Mardi Gras Part Deux

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

I'm in on this one also...

[magnoliafig 51]

Thanks everybody. Ill get this show back on the road tomorrow.

[michele j 9]

I'm in too! The puppies are adorable :heart:

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Thanks everybody. Ill get this show back on the road tomorrow.

let's go!!!

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Looking forward to more Shardi!

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

Looking forward to the dueling trip reports

[fort4evr 0]

great report so far

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Shardi... I hate to point this out but Spec is winning the duel right now. Let's go girl

[magnoliafig 51]

In on page 1.

For all missing pictures for my trip report, please refer back to this trip report.

No photo stealing!

I'm in on this one too!

Welcome aboard!

I think its kudos? Or was that just the name of the snack bar?

If not, it should be. Fuego Kudos!

I am on to much nyquil to remember. I think you are right though.

Yup, Feeling you there. It's been a long week.

I'm here too.

Going to sit back and enjoy the dueling TRs.

So, we now have it on record who the slacker in the family is. :clint:

It's probably me. I hate to relinquish the camera so he doesn't get as many turns as he should.

In on this one also.....dualing trip reports....

YAY!

Ah, now someone knows how to start off a Trip Report with the right photos. :D Thank you.

They are adorable. I would go get them snacks too if I worked at the check in.

They're hams. Love them to bits. Once you go cairn, you never go back.

I'm in. Don't let Lou know you want Disney to know that a CM is doing something nice for you. It's almost magical how those doggy cookies appeared. Lol

You caught that huh. I was hoping he would to.

[magnoliafig 51]

I'm in too. Great start!

Welcome! Thank you. :)

Bringing the :pc: :pc: :pc: :pc:

I will never be able to see your screen name again without grinning like a saw briar cud chewing …..

I'm in on this one also!!!!!!

HOLA!

Woo Hoo!

I'm on page one!

Fuego!

You're off to a great start. Love all the puppy photos! I love that shot of the Fort Wilderness sign with the flowers and blue sky! Makes me happy to think about pulling in there.

Looking forward to the dueling reports. This should be fun!

TCD

FUEGO!!

I am in like Flynn

YAY!

[magnoliafig 51]

I'm in too! The puppies are adorable :heart:

Thank you. They're wild hellions but I love 'em.

Looking forward to more Shardi!

Coming up in 3… 2… 1…

Looking forward to the dueling trip reports

It'll be fun.

great report so far

Thank ye! :)

[magnoliafig 51]

So when we left off, we had just turned over Bruin to his new home owner. It was then off to the Boardwalk and Flying Fish for our very first ADR.

While waiting, the kids, Heathen1 and Heathen2, found one of the wandering magicians. As luck would have it, they were both chosen to participate. It set our trip off to a great start. Last year Mardi Gras was during President’s Day week. It was crazy stupid busy Team Louisiana does not do crazy very well. So last year was slightly stressful and probably our least enjoyable trip to WDW ever. This one made up for it in spades.

A few of the kids goofing off.

And then we were able to check in. I love the theming to this restaurant. I love the Boardwalk. It’s such a carefree place. If you haven’t been there, they have this huge soft green lawn that is hardly ever used but it is perfect for resting and watching the night sky. One of my favorite places in Disney is the Fort at night. It just comes alive. The Boardwalk has this same feel. It’s a community embracement. Anyway, my second place. I wish I had gotten a photo of the lawn. It’s great. :)

Lawn hijacks and all, here’s the restaurant and our meal. Fish rocks! It was a lovely meal. Pear martinis rock! All is right in Mama’s world again.

I had forgotten the camera in the 5W, so pardon the blurry camera photo. It doesn't do the inside of this restaurant justice.

Pear Martini's

FOOD!!! And it was so good.

Our appetizer, calamari and shrimp. We were so hungry, I forgot to take photos.

The sides: risotto and the mac/cheese. So good!

Tuna. Seared hot on the outside, and a cold pink on the inside. So good.

It’s been a long day and half, so off to bed for tomorrow’s adventure.

[magnoliafig 51]

The photos tonight were awful. I had my phone, and they just weren't up to par. Better ones ahead. :)

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

pear martini... sounds yum

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Keep it coming. Staying at yacht club in may going to add flying fish to our short list.

[fort4evr 0]

oh great, now I want a pear martini!

[michele j 9]

Heathen 1 & Heathen 2 hehe

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

I have never been in Yacht Club, Beach Club, or any of their dining establishments. I need to remedy that at some point.

We never even made it to the Boardwalk this last trip and we love the Boardwalk. That was a glaring omission from our trip.

[magnoliafig 51]

When we left off a great while ago, we were snuggled in our bed after a lovely meal at the Flying Fish. Today was our first full day at the greatest place on earth. We had made plans for breakfast at Kona Cafe. The plan afterwards was to auction our youngest child off to pay off the AP’s for a family of STRIKE four UNSTRIKE three.

(minor note here: have his/her cameras. Because we just spent the last two minutes squabbling over “That’s my picture, you used it!”)

It was a chilly morning but a nice chilly that had promise on the horizon. It ended up being a lovely day.

I love watching the sun come up over Bay Lake. This truly is our second home. I know everybody here have come up with the same inability to properly articulate why the fort is just so doggone special. It’s not just a theme park. I’m grateful we found fellow nutters who can understand just what some of these photos mean to us.

Since we were going to the Poly, we took the smaller boat to the Contemporary and hitched a ride on the monorail. This is one version of transportation that we show very little love toward but I made up for it in spades this trip. A quick hurry-hurry photo through the resort as we were making our way towards our ride.

I had made reservations at Kona because I wanted to try their toast but this morning I could feel my system just wasn’t up for sugar. I’m not a diagnosed diabetic but I’ve been hitting the peg just on the “not yet” side for a couple years now. Some days I can get away with grazing. Other days I know it’s a bad idea. Someday it’ll be every day. But that’s okay because I decided on this instead. I loved the home fries and the eggs. A very good breakfast. Even if I was robbed of my french press kona.

Before I clued in that my Kona is not Kona, Jody decided he wanted to try a cup. This was particularly funny because my husband does not like coffee. Kona still tastes like coffee. So we spent several minutes giggling. Bless his heart, he did try new things. So to give him credit.

I took a few photos of the atmosphere while he went off to chase floating rocks. But all I can seem to find is this one of the pod lights and the sign. I thought the theming was so neat. I love organic decorations. They just sing to me. You’ll find out later just how much I like flower-things.

After breakfast, we hightailed it over to the MK for our annual passes before I split off from the group to let the puppies out. I knew our Epcot day would be a little long and I’d be pushing it to get back that afternoon. Our Best Friends reservations didn’t start until tomorrow.

Puppies peed and I’m off to rejoin my family. LOU! Is that you, Lou? Where are you Lou? I’m still looking for our favorite bus driver. He has to be around here somewhere...

On the way to Epcot, my husband dropped out of communication. One of my triggers that will cause me to go from calm to irrationally batpoop crazy is not to be able to contact my family. So the first few minutes in Epcot was frantic before we finally synced up again. We spent a little time in the golf ball. They had this “new to me” interactive area that the kids really enjoyed. We ended up killing more time here than I expected. That was nice. Usually we scoot through to the World Showcase asap.

​This one is sort of a skeet ball type game. It was fun. And the wait times weren't long at all. About 4-5 minutes for the game in front to finish. There were several game arenas. And not too many people waiting to play.

The World Showcase: Up next :)

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Breakfast looks yummy!

[magnoliafig 51]

So we left Epcot to wander the World Showcase. I was running low on one of my guilty pleasures and I was on a mission. Actually I was on a few missions, but let’s keep it in order.

Our first order of business was the First Mission. My guilty pleasures come from Norway and Italy. Today Norway was the destination spend money. I love this stuff. The husband loves it. It doesn't make him sneeze and it's light, breezy, summery.

Of course, that’s not the only reason to visit Norway. It’s one of my favorite countries. I love the scenery. I think the theming here is very successful. We didn’t buy school bread this trip. First time in years but we had our sights on something further down the line. We running through the showcase this trip. We didn’t spend near as long as usual here. Some trips you feel like you didn’t miss a single thing. Other trips, you wonder where did time go. Ah well. But I did manage to get a couple photos.

I love this guy. He is so fun. And of course the viking in front. As I said, they did so wonderful with this world.

After Norway, I laid tracks for the second mission. I had read Dave’s glowing report of Biergarten, a place we haven’t eaten at before. It was approaching lunch and we were all hungry again. Alas they didn’t have open reservations, but I succeeded in snagging one for supper, and we managed to eat pretzels for lunch. It was a good lunch. No photos of the food, sorry! We managed to see this lovely, wonderful lady and grab a caramel! It was an awesome caramel. Holy cow, this was my first time to eat the caramels here. I didn’t know they existed. Thank God for Fiends!

Love the clocks.

And the lamps.

I'm selling my firstborn and bringing home a dozen of these next trip. Freeze 'em.

She's doesn't appear to be illusive to me. Maybe seven boys are enough, six girls scared her off???

While I was waiting for part of my family to show up, Heathen 1 and I began to pick up some people were not like the others. I should mention at this point, the 700 loop was nothing but Louisiana license plates. I think we kind of took over the place.

Here.

And more.

Wow, they're everywhere!!!

And a couple more.

Okay, that was back across the bridge, but it counts!

And this was only the tip of the iceberg. It was a cajun invasion of epic proportions.

Heathen 1 and Heathen 2 (they answer to these names btw) decided they wanted to play a couple rounds of Agent P so off we went to China. We split up, boys and girls. I took the time to take photos of China while the girlchild played the game. Jody and I waved as we were coming and going. This is another one of those showcases that was exceptionally well done.

I love Foo dogs. Did you know they were the temple guardians? Lovely pieces of art when you can find them.

And the lanterns. Love the lanterns, always.

As the two teams approached the finish, I was photographing this lovely waterfall when disaster struck. Heathen 2 dropped his phone into the water. Oops. Daddy rescued it, but the game was done. The phone was toast. We quietly scooted out from behind the Red Wall.

After a beer and caramel, Agent P and a couple showcases, we were ready for our fastpasses to Test Track.

YAY! I never got to see the interactive exhibit before the ride but we certainly made up for it afterwards. The kids and I got a huge kick out of creating our own backdrops. The quality wasn't too good, and they emailed them directly to you.

We checked Soarin’ times, it was ridiculously stupid wait so off we went across the bridge. But we made a friend first.

Towards Canada this time...

First stop was the last mission. We stopped at Canada for a brief moment. The heathens had to make their Kidcot stop, I took photos of the garden. Love the flowers in Epcot.

Jody had to grab a Canadian beer. With one candid camera moment, we were off again.

The invasion is going strong. In fact it took over the bar in the UK when I had stepped in for my obligatory Black and Tan. (That’s Guiness and Harp, beer cocktail). This is the beginning of the end and where your photographer began to fall down on her mission. Many photos were not taken. But libations were pouring freely. Or not so freely. Booze is expensive around the world.

Grand Marnier Slushie for the Win!!!

Stopped at Italy for my guilty pleasure and I didn’t see any new scents I cared for so we moved on.

Looks like somebody is getting worn out, which means!!!

It was Biergarten o’thirty and time for the german beer flight. Nope. No photos here either except for the two. Sorry. Just know it was pretty stinking good. Thanks for the recommendation Dave!

On the way out and that was it for the photos today… A margarita! Ole'!

And it was back to the camper for us. The pups were crossing their legs, I'm sure.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Yummmm, German food and drinking around WS, that's what it's all about!!!!!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

I need that margarita...

[MickManiac 0]

Awesome TR so far Shardi. I'll be adding to the Cajun invasion next month, so its nice to see we were well represented.

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Fiend nails! Love them.

The updates have been great. Way too much awesome stuff to comment on, but I've loved it all.