Originally Posted By Dabob2 Day 3, Tuesday December 6. We’d have a bit more time for the parks today compared to yesterday (when we had to get down to southern O.C. for dinner) and tomorrow (when we’d have to get to LA and leave Anaheim before the afternoon traffic). More importantly, Jerry’s back was better. Yay!! He felt good enough to walk (albeit with a cane, and slowly) rather than do the chair, with the understanding I could always go back and get the chair if necessary. He also made it clear he’d forego the thrill rides, lest he make his back any worse. Today was our early entry, so we had breakfast in DTD and then walked the rest of the way to the gate. Really wanted to do Peter Pan first, WITH him this time, so we did. Just walking slowly rather than tearing down Main Street meant PP had a decent wait (again!) when we got there, but no matter. We have a little ritual where we steal a kiss in the starry, starry Neverland room, and it’s nothing less than a highlight of life. My favorite place (DL) with my favorite person. The wait for ST wasn’t too bad (being magic morning still); I was bummed that Jerry couldn’t do this, as he’d really enjoy it and now he’ll have to wait who knows how long to see 2.0, but better safe than sorry. I’d seen 5 of the 6 destinations so far in my three trips, so was hoping for the one I’d missed, which was Hoth. Sure enough, after Darth Vader detained us again, we landed in Hoth. So at this point I was missing only Yoda to have seen everything. We got Leia instead, and for the second destination it was back to the underwater planet - my favorite of the three “second” destinations, so that was great. Jerry was enjoying his coffee at the TL Terrace, so told me to “do Space Mountain or something, then we’ll do Buzz.” Well gee... twist my arm. So that’s what we did. Explored the cosmos solo, then rode Buzz together; I just don’t know enough of the tricks to score any higher than mid-level space cadet or whatever they call it, but who cares? Magic Morning was over and the west side open, so we walked over to Splash, which I hadn’t done yet. The idea was, again, to get in DCA close to opening to do TSMM with minimal wait, but we had nearly an hour. So even walking slowly (and observing some of the very nice Christmas decor on the west side and soaking in the atmosphere), it would be fine. I knew Splash wouldn’t have much of a line yet on this cool morning, and it didn’t. When I ride it with Jerry, they usually grant our request for the back, due to his long legs. So I’m not used to riding in the front... and I am telling you, I got wetter on this ride than I’ve EVER gotten on Splash before. All the drops got me kinda wet, and the biggest culprit, surprisingly, wasn’t the big one or the dark indoor one or even the first one that takes you from outside to inside... but that little nothin’ drop underneath the critter operating the railroad sidecar. The front of the log dropped down low and a wave breached and landed RIGHT on both my thighs. Had jeans on, of course. And you know how quickly they dry. Jerry, who doesn’t like getting real wet on water rides, nonetheless finds it amusing when OTHER people do. The rat. On our way out, I decided I wanted to climb Tarzan’s Treehouse, which I’d seen just once before. It’s still okay, but why in the world did they take out the coolest feature (the water wheel?) Do Tarzan and Jane not drink water?? Makes no sense. SFR is one of the few movies I wouldn’t mind seeing Disney remake, just so they could return the treehouse to its rightful owners. So then it was off to DCA and TSMM. Again, walking slowly, we did encounter a line there, but not too bad. I ended up with high score for our 4-person car (I think for the first time), and Jerry pronounced it “more fun than Buzz.” Being on the Pier, I took a turn on Screamin’ using the single rider line, which they do still use on that. I GUESS the music for Screamin’ still works with the new theme... but I still think they could do better. So that didn’t take long, and then MFW had an unusually short line, so we hit that. I was a little worried about Jerry’s back, and asked about stationary cars, but he wasn’t having it. He likes the moving cars, and said (rightly) that the movement is pretty smooth, not jerky. He did fine, and we got good views of the Carsland construction. Man, that mountain range looks really good, and it’s not even finished. You could see the town starting to come together, too. I did SSS next, and as simple as this is, it IS an improvement over the orange. Mostly because of the music, which really works with the ride. You get a better view of the water/Pier as well, of course. I was happy to note that they don’t play the SAME 90 seconds of the WTO again and again; at least they mix it up a little. Next we went to LM, which would be fine for Jerry. He liked it quite a bit (like me, more than he figured he would). It was getting to be lunchtime, which we decided to take in DTD, and I decided, still somewhat damp from Splash, that I’d do GRR. If I got soaked, I could go back to the hotel and change. As it turns out, I hardly got wet at all, and I do enjoy this ride. Went to Tortilla Joe’s for lunch. The last time I was there they only had “floral” ice tea, which I didn’t like much - this time I’m happy to report they had regular old ice tea. We had grabbed fastpasses for Soarin’, so that was next after lunch. Got front row center. Woo hoo! Love, love, love this ride. Jerry surprised me by asking to do LM again, certain that he’d missed certain things. I think you miss less on this one than on classics like POTC/HM/iasw, where there’s just SO much to see - really only the Under the Sea room is an “open” room where things are not necessarily right in front of you, which I guess could be a criticism of the ride (the more to take in the better for repeat trips); but I was happy to do it again. He needed a smoke break, so I did single rider on Screamin’ again while he went to the “degenerates area” of the Pier. I then did GSS again while he looked around the boardwalk shops. It was time for the HPB. Jerry took in the Animation Building lobby (which we both love) while I went back to TOT. I rejoined him in the lobby and we took in the show for a while. We decided to see Turtle Talk (which I’d seen in 2008, but he hadn’t), checking out the zoetrope till show time came around. I LOVE the zoetrope. One of those “hidden gems” that doesn’t even make the guidebooks but is sooooo cool. The narration explaining it was new to me (when I’d seen it before, it just did its thing without explanation.) We then saw TT, which was hilarious. The guy doing it was really “on.” We then went into the SW, and did the “which character are you most like” and voice replacement things - always fun. Okay! We’d spent most of the day in DCA, so it was back to DL. Jerry hadn’t found anything he liked at the boardwalk shops, so he went to the Emporium. I had a ST fastpass from the morning, so I used it here. Got Darth Vader (again, but he’s better than the storm trooper, so fine), the pod race, Yoda (which meant I’d managed to see everything. Yay!), and the “traffic” planet. Mousewait said both Space and the Matterhorn were minimal waits, so I called Jerry and, as he wasn’t done shopping anyway, I got my coaster on. It was after dark at this point (more nighttime hours in December. Bonus!), so the Matterhorn was even better. Met up with Jerry and we did iasw holiday. Jerry actually rode the ORIGINAL original iasw at the NY World’s fair when he was a kid, so his nostalgia for this precedes even my own. I was curious about the new characters being included, of course, and I like the holiday version better anyway... I didn’t find that the characters ruined it at all. I think it was a net minus to put them in there, but nothing ruinous. For one thing, the character SONGS (which to me was more jarring on video than the visuals) were pretty much drowned out, at least when we rode (and I understand it may be a matter of timing) by iasw/jingle bells/deck the halls. The more the characters looked “small world-y,” the better they worked for me. (Alice, and the White Rabbit, for instance). The less small world-y they looked, the less they worked. While we were in line, the Christmas parade started, so even though neither of us is a big parade fan, we were able to see much of it, just while waiting. When we got off iasw, I realized the parade probably siphoned pretty much everyone away from Toontown and RRCS, and sure enough that was true. It was a walk-on. We didn’t spin the car a whole lot this time, which allowed for more focus on the sets, etc. It’s really quite a clever ride. TT was still oddly deserted - We did some of the interactive stuff (mailbox, etc.) and then walked by Goofy’s Bounce House. I’d read that adults weren’t even allowed in there, but there were a couple in there already, so out of curiosity we went in too. I had thought EVERYTHING was made of soft foamy stuff you could actually bounce on, but not really, as it turns out. We had reservations for the 8:30 Chef’s Counter at Napa Rose, and wanted at least a little nap beforehand, so there wasn’t too much time for much else. Another spin with Mr. Toad was necessary, however, along with one more walk-on Big Thunder trip for me. Middle of the train again. Would I ever get the coveted back-of-the-train? We took the monorail back to the hotel and rested up a little for dinner. Then another highlight of the trip - Chef’s counter at the Napa Rose. Long-time LP readers may (or more likely may not!) remember that that last time we ate here, way back in 2003 now, I actually passed out and spent the night in an Anaheim hospital. And that started a long process of trying to figure out what happened - and why I still got these bizarre “episodes,” most often while eating, particularly eating out. It was most acute in the immediate couple of years after the Napa Rose incident (people would tell me my eyes got glassy, so I knew it was a real physical thing, despite being hard to pin down, and the fact that it would usually pass after 20 minutes or so). It could happen at ANY time, actually - but eating seemed to be a trigger. Long story short, I have an unusual condition where my parasympathetic nervous system (the “off” switch) is slightly out of balance with my sympathetic nervous system. It’s pretty well under control with a med I take, and I’m now actually weaning myself off of it (as I’d rather not take meds if I don’t have to). But back when my doctor(s) and I had no idea what it was, it ranged from disconcerting to a little scary. As a result, even though we loved our first two visits to the Napa Rose, we hadn’t been back since 2003, because I had sort of a psychological hurdle to overcome. Kind of like when I got violently ill once in my 20’s after eating softshell crabs... and even though I love softshell crabs, I just couldn’t bring myself to eat them again for a long time. I’d get nauseous just thinking about them, and I can eat just about anything. ANYhoo... the condition has been getting less frequent and less severe, I’m weaning off the meds... and I decided I needed to get back on that horse, and go back to the scene of the scariest incident. If I could have a nice meal there - it would be a real hurdle overcome. PLUS - every review I’d read of the Chef’s Counter said it rocked. So we did it. And I’m glad we did. It did rock. Andrew Sutton was off on that Tuesday but the sous chefs Alex and Francisco couldn’t have been nicer or more informative every time we had a question. If you’re not familiar with Chef’s counter, it involves sitting right next to the kitchen area and watching that whole ballet unfold in front of you, which is fun in itself. You can order off the menu if you like, but the whole point really is to put yourself in the Chef’s hands and let him create a menu for you. You tell him any allergies you have, and then foods/tastes/cuisines you particularly like, and any that you don’t like. He then comes up with a menu for you. We both opted for doing this. He started us both off with an amuse bouche of fish roe and a couple of other things in a mini ice-cream cone. Tasty! Four courses plus dessert would follow (plus wine) in a really, really memorable meal. First for me was a dover sole with Anaheim pepper sauce and avocado puree. It was ever better than that sounds. The sole was so delicate and fresh. I wanted more. Yummmm! Next for me (I DID mention I like seafood) was one of their signature dishes - diver scallops in a lobster sauce with tahitian vanilla and meyer lemon. Wow! Talk about delicious. I was unsure how a meyer lemon differed from a regular lemon, and Francisco was happy to explain it, even bringing one out to show us (it’s a hybrid and is smoother, rounder, and a little less sour). Next for me was duck confit with razor-thin persimmon slices. Duck and persimmon... good together? GREAT together. Who knew?? I love duck but it’s soooo easy to do badly. This was awesome. The first three courses were sort of appetizer size, with the fourth being more like the entree. And mine was filet mignon of venison, served a perfect medium rare (I had said to the chef that I preferred my meat that way). Jerry’s was a rabbit meatloaf. Knowing that many people don’t regularly eat rabbit or venison, Alex brought them out and asked us to take a bite before he told us what they were. We did, and after the sincere “mmmm’s,” he told us what they were. “So...” I said to him. “You brought us Bambi AND Thumper, then.” He seemed to get a kick out of that. For dessert I got an eggnog creme brulee that was both delicious and Christmas-y. For our “post-dessert,” since we had said it was our anniversary when we made the reservation (almost true - it was actually slightly earlier, but close enough), they brought us a little truffle box on a plate with “Happy Anniversary” written in chocolate. Yes, I got a picture. So... a tremendous meal, worth the splurge... and a big hurdle overcome. And Jerry’s back feeling much better. Great day.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>We have a little ritual where we steal a kiss in the starry, starry Neverland room, and it’s nothing less than a highlight of life. My favorite place (DL) with my favorite person. << Such a lovely sentiment
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Your reports are getting addicting. I hate to see them end! So glad your "annivesary" dinner was a success!
Originally Posted By Princessjenn5795 I love your report and it sounds like you guys had an amazing anniversary trip (Happy anniversary, by the way)! I love Napa Rose, but I have never tried the chef's counter thing before- I will have to put that on my list for next time. The only thing on your list of food that I have had is the scallops, and you are right- they are amazing!
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 Another wonderful trip report! I actually said "YAY" out loud when I read: >>>Got Darth Vader (again, but he’s better than the storm trooper, so fine), the pod race, Yoda (which meant I’d managed to see everything. Yay!), and the “traffic” planet.<<< Your trip reports are very engaging We arrived for our vacation on the 6th, we may have crossed paths
Originally Posted By WDWdreamin I totally agree. The kiss part is so cute. The chef's table sounds incredible! Wow to going on IASW at the fair. The water wheel was also my favorite part of the treehouse and I miss it. I can totally see and feel and taste everything, thanks for sharing.
