Thrifty Thursday and Delectable Disney Snacks: Take My Advice, Share!

Sorry to all the guys out there but I have to confess here and now that I love watching what I call “foo foo” movies, like Legally Blonde, Confessions of a Shopaholic and the like. They are familiar and fun so I can pop them in the DVD player, turn it on and go about doing other things because I know what favorite parts to watch.

There is a line in one of them that always makes me chuckle. In The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly, the world’s worst and snootiest boss (played by Meryl Streep), sends her assistant on an impossible errand – to get a copy of an unpublished Harry Potter manuscript for her twins to read on the train to Grandma’s. Her assistant, Andy, pulls some strings to get it, then comes into Miranda’s office, puts the copy down on her desk and when Miranda sees it, she says One copy. What are my twins gonna do with that? Share?” That line always makes me laugh.

Sadly, that is exactly how my family feels about dessert. My mother baked beautiful desserts when I was growing up and she passed that love of baking onto me. I live in a family of sweet tooths and I am embarrassed to admit that I am head molar!

When we were at the Animal Kingdom recently, we decided to use our snack credits for the day at the Kusafari bakery. Aside from the fact that Kusafari is one of the very few places that serves real coffee (not Nescafe), we had been looking forward to savoring their wonderful treats for months in anticipation of our trip. When we got to the counter, four of us ordered the Zebra cupcakes and one ordered the White Chocolate Elephant cupcake (pictured below). We were reeling with anticipation for a bite of one of these delectable delights and we were really hungry by that time, having had a large breakfast but no lunch.

A quick description will give you a general idea about the sweet goodness of these tantalizing treasures. The Zebra Cupcake is moist yellow cake topped with mounds of super rich and creamy buttercream icing. It has homemade white and dark chocolate shavings all over the top and is delightful. The White Chocolate Elephant Cupcake is rich chocolate cake filled with chocolate cream and then topped with a light buttercream frosting and toasted coconut.

After I took these pictures, we all took bites of our treasures and commented on how yummy, moist and rich they all tasted. We were almost singing with enjoyment. After our third bite, we were giving each other that “how-am-I-ever-going-to-finish-this look.” We ate all we could, as we did not want to waste any of it and, once we threw away the rest, we all agreed that we indeed should have shared.

Trust me, if you get one of these scrumptious creations, plan to cut it into fourths. Taking my advice will do three good things for you: it will save you from sugar shock, give you some snack credits to use on other great treats, and save you from the guilt of throwing away a portion of such a wonderful treat.

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Must Sees at Disney World: Animal Kingdom

I have to admit that Animal Kingdom presents a problem for me to discuss “must-sees”….simply because we don’t really visit Animal Kingdom on every visit. In fact, we probably don’t visit it more than half the time we vacation at Walt Disney World.

It’s just not our favorite park. Not that there is anything wrong with that. 🙂000_0098

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great park and has some really interesting attractions. And no, in case you are wondering, we don’t hate animals. We actually love animals!

I think that there are just so many things elsewhere that we love more, that Animal Kingdom is usually at the bottom of the list in priorities for us.

And we have also learned….the HARD way….that this is NOT the park to visit if it is hot out. At all. It is enormous, more walking than any other park (the park layout is not conducive to getting anywhere efficiently in my opinion), and not nearly enough shade…although in the 12 years since it opened, this is improving, as vegetation does what it is supposed to do….grow thank heavens. 🙂

So. Having said all that, I will share a few of our favorites for when we DO visit this park, because there are some pretty cool attractions here. I promise!

Simba Rocks. And So Do His Friends.

The Festival of the Lion King is an awesome show, and one that we really try to never miss when we visit Animal Kingdom. Based on the movie this live-action show has all of your favorite characters performing to songs from the Lion King…and the performances, costumes, dancing, singing, and props are amazing. The audience sits on all four sides with the action taking place in the center, and there really is not a bad seat in the house. And you should note that audience participation is STRONGLY encouraged so be prepared to shout out your best animal sounds. 🙂 Just letting you know to be prepared. 🙂

It Seems Like It’s Fun To Be A Bug

Really it does! And after seeing It’s Tough to be a Bug, you may agree with me. Despite all the evidence presented in this show about all the terrible things that happen to bugs (your little ones may never let you squish an ant again, I am warning you now…) this is a fun show. It’s another one of Disney’s 3-D attractions and even though we have been a number of times, I still get surprised at certain…um…things that happen.

And one of the coolest things about this attraction is the way you get into it, as it is held below the Tree of Life…so you will really get to see how amazing this tree is, up close and personal. Which actually brings me to my favorite thing to do in the Animal Kingdom…..

BGI Would Love To Have This Tree In My Yard

If (no, actually when) you visit Animal Kingdom, take the time to really look closely at the Tree of Life. Everyone take the obligatory picture with the Tree in the background, and you will want to do this too. But get up close and reaaallly look at all of the amazing carvings of all different kinds of animals on this thing. We always find new ones on each visit. The workmanship is unbelievable and the detail is not-to-be-believed.

I am an admitted design/art geek, as you probably know if you read last week’s blog post about my favorite thing at Hollywood Studios. But even for those of you who are not as turned on by great art the way I am, you will still truly appreciate the skill and craftsmanship that went into creating the Tree of Life.

And your kids will love seeing how many animals they can identify!

OK, not the “typical” list of Animal Kingdom favorites I know, and we do enjoy LOTS of other attractions here (yes the animals are all WAY cool 🙂 ) but these are 3 things that we always enjoy at Animal Kingdom.

Now I would love to know: What are your favorites? And where does this park rank for your family compared to the other three?

Have a magical day!

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