I knew I would be purchasing a refillable popcorn bucket for the trip, and we’d always been intrigued by the variety of flavours available at Epcot so when we felt peckish around 11am we headed over. This particular popcorn cart is located close to Journey into Imagination with Figment, and had the option of three different kinds – Sour Cream & Chive, Buffalo Bleu Cheese and Cheddar.
I wasn’t overly excited about any of the current specialty popcorn buckets, and decided I’d be fine with one of the regular refillable ones (and I wasn’t fussy about the colour – whatever one they gave me was perfectly fine). The refillable buckets cost $10, but they allow you to get refills for only $2 – a regular popcorn costs $5, so if you plan on purchasing popcorn at least three times on your trip you will save money!
We had walked over with the intention of getting the Buffalo Bleu Cheese popcorn, but we changed our minds at the last minute and opted for the Sour Cream & Chive instead. And it was so good! I would definitely pick up this flavour again! We split this, and didn’t even finish it all. The best part about these refillable buckets is the lid – we were able to snap the lid on, and finish it later in the day!
One of Luke’s favourite restaurants on our December 2018 trip was Kona Cafe for breakfast, and he was quick to request a return on the May trip. We booked an early reservation (7:45am), and caught a Lyft over to the Polynesian from OKW.
I love the Polynesian – we will stay here one day! It’s so beautiful (but just a little out of our price range) –
We headed upstairs and checked in. It was still early, so we only waited a minute or two before being called and led to our table.
We both knew exactly what we wanted to order – the exact food we had ordered in December!
Luke went for the Seven Seas Samoan – poached eggs with citrus hollandaise sauce on pulled pork and turkey hash with mustard greens and tomatoes tossed in a citrus vinaigrette -$14
Luke loved this – he tends to order whatever version of a benedict is on a menu, and this is one of his favourite ones. The mustard greens is basically just arugula. It doesn’t look like a huge portion (and it isn’t), but it’s very rich and contains a perfect mix of sweet, savory and salty with a bit of of freshness added in from the greens.
He also ordered the Freshly Brewed Joffrey’s Coffee Hawaiian Kona Maragogype Press Pot – $9.5
I don’t drink coffee, but according to Luke this is one of the better ones available on property – in his words “it’s smooth and has great flavour”.
I went for the famous Tonga Toast – banana stuffed french toast rolled in cinnamon sugar and served with a strawberry compote and your choice of ham, spiced ham, bacon or sausage – $16
They brought over a plate with condiments – butter, ketchup, maple syrup and strawberry compote.
It’s all about that strawberry compote on the tonga toast! It’s a huge piece of sourdough bread, stuffed with bananas and coated in cinnamon sugar after being fried – I barely put a dent in this before I was full, but it’s so good! It’s a large serving, and I could easily share it with someone.
Total Cost was $37.87 after applying my 10% AP discount, and we will absolutely be back again on a future trip! Luke says that Kona is his favourite breakfast on property (but he might only be saying that to make Boma breakfast jealous…)
After our quick one-night stay at the Grand, we woke up really early and called bell services to come gather our luggage for our final hotel transfer of the trip. Once our room was empty, we said goodbye to the most comfortable bed ever, and headed out to the main lobby – of course I took some pictures along the way 🙂
I also took some pictures of the grounds at the Grand, and the main lobby – where they were refreshing the flowers for the day.
We knew we would be taking an Uber/Lyft to our breakfast ADR, so we decided to be a little extra and ordered ourselves a Minnie Van – so stinking cute! (This was during the time when it was still a flat rate of $25 – I don’t think I’ll be taking one now that they charge by mile – it’s so much cheaper to just use a regular Lyft).
We arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and headed downstairs to check in for breakfast at Boma – one of Luke’s favourites! Review here 🙂
After finishing up breakfast, we were ready to get into the parks, so we took the very short bus ride to Animal Kingdom! Did I mention – it was cold this day! This Canadian is pretty soft, and was bundled up…
We arrived, and decided to head towards Dinoland after checking on the wait times. We got into the standby line for Dinosaur, and since it was still within the first hour of the park being open, the wait wasn’t too long at all- within 10 minutes we were seat-belted into the ride
This ride consistently gets a “just ok” from me. I think I would have a much higher opinion of it if I’d never been to Disneyland, but it’s a very similar ride to Indiana Jones in California – and Indy easily wins in the comparison to Dinosaur!
Also – most of our family and friends who were due to arrive in a few days had never been to Disney, so I had been asked by a few of them about what to do with their park bags while on rides – so I took a bunch of pictures to show them how accommodating the Disney rides are for backpacks! This one is to show how large the storage pouches are on Dinosaur –
We then decided to was time to finally see Pandora for the first time! We walked in, and wow! What an amazing Land Imagineering has created, with the floating mountains and the waterfalls and all the plants. Just incredible.
We stopped for a few Photopass pictures –
… before we headed over to use our first Fastpass of the day – on Flight of Passage! I was so excited for this ride, and it did not disappoint! We were also very lucky to have a Fastpass – the wait time was listed at 240 minutes (4 hours!) for most of the day.
After our exciting ride on the back of a Banshee, we spent a bit more time exploring the land (and yes, of course I took a bunch more pictures, the land is just so pretty and deserves to be photographed!)
The park was really busy this day, but we had another Fastpass to use so we made our way over to Asia for my favourite Disney ride – Expedition Everest!
I again took a picture for our wedding guests to see that there was nothing to worry about when it came to space on the rides for their backpacks – hopefully these pictures can help anyone currently planning their first Disney trip!
The ride was as great as always! We still had quite a bit of time to kill before our next Fastpass window, so we headed back out to the main area in front of the Tree of Life. By this point some of the huge crowds that gather for Photopass pictures first thing in the morning had dissipated, so we decided to stop for some pictures
After another satisfying meal at Homecomin’, we took a leisurely stroll around Disney Springs. I didn’t take many pictures, but we enjoyed some window shopping and a very slow-paced evening. At one point we decided to stop for a beverage that was on our must-try list: the Mango Moscato wine slushy from Amorette’s Patisserie, $9.
This was so good! I don’t love mango flavour, but I do love moscato! I’m a huge fan of all these new adult slushies that are popping up everywhere – it’s a trend I can definitely get behind! We enjoyed this so much – it was not the only one we had on this trip 🙂
Our next park was Hollywood Studios. As we arrived, there were cast members waiting for us with baskets of snacks – Skittles, chips, etc – and bottled water. We weren’t expecting this, but it was a very nice little touch since we were getting hungry. We headed straight for Toy Story Land – Luke and I had seen the land on our December trip, but it was the first time for many of our group. We went to Slinky Dog Dash – the first time riding for Luke and I! The queue for this ride is great, I love the small details that Disney incorporates – like the price sticker that references the original release date of Toy Story 1.
Karamie’s eye roll behind me makes me laugh every single time!
Kelly was ready for this picture!
Luke and I had no idea where the camera was for this ride – but clearly Su-Lynn and Steve knew where to look haha.
Jon and Amanda asked us what else we wanted to do at Hollywood Studios, and there was mention of heading over to Tower of Terror. However, a decision was made to just ride Slinky Dog Dash for a second time – again through the Fastpass line. Also – we clearly still had no idea where the camera was hahaha.
After our second ride on Slinky Dog, we stopped for group photo #2 – and the infamous ChunkyDump was invented by Liesa….
We headed back to the vans, and were instructed to place a mobile order while we drove to park #3 of the day – Animal Kingdom!
Our first stop was Pandora for our third group picture (where the ChunkyDump once again made an appearance) –
We then split up – a few went over to Navi River while the rest of us headed to Flight of Passage. Luke and I have been on this ride quite a few times now, but always with a Fastpass so we’ve never seen the standby queue. Jon actually took us into one part of the standby queue to point out one of the murals – I can’t remember what this guy was named, but he shows up during FOP.
We actually had enough of us to fill an entire room for the pre-show, so there were many laughs during this part of the ride…
The ride itself was as fantastic as always! I love taking a few glances around at the other riders, and seeing the pure joy on everyone face’s as they soar on the back of a banshee.
As we exited the ride, we were told to click the “I’m here, prepare my order” button on the orders we had placed from Satu’li Canteen. You can read my review by clicking here 🙂
After our meal – which was much needed, we were all starving by that point – we had a discussion on what to do next, and the decision was made to head over to the Safari.
When we arrived, the line was insane! Even the Fastpass line was backed up, but Jon apparently knew every cast member we met that day, and led us into the handicapped line. We still had quite a bit of a wait, but eventually we boarded our vehicle and set off on a safari together!
Enjoy the following onslaught of obligatory safari pictures:
Once we finished our safari, we realized we were running out of time on our VIP Tour, and we still wanted to get to Park #4 of the day. A few people decided to stay at Animal Kingdom, while the rest of us went back to the vans and headed off to Magic Kingdom. When we arrived, cast members were once again waiting for us with bottled water and baskets of snacks. Jon and Amanda took us down the pathway that’s typically used for the Halloween/Christmas parties so we could avoid the crowds on Main Street. We stopped for our group photo in the Hub – we had successfully completed all four parks in one day (actually, all 4 parks in 7 hours!).
Quite a few of us pulled out the ChunkyDump for this group picture…
We were basically out of time, but were told we had time for one single ride. We quickly all agreed upon Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so we headed back to Fantasyland. Once we had entered the Fastpass line, Jon and Amanda said their goodbyes, and gave each of a VIP pin (with strict instructions to not trade or sell it).
SDMT is an ok ride, I enjoy it at least once every trip, but I would never wait hours in the standby queue for it. I am very happy we got to go on it as part of our tour however, as this ended up being the only time Luke and I went on it during our entire two week trip.
Jackie managed to Mike Wazowski me in the second picture hahaha –
And with that, our amazing VIP Tour had ended! Once we exited, we said “See you later”, and split into smaller groups. Luke and I had grabbed a Fastpass for Buzz Lightyear, which we were already in the window for.
It was a pretty big day – for the first time ever, I actually beat Luke! I tend to destroy him at Toy Story Midway Mania, but he has my number when it comes to Space Ranger Spin – but I won! Of course I had to take pictures to document the moment!
We stopped for a few pictures –
Tshirt from TeePublic, Skirt from Kay Pop Art, ears from an Independent Seller
It was then time to head out of the park for our supper reservation! For the second night in a row, we were eating at Homecomin’ – what can I say, we’re big fans! We did at least change up our typical orders – you can read my review here.
After another satisfying meal at Homecomin’, we took a leisurely stroll around Disney Springs. I didn’t take many pictures, but we enjoyed some window shopping and a very slow-paced evening. At one point we decided to stop for a beverage that was on our must-try list: the Mango Moscato wine slushy from Amorette’s Patisserie, $9.
This was so good! I don’t love mango flavour, but I do love moscato! I’m a huge fan of all these new adult slushies that are popping up everywhere – it’s a trend I can definitely get behind! We enjoyed this so much – it was not the only one we had on this trip 🙂
We called it an early night – Jetlag was still kicking us in the butt, and we had a busy itinerary for the next few days!
Our original plan for this day, our first park day of our trip, looked something like this:
A pretty standard Magic Kingdom day, with an evening at Disney Springs…
A few weeks before leaving for this trip however, one of the ladies from the Disboards who was a part of the Epic Girls Weekend messaged us all, asking who would be around on May 2nd and have a park hopper ticket. Another Disboarder, who has asked to remain anonymous, had decided to gift us with a VIP Tour that day! I couldn’t believe it, it was honestly one of those crazy bucket list items Luke and I had, but never believed we could make it happen due to the high cost associated with it. For those who aren’t aware of what this even is, you can read a bit more here on the Disney website. Basically, you hire a tour guide (or a plaid, named for their plaid vests that they wear) for a minimum of 7 hours at a cost of $425/hour (in the low season – pricing will increase during peak seasons) – so $3000. This allows up to ten guests – we actually had 19 of us on our tour which required two tour guides…
Anyways, once we found out what this amazing, kind-hearted benefactor had offered to us, Luke and I canceled our fastpasses and our breakfast reservation at 1900 Park Fare. I will make it there at some point, on some future trip! Strawberry soup for breakfast?! Count me in! We decided to hold on to our Homecomin’ reservation just in case we had time though – it’s our favourite so we figured we’d risk the chance of paying a no-show fee if we had to.
That morning, I was feeling a bit of jet-lag, especially with the red-eye flight the day before, so we decided to sleep a few extra minutes and just call a Lyft to take us to the park instead of using the Disney buses. This actually turned out to be well worth it, since the security lines on the bus side were insane that morning, but our Lyft dropped us off on the side where people parking their cars enter – so there was maybe one single person in line ahead of us at security.
Since we had cancelled our breakfast reservation, we just ate leftover Cheddar Drop Biscuits from Homecomin’ – a fantastic breakfast option if you ask me! I was so nervous though, I could only manage to eat about half of one – I had pitched an idea almost a year prior to a few girls on Facebook who I met through the Disboards about setting up a meet-up trip – and I was about to meet over a dozen of them today! We even had our own logo for the trip, designed by the wonderful Su-Queen <3
Once we were through security and found the correct line to scan into the park – it was an extra magic hours morning – we entered a mostly empty, slightly wet park:
We headed straight for Guest Services to the right of Spaceship Earth, afraid we were going to be late. We ended up being the third ones there – Karamie had also taken a Lyft over, and our incredible new anonymous friend had drove, so we had all entered from the much quieter side of security. We all introduced ourselves, and I handed out the first of my Canadian treat bags I had prepared 🙂
Eventually, the rest of our group made it through the crazy long security lines and joined us. Our two Plaids for the day arrived, introduced themselves and handed out rain ponchos to each of us just in case. I’ve always been too cheap to buy myself one of the Disney rain ponchos ($13USD for something I can get from the Dollarama for $3CAD? Pass.) – but they are actually well made and quite thick! I brought ours home with me to save for future trips.
At 8:37am, we approached our first ride of the day – Test Track. We entered through the Fastpass line with our VIP Guides – we felt pretty special all day!
Luke and I worked together to design our car – our goal is always ugly. We call this one “An Ode to Alberta” due to it’s sweet lift-kit. Behold its beauty:
I also have this picture of someone else’s car – I think it’s Karamie’s?
Each car on Test Track only holds 6 people, but there were 19 of us so obviously we had to split up into smaller groups. We sat with Karamie, and her car kicked our car’s butt in the simulations haha. I also stole these next two pictures from Lesley, since they are hilarious haha:
And of course, our on-ride photo:
It was Military Appreciation Month in the US, so the Blue Angels were doing a special fly-over of Spaceship Earth that morning. We went and found a spot to stand with a great view, and spent a few minutes chatting and getting to know each other.
I had asked about a month prior to going if anyone wanted anything in particular from Canada, and Billie had responded with Ryan Reynolds – so I presented her with her very own Ryan for the front of her scooter during this time haha. Someone had a bandaid in their bag, and used that to stick him on there…
At 9:30am, the Blue Angels did their first flyover of Spaceship Earth:
An announcer came over the speakers in the park to let everyone know to stay put, as there would be a second flyover once they were back into position. We once again had our camera ready, and captured the second flyover:
This was so amazing to see – and I’m not even American. I’m so glad we took the time to see this!
Our VIP Guides, Jon and Amanda, gathered us together again and led us off to Norway. Our next ride was Frozen Ever After – which we once again entered through the Fastpass line. I love Frozen, and I love this ride – I never rode Maelstrom, so this is all I know for the Norway Pavilion. For this ride, we sat with Jackie, Caroline and Kelly – and the rest of our boat was filled with random strangers.
After Frozen, our VIP Tour Guides took us out a side door I had never noticed before that allowed us to skip the gift shop. We headed back to Future World for our final stop at Epcot – Soarin’. Again, we entered the Fastpass line – by 10:15am we had been through the fastpass line for all three tier one rides at Epcot! This VIP Tour was really spoiling me!
Nice work pal!
Again, another picture stolen from Lesley –
Our group took up almost two full rows, and the ride was as great as always!
Afterwards, we took our first official group photo before heading out a Cast Member’s Only door to our awaiting vans.
From left to right: Luke, Molly, me, Kara, Karamie, Steve, Ariana, Caroline, Billie, Kelly, Su-Queen, Liesa, Jackie, Su-Lynn, Lesley, Jenny and Joe
We split into two groups. I was in the van that Amanda drove, but she didn’t really say much as we drove through backstage areas to our next park. It was pretty cool to drive through the backstage of Epcot to see some of the Festival booths not currently in use, the construction on the Guardians of the Galaxy Coaster, etc. We were not allowed to take any photos while in the backstage areas, so nothing to share, sorry.
Remember when I said I was going to try and write updates often on my journey to ridding our home of 2019 items this year? Yeah, that never actually works out. I was making really great progress, and then I was rear-ended while driving to work at the end of February and was diagnosed with whiplash and damage to my rotator cuff – making it difficult to lift anything/try on clothes, etc. Then, once I was feeling better (thanks to weekly physiotherapy and massage therapy appointments!), work began to pick up. I only had three days off in the entire month of June (and two of them were the 29th and 30th) – so working seven days a week doesn’t leave much time for decluttering!
The July 1st long weekend was my first multi-day weekend since April so I took advantage of that and tried to make a sizeable dent on my chart of 2019 items. We have been keeping track all year as items leave our house, but we are quite far behind where we should be. In order to hit the goal of 2019 items, it averages out to 5.53 items per day. Today, July 6th is the 187th day so we should be at 1034 items by now – which is not even close…
Anyways, I once again went back to this organizer. I use it for makeup – despite almost never wearing makeup…
The mission was that top purple drawer – which was stuffed to the point of overflowing with lipstick…
I opened each one, and if it looked wrong or smelled off, it was an immediate no – some of them had visible mold, so disgusting! I even found this one that looked fine, but based on that date I did not want to keep it! Lipstick usually has a shelf life of 6-12 months…so 27 years felt like it might have been a bit of a stretch….
By the time I was finished, I had 63 items to go into the trash. 63! Who even needs to own that many lipsticks?!
I know there’s items in my keep pile that will end up in the garbage before this year is over once I try them out, but for now, this is what that drawer now looks like:
The little perfume samples were sitting on top of the bathroom counter, so it’s nice to have a spot to stick those!
I also owned this cute little lipstick organizer, so I figured I should actually use it! It makes it so easy to find exactly what you’re looking for!
So again, this doesn’t make a huge, noticeable difference in the house, but it’s nice to have more space for other things in this organizer.
Yes, we had just ate there the night before – but that didn’t stop us from going back again! Originally, our plan was to meet up with Billie, Sarah, Ariane and Steve there, they had a reservation at the exact same time as us. But then we were gifted the amazing present of a VIP tour for that day so plans were changed. We didn’t think we’d have time to actually make it to our reservation (since there were a few options for start times for the tour thrown around), but I decided to hold onto the reservation anyways. We ended up finishing our tour around 3:45 giving us lots of time to get to Disney Springs for a 5pm reservation!
We arrived, checked in and didn’t wait long before receiving the text that our table was ready. As we entered, I did a quick scan of the restaurant – unfortunately no Chef Art Smith in attendance tonight. Also no table by the window, instead we were at the same 2-top table right behind the hostess stand where we’d sat before on a previous trip.
Our waiter came over and asked if this was our first time eating at Homecomin’ ( obviously we told him no) – he then asked when was the last time we had ate there – he laughed when we told him yesterday. I believe his exact comment was something along the lines of “perfect! I don’t need to go over the menu with you guys!”.
Of course the first item to take care of when you’re at Homecomin’ is the drinks! We decided to switch it up from the day before, and Luke ordered The Local – RumHaven coconut water rum, lime, simple syrup and fresh pineapple $12 and I decided to try the Blood Orange Madras – blood orange moonshine, freshly muddled strawberries, pineapple puree and cranberry juice $12.
The Local was nothing really special, but Luke did enjoy it (he really likes pineappley-coconuty tasting things). He probably wouldn’t get it again, just because there’s so many unique, fantastic drinks on the menu at Homecomin’. My drink was delicious though! I believe it’s a limited time offering, but I’m sure it’ll be back again at some point!
We decided to skip the appetizers tonight, and try something different for our main entrees. Luke went for the Fried Chicken Salad – crispy fried chicken over mixed greens, pecan-smoked bacon, egg, heirloom cherry tomatoes, red onion and cucumber tossed with icebox dressing, cheddar biscuit croutons and fresh herbs $18
The icebox dressing was the same as the stuff drizzled on his house-made chips that were served with his Cuban sandwich (so he knew he liked it). Of course the chicken is great, and Luke ate all of this. It’s a great salad for those days when you want to pretend you’re a healthy eater haha….
I decided to cheat on my beloved fried chicken, and ordered the Braised Short Ribs – this fancy “pot roast” is made by slow-cooking boneless beef short ribs until they are fork tender. Served over creamy mashed potatoes with a demi-glace sauce and French green beans $30
This was my short ribs meal #1 of the trip – but definitely not my last! This was very good, but I do think I’ll stick to the chicken when I’m at Homecomin’ from now because I missed it haha. The mashed potatoes are always amazing, but the green beans were just ok – I like mine cooked a bit more than these ones (a little too al dente for my taste). They weren’t lying about the beef being fork tender though, you did not need a knife for it! Delicious!
Luke decided we needed dessert – but we figured we could share one tonight and ordered the giant slice of Hummingbird Cake – the famous pineapple-banana cake with cream cheese frosting from Chef Art’s bestselling book “Back to the Table”. Served with seasonal fruit gastrique and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream $12
This is a huge serving – I don’t know how one person could eat an entree and this by themselves – but it’s the perfect size for sharing! I don’t even really care for pineapple, but this is good. I’d still put the Pecan Pie as my favourite dessert here, but there’s really not a wrong option…
According to the picture I took of our bill, Luke ordered another Blue Hooch at some point. I didn’t take a picture of it, so enjoy this picture I had from when he ordered one during our meal the night before:
Out total bill came to $96.92 after applying my Annual Pass discount of 10% (before tip), and it was another great experience at our favourite restaurant <3
We had attended a Highway in the Sky event during our wedding trip back in January 2018, and absolutely loved it! We knew it wouldn’t be something that interested my Dad, so we skipped it on our December 2018 trip, but we knew we wanted to do it on this trip. I don’t remember exactly when we booked it, it was not available at the usual 180 day mark, but we just kept checking and as soon as the calendar showed our dates we locked in. You do have to pay in full at the time of booking, and it’s not a cheap option at $179/person – but I really enjoy it.
After we booked Highway in the Sky (I’m just going to abbreviate that to HITS from now on because I’m lazy and don’t want to keep typing out the full thing haha), we realized we had scheduled it for a day when we were moving hotels. We packed our HITS outfits in our backpacks and once arriving at Magic Kingdom for the day, rented a locker to shove everything into. Around 4:30, we went back to the locker and changed in the bathroom just outside the park by guest services. I had a few strange looks as I stood in front of a mirror putting on makeup in a floor-length dress haha. I also had a casualty, and dropped my favourite red lipstick, shattering its glass tube across the floor 🙁
Once we were ready, we re-entered Magic Kingdom to use our
third Fastpass of the day – to meet Celebration Mickey & Minnie! I
initially planned it this way, so we could meet them while looking fancy! It
was such a fantastic meet-and-greet, Mickey was very upset that Luke didn’t
have a bowtie on like he did, so he went over and ripped one off the Mickey
tuxedo decorating the room. The cast members were doubled over laughing as
Mickey proudly held a giant yellow bowtie out for Luke.
After our fantastic meet with the two main mice, we made the quick 10 minute walk over to the Contemporary hotel. Check-in is at the Wave, which is located on the first floor just past the check-in counter. We actually ended up being quite early, and were the first people to arrive. We found a seat in the little alcove to the side of the check-in desk and did what any great millennial couple does – sat side-by-side in complete silence looking at our phones haha. It wasn’t long before other couples began arriving, and the cast members showed up at 5:30 exactly. Luke went up and checked us in, and collected our lanyards and buttons. When you book Highway, you will receive a phone call about a week prior asking about food restrictions, so Luke had let them know I don’t eat seafood of any kind, so they also gave me a piece of paper with this stated on it to give to our server during the entrée portion of our evening. A cast member also took Luke out to bell services at the Contemporary so they could hold onto our park backpacks for the evening. I’ve heard the area where we were sitting referred to as the “blue room” – possibly due to the crazy blue hue my pictures have hahaha
Once everyone had arrived and checked in, a manager from the Wave (or the Contemporary dining team? I honestly don’t remember) greeted us and told us a bit about the hotel/restaurants located in the hotel. She also described the drink and first item we would be tasting on the evening – a pea soup with truffle oil and a drink with gin. I didn’t like the soup at all, but I’ve never liked pea soup. Luke loved it, and gladly ate my serving as well. The drink was delicious though! I wish it was on a regular menu somewhere, but it was a specialty drink just for Highway. It had cucumbers and strawberries, and maybe club soda? I took terrible notes during this meal haha. The most important thing is that the drink was tasty, and my glass was empty way too quickly. Both the drink and the soup were different than what we’d had on our first time doing HITS. (Also, not sure how I was able to get an actual decent picture of our drink, and such a terrible one of the little soup sample…)
While we sat in the Blue Room by the Wave, we started chatting with the couple who had sat on stools in front of us. They were a really lovely couple from New York named Wayne and Karen who had been married over 30 years. We ended up talking to them quite a bit over the course of the evening, and Karen and I are now Facebook friends – which makes sense since this trip was all about friendship and food! (hi Karen!)
Eventually, once of the cast members came around to let us
know it was time to leave. We had to go through security at the Contemporary to
get onto the monorail, but it was the only time we needed to go through
security that evening (which is why wearing the lanyard you received at
check-in is important). The cast members are actually in contact with the
monorail drivers throughout the night, so it is always sitting there waiting
for the Highway in the Sky group (which minimizes the time spent standing
around waiting for it). They also hold the entire front car for just the group,
so you never have to worry about finding a spot while on this tour.
Our next stop was the Polynesian. I don’t love the location for this, it’s literally just a roped off area just inside the doors from the monorail. They have improved the seating from our last time doing this however – our first time on this tour they only had high-top standing-only square tables. This time they had a mix of high-top and normal tables, but all had chairs/stools to sit on. Each place setting had a lei to wear, and in my opinion the food was better this time. (PS: our 5 year old neighbour found the lei and thought it was the greatest thing in the world, and proudly wore it home from our place haha)
The drink is a standard (but stiff!) Mai-tai (same as last
time).
Cheers to a great night!
Since I had no seafood marked for my name, my plate of small bites was slightly different than Luke’s. Starting with Luke’s (the more standard plate), it contained tuna poke , tuna ceviche with a shrimp crisp, and beef filet and roasted potatoes.
My plate had a chicken stir-fry with noodles, a fruit ceviche and the same beef/potatoes Luke had. The noodles were a bit dry, but the stir-fry did have water chestnuts so that made me very excited (I love those so much, even though they don’t really taste like anything, just whatever sauce is on them). The fruit was nice (and it had boba balls!), and the beef and few bites of potatoes were quite good – but it’s difficult to go wrong with potatoes in my eyes!
Again, while our food was being brought around to our table, a manager from the food and beverage division of the Polynesian talked to us about the hotel itself. He mentioned the various restaurants, Trader Sam’s, etc. Luke and I have never stayed at the Poly, but we’re actually quite well versed in the food options there haha.
Eventually, we were given the 5 minute warning and we
finished up our small plates and drinks before heading outside again to catch
the monorail again.
Our next stop was at the Grand Floridian. We were led over
to Citricos, where they had pre-assigned us to tables. The food provided here
is meant to serve as your main entrée for the evening, and it always seems to
be a surf-and-turf. On this particular night, it was Red Snapper and Beef Short
Ribs. Since I had asked for no seafood (and I was far from the only one with
this request), they gave me a double serving of beef. There were also mashed
potatoes on each plate under the beef, and some green stuff under the fish (or
in my case, my second chunk of short ribs haha).
I’ve been on a huge short ribs kick lately, and these ones were so good! Fall-apart with a fork tender, and the sauce on top was delicious. Also – insider tip – if you want to keep me happy, just feed me any variety of potato, I love them all. Luke also really enjoyed his fish. Since it’s something I won’t eat, we rarely have anything like that in our house, so it’s like an extra special treat when he does get properly prepared nice cuts of fish.
While our food was being served, our waiter came around pouring each person a glass of either red or white wine. I’m not much of a wine person, but I didn’t hate the white wine they served me. Luke opted for the red, and thought it was good. We had already drank some before I took this picture- they are conservative with the pours, but not as bad as it looks from this picture.
There was also a basket of bread on each table with some nice soft butter (you can see the butter in the picture with our wine).
Once we finished eating, the cast members with our group directed us downstairs to the Tea Room for our fourth course.
They again had assigned seats with names on each table. This course was a cheese/charcuterie plate and a glass of sparkling wine (I believe it was Fairy Tale Cuvee, which is the most common “champagne” I’ve seen on Disney property, and something which we had at our wedding because it was included with our package). Each person had their own plate of cheese and meats, with a shared plate containing little baguette slices.
I don’t like pickles or blue cheese, so those were immediately scraped onto Luke’s plate. Same for the mustard seeds, those were pushed off to the side. I really enjoy the honeycomb, and the meats and soft cheese were all decent. I’m honestly not a huge cheese/charcuterie person – give me a slab of plain ‘ol marble cheese and I’m happy 🙂 I did overall enjoy this course though!
Our table was directly beside Wayne and Karen’s, so we took a few pictures for them, and they returned the favour 🙂
Once we finished up, we went back upstairs to wait for the monorail. I pointed out the characters hidden in the floor to a few people, I just love all the little details around the Disney property 💕 I think I might be been feeling the effects of all the alcohol we’d drank already, these pictures were supposed to be of the characters on the floor, but I completely missed them all haha… I guess you can kind of see Goofy on the far left side in the first one?
While we were waiting for the monorail, I noticed that the couple we’d been talking to during the Citricos portion of the night was checking out things at Basin. They were a newly engaged young couple from England, and I immediately knew what they had to buy. I ran in to show George and Jade the bride and groom soap – it smells amazing, and it’s so cute! I had bought a slice of it during our wedding trip, and I still haven’t brought myself to use it haha. Just look how adorable it is:
Once the monorail arrived, we boarded for the last time and headed back to our starting hotel – the Contemporary. They had roped off the left side fourth floor observation deck for our group – which is the side with the permanent benches facing the Magic Kingdom. It’s a really nice location, the monorail goes right overhead, you can see the Castle and Space Mountain all lit up, and they had added some high-top tables for our group.
There was a selection of desserts and drinks to enjoy. Drinks included cans of pop (or soda for you Americans haha), coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc. and there was an option to add Bailey’s, Frangelico or Kahula. I’m not really into hot drinks (I never drink coffee), so I just grabbed a can of Coke. Luke had a coffee and Baileys – I don’t have a picture since it was just a standard to-go cup and a regular can. There were three desserts – Organic Chocolate Flourless Cake, Key Lime Cheesecake Bar and Florida Strawberry Shortcake ,and of course I had to try all three!
I really liked all three of these! I think my favourite was the chocolate cake – I love the denseness of flourless cake.
It was a beautiful evening, and it was so nice to just enjoy the view and the snacks. About ten minutes after we arrived, the opening notes of Happily Ever After started (yes, they pipe the music in for the 4th floor balcony), and we settled in for the show. The projections obviously are not visible from that far away, but the fireworks are! I’ve seen this show multiple times, and I love it so much <3
After Happily Ever After ended, Karen asked us if we could get some pictures, along with Jade and George and another couple who’s names I forget.
The cast members brought over our final food item of the night – a small box of chocolate truffles. I ended up not eating mine until we got back to Canada (which is also when I took these pictures of them sitting on my Wall-E cutting board).
It was another amazing experience at Highway in the Sky, and we would absolutely go to this again. I don’t know if it’s something we need to do on every single trip since it is pricey, but it’s such a fun evening!
We decided to extend our evening, and invited George and Jade to join us for a drink at Trader Sam’s, since they had never been.
One of the quick service locations we’d talked about trying, but never actually found the time on previous trips was Satu’li Canteen, located in Pandora at Animal Kingdom. Since we didn’t want to waste too much time eating during the VIP tour, we made the group decision to eat here. While we were being transported from Hollywood Studios over to Animal Kingdom, we were instructed to place our order through the Mobile Order option on the MDE app, but to wait on touching the “Prepare My Order” button. Our VIP tour guides instructed us to hit “I’m here, prepare my order” as soon as we got off Flight of Passage. There was a few hiccups since the Wi-Fi signal isn’t great inside that building and the app crashed for a few of us, but we eventually all managed to get our orders placed as we walked towards the restaurant.
As we walked past Pongu Pongu, Luke jumped into line. We hadn’t ordered drinks with our meals at Satu’li, since we knew we’d prefer Pongu Pongu. I headed next door to the restaurant to wait for the notification that our food was ready. Our VIP guides had actually called ahead, and there was a section of the restaurant blocked off just for us – such a nice touch to ensure we all got to sit at adjoining tables!
First up, our drinks from Pongu Pongu. I had the Night Blossom – non-alcoholic mixture of limeade with apple and desert pear flavors topped with passion fruit boba balls, $5.99
I’d tried this for the first time on our December trip, and I loved it! It sounds strange, but it’s so good! I didn’t know I loved boba balls so much haha. I could do without the paper straw though, I hate those things. I’m a very slow eater/drinker, so the straw is always so mushy before I’m even half way through my drink – gross.
Luke went for the Hawkes Grog Ale – green in color with a fruity hop character (a taste of apricot and peach, a hint of wheat on the finish); 22 oz, $10.25
This was also something Luke had bought in December, so clearly he likes it? You can order this at Satu’li as well, but I wanted the Night Blossom which is only available at Pongu Pongu.
And for our food – I ordered the Chopped Wood-Grilled Chicken Bowl – wood-grilled chicken thighs marinated with garlic and olive oil topped with crunchy vegetable slaw and boba balls served with your choice of base and sauce, $12.49. I chose the noodles base and the Creamy Herb Dressing for my sauce.
This was good, but I don’t think I’d order this exact combination again. The noodles are clearly cooked in sesame oil, which I absolutely hate (and is often a trigger food for my Crohn’s disease – it ended up being ok, but it’s been an issue in the past). I don’t typically like chicken thighs, but this was really good! It had a bit of charcoal flavour due to being cooked over a fire, and it wasn’t greasy at all. I also loved the sauce I chose – I would just change my base next time!
Luke also went for the Chopped Wood-Grilled Chicken Bowl – wood-grilled chicken thighs marinated with garlic and olive oil topped with crunchy vegetable slaw and boba balls served with your choice of base and sauce, $12.49. He opted for the Red & Sweet Potato base and the Charred Green Onion Vinaigrette for his sauce.
I definitely preferred my sauce, but I think this would be my choice for a base next time. Luke says he highly recommends going to the men’s bathroom there, the smell of the cooking meat wafted in there and made it actually smell good (his words, not mine haha).
We also had to try the desserts! Luke selected the Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse – with passion fruit curd, $5.29
This was so good! I even remembered to take a picture of the inside!
The cream cheese mousse was obviously blueberry-flavoured, and the yellow was a custard-type stuff, and the white bit at the top was meringue.
I went for the other dessert option – Chocolate Cake – chocolate cake with a crunchy cookie layer, banana cream and Goji berries, $5.29.
I also took a picture of the inside of this one!
I don’t hear much about this, everyone is always talking about the Blueberry dessert – but this was amazing! I loved it so much! The banana cream was on top with the goji berries, and that is pineapple in the bowl. This was also more of a chocolate mousse than a cake – no complaints from me!
Overall, this was a great meal! It’s definitely one of the better quick service restaurants out there, and it’s nice to have a somewhat healthy meal option.
Our total cost was ~$55 with tax for our food from Satu’li and our drinks at Pongu Pongu – and we will be back to both!
