot was between Asia and Africa.

No matter what I tried to do that day we didn’t make our way to the spot. “Let’s go see the naked mole rats” “Wanna see the Gorillas?” “Hey, how about we go to this specific out of the way PhotoPass spot that gets the backside of the Tree of Life in the background for no apparent immediate reason?”

Ugh.

It just didn’t happen. I considered saying Eff it! and proposing at the photographer with Everest in the background. But it didn’t feel right. And there were so. many. people.

It wasn’t right. I wanted it to be and we had a great day. Fallon got to FaceTime her grandmother with Mickey Mouse at Tusker House, we had awesome seats for Festival of the Lion King, we got a better perspective on how it’s tough to be a bug. Solid day on the whole. But Tuesday.  Tuesday I was gonna get it done. Three cheers to procrastination!!!

So Tuesday was kind of a blur. We entered the park through the Rainforest cafe because we know WTF is up. Then headed to the safaris because we were a little later arriving and had a fastpass. I remember being nervous, checking my pocket for the Jets lanyard several times. I remember being relieved to see a PhotoPass photographer approaching the spot just as we were getting there. He seemed grumpy but c’est la vie. So we get some shots all normal like and I reach into the pouch of my hoodie for the Just Engaged button. Time to piss or get off the porta-potty.  I said something along the line of “How about we get some photos with these? I showed it to Fallon and could tell she was processing what was happening slower than she should have. She had no idea somehow. I say this because while my fiancee is a wonderful woman, she’s not much of an actress. She was shocked.

It’s funny how some of the most important moments of your life go by almost in fast-forward. I truly can’t remember what I said. I’m the emotional one in this duo who’s prone to babbling. But Fallon – waterworks. Like Igu…Igudal…The Falls from Soarin’. I just remember getting down on one knee and never being so sure of anything in my life.

We had some time before heading over to the safari. So we started sending the appropriate texts, making phone calls and changing the ol’ relationship status. Engagement Day is like winning the Facebook lottery. Holy cow. Who knew so many people were paying attention? FYI – once you have more than 200 likes – you can trade them for a medium pizza.

And that’s the story as I remember it right now. I’m the luckiest man I know.

Oh this is Luke by the way. Fallon’s blog. Featuring me right here right now. I love her. She’s the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be. And now she’s an enemy of Bret the Hitman Hart. But she’s engaged too. To me. Muahahahahahaha!!!

Disney

Epcot Food

This is a large park, with a huge focus on eating and drinking. There are no shortage of options to satisfy every taste and budget.

Quick Service:

  • Electric Umbrella – burgers, nuggets, etc
  • La Cantina de San Angel – tacos, nachos, etc
  • Liberty Inn – nuggets, salad, etc
  • Lotus Blossom Cafe – chinese staples – orange chicken, egg rolls, steamed rice, etc
  • Kabuki Cafe – sushi, kakigori, etc (snacks)
  • Katsura Grill – Japanese teriyaki, udon, ramen, etc
  • Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe – Norwegian sandwiches, baked goods, etc
  • Sommerfest – German menu (bratwurst, pretzels, etc)
  • Sunshine Seasons – HUGE menu, sandwiches, pork, chicken, etc. Lunch review from 2016 here
  • Tangierine Cafe – Moroccan quick serve. Shawarma, etc
  • Yorkshire County Fish Shop – British fish & chips

Table Service:

  • Akershus Royal Banquet Hall – Norwegian inspired princess character dining
  • Biergarten – German inspired buffet
  • Chefs de France – french-inspired menu
  • Coral Reef – Seafood heavy menu
  • Garden Grill – all-you-care-to-enjoy family style meal with characters (Chip, Dale, Farmer Mickey and Pluto). Revolving restaurant. 2016 dinner review here, 2017 dinner review here.
  • La Hacienda de San Angel – Mexican restaurant. 2017 review here.
  • Le Cellier – Canadian signature steakhouse. Amazing poutine with truffles! 2017 review here.
  • Monsieur Paul – French signature restaurant.
  • Nine Dragons – chinese food – spare ribs, honey chicken, etc
  • Restaurant Marrakesh – Moroccan food
  • Rose and Crown – British restaurant – fish & chips, bangers & mash, shepherd’s pie, scotch eggs, etc
  • San Angel Inn – Mexican restaurant located inside the pyramid.
  • Spice Road Table – Moroccan
  • Tepan Edo – Japanese Hibachi restaurant
  • Toyko Dining – Japanese sushi, etc
  • Tutto Italia Ristorante – traditional Italian food
  • Via Napoli – Neopolitan style pizza. 2017 review here.
Disney, Food Review

Garden Grill – Supper – January 4, 2017

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We enjoyed this meal so much on our January 2016 trip that we made it one of the few repeat restaurants on our January 2017 trip. We also figured it would be a good option for the night before our 5km race – not that a 5km is that hard, but I knew I didn’t want to be eating greasy, deep-fried foods the night before my first ever runDisney event.

We checked in for our 4:50 reservation pretty much on time, and didn’t wait long before being led to our table – a 4 seater on the top level (same as the year before). According to the time stamp on the following picture, we were at our table by 4:56 (with a cute hidden Mickey formed out of a plate and 2 bowls).

For those not familiar, Garden Grill is a pre-set menu served at your table family style. The restaurant itself revolves around The Land – but it is very slow and you barely notice the movement.

The first thing your server brings to your table are the warm buns – which are fairly basic, but I will rarely complain about warm white bread served with soft butter!

Next up is the salad, some of which is made with ingredients grown by Disney themselves. Immediately, we placed all of the egg, the radishes and the cherry tomatoes on Luke’s plate, I don’t like any of those things haha. But, there’s still plenty in this salad for me to eat – fresh mixed greens, cucumbers, bacon!, shredded carrots, etc. I also like the light dressing they put on this. I’m pretty sure we cleaned out this entire bowl.

Then the main platter comes out – turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, sausage and pot roast. The presentation was different from the previous trip, and the beef option was different, but everything was still so delicious!

They also drop off some side dishes – sweet potato fries and mac n’ cheese with Goldfish crackers.

Since it is a family-style meal, you can ask for seconds of any item you wish – we asked for more green beans and pot roast. We were both hungry clearly – here’s the empty plate that had our second helping of beef and beans haha –

Here’s the picture Luke took of our food:

I tried the mac and cheese again this year – I’m still not a huge fan… The sweet potato fries are ok, but kind of unnecessary with everything else. The mashed potatoes were good and creamy, the turkey was nothing special, but we ate it all, the gravy on it was fairly standard turkey gravy.  The stuffing was good. I let Luke eat all of the sausage, since I’m not a huge fan (and it wasn’t huge anyways). The green beans were clearly cooked in lots of butter/oil – making them delicious! And the pot roast was so tender – yum!

Once you’re stuffed, they bring out dessert:

A mixed berry shortcake. This is sooo good! There are large sugar granules on the cake which is just so amazing mixed with the tartness of the berries. We weren’t able to finish this, but we made a decent dent in it!

Of course, this is also a character meal! So while you are eating, Chip, Dale, Pluto and Farmer Mickey are making their rounds to say hello.

This was the tiniest little Mickey! I’m only 5’2, and you can see above that I’m taller than this Cast Member…

This is not a cheap meal, as with all character meals the cost is $45/person. You leave stuffed though! We will definitely eat there again at some point.

Also – there is a hidden Mickey in the mural on one wall. It’s a tough one, but once you see it, you can’t un-see it!

 

Empties

Empties – October 2016-January 2017

These 4 months were actually fairly decent for finishing off products in our house!

Bath & Body Works Hand Soaps – this is basically the only brand of hand soap we use, and there’s usually 7 bottles of it on the go at any given point in our house (3 bathroom, 2 bottles in each – you need variety!, plus a bottle in the kitchen). I really enjoyed the smell of all 4 of these ones.

Veet – because who wants hairy legs? Let’s burn that hair off with chemicals!

Herbal Essences Shampoo – that bottle was huge, and lasted forever.

Live Clean Body Wash – this was unscented and mild, but lathered up nicely.

Colgate Toothpaste – my favourite toothpaste! This stuff is one of the cheapest ones out there, but I love it.

Foil samples – toothpaste (again, my fav kind!), Tresemme shampoo/conditioner and Crabtree & Evelyn hand cream (this stuff smelled really nice!)

Normally I wouldn’t include deodorant, but this one will be one of the last regular ones I ever use. I’ve almost completely made the switch to organic deodorant these days. I don’t actually know if it’s better, but it has to be better for you.

Julep – No Limits Cream – I really liked this moisturizer (once I figured out how to get it out of the container). Once I get through my insane collection of face moisturizers, I would consider purchasing this one.

Julep – DD Creme – I’m sure this would have been nice, but they sent me the wrong shade (it was way too dark for my pale skin), and then I forgot about it so it just sat buried beneath my other makeup until it went bad. Opps.

The little bottle was a sample of face moisturizer. I have dry skin, and recently diagnosed psoriasis – I go through a ton of moisturizer lately.

Bread & Butter Daily Face Shave – this was Luke’s. He seems to enjoy this brand, he’s had it a few times now.

The next two bottles were leave in stuff for my hair. I never really notice much of a difference when I use these things, but I never style my hair or put product in it, so I’m not the best judge.

The last bottle was conditioner.

That little pink bottle was some weird face product sample I received in a subscription box. It has a bunch of warnings all over it and seems like serious business – I didn’t like the feel of it on my face at all.

Origins face wash – Luke used this, as it was designed for oily skin. He used it all, so it must have been ok.

The middle bottle was a hotel sample of body wash.

The top one is Lush, Angels on Bare Skin. Meh, not my fav from there.

Little perfume/cologne samples –

Azzaro for Him – Luke has a full size bottle of this, it’s ok

Yves Saint Laurent  L’Homme – Luke owns the full sized bottle of L’Nuit de L’Homme (which is just a variation of this one). The one he owns smells amazing, and is better than this one.

Calvin Klein Euphoria – I own a full sized bottle of something from the Euphoria collection, but I don’t think it’s this exact one…

Disney, Travel

January 26, 2017 – Luke’s Birthday!

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Guest author (Handsome) Luke Ant… we don’t put full names on the Internet. So Luke Hasselhoff

Note: anything Italicized is written by me, Fallon. 

January 26th 2017 was but a wonderous day. Long known as the celebration of the birth of Canada’s greatest superstar – Wayne Gretzky. As well as star of Ellen’s Energy Adventure Eileen Degeneres, Brian Fallon of the Gaslight Anthem, one of the Legion of Doom guys… Animal I think. Plus Eddie Van Halen.  And me.  The Eddie Van Halen of being me.

Anyhoo… this year Fallon decided she wanted to celebrate my birthday at Disneyland. So I’m all sure – why not?!?! I mean – Disneyland for my birthday. Heck yeah.

That morning we awoke at the ungodly early hour of like 8AM.  *shudder* And trudged our way to Edmonton International Airport. Direct to LAX was in our future. Or so we thought. Because you know, that’s actually what happened.

*Once we got through customs at the YEG airport, we went for our old faithful at the US Terminal – Quiznos. Traditional on Rosemary Parmesan bread for me, and Mesquite Chicken on the same bread for Luke. Sorry, I only took a picture of mine. Also note – none of the disgusting things like onions are on it 🙂

We had tons of time before our flight left, so I grabbed a few magazines – wedding and hockey! It kept me entertained on the flight. 

I had pre-ordered and pre-paid for food on the flight – once again our old faithful of WestJet flights – the ham and swiss croissant. I’ve ate a lot of these in my day.

We get to LAX and in my pursuit of a Pepsi (you’re not truly celebrating America until you’ve had a soda made with high-fructose corn syrup) – we veered too far away from our SuperShuttle pickup point.  Whoops. BTW the bathroom trip that accompanied OperationCorn Pepsi Pursuit was glorious. I heard harps and shit. Literally.

Anyhoo, we get picked up in the shuttle by a guy who pretended it didn’t bother him that we weren’t at our proper pickup point because we pre-tipped and after picking up some other weary travellers were on our way to the Anaheim Ramada Maingate North. We get there and it’s definitely in the top 4 of Orange County Ramada hotels. I tell you what.  They let us check in early by a couple minutes. I could tell the clerk was all about throwing caution to the wind and playing by his own rules.

The room was nothing fancy, but it was fine – especially for the price we paid on Hotwire!

It’s time to get Fallon’s super-duper ultra-platinum pass that so few ask for the folks at the gate are all but guaranteed to drop a “Let me get my manager” when you ask about it.

So after choosing the worst line 2-3 times, we get to the counter and Fallon asks about this supercalifragilisticexpialidocious annual pass and the cast member is all “Uh… lemme get my manager.”

Medium story short – we get it. Fallon’s major credit card is super stoked about this endeavour.

Now we’re hangry af. Let’s get to Trader Sam’s.

It’s our first venture all the way through Downtown Disney. We get to the Disneyland Hotel. And don’t get me wrong. It’s not the value of the Ramada Maingate North  through h-o-t-w-i-r-e, hotwire.com.  But it is clearly amazing. I must stay there one day. Hopefully after some sort of benefactor finds this posts and offers to set us up there. Great Expectations style. Minus all the other shitty things about Great Expectations.

We saunter into Trader Sam’s and find a seat. A Table for 4.  There’s 2 of us. As Canadians – this puts us at quite an impasse. We know seats in this venue are at a premium and sitting outside is foolhardy.  Yeah I said it. Sorry for the salty language. So we take the seat. That’s right America. 2 Canucks took your 4 spots. Only because we rationalized it because we were about to order a bounty of pricy deliciousness.

Fallon wants to get into the specifics of the meal in another POST. I typed that in caps so she can hyperlink the shit out of it later. (*I’ve now hyperlinked the shit out of it, just click on the word POST up above).

So we have drinks. Then appies. Pupu style. Then Drinks. Then supper/lunch. Then slizzard. Then instead of staying there all night we realize we’re $120US deep so maybe it’s time to call an audible and change up the evening’s plans. Especially since we’re that level of tipsy where it’s sunshine and rainbows and if people stopped drinking here there’d be 87% less alcohol related dumbassness in the world.

So we head out, look at some shops, don’t buy kickass cool Star Wars socks because we just spent that money on Pupu, then Fallon’s all – wannu see movie?

Sure.  There’s an AMC in Downtown Disney. Let’s do that. We choose La La Land because we’d heard grumblings that it’s a critical darling so beloved that one day it may even win the Oscar for Best Picture for 2.75 minutes. We buy 2 tickets. It was like $29US or something (See tipsy). I’m all “This is what movies cost us in Canadian funds. What a racket?!”

We get a small popcorn and I demand an Icee because those aren’t available in Canada because our slushie drinks aren’t carbonated for some reason. It’s prolly the government’s fault. I choose blue raspberry. Because blue raspberries are definitely a thing that exist in real life. This was such a tiny little popcorn! And so expensive! It actually cost basically the same as it would in Canada, but once you factor in exchange rate – gross.

Before we take our seats, Fallon calls her grandmother because she wants to wish me a happy birthday. It was the last time we ever spoke. She passed away shortly after. There’s an unexpected bummer, right? It’s true. She was a remarkably sweet woman and I miss her.

So yeah… La La Land. The theatre was decent and thankfully the American cinema spares you of 11-14 actual commercials before the suble commercials/trailers kick in. We see it. It’s a delightful yarn. The stupid people behind us didn’t like the ending. But they were vapid and they can suck a butt.

After that we made our way back to the main entrance of Disneyland, summoned an Uber, headed home and hoped the “oh there’s a 12% chance I can get knifed in the parking lot of this hotel” had properly dissipated. It did. Neither of us got knifed. We partook in the background of some random musical number but hey – that’s what happens when you’ve gone back to Cali (Cali). It was a decent musical number. 6.5 out of 10.