Every morning, the same angry bird rams into our hotel room’s window like clockwork. This morning they started at 7:30am!! Over and over and over, beak-bumping our glass like its angry at us, LOL. It would be much cuter at noon.
On Saturday, we had more fun than two adults should be allowed to have. We drove go karts! It was an absolute blast. I’ve never been on one before, so it took me a lap or two to get used to it, but before long I felt like it was real life Mario Kart. hahaha LOVE!
Enjoyed it so much that we’re going back again today!! Can’t wait.
After go karts, we went back to Epcot. Swung by the Scandinavian booth for a little snack of Swedish meatballs, then walked around until our 8:30 dinner reservation at the Oktobefest German buffet.
They seat you fest-style with random people if your party is too small for a whole table. We sat by a really, really cool family of 6, one of them happened to work at Disney doing the Christmas decoration. We definitely lucked out sharing a table with great company. A few tables down there were some loud drunken fools that I was happy we avoided sharing a dinner table with, lol.
The buffet had a lot of things to choose from, so I loaded my plate with a little of everything. It was super salty, but oh well. It’s vacation and I seem to be losing a little weight because my pants are loose enough that they’re sliding down a bit too much and it’s annoying, lol.
My plate had: a bit of mac ‘n cheese, spaetzel, a pretzel roll (!!), a German sausage, potato dumpling, Bavarian pot roast, mixed random salads from the cold bar, grapes, bit of applesauce, mustard, and the best string bean salad I have ever had. I’m adding that to our Thanksgiving menu at home! I at 2/3 of my plate and went back for a second pretzel roll and sausage. We made it into hot dog-form like the one we had the day before at the German booth. SO GOOD. Definitely my favorite thing on the plate. I was SO disappointed in the spaetzel.
I’ve been wanting to try it for years ever since I saw it on a blog, but it was awful. Very dry and tasteless. Is that how it’s supposed to be?! I had two bites and left it. Did not like. Did I mention I loved the string beans though?! YUM!
After we gorged ourselves in Germany, we walked around and waited for the firework display to begin at 10:00pm. It was so cold and windy!! I didn’t expect it to be this cold. Brrrr!
Sunday, we slept in late and then went to Shoney’s for brunch. I remember going there when I was a kid and loving it, but as an adult, the excitement definitely eluded me this time around. Especially seeing people load up their plates with 15-20 slices of bacon AND going back again. What the… Oh my.
My plate:
Scrambled eggs, some kind of spicy rice mixture, 2 breakfast sausages, 1 French toast stick, 1 slice bacon, 2 pieces pineapple, and 3 HUGE pieces of honeydew melon. Drizzle of maple syrup over my eggs. I ate about 2/3 of it. Dustin informed me that the eggs are probably rehydrated. Umm… what? He told me they’re probably powdered or something like that and then cooked like a batter. Ok, GROSS! I’m going to pretend they were farm-fresh eggs straight out of the chicken’s hiney, mkay? Well, my stomach knew otherwise because later on last night I paid dearly for this. I should have kept my fond memories in the 1980s and not try to relive them, lol.
After this retro breakfast, we went to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Our company at Oktoberfest suggested we try the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster featuring Aerosmith music. They said it was a pretty tame roller coaster, so I took their word for it and decided to be brave and try it out.
The line was pretty long, and I was feeling pretty anxious. I like going fast, but I do not like going side-to-side or upside down. It makes me feel like… I’m going to die, lol.
That near-death sensation sunk in immediately when it took off like a bat out of hell. I was screaming!! Dustin was quiet as a mouse, haha. It was freakin’ scary!! And yes, it does go upside down, or at least feel like it. I realized that my terror-threshold reaches its max at Thunder Mountain-like coasters. Take me to the Dumbo ride, please!
After beating death, we stopped for ice pops and dodged rain clouds, walked around some more, went through the Classic Movie ride, and then we met up with celebrities for pictures!!
Dustin, Winnie the Pooh, and me!
Dustin, Mickey, and me. Weeeeeeee! So fun.
More walking and window shopping.
Found out I can ship my souvenirs so I don’t have to bring them back on the plane with us. Yay! Already planned to buy and ship them from a UPS store or something, but it will work out just fine doing it right at the store. Only thing is they charge by the cost of what you buy, not the weight. So it might get pricey considering one Christmas ornament is $16.95, lol. Everyone is getting pencils!
We had dinner reservations for 7:00pm at the Hollywood Brown Derby.
I’ve wanted to eat here since I watched I Love Lucy eat at one of the originals in California.
We only had to wait a few minutes before we were seated, I don’t think they were packed at the time.
I reviewed the menu online before we came, so I already knew what I would order: The Bibb lettuce salad and the salmon.
Our waiter convinced me to try the Cobb salad instead of the Bibb. He said the Cobb salad was invented at the Derby by the original owner. The story goes that the owner got back from the dentist and wanted something easy to eat, so he made a finely chopped salad that we now know as the Cobb salad. So all over Cobbs that have large pieces? They’re totally wrong! Just a cheap imitation of the original.
I have never seen a salad like this before! They bring it over, finely-chopped of course, and toss it in front of you.
Ends up looking like speckled guacamole…
Best. Cobb. Salad. Ever. It tasted so fresh and flavorful. LOVED it!
Dustin started with the lobster bisque…
He shared a few bites. Wow, SO GOOD. Loved that too.
The bread basket and butter kissed with sea salt and fresh thyme…
I went with my original entrée, the salmon, but the one I ordered was different than what their online menu described. This version came with a blue-cheese crusted polenta cake and seasonal fall vegetables:
Totally delicious!!!
He shared a bite, it was amazing! I couldn’t finish my entrée or the Cobb salad, I ate half of each and brought the salmon back to our hotel. We picked up a fork from the hotel deli, lol. I’m determined to eat the rest of it before we leave. We’ll see if that actually happens, I just threw out our leftovers from the Prime Time 50s Café the other night.
We finished our dinner with the vanilla bean crème brulee. It was heavenly!
I had 1/3 of it; Dustin had the rest. Plus a BIG bite of the biscotti that had little candied fruit jewels throughout. Excellent dinner and dessert. We were beyond satisfied with the service and the presentation and all of the offerings. Highly recommend it if you’re in the park.
Our waiter gave me a copy of the Cobb salad recipe printed on a cute little brown derby paper cutout before we left. I just might have to make it sometime and hope I do it justice.
If our vacation ended last night, I would have been perfectly content. We have been having a glorious time; the food, the fun, the warm weather—we’re happy snowbirds.
We changed our flight last night. Our flight path home was less-than-desirable, so we bought new tickets last night. Instead of flying from Orlando to Cincinnati to Detroit to Newburgh, we purchased nonstop tickets from Orlando to Newburgh. The only airline doing direct flights was Jetblue. Never flown with them, hope they’re good. 2 hour 45 minutes sounds sooooo much better than 8.5 hours and 3 flights, though. From now on, I’m buying only nonstop flights. Hard to get on Expedia, so going to use Expedia for hotel + car, and do plane tickets separately. I’m catching on to this travel thing! hehe
Today, we’re going to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We better get going, it’s getting late. Be back later!!
{ 8 comments }
Twitter: avericooks
November 7, 2011 at 3:24 PM
Booking and switching airline tickets at the last minute can be stressful but nonstops are awesome. Glad you were able to score that.
Love this pic
“Dustin, Winnie the Pooh, and me!”
And the whole trip sounds great. Also impressed with all your in-restaurant pics. That’s an art right there whippin’ out the camera tableside. I need your tips!
Oh how I miss Disney..we recently moved from Florida to Pittsburgh so right about now I’m feeling like I need my Mickey fix. Looks like you guys are having the best time and really enjoying all that Disney has to offer:) Wasn’t that expensive to switch flights like that? I agree with you though, it’s a drag having to pick up multiple flights to get to your destination, glad it’s working out better than it started:)
Twitter: j3nndotnet
November 7, 2011 at 5:45 PM
Ouch! That must be quite a change being in the north this time of year! I’ll say hello to Mickey for you; I’m sure he misses you too.
Yeah, it was sort of expensive to buy new tickets ($700 for 2) BUT the original flight, hotel, and car rental was dirt cheap, so that sort of makes up for it. We sucked up the extra $$$ to shave 6 hours off of our travel time. I think this trip is going to count as my birthday and xmas, haha.
I’ve ate at a Brown Derby in FL before, I was in high school though….so therefore I know I didn’t appreciate it like I would now lol. I meant to ask on my previous comment…did you guys get to ride Soarin at Epcot?? My mother in law LOVES that ride she says it is so cool.
Twitter: j3nndotnet
November 8, 2011 at 2:11 PM
No, we didn’t! Dustin said he saw it but didn’t know what it was. We might have to check it out before we go; this is our last day visiting the parks before we leave tomorrow morning.
Already planning our next visit here! hehe 
Do check it out if you get a chance….it’s like you are ‘soaring’ about…it’s simulated…but they said it is awesome. My mother in law doesn’t do ‘roller coasters’ but loved this. That is all she talks about when you mention Disney LOL Maybe next time you guys come down we’ll plan on hitting up Universal and do dinner or something
Twitter: j3nndotnet
November 9, 2011 at 12:55 AM
We went on Soarin’ today! It was pretty neat but not sure if it was worth the 55 minutes waiting in line. That was boring as hell, ha!
So sad to be leaving tomorrow.
Next time we come we’ll def meet up at Universal. Sounds awesome, we didn’t get around to it this time. Next time for sure! 
sorry for the late response – I ended up with Strep throat last week on top of a sinus infection YUCK!!! Glad you guys liked it!!! Yea the lines can be a PAIN!!! I’m not sure a lot of stuff is worth that wait, I’m impatient! Oh yes that would be a lot of fun!!! Hope we can meet up with you guys!
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