"Or you could just go to WDW for a couple of days..." - May 2017 PTR -updt 2/28

[cindianne320]

I'm with you- not a fan of the new Magic Band- yet.

And I just realized that you're from MN with your MoA comment. We live about an hour away from the Twin Cities.

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I'm with you- not a fan of the new Magic Band- yet.

And I just realized that you're from MN with your MoA comment. We live about an hour away from the Twin Cities.

Hi! Are you a Minnesotan or are you from Wisconsin?

 

[cindianne320]

Hi! Are you a Minnesotan or are you from Wisconsin?

Minnesotan!

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Minnesotan!

Yay!!

 

[xlsm]

Wall-E is so great! I am really happy with how he was designed and how he turned out. His front panel comes down too. It's one of the Lego IDEAS designs that was submitted by one of the Wall-E animators so it's as accurate as it'll ever be!



Thanks for the picture of the new band on your wrist. Your wrist seems small and it seems okay but - I know this sounds super whiny - I don't like that it's bigger!! I think it's going to look ridiculous and large on my wrist. (It's allll about meeeeee!!) No matter the size of the rest of my body, my wrists are always small and bony. I had a coworker riding in the car with me comment - "How can you even drive with wrists that small? They don't look strong enough!" I thought it was hilarious because I don't consider my wrists weak but they definitely look small. My fingers are also very slender - my ring size is 4.5. My friend says I have witch claw hands.

Here is my wrist with my MB one notch away from child size. I could have easily done the child size but I wanted it a little loose in deference to the heat.

View attachment 213679

Here you can kind of see my witch claw hands

View attachment 213682

I appreciate you trying to make me feel better about the size of the new bands. I'm sure I'll get used to it, I'm in the whiny phase right now.

I worry about things too! I have no idea how my MIL will react. She'll probably be fine but I also showed her the older style so who knows? I hope that your mom is okay with it! I'm sure she will be, like you said, she won't know the difference.


I rented points for this last trip in Sept and while I was really nervous, it turned out great! We saved so much money, even with buying travel insurance. We used David's DVC and everything went really smoothly. I would totally do it again. I completely understand about being nervous and worried about renting points - I did too! But once I buy plane tickets, I'm locked in anyway so I thought, what the h*ll, let's try it. Buying the travel insurance for our DVC stay really gave me peace of mind in case of an unexpected emergency. I encourage you to really think hard about it! Especially if you aren't thinking of moving your resort/dates around. We definitely were going to stay at AKL that week in Sept no matter what so that wasn't a concern.

Good luck!

I'm extra impressed with the Wall-E thing now, I didn't know the animators submitted designs! That's so cool!!

And that's about where I wear my MB too...it's just a touch too tight if it's closed inside the child sized part, so I keep it within a notch or two, depending on if I'm wearing bracelets or whatever with it. Before this most recent trip, I didn't wear a watch, so my MB was on my left wrist. Now, wearing it on my right, I do keep it tighter. With the size of the new one, there's no way I could double up watch and MB on one wrist (I feel like the combo would go halfway up my forearm!), and I feel like I could have before if I'd wanted to (but it wouldn't be practical or comfortable).

I'm still in the whiny phase, too...I don't wanna get used to it

But I will. As with most things.

And you do not have witch hands!! We are pretty much the same age, but I have had arthritis in my hands since I was 18 or so, so my knuckles are large and my fingers are slightly misshapen. My left hand rings are a seven and my right hand ring is an 8 so it fits over the knuckle comfortably. But if the day is cold, the rings spin and spin on my fingers and I get scared they'll somehow slip off. I always say I have old lady hands.

That's a good point about having the flights booked and being locked in anyway in regards to renting DVC points...It's still on the table for October.

*sigh* I'm having Dis-pression pretty bad today...I'm ready for May!

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

So we're in the doldrums of January.

Booo.....

But I am almost done with my cold which means that I can play with my Christmas gifts!


Wine is no longer really an option for me - it makes me sick. I can have it occasionally with a bunch of water or one glass of mimosa.

So I have gotten really into craft cocktails. Specifically, tiki drinks. A few of years ago, I discovered Psycho Suzy's which is a very strange Tiki motorbike lounge but I love it. Totally Polynesian Pop and over-the-top theming.

It also helps that it smells like Walt Disney World inside! I don't know why or what it is but I don't care - it's my little mini Disney oasis.

This last trip in Sept, I went to Trader Sam's in the Poly and...I can't even tell you...it was incredibly amazing and it completely cemented my love for tiki bars and tiki drinks. And, of course, Disney takes tiki bars to the next level.

My Shrunken Head Zombie at Trader Sam's!

For our wedding anniversary in Nov, Blair got me this book all about how one man turned his passion for polynesian pop and tiki drinks into a thriving business - Smuggler's Cove. It not only gives you the recipes, it tells you what equipment you need and why and what ingredients are best and why.



Then, for Christmas, I got from Blair a bartender's kit with a Japanese-style jigger, a double cup shaker, a swizzle spoon, and a strainer. He also got me coupe glasses which look like this:

It's very 1930s!

I also got a Hamilton Beach drink mixer from my Grandma. I finally had all the tools to go tiki crazy!

Except the ingredients. But first, I had to pick one recipe to follow. That was really really hard. I wanted to do them all! But each drink contains multiple ingredients and they recommend that you have nine different rums in your tiki arsenal. I had no idea there were so many different types of rum. I'm learning so much! I settled (after literally hours of pouring over each recipe) on Captain's Grog. I also saw that I could make Planter's Punch with some of the same ingredients.

I knew I could find the rums but one of things I was worried about finding was falernum. From the book, falernum "originated in Barbados and is a rum, sugar, and lime-based liqueur with a variety of spices, including (but not limited to) cloves, almond, gineger, and nutmeg." It's a common tiki drink ingredient but I wasn't sure how common it was in liquor stores. And as it turns out, not very common. We ended up at Total Wine and they had never heard of it before, but one determined employee went through each of their cordials and found it! We also found the three different rums I needed, the dry curacao, and the St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram for another tiki drink because I couldn't help myself! I also found a lot of other ingredients for other drinks but I was already straining the bank so we stopped there.

We went to the grocery store for limes, almond extract, grapefruit, and POM juice. I needed demarara sugar but randomly, Blair already had some at home because he "found it interesting" and bought it one day at the grocery store.

When I got home, I needed to make syrups out of the demarara sugar and the POM juice (grenadine). That didn't take long, luckily. There are other syrups that I need for some drinks (like my favorite - a zombie!) but they either take 12 hours or special ingredients that I'm going to have to order online (like passion fruit puree).

Here is the recipe for Captain's Grog in the book. You can see I had an accident with opening the club soda bottle, the page is warped:




There are 11 ingredients in the Captains Grog. Lime juice, grapefruit juice, grade A maple syrup (not sure what that is but my husband's family tap their own trees so I'm assuming it's the best you can get), vanilla extract, almond extract, seltzer (couldn't find this so I used Club Soda which is not the same but oh well), falernum, dry curacao, black blended rum, blended lightly aged rum, and blended aged rum. It's one of the longer ones but 5 to 6 is quite typical. They also stress natural juices and homemade syrups, etc. Which I agree - it really does make a difference!

Here is my "classic" drink blender:



Anyone for a shake?

Oh hey! You can see me in the reflection of the blender. Hello!!

After a lot of mixing and spills, here is the Captain's Grog:



I didn't do any garnishes because that was beyond me by the time I got done with the drink.

The verdict - it was REALLY good!! I couldn't individually taste the maple syrup, vanilla, or almond extract. It tasted slightly sweet but a little bit of a tart after taste. The rums blended together were really good.

I also made the Planter's Punch but I forgot to take a picture. I didn't like that one as much. They say in the book that every place/location has it's own version so I think I'm going to futz with it and make it my own. Planter's Punch contains lime juice, demerara syrup, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, blended aged rum, and Angosture bitters. This one didn't taste as smooth as the Captain's Grog. I wonder if it's my choice of blended aged rum. I may have to try another brand. I used Mount Gay Black Barrel. Or maybe go easier on the lime. Just a hint of lime is plenty for me.


That was a few nights ago.

Last night, I made the Halekulani Cocktail. It used the double shaker instead of the blender and it contained lemon juice, orange juice, and pineapple juice, demerara syrup, grenadine, bourbon, and angostura bitters. But I cheated. I didn't have any lemons, so instead of the fruit juices, I used an organic orange mango juice that I had in the fridge.

So someday I'm going to have to try it the "right" way but I don't think it mattered - it was SO good. Blair kept asking me what it was and I kept telling him that it was the Halekulani from Waikiki beach in 1930 over and over. I got so fed up with it that I just told him that it was the Moana!

Which, since I technically didn't use the correct ingredients, I am henceforth calling this new drink I made up the Moana!



And I was drinking it while I was planning a trip to meet up with @Raeven in Chicago!

@Raeven and I have been conversing ever since we met on the Boards while planning our Sept trips. Which didn't line up, btw. Booo. We started chatting on Instagram and then eventually started texting.

We both knew that we were going to do May trips so we planned them so that they would coincide so we could finally meet.

Here she is!

(Shamelessly taken from her Dec 2016 TR.)


Buuut she has a credit on SW that she need to use before the end of March . We were talking about her maybe coming to MN but that is ridiculously expensive. To come here! In March! In the snow! Makes no sense.

But Chicago is cheap and I can get there for cheap too! We have our hotel and flights booked. Now we need to decide what to do. Besides go to the Disney store...

Another trip to look forward to!

2-ish months to Chicago
114 Days to Disney!

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I'm extra impressed with the Wall-E thing now, I didn't know the animators submitted designs! That's so cool!!

Anyone can submit Lego set ideas through Lego's Ideas program. There is a special website where you submit ideas and pictures of your model and then people vote on which ones they like the best. If you get a certain number of votes, then it's put up for consideration for an actual Lego set. If it's selected the LEgo design team works with you to refine your design and then it goes on the shelves as a limited edition (I think) Lego Ideas set. It's really cool. There are only several a year that get chosen. I have the women scientist set (they actually ran out and then made another limited run because it was so popular), the Doctor Who set, and Blair has the Big Bang Theory set. All created by Lego enthusiasts.

With the size of the new one, there's no way I could double up watch and MB on one wrist (I feel like the combo would go halfway up my forearm!)

I look young in my face so I think all my age went in to my hands too!

I definitely feel the need for some Disney right about now, too!

 

[Raeven]

My Shrunken Head Zombie at Trader Sam's!

I got one too!

Which, since I technically didn't use the correct ingredients, I am henceforth calling this new drink I made up the Moana!

That sounds good! I want a Moana!

And I was drinking it while I was planning a trip to meet up with @Raeven in Chicago!

Yes!

Here she is!

(Shamelessly taken from her Dec 2016 TR.)

There I am!

Buuut she has a credit on SW that she need to use before the end of March . We were talking about her maybe coming to MN but that is ridiculously expensive. To come here! In March! In the snow! Makes no sense.

But Chicago is cheap and I can get there for cheap too! We have our hotel and flights booked. Now we need to decide what to do. Besides go to the Disney store...

I can't believe we actually found a use for that credit and that we get to take a trip together! the Disney Store is an important priority, and we can't forget seeing Beauty and the Beast!

2-ish months to Chicago
114 Days to Disney!

But who's counting? (That's a thing Josh says to me whenever I give him the number of days till a trip). So the answer is me too I have countdowns in my phone for all upcoming trips. I'm glad we have a trip to look forward to before our trip to FL!

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

That sounds good! I want a Moana!

You're just going to have to come to MN and get one!

I can't believe we actually found a use for that credit and that we get to take a trip together! the Disney Store is an important priority, and we can't forget seeing Beauty and the Beast!

Yes! Did you see the Golden Globe TV spot? I thought her voice sounded a bit tinny or robotic at times. I'm hoping that was just a tv spot thing and it'll be better for the actual movie.

But who's counting? (That's a thing Josh says to me whenever I give him the number of days till a trip). So the answer is me too I have countdowns in my phone for all upcoming trips. I'm glad we have a trip to look forward to before our trip to FL!

I have to add a countdown for our Chicago trip!!

 

[xlsm]

OMG, I love your love of Tiki drinks!! That is so fun!

I'm sorry you couldn't find seltzer! I like to mix it with juice (ok, that's a lie, I don't LIKE to, but I don't keep soda in the house, so it's a poor substitute). The last bottle of it I had, I opened it and it exploded all over the kitchen. My 11 year old says he hates seltzer because it's for clowns to spray at each other. I don't know where that came from, but he brings it up every time he sees a bottle of it. Weirdo.

The Moana sounds delicious!

And I had no idea about submitting lego ideas. I'll have to tell my husband!

Woohoo for Chicago with Raeven!! I'd say have fun, but I think that'll be a given

 

[Sarahh1027]

I'm just now realizing you had this pre-trip report going!!
This year we're switching trips- I'm going in September and you're going in May!!
Yay for more Disney!

 

[Raeven]

You're just going to have to come to MN and get one!



Yes! Did you see the Golden Globe TV spot? I thought her voice sounded a bit tinny or robotic at times. I'm hoping that was just a tv spot thing and it'll be better for the actual movie.



I have to add a countdown for our Chicago trip!!

Aw! Bring one to Chicago

No I didn't see it I hope it's better in the movie too but I still can't wait to see it!

Yes! I did to my countdown app!

 

[cindianne320]

I definitely need one of those drinks! Yum! I've never been to Psycho Suzy's but it looks so fun!

 

[cinderkelly]

Your tiki drinks look amazing! I had no idea they were so complicated and required so many components! Sounds like a lot of fun to try out new recipes though

 

[ariane37]

I think it's so awesome and adorable that you're going to meet up with @Raeven in Chicago Oh, to be young and free again........

 

[ArielSRL]

Yay for cool tiki drinks - can I hire you as a bartender for my next tiki party? - and for a Chicago Disney meet-up! So excited for you two! Since @ariane37 and I can never line up our trips, we are gonna have to do something similar...lol. Fortunately she comes to GA bc her sister lives here so, she may not know it yet, but this summer, it's on!

So I know earlier you mentioned trying to do DAH. Or Club Villain. Neither are extended into May, yet, right? Which one do you prefer? Or would you do both? I would love to do Club Villain but bc we'll have the boys, our "extra" is going to be the Star Wars dessert party.

And I know what you mean about the doldrums...though it's like 70 here so that is kind of nice. I truly detest winter, however, I hate the going back and forth between cold and warm bc everybody just stays sick. And I know winter is necessary in the circle of life...lol. Most especially to kill the bugs. Haha. And we need it bc they love it down here. I digress.

We are 140 days and I'm so bored I'm already making touring plans. I posted my first day on my PTR, just for fun bc I know it will change before we go. But I didn't have anything else to post really so, why not, right? It's good you have a TR to work on during this time. I made sure to finish mine before starting the PTR but that may have been a mistake. Oh well. Here's hoping the time before our trips passes quickly!

 

[Chelley00]

I so want to come to your house for Tiki drink night! Makes me even more determined to wiggle in a visit to Trader Sams on our trip

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Just a quick drive-by to say that I will be canceling a 5/7 11:30am Be Our Guest reservation for 2 people and a 5/12 7:40pm California Grill for 2 people if anyone wants either. I also posted this on the ADR cancellation thread.

Send me a conversation if you want to coordinate! I'll be doing it some time in the next few days.

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I'm sorry you couldn't find seltzer! I like to mix it with juice (ok, that's a lie, I don't LIKE to, but I don't keep soda in the house, so it's a poor substitute). The last bottle of it I had, I opened it and it exploded all over the kitchen. My 11 year old says he hates seltzer because it's for clowns to spray at each other. I don't know where that came from, but he brings it up every time he sees a bottle of it. Weirdo.

When I was young, my mom used to take fizzy water and mix it in with our orange juice to jazz it up.

Hahaha. He must have seen it in a cartoon or something. I must admit, that is what I think of too when I think of seltzer!

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I'm just now realizing you had this pre-trip report going!!
This year we're switching trips- I'm going in September and you're going in May!!
Yay for more Disney!

Of course! We couldn't actually have a trip line up, could we??