New Video Posted: Glass Working at the Mexico Pavilion

Another underrated tidbit you can find it Disney is the glass worker at Mexico.  In this case she is making a glass rose. 

It's a good thing they do this inside where it's air conditioned because the process is insanely hot. You can feel the heat right through the shield in front of you.

You can see the video here.

New Video: Mariachi Cobre Part One

If you like mariachi then you will like this video.  If you don't like mariachi then you will like this video for another reason. 

When crowds hit the higher end of the spectrum Disney makes adjustments.  Normally the mariachi band is found inside of the Mexico Pavilion.  They typically play by the wall in between the entrance to the San Angel Inn and the Grand Fiesta Tour.  However, when the crowds grow more space is needed to expand the line for the tour.  When this happens the mariachi band moves outside by the stairs (as seen in this video).

I could see how this could be an issue in the summer.  I can imagine it would be tough playing in 90+ degree heat and brutal humidity with no shade.  Good times!

You can see the video here.

Len Testa is Real

The Yeti, ghosts, the boogie man, and Len Testa.  All of these mythical creatures have existed in folklore and legend but there has never been any solid evidence of any of them until now.

Late on Saturday afternoon the ever elusive "Len Testa" was not just spotted but photographed in his natural environment.  Notice his distinct "t" marking that separates him from the other wild animals in back of Epcot.

In this rare photo we also see that the "Len Testa" has taken a woman hostage.  You can tell by the fear clearly written on her face that she is terrified and desperately wants to escape the clutches of this dangerous specimen.

It is believed that the L.T. was lured to the rear of Epcot by the myriad of smells from the Food and Wine Festival.  However, there is one smell that the L.T. appears to have been following.

When this photo was taken the L.T. was seen heading in the direction of Mexico.  As all L.T. hunters know it's favorite consumable, mass quantities of tequila, can be found there.

Be forewarned for the next few days you could run into a L.T. in any of the parks in Disney World.  The only safe zone will be on Sunday at the Hollywood Studios.  The L.T.s natural enemy, the rarely spotted "Matticakes Hochberg" is expected to be roaming that park.

San Angel Inn: One Hit Wonder?

My wife and I ate at the San Angel Inn in December of 2008. In March of 2010 we went back. Was it as good as before? Did it change?

I’ll start by saying – Don’t listen to Hoochberg! He’s a Mexican food snoob. The San Angel Inn is still very good. It may have even gotten better since we were last there. I’m not going to go into details of everything in this review. I’m only going to cover anything that is different. If you want an in depth overview, check out my last review of this restaurant.

Food: I ordered the Conchinita Pibil. I loved it. I can’t get anything like it around my house. It’s slowly cooked shredded pork marinated with achiote seeds, beer, garlic, red onions, and orange juice. I wish I wasn’t on a diet now because just thinking of it is making me hungry.

Drinks: They had so many drinks that sounded good it was a hard choice. I ended up picking a Fiesta Margarita. I didn’t know what that was but I was in a festive mood. It turned out to be a mix of all the other margaritas. If you can’t decide this is the one for you!

Service: The service was very good and fast. You can’t complain with the service they provided.

Cost: For Mexican it’s expensive but when you consider the atmosphere and the fact that it’s located in a theme park, the prices are not bad at all.

Overall the San Angel Inn did it again. It’ll once again be on our list the next time we go. Only two other restaurants have made a bid for a threepeat and when you consider the number of restaurants in Disney, that’s saying a lot.

New Video Posted: Gran Fiesta Tour

A video of the Gran Fiesta Tour inside the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot has been posted to YouTube. Some people call this attraction the Mexican "It's a Small World." That's not fair. This ride is much better than that painful form of torture.

The video can be seen here.

Photo of the Week: The Mexico Pavilion

I know I've mentioned it before but the inside of the Mexico Pavilion is one of the most impressive in Disney World. Try to find any place in all of Disney World that is themed better. This photo was taken from my table at the San Angel Inn.

New Video: Glass Worker

A video of the glass worker in the Mexico Pavilion at Epcot has been uploaded to YouTube. This guy sometimes does demos in the last shop on the left. You can't tell right away but he's making one of Goofy's Legs. A lot of work goes into making one of those little figurines.

You can see the video here.

New Video: Mexico Mariachi Band

A video of the Mexico Pavilion's Mariachi Band has been posted to YouTube. This is the first time I have ever seen them in the pavilion. I'm sure they are around with some regularity though.

This video was taken in March of 2010 and can be seen here.

Photo of the Week - Mexico Pavilion

Is any pavilion more impressive than Mexico? They really broke the mold when they made this one. Other pavilions are impressive but Mexico has that certain magic that hits when you walk inside. No matter what it's doing outside or what time of day it is it's always evening with perfect weather in Mexico.

CMDTA on Vacation – Costa Maya

By the time we got to Costa Maya, Mexico we were completely annoyed with NCL and were dreading the thought of another tender. Thankfully Costa Maya had a pier. What a luxury that is. If you ever book a cruise you might want to check what ports have a pier and which don’t. That is a big consideration for me now.

On the downside there isn’t a ton to do at Costa Maya. By the time we got there we were broke too. On the plus side they have a great little port with some shops, free pools, and a number of bars.

After we fought our off the boat and by the photo op, we headed into some of the shops. You can find some decent glass and silver jewelry in Costa Maya. Most stops in Mexico have that kind of selection but Costa Maya has it right at the port. One tip is to walk right by Diamonds International. They are always over priced and they are everywhere. Go find a small shop and avoid gemstone jewelry.

Of course we hit a couple bars. They had frozen drinks by the yard. That’s great but they do tend to reduce the amount of booze they use if you order in that kind of quantity.

There was one thing I found in Costa Maya that I really want to find in the States. It’s called Sol. It’s a beer like corona but it comes in a bottle the size of your head. It’s huge. It’s about the size of three beers. It wasn’t a 40oz so I didn’t feel like an alcoholic or a redneck while drinking it.

Over all Costa Maya wasn’t bad but it’s not on the same caliber as many of the other stops. It’s a nice lay over. It’ll only get better with time. It’s still a young stop when compared to many of the other common stops.

Cruising

My wife isn’t a Disney fan so for this year’s vacation I had to do something she’d like. I ended up booking a cruise through NCL. I’ll start by saying my first impression with NCL was not a good one.

We went on an Alaskan cruise aboard the Pearl. The weather was great, Alaska was amazing, but rest was just average.

I’ve been on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and NCL. Carnival and Royal Caribbean are much better than NCL. NCL came out with “Freestyle Dining.” Another word for freestyle dining is gimmick. Freestyle Dining allows you to go to select restaurants for dinner whenever you want. I say select restaurants because only a few of them are free. Yes, NCL discovered a way to get people to pay for food on a cruise. If you don’t go to one of the pay restaurants you get average food. All of the expensive items have been removed from the menus.

Being the kind of guy I am, I asked why the other cruise lines offered items like filet, lobster, baked Alaska, and the other classics and NCL didn’t. The answer was so dumb my brain grinded to a halt and refused to work anymore. I was told that guests were tired of the usual fare and wanted something new. So in other words, you took that to mean that your guests were tired of good food and wanted cheap sub-par slop.

My other big complaint about NCL was the ship. It was ugly. What a tacky ship. It reminded me of a retirement home. It was completely unimpressive too. Both Carnival and RC had massive atriums and other impressive architecture. NCL had nothing impressive.

So why did I pick NCL? I’m willing to give second chances and they offered the best deal. However, if NCL doesn’t show dramatic improvement I’ll never cruise on them again unless someone else is paying for it.

The stops for this cruise include: Costa Maya – Mexico, Honduras, Belize, and some private island in the Bahamas. I’ve never been to Costa Maya. I’m not expecting much. I’ve been to other places in Mexico and was never overly impressed. I’ve never been to Honduras so that one is a total wild card. I’ve been to Belize. Belize is very nice. Great place to go see some ruins if you’ve never done that before. They also sell cashew wine there. That’s great stuff. I’ve been to about 25 different places in the Caribbean but have never been anywhere in the Bahamas. This won’t count either. It’s just a private island and those can be hit or miss.

I should be excited about going on vacation but after going to Disney last year, I’m not. It’s hard to get pumped up about an everyday cruise. If it was Alaska I’d be pumped up about it. I’m sure I’ll get a little excited as it draws closer.

Mexico’s Tequila Bar Has Disastrous Opening

The new tequila bar in Epcot’s Mexico pavilion experienced a disastrous opening earlier this week.

Everything was going well; guests were sampling numerous tequilas and enjoying their day in Epcot. The bar was well supplied with tequila, salt, and limes and there was no fear of running out of supplies.

Around 12:30pm things changed. Everyone’s favorite alien, Len Testa (see Len Testa – Tequila – the Shocking Connection) arrived on the scene.
When Len caught the scent of tequila he went nuts. He charged the bar, knocking numerous guests out of his way. He jumped over bar itself and started to grab the tequila bottles. The cast member working the bar tried to restrain him but was rendered unconscious when Len burped his chilidog breath in his face. Donald Duck, in his Mexican outfit, ran over and tackled Len from behind. Len, using his alien strength, tossed Donald about 50 feet into river.

Len proceeded to guzzle all 70+ bottles of tequila before calming down. He then apologized to everyone, helped Donald to his feet, and left a generous tip for the still unconscious cast member.

A park representative announced that an armed guard will now be stationed at the bar to prevent tequila guzzling aliens from causing any future problems.

Dining in Mexico

It seems like every time I hear about the restaurant in the Mexico Pavilion, its people complaining about how expensive it is. That’s always surprised me. How many things in Disney World are cheap? When it comes to quality food, cheap and Disney are two worlds that cannot be used in the same sentence (most of the time). With that in mind I’m going to throw cost out the window and do a review of my experience in Mexico.

Mexico was the first dining experience we had in Disney World on our last trip. We checked in at the Contemporary and headed over to Epcot. We rode Soarin’ and then went to Mexico for our 11:30 lunch reservation….oh sorry ADR.

Walking into the Mexico Pavilion is always an amazing experience. If you’ve never been in the Mexico Pavilion it’s hard to describe. It might sound cliché but it’s really like you’re walking into another world. It could be noon outside but as soon as you step through the entrance it’s nighttime in an open air Mexican market with a restaurant at the back of the pavilion, right on the river.

First of all our reservation was for 11:30 which is the earliest you can have lunch in the pavilion. It was dead. Because of that, we were able to pick our table and of course we had to sit on the water.

We both got margaritas. Other than the fact that they cost ten dollars, they were great. Then again, it was booze and we were on vacation so it’s hard to complain.

The service was good. It wasn’t excellent. Our waiter didn’t really do anything to stand out but we didn’t have to wait for anything.

The food was very good. We have a good Mexican restaurant chain in NH and my wife spent a month in backwoods Mexico so we can normally tell good Mexican from bad Mexican. This was good. Even if you removed the fact that we were sitting across from a Mayan pyramid, on the water, in simulated night with flickering candles and festive lighting, it was still good. The atmosphere didn’t improve the taste, it held its own.

Overall eating at Mexico is a must for us. The pavilion is Disney at it’s finest. We know we are on vacation when we eat there.

Epcot Runs Out of Nachos

Disney cast members are trying to figure out what has caused the sudden surge in nacho orders at the quick service location in the Mexico Pavilion. Orders have more then tripled in two weeks causing the location to run out of nachos, infuriating patrons.

“It’s really odd. People have been inconsolable when they find out we’re out of nachos. It’s like someone brain washed them into thinking they can’t live without them,” stated a cast member who works at the pavilion.

We’ve had few cases of people trying to drown themselves in the lagoon when we inform them we’re out of nachos. One guy even tied himself to the Illuminations barge,” stated another cast member.

Experts have been offering theories on what is causing this odd behavior. The most popular theories are:

The nachos are laced with an addictive drug.

Mike Newell brain washed all Mouse World Radio listeners with his mind control software into thinking they need nachos.

There is a new flu that makes people want nachos really bad.

Compounding the problem is the fact that the WDW Today podcast has labeled the nachos as one of the best quick service meals available despite the fact that Mike Newell nearly died after eating them (the 20 pounds of food he ate after the nachos had nothing to do with it).

Due to the nacho shortage a nacho black market has sprung up. Members of the WDW Mafia have been reportedly selling nachos for upwards of $50 a pound. Further proof of their involvement was provided when Buzz Lightyear and his friend Woody ended up in the hospital after a nacho deal gone bad.

Regardless of the cause, Disney has increased their supply orders and hope to catch up to demand within a few weeks.

What’s up With the World Showcase?

I’ve always enjoyed the World Showcase. Most of the countries represented are well done. When it first opened with future world it was a known fact that it wasn’t complete. More countries would be added later. After the first few years everyone believed it. Two countries were added after it opened.

It’s been over twenty years since Norway was opened. Excuse me but what happened? Did World Showcase offend someone? Did it somehow become the ugly stepchild that everyone wants to ignore? It’s hard for me to really understand why the progression stopped. I hate leaving things half done. If I start something I want to finish it.

I realize everything ground to halt because Epcot started making money and Disney couldn’t find any countries willing to pony up the ridiculous amount of money that’s needed to build and support a pavilion. However, after the economy gets better go out and hit these countries up. They are big enough to be able to chip in some of the money.

India – They have the money. Most of it’s ours so what’s the problem? India would really add to the overall diversity of the World Showcase. There are all sorts of ride or movie possibilities that could easily fit into the theming of this pavilion. Ok so there is a problem with the whole Kashmir conflict but you could spin that into an interactive exhibit where you could launch shells over the mountains into Pakistan. Oh yeah there is that caste system too. Yeah, that kind of stinks. Other than that this is a great choice.

South Korea – This could be a great pavilion. South Korea has…stuff. They make decent cheap cars…umm…Oh yeah isn’t Samsung from South Korea? Well at least you’d have three potential sponsors. I’ve heard it’s a nice county. I had a boss that was from South Korea and I’m sure not everyone there is like her…I hope. So they might sometimes take their shoes off and beat each other with them when trying to pass legislation, but I’m sure it’s well deserved. Oh wait! That might have happened in Thailand.

Bangladesh – Ok you caught me, this one is a joke because it’s such a poor country but it could still be a good pavilion. You could have a ride that simulates the monsoon season and a massive flood that wipes everything out. The culture is interesting; it’s a big old mix of Muslim and Hindu. They don’t hate foreigners for the most part. Then again the number of people who visit Bangladesh has to be low.

Russia – When it comes to Russia the only question is why not? The Disney Channel is broadcast for free there. There is already a good relationship. Not many countries have such a diverse culture or diverse topography. This would be the perfect country for a movie. Just leave history out of it.

Australia – This would be a great pavilion. This would give Australia the chance to show who they really are. It would give them a chance to show that they didn’t create the Bloom’n Onion, brew more than just Fosters beer, Liddy Chamberlain is not a national celebrity, Paul Hogan is not the President of Australia (in fact they don’t even have a president. They have a Prime Minister), and they thought Steve Irwin was nuts too. I’ll tell you one thing. This pavilion would be NOTHING like the Outback restaurant which is considered offensive to most Australians. You’d have to find some really thick skinned Australians to work at this pavilion though. I think after I heard “Let’s throw another shrimp on the baabee” or “Good Day Mate” for the hundredth time I’d start swinging.

United Arab Emirates – Reason number one: they have more money than they know what to do with. Reason number two: they are investing a majority of that money in tourism because they know that the oil won’t last forever. Just look at what is going on in Dubai and you see proof of that. Reason number three: it would be a good example of a Muslim country in the Middle East, not just the crazies we see on TV. I know Morocco is Muslim but they are not in the Middle East.

So there are a few of the countries I think would fit well into the world showcase. If you don’t want to add a new country, then fix some of the existing ones. Mexico really needs a new ride (I know it was just redone but that was like putting a band aide on an open head wound). No one spends more than five minutes in Italy unless they are eating. The UK could use a movie. The movie in Norway is so old it’s comical. The rest are for the most part fine the way they are.