“This is *NOT* a Family Friendly Coaster!” Labor Day Weekend 2018 [Update x2 4/20/19]

[missangelalexis]

So aweome getting to ride BTMRR during the fireworks!

Oh gosh how creepy on Splash! Especially being alone in the log!

Sounds like a successful night! I like the photos from the end of the night.

Mom couldn't stay up to say hi?!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Looks like you had a great time at After Hours!

 

[armerida]

Loving your report so far! I can't wait to go back next month...Space Mtn with all the lights on is wild! Which side is Alpha/which is Omega?

 

[bellebookworm9]

Mom couldn't stay up to say hi?!

RIGHT?! She's usually quite a night owl when she doesn't have to be to work at 6am. She said the travel and the meds she takes for flying made her tired.

Looks like you had a great time at After Hours!

I did! I can see how it might not be practical due to cost for a whole family but for 1-2 people I thought it was pretty great.

Loving your report so far! I can't wait to go back next month...Space Mtn with all the lights on is wild! Which side is Alpha/which is Omega?

Alpha is the left line (standby) and Omega is the right line (Fastpass).

 

[bellebookworm9]

Oh! I just realized I forgot to include the cute little side story of what happened as I was leaving Space Mountain! As you may or may not know, the regular exit line is currently closed for refurbishment, so the current set up has you exiting the building to outside and going allllll the way around from the back on this wooden boardwalk ramp thing. Thankfully there was another family nearby or I would have been super sketched out walking near the woods in the dark. As it was, this family and I spot a woodland creature. One of the little girls goes "Look! It's an anteater...no, I mean an armadillo! It looks like a derpy raccoon!" Mr. Armadillo stayed on his side of the woods and we all continued on our way. I've never seen one in person before!

We’re Here! We’re Ready! We’re…Not Going Anywhere… (Day 2, Part 1 – Friday, August 31st)
Forewarning that this day is going to be oddly split due to lack of photos (shocking, coming from me, I know). I have just over the 35 or 36 limit that are allowed per post, and I really wasn’t sure the best way to split them up, so I decided to go with the natural break in our day, although that gives us less than 15 in this first portion. Anyway, on with the show!

Friday morning rolled around, and I had decided this was a day that we could sleep in a bit: For me, since I was out late last night and trying to avoid jetlag; For Mom, because she hates getting up early on vacation and I planned to rope drop the remaining three days.

Hellos were said and then we got up and started to get ready. We went down to breakfast at Landscape of Flavors and just got a couple of pastries since the plan today was to EAT! I know we got three pastries between the two of us, and two of them must have been non-descript because I have no memory of them (and no pictures). The third was a raspberry coffee cake that sounded good, but the ring of raspberry jam had turned rubbery and weird so we peeled it off. After that, it was fine.

We loaded up the ECV (badly, because we were definitely out of practice, not having done this since December 2014) and headed to Epcot. That was how we discovered Disney’s utter failure of the “Northbound World Drive” sign. There’s a big sign that says “Epcot and Magic Kingdom, second left”, but that turn is upon you before you know it and the sign is tiny. I think it’s currently this way because the road that would normally take you Northbound has been converted into an additional entrance to the main toll plaza at DHS from Osceola Parkway, because when I just went into street view on Google Maps, it looks totally different. So yeah, I missed the turnoff and we had to continue on down a little further before we could make a U-turn. Whoops.

Once we made it to Epcot, we scanned our MagicBands at the toll plaza and followed the blue line to the handicapped parking, though it did take us two turns around the area to find the closest spot. OK, we’re here, we’re ready, we’re excited to experience Food & Wine Festival for the first time in 7 years, we have Fastpasses for Soarin’….and as we’re re-assembling the scooter, I’m realizing there are a couple parts that are just…broken. One clip that plugs into one of the batteries was damaged, so it wouldn’t latch correctly. And then there’s a thick black cord that screws in to something else, and the plastic housing for the threading was cracked, so I couldn’t get it secure. We thought it would be okay, since it had clearly been in working order the day before (I’m positive we didn’t cause these damages), but alas, Mom sat down, turned the key, pressed the accelerate handle and…nothing. It wasn’t going anywhere. Drat. So now we’re in the middle of the boiling asphalt-land that is Epcot’s parking lot with a broken-down scooter (and yes, it was also fully charged overnight). I call Walker Mobility as we get back in the car where the air conditioning is. They say they can have someone there in 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile, the scooter is still sitting behind the car, fully assembled, because no way are we putting it back only to take it out again when the replacement arrives. Then, to add to this comedy of errors, it starts POURING rain. The scooter gets soaked. This one didn’t even have the little “rain cover” for the control panel. The driver of the delivery truck went to the OTHER side of the parking lot, on the opposite side of the tram lane, so he had to exit the lot and loop back around to find us. I was able to push our Soarin’ Fastpasses back a little bit because I was afraid we would miss our time slot.

New scooter arrives with minimal questions asked; I point out the problems (much easier to show in person than describe over the phone) and they unload four other scooters to dig our replacement out of the truck. This one did have the control panel rain cover. We have used Walker Mobility in the past, for both our January and December trips in 2014 after a not-so-great experience with Apple Scooters. We’ve been very pleased but I definitely noticed the scooters (at least, the “Pink Princess” ones) were starting to look worn down, chips in the paint, scuff marks, etc. I think we might try a different company next time, whenever that may be. I’ve heard good things about Buena Vista Scooter Rental but they are considerably more expensive and they don’t offer the pink scooter (so fun and so easy to find in a crowd because it’s not the standard red/navy/black).

NOW we’re finally on our way in to the park, yay! I went through the No Bags line and sent Mom through the Bag Check, which took a while. After a quick bathroom stop we headed towards The Land for Mom’s first ride on Soarin’ Around the World (my first time on the Epcot version, I’ve already ridden it in DCA). They’ve totally moved the elevator in The Land, by the way. I swear it used to be closer to the exit for Living with the Land. Now it’s slightly more forward in the building.

We very nearly walked on to the ride. I can honestly say I’ve never had such a short wait from the merge point to the actual ride. We would have gotten on the flight that was boarding but we requested to wait for B1, as always. Even better, another family ahead of us asked the same, so we were really right in the middle of the row! On my second ride, I can still say I prefer the original California version. That ride was literally perfect, aside from the dirt accumulating on the film over time that would then project onto the screen. It was my favorite ride in all of Disney World. I can’t say the same about this version, the magic just isn’t there for me anymore.

After we exited the ride, we debated Living with the Land but the line was a little too long, so we headed out to start EATING because that’s what we came for, after all! Our first stop was the area behind Innoventions that had the “Eats” trio of booths. We skipped Earth Eats but I went to Active Eats and Mom went to Coastal Eats and we met back up to indulge. I also definitely got carded ordering the alcohol and had to step out of line to get my ID which was in the bag in Mom’s scooter. Whoops!

First we have the Active Eats selections: Loaded Mac ‘n' Cheese with Nueske's® Pepper Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Peppers and Green Onions and M.I.A. Beer Company HRD WTR Pineapple Coconut Hard Sparkling Water.

The Mac ‘n’ Cheese was good but definitely a little spicier than we expected. The Hard Sparkling water sounds like it had so much potential to be delicious. I mean, it basically sounds like a Pina Colada, right? Nope. This was gross. I don’t even have words for how gross it was. I took one sip and almost spit it out. Absolutely do NOT recommend.

From Coastal Eats: Lump Crab Cake with Napa Cabbage Slaw and Avocado-lemongrass Cream.

This was a perfectly acceptable but not outstanding dish.

Finally, also from Coastal Eats: Baked Shrimp Scampi Dip with Sourdough Baguette.

OH. MY. GOD. This was AMAZING. We ate every last bite. It was probably our favorite savory dish that we tried. 10/10 RECOMMEND.

Next, we headed in to Innoventions to check out the Light Lab. Most of the beverages (anything alcoholic) was being served at a counter in the hallway, and there’s a separate room inside for the actual lab, which is full of blacklight and neon.

The Phosporescent Freeze was definitely the largest drink available, but we elected to try UltraVIOLET.

I’m still not entirely sure what was in this. There was definitely a strawberry puree base and blue cotton candy, but the “secret ingredient” wasn’t revealed. It came through a pretty cool tubular setup. This was good but SUPER sweet (obviously; it was made up of cotton candy, after all).

Pretty sure our next stop was Starbucks, where you can get a FREE Venti triple-filtered ice water! I know counter service restaurants will give you free water but the cups are pretty small, so this was a great tip that one of my fellow agents suggested. Continuing on, we elected to turn right in to World Showcase and start our snacking at Hawai’i a previous favorite from our last Food & Wine visit in 2011. We tried several things here.

Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour DOLE Pineapple Chutney and Spicy Mayonnaise

Delicious, just a little spicy, and very flavorful.

Passion Fruit Cheesecake with Toasted Macadamia Nuts

I liked this but Mom thought it didn’t taste like passion fruit, or much of anything.

Florida Orange Groves Sparkling Pineapple Wine

YUM! I’m not a big drinker (and my mom even less so) but I’ve had the Key Lime Sparkling Wine at Flower & Garden Festival made by this same winery, so I figured this would be good as well, and it was! I’m very into sweet drinks, on the rare occasion I indulge, so this trend continues at other booths.

We decided to alternate booths that offered items we wanted to try, so as not to fill up too quickly, so we skipped Almond Orchard for the moment; Australia and New Zealand weren’t offering anything we wanted, Refreshment Port had a really long line, and I suspect Canada did as well (or it was just too hot for soup), so that brought us to Ireland.

Warm Irish Cheddar Cheese and Stout Dip with Irish Brown Bread

Good, but you can absolutely taste the stout in the dip, which might be a turnoff for non-beer drinkers – it usually is for me. Also could definitely have used more bread here.

Warm Chocolate Pudding with Irish Cream Liquer Custard

I did not like this AT ALL. For some reason I was expecting something similar to a cake style, like the “warm chocolate lava cake with Bailey’s” that we’d had at the last Festival. The texture of this was not appealing to me, but Mom seemed to like it.

While we were eating near a garbage can (because sometimes it seems like that’s the only surface available during this event, am I right?), we saw managers going around with iPhones, scanning the inside of the cans. It was strange, but we didn’t ask about it.

It was really hot out by this point (2:45 in the afternoon) so we stopped in at Impressions de France for an air-conditioned break. Of course, we just missed the start of the current showing so we got to sit in the cool, dark lobby while we waited. Another manager came in and scanned the trash can inside the lobby, and some other guests asked what they were doing. Apparently the cans now have “sensors” that can tell how full the can is, and can then alert the custodial CMs when to change the bags. They claim this makes things more efficient. Based on the number of overflowing cans I saw throughout the park, I’m not entirely sure this is true.

During Impressions de France, which I normally adore, I found myself nodding off, despite the fact that we’d only been in the park for about 3 hours. I blame the heat, humidity, and walking that I’m definitely not used to (I had been planning to start walking at home about a month beforehand, but then we had all the wildfires in the Pacific Northwest so my town was a haze of smoke that no one wanted to be outside in, so that didn’t happen). We decided to take a break and head back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. I had thought that maybe we’d be able to stay in the park from 12pm-10pm and not take break, but that clearly wasn’t happening. On the way out, we thought about stopping at The Chocolate Studio or The Cheese Studio or The Wine & Dine Studio in Future World but the lines were crazy long, so we skipped that and just left.

Up next: Evening snacking and our final viewing of IllumiNations

 

[missangelalexis]

What a stressful start to your day, that stinks! Thank goodness they were able to come out and give you a new one.

Mmm sounds like you sampled some good stuff for the most part!

 

[PrincessP]

DAH sounds amazing. How incredible to see the fireworks from BTMRR! I love the solo boat on Splash. My DD and I got stuck right by the waterfall once. We had to disembark and walk out through the “secret” passageway. So we only saw the very final animatronics fully lit with no movement or sound. I agree, it is a bit odd to see it like that. They gave us a FASTPASS for the inconvenience.

You covered a lot of ground at DAH.....

Leading into literally getting no where on that scooter the next day. Yikes! I am glad to see your mom entering the adventures....even if she was asleep at the start of it! LOL. Then to have the scooter incident. I guess it’s better the scooter got wet than the two of you. Maybe best you were stuck in the car and couldn’t venture into Epcot quite yet.

Sounds like a fantastic start to food and wine with so many new dishes/drinks to explore.

Can’t wait for the next update. Hope it’s a dry night for your final Illuminations viewing.

 

[bellebookworm9]

What a stressful start to your day, that stinks! Thank goodness they were able to come out and give you a new one.

Mmm sounds like you sampled some good stuff for the most part!

DAH sounds amazing. How incredible to see the fireworks from BTMRR! I love the solo boat on Splash. My DD and I got stuck right by the waterfall once. We had to disembark and walk out through the “secret” passageway. So we only saw the very final animatronics fully lit with no movement or sound. I agree, it is a bit odd to see it like that. They gave us a FASTPASS for the inconvenience.

You covered a lot of ground at DAH.....

Leading into literally getting no where on that scooter the next day. Yikes! I am glad to see your mom entering the adventures....even if she was asleep at the start of it! LOL. Then to have the scooter incident. I guess it’s better the scooter got wet than the two of you. Maybe best you were stuck in the car and couldn’t venture into Epcot quite yet.

Sounds like a fantastic start to food and wine with so many new dishes/drinks to explore.

Can’t wait for the next update. Hope it’s a dry night for your final Illuminations viewing.

Yes, we were very lucky they could give us a new one because we would have accomplished absolutely nothing other than going back to the hotel and back to bed if they couldn't. Mom can't walk more than about 100 feet at most without pain. The car to the hotel room in the afternoon was about all she could handle. It's also not particularly convenient for either one of us to have her in a manual chair (as we were forced to do at Pirates of the Caribbean later in the trip).

I was totally prepared for rain though! I stocked up on $0.97 emergency ponchos from Walmart. I brought 8 of them total and we didn't even go through them all (we just got really lucky about being under cover most times). More for next trip, I suppose!

 

[bellebookworm9]

“Yes, I’ve actually seen this show probably at least 50 times!” (Day 2, Part 2 – Friday, August 31st)

We headed back to the park in the evening, and I did NOT miss the turn on to World Drive this time! Looks like we were walking in right around 7:35, according to the time stamp on my photo.

They had F&WF photo ops at the front of the park and on the walkway between Future World and World Showcase, but either the lines were long and it was 10 million degrees or we looked like it was 10 million degrees and 900% humidity, and who wants to take photos when they’re sweaty, frizzy messes? I’m actually kind of sad I have zero photos of me from this day though, because I was wearing my new super cute Disney Cat Lady shirt and I got lots of compliments on it from guests and cast alike!

We decided to head back to The American Adventure and work our way towards World Showcase Plaza so we’d be in place when IllumiNations began (our favorite handicapped viewing area is in that area).

I have to say that for being a) opening weekend of the Festival and b) a holiday weekend, I really didn’t think the crowds were horrible at Epcot either day. I was prepared for outrageous lines everywhere and horribly drunk people around every corner, but it was not that bad. I didn’t actually see anyone that was obviously inebriated, which is pretty impressive. We did encounter some choke points moving throughout the park but it was manageable.

Hops & Barley, where we started the evening, was one of those choke points. I joined the long line at the front of the booth and sent Mom to find a picnic table. Surprisingly, the picnic tables by the Kidcot station were not very crowded. The CMs were trying to convey, pretty unsuccessfully, that there was actually another set of registers open behind the booth, and I was one of the few that got the message. The back line was waaaaay shorter! Turns out a lot of the popular booths (France comes to mind as another one) have two sets of registers.

From this booth we tried the New Brunswick Slider: Slow-braised Beef Brisket “Pot Roast Style” with Horseradish Cream and Crispy Fred Onions on a Potato Roll with Pickled Vegetables on the side

GUYS. This was THE SPICIEST THING I HAVE EVER EATEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. I don’t even know why it was so spicy. I grew up in Buffalo. I’m no stranger to horseradish – Beef on ‘Weck is a popular sandwich there. This was OUTRAGEOUS. Our mouths were on fire. Our lips were tingling. The skin around our lips was tingling. We guzzled the bottle of water that we purchased. We ate the next dish here and continued on through Belgium and France before the tingling finally stopped. NEVER AGAIN. You have been warned. The beef itself was perfectly tender though and this would have been great if not for the horrendous spice.

The dessert choice here was thankfully not spicy: Freshly Baked Carrot Cake and Cream Cheese Icing

We loved this! It was delicious, and it helped kill some of the fiery tingling from the slider.

Pretty pic across World Showcase Lagoon on our way to France:

I stopped at Brazil to order some Cheese Bread but they said it would be about 25 minutes. I decided that could wait until tomorrow and went next door to Belgium instead. The plan was to order just the Belgian Waffle with Berry Compote and Whipped Cream but while I was waiting I also noticed the Beer-braised Beef served with Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes and that also sounded amazing so I ordered one of each.

The Beef here was another awesome dish, in my top 3 savory items. It looks like vomit, if we’re being honest, but it tasted great! The waffle was really good, too, but it was hard to eat. Fluffy enough that it was hard to cut, especially in that flimsy little dish.

Next up was France – I saw an empty table next to the crepe stand so I sent Mom to hold it while I ordered. I thought about ordering the Beer-braised beef here too, but since we’d literally just eaten a very similar item, we skipped it and just went for the Crème Brûlée à la Confiture de Framboises (Crème Brulee with House-Made Raspberry Jam) and it did not disappoint.

Turns out the reason that table was empty was because the bugs were out in full force. We ate pretty quickly and continued on our way.

Mom said she was full but Canada was calling my name. The age old classic Canadian Cheddar Cheese and Bacon Soup served with a Pretzel Roll and Château Des Charmes Vidal Icewine (made near our hometown, at Niagara-on-the Lake).

I actually really like Icewine because it’s obviously very sweet. However, this teeny tiny pour was TEN FREAKING DOLLARS – that’s $4 more than last year, by the way (a common trend across all the wines I saw). I’m not convinced it was worth $10. The soup was delicious and the pretzel roll was satisfying – plus it was larger than that little piece of bread that Ireland was giving out with their beer cheese dip. I still had soup left to eat on its own but the bread lasted for a good amount of dipping.

It was only a little after 9 at this point and IllumiNations wasn’t starting until 10, but we’d pretty much eaten all we wanted for the night, so we got our spot in the handicapped viewing area nice and early. We were planning to eat breakfast at Epcot the next morning but Mom requested something she could eat quickly in the room with her morning medications, so I volunteered to go find a snack for her while she held down her spot.

Here’s another one of those cute photo ops that we didn’t take advantage of:

I figured MouseGears was bound to have a couple of snack options so I headed there, and on the way I caught the Disney du Jour Dance Party at the Fountain Plaza. This evening’s featured characters were Remy and Emile from Ratatouille.

In MouseGears, I decided that the shortbread cookies were a perfectly acceptable option for the intended purpose, so I bought those. The cast member raved about them as I was checking out, so I bet they were pretty good. Since I still had a little time to kill, I decided to stop at The Chocolate Studio and try the Twinings ® Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea and Chocolate Shake (non-alcoholic). Welp, as it turned out, the shake machine was broken so they warned me it would be more like a chocolate milk consistency. OK, fine, I’m still expecting flavors of pumpkin spice and chai.

No such luck. It tasted like plain old chocolate milk. Booooo. I also stopped into Port of Entry and grabbed a Coke, because I was still thirsty for a non-dairy option.

Back in the viewing area, things had definitely started to pack in. I wedged myself in on the ground between mom’s scooter and the person next to her. That woman’s husband was also on the ground. Somehow we got to chatting about the show and I think he started to tell us how amazing the Christmas (Let There Be Peace on Earth) tag is. I said we’ve seen it a few times and that I’ve also seen the 4th of July (Heartbeat of Freedom) tag. I don’t think I mentioned to him that I worked at Epcot on my College Program. During that time, I frequently closed down the International Gateway turnstiles. I’ve seen IllumiNations probably at least 50 times easy. I used to “conduct” it nightly, to the amusement of nearby guests. We didn’t know at the time that this would officially be the last time for us to see the show, but the rumors had already started that it would be replaced in the near-ish future. These aren’t the best pictures I’ve ever taken of the show. It wasn’t my most enjoyable viewing, because people around us were talking. I am so sad this show is ending because it means a lot to me. I LOVE the ending with the bright white fireworks that are intended to light up World Showcase so you can see all of the humanity that you’ve spent the day in the park with, all enjoying this same spectacular show. Do I think the globe could stand to be upgraded? Yes. Do I think the show needs to change? No. Will I keep listening to the soundtrack in my car? Abso-freaking-lutely. I REALLY hope they at least keep the Peace on Earth holiday tag because it just won’t be the holidays without it. Makes me cry every time. So here we go, the photos of my last viewing of IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth. (Blows out torches)

We sat and waited for some of the crowds to disband, listening to “Promise” and “Tapestry of Dreams” before heading out – that plan was actually pretty successful because while there were still a lot of people streaming for the exits, I didn’t feel like a sardine. We made it to the car in decent time and back to the hotel with no major issues.

Once in our room, I worked on our Festival Passport for the day (and took these pictures for my Facebook page to show people what exactly the Passport is).

It was almost midnight by the time we were both showered and ready for bed, and we planned to be back at Epcot for opening at 9am, so definitely time to get some sleep!

 

[PrincessP]

Wonderful F&W report. And thanks for sharing your background with Illuminations and thoughts on the changes. It is hard to say good bye to such splendid Disney masterpieces. I am glad you got to watch it once more. 50+ times altogether?! Wow!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a great night at Epcot! That's great that you got to see Illuminations one last time!

 

[bellebookworm9]

Day 3, Part 1 (Saturday, September 1st)

Saturday morning we were up and ready to roll for park opening at Epcot! Our first stop of the day was Test Track, because we had a Fastpass for Frozen Ever After. We arrived at the park just a few minutes before the touchstiles opened. I have to take a moment here to poke fun at my mom. Somehow she missed the memo that the Mickey head only turns green after you’ve tapped your MagicBand and scanned your finger. She thought it would turn green after tapping the band, and then she could scan her finger. It literally took her until about three days in before catching on to this despite me being like “Just tap your band and put your finger down. Go go GO!” Really folks, you don’t have to wait for anything to happen before the finger scan. The whole thing should take literally five seconds. Always use your right index finger so you don’t forget which one it is, and you’re good to go.

Speaking of MagicBands, I was getting a little concerned when I was missing some ride photos from Thursday night at Magic Kingdom because most had showed up almost instantly. I thought about it and realized any ride where I touched my band to a scanner was present, and all photographer photos accounted for…but nothing where there was no scanner. No Pirates, Seven Dwarfs, or Splash Mountain. And then it dawned on me. The MagicBand I wore that day is from 2014. THE BATTERY WAS DEAD. That’s the only way it picks up long range photos. I’ve read the batteries have a lifespan of 2-3 years at most and I was considerably past the expiration date. Whoops. I only have one of the new 2.0 bands because it seemed silly to order another for this trip when I have all the colors already. Thankfully I had them all with me, tossed the rest of the 1.0 type ASAP, and only wore my 2.0 for the rest of the trip. I also submitted the lost photo forms through the website, and since I had really accurate descriptions of where I was on the ride, photos of me throughout the night, and 5-minute spans of when I was riding (thanks to timestamps of photos I took during each ride), they recovered them all. It was a miracle!

Anyway, we weren’t at the front of the crowd but we definitely weren’t at the back either. We did have to wait about 10 minutes before they officially opened the park and then we were on our way, but it’s pretty hard to hustle with a scooter if you don’t actually want to run anyone over. We arrived at our destination – this was the first time I’ve ever been in the standby line here, I think. I always use single rider or Fastpass. Of course, it’s Test Track, so there were technical difficulties while we were in line and it delayed us boarding. The first picture I have is from 9:23am so I don’t know exactly what time the park opened; we waited 25-35 minutes, I’d guess.

It would appear they change out some of the displays, because I know in the past this display near the merge point was of different engines.

I may or may not have ridden the rides in Disney so many times that I know exactly where the cameras are on all of them (except Frozen, that was a new one).

It was definitely breakfast time when we got off the ride, so we headed to The Festival Center in the former Wonders of Life pavilion. I’ll be totally honest here, I’ve never been in this building before. Ever. I took some pictures of the various set ups.

Do we have any Kingdom Keepers readers here? I’m one for sure. This mobile is mentioned in Book #3, Disney in Shadow. Now seeing it in person, I’m amazed at the acrobatic feats these fictional kids managed to pull off.

For breakfast we knew we were heading to Shimmering Sips Mimosa Bar.

Cheese Danish with Sweet Icing
Almond Croissant: Flaky Croissant topped with Toasted Almonds
Tropical Mimosa with Sparkling Wine and Pomegranate, Orange and Grapefruit Juices

Yeah, that mimosa was dangerously good. POG juice with alcohol? I could have drank about 10 of them.

After breakfast we walked next door to try out the re-themed version of Mission: Space (green version, as always).

GUYS. They eliminated Gary Sinise in the pre-flight video and it’s just NOT. THE. SAME. without him.

We were the only two people in our pod, which isn’t uncommon, but I think it’s more fun when we get to ride with other people. I didn’t think this new version was as exciting as the Mars version, unfortunately. I know it probably needed an update after 14 years, but flying around the Earth just didn’t hit the mark for me.

We decided to take a relaxing ride on Spaceship Earth. I am sure that we have ridden this while Mom has used the ECV on prior trips but I honestly don’t remember going to the exit to load for all handicapped people. They fill up a little queue and then board everyone at once. This ride might have been a little too relaxing because I definitely fell asleep. Whoops! And now I might not get to ride it again in its current state if the rumors turn out to be true that it’s closing in 2020 for two years – I don’t have any plans to go back to WDW before then.

Feeling a bit more refreshed after my short air-conditioned snooze, we decided to continue getting our eat on and headed back to World Showcase. Our first stop was The Almond Orchard hosted by Blue Diamond Almond Breeze®.

Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Dip with Pulled Chicken, Blue Diamond® Lightly Salted Almonds and Parmesan Cheese served with Nut Thins® Crackers

This was right up there with the Shrimp Scampi dip from the day before. Delicious! I was a little wary of the chicken because who makes Spinach and Artichoke Dip with chicken?! But it was great!

Banana Almond Soft-serve Sundae with Fresh Berries and Chocolate Almond Streusel

This was very dense. The ice cream was just heavy. It was a good value for the money though, and quite tasty. Lots of fruit! I don’t usually like actual bananas but I love banana flavored things so I definitely recommend this.

Refreshment Port
Dragon Berry Refresher featuring Bacardi Dragon Berry Rum

The last version of this I remember having was back in 2011, and it was frozen. I think this might have been even better! It was, in fact, refreshing. Light and sweet, another one of those drinks that I could have had a few more of.

Waiting for the boat to take us across the lagoon:

What a beautiful day! Of course, there’s the Skyliner construction kind of ruining the view.

Our first stop was Brazil to take another shot at getting some of this:
Pão de Queijo: Brazilian Cheese Bread

It was good, but nothing special. Mozzarella and parmesan baked in a roll.

Continuing counter clock-wise around the lagoon, nothing at Japan or Spain sounded great to us, I had some “if we have time items” on my list for Morocco and Italy, and we’d already done Belgium and Hops & Barley. That brought us to Germany:

Roast Bratwurst in a Pretzel Roll

This is an old favorite. Not exciting, but it just looks so funny that we always have to get one! In Germany we had to stop in the glass shop to look around. My mom found a wine glass for her friend Cheryl that she had packaged up. It started the daily afternoon pouring rain while we were in the shops, so of course it got super crowded. We peeked in Karamel Kuche but it was crazy packed so we skipped it.

Once the rain stopped and we were back outside, we also came across a vendor that was selling cat paintings and it was pretty great. We were looking at them outside and the artist came and brought us to the shade of her stand where there was a fan and gave us a book of all the prints to look through. I didn’t buy any then, thinking we could come back, but we never did, and now I can’t remember her name. Does anyone know? There were a lot of paintings with wine and cats. My Google search didn’t pull up anything to trigger my memory.

Next up was India.

Warm Indian Bread with Pickled Garlic, Mango Salsa and Coriander Pesto Dips

Honestly, this was a little out of our comfort zone. I know, you’re probably thinking, “Gretchen, it’s BREAD”. This is true, and the bread itself was fine, but the only dip we even kind of liked was the Mango Salsa. Turns out, I can confirm that I’m just not a big fan of mangos.

Mango Lassi (Non-alcoholic)

Same thing here. It was good but I wouldn’t get it again.

Another picture of the beautiful (and hot and humid) day:

I left Mom in our spot near a garbage can and went to China to pick up some
Black Pepper Shrimp with Garlic Noodles

This dish has been around for many festivals. We liked it a lot back in 2011. I don’t know if it’s changed or time has faded my memory but this was way spicier this year. Good, but spicy.

It was getting really, really hot by this point in the day and we were kind of hitting the breaking point but we had Fastpasses coming for Frozen Ever After so we pressed on. Mom and I each got in line and met back with these two things:

Mexico
Coconut Rice Pudding served with Mango Coulis

So simple but so incredibly good. Even the mango part!

Thailand
Seared Shrimp and Scallop Cake with Cold Noodle Salad

Mom was a little confused by this, and so was I, for that matter. She was excited about scallops but it just didn’t catch in our brain that the shrimp and scallops were mixed together in this patty. She was expecting actual scallops. It was good, just not what we thought it was going to be.

Now it was our turn for Frozen Ever After! I thought the queue was adorable.

My pictures admittedly did not turn out great, but here are a few from our trip through Arendelle.

My mom was FREAKING OUT in that moment, holding on for dear life.

2:45pm and time to head out of the park. I wish we had more time to continue eating as I did have a couple other things I wanted to try, but sometimes you have to accept that everyone will be happier leaving the hot, sweaty crowds and taking a nice nap back at the hotel.

Since I don’t remember where exactly in the trip this tale of woe went down, I’ll throw it in here. My first night at Magic Kingdom, I had a gift card. I’m pretty sure I used it to buy a cold drink before After Hour started. It was in a little wallet that I had clipped to my belt loop and stuck in my pocket. Somewhere, somehow, before I got back to the room, I lost the gift card. I still have no idea how this happened. When I checked the balance the next day (on the Disney gift card website, since I had it linked already), it was all still there. “No problem”, I thought to myself, “I’ll just buy another gift card and transfer the funds”. Well, as it turned out, I didn’t remember this until a day or so later. And it also turns out that you can’t use your MagicBand to buy a gift card. When I was actually prepared with debit card in hand, I rechecked the balance before purchasing gift card #2…and someone apparently found the card and spent the money. I hope you enjoyed whatever you bought for $28 and change. It was a gift from a client for booking them a successful trip, plus a little extra from a leftover card my boss had bought for Christmas. That was a little sad. The moral of the story is this: Keep track of your gift cards. Link them to your account on the gift card website, be prepared with cash or card in the event you need to buy a new one, and do so immediately.

Coming up next: a ton of pictures of Happily Ever After and my review of the accompanying dessert party!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a nice morning/afternoon at Epcot!

Sorry to hear about the lost gift card Good idea to keep track of them though, I'll need to do that in the future!

 

[QueenJen]

They eliminated Gary Sinise in the pre-flight video and it’s just NOT. THE. SAME. without him.

Bummer - do they have a replacement for the pre-flight or no pre-flight now?

And now I might not get to ride it again in its current state if the rumors turn out to be true that it’s closing in 2020 for two years

Good to know - hopefully we'll be back in 2022. I'd be bummed if it wasn't open (not the end of the world - but a nice slow ride to rest)

I don’t usually like actual bananas but I love banana flavored things so I definitely recommend this.

I am the opposite - I like bananas, but don't try and give me anything banana flavored.

We peeked in Karamel Kuche but it was crazy packed so we skipped it.

Yum - I can't pass up the carmel corn there.

and someone apparently found the card and spent the money.

that's too bad....sorry that happened. I would think they could turn it in and Disney could look to see if it is linked to someone.

 

[bellebookworm9]

Sounds like a nice morning/afternoon at Epcot!

Sorry to hear about the lost gift card Good idea to keep track of them though, I'll need to do that in the future!

Yes, I always recommend registering them through the website - it will keep up to 5 at a time on your account and you can transfer balances very easily that way.

Bummer - do they have a replacement for the pre-flight or no pre-flight now?

They do, but it's not anyone famous as far as I could tell. I don't even think it's the same "second-in-command" as before - remember the British lady?

Good to know - hopefully we'll be back in 2022. I'd be bummed if it wasn't open (not the end of the world - but a nice slow ride to rest)



I am the opposite - I like bananas, but don't try and give me anything banana flavored.



Yum - I can't pass up the carmel corn there.
Would you believe I've never actually had the caramel corn? Caramel apple, pecan caramel thing, caramel bar, several other things, but never just straight up caramel corn.


that's too bad....sorry that happened. I would think they could turn it in and Disney could look to see if it is linked to someone.

I mean, I kind of get it. It's an anonymous thing so people don't feel bad about using what isn't theirs. I lost a camera at Fort Wilderness walking around photographing Christmas decorations back one night in 2012. I was convinced I would never see it again. Someone turned that in though and Disney mailed it to me at home! I think that a blank camera would be "easy" to keep, but one that clearly has photos on the memory card, not so much.

 

[bellebookworm9]

Day 3, Part 2 (Saturday, September 1st)

In the evening, we were set to go to Magic Kingdom for the Happily Ever After Dessert Party with Plaza Gardens viewing. I had last done the dessert party in 2015, when the only viewing available was at Tomorrowland Terrace, and enjoyed it – my friend and I had a perfect front and center table, totally by chance. This time though, with the ECV, I figured we’d have a better view from the garden area.

We had to circle a couple of times in the TTC parking lot to find an open spot in the handicapped lot, and then the security line was LONG. We boarded the monorail quickly though. Magic Kingdom had evening EMH this day too, so I told Mom if there was anything she wanted to ride, this was the night we should do it because I wasn’t planning on spending time on rides at the Halloween party a few nights later.

Over at Tomorrowland Terrace, there are two lines for check in and each is for a different reservation time. It’s not really clear which is which, you just have to ask the people around you. It seemed that the line to the right was for the Garden Viewing people, with a 7pm check in. The line to the left was for the Terrace Viewing with a 7:30pm check in. The last time, they also had tables reserved for us. This time we were simply escorted to an open table that would hold our party.

There were several beverage options, including – YES! - POG Juice! They also had flutes of sparkling cider out but the cider was a little warm so that was disappointing.

They have two identical lines for the back part of the terrace and they meet in the middle, then to the sides there was an action station towards the back of the area, and an ice cream/cookie section at the front.

My first pass through the line included (starting bottom left going clockwise): Red Velvet “Happily Ever After” Cupcake (standard, neither really good nor really bad), Chocolate Covered Strawberries (perfect and delish), Pineapple…Something (did not care for this at all, it tasted like canned pineapple to me), Strawberry Tart, Brownie Cheesecake Bite (really yummy)

I also grabbed some cheese, fruit, crackers and Housemade Spinach Dip. That dip was SO. GOOD. I would have honestly paid $59 just to eat that for half an hour and been totally satisfied with my decision.

Round two included more crackers and spinach dip, a hunk of Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake (definitely should have gotten some ice cream to go with it), and a S’More from the Action Station – the chef roaster the marshmallow over a sterno can and then rolled it in the chocolate curls and graham cracker crumbs.

After you’re done eating, you head back down the ramp towards Main Street and when a few people have gathered, a CM will escort you to the garden. It was not crowded AT ALL, and we had a GREAT view. We agreed there will be no other way to watch MK fireworks in the future.

While we were waiting, Mom is mentioning how her one eye has really been bothering her. Super itchy, red and watery, there was like a crusty gunk lining it. We thought it was allergies at first, but she said napping earlier with her CPAP mask had made it worse. I’m really pretty sure it was pink eye and was trying to convince her that maybe we should go to the local Urgent Care, or have one of those on call doctor services come to the room. If it is pink eye, I don’t want her infecting me or every one she comes in contact with at Disney World. The show was starting, so we tabled the discussion for the moment.

Happily Ever After…wow. It’s not Wishes, for sure. I can’t say that I like it better than Wishes, because I have so much nostalgia associated with watching the previous show on my college program with my very good friends at a time in my life when I was maybe the happiest I’ve ever been. But I do have to say, HAE photographs very well. Maybe I’ve gotten better as a photographer over the last 8 years, maybe the quality of the cameras I’ve used has gotten better – I know the iPhone cameras have improved since my iPhone 4S back in 2012. My fireworks shots all used to be a blurry mess, but I am PROUD of how all of these photos turned out. There are A LOT of pictures here – and this is even the narrowed down selection from where I started – but they just came out so well that I have to share!

Princess and the Frog

The Little Mermaid

I was really digging the projections during Hunchback of Notre Dame, even though I don’t particularly like the song – I think the vocals have too much vibrato and it kind of hurts my ears.

Brave

UP, obviously

I AM MOANAAAAAA!

Friend Like Me/random section about friends

Buzz Lightyear, maybe?

Definitely Toy Story

I’m Gonna Wreck It!

Big Hero 6

I think this was Inside Out

 

[bellebookworm9]

Day 3, Part 2 continued (Saturday, September 1st)

Love montage

AND AT LAST I SEE THE LIIIIIIIGHT

Pirates of the Caribbean

Villains?

This is absolutely the battle of Simba and Scar

“Remember…who you are…”

I think we’re into the finale now:

OK, one shot I still haven’t been able to master, even on burst mode, is Tinker Bell’s flight:

I think this is my favorite shot of all:

Woah. Just outstanding. We waited for the crowds on Main Street to disburse before exiting our nice little garden. Mom said there was nothing she wanted to ride (lies, as you’ll later come to see). She also decided against going to Urgent Care or having a doctor come to the room. After she returned home at the end of the trip and it still wasn’t clearing up, only then did she go to a doctor. They did in fact diagnose conjunctivitis (of which there are several kinds, including allergy-related and bacterial) and gave her some eye drops, which cleared it up pretty quickly.

As we were exiting, I almost made the fatal newbie mistake of having us board the Express Monorail, which of course had a major crowd down the ramp of the station. Then my brain kicked in and I was like “Wait a second, what the heck are we doing?! TO THE RESORT MONORAIL!” I’m positive we got back to the TTC faster that way, as we have every other time we’ve utilized this method. Then we walked what felt like 100 miles to the car – we were in the first two rows of the lot but waaaaaay down towards the end.

It’s probably a good thing we didn’t stay at Magic Kingdom any longer because we had an 8am opening to be at for Animal Kingdom the next day, and we were ready to explore Pandora for the first time!

 

[missangelalexis]

Your photos came out awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed the show and the dessert party!

Sorry about your mom's eye!

 

[Cloe Colton]

I wish I had tried the Spinach and artichoke dip at F&W! It was on my list of things to try but we ended up skipping it since we had dinner coming up. Next year for sure! (They better still have it!)

I'm glad you enjoyed your dessert party! The one we did on Sunday night over Columbus day weekend was jam packed. Super frustrating. I guess I'll have to try it again to see if its worth my money or not!

 

[bellebookworm9]

Exploring Pandora: The World of Avatar (Day 4, Part 1 - Sunday, September 2nd)

When we first started planning this trip, the hours for Animal Kingdom were 9am-8pm but as time went on they were extended to 8am-10pm. I'd never been to this park after dark so I was pretty excited! I had watched Avatar about a week or so before the trip, for the first time, and I made my mom do the same so we would have some idea what we were looking at in the new land.

We were heading out of the room by 7:15am, according to my timestamps on these early morning photos.

I honestly have no idea what we did for breakfast this morning because I have no pictures of food and there's nothing on my room charge list, so it must have been quick and easy in the room. Plus we were rolling into the park by 7:45am so I doubt we stopped anywhere!

I think this was the morning where Mom accidentally ran into me at the touchstiles because she didn't stop fast enough. The CM didn't realize we were together at first and probably thought there was going to be a brawl on her hands when I yelped! All was well, no permanent injuries.

This was 7:44am:

Our plan was to ride Na'vi River Journey right away, and we had Fastpasses for Flight of Passage in the evening. We also had Fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris at 9:25am and Kali River Rapids at 12:05pm, with a Tusker House reservation for lunch that included seating at Rivers of Light.

We entered Pandora at 7:46am and were on the River Journey by 7:53!

We were off the ride by 8am and basically said, "Eh, what the heck, let's just do a ride on Flight of Passage via standby. If we love it, we get to ride again later; if we hate it, we can swap that Fastpass for something else." We did use the test seat in front of the ride before getting in line because I was nervous about fitting but I fit just fine.

They were definitely employing "stacking" of the line because the queue started all the way out in the forest, but we only ended up waiting about 45 minutes to get to the loading area. And in the meantime, I got a ton of beautiful pictures!

Then into the really cool lab!

Had to get a closeup of the "lucky cat" on the desk!

Almost there!

Into our safety briefing room:

The wait really didn't feel like it was 45 minutes and there was so much to look at! I'm glad we did the standby line because when we went through the Fastpass line later, it skips SO MUCH.

I fit on to the actual ride with no issue but they did have to squeeze Mom in a little bit. I think that on this first ride, we must have been in one of the upper "tiers" because it was AMAZING. I was nervous because I usually hate 3D things; it's just too "in your face" for me, but this was perfect! We loved it and were definitely excited to come back again later!

In an act of perfect timing, when we exited FoP, it was nearly time for our Kilimanjaro Safari Fastpass so we took the back path to Africa. We (unintentionally) skipped Festival of the Lion King this trip but I did take a picture of the theater on the way by.

Coming up: Baby giraffe on the Safari, SIT DOWN OVER THE CROCODILES, Up! A Great Bird Adventure, and an EPIC afternoon storm.