BradyBzLyn...Mo

A couple of vintage 1988 shots ...
Our daughter who is now 40:

And us in the 100 loop:

July 2011

July 2011

Here are some of the most popular trip reports currently on FortFiends.net. If you haven't checked them out yet, give 'em a peek!

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And if you want to catch up on the rest of the TRs, try HERE

That would be horrible! All that hot air would fuel it into the storm of the century.

In June of 2010 we had our first Disney Dining experience at the Rose & Crown Pub which is located in Epcot's World Showcase, in England. I have actually been to a real English Pub and the decorations in the Rose & Crown reminded me of that visit. We sat outside by the water for our meal. We had a lovely waitress from Manchester. She was most helpful finding out what things my food allergy son could eat. The view was lovely as well.
My husband, who has not been to England, ordered the Bangers & Mash. For those of you who've never had it before, it is English sausage, cabbage, bacon and mash potatoes. Bangers and Mash is one of my husbands favorite meals. He ate it often in NYC in Irish Pubs. He enjoyed the Rose & Crown meal better. He's not a man of many words (at least not today) but he's requested we go back to the Rose & Crown next visit so he can eat there again. Enough said.....
I ordered the Sunday Roast with roasted potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding. All of which I've had before cooked by English relatives. I will tell you that I am an extremely picky eater. If the meat isn't cut the right way, I won't like it. All I can really say is apparently my english family can't cook very well. After a month in England earlier in my life I thought English food bland and boring. My meal at the Rose & Crown was a heavenly experience.
I'm not a huge fan of pot roast. It has to be cooked just right so it was a bit out of character for me to pick this over my favorite, Shepard's Pie. This pot roast was tender and mouth watering. It disappeared with an unmannerly speed which would embarrass my very proper english Nana. The roasted potatoes, I can't really even describe how much I enjoyed them. They are a particular favorite and addiction for me...
Now for the Yorkshire pudding, it simply came with the meal I ordered. I'd had it before and hated it with about 20 or 30 passions. I was completely serious and sincere in my hatred of it. I thought it a complete waste of good cooking materials until my husband persuaded me to try it at the Rose & Crown. We'd payed for it after all and the rest of the meal was good. I decided to give it another try. Listen up people.... I was WRONG! Yorkshire pudding is a wonderful, tasty, and delicious food.
Our kids , of course, ordered a very unenglish pizza off the kids menu. There were certainly no complaints from them.

We had the table service meal at the Yak & Yeti last June. It is on our revisit list. The Cream Cheese Wontons are in another league. My taste buds still crave them. Both my husband and I enjoyed our meals... yum...yum...
Durn... I wants some wontons! :rofl2:

We were wandering Epcot and, the skys opened up again, and Rick is like, I don't wanna cook in the rain.
So here is where the surprise comes in. I get on my phone to see what is available. I open up the web browser to go to Disney's restaurant reservation system.
The first surprise I get is a Mobile Restaurant Reservation Site (it said Beta in the corner). It prompts me for permission to find my location. I ask for dinner reservations based on my location. The site looks like it will be quite useful. It gave me several choices, one of which was LeCellier!!!! 6:20 party of two!!! I quickly punched book this, plugged in my email address and cell phone number, and a confirmation text came right back!!!:banana: :dance: As many of you may realize, getting a LeCellier reservation same day is almost UNHEARD of. Also dealing with the phone system even on a local basis is a nightmare, so a mobile dining reservation system is awesome!!!
So, now that we needed to spend a couple more hours in Epcot, we needed to make sure we really slowed down our pace.
Here is our dinner
Mine is the Potato Leek and Goat Cheese Quiche - with melted leeks and truffle buttter sauce

Ricks is the Grilled Bone-in Ribeye - 16 oz. bone-in ribeye with herb-parmesan potato wedges and maple-pink peppercorn butter

I am not a vegeterian at all, but I like trying different stuff.
I also had the Cheddar Cheese Soup. Unfortunately, the Cheddar was VERY sharp this evening, a lot more than I remember.
Dinner was delicious!!!!!

My wonderful Disney loving wife Donna and yours truly.

This is one of my favorites which also happened by accident.
We were waiting for the boat to take us to MK hoping it would come before the rain started.
The birds were swirling around making a lot of noise.
I just looked up and started clicking.
Taken with a pocket camera...Nikon S8100.

Here's my gem from Typhoon Lagoon!

(We didn't come close to finishing it.)

8:45am, driving underneath the WDW sign on Osceola Parkway to the AK bus hub, beautiful, clear, sunny morning. Every time I do that, I think, how many people would want to be doing this? Wow, got a pretty good parking space in the AK CM lot. I won't have to take a cab to get to the front.
It's time to clock in, done. There are a ton of drivers waiting for a bus. It's going to be a while before I start working. It's not the most efficient system, but whataya gonna do? Thirty minutes later, finally, I get assigned a bus. It's always a crap shoot of what you're gonna get. As Forest Gump said, getting a bus assignment is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. Well, maybe not exactly in that context. But because they've just added 40 or so brand new buses, the odds are in the drivers favor now. I didn't get one of the new buses, but at least I didn't get one of the old clunkers, not that many left.
Ok, quick bus inspection and I'm off to the WL & GF, not bad for a first run. It's early, but there are guests at AK going to the GF. Good thing, I hate driving an empty bus, but believe it or not, that's what we do most of the time. It's off to the ritzy GF & rustic WL.
Hmm, lots of people going to AK this morning. I picked up a lot of people at both resorts. Of course I have to stop at BB first and when I get close to the AK hub, no automatic trip on the computer, gotta call in the old fashion way. I hate when that happens.
Dispatch, bus 4879. over the radio I hear, Magic Bus coming back? No, I'm not a Magicbus, I'm an AK bus. Oh, who's driving the bus? Me, and I give them my name. And they say, 10-4, and finally give me my next run.
I do that run and it's back to AK , same thing. No I'm not a Magic bus, I'm an AK bus. It never did got straightened out. I guess the automatic bus dispatch system was having a bad day.
So I thought it was a little ironic that I was a reluctant Magicbus today.

Here's some old pictures from Ft. Wilderness. We were camping in our Coleman Pop Up which we absolutely loved. I can't remember what year this was, but looking at my kids I think it might have been 1985 or 1986.

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17

I couldn't find a special place to post these, but I wanted to share. These pictures were taken about 1985 or 1986 in the summer. Boy, the crowds have sure grown since then.

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17

By rladams at 2011-07-17