Tag Archives: Disney

Disney, Food Review, Food Review

Homecoming / EOS / NBA Game- January 6, 2018

Luke and his family ended up back at Disney Springs while my Dad and I were at the hockey game. The four of them split these two delicious desserts from Amorette’s – the Key Lime Cheesecake and the Mickey Mousse. They didn’t get counted in our food budget, as Luke didn’t pay for them. I’ve had the Mickey Mousse before, and it’s very good. According to Luke, that key lime cheesecake is amazing.

They decided on something quick, easy and inexpensive for supper, and ended up at Earl of Sandwich. I have no photos, and no idea what kinds of sandwiches Luke purchased, but I do know he bought two of them – one to eat now and one to bring back to the room to eat tomorrow afternoon after the marathon.

Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip)                                        Estimated Cost of this meal: $31.95 (We had no idea where Luke would end up eating, so we just estimated $30)                                                                           Actual Cost: $17.02 (2 sandwiches)                                                                                   Over/Under: Under by $14.93                                                                           Remaining: $1285.95

While at the NBA game, my Dad and I grabbed food from some place called Gringos Locos inside Anway Centre – I took a picture of the name, but no pictures of our food. Dad actually paid for my food, so I didn’t include this in the food budget for Luke and I. 

After being dropped off at Disney Springs, we decided we wanted a drink and a small snack, and since no one had any suggestions I led us to Homecomin’. By this point, it was fairly late so we had no trouble walking up and getting a table immediately for the four of us.

Our server, Anthony,  was a little intense at first, trying to explain the entire menu, offering recommendations for food and drink despite us saying we were just there for something small. He finally got around to asking if we had ate at Homecomin’ before, and everyone looked at me. I explained that I had just been there less than a week earlier, and we would be back on the upcoming Wednesday for my wedding reception. He was so excited about this, and was full of questions for me the rest of the night. I was a little put-off by this guy at the beginning but by the end of this meal I ended up loving him – he genuinely cared about his job and the food he was serving. He made a comment at one point about going to check his schedule to see if he was working Wednesday so he could try and serve my Wedding – he must have asked because, spoiler alert – he was one of the designated servers assigned to our private reception.

For this meal, I went with my favourite, the Moonshine Mash – watermelon infused moonshine, fresh watermelon, lime juice and simple syrup, $12, and Dad had a can of Michelob Ultra (his beer of choice at the time). We decided to share the Thigh-High Chicken Biscuits – three biscuits topped with Chef Art Smith’s famous fried chicken thighs and bread and butter pickles. Drizzled with honey, $15. I also had to get another piece of Chocolate Pecan Pie – a 100 year-old traditional Smith Family Farm recipe. Served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, $10. It’s just sooo good! I don’t remember what Lisa and Trevor had, and I didn’t take a single picture of our food – I only have a picture of our receipt haha. Also – Anthony gave us a discount on our meal, despite the fact that I didn’t have my Tables in Wonderland card with me – which was so nice of him, and not something he had to do!

Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip)                                        Estimated Cost of this meal: $0 – not planned                                                              Actual Cost: $31.68                                                                                         Over/Under: Over by $31.68                                                                           Remaining: $1254.27

Disney

January 6, 2018 – Part Two

We decided to stop in Walt Disney Presents, where they have rare artifacts from Walt’s life as well as models of some of the new construction. We hung out in there for a bit, my dad loves museums and things like that, so he found it all really interesting. 

I eventually hurried him along, since we had to get to our third and final Fastpass of the day – reserved seating for the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. Luke and I had started watching this on our first trip back in 2016, but left early to get to a dining reservation, so we were looking forward to actually watching the full thing. 

As we made our way towards the Indiana Jones show, the Star Wars stage show was starting, so we stopped to watch a few minutes of that before making our way over. 

We entered the Fastpass line for the stage show, and ended up with great seats only a few rows from the front. We all really enjoyed this show – even myself, who had not seen the original Indiana Jones movie…(don’t worry, I’ve watched it since this trip).

Once the show ended, we were close to our reservation time, so we took our time and walked the short distance to 50’s Prime Time.

While we were watching the Indiana Jones show, Luke was receiving text messages that his mom, sister and aunt had arrived at Old Key West and were planning on heading over to Disney Springs. Once we finished eating, we all left Hollywood Studios. Luke went back to OKW, then took the boat to the Springs to meet up with them. Apparently while we were eating at 50’s Prime Time, Jill, Laura and Cathy were eating at Paradiso 37. (I’ll introduce the three of them a little later).

Dad and I went in a different direction, and hopped on a boat to Epcot. We entered through the International Gateway, and spent a bit of time looking around the World Showcase. 

Disney

January 6, 2018 – Part One

Introduction: My Dad, Perry. This was his first Disney trip, and he was only here because it was my wedding. I was really hoping I’d be able to make him fall in love with the Disney Parks and possibly return with us again one day – but you’ll need to keep reading my report to find out if that will ever happen haha! He hasn’t seen many Disney movies recently, and when I asked him about Star Wars the response was “I think I saw the original ones when they were new?”. So yeah, not a big movie guy. He also did zero research on Walt Disney World, and allowed me to plan everything for him – so he was going into this entire week blindly. It was going to be exciting! Also – I live on the other side of the country from my dad, so I only get to see him once a year or so – I was looking forward to spending time with him.

I woke up excited! My dad was already here, I was going to take him to his first Disney Park today, and most of Luke’s family would be arriving today (along with quite a few of our friends). 

The first order of business for the day was breakfast. We had made a reservation at Olivia’s, so we didn’t have far to go.

After eating, we caught the bus to Hollywood Studios. My dad had no idea what Disney was going to be like, he had never been and didn’t really have a huge desire to ever go, but he told me he didn’t care where I got married, he would be there. I think he was already impressed though, “so, these buses are free and they take you right to the park?”. 

I told him to smile, and for some reason, this is the face he gave me…

Once we arrived at Hollywood Studios, we had to stop at the ticket gate to get Dad’s park tickets activated. He had purchased a 5 day hopper with the Canadian discount (or, rather, he gave me his credit card and I purchased a 5 day hopper for him haha), so you must show your passport before you can use them. 

Once his tickets were active, we entered the park. I think he was expecting a typical amusement park, so I could see him quickly taking everything in. We were already in our first Fastpass window, so we went straight to Star Tours – my Dad’s first Disney ride ever! I was so excited to see what he would think of the rides, and I was just hoping he wouldn’t get motion sickness and refuse to go on anything else for the rest of the week. 


We took our time walking through the queue line, it’s one of my favourites but you miss so much when you’re in the Fastpass line since you can typically walk at a normal pace. We stopped a few times, letting others go past us so we could point out different things to my Dad. He took pictures to show his Star Wars-obsessed great-nephews when he got home, he was impressed by the animatronics. 

I glanced over at my Dad a few times during the ride and the look on his face was priceless- he had the biggest, goofiest grin. His first Disney ride experience was a hit, I was so relieved! When we got off the ride, his only comment was “whoa!”

I stopped in the gift shop to take a picture of Jedi Stitch 🙂

We were close to being in our window for the next fastpass, but we knew we had a bit of time so we headed over to MuppetVision 3D. 

The posted wait time said 15 minutes, but it was less than 5 before we were making our way into the auditorium to find a seat. I made my Dad take a selfie with me and our pink 3D glasses while we waited for the show to start haha.

My dad loved this show. He thought the 3D was awesome, he was laughing… it hadn’t taken long for Disney to win his approval!

We headed over to our second fastpass, Toy Story Midway Mania. I think this area is so cute, I’m really excited to see Toy Story Land (I obviously wrote this part of the trip report awhile ago haha – I’ve been to TSL a few times now, and it’s adorable!)

They had already shut off the main queue line at this point, and both stand-by and Fastpass people were being held outside for the most part. This was because they were reconfiguring the entrance and the queue line to open up into Toy Story Land.

Luke insisted I sit with my Dad, and he went alone. I think it’s just because I beat him every single time on this ride haha. 

I did beat my Dad by a decent margin, although his accuracy was better than mine (and I’ve been on this many times before).

Disney, Food Review, Show Review

Happily Ever After Dessert Party – January 5, 2018

Luke and I love HEA, and we had never done a dessert party at Magic Kingdom so we worked this into our schedule. We showed up at Tomorrowland Terrace, where we checked in at 7:49pm. They verified we were on the list, and sent us up the ramp to begin enjoying the snacks. It was not sold out on this night, so it was easy to find a table.

I took pictures of the entire dessert buffet spread – enjoy! 

We were both excited to see POG juice as an option. Not pictured were the bottles of water you could also grab. 

Luke ended up getting a tea (it was another chilly night and he wanted something to warm up with), a glass of POG juice and a bottle of water. I went for a bottle of water and a glass of POG juice. Here’s pictures of our first plates – 

It was Frederick the AT-AT’s first dessert party! He was eying up our food – but once again, he’s an inanimate object so he doesn’t eat…

I have this picture of another plate – I think we shared? Typically at a buffet like this, Luke will finish before me and then ask if I want anything picked up when he goes back up, then I’ll ask him the same when I go back for my second pass. We definitely both went back a few times haha.

The cheesecake brownie bites were my favourite thing, I really enjoyed those a lot. It was also nice to have some fruit!

A bunch of people had rushed out the viewing area as soon as they were able to so they could get the front of the viewing area. This wasn’t our first time seeing HEA (this week), so we weren’t in a hurry. We filled our bellies until we felt like we had got our money’s worth, then made our way over to the viewing area. 

We ended up standing at the very back of the fenced off viewing area, but there was about 10 feet in front of us without people. It was actually fantastic, we didn’t feel we were looking over anyone’s head, we had room to breathe without being crammed in like sardines and there was a fence directly behind us to lean against. It was a really great place to watch the show! 

Overall, we really enjoyed this dessert party, and it was a wonderful way to end a day that had started so terrible. *Spoiler alert* – I ended up back at this dessert party the next week unplanned. Luke and I haven’t been back together on any subsequent trips, but I’m sure we will do a Magic Kingdom dessert party again one day!

Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip)                                        Estimated Cost of this meal: $125.65 (I thought there was going to be tax added on to the cost)                                                                             Actual Cost: $118                                                                                          Over/Under: Under by $7.65                                                                            Remaining: $1376.74

Disney, Travel

January 4, 2018 – Part One

If you’ve ever competed in a runDisney event, you know that your alarm goes off way too early! We got up and got ready – I was still in pain from the night before (stupid me missing a step on the stairs, such a *facepalm*).

We caught the bus and arrived at the starting place of the race (in a parking lot by Epcot). We made our way through security and headed towards our corral. I think I was in a higher corral than Luke, but you are allowed to move back (you just can’t move forward to a higher corral) so I dropped back to his. We took a selfie while we waited.

I was hurting, and knew I wouldn’t be able to go much faster than a walk – even that was painful with each step. Luke assured me to not worry about it, to not hurt myself even more by pushing too hard and we’d figure it out. Eventually our corral had the countdown, and we were off! The first characters we came upon were Chip and Dale – I needed the break so we hopped in line. I handed over my phone to get a photo with that, but also scanned my Magicband to get the photos taken by Photopass – what a difference! The cast members using your phone don’t zoom or anything – it’s not difficult to tell which photo is which –

Our costumes were Luke’s idea – he wanted to be Ursula haha. They also looked much better when we tried them at home, we weren’t expecting it to be so cold! I had on a tight tank top as a base layer, then a hoody, then an athletic tshirt on top of my hoody (the black Nike one you can see), then my Ariel top (which is absolutely a bathing suit top haha) then my jacket. My plan was also to wear plain black capri-length yoga pants with the Ariel bathing suit bottoms on top of those so you could see them better, but I needed the full length pants (luckily I had packed a few extra pairs, and these ones kind of worked with our costume theme). Luke’s purple face paint was actually some anti-redness makeup stuff layered on thick – much easier on the skin than Halloween paint haha.

We kept going, and Photopass captured these – you can see the pain on my face in a few of these pictures….

I love the rare characters that are out during the runDisney events – we didn’t stop for all of the characters this day, but we did get to meet Jiminy Cricket, vacation Genie and Horace Horsecollar (in addition to Chip & Dale), as well as some Vikings in Norway. Here are the photos taken with my phone –

  • What is this picture? Haha, I think the cast member using my phone was still half asleep haha…

And here are the Photopass pictures taken by the professionals –


Here are a few more Photopass pictures (we definitely got our money’s worth during this race!)

It was so cold, I was wearing Luke’s mittens which were way too big for me haha.

Eventually, we made our way across the finish line (we did not make good time haha) – and received our medals and snack boxes. We stopped for one final Photopass photo before heading back to the buses to take us back to OKW.

By the time we got back to OKW, I was so sore and we were both exhausted so we decided to cancel the fastpasses we had made for Magic Kingdom, and instead had hot showers and a much-needed nap.

Disney, Travel

May 5, 2019 – Part Two

After saying goodbye, Luke and I headed back over to Sunset Boulevard for our second Fastpass on Rock N’ Roller Coaster.

I love the costumed Stitch plush they have by the exit of Tower of Terror and Rock N’ Roller – I finally remembered to take a picture of AeroStitch:

We made our way back across the park over to Toy Story Land. The rain earlier in the day had cleared out a lot of people, so the park really wasn’t overly crowded. It was quite nice!

Our third and final Fastpass was for Slinky Dog (again!). We hadn’t been on it prior to this trip, and we weren’t aware of the VIP Tour when we made our initial Fastpass selections so we did not expect to ride this four times in three days – but here we were! We even lucked out and ended up with the very back row this time!

On our three previous times on Slinky Dog, I couldn’t figure out where the camera was. I finally looked at the camera this time – and then Mike Wazowski’d myself….

As we were exiting, the Green Army Men were hanging around – so of course we had to get pictures with them!

We wandered around a bit, and as we were walking past Toy Story Mania we noticed the sign saying it was only a 20 minute wait. Without hesitation, we entered the standby line – that ride is a must with a wait time that low! It was fairly accurate, although I think everyone in the park saw the low wait time on the MDE app and joined the queue line behind us (we lucked out by already being in Toy Story Land). I can’t remember why I felt the need to take a picture before entering our ride vehicle – but apparently we were in alien car haha.

Once again, I retained my title as the champion! My score isn’t that fantastic, but I do beat Luke at Toy Story Mania every single time – I’m just making up for the beat down I take every time we go on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin (I don’t think I’ve ever beat Luke on that ride).

I love all the details in the exit of TSM. The barrel of monkeys are my favourite!

It was almost time for us to leave the park, but first we headed over to use the fourth Fastpass we had managed to grab for Star Tours.

At this point, it was time for us to leave the park – we had one final group event to attend for the weekend! As we were leaving, they had some of the Skyliner Gondolas uncovered and were testing them (this was prior to them opening). It was neat to see!

We found the bus for Fort Wilderness and set off – we were going to the 8:30 seating of Hoop dee Doo Musical Revue! You can read all about it here 🙂

After the show ended, we said our final goodbyes to Billie and Sarah who were able to bus straight to Wilderness Lodge from there. The rest of us loaded onto a bus to Magic Kingdom to catch buses back to our respective hotels. The drive wasn’t that long, but there were a lot of laughs! I was going to miss all of these ladies!

I didn’t get the memo from Lesley that we were supposed to look sad haha –

After hugs and pictures, we said our final goodbyes at the Magic Kingdom bus stops, and headed back to OKW for our final night at the hotel. We packed up, called bell services to arrange luggage transfer to our next hotel, then crashed for the night.

Disney, Food Review

California Grill Brunch – May 5, 2019

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!

Total Trip Food Cost: $987

Disney, Travel, Wedding

January 3, 2018 – Part Two

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).

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Next up was Goofy!

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This next picture cracks me up – sorry Meghan for sharing it! We both look so awkward and unsure of what to do haha –

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Before meeting Minnie, I apparently changed my hat?

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Minnie had to see the ring after she saw Luke’s Happily Ever After button <3

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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…

Fitbit Steps: 16331

Disney, Travel

January 3, 2018 – Part One

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 –

Disney, Food Review, Food Review

May 4, 2019 – Flower & Garden Festival / EPCOT

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.

Total Epcot food cost (this post): $78.50

Total Trip food cost: $738