Cape Canaveral/Disney Cruise/WDW Trip

Let me know if there's anything else I can show that will help! Will it help if you tell him that Daisy walks around with no pants on?

Zz.

Evidence of Daisy frolicking around the Disney Dream without any pants on.

Zz.

I wrote earlier during our wait for Illuminations that the color lighting around World Showcase seems to be missing. Most of my friends didn't notice the difference. But as someone who takes lots of pictures, I notice these things and I did notice something missing.

I'm going to post a few pictures of various locations around World showcase that I took on this trip, and then compare each one with a similar photo (or photo of the same thing) that I took during the past 2 or 3 years. Pay attention to the colored lighting on the buildings.

This trip

2009

This trip

2009

This trip

2011

So are they cutting corners even more on the holiday decorations? Epcot already lost the Lights of Winter at the entrance to World Showcase. Now they are reducing the festivities even more.

I suppose something like this is so small and so obscure, most people probably won't notice it. I know people in my party didn't, and they come here almost every year at this time of the year. But I did notice it, and I have proof!.

It makes me sad that it appears to be another item that they're removing from the holiday decorations. Disney prides itself in its attention to details. Unfortunately for them, for many of us keen Disney theme park fans, we also pay attention to details, and we tend to notice them when they change.

Zz.

Dinner on the final night of our cruise was at the Animator's Palate.

I saw this bread basket last year, and this time, I wondered if they would miss it if I sneak it out of the restaurant with me. It looks as if this bread basket is filled with hidden Mickeys.

Table decor.

Restaurant decor.

I've never understood the consistency of the theming here. I don't get the connection between being in an animator's studio with having underwater scenery and Crush, other than the fact that Crush is an animation (but we don't want to know that, do we?). This would be a perfect theme for, say, the Coral Reef restaurant.

The carpet has very clear hidden Mickey.

And now comes the food. I had the risotto appetizer

while other members of my party had a variety of other dishes. I think this is the salmon tartar

Ravioli

For the salad dish, I had the peaches and watercress

and someone else had this tomato salad. The dressing on this one was quite good.

Now comes the main entree. I think this was a pork tenderloin with ravioli

This is the beef tenderloin

And this is the fish.

Of course, we had to do dessert.

Another very filling evening at the dinner table.

Zz.

{ZapperZ hands over some napkins to Vettelover}

Zz.

On our final evening at sea, after our dinner at Animator's Palate, there was a pin trading event with the ship's officers. Of course, being avid pin traders, we brought along our trading pins and participated in this delightful time. Here are some photos from that.

I actually got quite a number of new cast lanyard pins, so it was a good haul and a good night for pin trading. Besides, it was a lot of fun getting not only to pin trade with the officers of the ship, but also to talk with them for quite some time about what they do, etc. They were more than willing to chat with the passengers.

Our last "act" for the evening was something that was initiated by the tour we took earlier (y'know, the one where we visited Remy and Palo). Our tour guide mentioned that one of the ship's lounge or cafe has THE most expensive coffee machine on the whole boat, costing close to $80,000. Well, the 4 of us thought we just have to at least see what this beast looks like. This machine was in a wine/coffee bar called The Cove, situated in the Adults-Only area of the ship. We went in, and 2 of the members of our party did order a coffee drink (I had a white wine since I planned on going to sleep soon). Now whether one can tell that the coffee came out of a $80,000 machine is debatable, but the verdict was that the coffee drink was good!

Here is the picture of the bar with the coffee machine on the back counter.

If that is not the height of triviality, I don't know what is!

Zz.

Oooh.. good eye! I didn't notice that before. But then again, whenever there's food around, my eye focuses only on it and nothing else!

Zz.

I have a few more pictures and reports to post, and of course, the videos. Unfortunately, I will have to suspend this for a short while. I'm flying out of the country this afternoon - flying to Singapore with a stopover in Hong Kong. The stopover will be too short to make a quick trip to HK Disneyland, but I will have plenty of time to empty out my credit cards at the Disney Store in the Hong Kong airport.

Anyhow, my wifi access will probably be intermittent. So if I don't get to hang around here after today, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hanukkah, A Safe and Joyful Holidays, and a Wonderful New Year!

Zz.

Greetings from HK airport. I just spent HK$2271 at the Hong Kong Disneyland store! The only thing stopping me is the fact that I have to carry these things onto the plane since I won't be seeing my luggage till I get to Singapore.

And I'll have another round at it on the way back! My poor credit cards!

Zz.

Greetings from the warm and humid Malaysia. I'm here for 3 more days before I fly back to the states, with stopover in HK again and the HK Disneyland store.

Went to the first Legoland in Asia today, and it was a disaster. I have way too much to bitch about the experience, and it is not even 1% of a Disney theme park experience. More later...

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!!

Zz.

Greetings from Singapore's Changi Airport. My flight to Hong Kong has been delayed by 2hours. So I'm lounging around the airport which looks more like a combination of shopping mall and food court.

I'm hoping to get another round of shopping at the Hong Kong Disneyland store. I just hope I have time to do it since I have a shorter time to change planes.

Zz.

I made it home and severely jetlagged!

I attacked BOTH the HK Disneyland Stores at the HK airport. The one in Terminal 1 that I went to on the way there the previous week, and the one in Terminal 2 that was in the non-secure area (yes, I had to go through immigration). While the merchandise were very similar, I found a couple of t-shirts that I didn't see at the store in terminal 1.

Anyway, I ended up with a lot of neat stuff, mostly pins (of course). I definitely have a lot for trading now.

But another "Disney" related item is rather strange. I flew into Terminal 5 at O'Hare, which is the international terminal. I haven't done this in ages, because usually my port of entry into the country is either JFK, LA, or SF. So here I was in the immigration line at O'Hare, and what did I hear playing in the background? The tune from "Illuminations"!!! I swear to god!

And what made it even stranger was that, the tune had been chopped up, so that various parts of it were playing not in sequence. Of course, the first thing that popped into my head was "did they get Disney's permission?" (I'm sure they did) and who did the editing, and why?

Considering that I had been awake for about more than 24 hours, I thought it was commendable that I could even think of such things in that state!

Anyhow, I will try to continue with the relevant trip report once I recover a bit. It's good to be home though.

Zz