After a very busy day the day before, we enjoyed a bit of a sleep-in. We woke up, got ready and I enjoyed one of my Magic Cookie bars (thanks Ariane!) while sitting on our balcony.
We called a Lyft and had them take us over to the Contemporary, where we met up with the group for our 10:15am California Grill brunch reservation. You can read all about our experience by clicking here 🙂
After eating, Luke and I headed outside. I knew this thing existed, and I really wanted a picture with it for some reason…
We looked around the grounds a bit before heading out and taking the walkway over to Magic Kingdom.
I know a few people who were at brunch were going to Magic Kingdom, but we just went to the bus stop and caught a bus back to Old Key West. I wanted to change – my dress was super cute but a tiny bit too small so it was cutting into my ribs haha. We weren’t sure how long brunch would actually take, so we intentionally set our fastpasses for later in the afternoon. This ended up being a good decision, as it started down pouring viciously just a few seconds after entering our room at OKW. The wind was crazy, I know a few people from our group were at Epcot and took video of umbrellas being knocked over. We decided to wait out the rain in the comfort of our room, and enjoyed some down time – if I remember correctly we even turned on the TV in the room to a channel other than the Disney schedule screen haha.
Since this is Florida, the rain cleared and the sun came out – you’d never know a storm had just passed through. We got ready and headed out to use our Fastpasses at Hollywood Studios. By the time we arrived and entered the park, we were already in our window for our first Fastpass so we headed straight to Tower of Terror.
This is terrifying. I don’t remember ever seeing this, Luke took this photo….
We stopped at the Joffrey’s cart by the exit so Luke could grab an iced coffee while I figured out where we were meeting up with the ladies who were in the park. We stopped for a few Photopass pictures along Sunset Boulevard –
We headed for the Tune-In Lounge, where we found Kelly, Kari, Ariane and Steve. We chatted for a bit, took some pictures and then said our goodbye’s – they were all leaving the next day so our paths wouldn’t be crossing again. These three ladies were wonderful, I was so excited to have finally met them and I’m looking forward to meeting up with them again one day at Disney! <3
Luke and I were both very excited about this meal – we were meeting up with a large group at California Grill for Brunch. We took a Lyft from OKW over to the Contemporary, and found the group. We hung out on the second floor, waiting for everyone to get there before checking in and being led to the top floor in the California Grill elevator.
We reached the restaurant, and were each handed a glass of sparkling wine with boba balls.
I’m always fascinated by the wine selection here – even though I have zero taste when it comes to wine. I like my wine cheap and sweet – this amazing wall of wine is completely lost on me…
Our group was assigned two long tables, side by side, closest to the door out to the observation deck. If you’ve never been to California Grill – this is the best view in the restaurant – seriously, look at this view from our table! <3 <3 <3
We chose our seats – Luke and I were at a table with Billie, Jenny, Joe, Ariane, Steve, Kari, Kelly, Renee and Chad. We were each given a menu listing the entrees to choose from, and our server let us know to help ourselves from the buffet options.
This is a unique meal. It is a prix-fixe price on the high end ($90/person at this point in 2019), but it has a very impressive self-serve buffet mixed with entree selections. It’s not advertised, but there actually isn’t a limit on the number of entrees you can order so Luke and I each ordered two since we couldn’t decide. It’s a good thing we were hungry!
It’s not my thing at all, but they offered a Bloody Mary bar for an additional $10/drink. From what I know about Bloody Mary’s – this was an impressive spread.
I ended up taking a million photos of the buffet – enjoy!
Bourbon Baba with bourbon orange ice cream and cornflake crunch, chocolate croissant and cheddar biscuit
My plate wasn’t too full after our trip through the buffet, since I don’t eat eggs or seafood of any kind. I did sample a few items from the charcuterie board as well as the strawberry salad (and then a plate full of bread/carbs from that section haha).
Luke ordered a coffee, and we thought the raw sugar on the table was so cool –
On to our entree selections! For my main meal, I knew I needed to try the Steak and Eggs – two eggs any style, charred tomato barbecue, sage fingerling potatoes, lime aioli (I told my server to hold the eggs, since they would just go to waste)
OMG. This was so good!The lime aioli on top of the steak and the charred barbecue sauce under the steak were both fantastic, lots of flavour and complimented each other extremely well. The steak was cooked perfectly to my liking (well done) without being dry at all. Even the potatoes were incredible – I was very happy that our server had brought an extra bowl of potatoes for our table because I could have had an entire meal of just those.
I couldn’t help myself, and also ordered the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes – hazelnut granola, yuzu curd, strawberry syrup
These were good, and the plate was very pretty – but I would have been upset had I just ordered these as my only entree. I would not consider these to be $90 pancakes.
Luke’s main choice was the Bison Burger – house made brioche bun, Neuske’s bacon, fried egg, truffle onion jam, dill pickle seasoned waffle fries
Luke LOVED this! To this day, he declares this as the best burger he’s ever had on Disney property. He thought the bison was great, the egg was great, the onion jam was great – he really liked this. I’m a lover of all things potato, so I did steal a waffle fry to try it, but I didn’t notice any dill pickle seasoning…
Luke’s go-to option anytime we ever go out for breakfast is whatever benedict they offer, so he decided he had to try the one from Cali Grill. Eggs Benedict – two soft-poached eggs, toasted english muffin, orange honey jam, classic hollandaise
There was absolutely nothing special about these. They were fine, but completely forgettable and he didn’t even finish them. Luke told me he’s so glad he didn’t just order these – he would have felt terrible spending so much money on something that was just ok.
At some point, our server brought over another glass of sparkling wine for everyone. This one was pink, so clearly a rose of some kind? Did I wine properly there?
There’s also a dessert tray brought over at the end. I don’t even think I tried anything off of it (I’m weird and don’t like macarons). Since our table was fairly large, they brought over a few plates for us.
At some point, we took a bunch of group photos. I’m not sure exactly who’s phone they were taken with, but I only have these two saved in my Google Photos account –
Front row – Billie, Ariane, Jenny Back row – Fallon, Su-Lynn, Renee, Kelly, Kari
This meal was awesome, and I’m so glad we had a chance to try it. The view while we ate was stunning, the food was fantastic and the company was top-notch. Hopefully we get the opportunity to enjoy Brunch at the Top again one day!
After enjoying all the holiday decor, we headed down the hallway and headed into Crew’s Cup Lounge. This was pretty high on Luke’s list of places to try, and it was fantastic! You can read all about it over here!
After filling our bellies, we left the Yacht Club and began walking back to Epcot. It was such a beautiful walk, and there weren’t that many people out and about due to the freezing cold temperatures.
We took a detour, and walked over to see Sea Breeze Point. We took some photos and posted them in our Facebook group we had created for our wedding – our friends and family were only days away from arriving and we wanted them to see the location where our ceremony would be held in exactly one week <3
After entering Epcot through the International Gateway, we stopped in Canada to watch the band. They were playing some Great Big Sea, and there was a group of kids having a great time dancing up by the stage – we sang along for a few minutes before continuing on to our destination.
Our destination – our third Fastpass selection of the day! It’s rare for us to make a Fastpass this late in the day, but we had scheduled it to coincide with meeting another couple – my first true DisMeet! We were meeting up with Meghan and Nathan at the Character Spot (Mickey, Minnie and Goofy). We found each other, and entered the Fastpass line. Since the line is inside, and it was such a cold day, it was busy. Even with a FP, it still took over half an hour before we met Mickey – which was fine! It allowed us time to chat and get to know each other better! Meghan and I had met on the Disboards, an online Disney forum – but we both came from the same small province, had both attended the same University (just a few years apart) and we both had our weddings through DFTW with the Escape package (which is something not even offered anymore). Conversation was easy, and before we knew it we were at the front of the line. For each character, we did a quick picture with all of us, then couple shots (no individual pictures since we didn’t want to be the ones holding up the line).
Next up was Goofy!
This next picture cracks me up – sorry Meghan for sharing it! We both look so awkward and unsure of what to do haha –
Before meeting Minnie, I apparently changed my hat?
Minnie had to see the ring after she saw Luke’s Happily Ever After button <3
We headed out and spent a few more minutes chatting before saying goodbye. All four of us were running the 5k the next day, but Meghan and Nathan were in a much earlier corral so we wouldn’t be able to run it together.
Luke and I probably should have left the park and went back to OWK to get a good night’s sleep before the 5K, but instead we closed down the park… We hit up Soarin’ with a Fastpass that Luke had grabbed while we were in line to meet Mickey, before stopping at Club Cool to sample some Coca-Cola products from around the world (RIP Club Cool!)
After scanning in for Soarin’, we managed to snag a fifth Fastpass for Spaceship Earth.
Luke and I love to make a crazy face for our picture on this ride haha –
I stopped by the exit for a picture with the Bubblegum wall, but it was a bit too dark so it didn’t turn out great.
We had a bit of time before the park closed, so Luke decided to buy the Epcot Starbucks mug tonight. I went in to Starbucks with him, but decided I’d run to the bathroom while he waited in line. As I was exiting, I was caught up in the beauty of Spaceship Earth at night, looking at the lights, and I ended up missing the last two steps on the stairs (facepalm). I didn’t fall down, but I definitely hurt something – impeccable timing the night before a runDisney event.
Once Luke had his mug, we made our way to the bus stop with me hobbling along. By the time we got back to our room, I was in a lot of pain, I felt like I had pulled a muscle so I took a hot shower and went straight to bed, just hoping for the best when the alarm went off in a few hours…
After our first night in our room at Old Key West (our home for 11 nights!) – we slept in a bit. But, we’re at Disney, so sleeping in just meant we were up by 8am instead of 6:30am haha. We got ready for the day, and then called an Uber to take us to Fort Wilderness for our breakfast reservation at Trail’s End. The ride there turned into quite the journey – the Uber driver had no idea where he was going, and managed to get extremely lost inside the campground. You can read about our meal by clicking here 🙂
After our breakfast, we caught an internal bus back to the main building, where we hopped on a bus heading for the Marathon Weekend Race Expo. We arrived at the ESPN Wide World of Sports, and headed off to pick up our race kits (5k for both of us, and a full marathon for Luke!). It didn’t take long before we had our race bibs in hand. We walked around the Expo itself, checking out a few booths. One spot was handing out boxes of instant potatoes, and this was the funniest thing in the world to me – see picture below hahahaha. I don’t know why I got such a kick out of this. We wanted to check out the merchandise, but the line was absolutely insane – it would have taken hours just to get into the building. We were a little disappointed, but we figured we’d be able to rearrange our schedule and get back there the next day. We decided to head out, and stopped to take a few pictures along the way.
We headed back to OKW to drop off our stuff and freshen up a bit, before heading out to Epcot for the rest of the day.
Before long, we saw this wonderful sight <3. We both love Epcot, and this was our first time getting to that park during this trip (but it would be far from our last over the next two weeks!)
We didn’t spend too much time taking pictures, we were already in our window for our first Fastpass so we headed straight to Norway for a trip to Arendelle. We were in the back row, so the border for the on-ride photo cut off half of my face haha –
We walked through World Showcase, stopping in Germany to grab some treats from Karamel Kuche before exiting the park at the International Gateway (yep, we’d been at Epcot for about an hour by this point haha). Initially, we had a second Fastpass for Mission Space but we just didn’t feel like walking all the way over there, then back again so we dropped it. We still had a third Fastpass planned for the evening, and we were definitely keeping that one as it included an exciting meet-up!
After leaving through International Gateway, we walked over to the Yacht Club. They had this amazing Mickey Village set up for Christmas, so I really enjoyed checking that out for a bit.
I actually own a few pieces of the Mickey village, including the tree house and the street lights (that actually light up!) from the next picture –
I also own the ceramic tree with the gold ears that you can see in the next picture –
I thought the Frozen scene was really cute, I’ve never seen those pieces for sale before –
They also had a regular, non-Disney Christmas village set up. My grandmother, who I was very close to and who had passed away in March 2017 had this incredible Christmas village when I was growing up. She had so many pieces for it that she displayed it on a piece of plywood in her living room – it wouldn’t fit on the mantle or coffee table. I actually have her village packed away in Rubbermaid totes in my basement, it means a lot to me. So, I stood there staring at this village set-up for a long time, thinking about her and remembering her since I had just celebrated my first Christmas without her. It was actually a really nice moment <3
You would be correct in assuming I took pictures of the Christmas tree and other decor in the Yacht Club lobby haha –
A few people joined the giant line for beer in Germany, while the rest of us continued on. When we reached the African Outpost, Billie and Melinda decided they wanted to get their faces painted. Some of us hung out with them while that was happening, while a few others went ahead to China. Luke and Ryan (Melinda’s husband) went to Joy of Tea – Luke loves the Tipsy Ducks in Love from there. I don’t have any pictures of it, but it’s one of his favourite Disney drinks and he typically has one every time we’re at Epcot.
Once faces were painted, we started heading towards the International Gateway for our Illuminations Cruise. We found another Photopass photographer, so of course we had to stop!
We met up with everyone on the boat dock by the Yacht Club, our meeting place for the Illuminations Cruise we had scheduled for the evening. But, of course, Mother Nature had to throw a wrench into those plans and due to thunderstorms moving into the area our cruise was cancelled. Naturally, we heard there was lots of rain moving in, so we all went to Hurricane Hanna’s – you know, the OUTSIDE pool bar at Beach Club… Luckily it is covered by lots of umbrellas because the sky opened up and it poured for about an hour. We all grabbed drinks and made the best of our evening. There were a lot of laughs and I took a single picture of my drink. I enjoyed the wonderful company we were with <3
Eventually we made our way inside to the lobby of the Yacht Club. We stood around chatting in smaller groups before realizing that half of the group had disappeared to Ale & Compass for drinks and food. It had been a long day, so Luke and I talked about calling an Uber and heading back to OKW for the night. Instead, we somehow found ourselves in a Minnie Van headed to Wilderness Lodge with this crazy crew? I don’t remember how or why this was decided…
When we arrived at Wilderness Lodge, I took this picture of these cute little figurines that I thought were cute, before we took over Territory Lounge.
Territory Lounge was actually on the short list of places Luke and I had always wanted to try, so we were excited to finally get there! We had some drinks, some food and enjoyed another great evening with some of the ladies of the Epic Trip (and our new friend Terry…). You can read about it over here 🙂 At one point Ariane took me to Roaring Fork so I could pick up some of the Magic Cookie Bars that she always raves about in her trip reports – I tucked them away in my bookbag for the next day.
Eventually, Luke and I called an Uber to take us back to OKW, where we collapsed into bed. So many late nights!
After our Illuminations Cruise was cancelled, we found ourselves at the poolside bar at the Beach Club. Luke went to grab drinks for us both, and came back with this for me –
This was delicious, but $14 for a drink is kind of insane…. if it was a bit more reasonably priced, I would have had another one – it was slushy and sweet and everything I like from my alcohol.
Luke had a Captain Morgan and Coke, which is a classic, but boring to photograph so no pictures of that one. It was the “special” of the day, but a double still cost like $14 or something crazy.
This was a lounge that had been on our radar for a few years, but we had never managed to make the time to get there. We were actually excited to finally get a chance to eat here.
The group of us took over most of the tables in the entire lounge, and pulled them together into the centre of the room. We started with some drinks –
Luke decided to just have water, but I went for Our Neighbourhood – Don Q Rum and blackberry cordial with strawberry puree and orange juice fusion topped with blackberries, $12
We knew we wanted some food too –
Luke and I decided to share a few things, and ordered Oregon Chardonnay Fondue – pretzel bread and grapes on the vine, $14 and Nachos – corn chips, burnt ends, queso, pico de gallo, sour cream, $13.
What a wonderful picture hahahaha
The lighting was terrible for pictures in here – but these were both sooo good! We were both hungry but there was enough food for us to fill up without feeling too stuffed (and we didn’t want full meals at that time of night anyways). The pretzel bread was perfect in the cheese fondue, and I loved how salty the bread was.
We had another great evening hanging out with a wonderful group of people. There were a lot of laughs, and we met our new friend Terry hahaha (Jenny’s face says everything) –
The sky opened up just after we had entered the building, so we ended up having great timing! We easily found the group, and spent the next hour or so hanging out and chatting. At some point I took this picture but I don’t think Luke or I actually bought this (or tried it?)???
Once the rain cleared, we all headed out into the World Showcase to enjoy some food and drinks. We ended up split into multiple groups, I know one group was headed for Steve’s shrimp but Luke has a shellfish allergy and I don’t eat fish so that didn’t interest us at all. We found ourselves in Mexico, and someone we were with suggested the Grand Fiesta Tour. I don’t even remember who was with us at this point – Jackie maybe? Liesa? Docsoliday1’s daughter was definitely there I think?
From there, we made our way to Norway, where we grabbed a beer for Luke and a cute little thing of moscato wine for me. The wine wasn’t even from Norway, but it was cute and I enjoy sweet wines.
We checked out some of the stuff in the Norway Pavilion, I had never looked at these things before?
We headed back through Mexico and cut across over to Canada. Luke and I hadn’t had any actual food in a few hours, so we stopped for some poutine at Refreshment Port like the good Canadians we are.
We met up with a large group of people shortly after this, and a group of them stopped in Morocco to grab some food from The Taste of Marrakesh booth. Luke wanted to try the Cauliflower –
We made a quick stop in Japan at the Kabuki Cafe, I’m obsessed with the kakigori from there. Luke went for a Sake Mist. Again, full descriptions and pricing can be found in my dining report of this day 🙂
A few people wanted to check out the Garden Rocks concert (it was Herman’s Hermits that day). One group headed inside to the quick service location in the American Pavilion, and we found a picnic table with an umbrella to sit down outside (also in the American Pavilion). We could easily hear the concert but it wasn’t overpowering loud, so we just sat there listening, enjoying our shaved ice and chatting with Billie and Sarah for the entire duration of the band’s set.
Once the band finished, most of us managed to find each other again. We took off as a large group –
– before stopping for some group photos in Germany.
Someone, I think it was Ariana, bought a pretzel here because I definitely had a bite of one, but did not buy it haha. It was delicious – much better than the stale Mickey pretzels sold everywhere.
We entered Epcot through the International Gateway, and I had one thing on my mind, so we headed straight to France for a visit to the Fleur de Lys booth –
La Vie en Rose – Grey Goose Vodka Orange, St. Germain Liqueur, White and Red Cranberry Juice – $10.75
This was delicious! I definitely had a few more during this trip haha. We also found St. Germain (which is an Elderflower liquor) at a local liquor store and made these ourselves recently. Obviously the Disney ones were better since they have a proper slushy machine and I just used my Ninja blender – but since we can’t currently travel to Disney it was a nice little taste to remind ourselves of this trip <3. I love all the slushes from the France Pavilion, since my preferred alcohol of choice is vodka.
Since the rain was coming down hard, everyone was making the most of our time stuck in the Odyessy Building, and a bunch of people grabbed the Beer Flight – $9.50. I don’t think Luke bought this, and he doesn’t remember it either (and said that he probably wouldn’t buy it because none of these sound appealing to him – and I’d only had one drink thus far in the day so I can’t even blame my forgetfulness on that..). I didn’t even take a picture of the beer itself, oops! I’m not going to count this in our food total haha…
The drinks we grabbed from the Norway Pavilion were not Flower and Garden specific, but we didn’t care. Luke had the Einstock White Ale, $9.75 which is a Norwegian beer. I grabbed the cutest little thing of Copa Moscato wine, $9. My wine wasn’t even from Norway, but it was cute and sweet and cheap – I’m not fancy and I love cheap moscato wine haha. Luke really likes this beer, and described it as smooth with a slight bitterness. Plus it was served nice and cold, and he’s enjoyed it every time he’s had it.
We eventually found ourselves at Refreshment Port, so we stopped to grab some poutine like the good Canadians that we are haha. Beef Brisket Poutine – french fries with beef brisket, beer cheese sauce and poutine gravy topped with crispy onions, $8.99 and Coffee-Rubbed Pork Poutine – BBQ demi-glace, fire roasted corn relish and cheese curds, $8.49. These are definitely not a traditional poutine, but we were both hungry by this point and these hit the spot! Despite me hating coffee anything, it was a very subtle flavour that I barely noticed, and the pork poutine was our favourite of the two. The BBQ sauce offered a nice sweetness, while the brisket one was just a lot of savoury. We had to wait a few minutes for this which meant our fries were nice and fresh and hot – very tasty! I think the poutine options here change every so often, but I would order either one of these again.
We stopped at the A Taste of Marrakesh booth, where Luke purchased the Fried Cauliflower – with capers, garlic parsley and chili ranch sauce, $6, and a Casa Beer, $4.5. I tried one of these because I do like fried cauliflower, but they were so spicy! One and done for me! Luke handles spicy much better than I do, and he loved these. He described it as “sinus-clearing spicy” haha. He also said the beer was “beer-flavoured beer”, and was better than he expected it to be. He also liked the smaller size, so he finished his beer while it was still cold.
Also – it makes me laugh that cauliflower is spelt incorrectly on the receipt – what is cauliflowler?
We made a stop at the Kabuki Cafe in the Japan Pavilion. Every trip I have to get a Kakigori – shaved ice topped with fruit syrup, $4.50. I’ve tried most of the flavours, so I know tangerine is my favourite one. This is one of the better shaved ice I’ve had, I think it’s the syrup they use. Lots of flavour, doesn’t melt too quickly and so refreshing on a hot Florida day!
Luke went for the Sake Mist – alcoholic shaved ice, $9 (he chose the blackberry flavour). He’s had this a few times, and loves it. Because of the alcohol in this, it does melt really quickly – so you’re constantly toeing the line between eating it quickly and getting brain freeze.
Luke also went to Joy of Tea in the China Pavilion so he could grab a Tipsy Ducks in Love – Bourbon Whisky, coffee, black tea, cream and chocolate syrup, $12.50. I don’t have any pictures of it, but he loves this drink and has had it multiple times – just about every time we’re at Epcot.
While on the boat from Hollywood Studios over to Epcot, we noticed that a wedding was happening at Sea Breeze Point. We weren’t in a rush (we were still a few hours away from our 2pm meet-up time), so we got off the boat at the Beach/Yacht Club stop and went to be lurkeyloos at the wedding. I know, it’s weird, but I wanted to see if I recognized the bride from the Disney Wedding Facebook group I’m in (I didn’t instantly recognize her, but she was a member of the group). I was also excited to see the Landau Coach in person (we didn’t use purchase any of the upgraded transportation options for our wedding).
We didn’t hang around long before walking the short distance over to Epcot, and entered the park through the International Gateway. We turned right into France – I had one thing on my mind! I needed to try the La Vie en Rose slushy!
I wrote all about the food and drinks we had that day over here – if you’re interested in descriptions, prices and our thoughts 🙂
This drink was just so pretty, I took multiple photos of it haha –
And of course I had to take pictures of all the topiaries in the France Pavilion –
Since we were right there, and we still had time before our meet-up time, we decided to do something we’d never done before and headed in to see Impressions de France. I enjoy all of these films in the World Showcase, it’s a great way to learn about the country and it provides a nice break from the Florida sun.
We took some time to check out a few other topiaries as we headed towards Future World. While on the boat ride over from Hollywood Studios we had managed to grab a Fastpass for Soarin’ so we were headed there. We had purchased one of the Spike’s Pollen Nation Exploration maps (the scavenger hunt for the festival), so we were keeping an eye out for those as we wandered along.
Soarin’ was fantastic as always, but it was time to meet up with the group by the time we exited the ride. I checked my phone to see the messages that everyone had headed over to Odyssey Building due to imminient rain, so we began heading there. The sky was getting darker, which made for some great photos as we walked over.
