How Many Days In A Row Will We Wear Tie Dye (or Disney 2009 review): Part 9.3featured

Thanks for the votes for the next trip! Keep voting (if you haven’t) because we’re still talking it out. We should know by next week and I hope to wrap up this Disney stuff soon so I can get back to the cruise stuff…especially since we’re planning on traveling sooner rather than later (and, well, later, too LOL).

And, as always, please don’t lift these photos without my permission.

After a lengthy walking tour of the UK pavilion (which was really mostly me running around like a crazy girl snapping pictures of everything in sight and trying to find little hidden touches while Mom and Stephanie looked in the stores and then eventually settled on a bench to tap their toes and wait for me to finish), Mom decided to go back to the resort for a little while. I honestly don’t remember why, but we reminded her that we had a 6:30 pm dinner in the Italy pavilion and that my iPhone was still forecasting heavy rain in a few hours and we went our separate ways: Mom went towards Future World and Stephanie and I went towards the France pavilion so I could continue on with World Showcaseapalooza. Our destination was the Morocco pavilion, but we made a quick stop in the France pavilion for a few more pictures.

A quick layover in France en route to Morocco.

We’ve never really explored the Morocco pavilion before. I’d taken a quick glance in there the year before, but for some reason, we always skipped it. It never really seemed that crowded and it’s pretty easy to pass over, but I quickly realized this was World Showcase’s hidden treasure. The Morocco pavilion is, perhaps, the most elaborately themed pavilion in World Showcase and one of the most beautiful spots in all of Disney World. It seems so…authentic. I’ve never been to Morocco, but I’ve seen Aladdin more times than I can count and the pavilion seems to me like the film translating into real life. There’s so many nooks and crannies to explore, each of them more elaborate than the next. And there’s so many cool little facts about this pavilion that aren’t widely known (like how King Hassan II sent Moroccan artists to design and create many of the mosaics and how while most of the World Showcase pavilions are sponsored by corporations, the Morocco pavilion is sponsored by the government).

The Moroccan pavilion also has two restaurants, the table-service Restaurant Marrakesh and the quick-service Tangerine Cafe. The menu for Restaurant Marrakesh doesn’t appeal to any of us (it’s very authentic middle-eastern cuisine, which none of us have acquired any taste for), but Stephanie and I intend to try Tangerine Cafe on every trip and never quite make it there. I’m a falafel fiend (which is why many of the times we resort hop, we end up at the Mara at Animal Kingdom Lodge, where you can get the most phenomenal falafel pita sandwich) and I hear the falafel there is top-notch.

Much like the rest of World Showcase, Stephanie had no interest in exploring the pavilion (though she was a really good sport about letting me explore and our compromise with time spent in World Showcase versus time spent in Future World worked out well for us, with me exploring a few countries a day and her getting her fill of the rides in the mornings and in between lunch and dinner or in the evenings) so the 45-minute Treasures of Morocco tour was out of the question. She ended up finding a quiet spot under a shady tree and texting her friends while I went through the pavilion.

Arabian nights, like Arabian days, more often than not, are hotter than hot, in a lot of good ways.

The pavilion was, as I expected, sparse of people. I really enjoyed the quiet of it, though. I felt like it was a secret treasure that was mine to discover and explore. Aladdin showed up at some point and somehow a crowd found him, and I made my way to the shops. While I wanted to buy a souvenir from every World Showcase pavilion, I couldn’t find anything I needed (or anything I really even wanted), so I gave up on that idea.

I didn’t want to press my luck, so after Morocco, I decided I was done exploring World Showcase for the day and we took the launch to Mexico to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour and do some shopping. We had a pretty lengthy wait for the launch and the air was getting heavy and thick, silently signaling the rain that we were hoping to avoid was on its way.

We called Mom while we were waiting for the launch. She and grandma were watching the weather channel and said the rain was coming. Grandma won’t come out in the rain (and the change in atmospheric pressure was hitting her joints, so sitting in her chair wasn’t as comfortable as the bed was), and Mom contemplated staying in with grandma and watching movies and ordering room service, but they decided that Mom would join us for dinner and then we’d see how the weather was and how grandma felt to see if she’d want to join us in the park for the evening. Grandma was spending more time in the resort than she was in the parks, but I guess that works for her because she came home rested and refreshed while Stephanie and I slept for the better part of two days once we got home. And frankly, the heat was worse than any of us thought it would be (and worse than it had been in any of our previous trips to Florida in August) and she couldn’t handle the heat as well as we could. In the future, we probably won’t travel to Florida during August anymore just because we have more fun when we travel together if we spend more time together and between the heat and the rain, we were constantly splitting up.

Anyways…after a quick boat ride, we found ourselves outside the steps into the Aztec temple replica that houses the Mexico pavilion. We all love the Mexican pavilion. As much as Mom is a francophile, I love anything and everything regarding the spanish culture and heritage. I used to be fluent in spanish (I can still handle a conversation pretty well, but I’m considerably slower with it now) and I took years of spanish language, literature and culture classes from junior high school all the way through my third year of college. Stephanie likes the shopping, Mom likes the “feel” of the pavilion and grandma likes that it houses a ride she can actually go on (Gran Fiesta Tour does have a roll-on accessible boat), but for me? The Mexico pavilion has a little of everything that I love about Mexico, from the architecture to the music to the language. The downside, though, is as quiet and uncrowded as the Moroccan pavilion is, the Mexico pavilion is always busy and bustling. I think it’s probably because it’s an indoor pavilion, it’s got a cool vibe and it’s at the “mouth” of World Showcase and very close to Future World, but it’s always loud and busy. And that’s cool (and very fitting), but it gets frustrating given how crowded the space is already with merchandise carts. The flow of the pavilion sucks.

The new tequila bar hadn’t quite opened yet, which was a downer since I love a good margarita, so we took our time walking around, looking at all of the merchandise in the main pavilion area. We struck up a conversation with one of the cast members, who was from Puerto Vallarta about his home. We went to Puerto Vallarta a few years ago and did a countryside tour, where they take you far away from all of the touristy stuff and bring you to the “real” area of the country where people live and it was, by far, one of my favorite experiences in my entire life. The cast member gave us stickers because he thought it was super cool that we’d been to his hometown.

The Gran Fiesta Tour was walk-on, and we did it a few times. I *love* this ride. It has a fun plot and part of the ride reminds me of a spicier It’s A Small World. And there’s always the “fireworks” at the end that are so bad and fake but I love them anyways. In fact, the last area of the ride reminds me of Puerto Rico at night. I had a little too much fun at Senor Frogs the night we were in San Juan, but what I remember of that night is eerily similar to that last area. My favorite part of the ride, though, is the first part, where you go past the temple and the restaurant. It’s so…mystical. And those restaurant seats that overlook the ride? Prime real estate, mis amigos. I speak from experience…but that’s for another time.

Mom called us and left a voicemail saying that she was on her way, so we decided to wait for her in the pavilion instead of meeting her at the front of the park and then walking all the way back the same way for dinner. A mariachi band was setting up for a live performance, so we found a bench and enjoyed the music and the ambiance.

Mom got to the park and was meeting up with us much quicker than I thought she would. Thankfully, she remembered to bring the camera case I forgot in the room. It was starting to drizzle out, but we still had a bit of time before dinner, so we rode the Gran Fiesta Tour one more time before taking a quick peek in the jewelry store with Mom, checking out the glass blowing demonstration in the glass shop and then heading towards the Italy pavilion for dinner.

It only took a few minutes to walk to the Italy pavilion, passing by the Norway, China and Germany pavilions on the way (and the African Outpost, but that’s not really a pavilion). The temperature was significantly cooler and I knew we were just in for a huge downpour. Maybe it was the timing of the day or maybe it was the forthcoming storms, but the park was significantly less full than it had been a few hours earlier. We made it to Tutto Italia a few minutes before our reservation and stopped to put our ponchos away before we went to check in.

We’ve dined at Tutto Italia a few times. It’s a superb restaurant and it’s absolutely gorgeous inside, but it’s always packed inside, especially in the waiting area. We were shocked when we walked into an empty reception area and even more shocked as it stayed empty in the following minutes while we waited to be seated.

While the reception area is an eclectic mix of tradition (dark woods, oil paintings of Italian landscapes) and curious knick knacks, the main dining room is very regal and formal looking, with tan walls and dark wooden accents clashing with elaborate chandeliers. We were seated in a small annex of the main dining room, which was a little quieter and had a little more room between the tables.

We had two servers, a young man and a young woman and they were quick to come over and introduce themselves, explain what was covered on our dining plan and take our drink orders. I ordered an iced tea and Stephanie and Mom both went for diet Cokes. One of our servers went to get our drinks while the other brought us a basket of a nice, soft white bread, a crunchy flatbread cracker and breadsticks, accompanied by a basil butter and a plate of extra virgin olive oil. We were also given a plate of garnishes. The last time we were here, it was some pickled vegetables and a few olives, and the more recent pictures I saw just offered olives, but we had a plate full of various olives, artichoke hearts, peppers and marinated mushrooms. Mom and Stephanie went for the bread while I picked at the olives and mushrooms. The olives were so tasty- salty and robust and the mushrooms were slightly acidic, which I enjoyed. I tried a slice of the white bread with a bit of the infused butter, and it sounds funny, but it tasted how grandma’s backyard used to smell in the summertime when I was a child. The herb flavor was very pungent and green tasting. I much preferred the flavor (and texture) of the bread with a swipe in the oil and the breadstick with a shallow dip in the butter.

Stephanie ordered the Fresh “Bufala” Mozzarella (Vine ripened tomatoes, basil and Tuscan olive oil) for her appetizer. She had this the last time we dined at Tutto and was glad to find it hadn’t changed a bit. She was presented with a plate with a large ball of very fresh mozzarella and some ripe tomato wedges in a shallow pool of oil and topped with a basil leaf. Stephanie LOVES caprese salads and this is up there with the best. The portion is odd and disproportionate at best, with a big hunk of mozzarella, a few pieces of tomato and one leaf of basil.

Fresh “Bufala” Mozzarella

Mom usually orders the same starter as Stephanie, but decided to go with the Melanzana Alla Parmigiana (Baked eggplant, mozzarella “Fior Di Latte”, tomato, parmesan cheese) this time since she loves eggplant parmesan. This dish was essentially an eggplant parmesan that was baked instead of fried. Mom really enjoyed it and thought it was much lighter than the traditional fried dish. The portion was rather large, too, and would really work well as a table appetizer.

Melanzana Alla Parmigiana

I was debating between the beef carpaccio, a plate of various meats and a light salad with a citrus dressing, but I caved into my cravings and went with my favorite Italian snack, Proscuitto di Parma. No one does proscuitto and melon better than Tutto Italia (except, perhaps, proscuitto from my local ethnic food market and a fresh melon from the vegetable market). I was presented with a plate of soft, thinly sliced italian ham with a melon flower garnish. There were slightly thickened slices of melon hidden beneath the ham, but I found the proportion to be a bit off. Last time, I had too much melon. This time, I had too much proscuitto. Still, the dish was amazing. The soft, salty ham and the firm, sweet melon is the perfect culinary juxtaposition. And this was some quality proscuitto. The color was perfect, the flavor was spot-on and the meat was super soft. It was the most simple dish, but give me a few plates of these and I’m in heaven.

Proscuitto di Parma

Stephanie went for the simple and traditional spaghetti with veal meatballs and pomodoro sauce for her main entree. You’d think at an italian restaurant (a traditional one, at that…this ain’t your local Olive Garden) would excel at a simple spaghetti and meatball dish, but Stephanie thought this was just okay. The sauce didn’t pop and bordered on bland and the meatballs were small. Hell, they serve bigger meatballs than that AT the Olive Garden. Still, it was a very filling dish.

Spaghetti

Mom ordered the Cannelloni al Forno (Baked with spinach, ricotta, bechamel and parmesan cheese), which she loved. The dish consisted of two long, thin tubes of pasta filled with a soft cheese and spinach mixture and topped with a bechamel sauce (a tasty white sauce similar to an alfredo sauce). Mom thought the cannelloni was delicious and ate the entire thing before I could sneak a bite.

Cannelloni al Forno

I couldn’t decide what to order for my main course. I had the Bucatini Gratinati last year (which sent me to gastronomic heaven by means of clogged arteries last year), but they changed the dish this year and I wanted to try something new. I didn’t want another steak and was contemplating chicken, but on a whim, ordered the Tortelli Di Vitello Al “Chianti” (Veal and Chianti ravioli, parmesan cheese, sage butter, roasted tomato). This was a mega disappointment and one of the least tasty things I ate this entire trip. For one, the pasta was too firm, the filling had no flavor (and was overcooked…it was almost like a tough meatball inside) and there was not really much sauce or flavor to it, which was disappointing because I love wine, especially when it’s infused into food. The portion left a bit to be desired, as well, with five raviolis that were mostly pasta being served. There was no real substance to this dish, no real flavor and it was a big bust for me.

Tortelli Di Vitello Al “Chianti”

Stephanie preferred ordering sorbets to end meals (mostly because of the heat), so she ordered the lemon sorbet for dessert. It was smooth, refreshing and heavy on the citrus. There were two small biscuits served on the plate with it, which were wholly unnecessary (and dry) as the sorbet stood up fine on its own.

Sorbetti

Mom couldn’t choose what she wanted and told me to choose, so I ordered her the Copetta Sotto Bosco (Berries, zabaglione cream gelato and chocolate sauce). Copetta Sotto Bosco is just a fancy Italian name for ice cream sundae. This was really fantastic, with a sweet, creamy gelato, a thick drizzle of hot chocolate sauce and a handful of fresh berries.

Copetta Sotto Bosco

I went with the age-old favorite, the cannoli (Crisp pastry filled with sweet ricotta, chocolate and candied orange). The cannoli was HUGE and tasty, but I was disappointed that I couldn’t discern any orange flavor anywhere in the dish. But the thick, smooth cream and the light, crispy shell? Perfection.

Cannoli

The bill came to $152.83, and we redeemed three dining credits. This is where I have a problem. I love the food here. I love the ambiance even more. But the prices are ridiculous. They’re even more laughable when you consider some of the portions. Stephanie’s ball ‘o mozzarella with four tomato slices and *one* leaf of basil? $15. Mom’s two tubes of pasta? $24. My five flavorless raviolis? $25. Hell, Stephanie’s bowl of pasta with micro meatballs was $24. And her scoop of lemon sorbet? $8. And her dessert was the least expensive of all of our desserts. These are prices that I’d expect to find at a four or five star Italian bistro on Chicago’s Gold Coast, not at a restaurant in a theme park. The food is good, but it’s not $25 spaghetti and meatballs good and if you aren’t on the dining plan, dining here really isn’t worth it.

It looked like we’d missed a big rainstorm when we stepped outside, but there wasn’t any coming down when we came out. We got one picture in before the skies opened up and I hurriedly put my camera in my case and under the poncho. I haven’t seen rain like this since we tangoed with tropical storm Barry in Nassau. Most people were caught without their ponchos. One man even joked with Stephanie that he’d give her $50 for hers (he may or may not have been kidding…Stephanie really thought he was serious but I was getting the hell out of the rain and looking for the nearest indoor pavilion).

We waited most of the rain in the Mexico pavilion and when it lightened up, we made our way to Future World. Stephanie and I tried to convince Mom to stay with us for awhile to do some rides, but she really just wanted to get back to the hotel so Stephanie and I walked her to the front of the park and then looped back to go on Test Track and Spaceship Earth.

We did some shopping at Mouse Gears and contemplated staying for Illuminations, but ultimately decided we were better off missing the crowds to get out later and heading back to the hotel.

There was no wait for the monorail and we were quickly on our way back to our resort. Grandma was achy and didn’t feel like going out to dinner, but she was bored with the food from the Contempo Cafe, so we offered to go to the Polynesian to get her dinner since the quick-service restaurant can be accessed from the monorail station without going outside. We all watched Illuminations from the room and then Stephanie and I headed off to the Polynesian.

Captain Cooks, the quick-service restaurant at the Polynesian, is our favorite of all of the quick-service restaurants on the monorail resort loop. They have a more varied selection of foods (everything from lo-mein to a gourmet grilled cheese), and even have Dole Whips. Since we were massively accumulating meal credits from the meals grandma was skipping in favor of eating in the room and I didn’t like my dinner, we picked up some extra sandwiches while we were there. We ordered grandma a double cheeseburger, which came with those delicious poly chips, and a muffin and she really enjoyed it. It was a really big burger, though, and she only got through a third of it. Stephanie brought back a turkey club and snacked on it for a few days and a cupcake that I think grandma ended up eating later on. I got one of my favorites: the grilled cheese. See, at the Polynesian, even the grilled cheese is jazzed up. It’s served on a hearty whole grain bread and has a more adult selection of cheeses on it (with blue cheese being amongst them…I left it off this time because I didn’t have a taste for it). It usually has tomatoes on it, but I omitted those and I also added bacon since it came at no extra cost on the dining plan. I got a cupcake, too, and it was scrumptious. We grabbed three bottles of Vitamin Water for our beverages for the next day and grabbed an extra muffin for Mom as a snack credit since she loved Disney’s blueberry muffins.

Cupcakes and muffin

Grilled Cheese

While we were waiting for our food (you order on a touch-screen computer, check out at the cashier and are handed a pager to wait for your food), we noticed a LOT of drunks coming out of the luau. This was the second time I found myself in the Polynesian at night that week and both times, there were some loud, obnoxious drunks that had indulged a little too much.

After we got our food and packed it up to go, we headed back to the monorail. We stopped briefly at the Grand Floridian because we wanted to stop into Basin, but we were too late and it was already closed, so we went back to the monorail. The one thing I missed this week from previous trips was the Grand Floridian at night. Every night, Stephanie and I would either end up listening to the soft music in the lobby or on the hammocks on the beach. Bay Lake Towers is gorgeous and nice, but it doesn’t have anything quite like it (nor does the Contemporary).

I was so glad we got on before the Magic Kingdom because there were massive crowds coming out of the park and the monorail was packed to the gills. Thankfully, we only had one stop and we were walking back to the comfort of our own spacious room. We all watched a movie and then I went back to the bedroom, where I fell asleep surfing the internet on my iPhone.