Dreaming of a Disney spring break - part three COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by jennie622

Yeah, where did Eeyore go?? I found Tigger and Pooh several times at different parks but I have NEVER seen that cute donkey. Poor baby, once I finally spot him, I might knock him over with joy!!

I know - and of course we all know who's the most popular Pooh character, right?

[chezp]

Originally Posted by goofysdtr

Those crowds are nothing like I anticipated seeing on Easter!

We were expecting it to be mobbed!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Dlandmom2

The flowers are so beautiful!

I'm surprised there weren't any donkey sightings! I'm going to keep my eyes wide open next time to see where I find your beloved donkey!

[mcc0313]

Loved the pictures of the Canadian gardens, the colors are just beautiful. Sorry no Eyeore sighting, we did not see him either, we saw Pooh and Tigger in the UK a couple of times but no Eyeore.

[WeLuvTheWorld]

I am just shocked at the lack of crowds in the WS on Easter Saturday! I know crowd levels for that week (especially the weekend) are crazy so I'll bet the other parks were mobbed.

We always enjoy our meals at Restaurant Marrakesh. It's one of our "hidden gems" and we know that we can almost always get in there with no wait. We'll have to check out the film in France and hopefully we'll get to see the whole thing!

[taylan1]

Sorry you did not see your favorite Donkey. The only place we have seen him was at AK with all the WTP Characters, we got pictures last October there with him. It would be great to see him around more often.

[Big Baloo]

Aargh! I thought for sure you'd tell us the story of the signature picture today--guess I'll just have to be patient!

[taylan1]

I now see your signature picture! Looks like you found him exactly where we found him! Love it! He was great with our DS too!

[Cam22]

Your Epcot pictures this day are fabulous and so colorful! I especially love the one with the duck and the F&G Festival with the monorail included. Canada looks so beautiful through your lens, too. And I did see the sparrow!

[coffeechef]

what is up with that??

[Principessa_di_Fata]

The sparrow one is throwing me for a loop... LOL!

LOVE the photos though, of all of the flowers. I can't wait to go during the Flower and Garden Festival one day. I think mom really would love it.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by taylan1

Sorry you did not see your favorite Donkey. The only place we have seen him was at AK with all the WTP Characters, we got pictures last October there with him. It would be great to see him around more often.

Hmmm.... odd you mention that...

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Big Baloo

Aargh! I thought for sure you'd tell us the story of the signature picture today--guess I'll just have to be patient!

Another couple of days to go yet, but in between are some real goodies to come!

[chezp]

Saturday 23 April – part four: we’ve never seen the animals do that before! :

I noticed that one of the Twinings tea tours was due to start in a few minutes’ time, so we went back into the shop and asked where we sign up for it. A Cast Member, Rayid from London, told us that he’d be taking it and we signed up. We spent the next few minutes talking to him and then headed outside into the burning heat again.

Over the next 30 minutes, he took us round the various teas that were shown in the garden and explained about each of them in turn. It was very detailed and interesting. At the end of it, I felt a lot more educated about the various teas we had seen. I’m a very conservative tea drinker. I know what I like and I stick with it, but having heard about all the different teas, I might (only might mind... ) be tempted to try something else.

We learnt that the Irish are the world’s biggest tea drinkers, although I’m not sure that anyone on the tour believed him when he said that! We also heard how caffeine is one of the first things to come out of tea, so if you want to de-caffeinate it, then you should put the teabag in, then drain the water and repeat a couple of times. I guess that means I always get lots of caffeine, as the teabag is lucky if it lasts a minute with me!



We also had a couple of really weird things happen. One was when a guy came up and said that the tea the guy was talking about tasted like “dead frogs”. We were all like “what?” I suspect that perhaps he’d had a few too many drinks today. He was certainly on something!

The other one was Alice, who’d just arrived out to do meets and greets. “Don’t believe a word he says” she told us and then Mark asked what tea she liked. Her response was fantastic. “Whatever I can fit in my tea cup”! She was on top form today!



We thanked Rayid for his tour and headed slowly out of World Showcase and back to the Beach Club. It was so hot again, it wasn’t true. So much for any prospect of it cooling down... it later transpired on the news that the temperatures wouldn’t be cooling down into the mid 80s until Friday.

We drove back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and spent the next couple of hours in the room.



We had the depressing task of packing in preparation for our journey home tomorrow. We had pretty much done the small red case, but we added a few more bits into it, although it was tipping 23kgs. Fortunately, the next case came in at around 20kgs, so we had some leeway there and could throw a few bits in there if we needed to.

We also got someone from the engineering team to come and help with our small red suitcase, whose handle had broken. She was great and, as she said, a first for her, bringing Duct tape over for a guest to repair a suitcase handle. Still, it worked.

Around 5pm, we headed over to the concierge lounge, all 20 steps of it and got stocked up on cheese. There wasn’t just cheese, there was also hummus dips, carrots, celery sticks, roasted peppers and mini flans. It was a wonderful selection and much better than earlier in the day. You could easily make a nice dinner out of this.



We had found British chocolate that we still hadn’t eaten or given away, so after getting some more help from the concierge guy on duty, Wayne, we asked him to share it all with the concierge staff as a thank you to them for their service over the last couple of days. We were going to give it to Ryan, who had been so helpful yesterday, but sadly he wasn’t working today.

Then it was back to do the rest of the packing. Fortunately, everything just about seemed to fit in, which is always a good start.

It was here that we found our invitation to the Sunrise Safari the next morning:



We headed down to meet Bruce and Marta just before 6.30 at Boma, getting some photos on the way. I think I should explain at this point that we’d had a little bit to drink in the room, as obviously we couldn’t take an open bottle of wine home with us!



We stopped at concierge for a bit of a laugh to ask if they could get us into the Crystal Palace for lunch tomorrow. I know, I know! We’d already looked online and found nothing, but we figured it didn’t hurt to ask, but they didn’t have any luck either – big surprise, huh?

We were at Boma for a slightly different meal, as the menu is different on a Saturday night, but to be honest, neither of us were overly impressed. I found that there was a lot of meat on and I didn’t really like the salad choices. Don’t get me wrong – I found enough to fill me up, but it just wasn’t that outstanding.



The stand-out was desserts, with the zebra domes superb. It was interesting to discover that the passion fruit panna cotta that I’d had previously is made with apricot. Tonight it had an apricot gelee base, so I peeled that off, as I didn’t want to push my allergy too much.... fortunately, again I was fine with the apricot in the panna cotta.

Boma:

Appetiser 9 N/A
Entree 8 9
Desserts 9 8½
Service 8 8½
Atmosphere 9 9
Value for money N/A N/A

Average score:

We couldn’t comment on the value for money, as Bruce and Marta paid ( guys) as we’re planning on getting some of their favourite South African wine and bringing it with us, so that they have it on the Alaskan cruise.

We sat there for a while, after we’d finished eating, before heading out to have a look at the flamingos. My goodness, what a noise they were making out there! We weren’t sure if they were mating or fighting!



We saw a giraffe turn up on the savannah, so headed that way and I managed to get some night-time shots of the giraffes and eland we saw out there. We saw the giraffes running around and apparently they were playing with each other. It’s something I’ve never observed before and was fascinating to see.



Unfortunately, we were all getting bitten, so we decided to beat a retreat back inside. We headed up to the concierge lounge, where we sat chatting for quite some time, before we had to say our goodbyes. At least we would be seeing them again on the cruise in just four months’ time!



We needed an early night for our Sunrise Safari tomorrow morning. Once again, mousekeeping had done a sterling job with turndown!



The weather today was hot and sunny and in the 90s.
The best thing today was
The worst thing today was saying goodbye to Epcot.
[b]The funniest thing today was
Today we tried eating at the concierge lounge
And the result was there’s a good selection for breakfast and late afternoon.
The most magical moment today was

[b]Next: my safari will be “funner”

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Did I understand that correctly that Boma has a different menu on Saturdays? Why? (It's 3am here, so bear with me if that's a stupid question or if I misunderstood)

Is the Twinings Tea Tour free? Is it only during the Flower & Garden Festival? I think it's something mom would absolutely love, but I don't know if it would be on in October.

Anxiously awaiting your Eeyore interaction, but I know we have some more fun stories to read through first! Can't wait to hear about the safari, and see photos!