Our Hurricane Matthew Weekend : Part 4

By Nick

Saturday 10/9/16

Barbie and I arrived at Epcot early, hoping to say hello to our friend Kathy, who work's at the front entrance. And we did!

We were admitted a little before 9am, and proceeded with the throngs to Soarin' Around the World.
The first time we had ridden, 3 days earlier, we were seated on the far right. This time we were lucky enough to get the exact center seats.

Unlike the first version of Soarin,' there is absolutely a difference in experience depending on where you sit. There was considerable distortion in the image, especially noticeable during certain scenes featuring monuments, the Eiffel Tower in particular, when seated off to the side.
My Disney Exchange Podcast co-hosts and I discussed this on a recent episode, and speculated as to if this is dependent on which theater you get. More investigation is clearly required!
Except for the distortion, it is a wonderful attraction, but...I miss the original.

We met up with Jill and Zach at Seasons before riding Imagination followed by our first visit to the DVC lounge located within the pavilion.

We spent awhile there enjoying this wonderful new DVC perk celebrating the programs 25th Anniversary, but I was disappointed to find out from a Cast Member that it may not be a permanent fixture!

This little rest was followed up by hitting several Food and Wine kiosks, as well as a stop in Germany for a more substantially sized beer than those offered at the booths.

We headed to Animal Kingdom late in the afternoon, making a stop at the Dawa Bar for Mojitos, while we waited for our Kilimanjaro Safari Fastpass window to open up, followed by a walk through the Pangani Forest trail.

Dinner that evening was at the recently opened Tiffins.
I had not read any reviews, and didn't really know what to expect, but will say this. I had one of the most delicious pieces of fish I ever had in my life. The halibut was amazing. The entire dish was fantastic.

Before leaving the park for the evening, we visited Mickey and Minnie at the Adventurers Outpost, an appropriate end to a somewhat adventurous trip!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Episode 81 of The Disney Exchange Podcast-We Love the Nightlife

By Nick 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download 

The Disney Exchange is Lisa, Dave and me! It's really great, we enjoy doing it (mostly), it's often funny (if I do say so myself) and, maybe not surprisingly given the title, about Disney. You really should be listening! Tell your friends!

This week we start off having a fascinating discussion about forward and backward slashes. I know I really built this show up in the previous paragraph only to bring you into the reality of our world, and for that I apologize.

This is a forward slash - / and this is a back slash - \ .

The discussion was started with me mentioning a site my friend Alison shared that helps keep track of Disney Gift Cards, a topic we discussed back on Episode 76.

I continue to thank several of our listeners for giving feedback on Facebook, sharing their thoughts. We love that people are starting to interact, so thank you again!

Lisa thanks listeners from several states. Thank you people from EVERY state! AND Country. And Providence. And Prefecture. Etc.

I say more stuff which Lisa apparently tunes out, which leads to Dave telling about his recent experiences at Walt Disney World, sharing his thoughts on Sommerfest in the Germany Pavilion, the updated Norway Pavilion, and the updated Soarin,' all found in Epcot.

Photos: Dave

Our main topic, We Love the Nightlife. We share our perfect evening at Walt Disney World. Dave goes to Disney Springs, Lisa around the Monorail Loop, and I head to Disney's Hollywood Studios, finally bringing us all together at Jellyrolls at the Boardwalk Resort.

 Photo: Lisa

Our Wheel of Distiny topic is from Shendl (thanks as always!) : Our favorite Walt Disney World Cupcake.

You can suggest YOUR Wheel topic, show topic, request a Listener Number, tell us what you think of the show, or tell me how much you love me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedisneyexchange, Twitter: https://twitter.com/disneyexchange  or email us at: info@thedisneyexchange  

And if the mood strikes, please head over to iTunes and give us a 5 star rating and or review!


Thank you for listening to The Disney Exchange!

Throwback Thursday: Walt Disney World-September/October 2008 - Part 4

By Nick

Day 4, Tuesday September 30th 2008

Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 

Made the 8AM rope drop at Epcot, and went right to Soarin', which was walk on. Got a FP on the way out, and headed over to Spaceship Earth.

Rode it twice, once in English, and the second time in Portuguese. Why Portuguese? I have no idea! I pressed English. Weird.

Over to the Seas and rode Nemo then watched a Turtle Talk.



Went back to The Land and used our Soarin' FPs.

By now it was almost 11, so we made our way up to World Showcase to hit some (okay, a lot) of the Food & Wine kiosks.



Had some great and some not so great food, but all the wine was good. Even Barbie had some ice wine, and Barbie doesn't drink. She is such a non drinker, that by 12:30, she said that she was going back to the room for a nap, as I believed the ice wine/heat/sun had knocked her out.
Brave adventurer that I am, I continued on.
I did the free (yes, it was free at one time!) beer seminar at the American Adventure Pavilion, and enjoyed some samples of Samuel Adams.



After that I continued to eat and drink till I was full and feeling good, and decided to ride Test Track.
I went over to the F & W Welcome Center to check out the merchandise, and discovered I was only 10 minutes away from a free WIne Seminar, so I attended that.



Shirah Vs. Shiraz. Delicious.

So, now that I'd had even more wine, and was feeling even better, it was time to use my FP for Test Track. Got to TT, and the ride was down. Probably for the best.
I headed back to the Boardwalk for a swim.

After our swim, we went down to Spoodles (Which was were Trattoria al Forno is now.) to see if they had a table available, and they did. I cancelled our ADRs there for the next night, and we sat down to a really good dinner. I had the grilled beef kabobs, Barbie the rigatoni.

After dinner, we hopped a bus to Downtown Disney. It was a mad house. I realized too late, that Magic Kingdom had closed at 7, for the MNSSHP, and that most of the people
were apparently now at DD. So, after picking up just one T-shirt, we got out of there. At least Barbie made some good pin trades.

We got off the boat at the Swan and or Dolphin, and made our way to the bridge connecting Boardwalk to Yacht & Beach, and watched Illuminations.



Then we watched some Boardwalk entertainment, as Hallowishes went off in the distance.

 Please come back next Thursday for Part 5.

December '14 Walt Disney World Trip Report : Part 4

By Nick

Tuesday, December 9th

Barbie, me, Jill, Josh and Nicole

We started our day early at Epcot, having breakfast at Sunshine Seasons, and a ride on Soarin', before taking the Behind the Seeds tour.

This tour at the Land Pavilion takes you backstage to see their pest control and Biotech Labs, before walking through the various greenhouses seen from the Living With the Land attraction.

The tour lasts a little over an hour and is a pretty good bargain at $20 for adults and $16 for children.

We headed over to World Showcase for a visit with Father Christmas at the United Kingdom Pavilion, followed by a visit with Winnie the Pooh and Rabbit.

Our friend Jill LOVES Tigger. A LOT. So Barbie and I went off to see Santa and Mrs. Claus at The American Adventure Pavilion...

...while Jill, Josh and Nicole stayed in the UK waiting for the arrival of the one and only Tigger.

See, I told you Jill LOVES Tigger.

We all met up in Germany for a late lunch at Biergarten. I'll have a more complete review of this great buffet in the future.

Afterwards, we stopped at the Italy Pavilion just in time to watch their holiday storyteller, La Befana, one of my favorites. Please stop back on Christmas day for a more in depth look at some of World Showcases storytellers.

We then made our way to the America Garden Theater for the 5pm Candlelight Processional. We'd booked the Candlelight Processional Package, so we had reserved seating.

The line started forming early, and at 430pm, it was past Japan!

We got in, and had pretty good seats, despite being so far back.

Our speaker that evening was LeVar Burton. As we are Reading Rainbow and Star Trek the Next Generation fans, this was truly amazing.

If you are in Walt Disney World during the holidays, this is highly recommended. It is a wonderful and moving event.

Next stop- Norway to see Julenissen and Sigrid, the funniest of the storytellers.

On to Mexico, and a photo with Donald.

Once inside, Nicole and I had a shot of Tequila at La Cava Del Tequila and then took a Gran Fiesta Tour.

We headed into Future World, and rode Nemo. We'd intended on riding Imagination, but it was closed at 8pm, apparently.

We got one last photo, before Barbie and I called it a night, while Nicole, Jill and Josh stayed to watch Illuminations.

You can find the first three parts of the Trip Report Here(1), Here(2), and Here(3)

Magical Aromas Around Walt Disney World

By Lisa Green

 

Over the years there has been quite a bit of chatter on the Internet about the different scents people experience during a visit to Disney World.  If you look hard enough, you can even find suggestions for how to bring some of those smells home (certain candles, air fresheners, bath products, etc.)…I’m going to look into some of these and get back to you.  Anyway, whether it’s your first visit to Disney World or your 10th, there are a few smells you can’t help but notice.  The really cool thing is, the next time you smell THAT smell, it’ll make you happy; immediately evoking memories of your Disney World vacation!

Main Street USA – freshly baked goodies.  No matter what time of year or what time of day – when you walk down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, you will smell the delicious smell of baking cookies.  To me it actually smells a bit like the waffle cones they sometimes bake in ice cream stores.  However your own sniffer interprets it, you can’t deny that the Main Street-smell is fantastic!  Puts a smile on my face every single time I smell it.

Staying with the Magic Kingdom, let’s talk about the smell in Mickey’s PhilharMagic…pretty darned super!  If you’ve ever experienced this magical 3D marvel, you know what I’m talking about.  It’s the smell of the berry pie that floats right by your face as Lumiere belts out “Be Our Guest”!  Oh, how I love that smell!  It’s not the only reason to adore Mickey’s PhilharMagic, though, so if you haven’t had the pleasure, add that attraction to your must-do list.

Moving on to Epcot, more great places to engage the old schnozzola await (wait…did I really just say that?).  Space Ship Earth is a great place to start.  As you’re riding along, the smell of Rome Burning is an awesome detail in this attraction!  I tend to forget about it until it happens, then I’m thinking, “Oh, how COOL!” whenever we get to that part – probably not appropriate to the seriousness of the tragic losses Dame Judi Dench is busy describing in my ear, but there it is.

Ask anyone who’s been there about the smells of Disney World and they’ll be quick to mention Soarin’ if they’ve been on this extraordinary attraction in The Land at Epcot.  There also tends to be some lively discussions when the subject of Soarin’ smells is brought up about the exact number of different scents there are to be enjoyed in Soarin’ – this seems to be up to the individual smeller – I am 100% positive I smell both orange groves and evergreen trees at different parts of the experience…as for any other scents that may be there, I’ll let you decide for yourself. There’s one more smell at Epcot I want to mention.

Over in World Showcase.  I strongly suggest you stop in Germany’s Karamell-Kuche!  At last, something to smell AND taste!  Take the time to look around while you’re enjoying the smell of caramel and you’ll be tempted to try a taste of one of the many treats offered in this shop (owned by the makers of Wherther’s Original Caramels).

At Animal Kingdom, another 3D show offers another smelly experience.  This one isn’t quite like the others I’ve mentioned, but certainly adds to the entertainment of, “It’s Tough to be a Bug”!  Beneath the Tree of Life is the theater for this 9-minute show filled with some truly amazing details that include a very special smell.  You’ll just have to try it for yourself if you’re there.

This list is by far not complete.  There are many other aromas (good and bad) to experience at Disney World….What are some of your favorites?

This article was originally posted by Lisa on her Living a Disney Life-Empty Nesting with Pixie Dust Blog.