Monthly Archives: December 2020

Disney, Food Review, Food Review

Trattoria Al Forno – May 4, 2019

I was really looking forward to this breakfast, we had scheduled it for our wedding trip in 2018 but ended up needing to cancel at the last minute. So I was determined to make it there on this trip!

Our reservation was early – we were one of the first tables to be seated, the characters hadn’t even appeared yet.

We both knew what we wanted to order before we even sat down (we always look at menus ahead of time), but we still looked at the menu just to make sure nothing had changed. Since this is a character breakfast, it has a fixed price, but you can order any entree from the list. Juice/coffee/pop are included, but specialty drinks do cost extra.

I had decided on the Royale Breakfast – oak-grilled steak, asparagus, cheesy-egg torte, fonduta, breakfast potatoes, crispy onion.

This doesn’t look like anything special, but it was soooo good! I don’t think the steak typically comes cut into pieces like that, but again – I like to ruin my beef by asking for it well done. This was cooked perfectly, not dry at all. I don’t eat eggs very often, so I gave Luke the cheesy egg torte – but I did eat the asparagus and the fonduta on top was nice. I also gave Luke most of the crispy onions but I refused to share any of the potatoes. They were delicious! I would definitely order this again, I loved it.

Luke went for King Triton’s Shipwreck al Forno – calzone with scrambled eggs, bell peppers, salumi, bacon, sausage, blend of cheeses, Sunday Gravy.

They bring this dish out with the giant trident, but the server stands there while you take a picture and then they take the trident back with them immediately. I’m sure it’s for safety, that thing looks like it could hurt someone.

Luke enjoyed this more than he thought he would, but he couldn’t finish it. It was just too much food for that early in the morning, especially something as heavy as a calzone. But he told me he would definitely order it again!

Luke and I both ordered orange juice, and he had a coffee as well. We knew there would be plenty of time later that day for alcohol haha.

Also included with this meal is a basket of pastries, which are very pretty!

We split these, and ate every last bite of them! They were much better than we were expecting!

Of course this is a character meal – with Ariel, Prince Eric, Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder. We met Rapunzel and Flynn before our meals even arrived, and Ariel showed up before I had a single bite of my food. It was actually great timing, as we were able to enjoy the majority of our meal without worrying about missing a character. (and yes, my ears are battery-operated and light up!)

Tangled is a favourite in our house, so we really enjoyed meeting those two! Prince Eric is typically a boring character, but this cast member was excellent and really brought the character to life!

Our total bill after AP discount but before tip was $76.68. We paid, and were out of the restaurant shortly after 8am.

Total Food Cost: $643

Disney, Travel

May 3, 2019 – Part Three

With tequila in hand, we decided to head towards the Odyssey Building. During the Flower and Garden Festival, it was the location of Arbor at the Gardeners Terrace, but from May 2-6 it was also the location of Minnie’s Garden Party. During this limited time event, Minnie was doing a meet-and-greet in her super cute Flower and Garden dress, they were handing out pins and you could buy a specialty dessert.

When we arrived, there wasn’t any line for the food, so we decided to try the special dessert only being offered for a few days. I wrote about it here.

After we finished eating, we could see that the line to meet Minnie wasn’t very long, and less than 5 minutes later we were posing with the cutest mouse in the World –

As part of the Garden Party, they also had a Photopass photographer set up by a flower wall. We were able to walk up to that with zero wait – if I see a Photopass with no line you better believe I’m in!

Earlier in the day, we had grabbed a fifth fastpass – for Spaceship Earth. We were now in the window for that, so we left Minnie’s Garden Party and headed towards the front of the park.

We decided it was the perfect time to head out of the park, and caught a bus back to Old Key West. We had a bit of time before we had to meet up with the group for our supper reservation, so we decided to change into our bathing suits and headed over to the main pool for a quick swim.

I’m not exactly sure why it was there, but I find these things way too entertaining – so enjoy a Boomerang of wavy inflatable guy! (I was really into Boomerangs on this trip for some reason haha)

After our quick swim, we freshened up and got ready for the evening. It was the official start to the Epic Trip weekend, and there was a large group of us meeting at ‘Ohana for supper. Here’s my review of our supper 🙂

After eating, we grabbed a group photo in the main lobby –

A few people called it a night after this, and headed back to their resorts. The rest of us decided to keep the night going, and caught the monorail over to Magic Kingdom, and headed straight for the boats, with Wilderness Lodge as our destination. We ended up waiting quite awhile for a boat, but we were all enjoying each other’s company and getting to know everyone a bit better, so the time was passing quickly <3.

We eventually boarded a boat just as the fireworks were going off in Magic Kingdom. It was really amazing to watch them from this viewpoint! This picture is a bit blurry, but I managed to catch the monorail as it went by –

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We were talking to Renee and Chad, and they mentioned that their boys loved money from other countries. Luke and I pulled out our wallets and handed them a full set of Canadian coins (nickel, dime, quarter, loonie and toonie – we don’t have pennies ), as well as a $5 bill (our bills are made of a waterproof, almost plastic-like material, and have a clear, see-through panel). When we arrived at Wilderness Lodge, we headed down to the water by Geyser Point where we took over an entire section. At one point, our weird Canadian money was discussed, so Luke and I pulled out cash and passed it around while everyone laughed at our colourful money haha.

Renee and Chad insisted on buying Luke and I a drink as a thank-you for the Canadian money, so I decided on a Huckleberry Punch – 44deg North Mountain Huckleberry Vodka, Bols Creme de Cassis, lemon juice and cranberry juice. I have no idea what Luke ordered, but my drink was delicious and strong – thank you Renee and Chad <3

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We had a great night, and a great view of the Electrical Water Parade – which I took zero pictures of. I actually didn’t take many pictures at all – I do have this one of Melinda and I though –

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She made the ears both of us are wearing, and I love them so much! I wore them multiple times on this trip…

I also have this picture saved that I definitely stole from someone else – a few others had already left for the night by this point.

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Starting in the front left: Ryan, Ariane, Steve, Kari, Kelly, Su-Lynn, Joe, Jenny, Renee, Chad, Steve, Melinda, me, Luke, Lindsay and Billie

Luke and I had a very early breakfast reservation the next day, so we didn’t stay too late. We also didn’t want to waste time with the bus system, so we just headed out through the main lobby and called an Uber to take us back to OKW (so much faster, and definitely worth the few dollars it costs). I did stop to take a few pictures of the lobby at Wilderness Lodge – such a beautiful hotel!

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Disney, Food Review

‘Ohana – May 3, 2019

Our first official gathering for Epic weekend was for supper at ‘Ohana on Friday night. Luke and I ubered over to the Poly from OKW, and met up with Ariana and Jackie, who were outside at the Tiki Terrace enjoying a pre-supper drink. I wasn’t feeling like a drink yet, but Luke grabbed a Spiky Pineapple – Barbancourt Pango Rhum blended with Pineapple Soft-serve, $14 (an alcoholic Dole Whip, basically).

After chatting for a bit, we headed inside to meet up with the group. Quite a few of us had met the day before during the VIP Tour, but there were a few new faces to meet. Introductions were made, a few people grabbed drinks while waiting and before long we were led inside to be seated. Since we were such a large group, they had us placed at three long tables in the centre of the restaurant. I’m not sure who the original owner of this picture was, but I saved a copy to use for my review (so thanks to whomever I stole this from!)

Luke and I had ate at ‘Ohana a few times in the past – it’s been consistently worse each time we’ve gone, but it’s not terrible overall. It’s not a must-do for us, but we enjoyed the company during this meal <3

We both decided to start with drinks, and I ordered an Antioxidant Lemonade – Van Gogh Acai-Bluberry Vodka, Odwalla Lemonade and pomegranate juice topped with sprite, $11.25. I’ve had this before since it’s from the generic Disney alcohol menu that is available at most resorts on property, but I really enjoy it. It’s sweet without being overly so, and contains vodka – my alcohol of choice most of the time.

Luke ordered a Bacardi Mojito – Bacardi Superior Rum, fresh lime juice, agave nectar and mint topped with soda water, $11.75. This was a standard mojito, which is always delicious.

On to the food! First up is the Pineapple Coconut Bread – which I always find dry, kind of stale and overall just meh. At least they serve it with butter now (when we ate at ‘Ohana in 2017 they didn’t give us anything for it). You can taste the pineapple flavour in this bread, but I wouldn’t waste valuable stomach space on this – and I’m a huge lover of all carbs.

Next up is the salad, which seems to change every single time we eat here. On this particular day, it was spinach based. When I’m at Disney, and a salad is placed in front of me – I always try to eat some to offset all the other delicious bad-for-me food that I’m eating. This isn’t the best, but it’s not terrible and I do enjoy some fresh food every once in awhile.

The main platter of food contained Honey-Coriander Chicken Wings, Pork Dumplings, Teriyaki Noodles and Stir-Fried Vegetables. The vegetables tasted like they came frozen in a bag, they were kind of mushy and just not very good (which is too bad, they were excellent back in 2017). The dumplings and chicken wings were ok, and the noodles were decent.

The servers also come around with skewers of chicken, beef and shrimp. I don’t eat anything from the ocean, and Luke has a mild shellfish allergy so we both passed on the shrimp. I had a small amount of chicken but it was dark meat which I don’t really like, it always seems slimy to me. The steak is never cooked to my liking, but the cast members brought me some well-done pieces upon request. I know – I’m one of those people who likes to ruin meat. I didn’t take any pictures of the meat, since we were busy chatting with everyone at our table.

Finally, it was time for dessert, the famous ‘Ohana bread pudding. I was sitting beside Mary, and a cast member ended up spilling an entire container of caramel sauce down her back, so they gave her a voucher to get a new outfit from the shop on the main floor of the Poly. I felt so bad for her, I’m sure that was not fun to wash out of her hair….

Dessert tasted great as always though! I only had a small piece, but it was enough.

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This meal keeps getting more expensive every time we go – it was $52/person at this point. I did have my AP for 10% off, but obviously our group had more than 6 so the 18% auto-gratuity was applied (which is fine – we tip that much anyways!). For Luke and I, this meal cost $147.04 (or $124.18 before the tip – which is the price I’ll use for my total food cost).

Total Food Cost: $566

Disney, Travel

May 3, 2019 – Part Two

While standing in line for Test Track, we decided to jump on the app and modified our Spaceship Earth fastpass, grabbing one for Living With the Land right away. We made our way over to the Land, stopping to see some more of the Flower and Garden topiaries. LWTL was actually busy, so the fastpass actually came in handy!

Once we had scanned in for LWTL, Luke managed to grab a fourth fastpass – for Frozen! Once we had that secured, we sat back and enjoyed our agricultural boat ride through the greenhouses. I’ve always loved the hidden Mickey on the pipe inside the fish tank in that last picture –

We headed off towards The World Showcase for our next fastpass, but first we stopped at the popcorn booth by Figment. I actually wrote about it here.

My pictures ended up a bit out of order, but we spent some time checking out more topiaries, and at one point backtracked to Mexico so we could go on the Grand Fiesta Tour.

After visiting the Three Caballeros, Luke decided it was the perfect time for a margarita! We were able to walk directly into La Cava del Tequila without any wait or lineup, where he ordered an El Diablo – altos reposado tequila, muddled jalapenos and cucumbers, fresh lime juice, agave nectar. Served on the rocks with hibiscus salt rim, $15. He took this to go, and we headed back out of the World Showcase.

Disney, Travel

May 3, 2019 – Part One

As is the case on way too many mornings at Disney, we were awake extremely early, and by 7:30am we had already taken a Lyft over to the Polynesian hotel.

Every time we step into this lobby, we talk about how much we would love to stay here one day – it’ll happen someday!

Of course we were heading to a breakfast reservation at Kona Cafe, one of Luke’s favourite breakfast places on Disney property. Our reservation was at 7:45am (maybe one day we’ll sleep in while at Disney…). We checked in, and had another great meal here (click here to read all about it!).

After finishing up our meal, we headed out to the monorail. We rarely travel via monorail – but we do enjoy it! We were heading to Epcot, and this method of transportation was amazing – I loved the view of the Flower and Garden Festival as the monorail circled the park on its way to the station.

Before long, we found ourselves through the security check, and scanned into the park. I love Epcot so much, and we planned on spending quite a bit of time in this park on this trip, so we were not in any rush and took the time to soak up the atmosphere.

Of course I quickly spotted a photopass photographer, and made Luke stop for pictures with me. On our first trip, he grumbled about this a bit, but by this point he accepts it, knows how happy it makes me and will actually point out short photopass lines – I married a great one <3

Oh yes – today’s outfit! My pants are from the Disney line at Hot Topic, my shirt is the Rose Gold spirit jersey from the parks, and my hat was found at the Character Outlet on Vineland (originally sold in the parks). Luke skipped the Disney clothes and just wore his Mickey hat (which was purchased in the parks).

We made our way through the park, stopping to check out the topiaries as we went. I think I managed to snap a picture of every single one of them in the park throughout the course of our trip….

Since we were headed to Future World East, we decided to make a quick pit stop at MouseGears so I could grab my Annual Passholder magnet (based on the date, it was the Daisy one) – which I was very excited about! They scanned my AP, which let them know I had not received a Pluto one either – but they still had some left so I left with both!

As an out-of-country Annual Passholder, I have never received the AP magnet in the mail (despite having multiple AP’s over the past few years), and I can’t exactly stop in to the park every single time they release a new magnet – so I treasure these things! So, now you can understand my extreme disappointment/anger when I returned home, and found my Pluto magnet had been stolen from my checked bag. I had the two magnets stuck together, inside a pocket accessible only from the inside of my bag – Daisy was still there but no Pluto to be found anywhere, and a slip from TSA stating they had opened my bag. I’m sorry, but if it just “fell out”, they would have both been gone – I know for a fact they were stuck to one another. I contacted MCO and filed a missing claim, but of course nothing ever came of it. I also reached out to Disney and basically got a “sucks to be you” response. I wasn’t the only one on the Epic trip who had an item go missing from a checked bag either – so yes I am accusing someone who works at the MCO airport of stealing items and more than likely reselling them for profit on Ebay (these magnets are handed out for free – last I checked there are dozens of them listed on Ebay for $15 and up (plus $20-$30 in shipping costs to Canada). I know next time, any AP magnet will be going straight into my carry-on bag. Rant over.

But, back to May 3, 2019 before I knew one would go missing. I left the store so excited, and shared this picture on my social media before tucking them safely into Luke’s backpack.

Here is what our fastpass plans looked like for the day (and yes, that 3:30 one was timed intentionally to line up with the approximate time we’d be leaving the park, so we could hop on Spaceship Earth as we walked past it – and of course our plans are always subject to change haha) –

I stopped to snap a picture of this topiary before heading over to our first Fastpass:

We had timed it so we were towards the end of our fastpass window for Mission Space, allowing us to travel around the Earth on the green side of the motion simulator before walking straight over to our second fastpass on Test Track. We really don’t love Test Track (we’ve been to Disneyland multiple times, Radiator Springs racers is FAR superior) – but we do enjoy building the most ridiculous vehicle possible haha.