At some point I need to stop eating

The food and wine festival fun has continued at Epcot. I just keep eating, and eating, and eating.

There was the cheese plate from the Irish booth.

There was also Kiwi lamb meatballs, German sausage and pretzels, Brazilian pork belly and Greek spanakopita. There was even a dessert lap trying the Irish chocolate pudding and the chocolate cherry mousse.

That nights concert was Sister Hazel, you may remember them from their one hit 'All for you' back in the '90s. I officially knew only the one song from that show. 

Friday morning was more food (just for a change). As part of the Food and Wine festival I had a ticket to go and have brunch with the Cake Boss himself, Buddy Valastro. 

After a lovely brunch of quiche and pork belly, Buddy came out to talk about his family, and the show and answer questions from the audience. I didn't know a lot of the backstory, so it was interesting to learn about how he came to take over the family business and just how much he has taken Carlos Bakery from a family business to an empire with 11 bakeries, three tv shows and now a restaurant in Las Vegas. The best part was we got to try the famous Carlos Bakery cannoli.

Turns out the secret is in the special mix of cheeses in the cannoli (oh and the fact that the cannoli is fried in LARD!).

Knowing that I had the Wine & Dine half marathon coming up on the weekend I hit up the Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort to try the famous Tonga Toast. Never had it but they rave about it on every Disney food blog and message board. It. Was. NUTS.

That is a two inch thick piece of bread, stuffed with bananas, fried, and then covered in cinnamon and sugar and served with bacon and maple syrup. Even for me this was taking French toast too far. I'm not ashamed to say I couldn't eat the whole thing.

I wandered past this in the same hotel and wondered if they were borrowing words from Melanesia at the Polynesian hotel, or if some words were common across the Pacific...

Last week was also the launch of the Osborne Family Christmas Lights at Hollywood Studios.

The display includes around 3 million lights. The lights were started back in Arkansas. Mr Osbourne started with around a million lights on his own house in respond to a request from his daughter to light up the whole house. She liked it so much he eventually bought the houses on either side and had a three million light display. He ended up taking is down in 1995 after six neighbours sued him and the Supreme Court shut it down. DisneyWorld heard the story and offered to take the display and put it up on their backlot residential street in Hollywood studios. It has been there now for 20 years, but this year will sadly be its last, with the area about to be demolished to make room for the new Star Wars land.

So Saturday night was the main event - the runDisney Wine & Dine half marathon. The weather has been insane. Mid-30s and humidity over 90%. Whilst the 15,000 of us were in the waiting area a lovely cool breeze appeared (the weather change was dramatic). Suddenly the locals looked a little panicked. Before we knew it the entertainment stopped and staff were announcing an evacuation. We all got shifted out of the field and into the building that houses the baseball field. Apparently a pretty intense lightning storm was on its way. As per Disney policy, everything within ten miles of a lightning strike gets suspended for safety (fireworks at parks also got delayed). We spent almost an hour locked down, the whole time pretty sure that the whole race would be cancelled. We were eventually let out and told the race was going ahead, but when we got to the start line we discovered it had been cut short and we would only be going 7.1 miles and not the expected 13.1. The heat had come back for the race though, so it ended up being a good thing we didn't run the whole distance. In completing this race I also completed Disney's Coast 2 Coast challenge, so there was a bonus medal at the end for me.

Sunday was the first Mickeys Very Merty Christmas Party of the year.

The whole of the Magic Kingdom had all its Christmas decorations out.

Where the Halloween party had the trick or treating, for the Christmas party you needed to look for a candy cane.

Where you got to a candy cane you got free and endless hot chocolate and cookies (snicker doodles!).

Elsa had again taken over the castle and made it all icy for the festive season.

There was also a pretty impressive Christmas fireworks show.

And with that, another trip to DisneyWorld was over. Time to head to Miami.

Food & Wine & the Mouse

I'm not always on holidays, I swear. I know, hard to believe me when I say that whilst I am on holidays...

Anyway, that aside, this time around I jumped on four planes and flew 21 hours to get from Port Moresby to Orlando. As a single unbroken journey, it's long. Really, really long. I was wide awake the whole way to LA. I hit up the movie selection on the plane. Note to self, don't watch movies with the words 'dying girl' in the title on a plane. I sobbed through the dinner service. The flight attendant called over the purser (exact words '2K is a mess') who in turn made sure I had an ample supply of tissues and made some film suggestions from the comedy section. For the rest of the flight the crew referred to me as 'the crying girl'. Ate the worlds most expensive doughnut at LAX (AUD$9.70 or PGK21) and then managed to sleep the whole way to Miami. Turns out you see some weird things flying on Halloween. Like this woman at LAX...

She also put on fluffy flamingo slippers after security (TSA mustn't like fluffy slippers...).

Fianlly made it to Orlando, and headed out to Walt Disney World first thing the next morning. Turns out daylight savings ended the night I arrived, so got an added bonus of an extra nights sleep (and puzzled looks at breakfast when I apologised for being an hour late...).

Day 1 was a Magic Kingdom day. It was also the final Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party. Now here is my question, why must all women's Halloween costumes be the slutty interpretation? I think I saw the slutty variation of every Disney Princess that ever lived. There was also slutty angels and Devils, slutty villains, even a slutty butterfly (which perplexed me a little). Where I drew the line was seeing a kid that couldn't be more than 10 or 11 wearing a slutty Alice in Wonderland costume. Child services should be called at this point. There were some great costumes. Steampunk Tinkerbell was awesome, and there were lots of families where Mum was the 'before' shot (provincial belle, Cinderella in rags etc), Dad was Prince Charming, and the little girl was the Princess version of Mum. Lots of families doing the Inside Out thing too (bizarrely Dads were all Anger...).

The best part of the Halloween parties is the trick or treating. You go find an organge orb in the park like this one

And they give you candy. Lots of candy. This is MY candy.

So far I've only eaten one. Mostly because I had already overdosed on sugar. Like this guy.

The whole park was decked out for the event, however I am assured it will all be Christmas decorations by the weekend.

The evening was capped off by fireworks at the castle.

15 hours in my feet and I crashed into bed, only to get back up today to do it again. I had breakfast at the drive in theatre at Hollywood Studios.

Followed by several hours riding Toy Story Mania (new high score - 190,800!). Then it was time to head to Epcot for the International Food and Wine Festival.

This year, you can buy a tasting pass, which gets you 8 dishes of your choice and reserved seating at that nights concert (they have one act a day who do three shows a night).

Food choice were tough today - it was a billion degrees. I saw two older people collapse during the course of the day and at least one baby that was so overheated it looked like it had been boiled. It was not pleasant. 

I found the cheese booth and tried a trio of cheese...

Next up, needing something cold, I headed to the Chew Lab for their liquid nitro dessert. It was okay, others were raving about it, but I've never been a fan of chocolate ice cream (seriously).

I hit up China for some chicken pot stickers...

Then some kielbasa at Poland...

A croissant stuffed with snails from France...

Then a festival fav, the Canadian cheese soup (which is surprisingly spicy)...

And then finally, on the recommendation of Melissa, I tried the Farm Fresh booth loaded Mac and cheese, which was a winner.

Still got tons more to try when I head back on Thursday.

The concert tonight was Boyz II Men. They are well and truly past the boyhood stage at this point.

I spent some quality time cooling off hiding in the on site aquarium (it's airconditioned, I didn't try to hang with the Sharks - just to be clear). I was there for feeding time to watch the fishies mob the poor handler trying to feed them all. There is a diver in there somewhere...

They have an Australia booth, which I will be boycotting. Two things. Firstly, we eat PRAWNS. WTF is a 'shrimp'? It has no place on the menu at an Australian booth. Also, what is 'yellow cake' and what is it doing in a lammo? Sponge is what you put in a lammo...

Time to head back to the hotel and the comfort of airconditioning (and get accosted on the monorail ride home by a hyperactive five year old dressed as Princess Jasmine who wanted to tell me all about her birthday - parents were a little embarrassed about her harassing a stranger and apologised profusely). Tomorrow is Animal Kingdom day. Goodnight!

Candy, more candy and bizarre foods

Well this is coming to you from 35,000 feet, somewhere between Orlando and Los Angeles. In flight internet, a marvel of the modern world. So where did I leave the Disney adventure?

I think I left it somewhere near candy. Lottttttts and lots of candy. See, I went to mickeys not so scary Halloween party.

Not everything is open, but they only let so many people through the door, so the rides that are operating have almost no wait. Not surprisingly, the most popular ride was the Haunted Mansion. There were "dance parties" scattered around. A 'villain mix-n-mingle' near the castle, and a monster dance party in Tomorrow land (if you look closely you can see some of the Monsters Inc characters dancing away with the kids).

Everyone was given a bag and a map. You searched the parks for glowing orange orbs.

The orbs mean candy! If you were really lucky you found one of the 2 candy trails, which were a 500 meter or so stroll where every few meters there was another cast member handing you candy. Now, I was cool with the little kids getting a bit excited and pushing in front of me. I don't take issue with that. What I did take issue with though was the grown ups, people old enough to be my parents, pushing in front of kids and then not waiting for the cast member to get the candy, actually just grabbing it themselves and shoving it in their bags. The worst part of that was I twice saw very young (teenage looking) cast members get reprimanded by mangers for letting it happen. Really not cool.
Earlier in the day I had learned that Disney orders the equivalent of 2 tonnes of candy for each of these parties. There was everything from craisins to snickers to three musketeers to skittles to tootsie rolls and something called a whopper. Which I tried and it is nothing but a poor mans out of date malteeser. They went in the bin.

There was a special parade that night - led by the headless horseman! We were the treated to a special light show at the castle.

This was followed by the boo to you fireworks (man that song was a pain to get out of your head!).

The stroll back to the bus was a killer. I had been at the Magic Kingdom since 8am, it was now 10:30pm. My feet were contemplating a revolt, and I can't decide if I was over tired, or if it really was a man in a Fred Flinstone costume sitting next to me on the bus ride home...

I took what is called a "Keys to the Kingdom" tour earlier that day. It was one of the more fascinating things I have done in a long time. It is for adults only (for reasons that will become obvious) and we were taken around the park for five hours by a cast member named Claire who was so amazingly passionate about her job that you could not help but getting caught up on her every word. We learned all about Walt and his brother Roy and the thought and imagineering that went into Walt Disney World. We got the secrets of two of my fav rides and then got to try to find those secrets on the ride itself. We even got to go backstage and down into the tunnels that are under the Magic Kingdom. We even learned things like why the rubbish bins were where they were (which was more interesting than it sounds). I can't tell you more than that, because we were asked not to say or write anything that may be seen or heard by a child and "spoil the magic", nor could we take pictures, but it was an absolute highlight.

Another highlight came on Friday morning. I dragged my tired feet out of bed, and hit Epcot for a "Kitchen Memories" lunch - a lunch where a well known chef cooks for you and tells you about their food memories. Mine was with Mr Bizarre Foods himself Andrew Zimmern.

We were all slightly terrified about what he would make us eat - and he didn't disappoint. First course? Frogs legs!

They were tasty, and I ate the whole thing! Main was a little less challenging, his fav prawns, and then for dessert we had his family berry crumble. We got to meet him and have a chat afterwards and it turns out he is super keen on a show in PNG - he has already tried twice to get there.

That evening I went to the other end of the scale and went to the 3D dessert party. This is a party where they feed you dessert. And nothing else. Because after the candy fest the night before I needed more sugar.

My fav thing of the night (and apologies for the crappy pictures - it was really dark) was the ice cream and cake hot dog.

We finished the night with fireworks - complete with 3D glasses that made Mickey Mouse explode out of every firework. Coolest trick ever!

When I got home that night the housekeeping staff had been at it again with the towel animals. There was a ray in my bath tub!

I also got a chance that evening to go to an Air Supply concert. Nothing like a big "all out of love" sing along with aging rockers. There should be an age limit on leather pants though. Just sayin.

I finished up today with a few more dishes from the food and wine fest. I even ate the escargot. Snails AND frogs legs in one day. The French would be proud.

Sadly, it is now time to go home. Though the fun part of going home is getting to start planning the next adventure. Until next time, thanks for reading, I am always so pleasantly surprised when I see the hits on this site :)

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Pumpkins, apples and The Mouse

Do you know who I think is the richest person in Florida? The person who had the genius vision to start up the company that hires those motorised scooters out to tourists who think they can do theme parks without walking a step. I have easily seen hundreds of them a day. Multiply that by four parks just at Disney, add in Universal and Sea World and I suspect there would be thousand of them hired out on a given day. Saw one of their billboards today and prices start at $25 per day. Talk about a license to print money. Wish I'd thought of that, would help soften the hatred I have of those scooters...

Monday morning started with a bang. I hit the road to the Magic Kingdom for a Royal engagement - breakfast at Cinderella's castle. It was sugar and spice and all things nice - literally.

One of the signature items on the menu is the caramel apple stuffed french toast. I can't walk past a menu item like that - though I should have. It was stuffed not only with the caramel apple pieces, but also cream cheese. I think one bite gave me my weekly recommended daily intake of sugar! The portion was thankfully small. I had many a visitor at my table including Jasmine, Aurora, Ariel and Snow White. The Princesses just added to the sugar overload.

Following breakfast I headed out to check out all the Halloween decorations.

The whole of Main St was decorated for fall.

Since I was here last they have opened the new Fantasyland, including the new Beauty and the Beast section. I had lunch at the beasts castle - where they try to replicate the magic of the dining scene in the movie. It is still a mystery to me exactly how my food found me in that giant place (yes, my food had to find me!). For dessert I had the "masters cupcake". It was chocolate cake frosted with 'the grey stuff'. You should try the grey stuff, it's delicious. Don't believe me? Asked the dishes (double points to anyone who started to sing the last two sentences).

I went on a bit of an adventure around in the afternoon and was flabbergasted as to what Americans do to apples (beyond my sugar fest breakfast). They even dress some apples up as pumpkins!

In fact they will do apples as almost anything - frogs, cars, monsters...

One of the other big changes since my last visit is that they now have a Starbucks in the Magic Kingdom. Who knew that not even the mouse was immune from having old school coffee shops turn into a Starbucks.

Tuesday I went on safari at the Animal Kingdom. I saw lions and cheetahs and elephants and zebras and giraffes and dinosaurs. Yup, dinosaurs.

At lunch I was wooed by a crazy menu item. The mac and cheese hot dog. Yes, these is a hot dog sausage under the pasta. My tummy did not feel so great that afternoon. Could be the dinosaur ride, could be the the hog dog - it may need to remain a great mystery of the universe.

Despite the self inflicted tummy ache, I hit the food and wine fest for dinner. The entertainment tonight was courtesy of the Go-Go's, featuring Belinda Carlise.

The booths that supplied dinner included Greece, Argentina, and Poland - the latter came with a sour cream 'hidden Mickey'.

For dessert - I ventured to Australia.

Coming up next - too much Halloween candy, and a 3D dessert extravaganza (a post which has to be delayed being written by at least 24 hours because the mere thought of what I ate tonight is making me feel not so great...). There will also be a surprise appearance by a tv star. Stay tuned.

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